The Court of Xiang Chi (2015)

As ruler of the three clans - Sun, Moon and Earth - it is your task to rule over your court of ministers, tax collectors, generals, poets and courtesans who will bring prosperity to land and protect the people from the Daemon Princes of the Fire Clan.

A Solitaire Game lasting 15-20 minutes

Setup:
Shuffle the 54 cards and place them face down as a draw pile. Four cards are dealt face up to form Society Row.

The player chooses 3 of these cards to place below in their Royal Court as starting cards. The cards may be placed in any of the 4 spaces in either of the 2 rows forming the Royal Court. If any Daemon Prince cards are drawn, they are set aside and will be shuffled back into the deck after the player chooses the three they want (dealing out replacement cards to Society Row). The player also begins the game with 10 copper pieces (CP). These starting cards will not have their powers activated during the Game Setup.

Play:
A game turn consists of three phases:

Phase 1A. The player may purchase 1 card from Society Row and place in the Royal Court OR they may skip this phase and go to Phase 1B.

If the player purchases a card, any cards to the left of the gap slide to the right and a new card is drawn and placed in Society Row.

Cards will be purchased during the game from this row in an auction format.

Phase 1B. If the player does not wish to purchase any cards, the rightmost, non-Daemon Prince card is discarded and all remaining cards slide to the right and a new card is drawn and placed in Society Row. The player then receives 1CP and an additional 1CP for each Tax Collector in the Royal Court.

Phase 2. The player may now use the combined strength of their Generals to combat one Daemon Prince. If the player has 3 or more Generals in the Royal Court representing each of the three clan icons, the player adds +2 to the total strength to the Generals. To defeat one Daemon Prince during this phase, the total of all Generals’ strengths must be equal to or greater than the Daemon Prince’s strength (as shown by the black number). The player may additionally pay CP to add 1CP/1 Strength to this total. The defeated Daemon Prince is placed to the left of the draw deck, any cards to the left of the gap slide to the right and a new card is drawn and placed in Society Row. The player gains VP as listed on the Daemon Prince card.

Phase 3. If Daemon Princes remain in Society Row, the rightmost non-Daemon Prince card is removed from the Society Row and placed in the Court of the Daemon Princes. All remaining cards slide to the right and a new card is drawn and placed in Society Row.

Game End:
The game will end after Phase 3 if either:
4 Daemon Princes are in the Society Row or all 9 Daemon Princes have been drawn.

The player then adds up the total VP gained during the game and additionally gains 1VP for every 3CP they have left. Each card in the Daemon Prince pile subtracts its listed VP from the player’s VP score.