The Struggle of the King

Welcome to the exciting world of King’s Struggle, a unique card game created by the talented Robert Burke and brought to you by WizKids in 2018. Get ready to embark on an epic journey where victory is the ultimate goal. In this game, it’s all about collecting cards and coins to earn Victory Points. Sounds thrilling, right? Let’s dive in!

What’s Inside?

Open up the box and you’ll find a treasure trove of gaming goodness. Here’s what awaits you: a rulebook to guide you through the game’s ins and outs, 60 captivating playing cards, a round tracker board to keep you on your toes, six handy reference cards, an impressive stash of 80 gold coins, markers for modifications, a round tracker marker, a current player marker, and of course, a first player marker. Everything you need to embark on a thrilling adventure!

Getting Started

First things first – we each get our own deck of cards. Look at the back designs and pick one you like. Put the other decks aside for now; we won’t be needing them.

Now, let’s set up the playing area. Put all the gold coins and modification markers in the middle of the table. Grab the round tracker board and put it in the center too. Make sure the round tracker marker is on the starting space.

Oh, and don’t forget to grab 5 gold coins from the middle. It’s your starting stash.

Finally, there’s a marker that shows who goes first. The lucky person who gets to be the first player gets both the current player marker and the first player marker. That’s you, my friend!

CHOOSING YOUR APPROACH

You have two options when it comes to playing King’s Struggle: Day or Night.

If you decide to play by the Day rules, you start the game with all 10 cards in your hand. Throughout 7 rounds, known as tricks, you will play cards from your hand, and by the end of each round, you will have 3 cards left.

If you prefer the Night rules, you need to randomly remove 2 cards from your deck. Nobody, including yourself, should see these cards. Similar to the Day version, you will play for 7 rounds, but at the end, there will be no cards remaining.

IT’S YOUR TURN

The first move of each round belongs to the player who starts. They select one card from their hand and place it face up on the table. The other players then each choose a card from their hand and place it face down in front of them. Once all players have made their choice, the cards are revealed simultaneously.

ACTIVATING SPECIAL ABILITIES

When it’s your turn, you have the chance to use your card’s special ability. Make sure to pass the current player marker to the next person once your turn is finished.

If you play a card with a negotiate ability, you can choose to negotiate how you use it or not use it at all. During negotiations, you can accept any amount of gold and/or promises from any other player.

NEGOTIATIONS

On your turn, you can accept any offer you like. If the deal can be completed right away, it’s binding and must be fulfilled. If the deal involves a promise for the future, it’s not binding and you don’t have to fulfill it.

When I finish using my special ability and negotiating, my turn ends and it’s your turn to play. The round ends when everyone has taken their turn.

Keep in mind that usually I can only accept a deal once per round. If, after my turn, I have to switch the card I played with a different one, I can’t use the special ability of the new card. Any immediate deals made with the previous card still count.

Decide who wins the round

If there are any cards with the exact same power level (including modifiers), we remove them from the game and put them in the discard pile. The modifier tokens go back to the center of the table.

Out of all the cards that are left, the one with the highest combined power comes out on top and wins the trick. If I’m the one who played that card, then I get to collect all the cards that are still in the trick. And hey, all those modifier tokens? They go right back to the middle of the table. Simple, right?

Now here’s what happens next: since I won the trick, I get to take the first player marker and the current player mark, and I use those to start the new round. Oh, and don’t forget, I also move the round marker ahead one slot on the round tracker board. Stay with me now!

Let’s Score Some Points!

Okay, now we need to talk about scoring. Pay attention because this is where things get interesting. For every piece of gold that I have, I earn myself a nice little Victory Point. Yep, it’s that simple!

But wait, there’s more! I can also earn Victory Points for the cards I collect. The number of Victory Points I get depends on how many matching cards I have. Brace yourself!

If I’ve got 2 cards that match, that’s a cool 3 Victory Points for me. Not bad, right? But check this out: if I have 3 matching cards, I score even more – a whopping 6 Victory Points. I feel like I’m on fire!

But hold on, it gets better. If I manage to collect 5 matching cards, oh boy, that’s worth a big 10 Victory Points! Almost there!

And guess what? The grand prize goes to…6 matching cards, which awards a staggering 30 Victory Points! Now that’s what I call a big win!

Earn VP’s for Power Runs. Instead of modified power, use the card’s natural power value. A 3-card run is worth 4 VP’s, a 4-card run is worth 6 VP’s, a 5-card run is worth 9 VP’s, a 6-card run is worth 13 VP’s, a 7-card run is worth 18 VP’s, an 8-card run is worth 24 VP’s, a 9-card run is worth 31 VP’s, and a 10-card run is worth 39 VP’s.

When you play cards, remember that each card can only be used once for scoring. Take a look at the example above. The player earns 6 points for the set of 8’s, 6 points for the run, 3 points for the remaining cards, and 17 points for the coins. In total, they earn 32 points for the game.

WINNING

When the final round is over, the player with the most Victory Points is the winner. If there is a tie, the player with the most cards wins. Still tied? Then we look at the number of 10’s, and if it’s still tied, we move on to 9’s, and so on until the tie is broken.