Setup
Each player's tiles are sorted by letter (A–E), shuffled per group, and stacked face-down with E on bottom and B on top.
Before the game begins, each player separates their 24 tiles into groups by the letter printed on them (A, B, C, D, E). Each lettered group is shuffled independently, then stacked face-down so that E is at the bottom and B is at the top, forming the player's personal draw pile. This ensures tiles of lower letters are drawn earlier in the game.
Setup
Each player draws 1 castle and 1 other A tile into hand; remaining A tiles form the starting layout, randomly arranged in a rectangle and flipped face-up.
From their A-group tiles, each player draws their castle tile and one other A tile into their hand (held for play on their first turn). All remaining A tiles from all players are pooled, randomly arranged face-down in a rectangle, and then all flipped face-up simultaneously to form the shared starting play area.
Turn structure
On your turn, play up to 3 tiles one at a time; after each placement draw the top tile from your pile.
A player's turn consists of up to 3 tile-play actions. Each action: (1) place exactly 1 tile from your hand with at least one full edge touching an existing tile in the play area, then (2) draw the top tile from your personal draw pile into your hand. After completing all desired actions (1, 2, or 3), your turn ends. If you have no legal tile to place, you must pass your entire turn.
Restriction
The play area has a maximum grid size depending on player count: 7×7 (2p), 9×9 (3p), 10×10 (4p).
The shared play area may not exceed the following maximum dimensions: 2 players — 7×7 tiles; 3 players — 9×9 tiles; 4 players — 10×10 tiles. A tile may not be placed if doing so would cause the play area to exceed these bounds.
Special
When a castle tile is played, the player immediately places up to 5 knights on it and moves the stack to adjacent tiles, leaving knights behind.
Immediately after placing a castle tile, the player places up to 5 knights from their supply onto that castle. The stack of knights then moves from the castle to adjacent tiles one step at a time. Each time the stack moves onto a tile, the player must leave at least the minimum required number of knights on that tile (see terrain minimums). The stack continues moving until all knights are placed or the player chooses to stop. The player may leave more knights than the minimum on any tile. Knights that are left on a tile do not move again for the rest of the game.
Restriction
If the stack returns to or passes over the castle, at least 1 knight must remain on a plain castle, 2 on a forest castle.
When the moving knight stack occupies the castle tile itself (at the start or if movement routes back), a minimum number of knights must be left: 1 knight if the castle is on a plain terrain, 2 knights if it is on a forest terrain. This minimum applies like all other terrain minimums.
Restriction
Knights entering a tile must leave the terrain minimum: Plain = 1, Forest = 2, Mountain = 3.
When a moving knight stack enters a tile, it must leave at least the minimum number of knights dictated by that tile's terrain type: Plain — leave at least 1 knight; Forest — leave at least 2 knights; Mountain — leave at least 3 knights. The stack may leave more than the minimum. If the stack does not contain enough knights to meet the minimum for a tile, it cannot enter that tile.
Restriction
Knights cannot enter Lake tiles.
During knight movement, the moving stack may never enter or pass through a tile that depicts a Lake. Lake tiles are completely impassable to knights.
