Actions and the Round
Resolve the four action choices, regional actions and free actions.
Turn choices
Starting with the first player, take turns until all have passed. Choose one of four types:
- Region: place an action marker in one of seven kingdoms. Pay one
coin for every marker already there. Gain its printed benefit, optionally advance on the banner’s Palace track, and take up to one each of the actions there. Taking at least one action is required. - Military: choose Fortify or Train
Soldiers. Pay one coin for each marker already on that shared space, place a marker, advance one step on any Palace track, then resolve the chosen action. - Barge: choose one barge and pay one coin plus one coin for each of your workers already on it. Place a worker on the leftmost position, push others right, gain its resource now; if a worker falls off, its owner makes it a
Merchant. Barge actions use no action marker. If out of workers, you may place a neutral worker instead; it does not earn income. - Pass: move your turn-order marker to next round’s order, take an available round bonus tile, and optionally pay for 1/2/3/4 Palace steps if you hold 1/3/5/6
Jade Figurines (cost 1/3/5/8 coins). You may still use free actions during the turn you pass.
Region actions
Install a Governor
Choose an open building in the region. Pay its printed 
wood cost plus any extra wood shown on the chosen worker space and one extra wood if an additional-cost token is there. Take the building’s bonus tile if present, place one of your meeples as 
Governor, and immediately resolve an Income Building. You may have only one Governor at a building. Income buildings pay again in the Income phase; Passive buildings trigger as their text directs.
Exchange
Qin trades wood for 
silk, Wei trades 
rice for 
helmets, and Zhao trades 
stone for 
jewelry, up to four units per action. Han lets you pay up to four resources of any type for that many goods in any mix.
Ship
Shipping is available in Yan, Qi and Chu. Choose a 
ship in that port with open delivery spaces and place your shipping marker there. For each delivery, spend the good shown by the port’s 
Demand tile, put a delivery marker on an open ship space, and gain both the Demand-tile reward and the covered space reward, in either order. The lowest ship is not in a port and cannot normally receive deliveries.
Military actions
Fortify by paying the next printed stone cost on your player board; build 
walls/
towers in ascending cost order. Place a wall on the leftmost empty wall space in a section or a tower in its marked space. Each wall adds one defense, each tower two. Train any number of soldiers for two rice each; place them in empty soldier spaces, adding one defense per soldier. You may divide placements among sections. Return Merchants to supply during your turn if you need workers for soldiers.
Income and free actions
In the Income phase, gain one matching resource for each of your barge workers, then resolve each income building you govern and your starting income building. From round two onward, add neutral workers to each barge, pushing others; any player worker pushed off becomes a Merchant. Free actions at any time during your turn: discard an action marker for two coins; use and flip a bonus tile; discard an 
Objective for its top-row benefit; return a Merchant to supply; or, if all spaces by a Merchant action are occupied, return them and resolve that action.
Round preparation and cleanup
At round start display the next stack of bonus tiles and reveal the next attack card’s movement and strength values. After 
battles, except in round four, return unused round bonuses and action markers, discard ships in Yan and fully delivered ships with their Demand tiles, return their delivery markers, slide remaining ships upward, refill empty ports and attach new Demand tiles. Move turn-order markers to the current track while preserving order.