Court Actions

What you need and pay when you take one of Zhanguo's six Court actions.

Court actions

Each card played to the Court lets you choose any one action you can perform. Resolve the action first, then choose to activate eligible matching tableau abilities, move one official to an adjacent region, or pass. Ability activation also depends on whether the Court card’s number is higher or lower than the previous card in the Court pile; see Gameplay.

Hire two workers

Choose a region with at least one of your Generals. Take two workers from the general supply and place them there; then raise that region’s Unrest by one. More Generals do not hire extra workers. You cannot use this action if the Unrest increase would exceed 3.

Build a palace

Choose a region with one of your Architects. Spend two workers from that region and one from another region, then place a Palace there. Take a Palace tile if one remains, score its value plus six points, and take a large Unification token if one remains. Return the Palace tile to the box after scoring it. If you have no Palace left, or cannot pay, you cannot choose this action.

Build a wall

Choose an open slot in one section of the Great Wall. Pay the number of workers printed on that slot. When paying two or more, each worker must come from a different region. Place one Wall from your supply; you may build only one Wall in each section. If you are first in the section and have at least one tableau card, take its Emperor tile and attach it to a tableau card without another Emperor tile.

Search for the elixir

Advance your ship three spaces. At marked spaces, choose a reward: unlock a Terracotta Soldier or place one Alchemist card in a region containing your Alchemist official. At the later threshold, take an available Master Alchemist card. A ship at the route’s end cannot advance further.

Recruit an official

Take one Alchemist, Architect or General from your personal supply and place it in any region on your player board. There is no regional limit, but you cannot recruit a type for which all four of your officials are already deployed.

Install a governor

Choose one region. Return one Alchemist, one Architect and one General from that region to your supply, then move one of your Governors from your supply to an open space in the matching region on the main board. Take the printed bonus and reset the region’s Unrest to zero. If no bonus space remains, use the region’s Governor area.

Official movement

Card abilities and bonuses may move officials between regions. Follow the number and restrictions on that effect; moving an official can set up a later action but does not itself take that Court action.

See Cards & Components for every numbered card face and its ability icon.