RULES OF THE GAME • WORLD ORDER 1

RULES OF THE GAME

2 WORLD ORDER • RULES OF THE GAME

TABLE OF CONTENTS
COMPONENTS 4 Trade (Economic) 11

GAME SETUP 6 Invest (Economic) 12

HOW TO PLAY 9 Move Army (Military) 12

PREPARATION PHASE 9 Build Base (Military) 12

Draw Cards 9 Get a Growth Card (Domestic) 13

Reveal Country Cards 9 Produce (Domestic) 13

Determine Turn Order 9 Research 14

Produce Primary Resources 9 AFTERMATH 16

Choose Focus 9 Get Return on Investments 16

ACTION PHASE 10 Add Auto-Influence 16

Actions 10 Resolve THREAT 16

Improve Relations (Diplomatic) 10 Score Regions 16

Engage (Diplomatic) 11 GAME END 17

CREDITS
Game Design: Varnavas Timotheou, Vangelis Bagiartakis
Game Development: Panagiotis Zinoviadis
World Order Rulebook v. 0.4
Additional Development This document contains the latest rules for the upcoming World
& Lead Playtester: Dimitris Siakampenis Order board game. Note that, as the game is still in development,
elements of those rules may change before the final production.
Illustrations: Milłosz Wojtasik
Copyright © 2024 Hegemonic Project Limited.
Graphic Design: Katerina Xerovasila World Order is a trademark of Hegemonic Project Limited.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any
Academic Advisors: Dr. Zenonas Tziarras, Dr. Moritz S. manner, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,
Graefrath, Dr. Chris Oates, Dr Russell Foster, Dr. Connor or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written
Judge, Dr. Igor Logvienko, Emmanuel Pietrobon permission of Hegemonic Project Limited, except as expressly permitted by law.
 RULES OF THE GAME • WORLD ORDER 3

The year is 2010, and the world is drastically changing in front of our eyes. While the unrivaled influence of the
United States is beginning to wane, other major powers are eagerly stepping onto the stage, ready to claim
their piece of the geopolitical pie. In the East, Beijing is rising to become a global powerhouse. Simultaneously,
Moscow is entangled in an intricate chess play with Washington, ready to counter its every move. And amidst
these tumultuous waters, the European Union is trying to carve out its identity. The world undergoes a drastic
shift while power is being redistributed on a global scale. But who will take the lead in this rapidly changing
world order?
World Order is an area control board game for 2-4 players that lets you take control over one of four dominant
global powers of the 2010s: the United States of America, the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federa-
tion, and the European Union. Utilize your diplomatic finesse, economic strength, and military might to expand
your influence across the globe. Form alliances through sharp negotiation, entice other nations through clev-
er economic dependencies, or become the military juggernaut no one dares to mess with. Join the race for a
global hegemony and show the other powers that a new era is dawning!
4 WORLD ORDER • RULES OF THE GAME

COMPONENTS
COMPONENTS
RULES OF THE GAME • WORLD ORDER 5
6 WORLD ORDER • RULES OF THE GAME

GAME SETUP 6

8
17
1

19

14

8 4

3
16 10
11

2
12
16
13

5
9
18

15
17
7

1. Place the Main Board in the middle of the table. them in a row next to the Ability pile. These 6 cards will be col-
lectively called the Market.
2. S eparate the Map Country Cards by their Region. Shuffle each
Region’s cards separately and place them in a face-up pile, on 6.  eparate all the Growth cards by name and place them in piles
S
the left side of the corresponding space on the board. Then, above the board, in numerical order. Note that not all of the
take the top Country card of each pile and place it to the right piles have the same number of cards in them.
side, so that 2 cards are visible in each Region.
7.  ake piles of the coins, Base tokens and FDI tokens and place
M
3.  lace in each Region, its starting Influence cubes (as indi-
P them next to the board, where all players can reach them.
cated by the colors of the slots on the board) and the Round These will be collectively called the Supply.
marker on the 1st space of the Round Track
8.  ave each player choose one of the player roles (USA, China,
H
4.  lace the 3 Majority tokens on the board with the side correspond-
P Russia & EU) and take its corresponding Player board, start-
ing to the number of players face up (the side with the 3 numbers ing Ability cards, starting Country cards, Trade Policy card,
for 3+ players, the side with the single number for 2 players). Strategic Asset cards, Commerce cards, Production cubes, In-
fluence cubes, Army tokens, Focus marker, Prosperity marker,
5. Shuffle the Market Ability cards and place them in a face- Player Aid, starting money (shown above the resource track,
down pile beneath the board. Reveal the first 6 cards and place on the right) and one of each Resource marker.
 RULES OF THE GAME • WORLD ORDER 7

14. Place the 4 starting Country cards face-up above your Player
board; they are your allied Countries.

15. Place your Trade Policy card next to your Player board. Place 1
Commerce card next to it if you are playing with 2 or 3 players,
or 2 Commerce cards if you are playing with 4 players.

16. Shuffle your Starting Ability cards and form 2 piles of 6 cards
at random. Look at the cards in each pile and choose one as
your starting hand. Shuffle the other pile face-down and place
it on your side. This will be your deck during the game. If this is
your first game, see the Starting Hand box below instead.

Starting Hand: If this is the first time you are playing World
Order, we suggest that you start with a fixed starting hand.
Instead of drawing 6 cards at random, take the 6 Starting
Ability cards with a small ar-
row right before their name, as
shown in the image. Place the
remaining cards in a face-down
pile as your deck.

17. Shuffle your 5 Strategic Asset cards and draw 2 at random, plac-
ing them face-up beneath your Player board. Return the rest
of the cards to the box, they won’t be needed. Then, place your
Scoring Marker on the space around the board that corresponds
to the sum of Starting Victory Points (VP) listed on those 2 cards.

18. Place your Starting money in front of you, next to your Player
board.

19.  ake the 4 Turn Order tokens and place them next to the Turn
T
 Order track on the board. If this is your first time playing, just
place them randomly on the track. Otherwise, the player with
Then, each of you should perform the following: the fewest starting VP on the board places their token in the
space of their choice on the track. Continue doing this for all
9. Place your Player board in front of you. the players, in reverse VP order. In case of a tie, the player with
the fewest starting money chooses first.
10. Put a Production cube on the starting Production space of
each track (the colored square).  fter everyone places their turn order marker, you are now ready to
A
start the game.
11. Place your Focus marker in the Domestic Focus space.
If you are playing with 4 players, return the
12. Place your Prosperity marker in the first space of the Pros- Auto- Influence cards to the box, they won’t
perity track. be needed. If playing with fewer than 4 play-
ers, shuffle the Auto-Influence cards, draw 2 of
13. Place the 6 Resource markers on the Resource track, each them and place them above the main board. For
one indicating a quantity equal to your starting Production, every role that is not taken by an actual player,
and the appropriate number of starting Army tokens on top of place Influence cubes of their color next to their
your Player board (not on the Resource track). Keep your re- role’s flags as well as Army tokens if indicated
maining Army tokens and your Influence cubes nearby. on the cards.
8 WORLD ORDER • RULES OF THE GAME
 RULES OF THE GAME • WORLD ORDER 9

HOW TO PLAY
The game plays over 6 rounds. Each round is divided into phases: Choose Focus
Preparation Phase, Action Phase and Aftermath. Through your
actions, you place Influence cubes in various Regions on the board Choose where you want to focus this round among the three avail-
which grant you VP. In addition, you gain VP based on who has the able options: Domestic Focus, Diplomatic Focus or Military Focus.
most Influence in each Region, during the game’s 2 scoring inter- Move the Focus marker on your board accordingly and then perform
vals. At the end of the 6th round, the player with the most VP wins! the instructions listed there in order.

Some instructions allow you to increase a Production on your play-

er board. If you choose to do so, pay the listed cost and move the
PREPARATION PHASE corresponding Production marker one space forward. Note that if
you increase the Production of a Primary resource this way (Energy,
Raw Materials or Food), immediately gain 1 of that resource.
This phase is skipped during the 1st round. If it’s the first time you
are reading the rules, it may be better to skip to the next phase and If an instruction tells you to Produce a secondary resource (Con-
come back here after you’ve read what happens in the next phases sumable Goods, Services or Diplomacy), you may produce as many
and have a better understanding of how the game plays. items of that resource as the number indicated by the Production
cube. However, for each secondary resource item that you produce,
In the Preparation Phase you perform the following steps. Note that you need to spend the corresponding requirements listed next to it.
most of these steps can be performed simultaneously by the players For example, for each Consumable Good ( ) produced, you need
to save time. If however, it is important for one or more players to see to spend 1 Energy ( ) and 1 Raw Material ( ). If your Production
what the others are doing, use the regular turn order to perform them, cube in the Consumable Goods track is in the 3rd space, it means
with each step fully carried over by all before moving to the next one. you may produce up to 3 Consumable Goods, spending 3 Energy and
3 Raw Materials for that.
Draw Cards

Draw 6 cards from your deck. If at any moment there are no cards to Commerce Cards: Whenever you pro-
draw from, shuffle your discard pile and form a new deck. Continue duce a resource that is listed on your
drawing cards from that one. Commerce cards, turn all those cards
back face-up. They represent pro-
Reveal Country Cards duced resources that have been allo-
cated for use in Trade.
In each Region, take the top card of the left pile of Country Cards and
move it to the top of the right pile. If you end up placing the last card
from the left pile to the right, move the single pile you now have to Note that the last instruction in each Focus section (without a bul-
the left side and place the top card to the right side. let) is an ongoing ability that you do not perform at this moment but
applies during the whole round. In the first round, all players start
Determine Turn Order with Domestic Focus and its ongoing ability applies as normal.

Slide the turn order markers slightly downwards. Then, the player
with the fewest VP places their turn order token on the space of their
choice on the track. Continue doing this for all the players in reverse
VP order. In case of a tie, the player with the fewest money among
those tied chooses first. If there is still a tie, the player between
them with the fewest starting money chooses first.

Produce Primary Resources

Have all 3 of your Primary Resources (Energy, Raw Materials and

Food) produced. For each resource, get as many of it as its Produc-
tion cube indicates, moving the corresponding marker in the Re-
source Track accordingly. See the Produce action’s section for ad-
ditional details.
10 WORLD ORDER • RULES OF THE GAME

ACTION PHASE
This is the phase in which most of the game takes place. You play Improve Relations (Diplomatic)
cards from your hands to affect the board and pursue your agenda.
You then get to add new cards to your deck if you like. This Action allows you to improve your relations with other countries
and form new allies. You can even use existing alliances to help es-
This phase consists of 2 steps: Actions step and Research step. The tablish new ones.
first player in the Turn Order track goes first.
Choose an available Country card on the board (the top card in any
Actions Country card pile). Pay Diplomacy ( ) equal to the Country’s val-
ue (the number in the hexagon on the top left corner: ) and place
Choose one of the cards in your hand. Play that card in front of you it face-up in front of you. It is now considered an allied Country.
and apply its effect. If you can’t apply the full effect listed, apply as
much as you can. The card then stays in front of you (do not put it in If you have other allied Countries of the same Region, you may ex-
the discard pile). haust them (turn them face down) to lower the cost you need
to pay. Each Country you exhaust, lowers the cost by an amount
Instead of playing a card and applying its effect, you may choose equal to its value ( ).
one of the following options:
EXAMPLE: Kate, playing China, wants to Improve Relations with
• Play a Strategic Asset Card: Place face down in front of you an
Australia which has a value of . Normally, she would have to
Action card from your hand (if able) and apply the effect of one spend 3 to do so. However, she decides to use her good relations
of your available (face-up) Strategic Asset cards. Then, turn with Singapore, another Country in the same Region, to her advan-
that card face-down. tage. She exhausts Singapore’s card and gets a discount of 2 ,
equal to its value. Thus, Kate spends just 1 and takes Australia
• Pass: Place face down in front of you an Action card from your in front of her.
hand (if able) and get 10 coins.

After you have performed your Action (either the card’s effect or one
of the other available options), your turn is over. The next player in + =
the Turn Order track gets to play their turn. This goes on until you
have all played 4 actions. As soon as that happens, you proceed to
the Research step (see later below).

The Action Cards in front of you serve as a reminder of how many

actions you’ve taken so far in the round. If, due to an effect, you end If you Improve Relations with a Country you already
up playing multiple cards within the same turn, place them on top of have in front of you (one of your 4 starting allied Coun-
each other so that the number of “piles” in front of you remains equal tries), place the new card face-up on top of the pre-
to the number of turns you have taken so far. To save on space, you vious card, slightly upwards so that both cards’ trade
can have these “piles” slightly overlap one another, leaving only the symbols are visible, and keeping any Base or FDI to-
top card’s color visible to remind you what you played. kens it had. You may then immediately exhaust it to add
1 Influence to that Country’s Region. From this point
The Actions that the cards allow you to perform will belong in one of onwards, treat this a single Country for all intents and
4 categories, indicated also by the color on the card’s side: purposes (with the top card’s characteristics - only the
trade icons are kept from the previous card).

Note that some Countries do not allow for some play-

ers to improve their relations with them. If a Country
card features a forbidding symbol over a player’s
Diplomatic Economic Military Domestic
flag (in the upper right corner), then that player can-
not choose that Country for this action.
Below you can see a description of what each Action does. Note that
some of those actions allow you to add Influence to a Region. See The US, for example, cannot Improve Relations
later on for more details on that. with Iran.
 RULES OF THE GAME • WORLD ORDER 11

Engage (Diplomatic) bottom of their cards. You may sell that many copies of that resource.

This Action allows you to cement your Influence in a region through To perform an Import transaction, choose a resource and count the
your diplomatic ties. number of times its symbol appears on the small section of your
allied Countries (with an arrow pointing towards you) and on your
Choose a Region on the board in which you have at least 1 allied Trade Policy card (getting it from the other players). You may buy
Country. Pay the cost listed next to that Region’s name and add 1 that many copies of that resource.
Influence to it.
Note that each resource can only be used in one transaction - you
Similarly to Improve Relations, you may exhaust allied Countries may not Export and/or Import the same resource twice.
of the same Region (turn them face down) to lower the cost you
need to pay. Each card you exhaust, lowers the cost by an amount RESOURCES RESOURCES
→
→
equal to its value ( ). YOU EXPORT YOU IMPORT

The cost of the resources you Export or Import can be seen in the
following table:

EXPORT GAIN 5 5 5 15 15 20
(amount you get)
EXAMPLE: Anna plays the European Union and wants to Engage in IMPORT COST 3
(amount you pay) 3 3 10 10 -
Middle East - North Africa. She looks at the Region on the board
and sees that the cost to Engage is 6 . This is more than what she
can spend but luckily for her, she has Jordan and Qatar among her When Importing, in order to buy from another player, the player
allied Countries. She decides to exhaust their cards to get a dis- must have that resource available for you. If the player has a Com-
count. Their values are and so she gets a total discount of merce card showing that resource, turn that card face-down and
3 . She then pays the remaining 3 and adds one of her Influ-
get the listed resource(s), giving the corresponding amount to that
ence to the Region.
player. If that player does not have a face up Commerce card with
that resource, then you can only buy it if they have it available on
their board, in which case they reduce their quantity accordingly. In
both cases, the other player cannot deny you the transaction. If a
+ 3x = player does not have any of that resource on their board, and has no
face-up Commerce cards, you cannot buy it from them.

Whenever you Import, if you end up buying from one or more oth-
er players, gain also 1 (regardless of the amount of resources
Trade (Economic) or how many players you bought from). Note that in 2 or 3-player
games, you may still buy from superpowers not controlled by an
This Action allows you to trade with other countries and generate in- actual player. However, you don’t get any in those cases. Also,
come or get access to resources that you can’t produce yourself in a when buying or from Russia who lists 2 copies of each resource
sufficient quantity. on its Commerce cards, you need to buy 2 items of that resource to
get the .
Whenever you perform this Action, you can perform a number of
Export (selling) and Import (buying) transactions. The exact num-
EXAMPLE: Jim plays Russia and is about to perform a Trade action.
ber of transactions of each type you can perform is listed on your He looks at the icons on his allied Countries and decides he will Ex-
Trade Policy card. Most players can perform up to 2 Exports and 2 port Energy ( ) and Raw Materials ( ). There are 5 icons on the
Imports, in that order (with China performing one more of each). left side of his allied Countries and 2 icons meaning he can sell up
to 5 Energy and 2 Raw Materials (whether the cards are exhausted
To perform an Export transaction, choose a resource and count the or ready, plays no role in this). Jim decides to Export 4 Energy and 2
number of times its symbol appears on your allied Countries (re- Raw Materials for 5 each, moving the markers on his player board
gardless if they are ready or exhausted), in the large section at the accordingly, for a total of 30 .
12 WORLD ORDER • RULES OF THE GAME

EXAMPLE: (continued) Choose one of your Army tokens (either from your Player board or
anywhere on the main board) and move it to a Region in your zone
of Interest (showing your flag in a small circle) or where you have a
Military Base (see Build Base below). You then pay 5 .

EXAMPLE: Jim (Russia) wants to put some pressure on the oth-

er players so he decides to use the Military Reinforcements card
which allows him to Move 2 Armies. He takes one of the armies on
his board and places it in Europe. Then, he takes an army of his in
Central Asia and moves it to East Asia. He can make the move in
Europe because it is in his zone of interest, featuring Russia’s flag on
the board. East Asia, on the other hand, is not in his zone of interest
but he has built a Military Base in Vietnam, a country of that Region,
which allows him to send armies there too. Finally, he pays the cost
for these moves - a total of 10 , 5 for each army moved.

Invest (Economic)

This Action allows you to finance large-scale projects in foreign

countries. Such projects not only do they bring you long term finan-
cial gains, they also help you establish a foothold in the region.

Choose a ready allied Country in front of you. Exhaust it (turn it face

down) and pay the amount of money listed on the top of the card
(right beneath its value). Place a Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
token above the Country as a reminder and add 1 Influence to that Build Base (Military)
Country’s Region.
This Action allows you to build a military base on foreign soil, ensur-
Note that, unless stated otherwise, you can only Invest once in each ing a permanent military presence of yours in the region.
Country.
Choose a ready allied Country in front of you with a Military Base
( ) symbol. Starting Countries that allow you to build a base on
EXAMPLE: Kate (China) wants to Invest in Pakistan, one of her al-
lied Countries. It’s a Country so the cost to invest in it is 15 .
them feature that symbol on its own. Map Country Cards must fea-
She pays the amount, exhausts the card and places a FDI token on ture your flag next to that symbol, for you to be able to perform the
top of it. Then, she adds 1 Influence to South Asia. action there. Exhaust the Country card, place a Military Base token
above it as a reminder, and move an amount of Army tokens up to
that Country’s value (minimum of 1) from your Player board to that
Country’s Region. Pay a cost of 5 for the Base and 5 for each
Army token used, and then add 1 Influence to that Country’s Region
(regardless of the amount of Army tokens sent).

EXAMPLE: Alex, who plays the United States of America, has 3

Armies on his board and wants to build a Military Base in Turkey,
one of his allied Countries that allows him to do so. He starts by ex-
hausting the Country card and placing a Military Base token on top
of it. Turkey has a value of which means he can send all three
of his Armies with the base, if he likes. He decides to send only 2
Armies and keep the remaining one. He moves 2 of his Army tokens
Move Army (Military) to the Middle East - North Africa Region (in which Turkey belongs)
and pays a total of 15 (5 for the base and 10 for the 2 Armies). Fi-
This Action allows you to move your army around the world, tipping nally, he adds 1 of his Influence to the Region.
the balance to your favor.
 RULES OF THE GAME • WORLD ORDER 13

EXAMPLE: (continued) When an effect instructs you to Produce one or more resources,
4
you may choose any of the 7 available resources. If you choose a
1 primary resource to produce ( , , or ), you gain as many items
as your Production indicates. If you choose a secondary resource
to produce ( , , or ), you gain up to the quantity your
Production allows, spending the necessary requirements for each
resource produced.

3 Note that when you produce multiple resources within the same
action, you may choose any combination between primary and sec-
2 ondary resources. You are also allowed to use primary resources
just produced in that action as the requirements for any secondary
Note that if you don’t have any Army tokens on your board, or the mon- resources you also want to produce.
ey required to pay the cost required, you cannot perform this action.
Remember that whenever you produce a resource that is listed on
Get a Growth Card (Domestic) your Commerce cards, you also turn all those cards back face-up.
They represent additional produced resources that have been allo-
This Action allows you to tackle the inner workings of your Country, cated for use in Trade.
improving the way things work and leading to a more efficient form
of governance.
EXAMPLE: Alex (USA) also plays the Growth
Strategy card but chooses the second option
Choose one of the available Growth cards, pay its cost and place the on the card, to Produce 3 Resources. He main-
card in front of you, next to your Player board. Then, gain the VP listed ly wants to get Services ( ) but even though
on the card. The first time you get a Growth card you need to take a Lev- he has a lot of Energy ( ), he only has 1 Food
el 1 card. Then, each time you perform the Action, you must choose a ( ) which is the other requirement. Thus, for
Growth card that is exactly 1 level higher than the previous one you got. his first resource he chooses Food and produc-
es 3 items of it, as his Food Production marker
These cards usually provide you with an ongoing ability that you can indicates. For the second resource he choos-
make use of for the rest of the game. Note also that the number of es Services and he spends the 4 Food he now
has along with 4 Energy, to produce a total of
each available Growth card is limited and may be less than the num-
4 Services. Finally, for the third resource he
ber of players. After all copies of a card are taken, that particular chooses Diplomacy ( ). He has a Diploma-
ability is no longer available to other players. cy Production of 4 but decides to Produce only
3 items. He pays 9 (3 for each Diplomacy), and moves the
Diplomacy marker on his board 3 spaces forward.
EXAMPLE: Anna (EU) just played the
Growth Strategy card that allows her
to get a Growth card. She already has
a Level 1 and a Level 2 Growth card so
When producing , if you run out of tokens in your color, use any
she must take a Level 3 card this time. available items as an equivalent - they are supposed to be unlimit-
There are 2 different cards available, ed. For all the other resources that use the Resource Track, if you
Tactical Flexibility and Diplomatic ever end up having more than 10 of them, leave the marker on the
Opening. She decides to go for the first 10th space - all extra resources are ignored.
one so she pays its cost, 3 and 15 , and takes the card in front of
her. She also gains 7 as listed on the card. Placing Influence
Note that she took the last available copy of Tactical Flexibility. If
another player goes for a Level 3 Growth card, they will have to get Each region contains slots where Influence can be placed, with
Diplomatic Opening. each slot indicating the amount of VP you immediately gain when
doing so. There are 2 types of such slots: Permanent ones and Tem-
porary Ones. Whenever you place Influence, for any reason, you can
Produce (Domestic) choose which of the available slots to use.

Managing your country’s productions and getting much needed re- The slots above the line are Permanent Influence slots. Whenev-
sources is vital in your pursuit of global hegemony. er you place Influence in one of those slots, the Influence placed
14 WORLD ORDER • RULES OF THE GAME

will remain there until the end of the game. However, their number Resetting Temporary Influence
is limited and if they all become filled, unless an effect instructs you
otherwise, you may no longer place any of your cubes there. Some effects allow you to Reset your Temporary Influence. When
that happens, remove one of your Temporary Influence in a Region,
The slots beneath the line are Temporary Influence slots. Whenever push all the Influence cubes that were to its right one space to the
you place Influence in one of those slots, it has to go to the first avail- left, and place back your Influence in the first available Temporary
able slot on the left and the VP you’ll gain will most likely be higher. slot. You do not gain any when you do so but you get to “protect”
However, when all those slots are covered and new Influence needs your cube this way from being pushed off the region by moving it
to be added, the left-most Influence is removed and the remaining farther to the right. Note that if there isn’t any other Influence to the
cubes all move one space to the left. The new cube is then added to right of your cube, Reset has no effect on it.
the right-most slot but you don’t gain any immediate points.
Drawing Cards
Note that, when majorities are checked in each Region (see Score
Regions), all Influence cubes count in determining who has the most If any effect instructs you to draw cards during the Action phase and
(regardless if they are in Temporary or Permanent slots). However, there are no longer any cards in your deck, shuffle the cards in the
for a Region to score, it needs to have all the Permanent Influence discard pile (but not the cards in front of you that you have played
slots covered. If it doesn’t, the Region won’t score any points at all. this round) and form a new deck to draw from.

Trashing Cards
EXAMPLE: 1

1. Jim (Russia) just built a Military base in When you Trash a card, return it back to the box or set it aside. It will
Syria so he gets to add 1 Influence in Middle no longer be used.
East - North Africa.
Research
2. All of the slots are available so he decides 2 After you have all played 4 turns, the Actions step is over. You are
to place his Influence in the first Temporary
now given the opportunity to Research new cards, that is to add new
slot, gaining 5 .
cards to your deck.

First of all, place all the Action cards in front of you in your discard
pile. Then, reveal the remaining cards in your hand. In the begin-
3 ning, there will only be 2 of those cards left but some effects in the
3. Alex (US) plays after him and Invests in
Saudi Arabia which also gives him 1 Influ- game may later increase that number. For each revealed card, take
ence in the Region. He chooses to place it in the upper Bonus item listed on it (usually , or ) and then
one of the Permanent slots, gaining just 1 add the total amount of Research ( ) shown on all the revealed
for now but ensuring his cube will stay there cards (the lower Bonus item). You can use that Research to add new
for the rest of the game. cards in your deck from the Market.
4. Much later in the game, Anna (EU) decides 4
To get new cards, you spend the Research that you just got but
to Engage in the Region, adding another In-
fluence there. you can also get additional Research by exhausting allied Country
cards. Every Country card exhausted for this, will provide you with
Research equal to its value ( ). Note that any unspent Research
is lost, it doesn’t carry over to the next round.

5. By that point, all the slots (both Perma- 5 Whenever you get a new card from the Market, move the cards on
nent and Temporary) have been filled. Thus, the left of where it was one space to the right, and immediately re-
she can only place her cube in the right-most veal a new card to the left-most available position. You may get as
slot, pushing all the other cubes in Temporary many new cards as you have Research for, and each card you get
slots one space to the left.
goes on top of your deck. Discard your revealed cards afterwards.
She doesn’t get any immediate at this time
but at least she got to push one of Jim’s Influ- Remember that if you have Domestic Focus, you get 2 additional
ence cubes out of the Region. Research during this step.
 RULES OF THE GAME • WORLD ORDER 15

When everyone has finished getting new cards, discard the right-
most card, move all the remaining cards one space to the right and
reveal a new card to the left-most space. Then, move to the next
phase.

EXAMPLE: Everyone finished their actions and Kate (China)

just got into the Research step. She starts by revealing the
cards in her hand. She has a Growth Strategy and a Foreign
Trade.
She checks the Bonuses on those 2 cards and sees that she
gets 5 which she takes from the Supply. The cards also give
her 4 that she can use to get new cards from the Market.
However, she has Domestic Focus which provides her with an
additional 2 for a total of 6 .

She takes a look at the available cards and decides she wants to
take Explore Alternatives, costing 5 . She places that card on top
of her deck and slides the remaining cards to its left, one slot to the
right, revealing also a new card, Convincing Arguments.

Kate realizes that the card that was just revealed will fit very well
in her deck so she wants to get that one too. However, it costs 4
and she only has 1 remaining to spend. To cover the remaining
amount, she will use her allied Countries. She decides to exhaust
Singapore ( ) and Tajikistan ( ) for a total of 3 , enough to
reach the 4 she needs to get the Convincing Arguments. She takes
the new card and places that one too on top of her deck, revealing a
new card for the Market.
16 WORLD ORDER • RULES OF THE GAME

AFTERMATH
In this phase, you deal with the consequences of your actions. Your Resolve THREAT
investments pay off and your army presence has an effect on your
opponents. This is also the phase in which scoring happens. During this step, each player checks to see the military presence of
their opponents in their zone of interest. A player’s zone of interest
The Aftermath consists of the following steps: consists of all the Regions that feature their flag in a small circle.
The number of each player’s armies there is equal to their THREAT
Get Return on Investments in that Region.

For every FDI token you have on an allied Country, get 3 . Each player checks the Regions in their zone of interest and loses
2 VP for every other player who has more Armies than them there.
Increase Prosperity
EXAMPLE: It’s time to check for THREAT and there are 3 players with
You may pay the amount of Consumable Goods ( ) listed next to Armies in Central Asia. Kate (China) has 2, Jim (Russia) has 1 and
your Prosperity marker and move it to the next space. Immediately Anna (EU) also has 1. Since the Russian and the Chinese flags are
gain the VP and money listed on that space. You may only move a the only ones shown in the Region, only Russia and China will check
single space in the Prosperity track, even if you have enough Con- for THREAT here. Jim is tied with Anna so he doesn’t lose any points
sumable Goods to move again. from her. Kate however has more Armies than him. As a result, Rus-
sia loses 2 . If Anna had 2 Armies in the same Region, there would
be 2 players with more Armies than Russia and Jim would lose 4
Add Auto-Influence instead. Kate doesn’t lose any because there aren’t any other
players with more Armies than her.
If you are playing with 4 players, skip this step. Otherwise, take
the Influence cubes from the 2 revealed Auto-Influence cards and
place them to the Regions listed next to them. If any Army tokens are
shown next to those Regions’ names, place also Army tokens of the
same color in those Regions.

When adding Influence in a region this way, if there is a Permanent

Influence slot available, place it in that slot. Otherwise, place it in
the first available Temporary slot.

Then, draw 2 new Auto-Influence cards. For every role that is not
taken by an actual player, place Influence cubes of that role’s color
on the cards, next to their flags, as well as Army tokens if indicated
on the same row. These cubes indicate where Influence will be add-
ed at the Aftermath of the next phase.

EXAMPLE: Alex and Kate are playing a 2-player game and use the Note that, if you have Military Focus, wherever you have Armies you
Auto-Influence cards for Russia and the European Union which are get +1 to your THREAT. In Regions in your zone of interest where you
not controlled by players. It is now the end of the 2nd round and they don’t have any armies, you get +1 Defense: You ignore 1 of each oth-
look at the Auto-Influence cards they had drawn the previous round. er player’s THREAT.

Also, USA and EU both have the Member of NATO special ability
which allows them to ignore THREAT from each other.

Score Regions

They start by placing a yellow Influence cube (representing EU) in

This step takes place only in the 3rd and 6th rounds. In all other
Europe, along with an Army token of the same color. They contin- rounds you skip it entirely.
ue by placing a white Influence cube (representing Russia) in Af-
rica. Then, they add another yellow Influence cube in Middle East During scoring, only Regions that have all of their Permanent In-
- North Africa and a white Influence cube in Europe, accompanied fluence slots filled get to score. For each such Region, count each
by a Russian Army. player’s Influence cubes there - they all get 1VP per Influence cube
 RULES OF THE GAME • WORLD ORDER 17

they have. Then, the player with the most Influence cubes, gets the • Most money
majority bonus listed on the bottom right corner. The next player
with the most Influence gets the second bonus and so on. • Most
 Army tokens on the board. (Do not count Armies on player
boards and ignore Armies of non-players in 2 or 3 player games)
In case of a tie, the VP bonus goes to the player with the most
in that Region. If there is still a tie, all tied players get the bonus of • Most allied Countries
the lowest position among them. For example, if 2 players are tied
for most Influence cubes in a Region and have the same number of In case of a tie in these 3 majorities, all tied players get the points of
armies there, they both get the VP corresponding to second place. the lowest position among them.

Note that 2 Regions start the game with black Influence cubes. Note that in 2-player games only the player who wins each majority
These represent Influence by local powers in the Region. When de- scores points. The other player doesn’t score anything. Thus, if the
termining majorities, they should be treated as belonging to anoth- 2 players are tied in one of the 3 metrics, no bonus is given.
er player, affecting ties as described above.
EXAMPLE 1: After scoring all the regions,
EXAMPLE 1: It’s the end of the 3rd round players proceed to score the 3 Majority to-
and scoring takes place. Americas is kens. They start with the one for the most
checked but since the Permanent slots are money. Kate (China) finished the game with
not all filled, no points are given at all. 121 , Anna (EU) had 78 , Alex (USA)
54 and Jim (Russia) 49 . As a result,
Kate gets 5 , Anna gets 3 and Alex gets 1 .
They proceed to check who has the most
Armies on the board. Alex is the clear winner
EXAMPLE 2: It’s the end of the game and players check Middle East with 8 Armies getting the first place and it’s
- North Africa. Since all the permanent slots are filled, scoring takes 6 . Jim and Kate happen to have 5 Armies
place as normal. Note that through the use of a card’s ability, Alex each so they both get just 1 , the bonus
(USA) was able to add a permanent Influence even though there corresponding to third place.
was no available slot. Finally, they check who has the most al-
lied Countries. Anna has 10 Countries so
she gets the 7 that correspond to the
first place, while Alex has 9 Countries and
gets 4 for second place, Jim and Kate
have 8 Countries each. Since they are tied
for third place, they get the rewards of
“fourth” place, which means no points at all.

Players start by counting their Influence in the Region, gaining 1 USA has an additional ability that applies during this step called
for each of their cubes. Alex scores 4 , Anna (EU) and Jim Superpower Overstretch: In each scoring, count the number of Re-
(Russia) score 3 each, and Kate (China) scores 1 . They then gions in which USA has the most Influence or is tied for most. If that
check who has the majority. Alex has the most cubes (4) so he gets number is less than 4, it gets the corresponding penalty:
an additional 10 . Anna and Jim are tied with 3 Influence each so
they look at their Armies. Since Jim has more (4 Armies compared 0 1 2 3
to Anna’s 1 Army), he takes the second place, gaining an additional
-8 -6 -4 -2
7 , with Anna getting the third place’s 4 . Kate’s single Influ-
ence is tied with the starting local Influence and since she doesn’t
have any Armies, she ends up in “fifth” place, not gaining any addi-
tional at all. GAME END
The player with the most VP at the end, is the winner. In case of a
tie, the winner is the player among those tied who has the major-
After all Regions are checked and VP are awarded, check the 3 Ma- ity in the most Regions on the board. If there are still tied players,
jority tokens on the board. They also award VP to the players based the player among them with the most Influence cubes in total is the
on the majority in 3 key metrics: winner. If there is still a tie, players share the victory.
18 WORLD ORDER • RULES OF THE GAME