Give each player a castle, the matching "king" meeple, and a square starting tile. If you are playing a 2 player game, each player should have 2 "king" meeples.
Each player should place their castle on their starting tile.
Shuffle the dominoes and place them in the insert so that neither the numbers or the faces of the tiles can be seen. If you are playing a 2 player game, play with 24 (half) randomly selected dominoes.
The first round is slightly different than the remaining rounds.
Take 4 dominoes and line them up numerically with the numbers face up. The lowest number should be at the top. Then, flip them over.
Randomly select a player order to start. Then, in that order, each player places their king meeple on a domino. If you are playing a 2 player game, each player selects 2 dominoes with their 2 "king" meeples.
When all dominoes are claimed, select 4 new dominoes and line them up and order them, number side up, next to the selected dominoes. Then, flip them over.
For all following rounds, players take 2 actions on their turn:
If you are playing a 3 player game, there will be 1 domino left over after each selection. This extra domino is discarded.
The playing order for a round is the order of the "king" meeples that were placed (top to bottom, or lowest number to highest number).
Dominoes are added to a kingdom using these connection rules:
After adding a domino, the player can select any domino in the new line, placing their "king" meeple on it.
After all players have placed their domino and selected their next domino, take 4 new dominoes from the box, line them up numerically and flip them.
The game ends when the last dominoes are placed in their kingdoms (all dominoes have been removed from the box)
Now, calculate points per the following. Remember, a territory is a group of matching terrain squares that are orthogonally connected (not diagonally).
Tie break: The player with the largest territory (most connecting squares of the same terrain) wins. If there is still a tie, the players share the victory.