The Emperor has suddenly passed away, leaving seven heirs to the throne. Who will you support as his successor? Which powerful Princess will save the land from chaos and a war for the Crown!?

Heart of Crown is a deck-building card game in which players use their power, resources and influence to build stronger decks. A player’s ultimate objective is to meet the victory conditions before their opponents and help their Princess take the throne.

Number of Players: 2-4

Recommended Ages: 13+

Play Time: 20-40 minutes

Heart of Crown is full of great strategy and fun personality! You’re a power broker attempting to maintain power and influence by promoting your chosen princess in a succession bid. Each Princess is unique in her effects and advantages in the game, which in turn requires indepth strategy in deciding which princess to back and when.

In most Deck Building Card Games players purchase from either a basic market (any given type of card is available from the beginning of the game until it sells out) OR a random market (the selections of cards available to buy/conquer are random). Heart of Crown has BOTH! The randomization keeps the game from being too skill-based (so that more experienced players are less likely to totally dominate), while the static basic market makes sure that you can always fall back on buying something basic. The randomized market and more limited number of each card type forces you to think about combining cards together and may make you try cards you’d otherwise not have acquired

Heart of Crown also offers the domain mechanic where you put certain cards in a special area in front of you and they stay there throughout the game. All of your Succession Points (required to win the game) must be in your Domain in order to count towards your score, but watch out! There are attack cards that can force you to discard them.

Heart of Crown has a lot to offer experienced players, but it is also very beginner friendly! It takes quite a bit of time to reach the endgame, which gives new players a better chance to figure out how the game works while playing and giving them a chance to be competitive by the end!

Each initial deck contains seven Farming Villages and three Apprentice Maids. Players use the tax revenue (Coins) from their Farming Villages to buy resources from the main card pool and build stronger decks to support their princess’s path to coronation.

Players take turns, proceeding clockwise around the table. At the start of the game you draw a hand of five cards from your deck. When your turn ends, discard the cards you’ve played and any cards remaining in your hand, and draw a new hand of five cards.

During your turn you will pay Coins to buy cards from the market and add them to your discard pile, thereby strengthening your deck. The seven main types of cards are Princess, Territory, Action, Attack, Defense, Succession, and Curse. Each card will be of one of these types. There are also some cards with multiple main types, such as “Attack/Defense.” There are also cards that have both a Main Type and a Sub Type. Sub types include Maid, Military, and Magic.

In order to back a princess, you need to pay a number of Coins equal to or more than the princess card’s backing cost. Once you back a princess, place the card in front of you, in your Domain area. On the turn when you back a princess, you must move three Territory cards that you’ve played (or as many as you’ve played if it was less than three) to your Domain, in descending order of cost. You can now start placing Succession Cards in your Domain to increase your Succession Point total on subsequent turns instead of making purchases from the market. To win the game, you must have at least 20 Succession Points worth of cards placed in your Domain and declare a coronation ceremony. Once you declare a coronation ceremony, if every other player takes a turn without declaring one themselves and you are still at 20 or more succession points, you win the game!

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