From the chat window:

Type /join and press Enter to join the game; 
Type /start and press Enter to begin the game (3-4 players) 

Or if you prefer, you can use the game administration tools.

The starting player is chosen at random, with the current player's name enclosed in **.

This game knows two kind of points: Conflict-Points and Victory-Points.

Conflict-Points determine the result of a conflict between the two Houses of Counts. As soon as there is a fight between two territorries, each House adds up Conflictpoints: The House with the higher number wins the conflict. This is described in detail in Phase 5. Conflict-Points are shown in squares.

Victory-Points determine the winner of the whole game. The one who has collected the most Victory-Points at the end of the game wins. Victory-Points are shown in circles.

Territory-Cards

The Territory-Cards show the different territories that are fought for. They display to which house their Loyalty currently belongs, their Strength (the number of Conflict-Points) and how much Victory-Points the players of the opposite House will earn when they conquer it.

Supply-Cards

Supply-Cards contain addtional Conflict-Points, which can be used to strengthen the territory from the same loyality that is in the middle of a conflict. There is a total of 23 Supply-Cards:

Farms / Offices

Every player can build up to three buildings. He can build Farms, Offices or both, but not more then two Offices.

Every Farm will entitle to a new Supply-Card, at the end of each turn, provided the territory on which the farm is situated shows the same Loyality as the player.

Offices give Extra Victory-Points in the Final Count.

On each territory can be only ONE building.

At the start of the game:

receives every player three Supply-Cards with the Values 3,4 and 5,
is the first player the Start-Player,
is the second player the Strategist,
builds every player a Farm on a free territory.

How do I do that? In the Sequence of turn, every player builds his Farm. When it is his turn, he can move the mouse pointer over the Territory-Cards. There where he is allowed to build, the border of the Territory-Card changes to the player color. As soon as the player clicks this territory, his farm will be placed.

Each game turn is devided in 12 phases. The phases without player interaction (calclation, return of cards) are executed by the computer (Phases 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11 and 12):

Phase 1 - Determine the Place of Conflict

The Strategist determines the place of conflict: The two neighbouring territories of different Loyality, that will fight each other.

How do it do that? The Strategist moves the mouse pointer over the Territory-Cards. Alle possible locations for the conflict will be marked with a white border. If he wants to accept this location he clicks on the left of the territories.

Phase 2 - Choose an Action

Each turn one Action-Card is randomly removed (after the turn the card is added again). Which one stays unknown. Commencing with the Start-Player every player choses one card from the remaining Action-Cards.

How do it do that? The remaining Action-Cards are shown in the middle of the game table. The card frame will change to white when it is selected by a mouse click. The selection is confirmed by clicking on the the little Ok button at the bottom right of the Action-Cards. The selection window can be moved to have another look at the Place of Conflict. (click and drag; the same way as any Windows window is moved).

Phase 3 - Play Supply-Cards

Commencing with the Start-Player every player can select zero to fiveSupply-Cards and display them openly, to strengthen the territory of his Loyalty. If the player has choosen the action Traitor (Verräter) he will of course strengthen the territory of his new Loyalty, without that the other players might know (or perhaps they do?)

How do it do that? In the same way as you selected the Action Card you can now select none, some or all Supply-Cards. Again the selection is confirmed by pressing the Ok button.

Phase 4 - Play Action-Cards

Now all Action-Cards are visible and the Traitor - if someone has choosen this role - changes Loyality.

Phase 5 - Determine Winning House

To determine the winning House of Counts all Conflict-Points of both parties are compared. This includes:

The Conflict-Points on the territories
The Conflict-Points of the played Supply-Cards
The Conflict-Points of the Diplomats (2 or 5)

The House of Counts with the higher sum of Conflict-Points wins! If both Houses total the same number of points there are no Victory-Points, except for the Strategist and the Traitor.

Phase 6 - Distribute Victory-Points

The key to the Victory-Points is printed on the Territory-Card of the loosing House of Counts. The number of Victory-points is determined by the number of players loyal to the winning House.

Following Players receive additional Victory-Points:

The Traitor receives one additional Victory-Point
The Strategist receives two additional Victory-Points

Now the occupied territory changes it's Loyalty.

What happens now? The logo of the winnig House of Counts will be displayed in the middle of the Board until every player confirms it with a click. So every player has additional time to have another look at the just played round.

The builder may now:

build a new Farm or
build a new Office (max 2 per player) or
Switch a Farm to an Office or vice-versa and/or move a Building.

How do I do that? Which building will be placed is marked on the players card and can be changed by clicking on the building type. To place the choosen building just click the on the territory where you want to place it.

Phase 8 - Strategist Action

The one who had choosen the role of a strategist is now appointed and has the right to determin the place of conflict in the next round. A player keeps this role, until another player chooses the Strategist Action-Card. But a Strategist only receives the two extra Vicory-Points if he played the Strategist Action-Card in this turn.

Phase 9 - Return Supply-Cards

The Supply-Cards used in the Conflict are returned to the bank.

Phase 10 - Replenish Supply-Cards

All Players who have the right to receive Supply-Cards do this now. But no one may pull more than three cards at a time, nor may one have more than five cards on the hand. Surplus cards are returned before replenishing, or less cards than theoreticaly possible will be drawn.

First the farmer draws three Supply-Cards. Then commencing with the Start-Player every player with a Farm on a territory of his own Loyalty draws a Supply-Card. The player with the Action-Card Diplomat +2 receives an additional Supply-Card.

Phase 11 - Return Action-Cards

All Action-Cards are returned to the Bank.

Phase 12 -Pass on Start-Player rights

The player who sits in sequence next to the Start-Player becomes now appointed the new Start-Player and the Game restarts with Phase 1.

The Game ends after Phase 10, when:

One House of Counts has conquered all Territories or
when with 3 players each of them has been 3 times the Start-Player or
when with 4 players each of them has been 2 times the Start-Player

Final Count

After the End of the Game the extrapoints for the offices are added to the already achieved Victory-Points.

For Mathematics ...

Extrapoints = # (Offices) x min (3, #(Supply-Cards))

For all the others ...

The extrapoints are calculated by multiplying the number of offices with the Number of Supply-Cards. Only a maximum of 3 Supply-Cards will be taken into consideration. As there is another maximum of 2 possible Offices the highest number of extrapoints is: 2 * 3 = 6!

The player with the most Victory-Points wins the game.