Russia: 1787. Empress Catherine the Great is taking a surprise trip down the Dnieper River to survey her new Kingdom. Her love Grigory Potemkin is a total babe but also a lying deceiving pile of trash for a human being who was really just trying to scam her out of a bunch of money. SO, he erected a bunch of phony portable settlements along the banks of the river to impress her. T. In this game, you’re trying to fool the empress into funding your phony village, you are the mayor after all, some of the structures you’ll be building will be real to keep up the illusion and others will be faker than my daughter when she tells me my makeup looks great.

In Potemkin Empire you’ll be drafting interior cards which are either real, or fake, and then it’ll be up to you to combine them with facades to construct an imposing, if not a bit flimsy, Kingdom. Players will score points by producing goods in their industrial buildings, exposing their opponents fake buildings with spies and constructing government and cultural buildings while passing off their fake buildings as real ones. The player with the most points at the end of the game will be the winner. 

To set up the game put the game board in the middle of the table. 

Everything on or next to it is considered the supply. 

Then shuffle the interior cards together to make the interior deck and place it next to the board. There are 5 kinds of Facade cards: Culture, Espionage, Government, Industry and science. Place all of the resource cubes and agent meeples in the corresponding sections of the game board. This should include the scientist and shield meeple as well onto their corresponding spaces. Stack the four month tokens face up in descending order and place it in it’s space as well and then give each player a player aid and mode token. The mode token will show them which actions are available to their play area. This starts on construction mode so they’ll have plenty of room to construct their village behind this token. The player who has most recently interacted with government bureaucracy is the first player and they are given the capitol meeple. 

The game takes place over 4 total months and each month consists of 3 phrases.The Drafting Phase

The Action Phase

And finally

The End Phase

The Drafting phase starts with dealing four interior cards to each player starting with the first player. Each player then proceeds to draft one of these cards in secret, simultaneously. Do this by choosing and keeping one card from what they were dealt and then pass the remaining cards in the direction indicated on the month token. For months 1 and 3 it will be clockwise and 2 and 4 will be counterclockwise. Repeat this until each player has 4 cards. 

Action Phase

Once the players have drafted all of their cards the action phase begins. During this phase the players will take turns performing one action starting with the player who has the capital meeple. This proceeds until only one player is left in construction mode. If any player has the scientist meeple at the start of the turn, they draw an interior card from the deck.

The Actions the players may take are listed on the tile in front of them which will either be listed as the construction phase or the production phase *Insert both on screen*

When the player’s tile is on the construction side, they may build a building, use an action or free action, spy with any number of their spies, produce one good in each of their industry buildings and then they must flip this token to the production side

When a player has their tile on the production side they may Use an action or free action or they may product one good in each of their industry buildings. You might be thinking, this seems worse than construction and you’d be correct. This design is intentional!

When constructing a building the player will need to decide what kind of building to build. They will get to choose from Culture, Espionage, Government, Industry and Science buildings. When they do this they stand up a facade card of the type they chose to put into their play area so that the back is facing them and the other players see the beautiful side of the building. Then they place an interior card from their hand face down on the base of the facade.

The player must have at least one interior card in their hand to choose this action. Bear in mind the players are not allowed to rearrange the facade or interior cards of their city because the Facade card determines the type of building. 

For example, this interior building behind a science building would be considered real but behind any other type of building it would be considered fake and worth two points at the end of the game. Some of these will be listed as real buildings on the right side of the card and they are real buildings. Some will be listed as flat out fake, and they are fake buildings. 

Some interior cards also have card abilities. If you happen to have one of these card abilities on your interior card you may use its effect by playing it from your hand. When you do, resolve the ability and place it into the discard pile. If it’s a free action it doesn’t cost your action for the turn. You can play as many of these on your turn as you like but once it's placed behind a building its ability can not be used.

Each of the building types have different abilities. 

Culture buildings will score 1 point for each culture building in your village at the end of the game. Additionally, after constructing it, if you have the more or are tied for the most culture buildings you gain the shield meeple from the board or player who currently has it. This helps protect you from spies. 

Espionage buildings will allow the player to place an agent meeple behind it immediately after it’s constructed. In a later turn, you can choose the spy action to destroy an opponent's fake buildings. At the end of the game, players score 2 points for each building they destroyed. 

Government buildings score 2 points for each government building in your village at the end of the game. Additionally, after being constructed if you have the most or are tied for the most government buildings, you gain the capitol meeple from the player who currently has it. They take the first turn at the start of the action phase. Industry buildings will allow players to take the produce action in a later turn. This means the player will place 1 resource behind each industry building in their village and they’ll score 1 point for each resource they have in their buildings at the end of the game. 

Science buildings allow players to take the scientist meeple if they are tied for or have the most science buildings after they build a science building. This allows the payer to draw an interior card at the start of their turn. 

But remember, there are actions other than building that the players may choose to take. If the player chooses to spy they may use any number of their ready agents to check opponents buildings for authenticity. Agents are ready if they are behind your buildings. Once they’re done spying they are spent and set in front of their buildings next to their mode tokens. All spent agents will be readied during the end phase to use again on the next round. 

In order to spy simply state you are taking the spy action and then place an agent in front of each building you want to check. Once they’re all placed, the corresponding building interior cards are revealed.

If the building is fake it’s destroyed. The facade, all cubes, and any agent meeples behind that building are returned to the supply. Additionally the player spying places that interior card face down under their mode token. At the end of the game all players score 2 points for each building they destroyed.

If the building is real then you place the interior card face up on the table in front of that building so it’s now known to all players at the table for the rest of the game. 

Sometimes the spies will interact with other meeple and buildings in special ways. If the shield meeple is protecting from the spies, it must first be removed by spending an agent and then the player can spend a second one to spy on that building. Let's be honest, if someones protecting their building with a shield meeple though, they probably have something worth hiding.

If a building is destroyed in the players village that has a scientist meeple, the scientist is scared out of that village and it’s returned to the game board. 

And finally, the stakes are higher in the espionage buildings for an agent when they spy on it. If this building happens to be real, the agent is killed and returned to the supply. If it’s fake, the player who used their spy may immediately use that agent to check on an additional building. 

And finally we have the produce resources phase. When you choose to produce place one resource cube behind each of your resource buildings, even the fake ones. If you were not already in production mode, flip your mode tile over. IF there is only one player still in construction mode then the action phase ends immediately and all players move into the end phase. 

/Action Phase

End Phase

During the end phase 4 things will happen. 1. Discard any interior cards remaining in the players hands. 2. Reset all mode tokens so that the construction side is face up. 

3. Ready all spy agents by placing one agent behind each espionage building if able. If you have more agents than espionage buildings, you must place one behind each before placing multiples if any. If you have no espionage buildings you may place them behind any of your buildings and if you have no buildings at all, these don’t ready at all. 4. Return the current month token to the box. At the end of the 4th month, Catherine the Great arrives, ending the game and declaring a winner who she will shower with her riches. 

/End Phase

Then players will count up 2 points for each fake building, 2 points for each government facade in their village, 1 point for each culture facade in their village, 2 points for each interior card under their mode token from destroyed buildings, and finally 1 point for each resource cube behind buildings in their village. 

And that's how you play Potemkin Empire. Thank you so much for watching our How to play! Tell us in the comments below what kind of meeple you are most like: A Spy Agent, A Shield Meeple, or a scientist meeple! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below. Be Bold, Play Games, Be You! Happy Gaming!

When filming focus on:

 Visual presentation of building a facade empire in 3d space 

1. Based on the story of a fake portable village built solely to impress Empress Catherine II 

2. Bluffing without lying

3. Easy to teach, quick to learn