Kemet: Blood and Sand: glossary and rules terms

Fame points (FP)

Permanent battle and divine tokens stay with you. Temporary temple and level-4 pyramid tokens follow control. At the start of your Day turn, at least 9 FP with no opponent ahead wins immediately.

Prayer points (PP)

The action currency, tracked from 0 to 11. Spend it on recruitment, construction, powers, teleports and some DI cards. Pray adds 2; some powers modify the gain.

Day and equilibrium

Players alternate one colored action token at a time, five each per Day. By Day end, every player-board floor must contain at least one action token. Use each action space at most once that Day.

Gold and silver actions

Place these together with your colored token, then resolve the chosen actions in any order, completely one at a time. Silver uses an empty normal space. Gold activates one owned gold power. Newly gained tokens wait until a later turn.

Build

Add one or more levels to one own pyramid. Pay the sum of all new levels. Building 1→3 costs 2+3=5 PP before discounts. A level-4 pyramid gives temporary fame and enables its highest-level powers.

Acquire

Own/control a matching pyramid of sufficient level, afford the cost and use the matching empty Acquire space if possible. Do not buy the same color twice that Day or an identical power you already own. Acquired powers persist even if the pyramid is later lost.

Recruit

Pay 1 PP per unit added from supply into your home districts. Powers can grant free units. Recruiting into an enemy-held home district initiates a battle in which you attack.

Troop and creature

All your units in a zone form a troop, normally limited to five. One creature may be tied to it without counting as a unit. When its final unit leaves or dies, the creature returns to your supply. City troops can exchange creatures before action placement.

Land movement and splitting

A Move normally grants one land step and one optional teleport. You may leave units behind or collect your own units along the route. Movement bonuses are determined at action start. End in legal troop/creature limits; entering an enemy troop ends movement and starts battle.

Nile and harbors

Opposite Nile banks are not adjacent. One land move can leave any harbor, but can arrive only at a blue trading harbor or the red military harbor of your own city’s surrounding desert. Storm-covered zones cannot be crossed.

Teleport

Normally pay 2 PP to move from a controlled pyramid district to any obelisk. It uses no land move, but only one teleport is allowed per Move action. A power or DI can alter origin, cost or range without adding a second teleport.

City walls

To enter an enemy city district, normally begin that Move action adjacent to its wall. Only one enemy district may be entered per Move action. A home-city troop receives +1 Strength in battle. Some Ruby powers bypass the adjacency restriction.

Battle cards and hidden information

Each battle, choose one battle card to play and a different card to discard face down. Secret discards are never revealed. After playing all eight cards, immediately recover both battle discard piles. Public table view hides hands; a player perspective shows only that player’s current hand.

Strength, Damage and Defense

Strength decides the winner; a tie favors the defender. Apply unblockable damage first, then ordinary opposing Damage minus your Defense. Both sides suffer casualties even if their troop lost the Strength comparison.

Battle rewards

A surviving attacking winner gains one battle FP. A defending winner normally gains one veteran, plus a second veteran because they gained no fame. Everyone else who gained no FP gets one veteran. Defensive Victory changes the defending-fame rule.

Recall and retreat

The loser chooses Recall or retreat. Recall returns survivors to supply and gains their count minus one PP. For retreat, the winner chooses an adjacent empty legal zone, without harbor travel. The winner then chooses to hold or Recall.

Night order

Offering → Delta Temple → two-temple control → Adoration → Prayers → DI → Conscription → Awakening → Destiny. Resolve in order: removing the last temple unit can change later rewards.

Sanctuary of All Gods

At Night Offering, its controller may return two units to supply to gain one permanent divine FP. It is not a temple and gives no temporary temple fame.

Temples and Delta

A held temple gives one temporary FP. At Night, control at least two temples for one permanent divine FP. Other temples give printed prayer income; Delta instead allows one unit removal for 5 PP during its earlier Night step.

Veterans

Spend during Night: one veteran per extra PP at Prayers, two per extra DI card at DI, or one per unit in a controlled home district at Conscription. Any unspent veterans expire at Awakening.

Destiny and turn order

Lowest fame chooses a position first, then ascending fame. Ties choose in their previous turn order. Acting before a leader may allow you to remove temporary fame before their victory check.

Factions

Anubis, Bastet, Horus, Sobek and Ouadjet distinguish player components and cities; these base factions have no innate asymmetric power. Your pyramid and purchased power choices create your strategy.

Honor and Putrefaction

Honor 9 gives Putrefaction 0; Honor 8–5 gives 1; 4–2 gives 2; 1–0 gives 3. At 4 and 1, withhold one additional permanent FP. If none is available, the next permanent FP fills that obligation. Regaining sufficient Honor recovers withheld fame.

Expansion term

Sacrifice and Underworld

An Emerald sacrifice-icon effect moves one own unit from supply or a troop to the Underworld and loses one Honor. At Honor 0, lose 1 PP instead. Ordinary casualties, Sanctuary and Delta removals return to supply without Honor loss.

Expansion term

Recovering sacrificed units

An effect adding units can use your own Underworld units for an extra 1 PP each. Recruit may instead pay 1 PP per sacrificed unit to return it to supply. Specific powers such as summons explicitly grant free recovery. The shared board never lets you take another player’s units.

Expansion term

Divinities and worshipers

Thoth and Apophis are troops, not units or creatures. A gold summon places them in a permitted empty zone. Worshipers are normal units, capped by current Putrefaction. Apply damage to them before the divinity’s two life. A losing divinity must retreat; a winning one must stay. Neither may Recall.

Expansion term

Thoth

Summon in an empty desert; Strength 4, life 2, +1 land move. At War Council, name a battle-card Strength/Damage/Defense profile; the opponent cannot play that profile this battle.

Expansion term

Apophis

Summon in an empty Nile-bordering zone; Strength 5 and life 2. On Move, place Apophis and any traveling worshipers in any Nile zone, then end the action. No teleport or land movement. The tail in the river is cosmetic.

Expansion term