Vijayanagara: The Deccan Empires of Medieval India, 1290–1398: setup guide

Setup 01

Match the three-human base game

Assign Delhi Sultanate, Bahmani Kingdom and Vijayanagara Empire to one human each. The red Mongol Invaders are a card-directed faction, not a fourth human seat. Keep Ibn Battuta opponents, Timur’s Shadow and the optional Goat–Tiger tiebreak separate from this route. Place the map once, then inspect its already placed regions as the tutorial tours them.

Setup 02

Read the Provinces and northern frontier

Identify the thirteen Provinces, which total eighteen Prosperity, and the separate Delhi, Punjab and Mountain Passes spaces. Cities printed at vertices are not additional spaces. Begin with all Provinces Tributary and Delhi at eighteen Victory. Tributary status is distinct from southern Control; an apparent majority in a Tributary does not itself score Controlled Prosperity.

Setup 03

Sort and place the distinct piece types

Delhi has gray Troops and black Governors and Qasbahs; Bahmani has turquoise Amirs and Forts; Vijayanagara has yellow Rajas and Temples. Keep the red Invaders and remaining Available supplies separate. Follow the official location-by-location placements rather than distributing equal armies. Mixed groups include three Troops and a Governor in Malwa, two Troops and two Amirs in Madhyadesh, and a Troop, Qasbah and two Rajas in Andhra. Preview each type before advancing to its destination.

Setup 04

Prepare Influence and starting tracks

Lock the specified pairs of Amirs and Rajas at their printed Influence thresholds; they are not immediately Available recruits. Set Resources to Delhi twelve, Bahmani six and Vijayanagara seven. Delhi starts with two Cavalry, the southern factions with none, both Influence markers at zero, and all three humans Eligible in the Khalji Dynasty. Keep the Mongol Cavalry reminder separate from the ten shared human Cavalry tokens.

Setup 05

Build the quartered deck and keep it hidden

The draw deck contains twenty-four selected Events, six selected Mongol Invasions, three ordered Succession cards and two Timurid cards. Each quarter has six Events; the first three quarters each include two Invasions, and the fourth includes both Timurid cards. Insert the Successions at the quarter boundaries following the publisher diagram. The tutorial uses one fixed legal order for teaching; only the current card is revealed, not the next card or unseen deck identities.

Before your first move

Reveal the current card and follow its procedure. On Events, Eligible factions act in printed flag order. Two once-per-card forks offer a Command with a Decree, or an Event or Command without a Decree. A Limited Command or Pass can preserve Eligibility for the next Event. Commands and Decrees must each be resolved completely. Invasions and Successions interrupt this flow with their own procedures; they do not behave like an ordinary Event turn.

This is a setup companion for the scenarios below, not a replacement for the publisher’s complete setup diagrams. Open the guided table to inspect the exact locations and the recorded deal.