The year is 632AD. The Byzantine Empire is all that remains of what once was the mighty Roman Empire. She herself has only just survived a mighty war against Persia. Both empires now lay exhausted from their long years of struggle. Meanwhile, further south in the deserts of Arabia, the prophet Mohammed has given new meaning to an old religion and sets the peoples of that land on a course of action which will echo down the ages. Under the leadership of a succession of Caliphs the Islamic Arabs are about to descend on the prostrate bodies of the Persian and Byzantine Empires.
Players do not play any specific role in this game. They use their resources, which are money and cubes, to play both the Arab and Byzantine forces. These are the two opposing sides in this period, with the Arabs represented by the colour white, and the Byzantines by the colour purple. At the start of the game the Persian Empire is also represented, (grey locations), but these will quickly tumble to the Arab or Byzantine armies.
Each player has an Army Display which shows the profile of each of his two armies – Arab, (white), and Byzantine, (purple). There are four boxes for each army, Elite, Main Army, Levy, and Move. The first two are part of the field army. Levies can defend any city controlled by that player. When a Field Army moves a cube must be expended from the Move box. The Display also has each sides Treasury marked on it. The fighting ability of an army is determined by how many cubes are present in each of the boxes. There is also a Cube Pool where spare cubes are held. These cubes can be used to benefit either side.
Each player has two Field Army pawns, one for the Byzantines and one for the Arabs. The pawns are the same colour, so which side they belong to is determined by the location in which they are sited, i.e. a pawn in an Arab location is an Arab Field Army. Neither pawns start on the map. The Arab pawn is placed the first time the owing player makes an attack with the Arabs. The Byzantine pawn is placed the first time the owning player takes control of a Byzantine city.
The game will normally last three turns, although it can be cut short by the fall of Constantinople. Each turn consists of an unknown number of rounds. In each round each player will perform one action. Rounds are repeated until all but one player have passed. The last player has one final action, which then moves the turn on to the Income and Maintenance phase. A player can perform one of a number of actions during a round. He can take control of an uncontrolled city by simply placing one of his cubes on top of it. He immediately scores victory points for doing so. He can add up to three cubes to his Army Display. He can tax to raise additional money. He can select one of the Special Actions by placing one of his cubes in one of the boxes of the Special Action Display. He can choose to spend money to build a church or mosque to honour his religion. He can choose to move and/or fight with one of his two field armies. Finally, he can choose to pass. However, once a player has passed he can perform no more actions in the present turn. Note that all of the actions will require the expenditure of one or more cubes. A player generally passes when he has no more cubes to use or money to buy them with.
Money will be counted in Bezants. This was the European term for gold coins, which were normally produced in the Byzantine and Arab empires, the name being derived from the word Byzantium. The large silver counters represent five Bezants, while the smaller copper coins represent one Bezant.
Cubes play a major role in this game, and one could think of it as a cube management game. Players start with a number of cubes on their Army Display. Those in the cube pool are available for use at no cost. They can be used to benefit both Arabs and Byzantines. A player can also buy cubes from either his Casualty Pool or those that are part of an Army. These always cost three Bezants and must be used to benefit the side that paid for them.
Combat has been kept as simple as possible. Most of the fighting during the game will involve a Field Army attacking a city. The defending player rolls a number of dice equal to the number of City tokens in the city to determine how many attacking cubes are eliminated. In all combat situations a roll of 4 or more results in the elimination of a cube. If the attacker ends up stronger than the city then he takes control of the city. If two armies meet then each side rolls a number of dice, determined by their strength, to see how many opposing cubes they eliminate. The army that ends the battle with the most cubes wins, with the loser retreating. If the attacker won he would then have to attack the city, which means possible suffering more losses. Levies can play a part by inflicting additional casualties on an attacking army.
When cities change hands due to combat they are reduced in strength, i.e. they end up with one less City token on them. The only exception to this is when they only have one token on them, in which case no victory points or plunder are gained.
Victory points are scored during the game when a player takes control of a city, when he successfully attacks a city, when he becomes either the Emperor or Caliph, or when he builds a mosque or church. There is also a final round of scoring at the end of the game. Note that there are two victory point tracks and players must be careful to add the points to the right track. At the end of the game players will add together their victory point scores for each side, unless one side has less than half the points of the other, in which case they only count the higher score. Thus players need to balance scoring points in both sides, unless they think they can go for a knock-out victory by having the most Arab victory points and capturing Constantinople.
