Mega Empires: The Far East – South is an empire-building strategy board game for 3 to 5 players, set in South East Asia. In this game, players lead their historical empire as they gain Victory Points by expanding their population, building cities, trading, and developing their knowledge and culture. Notwithstanding its large scope, the game’s core mechanics are straightforward and easy to learn. A key element in the game is player interaction as they position themselves on the map board and search for valuable commodities during interactive trading sessions.

Gameplay
Each player starts the game with a single population token on the board. As the game progresses, population will expand, spread over the board, fight some border conflicts, and build cities. Cities bring resources and wealth, expressed in trade cards. The more cities players manage to build on the board, the more trade cards they receive. Trade cards are mainly valuable commodities, but sometimes turn out to be disastrous calamities.

Trade
Trading is the heart of the game, a social experience where all players interact with each other to optimize the value of their sets of commodities. In addition to the desired commodities, calamities are secretly traded as well, adding an extra layer to the trading dynamics. Once the trading phase has ended, players that end up with a calamity in their hand will suffer its effects.

Develop Civilization Advances
When the smoke of trading and resolving calamities has settled, players can decide how to spend the wealth gathered through trading. The game includes 45 different Advances that can be developed, each of which provides benefits in the game to its holder. For example, Horsemanship enhances movement over land, Urban Planning facilitates city building, and Spiritual Guidance reduces the impact of calamities.

The 45 Civilization Advances are divided into the categories Arts, Crafts, Science, Civics, and Religion, each of which has specific powers. Each Advance acquired by a player provides discounts to other Advances that can be purchased later in the game, thereby creating a path of strategic decisions. The ultimate Advance in the game, The Pinnacle Temple, is only in reach for players who manage both their trading and purchasing strategies very well.

Winning the Game
The players who have best developed their position on the board whilst avoiding making enemies, defended their empire against natural or civic calamities, and stood the test of time, will eventually gather the most Victory Points and compete to win the game.

New Components and Game Mechanics
The Far East introduces new components and game mechanics compared to The West (2019) andThe East (2021):

• Rivers are features printed on the map that facilitate movement of tokens along them.
• Pirate ships are placed on the board at the start of the game. They block ship movement unless a tribute is paid, but they can also serve as mercenaries in attack or defense, creating interesting new dynamics on the board.
• Walls can be placed on the board when acquiring The Great Wall, and they prevent opponents from crossing boundaries between areas and thus provide excellent defense to your empire.
• Events are new effects triggered when moving the turn marker on the A.S.T. They generally apply to all players and introduce various balancing effects.
• The Zodiac Events module can be added to increase the number of events in the game.

Combining with The Far East – North
The Far East – South can be combined with its counterpart The Far East – North (2027) to scale up the game to as many as 10 players! Where The South combines the continent, islands, and abundant waters in South East Asia, The North has a strong focus on the landmasses of East Asia. Both games were designed as balanced counterparts, albeit with unique characteristics.

The Quests Expansion is a small expansion set for all Mega Empires games. At the start of the game, each player receives a Quest card indicating a specific Civilization Advance. Players who successfully purchase the Advance shown on their Quest card during the game receive bonus Victory Points at the end of the game and may draw a new Quest card while they are available.