Vorpals is a card drafting game. It is played in four rounds, with each round representing 25 years of game time. They players are princes seeking power over an island. Over a period of 100 years, each prince will organize their army, expand their territories and fight neighbouring lords.
The goal is to accumulate more victory points than anyone else by earning the devotion of the people. There are three main ways to do this. The first is to win wars with neighbouring lords. Second, it is possible to construct buildings to produce wood and ore. The third is to use the special powers of each unit or building. You are free to choose which of these strategies to pursue, individually or in combination.
Each round is composed of the following four phases:
- Deployment phase: acquire a unit card by drafting and place it by paying the cost. Units come in three basic varieties; military (e.g. veterans, knights), development (e.g. workers and farmers), and allies (e.g. dragons, goblins)
- War Phase: Players make war with neighbouring players, the winner gaining victory points.
- Production phase: the production of income and resources, which enable buildings (e.g. treasury, barracks, castle) to be constructed. Every building starts at level 1 and can be improved to level 2 by spending more resources.
- Aging phase: people and monsters die two rounds after they are deployed. So, you can feel the generations change and you must carefully plan how to maintain your forces.