Judges and Kings

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Titles are the currency of victory in Promised Land. Troops and settlements are the means; titles are the end. Of the 3 points needed to win, two can come from Judge titles and one from the crown — which is why nearly every game revolves around them.

The Judge title

A Judge title stands for command of a whole region, and is worth 1 victory point. There is no limit: a player may pile up as many as they can take.

How to claim one

The title is bought during the Acquisitions phase for 10 coins, and all of these must hold at once:

• the region has at least 4 settlements;
• there is no judge in it yet, and it has no city yet;
• you control every settlement of the region;
• you own a walled village there — it will become the judge’s city;
• you have a free general who does not already hold another title.

The walled village you choose becomes a city permanently: it never reverts, not even if the region loses settlements later. The only way to remove a city is to raze it.

The general behind the title

The title does not belong to the player in the abstract: it is carried by a specific general. That has three consequences:

• if that general dies, the title falls vacant — it does not disappear, but it stops scoring until it is filled;
• if that general is captured, the title still scores its victory point, but they lose the right to vote in the King election;
• a general may hold only one title at a time.

Vacant titles

A vacant title is filled in the following Announcements phase, and who fills it depends on whether a king reigns:

• with a reigning king — only the king’s player appoints, and he may grant the title to any non-captive general, including one of his own tribe;
• with no king — the title’s owner appoints one of their own generals.

If nobody eligible can receive it, the title is simply postponed to the following round — it never blocks anyone’s turn.

Losing a title

Three things take a title away from you:

• conquering the capital city is conquering the title — whoever takes the city in combat takes the title with it, choosing which of their generals assumes it (or leaving it vacant, if they have no eligible general);
• razing the city extinguishes the title — it passes to nobody, it simply ceases to exist;
• losing the city’s owner — if the city ends up with no owner, for instance when a plague wipes out the whole garrison and no general stands on it, the region loses the title and the point disappears.

The King title

The King is worth 1 victory point and is unique: there is at most one king on the board.

Reaching the throne

There are two roads:

Through the Anointed item. A non-captive general carrying the Anointed is crowned automatically, in the Announcements phase, before any election runs. It is the short road — and the one that needs no allies.

Through the election. While two or more eligible judges are in play and there is no king, an election runs every Announcements phase:

• each filled, non-captive judge title grants its owner one vote;
• each general carrying the Prophet grants one extra vote — and a general who is both judge and prophet votes twice, once for each entitlement;
• you may vote for any non-captive judge, including your own;
• only judges can be crowned: prophets vote but cannot be elected;
• a strict plurality wins. A tie for first crowns no one, and the election runs again the following round.

No turn ends while you still owe a vote. Everyone afterwards gets a notification with the per-candidate tally.

The King’s powers

Being king is not just one more point:

• Assassination with impunity. When the reigning king’s player plays the Assassin card, none of their generals takes the Assassin title and no Wrath of God is added. For everyone else the same card costs 1 point of Wrath and marks a general as fair game for Justice.
• Immunity to Justice. The Justice card can never target a reigning king.
• Appointing vacant judges. With a king in play, he is the one who fills every vacant title on the board — including granting them to generals of his own tribe.

A captive king

A captured king keeps the title and its victory point, but loses the privileges while in captivity: he goes back to raising Wrath when assassinating, and stops being immune to Justice. It is worth ransoming him quickly.

Succession

When a king dies, the throne does not stay empty for long:

• if any non-captive general carries the Anointed, they are crowned automatically;
• otherwise the dead king’s player chooses the successor among their own generals, in the following Announcements phase. While that choice is pending, no election runs.

Points at a glance

The count happens in the Check Victory phase, at the end of every round.