King of Siam is a game for 2 to 4 players. In the 2- and 3-player game everyone is playing against everyone else In the 4-player game, the players are in two partnerships, with the players sitting opposite each other as partners.

The game consists of 8 power-struggles. In these, the 3 Siamese factions – the Royalists, the Malays and the Lao – are fighting for the dominance over Siam. The players do not represent one of these factions. Instead, they try to give of the 3 factions the control of Siam (by playing action cards) and simkultaneously they try to increase their own influence over the winning faction. At the end of the game, the winning player will be the one who has the greatest influence over the winning faction.

Set up the game

The gameboard shows Siam in the year of 1874. There are 8 provinces. Every faction has one home province (marked with the faction's coat of arms).

	The game can be started fairly quick:
	(1)	Every player receives 2 wooden cubes (the so-called "followers"). The choice of the followers is randomized by the dealt out card "playing aid". These followers are placed in front of him; they represent the initial influence of the player on the factions.
	(2)	Four followers are placed in every povince. Note, that a home province must receive at least 2 followers of the corresponding faction.
	(3)	The 8 province tiles are placed in random order onto the boxes numbered 1 to 8. After that they are turned face-up. The laid out province tiles give the order in which the 8 power struggles are fought.
		Now, the game is ready to start!

Learn to Play

(1) The province tile in the upper left corner shows the province in which the first power struggle will be fought. In the given example this is Sukothai. At the moment, Blue with its 2 followers has the majority in Sukothai.		(2) The players take turns. In his turn, a player chooses either to play one action card or pass. In the example, the card "Khon Thai" is played. This card allows to place 1 follower of each faction onto the gameboard. (These followers come from the common pool.)
(3) The player decides to put one yellow follower to Sukothai. The other two followers go to different provinces. (Note that the player is allowed to place all 3 followers in the same province.) After that, the player must remove one follower from any one province. He chooses to remove a blue follower from the province Sukothai.		(4) This follower is placed in front of the player. Together with the 2 followers from set-up, the player now has 3 followers. In the example they are 1 blue, 1 yellow, 1 red. Thus his influence is "1" on every faction. The played action card stays open in front of the player. It is never returned to him, so he cannot use this card in the game anymore.
(5) Now it is the next player's turn. He may play an action card or pass. If all players have passed once in a row, the power-struggle is finished: It is checked which faction gains control in the contested province (in the example this is "Sukothai"). – In the example all players decide to save their precious action cards for a later use, and thus all are passing in a row.		(6) Completing a power-struggle: The yellow followers have the majority in Sukothai. So the yellow facton (called the "Rama" (Royalists)) gain control: Sukothai is emptied, a Rama control marker is placed into it and the province tile of Sukothai is turned face-down. After that the power-struggle for the next province is started. This procedure is repeated until all 8 power-struggles are resolved.
(7) If there is a tie between factions when the power-struggle is completed, then the British march in. The province is marked with a British flag. – If the British have seized control of 8 provinces the game ends immediately (with an alternative set of victory conditions).		(8) After the 8th power-struggle the game ends. The faction which controls the most provinces, is reigning in Siam. In the example, the Malays (blue) control 3 provinces which is the majority. Thus the Malay reign in Siam. – Winner of the game is therefore the player who has gathered the most Malay-followers. The player to the right for instance has gathered 5 of them, and this is more than all others achieved. So, he is the winner!