Twilight Council

You don't win wars — you end them. Reveal your plans in Birdsong and watch the Woodland come to order.

Hard

Background

The Twilight Council is a peacekeeping body that convenes assemblies across the Woodland, hoping to draw the civil war to a close. Their play is structured around a unique two-phase rhythm: in Birdsong, you reveal cards face-up from your hand as a public commitment to actions — those cards sit visible in your play area all round. Then in Evening, you return them one by one and execute one powerful action per card.

Assemblies toggle between Closed (tent folded) and Governing (tent open). At Governing assemblies, your Governors rule prevents enemies from activating crafting pieces or placing, removing, or flipping any pieces outside of battle — a potent stranglehold on contested clearings. You also keep up to four Loyalists (warriors held off the board on your player board), ready to deploy at assemblies to shore up your position. And your Peacekeepers ability means your warriors join as backup defenders whenever enemies battle each other near your assemblies.

How you win

Each Evening your Oversee step scores victory points based on how many of your Governing assemblies share a clearing with any enemy buildings or tokens. The payout scales: one Governing assembly = 1 VP; two or three = 2 VP; four = 3 VP; five or six = 4 VP.

You want your assemblies parked in the busiest clearings on the board — wherever other factions are building. Every opponent who constructs a building near one of your Governing assemblies is handing you points. Position aggressively, maintain rule over your assemblies to keep them Governing, and you'll score reliably every round.

How they play

In Birdsong you may reveal any number of cards from your hand, face-up, committing to a menu of actions for the round. Revealing gives you Move (from a matching clearing), Recruit (1 warrior in a matching clearing), Battle (in a matching clearing; discard the card if an assembly is there), or Assemble (place a Closed assembly and any Loyalists in a matching clearing with no assembly; discard the card if you don't rule there). Crucially, this is all planned — the cards sit visible, telegraphing your moves to opponents.

Daylight is a single step: Sleep. Any assembly currently ruled by an enemy flips to Closed.

Evening is where the Council truly acts. Convene Woodfolk returns your revealed cards one by one; for each you choose one of three actions: Banish (non-bird — initiate a battle in a matching assembly clearing; warriors you hit aren't removed, they're forced to move to a destination you choose, ignoring rule), Agitate (non-bird — spend the card on a matching assembly to gain 1 Loyalist and flip a Closed assembly to Governing), or Empower (bird — choose any assembly, roll a battle die, remove that many Council warriors, then either bank them as Loyalists or score 1 VP if you rule the assembly). Then Inspire (craft using assemblies, or draw cards per draw icons showing on your Assemblies track), Adjourn (optionally remove assemblies; flip assemblies you rule to Governing), and Oversee (score VP).

Strengths

✓
A Governing assembly in a key clearing shuts down enemy crafting, building, and token placement entirely outside of battle. This is one of the strongest area-denial tools in the game — you don't need to fight for a clearing to effectively neutralize it.
✓
Peacekeepers forces enemies to fight your warriors whenever they attack each other near your assemblies. Your warriors join as backup defenders, taking hits only after the target faction's warriors are gone. This makes your assembly clearings expensive to contest and earns you political goodwill with the faction you protect.
✓
Banish moves hit warriors rather than removing them — you choose the destination, ignoring rule. This lets you evict threats from key clearings without directly killing pieces, which can be diplomatically advantageous and avoids handing opponents score from pieces removed.

Weaknesses

!
Any enemy can force any assembly to flip to Closed at any time via Entreating — and it's free as long as they have faction pieces in the clearing. Your carefully Governing assembly can be neutralized right before Evening scoring. The Council can then place Loyalists or gain a warrior, but the scoring opportunity is gone.
!
You start with just 6 warriors and no assemblies on the board. The first round or two are slow — you need to Assemble before you can Govern, Adjourn, Oversee, or use your Governors power. You're the most reactive faction in the early game and will be scoring little until your assembly network is up.
!
Adjourn can only flip an assembly to Governing if you rule that clearing — and rule requires more warriors than all opponents combined there. In contested clearings, reaching the threshold can be hard. Assemblies you don't rule at Evening stay Closed and score nothing.

Tips & tricks

Tip
Place assemblies in clearings that other factions are already building in, or are likely to build in. Your Oversee scoring depends on Governing assemblies co-located with enemy pieces — plant where the action is, not in quiet corners.
Tip
Bird cards trigger Empower in Evening's Convene Woodfolk step — rolling a die to remove Council warriors and convert them to Loyalists or score VP if you rule the assembly. This is the safest path to Loyalists and a bonus VP, so try to keep at least one bird card in your reveal plan each round.
Tip
Sleep (your entire Daylight) flips enemy-ruled assemblies to Closed, denying them Governors control. Follow it with Adjourn in Evening once you've reclaimed rule. Think of Sleep + Adjourn as a two-step cycle: flip Closed in Day, flip Governing in Evening once the clearing is yours.

Walk through a turn →

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