Underground Duchy turn — Tabletop Companion

Birdsong

Recruit Warriors to the Burrow

Place one warrior into the Burrow, plus one additional warrior for each warrior icon currently showing on your faction board. Warrior icons are revealed as you build citadels — the first citadel reveals one icon, and the second and third each reveal two more.

Hint Warriors in the Burrow cannot be attacked. They accumulate safely underground each Birdsong until you push them to the surface through your tunnels using Recruit or Dig.
Hint The more citadels you have on the board, the more warriors you place each Birdsong. A full set of three citadels adds five warrior icons to your track, giving you six warriors per turn before you even take an action.

Daylight

Assembly — Take Up to Two Actions

Take up to two actions in any order from the following options:

Move — Move any number of your warriors from one clearing to an adjacent one.
Battle — Initiate combat in any clearing where you have warriors.
Recruit — Move any number of warriors from the Burrow to any surface clearing that has one of your tunnel tokens.
Build — Reveal a card matching a clearing's suit where you rule to place a citadel or market there. Citadels are limited to three; markets are limited to three.
Dig — Spend a card matching a surface clearing's suit to place a tunnel token in that clearing (it must not already have one), then move up to four warriors from the Burrow into that clearing. You have three tunnel tokens total.

Hint Assembly gives you at most two actions — the Duchy's early-game bottleneck. Parliament will eventually multiply this far beyond two, but in the first few turns choose each Assembly action carefully.
Hint Dig does double duty: it places a tunnel and simultaneously lets you push up to four warriors from the Burrow onto the surface. It is almost always worth at least one of your Assembly actions early in the game.
Hint Recruit lets you flood warriors from the Burrow to any tunnel clearing in one action, with no limit on how many you send. If you have warriors piling up underground and tunnels already placed, Recruit is the fastest way to mass warriors on the surface.

Parliament — Activate Swayed Ministers

Take the action of each swayed minister once, in any order you choose. Ministers are organized by rank:

Squires — Marshal: take a Move. Captain: initiate a Battle.
Nobles — Brigadier: take up to two Moves or initiate up to two Battles (in any combination). Mayor: take the action of any other currently swayed Noble or Squire minister. Banker: spend one or more cards of the same suit to score that many victory points.
Lords — Earl of Stone: score 1 VP per citadel on the map. Baron of Dirt: score 1 VP per market on the map. Duchess of Mud: score 2 VP if all three tunnel tokens are placed on the map.

Foremole (Squire): reveal any card to place a citadel or market in any clearing you rule, regardless of that clearing's suit.

Hint The three Lord ministers are not one-time bonuses — they score VP each time you activate them during Parliament. The Earl, Baron, and Duchess together can add four or more VP per turn once your buildings and tunnels are established.
Hint The Mayor duplicates any other swayed Noble or Squire minister — including Foremole or the Banker. If you have many Squires and Nobles swayed, the Mayor effectively gives you a second use of whichever action is most valuable that turn.

Sway — Recruit a New Minister (optional)

You may sway one minister from your Unswayed Ministers pile. To sway, choose a minister and reveal the required number of cards from your hand — one card per clearing, one clearing per card. Each card's suit must match the suit of a different clearing where you have at least one Duchy piece. Bird cards are wild and count as any suit.

Squires cost 2 cards to sway. Nobles cost 3 cards. Lords cost 4 cards.

When you sway a minister, take a crown of the matching rank from your faction board, place it on the minister card, and score the VP printed on the space you just uncovered: 1 VP for a Squire, 2 VP for a Noble, 3 VP for a Lord.

Hint Each card you reveal must come from a different clearing with at least one Duchy piece. Spreading your warriors across multiple clearings before the Sway phase gives you more cards to draw from — a reason to push warriors out rather than stacking them all in one spot.
Hint Each crown is used only once. If a crown is lost to the Price of Failure — which happens whenever your buildings are removed — that crown is gone forever. You can never sway a minister of that rank again, permanently capping your parliament size.

Evening

Discard Revealed Bird Cards

Any bird cards you revealed during the Sway phase are discarded. Non-bird cards you revealed during Sway are returned to your hand.

Hint Bird cards are the most flexible cards in the game, but revealing them during Sway means losing them permanently to the discard. Use bird cards strategically — they are valuable enough to reconsider whenever you would otherwise spend them on a Sway.

Craft (optional)

Use your citadels and markets to craft cards from your hand. Each citadel and market activates for crafting based on the suit of the clearing it occupies.

Hint Unlike the Marquise who crafts during Daylight, the Duchy crafts in Evening. Make sure you still have suitable cards in hand after the Sway phase — revealing cards for Sway happens before crafting, so plan accordingly.

Draw Cards

Draw 1 card, plus 1 additional card for each card-draw icon currently showing on your faction board. Card-draw icons are revealed as you build markets — each market places one icon. Discard down to a maximum of 5 cards.

Hint Markets directly accelerate your minister-swaying by giving you more cards each Evening. Three markets on the board means four cards drawn per turn — enough to sustain the four-card cost of swaying a Lord minister every other turn.