This section provides explanations of terms found in the rules and on game components. While most of them may seem intuitively clear, some involve complex game mechanics and may be interpreted ambiguously.
¶ Effect
A condition described in the rules or on a card that forces players to act or refrain from acting in a certain way, thereby changing the state of the game
¶ Component
All physical components on the game table: cards, tokens, tiles, cubes, coins
¶ Object
The structures and units on the game map
¶ Enemy Target
During a battle, the target is all enemy objects located on the hex that is being attacked by your army
¶ Infidel
Another player whose religion differs from yours, even if they are your ally. If you follow a religion and the other player does not, they are also considered an infidel, but not vice versa
¶ Modifier
A number that increases or decreases the impact of specified game effects. Modifiers are most commonly found on technology and nation cards. Modifiers may affect your opponents, but if not stated in the description, the modifier affects only you. Modifiers may apply only under certain circumstances, but if not specified, such a modifier is always active. Examples:
- Spend -2
for the construction of each 
- Your
in the forest has +1 strength bonus
¶ Activate
Place an action cube or activation cube on a game component and perform the corresponding action associated with this component. You can activate certain areas of a player mat, technologies, hexes, etc
¶ Deactivate
Return the game component to the unactivated state. For a recurrent technology, this means to discard the activation cube
¶ Retrieve
Return a used action cube from the specified area of player mat to your game zone, making it available for reuse
¶ Deplete
Make one of your armies / group of peasants depleted. To do this, place a depletion cube on the hex with them. By default, this occurs after the army / peasants have performed a maneuver
¶ Retreat
During the battle, move your army to an adjacent hex and deplete it. Immediately after this, the battle is interrupted, and the opponent's army remains depleted and in place. Some technologies allow you to retreat and avoid losses once a battle has already started
¶ Destroy
Discard another player's object from the game map. The player returns this object to the reserve or to their player mat, as specified by the rules. In this case, the player is considered to lose this object. In some cases (if directly specified), you may destroy your own or allied object.
¶ Lose
You lose an object only when it is destroyed. Losing an object is a consequence of destruction, not of any other form of discarding or replacement.
¶ Discard
Return the specified component to the reserve, to a player mat, or to the appropriate discard pile. For example, if you discard a building token, it returns to your player mat; if you discard a religion token, it goes to the reserve; a technology card goes to the discard pile.
Discarding is not considered a loss: no effects that trigger upon loss are applied.
¶ Replace
Exchange one game component for another. Discard the replaced component. This action is not considered a loss or destruction and does not trigger any related effects.
For example, if you replace a peasant unit with a swordsman unit, the swordsmen are placed in the same location. Any depletion cubes or black cubes from the previous unit remain with the new unit.
¶ Gain
Receive a specified reward.
- If you gain a unit, place it in your city or castle (or on a hex adjacent to them), as during recruiting
- If you gain a technology into your hand, you may research it as a free action anytime
- If you gain resources from hexes according to the terrain type, it means that you gain resources that peasants can gather from these hexes. Also, the calamities on these hexes do not impede you
¶ Acquire
During your turn in the development phase, if you meet the conditions for an instant achievement, acquire it by placing your affiliation 
on the corresponding card. For recurrent achievements, this occurs at the respective stage of the achievement phase
¶ Transfer
Transfer the cube(s) of the specified type from one place to another. This way you convert some resources/products/states into others
¶ As a main action
Use an action cube in a specified way in order to execute a game effect. This is considered a main action, after which you may pass the turn.
Some abilities of nations allow using experience cubes as action cubes. In such cases, the experience cube is considered to be an action cube at the moment of use
¶ As a free action
Perform the specified action without using any action cube. After this, you cannot pass the turn, if only a free action was performed. You need to complete a main action, which may be of another type. For example, if you used a free action for construction, the main action may be recruiting.
If you borrow a technology as a free action, take an affiliation cube of your color from the bank
¶ Inflict
Add one adversity to yourself or to another player. To do this, place a black 
on one of game components owned or controlled by the respective player.
During the emergence of adversities in the achievement phase, each player inflicts adversities on themselves as specified in the activated blocks on the event cards.
Damage can be dealt to any objects during a battle, but it can also be inflicted on structures at any time due to technologies and nations abilities. If the damage dealt reduces a structure hit points to zero, that structure is destroyed. However, in order to destroy a structure by inflicting damage, its hit points must fall below zero
¶ Deal
During a battle, you can deal a certain amount of damage to enemy objects. If as a result the enemy object hit points are reduced to zero, you destroy that object, and your opponent loses it, discarding it from the game map. If the damage dealt is insufficient to destroy a structure, place the corresponding number of black on it to indicate the damage. Units ignore the damage that cannot destroy them
¶ Ignore
Pretend the specified game effect does not exist
¶ Cancel
All players ignore the occurrence of a game effect that was supposed to occur or has occurred
¶ Draw
Draw n cubes randomly from the bag. You cannot peek or otherwise influence the result
¶ Redraw n with returning
Once you draw m cubes from the bag (m ≥ n), return n of them back to the bag and redraw n cubes
¶ Redraw n without returning
Once you draw m cubes from the bag (m ≥ n), set aside n of them and draw n new cubes. You may choose which set of n cubes to consider as your result. Return the other set back to the bag
¶ Double
Take additional components from the bank so that the total number of these components is doubled.
¶ Your
A game component controlled or owned by you.
- Your province: you control this province
- Your religious community: you control this religious community
- Your unit: a unit of your color, which is not a rebel
¶ Enemy
A game component controlled or owned by your opponent (not an ally). However, an exception is a rebel of your color, which does not belong to any player, but is an enemy unit to everyone
¶ Depleted
The state of an army or unit that has already performed a maneuver in the current round. Usually, they can no longer perform a maneuver until the end of the round. This state is marked by a depletion cube on the hex with the units
¶ Engaged
A unit or army that is/was involved in a battle or overcoming adversities
¶ Available
A unit that you can recruit if you have the necessary resources.
For example, your elite unit is unavailable in Age I, and may also be unavailable if it requires a castle that you do not have. Also, the swordsmen are not available to you if you play for the Gokturks
¶ Cannot
This term has the highest priority and prohibits the player from performing certain actions.
For example, if you play as the Mocheans, you cannot recruit spearmen, cavalry, or siege engines. This means these units are not available to you, and technologies such as Declaration of War will not allow you to recruit them. However, you may still gain these units through other means if an effect allows you to gain them directly, as "recruiting" and "gaining" are considered different actions.