Game rules

Paladins of the West Kingdom rules: how to play and how to score

Reviewed on 16 October 2026 against the publisher’s rulebook. How we check

Paladins of the West Kingdom plays 1 to 4 players over seven Rounds: everyone gathers Workers to defend the city and grows their Faith, Strength and Influence. Here are the essential rules, setup and final scoring, based on the official rulebook.

Players: 1 to 4 (solo against an AI)
Play time: About 2 hours
Winner: Most points; on a tie, the most points from King’s Orders, then the least Suspicion

Paladins of the West Kingdom quick rules

The goal: Around the year 900, Outsiders threaten the city. You gather Workers to Commission Monks, build Walls, Garrison Outposts, and Attack or Convert Outsiders. Your Faith, Strength and Influence unlock new actions and score points at the end of the seven Rounds.
Starting a Round: Reveal the Round’s King’s Order or King’s Favour. Everyone draws three Paladins: play one, put one back on top of your pile for next Round, and slide the last one underneath. Your Paladin gives two Workers, an Attribute boost for the Round and an ability; a Tavern card gives four more Workers.
Placing Workers: On your turn, take a single action or pass. Place Workers on an action of your Player Board or on a King’s Favour: a colored space needs a Worker of that color, a clear space takes any Worker, and purple Criminals are wild. An occupied action can’t be reused this Round unless you clear it by Praying.
The left-side actions: Develop moves a Workshop onto a right-side action, which then needs one Worker less. Recruit gives you a Townsfolk and its lasting ability; with a single Worker, you send it on a quest instead for an immediate reward. Pray clears an action, Conspire gives a Criminal, Hunt gives Provisions and Trade gives Silver.
Attributes: Each right-side action needs a level in one Attribute and rewards another: Fortify needs Influence and rewards Strength. Your level is your track plus your Paladin’s boost. Each can be taken seven times at most, except Attack.
Monks, Walls and Outposts: Commission sends your next Monk into a region your Faith can reach; Garrison does the same with an Outpost, using your Strength. Fortify, with enough Influence, gives you the top Wall card. These three actions cost one Provision the first three times, then two, then three.
Absolve, Attack, Convert: Absolve needs the Influence printed on your next Jar, gives one Faith and may remove one Suspicion. Attack needs the Strength shown above the Outsider; if you lack Strength, pay one Silver for every two points. Convert needs Faith: the Converted Outsider gives Strength and an end of game bonus.
Suspicion and the Inquisition: Every Criminal you gain makes you draw a Suspicion card, which takes Silver from the Tax supply, just like red Tax icons. When the last Silver leaves that supply, an Inquisition happens: the player or players with the most Suspicion take a Debt and remove half their Suspicion.
Passing and the next Round: When you pass, clear your board and keep up to three Workers. Once everyone has passed, the right-most Townsfolk and the left-most Outsider are discarded, the others slide along, and the Start Player Marker passes to the left.
Game end and scoring: The game ends after the seventh Round. Score the King’s Orders you meet, your three Attribute tracks, your Monks, Walls, Outposts, Absolves and Develops from the board thresholds, your Converted Outsiders, your Debts, and one point per set of three Silver or Provisions.
Beginner traps: Your Monks, Walls and Jars always go from left to right and get more and more expensive. If you place a single Worker to Recruit, Hunt or Trade, you can’t complete the action later. And aim for the King’s Orders early: they are worth a lot.

How to score Paladins of the West Kingdom

King’s Orders: 4, 6 and 8 points for each King’s Order met at game end.
Faith, Strength and Influence tracks: The flag of your space, for each track: 1 point on space 2, 3 on space 4, 6 on space 6, 9 on space 8, then 11, 13, 16 and 20 points on space 12.
Develops: 1 point for 6 Workshops moved, 3 for 7, 6 for 8.
Commissioned Monks: 2 points for 5 Monks, 5 for 6, 9 for 7.
Walls built: 1 point for 5 Walls, 3 for 6, 6 for 7, plus the points printed on some Wall cards.
Garrisoned Outposts: 2 points for 5 Outposts, 5 for 6, 9 for 7.
Absolves: 1 point for 5 Jars moved, 3 for 6, 6 for 7.
Converted Outsiders: The end game bonus of each Converted card.
Debts: +1 point per paid Debt, −3 per unpaid Debt.
Silver and Provisions: 1 point per set of 3, Silver and Provisions combined.
Suspicion cards (tie-breaker): No points: on a tie, the most points from King’s Orders wins, then the least Suspicion.
Diplomacy, Secret Order, Muster, Negotiate (City of Crowns): The Diplomacy track on the same scale, 6 points for a met Secret King’s Order, 1 point per 2 Muster cards, and up to 9 points per set of unique icons on Negotiate cards.

Worked example

Jake: 2 King’s Orders (4 + 8), Faith on 7 (6), Strength on 11 (16), Influence on 10 (13), 6 Develops (1), 6 Monks (5), 6 Walls (3) plus 3 printed points, 5 Outposts (2), 4 Absolves (0), 7 points from Converts, 2 paid Debts (+2), 1 unpaid (−3) and 5 resources (1): 12 + 6 + 16 + 13 + 1 + 5 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 7 + 2 − 3 + 1 = 68 points.

Common mistakes

Scoring the track space instead of its flag: space 7 is only worth 6 points.
Adding your Paladin’s boost to the tracks: it only lasts for the Round.
Scoring Monks, Walls, Outposts or Absolves below the threshold: fewer than 5 scores nothing.
Forgetting the points printed on Wall cards.
Counting Silver and Provisions separately: it’s one point per set of three, combined.

How to set up Paladins of the West Kingdom

With several players, follow the first two parts; for solo, add the last one.

The board

Put the two parts of the Main Board together in the middle of the table.
Shuffle the Townsfolk cards, place the draw pile facedown left of the board, and reveal 5 cards above its left side.
Shuffle the Wall cards and place the draw pile facedown above the board, towards the middle.
Set up the Tax supply right of the Walls: 5 Silver solo, 6 with 2 players, 7 with 3 players, 8 with 4 players.The number is printed on the board; the supply is refilled with the same number after each Inquisition.
Place the Debt cards in a pile, “Unpaid” side up, with the shuffled Suspicion draw pile just to its right.
Shuffle the Outsider cards, place the draw pile right of the board, and reveal the top 6 below its right side.
Place 3 random King’s Order cards facedown on the left of the board, then 5 random King’s Favour cards facedown to their right.Return the unused cards to the box without looking at them. One card is revealed each Round.
Shuffle the Tavern cards and place the draw pile facedown below the left side of the board.
Put the remaining Silver, the Provisions and all Workers in a supply next to the board.

Each player

Each player takes a Player Board and places 8 Workshops, 7 Monks, 7 Outposts and 7 Jars on it.The Jars go from left to right, from the lowest value to the highest.
Each player puts their 3 Attribute Markers, Faith, Strength and Influence, on the 0 space of their track.
Each player takes 3 Silver and 1 Provision.
Each player shuffles their 12 Paladin cards and places their draw pile facedown next to their board.All four Paladin sets are identical; only the background of the cards differs.
Choose a random start player and give them the Start Player Marker.
Starting with the player to the right of the start player, each player Recruits one of the visible Townsfolk for free.Go counter-clockwise; the remaining Townsfolk slide to the right and the empty spaces are refilled. Solo, you simply Recruit one Townsfolk and always go first.

Solo: the AI

Flip a Player Board to its AI side and place 7 Monks, 7 Outposts and 7 Jars on it.
Stack the AI’s Attribute Markers on the 0 space: Influence at the bottom, Faith in the middle, Strength on top.The stack order breaks ties when the AI raises its lowest Attribute.
Place the Resource Marker on the left-most space of the AI’s Resource Track.
Set aside the 5 “King’s Favour” Scheme cards, shuffle the others and place them facedown to the right of the AI Player Board.
Choose the difficulty and reveal 1, 3 or 5 King’s Order cards: for each, place an AI Workshop on the matching action.Easy: 1 card, Standard: 3, Hard: 5. Then reshuffle the King’s Orders before setting up those of the Main Board.
Place an AI Workshop on each King’s Order of the board, and a “King’s Favour” Scheme card faceup on each King’s Favour.

Frequently asked questions

How many Workers do you get each Round in Paladins of the West Kingdom?

Six: two from your chosen Paladin and four from your Tavern card. You may also keep up to three Workers from the previous Round.

Who goes first in Paladins of the West Kingdom?

The start player is chosen at random; the first Townsfolk, however, is picked in reverse order, and the marker passes to the left each Round.

How much is a Debt worth in Paladins of the West Kingdom?

An unpaid Debt costs 3 points at game end, a paid Debt scores 1.

Ludingo’s Paladins of the West Kingdom sheet was last reviewed on 16 October 2026, based on: pixiegames.fr, garphill.com 1, garphill.com 2, BoardGameGeek.