1. 01 How you score
2. 02 What you start with
3. 03 Only you
4. 04 Your Turn 1 situation
5. 05 Traps
6. 06 What experienced players say
7. 07 Your deep dives

You start on 17 VP, the highest score at the table. Rule SB p.7 If anyone has 25 VP in the Victory Phase at the end of a turn, the game ends and the highest score wins. From Turn 4 you can also win by being 5 VP clear of everyone. Rule 25.3

Here's where your 17 comes from:

• Keys, 11 VP. Keys are the square cities (Lesson 1). You hold 11, so the last open box on your card reads "5 Cards, 11 VP". Take a key and you move one box right; lose one and you move one box left. Keys also set how many cards you're dealt. Rule 25.2, 6.2
• Protestant spaces, 6 VP. The Protestant spaces track starts at 18, which pays Spain 6. Fewer is better for you: at 10 to 14 spaces you get 7, at 20 to 24 only 5. Rule 25.2
• Bonus VP, none yet. You can pick them up from piracy, assassinations, good marriages and holding Paris. Rule 25.2, 25.3

You can also win on the spot, during the Action Phase, in three ways: Rule 25.1

• Auto Win. Hold 14 keys, 3 more than you start with, with none in unrest. That uncovers the Auto Win box on your card.
• Catholic victory. Push the Protestant spaces track down to 9. That's a Spanish win, unless France and Scotland together have 3 or fewer Protestant spaces left, in which case France wins instead.
• Catholic rebellion. From Turn 3, score 4 more hits than England in an English Catholic Rebellion.

• Iberia: Madrid, your capital, with the Duke of Alva and 3 regulars. Barcelona 1 regular, Seville/Cadiz 1 galleon, Oran 1 regular.
• Italy: Milan, your second capital, 2 regulars. Genoa 1, Naples 1, Malta 2 (the Knights of St. John, who never move). 2 galleys at Messina.
• The Low Countries: Antwerp 1 Walloon regular, Brussels 1 regular.
• Also: 1 treasure in hand and 1 World Map fortress marker. Rule SB pp.6 to 7, 17.1

You're allied with the Papacy, whose troops sit in Rome and Ravenna, with a Papal galley at Messina. Rule SB p.7

On Turn 1 you're dealt 5 cards for your keys plus 1 for Philip II's card bonus, and you also hold your Home card (Lesson 2). Rule 6.2

Home card: Spanish Road (5 CP). Play it to:

• add a regular in Milan,
• move a leader there if you like,
• then march a formation out of Milan as if it were Spring Deployment.

The path may go through independent spaces and the sleeping Holy Roman Empire's spaces, and may cross one pass. It can't cross a sea zone or enter a space with enemy units. Rule Card #3

From Turn 4 you also get the Spanish Armada card, and each turn you keep only one of the two. Rule 6.1, 10

• Build Patrol (2 CP, on the Build Fortress row): put a patrol in an ocean zone next to one of your New World settlements, to fight off pirates. Rule 17.3, 16.5
• Upgrade Armada (3 CP): for the super fleet you build with your Turn 4 Home card. Each 3 CP raises it one level. Rule 23.2
• English Catholic Rebellion (3 to 5 CP, from Turn 3): stir up a Catholic rising inside England. If it gets as far as a rebellion, Spain and England are at war, for good. Rule 19.4, 9.5

Also on your card, shared with others but working your way: Preach Sermon gives you 5 Catholic conversion attempts in England, and Suppress Heresy 5 in the Netherlands (Lesson 5). Rule 18.2, 18.3

Beyond the map, also yours:

• The treasure fleet. Every turn you get a row of treasures, and other powers' sea captains will try to pirate them. You can put 1 or 2 galleons in the Treasure Fleet Escorts box on your card to help protect them. Rule 23.2
• Two capitals. In Winter your units can go home to Madrid or Milan, and each one you control (not in unrest) gives you a free regular. Rule 23.2, 20.6

• Spain is at war with the Ottoman, and that war can't end on Turn 1. The England player runs the Ottoman. Rule SB p.7, SB p.11
• The Ottoman is at Algiers: Dragut, 2 regulars and 3 corsairs, next to your Oran (1 regular). The main Ottoman army is at Istanbul. No other Ottoman land unit is next to a Spanish space.
• Ottoman ships (corsairs and galleys) can pirate sea zones next to your ports (Lesson 4). You roll to fight them off first. Each hit they score makes you give up a ship nearby, a random card, or 1 VP for Piracy. Rule 16.4
• Nobody else is at war with you. Declaring war on you costs France 3 CP, the Protestant 1 CP, and England 5 CP. Rule Diplomatic Status chart, 9.5
• A Protestant rebellion starts a war with no declaration cost. Ghent is Protestant, Spanish controlled and empty, so a rebellion there (2 CP or more) succeeds without a roll and puts the Protestant at war with you. Rule 18.4, 18.5
• If Spain and England ever go to war, they can never make peace. Until declaring that war would cost 3 CP or less, you can't enter Ireland or Scotland, and entering them then starts the war. Rule 9.5
• No espionage on Turns 1 and 2, for you or against you. Rule 19

• Building where you can't. No land units at Oran or Malta (Oran can still build a galley). In the Netherlands you can only build Walloons, and no ships at all. Rule 17.2, 17.3
• Passing too early. You can't pass while your Home card or a Mandatory event is unplayed, or while you hold more cards than Philip's admin rating of 2 (Lesson 2). Rule 11
• Paying for war with the wrong card. Home cards and Mandatory events can't pay for a declaration of war. Rule 9.4

Deep dives: Espionage is ready (your English Catholic Rebellion, from Turn 3). Coming later: Naval Combat and Piracy (treasure fleet, patrols, the Armada); Conversion and Rebellion (your sermons, Dutch rebellions); Diplomacy, Minors and War (the Papacy, and why a war with England never ends).

If you win over the Holy Roman Empire, read Running Allies.