In Empire Engine, players take on the role of a mighty empire, powered by rotating gears. During the game, players simultaneously choose actions to attack, defend, salvage, export, or collect resources (goods for export, soldiers to attack your opponents and inventions to score points). Players use their gears to rotate their engines, and in each round perform the actions on the top edges of their engines. The player who scores the most points for the goods, soldiers and inventions in their score pile at the end of the game is the winner!