From the rules: In brief the purpose of the game is to conquer as many of the 48 states shown on the map of the United States as possible.

Conquest is carried out in the order specified by bidding on a hand of cards dealt to each player. With each hand that is won, the winner obtains territory, troops & money. These troops and money are later used to enable him to conquer territory from opponents whose armies are too weak to defend themselves.

At the end of the game, the winner is the player having the highest point total (based on the value of the states on the map). Ownership of all areas of the same color gain the player a scoring bonus. There are 4 parts of the game, 1 - Bidding your hand, 2 - Marking of conquered territory and distribution of troops 3 - Dealing new cards 4 - Conquering new territory After all the states are conquered there is another period of general conquest and then final scoring.