Expression is the fuel that enables you to play many of the cards in the diplomacy system. It is an important resource and one that is essential to understand to be a successful diplomat. Expression represents the four ways that you can influence your opponent during a parley by color: Demand (red), Reason (Green), Inspire (Blue), and Flattery (yellow). As you gain dots in each of these types of expression, you will be able to play different cards to influence your opponent.

Expression is shown in four columns on each side of the game board, with the bottom side showing your expression values. The values themselves are represented by colored dots, with red dots stacked up in the demand column, green dots in the reason column, blue dots in the inspire column, and yellow dots in the flattery column. Each colored dot represents one point of that type of influence. This is shown in Image 1, where you can see the player has X number of demand, X reason, X inspire, and X flattery.

The two numerical values on the game board, one at the top and one at the bottom, represent your opponent's score and your score respectively. However, while a larger number is usually better in games, in this case the lower the number, the closer to victory you are. The number represents how many turns you need to have the slider, located between the two values, on your side of the board. If the slider is on your side of the board at the end of either your turn, then your score decreases by one point, if the slider is on your opponet's side of the board, then their score is decreased by 1 point. The first to reach zero wins. In image 1, you can see that the slider is two notches downward from the middle, meaning that your score is being dropped by one after every turn until your opponent can move the slider back to the middle (where no one's score decreases), or over to their side. Regardless of how many notches it is to one side or another, only one point will be deducted from the score. However, the more notches it is to your side, the more difficult it will be for your opponent to wrest the slider back to their side.

The slider represents the influence that you have over your opponent at the time. When you play certain cards, it will cause the influence slider to move further toward your side, or further away - although if you play a card that reduces your influence, it usually carries another bonus to make it worthwhile.

The two buttons at the bottom of the window are the Speak and Listen buttons. After you have selected a card from your deck, which will then display on the game board, you may press the 'Speak' button, which will cause that card to go into effect. Before pressing this button, you may select another card, which will replace the currently selected card on the game board, so you  may play that instead.

Instead of using the Speak button, you may also select 'Listen'. Listen passes your turn, so that you do not play a card. Sometimes it is to your advantage to skip a turn. For example, you may not have any cards available to play (see section 3.4), or if you already have a fair lead over your opponent, playing further cards may just increase their chances to catch up - remember, almost every card you play has its advantages and disadvantages.

Of course, there is more to diplomacy than just numbers. There is often a story to diplomacy as well, some sort of conversation that is going on for you to enjoy. However, this conversation does not necessarily reflect the cards that you are playing, but rather is pre-scripted and is completely linear. You could honestly ignore the dialogue window if you wished, although most of the stories in Vanguard are well written and they tend to give an insight into the world.

The text in the window is updated every time your score is reduced by one. If your opponent's score reduces, or if neither score changes, then the window is not updated.

Each of the cards in the game is color coded to reflect an alignment to a certain type of expression. Red cards are demand cards, green cards are reason cards, blue cards are inspire cards, and yellow cards are flattery cards. It can be important to know what type of expression each of the cards are aligned to, as they often will cost points of that expression to play, or create points of that expression if played. With the cards color coded, it can be very easy to identify which cards you should use depending on the type of expression you have to work with.

While it was mentioned before that expression was very important, it is with the use of cards that its importance can truly be seen. One of the primary purposes of cards are to alter the expression on the game board, either by using points of expression when they are played, or adding or subtracting points of expression for you or your opponent.

When viewing image 2, you can see an image of several cards. You will notice that they have colored dots on them, representing each of the four expression types. You will also notice that each card has numbers above and below these dots. The number below the dot shows what effect the card has on your expression while the number above the dots show the effect it has on your opponents expression. A positive number means the card adds to that expression pool and a negative number means it removes from that expression pool.

The positive number listed in the cost row shows how many dots of those expression types you need to play that card. This is the cost of playing the card. For example, if you are trying to play a card that has a -3 under the blue dot, you will need three dots of inspire expression on the game board before you can use that card.

In image 2, you will notice a small number in the bottom right corner of every card. This number is the refresh rate of the card. Every time a card is played in a parley, it has to refresh for a certain number of rounds before it can be used again. For example, if you play a card that has a 3-5 refresh rate, then you will have to wait between 3 to 5 rounds before you can use that card again. When a range of numbers is present, such as in that example, the rounds until its use is random within that range.

In the top right corner of each card, you will notice a number in a colored circle. This number is the influence that the card has over your opponent when you use it. Each time you play a card, the influence number is applied to the slider on the game board. If the influence is one or higher, the slider is moved an equal number of notches as the influence number, closer to your side of the game board. If the number is negative, then it is moved closer to your opponent's side.

There are several different types of cards, each one with a different purpose for being in the deck. These cards tend to have their own advantages and disadvantages, and are as follows:

• Comment - This type of card has no expression cost associated to it, but has at least one point of influence. These cards often give your opponent a large amount of expression points to work with after play, and are usually only used as a first move in parley to get the slider onto your side of the board right away. An example of this would be a card that gives the opponent one of every expression type, but moves the slider 2 notches toward the player's side of the board.
  
• Assertion- These cards are focused on influence, usually having three points of influence at the lowest. These are the primary cards used to move the slider on the game board, but they often require a large amount of expression to use will likely provide a small amount of expression to your opponent. An example of this would be a card that costs 2 Flattery and gives the opponent an Inspire, but changes the slider 3 notches to your side of the board.
  
• Evaluation - These cards create expression for you to use in at least one pool. They do not cost anything to use and they do not usually affect the slider unless its a negative movement . Evaluation cards are very important, even more so with early decks, to build expression to use an argument. An example of this card would be one that gives you 2 Reason.
  
• Rebuttal - These cards are able to remove expression from your opponent's pool. These cards are very useful for removing the primary expression that your opponent has been using, halting their strategy. An example of this would be a card that removes 2 Inspire from your opponent.
  
• Repeal-These cards use dots of your expression to create more expression. This often gives points to another pool, but sometimes they boost in the same pool that it uses the expression from. An example of this would be a card that converts 2 Demand points into 4 Flattery points.
  

When building a strategy, it is a good idea to be mindful of your race and class. They decide which cards you have to choose from when you first begin the game. Each race and class in the game have a certain expression type that it relates to, and the cards you are provided with will largely be based on those two factors. While you can earn cards later on, these will be your basic core. Also, your race will provide you with a very powerful Assertion card. It is a good idea to tailor your strategy to your race's primary expression type. The following carts show the expression types for each race and class:

Much like in real life, there are multiple different types of conversations you can have in Vanguard. Telling a joke and trying to incite someone into action isn't the same thing, and requires a different approach. There are five different types of conversations that you perform in Vanguard when parlaying with an opponent: an Interview, Entertain, Gossip, Convince, and Incite. All of these conversation types you can have in a parlay work essentially the same, except they block an expression from being used. The following table shows each conversation type and the expression it blocks:


When building a strategy, you should be very mindful of the type of conversation you are entering into. You should not have cards that rely on an expression type that cannot be used in your deck when entering into a parlay.

When building a strategy, you should be mindful of the expression that you can take advantage of. While it is a good idea to take advantage of your primary expression and the expression your opponent is giving you, it is also a good idea to ensure you have cards that can take advantage of every usable expression in the parlay you're entering into. However, you should be careful with this as well. If you know an opponent is unlikely to give you a useful amount of a certain expression, it can be safe to avoid putting any cards that rely on it in your deck.

After reading through all of this, you may be wondering which cards to use in your deck. This is largely up to you, as that is one of the fundamental challenges to the diplomacy system, as well as something that can change depending on the parlay you are entering into. You will need to construct a deck that will take advantage of your opponent's weaknesses and your strengths. Regretfully there is no one answer to this question.

Yet, when first beginning diplomacy, there are a few fairly solid decks that you can use. One of them is the following: 1 Comment, 2 Assertions, 2 Evaluations, all of them focused around your race's primary expression type. This will ensure that you will be able to generate enough expression to use your assertions, with a comment to give you a head start on your opponent. However, as you gain more cards, you should try experimenting with rebuttals and repeals.

Presence represents how influential and well known you are in certain social circles, such as among academics, domestic workers, religious figures, nobles, and more. Without the proper amount of presence, you will not be able to initiate a parlay with certain NPCs in the game. For example, don't expect to speak to the Dwarven King unless you're well known enough amongst the nobles that your word is worth listening to for someone of such high status. When you are attempting to initiate a parlay, you will be able to see the presence required to enter a parlay with that NPC in the dialogue window (see image 3).

You will be able to reference this value against your own Presence scores located in your character sheet under the 'Presence' tab in the Diplomacy section. If this value is not high enough, then there are two ways of increasing it: parlay with enough people of that specific station to raise the value, or get Diplomacy equipment that raises your presence levels much like Adventuring gear increases your attributes. The former option is a fairly slow process, but the latter will likely cost you some coin.

There are eight different stations that NPCs are grouped into, each based on medieval society, that you can gain Presence with:

• Domestics - Those Who Toil. This is your general working class.
• Soldiers - Those Who Fight. These are guards and warriors for the various governments found in Telon.
• Crafters - Those Who Create. Your artisans, blacksmiths, tailors, and other skilled workers.
• Clergy - Those Who Share Wisdom. Your religious-based citizens.
  
• Academics - Those Who Know. This group consists of mages, historians, lore-keepers, and other related trades.
• Merchants - Those Who Trade. Vendors and other traders are in this group.
• Nobles - Those Who Rule. Those who are of higher birth or other status in the city.
• Outsiders - Those Who We Shun. Simply put, people who do not belong in normal society, be they monsters or travelers.

The skill of your opponent plays a very important role in the diplomacy system. The higher skill your opponent has compared to your own, the fewer rounds they need the slider on their side of the board to win, and the more rounds you need it on your own. The skill of your opponent is shown as a blue number in the dialogue window when you are presented the option to parlay, on the same line that shows the conversation type (see image 3). Your own skill level is shown in your character sheet in the diplomacy section. You can think of this number as your level in diplomacy, except it ranges from 1 to 500, as opposed to 1 to 50 like crafting and adventuring. This number increases as you win parlays.

The Newbie Quest Line is where you get your start as a Diplomat. This begins after talking to your race's Diplomacy trainer, which will be located in your race's capitol city. This line of quests will last from skill level 1 until you hit level 40. These quests tend to be fairly straight forward, but they are different for every single race. They will tell you of your race's history and give you an in-depth look at a lot of the lore of Telon, largely about who your people are and how they view the world. Once you have finished these quests, you will be able to move onto other quests and Civic Diplomacy.

There are numerous diplomacy quests to be found throughout all of Telon. Just talk to NPCs who have the standard quest icon over their head. Regretfully, there isn't a good way to tell the difference between an adventuring quest and a diplomacy quest without reading through your goals. Generally speaking, if your told to kill something, its an adventuring quest, but if you're told to convince another NPC of something, its a diplomacy quest. From these quests, you can gain a number of awards, such as new diplomacy clothes, more cards, horses, and more.

Civic Diplomacy is much more complicated than the other two diplomacy activities, but it does require you to have 40 skill points before entering - in other words, you must complete the Newbie Quests first. In Civic Diplomacy, you will be parlaying with NPCs in a city, trying to win against them in a particular topic. You will have several different options for every NPC that you interact with in Civic Diplomacy and each of these options will lead to a different result that will affect the entire city. For example, you may have four topics to choose from amongst Academic NPCs, but you decide to speak to them about "Sage's Wisdom". The more NPCs that you win against, the more they will lean towards that argument as opposed to the other options that you could have picked. If enough people city-wide are convincing NPCs of a certain station of one particular topic over any other (as all diplomats can affect them), then a special affect will happen city-wide, such as a buff that will go onto everyone who passes through.

Civic Diplomacy works as a system of levers. The further you pull one lever (a parlay topic), the closer you get to creating a city-wide buff, but the further you push the other topics back. You can only have one effect in place for every station in the city, even though they each have a different buff assigned to them. Team-work is key in Civic Diplomacy, as a single player will have a difficult time winning enough parlays to create a city-wide buff, more so if other diplomats are working against them by parlaying for different topics. It should be noted though, that with more presence, you will affect NPCs more than other players, and each win will move a lever further than someone with less presence in that station.