The Emperor Qin Shi Huang has passed away. To defend him in the afterlife, a great army in the form of statues of faithful warriors must be assembled to stand guard in the Emperor's tomb. You are among those tasked with building this magnificent army.

In Terracotta Army, you represent talented craftsmen and artists laboring to construct the wondrous assembly of statues. During the game, you gather resources, upgrade your workers, and seek favor with the Emperor's advisors. Your objective is to play a crucial role in the process of creating the terracotta army, and your success is measured in victory points (VPs). During the game, you and your fellow players will build the army together, but after the fifth round of the game is over, only one of you — the one with the most points — will stand as the winner.

During the game, you put warrior miniatures within the mausoleum, forming groups. A group's miniatures can belong to multiple players as denoted by the player bases on those miniatures. Multiple separate groups consisting of the same type of miniature can exist within the mausoleum.

You will have many opportunities to score points based on presence and domination. To achieve domination, you have to be the only player with the most of the specific resource or type of statue currently being scored. (If you are the only player, you have domination.) To have presence, you must possess at least one of the specific resource or type of statue currently being scored.

At the end of the fifth round, the player with the most VPs wins the game.