Battlefold Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• I. Content
• II. Overview
  • Overview of the Characters
• III. Setup
• IV. How to Play
  • Battle Order Phase
  • Battle Phase
    • 1) Move
    • 2) Attack
    • 3) Item
    • 4) Shield
    • 5) Health potion
    • 6) Trap
  • Battle Phase Example (Warrior)
• Whenever a Character's Life Is All Gone
  • 1) Transform to Ghost
  • 2) Ghost Attack
  • 3) Ghost Victory
• V. Game End and Winning
  • Team Battle Rules
  • The Last Man Standing
• Item Cards

I. Content

• 4 cloths (printed on both sides)
• 1 game board (Basic map on one side, Ghost Map on the other)
• 4 character pawns and 1 sticker set (apply the provided stickers on the matching colored tokens before your first play)
• 4 character boards (each printed on both sides, showing the character and its ghost)
• 20 item cards
• 28 battle cards
• 4 health tokens
• 6 shield tokens
• 3 action tokens

The four characters are the Warrior, the Wizard, the Archer and the Assassin. Each has its own cloth and character board.

II. Overview

Each player looks at the battle card for the round and folds its own cloth such that it only shows the icons displayed on the card. All icons have different abilities. You have to defeat your opponents using the icon abilities and your character capabilities. You become a ghost when your health is all gone. You win if you survive while all your opponents have been turned into ghosts. You may also win if you resurrect by restoring your soul while a ghost.

Overview of the Characters

Warrior

• Attack range: The Warrior attacks a character adjacent to or on the same space as him.
• Base move: 1
• Base attack: 1
• Special ability: The strength of his attack is increased by +1 when attacking a character located on the same space as him.

Wizard

• Attack range: All enemies within the Wizard's range are attacked simultaneously.
• Base move: 1
• Base attack: 1
• Special ability: When the health of an opponent is decreased as the result of an attack from the Wizard, the health of the Wizard is increased by 1 (without exceeding the maximum of the health track). If the Wizard's attack is fully blocked by the opponent's shield, his health remains unchanged.
• Note: Regardless of the number of attacked opponents and the quantity of damages dealt, the health of the Wizard is never restored in this manner by more than 1 point per battle phase.

Archer

• Attack range: The Archer attacks a character located 2 spaces away from her.
• Base move: 1
• Base attack: 1
• Special ability: The attacked opponent is moved 1 space away from the archer (if possible). If the Archer's attack is fully blocked by her opponent's shield, the latter's position remains unchanged.

Assassin

• Attack range: The Assassin attacks its opponents diagonally.
• Base move: 1
• Base attack: 1
• Special ability: The Assassin is immune to traps and takes no damage from them.

III. Setup

Prior to the first game, place the character stickers on the character pawns, making sure to pair on the same pawn the character and its corresponding ghost.

1. Place the game board on the side of your choice in the middle of the table.
2. Starting with the youngest player, each player chooses a character.
3. Each player takes the individual board and the cloth corresponding to the selected character.
4. Each player places their character pawn as shown below.
5. Each player places one health token on the left end of the character board's health track.
6. Shuffle the battle cards into one deck and the item cards into another deck that you place beside the board.
7. Place the shield tokens nearby.
8. There should be one fewer action token than the number of players. Choose the tokens with the smallest numbers. Place these tokens in the center of the game board, within easy reach of all players.

Example for 2-3 players and an example of a 4-player game are shown in the printed rulebook.

IV. How to Play

Battle Order Phase

During this phase, the players choose their actions and determine the playing order.

1. Count aloud "1, 2, 3!" and flip the top card of the battle card deck. Place the card on the top of the deck.
2. All players look at the battle card and simultaneously fold their cloth such that it only shows the icons displayed on the battle card.
   1. The ? symbol on a battle card means that any icon is valid.
   2. The positions of the icons on the folded cloth do not have to match the positions of the icons on the battle card. Note however that when the battle card requires 4 icons, the cloth must be folded as a 2x2 square.
   3. Players may only fold their cloth along its horizontal and vertical lines.
   • Note: The icons imprinted on a cloth are the same on both sides.
3. As soon as a player is done with folding their cloth, they quickly grab one of the remaining action tokens. The player may take any token available. Even if they folded their cloth correctly first, the player does not have to choose the action token numbered 1.
4. As soon as the last action token has been taken, the battle order phase is over.
   • Note: There is always 1 action token fewer than the number of players. So, the player who folds their cloth last has no action token left to take.

Battle Phase

The player who picked the number 1 action token starts the battle.

• This player presents their folded cloth and checks whether the icons on the cloth match the icons required by the battle card. If the icons do not match (in type and number), the player cannot do anything this round and their turn is consequently over. If the icons do match (both in type and number), the player may use the icons on the folded cloth, the icons on their character board, and the special ability of their character. The player may freely decide the order in which they will activate each icon, depending on their strategy.
• Each character has one move icon and one attack icon on their character board as their base abilities.

After the player with the number 1 action token has finished their turn, the player with the number 2 action token takes theirs. And so on till each player has had the opportunity to play their turn.

• The player without an action token plays last in the battle phase and may only use the icons and character abilities displayed on their character board.

1) Move

Move a number of spaces equal to the number of move points you have. You may intersperse other actions between moves. For example, if you have 2 move points, you may move one space, perform another action, and then move one more time using your remaining move point.

• Note: You cannot move diagonally.
• Note: You may give up your remaining move points if you want.

Example: In the example shown, the Assassin has 2 move points and 2 attack points. The player decided to use them as follows:

1. First, he moves 1 space to the right.
2. Then he attacks the Warrior located diagonally from him.
3. Finally, he uses his remaining 1 move point to move away.

2) Attack

• Attack an opponent, the number of attack points you have being your attack strength.
• The opponent must be within your character's reach. The range of attack is different from one character to another and is displayed on your character board.
• The health of the targeted character is decreased a number of steps equal to the strength of your attack (i.e. the number of attack points you have).
• Attacks may not be split like moves. As a consequence, only one attack may be performed per player's turn.
• Damages are only dealt to one opponent. The Wizard, however, deals damages to all enemies within his reach.
• Note: Damages are increased by 1 when the character is attacking from the space marked with the first tile icon (a dark tile with a central hole, on the Basic map) or the second tile icon (a blue tile with a hole, on the Ghost Map). Transcriber's note: the printed Note shows these two spaces only as small tile icons; the descriptions in brackets are the transcriber's reading of those icons against the board illustrations on page 11.

3) Item

• Draw one card from the item card deck. Do not show the card to the other players. There is no limit to the number of cards you may have.
• Item cards can be used whenever it is your turn, in any number and even if you just drew them.
• Every item is discarded when used. When the item card deck is empty, reshuffle all discarded item cards into a new draw pile.

4) Shield

• Take one shield token. When you are attacked by an opponent, you may use your shield tokens to decrease the damages received by 1 per shield used.
• Discard all used shield tokens back to the pile.
• If a player does not take any damage from the Wizard as a consequence of using shield tokens, then the Wizard cannot regain a health point with his special ability. This is the same for the displacement triggered by the Archer's attack.
• Damage coming from a trap cannot be shielded.
• If there are no shield tokens left in the pile, players shall then take shield tokens from the opponents of their liking whenever shield icons appear on their folded cloth.

5) Health potion

• Restore 1 of your health points.

6) Trap

• Decrease your health by 1.
• If you folded a trap while having only 1 health point left, don't give up! You still may win by defeating your last opponent before applying the effect of your trap.

After all players have completed their battle phase, return the action tokens to the game board and begin a new round, starting with the Battle Order phase.

Battle Phase Example (Warrior)

1. The Warrior player folded their cloth, matching the battle card for this round, and taking the action token no. 1.
2. Including his base move and attack, the Warrior now has 2 move points, 1 attack point, 1 item, 1 shield and 1 trap. Whenever he uses the icons, the player may freely decide the order in which each icon is activated, to support their strategy.
3. In this example, the Warrior decides to use the icons as follows:
   • A. First, he takes a shield token.
   • B. Next, he draws 1 item card from the deck.
   • C. He immediately uses it to change the trap into an attack, thus avoiding the trap and increasing his attack strength by 1.
   • D. Then, he moves 1 space to the left...
   • E. ...following by an attack of strength 2 on the Archer now located on his left.
   • F. Using his last remaining move point, he moves down.
   • G. As mentioned above, the trap did not inflict any damage on him, having been converted to an attack first.

Whenever a Character's Life Is All Gone

When a player loses their last health point during the battle phase, this player's character is immediately turned into a ghost.

1) Transform to Ghost

• A character that becomes a ghost must flip its character board and its pawn to their ghost side.
• A ghost soul starts at 0 (on the left hand side of the ghost soul track).
• A ghost cannot use items, shields or health potions. Therefore, a player who turns into a ghost must discard all its item cards and return the shields to their pile.
• For that round, the new ghost forfeits all its remaining actions.
• When a player's character turns into a ghost, its special ability is lost too.
• A ghost's unique base ability is Move 1.
• A ghost still suffers damages from the trap.

Details of the ghost's board: the attack range of the ghost is the same as the one of the original character. However, the Warrior's ghost cannot attack anymore a character located on the same square as him, as this was his special ability. The ghost has Base move 1; its Base attack 1 disappears, and shields, health potions and items cannot be used anymore. The ghost's life starts at the marked starting point, and its ghost resurrection point is at the far right of the ghost soul track.

2) Ghost Attack

• A ghost resumes play starting with the round following its change of status.
• A ghost may only attack a living character. It regains as many soul points as the total of damages dealt. The attacked character does not lose health however.
• The attack of a ghost may be stopped with a shield.
• A ghost cannot be attacked by anyone.

3) Ghost Victory

• When a ghost succeeds in restoring its soul entirely (reaching the farthest right position of its ghost soul track), it resurrects, thus becoming a "legend" and immediately winning the game.

V. Game End and Winning

When all players save one have been turned into ghosts, the remaining player wins the game immediately. Also, when a ghost restores its full soul and is thus resurrected, that player wins the game.

Team Battle Rules

The following rules are for four players who want to play in pairs.

• Pair up to make two teams and select characters for the game.
• The health is shared between the characters of the same team. That is, even when the health of a team member is all gone, the character does not turn into a ghost. When the character with no health is attacked, the health of its teammate is decreased instead. When all the team members have lost their health, the team loses and the other team wins the game.
  • Note: The ghost rules do not apply during a team battle.
• You cannot attack your teammate. Even when your team member is within the attack range of your Wizard, this team member does not sustain any damage.
• The item cards cannot be shared. But, the teammates may show their item cards to each other and discuss their strategy at any time.
• The other rules are the same as for the base game.

Example of a team battle (Team A and Team B).

The Last Man Standing

• These rules do not use the "Ghost mode." Now, you will simply try to be the only player left alive at the end of the battle.
• Whenever a player loses their last health point, they are eliminated from play. Their pawn is removed from the board and the action token of highest value is removed from play.
• The player discards all of their item cards and shield tokens.
• The other rules are left unchanged, the last player on the board winning the game.

Item Cards

• Attack boost: Increase your attack strength by 1.
• Additional move: Perform an additional move.
• Health potion: Regain 1 health point.
  • Note: In a team battle, you can restore 1 health point of your teammate.
• Trap to attack: Change one of your traps into an attack once.
• Trap to move: Change one of your traps into a move once.
• Trap to shield: Change one of your traps into a shield once.
• Frozen: Players you attacked this turn are frozen and cannot move this round (if they have not moved yet).
  • Note: If the Wizard uses this item and attacks 2 or more players simultaneously, all the attacked players are frozen and will not be able to move this round (if they have not done so already).
• Diagonal move: Move 1 space diagonally.
• Push back: Move the character you just attacked 1 space vertically or horizontally. Or else, regain 1 health point.
  • Note: In a team battle, you can restore 1 health point of your teammate.
  • Note: If the Wizard uses this item and attacks 2 or more players simultaneously, the Wizard player moves all the attacked characters 1 space vertically or horizontally.