Dark Age: Feudal Lords Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Icon Table
• Card Anatomy
• Set-Up
  • What If the Character I Want to Draft Is Already in Play by Another Player?
  • Natural One Rule
• Game Phases
  • 1) Stockpile Phase
  • 2) Draft Phase
  • 3) Action Phase
  • 4) Resource Phase
• Pre-Combat
  • Sending Combatants
• Combat Summary
• Pre-Combat Detail
• Combat
  • Supply and Artifact Cards (Sidebar)
  • +1 Markers (Sidebar)
  • Out of Cards? (Sidebar)
• Winning Dark Age
• Multi-Player Rules
  • Multi-Player Team Play
• Solitaire Play
• Glossary
• How Much Leadership?
• Symbol Quick Reference

Icon Table

The rulebook's icon table, reproduced as text. Each entry gives the icon's label and what it marks.

Icon table - Combatant tags (the boxed labels)

• BD - Bad Doc
• HD - HooDoo
• SG - Skar Gang
• XX - All Under-City
• (A) Attacker circle: MC - Mercenary; SV - Survivalist; WT - Witness; XX - All Outer-City
• (D) Defender circle: WH - War Head; WK - War Knight; WR - White Reaver; XX - All Over-City

Icon table - Symbols

• Armor (shield with an A)
• Fuel Tank
• Luck (clover)
• Weather Effect (lightning bolt in a circle)

Card Anatomy

The rulebook's card diagrams, described as text. Labels are the rulebook's own.

• Character card - Name of Card; Type of Card; Text Box; Life; Control; Skills; Weapons; Combat String (the row beneath the stats); DF Hit; CC Hit; CC Block; Class (the icon at the bottom right).
• Constant card - Name of Card; Type of Card; Text Box; Leadership Cost to Play.
• Supply card - Type of Card; Text Box; Supply Cost to Play; Leadership Cost to Play.
• Leader card - Maximum Draft Modifier; Send Attack; Send Defend; Supply Die; Minimum Hand Size; Text Box; Leadership Die.
• Location card - Location Names (for example Park, Factory); the effect printed on the card applies when combat is fought in that location.
• Skill card - Type of Card; Ld. Cost to Play; Text Box.
• Weapon card - Name of Card; Type of Card; Supply Cost to Play; Text Box.
• Victory card - Name of Card; Text Box; Type of Card (VICTORY).

Set-Up

Each player does the following:

• Choose 1 Leader card and 1 Controlled Locations card from your available cards and place them on the table in front of you.
• Place 3 tokens on your Controlled Locations card, 1 on each of the three locations.
• Place 5 "+1 markers" next to your leader (see pg. 38 for use).
• Play any Artifact cards that you wish, up to one on each location.
• Shuffle your remaining cards into your Stockpile (draw deck). Each Stockpile must contain at least 55 cards and have no more than 4 of any one card. Leader, Controlled Locations, and Artifact cards are not placed in your Stockpile.
• Roll your Supply (Sup.) and Leadership (Ld.) dice for the first turn (The orange d6 is for Leadership, the blue d6 is for Supply). These dice combine to form your Resource dice.
• Draw ten cards from your Stockpile and discard two of them to form an initial hand of eight cards.
• Randomly determine which player goes first.
• Play proceeds clockwise from the first player, with each player completing a full turn before the next player begins.

Card Text Rule

Always follow the text on a card if it contradicts something stated in the rules.

Starter Deck Rules

If playing with only starter decks, Class Designations on Skills, Weapons, Supplies, and Instants are ignored.

What If the Character I Want to Draft Is Already in Play by Another Player?

There are two types of characters; Named and Generic. Generic characters have a "^" and "v" after their names. There may be multiples of Generic characters in play. There may NOT be multiples of Named characters in play. You may not attempt to draft a Named character that you or someone else already has in play. Leaders are not considered Named characters, and cannot be drafted.

Example of Attempting a Draft: Richard wishes to draft Banger into his active area from his hand. He spends 1 Ld. to examine Banger and places the card, face-up, on the table. Banger has a Control stat of 4, so Richard must roll a 4 or higher on a 1d6 to draft him. Richard's Leader card has a Max. Draft stat of 1, which means Richard can spend 1 extra point of Ld. to lower the Draft roll to 3 or better. Richard spends the Ld. point to lower the needed roll, rolls the die and gets a 3. Banger joins the team. Good thing Richard spent that extra Ld. point!

Natural One Rule

A natural "1" is always initially a failure. A natural "1" may be modified into a success with cards or "+1 markers" (see pg. 38).

Game Phases

Each turn, a player proceeds through the following phases in order.

1) Stockpile Phase

During this phase, you discard and draw cards. If you wish, you may discard up to 2 cards from your hand.

Draw the number of cards you just discarded, +1 additional card from your Stockpile.

2) Draft Phase

During this phase, you may attempt to add a character to your active area.

Attempting a Draft

You may attempt to draft one character per turn. To do so, pay 1 Leadership (Ld.) and place any one Character card from your hand, face-up, on the table.

Draft Roll

Roll 1d6 for your Draft roll. If the roll is equal to or greater than the character's Control, the character is successfully drafted. Place that character in your active area. If you fail the roll (by rolling under the character's Control), put the character into your discard pile.

Modifiers to the Draft Roll

You may spend up to your leader's "Max. Draft" to sway (modify) your Draft roll result. For each Ld. spent BEFORE you make your Draft roll, you may sway the result of the roll by 1.

3) Action Phase

During this phase, you may arm your characters with Skill and Weapon cards, add Supply cards to your unsacked locations, and initiate combat. This can be done in any order.

Arm Characters

You may arm any characters in your active area with Weapons and/or Skills. A character is limited in the number of Weapon and Skill cards it can receive, as indicated by the character's Weapon and Skill stat. A character may never have duplicates of the same Weapon or Skill card. In addition, a character may not have a "Light" and "Heavy" version of the same Weapon card, or switch Weapon and Skill cards with other characters.

You may arm a character with Weapons or Skills at any time in the Action phase except during combat.

Example of Arming a Character #1: BRASS can be given 1 Skill and 1 Weapon, as indicated on the left hand side of his card. Place the card(s) under the character so that their game effect is still visible. It costs 4 Sup. to arm BRASS with the Spinning Spear (a Weapon) and 2 Ld. to give him the "Training" Skill.

Supply Cards

Supply cards are also played during the Action phase. A Supply card may be attached to any unsacked location on your Controlled Locations card that does not already have one (if a location with a Supply card attached to it is sacked, the Supply card is discarded).

A Supply card is worth 1 Victory Point to the controlling player for as long as it is in play.

Example of Supply Card Placement: A Supply card could be placed on location "B" or location "C," but not location "A" because it has been sacked.

Initiate Combat

You may initiate one combat per turn. Refer to pg. 20 for a detailed description of combat.

4) Resource Phase

During this phase, make a hand check and reroll your Resource dice if you wish.

Hand Check

If your hand contains less cards than your leader's "Minimum Hand Size," draw enough cards from your Stockpile so that your hand equals your leader's Minimum Hand Size.

Resource Dice

At this point, you may keep your Resource dice at their current level for the next turn, or reroll them for new values. If you choose to roll the Resource dice now, you must roll both the dice. You may not choose to roll just one of your Resource dice.

Example of Rolling Resource Dice: At the end of his turn, Richard has 2 Ld. and 6 Sup. left. If he chooses to re-roll his Resource dice, he must roll both. He chooses to roll and rolls 3 Sup. and 5 Ld., which are now his new Resource pool.

Supply for Leadership

During any game phase, you may exchange 2 Sup. for 1 Ld. The only time this exchange is not permitted is as a reaction to a card effect which forces you to lose Sup. You may never have a Sup. or Ld. lower than "0" or higher than "6."

"Leadership 1 Rule"

If you roll a "1" on your Ld. die, you must immediately draw a card from the Stockpile, even if you later modify this roll.

A closer look at the Action phase:

Arming Characters

In the Action phase, but not during combat, you may arm your active characters with Weapon and Skill cards. Each character has a stat for Weapons and one for Skills. This stat represents the maximum number of Skills or Weapons that the character may have.

If you would like to arm a character with a Skill or Weapon, you must pay the card's activation cost in Sup. and/or Ld. Some Skills and Weapons are class specific; these may only be played on a character whose class matches that named on the Skill or Weapon card.

Example of Arming a Character #2: Since Marksman has a Weapon stat of 2 and is already armed with 2 Weapons, he can be given no more Weapons. He could, however, still be given a Skill since his Skill stat of 1 is currently unfilled.

Example of Class-Specific Instants and Weapons: Richard wishes to equip one of his characters with a Tool Kit, but has no Bad Doc class characters in play. He is unable to play the card until he successfully drafts a Bad Doc into his active area.

No Removal Rule

Skill and Weapon cards may only be played on characters, and cannot be removed after having been placed. These cards are discarded if the character is killed.

Multiples Rule

No character may have multiples of the same Skill or Weapon card played on them. In addition, no character may have a "Light" and "Heavy" version of the same Weapon.

Unlike Weapon and Skill cards, you may play multiples of the same Instant and Supply cards, as long as you can pay the activation costs.

Supply Cards

While in play, a Supply card is worth one Victory Point. If a location where a Supply card is attached is sacked, the Supply card is discarded and the Victory Point is lost. Supply cards may not be played during combat.

Some Supply cards are class specific; these may only be played if you have a character in your active area that has the same class as the Supply card. Multiples of the same Supply card may be in play at the same time at different locations, but you may never have more than one Supply card at the same location.

Pre-Combat

Standard Combatant Sending Formula

Cost in Ld. = Control of character - (Attack Send or Defend Send) value of leader.

Instant Cards

Some Instant cards are class specific; these may only be played if you have a character in your active area or combat pool that is of the same class as the Instant card.

Sending Combatants

The Standard Method

To add a character to your combat pool, you must pay Ld. equal to that character's Control, minus your leader's Attack Send (if you're the attacking player) or Defend Send (if you're the defending player). Other cards may also affect the final Ld. cost of sending the character into combat. The minimum cost of sending a character through the Standard method is 1 Ld. If you're using the Standard method, you may add as many characters to your combat pool as you can afford to spend using the Ld. available to you.

Lone Combatant Method

As an alternative to the Standard method above, you may send one Lone Attacker or Lone Defender into combat instead of sending characters by the Standard method.

If you choose this method, pick one character from your active area and roll 1d6. To add that character to your combat pool, you must pay Ld. equal to that character's Control, minus the 1d6. The minimum cost of sending a character with the Lone Combatant method is 0 Ld.

If you do not have enough Ld. to add the chosen character to the combat pool, no Ld. is lost but no other attempt to send a Lone Combatant may be made.

Attempting to send a Lone Attacker or Defender prohibits you from sending characters into combat using the Standard method.

Example of Sending Combatants: Peter has 5 Ld. and 1 Sup. available. He wishes to initiate a combat. His leader's Attack Send modifier is 1, so it would cost 2 Ld. (character's Control - Attack Send Modifier) to send character Grinner, 1 Ld. to send character Looter, and 2 Ld. to send character Pastor. Peter sends all three characters. He has now used up all of his available Ld.

Combat Summary

The detailed version.

Precombat

1. Attacking player announces the attack.
2. Attacking player creates and pays for his attack pool from characters in his active area.
3. Attacking player may play a Victory card, if desired and available.
4. Attacking player declares the enemy location he is attempting to sack.
5. Defending player may react with Instants or other applicable cards.
6. Defending player creates and pays for his defense pool from characters in his active area.
7. Defending player may play a Victory card, if desired and available.

Distance Fire (DF) Round

1. Attacking player targets members of the defense pool that his combatants with DF are going to shoot at.
2. Attacking player rolls DF Hit dice for each member of the attack pool.
3. Defending player targets members of the attack pool his combatants with DF are going to shoot at.
4. Defending player rolls DF Hit dice for each member of the defense pool.
5. Hits become wounds.
6. Any combatant whose wounds are greater than or equal to its life is put in the owning player's discard pile.

Close Combat (CC) Round One

1. Attacking player matches up one combatant from the attack pool with one from the defense pool.
2. Defender matches up a combatant from the defense pool that isn't already matched-up with a combatant from the attack pool that isn't already matched-up.
3. Alternate this process until only one player has combatants that are not matched-up.
4. Remaining combatants are played in support of any of the existing match-ups. Supporting combatants can not receive hits, but do roll to inflict hits and may never hit more than once in a combat round.
5. Attacking combatants roll for hits.
6. If equipped with armor, defending combatants who have been hit, roll for armor blocks.
7. All defending combatants who have been hit, roll normal blocks.
8. Defending combatants roll for hits.
9. If equipped with armor, attacking combatants who have been hit, roll for armor blocks.
10. All attacking combatants who have been hit roll normal blocks.
11. Unblocked hits become wounds.
12. Any combatant whose wounds are greater than or equal to its life is put in the owning player's discard pile.

Close Combat (CC) Round Two

1. All combatants without match-up opponents choose new ones.
2. Repeat steps 5-12 as shown above.

End Combat

1. Attacking player gains VPs if the location where combat occurred was sacked.
2. Players collect any VPs they are entitled to from Victory cards played in combat.
3. Each player rolls a Control/VP die for each enemy combatant killed in that combat.
4. Combat ends - Return to Action phase.

Instants/Timing

If Instants contradict, the last Instant played takes effect, then work backwards to the first Instant card played.

Pre-Combat Detail

Example of Precombat: Peter declares an attack by announcing, "I'm attacking Richard." Peter adds characters to his combat pool, paying the required Ld. cost (see previous example). He has no Victory cards in his hand, but elects to bluff Richard into defending by playing a Skill card, face-down, from his hand and announcing he has a Victory card.

Finally, as the last act of initiating his attack, Peter chooses which of Richard's controlled locations he will direct the attack to. He says, "The target of this attack will be Richard's Dumping Grounds."

(The rulebook illustrates this with the Dumping Grounds location card, labeled "Target of Attack." Its printed text reads "All Task rolls are -1." The same card shows the other two locations of the controlled set, Bio Farm and Forest, whose printed effects read "All combatants are -1 [square symbol] in CC" and "All combatants are +2 [circle symbol] in DF.")

Attacking player announces the attack.

The attacking player announces which opponent he is attacking.

Attacking player creates and pays for his attack pool from characters in his active area.

The attacking player creates his attack pool using either the Standard method or the Lone Attacker method.

Attacking player may play a Victory card, if desired and available.

The attacking player may play a Victory card, either face-up or face-down. A player may also bluff any card as a face-down Victory card. A bluff will produce no Victory result, but can be used to gain a psychological edge on your opponent and possibly alter his actions. All Victory cards or bluffs are discarded after combat.

Attacking player declares the enemy location he is attempting to sack.

The attacking player picks any one of the three locations printed on the defender's Controlled Locations card. Any modifiers related to that location are applied to the combat.

Defending player may react with Instants or other applicable cards.

Example of the Lone Defender Method: Richard has only one Ld. point available and only one Sup. point. His only character in play is Brass, who has a Control stat of 4. Richard's only hope for defending his Dumping Grounds is to gamble and use the Lone Defender rule. He announces that he's doing so and rolls the die... a 3! He is able to send Brass for only 1 Ld. Quite a bargain, and his only way of defending the location. Richard elects not to play a Victory card. The combat pools for this engagement are now set.

The defending player now has a chance to change the location of the combat by using Instants or other appropriate cards. If any of the cards held by the defending player has an effect which changes the location of combat, those cards can be used now if desired. This can result in combat being moved to a different location, fought in the open, or canceled altogether. When combat is fought in the open, no location combat modifiers are applied and there is no chance of a location being sacked.

Defending player creates and pays for his defense pool from characters in his active area.

The defending player creates his defense pool with either the Standard method or the Lone Defender method.

Defending player may play a Victory card, if desired and available.

The defending player may play a Victory card, either face-up or face-down. The defending player may bluff any card as a face-down Victory card, just like the attacking player.

Combat

Distance Fire (DF) Round

Example of Distance Fire Round: Peter, the attacker, has only one target for all of his characters' DF. Brass's unique combat ability puts all opponent DF rolls at a -1 when Brass is in your combat pool. Peter first rolls DF dice for Grinner... a 10, normally a hit. But, since Brass forces 1 to be subtracted from the roll, the modified result is a 9. No hit. He then rolls for Looter... an 11, which results in one hit. A token is placed on Brass to indicate a hit. DF dice are finally rolled for Looter... a 5. No hit. Since no Block dice are rolled in the DF phase, Brass's hit token automatically becomes a wound.

Richard now returns fire, announcing that Brass is firing at Grinner. He rolls DF dice for Brass... an 11, which scores 2 hits. Since Grinner has only 2 Life and the DF hits can't be blocked, Grinner goes down in a hail of gunfire. Grinner is dead!

Attacking player targets members of the defense pool that his combatants with DF are going to shoot at.

Each member of the attack pool with DF ability must have a nominated target in the defense pool. Multiple attackers can target the same defender if desired.

Attacking player rolls DF Hit dice for each member of the attack pool.

Attacking player rolls 2d6 for each member of the attack pool with DF ability. A hit is made for each number in the firing combatant's DF string that is equaled or exceeded. Each time a combatant is hit, place one counter on its card.

Defending player targets members of the attack pool that his combatants with DF are going to shoot at.

Each member of the defense pool with DF ability must have a nominated target in the attack pool. Multiple attackers can target the same attacker if desired.

Defending player rolls DF Hit dice for each member of the attack pool.

Defending player rolls 2d6 for each member of the defense pool with DF ability. A hit is made for each number in the firing combatant's DF string that is equaled or exceeded. Each time a combatant is hit, place one counter on its card.

Example of Close Combat Match-ups: Now the combatants enter Close Combat. Since Peter is the attacker, he chooses to match Looter up against Brass, the Lone Defender. Richard has no other defender to match up against Pastor, so Pastor becomes a supporting combatant for Looter.

If Richard would have had another defender, he would have matched up against Pastor, since Pastor was the only attacker not already matched up.

Hits become wounds.

Since blocks are not normally allowed in the DF round, any hits on a character automatically become wounds.

Any combatant whose wounds are greater than or equal to its life is put in the owning player's discard pile.

If, at the end of the round of combat, a combatant has wounds equal to or exceeding the life stat on its card, the combatant is considered killed and is placed in the owning player's discard pile.

Close Combat (CC) Round One

During Close Combat, combatants are paired up, with extra combatants supporting established match-ups from the side.

Attacking player matches-up one combatant from the attack pool with one from the defense pool.

The attacking player picks one combatant from the attack pool and matches it up with one combatant from the defense pool. Place the two combatants head-to-head.

Defender matches up a combatant from the defense pool that isn't already matched-up with a combatant from the attack pool that isn't already matched-up.

The defending player picks one combatant from the defense pool and matches it up with one combatant from the attack pool. Place the two combatants head-to-head.

Alternate this process until only one player has combatants that are not matched-up.

This process alternates from attacker to defender until only one player has combatants that are not matched-up.

Remaining combatants are played in support of any of the existing match-ups.

The player that has extra combatants can place them next to any of the existing match-ups. These "supporting combatants" may be spread out among different match-ups.

Attacking combatants roll for hits.

The attacking player rolls 2d6 for each member of the attack pool. Hits for each member of the combat pool are rolled separately. A hit is made for each number in the combatant's CC hit string that is equaled or exceeded by the 2d6 roll. Each time a combatant is hit, place one counter on its card. Supporting combatants may never do more than one hit in a round of CC regardless of how many numbers appear in their CC hit string.

If equipped with armor, defending combatants who have been hit, roll for armor blocks.

Armor may allow a combatant to block hits received in this CC round. Follow the instructions on the Armor card. For each block, remove one hit counter received during this CC round. This is prior to, and in addition to, any normal blocks the combatant may receive.

Defending combatants who have been hit, roll normal blocks.

The defending player rolls 2d6 for each member of the defense pool that received hits this round. Blocks for each member of the combat pool are rolled separately. A block is made for each number in the combatant's CC block string that is equaled or exceeded by the 2d6 roll.

Example of Close Combat Begins: Peter rolls the CC dice for Looter, a 9, which scores one hit token on Brass. Peter now rolls Pastor's supporting attacker CC dice and rolls a 12. He scores two hits, but since a supporting attacker can only do 1 CC hit per round, only one additional hit token is placed on Brass.

Richard, a bit concerned, now rolls Brass's Block dice, remembering to add the +2 for Brass's Spinning Spear. Richard rolls an 8, which with the +2 modifier, is enough to block one of the hits. One wound token is removed from Brass.

Now it's Richard's turn to strike back! CC dice are rolled for Brass. The roll of 11 is enough to inflict 2 hits on Looter. Pastor, as a supporting combatant, cannot be targeted at this point. Peter rolls Block dice for Looter... no blocks! Looter, having a Life stat of 2 and having taken 2 unblocked wounds, dies a quick, bloody death. This ends Close Combat, round 1.

For each block, remove one hit counter received during this CC round. If no hits were made, a combatant does not roll for blocks.

Defending combatants roll for hits.

The defending player rolls 2d6 for each member of the defense pool. Hits for each member of the combat pool are rolled separately. A hit is made for each number in the combatant's CC hit string that is equaled or exceeded by the 2d6 roll. Each time a combatant is hit, place one counter on its card. Supporting combatants may never make more than one hit in a round of CC regardless of how many numbers appear in their CC hit string.

If equipped with armor, attacking combatants who have been hit, roll for armor blocks.

Armor may allow a combatant to block any hits received this CC round. Follow the instructions on the Armor card. For each block, remove one hit counter received during this CC round. This is prior to, and in addition to, any normal blocks the combatant may receive.

Other attacking combatants who have been hit, roll normal blocks.

The attacking player rolls 2d6 for each member of the attack pool who received hits this round. Blocks for each member of the combat pool are rolled separately. A block is made for each number in the combatant's CC block string that is equaled or exceeded by the 2d6 roll. For each block, remove one hit counter received during this CC round. If no hits were made, a combatant does not need to roll for blocks.

"What If Both Players Have Combatants That Are Not Matched-Up?"

If both players have combatants that are not matched-up, follow the sequence at the beginning of the first round of CC until only one player has combatants that are not matched-up.

Example of Close Combat Round 2: Close Combat, round 2, begins. Since there are only 2 combatants remaining (one attacker and one defender), there is only one possible match-up. Peter rolls his CC dice for Pastor, scoring one hit. Richard rolls Block dice and successfully blocks the hit. He then rolls the CC dice for Brass and rolls no hits. There's no reason for Peter to roll Block dice for Pastor, so Close Combat, round 2, is over.

Hits become wounds.

Any unblocked hits on a character become wounds.

Any combatant whose wounds are greater than or equal to its life is put in the owning player's discard pile.

If, at the end of the round, a combatant has wounds equal to or exceeding the life stat on its card, the combatant is considered killed and is placed in the owning player's discard pile.

Close Combat (CC) Round Two

All combatants without match-up opponents choose new ones.

• At the start of the second round, if one player has combatants who don't have match-up opponents (usually because they killed the one they did have), that player must do one of the following with those combatants.
• Attack an enemy supporting combatant from the previous round, thus forming a new match-up (The new opponent is no longer a supporting combatant).

-OR-

• Become a supporting combatant on an existing match-up. (Note: Only one player at a time may ever have supporting combatants.)

• From the first round of CC, repeat:

• Attacking combatants roll for hits.

• If equipped with armor, defending combatants who have been hit, roll for armor blocks.

• Other defending combatants who have been hit, roll normal blocks.

• Defending combatants roll for hits.

• If equipped with armor, attacking combatants who have been hit, roll for armor blocks.

• Other attacking combatants who have been hit, roll normal blocks.

• Unblocked hits become wounds.

• All combatants whose wounds are greater than or equal to its life are put in the owning player's discard pile.

Supporting Combatants

Supporting combatants can not receive hits or roll blocks, but do roll to inflict hits. They roll their Attack dice at the same time as the combatant who they are supporting. A supporting combatant may never hit more than once in a combat round.

Example of Ending Combat: Richard's valiant Lone Defender is still alive after CC, round 2, so Peter's attack has failed! He does not get to sack the Dumping Grounds, having been driven off by Brass. Pastor retreats back to Peter's active area and combat is over. Peter now reveals his Victory card, which has no effect since it was a bluff. It is discarded. Each player involved in combat now rolls a Control/VP roll for each enemy combatant killed in the combat. Richard rolls for Grinner and Looter, while Peter does not roll since the Lone Defender was not killed.

Richard makes his Control/VP roll for Grinner. It is a 2, which gains him a Victory Point for rolling under Grinner's Control stat of 3. He then rolls for Looter, this time also rolling a 2. Since Looter's Control stat is 2, no VP is gained.

The final VP tally for this combat is Richard, 1 VP, Peter (the unlucky attacker), 0 VP. In this combat, the defender wins the day!

End Combat

After combat ends, whether by the end of the second CC round, or by the killing of all combatants on one side, both players calculate the number of Victory Points (VPs) that they have earned through the combat. Players record accumulated VPs by placing one token per VP gained on their Leader card.

Attacking player gains VPs if the location where combat occurred was sacked.

If there is at least one combatant in the attack pool, but none in the defense pool, the location that was attacked is considered sacked. The attacking player gains 3 VPs. In addition, the counter, if one was present at this location, and the attached Supply card are removed from the defending player's Location card. If the location had no marker (had already been sacked once), the attacking player gets 1 VP. The attacking player places one token per VP gained on his Leader card. If the defending player chose not to form a defense pool, or was unable to, the location is automatically sacked.

Players collect any VPs that they are entitled to from Victory cards played in combat.

If the condition on the Victory card has been met during combat, gain the appropriate amount of VPs. Some Victory cards have an effect that does not resolve until later in the attacking player's turn. These cards still must be disclosed at the end of combat. After the Victory card has been resolved, it is discarded. Players who scored VPs from Victory cards place one token per VP gained on their Leader card.

Each player rolls a Control/VP die for each enemy combatant killed in the combat.

For each enemy combatant killed during combat, roll 1d6. This is called a Control/VP roll. If the roll is less than but not equal to the dead combatant's Control stat, you gain 1 VP. For each VP gained, add a token to your Leader card.

Supply and Artifact Cards (Sidebar)

Supply and Artifact cards may affect the total number of Victory Points a player will have. Each Supply card a player has in play counts as a VP. However, a token is not placed on the Leader card because, if the location holding the Supply card is sacked, the Supply card is discarded and the VP lost. Artifact cards add to the number of VPs needed to win as long as they are in play, but grant a special ability to the player. Read each Artifact card for details.

+1 Markers (Sidebar)

+1 Markers may be used at any time to add 1 to a Draft roll after it is made; add 1 to your current Supply, or add 1 to your current Ld. You may only use 1 marker per turn. If you do not spend a marker during your turn, you may spend one on one opponent's turn. If you do spend one on your turn, you must wait until your next turn to spend another one.

Out of Cards? (Sidebar)

If you ever run out of cards in your Stockpile, you're stuck. You draw no new cards during the Stockpile phase.

Winning Dark Age

If at the end of any player's turn, a player has accumulated 10 or more Victory points, as indicated by tokens on his Leader card, that player wins the game!

If two or more players have 10 or more VPs at the end of a turn, the player with the highest total wins. If there is a tie, the game continues until one player ends a turn with more VPs than any of his opponents.

Multi-Player Rules

All standard DARK AGE: FEUDAL LORDS rules, including victory conditions, apply to multi-player games. The following rules are also in effect:

• Play proceeds clockwise from the player who goes first.
• During your turn, you may launch an attack vs. any player.
• If you launch an attack, every player between you and your target moving clockwise has a chance to intervene, if they desire, starting with the player immediately to your left.
• If a player intervenes, combat is fought as normal between you and the intervening player, with no terrain modifiers.
• If, after combat, you have any attackers left, you may continue your attack vs. your original target or you may withdraw.
• Any remaining players between the intervening player and your target may still intervene. When intervening, all of the usual costs of sending characters into combat apply.

Example of Combat: Brett, Ellen, Steve and Jane sit clockwise around the playing table. Brett decides to attack Jane. Brett plays a Victory card, declares the intended location, gives Jane time to react to his choice, then creates his attack pool. At this point, before Jane picks her defense pool, Ellen gets a chance to intervene if she wishes. Ellen decides to intervene.

Ellen creates her combat pool, paying the required Leadership. Since Brett is attacking, Ellen is considered the "Defender" for the combat. A standard combat (1 round DF, 2 rounds CC) is fought in the open, with no terrain modifiers.

After combat with Ellen, Brett still has some living members in his attack pool and decides to continue to attack Jane, his original target.

Steve now gets a chance to intervene, but chooses not to. Jane and Brett now slug it out in the normal fashion. Brett does not have to pay for his combat pool more than once, regardless of interventions by other players.

Victory Cards

Victory cards are only used for the original attack target, not intervening defenders. Intervening defenders are not allowed to play Victory cards. In the above example, even though Brett had already played a Victory card, it stays face-down until the combat with Jane. Had he turned back after the attack with Ellen, the card would have been discarded.

Instant Cards

Any player may play Instants on behalf of or against any other player. Players may only play Weapons and Skills on their own characters.

Multi-Player Team Play

This is a team variant of DARK AGE. It works best with 4 players, but can easily be modified to work with more. In this variant, sit opposite your partner. Your team's goal is to score 16 VPs before your opponents do.

Combat is handled exactly as in the standard multi-player game, except that when it is your partner's turn to intervene in one of your announced attacks, he can intervene to aid you by adding troops from his active area to your combat pool, spending any Resource points required. For combat purposes, whenever one member of a team announces an attack, BOTH players on that team are considered the attacker. You may not target an attack against your partner.

Leadership Swap

At any time, you may spend 2 Ld. from your leader to give 1 Ld. to your partner's leader.

Solitaire Play

• Make a draw deck consisting of all Character cards, the only stipulation being no character is duplicated within the deck.
• Now, deal out 3 face-down piles of 3 cards each. These piles represent defenders intent on stopping your attack.
• Deal yourself a "hand" of 7 Character cards from your draw deck.
• Give yourself a starting marker pool of 10 markers.
• Turn the top card of each defender pile face-up atop its stack.
• Add-up the three exposed defenders' combined Control and give yourself that many more markers.
• You are now ready to play.
• Your goal: defeat all 9 defending characters.

Beginning Play

Initiate the first combat by rolling 2d6 for the DF phase. Once you've made the roll, choose a character from your hand and match him up against any of the three face-up defenders, paying a number of markers equal to your chosen character's Control. Both your attacking combatant and the defending combatant use the initial 2d6 roll for their DF roll. Next, roll 2 rounds of CC. For each round of CC, you roll only one set of Attack dice and one set of Block dice, both sides using the rolled number to determine hits and blocks.

If your attacker kills the defender, put the defender card in the discard pile and turn the next defender in that stack face-up. Add a number of markers equal to the new defender's Control to your marker pool. If your attacker took no wounds, place in the "living" pile. If he took wounds, you can either put the attacker in the discard pile or pay a number of markers equal to the number of wounds he took and put him in the "living" pile. When you kill the last defender in a stack, take the top card off your draw deck and discard it, gaining a number of markers equal to the discarded character's Control.

Continue initiating combats, one at a time, using the characters in your hand (not the "living" pile). When you run out of characters in your hand, draw a new hand of characters from your draw deck equal to the size of your "living" pile. Then, discard the cards in your "living" pile.

The game is over when you run out of markers or available attackers in your draw deck (you lose), or you successfully kill all 9 defenders (you win!).

During any combat, markers from your marker pool may be used to add or subtract to any roll after it is made. Spending a marker only affects one side... attacker or defender... not both. For instance, if you roll a "9" for a round of CC hits, you may spend 1 marker to increase your attacking character's roll to a "10," while the defender's roll would remain a "9." You could spend another marker to make your character's roll an "11," or lower your opponent's roll to an "8." You may use as many markers during a combat as you wish, keeping in mind that when you run out of markers you have lost the game.

Example of Solitaire Combat: Ed, our player, rolls an 8 for DF. He picks Bane out of his hand and matches him up against Pale Fighter (one of the 3 available defenders). Bane's Control is 3, so Ed spends 3 markers to place him into play.

Bane (8-11), [8-10], <10> ----- 3 Life Pale Fighter (9), [8-10], <10> ----- 3 Life

Using the initial result of 8 for DF, Bane does 1 wound to Pale Fighter from DF.

The first CC Hit roll comes up an 8. Ed spends 1 marker to lower Pale Fighter's roll to a 7. Bane takes no hits, but Pale Fighter takes 1 hit. The Block roll comes up a 9. Since a 10 was needed to block, Pale Fighter's hit becomes a wound.

The second CC Hit roll comes up a 10. Ed spends 1 marker to lower Pale Fighter's roll to a 9. Pale Fighter takes 2 hits, while Bane takes 1 hit. The Block roll comes up a 9. Ed spends yet another marker to raise Bane's roll to a 10. Pale Fighter takes 2 wounds, enough to kill him. Bane takes none.

Pale Fighter is now discarded. Since Bane took no wounds, he is put in the "living" pile. The next defender on Pale Fighter's stack is turned face-up and Ed gains markers equal to the new defender's Control.

Special Card Effects in Solitaire Play

Many of the characters' text box effects won't have any effect in the solitaire game. Follow all text boxes that are relevant (usually these will be combat bonuses or the ability to block in DF), ignoring any which don't apply.

Glossary

• Armor - A Weapon that may prevent blocks before the normal Block roll.
• Artifact - A special Supply card that must be played before the game starts. These cards never go into your Stockpile. Most artifacts INCREASE the number of Victory Points needed to win.
• Attack Pool - All the attacking player's combatants.
• Base Life - A character's unmodified life stat.
• Block roll - A 2d6 roll made in an attempt to negate hits. Block rolls may only be made for combatants who have taken at least one hit in the current CC round.
• Class Specific Skill and Weapon cards - These may ONLY be played on characters whose class matches the class on the card.
• Class Specific Instants and Supply cards - These may ONLY be played if a character from the specific class listed on the card is present in your active area.
• Close Combat (CC) - The two rounds of combat, following the Distance Fire (DF) round.
• Combat Pool - All of one player's combatants.
• Combatant - A character in a combat pool.
• Controlled Locations - The card that represents the three locations under a player's control.
• Control/VP roll - A 1d6 roll made for each enemy combatant killed during combat. To be successful, the roll must be less than the Control stat of the killed combatant. A successful Control/VP roll is worth one Victory Point. A failed roll is worth nothing.

How Much Leadership?

To add a character to your attack pool: The character's Control minus your leader's Attack Send (minimum of 1 Ld. per character).

To add a character to your defense pool: The character's Control minus your leader's Defend Send (minimum of 1 Ld. per character).

To send a Lone Attacker or Lone Defender: The character's Control minus 1d6 (minimum of 0 Ld. for the character).

To draft a character: 1 Ld. to attempt the draft. You must roll the target character's Control or higher on 1d6 to draft the character. For each additional Ld. spent before you roll the d6, you may sway (modify) the roll by one. You may only spend up to your leader's Draft Modifier in Ld. to sway the roll. If you fail the roll, discard the character.

Symbol Quick Reference

• Circle (short for DF) - "+1 [circle]" means add 1 to your 2d6 roll in DF.
• Rounded box with a number (DF hit string) - "+ (4)" means add a 4 to your DF hit combat string.
• Square (short for hits in CC) - "+1 [square]" means add 1 to your 2d6 hit roll in CC.
• Square box with a number (CC hit string) - "+ [7]" means add a 7 to your CC hit combat string.
• Diamond (short for Blocks in CC) - "[diamond]" means add 1 to your 2d6 roll for blocks in CC.
• Rounded box with a number (CC block string) - "(7)" means add a 7 to your CC block combat string.