Dice Commandos Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Event Phase
  • Commando Phase
    • 3 Basic Actions
  • Enemy Movement Phase
  • Enemy Reinforcement Phase
• Game End
• Bosses
• Advanced Difficulty
• Stealth
• Explosives
• Load Outs
• Map Tiles
  • Line of Sight
• Round Tracker

Components

• 16 dice (12mm); 6 Commando dice (green), 6 Enemy dice (yellow), 2 Boss and Fury dice (red) and 2 Combat dice (1 black and 1 white)
• 13 double-sided Map Tile cards
• 26 Event cards (20 Basic events and 6 Advanced Difficulty events)
• 12 Commando cards
• 2 double-sided Enemy cards
• 22 Load Out cards
• 20 Enemy Directive cards
• 3 double-sided Boss cards
• 1 Player Dashboard
• 1 double-sided Round Tracker card
• 1 Map Icon Reference card
• 52 Tokens

Setup

1. Place the Player Dashboard in front of you and set the red Fury die to 1. Gather the 6 Commando cards and keep them nearby. (For your first game, play with the basic Commandos). Gather the 2 Combat dice and keep them nearby. Create a pool of 6 Commando dice, 6 Stealth tokens, 3 Explosive tokens and 2 Destroyed tokens.
2. Choose a Mission (for your first game, choose Mission 01: Gather Intel) and gather the associated Mission Setup card setting it nearby.
   • (A) Set up the Map tiles using the graphic on the Mission Setup card. (for normal difficulty, use the map side A cards). Make sure the Map tiles are oriented correctly to like they do in the graphic. (If playing with map side B cards, gather the Map Icon Reference card and set it nearby.)
   • (B) Place the Map grid tokens around the edge of the Map as they are shown in the graphic.
   • (C) Place the Commando's starting Drop Zone token in the space indicated in the graphic.
   • (D) Shuffle all Map Objective tokens face down and randomly choose as many as you need (usually 3), then place them on the Map as indicated in the graphic.
   • (E) Place an Objective token on each Map Objective token space.
   • (F) Place the Enemy Spawn tokens as indicated in the graphic.
   • (G) Follow any other Setup Rules on the Mission Setup card.
3. Choose an Enemy card to reference for the enemies in the game (for your first few games, use Insurgents). Place the card nearby.
4. Shuffle the Events deck, the Load Out deck and the Enemy Directive deck and set them nearby. (For your first few games, only use the 20 basic events, if you want to increase the difficulty, you may shuffle in any number of the 6 Advanced Difficulty events.)
5. Place the Round Tracker card next to the map and place the Round Tracker token on the upper left-most space. (For your first few games, use the normal difficulty side of the Round Tracker card.)

If you are playing a Mission with a Boss: Setup the Boss card for that mission and gather the Boss Damage Tracker tokens and the Trophy tokens. Follow any other special Setup Rules on the Mission Setup card, such as placing the Boss die on the map and gathering a special Enemy card if needed (ex: Raptors for Mission 05: Tooth & Claw).

6. Roll 3 Commandos to determine your starting team. You may reroll any number of your starting Commandos 1 time. When you have rolled your team, place them on the starting Drop Zone token on the map.
7. Roll 3 enemy dice, one at a time. Place each rolled enemy on a different Enemy Spawn token on the map, so when you're finished there should be 1 enemy die on each Enemy Spawn token.

Gameplay

Each round of Dice Commandos consists of 4 phases; Event Phase, Commando Phase, Enemy Movement Phase and Enemy Reinforcement Phase. After the 4th phase of the round, move the Round Tracker token forward 1 space, ready any exhausted cards and begin a new round.

Event Phase

Draw and resolve an event from the top of the Event deck, placing it in a discard pile next to the deck. Some events have Immediate effects and some events have ongoing effects that will last throughout the round. As the rounds advance there will always be a new active event in play.

Commando Phase

During the Commando Phase, you will take 3 actions with your team of Commandos. There are 3 basic actions and numerous other actions indicated on your Commandos, the Mission Setup card, Load Out cards, some Event cards and the Map Icon Reference card.

You may take any action multiple times in the round unless otherwise specified by the action.

3 Basic Actions

• MOVE/ATTACK - You may move a Commando a number of spaces on the map up to their pip value. A Commando may only move orthogonally unless otherwise specified. If you move onto a map tile with an enemy, you must immediately pause your movement and attack each enemy on that tile individually. After the combat is determined, and there are no more enemy dice on the tile, you may resume your movement action using any remaining movement.

  Some spaces on the map side B cards have special rules when moving onto them, consult the Map Icon Reference card for those rules.

  Combat happens both if you move onto a tile with an enemy, or if an enemy moves onto a tile with a Commando. Whichever die is moving onto the tile is the Attacker, and the die (or dice) already existing on the tile are the defenders.

  To Attack an enemy die, choose an enemy die on the tile you just moved onto, then roll both Combat Dice. The black die is the Combat Roll for the attacker and the white die is the Combat Roll for the defender. Add the sum total of the Attacking die + it's Combat Roll (black die) and then add the sum total of the Defending die + it's Combat Roll (white die). Whichever is the lowest value wins the combat. The Attacker wins in the case of a tie.

  If there are multiple enemies on a tile, you will repeat the above process for each enemy. You may choose the order in the case of multiple combats.

  When the winner of a combat is determined, remove the die that lost the combat from the map. If a Commando wins the combat and the enemy is defeated, increase your Fury die on your Player Dashboard by 1. If a Commando loses the combat, they are defeated and removed from the map and placed in the Deploy box on your Player Dashboard. Then decrease the Fury die by 1. When the Fury die reaches 6, reset it to 1 and draw a Load Out card.

• DEPLOY - Deploy 1 Commando to one of your Drop Zones on the map. Choose a Commando die from the Deploy box on your Player Dashboard and roll that die once. Place the newly rolled Commando on one of your Drop Zone tokens on the map.

• TRAIN - Reroll 1 of your Commandos until it is a different value. It stays in the same space and keeps all Objective and Stealth tokens.

Other common actions are found on some of the Commandos themselves and on the Mission Setup card. A very common action is to pick up the Objective tokens on the Board. In order to pick up an Objective token, you must have the dice that match the value (or values) on the Map Objective token. (ex: 2 Odd dice, dice with a total value greater than 10, dice totaling exactly 7, etc…)

Enemy Movement Phase

Each enemy will move at least once during the Enemy Movement Phase, unless otherwise specified by the event or other effect. The top/left-most enemy will move first and the bottom/right-most enemy will activate last. So, top to bottom, left to right.

To move an enemy, draw and resolve an Enemy Directive card. The enemy will move toward the indicated map tile using the shortest route possible and will use its full pip value if possible.

Things that might stop an enemy from moving their full pip value are Explosive tokens; If an enemy moves onto a tile with an Explosive token, all enemies and Commandos on that tile are defeated. Moving onto a tile with a Commando will also end the enemy's movement and trigger a Combat.

When an enemy triggers a Combat, they are the Attacker (roll the black attack die and they win ties) and your Commando is the defender (roll the white die). The Combat plays out as described above and if the enemy wins the combat, the Commando is removed from the map, placed in the Deploy box and Fury is reduced by 1, and if the Commando wins the combat, the enemy is removed from the map and Fury is increased by 1.

If there are multiple Commandos on a tile when the enemy moves there, the enemy must combat with each Commando and you may choose the order.

When the Enemy Directive deck runs out of cards, take the discard pile and rotate half of the cards 180 degrees. There are two different map coordinates on the Enemy Directive cards, so this helps to randomize enemy movement.

Enemy Reinforcement Phase

The Round Tracker card has an Enemy Limit value printed next to the level the Round Tracker is currently on. During this phase you will check to see if the current amount of enemy dice (not including Bosses) is more than, equal to, or less than the limit. If there are more than or equal to the limit, you do not need to add anymore enemies to the map. If there are less than the limit, you must add enemies until they are equal to the limit.

When adding an enemy die, you will roll it and spawn it on the corresponding Enemy Spawn token that is showing on the back of the Enemy Directive deck (Circle, Triangle and Square). Then discard that Enemy Directive card, revealing a new enemy spawn point symbol. Repeat this process until the amount of enemies (not including Bosses) is equal to the current limit.

If an enemy die spawns on a tile with a Commando, a combat does not occur. The enemy die needs to MOVE ONTO a tile with your Commandos to attack.

Game End

The game ends when one of three things happen, you win if you complete the red objective text on the Mission Setup card. You lose if the Round Tracker advances past its final space or if at any time all your Commandos are defeated.

Bosses

Some Missions revolve around the objective of defeating a Boss. Bosses will have a card set to the side of the map that has spaces to track the damage they've taken using Boss Damage Tracker tokens. They also have their starting die value listed at the top left and any special rules listed at the bottom of the card.

Bosses start on the map in the space indicated by the graphic on the Mission Setup card, unless otherwise specified.

Bosses act like normal enemies unless otherwise noted on their Boss card or the Mission Setup card.

Bosses have multiple Hit Points and you must damage them multiple times in order to defeat them. Each time a Boss takes damage, place a Boss Damage Tracker token on an empty space on the Boss card. Once all the damage spaces on the Boss card are filled, the Boss has been defeated. The Mission usually has an action that lets you damage the Boss as well.

The Jungle Ghost Boss uses the green back side of the Damage Tracker tokens and also uses the Boss Trophy tokens.

Note: Effects that would "defeat an enemy" do not affect Bosses.

Note: After taking damage during combat, bosses will try to move off their current tile and away from Commandos if possible.

Advanced Difficulty

If you would like to add difficulty to any Mission, there are multiple ways to do so:

• Events - There are 6 Advanced Difficulty events, you may remove up to 6 random events from the event deck and shuffle the same number of Advanced Difficulty events into the deck.
• Round Tracker - The back side of the Round Tracker has an Advanced Difficulty side. Where the original Novice Round Tracker has a yellow and orange section, the Advanced side has a yellow, orange and red section, increasing the limit for enemy reinforcements.
• Enemy Types - There are 4 Enemy Types. You can choose to play with just 1. The Insurgents are the base difficulty, but the other 3 provide more of a challenge if you choose to use them.
• Bosses - If you are playing a Boss Mission, you may choose to use the back side of the Boss for more of a challenge.

Stealth

Each of your Commandos can get Stealth. When this happens place a Stealth token from the supply underneath the Commando. When an enemy moves onto a tile with a Stealth Commando, or a Stealth Commando moves onto a tile with an enemy, instead of triggering a combat, remove the Stealth token from each Commando on that tile.

Explosives

The Explosives Expert Commando and the Explosive Charge Load Out card let you place an Explosive token on a tile. When an enemy moves onto a tile with an Explosive Token, remove the token and defeat each enemy and each Commando on the tile (raising and/or lowering your Fury accordingly).

Load Outs

The Load Out deck is full of equipment and abilities that your team of Commandos can use to help secure victory. Some cards are one-time-use that require you to discard them and some cards are reusable each round by exhausting them. Your team can have 3 Load Out cards in play at a time. If you have 3 Load Outs in play and you would draw another one, choose and discard any 1 of your Load Outs so that you end up with 3 in play still.

Map Tiles

Map Tiles are set up according to the Mission Setup card at the start of the game. Map Tiles are considered adjacent to other Map Tiles above, below, left and right of them. Map Tiles consist of spaces that Commandos and enemies can move through. Most Map Tiles have wall sections that cannot be moved through.

You can play with either the A or B side of the Map Tiles. On the B side of the Map Tiles there are special spaces with icons on them. These spaces may take up multiple spaces of the tile, but are considered to be 1 bigger space. These spaces can be interacted with by Commandos and enemies, the Map Icon Reference card explains how each special space functions.

A Map Tile is considered adjacent to other Map Tiles that are above, below, left and right of it. Adjacency ignores wall segments.

Some B-Side Map Tiles have special buildings on them. Refer to the included Map Icon Reference card for the abilities and actions associated with each building. If a building can be destroyed with an action (Sniper Nest and Machine Gun Nest) flip the card over to its A-Side when destroyed, keeping all tokens and dice in their relative positions.

Line of Sight

A die has line of sight to another die if you can trace a straight line from a corner of the starting space to a corner of the target space. Walls obstruct Line of Sight, enemy and Commando dice and other tokens do not.

Round Tracker

The Round Tracker is used to keep track of which round or turn of the game you're currently in. It increases at the end of each round. Once the round tracker reaches the 15th space, you will have one final round before the game ends in defeat.

The Round Tracker also has an enemy Limit indicator. Depending which round it is, the limit of enemies on the board is fixed. During yellow rounds the enemy Limit is 3, during orange rounds the enemy Limit is 4.

On the back of the Round Tracker there is an Advanced Difficulty. If you choose to increase the difficulty of your game, you may use this side instead of the Novice side. The only difference is that the enemy Limit is increased to 5 during the last 5 (red) rounds.