Fall of the Mountain King Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• The Seven Clans of the Mountain
• Components
• General Setup
• Gnome Setup
• Player Setup
• Lair Setup
• Gameplay
• Build Your Ancestry
• The Battle
  • On Your Turn
  • Weak Actions
  • Desperation
  • Strong Actions
  • Clustering Through Covered Symbols
  • Spending Supplies to Boost a Strong Action
  • Some Definitions and General Rules of Play
• The Actions
  • Advance
    • Attacking Gnomes
    • Seizing Control
  • Bolster
  • Influence
  • Gnome
• End of the Wave
  • Entrenchment
  • Invasions
    • Advice for Gnome Movement
  • Fallen Trolls
    • Full Example of Invasions: The End of Wave I with Four Players
  • Award Champions
  • Score the Wave
    • Waves I and II
• Refresh
• Wave III
• Game End
• Credits

Overview

The game plays across three rounds called Waves. At the start of each Wave, you will add to your Ancestry — an array of symbols that will determine your capabilities.

On your turns, you'll take actions to move Trolls throughout the caverns (competing against rivals and battling Gnomes), add Trolls to the map, influence mighty Champions to join your faction, and manipulate the Gnomes. At the end of each Wave, more Gnomes invade in several places, pushing further into the mountain.

During play you'll earn Honour for defeating Gnomes, for falling gloriously in battle during invasions, and by benefitting from certain Champion abilities. At the end of Waves I and II, you'll earn Honour for controlling caverns — especially ones in different Clan Domains. Finally at the end of Wave III you'll earn Honour for defensively surrounding the Great Halls, for having many Elder symbols in your Ancestry, and for having the most Votes from each Clan (earned from their Champions and by impressing them with aggressiveness in their territory). At the end of the game, the one with the most Honour wins!

The Seven Clans of the Mountain

The seven Clans are: Moss clan, Ice clan, Moon clan, Granite clan, Hammer clan, Mud clan, and Fire clan.

Components

• Double-sided game board. 4-5 players on front, 2-3 players on back. The mountain is divided into seven Clan Domains, identifiable by their Clan's colour and symbol. Each Domain is divided into several Caverns. Gates lead into the mountain from outside; a cavern with a Gate leading into it is a Gate Cavern. The board shows a Player Count label, Score track, Swarm Point, Gate Domain, Gate Cavern, Cavern, and Clan symbols, plus a Great Hall spot and a Lair spot. The volcano in the center is not a cavern and may not be entered.
• Clan board. Tracks your Votes with each Clan. Each Clan has its own plank.
• 5 Player mats. Show a Supply track, Base Supply indicators, Desperation symbols, an Invasion chart, and a Player Aid. The back side is for Last Stand solo mode.
• 7 Vote tiles. Show 1st place score, 2nd place score, and 3rd place score.
• Gnome Wheel and Star. Includes a Boost track, Honour Boost, Peeking reminder, and Breach Tripwire.
• 10 Lair tiles (2 per player).
• 150 Ancestry cubes (30 per player; not limited, use a substitute if necessary).
• 65 Influence discs (13 per player; not limited, use a substitute if necessary).
• 10 Player markers (2 per player).
• 44 Champion cards. Each shows a Letter Code, a "Not for Solo" symbol, Clan Flag & Votes, an Influence Track, an Ability, and a Deck-identifying Back.
• 21 Champion tiles, including 5 Wave III Champion tiles.
• 72 Ancestry cards, including 5 Starting cards. Sample cards show a front face, and scratches remind you which symbols have numbers on them while they are covered during play.
• 12 Great Hall tokens (4 each of value 4/8/12).
• 12 Desperation tiles (not limited; use a substitute if necessary).
• 7 Gate cards, each showing an Invasion chart and a Card back, with an Invasion location and Invasion intensity reminder.
• 30 Gnome tokens (10 each of strength 1/2/3).
• 1 Swarm token.
• 1 Wheel pawn.
• 125 Trolls (25 per player).
• 25 Champion bases (5 per player).
• 1 Start Player marker.

General Setup

A four-player game is pictured in the examples.

1. Place the game board on the table. Use the side appropriate for your player count.
2. Shuffle the Ancestry cards and make a face down deck near the board.
3. Shuffle the twelve Great Hall tokens face down, then place one face up on each Great Hall space; these set the scoring values of the Great Halls for the end of the game. Return the rest to the box.
4. Place the Clan board nearby. Shuffle the Vote tiles face down, then place one face up on each Clan plank of the Clan board; these set the values for having the most Votes with each Clan at the end of the game.
5. Place the Gnome Wheel nearby. Place the Wheel pawn on the star-marked space of the Gnome Wheel.
6. Make a supply pile of Desperation tokens.
7. Shuffle the three Champion card decks separately, and create three face down decks.
8. Draw Champions from the I/II deck to place face up in a display (one more than the number of players).
9. Make a supply pile of Champion tiles. If any of the Champions in the display have a letter code, find the matching Champion tile and place it on that card.

Gnome Setup

1. Create a supply of face down Gnome tokens near the board, mixed well.
2. Shuffle the Gate cards. Draw several Gate cards from the deck (one more than the number of players). Each one shows a Clan flag; add one Gnome from the supply (without looking at its hidden value) to a Gate cavern in that Clan's Domain. If the Domain has more than one Gate cavern, just pick one randomly.
3. Draw one more Gate card, and place the Swarm token on the Swarm point of the pictured Domain.
4. Shuffle all seven Gate cards again, and lay out a number of them face down (three for 2-3 players, four for 4 players, five for 5 players) near the board. These cards will determine which Domains the Gnomes will invade at the end of the Wave.
5. Keep the leftover Gate cards in a deck where they won't be confused with the ones you laid out.

Player Setup

Each player does this.

1. Take a Player mat and all of the Player components (2 Lair markers, 30 Ancestry cubes, 13 Influence discs, 25 Trolls, 5 Champion bases, and 2 Player markers) in your player colour. Return unused colours to the box.
2. Take a Starting Ancestry card and lay it on the table in front of you, leaving space around it to add cards to it later.
3. Place one Player marker on the 0 space of the score track as your Score marker, and the other one near your Player mat as your Supply marker.
4. Place one Influence disc on the Gnome wheel in the starred spot of the Boost track.
5. Draw two Champions from the 0 deck. Discard one from the game, and keep the other. Your starting Champion displays a Clan and vote value in the top left corner. Use one of your Influence discs to give yourself that many votes in that Clan on the correct plank of the Clan board. Each Champion card describes its unique benefits.
6. Some Champions show a letter code; if your starting Champion does, slide the matching Champion tile into one of your Champion bases to form the Champion's pawn.

Lair Setup

1. Determine a Starting player randomly. Give that player the Start Player marker.

2. The Start player chooses one pair of Lair spaces on the map (pairs are marked with matching glyphs), places one Lair tile on each, then places three Trolls from their supply on each.

3. The Starting player chooses one Gnome-free cavern adjacent to each of their lairs, and places one Troll in each of them. If the player has a Champion pawn, they add it to one of those two caverns where they placed a Troll.

   Proceeding clockwise, each other player follows the same process.

   You are ready to begin!

Gameplay

The game is broken into three Waves. Each Wave has several phases:

• Build your Ancestry (add cards to your Ancestry to build your capabilities.)
• The Battle (Players take turns in clockwise order until everyone runs out of Supplies.)
• End of the Wave (Gnomes entrench, Gnomes invade, Champions are awarded, and the Wave is scored.)
• Refresh (If the game isn't over, prepare for the next Wave.)

After all three Waves are done and scored, the game is over, and the player with the most Honour wins!

Build Your Ancestry

Players will simultaneously add cards to their own Ancestry, growing their capabilities with each Wave. Draw four Ancestry cards into your hand. Look them over, and add one to your Ancestry following these rules:

• You must cover at least one quadrant of an existing card.
• You may never cover an Elder symbol (see below).
• You may not rotate the cards; they all must be oriented the same way as your Starting card.
• You must add the card, even if this forces you to cover symbols that you would rather not. This will become more likely later in the game.
• The overall footprint of your Ancestry must fit in a 6 by 6 quadrant grid (never more than six quadrants wide or high).

Example: You begin with just your Starting card, and this hand of four cards. You choose the circled card, add it to your Ancestry, pass the rest on, and receive this hand of three. You choose the circled card, add it to your Ancestry, pass the rest on, and receive this hand of two. Finally you select this card from your hand of two, add it, and discard the final card. Your Ancestry for Wave I is built!

When you have placed your first card, pass the rest to the next player (clockwise in Waves I and III, counterclockwise in Wave II). Add a second card to your Ancestry from among the three that were passed to you, then pass the rest. Add a third card to your Ancestry from among the two that were passed to you, then discard the last card into a shared discard pile. Each player will therefore add three cards to their Ancestry in the phase. Since you'll do this at the beginning of each Wave, your Ancestry will grow much bigger over the course of the game.

It helps to know what the symbols on the cards mean, so that you can build an Ancestry that works well for your strategy. That will all be described in detail later in the rules, but here is a quick summary:

• Advance. Move your Trolls around the map, to outcompete rivals and to defeat Gnomes.
• Bolster. Add Trolls from your supply to the map.
• Influence. Gain Influence with Champions, so that they will join your team.
• Gnome. Move the pawn on the Gnome Wheel, for information and various benefits.
• Wild. A single one can act as an Advance, Bolster, Influence, or Gnome symbol. A pair of them can act as a Supply symbol.
• Supply. Acts as an obstacle in your Ancestry, but gives you an extra turn in each Wave.
• Elder. Acts as an obstacle in your Ancestry and may never be built over, but scores Honour at game end.

Some symbols have numbers on them, indicating their power. A symbol with no number on it has a power of 1.

On your turns you will be using Ancestry cubes to cover symbols on your Ancestry; this is how you activate those actions. When building your Ancestry, it's usually good to try and make clusters of matching symbols. This will let you activate them as a group, and perform stronger actions during your turns.

Once everyone has finished building their Ancestry, players set their Supplies for the Wave. Indicators on your Supply track show the base amount for each Wave. Place your Supply marker on the correct spot, then add one Supply for each Supply symbol in your Ancestry (maximum of eight).

• If you wish, you may cover two Wild symbols in your Ancestry now (using Ancestry cubes); each covered pair gives you one extra Supply. Resolve this in player order if any players care about what others decide.

Example: In Wave I, the base amount of Supplies is six. You have one Supply symbol in your Ancestry, so you increase your Supplies to seven. You don't have two Wild symbols to cover even if you wanted to, so you can't gain any more Supplies for this Wave. Since there is one Desperation symbol to the right of your marker, you gain one Desperation token from the supply.

Finally, for each Desperation symbol on your Supply track in spaces to the right of your Supply marker, gain one Desperation token from the supply.

The Battle

Players take turns; begin with the Starting player, and proceed clockwise. Each turn consumes one (or more) Supplies, and play continues until all players have run out of Supplies. Since players may have different amounts of Supplies, some players may get more turns than others.

On Your Turn

The first thing you must do is spend a Supply, by moving your Supply marker one space left. Then you will either take two Weak Actions, or one Strong Action.

Weak Actions

To take a Weak action, cover one weak symbol in your Ancestry with a cube (a weak symbol has no number marking on it; it is an action of power 1). Then perform the action type you covered, at a power of 1 (see The Actions, below).

• You may not cover a Strong symbol and treat it as a weak symbol.
• You may not cover a blank space, Elder symbol, or Supply symbol.
• You may cover a Wild symbol as if it were any weak symbol (Advance, Bolster, Influence, or Gnome).

Example: As a Weak action, you could choose any of the circled symbols. You cover one weak Gnome symbol with a cube, then take a Gnome action of power 1. For your second Weak action, you could cover any one of the remaining circled Weak symbols, and take a Weak action of that type.

Once you have fully resolved your first Weak action, you may take a second Weak action, following the same rules. Both of these actions occur in the space of one turn (so you don't have to spend a Supply for the second one), but they are distinct actions separate from each other.

• If you can't take a second weak action (because you have no weak symbols left to cover), your turn ends after the first one is done. You may choose to not take a second Weak action, even if you technically could.

Desperation

You may have some Desperation tokens at your disposal. These tokens reflect your ability to push past your normal limits in the face of dire circumstances and low supplies. If you wish, you may spend one or more Desperation tokens to boost the power of a Weak action by 1 per token spent.

• A desperation-boosted Weak action still counts as a Weak action.
• You may spend multiple tokens on a single Weak action.
• Desperation tokens may not be spent to boost Strong actions.
• Leftover Desperation tokens are discarded at the end of each Wave. Spend them while you have the chance!

Example: You decide to cover the other Gnome symbol, which would normally have a power of 1. You spend one Desperation token, increasing the action's power to 2.

Strong Actions

There are two ways to take a Strong action. The first way is to cover one strong symbol in your Ancestry with a cube (strong symbols have numbers). Then perform that action, at the indicated power (see The Actions, below).

The second way is to cover a cluster, which is multiple adjacent symbols of the same type. Symbols in a cluster may be weak and/or strong in any combination, as long as they form a contiguous group of adjacent spaces on your Ancestry (diagonal is not adjacent). Then perform the action, at a power equaling the combined value of all the symbols you covered (see The Actions, below).

Example: As a Strong action, you could cover the three weak Advances plus the Wild to generate an Advance action of 4 power. Let's say you choose to cover only the three Advances for a power of 3.

• You do not have to cover all symbols of matching type that are clustered together; you could cover only some of a larger group.
• Wild symbols may be included as part of a cluster.

Clustering Through Covered Symbols

Covered symbols (and clusters of covered symbols) on your Ancestry create links between separated symbols, making them adjacent. So as you take turns, you build connections that you can use on later turns to create clusters that weren't available to you earlier. This is a big part of deciding when to do what!

Example: On a later turn, using the covered symbols as a bridge, you could cluster the weak Bolster and the Wild together with the strong Bolster to generate a Bolster of 4 power.

Spending Supplies to Boost a Strong Action

When taking a Strong action, you may spend one or more extra Supplies (in addition to the first mandatory Supply spent to start your turn), to add power to the action. For each extra Supply spent, move your Supply marker left and add one power to the Strong action. This is useful if you realize you have more turns available to you than you can make good use of!

Example: Look at the Influence example. Notice that you have no more symbols to cover on later turns? If you have any extra supplies, it's a good time to spend them! On an even later turn, you could cluster all of these Influence symbols together across the covered symbols, generating an Influence action of 5 power!

Some Definitions and General Rules of Play

Many of the actions refer to different statuses of caverns on the map:

• Lairs. No rival or Gnome may ever enter your Lairs. Lairs count as caverns unless specified otherwise.

• Established. A cavern where you have at least one Troll.

• Controlled. A cavern where you have more Trolls than any other individual rival. A cavern with multiple players tied for most Trolls is not controlled by anyone. Controlled caverns count as established.

• Dominated. A cavern where only you have any Trolls. Your Lairs are always considered to be dominated. Dominated caverns also count as controlled and established.

• Overrun. A cavern with one or more Gnomes.

• Empty. A cavern with nothing in it at all.

• Cavern status is always viewed from the active player's perspective unless otherwise specified. For example if a rule says "you may only Bolster in a dominated cavern", that means "a cavern that is dominated by you".

• Each of your units on the map counts as one Troll. Each Champion is considered to be a single Troll for all purposes, unless a rule or that Champion's card itself specifically states otherwise.

• Honour is the name for points in the game. Honour is often represented by a Honour symbol, with a number indicating its value. Whenever you gain Honour, reflect the gain by advancing your Scoring marker on the score track of the game board.

• Whenever you are instructed to gain Votes in a Clan, place one of your Influence markers on that Clan's plank of the Clan board to reflect the gained Votes. If you already have a marker on that plank, advance it instead of placing a new marker.

• The Influence tracks on Champion cards and the Vote planks on the Clan board only go up to eight, but that is not a hard limit. If you are ever supposed to go further, stack a second Influence disc on your first and wrap the stack around to the beginning, treating its value as eight more than the spot it is sitting on.

The Actions

There are four action types on your Ancestry: Advance, Bolster, Influence, and Gnome. Each one will help you defend the mountain and compete against your rivals for Honour.

Advance

This is how you move your Trolls, to compete with rivals and to fight Gnomes. Choose one destination cavern, and move a number of your own Trolls into that one cavern. The power of your action defines the maximum number of Trolls you may move. The advancing Trolls can come from multiple different caverns and travel any distance, as long as each Troll only passes through established caverns in between its origin and the destination.

• Your Trolls may not go to multiple destinations.
• The distance that each Troll moves is irrelevant; your action's power only defines how many Trolls you can move.
• You do not fight rival Trolls... but you will be trying to outnumber them in caverns. This is important for scoring at the end of Waves, and also because you earn Votes for seizing control of a cavern away from a rival (see Seizing Control, below).

Weak Advance example: You are performing a weak Advance action of power 1; you may move only a single Troll. You choose the indicated Ice cavern, and move one Troll all the way there from your Lair, passing through three established caverns on the way.

Strong Advance example: You are performing an Advance action of power 3, so you may move up to three Trolls. You choose the indicated Fire cavern. You move one Troll in from the Moss cavern above it, and two Trolls from your Lair (passing through an established cavern). Since you seized control, you gain one Vote with the Fire Clan!

Attacking Gnomes

If your Trolls advanced into an overrun cavern, a quick battle happens as follows: After you have finished moving in all the Trolls you intend to, reveal the strength of all of the Gnome tokens in that cavern (each Gnome has a strength value from 1 to 3 hidden on its underside).

• If the number of Trolls equals or exceeds the combined total Gnome strength, you are victorious! Follow these steps:
  1. Score Honour equal to the strength of the defeated Gnome(s).
  2. Gain one Vote in the Clan matching the cavern where the battle occurred (see Seizing Control below to learn why).
  3. Place the defeated Gnome token(s) near the Gnome Wheel. Be warned... these defeats will anger the Gnomes and make their future incursions more intense!
  4. Advance the Wheel pawn one space clockwise for each Gnome you defeated. This does not activate the space the pawn lands on; it represents the angered Gnomes inching closer to a Breach. If this causes a Breach, resolve it (see Breach Tripwire, below).

Attacking Gnomes example: You Advanced two Trolls into this overrun cavern. We flip the Gnome to reveal its strength... it's a 2! Since you have two Trolls there, you win! You gain 2 Honour for the victory, and one Mud Vote for seizing control in their Domain! You send the defeated Gnome over to the Gnome Wheel, joining two that are already there from earlier. Then you advance the Wheel pawn one space. Happily, this doesn't trigger a Breach.

• If not, you have been repelled! Return all of those Trolls to one of your Lairs (your choice which). If there is only one Gnome in the cavern, the Gnomes entrench: add a second one to the cavern (if there are already two, do not add a third).

Seizing Control

If a cavern at the start of your action had at least one Troll or Gnome in it and was not controlled by you... and that cavern is controlled by you at the end of your action, you have seized control.

When you seize control of a cavern, you gain one Vote from the cavern's Clan; the Troll Clans appreciate aggressiveness in their leaders!

• The seizing control effect applies to any action that satisfies these conditions, not only Advancing. For example, certain Gnome Wheel effects and some Champion abilities can result in control being seized through non-Advance actions.
• It is not seizing control if it happens on someone else's turn.
• It is not seizing control if the cavern was empty at the start of your action.

Bolster

This is how you add units to the map. Choose one dominated cavern (or one of your Lairs), and add a number of Trolls from your supply to that one cavern. The power of your action defines the maximum number of Trolls you may add.

• You are limited by the number of Trolls in your supply. If your Troll supply runs out, you may move one of your Trolls from anywhere on the map to the cavern you are Bolstering, for each excess unit of power from your Bolster action. You may only do this if there are zero Trolls in your supply.

Bolster example: By taking a Bolster action with 3 power, you could add three Trolls from your supply to the indicated cavern. Notice that you can't Bolster in the cavern above it, because you don't dominate there.

Influence

This is how you attempt to win Champions onto your team. Each Champion you win over will earn you a number of Votes in its Clan, gives you access to its abilities, and often includes a pawn that goes into play as one of your Trolls.

Choose one Champion in the display. Gain Influence with that Champion equal to your action's power, by placing one of your Influence discs on its Influence track. If you already have a disc on that track, advance it instead of placing a new disc.

• If this is the first time that Champion was influenced (by anyone, including you), gain 1 bonus Influence with that Champion.
• Champions are awarded to the player with the most Influence at the end of the Wave. So be aware of how much Influence other players have available to them, as they may overtake you!
• There are no ties on the Champion influence tracks; if multiple markers are in the same spot, the marker on the bottom of the stack (signifying that it was there earlier) is in the lead.

Influence example: You are taking an Influence action of 2 power. Neither Okkag or Crym have been influenced yet; if you chose either of them you'd gain a bonus Influence, bringing your total to three. If you chose any of the other three Champions, you'd gain only two Influence with them. Maybe you should choose Siggdan, because that would cause your existing disc to pass Yellow's!

Gnome

This is how you gain a variety of advantages via the Gnome Wheel; exploit your ancestral enmity to take unexpected actions that will provoke their ire. The Wheel also dispenses hidden information about Gnome strength and where they'll strike at Wave end. Be careful! Too much usage will incite mid-Wave invasions called Breaches.

Move the Wheel pawn clockwise on the Gnome Wheel. The power of your action is the maximum number of spaces you may move it, but never more than one full circuit of the Wheel in a single action. Then follow these steps in order:

1. Scout. You may peek at one face down Gate card to learn where some Gnomes will invade at the end of the Wave, and at one Gnome token on the map, to learn its strength. You may mark a peeked-at item with an unused marker of your colour, as a reminder that you may peek at it freely.

Example: With a Gnome action of power 3, you move the Wheel pawn three spaces clockwise. First you get to Scout... peek at one Gate card and one Gnome on the map.

2. Tripwires. There are two tripwires on the Gnome Wheel. If the pawn passes either (or both) of them, you must resolve them (in the order you passed them).

Honour Boost Tripwire. Advance your marker on the Boost track to the next space. This will increase the amount of Honour you gain when you land on the Gain Honour space of the Gnome Wheel (see below).

Breach Tripwire. This triggers a mid-Wave invasion of Gnomes called a Breach. Breaches follow the same rules as the invasions that happen at the end of each Wave (see Invasions, below), with the following differences:

• Before the Breach occurs, the active player may move the Swarm (up to) two Swarm points away in either direction.
• The number of Gnomes that will invade in a Breach is two, plus one more for every two Gnomes (rounding up) near the Gnome Wheel. Once you have calculated how many Gnomes will be invading, mix the Gnomes near the Wheel back into the supply, then place the correct number of Gnomes from the supply with the Swarm.
• When the invading Gnomes must choose between two equally-preferred options, the active player makes the decision for them.
• Trolls that fall during a Breach earn zero Honour (there are some Champion powers that alter this).

Example: You passed the Breach tripwire, so you'll have to conduct a Breach. Unfortunately the Gnomes are quite angry at the moment; since there are three Gnomes by the Wheel, there will be four Gnomes invading! When you are done resolving the Breach, you'll perform a Bolster action at 3 power, since you moved the pawn three spaces and landed on the Bolster symbol.

3. Effect. Finally, carry out the effect of the pawn's new space. There are four different effects, described below (X is the number of spaces the Wheel pawn moved):

• Bolster at X power, following the usual rules.
• Influence at X power, following the usual rules.
• Gain Honour. Gain X Honour, plus the amount of your current Honour Boost. If you passed the Honour Boost tripwire on the way to this space, the boost happens before the gain.
• Move Trolls. Select one cavern. Move up to X Trolls (yours or rivals' in any combination) out of that cavern into adjacent Gnome-free caverns.
  • Each moved Troll can go into a different cavern (but never into a Lair that is not its own).
  • This may cause you to Seize Control in one or more caverns.

End of the Wave

Once all players have run out of Supplies, the Wave is over. Follow these steps in order: Entrenchment, Invasions, Award Champions, Score the Wave.

Entrenchment

Add one Gnome from the supply to any cavern with one Gnome in it. Caverns that already have two Gnomes do not get a third.

Invasions

A number of Invasions occur; one for each Gate card in the display (this will vary by player count). The resolution of each Gate card is considered a separate invasion; resolve them (from left to right in the display) as follows:

1. Reveal the Gate card. It indicates a Domain, and the number of invading Gnomes (which increases with each Wave). Move the Swarm to that Domain's Swarm point, along with the indicated number of Gnomes from the supply.
2. Resolve each invading Gnome separately. A Gnome always follows the path of least resistance; it will attempt to move into the easiest cavern it can reach (namely, with the fewest Trolls in it, preferring an empty cavern most of all).

   • The Gnome will move through as many connected overrun caverns as it needs to, in order to reach its target; it will never stop in an overrun cavern. If the Domain has two Gates, it will enter whichever one takes it to the easiest cavern.

   • If the Gnome can reach multiple "easiest" caverns, it prefers the one that is nearer. Nearness is defined by the number of caverns passed through from the Swarm point to get there.

   • If the Gnome can reach multiple "easiest" caverns that are equally near, the player who currently has the most Votes in the Clan matching the Gate card decides for the Gnome; check the Clan board to determine this.

     There are no ties on the Clan board; if two markers are in the same spot, the marker on the bottom of the stack (signifying that it got there earlier) is in the lead. If no player has any Votes in that Clan, look to the next Clan downward on the Clan board and use that Clan's Vote leader instead; wrap around from the bottom of the Clan board to the top, if you need to.

   • If a Gnome attempts to move into a cavern with Trolls in it (because it has no easier option), it is defeated instead of moving in; mix it back into the supply. Gnome strength is irrelevant during Invasions. One Troll in the cavern falls in the process of defeating the Gnome (see Fallen Trolls, below).

Example invasion resolution: It is Wave II, so three Gnomes are invading, and the Gate card shows the Mud Domain. We move the Swarm there and bring three Gnomes from the supply. The Mud Domain has two Gate Caverns, and they are both equally easy to enter, with just one Troll in each; the decision will be made by the player with the most Mud Votes... it's you! You decide to have the first Gnome invade the one with your own pink Troll in it. You earn the First Fallen score (4 Honour in Wave II, see Fallen Trolls), and the fallen Troll and defeated Gnome are both removed. The second invading Gnome has a clear easiest target now. It moves into the now-empty cavern and stops there. The third invading Gnome moves through the chain of overrun caverns looking for the closest easiest target. It will flow through the path shown, and eventually it will have to decide between the indicated Hammer and Mud caverns. That decision is yours again, as the one with the most Mud votes.

Advice for Gnome Movement

Ask yourself "where is the nearest empty cavern that the Gnome could get to, passing through as many overrun caverns as it needs to?" If there is one such cavern, that's where it goes. If there are more than one, the appropriate player decides which. If there are none...

Ask yourself the same question but for "cavern with one Troll in it" instead of "empty cavern"...

And so on, adding one Troll to the question each time. It gets easier once you've done it a few times!

Fallen Trolls

A Fallen Troll is removed from the cavern. If you lose a Troll from a cavern where you have one or more Champions mixed with regular Trolls, you choose which unit falls. When a regular Troll falls, return it to your supply. When a Champion falls, move it to one of your Lairs; this is a great advantage of the Champions!

The first Troll to fall in each invasion (not each cavern of an invasion) earns the First Fallen score of this Wave. All subsequent Trolls that fall during the invasion gain 2 Honour.

The First Fallen score by Wave: Wave I is 2 Honour (other Fallen Trolls score nothing extra beyond the base), Wave II is 3 Honour, Wave III is 4 Honour. (This chart is visible on the Gate cards and Player mats, and reminds you of the score for other Fallen Trolls, which is 2 Honour each.)

If there are Trolls belonging to multiple players in an invaded cavern, randomly determine which Troll defeats the Gnome and falls. Shake up a handful of Ancestry cubes from each player representing their Trolls in the cavern, and randomly draw one to see which player's Troll falls.

Full Example of Invasions: The End of Wave I with Four Players

There will be distinct invasions at four different Swarm points, and each one will consist of two Gnomes.

A. The first Gnome can reach an empty cavern, by passing through several overrun caverns to get there. The second Gnome can't reach any empty caverns through either gate, so it looks for the nearest cavern with one Troll in it. It is the first cavern inside the lower Gate, so the Gnome moves in there. The Blue Troll there defeats the Gnome, falls, and gains the First Fallen score.

B. Both Ice Gate caverns are equally "easy" with three Trolls each, so the Vote leader in the Ice Clan (Green) decides where the first Gnome goes. Green chooses the right Gate. Since there are multiple players there, we must randomly determine which Troll defeats the Gnome and falls. We shake up one Green and two Pink cubes, and draw one... it's Green! Green removes the fallen Troll and gets the First Fallen score. The second Gnome has no choice, since this same Gate cavern is now easier than the other Ice one. Both Trolls there are Pink now, but one of them is a Champion. Pink chooses the Champion to defeat the Gnome. Pink gets the normal Fallen score, and jumps the fallen Champion to a Pink Lair.

C. The first Gnome moves into the empty cavern by the lower Moon Gate. There are two equally-near empty caverns for the second Gnome to move to. Blue is the Vote leader in the Moon Clan, and sends the Gnome to the indicated cavern with a plan to attack it later.

D. The first Gnome moves into the empty cavern just inside the gate. The second Gnome can not reach any empty caverns, but there are two equally-near caverns with a single Troll; a Mud through the left Gate, and a Granite through the right Gate. The Vote leader in the Hammer Clan (Blue) doesn't want her own Troll to fall (even with the First Fallen bonus) because that would clear her out of the Granite Domain entirely. She chooses to send the Gnome the other way. It is defeated by the Yellow Troll in there, which earns the First Fallen score for Yellow.

Award Champions

Resolve each Champion in the display from left to right to see who won each one. There are no ties on the Champion influence tracks; if two markers are in the same spot, the marker on the bottom of the stack (signifying that it was there earlier) is in the lead. Follow this sequence for each Champion:

1. If you have the most Influence on that Champion, you are the victor; gain Votes in the Champion's Clan as displayed on the top left of the card. If no player had any Influence on the Champion, discard it from the game.
2. Other players who have markers on that card choose their consolation contender reward, in order from most influence to least. They must choose between one Vote in the Champion's Clan, or Honour equal to the number of yellow lines their disc passed on the Champion's Influence track.

As victor, you take the Champion card; its abilities are now yours.

• If the Champion has a letter code, take the matching Champion tile, insert it into one of your Champion bases to form the Champion pawn, and add it to the map in a cavern where you dominate. Wave III Champions with letter codes are not constructed into pawns; they tell you what to do with their starburst-shaped tiles.
• If the Champion has an Instant symbol, resolve its ability immediately (before the next Champion in the display is resolved).
• Most Champions offer a passive ability that is unlimited in its use. Some Champions have one or more Claw symbols. When you make use of this Champion's ability, cover one Claw with an Ancestry cube, as a reminder that you have used it. If you run out of Claws to cover, that ability can't be used again for the remainder of the Wave.
• Some Champions have Ancestry symbols on them. Treat these symbols as if they are symbols in your Ancestry; you may activate them on their own, or include them in a cluster of symbols they match with.
• Some Champions are Outsiders. This means that their Clan's flag is not represented on the Clan board. Any Votes you get from an Outsider are Wild, and you can apply them to any (one) Clan you wish.

Example: You (Pink) have the most Influence with Imbolg the Knife, so you are the victor! You gain three Votes from the Ice Clan. Blue must decide whether to gain one Ice Vote, or gain two Honour (since their disc passed two yellow lines on Imbolg's Influence track). Finally you claim Imbolg's card, use his Champion tile to build a pawn, and place the pawn in a cavern where you dominate.

Score the Wave

Waves I and II score identically (see below). Wave III has a totally different scoring structure (see Wave III, below), and its scoring marks the end of the game.

Some Champions have a symbol which means that they score (or apply some other effect) at the end of each Wave; if you have such a Champion, make sure to take advantage of their benefit now!

Waves I and II

Score each Domain separately; all players assess each Domain together, and adjust their markers on the score track as each one is resolved. It is easiest to start with Moss and move clockwise around the board. For each Domain:

1. Score 6 Honour for the first cavern in the Domain you control, and 2 Honour for each additional cavern in the Domain you control. Remember, you do not control a cavern if you are tied for most Trolls there.
2. If you scored at least one cavern in the Domain, lose 1 Honour for each overrun cavern in the Domain.

Example: Let's score the Hammer Clan Domain: there is one overrun cavern. Blue controls one cavern, so Blue gains 6 and loses 1. Yellow controls two caverns, so Yellow gains 6 plus 2, and loses 1.

Refresh

After scoring Waves I and II, you will need to refresh for the next Wave (after scoring Wave III, the game is over). Follow these steps:

1. Gather the Gate cards together and shuffle the deck. Lay out a number of Gate cards face down (three for 2-3 players, four for 4 players, five for 5 players) near the deck, as in initial setup.
2. Refresh the Champions display with the appropriate number of Champion cards for your player count (one more than the number of players). Make sure that you draw Champions from the deck matching the Wave that you are about to enter. If any of the Champions in the display have a letter code, find the matching Champion tile and place it on that card.
3. Each player should return all of the cubes from their Ancestry (and from any Claw symbols on Champion cards) back to their supply, and discard any leftover Desperation tokens they have.
4. The Starting player passes the Start player marker clockwise.

Begin the next Wave with Building Your Ancestry.

Wave III

There are three types of scoring at the end of Wave III; resolve them in order. Great Halls, then Elders, and finally Clan Votes.

1. Great Halls. Assess each Great Hall separately. For each, check to see who controls the most caverns touching it (the number of caverns varies by each Great Hall). The player who controls more of those caverns than any other party gains Honour equal to the Great Hall's displayed value. Flip each Great Hall token as it is resolved, to make it clear which ones remain to be scored.

   • Gnomes are considered to be a player for the purposes of calculating majorities; if the Gnomes win a Great Hall, no player gets those points.
   • If multiple parties (including Gnomes) tie for most, they split the Great Hall's value as evenly as possible among them, ignoring remainders.

   Great Hall example 1: Here the Gnomes control two of the surrounding caverns, and Green controls one. The Gnomes win, so no player earns the 4 Honour.

   Great Hall example 2: Here Pink controls two surrounding caverns, and Green controls one. Pink earns the 12 Honour. Notice that Pink wins even though Green has more Trolls; it's about the controlled caverns, not the number of Trolls!

   Great Hall example 3: Here we have a three-way tie for control of the surrounding caverns, between Yellow, Pink, and the Gnomes. Splitting the Great Hall's 8 Honour as evenly as we can three ways results in Yellow and Pink each gaining 2.

2. Elders. Gain Honour based on how many Elder symbols are in your Ancestry, according to this chart:

   Elder symbols	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
   Honour	0	1	3	5	8	12	17	23	30

   Elders example: You have seven Elders in your Ancestry, which earns you 17 Honour.

3. Clan Votes. Check each plank on the Clan board, working from the top to the bottom. For each Clan, the players with the most, second-most, and third-most Votes gain the displayed amount of Honour for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. There are no ties on the Clan board; if two markers are in the same spot, the marker on the bottom of the stack (signifying that it was there earlier) is in the lead.

   • A player must have at least one Vote in a Clan to qualify for any scoring position in that Clan. If no player has Votes in a Clan, its points are not awarded.

   Clan Votes example: On the Moss plank, Blue is in first place so gains 9 Honour. Yellow is in second place (being at the bottom of the stack is ahead of Pink) so gains 5 Honour. Pink is in third place so gains 3 Honour.

Game End

At the end of Wave III scoring, the player with the most Honour wins! In the event of a tie, the tie is broken in favour of the player who has the highest combined total of Votes on the Clan board. If that is still a tie, the tied players share their victory.

Credits

Game Design: Adam E. Daulton. Illustration: Fahed Alrajil. Box Cover Art: Xavier Cuenca. Graphic Design & Rulebook: Joshua Cappel. Symbol Graphics: Stephen Sauer. Project Management: Helaina Cappel. Game Development: Jay Cormier, Graeme Jahns, Joshua Cappel & Sean Jacquemain. 3D Modelling: Heriberto Martinez. Game Trayz Inserts: Noah Adelman.

Published by Burnt Island Games. ©2022 all rights reserved.