Freigard Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Components
  • 6 Crawling Castle Cards
  • 4 Totem Cards and 1 Rout Card
  • 49 Defender Cards in Three Families: Golems, Dragons, and Ents
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Score
  • Draw
  • The Rout Card
• End of a Round / End of the Game
• The Totem Cards
  • 1. Improve Your Score at the End of a Round
  • 2. Trigger a Unique Ability
    • An Hourglass to Retrieve from the Past
    • An Eye to Search into the Future
    • A Vessel to Keep for Later On
    • A Shield to Guard from Defeat
• Scoring
  • Golems
  • Dragons
  • Ents
  • Magical Spheres
• Player Aid

Overview

Freigard is a solo card game played over one to four rounds.

In order to win, you must defeat all three crawling castles.

At the end of each round, you must have scored enough points to remove one Crawling Castle card, otherwise you have lost the game.

You score points by building several 3-card combinations over the same round. You will score points if all cards are of the same family – 3 golems, 3 dragons or 3 ents. Additionally, some cards show a magical sphere in their upper right-hand corner, and any 3-card combination with a magical sphere on each card also scores points.

Components

6 Crawling Castle Cards

Each card features a defeat condition on its lower right corner: you need to reach at least this score by the end of a round to defeat this card.

Each of these cards is double-sided, which allows you to set up the game at four levels of difficulty (from easiest to hardest): Dawn (defeat conditions 22, 18, 14), Noon (25, 20, 15), Dusk (26, 21, 16) and Night (28, 22, 18).

4 Totem Cards and 1 Rout Card

49 Defender Cards in Three Families: Golems, Dragons, and Ents

• 15 Golems – 3 types of golems: Spike, Round, Square. Some golems have an energy surge.
• 15 Dragons – 2 types of dragons: One-headed, Two-headed. Some dragons are crimson, some are blue.
• 19 Ents – 2 types of ents: Conifers, Broadleaves. An Ent card can have 2, 1 or 0 ents depicted on it. Note: the 0-Ent cards still belong to one of the two types and show branches on their side to help you identify their type. These branches do not count as an Ent.

Note: In each family, some cards have a magical sphere in their upper right corner.

Setup

Choose a difficulty level, and take the 3 Crawling Castle cards corresponding to that level. Place them on the table so that their defeat condition is clearly visible.

Put the 4 Totem cards within reach.

Shuffle the 49 Defender cards and the Rout card to form the Defender deck, then draw the first 3 cards of this deck: this is your starting hand.

Example of setup at the easiest difficulty level (Dawn): the Crawling Castle cards (defeat conditions 22, 18, 14) are laid out, with the four Totem cards, the scoring row, the starting hand, the discard pile and the Defender deck.

Gameplay

During your turn, you may either score your hand, or try to improve it and draw a card.

Score

You can score your hand if the three cards you have form a combination. A combination is a hand of 3 cards of the same family and/or 3 cards with a magical sphere on each card (see the possible combinations in the Scoring section and on the player aid).

If you decide to score, for each point your hand is worth, take one card from your hand and place it face down in your scoring row (we suggest you place the cards in groups of five to make it easier to see your current total).

If your combination scores more than 3 points, use additional cards from the discard pile, or if necessary from the top of the deck. If your combination scores fewer than 3 points, discard the remaining cards of your combination face up on the discard pile.

Then draw a new hand of 3 cards.

Draw

If you cannot score your hand, or if you want to try to improve its current score, draw the first card from the deck. You now have 4 cards in your hand, and must immediately discard one face up on the discard pile (it can be the card you just drew, or any card you already had in your hand).

Take one turn after another until the Defender deck is empty. As soon as the deck is empty, the round ends (do not score your final hand of 3 cards). If, after scoring, there are fewer than 3 cards left in the Defender deck, the round also ends.

The Rout Card

When you reveal the Rout card, you must immediately discard your hand together with the Rout card, without scoring. Then draw 3 cards from the deck to form a new hand.

During setup or after scoring you draw a full hand of 3 cards. If one of the cards is the Rout card, discard all 3 cards and draw three new cards from the deck to form a new hand of cards.

End of a Round / End of the Game

At the end of a round you must have scored enough points to at least match the defeat condition of a remaining Crawling Castle card. If you haven't, you have lost the game (unless you use the "Shield" Totem card, see The Totem Cards).

If you have, remove a Crawling Castle card whose defeat condition is less than or equal to your score (put it back in the box).

If this was the last Crawling Castle card in play, you have won the game. Otherwise, reshuffle the Defender deck and play another round.

Note: You may only remove one Crawling Castle card per round. If your score is equal to or greater than the defeat condition of several Crawling Castle cards, remove from the game the one with the highest defeat condition.

The Totem Cards

You start the game with four Totem cards. These will help you in your endeavor.

Each Totem card can be used, once per game, in two ways:

1. Improve Your Score at the End of a Round

At the end of a round, you may remove one or several Totem card(s) from the game. Each card removed this way adds one point to your score for the round.

Put the removed Totem card(s) back in the box, along with the defeated Crawling Castle card.

2. Trigger a Unique Ability

Each Totem card has a unique ability. You can use "Hourglass", "Eye" or "Vessel" instead of scoring your hand or drawing a card to improve it. "Shield" can be used at the end of a round.

An Hourglass to Retrieve from the Past

Choose one card from the discard pile and put this card on top of the Defender deck. Put this Totem card back in the box.

An Eye to Search into the Future

Name a Defender family and ONE feature. The feature depends on the Defender family you name:

• Golem: The type (spike, round or square) OR whether it has an energy surge or not.
• Dragon: The color (crimson or blue) OR the number of heads.
• Ent: The type (conifer or broadleaf) OR the number of ents.

Then reveal cards from the top of the deck until you reveal a Defender card of the named family that shows the chosen feature. Set this card aside, shuffle all revealed cards back into the Defender deck, then put the card on top of it and put the Totem card back in the box.

Valid naming: "One card with two ents", "One conifer ent card", "One two-headed dragon card", "One blue dragon card".

Non-valid naming: "One conifer ent card with two ents", "One one-headed blue dragon card" (all those namings use two features).

Special case: If you reveal the Rout card while performing the Search action, discard the Rout card, but do not discard your hand, and immediately stop revealing cards from the deck. Shuffle all revealed cards back into the Defender deck, and take your next turn (the Rout card nullifies the benefit of the Search action, but you were allowed to remove the Rout card from the Defender deck without having to discard your hand of cards).

A Vessel to Keep for Later On

Take one card from your hand and put it face up partially under this Totem card, then draw the top card of the deck to complete your hand at 3 cards. At any point later in this round, you may put the set-aside card on top of the Defender deck and put this Totem card back in the box.

A Shield to Guard from Defeat

At the end of a round, if your score is less than a remaining Crawling Castle card's defeat condition, instead of immediately losing the game, put this Totem card back in the box, shuffle the Defender deck and play another round.

Scoring

Golems

• Any 3 golems: 1 point
• 3 different golems: 2 points
• 3 identical golems: 3 points
• All with energy surge: double (x2)

Two golems of the same type are considered identical, regardless of energy surge(s) or magical sphere(s).

Dragons

• Any 3 dragons: 1 point
• 3 one-headed dragons: 2 points
• 3 two-headed dragons: 3 points
• All of the same color: double (x2)

Ents

Score the sum of the ents on all cards (each ent scores 1 point; e.g. 0 + 2 + 1 = 3 points).

• All of the same type (including cards with 0 ents): double (x2)

Magical Spheres

Lowest value out of the 3 cards (e.g. spheres of 1, 4 and 2 = 1 point).

If the 3 cards are also from the same family, add the scoring for the family and the scoring for the magical spheres.

Example: You score: 1 point (3 dragons) x2 (same colors) + 2 (lowest magical sphere) = 4 points.

Player Aid

Scoring

• Golems: Any 3: 1 point; 3 different types: 2 points; 3 identical: 3 points. All with energy surge: double.
• Dragons: Any 3: 1 point; 3 one-headed: 2 points; 3 two-headed: 3 points. All of the same color: double.
• Ents: Each ent scores 1 point. All of the same type (including cards with 0 ents): double.
• Magical Spheres: Lowest value out of the 3.

Totem Cards

• Hourglass: Take 1 card from discard pile.
• Eye: Name 1 family and 1 characteristic and reveal from deck until found.
• Vessel: Set 1 card from your hand aside for later.
• Shield: You do not lose if you haven't defeated a Crawling Castle this round.