Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood – The Promised Day
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood – The Promised Day Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
1. Overview
This game is a cooperative board game with the theme of battling in Central City, the climax of "Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood." Each player is responsible for one of the characters and runs around Central City to stop Father's ambitions. Defeat the creeping Mannequin Soldiers and dreadful Homunculi and complete the Reverse Transmutation Circle.
2. Components
- 1 Central City Board
- 1 Round Board
- 96 Character cards: 6 characters with 16 cards each
- 4 Character Life markers: 4 each of red, blue, yellow and green
- 11 Homunculus cards (6 Event cards and 5 Boss cards)
- 30 Mannequin Soldier cards
- 5 Boss tiles
- 6 English Character Summaries
- 5 Boss Life markers
- 10 Transmutation Bonus cards
- 6 Character stands
- 5 Transmutation Circle tiles
- 1 Start Player marker
- 40 Mannequin Soldier tokens
- 5 Boss tokens
- 1 English Rulebook
3. Set Up
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Place the Central City Board in the middle of the table. Place the Round Board on the side.
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Shuffle the Transmutation Circle tiles and place all 5 face up on each side of the Central City Board.
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Each player chooses a Character to play. Each player takes the corresponding Character Summary and set of Character cards, as well as a Character Life marker. Place the Character Summary in front of you and set the Character Life marker on its highest number. If you chose Hawkeye or Greed, take the corresponding Transmutation Bonus cards and place them next to your Character Summary.
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Each player chooses a different space on the Central City Board where they place their character. If you don't know where to start, simply choose a space that is close to you.
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Shuffle your Character cards and place them face down in front of you. Draw 4 cards as your starting hand.
You may not show your hand to other players. You may talk about colors, damage, what you can do or cannot do, but you may not tell exactly what you have.
Solo Game
This is a 1–4 player game. In a 2–4 player game, each player chooses 1 character. In a solo game, choose 2 characters to play. Put the Character cards in your hand face up near the Character Summaries so that they do not get mixed.
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Shuffle the Transmutation Bonus cards and place 3 cards face up on the Round Board. Put the rest of the cards face down as a deck on the board.
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Separate the Homunculus cards into Boss cards and Event cards. Shuffle the Boss cards and reveal a number of cards depending on the difficulty you choose. For each revealed Boss card, place the matching Boss token on a spot in the designated space on the Central City Board, place the matching Boss tile near the Central City Board, and set a Boss Life marker on its highest number. Put the Boss cards you revealed back into the box (you don't need them anymore).
The Central City Board
The board is made up of Areas (each with an Area Number). Each Area is divided into Spaces, from the innermost space outward, and each Space has 1–3 Spots.
How to Assemble a Character Stand
Fold the character stand's base tabs to assemble it (shown by illustration).
4. Game End Conditions
The game ends as soon as one of the following victory or defeat conditions is met.
Victory Condition
- All 5 Transmutation Circle tiles have been flipped face down.
Defeat Conditions
- There are seven Mannequin Soldier tokens on the damage track.
- Any of the characters' life reaches 0.
- There are no Mannequin Soldier tokens left in the Stock.
- The victory condition is not met at the end of the 7th round.
5. Game Play
The game lasts several rounds. Each round begins with a Homunculus turn followed by the player turns. The round ends when both the Homunculus turn and the player turns are over. There is no Homunculus turn in the first round. Start with the player turns.
Homunculus Turn
The Homunculus turn proceeds in the following order. Remember: There is no Homunculus turn in the first round. Start with the player turns.
1. Activate Boss Ability
The abilities of each boss on the Central City Board are activated in ascending order of the area numbers. See page 12 for details on each ability.
2. Reveal Homunculus Card
Reveal the Event card or Boss card above the space for the current round on the Round Board. (An Homunculus card shows, for an Event card: the Effect, and for both cards: the March areas and the Appearance of Mannequin Soldiers number.)
- Event Card: Resolve the effect of the Event card. See page 12 for details on the effects of Event cards.
- Boss Card: Place the matching Boss token onto a spot in the designated space in the indicated area on the Central City Board. If the space is filled with Mannequin Soldier tokens, immediately move one of the Mannequin Soldier tokens in that space according to the rules of March (detailed later). After you've moved it, place a Boss token on its spot instead, and place the corresponding Boss tile near the Central City Board. Set a Boss Life marker on its highest number. The Boss' ability is not activated at this moment.
3. March
Mannequin Soldier tokens move toward the outer edge of the Central City Board. Move all Mannequin Soldier tokens in the area specified by the Homunculus card one space at a time toward the outer edge of the same area. Move the Mannequin Soldier tokens in the outermost space first, then move the Mannequin Soldier tokens in the inner spaces (in the order of the outermost space to the innermost space). If a space to which you would move Mannequin Soldiers is already filled with other Mannequin Soldier tokens and Boss tokens so that there are no empty spots left, move the Mannequin Soldiers one space further out instead.
As a result, some Mannequin Soldier tokens may need to be placed outside of the Central City Board because they cannot fit in the outermost space or have moved from there. This means that Central City has been damaged. Put all Mannequin Soldier tokens that are placed outside of the Central City Board one after the other in the leftmost empty space of the damage track. If a seventh Mannequin Soldier token is placed on the damage track at this time, the players are immediately defeated.
Example of March
Areas 1 and 5 are specified on the Homunculus card (1). Area 1 already has some Mannequin Soldier tokens in it. First, move the two outermost Mannequin Soldier tokens 1 space further out (2).
Place one of them on the empty spot in the destination space (3). Since there's a Boss token on the other spot of that space, the other Mannequin Soldier token cannot be placed there (4). The Mannequin Soldier token that could not be placed is moved further out. As a result, it goes off of the Central City Board (5). Place the Mannequin Soldier token that went off of the Central City Board onto the damage track on the Round Board (6).
Next, move the 3 Mannequin Soldier tokens that are in the innermost space of Area 1 one space further out (7). This completes the March in Area 1. After this, the same process is applied to Area 5.
4. Appearance of Mannequin Soldiers
New Mannequin Soldiers will appear from the center of Central City. Flip Mannequin Soldier cards until you have placed at least as many Mannequin Soldier tokens as the number next to the Mannequin Soldier icon on the Homunculus card shows. Place the number of Mannequin Soldier tokens in the areas specified on the flipped Mannequin Soldier cards. Place them starting from the innermost space of each area. If there is no free spot left, place the excess ones one space further out and so on. If a Mannequin Soldier token cannot be placed in the specified area and would be placed outside of the Central City Board, the Mannequin Soldier token is immediately placed on the damage track on the Round Board.
From the 4th round onwards, during the step "Appearance of Mannequin Soldiers," add 2 to the number next to the Mannequin Soldier icon. Meaning, you flip Mannequin Soldier cards until you have added at least as many Mannequin Soldier tokens as the number next to the icon on the Homunculus card +2. Do this for rounds with "+2" written on the Round Board.
Example of Appearance of Mannequin Soldiers
The number next to the icon on the Homunculus card is "6 or more" (1). The first card revealed from the Mannequin Soldiers card deck is "2 in Area 1" (2). So you take two Mannequin Soldier tokens from the stock and place them on the empty spots in the innermost space in Area 1.
The second revealed card is "1 in Area 2, 2 in Area 5." Again, take the required number of Mannequin Soldier tokens from the Stock and place one on an empty spot in the second innermost space in Area 2 and two on empty spots in the innermost space in Area 5 (3). The total number of Mannequin Soldier tokens placed so far is 5, and since "6 or more" must be placed, one more Mannequin Soldier card is turned over.
The third revealed card is "3 tokens in Area 1." So you must place 3 Mannequin Soldier tokens in Area 1, but there is only 1 empty spot left in Area 1 (4). The remaining two Mannequin Soldier tokens cannot be placed on the Central City Board, so you place them on the damage track on the Round Board (5).
The total number of Mannequin Soldier tokens placed is 8 including those placed on the damage track, which is "6 or more," so the step "Appearance of Mannequin Soldiers" is completed.
5. Damage Check
Characters in the same space as Boss or Mannequin Soldier tokens take 1 damage (only take 1 damage even if there are multiple Boss and Mannequin Soldier tokens in the same space). Move the Character Life marker above your Character Summary one space to the right to reduce life.
Player Turns
During the player turns, each turn is performed clockwise beginning with the starting player. Follow the steps below for each turn.
1. Basic Movement
You can move your character up to the number of spaces found on your Character Summary. There can be any number of characters in one space at the same time. Also, your characters' presence does not affect the spots where the Boss tokens and Mannequin Soldier tokens are placed.
Movement Rules
You can move the character from the current space to another space connected by a line. You can move from one space to another connected by one line, representing a distance of 1 space, up to the maximum number of spaces your character can move.
The Character Summary lists the maximum distance that a character can move. You don't have to move the whole distance and you may also decide not to move at all.
Example of Movement
Ed can move up to 2 spaces. So he can be moved from space A to space B. Al is already in space B, but as any number of Characters can be in the same space at the same time, this does not affect Ed's movement. There are Boss and Mannequin Soldier tokens in the same space, too, but this does not affect the movement either.
2. Action
Perform actions listed on your Character Summary. The number of actions that a character can perform in one turn depends on the number of players. You may perform the same action multiple times.
| Number of Players | Number of Characters | Number of Actions per Character |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 4 | 2 |
Action Details
Attack
To attack, take a card from your hand and play it into the Transmutation Circle space of the area where your character is. The section "Attack and Range Rules" below explains how to resolve the Attack. After the attack, the used card remains in the Transmutation Circle space where it was placed. The cards there will be used to meet the conditions of the Transmutation Circle tile (see page 9).
Attack and Range Rules
The space where your character is located is counted as a range of 0 spaces. The spaces connected by a line from there are counted as a range of 1 space, and the spaces connected by a line beyond that are counted as a range of 2 spaces, and so on.
You can damage Mannequin Soldier and/or Boss tokens within the range specified on the card you played. Allocate the specified damage freely to Mannequin Soldier and/or Boss tokens within that range.
Mannequin Soldier tokens can be removed from the Central City Board by dealing 1 damage. Return the removed Mannequin Soldier tokens to the Stock.
If you attack a Boss token, reduce the Boss' life by the amount of damage done, by moving the Boss Life marker above its Boss tile. If the attack reduces the Boss' life to 0, remove the Boss token from the board and flip the Boss tile over. The removed Boss token will be put back in the box.
Even if you cannot deal all of the damage, you may still play the card to perform the attack. You may even play the card if there is no target at all.
Attack Example
Ed attacks with a card with [1 range and 2 damage] (1). First, he chooses to use one damage to defeat and remove the Mannequin Soldier within a range of 1 from his current space (2). He uses the remaining damage to deal 1 damage to Wrath in Ed's current space (range 0) (3). Combined with the damage done before, Wrath's remaining life is now 2 (4). The used card remains in the Transmutation Circle space where it was placed (5).
Replenish
Draw a card from your deck and add it to your hand. Players who have run out of cards in their decks can no longer perform this action.
Move
Like basic movement, you can move your character up to the distance specified on your Character Summary. For how to move the character, follow the movement rules.
Alchemy/Alkahestry (Ed, Al, Mustang, Scar only)
This action is only possible if you have two cards in your hand with paired icons. From your hand, place the two cards with matching icons onto the Transmutation Circle space in the area where your character is located. Perform the Alchemy/Alkahestry action described on your Character Summary. This is a strong attack (see page 11). After this action, the used cards remain in the Transmutation Circle space where they were placed. The cards there will be used to meet the conditions of the Transmutation Circle tile (see below).
Alchemy Example
Since Ed has two cards with paired icons in his hand, he plays both cards together (1) and performs the Alchemy action described on his Character Summary: "3 damage to his current space, 1 damage to all other spaces within a range of 1." First, the Mannequin Soldier at his location is removed (2). Then, the remaining 2 damage are dealt to Wrath in the same space (3). Wrath's life is now 0, so he is defeated. In addition, Ed may deal 1 damage to (and thus remove) one Mannequin Soldier token in each space at a range of 1 (4). The two cards used for Alchemy will remain in the Transmutation Circle space where they were placed (5).
The Reverse Transmutation Circle (Ed, Al, Mustang, Scar only)
With this action, you complete the Reverse Transmutation Circle in the area where your character is. To perform this action, the conditions of the Transmutation Circle tile in the area where your character is located must be met. Cards that are not needed to meet the conditions may also be in the Transmutation Circle space. The 5 Transmutation Circle tiles have the following conditions (the number is how many tiles of that type there are):
| Tiles | Condition |
|---|---|
| 2 | There are at least 3 cards of one color and at least 2 cards of a different color in the Transmutation Circle space. |
| 1 | There are at least 4 cards of the same color in the Transmutation Circle space. |
| 1 | There are at least 4 cards of 4 different colors in the Transmutation Circle space. |
| 1 | There are at least seven cards in the Transmutation Circle space. |
If the conditions are met, flip the Transmutation Circle tile, in the area, face down to complete the Reverse Transmutation Circle. After that, choose one of the three face-up Transmutation Bonus cards on the Round Board and immediately resolve its effect (see page 11). Discard the used Transmutation Bonus card and reveal a new Transmutation Bonus card.
Reverse Transmutation Circle Example
The condition of the Transmutation Circle tile of Area 1 where Al is currently located is "4 cards of 4 different colors". Currently, there are 4 cards of different colors in the Transmutation Circle space of Area 1, which meets this condition. Al performs the Reverse Transmutation Circle action and flips the Transmutation Circle tile over. Thus, the team is one step closer to winning the game. After that, Al chooses one of the face-up Transmutation Bonus cards on the Round Board and immediately resolves its effect.
Companion (Hawkeye, Greed only)
With this action, you can use 1 of the Transmutation Bonus cards next to your Character Summary. The used bonus card is then discarded.
Your turn ends once you have performed the specified number of actions. The turn moves to the next player in clockwise order. Once all players have taken their turn, the round is over. Pass the Start Player marker to the player to the left and start the next round with the Homunculus turn.
6. End of Game
The game ends as soon as the victory condition or one of the defeat conditions is met.
Victory Condition
- All 5 Transmutation Circle tiles have been flipped face down.
Defeat Conditions
- There are seven Mannequin Soldier tokens on the damage track.
- Any of the characters' life reaches 0.
- There are no Mannequin Soldier tokens left in the Stock.
- The victory condition is not met at the end of the 7th round.
As soon as the 5th Transmutation Circle tile is flipped face down, the game ends immediately and you win! If one of the defeat conditions is met before all Transmutation Circle tiles have been flipped face down, the players are defeated and the game ends immediately. If the players win, Father's ambitions will be thwarted and peace will return to Amestris. If the players are defeated, Father will have everything in his hands as he intended and will be equal to God. Play again and save the world next time!
7. Effects and Special Actions
Character Actions
Edward Elric Alchemy: Deal 3 damage to the character's current space and 1 damage to all other spaces within a range of 1.
Alphonse Elric Alchemy: Deal 3 damage to spaces within a range of 3.
Roy Mustang Alchemy: Deal 2 damage to the character's current space and 1 damage to all other spaces in the same area.
Riza Hawkeye Companion: During set up, you take 2 Transmutation Bonus cards with the Companion icon shown on the card and place them next to your Character Summary, and with this action you can use 1 of those two Transmutation Bonus cards. The used Transmutation Bonus card is then discarded.
Greed & Ling Yao Companion: During set up, you take 2 Transmutation Bonus cards with the Companion icon shown on the card and place them next to your Character Summary, and with this action you can use 1 of those two Transmutation Bonus cards. The used Transmutation Bonus card is then discarded.
Scar Alkahestry: Deal 4 damage to the character's current space.
Transmutation Bonus Card Effects
Maria Ross Restore a total of 2 life for any character(s). One character may recover 2 life or two characters may each recover 1 life.
Jean Havoc Any player(s) may draw a total of 2 cards. One player may draw two cards or two players may each draw one card.
Lan Fan Move any one character to any space on the Central City Board.
Fu Deal 2 damage to any one Boss or deal 1 damage each to 2 different Bosses.
Alex & Olivier Armstrong Remove one Mannequin Soldier token from each area and return them to the supply.
Winry Rockbell Any one player draws a card. In addition, one character restores 1 life.
Van Hohenheim Return 2 Mannequin Soldier tokens placed on the damage track to the Stock.
Mr. and Mrs. Curtis Remove 3 Mannequin Soldier tokens from any one area and return them to the supply.
May Chang Remove any 2 Mannequin Soldier tokens from the Central City Board and return them to the supply.
Black Hayate Place this card in any Transmutation Circle space like a Character card. This card can be used as a Character card of any color to meet the conditions of a Transmutation Circle tile.
Boss Abilities
Wrath Deal 1 damage to all characters in the outermost spaces.
Sloth March all Mannequin Soldier tokens in Area 1, Area 2, and Area 3.
Envy Place two Mannequin Soldier tokens in Area 3.
Pride Deal 1 damage to all characters in Area 3, Area 4, and Area 5.
Solf J. Kimblee Place a Mannequin Soldier token from the Stock on the Damage Track.
Event Card Effects
- Move all characters to the innermost space of the area where they are currently located. Any characters already in the innermost space do not move.
- Discard a total of 2 cards between all players. Discuss and decide who will discard cards from their hand. One player may discard two cards. If the total number of cards in all players' hands is 1 or less, discard as many as possible.
- One player must discard 1 card. Discuss and decide who will discard a card. If all players have 0 cards, this effect is ignored.
- Deal a total of 2 damage to any characters. Discuss and decide who takes the damage. One character may take 2 damage.
Rule Changes When Playing with 1 or 2 Players
The following changes will be made to the game preparation for playing with 1 or 2 players:
- The number of Mannequin Soldier tokens placed during Set Up is changed to "4 or more" instead of "9 or more."
- Turn over one of the two Transmutation Circle tiles with the condition below (the tile marked "0=0=0 / 0=0"). The goal of the game is to flip the remaining 4 Transmutation Circle tiles face down.
Tips
- To use Alchemy/Alkahestry, you need two cards with paired icons. You may also use them separately instead, to resolve a normal Attack action.
- After an area's Transmutation Circle tile has been flipped face down, you may still use cards to perform Attack and Alchemy/Alkahestry actions in that area.
- Communication is the key to victory. It's a good idea to share information about your hand as much as possible. At the beginning of each round, you can increase the chance of winning by deciding who deals with which crisis on the Central City Board.