Glorantha: The Gods War – Elder Races
Glorantha: The Gods War – Elder Races Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
II. Components
Elder Races Components
Elder Races are neutral, independent peoples that any empire may recruit through diplomacy or special conditions, each with its own Loyalty Card and unique special abilities. The box includes: 3 Ducks; 3 Dwarfs (The Mostali); 3 Elves (The Aldryami); 3 Slarges (Reptile Folk); 3 Vadeli Raiders; 3 Luathans; a Dragonewt Inhuman King; a Giant; a Maidstone Archer; a Dragonewt Scout; 3 Boggles; 3 Waertagi Dragonships; 3 Scorpion Men; 12 Loyalty Cards (Dwarfs, Elves, Waertagi, Ducks, Boggles, Giants, Luathans, Maidstone Archers, the Vadeli, Scorpion Folk, Slarges, Dragonewts); 10 Gifts (Vadeli, Dwarf, Waertagi, Elf, Boggle, Duck, Scorpion Folk, Luathan, Slarge, Maidstone Archer); a Dragonewt marker; an Aldrya marker.
Each Loyalty Card names the elder race's mortal minion/hero stats (cost and combat), its Pre-Requisite (if any), Setup, Alliance procedure (how an empire recruits them via diplomacy), Special Abilities, and a HeroQuest condition. For example, the Slarges (Reptile Folk) card (Cost 3, Combat 1 or 3): Pre-Requisite: Umathela must be on the map. Setup: Place a Slarge in Umathela. Alliance: normal diplomacy procedure. Special Ability — Generation Alternation (Battle; Ongoing): Before rolling combat dice, roll a die. On a roll of 1-3, each Slarge in the battle has a combat of 1. On a roll of 4-6, each Slarge has a combat of 3. If you need to check a Slarge's combat when not in a battle, follow the same procedure. HeroQuest: No Slarges are in your pool. The Dragonewts card describes a four-stage evolution track (Scout → Warrior → Priest → Noble/Dragon Hero), with Rebirth (Council Phase; Ongoing): each time the Dragonewt is killed in Battle, you may choose to rotate the evolution marker one step counter-clockwise instead of returning it to the Scout level; and Dragon Magic (Power Phase): if the Dragonewt is a priest, it provides 2 Power; if it is a noble, it provides 1 Power and 1 VP; if it is a Dragon Hero, it provides 2 VP.
XII. Elder Races
Elder Races is an expansion for Glorantha: The Gods War. It contains mini-factions, with whom any player may ally.
Elder Race Setup
Players should collectively decide how to choose which Elder Races to include in their game, either randomly or by intentional selection. We recommend adding one Elder Race per player.
If the Scorpion Folk were selected to be part of your game, randomly select one additional Elder Race to include in your game. Once Elder Races have been chosen, set them on the map according to their loyalty cards. Some races must start the game on specific areas of the map, while others do not start the game in play. If a selected race's "home" area is not present due to the configuration of your map, discard that race's loyalty card and select again.
Note: A race chosen by a player may turn out to be different from the race with whom they ally.
At the start of the game, all elder races are neutral; neutral units may not be attacked. While neutral, these units' racial abilities and Heroquests are not available. A neutral elder race can only be affected by an empire's attempt to form an alliance with it, as described below.
Diplomacy (Gaining an Elder Race as an Ally)
All elder races have an Alliance Method printed on their loyalty cards. In most cases, enticing an elder race to ally with you involves sending an emissary to their Citadel (the area of the map containing their neutral unit(s)), followed by use of the new Diplomacy action; this action is ONLY used if you are including the Elder Races expansion in your game.
Diplomacy (cost: 1)
Unless a race's loyalty card states otherwise, you must have a unit in the same area as an Elder Race AND you must not yet have an Elder Race as an ally.
To perform the Diplomacy action, spend 1 Power and roll a die. If your roll is equal to or less than the combined cost of ALL your units in the area, that Elder Race allies with you. If you roll a 6, one of your units in the area is killed (you choose which one). Otherwise, nothing happens. (If you have units whose combined cost is 6 or greater AND you roll a 6, you lose a unit but also successfully gain the race as an ally.)
When an Elder Race allies with you, take its loyalty card and all its units. Some Elder Races trigger effects when they become allies. Units belonging to the Elder Race with whom you allied are now yours to do with as you please.
Note: Some Elder Races follow special alliance rules. Please follow these where required.
Benefits of an Elder Race Ally
Once you are allied with an Elder Race, their units are yours to control; for all game purposes, they are considered to be a part of your empire. When not on the map, their units go into your pool and you can summon them as you would any of your other units. To other players, your elder race units are "enemy units" and are valid targets for any action, gift, ability, or rune that targets such units. Your allied elder race units are also affected by your gifts and abilities (e.g., elder race units allied with Darkness may freely exit Hell, elder race units allied with Sky are affected by the Sun God's Dawn ability, and elder race units allied with Sea cannot use sea-crossing arrows).
In addition (and sometimes more importantly), you gain the use of your allies' unique ability (printed on their loyalty card).
Most elder races also have a unique gift that can be earned by achieving the Heroquest printed on their loyalty card (exactly as with your own Heroquests). Once an elder race's gift is earned, place the gift tile in the Heroquest slot of that race's loyalty card. This gift is now active, and you may use as if it were your own gift. However, you do not gain Power or VP for an elder race gift during the Power or Council Phases, since they are not a part of your empire's Heroquest fragments.
Note: You may only have ONE Elder Race as an ally. Once you have an ally, you may not use Diplomacy again. (Exception: Scorpion Men)
Elder Race Notes from the Core Rules
The following two passages are printed in the base sections of the combined rulebook; they are reproduced here because they refer specifically to the Elder Races.
Gifts (Section VIII, Heroquests, Gifts, Abilities, and Runes): The terms "gift" and "gift tile" are used interchangeably. The Elder Races expansion makes a distinction between "empire gifts" and those originating from elder races, which are called "elder race gifts." Details on this distinction can be found in the Elder Races section.
Units (Section V, Action Phase): Note: Some units may seem like they are "restricted" to water or land areas, like sea serpents or scorpion men. They're not.
XIV. FAQ
Elder Races
Q. Can I remove a building to satisfy a kill taken as a failed Diplomacy roll? A. No, because a building cannot be "killed" and failed Diplomacy is not a battle. It also doesn't count towards the cost of the Diplomacy effort.
Q. Can I choose an Elder Race unit to be affected by Chaos' Oblivion? A. Yes.
Q. The Dragonewt description says that if a Dragonewt is "eliminated instead of killed," it restarts at the base level. Isn't a kill a type of elimination? A. Normally yes, but here we are distinguishing between kills and other types of elimination. For instance, if the Dragonewt is destroyed by a rune, it comes back as a Scout. If it is killed in battle, it can advance a stage.
Q. Can Chaos use the Dwarf's Construction action to place an Imbedded Chaos Nest? What if Chaos does not yet have the Imbed gift yet? A. Yes, to both. Construction allows the Dwarfs to ignore building requirements.
Q. If a Duck is killed in battle, thus earning the Duck gift, can it immediately be applied in Post-Battle? A. No. A gift earned in battle doesn't start taking effect until after the entire battle is completed.
Q. If I have two Luathans in an area when I use Devastate, do I lose both of them? A. You only have to lose one of them. The other gets routed, like any other unit.
Q. Does the Luathans' Devastate also affect Monsters/Spawn? A. Yes, as "all other units rout" and Monsters and Spawn are units. This has the potential to eliminate Mother of Monsters if she can't rout.
Q. Can a Waertagi Dragonship move into a land area? A. Yes, but it can only use its Major Invasion gift when it is in a sea area.
Q. If my Waertagi Dragonships are routed, do they go to the same area as my other routed units? A. Yes, even if that would rout your Dragonships more than 1 area away.
Q. How can I be certain to remember the action chosen by the Slarge Obsession gift? A. If you think players are likely to forget, or you must stop play for a period of time, we suggest noting the action on a scrap of paper and putting it on top of the face-down gifts.
Q. The Dragonewt rune is used against a Dragonewt unit; what happens? A. If a Dragonewt unit is replaced through the use of the Dragonewt rune, this does not reset the Dragonewt unit's stage. When it returns to play, it will return in the same stage it was in when it was replaced.
Other FAQ items naming Elder Races
Q. What happens if Moon's Enslavement gift is active and she routs a neutral unit, such as one of Mother of Monsters' Spawn? Does that unit go to the Slave Pen? A. No. The ONLY units that can be Enslaved by Moon are those controlled by an empire. Elder race units allied to an empire may be Enslaved in this manner, but neutral units, including neutral elder race units or the above-mentioned Spawn, may never be Enslaved.
Q. How does Juggernaut's Community ability interact with other movement-type abilities? What about those of elder races, or other monsters? A. ANY movement-type ability will trigger Juggernaut's Community ability.
Q. Without any heroes or greater gods, how can Invisible God kill Androgeus? A. He can't, unless he allies with an Elder Race that is classified as a hero.