Hero Brigade

Hero Brigade Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components

1x Hero Deck (blue borders) - 24 cards
1x Villain Deck (red borders) - 24 cards
1x Resource Deck (green borders) - 57 cards
1x Starting Player Marker
Health Counters

Base Hero Deck: 1x Dr. Cat; 2x BERT; 2x Chill Factor; 2x Johnny Pyro; 2x Vasilisa; 2x Xiang; 7x Police Officer; 2x Reinforcements.

Base Villain Deck: 1x Prof. Dog; 2x Chinese Calculus; 2x Fred the Talking Potato; 2x Natural Disaster; 2x The Mime; 2x The Excrementalist; 7x Henchman; 2x Reinforcements.

Kickstarter Stretch Goals: 2x Citizen Beta (Hero); 2x Little Maple (Hero); 2x Armakillo (Villain); 2x Big Brain Brett (Villain); 1x Bro; 1x Fist; 1x Tiger-Mother; 1x The Log; 1x Audrey, The Pixie; 1x Katherine, The Nereid; 1x El'Desta, The Elf.

Note: Remove all Stretch Goals cards when first learning how to play the game. Stretch Goal cards can be substituted in later on a one-for-one basis to add more variety to later play-throughs.

Card Overview

Cards in Hero Brigade come in two types - Characters and Enhancements.

Characters represent those allies who will live and die for you in the upcoming fight-to-the-death struggle that is Hero Brigades.

Enhancements represent additional items and powers that are attached to Characters, boosting their prowess.

Character Card

Name
Hit Points - Hit Points a Character starts with. They're lost by being dealt damage, and a Character is Defeated if they have 0 or fewer Hit Points.
Value - The number of cards removed from your deck when the Character is Defeated. Not a good thing.
Type - A Type has no inherent effect, but grants its card an attribute which may be referenced by card effects. A Character may have multiple Types. Example: Vasilisa has two Types: Magic and Hero.
Ability Box - A Character may have multiple Abilities, each belonging to one of four Ability Groups: Front (F), Support (S), Play (P), or Gain (G). Each Ability Group may have multiple Abilities. Each Ability has a name and an effect. Each Ability name will be in bold text followed by a colon (not of the intestinal variety).

Enhancement Card

Name
Enhancement Type - Specifies what Type a Character must be to allow this Enhancement to attach to it.
Ability Box - An Enhancement may have multiple Abilities, each belonging to one of two Ability Groups: Enhance or Play. Each Ability Group may have multiple Abilities.

Setup

To prepare a game of Hero Brigade, the following steps are performed in order:

Shuffle the Resource deck and place it face-down in the middle of the play area, between the two players.
Place the dice and tokens to one side of the play area, within easy reach.
Determine the Starting Player by any means you choose and pass them the Starting Player Marker.
The Starting Player chooses and takes either the Hero deck or the Villain deck; the opponent takes the other.
Each player shuffles their deck (whilst mentally preparing to wage battle) and places it face-down in their personal play area.

Rules Terms

The following terms are used in the rules:

Active Player: The player currently taking a turn during a Play Phase or a Fight Phase.
Disabled: A card in play that can't be used again this round, indicated by being turned sideways.
Party: All the cards a player has in play.
Ready: A card in play that's available to be used.
Starting Player: The player with the Starting Player Marker.

Playing The Game

Hero Brigade is played over a number of rounds, with each round consisting of the following four Phases, performed in order:

Draw: Each player draws cards from their deck to fill their hand.
Play: The players take turns playing cards from their hand.
Fight: The players take turns battling their opponent using their deployed cards.
Cleanup: Discard unused cards and prepare for the next round. The Starting Player Marker is passed to the other player.

Important: The Fight Phase is not performed on the first round.

Rounds continue until the game ends.

Winning The Game

The game can end in three ways:

Party Depletion: The game ends immediately if one or both players have no cards in their Party at the end of a Fight Phase; if one player still has cards in their Party, they win. If both Parties are empty at the end of the Fight Phase, the current Starting Player wins.
Deck Depletion: The game ends immediately if one or both players cannot draw 4 cards in the Draw Phase. If one player did draw 4 cards, they win; otherwise, move to a tie-breaker.
Resource Depletion: The game ends at the end of the current round if there are less than 4 cards in the Resource Deck at the start of the Draw Phase UNLESS the game ends earlier by another means. If the game does not conclude at the end of the Fight Phase due to Party Depletion, move to a tie-breaker.

Tie-Breaker: The player with the highest total card Value in his Party wins. In the event of a tied Party Value total, the current Starting Player wins.

Draw Phase

Draw 4 cards from the Resource Deck and place them face-up in the Pool (i.e. a common area within reach of both players).

Each player draws 4 cards from their deck.

Play Phase

Starting with the player who has the Starting Player Marker, players take turns resolving one card at a time from their hands. Cards resolve fully before the next card is played.

Once a player has elected to pass, they can resolve no more cards this Phase, but they can still execute Interrupts and Reactions in their hand that are in the "Play" Ability Group.

The Play Phase concludes when both players have passed and/or have no cards in their hand.

Character: Each card can be resolved in one of three ways:

Deployed in the leftmost empty position in the player's Front Row,
Deployed in the leftmost empty position in the player's Support Row, or
Played, resolving the card's Play Ability.

A player's Party consists of two rows:

The Front Row, containing 3 positions, and
The Support Row, containing 2 positions,

as shown below.

A player cannot deploy a Character in their Party if they already have a Character with that same Name in their Party. This deployment rule does not apply to Enhancements, nor to Characters with a Type of "Normal".

If your Party is full (no more empty positions in the Front or Support Rows), you may not Deploy any more Characters to your Party until there is a vacancy.

Enhancement: An Enhancement can be resolved in one of two ways:

Attach it to a Character that has a Type that matches one of the Enhancement's Types, or
Played, resolving the card's Play Ability.

A Character may have multiple Enhancements attached to it, but cannot have more than one with the same Name attached to it.

Example: BERT cannot have 2 Alien Ships attached to him, but could have an Alien Ship and a Science Gizmo attached to him. Elsewhere in your Party, The Star-King could have an Alien Ship attached to him.

Play Ability: A card used for its Play Ability is first placed on the player's discard pile and then its Play Ability is resolved.

You can resolve a Play Ability of a card that has the same name as a Character that's already in the Party, as this card is being played, not deployed.

Fight Phase

Starting with the player who has the Starting Player Marker, players take turns performing their Character's Abilities.

In a turn, the active player chooses one of the Ready Characters in their Party and executes all its useable Abilities. Useable Abilities are those listed under the Ability Group that matches the row where the Character is positioned in the Party.

Example: If a Character is in the front row, its useable Abilities are those listed in the Front Row Ability Group.

If a Character has multiple useable Abilities, resolve each, in order, from left to right and then top to bottom. Each useable Ability must be resolved in its entirety before moving on to resolve the next.

Example: The Excrementalist is in the Front Row and therefore has three useable Abilities, each being "Telekinesis - 1 DMG to one Target". First, resolve the first instance of Telekinesis. Then, resolve the second instance (same or different Target). Finally, resolve the third instance (same or different Target).

When the last of a Character's useable Abilities has been resolved, Disable that Character (by turning the card sideways) to indicate that it cannot participate again during this Fight Phase.

A player can only pass if they have no Ready Character in their Party. If a Character has no useable Abilities, a turn must still be spent Disabling it.

The Fight Phase concludes once all deployed Characters, for both players, are Disabled.

Cleanup Phase

Both players discard all cards remaining in their hands.

Remove all cards remaining in the Pool from the game.

Set all Disabled Characters to Ready.

Pass the Starting Player Marker to the other player.

Deck Management

When a player's deck is empty, that player immediately shuffles their discard pile to re-form their deck. They then remove the top card from their newly shuffled deck and Banish it. Banishing a card is defined as placing it on the player's personal Banished pile, in effect removing it from the deck. This is commonly known as "burning" or "trashing" in other games. This generally isn't what you want, given that you lose if your deck gets too small!

Reshuffling and Banishing the top card takes precedence over all other processes.

Example: You are drawing a new hand of 4 cards at the start of the turn but only have 2 cards in your deck. You draw the remaining 2 cards, shuffle and Banish the top card, and draw the remaining 2 cards necessary to get your hand to 4 cards.

When drawing or discarding multiple cards, each draw or discard is performed one at a time. When multiple cards are discarded at the same time, the owner decides the order in which they're discarded.

Discard piles are face-up, with just the top card visible, but may be perused by either player.

Card Effects

Important: When a card effect directly contradicts the rules, the card effect takes precedence.

Hit Points and Defeat

When a Character is dealt damage, its Hit Points are reduced by the amount of damage dealt. Dice are provided as a means of keeping track of each Character's remaining Hit Points.

When a Character is reduced to 0 Hit Points (or less), it is Defeated. It first completes any useable Reactions it may have, and is then moved to the owner's discard pile, together with all Enhancements attached to it (in order of the player's choosing). The Defeated card's owner must then draw an amount of cards from their deck equal to the Defeated card's Value and Banish these drawn cards.

Example: Xiang is Defeated during the Fight Phase and you only have one card left in your Hero Deck. Xiang has Value 2. Place Xiang on the discard pile, then Banish the top card of your deck. Shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck, and Banish the top card - the price of forming a new deck. Then draw and Banish one more card to satisfy Xiang's Value of 2.

Ability Groups

Ability Groups include Front, Support, Enhance, Play, and Gain.

The rules have previously defined when an Ability in each of the first 4 groups is useable.

An Ability in the Gain Ability Group is useable when it's on a card that is being gained. A card is gained when it's either:

Acquired from the Pool or,
Drawn from the Resource Deck in order to be added to a player's hand, deck or discard pile.

A Gain Ability is executed before its card reaches its destination (hand, discard pile, deck) by the player performing the gain.

Ability Types

An Ability is either Passive or Active.

Passive Abilities include:

Constants: marked in italics
Interrupts: marked with an (I)
Reactions: marked with an (R)

An Ability that is not a Passive Ability is by definition an Active Ability.

The player who is executing an Ability is called the executor.

Mandatory Abilities

All Active and Constant Abilities are mandatory - they must be executed when the rules oblige them to be executed.

If a mandatory Ability contains the word "may", then the card effect is still considered executed, but the player can decide not to apply its effect.

If a mandatory Ability cannot be fulfilled or has no effect on the game state for whatever reason, the Ability is still considered to be executed.

Example: If an effect instructs you to Banish a card from your discard pile, but there are no cards in your discard pile, then there is no effect. The Ability is still considered executed.

A mandatory Ability must complete its resolution, even if the Ability's card leaves play before the Ability has completed its execution.

Example: Mallardiction, Duck-Pope's Wrath of the Duck-God Ability Defeats all cards with 3 HP or less, and this includes himself! Even after Mallardiction is Defeated from his own Ability, you continue checking all characters and Defeat any who currently have 3 HP or less.

If an Ability does not specify "opposing", then an Ability can, and sometimes is forced to, affect cards belonging to the executor.

Passive Abilities

Constant Ability

A Constant Ability is always in effect while the Ability's Group matches its card's position in the Party, even if the card is Disabled.

Examples of Constant Abilities include Damage Reduction and Unaffected.

Damage Reduction (denoted as "DR (X)") is a Constant Ability which, each time the Character is dealt damage, reduces the amount of dealt damage by X. Damage Reduction cannot reduce Penetrating Damage however.

Example: Bert's Armor Ability provides "DR 1". Each time Bert takes damage, he reduces that amount by 1. Which is really quite useful against The Excrementalist, by the by.

Unaffected is a Constant Ability which makes the Character immune to all damage and effects specified by the Ability.

Example: Xiang is Unaffected by Row Attacks. This means he cannot be affected by Natural Disaster's Earthquake Row Attack or Chinese Calculus' Play Ability that deals 1 damage to one Row.

An Unaffected Ability may also specify immunity to Abilities on cards of a named Type.

Example: Madame Romalda suffers no damage from -- and is not affected by -- cards which have the "Magic" Type.

Unaffected Characters can be Targeted by cards and Abilities to which they're immune, but they take no damage and suffer no consequences from such effects.

Interrupts

An Ability marked with an (I) is an Interrupt.

An Interrupt is useable if its Ability Group matches its card's position in the Party, or during the Play Phase if its Ability Group is "Play". An Interrupt is useable even if its card is Disabled.

An Interrupt is optional, and may be executed when the Interrupt's triggering condition is met, as long as the Interrupt is useable. The Interrupt is executed immediately upon the triggering effect being declared, but before the triggering effect is resolved.

An Interrupt can be executed once each time its triggering condition is met.

Example: Your opponent deploys a card during the Play Phase. Before it resolves, you trigger Madame Romalda's Clairvoyant Ability from your hand (as it's a Play Ability and this is the Play Phase). The Clairvoyant Ability interrupts and resolves before your opponent's card resolves; in this case, cancelling the opponent's deployment.

A maximum of one Interrupt can be executed in response to any one triggering condition. If multiple Interrupts are eligible and wish to be used, then the active player decides which Interrupt will be executed.

Reactions

An Ability marked with an (R) is a Reaction.

A Reaction is useable if its Ability Group matches its card's position in the Party, or during the Play Phase if its Ability Group is "Play". A Reaction is useable even if its card is Disabled.

A Reaction is optional, and may be executed when the triggering condition specified by the Reaction is met, as long as the Reaction is useable. The Reaction is executed immediately upon completion of the effect that triggers the Reaction, even if the Reaction card is Defeated by the triggering effect.

A Reaction can be executed once each time its triggering condition is met.

Example: The Deadly Duelist is dealt damage that reduces its Hit Points to 0. Its Riposte Reaction first deals damage back to the card that attacked it, potentially Defeating it ... and then the Deadly Duelist is moved to the discard pile and, having a Value of 3, three cards are Banished.

A maximum of one Reaction can be executed in response to any one triggering condition. If multiple Reactions are eligible and wish to be used, then the active player decides which Reaction will be executed.

Targets and Unassigned Damage

This is a kind of long and super-boring section, but it's essential to gameplay. Sorry.

Here's the short breakdown:

If there's a valid Target in the opponent's Party, you have to use your Character's Ability on a Target. This can even be a Target in your own Party, such as if you have a Clone/Spy/Twin clogging up a Party position.
If there isn't a valid Target in the opponent's Party, you can target something in your own Party, choose not to resolve that Ability, or do unassigned damage.
Unassigned damage comes from Row Attacks when there are empty positions or attacking an empty row when there are no valid targets. For each point of damage that your attack would do, your opponent has to move one card from the top of their deck to their discard pile. This is commonly known as "milling" in other games.
Exception: You may always choose not to resolve a HEAL Ability.

Here's the long form explanation:

An Ability that specifies "Target" forces the executor to choose a recipient of the effect which fulfills the effect's criteria.

Example: Henchman deals 1 damage to a Front Row Target. The Target cannot be a Character in a Support Row.

Anything that meets the effect's Target criteria is known as an eligible Target. An eligible Target remains eligible even if the Ability would have no effect against that Target.

If there is an eligible Target in the opponent's Party, the executor must choose a Target from all the eligible Targets, which may be from either Party.

Example: If your opponent has a Character in the Front Row, then your Henchman can deal 1 damage to any Character of his choosing in either Party's Front Row - even to a Character that is immune to his damage.

If there is no eligible Target in the opponent's Party, then the executor may choose the Target to be either:

an eligible Target in his own Party, or
a position in the opponent's Party which would meet the Target criteria if a Character had been there, or
the executor may choose not to resolve the Ability.

If an Ability deals damage to an empty position in the opponent's Party, it's called unassigned damage. For each point of unassigned damage, move one card from the top of the opponent's deck to their discard pile. NB. Damage dealt to a Character which exceeds that Character's Hit Points is not unassigned damage.

Example: Henchman deals 1 damage to a Front Row Target, but your opponent has no Character in the Front Row. You may deal 1 damage to one of your Characters in your Front Row, or you may deal 1 damage to one of the opponent's Front Row positions, dealing the opponent 1 unassigned damage.

Where there's a delay between executing an effect and affecting the Target, the Target maintains being the Target, even if it is no longer an eligible Target for the original effect.

Example: Bert's Play Ability allows him to reduce all damage to one Support Row Target during the next Fight Phase. The Support Row Target must be chosen when the Ability is executed, during the Play Phase. If the Target later moves to the Front Row, it still keeps Bert's protection.

If an Ability is performed against an eligible Target that it has no effect against, the Ability is still considered to have been executed.

Example: A Magic Character can Target Madame Romalda, who is immune to Magic cards. The Ability would be considered executed, even though it had no effect.

Important: You may always choose not to resolve a HEAL Ability, but the Character who has that Ability is still Disabled after they execute all of their Abilities for their Party position.

Row Attacks

When resolving an effect that applies to multiple cards, the executor chooses which eligible row to resolve first (opponent's or executor's) and Targets each position in that row, moving from left to right (from the row owner's perspective), resolving the effect on each position entirely before moving on and resolving the next position. Upon completion, the executor chooses the next eligible row and performs the same process, continuing until all eligible rows have been processed.

An Ability that can Target each Character in one row is known as a Row Attack. A Row Attack is resolved following the above process, but there's only one eligible row.

An empty row is a valid Target for Abilities that can Target a Row.

Example: Natural Disaster deals 2 damage to the opposing Front Row. If that Front Row is empty, 6 unassigned damage will result (2 for each empty position). If the Front Row had two Characters in it, each would receive 2 damage and there'd be 2 unassigned damage.

Card Terminology

Acquire: Take a card from the Pool and place it on your discard pile.
Attack: An effect that deals damage.
Banish: Place the banished card on your Banished pile. Banishing a card via an effect is not the same as Defeating a card - it does not trigger the Banishments that result from Defeating a card.
Deploy: Placing a Character in your Party.
Disable: Rotate sideways to indicate the card can't be used this round. If a Target is already disabled, or Defeated, then disabling has no effect.
X DMG: Deal damage equal to X.
DR X: Damage Reduction - a Constant Ability that reduces damage by X each time the card is dealt damage. DR cannot reduce Penetrating Damage however.
FR: Front Row.
FRT (Front Row Target): A chosen Character that's in either player's Front Row. Can be Ready or Disabled.
X HEAL: The Target gains Hit Points equal to X. If no Target is specified, the card with the HEAL Ability gains the Healing. A Character can only gain more Hit Points than their starting level if an effect specifically allows it. You may always choose not to resolve a Heal Ability.
Move: A Character, with all its attached Enhancements, is moved from one position to a different, and empty, position within the same Party.

Example: Chinese Calculus attacks and Targets Johnny Pyro with his Empty Palm Attack. In addition to dealing 2 damage, Johnny Pyro is now Taunted. Because Johnny Pyro is not Defeated by Chinese Calculus' attack, and he isn't Disabled, he must attack back on the Hero player's next turn. Johnny Pyro is forced to use Flaming Fist on Chinese Calculus for 2 damage (1 is reduced by Chinese Calculus' Damage Reduction Ability). Johnny Pyro must then attack the Villain Front Row with Fireball for 1 damage (Chinese Calculus takes no damage from this attack but the Row Attack hits two other positions in that Row). It is now the Villain player's turn again.

Had Johnny Pyro been Defeated by Chinese Calculus' original attack, the Hero player would have taken his turn as normal.

Effects Protocol

To allow the game to flow smoothly and quickly, play the game at a pace at which all players are comfortable that they'll have enough time to declare Interrupts and Reactions as needed. Players may back-track the game a little as long as new information has entered the game and decisions for the next turn haven't yet been declared.

Example of Play

Setup: Nick is the Starting Player and picks the Hero Deck, leaving Colin the Villain Deck.

First Round - Draw Phase: Nick and Colin both draw 4 cards from their respective decks. Nick draws Vasilisa, Chill Factor, and 2 Police Officers. Colin draws Chinese Calculus, 2 The Excrementalists, and a Henchman. The top 4 cards of the Resource Deck are set aside: Clone/Spy/Twin, Mallardiction, Duck-Pope, Bunny Dangerous, and Tactical Maneuvers. These 4 cards form the Pool.

First Round - Play Phase: Nick plays Chill Factor for its Play effect to Acquire Bunny Dangerous. Both cards go to his discard pile. Colin plays one copy of The Excrementalist for the Play effect to Acquire Mallardiction, Duck-Pope. Nick plays Vasilisa for the Play effect to draw one card from his Hero Deck. It's Xiang. Colin plays his other copy of The Excrementalist to Acquire the Tactical Maneuvers. Nick plays Xiang for his Play effect to draw two cards, hoping to get another Police Officer. Success! He draws Chill Factor and a Police Officer. Colin looks to develop his board, so he plays Chinese Calculus in his Front Row in the leftmost position. Nick uses a Police Officer for the Play effect and discards the other two in his hand as part of that play effect. He draws the top card from the Resource Deck, and it's a Magic Tome. Colin plays his last card, a Henchman, in the leftmost position of his Support Row. Nick plays Chill Factor in the leftmost position of his Support Row. He cannot play the Magic Tome, so he passes.

First Round - Fight Phase: There is no Fight Phase in the first round.

First Round - Cleanup Phase: Nick discards the Magic Tome in his hand. The unpicked Clone/Spy/Twin in the Resource Pool is put into the Resource Deck discard pile. Nick passes the Starting Player Marker to Colin.

Second Round - Draw Phase: Nick and Colin both draw a new hand of 4 cards from their decks. Colin draws 2 copies of The Mime and 2 Henchmen. Nick draws 2 Police Officers, a Reinforcements, and Dr. Cat. The top 4 cards of the Resource Deck are set aside to create the new Pool: Sparring Partners, 8th Dimensional Invader, Mutant DNA, and Madame Romalda.

Second Round - Play Phase: Colin uses The Mime for its Play effect and draws 2 copies of Fred the Talking Potato. Nick uses his Reinforcements to Acquire Madame Romalda. Colin uses one Fred to Acquire the 8th Dimensional Invader. Nick uses Dr. Cat's Play Ability to draw from the top of the Resource Deck - it's a Clone/Spy/Twin and goes into his hand. Colin uses his other The Mime to draw 2 cards as well, hoping for a 3rd Henchman card. He draws Natural Disaster and a Henchman. Nick plays the Clone/Spy/Twin in Colin's Support Row, filling it; the useless Clone/Spy/Twin is now part of Colin's deck and is clogging his Support Row until it is Defeated. Colin plays a Henchman and discards the other two to draw from the top of the Resource Deck and nets a Tactical Maneuvers. Nick plays a Police Officer in the leftmost spot of his Front Row. Colin plays Natural Disaster in the middle spot of the Front Row alongside Chinese Calculus. Nick plays his last card, a Police Officer, in the middle of his Front Row. Colin plays the Tactical Maneuvers to swap the positions of Natural Disaster and his Henchman. Natural Disaster is now on the left in his Support Row and the Henchman is in the middle of the Front Row. For the final play, Colin plays Fred the Talking Potato in the rightmost spot in his Front Row.

Second Round - Fight Phase: Colin looks to make short work of Nick and uses Natural Disaster first, Disabling it to indicate that it's been used this Fight Phase. Its Earthquake Attack does 2 damage to the opposing Front Row. Moving from left to right, Nick's Party takes damage. The leftmost Police Officer is Defeated; the middle Police Officer is Defeated. There is no Character in the rightmost Front Row spot for Nick, so he takes 2 unassigned damage. He places the top two cards of his deck (Vasilisa and Johnny Pyro) into his discard pile. Nick uses Chill Factor's Freeze Beam as she is in the Support Row. He elects to deal 3 damage to Fred, putting Fred at 2 HP. Colin uses Fred next and retaliates, dealing 2 damage to Chill Factor, setting her to 2 HP. Fred also heals 1 and goes back up to 3 HP. Colin's Henchman can only attack the Front Row from the Front Row, and he goes next. Since Nick's Front Row is empty, the Henchman's 1 point of damage is unassigned damage, and Nick's top card (a Police Officer) is put into his discard pile. Colin then goes with his last Character, Chinese Calculus, who currently attacks a Front Row Target for 2 damage. Again, Nick's Front Row is empty, so he takes 2 points of unassigned damage, losing the top 2 cards of his Hero Deck (Xiang and Bert) to his discard pile. The Clone/Spy/Twin does not have a useable Ability, so the Fight Phase is over.

Second Round - Cleanup Phase: Both players have empty hands, so no cards are discarded. The unpicked Sparring Partners and Mutant DNA go into the Resource Deck's discard pile. Colin passes the Starting Player Marker back to Nick.

Third Round - Draw Phase: All Disabled Characters are Readied. Nick and Colin draw new hands of 4 apiece. This exactly empties Nick's Hero Deck, so he shuffles his discard pile and flips it back over. After shuffling, he Banishes the top card, a Police Officer; it is removed from the rest of this game and set aside in a Banished pile. Nick's 4 cards are Johnny Pyro, Bert, Bunny Dangerous, and Reinforcements. Colin's 4 cards are 2 Henchmen, Natural Disaster, and Reinforcements. The 4 cards set aside from the top of the Resource Deck to form the Pool are as follows: 2 8th Dimensional Invaders, Magic Tome, and Science Gizmo. Nick uses a Reinforcements to Acquire a Science Gizmo. Colin uses a Reinforcements to Acquire an 8th Dimensional Invader. Nick plays Bert in the leftmost spot on his Front Row. His Damage Reduction and 8 HP will weather quite a storm. Colin's Party is full (3 Characters in the Front Row, 2 in the Support Row), so he cannot play any more Characters to the Party. He uses Natural Disaster for its Play effect. Instead of Acquiring a card, he deals 2 damage to Chill Factor. This reduces Chill Factor to 0 HP - Defeated. It's moved to Nick's discard pile and he must pay its Value of 2 by Banishing the top 2 cards of his deck. Vasilisa and a Police Officer are revealed and both are removed from the game and set aside. Nick plays Johnny Pyro in the middle Front Row. Colin has 2 Henchmen in his hand and nothing to do with them, so he passes, ending his Play Phase. Nick then uses Bunny Dangerous for its Play effect, immediately Defeating Fred the Talking Potato. Colin is forced to pay Fred's cost of 2 and Banishes the top 2 cards of his deck, Professor Dog and a Henchman. Colin has passed already, so he cannot play one of the Henchmen in his hand into his now-empty Party spot.

Third Round - Fight Phase: Nick uses Bert first. He Targets Chinese Calculus with Bert's Clobber Attack. Clobber deals 2 damage but Chinese Calculus has DR 1 and only takes 1 damage, dropping him to 4 HP. Clobber also forces Chinese Calculus to attack Bert back, using up Colin's turn. Chinese Calculus now deals 3 damage back to Bert. Bert also has DR 1, so he takes a net of 2, reducing him to 6 HP. Chinese Calculus would normally "taunt" his Target as well, but Bert has already gone this turn. Nick uses Johnny Pyro next, who has the Flaming Fist and Fireball Attacks while in the Front Row. He uses Flaming Fist on Chinese Calculus for 2 damage. 1 of that damage is reduced due to Chinese Calculus's DR 1, but he still takes 1 net damage and drops to 3 HP. Nick then has Johnny Pyro deal 1 damage to the Front Row. Chinese Calculus soaks this damage completely due to his DR 1, but the Henchman next to him is not so lucky and is Defeated. Colin's rightmost Front Row position is empty as well, so he takes 1 unassigned damage and moves the top card of his deck (a Reinforcements) to his discard pile. Colin then activates his last Character, Natural Disaster, to deal 2 to the opposing Front Row. Bert resists 1 of that damage, takes 1 net, and goes down to 5 HP. Johnny Pyro takes the full 2 damage and drops down to 4 HP. The Clone/Spy/Twin still can't do anything, so the Fight Phase is concluded.

Third Round - Cleanup Phase: Colin discards the 2 Henchmen in his hand. The unpicked 8th Dimensional Invader and Magic Tome are put into the Resource Deck discard pile.

Things were looking grim for Nick for a minute but they're shaping up now! Play continues ...

Video Tutorials

Hero Brigade 01: Character Cards - http://youtu.be/CPR-Q9D6k6w
Hero Brigade 02: Sample of Play - http://youtu.be/KdGVXFNQam8
Hero Brigade 03: Complete Play-Through - http://youtu.be/0LngM0cUrrY

Solo Variant

No gamer buddies around but you still want to play some Hero Brigade? Just opened up the box and want to get your feet wet? No worries, we've got you covered!

Setup

Select either the Hero or Villain Deck to play. Remove all 5 8th Dimensional Invaders from the Resource Deck and set them aside. Remove one copy of each of the opposing deck's signature Heroes or Villains and the single copy of the team's mentor (six cards total). Set the mentor (Dr. Cat or Professor Dog) at the bottom of a new face-down pile of cards. Shuffle the 5 other Heroes or Villains from the opposing deck and place them face-down in a random order on top of the mentor. This pile will be henceforth referred to as the Archenemy Deck and each card in it is an Archenemy.

Objective

Defeat all Archenemies in the Archenemy Deck. The game does not end when the Resource Deck runs out or when the opposing Party is empty at the end of the Fight Phase. You will win by Defeating all of the Archenemies or lose by having an empty Party at the end of the Fight Phase or not being able to draw a full hand of 4 at the start of the round.

Sequence of Play

Place the Starting Player Marker next to the Archenemy Deck. The opposing team always goes first. Sorry. Play will follow the normal Play Phase, Fight Phase, and Cleanup Phase sequence of events with a few twists which we'll cover below.

First Round

As with the regular game, the Fight Phase will not take place in the first round. Set up the Resource Pool as normal (top 4 cards from the Resource Deck). Again, the opposing party always goes first but Acquires and plays cards in a very specific manner.

Opposing Party - Play Phase

The opposing party takes the following actions during the Play Phase, listed in the order of importance in which it will perform these actions.

If there are one or more Enhancements that correspond with the current Archenemy in the Pool, the opposing party automatically Acquires those cards and those Enhancements are immediately attached to the Archenemy. Normal rules for Enhancements apply.

Example: If there are two Mutant DNAs in play, The Excrementalist would Acquire one of them and it would be automatically attached, leaving the other Mutant DNA in the Pool. If there was an Astral Projection and a Mutant DNA, both would be Acquired and immediately attached to The Excrementalist. Look out, Heroes!

If there is a Clone/Spy/Twin and you have an empty Party position, the opposing party Acquires it and immediately places it in your Party. It will only Acquire and place one Clone/Spy/Twin per action during the Play Phase.

Note: You may Acquire a Clone/Spy/Twin to prevent the opposing party from playing it on you, but you cannot play it into the opposing Party. You may choose to immediately Banish a Clone/Spy/Twin that you Acquire.

The opposing Party Acquires all Secret Weaknesses in the Pool, which are then immediately placed in your discard pile.

Note: You may Acquire a Secret Weakness to prevent the opposing party from playing it on you. As the opposing party does not have a deck or discard pile, immediately Banish the Secret Weakness.

The opposing Party Banishes the leftmost remaining card in the Pool.

In summary, the opposing party will first try to enhance its Archenemy. If there are no matching Enhancements, it will try to play a Clone/Spy/Twin on you. Failing that, it will try to give you all the Secret Weaknesses in the Pool. After that, it will banish cards in the Pool, one-by-one from left to right.

Second Round

Reveal the top card of the Archenemy Deck; this is the current Archenemy. Place it in the appropriate row as outlined below. Fill all 4 remaining positions with 8th Dimensional Invaders.

Front Row: BERT, Johnny Pyro, Vasilisa, Xiang, Chinese Calculus, The Mime, The Excrementalist
Support Row: Chill Factor, Dr. Cat, Fred the Talking Potato, Natural Disaster, Professor Dog

Special Rules: Archenemies have double their normal Hit Points! Chinese Calculus always does a minimum of 2 damage.

Opposing Party - Fight Phase

Remember, again, the opposing party always goes first. In a case where the opposing party can choose between multiple targets, it will try to attack in the following order:

The Archenemy always goes first.
The 8th Dimension Invaders in the Support Row go before the 8th Dimension Invaders in the Front Row.
The opposing party will try to Defeat a non-Normal Character.
The opposing party will try to attack a non-Normal Character in your Party with the lowest current Hit Points that does not have Damage Reduction.
The opposing party will try to attack a non-Normal Character in your Party with the lowest current Hit Points that has Damage Reduction.
The opposing party will try to attack a Normal Character in your Party with the lowest Hit Points.
The opposing party will attack any remaining valid targets that do not fit the above criteria or deal unassigned damage.

Special Rules: You cannot deal unassigned damage to the Archenemy Deck and no cards are Banished when Archenemies are Defeated.

Subsequent Rounds

When the current Archenemy is Defeated, remove any remaining 8th Dimension Invaders and reveal the next Archenemy. At the start of the next Play Phase, add the next Archenemy in the appropriate position and fill the remaining 4 positions with 8th Dimension Invaders.

If you Defeated Dr. Cat or Professor Dog, congratulations! You have won the game!

General Thoughts on Solo Play

This is a pretty tough solo variant. It may actually seem pretty easy at first during some play-throughs, but the game gets much harder once the Resource Deck is exhausted and you have to defeat the remaining Archenemies without being able to Acquire any new cards. You may also be subject to some very quick losses if a heavy hitter like Natural Disaster is revealed as the first Archenemy and you have an extremely slow draw over the first few turns.

For easier play-throughs, you may remove cards from the Archenemy Deck. In particular, Characters with Damage Reduction (BERT, Chinese Calculus, Vasilisa) become that much more formidable with double their normal Hit Points.

If you want an even harder challenge, remove a Mercenary of your choice other than The Feeder from the Resource Deck and place it on the bottom of the Archenemy Deck. Don't choose The Star-King unless you also enjoy tilting at windmills.

Bunny Dangerous and Captain Mediocre become must-have cards since Dr. Cat and Professor Dog will always be at the bottom of the Archenemy Deck and all of the 8th Dimension Invaders are removed from the Resource Deck.

Because the solo variant is typically a longer game than a normal Hero Brigade duel, use The Feeder with caution.

Mallardiction, Duck-Pope's Front Row Ability can take care of those 8th-Dimension Invaders in a hurry. But, again, use with caution!