Hoplomachus: Victorum Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• A Note from CTG
• Components
• You are a Hero!
• Overview
• The Most Important Rules
• Game References
• Preparing to Play
  • Component Setup
  • Hero Setup
  • Rival Setup
• Hero Tracking Pad Anatomy
  • Tactic Capacity
• About Units
  • Anatomy of a Unit Chip
  • Unit Descriptors
• Tactics Overview
• Blessings
• The Structure of Play
  • Round Phases
• The Travel Phase
  • Moving the Encampment
• The Event Phase
  • Spectating
  • Accepting an Event
  • Resolving Opportunity Events
• Resolving Combat Events
  • Combat Goals
  • Special Rules for Capture the Flag Events
  • Special Rules for King of the Hill Events
  • Preparing for Combat
  • The Rival's Lineup
  • Tactic Assignment Table
  • The Tribune
  • Act Modifiers to the Rival Lineup
  • Your Lineup
• The Flow of Combat
  • General Rules for Combat
  • The Rival's Combat Turn
  • Your Combat Turn
  • Defeated Units
  • The End of Combat
  • Surrendering
• Lethal Events
• The Cleanup Phase
  • Combat Rewards
  • Failed Combat Punishment
• Banes
  • Bag Banes
  • Unit Banes
  • Camp Banes
• Tactics
• Primus and Scion Combat
  • Special Rules for Primus Combats
  • Special Rules for Scion Combat
  • Scion Combat Setup and Preparation
  • Scion Combat Goals
  • Scion Combat Turns
• Upgrading Your Hero with Rewards
  • Increasing Stats
  • Adding and Upgrading Attack Dice
  • Gaining Prowess
  • Gaining Tactics
  • Recruiting Units
• Conflicting Modifiers
• Saving the Game
  • Difficulty Levels
• Recording Your Legacy
• Integrating with Remastered
• Key Terms
• Hero Details
• Quick Reference

A Note from CTG

Revisiting the Hoplomachus franchise was a tricky prospect. On the one hand, we wanted to bring all the games we'd released in our first game lineup to our current standards of production and design. On the other hand, we wanted to do something fresh and new, something exciting that speaks to where board gaming is today and where it's heading tomorrow.

Our approach was to launch two games at once. This one, Hoplomachus: Victorum, is a synthesis of the very best close-quarters combat inspired by Hoplomachus Origins and a recognition of the growing community of solo gamers — a community that we've always supported, and one that has supported us in kind. We wanted to create a truly epic experience for solo immersion, a concept that felt like dropping in to your very own cinematic gladiator story, complete with mythological trappings that feel like nothing else in this gaming space.

We're so pleased at the outcome. Hoplomachus: Victorum is one of the coolest games we've ever made, with lush art, nail-biting battles, and deep strategic choices that can mean the difference between glorious victory or agonizing defeat. It's jam-packed with replayability, too, and we can't wait to hear stories of all the ways players have hacked their way to victory against our collection of scions.

The stuffed nature of the Victorum box is largely thanks to our Kickstarter backers, who smashed Victorum to crowdfunding success far exceeding our expectations. There are scions and heroes in the core box that we'd once considered as expansions down the road, but as you felled stretch goal after stretch goal, we felt we owed it to you to pack everything in. We wanted to plan for the future for Hoplo, but it's our fans who actually paved the way for it, and we're so grateful. We hope you love playing this as much as we loved making it.

Components

• Arena Mats (4)
• Game Mat
• Chip Trays (3)
• Draw Bag
• Stadium Seating
• Scion Reference Cards (8)
• Arena Reference Cards (4)
• Hero Tracking Pad
• Event Cards (105)
  • 35 Sport Event Cards
  • 35 Bloodshed Event Cards
  • 35 Opportunity Event Cards
• Prowess Cards (87)
  • 7 Special Prowess Cards
  • 10 Prowess Cards for each Hero
• Unit Skills Reference, Rulebook, and Scion Epilogue Book
• Faction Unit Chips (48) — 6 Unit Chips for Each Faction
• Arena Chips (10) — Monoliths (4), Beasts (2), Trident, Chariot, Flag, Tribune
• Hero/Primus Chips (8)
• Tactic Chips (12)
• Bane Chips (21)
• Neutral Unit Chips (8)
• Scion Chips (10)
• Scion Bane Chips (9)
• Opportunity Chips (10)
• Health Chips (68) — 34 Red Chips, 34 Blue Chips
• Arena Dice (3)
• Attack Dice (17) — 4 Yellow Dice, 4 Blue Dice, 4 Green Dice, 4 Black Dice, 1 Red Die
• Encampment Token

You are a Hero!

Victorum is a solo game of adventure and arena combat in the world of ancient mythology. Victorum is similar to other games in the Hoplomachus series. Although these rules contain everything you need to play, those who've played other Hoplomachus titles will find familiar rules alongside new ones.

Overview

Victorum is played as a campaign—a monumental epic that tells your hero's story.

To win a campaign, your hero must defeat three primuses and then prevail in battle at Mount Vesuvius against one of Pluto's scions — or even Pluto himself! To do this, you will travel the ancient world competing in events, fighting in arenas, growing your forces, and developing your capabilities wisely.

A campaign has four acts. Each act leads up to your confrontation with one of the three primuses, or with Pluto's scion.

Each act takes place over the course of up to 12 weeks. In each week, something dramatic happens — you might fight fearsome rivals, cross the ancient world, or wage a contest of skill against a local tribune.

If your hero is ever defeated, you lose the game.

The epic nature of Victorum means that you may not always be able to finish a campaign in one sitting. The breaks between acts are the best times to save the game, right after you defeat a primus. When you're ready for a break, refer to "Saving the Game" below.

The Most Important Rules

Like the greatest arenas of antiquity, Victorum is supported by a solid foundation. Its cornerstone rules are:

• The rulebook's precedence: This rulebook, and its official online errata and frequently asked question lists, are the definitive source of the rules of Victorum.
• Component-based exceptions: The rules on individual components — such as those that appear on cards, arena references, and scion references — supersede the rulebook by creating exceptions.
• The word "cannot": The word "cannot" in a component effect means that effect can't be overruled by another game effect.
• The word "may": The word "may" always indicates a choice you can freely make.
• No peeking: Most components in this game are open information. With the exception of those listed below, all of the cards and chips can be looked through at any time.
  • Event card decks (except the frontmost face up card of each deck)
  • Faction stacks (except the frontmost face up chip of each stack)
  • Bane stack

Game References

There are a few pieces of reference material that you should be aware of as you read these rules and play the game. First is the Unit Skills reference, which is a full-sized PVC sheet separate from this rulebook. It features all of the definitions for skills found on unit chips in both this game and Hoplomachus: Remastered. Second is the Quick Reference on the back of this rulebook. This features game information that you will need frequently, reducing your need to refer back to the inside of the rulebook during the game. Lastly is the Key Terms section near the end of this book. This is a list of definitions for important terms in this game. If you come across a term or concept you are unfamiliar with, the Key Terms list is a great place to look.

Preparing to Play

Below are the setup instructions for Victorum. It's important to note that, unlike most games, a majority of the components in this game are set face up. This is intentional, allowing the player to see the next card or chip on the stack and use that information to their advantage when making decisions.

There are a few decisions to be made during setup with regard to selecting a hero and scion. For your first game of Victorum, we have provided suggestions for these setup decisions. These suggestions are red and italicized.

Component Setup

1. Game Mat and Stadium Seating. Place the game mat in front of you and the stadium seating directly above it.
2. Opportunity Chips. Place face down in the center chip slot of the stadium seating. No randomization is needed.
3. Faction Unit Chips. Separate by color, not including the heroes, and randomize them. Stack each group face up in the remaining stadium seating chip slots. Order the factions as follows from left to right: Lamosians, Atlanteans, Pluto's Refugees, New Argonauts, Vesuvians, Amazons, Parthians, and Kunlun. This matches the order of the regions on the map of the ancient world.
4. Event Cards. Separate into three separate decks—Sport, Opportunity, and Bloodshed—and shuffle each one separately. Place the decks face up in the three deck slots in the stadium seating, with the Sport deck on the left, the Opportunity deck in the middle, and the Bloodshed deck on the right.
5. Chip Trays. Place two on the game mat, one in the top left corner and one in the top right corner.
6. Tactic Chips. Place face up in one row of the left chip tray. No randomization is needed.
7. Arena Chips. Place face up in another row of the left chip tray. No randomization is needed.
8. Bane Chips. Ensure you have only the standard banes, not the scion banes with red backs. Randomize and place face down in the final row of the left chip tray.
9. Health Chips. Place all of the red and blue health chips in the right chip tray, sorted by color.
10. Hero Tracking Pad. Place at the top of the game mat, to the left of the health chips.
11. Special Prowess. Place the Special Prowess cards face down above the game mat, to the right of stadium seating. No randomization is needed.
12. To the Side. Place the following items off the game mat but within reach:
    • A pen or pencil.
    • The Unit Skills reference sheet.
    • All of the game's dice. The Stadium Seating also has a dice channel where you may store the dice you roll most frequently.

Hero Setup

Refer to "Hero Details" for information and stats for each of the heroes. You'll need information from that section to complete the steps below.

1. Hero. Select your troop's hero from among the eight options. Place your hero's chip in your camp—the empty area below the hero tracking pad—with the full art side face up. The back side of a hero chip, with stats on it, is ignored. It's used when that chip is being used as a primus rather than as a hero. For your first Victorum campaign, we recommend playing with Krakenlance.

2. Difficulty Level. Choose one of the following difficulty levels:

   • Chosen: The basic difficulty level. It is recommended that players start here and only move up in difficulty when they feel ready for a new challenge.
   • Valiant: A higher level of difficulty for experienced players looking for a tougher campaign.
   • Fearless: The hardest difficulty, for expert players who want a heightened challenge.

   A summary of the adjustments for each difficulty level can be found in "Saving the Game" below. If this is your first campaign, the Chosen difficulty level is recommended.

3. Hero Prowess. Find all of the Prowess cards for your hero. Look through these cards and select a number of your choice to start with according to your difficulty level:

   • Chosen: Three Hero Prowess cards
   • Valiant: One Hero Prowess card
   • Fearless: No Hero Prowess cards

   Place your selected cards face up in the earned Prowess card area of the game mat. Note that some Prowess cards share a name and have a level. These must be gained in order (for example, you can't choose Endurance Level 2 until you've already chosen Endurance Level 1). Place the rest of your hero's Prowess cards face down beside the Special Prowess cards. No randomization is needed. The Prowess cards for all other heroes can be returned to the box. In your first campaign with Krakenlance, we recommend selecting the following Prowess cards: Follow My Lead, Master Tactician, and Grand Entrance.

4. Hero Tracking Pad. Fill in the following information for your hero on your tracking pad: Name, Movement, Range, Class, Health, Leadership, and Attack. Then make the following adjustments according to your difficulty level:

   • Chosen: Start with eight blessings. Increase Health and Leadership by +1 each. Add or upgrade a die in your hero's Attack.
   • Valiant: Start with four blessings. Choose one of the following: Increase Health by +1, increase Leadership by +1, add a die to your hero's Attack, or upgrade an existing die.
   • Fearless: Start with one blessing and three scion influence.

   If this is your first game, we recommended you review "Hero Tracking Pad Anatomy" below to get a better understanding of how it works and to see what Krakenlance's tracking pad should look like. For the choice of adding or upgrading a die that comes with the Chosen difficulty, we recommend you add a die. This gives Krakenlance an Attack of two blue dice and one yellow die.

5. Hero Health. Place a number of red health chips under your hero chip equal to your hero's Health stat. Krakenlance has Health 6, so place six red health chips under him.

6. Neutral Units. From the supply of neutral units, find one of each of the neutral units listed in your hero's details and place them in your camp. Krakenlance starts with an Attacker, Archer, and Defender. These are your camp units and, along with your hero, make up your troop.

7. Tactics.

   • Chosen and Valiant: From the supply of tactics find one of each of the three tactics listed in your hero's details, and place them in your camp.
   • Fearless: Start with no tactics.

   Krakenlance starts with the Adrenaline, Hamstring, and Stun tactics.

8. Arena. Find the arena reference card that matches your hero's home region and place it on the marked spot on the left side of the game mat. Then find the arena mat depicted and place it in the center of the game mat. Note that the cards and mats are double-sided, so you may need to look at both sides to find the arena you are looking for. Place the remaining arena mats and cards to the side within reach. The Atlanteans region is home for Krakenlance, so find that arena's reference and mat.

9. Encampment. On the game mat's map of the ancient world, place the brass encampment token on the capital space (depicting a unique structure) of your hero's home region. This is your starting location. Place the encampment token on the capital of the Atlantean's region.

Rival Setup

1. Scion. Review all of the Scion reference cards and choose which one you will face in your campaign. Place the chip for the chosen scion in the rightmost individual chip slot in the stadium seating, and its card with your reference sheets. Return the other scion chips and cards to the box. For your first campaign, Taotie is the recommended scion.
2. Scion Banes. Under the scion's name on the scion reference card is the name of the scion bane(s) associated with it. Place the identified scion bane chip(s) face down at the front of the bane stack so that it will be first drawn from this stack. Return all other scion bane chips to the box. Taotie adds the Gigantic scion bane to the front of the bane stack.
3. Primuses. Put all the hero chips you did not select into the draw bag and randomly pull three. These are the primuses you will face, one at the end of each of Victorum's first three acts. Place them in the remaining three individual slots in the stadium seating with their stat sides face up. The order in which they are placed does not matter. Return the rest of the hero chips to the box. Instead of randomly selecting, pick the following primuses for your first campaign: Bingqing, Decimus, and The Parthian.
4. Bag Units. Place the remaining neutral units into the draw bag. You'll add to and reduce the bag's contents throughout the campaign, and it will frequently be the source of rival units.

Hero Tracking Pad Anatomy

• Name. Your hero's name.
• Movement. The maximum number of hexes your hero can move in the Movement Step.
• Range. The maximum number of hexes away that your hero can attack.
• Class. Icons representing the four hero classes (Attacker, Archer, Tactician, or Defender). Circle your hero's type.
• Health. The amount of HP your hero starts with, and the maximum amount of HP they can heal to. Your hero's Health is marked by crossing out the appropriate number of heart icons.
• Leadership. The maximum number of units (including your hero) that you can have in your troop at once. Your Leadership is marked by crossing out the appropriate number of banner icons.
• Attack. Indicates which dice your hero rolls when they attack. Each column represents a single die in your hero's Attack. Cross off the dice you start with and all dice icons below them. When you upgrade a die, cross off the die icon above it. Only the highest crossed die in each column is considered for your hero's Attack.
• Blessings. The number of remaining blessings you have to spend. Draw a circle around the blessings you are entitled to, and cross them out as you use them.
• Scion Influence Track. A track of spaces that represent the scion's opportunities to affect you. Each time a scion influence is gained, cross out the next uncrossed space. If the crossed space contains the bane icon, gain a bane.
• Week Track. Four tracks used to chart your progress through the game's four acts, each of which can be a maximum of 12 weeks long. Crossed out hex shapes represent weeks that have passed.

Tactic Capacity

In addition to the variable stats listed on the hero tracking pad, all heroes have a Tactic Capacity of 3. This is the maximum number of tactic chips that you can have in your camp at once. Some Prowess cards may increase this capacity. If at any time the number of tactics in your camp exceeds your Tactic Capacity, you must discard tactics down to your capacity.

About Units

In Victorum, units are game pieces that can fight in combat. Each is represented by a chip.

Anatomy of a Unit Chip

• Name. What the unit is called.
• Movement. How far this unit can move.
• Range. How far away this unit's target can be in combat.
• Health. How resilient this unit is.
• Attack. The dice this unit rolls when attacking.
• Class. What type of unit this is.
• Skills. What exceptional capabilities this unit has.

FACTION

Many units belong to a faction. Their faction is represented by the color of their chip. Apart from heroes, faction units also have a unique back with their faction name printed on them.

The faction names match the regions found on the map of the ancient world, and the corresponding arenas. A unit's faction determines which arena it is local to. Units often act differently in combat when they are local to the arena.

Units that do not belong to any particular faction include scions, neutral units, opportunity units, and bane units.

CLASS

There are five unit classes, each represented by an icon: Archer, Attacker, Beast, Defender, and Tactician.

A unit's class states what type of unit it is. Each class is generally associated with specific skills and/or stats. For example, Tacticians generally have the skill Tactical, and Archers tend to have a Range of at least 2. Game effects may apply to specific classes of units as well.

The Reptilian shown above is of the Defender class.

RANGE

A unit's Range indicates the maximum number of hexes away a target of this unit's attack can be. Range 1 indicates the unit's target must be in an adjacent hex.

The Reptilian shown above has Range 1.

MOVEMENT

A unit's Movement indicates the maximum number of hexes it can move during the Movement Step of its troop's turn.

The Reptilian shown above has Movement 1.

HEALTH

A unit's Health indicates how much HP it starts with. A unit's HP is represented by red or blue chips, which are stacked beneath the unit's chip. When a unit loses or gains HP, chips are removed from or added to its HP stack. Units lose HP when they are dealt damage. If a unit ever suffers damage such that no HP remains under its unit chip, that unit is defeated. Defeated units are placed in their troop's camp face down. If your hero is defeated, you lose the game.

Your units use the red health chips, and all other units use blue. This makes it easy to determine which units are yours at a glance.

When a unit heals, it cannot heal HP above its Health stat. When a unit gains HP in other ways, it can exceed its Health stat without limit.

The Reptilian shown previously has Health 3. When deployed, it would be stacked with three health chips of its troop's color beneath its unit chip.

ATTACK

A unit's Attack shows which of the colored attack dice that unit rolls when it attacks another unit. Each die icon on a unit's chip indicates that one die of the matching color is rolled.

The Reptilian shown previously rolls two blue attack dice.

Dice of different colors have different chances of rolling a hit because they have more, or fewer, faces showing hit icons. Dice with a higher number of hit icons are considered stronger than dice with lower odds.

Each hit icon rolled during an attack deals 1 damage. Dice faces that do not have a hit icon are misses and have no effect.

Each die icon has a number in it corresponding to the number of hit faces it has. This is a helpful reminder for players and assists colorblind players in differentiating them. Each color of attack dice has a unique border as well, with a number of divots corresponding to the number of hit sides it has, for the same reasons.

Die Color	Hit Faces
Yellow	2
Blue	3
Green	4
Black	5
Red	6

SKILLS

Each unit's chip lists the skills it has. All skills are described on the Unit Skills reference.

There are three types of skills. A skill's type indicates when it is active or how it can be used. Innate skills are preceded with the Innate icon (I), Ability skills with the Ability icon (A), and Special skills with the Special icon (S).

• Innate: The skill either has an ongoing effect or an effect that is triggered by a specific circumstance explained in the skill's definition.
• Ability: Used during the Abilities Step of its troop's turn.
• Special: Used during the Engage Step of its troop's turn, instead of attacking.

The Reptilian shown previously has two skills: Taunt (an Innate) and Regen 1 (an Ability).

Unit Descriptors

Some game effects and skills will apply to units with certain descriptors, so it is important to understand what these descriptors mean.

• Local. A unit from the faction matching the current arena.
• Strongest. The unit with the most HP.
• Weakest. The unit with the least HP.
• Closest. The unit that requires the least amount of movement to reach.
• Farthest. The unit that requires the most amount of movement to reach.
• Deadliest. The unit with the most dice in its Attack, regardless of the strength of those dice.
• Least Deadly. The unit with the fewest dice in its Attack, regardless of the strength of those dice.
• Fastest. The unit with the highest Movement.
• Slowest. The unit with the lowest Movement.
• Outnumbered. A unit belonging to a troop that has fewer units in combat than the opposing troop.
• Isolated. A unit that has no allies in combat.

Tactics Overview

Tactics are advantages or hindrances that are applied to units during combat.

There are four basic tactics: Adrenaline, Bolster Health, Hamstring, and Stun.

There are also special tactics. Special tactics are not available at the beginning of a campaign. They are only added through the completion of specific Opportunity cards.

For more information about tactics, see "Tactics" and "Gaining Tactics" below.

Blessings

Blessings are special resources that help you counterbalance unlucky rolls or survive ill-advised decisions. The number of blessings you have when you begin the campaign is based on the difficulty level you choose.

Blessings may only be used in combat. Cross off a blessing when used to gain one of the following effects:

• Survive. Use a blessing when your hero would be defeated to fully heal your hero instead.
• Reinforce. Use a blessing at the start of your turn to recruit random bag units until you have units equal to your Leadership. In lethal events, do not count defeated units as part of your troop.

Blessings cannot be used during the scion fight. However, when you reach that battle, you'll receive a bonus for each blessing you haven't yet spent during the campaign, so it pays to conserve them if you can. See "Special Rules for Scion Combat" below for more details.

The Structure of Play

Each campaign is broken into four acts, and each act can last up to 12 weeks.

An act can end before 12 weeks are up, but an act can never be longer than 12 weeks. "Unused" weeks never carry over to future acts.

The first three acts end when you face a primus. Act IV ends when you face the scion.

Your hero's actions in the world are divided into rounds. A round does not necessarily use up a week. Sometimes a week can contain more than one round.

A round has three phases, which always happen in order:

Round Phases

1. Travel Phase
2. Event Phase
3. Cleanup Phase

A week is used during the Cleanup Phase of accepted events, and also each time a harbor is used. If a harbor is not used and the round's event is not accepted, the week continues into the next round.

The Travel Phase

The Travel Phase uses the map of the ancient world on the game mat.

The map consists of locations, individual spots on the map, that are grouped into eight regions. Each region has an arena that is associated with it.

Locations are connected by paths that are represented by dotted lines. Two locations connected by an uninterrupted path are adjacent to each other.

Each location has a type, which determines how you interact with it.

• Sport. A combat location with a non-lethal goal (for example, king of the hill).
• Bloodshed. A combat location where you must defeat all rival units to prevail.
• Opportunity. A location that provides you with a new supplemental goal and a reward for its completion.
• Harbor. A location that connects distant areas of the map to one another.
• Capital (each has unique art). A combat location where you must face a primus or scion, ending the current act. The capital of your hero's region is also where your encampment starts the game.

Moving the Encampment

To begin the Travel Phase, you must move your encampment token from its current location to a new, adjacent location. You can move freely between regions as long as you move along a path. However:

• You must move during the Travel Phase. That is, you cannot remain in the same location.
• You cannot travel back along the path you most recently traveled (exception: At the start of a new act, you may move in any direction).
• You may ignore harbor locations when moving. That is, you can move right through a harbor to any location on the other side as a single move as if the harbor was not interrupting that path (you aren't required to ignore them, of course—see "Harbors" below).
• You can only enter a region's capital if that region's primus was selected during setup and it has not yet been defeated. Doing so means that you must face that primus and end the current act.
• You may also enter the Vesuvian capital in Act IV, at which time you must face the scion.

HARBORS

Harbors are special locations that allow you to cross the ancient world efficiently.

As described above, you can simply ignore harbor locations when moving, treating them as if they did not interrupt the paths between the locations adjacent to them.

However, you may also choose to use a harbor for long distance travel by following these steps:

1. Sail Between Harbors. Move your encampment from an adjacent location onto a harbor. Then move it to any other harbor on the map of the ancient world.
2. Mark Off a Week. Cross off a week on your hero tracking pad. Note that this is in addition to the week you may mark off in the Cleanup Phase (see "The Cleanup Phase" below for more details). Sea travel takes time!
3. Land at a Port. Move your encampment to any location adjacent to the harbor it is on.

Note that while you can move over harbors or use them for travel as explained above, you can never end your movement on a harbor.

Travel Example: You begin your Travel Phase at the indicated Sport location in the Atlanteans region. Among all the locations shown on this part of the map of the ancient world, there are four places you can go. Three of these available destinations are directly along paths, indicated by the green lines. Note that the southernmost destination in the Lamosians region is available, even though there is a harbor interrupting that path — recall that harbors can be ignored when moving. If you travel to one of these three destinations, you will resolve an event of the appropriate type. The fourth option is to use the harbor to travel to any location adjacent to any other harbor. In this case you might choose to travel to a Sport location at the southern edge of the Amazons region. If you use the harbor to travel here, you must mark off an extra week. You can't move to the northeast. Even though the location in that direction is connected to your current location by a path, recall that you may never retrace your steps by returning to the location you came from during the previous Travel Phase.

Example: You begin the first round of week 11's Travel Phase on the Pluto's Refugees Bloodshed location, and you need to get to the capital of New Argonauts in order to fight the primus in week 12. This would require you to travel and spectate twice in a row before traveling to the capital. Weeks are not marked off when you spectate, but you will need to gain scion influence equal to the act number each time you spectate.

Travel Tips: Since traveling to a capital ends the act, make the most of the weeks allotted to you before then. Remember that primus and scion combats must take place on week 12 at the latest. You should therefore ensure that your travel path will allow you to reach an appropriate capital in the allotted time. Although using harbors can save you time, remember that you must mark off an extra week whenever you use one. Poor planning may force you to spectate in order to reach your destination in time, gaining scion influence and perhaps accumulating banes.

The Event Phase

When you begin the Event Phase, if you entered a capital location, immediately begin a primus or scion combat. Which kind depends on whether it is Act I, Act II, Act III (primus combats), or Act IV (scion combat). See "Primus and Scion Combat" below for more details. However, we recommend that you keep reading about more common events and learn how combat works first before reading about these rarer events.

If you do not begin the Event Phase in a capital, read the top event card from the deck that matches the location your encampment is on: Sport, Bloodshed, or Opportunity.

After you read the event card, you decide whether to accept that event or to spectate instead. If you need to pick up the event card to read it, pick up the entire deck so you do not see the next card.

Spectating

Spectating means skipping the chance to engage with an event this round. You might want to spectate instead of accepting an event if your hero is low on HP, or if you don't feel confident you will be successful in the event. Spectating does not cause the current week to end, so you may also choose to spectate in order to get closer to your destination in less time. However, spectating an event has consequences, because spectating increases scion influence, which ultimately leads you to accumulate banes.

You can never spectate at a capital location—you always engage immediately in primus or scion combat.

When you spectate, follow these steps:

1. Discard the Top Event. Take the card that is currently on top of your location's corresponding event deck, and put it on the bottom of its deck.
2. Draw Three More Cards. Draw the next three cards from the top of your location's event deck. Look at them; then put them back on top of the deck in the order you choose.
3. Increase Scion Influence. Mark off a number of scion influence spaces equal to the current act, moving consecutively along the track (for example, if you are in Act II, mark off two spaces). The bane icon appears on every fourth scion influence space. If you mark a bane space, immediately draw and flip over the top bane chip from the bane stack (see "Banes" below).

Increasing Scion Influence Example: It's Act II, and you choose to spectate an event. Some marks represent scion influence you previously marked. Since it's Act II, you mark two more spaces on the track. Because you have marked a bane space, you must immediately take the top bane chip.

Accepting an Event

How you complete the accepted event is determined by the type of event drawn. Bloodshed and Sport events both result in combat, while Opportunity events do not.

Resolving Opportunity Events

When you accept an Opportunity event, follow these steps:

1. Draw Two Cards. Take the top two cards from the Opportunity Deck. Pick one to acquire, and discard the other.
2. Place in Your Camp. Place the selected Opportunity card in the lower right area of the game mat marked with the Opportunity symbol.

Opportunities provide tasks that may be optionally completed during your campaign in exchange for rewards. There is no limit to the number of opportunity cards you can have in your camp at once.

Completing Opportunities

Any time the criteria for an Opportunity card that's in your camp is met, you may discard that card and gain its reward. This can be done even in the middle of combat. An Opportunity card's reward is shown in the gold banner on the card.

Some Opportunity cards describe a game change you must make in order to open the possibility of completing the card's criteria. These changes are always optional; you can choose whether to make them or not. However, doing so is the only way to set the stage to meet the criteria and complete that card.

For example, the Reckless card shown here says, "Add a bag unit to the end of the rival lineup in a Bloodshed event, and win the event." You may therefore choose, whenever beginning a Bloodshed event, to add one unit to the rival lineup. If you do so and then win the event, you complete the Opportunity and gain the Hero Prowess reward. If you begin a Bloodshed event and do not elect to add one unit to the rival lineup, even if you win the event, you do not earn the Opportunity card reward. Similarly, if you do add one rival unit but then fail to win the event, you also do not earn the reward. The Opportunity card simply remains in your camp and you may try again later.

Opportunity Rewards

The list below outlines the different kinds of Opportunity card rewards.

• Hero Prowess. Gain one valid prowess from among your hero-specific Prowess cards (see "Gaining Prowess" below). You can't gain Special Prowess cards this way.
• Remove a Bane. Freely choose a bane from either your camp or the bag and discard it.
• Recruit an Opportunity Unit. Find the specified unit in the opportunity chip stack and recruit it (see "Recruiting Units" below).
• Gain an Opportunity Tactic. Find the specified tactic chip in the opportunity chip stack and put it in your camp (see "Gaining Tactics" below).
• Gain a Special Prowess Card. Find the specified Prowess card among the Special Prowess cards and add it to the Earned Prowess Card area in your camp.

Resolving Combat Events

Combat occurs for both Bloodshed and Sport events. The cards for each of these types of events have a similar layout.

• Name. The name of the event.
• Event Type. An icon corresponding to this event's type, either Sport or Bloodshed.
• Sport Type(s). Shown on Sport event cards only. If several are shown, you may freely choose what type of Sport event to participate in.
• Rival Lineup. Outlines the units that comprise the rival's lineup. The units are added to the rival camp in order, from top to bottom.
• Your Lineup. Outlines the units that comprise your lineup. Your units need not be deployed in any particular order — see "Your Lineup" below.
• Special Instructions. Additional instructions for this combat. These take precedence over the rulebook.
• Flavor Text. Has no game effect.

Combat Goals

Combat always has a goal, which depends on the type of event that led to the combat. Upon achieving a combat's goal, you win that event.

• Bloodshed Events. Defeat all rival units in the arena rival lineup. After you defeat the last rival unit, you win the event.

• Sport Events. There are three types of Sport events, each with their own individual goals.

  • Capture the Flag: Retrieve the flag and return the flag to one of your deployment hexes.
  • King of the Hill: Earn six points by occupying key hexes in the arena.
  • Spar: Defeat all rival units with the exception of the tribune.

  Sport events can also be won by defeating all rival units. However, this is rarely the ideal win condition, as in doing so you will defeat the tribune and face the associated consequences (see "The Tribune" below).

• Primus Events. Defeat all rival units in the arena's rival lineup, including the primus. After you defeat the last rival unit, you win the event.

• Scion Events. Defeat the scion, unless this game's scion reference card lists additional or alternative requirements. Note that unless stated otherwise, you do not have to defeat all rival units in order to win. Upon completing a Scion event's goal, you win the campaign! You can then read the conclusion to your hero's story in the Scion Epilogue book by finding the entry for your hero in the corresponding scion's section.

Special Rules for Capture the Flag Events

Sport events with a Capture the Flag goal have the following additional, special rules that revolve around the flag chip and its hex.

During the setup of Capture the Flag events, the flag chip is placed in the rival's deployment hex #1.

The flag's hex is not blocked. Rival and arena units can move freely onto or off of the flag's hex, but they do not pick it up. Their goal is not to capture the flag, but rather to make it more difficult for you to do so.

When one of your units moves onto the flag's hex, that unit automatically equips it and becomes the flagholder. Place the flag chip between that unit chip and its HP. While equipped, the flag moves with that unit. If the flagholder is defeated, the flag chip drops on the hex that unit occupied. A unit cannot unequip the flag voluntarily.

When the flagholder moves onto any of your deployment hexes, combat ends immediately, and you win the event.

Special Rules for King of the Hill Events

Special events with a King of the Hill goal have the following additional rules that revolve around occupying certain hexes over time.

At the start of your turn, earn one point for each of your units on a key hex. Each arena reference identifies the key hexes in that arena. The key hexes are marked with the key hex icon. Depending on the arena, the key hex icons will either be found directly on arena hexes, or on one or more arena chips that are used in that specific arena.

When you earn points, use an arena die to track how many points you have. When you reach six points, combat ends immediately, and you win the event.

Rival and arena units do not earn points. They are not trying to occupy key hexes, although their priorities will often attempt to keep you from doing so.

Preparing for Combat

1. Draw the Event. Take the top card of the Sport or Bloodshed deck, as appropriate, and place it on the designated spot to the left of the map of the ancient world.
2. Place the Arena. Find the reference card that matches the region of the ancient world where your encampment is currently located on the game mat. Then locate and place the depicted arena mat in the middle of the game mat.
3. Pick a Sport. If the current event is a Sport event with options, choose which Sport you will participate in.
   • Place the Flag. If this is a Capture the Flag event, place the flag chip on the rival's #1 deployment hex, marked on the arena with the deployment icon.
4. Special Setup Instructions. Note any setup instructions on the current event card, and carry them out at the applicable time during setup.
5. Rival Lineup. Prepare the rival's lineup as dictated by the current event card. Apply act modifiers based on the act. Remember to place tactics for the indicated units.
6. Identify the Tribune. If the current event is a Sport event, identify which rival unit is the tribune and place the tribune chip under its unit chip. In Spar events, the tribune must be the first unit in the rival lineup. In Capture the Flag and King of the Hill, you choose which rival unit is the tribune at this time.
7. Arena Setup. If the arena reference specifies the need for arena chips or any other components, set them up as specified.
8. Review Arena Rules. Review the reference card for the current arena. Each arena has specific rules that must be followed.

The Rival's Lineup

To prepare the rival's lineup, refer to the current event card. The information on the event card will help you stage the rival lineup in the rival camp, which is the left region of the game map. The rival camp has circles with solid or dotted outlines. Solid outlines in the rival camp hold units, and dotted outlines are for tactics.

Refer to the column of icons on the left side of the event card, with the rival icon on top. Read this column of icons from top to bottom. For each local-unit or bag-unit icon, place the associated chip in the topmost empty circle in the rival's unit column. When you place a unit with a tactic icon on it, you'll then place a tactic chip before moving on to the next local-unit or bag-unit icon.

Icon Meanings and Instructions

• Local Units. Draw a local unit from the top of the faction stack that corresponds to the arena's region. Place it in the next available unit space in the rival camp. If no units remain in the appropriate faction stack, draw a unit from the bag instead.
• Bag Units. Draw a random unit from the bag and place it in the next available unit space in the rival camp. See "Bag Banes" and "Unit Banes" below for details on what to do if you draw a bane instead of a unit. It is important to note that this icon only represents bag units within the rival's lineup. Within your lineup, this icon instead represents camp units.
• Tactic Chip. Refer to the Tactic Assignment Table below to choose a tactic chip based on the class of the unit that the tactic icon is on. In the event that there are none of the specified tactic in the supply, skip placing a tactic in the lineup with that rival unit.

Tactic Assignment Table

Use the table below to identify which tactic to place in the rival camp based on the class of the unit that the Tactic icon is on in the rival's lineup.

If the unit has multiple classes, use the first class listed on the unit chip.

Unit Class	Tactic Chip
Archer	Bolster Health
Attacker	Adrenaline
Defender	Stun
Tactician	Hamstring

The Tribune

For Sport events, a unit in the rival lineup must be identified as tribune, and the tribune chip should be placed beneath that unit chip to mark it. Recall that the way the tribune is chosen varies by the event's goal:

• Capture the Flag and King of the Hill. You may choose a tribune freely among rival units.
• Spar. The first unit in the rival lineup is the tribune.

Like your hero, a tribune is a respected warrior, cherished by their people, and so defeating a tribune brings repercussions. If the tribune is defeated in combat, you must immediately reduce your hero to 1 HP, even if they are not currently in combat.

Act Modifiers to the Rival Lineup

For Bloodshed and Sport events, apply the following modifiers to the rival lineup based on the current act. Act modifiers should be applied to the rival lineup before any event card modifiers are applied. Do not make these adjustments to primus or scion combats.

These modifiers make combat increasingly challenging as the campaign progresses. This information can also be found on the Quick Reference.

• Act I. No modifiers.
• Act II. Add one bag unit with a tactic to the end of the lineup.
• Act III. Add one bag unit with a tactic to the end of the lineup. On turn 1, rival deploys two units during its Deployment Step.
• Act IV. Add one bag unit with a tactic to the end of the lineup. On turn 1, rival deploys two units during its Deployment Step, adding 2 HP to each of these units.

Your Lineup

You also have a lineup in combat. However, your lineup does not require advance setup like the rival's does, and the order of the icons does not imply an order of deployment. Instead, you will choose turn by turn — up to the limit of units shown on the event card — which, if any, units from your camp to deploy. The icons shown simply limit the total number of units you may deploy and whether or not you may deploy your hero.

Your available tactics in a combat are not governed by your lineup. You can deploy any tactic available in your camp during combat, restricted only by the regular rules for tactic placement. See "Tactics" below for further details.

The Flow of Combat

Once the preparation sequence is complete, combat begins. The rival troop and your troop take turns, back and forth, until one side wins or until you surrender. The criteria for winning varies by the type of combat.

The rival always takes the first turn. They complete their entire turn before you take yours.

Combat in some arenas adds a third turn, the arena turn. This is when the beasts in the Pluto's Refugees arena act, when the chariot chip in The Parthians arena moves, and so on. See the "Arena Turns" sidebar below for full details.

Turn Structure

1. Score Points (player turn and in King of the Hill events only)
2. Deployment Step
3. Tactic Placement Step
4. Movement Step
5. Abilities Step
6. Engage Step

Because the way in which each step is carried out varies between you and the rival, each troop's turn steps are discussed separately in the sections that follow.

General Rules for Combat

The following general combat rules apply to both your troop and the rival's troop:

• Innate Skills are Always Active. The Innate skills of units on the arena map are always in effect, regardless of whose turn it is or what step is being carried out.
• Units are Dazed When Deployed. Units are dazed on the turn when they are deployed. This means that units cannot move, attack, or use Abilities or Specials on the turn they enter play. This does not affect Innate skills, however, so since some units' Innate skills allow them to move and/or attack, they can use those capabilities to do those things even while dazed.
• Units are Defeated When They Have No HP Remaining. Whenever a unit loses its last HP, it is defeated. Place your defeated units face down in your camp, place defeated rival units face down in the rival camp, and place defeated arena units in the supply.
• Units Not in Combat are Ignored. Game effects and skills can only be applied to units that are in combat. Units in camps are ignored and their skills cannot be used. However, some effects may apply to your hero outside of combat (such as when an event is accepted) or reference your hero's stats even while in camp.
• One Trigger for Several Abilities and/or Effects. When several Abilities and/or effects are triggered by the same incident, an attacking unit resolves its abilities before non-attacking units do. If the same unit can trigger several Abilities and/or effects at once, you can freely choose the order.
• Dealing Damage. Some skill effects may trigger from dealing or being dealt attack damage. This specifically refers to damage dealt by an attack. Damage from Specials or other effects will not trigger these effects. It is also important to note that damage is considered to be dealt even if no HP is lost, as long as at least 1 hit is rolled in the attack or a skill or game effect's description says that damage is dealt. A unit with a skill allowing it to ignore some or all of the damage applied to it is still considered to have been dealt damage.

The Rival's Combat Turn

Rival units act according to the rules in the following sections. Within these rules, there will often be choices to be made on behalf of rival units. You can make these choices freely. Manipulating how the rival units act to your advantage (within the framework of these rules) is part of the strategy of the game.

Rival units use the skills printed on their chips just as player units do. The Unit Skills reference defines how skills work for all units. As well, many skills include blue text defining additional details for how rival units interact with these skills.

Rival Deployment Step

Rival units are always deployed in order, running from top to bottom down their column in the rival camp. During the Rival Deployment Step, place the next rival unit from their camp on the unoccupied rival deployment hex with the lowest number. If all rival deployment hexes on the arena map are occupied, the rival does not deploy a unit this turn.

Place blue health chips under the newly deployed unit according to its Health. Recall that units are dazed on the turn they are deployed.

Rival Deployment Example: In this example, it is the start of the rival's turn partway through combat. For the Rival Deployment Step, the Archer is the topmost unit in the rival's camp. Since there are rival deployment hexes available, it will deploy onto the lowest available one – in this case, hex #1.

Rival Tactic Placement Step

In this step, place the next rival tactic chip that has a valid target, if possible. The rival places one tactic per turn at most.

As with rival units, rival tactics are evaluated for placement in order, running down the column of tactics in the rival camp from top to bottom. The second tactic in the column is only evaluated if the first tactic cannot be placed, and so on. For each tactic, the rival chooses the target according to the following table:

Tactic Chip to Place	Target
Bolster Health	Weakest ally
Adrenaline	Slowest ally
Stun	Strongest opponent
Hamstring	Deadliest opponent without Hamstring

If the rival has more than one possible target for a tactic, you may choose the rival's target from among the options available. If the rival has no valid target for any of its tactics, it does not deploy a tactic this turn.

A valid target for a rival tactic chip is:

• Any non-elite rival unit, for tactics that are placed on allies.
• Any of your non-elite units that are adjacent to a rival unit, for tactics that are placed on opponents. Note that units of the Tactician class have the Tactical skill, which makes all of your non-elite units valid targets.

See "Tactics" below for more information about how tactic chips are placed and how they affect play.

Rival Tactic Placement Example: Carrying on with the previous combat example, it is now the rival's Tactic Placement Step. There is a Stun tactic and an Adrenaline tactic in the rival's camp. The Stun is first, so you must assess if there is a valid target for it. Stuns are to be played on the strongest opponent, and since there are no rival Tacticians in play, the opponent must be adjacent to a rival unit. You have no such units, so the Stun is not played this turn. You must then move to the next tactic, Adrenaline, to determine if it can be placed. Adrenaline goes on the slowest ally, meaning the rival unit with the lowest Movement. All three rival units currently in combat have Movement 1. Since there are multiple options for the tactic's placement, you get to choose which unit Adrenaline is played on and choose to place it on the Reptilian. Since Adrenaline is a permanent tactic, it goes between the Reptilian's unit chip and its HP.

Rival Movement Step

In this step, each rival unit moves. You may freely choose what order they move in. Recall that units are dazed on the turn they are deployed and therefore will not move that turn.

Each arena has a priority list on their reference card that determines what each rival unit wants to do. Each priority list is arranged from left (highest priority) to right (lowest priority).

Bold priorities represent opponents the rival wants to attack. Non-bolded priorities represent other objectives the rival wants to pursue.

Priority List Example: This is the priority list for rival units in the Atlanteans arena. In this arena, all rival units use the same list, but this is not the case for all arenas. Here, rival units' first priority is your flagholder (in a Capture the Flag event), then the trident chip if it is not currently equipped (the trident is a special arena chip used in the Atlanteans arena), then an opponent holding the trident, then the farthest opponent within reach.

There are two kinds of behaviors related to priorities:

• Marking determines where a rival unit tries to move.
• Targeting determines which of your units the rival unit tries to attack.

Marking is the behavior that is relevant during the Movement Step. To move, a rival unit checks the arena's priority list and follows this procedure:

1. Identify a Mark. Determine the highest priority target the rival unit can reach. The unit can reach a bold priority mark if it can move onto a hex that is within Range of the marked unit. It can reach a non-bold priority if it can move onto its hex. Note that the rival assesses only the units within reach when determining its mark. So if its mark is, for example, the strongest opponent, it marks the strongest opponent in its reach, not the strongest opponent in combat. If a rival unit can reach multiple marks of equal priority, they choose the closest one. If multiple possible marks have equal priority and distance, you may freely choose that unit's mark. If no priority can be reached, skip to Step 3.
2. Move the Unit. Move the unit according to the type of priority it has marked, as detailed below. Rival units will always move as efficiently as possible, taking the shortest unblocked path to their destination hex. They do not need to use all of their Movement if they can reach their mark using less, but they cannot move more than their Movement allows.
   • Marking a Bold Priority. If the rival unit has marked a bold priority and is already within Range of it, it does not move at all. Otherwise, move the rival unit onto the hex that is as far from its mark as possible while still within Range.
   • Marking a Non-bold Priority. If the rival unit has identified a non-bold priority, move the unit onto the marked hex itself, unless it is already on that hex. In that case, do not move it.
3. Back-up Movement. If none of the unit's priorities can be reached, it uses its movement to get as close as possible to the highest priority on the list that is present in the combat.

Even though you are allowed to freely choose the order in which rival units move, you must return to move units that could not move earlier as the tactical situation changes. That is, you cannot leave a unit motionless by electing to execute its move at a moment when it literally can't move. For example, if a rival unit is blocked by allies at the start of the Movement Step, you must return to move that unit later in the step if the movement of other units eventually makes it possible to do so.

Rival Movement Example: It's now time for the Rival Movement Step. The priority list of the Atlantean arena is shown, and it is worth noting that Krakenlance has the trident. This is a King of the Hill event, so there is no flag. Which unit moves first is your choice. The Archer is dazed, so it will not move. The order you move the Defender and Reptilian does make a difference. You decide to first move the Defender, which has Movement 1 and Range 1. It is not possible for the Defender to reach any of the listed priorities with those stats, so it will take back-up movement toward Krakenlance. It only has one option for movement and moves as shown. The Reptilian has Movement 2 (because of the Adrenaline tactic it now has) and Range 1. It can reach Krakenlance and has two options for which hex to end on while taking the shortest route to him. You decide to move the Reptilian to the shown hex so that it is adjacent to both Krakenlance and your Defender. The Reptilian's other movement option is shown by the dotted arrow. Had the Defender moved after the Reptilian, it would have moved to the hex the Reptilian vacated.

Rival Abilities Step

In this step, rival units activate their Abilities – the skills labeled with the Ability icon. See the Unit Skills reference for details on each Ability.

If several rival units have Abilities, you may choose freely what order to resolve them in.

When rival units relocate themselves using Abilities, they must still observe their priorities. For example, if a rival unit uses Shove on an ally, both units must relocate according to the priority list in the Movement Step.

Rival Abilities Example: Looking at all of the units the rival has in play, the only unit with an Ability is the Reptilian. Checking the definition for Regen 1 on the Unit Skills reference, we see that this Ability would let the Reptilian heal for 1 HP. However, the Reptilian is already at full HP, so it does not heal this turn.

Rival Engage Step

In this step, rival units either attack or use their Special skills. You may freely choose the order in which they act, but each rival must attack or use a Special if it can.

When you select a rival unit to act, follow this procedure:

1. If the rival unit has a Special skill, check whether the conditions apply for that skill to be triggered (see the Unit Skills reference). If they do, that unit uses its Special skill instead of attacking, targeting its highest possible bolded priority. Once the Special is resolved, this rival unit is done; move on to the next unit.
2. If the rival unit has no Special skill, or the conditions are not right to trigger it, the rival unit targets and attacks the highest bolded priority on its priority list that is within its Range. Note that unbolded priorities are ignored for the purposes of targeting. If several opponents could be targeted at equal priority, you may choose freely which of those units it attacks. Hexes containing units do not block attacks; an attacker can count its Range for an attack through blocked hexes.
   • To attack, the rival unit gathers the attack dice shown on its chip, applying the effects of any relevant modifiers that would change them (Innate skills, event rules, Prowess, etc.).
   • Roll all of the gathered dice and count the number of hit results. If at least one attack die rolls a hit, damage is dealt equal to the number of hits rolled.
   • Remove HP from the target equal to the amount of damage dealt.
   • If the target's last health chip is removed, that unit is defeated. Place it face down in its camp, or return it to the supply if it is an arena unit.

Once all rival units are done following the procedure above, or you determine that all rival units that have not acted are unable to attack or use a Special, the Rival Engage Step and the rival's overall turn is over and your turn begins.

Rival Engagement Example: It is time for the rival's Engage Step. Again, you can resolve the units in the order of your choice. The Archer is still dazed, but it has the First Strike skill which allows it to attack the turn it is deployed. However, there are no units within the Archer's Range 2 so it has no target to attack. The rival Defender checks the priority list and does not have anything it can attack, nor does it have a Special to use. This means that only the Reptilian is able to make an attack. It doesn't have a Special. Looking at the priority list again, we see that its target should be Krakenlance holding the trident. However, your Defender has an Innate skill that must be taken into account. Its Taunt skill overrides the Reptilian's priorities and forces the rival unit to attack the Defender, sparing your Hero from potential damage. Per its chip, the Reptilian rolls two blue dice for its attack, and both result in hits. The Defender is dealt 2 damage and removes 2 HP accordingly. This ends the rival's turn.

Your Combat Turn

Score Points

This step only applies in King of the Hill events. See "Special Rules for King of the Hill Events" above for details.

Score Points Example: Let's continue the combat example from earlier. Following the rival's turn, it is now your turn. Since this is a King of the Hill event, you need to check to see if you score any points. The Atlantean key hex is wherever the trident is. Krakenlance holds the trident, so you gain a point. You gained your first point on the previous turn, so the point earned this turn brings your total to 2 points of the 6 you need to win.

Deployment Step

In this step, you may deploy one of your units. To do this, choose one face up unit from your camp and place it on one of your deployment hexes, which are the ones marked with the deployment icon.

When you deploy a unit, stock it with red HP equal to its Health stat. Exception: Your hero is deployed with the HP they were stacked with in your camp; their HP is not adjusted when deployed.

Recall that the number of units you may deploy in a combat is limited by your lineup as determined by the current event card. Remember, however, that your lineup is not ordered as shown on the card; you can deploy your units in any order you want. You also are not required to set aside your lineup ahead of time; you may choose which unit from your camp to deploy directly before deploying it.

If you have already deployed your entire lineup, you cannot deploy any additional units. Similarly, if your hero is the only undeployed unit from your lineup, you must either choose your hero or forego a deployment.

If a deployment hex is blocked, you may not deploy a unit there. If all your deployment hexes are blocked, you cannot deploy a unit this turn.

Deploying a unit is only mandatory if you have no units currently in combat. If you do not have any units currently in combat, you must either deploy a unit or surrender (see "Surrendering" below).

Player Deployment Example: For your Deployment Step, you have two units in your camp. Your lineup shows that you can deploy your hero and two camp units, so you still have one unit you are permitted to deploy. Looking at both of your available deployment hexes, you choose to deploy your Archer on the deployment hex adjacent to the Defender.

Tactic Placement Step

In this step, you may play one tactic. Playing a tactic is optional, and you cannot play more than one tactic per turn. Just as for the rival, you can play tactics on any of your non-elite units, or on any opponent that is adjacent to one of your units. Having a unit in combat that has the Tactical skill allows you to play tactics on any non-elite opponent in play even if it is not adjacent to any of your units.

See "Tactics" below for more information about how tactic chips are placed and how they affect play.

Player Tactic Placement Example: For your Tactic Placement Step, you choose to place the Stun tactic on the rival's Defender. This is possible because Krakenlance has a Prowess that grants him Tactical, allowing you to play tactics on non-adjacent opponents. Stun is a temporary tactic, so it will sit on top of the rival Defender until the end of its next turn as stated on the tactic chip.

Movement Step

In this step, you may move each of your units in the order you choose.

Each unit must finish its movement before you move the next one; you cannot interrupt one unit's movement to move a different one and then return to the first.

Each unit can move up to a number of hexes equal to its Movement. A unit cannot move through or end up on a blocked hex. A unit may move fewer hexes than it is entitled and can also remain in place rather than moving.

Player Movement Example: In this Movement Step, you can move Krakenlance and your Defender in your chosen order. You cannot move the Archer, which is dazed because it deployed this turn. With Movement 2 (according to your hero tracking pad), Krakenlance moves left around the Reptilian. The Defender will then use its 1 movement as shown, ensuring it moves off of one of your deployment hexes to provide options for your deployment on your next turn.

Abilities Step

In this step, you may trigger any or all of your units' Abilities. If several of your units have Abilities, you can freely determine the order to resolve them.

Player Abilities Example: Krakenlance may now use his skill Pull, which he has been granted by one of his Prowess cards. This allows you to choose a unit 2 hexes away and move it adjacent to Krakenlance. You choose to use this Ability to move the rival Archer, but it is important to note that both your own and the rival Defender were also units Pull could have been used on. There were also two different hexes the Archer could have been pulled to.

Engage Step

In this step, you may attack or use a Special skill with each of your units in the order you choose.

Follow this procedure for each unit:

1. Decide whether the unit will attack or use a Special (if it has one). If using a Special, carry out its effects as described on the Unit Skills reference. After you do this, the unit cannot attack; move on to the next unit.
2. If the unit is attacking:
   • Choose a target for the attack. The target must be an opponent within Range of the attacking unit.
   • Gather the attack dice shown on your unit's chip or your hero tracking pad, as relevant. Apply the effects of any relevant modifiers that would change what is gathered (Innate skills, event rules, Prowess, etc.).
   • Roll the gathered dice and count the number of hit results to determine how much damage is dealt, if any.
   • Remove HP from the target equal to the amount of damage dealt.
   • If the target's last HP was removed, that unit is defeated. See "Defeated Units" below for details on what to do with defeated units.
   • This unit is done attacking; move on to the next unit.

Your turn ends after the Engage Step. It's now the rival's turn again, unless this combat also calls for arena turns (see "Arena Turns" below).

Player Engage Example: None of your units have Specials to use in this Engage Step, but you are able to attack with all three of your units thanks to the Archer's First Strike skill which allows it to attack the turn it is deployed. You choose to attack with your Defender first. With Range 1, its only possible target is the Reptilian. It rolls a hit on its 1 black die, dealing 1 damage to the opponent. Your Archer has Range 2, so it can attack the Reptilian as well. The Archer rolls 1 hit on its attack dice, leaving the Reptilian with 1 HP remaining. Krakenlance is last to attack. You were hoping your other units would be able to defeat the Reptilian so Krakenlance would be free to attack the Archer. However, with the Reptilian having the Taunt skill, Krakenlance must attack it. He rolls 2 hits and defeats the Reptilian. The defeated rival unit is placed face down in its camp.

Defeated Units

A unit is defeated if it loses its last HP or a skill or other game effect otherwise causes it to be defeated. What to do with the unit depends on what kind of unit it is.

• Hero. You must use a blessing to survive and restore your hero's HP if possible. If you cannot, your campaign is lost.
• Arena Unit. Return the unit to the supply.
• Rival Unit. Place the unit face down in the rival camp, separate from any units still in the rival lineup.
• Your Unit. Place the unit face down in your camp, separate from your other camp units.

Units may have other chips in their stacks that need to be dealt with when the unit is defeated.

• Health Chips. Return to the supply.
• Tactics. Return to the supply.
• Tribune Chip. Return to the supply. Recall that defeating the tribune forces you to reduce your hero to 1 HP, even if it is not in combat.
• Flag. The flag is dropped on the hex where the unit was defeated.

Arena Turns

Any combat that uses arena chips — that is, chips that move, attack, or use skills, but that are not allied with or owned by either the hero or the rival — has a third turn, the arena turn. The Arena reference card will indicate if there is an arena turn for the combat. The arena turn comes after your turn, before the rival's next turn.

Arenas with arena turns outline what happens during that turn on the Arena reference card. In most cases, just follow those instructions. In the case of the Pluto's Refugees arena, the arena chips are units. Arena turns in this arena are structured similarly to the rival turn, but are simpler and involve only three steps:

1. Movement Step
2. Abilities Step
3. Engage Step

Arena units follow the same rules as rival units to move, use abilities, and attack, though they are not themselves considered rival units. Arena units refer to the arena's priority list to mark and target units, and they consider all non-arena units as opponents.

The End of Combat

You and the rival (and perhaps the arena) continue taking turns until one of the following:

• A combat goal is met.
• Only one troop's units remain, and the eliminated troop has no further units left to deploy.
• You decide to surrender.

Combat ends immediately if one of the above occurs. Leave all units in the arena where they are and proceed to the Cleanup Phase.

Surrendering

At the start of any troop's turn (whether your turn or the rival's) you may surrender the combat. This has consequences but allows you to preserve your hero's current HP and, in Bloodshed events, perhaps avoid the loss of units.

You cannot surrender primus or scion combats.

When you surrender, the combat is failed and ends immediately. Move directly into the Cleanup Phase.

Lethal Events

Bloodshed events, primus events, and scion events are lethal.

Sport events are not lethal, but if your hero is defeated in any event — whether lethal or not — you immediately lose the game.

In lethal events, any of your units that are defeated in combat will be removed from your camp at the end of combat (see "The Cleanup Phase" below).

The Cleanup Phase

Remember that the Cleanup Phase is skipped if you spectated during the Event Phase.

For all events:

1. Mark Off a Week. Mark the next week of the current act on your hero tracking pad.

For combat events, also:

1. Collect Rewards or Punishment. If you were successful in the combat, collect your rewards. If you failed, accept your punishment. Each are described in the following sections.
2. Bag the Rivals. Place all non-elite rival units from the arena and the rival camp in the draw bag, returning their HP to the supply. Elite rival units are removed from the game.
3. Bag the Banes. If any bag or unit banes were drawn during combat setup, return them to the bag. Camp banes remain in your camp.
4. Return Arena Chips. Return all arena chips from the arena to the supply, along with their HP if they had any.
5. Return Tactics. Return all tactics, except those unused in your camp, to the supply.
6. Discard Your Lethal Defeats. If the combat was lethal, all of your defeated units are sacrificed. Place your defeated units in the draw bag.
7. Restore Your Non-Lethal Defeats. If the combat was non-lethal, flip the face down units in your camp face up.
8. Camp Your Hero. Return your hero to your camp with its current HP.
9. Camp Your Units. Return your units from the arena to your camp, and return their HP to the supply.
10. Discard the Event. Place the event card at the back of the corresponding deck.

After the Cleanup Phase, move on to the next round.

Combat Rewards

If you achieved your goal, combat ends successfully, and you gain a reward based on the kind of event it was. See "Combat Goals" above for more details on the criteria for success in each type of combat.

Sport Event Rewards: Choose one:

• Recruit a rival unit of your choice from among the rival's defeated units or those still in the arena.
• Gain tactics of your choice from the supply until the number of tactics you have in your camp is equal to your Tactic Capacity.

Bloodshed Event Rewards: Choose one hero upgrade:

• Add or upgrade an attack die.
• Increase your Leadership by +1.
• Increase your Health by +1. Remember to add an HP to your hero when you increase its Health.

Primus Event Rewards: Do all of these:

• Fully heal your hero.
• Gain one Hero Prowess card of your choice.
• If your troop has fewer than five units (including your hero and units still in the arena, but not including defeated units), recruit random bag units until you have five units (see "Recruiting Units" below).

Failed Combat Punishment

Combat is most often failed by surrendering, though combats that don't include your hero in the lineup can also be failed if all of your units are defeated.

1. Gain Scion Influence. The amount of scion influence gained is equal to the act number (for example, three scion influence is gained if it is Act III).
2. Receive No Rewards. You collect no combat rewards if you fail.

Banes

Banes represent the growing power of the scion. They have undesirable effects that will make your campaign tougher.

The most common source of banes is from scion influence. Every fourth scion influence you gain causes you to take a bane. It is important to note that there is no limit to how much scion influence and how many banes you can gain. In the rare instance that you mark all of the scion influence spaces on your hero tracking pad, continue tracking scion influence and gaining banes for every fourth influence gained.

When instructed to draw a bane chip, collect the next one from the top of the chip tray and flip it over. Then, put it into play based on its type. Bag banes and unit banes are placed in the bag. Camp banes are placed in your camp.

Bag Banes

When you draw a bag bane while creating a rival lineup during combat setup, apply the effect written on the chip and then draw a replacement chip. The bag bane does not count toward the lineup; continue drawing until a full rival lineup is created. See "The Rival's Lineup" above for more details.

If the bane grants bonuses to a specific unit, place the bane under that unit chip as a reminder.

If the bane has an effect that lasts for the whole combat, keep it face up nearby to help you remember it.

Bag banes drawn from the bag are returned to the bag during the Cleanup Phase.

Unit Banes

When you draw a unit bane while creating a rival lineup during combat setup, treat it as any other unit drawn and add that unit to the lineup.

Unit banes cannot be recruited.

Unit banes drawn from the bag are returned to the bag during the Cleanup Phase.

Camp Banes

A camp bane affects you as long as it remains in your camp. It cannot be discarded or sacrificed unless a game effect specifies that it may be used to remove a bane.

Tactics

Regardless of which troop plays them, the following rules apply to all tactic chips:

• No Tactics on Elite Units. Tactics can never be played on elite units (heroes, primuses, or scions).
• Used Tactics Return to the Supply. Once you use a tactic, it will not be returned to your camp. It will be returned to the supply when it leaves play. Tactics are most commonly gained through combat rewards.

There are three types of tactics. A tactic's type dictates where it is placed when played and how long its effect lasts.

• Permanent Tactics. Permanent tactic chips are placed between the target unit's top chip and its HP. They remain there, in effect, until that unit is defeated or the combat ends. When one of those things happens, the tactic is discarded. You can lift a unit chip at any time to remind yourself of the text on a tactic underneath it.
• Instant Tactics. The effect of an instant tactic is applied immediately. Then, that tactic chip is discarded.
• Temporary Tactics. Temporary tactics last for the period of time described in the tactic's text. Place the chip on top of the unit it applies to during that time. When that period ends, discard the tactic.

Primus and Scion Combat

Special Rules for Primus Combats

Recall that in Act I, Act II, or Act III, you can only travel to a capital if the primus of that capital's region was selected during game setup and has not yet been defeated. You can face the selected primuses in any order, and are not locked into facing any specific primus in a given act until you move to a primus's capital.

When you travel to a capital during the Travel Phase of the first three acts, you must engage in a primus combat. If you succeed, you'll move on to the next act. If you fail, you lose the campaign.

You cannot spectate at a capital, and you cannot surrender a primus combat, so take care not to enter a capital location until you are ready to face its primus. Primus combats are lethal events, and all rival units must be defeated for success.

Primus events do not use an event card. Instead, each act's primus combat has a preset rival lineup. The primus's Health is also determined by the act. The act modifiers are ignored for Primus events.

Primus Combat Lineups and Health by Act

Act I	Act II	Act III
6	8	10

Legend: Primus, Hero, Local, Bag/Camp Unit, Tactic

A primus is represented on the arena map by a primus chip that — like all other unit chips — provides its combat details. Recall that primus chips are found on the reverse side of the corresponding hero chip.

Special Rules for Scion Combat

In Act IV, instead of ending the act with a primus combat, you must face the scion in combat at the Vesuvian region capital!

When you reach the scion combat, place the scion reference sheet nearby. You'll need both the scion reference and Vesuvians arena reference for this combat.

The Scion combat is lethal, and you cannot surrender this combat. Recall that the goal of the Scion combat is to defeat the scion, and the combat is successful when this occurs even if there are other undefeated rival units. However, some Scion reference cards may alter this goal.

Scion Combat Setup and Preparation

Before doing the normal combat setup steps, cross off your remaining blessings. For each one you cross off, you may choose and remove a bane from the bag or from your camp, returning it to the supply. Since several scions increase their strength based on the number of banes in play, this can give you an extra edge in this final combat.

Scion combats do not have a rival lineup. Instead of completing that combat setup step, follow the scion's setup instructions on their reference sheet.

You also do not have a lineup in a scion combat. Instead, you have a unit cap, a maximum number of units you can have in combat at a time. If the combat lasts long enough, you can eventually deploy all of the units in your camp. The cap is only a limit to the number of your units that can be on the arena map at the same time.

Scion Combat Goals

The scion's turn follows the rival turn sequence with one significant exception: After the Deployment Step, the scion has a Scion Activity Step in place of Tactic Deployment.

The goal of a scion combat is to defeat the scion without your hero being defeated.

However, some scions modify this goal. Refer to the campaign's Scion reference card for details. For example, to win the scion combat against Zahhak, you must defeat Zahhak four times.

The scion reference card lists: the scion's Health stat, the scion's dice and dice effects (resolved in the order listed), the scion's range, setup and combat details, the scion's bane (placed at the front of the bane stack during game setup), your unit cap, the scion's priority list, and the scion's triggers and effects.

Scion Combat Turns

Rival Deployment Step

In scion combat, the scion is the first rival unit deployed. It enters play dazed, which for a scion means it does not get to roll its dice in the Scion Activity Step of its turn.

In subsequent turns, the rival may deploy units according to the Scion reference card.

Scion Activity Step

Scions do not act in discrete steps like other units do. Rather, they roll a collection of attack dice and follow special instructions based on their results. They do this immediately after the Rival Deployment Step and complete their activity entirely before play moves on to the Rival Movement Step.

To resolve this step:

• Roll the Scion's Dice. Roll all the attack dice shown at the top of the scion's reference sheet. This pool of dice may be modified by other circumstances or scion abilities. For example, Itzam Cab Ain has extra dice based on banes removed from play.

• Resolve Dice Effects. Resolve each dice effect in order, from top to bottom, as listed in the table of effects on the right hand column of the Scion reference card. Effects requiring the roll of a single die will trigger if that die rolls a hit. Other effects require multiple dice and are resolved differently depending on how their effects begin:

  • Total hits: Add all of the hit results together and carry out a single effect based on that number.
  • For each hit: Resolved once for every hit rolled, meaning the effect may trigger multiple times.
  • For each pair of hits: Resolved once for every pair rolled, meaning they may trigger multiple times. The pair must match that shown; if the pair is (for example) yellow + black, rolling hits on two yellow dice but no black dice will not trigger the effect.

  Some effects show two dice colors as such: yellow/black. These effects are resolved based on the hits rolled on all of the dice of those colors combined.

Scion Activity Example: Let's look at an example of the scion combat turn using Hydra. At this point in the combat, Hydra is already deployed and there are no other units to deploy, so the Rival Deployment Step is skipped. Hydra rolls 2 green dice, 3 blue dice, and 4 yellow dice per the dice icons at the top of its card. It's a good idea to sort the dice by color and order them in the same order as they are on the dice effects list. In this case, green is resolved first. With 1 hit rolled, each Hydra Head (represented by banes) moves 1 hex toward their marks. Top priority is Krakenlance, and the lower left Head that can get adjacent to him does so. The rightmost unit cannot reach Krakenlance, but is already adjacent to the next priority, with the Bustuarius being the strongest opponent it can reach. The two Heads at the top of the arena cannot reach anything on the priority list, so they move 1 hex towards Krakenlance. You now resolve the blue dice, of which there are 3 hits. This causes Hydra and each Head to deal 3 damage to a target adjacent unit. Krakenlance is dealt 3 damage by the Head adjacent to him. The Bustuarius has 4 HP and is dealt 3 damage by both Hydra and the Head adjacent to it, so it is defeated. The remaining two Heads are not adjacent to any opponents. Lastly, you must resolve the yellow dice. There is 1 hit, so each Hydra Head gains 1 HP.

Rival Movement, Abilities, and Engage Steps

After resolving the Scion's Activity Step, carry out a Rival Movement Step, Rival Abilities Step, and Rival Engage Step. The scion doesn't act in these steps; they're for the other opponents in combat. If there are no such units, the rival skips these steps and its turn ends.

Upgrading Your Hero with Rewards

As the campaign proceeds, you'll gain rewards in various ways, including by completing Opportunities or succeeding in combat. Rewards can increase your stats, bestow new prowesses, grant tactics, and more. The sections that follow give rules for gaining each different type of reward.

Increasing Stats

When one of your stats is increased, increment its value by +1 or check off the next icon, as appropriate. Where stats are represented by icons, the number of icons shown on the hero tracking pad is the highest value possible, so Health and Leadership cannot exceed 12. Additionally, hero Movement cannot exceed 3.

When you increase Health, immediately add an HP to your hero.

Adding and Upgrading Attack Dice

Each column of die icons on the hero tracking pad represents a single die. The highest die marked off is the die that is included in your hero's Attack. When you upgrade your dice, you can either add a die or upgrade one. To add a die, mark the yellow die in the leftmost unmarked die column. You may never have more than four dice, so if you already have four dice, you cannot add a die.

To upgrade a die, choose any already-marked die and mark the die immediately above it in the same column. Yellow dice upgrade to blue dice, blue dice upgrade to green dice, and green dice upgrade to black dice. Black dice cannot be upgraded.

Krakenlance started with two blue dice. He has since upgraded one of those dice to green and added two additional dice. Krakenlance's current Attack is one green die, one blue die, and two yellow dice.

Gaining Prowess

Prowess cards make your hero more powerful by granting permanent skills or game effects. To gain prowess, choose a Prowess card and put it in the prowess column at the right side of your camp. You will always be instructed on whether to gain a Hero Prowess or a specific Special Prowess card. There is no limit to the number of Prowess cards you can have.

Regardless of what kind of card can be chosen, newly gained Prowess cards must always be valid. A Prowess card is valid if it does not have a level, or if it is the lowest level Prowess available among the cards sharing the same name (for example, you can't choose Endurance Level 2 until you've already chosen Endurance Level 1).

Gaining Tactics

When you gain a tactic, add it to your camp.

You may gain any tactic of your choice from the supply. Special tactics are not considered part of the supply until they are earned through Opportunity cards. When earned, they are placed in your camp. Special tactics return to the tactic supply after they are used and can then be chosen when gaining future tactics.

Recruiting Units

To recruit a unit, add it to your camp. The recruiting reward will specify what unit can be recruited and where the recruited chip comes from.

You can never recruit elite units, bane units, or arena units. You can recruit the tribune (returning the tribune chip to the supply if you do so).

The number of units in your camp cannot exceed your Leadership. If recruiting a unit increases your total past this number, you must immediately sacrifice non-elite units to bring your total down to the limit.

Conflicting Modifiers

Many factors can modify a combat or a unit's stats. If multiple modifications need to be resolved at the same time (generally during event setup), apply modifications in the following order:

Unit Chip → Act Modifier → Prowess Effect → Arena Rules → Event Rules → Tactic Effect → Bane Effect → Opportunity Card

For example, if an event sets your unit's Movement to 1, an Adrenaline tactic chip will still increase its Movement to 2.

Some game effects may add skills to units. Units can only have each skill once. Redundant versions of skills are ignored. If a unit has the same skill with a different number (for example Regen 1 and Regen 2), it is considered to have the higher numbered skill.

Saving the Game

Your hero's journey through Victorum is designed to be an epic and arduous one and often requires multiple sessions of play. Fortunately, the game's four-act structure provides ideal save points, and the components help support this!

To stow Victorum between acts, follow the procedure below:

1. Camp Chips. Create a stack containing all of the chips in your camp, and place them in the chip tray from the box (separate from any unused chips it may also be storing). Store your hero with its current HP.
2. Defeated Primus. Place the most recently defeated primus with your camp chips as a reminder of which capital to start on when you resume.
3. Remaining Primuses and Scion. Remove the primus and scion chips from the stadium seating and place them in a different channel of any chip tray with space for them.
4. Cards. Take all three event decks and stack them together in the larger card area of the box. Place all unearned Prowess cards with them. Place all cards in your camp in the smaller card area.
5. Stadium Seating. Place the cover on the stadium seating.
6. Box. Put everything away in the game box. Store the bag with the units remaining inside of it.

To stow Victorum partway through an act, write your current location on your hero tracking pad (or take a photo on your phone) and then follow the rest of the procedure above.

To resume the game, unpack everything to its original position. Remove the defeated primus chip from your camp, put your encampment on the capital space of that primus's region, and then return that primus to the box (or place your encampment on the location you wrote or photographed).

Difficulty Levels

Chosen

• Three Hero Prowess cards
• Eight blessings
• +1 Health and Leadership
• Add/upgrade Attack

Valiant

• One Hero Prowess card
• Four blessings
• +1 Health OR +1 Leadership OR add/upgrade Attack

Fearless

• No Hero Prowess cards
• One blessing
• Three scion influence
• No tactics

Recording Your Legacy

The front of the hero tracking pad sheets allow you to save the details of the hero you created throughout your campaign. The back of the tracking pad is your Odyssey, a historical record of the other details of your troop and journey. If you would like to record the details of your units, tactics, and prowess for historical preservation, we recommend doing so directly before facing the scion. These details can be used when integrating your game with Hoplomachus: Remastered as well.

Integrating with Remastered

Much of the gameplay content in Hoplomachus: Victorum is cross-compatible with Hoplomachus: Remastered, and vice versa. Further information on which elements are compatible and how to integrate them across both games can be found in a printable PDF at chiptheorygames.com/support.

Key Terms

Ability. An Ability is type of unit skill. Units can only use their Abilities during the Abilities Step of their troop's turn in combat.

Act. A campaign is divided into four acts, each of which can last up to 12 weeks. Acts I, II, and III each end with a battle against a primus. Act IV ends with a battle against the campaign's scion.

Adjacent. Two hexes that share a side are considered adjacent to each other. Units (or other chips) that are on adjacent hexes are adjacent to each other.

Ally. All units belonging to the same troop are allies. The game may define other units as allies as well. Units cannot mark, target, or attack allied units. Units that are not allies are opponents.

Attack. Units can attack during the Engage Step of their troop's turn. Only opponents can be attacked. When a unit attacks, it rolls all of the dice in its Attack, adds up the number of hits rolled, and deals that amount of damage.

Attack (Stat). A unit's Attack defines the dice it will roll when it attacks. Non-elite units generally have their Attack depicted on their chips. Your hero's Attack is found on the hero tracking pad, while scions have their Attacks defined on their scion reference (if they have one).

Attack Dice. The dice rolled for attacks. These dice can also be rolled to resolve various skills and other game effects.

Bane. Banes are chips with negative effects, and are usually accumulated as a result of gaining scion influence.

Blocked. A hex is blocked if it is occupied by a unit, or if the game text defines a hex to be blocked another way. Units cannot move onto or deploy onto blocked hexes.

Camp. Your camp is the area where your units, tactics, opportunities, prowesses, etc., are placed when they are not in combat. The rival camp is where rival units and tactics are placed when setting the rival's lineup and where they remain until deployed in combat.

Class. A unit's type: Archer, Attacker, Beast, Defender, or Tactician.

Combat. Combat takes place in the Event Phase when you accept a Bloodshed or Sport event or when you face a primus or scion. Combat entails a fight in the arena between your units and rival units. Your troop is victorious in combat by completing an objective.

Compass. The compass is depicted on the game mat to the right of the arena map. The compass is referred to in skills where a randomized direction is needed, and this is determined by rolling an arena die. The rolled result determines the direction for the skill's effect, as shown on the compass.

Damage. Units are dealt damage when they are targeted in an attack and hits are rolled. The amount of damage dealt is equal to the number of hits rolled. Units can also be dealt damage from skills and other game effects. Units must remove 1 HP from its stack of health chips for each damage they are dealt unless a skill or game effect allows them to avoid doing so. A unit is still considered to have been dealt damage even if it is able to ignore some or all of that damage. A unit is not considered to have been dealt damage if it is attacked and no dice roll hits.

Dazed. A unit that is dazed cannot move, attack, use Abilities, or use Specials. Innate skills are unaffected. Units are automatically dazed on the turn they are deployed.

Deadliest. When comparing units, the deadliest unit is the one with the most attack dice in its Attack, regardless of the strength of those dice. This is determined after accounting for any modifiers.

Defeated. A unit is defeated when it has no remaining HP or an effect otherwise says that it is defeated. Units are removed from the arena when defeated. Defeated troop units are placed in to their camp face down while defeated arena units are returned to the supply. If your hero is ever defeated, you lose the game.

Deployment. Deployment is the act of putting a unit from a troop's camp into combat. Each troop deploys a single unit from their lineup during the Deployment Step of their turn. Units must deploy onto one of their troop's deployment hexes.

Discard. When a component is discarded, it is returned to its appropriate place in the supply. Unless otherwise noted, a discarded card is placed at the back of its deck, and a discarded chip is placed at the back of its chip stack. Discarded components are placed facing the same direction as the rest of the deck or stack, so they may cycle back into play when the original deck or stack runs out.

Displace. A unit is displaced if it is moved to a different hex by something other than its own movement or one of its own skills. Displacement is not considered to be movement and will therefore not trigger skills that are triggered by movement.

Elite. Heroes, primuses, and scions are elite units. These units have thicker chips than non-elite units. Elite units cannot have tactics played on them.

Encampment. Your encampment represents your troop's current location and region on the map of the ancient world. It is marked with the brass encampment chip.

Equip, Equipped. Some chips and dice are identified in game text as being able to be equipped. An example of this is the trident in the Atlantean arena. When a unit equips a chip by moving onto its hex, the unit places the chip beneath its top unit chip but above its HP. When a unit equips a die, it is simply placed on top of the unit. When the unit moves, the equipped chip/die moves with it. Units cannot unequip chips/dice. If the unit is defeated, the equipped chip/die is dropped on the hex that the unit occupied when it was defeated.

Faction. All of the units from a given region make up that region's faction (for example, all Atlantean units are collectively a faction).

Fail. An event fails when you surrender it or when your entire lineup is defeated.

Fastest. When comparing units, the fastest unit is the one with the highest Movement, after accounting for any modifiers.

Fatigued. A unit that is fatigued cannot move or attack, and all of its skills are ignored including Innate skills.

Hero. The leader of your troop and your most important unit. Your hero is represented by the full-art side of its chip, and its stats and abilities are tracked through the hero tracking pad and gained prowess cards. The campaign is lost if your hero is defeated. Heroes are elite units.

Heal. Healing allows a unit to recover HP. When healing, a unit cannot exceed its Health. When a unit fully heals, it sets its HP equal to its Health. Note that gaining HP is not considered healing and units can exceed their Health when HP is gained.

Health (Stat). A unit's Health determines how much HP it is deployed with and the maximum amount of HP that it can heal to.

Hit. The face of an attack die with the hit icon is a hit. When a unit attacks, it rolls the dice in its Attack and deals damage equal to the hits rolled.

HP. A unit's HP is how much damage it can take before it is defeated. HP is represented with health chips stacked underneath unit chips.

Innate. Innate is a type of unit skill. Innate skills are active at all times while the unit is in combat. Innate skills may provide passive effects or effects that are triggered by a specific occurrence.

Isolated. A unit is isolated when it has no allies in combat.

Key Hex. Each arena has specific key hexes that are used in King of the Hill events. Occupying a key hex with a unit grants you a point at the start of your turn in these events. In some arenas, the key hexes are permanent and printed on the arena map itself. In others, the key hexes are tied to the location of a specific arena chip.

Leadership (Stat). Your hero's Leadership determines the maximum number of units, including your hero, that you can have in your troop at once. This encompasses units in your camp (including those defeated), and units in combat.

Least Deadly. When comparing units, the least deadly unit is the one with the fewest attack dice in its Attack, regardless of the strength of those dice. This is determined after accounting for any modifiers.

Lethal. A lethal combat is one where your defeated units are lost after combat is resolved. Bloodshed, Primus and Scion events are lethal.

Lineup. A troop's lineup consists of the units that it will use in a particular combat. The rival's lineup is preset by the event, and rival units will deploy in order. Your lineup determines the maximum number of units you can deploy in a given combat and whether your hero is included. However, you are not required to set your lineup in advance; you may choose any unit from your camp to deploy as long as there is space in your lineup for it.

Local. A unit is local if its faction matches the current arena. Local units are granted differing benefits depending on the arena.

Mark. A rival unit's mark is the unit or hex that it moves towards. Its mark is determined by the priority list. Rival units will mark the highest priority in the list that they can reach and move towards it. If they cannot reach any of their priorities, they will move to get as close as possible to the highest priority they can.

Move. A unit moves when it changes the hex it occupies. Units most commonly move during the Movement Step of their troop's turn. However, units that change their position due to other skills and effects are still considered to have moved.

Movement (Stat). A unit's Movement determines the maximum number of hexes it can move during its troop's Movement Step.

Opponent, Oppose. Units that are not allies oppose each other and are considered opponents.

Outnumbered. A unit is outnumbered if there are more opponents in the combat than there are units from its own troop (including itself).

Primus. Primuses are special rival units. Each of the first three acts of your campaign will end with a combat against a primus, which you must successfully complete to continue your campaign. Primuses are represented by the backside of hero chips, which show the primuses' stats. Primuses are elite units.

Priority. Rival units use a priority list (found on the Arena reference card, or the Scion reference card for scion combat) to determine where they will move and which units they will attack.

Prowess. Prowess cards feature unique powers that heroes can acquire. Each hero has a prowess deck that corresponds only to that hero. There are also Special Prowess cards that can be acquired by completing specific Opportunity cards.

Range (Stat). A unit's Range indicates the maximum number of hexes away a target of this unit's attack can be. Range 1 indicates the unit's target must be in an adjacent hex.

Reach. A unit can reach a marked unit if it can move onto a hex that is within Range of the mark. It can reach a marked hex if it can move onto the mark. Rival units must determine the highest priority that they can reach when determining their mark.

Recruit. Recruiting a unit adds it to your camp.

Region. A region is a collection of locations on the map of the ancient world that is associated with a given faction (for example, the Atlanteans region). Regions are divided by borders.

Rival. The rival is your figurative enemy in Victorum, as well as a word to describe this enemy's forces (for example, "rival unit," "rival lineup," etc.).

Round. A round of Victorum consists of the Travel Phase, Event Phase, and Cleanup Phase. A round is not the same as a week, as you will not always mark off a week for each round.

Sacrifice. To sacrifice a card or chip is to remove it from your camp. Sacrificed units are placed in the bag and Prowess cards are removed from the game so they cannot be gained again. When sacrificing Prowess cards with levels, you must sacrifice the highest level card of that set that you have. Elite units and camp banes cannot be sacrificed.

Scion. The scion is the ultimate enemy of the Victorum campaign. You must defeat the scion at the end of your campaign in order to be victorious. Scions are elite units.

Scion Influence. Scion influence represents the scion's growing effect on you as you proceed further on your quest. Scion influence is tracked on the bottom of the hero tracking pad. Scion influence is most commonly gained when you spectate or fail an event, but it can be gained through other effects as well. Each time a scion influence is gained, cross off the next uncrossed space. Every fourth space contains a bane icon. When those spaces are crossed off, you must gain a bane.

Skill. Skills are specific exceptional powers that units can have. There are three types of skills: Innate, Ability, and Special.

Slowest. When comparing units, the slowest unit is the one with the lowest Movement, after accounting for any modifiers.

Special. Special is a type of unit skill. Units can only use their Specials during the Engage Step of their troop's turn in combat. Units must choose between using their Special or attacking but cannot do both on the same turn. Specials are not considered attacks, and any damage dealt from a Special is not considered attack damage.

Strongest. When comparing units, the strongest unit is the one with the most HP. When comparing dice, the strongest die is the one with the most hit faces. Red dice have the most hit faces, followed by black, green, blue, and yellow, in that order.

Surrender. To surrender is to quit a Sport or Bloodshed event. Doing so incurs consequences but may be necessary to preserve your units, especially your hero. Events can be surrendered at the start of any turn. A surrendered event is considered to be failed.

Tactic. Tactics are advantages or hindrances that are applied to units during combat. A troop can play one tactic per turn during their Tactic Placement Step. A troop can play a tactic on any of their own units or on an opponent that is adjacent to one of their units. Tactics cannot be played on elite units. In addition to the four basic tactics of Adrenaline, Bolster Health, Hamstring, and Stun, there are also special tactics that can be acquired by completing specific Opportunity cards.

Tactic Capacity. The maximum number of tactics you may hold in your camp at once is your Tactic Capacity. By default, players have a tactic capacity of 3. The rival does not have a Tactic Capacity.

Target. A unit's target is the opponent that is the aim of its attack. Some skills may also refer to a target. A unit's target must be within its Range. Rival units will use their priority list in determining which unit to target.

Tribune. The tribune is the leader of the rival team during a Sport event. If the tribune is defeated, your hero is immediately reduced to 1 HP.

Troop. A troop is a group of units that are all allies. All of the units you control are part of your troop, and all of the rival units make up the rival's troop.

Weakest. When comparing units, the weakest one is the one with the fewest health chips. When comparing dice, the weakest die is the one with the fewest hit faces. Yellow dice have the fewest hit faces, followed by blue, green, black, and red, in that order.

Hero Details

Bingqing of the Kunlun Though still an acolyte on Kunlun, Bingqing's esteem on the mountain has rapidly grown thanks to her unrivaled abilities with the staff. Less bloodthirsty than many of her rivals, Bingqing cares for the lives of all who enter her camp, doing her best to protect each gladiator as well as she protects herself. Glory does not concern her; peace does. Movement 2, Range 1, Health 5. Leadership: 5. Home Region/Arena: Kunlun Units: Attacker, Archer, Tactician Tactics: Adrenaline, Bolster Health, Stun

Decimus of the New Argonauts Rumored to be the reincarnation of Heracles or Jason, Decimus is the 10th son of a poor family who took on the garb of a hoplomachus gladiator in order to face off against Pluto's scions. Mysterious and stoic, he wins his followers through his exploits on the battlefield rather than his words. Though mighty in stature, Decimus is a consummate tactician, knowing that true victory is found in smart moves rather than overwhelming force. Movement 2, Range 1, Health 5. Leadership: 5. Home Region/Arena: New Argonauts Units: Attacker, Archer, Defender Tactics: Adrenaline, Hamstring, Stun

Nox of the Vesuvians Nox couldn't care less about saving the world. To her, Pluto's deadly games represent a moment of weakness. If she can fell the scions and destroy the underworld's ruler, the goddess of night might be able to take his lands for herself – a goal for which she'd sacrifice anything, or anybody. Movement 2, Range 1, Health 5. Leadership: 5. Home Region/Arena: Vesuvians Units: Attacker, Archer, Tactician Tactics: Adrenaline, Bolster Health, Stun

Sea Strider of the Lamosians A charismatic man as deadly with his sling as he is with his harpoon, Sea Strider's bravado is a mask for the massive chip he bears on his shoulder. In another era, the sea god Neptune abandoned his descendants, the Lamosians, to smile upon their Atlantean cousins instead. Sea Strider intends to show the whole world that this was a mistake – that he and his people have formed a society every bit equal to the world's great powers, one that will save the planet by overcoming Pluto's scions. Movement 2, Range 1, Health 5. Leadership: 5. Home Region/Arena: Lamosians Units: Archer, Defender, Tactician Tactics: Adrenaline, Bolster Health, Hamstring

Krakenlance of the Atlanteans A rogue Atlantean adventurer who defies his society's rules, Krakenlance sees Pluto's trials as a way to earn respect and honor among his comrades. A cosmopolitan as well as a battlefield genius, Krakenlance believes in the power of military cooperation and strength in numbers to bring the scions down – whether his soldiers are Atlantean or otherwise. Movement 2, Range 1, Health 5. Leadership: 5. Home Region/Arena: Atlanteans Units: Attacker, Archer, Defender Tactics: Adrenaline, Hamstring, Stun

The Parthian Though he is clad in the spahbed armor of the Parthian Empire, the man known only as The Parthian holds no formal military rank. His tactical mastery and prowess with a bow have earned him many admirers inside and out of the Parthian military structure, but he views his coterie as a means to an end. Whatever the trial, he prefers to shoulder the brunt of it alone. Movement 2, Range 2, Health 5. Leadership: 5. Home Region/Arena: Parthians Units: Attacker, Defender, Tactician Tactics: Bolster Health, Hamstring, Stun

Virago of the Amazons Prodigiously strong even among her supernatural peers, Virago is able to throw her battle axe as if it was nothing more than a tomahawk. Ranged warriors the world over view her as their demigod, but fame is not what she seeks. Rather, it is authority: She believes the Amazons should take a larger place on the world stage, and she means to lead them there herself. Movement 1, Range 2, Health 5. Leadership: 5. Home Region/Arena: Amazons Units: Attacker, Defender, Tactician Tactics: Bolster Health, Hamstring, Stun

Stygiana of Pluto's Refugees A purple, tentacle-headed denizen of the underworld that some might ignorantly call a demon, Stygiana is fighting for freedom, both for her and her fellow escapees from Pluto's grasp. Though she has no wish to return to her former home, Stygiana seems to have no fear; she can often be found at the front of her forces, rushing headlong into a fight. Movement 2, Range 1, Health 5. Leadership: 5. Home Region/Arena: Pluto's Refugees Units: Archer, Defender, Tactician Tactics: Adrenaline, Bolster Health, Hamstring

Quick Reference

Travel Phase

• Move encampment. If to a harbor: Sail to another harbor. Mark off a week. Land at a port.

Event Phase

Spectate

1. Discard the event.
2. Rearrange the top 3 cards of a deck.
3. Gain scion influence (equal to act).
4. Heal your hero.
5. Skip the Cleanup Phase.

Accept

• Opportunity: Draw 2, choose 1.
• All others: Combat.
• Reminder: If a Sport event, identify a tribune.

Combat Turn Sequence

1. Score points (only the player, during King of the Hill events).
2. Deployment.
3. Tactic placement.
4. Movement.
5. Abilities.
6. Engage.

Cleanup Phase

1. Mark a week. Skip the rest of cleanup if not combat.
2. Success: Collect your reward.
   • Recruit a rival unit, OR gain tactics (see page 29 for primus event rewards).
   • Failure: Gain scion influence (equal to act).
3. Place rivals and banes in the bag.
4. Return arena chips and tactics to the supply.
5. Discard (lethal) or restore (non-lethal) defeated units.
6. Return remaining units to your camp.

Tactics Assignment

Class	Tactic Chip	Target
Archer	Bolster Health	Weakest ally
Attacker	Adrenaline	Slowest ally
Defender	Stun	Strongest opponent
Tactician	Hamstring	Deadliest opponent without Hamstring

Combat Act Modifiers

• Act I: No modifiers.
• Act II: Add one bag unit with a tactic to end of rival lineup.
• Act III: Add one bag unit with a tactic to end of rival lineup. Rival deploys 2 units on its first turn.
• Act IV: Add one bag unit with a tactic to end of rival lineup. Rival deploys 2 units with +2 HP on its first turn.

Not applied for primus/scion combats. See "Special Rules for Primus Combats" above for primus lineups.