Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game – Thunderjaw
Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game – Thunderjaw Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
1 Rulebook 1 Thunderjaw Board
13 Tracking Deck Cards 2 Disc Launcher Cards
Thunderjaw: 1 Miniature 2 Thunderjaw Data Cards (1-2 Player and 3-4 Player) 8 Thunderjaw Behaviour Cards
Adding the Thunderjaw to Your Games
There are two ways players may encounter the Thunderjaw as part of their game.
The first way of including the Thunderjaw is by using the tracking deck included in this expansion, enabling the players to hunt this immense machine as their quarry instead of choosing from the other quests available to them.
Alternatively, players can add the Thunderjaw to another quest from either Horizon Zero Dawn™: The Board Game or an expansion. If playing this way, the players should add the Hunters' Call card from the Thunderjaw tracking deck to the end of tracking deck they wish to use for the quest, face down at the end of the row after the standard Hunter's Call card.
If the players are encountering the Thunderjaw using these rules, after completing the standard Hunter's Call, resolve the Campfire Phase as detailed below instead of following the normal Hunters' Call sequence.
The Victory Step
Calculate glory and allocate Sun tokens to each player as in a standard encounter, including any changes in possession of the Leader and Fledgling tokens. Do not total up the points of each player's Sun tokens to see who has won the game.
The Level-Up Step
Skip this step unless the hunters haven't yet attained level 3. If they have yet to reach this level, the players may immediately increase their level by one, then select upgrade cards as normal.
The Merchant Step
Players visit a level 3 merchant to improve their equipment further before taking on their final challenge.
After these steps are completed, flip over the Thunderjaw tracking card as the final encounter.
Setting Up the Thunderjaw Encounter
Place the Thunderjaw board in the centre of the table and set up the encounter as detailed on the Thunderjaw encounter card.
If you're playing a game with one or two hunters, use the 1-2 player side of the Thunderjaw data cards. If you're playing with three or four hunters, use the 3-4 player side of the Thunderjaw data cards instead.
Shuffle the Thunderjaw behaviour deck and place it face down next to the playing area, then place the Disc Launcher cards face up next to the behaviour deck.
The player with the Fledgling token draws from the event deck and selects their card as normal, revealing it immediately after making their decision. If there are no cards remaining in the event deck, reshuffle all the discarded cards to form a new deck.
Although the Thunderjaw board is a single large piece rather than four smaller tiles, hunters observe the standard rules when deploying and are placed in the quadrant indicated on the encounter card.
Terrain Elements
Water
Streams, lakes, and rivers are common across the land, even in the sprawling deserts. Although few enemies lurk within the depths, such waters leave hunters vulnerable, as they are forced to swim across.
While in a square containing water, a hunter may only perform the sneak action. If a hunter enters a square containing water during a sprint action, their action ends immediately. A hunter may perform a melee attack against an enemy on a square containing water, provided that the attack action starts on a square that doesn't contain water and then moves into the water as part of the attack.
Enemies are not restricted by water, as they are far larger than the hunters...
The Thunderjaw Data Cards
Note that although the Thunderjaw data cards look slightly different to the data cards for other machines, many symbols are the same and serve the same function.
The data card is numbered as follows:
- Name
- Players (1-2 or 3-4)
- HP
- Armour Value
- Salvage Value
- Glory Point Value
- Encounter Point Value
- Components
- Special Rules
- Structure Threshold
In addition, there are several new rules used for this huge machine, detailed below.
Thunderjaw card values (1-2 player side): Name: Thunderjaw. Players: 1-2. HP: 50. Armour Value: 2. Salvage Value: 3. Glory Point Value: 4. Encounter Point Value: 20. (Each value is read from the numbered icon on the scanned card and matched to the legend above; the scan shows them as icons only.)
Components (card text as printed): Each component has a letter-coded attack symbol; the number printed beside each letter is shown as the component's value on the scan. The small chip-icon values on each component row are not reproduced.
- Cannon x2 (attack A, 8): Disables A attacks when both components are destroyed.
- Heart (attack B, 12): no card text.
- Disc Launcher x2 (attack C, 8): This hunter may equip a Disc Launcher card. Disables C attacks when both components are destroyed.
- Tail (attack D, 10): Disables D attacks.
Special Rules:
- Shock Immunity: This enemy cannot suffer Shock.
Structure Thresholds: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50.
Structure Threshold
The Thunderjaw's reference card has a series of structure thresholds listed on it, representing the machine's immense frame. Unlike standard enemies, the Thunderjaw provides glory points not only when it's killed or when its components are destroyed but also throughout the encounter as it suffers more damage.
Structure thresholds are linked to the Thunderjaw's hit points. If a hunter deals damage to the Thunderjaw's hit points with an attack or by destroying a component that takes the Thunderjaw's total damage above the next structure threshold, the hunter immediately gains 1 glory point. If a hunter exceeds multiple structure thresholds in a single attack, they gain glory points for each threshold they exceed.
Multiple Components
The Thunderjaw is a truly massive machine, with several systems of the same type that are linked together. These components are represented by a multiplier next to the name, which indicates the enemy has multiple components of the same type that can be destroyed.
Unlike normal components, a component with this multiplier can be destroyed as many times as is indicated by the number listed. Each time one of these components is destroyed, the hunter gains glory, and the players apply any effects and the damage listed to the Thunderjaw before placing a destroyed token on the enemy.
When the Thunderjaw has gained the number of tokens listed for that component, all of the components of that type have been destroyed, and the hunters may no longer target that component.
Immense Base
Due to its massive size, the Thunderjaw occupies four squares instead of a single square like most enemies. When the Thunderjaw moves, it enters multiple new squares per point of movement.
When moving towards a hunter, the Thunderjaw stops moving when the hunter is on any one of the four squares it occupies.
When determining range to or from the Thunderjaw players count the squares from the closest square that the Thunderjaw is occupying to their hunter.
In the example image on the printed page, the Banuk Survivor is on one of the four squares occupied by the Thunderjaw and is at range 0. The Nora Marksman is 2 squares away from the closest Thunderjaw square and so is at range 2.
Patrol Routes and Immense Base
Whilst non-alert, the Thunderjaw will follow a patrol route, using a single point of movement to move into multiple new squares as shown in the example image below. When moving the Thunderjaw along a patrol route, centre the base of the miniature on the patrol route. If any part of the Thunderjaw's base is outside of the playing area after it moves along a patrol route, remove it from the playing area.
Barrage
Some of the Thunderjaw's behaviour cards feature a new attack symbol, Barrage. Attacks with Barrage target the hunter in range that has been attacked the least number of times during the Thunderjaw's current activation. If multiple hunters in range are eligible to be targets, the Thunderjaw targets the closest hunter instead.
Failing the Encounter
Choosing to face such an adversary is the preserve of not only the bold individuals touched by destiny but also those possessed of incredible folly and wild overconfidence.
At any time during this encounter, if the total number of times the hunters have fainted is equal to or greater than the number of hunters, or if the Thunderjaw leaves the playing area, the encounter immediately ends in failure.
If the encounter ends in failure, the players loses the game—the Hunters' Lodge does not entertain failure, especially not from those acting with such hubris!
Winning the Encounter
If the players defeat the Thunderjaw, the encounter immediately ends. The hunter that killed the Thunderjaw gains a Half-Sun token.
The players then resolve the victory step of the Campfire Phase to establish which hunters are awarded Sun tokens. Total how many victory points each hunter has earned, as if they had just finished the Hunters' Call.
The hunter with the most victory points is declared the winner, establishing themselves not only as the dominant figure of this quest but also as a hunter earmarked for patronage amongst the Hawks. Such an individual may look forward to a bright future within the Hunter's Lodge!
Quick Reference
Terrain Elements
Water
Hunters may only make sneak actions while on a square containing water. If entered during a sprint action, it ends the action. Hunters may move into a square containing water as part of a melee attack, if they didn't start in water.
Water does not affect enemies.
Symbol Reference
Barrage
Attacks with Barrage target the hunter in range that has been attacked the least number of times during the Thunderjaw's current activation.
Structure Threshold
Structure thresholds: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50.
If a hunter deals damage to the Thunderjaw's hit points with an attack or by destroying a component that takes the Thunderjaw's total damage above the next structure threshold, the hunter immediately gains 1 glory point. If a hunter exceeds multiple structure thresholds in a single attack, they gain glory points for each threshold they exceed.