Immortals Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Set-up
• Starting round (placing armies)
  • Seeding the dice tower
• Flow of the Game
  • Reinforcements
  • Planning of actions
    • The army spaces
      • Effects of structures
    • Specific actions of the dark realm tribes
    • The magic spaces
  • A battle in detail
    • The result – attack into an unoccupied region
    • The result – battle between two players
• Performance of actions
• Scoring
• End of the Game and Winner

Components

• 1 Game board — depicts the light realm on the right side and the dark realm on the left side. Both realms consist of the same 5 areas with 5 regions each.
• 25 Region cards — each region has its own card. The region's name is at the top of the card, below the name are the energy and gold resources of that region: the resources of the light realm are on the right side, those of the dark realm are on the left side. The region itself is highlighted, so its position in the area can be found easily.
• 60 Conflict cards — for each region, there is 1 conflict card of the light realm and 1 conflict card of the dark realm. Furthermore, there is 1 wild conflict card for each light area and each dark area. Note: Region cards and conflict cards are easy to distinguish by their background. All region cards show both sides, the light and the dark, while conflict cards have a monochrome background.
• 20 Blank cards — these cards are used to hide which actions a player will perform and which they will not perform.
• 20 Magic cards — there is one set of 4 magic cards in each player color.
• 10 Round tracker cards — used to indicate the current game round.
• 10 Tribe tokens — 5 tribes of the light realm and 5 tribes of the dark realm.
• 10 Tribe boards — 5 light Tribes and 5 dark Tribes. Each player assembles their board of one light tribe board and one dark tribe board. The player boards have two different sides. The back (portrait of two tribes) is used when distributing armies at the start of the game. During the game itself, the players use the front of their board for planning their own actions. The front shows a light (angel wing) limbo and a dark (demon wing) limbo, the two tribes and 10 action spaces.
• 225 Wooden cubes — these are the players' armies, 45 each of 5 player colors. Only 43 are used for playing the game. Two armies are spare parts.
• 20 Green cubes — these are the armies of the inhabitants.
• 5 Victory points tokens & +60 marker — used for recording the players' victory points on the victory points track.
• 50 Building tiles — the image of a shrine is on one side, the image of a capital on the flipside of these tiles. Buildings can be constructed in regions, yielding victory points for their owner.
• 26 Portals — allow the transition from the light realm to the dark realm or vice versa.
• 65 Gold coins — 15x 1, 22x 2 and 28x 5.
• 65 Energy tokens — 15x 1, 22x 2 and 28x 5.
• 1 First player marker
• 1 Dice tower, composed of three parts — used during battles. It has to be constructed before each game and consists of 3 parts: a funnel, a cardboard tower, and a tray.
• 1 Rules booklet

Set-up

1. Place the game board in the center of the playing area. It shows the dark and the light realm. Assemble the dice tower and place it next to the game board.
2. Place the building tiles, the portals and the armies of the inhabitants next to the game board as common supply.
3. Place the gold coins and energy tokens, each sorted by value, next to the game board as common supply.
4. Sort the round tracker cards in ascending order on top of each other. Depending on the number of players, you play a different amount of game rounds: 3 players: 7 rounds | 4 players: 5 rounds | 5 players: 5 rounds. Place the needed cards on the game board. There are more round tracker cards than needed. If players agree to play more than the suggested rounds they can use the extra cards.
5. Stack the region and conflict cards on the designated boxes of the game board.
6. Mix the tribe tokens of both realms separately. Give one token of each realm to each player. The players assemble their individual player boards with the boards of their two tribes. Put the tribe tokens back into the game box.
7. Each player chooses their player color and then takes all of the following: 43 army cubes, the set of magic cards, the victory points token and the +60 points marker of their color plus 4 blank cards. All players place their victory points token on space 0 of the victory points track and the +60 points marker next to the board. Put any surplus components back into the game box, if playing with less than five players.
8. Randomly determine the first player, give them the first player marker.

Starting round (placing armies)

For the starting round, players use the back of their player board. There you see images of the two tribes and spaces containing numbers. These numbers specify the number of army cubes the player places on each of these spaces. All armies on each single space form an army group. The spaces on the far left and far right of the player board are only used in a 3 and 4 player game. Only in a 3 and 4 player game 2 armies each are placed on these spaces.

First, each player deploys any one of their army groups to their starting region in the light realm. That starting region is named on the light side of each player's board. Additionally the player takes the region card of the respective region from the stack. Then, each player deploys 2 armies from their personal supply to that same region in the dark realm.

Now, the remaining army groups are deployed to other regions: Sort the conflict cards by light and dark realm, mix them separately and keep them in two stacks next to the game board. The first player draws 5 cards from the "dark" stack, the second player (in clockwise direction) draws 5 cards from the "light" stack etc. Repeat this process alternately until each player has drawn 5 cards.

Simultaneously, all players choose one of their conflict cards – if possible of regions not containing any armies yet – and place that card face down in front of them. After all players have placed their card, they reveal it. In player order – starting with the first player – each player deploys any one of their army groups from their player board to the region shown on their chosen conflict card (keep in mind the light and dark realm!). A wild card allows deployment to any unoccupied region of that area in the depicted realm.

Next, each player looks for the corresponding region card in the stack and adds it to their magic and blank cards. The chosen conflict cards are placed on the discard pile.

Note: If a certain region is occupied in one realm, it may be occupied by another player in the other realm (or by the same player).

Example: Dirk (red) chose the conflict card Mountainhome in the dark realm and places his army group consisting of 10 armies onto Mountainhome. He then looks for the corresponding region card in the stack and places it with his magic cards. The played conflict card is discarded.

In case any other player is the owner of that region card already, that player keeps the region card and the active player takes the conflict card instead, adding it to their own cards.

Example: Mike (purple) chose the Mountainhome conflict card of the light realm and places one of his army groups onto Mountainhome. Since the region card for Mountainhome is already possessed by Dirk (red), he keeps the conflict card adding it to his cards.

Note: The players are not required to show any conflict cards they kept for which no armies have been deployed.

If all regions matching a player's conflict cards are occupied, the player keeps their choice of a conflict card and does not place any armies.

After all players have taken their turn, they pass their remaining 4 conflict cards face down to their left neighbor. Also pass the first player marker. Each player refills their hand with one card from the appropriate stack of conflict cards, and the next deployment round starts, repeating the process.

If a player has no army group left on their player board when it's their turn, they choose one of the conflict cards from their hand to keep.

The starting round ends after no player has any army groups left on their player board. All players discard their final 4 conflict cards to the corresponding discard pile. Finally, all players gain the amount of gold and energy from the common supply as shown on both sides of their player board.

Shuffle the two draw stacks and the discard pile of the conflict cards to form one new draw stack, and place it face down on the designated box of the game board.

All players flip their player board and place 3 armies from their personal supply on each of the two limbos (light and dark). The player currently in possession of the first player marker keeps it.

Seeding the dice tower

The dice tower is seeded at the start of the game: 7 army cubes from the personal supply of each player plus 10 army cubes of the inhabitants are thrown into the tower.

The players may deploy any armies of their own color falling into the tray to their light and dark limbo as they wish.

All but 2 armies of the inhabitants having fallen into the tray are placed back in the supply.

Any armies still remaining in the players' personal supplies at this point will not be used in this game and are returned to the game box.

Flow of the Game

The game is played over a number of game rounds, depending on the number of players. During each game round, the following four phases are played in this order:

• Reinforcements
• Planning of actions
• Performance of actions
• Scoring

After scoring, the top round tracker card is returned to the game box and the next game round starts. This is repeated until the last round, after which the game ends.

Reinforcements

Each player may draw one conflict card from the stack.

Next, for each 3 armies in their respective limbos, the players may send 1 of these armies as reinforcement to any region of that realm containing at least one of their own armies.

Reinforcing with the armies from the limbos starts with the first player, continuing in clockwise order.

Example: Dirk (red) has 5 armies in the dark limbo and 1 army in the light limbo. He places 1 army from the dark limbo in one of his regions in the dark realm. Since he has less than 3 armies in the light limbo he cannot place an army in the light realm.

Planning of actions

Now all players plan their actions for this turn simultaneously. Therefore they place their cards face down onto the player board.

Each player board features 10 action spaces – 8 army spaces and 2 magic spaces. Region cards and conflict cards can be played on the army spaces only, magic cards solely on the magic spaces. The actions for the army spaces are displayed at the top of the space while the magic actions are displayed on the cards.

A player may perform an action only if they have played a card face down on the corresponding space during the planning phase. Players are not forced to play a card on every action space.

Placing a region card on an army space requires that the player have at least one army in that region. If the player has armies in that region in both realms, then the player must choose which realm is affected. After performing their action, the player resumes the card to their hand.

Example: Since Ani only has armies in Mountainhome in the light realm, she can only use the effect of the action in the light realm.

A conflict card affects the shown region in the shown realm. After performing their action, the player discards the card to the discard pile of conflict cards.

Players use the blank cards to hide from the other players which actions they will forfeit. A blank card played on an action space means that the player will forfeit this action when the card is revealed.

Example: The conflict card only works in the region Borderland in the dark realm.

In case it is not possible to perform a planned action (for whatever reason), or if a player does not want to perform it, they receive 1 gold or 1 energy from the common supply as compensation.

After all players have declared that they are done with their planning, the phase ends.

The army spaces

Extract gold The player gains the amount of gold from the common supply as shown on the card, if they have at least one army in that region. Wild conflict cards must not be played on that space.

Example: The player has armies in Shore Lake in the light realm and therefore takes 5 gold from the supply.

Extract energy The player gains the amount of energy from the common supply as shown on the card if they have at least one army in that region. Wild conflict cards must not be played on that space.

Example: The player has armies in Tribute Pass in both realms and therefore has to decide in which realm he wants to extract energy. He choses the dark realm and collects 6 energy from the supply.

Transition of 3 armies The player may pay 2 energy and 1 gold to deploy 3 armies from the corresponding limbo to the played region if they have at least 1 army in that region.

Note: A player with less than 3 armies in the respective limbo can only place those armies.

Example: Dirk (red) has armies in Emerald Cliff in the light realm and places 3 armies from his light limbo to Emerald Cliff.

Construct buildings and portals While all players may perform this action, the costs differ from tribe to tribe. The player pays the cost (energy and/or gold) as shown on their player board, and may construct a portal, a shrine or a capital in the region of the played card, provided they have at least one army in that region. Then, the player takes the corresponding tile from the common supply, and places it in that region.

Example: The player has played the Treehome conflict card of the light realm where he has 2 armies. He pays 4 energy and constructs a portal in Treehome.

Effects of structures

Portal — A player gains 1 VP immediately when constructing a portal. As of now, armies can move or attack from this region to its twin region in the other realm, but not vice versa.

Example: Mike (purple) can attack Ani (blue) in Heartwood in the dark realm through the portal.

Shrine — A player gains 1 VP immediately when constructing a shrine. When scoring takes place, the owner of a region containing a shrine gains 1 VP.

Capital — A player gains 2 VPs immediately when constructing a capital. When scoring takes place, the owner of a region containing a capital gains 1 VP.

Important:

• A capital or a shrine can be built in each region, but not both.
• There can only be one capital in each area!

Attack Players conduct an attack from a region containing their own armies into an adjacent unoccupied region, or a region occupied by another player. The card played for the attack does not specify the attacked region, it rather rules the behavior of the inhabitants living in the attacked region.

If the played card shows:

A) the attacked region, the inhabitants fight for the attacker.

B) the attacking region, the inhabitants are neutral and fight for nobody.

C) any other region (not involved in the fight), the inhabitants fight for the defender, or (if the region was unoccupied) for themselves.

(see "A battle in detail" below)

Example: Ani (blue) attacks from Forge Fire into Heartwood where Mike (purple) has armies. Depending on which region or conflict card she has played on the army space the inhabitants will behave differently.

Attack or movement of armies The played card allows either

• Attack (see above) or
• Movement of armies for 1 gold: The player may pay 1 gold and move any number of their own armies from the region shown on the card to another region containing at least one of their armies. Also, each of the crossed regions must contain at least one of the player's own armies. At least 1 army must be left behind in the region from where the armies start their movement.

Example: Dirk (red) moves 4 armies from White Falls through Borderland into Treehome. He leaves 2 armies behind in White Falls.

Note: Armies can also be moved through a portal.

Specific actions of the dark realm tribes

Construction: Shrine (Demons) The player pays 2 energy and may construct a shrine in the region of the played card, provided they have at least one army in that region.

Extract gold (Orcs) This is the same as the basic action (see above).

Transition of 3 armies (Necromancers) This is the same as the basic action (see above).

Attack (Night Elves) This allows an additional attack, following the usual rules (see above). This attack costs 2 energy and 1 gold.

Attack (Trolls) This allows an additional attack, following the usual rules (see above). This attack costs 1 energy and 2 gold.

The magic spaces

There are four different magic cards:

Transition of 5 armies The player deploys 5 armies from one of their limbos to any regions of the same realm in which they have at least one army. This action costs 4 energy and 1 gold.

Example: Dirk (red) pays 4 energy and 1 gold to take 5 armies from his light limbo and place them in regions in the light realm where he already has armies stationed.

Conflict card or first player marker The player may do one of the following: a) Draw 1 conflict card from the stack. b) Take the first player marker, placing it in front of them. However, the player order will not change during the current game round. The player holding the first player marker at the beginning of the next game round is the first player of that game round. This action costs 1 gold.

Example: Dirk (red) pays 1 gold and takes the first player marker to be the first player in the next game round.

Take over a region card or construct a shrine The player may do one of the following: a) Construct a shrine in a region of the player's choice, where they have at least one army. b) The player chooses one region, where they have at least 1 army but do not own the respective region card. Then, the player compares the number of their armies in that region with the number of the other player's armies in the twin region in the other realm. If the active player has more armies, the other player must hand them the region card, even if it is still on that player's player board. If the active player's armies are less or the same number, nothing happens. This action costs 2 energy and 2 gold.

Example: Dirk (red) pays 2 energy and 2 gold to compare army size of the region Tributepass in the light and dark world. Since Dirk has more armies stationed in Tributepass in the light realm than Ani (blue) has stationed in the dark realm, Ani (blue) has to give Dirk (red) the Tributepass region card.

2 conflict cards or transition of 2 armies The player may do one of the following: a) Draw 2 conflict cards from the stack. b) The player deploys 2 armies from one of their limbos to any regions of the same realm in which they have at least one army. This action costs 2 gold.

Example: Dirk (red) pays 2 gold and draws 2 conflict cards from the stack.

A battle in detail

The dice tower is used for all battles.

The attacking player moves any number of their armies positioned in the attacking region from there into the target region, but must leave behind at least 1 army.

To conduct the attack, take all armies currently in the tray out of it. If no armies of the inhabitants are among them, add 1 from the common supply; if more than 3 armies of the inhabitants are among them, return 1 to the common supply.

Then, throw all armies from the tray plus all attacking armies (those moved into the attacked region) plus all defending armies (those positioned in the attacked region) into the dice tower.

Even if the attack occurs into an unoccupied region, all attacking armies and all armies from the tray are thrown into the tower.

Some of these cubes will be retained inside the tower, some other cubes retained before will fall into the tray additionally.

This leads to a random result.

Example: Mike (purple) attacks with 2 armies from The Murk into White Falls where Frank (yellow) is defending with 2 armies. All armies still in the tray are taken out with caution. One player takes all armies taken out of the tray as well as the attacking and defending armies and throws them into the dice tower.

Important: The dice tower must not be emptied deliberately (only after the game has ended, of course). If some cubes should fall into the tray accidentally during the game, keep them there, and throw them into the tower when the next battle starts.

The result – attack into an unoccupied region

The inhabitants fight for the attacker or are neutral:

If at least one army of the attacker falls out of the tower, the attacker wins. Otherwise the attacker loses. All armies of the attacker that fell into the tray are placed on the attacked region. Inhabitants and armies of other players remain in the tray.

The inhabitants fight against the attacker:

Take as many attacking armies as inhabitant armies out of the tray. The inhabitants go back to the supply, the attacking armies are placed in the limbo of the other realm. If at least one attacking army remains in the tray, the attacker wins the battle. Otherwise the attacker loses. If the attacker won, place all remaining attacking armies from the tray on the attacked region, leaving armies of other players in the tray.

Example: Frank (yellow) has attacked an unoccupied region playing a conflict card that shows neither the attacked region, nor the region he attacked from. Therefore the inhabitants will fight against him. After the armies were tossed into the tower, Frank (yellow) has 3 armies in the tray while there are only 2 armies of inhabitants in the tray. The result is 3 to 2 in favor of Frank.

If the attacker won the battle and placed armies in the region, the attacking player gains the region control card of the gained region as a reward. If the region card is already claimed by another player, that player must give the card to the attacker immediately, even if it is still face down on a player board. Otherwise, the attacker takes the region card from the stack.

Example: Frank (yellow) has to put two of his armies from the tray into his dark limbo. The two inhabitants armies are placed back into the supply. Then Frank (yellow) places his remaining army from the tray on the Foothold region, claiming the Foothold region card.

If the attacker has lost the battle, nothing happens.

The result – battle between two players

In order to determine the result of the battle, the players count all cubes of the attacker and all cubes of the defender that are in the tray now. Depending on the played card, the armies of the inhabitants count for the attacker or the defender or are neutral (see Attack, above). Neutral armies and armies of other players, who are not involved in the battle, are not considered and remain in the tray after the battle.

The involved party having more armies in the tray is the winner of the battle.

Example: Mike (purple), the attacker, has 4 armies and Frank (yellow), the defender, has 3 armies in the tray. Since Mike (purple) has played a conflict card that shows the attacked region, the one inhabitant army in the tray will fight for him. So in total Mike has 5 armies compared to Frank's 3 armies.

The armies of the losing party, and that same number of armies of the winning party, are moved from the tray to the limbo of the other realm of their owners.

Important: If inhabitants fought for the winning party, they are taken out of the tray with the losing party's armies first. Then the winner takes as many armies out as are left to match the number of armies of the losing party. Inhabitants are put back into the common supply.

The winner of the battle deploys their remaining armies to the attacked region.

Note: Armies of the inhabitants are never deployed to any region!

Armies of players that were not involved in the battle and neutral inhabitants stay in the tray for the next battle.

Example: Frank (yellow) lost the battle and takes all of his 3 armies out of the tray and puts them into his light limbo. Mike (purple), the winner, now also has to take 3 armies out of the tray. Since the 1 inhabitant fought for him he takes only 2 of his own armies out of the tray and into his light limbo. He puts his 2 armies still left in the tray onto White Falls in the dark realm.

If the winner is the attacker, they are the new owner of the region, and receive that region card from its current owner, even if it is still on their player board.

If the winner is the defender, they keep that region card. If another player not involved in the battle has the region card he holds on to it.

In case of a tie, all armies of both parties are moved to the corresponding player's limbo of the other realm. The region card is put back on the stack, if it was owned by one of the involved players before. If it is currently owned by any other player, they simply keep it.

Example: Mike (purple) takes the region card White Falls from the previous owner, adding it to his own cards.

Performance of actions

The first player starts by revealing one card of their choice from their player board, and then performs that planned action. The other players follow in clockwise direction.

Repeat this process, until all players have performed all their actions, or passed.

Example: Dirk (red) is the starting player and chooses his action first. He decides to perform an attack.

If the active player has only blank cards left on their player board or does not want to perform any more actions, they pass and gain 1 gold or 1 energy from the common supply as compensation. Then, they resume all cards still on their player board to their hand. As long as other players still perform actions, they receive the compensation each time it is their turn again.

After all players have finished performing their actions or have passed, the game round is concluded with the scoring.

Example: Mike (purple) has two cards left on his player board. He reveals a blank card and passes his turn. Therefore he chooses to take 1 energy from the supply.

Note: The Players may look at their own played cards anytime.

Scoring

All players – starting with the player to the left of the first player and going clockwise – score victory points for this game round:

• 1 VP for each 2 regions they own.

Example: Dirk (red) occupies 5 regions this round gaining 2 VP.

• 1 VP for each shrine in their owned regions.

Example: Frank (yellow) occupies 2 regions with a shrine gaining 2 VP.

• 1 VP for each capital in their owned regions.

Example: Frank (yellow) occupies one region with a capital gaining 1 VP.

• 2 VP for each area in which the player owns exactly 3 or 4 regions.

Example: Ani (blue) occupies 3 regions in one area gaining 2 VP.

• 3 VP for each area in which the player owns all 5 regions.

Example: Mike (purple) occupies all regions of one area gaining 3 VP.

After all players have scored their points, return the topmost round tracker card to the game box, and start the next game round, unless it was the final round.

Note: If a player surpasses the 60 VP space on the victory points track, they count from space 1 onward again and take their colored +60 VP marker. At the end of the game they count their VP on the track and add 60 VP for the marker.

End of the Game and Winner

The game ends after the final game round.

The player with the most victory points is the winner of the game.

In case of a tie, the tied player owning the most armies on the game board is the winner.

If the tie still persists, there are multiple winners.