Impact (2003) Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Basics
  • Soldiers and Guns
  • Hills
  • Playing Boards
  • Firing Guns
• Playing the Game
• Level One
• Level Two
  • 1) Fix Four Boards Together
  • 2) Arrange the Hills
  • 3) Soldiers and Guns
  • 4) Taking Turns
  • 5) Moving Soldiers
  • 6) Firing Guns
  • 7) Winning
• Level Three
  • 1. Setup
  • 2. Number of Moves per Turn
  • 3. Soldiers
  • 4. Captured Figures
  • 5. Tunnels
  • Winning

Basics

Each round players take turns, first at moving their soldiers, then at firing their guns. They can capture an enemy with two of their soldiers or knock him over with gunfire to take him permanently out of the game. The first player to take all their opponent's soldiers or guns out of play is the winner.

Soldiers and Guns

There are 2 teams, dinosaurs (dinos) and humans. Each team has 3 firing guns and 8 soldiers. We will call the firing guns "large mobile gun", "medium mobile gun" and "field gun". There are 3 kinds of soldiers; "Leader", "NCO" (non-commissioned officer) and "Troop". Each team has 1 Leader, 2 NCOs and 5 Troops.

These all have built-in circular bases. They can only be put on the circular playing spaces on the boards and the hills. They can only move between playing spaces, along the lines on the board and the hills. The lines on the boards continue up onto the hills making a continuous path.

Hills

There are a total of 16 hills which come in three sizes: large, medium and small. There are 4 large, 6 medium and 6 small. The pegs on the bottom of the hills fit into holes in the boards. Each hill can fit into several different places on each board. The faint outlines of the hills printed on each board show where these are.

Playing Boards

There are a total of six boards in the set. Every side of every board fits together, so it does not matter which way round the boards are when you fix them together. You can make different landscapes by turning boards round or fixing them together in different patterns.

Play Level One uses 2 boards, Level Two uses 4 boards and Level Three uses 6 boards.

The boards fix together using the small slip-on clips provided.

Firing Guns

You fire guns by holding them with one hand and pulling the grey lever backwards with your other hand. Tilt the gun forwards or backwards to aim closer or further away. The only firing rules are: the gun's base must be in the circle playing space and part of the base must be touching the space when firing. You cannot lift the gun up off the board and fire.

Playing the Game

The game has three levels. Each level is described in its own section below.

• Level One is an easy "shooting gallery" game played on two boards. Each team uses both their mobile guns, 5 troops and two hills. The idea of Level One is to introduce players to fixing the boards together, setting up troops, aiming and firing the guns.
• Level Two introduces players to moving round the board and taking out opposing soldiers by "capturing" them. It is played on 4 boards with 12 hills. Each team has 5 troops, 1 field gun and 1 mobile gun. Players take turns, game about, to set up the boards and hills.
• Level Three completes the full set of rules for the two-player game.

Level One

Each team uses both their mobile guns, 5 troops and two hills.

1. Fix two boards together with a slip-on clip.
2. Players sit at opposite ends of the combined boards.
3. Each player places their hills as far to the back of their board as possible. They then put their guns on the highest playing space on each hill.
4. Each player positions their 5 troops around their hills but not directly behind them. A suggested layout is shown on the publisher's page. You now have 10 troops standing in plain view of the guns at either end.
5. Players take it in turns to fire one of their guns at their opponent's soldiers (the youngest player fires first). If a player accidentally knocks over one of their opponent's guns the gun is put back on its circle playing space and play moves to the other player.

Winning: The first player to knock over all their opponent's troops wins.

Level Two

Level Two is played on 4 boards with 12 hills. Each team has 5 troops, 1 field gun and 1 mobile gun. Players take turns, game about, to set up the boards and hills.

1) Fix Four Boards Together

This can be done in a number of ways, as shown on the publisher's page.

2) Arrange the Hills

Take four of each hill (12 hills altogether) and choose which of the hill outlines to put them on. You can create ranges of hills with large open areas or put the hills evenly spaced around the boards. You normally only use one of each hill on each board (i.e. one large, one medium and one small).

3) Soldiers and Guns

Each player puts a field gun, one of their mobile guns (it doesn't matter which) and their 5 troops on the board towards the back of "their" end. The field gun can only be put on the highest circular playing space on the hill closest to the back of the board. A mobile gun can be put on any circular playing space.

4) Taking Turns

The game is then played in a series of turns. Decide which player is going to start first and then follow this procedure:

a) Player-one moves their soldiers, then player-two moves theirs.

b) Player-one fires their guns and/or moves them. Player-two fires and/or moves their guns. (See Firing Guns in the Basics section.)

5) Moving Soldiers

a) You move your soldiers to keep them out of reach of the opposing guns and to "capture" your opponent's soldiers or guns.

b) To capture an opposing soldier or gun you must move two of your soldiers onto playing places that have lines that join them to the soldier or gun you want to capture. Take the captured piece off the board. See how to capture in the publisher's picture.

c) The MOST moves you can make in a turn is twice the number of troops in your team at the start the game. For example in Level Two you start with 5 troops so you can make 10 (2X5) moves at most. This number lasts the whole game no matter how few soldiers you end up with. You can move any number of soldiers any number of spaces as long as the total spaces you move adds up to 10 or less.

d) You must move AT LEAST the number of places equal to the number of your soldiers left on the board. As soldiers get knocked over and fewer are left, the number of places you HAVE TO move gets less too. If you have 1 soldier left you MUST move him 1 space each turn (but you CAN move him up to the original maximum of 10).

e) If one of your own team is on a playing space you can "squeeze past" and continue on. You cannot "squeeze past" an enemy soldier. You either take a different path or stop before them.

6) Firing Guns

You have two kinds of gun: Field Guns that ONLY sit on hills and Mobile Guns that can move round the board and over hills like soldiers. You can shoot at any soldiers or any guns in the opposing team. You must completely knock over a soldier or gun to take it out of play.

If your shot leaves your target leaning over slightly or it is bumped out of its place, act as if the shot missed. Put it back in its place and carry on. If you knock over one of your own soldiers or guns you must take them out of play. This is a friendly fire accident.

Each turn you can do the following with your various guns:

• Field Gun: EITHER move to the next hill in any direction OR fire one shot.
• Mobile Gun: There are three things you can choose from each turn:
  • i) Fire TWO shots but don't move.
  • ii) Fire ONE shot and move ONE place.
  • iii) Fire NO shots and move TWO spaces.

7) Winning

The first player to take either ALL his opponent's soldiers or ALL his opponent's guns out of play is the winner.

Level Three

Level Three completes the full set of rules for the two-player game. The rules are the same as for Level Two but with the following additions:

1. Setup

Level Three uses all six boards, the full teams of 8 soldiers, all three guns (large mobile, medium mobile and field) and all 16 hills.

As with Level Two, players take it in turn to set up the boards and hills. Fix all six boards together. The boards can be arranged in various ways, as shown on the publisher's page.

Decide which player will start by mutual agreement.

2. Number of Moves per Turn

The MOST moves you can make in a turn is twice the number of troops in your team at the start the game. For example in Level Three you start with 8 troops so you can make 16 (2X8) moves at most. As with Level Two you must move AT LEAST the number of places equal to the number of your soldiers left on the board.

3. Soldiers

Level Three uses all 3 DIFFERENT KINDS of soldiers: LEADER, NCO and TROOP. The 8 soldiers in a team are made up of 1 Leader, 2 NCOs and 5 Troops.

A LEADER can capture an opposition TROOP on his own, but he needs another one of his soldiers to capture an opposition NCO or LEADER.

To capture a gun, a LEADER or an NCO MUST be one of the two capturers.

NCOs and troops must be moved straight to their final space for any given turn. A LEADER ONLY can move some spaces, do something (like capture a troop) then move more spaces (perhaps to escape) and end up somewhere else.

As a result a LEADER could move, capture a troop on his own, then move on and capture a gun as well (as long as there is another one of his soldiers already beside the gun).

If a soldier is knocked over by gunfire he is out of the game for good.

4. Captured Figures

If a soldier is CAPTURED he is held prisoner. At the start of his turn a player can swap any soldier he holds prisoner for any soldier held by his opponent. The opponent MUST give up the prisoner, even if he is being asked to swap a LEADER for a TROOP.

Swapped troops MUST be put back near the rear of their player's starting board.

CAPTURED guns are out of the game and cannot be swapped.

5. Tunnels

Some of the lines to the edges of the board have coloured spots beside them. A "tunnel" leads between spots of the same colour that are on open edges of all boards. All soldiers can use the "tunnels".

Tunnels allow you to leave the very back of your own starting board and appear at the very back of your opponent's board by moving just one place. In this way you can launch a sneak attack.

You can use all the coloured dots OR limit tunnelling to two colours or one colour only. At the start of a game you must decide how many of the colours you will use. Try your first game with just one colour. Try more as you become more experienced.

Winning

The first player to take either ALL his opponent's soldiers or ALL his opponent's guns out of play is the winner.