Kharnage
Kharnage Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Set Up
Sort Domination and Kharnage tokens into 4 stacks: 1-Skull, 3-Skull, 5-Skull and Kharnage, illustrations face up.
Set the Hill card at the center of the table. Units destroyed in combat go there.
Players each pick an Army and take the related Unit, General and Strategy cards.
Shuffle your Unit cards into a Reserve draw pile. Put it face down next to you. Put your Strategy 0 card in the Strategy Area next to the Hill and take your other Strategy cards and your General cards in hand.
Draw as many Unit cards from your Reserve as there are Reinforcement symbols on your Strategy 0 card. Do not look at them. Then deploy them one by one in your Army, in the appropriate Line and taking into account any Reinforcement symbols. These cards make up your Army.
Note: ignore all Surprise symbols during set up, except for Surprise Reinforcements and the Large Unit Skill.
The Kharnage can begin...
Game Mechanics
A Kharnage game is resolved in 4 rounds.
Every round, each player plays one strategy card from hand, deploys the indicated Units and Generals, triggers any Skills, and attacks opposing Armies.
Most importantly, at the end of each round, every Army wins Domination tokens. Their value depends on the number of cards it destroyed during the round and ultimately determines who wins the game.
When an Army destroys all the Units in an opponent's Army, it collects a Kharnage token.
Symbols
Strategy card — Symbols on the Strategy card show: Initiative (order in which Strategy cards are resolved), Attack, Reinforcement, and/or Skills for this turn, and the type of Attack activated by this Strategy.
Unit and General cards — Symbols on Unit and General cards show: Defense (amount of damage necessary to eliminate the card), Reinforcement (number of Unit and/or General cards to put in play), Line (Line in the Army to deploy the Unit in), and Skill.
Lines in the Army
A Front Line Unit is placed in front, closest to the Hill.
A Middle Line Unit is placed in the middle, between the other two lines.
A Rear Line Unit is placed behind the other two lines, closest to the player who played it.
Place the card in the appropriate Line, identified by its background and especially the Line symbol on its sides.
Suggestion: always leave room for a line, even when it is empty.
Surprise Rule
This symbol represents the Surprise effects triggered upon deploying the Unit or General into the Army. Every symbol of the card that has a Surprise symbol over it successively triggers from left to right. Resolve Surprise Attacks simultaneously.
When you add a card to an Army, and before adding the next, trigger all the Surprise effects.
Steps in a Round
Choose Your Strategy
Players simultaneously choose one strategy card each from their hand and set it face down on their strategy 0 card (or the one played in the previous round).
Note: you can choose among all your strategy cards but you will only get to play 4 during the game (unless there is a special event).
The card determines your Initiative for this round (the order in which the players play), your Army's Reinforcements, and the type of Attack you have chosen for this round.
When all the players are ready, they reveal their chosen strategy card.
One at a time, starting with the player who has the lowest initiative, continuing with the next higher and concluding with the highest, players carry out their turns by resolving every element on their strategy cards, starting with the top left one and finishing with the bottom right one.
Note: activate the Skills on your strategy card in the order you read them. They remain inactive as long as it is not your turn to play and they activate when you get to them, before Reinforcements, before Attacks or at the end of your turn.
Reinforcement and Attack
Draw Your Reinforcements
On your turn, play as many cards from your Reserve or your hand as there are Reinforcement symbols on your strategy card, taking into account order and type.
Red Reinforcement: draw a card from your Reserve but don't look at it.
Black Reinforcement: play a card from your hand (General, Unit, Large Unit).
Free Reinforcement: choose between Red and Black Reinforcement.
Draw or play your cards one by one and put them face down into a Reinforcement draw pile, so that the last drawn/played card is on top.
When you've drawn or played all your cards, it is time for you to deploy them.
Deploy Your Reinforcements
Deploy all the cards in your Reinforcement pile.
Draw the first Reinforcement card and add it to your Army in the correct orientation and Line. Resolve all Surprise effects then draw the next card.
Note: some Surprise effects add Reinforcements. They are always put on top of the Reinforcement pile.
The picture must always face the Hill.
When you've deployed all your Reinforcements and resolved their surprise effects, you may proceed with … Attacks!!!
Your troops are finally deployed. Let's break some bones.
Attacks
Resolve Attacks one at a time, starting with the one on the left. Keep in mind that attacks never add up, even if they are of the same type. There are 2 types of Attacks: Melee Attack and Ranged Attack.
Resolve as many Attacks as there are Attack symbols on your strategy card, in order, and taking the type of Attack in consideration.
Melee Attacks can only target Units in Armies within reach. An Army is within reach when immediately to your left and/or right, or if the Army between you and your target has no more Units at the start of this Attack.
Note: this rule only applies when there are more than 3 players. In a 2- or 3-player game, Armies of every player are always within reach.
Ranged Attacks can target any Army. You can split your Attack to rain death on two enemy armies.
Determine Attack Strength
Count all the Attack and Surprise Attack symbols of the type you are resolving on the Units in your Army. For example, count all your Melee Attack symbols for a Melee attack.
Add your Magical Attack symbols.
1 symbol = 1 Strength point. The total is the Attack Strength.
Resolving the Attack
Now that you know your Attack Strength, choose who to slaughter and how.
If there are more than 2 players: you can split your Attack Strength equally between 2 enemy Armies (round up).
Example: you can split a 7-point Attack into two 4-points Attacks against two enemy Armies.
Note: if your Strategy card has 2 Attack symbols, you can very well destroy all of a Player's Units with your first Attack and end up within reach of the next player for your second Attack.
Attack Rules
No diddling around: you must use all your Attack Strength to destroy your opponents' Units. And Skills are not optional unless otherwise indicated.
Order and method: you must always target Front Line Units first, moving on to the Middle Line and finally the Rear Line as they empty.
Knuckle sandwich: in order to destroy a Unit, you must spend as many Strength points as its Defense score. Defense can be increased by Skills. Keep the cards you destroyed until the end of the round, they will be counted to determine the winner of the round. Whenever you destroy the last Unit in an Army, you commit Kharnage (see example).
Note: when you destroy a multiple-card Unit, like the Giant, keep all of its cards.
Same player shoots again: as long as you have unused Strength points, you must keep wiping out units in the target army.
Shrugging it off: if you do not have enough remaining Strength points to destroy a Unit, they are lost. The Unit is unhurt and is not made easier to kill later.
Unused Strength points are lost.
Attacking your enemies and using your Strength points and Skills is mandatory, unless otherwise indicated.
Attack Types
Ranged Attack — +1 Strength point per symbol in each of your Ranged Attacks.
Melee Attack — +1 Strength point per symbol in each of your Melee Attacks.
Magical Attack — +1 Strength point per symbol in each of your Ranged and Melee Attacks.
Reinforcement Symbols
Red Reinforcement — When a Unit bearing this symbol is deployed into your Army, draw as many additional cards from your Reserve as indicated inside the symbol and add them to the top of your Reinforcements pile.
Black Reinforcement — When a Unit bearing this symbol is put into your Army, choose as many additional Unit cards from your Hand as indicated inside the symbol and add them to the top of your Reinforcements pile.
Kharnage
If you destroy an opponent's last Unit, you commit Kharnage: collect 1 Kharnage token, it will count as 1 Skull at the end of the game.
Optional yet fun rule: you do not have to shout, you may choose to have mercy on the other players and your neighbors! Or not.
When you commit Kharnage, in order to be granted the right to take 1 Kharnage token, you must cry out loud and clear "KHARNAGE!", then smack your hand down on the unfortunate destroyed Units. The other players must congratulate you by shouting "YEAH!" or loose 1 Kharnage token, if they have one.
End of the Round
The round ends when all the players have resolved their Strategy card. All the players count how many cards (not Units) they each destroyed during the round.
Example: the Orc giant counts as 1 Unit made of 2 cards, it is worth 2 here.
The player who destroyed the most cards takes the 5-Skull Domination token, the second player takes the 3-Skull token and the third player takes the 1-Skull token. Other players get nothing.
Note: in a 2-player game, 1-skull tokens are not used.
Example: John (Initiative 400) destroyed 9 cards, the greatest massacre this round. He receives the 5-Skull Domination token. After him, Mike (Initiative 160) and Larry (Initiative 100) both destroyed 5 cards, but Larry has the lowest Initiative. He receives the 3-Skull Domination token and Mike receives the 1-Skull one. Ray (Initiative 380) destroyed 3 cards and gets nothing.
Players then cast the destroyed cards face down on the Hill. Start the next round.
End of the Game
The game ends after 4 rounds. All the players count how many Skulls they each got. The player who received the greatest number of Skulls wins.
Reminder: 1 Karnage token = 1 Skull.
Ties are broken in the following way:
The largest Army in number of Units wins.
If there is a tie, it is broken by Initiative (from this round's Strategy card). The lowest Initiative wins.
If the tie remains, the player with the most Kharnage tokens wins.
If the tie still remains, the player who has the lowest Initiative in the last round wins.
Key Words
Away — the Unit is turned face down. It is no longer considered part of its owner's Army. If an Attack only leaves an Army with Away Units alive and destroys the others, there is Kharnage.
Surprise — when deploying Units, symbols associated with this icon must be resolved immediately before moving on to the Attack phase. If associated with Attack symbols, the active player must carry out an Attack whose Strength is equal to the number of associated Attack symbols. The attack cannot be split and must be resolved against a single enemy Army.
Immobilised — all the Unit's symbols are neutralized until the end of the round, save for its Defense score. The Unit can neither use its Skills nor participate in Attacks. Its owner cannot target it with Skills.
Skills
Crushing — Before, during or after one of your Melee Attacks, choose and destroy a 1-card Unit whose Defense score is no higher than the score indicated in the symbol. The target must be in 1 of the Armies you attacked and within reach of a Melee Attack. If there is no score indicated in the symbol, the Defense score of the target does not matter. Crushing symbols are cumulative and 2 symbols without score can be combined to destroy a 2-card Unit, etc.
Exploding — When you deploy this Unit, reveal the top card from your Reserve (if it is a Large Unit, also take the other related cards). Multiply its Defense score by the Defense score of the Exploding Unit to determine a total number of Strength Points.
Flight — After the Attack phase, this Unit is Away until the end of the round.
Powder — When you carry out a Ranged Attack, this Unit provides +1 Strength point per Unit in your army that has the Ranged Attack skill.
Knight — During a Melee Attack, you can discard to the Hill ALL your Knight Units to double their number of Melee Attack icons.
Shield — +1 Defense per symbol.
Large Unit — When you deploy this card, immediately take from the appropriate pile (the one to which the deployed card belongs) the related card or cards, deploy it/them and activate any Surprise symbols on the Unit. The player who destroys this Unit keeps all the related cards, each one counting towards the number of destroyed cards at the end of the round. When an effect is applied to this Unit, it applies either to all the cards or none.
Veteran — After each Attack, add the scores in all the Veteran symbols of participating Units to obtain a new Strength point total. Carry out another Melee Attack against one of the Armies attacked disregarding Lines.
Web — After each Melee Attack, this Unit puts a Web marker on one Unit in 1 of the Armies you attacked. The target Unit is Immobilised until the end of the round. Web tokens are cumulative and 2 symbols enable you to Immobilise a 2-card Unit, etc.
Example of a Round
During this round, player order will be: Dwarf (160), Goblin (220), Human (320) and Orc last (420).
The Dwarf player is the first to resolve his Strategy card:
Reinforcements: he draws 2 cards from his Reserve, without looking at them; he chooses between drawing 1 card and playing his General from his hand. He opts for playing his General and puts it on top of the cards he drew.
The Dwarf General also has 3 Free Reinforcements, which he draws from his Reserve (he has no more General in Hand), without looking at them, and puts them on top of his Reinforcements pile.
The player continues to reveal his Reinforcements one by one by deploying them in his Army and resolving the Surprise symbols. He then reveals the top card of his Reinforcement pile — his General — and deploys it in the Rear Line (picture facing the Hill).
The dwarf General has 3 Melee Attack symbols with the Surprise symbol. He immediately carries out a 3-Strength Melee Attack against one of his neighbors.
The Dwarf army is as follows: Shield Bearers x3, Furies x1, "the Grudge" King Lort Loïn, Prince Gortek Loïnsson, "the Grudge" King Lort Loïn (a second copy), The triple revenge.
Then the Dwarf player resolves the attacks provided by his Strategy card, in this case one Melee Attack, followed by a Ranged Attack.
The Dwarf player can attack the neighbor to his right (the goblin) or to his left (the human) with 9 Strength Points OR attack both with 5 Strength Points.
He must first destroy the Units in the Front Line. He spends 2 Strength Points to destroy the Front Line Unit because its Defense is 1 and it has the Shield skill which provides +1 Defense per Shield. As the Front Line is empty, he uses his last Strength point to destroy the 1-Defense Unit in the Middle Line.
He chooses the second option, destroying Units in the Human Army (destroying for example 3 Units) and the last Goblin Unit (4 Defense).
He shouts "KHARNAGE!", the others shout back "YEAH!" so as not to lose 1 Kharnage token (if they have one).
He sets the cards of the 4 destroyed Units aside (3 human and 1 goblin), with the 2 Goblin Unit cards destroyed earlier.
He then resolves his 5-Strength Ranged Attack and commits another Kharnage on the Orc army which had 2 Units.
The Dwarf player is done, it is the Goblin player's turn, then the Human's and last of all the Orc's.
End of the round: at the end of the round, all the players count how many cards they each destroyed. The Dwarf player totals 8 destroyed cards: 2 with his General, 4 during the Melee Attack and 2 during the Ranged Attack.
Domination tokens are then given.
Credits
Kharnage is a game designed by Yann & Clem.
Art Manager: Alexandre Bonvalot
Art: Gä, Olivier Derouetteau
Computer Art: Olivier Derouetteau, Yann
Coloring: Sylvain Aublin, Pascal Nino
Rules: Clem, Axel & Origames
Rules Layout: Origames & Axel
Translation: Gil Morice
Thanks: Fabien Ouvrard, Laurent Duclos, Julien Borne, Sébastien Jacquet, Sébastien Delobel, Luc Rascalou, the Duprez family, David Kintz and all those who cried out Kharnage with us, as well as all those who participated in the Kickstarter campaign!
Community Manager: Axel Koszo
Devil Pig Games 55 rue de croulebarbe 75013 Paris - FRANCE www.devil-pig-games.com