Knight Moves Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Winning and Losing
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • 1. Plan
    • When planning...
    • Movement
    • Interacting with Stage contents
  • Fighting
  • Whenever you trigger a Fight, resolve the following steps in order:
  • Fighting Example
  • Levers
  • Bridges
  • 2. Execute
  • 3. Collect Rewards
  • 4. Clean Up
• Game End
• Campaign Mode
  • At the beginning of each Campaign Game:
  • At the end of each successful Campaign Game:
• Quick Reference Guide
  • Each Round:

Components

• 24 Stage Cards
• 10 Boss Stage Cards
• 2 Hero Cards
• 16 Action Cards: 6 Basic, 10 Advanced
• 14 Special Item Cards
• 4 Hero Level Cards
• 14 Wooden Tokens: 6 Barrels, 4 Levers, 2 Treasure Chests, 2 Hearts
• 5 Action Tokens
• 2 Hero Minis
• 10 Wood Cubes

Winning and Losing

In each game of Knight Moves you will have to navigate and successfully survive 9 standard Stages and 1 Boss Stage in order to win. You have a max of 5 actions to complete each Stage, and if you are ever unable to move past a Stage's Bridge within your 5 actions, OR if your Hero's health is reduced to 0 before reaching and crossing the Bridge, you lose the game!

Setup

1. Choose a Hero from those available on the double-sided Hero Cards and place it in your play area, placing the unused Hero Card back in the box. Then place a red, teal, purple, and black cube on the starting spaces of each Hero Card track (red, teal, purple and black respectively).
2. Order the Hero Level Cards from 2 to 5, and place them in a stack with 2 on the top next to your Hero Card.
3. Place all wooden tokens - Barrels, Treasure Chests, Hearts, and Levers - in their own respective piles near the Stage Deck. This forms the Token Supply. Place the remaining wooden red cubes next to this to be used as Damage Cubes, and keep your Hero Minis nearby as well.
4. Shuffle the 24 standard Stage Cards together, with the Normal difficulty side (labelled "Stage 1-X") facing up, and use 9 of them to form a Stage Deck. Try not to look at these as you create the deck so that the Stages are a surprise - only the top one should be visible! The 15 unused Stage Cards can be returned to the box.
5. Shuffle the Level 1 Boss Stage Cards (both sides labelled "Boss 1-X") and randomly tuck 1 on either side under the bottom of your Stage Deck, again trying not to look at it. Return the unused Boss Stage Cards to the box, then place the Stage Deck in the center of your play area. Note: The other 7 Boss Stage Cards are only used during Campaign Mode and can otherwise be returned to the box.
6. Separate the 6 Basic (teal) and 10 Advanced (purple) Action Cards from one another. Shuffle the Basic Action Cards together and deal 5 of them out into a face up 2x3 grid to the right of the Stage Deck, as shown. Place the 6th one face down in the last position as your initial Draw Pile. This area forms the Action Display, which contains all of your available Action Cards.
7. Place the 5 Action Tokens below your Action Display.
8. Shuffle the Advanced Action Cards together and place them next to the Action Display in a face down Advanced Action Supply pile. Note: the 14 Special Item Cards (red) are only used in Campaign Mode and may otherwise be returned to the box.

Gameplay

In Knight Moves, your goal is to use your action cards to reach and cross each Stage's Bridge (the exit) with at least one health remaining.

If you are successful, you will move on to the next Stage. If you fail, the game ends in a loss.

Once you reach the Boss Stage (the 10th an final Stage), you must hit all the Levers on the Stage to bring down the Boss, escape, and save your village. You do this by ending a movement action on each space containing a Lever.

Each Stage you encounter plays out as a game round consisting of the following phases:

1. Plan
2. Execute
3. Gain Rewards
4. Clean Up

1. Plan

First, set up your current Stage by placing the following:

• The Hero Mini of your choice on the Hero start space.
• Barrel Tokens on any Barrel spaces.
• Treasure Chest Tokens on any Treasure spaces.
• Heart Tokens on any Food spaces.
• Lever Tokens on any Lever spaces (Boss Stages only).

Once finished, the pieces on your current Stage should look something like this.

Then you may begin planning out your actions to try and find your best path to completing the Stage. You may try as many plans as you like, placing your Action Tokens on different Action Cards to test out different paths before ultimately Executing the one you like best.

When planning...

• Place each of your Action Tokens on an Action Card space one at a time, going from 1 to 5, and carrying out your selected action for each as you go.
• Each Action Card has TWO possible actions on it, but may be used for only ONE action. This means you will generally use one of the two actions on each of your 5 Action Cards in every Stage.
• If at any point you don't like where your plan is heading, simply reset your current Stage, remove all Action Tokens from Action Cards, and start planning again!
• If you increase any of your Hero tracks (the heart, sword, arrow and XP tracks on the Hero Card) when planning and then decide to reset, remember to return all your Hero tracks to their previous positions.

Movement

Most of the actions on your Action Cards involve some kind of movement. Each movement action specifies how it is meant to be used, but the following general rules apply to all movement:

• You do not need to move the full amount, and may even move 0 spaces using a given action.
• If no direction is specified, diagonal OR orthogonal movements are allowed.
• You will interact with various things on each Stage depending on how you move (see next page).

Interacting with Stage contents

• Treasure: If you END your movement on a Treasure Chest Token (not if you move through one), place it in front of you. You will gain its contents after completing the Stage.
• Hearts: If you END your movement on a Heart Token, remove the token and immediately gain 1 Health.
  • You may move through spaces containing Treasure Chest or Heart Tokens without collecting them if you wish.
• Barrels: Whenever moving orthogonally onto a space containing a Barrel Token it gets pushed 1 space in the direction you were moving. A Barrel cannot be pushed diagonally, or be pushed into a wall, enemy, or other token. You may only move onto a Barrel's space if you are able to push it.
  • You may not move diagonally between two diagonally adjacent Barrels.
• Enemies: Each Enemy has an attack range indicated by the colored spaces that extend out orthogonally from it (each color also has a shape icon to help identify it). Some spaces may be within more than one Enemy's attack range.
  • Whenever you pass through a space within an Enemy's attack range without stopping on it, you automatically take that Enemy's damage (DMG), reducing your Health. For example, if you pass through an Enemy's attack range and it has a 2 damage icon, you take 2 damage and your Health is reduced by 2.
  • If you move through a space that's within multiple Enemies' attack range, take DMG from all of them.
  • If you move through multiple spaces that are all within an Enemy's attack range, take their DMG for each one passed through.
  • If you END one of your movement actions in a space that's within one or more Enemy attack ranges, you trigger a Fight.
  • You may only move onto/through a space containing an Enemy if it has already been defeated!

Fighting

A fight is automatically triggered whenever:

• You end a movement action with an Enemy within your Hero's attack range, AND/OR...
• You end a movement action within one or more Enemies' attack range.

Attack ranges for both Heroes and Enemies are always straight orthogonal lines extending out from them.

For a Hero, 2 Range would mean the spaces shown here are within their orthogonal attack range.

Note: All Obstacles (Treasure Chests, Hearts, Barrels, Levers, Enemies, etc.) block line of sight, meaning that you and Enemies cannot attack one another when there is anything between you.

Whenever you trigger a Fight, resolve the following steps in order:

1. If there is a Heart or Treasure Chest Token on your space, gain it.
2. If there are one or more Enemies within your attack range, choose ONE and deal damage (DMG) to it equal to your Hero's current Strength.
   • You may not deal DMG to more than one Enemy with a single movement action/Fight.
   • If an Enemy is not defeated in a single Fight, use the red Damage Cubes to keep track of how much DMG they've taken. You can continue to damage them in another Fight.
   • Once an Enemy's health is reduced to 0, it is defeated. You gain 1 XP for each defeated Enemy, and once defeated you may move through their space and all of their attack range spaces without taking damage.
3. Take damage from all surviving Enemies whose attack range you are currently within. Each enemy has a damage icon that tells you how much DMG you take from them.
   • If your health is reduced to 0 by any Fight, you will lose the game by taking it on! Maybe it's better to reset and try to find another way?
   • Note that dealing a killing blow to one Enemy may leave you vulnerable to the attack of another. Plan your attacks carefully, especially when taking on multiple Enemies at once!

Fighting Example

You are the Bowmaster, who has 2 Health, 2 Strength, and 2 Range.

1. You move into this Bomb Goblin's range - both it and the Sword Goblin below are also now within your attack range. You can only attack one, and you decide to attack the Bomb Goblin, dealing 2 DMG and defeating it so that it won't attack back at all. You gain 1 XP for this!
2. You take another movement action, but choose to move 0 spaces and attack the Sword Goblin. It takes 2 DMG, but has 3 Health, so it is not yet defeated. You place 2 DMG Cubes on it, and since you are outside of its attack range, you take no DMG.
3. You then decide to move further down so that both the Sword Goblin and Archer Goblin are within your range, but again you can only attack one! You decide to finish off the Sword Goblin, again dealing 2 DMG and defeating it. You gain another 1 XP for this, but also take 1 DMG from the Archer Goblin because you are within its attack range.

... Not a bad outcome overall, but I bet you could plan something even better!

Levers

These are only found in Boss Stages. Whenever you END your movement on one, remove the Lever Token from the space. That Lever is now considered flipped.

• Remember that to defeat a Boss and win the game, the goal is not to Fight the Boss, but to flip all the Levers in the Boss Stage! (you may still Fight the Boss if you wish)

Bridges

To cross a Bridge, you must reach the space directly in front of it and move across it with an orthogonal movement:

• You must reach this space to cross the Bridge.
• The Bridge cannot be crossed from any of these spaces.
• Once there, you are still on the current Stage until you have crossed the Bridge and exited successfully.
• You may reach the Bridge space AND cross it using movement from the same Action Card.

2. Execute

Once you are satisfied with the plan you have crafted to complete a Stage, you may then Execute it. All the Health, XP and permanent Strength or Range you have gained will be locked in, and you will reap the rewards of any gained Treasures and unlocked Hero Levels during the Collect Rewards phase.

Remember that if you are unable to Execute a plan that gets you across a Bridge with at least 1 Health, you lose the game!

3. Collect Rewards

After Executing a plan that successfully completes your current Stage, collect the following rewards in order:

1. Treasures: For each Treasure Chest Token you collected from this Stage, draw 1 Advanced Action Card from the supply. After inspecting it you may either add it to the top of your Draw Pile, or if you don't want it, put it back in the box, removing it from the game.
2. Level Up: If you gained enough XP during this Stage to reach one or more of the Level Up spaces of your XP Track (L2, L3, L4, L5), you gain those Hero Levels now!
   • Choose 1 of the 2 rewards from the top section of the Hero Level Card corresponding to the Level(s) you just reached. In this case you could either gain 1 Health OR gain an Advanced Action Card (the same way you would from a Treasure Chest Token).
   • Trash (remove from the game) a number of Action Cards up to the number shown in the bottom trash section of the Hero Level Card. These can come from anywhere in your Action Display, either the face up cards or your Draw Pile - if trashing from your Draw Pile, be sure to keep the remaining cards in their original order.
   • Then move the Hero Level Card you just unlocked to the bottom of the pile to reveal the next Level. If you've already unlocked this Level as well, repeat the process above!
3. Bonus Action Cards: If you reached any spaces marked with the 1 icon on your XP Track, gain an Advanced Action Card for each one, the same way you would for gaining a Treasure Chest Token.

4. Clean Up

Before moving on to the next Stage:

1. Shuffle the face up cards in your Action Display and place them under any cards currently in your Draw Pile. Do not alter the order of cards in your Draw Pile.
2. Draw and place 5 new Action Cards face up into your Action Display, as you did during setup, and again leave any not drawn in the Draw Pile.
3. If you gained any temporary Hero stats from Action Cards during this stage, return those tracks to their previous position.
   • Note: All Hero Tracks have a maximum that cannot be exceeded. No further rewards or benefits may be obtained once the max is reached.
4. Return all Tokens to the Token Supply, both those you collected and those remaining on the Stage you just completed.
5. Before revealing the next Stage Card, decide whether you want to enter it on its Normal side (labelled "Stage 1-X") or its Hard side (labelled "Stage 2-X"). Hard Stages are more difficult, but offer greater rewards! After making your choice, reveal the next Stage Card, and flip it if necessary, being careful not to look at the Stage Card underneath.

Game End

The game ends when either:

• You reach the Boss Stage and manage to Execute a plan that successfully flips all Levers on the Stage without your Hero running out of Health - YOU WIN!

OR

• You are unable to create a plan that successfully completes your current Stage without your Hero running out of Health - YOU LOSE!

Campaign Mode

The campaign mode for Knight Moves consists of several standard games, and introduces Special Item Cards and a progression of more and more difficult Boss Stages.

At the beginning of each Campaign Game:

Set the game up using the Campaign Boss Stage you are currently on - you will face these numbered Bosses going in order from 1 to 8 (select any Level 1 Boss for your first game).

Find your current Boss, place it face up, and add 9 standard Stage Cards on top of it as usual.

At the end of each successful Campaign Game:

1. Reset all tracks on your Hero Card to their starting positions.
2. Return all Trashed Action Cards to the game, and again separate the Basic and Advanced Action Cards from each other. If you have any Special Items Cards from previous Campaign Games, separate those too.
3. Gain a Special Item Card!
   • Look at the 2 Special Item Cards corresponding to the Campaign Boss you just beat - they are numbered from 1-7.
   • Choose 1 to keep, adding it to any other Special Item Cards you already have.
4. Choose ONE Special Item Card to add to your 6 Basic Action Cards for the next game, and shuffle any remaining Special Item Cards in with the Advanced Action Cards.

Note: You will only ever add one Special Item to your starting supply of Basic Action Cards. For example, once you are on Campaign Game 6, you should start with 6 Basic Actions + 1 Special Item, and the other 4 Special Items you have gained will be shuffled into the Advanced Action Supply.

You can save your Campaign progress by setting up your next game and then storing all cards needed for it (Stage Deck, Boss, Special Items) separately in the box.

Quick Reference Guide

Each Round:

Plan

• Place the 5 Action Tokens on ONE of the TWO Action Spaces on your 5 current Action Cards.
• Move onto Treasure Chest, Heart, Lever or Barrel Tokens to interact with them. Barrel Tokens may only be moved onto if you can push them (see pg. 8).
• If you move THROUGH any Enemy attack range spaces, automatically take DMG from them.
• If you END a movement action with either you or an Enemy in attack range of one another, trigger a FIGHT (see pg. 9).
• Reset and start planning again at any time until you are satisfied (or cannot complete the current Stage and lose).

Execute

• Lock in your current plan, keeping all Hero Track changes and rewards (only once plan successfully completes Stage).

Collect Rewards

• Gain Advanced Action Cards from collected Treasure Chest Tokens.
• Gain rewards on Hero Level Cards for new Levels reached.
• Gain Bonus Action Cards for any spaces marked with the 1 icon on your XP Track.

Clean Up

• Return current Action Cards to bottom of Draw Pile and draw 5 new Action Cards.
• Reset temporary Hero stat boosts and return all Tokens to the supply.
• Choose whether to enter next Stage on Normal or Hard side.