Legends of the Three Kingdoms Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Basic Concepts
  • Range
  • Attacking Range
  • Judgment
  • Color, Suit, and Value
  • Fields
  • Abilities
  • Use, Play, and Discard
  • Event & Response
  • Calculating Effects
  • Reduce Life and Damage Source
  • Near Death and Death
  • Prime Principle
• Roleplaying
  • Getting Ready
  • Objectives of the Game
• Deck Cards
  • Basic Card
  • Armor Card
  • Weapon Card
  • Mount Card
  • Scroll Card
  • Delayed Scroll Card
• Heroes
  • Wei
  • Shu
  • Wu
  • Qun
• One vs One
• Three vs Three Team
  • Basic Setup
  • Setting up the Team
  • Basic Rules
  • Hero Selection
  • Getting Ready
  • Game Play
  • Turn Phases
  • Victory Conditions
  • Glossary
  • Additional Rules

Components

Legends of the Three Kingdoms has four kinds of cards totaling 153 cards in all.

Those cards are: Role Card, Hero Card, Life Card, Deck Card.

• 10 Role Cards: 1 Monarch, 3 Ministers, 4 Rebels, and 2 Turn-coats
• 25 Hero cards
• 104 Deck cards with 4 EX cards
• 10 Life cards

Expansions adding more Heroes as well as Deck cards makes Legends of the Three Kingdoms a card game with exceptional replayability and lasting appeal.

Basic Concepts

When playing this game for the first time, you may skip the below concepts if you find it troublesome.

Range

Distance between each Hero can be seen on the above illustration: take the shortest distance either clockwise or counter-clockwise by counting the number of arrows.

In a game of six players: distance between D, C, & E are 1; D is distance of 2 away from B & F, and a distance of 3 away from A.

When a Hero is killed and out of the game he/she will not occupy a spot. Therefore, the distance of two Heroes becomes closer when a Hero is killed in between them.

The shortest distance of a Hero to another is one. The distance of you and yourself is always zero.

Attacking Range

The attacking range is 1 at the start of the game by default. Therefore you can only attack a neighboring Hero. When a weapon is equipped, your attacking range equals the attack range on the weapon card.

When "Green Dragon Crescent Blade" is equipped by D, he/she will be able to attack A with "Strike", but he/she will not be able to use "Snatch" on A.

Judgment

A Judgment is the result of an ability or effect. It reveals the top card of the deck.

A Judgment result would be the value, color, suit, name, etc. on the revealed card. A card revealed as judgment is a judgment card and is discarded to the discard pile after calculating the result of the judgment.

When you reveal a judgment card, it becomes your judgment card, but it's not your card and does not belong to you.

Color, Suit, and Value

On the top left section of the cards you can find the suit, color, and value of the cards. The suit color can be Red or Black.

Fields

A: Hand: Cards that are in your hand.

B: Judgment Field: Cards are placed in this field (Delay Scroll).

C: Equipment Field: Cards that are equipped by a Hero.

Every player's field includes a hand, judgment, and equipment field. Cards that are in the equipment and judgment fields are field cards. Hand and equipment cards belong to the player. Cards that are in judgment fields do not belong to anyone.

Abilities

Passive Ability: An ability that is always active and stays active if the conditions are met.

Monarch Ability: This ability can only be activated when the Hero's role is a Monarch.

Use, Play, and Discard

Use: when you use a card, you must display this card and then select a target (or targets), afterwards calculate the result then finally place the card into the discard pile.

Play: when you play a card, you only display the card. Afterwards it goes to the discard pile.

Example 1: When you use a "Strike" and target another Hero, that Hero can respond to it with a "Dodge". The result will be that the "Strike" is "Dodged".

Example 2: In "Duel" both Heroes play "Strike" in turn, that "Strike" does not require a target and result (It did not invoke the actual effect of "Strike").

Discard: place the card into the discard pile, you do not need to know what cards are placed into the pile (all cards placed into the discard pile are facing up). Unless an ability is triggered or the number of cards in your hand is more than your current life points, you cannot discard cards.

Note: you can only use, play or discard cards that belong to you.

Event & Response

When you use or play a card or activate a Hero's ability, all of those are considered events. Events can be responded to by another event. For example, "Dodge" can be used in response to "Strike", and "Ward" can be used in response to a Scroll. Start from the player in his/her play phase, all other players respond in a counter-clock wise fashion one by one. (Once a player chooses not to respond to the current event, his chance to respond ends until the event finishes).

To insure a smooth gameplay experience, during most events, there is no need to formally ask for a response one by one. If an event results in the death of a hero, then asking for a formal response from every player may be beneficial.

Calculating Effects

Before the effect of a card activates, everyone else will get an opportunity to respond. As long as the effect is not cancelled by another player, the card will activate.

Reduce Life and Damage Source

Damage will reduce a hero's life points. If "Hero A dealt damage to Hero B", Hero A is the source of the damage. Other than a Delayed Scroll, if one card has dealt damage to a player, the player who used the card is the source of damage. The source of damage can only be a player, not a card.

"Loss of Life" and "Take Damage" will both reduce a hero's life.

Note: There is a difference between "Loss of Life" and "Take Damage", "Loss of Life" does not have a source, and can not trigger any ability.

There are five windows to a Took Damage event, calculate the result according to the order listed below:

Cause Damage → Took Damage → Reduce Life (When entering "Near Death" state, calculate the result of "Near Death" state first) → After Cause Damage → After Took Damage

Near Death and Death

When a hero takes damage and it results in Near Death, first settle the Near Death event, then settle actual Death event.

For example, Xia Hou Dun has one point of life left, and takes damage. At this time, everyone needs to respond to Xia Hou Dun's "Near Death". If any player uses "Peach" on him, then he will be able to activate the "Unyielding" ability.

Prime Principle

When conflicts appear between the Guideline/Rules and Card Detail, take the Card Detail as the standard. Also, when conflict appears between Card Detail, the priority list is as follows:

Hero Ability > Deck Card Detail > Guideline/Rules

For example, Zhang Fei's ability "Battlecry" has a conflict with the guideline "Only one "Strike" can be used during play phase", Zhang Fei's ability has priority over the guideline.

Roleplaying

Getting Ready

Deciding Role

Use the chart below for reference:

Number of Players	Monarch	Ministers	Rebels	Turn-coats
4	1	1	1	1
5	1	1	2	1
6	1	1	3	1
6	1	1	2	2
7	1	2	3	1
8	1	2	3	2
9	1	3	4	1
10	1	3	4	2

Randomly deal a role card to each player. The player with the Monarch card must reveal his/her role immediately. All other players will need to keep their role card face down without revealing their role to the other players.

Objectives of the Game

Winning conditions are decided by the role each player has, see below:

• Monarch: Eliminate all rebels and turn-coats
• Ministers: Protect the Monarch at all costs; winning conditions are the same as the Monarch
• Rebels: End the reign of the Monarch: Kill the Monarch
• Turn-coat: Eliminate all players and kill the monarch last

The game is over as soon as one of the winning conditions is met.

Deck Cards

Basic Card

Strike (Amount: 30, Attack Range: 1)

Play Phase Target: Another Hero within your Attack Range Target takes damage of 1.

Your attack range is 1 at the beginning of the game. You can only use one "Strike" during your play phase.

Dodge (Amount: 15)

Respond to a "Strike" that is targeting you Target: Hero targeting you with a "Strike" Effect: Negate the effect of "Strike" targeting you.

"Dodge"(s) are played one at the time. Example: against LU Bu's Unrivaled you need to play two "Dodges" one after the other in response to a "Strike".

Peach (Amount: 8)

Play Phase or when a hero is Near Death Target: On yourself during play phase, or on a hero that is Near Death Effect: Hero Regains one Life.

Example, a hero has 2 life points, and took a "Lightning" damage of 3, now the hero is Near Death. He needs 2 "Peach" to avoid Death (2-3+2=1). During Play Phase, you cannot use or play "Peach"

Armor Card

Eight Diagram Formation (Amount: 2)

Play Phase Effect: Anytime you need to play a "Dodge", you may reveal a judgment; if the judgment is a red color suit then, it is treated as a "Dodge".

A "Dodge" due to the Eight Diagram Formation is not considered a "Dodge" played from your hand. If the Judgment suit is black, you can still use the other abilities to "dodge" or play a

Sage King Shield (Amount: 1)

Play Phase Passive Effect: Black colored suited "Strike" have no effect against you.

Weapon Card

Chu Ko Nu (Amount: 2, Attack Range: 1)

Play Phase When equipped you can use any number of "Strike"(s) during your play phase.

Yin-Yang Swords (Amount: 1, Attack Range: 2)

Play Phase When Striking a Hero of the opposite gender, target Hero must choose to discard a hand card or let you draw a card before that "Strike" resolves.

Black Pommel (Amount: 1, Attack Range: 2)

Play Phase Your "Strike" ignores the Effect of target's Armor.

Frost Sword (Amount: 1, Attack Range: 2)

Play Phase When your "Strike" damages a Hero, you may prevent that damage by discarding any two cards from target's hand or equipment field (discarding one card at a time).

Green Dragon Crescent Blade (Amount: 1, Attack Range: 3)

Play Phase You may use another "Strike" on the target who "Dodged" your last "Strike".

Stone Piercing Axe (Amount: 1, Attack Range: 3)

Play Phase When your "Strike" is "Dodged", you may discard two of your cards to force the target to take damage from the "Strike".

Eighteen-span Viper Spear (Amount: 1, Attack Range: 3)

Play Phase You may treat two hand cards as a "Strike" to use or play.

Heavenly Double Halberd (Amount: 1, Attack Range: 4)

Play Phase If you use a "Strike" as your last hand card, you may attack one or two more additional targets of your choice. Hero(es) respond to the "Strike" in turn order.

Qilin Bow (Amount: 1, Attack Range: 5)

Play Phase When your "Strike" deals damage to the target, you can eliminate one equipped mount card of your choice from the target.

Mount Card

+1 Mount (Amount: 3, Defensive Mount)

Play Phase Your range when being targeted by other Heroes is always plus 1(+1).

You can only have 1 Defensive mount in your equipment field, and there are total of 3 Defensive Mounts in the deck.

-1 Mount (Amount: 3, Offensive Mount)

Play Phase Your range when targeting other Heroes is always minus 1(-1).

You can only have 1 Offensive mount in your equipment field, and there are total of 3 Offensive Mounts in the deck.

Scroll Card

Peach Garden (Amount: 1)

Play Phase Target: All Heroes Effect: All Heroes regain 1 unit of life in turn order, starting with the Hero who used this card.

Arrow Barrage (Amount: 1)

Play Phase Target: All other Heroes Effect: All other Heroes in turn order must play a "Dodge" or take 1 damage.

Bountiful Harvest (Amount: 2)

Play Phase Target: All Heroes Effect: Reveal top X cards from the deck where X is the number of Heroes alive. Starting with the Hero who used this card, each Hero chooses and keeps a card in turn order from the revealed cards.

A "Ward" can be used to negate the effect of "Bountiful Harvest" on a Hero.

Borrowed Sword (Amount: 2)

Play Phase Target: Another Hero with an equipped weapon Effect: Order a Hero to use a "Strike" on another Hero within his/her weapon range, if not, you receive his/her weapon card.

Pick a target for Hero A to use "Strike" on, The target (Hero B) needs to be within Hero A's attack range. When Hero A uses "Strike", Hero A can choose to activate hero and weapon abilities on He

Barbarian Invasion (Amount: 3)

Play Phase Target: All Other Heroes Effect: All other Heroes in turn order must play a "Strike" or take 1 damage.

Duel (Amount: 3)

Play Phase Target: Another Hero Effect: Target Hero must play a "Strike". If he/she does, then you must use a "Strike". Continue until a Hero does not use a "Strike". That Hero then takes 1 damage.

It is possible to damage yourself when "Dueling".

Something for Nothing (Amount: 4)

Play Phase Target: Yourself Effect: Draw two cards.

Ward (Amount: 4)

When target scroll is about to activate Target: Scroll Effect: Negate the effect of a Scroll card before the effect activates on a target.

When "Ward" negates "Lightning", "Lightning" does not discard to the discard pile, instead it moves to the next hero.

Snatch (Amount: 5)

Play Phase Target: Another Hero within one range with card in his/her fields (Hand, Equipment, Judgment) Effect: Take any one card from target's fields (Hand, Equipment, Judgment).

When using "Snatch", please pay attention to players' mount cards.

Dismantle (Amount: 6)

Play Phase Target: Another Hero with card in his/her fields (Hand, Equipment, Judgment) Effect: Discard any one card from target's fields (Hand, Equipment, Judgment).

Delayed Scroll Card

Lightning (Amount: 2)

Play Phase Target: Yourself Effect: During affected Hero's judgment phase, reveal the top card of the deck; if it is a ♠ from 2 to 9, that Hero receives 3 points of lightning damage. Otherwise

The "Lightning" card's target keeps changing until it is discarded into the discard pile. If "Lightning" activation is negated, it moves to the judgment field of the next target.

Contentment (Amount: 3)

During play phase Target: Another Hero Effect: During target's judgment phase, reveal the top card of the deck as a judgment if the suit is not ♥, target Hero skips his/her play phase!

Heroes

Wei

Cao Cao (Codex: WEI 001)

Treachery: "After damage taken", you may acquire the card(s) that inflicted damage on you.

Escort: Monarch Ability: Heroes from "WEI" can play a "Dodge" for you when you needed.

SiMa Yi (Codex: WEI 002)

Feedback: "After damage taken", you may acquire a card belonging to your damage source.

Sorcery: You may replace any Hero's judgment draw with a card from your hand before calculating the judgment result.

XiaHou Dun (Codex: WEI 003)

Unyielding: "After damage taken", you may reveal a judgment draw. If the result is not a ♥, then the damage source must discard two hand cards or take 1 point of damage from you.

Zhang Liao (Codex: WEI 004)

Assault: During the draw phase, instead of drawing from the deck, you may draw up to two hand cards, each must be from a different Hero with card(s).

Xu Chu (Codex: WEI 005)

Armorless: During draw phase, you may draw one card instead of two. If you do so, all of your "Strike" and "Duel" inflict +1 damage for that phase (only when you are the damage source of a Duel).

Guo Jia (Codex: WEI 006)

Talented: Keep your judgment card after the effect is activated.

Legacy: You may look at the top two cards from the deck after every 1 "damage taken", then you must give any amount of those cards to any Hero(es) including yourself.

Zhen Ji (Codex: WEI 007)

Siren: During your Start phase, you may use this ability to reveal a judgment and acquire the card if the result is a black color suit. You may use this ability again until a red color suit is revealed. Discard that judgment card afterwards and end the phase.

Gorgeous: All your black color suit hand cards may be treated as "Dodge".

Shu

Liu Bei (Codex: SHU 001)

Kindness: During play phase, you may give any amount of hand cards to another Hero. You regain 1 life if the total amount of cards given is more than or equal to two.

Goad: Monarch Ability: Heroes from "SHU" can supply a "Strike" for you when needed. You become the source of that "Strike".

Guan Yu (Codex: SHU 002)

Master of Warfare: You may use or play your red color suit card(s) as "Strike".

Zhang Fei (Codex: SHU 003)

Battlecry: During your play phase, you may use any amount of "Strike" cards.

ZhuGe Liang (Codex: SHU 004)

Astrology: During the Start phase of your turn, you may look at "X" amount of cards from the top of the deck (where X is the number of Heroes alive, up to a max of five). You may then put any amount of cards back to the top of the deck in any order, and the rest to the bottom of the deck.

Empty Fortress: Passive Ability: You cannot be the target of "Strike" or "Duel" when you have no hand cards.

Zhao Yun (Codex: SHU 005)

Courage: You may treat your "Strike" as a "Dodge" or your "Dodge" as a "Strike".

Ma Chao (Codex: SHU 006)

Horsemanship: Passive Ability: When calculating your distance to other Heroes, subtract 1.

Cavalry: When you target a Hero with "Strike", you may reveal a judgment. If the result is a red color suit, then your "Strike" cannot be "Dodged".

Huang YueYing (Codex: SHU 007)

Intuition: Anytime you use a "Scroll" card you immediately draw a card from the deck before calculating the effect of the "Scroll" card.

Wizardry: Your "Scroll" cards have infinite range.

Wu

Sun Quan (Codex: WU 001)

Balance: During play phase, you may discard any amount of cards and redraw an equal amount from the deck (may only be used once per phase).

Support: Monarch Passive Ability: You gain an extra 1 unit of life points from a "Peach" used on you by a "WU" Hero during your Near Death state.

Gan Ning (Codex: WU 002)

Ambush: During play phase, you may treat any of your black color suit cards as "Dismantle".

Lu Meng (Codex: WU 003)

Discipline: If you did not use or play any "Strike" during your play phase, then you may skip your discard phase for that turn.

Huang Gai (Codex: WU 004)

Desperation: During your play phase, you may choose to lose one unit of life to draw two cards from the deck.

Zhou Yu (Codex: WU 005)

Heroic: During your draw phase, you may draw one extra card from the deck.

Counter Spy: During your play phase, you may select another Hero, and ask that Hero to pick a suit. That Hero takes a hand card from you and shows it to you. If the resulting suit is not the same as his/her pick, then you cause 1 damage to your target (The target keeps that card regardless of the result, once per phase).

Da Qiao (Codex: WU 006)

Beauty: During your play phase, you may use any of your ♦ cards as "Contentment".

Outcast: You may discard one of your cards to transfer a "Strike" targeting you to another Hero within your weapon range, except for the attacker.

Lu Xun (Codex: WU 007)

Humble: Passive Ability: You cannot be the target of "Snatch" and/or "Contentment".

Alliance: Draw a card if you have no hand cards.

Sun ShangXiang (Codex: WU 008)

Engagement: During your play phase, you may discard two hand cards to target a male Hero and heal 1 unit of life for both of you (only if the male Hero is not at full life).

Heroine: Immediately draw two cards from the deck upon losing a card from the equipment field.

Qun

Hua Tuo (Codex: QUN 001)

Triage: Outside of your turn, you may use any of your red color suit cards as "Peach".

First Aid: During your play phase, you may discard one hand card and heal any Hero 1 unit of life (only once per phase).

Lu Bu (Codex: QUN 002)

Unrivaled: Passive Ability: When you use "Strike", your target must use two "Dodge" to dodge your "Strike", when you use "Duel" your target must play two "Strike" to counter one of your "Strike".

Diao Chen (Codex: QUN 003)

Mischief: During your play phase, you may discard one card and select two Male Heroes and have them "Duel" each other. You must pick which Hero to play "Strike" first (This "Duel" cannot be "Warded" and can only occur once per phase).

Eclipse: Immediately draw one card at the start of End phase.

One vs One

1 vs 1 Solo Battle Rule

1 vs 1 solo battle is a setting with the standard rules of LTK and 3 vs 3 team battle combined together to offer a new way of 2 player play.

Deciding Role

Randomly deal the Monarch and Turn-coat card to both players to decide the Role each player will use.

Selecting Heroes

Randomly select 10 Hero cards with 6 face up and 4 face down. The player who has the Monarch selects 1 hero first then use the "1 2 2 2 2 1" order until all 10 Heroes are chosen. Afterwards both players select 3 Heroes to use in battle, arranging them in order of appearance face down (once selected, you cannot change the order of appearance). Both players' Order of appearance for Heroes should be kept secret from the other player.

Playing the Game

After both players finish selecting their Heroes, start the game by drawing 4 cards and reveal the first Hero to the other player. Turn-coat will start the turn first but the amount of cards drawn is -1 during the first draw phase. Afterwards resume normal amount of cards drawn. Whenever a Hero is killed, that player must discard all cards (Hand, Equipment, Judgment) to the discard pile, reveal the next Hero recovered to full life and immediately draw 4 cards. When a Hero is killed during opposing player's turn, reveal the new Hero and continue with the opposing player's turn; When a Hero is killed during your own turn (by Lightning or Hero/Card Effect), reveal the next Hero and end your turn. The game ends when all 3 Heroes under a player's control are killed, the other player wins the game.

Three vs Three Team

This rule is for players who want to play 3 vs 3 Mode with the 3 vs 3 Expansion Pack.

Basic Setup

Heroes Cards: Take the 25 Heroes from the standard version of the game and plus the new Heroes from 3 vs 3 Expansion Pack and replace the heroes with the same name from the core game with the ones from the expansion pack.

Hero Cards: 32

WEI Heroes: CAO Cao, SIMA Yi, ZHANG Liao, GUO Jia, ZHEN Ji, XIAHOU Yuan, XU Huang, WEN Pin.

SHU Heroes: LIU Bei, GUAN Yu, ZHANG Fei, ZHUGE Liang, ZHAO Yun, MA Chao, HUANG Yueying, JIANG Wei.

WU Heroes: SUN Quan, GAN Ning, HUANG Gai, ZHOU Yu, DA Qiao, SUN Shangxiang, SUN Jian, XIAO Qiao, SUN Ce, ZHUGE Jin.

NEUTRAL Heroes: HUA Tuo, LU Bu, DIAO Chan, PANG De, JIA Xu.

Deck Cards:

Deck: 108 cards

Replace the deck cards with the new cards from the expansion pack and take out the lightning cards.

Life Card: 6 cards (2 with 4,5 points and 4 with 3,4 points)

Role Card: 6 cards

Use the deck from the standard version of LTK (without the 2 Lightning) = Total of 106 deck cards.

Setting up the Team

First of all team battle does not involve role playing, and the red & blue team Captain randomly select from the Monarch & Turn-coat card. Monarch and 2 ministers will be the red team and blue team being the turn-coat and 2 rebels.

Both team will be sitting opposing the other team at the end of the table, with the team captains in the middle between the lieutenants.

Red & Blue Initiative

Divide all the 32 Hero cards into 4 piles of 8 cards each and each captain pick a pile to be used for this game. Flip all the 16 Hero cards face up where then the red team captain choose to pick first or give the initiative to the blue team. First team captain select first and select 1 hero and follow by the other team captain select 2 heroes and using the 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1 as guide till all the hero cards are selected, all the selected heroes are face up revealed to both team captain. After hero selection both team captain select 3 heroes to be used for this game. Afterwards both team reveal the heroes to be used and start the game.

Basic Rules

1. LTK 3v3 is played with two sides, the red side and the blue side. Each side has 1 captain and 2 lieutenants. Victory is achieved when the captain on either side is defeated.

2. 3v3 battle does not involve role playing. The red & blue team captains are randomly select from the Monarch (Red) & Turn-coat (Blue) card. Monarch (captain) and 2 ministers (lieutenants) form the red team while Turn-coat (captain) and 2 Rebels (lieutenants) form the blue team.

Both teams will be sitting opposing each other on opposite sides of the table with the team captains seated in between the lieutenants.

3. Both captains flip a card from the deck, the side with the larger numbered card goes first during hero selection. Every odd-numbered round hero selection is determined by card flip. Every even-number round hero selection alternates.

4. The match referee divides all 32 hero cards into 4 stacks of 8 cards and places the stacks face down onto the middle of the table. Each captain chooses 1 stack. The chosen 2 stacks of 16 heroes are immediately placed face up on the table. As the referee places these heroes, he must announce each hero's name. These 16 are the heroes used during the selection phase.

5. Both captain have 1 minute to review the 16 heroes. The player who won the card flip then chooses the Blue or Red side. The referee then places the corresponding role card next to the players (or center of the table during tournament).

6. The Red team captain will choose within a time limit of 10 seconds. If no choice is made, the red side chooses heroes first.

Hero Selection

1. Divide the 32 Hero cards into 4 piles of 8 cards each. Each captain picks a pile to be used for this game. Flip the chosen 16 Hero cards face up followed by the red team captain choosing to pick first or defer the selection to the blue team. The first team captain to select, selects 1 hero followed by the other team captain selecting 2 heroes. Afterwards, each captain alternates two selections until the first team captain ends up with the last unselected hero. The selection process should follow 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1 as a guide. Selected heroes must be placed face up, revealed to both team captains. After hero selection ends, each team captain must choose 3 heroes from the 8 he has selected to be used for this game. After both captains have finished choosing 3 heroes, reveal the heroes to the other captain and start the game.

2. The selection timer is 15 seconds. If no choice is made, the referee will assign the earliest placed heroes.

3. There is a 10 second confirmation phase after all heroes are selected.

4. From the 8 heroes, the captain has 90 seconds to select 3 heroes to play and give the rest of the hero cards to the referee. Once these cards are in the hand of the referee, they cannot be changed.

Getting Ready

1. The Lieutenants enter the arena and sit in their captain-designated seats.

2. The referee distributes health cards then announces the heroes.

3. The game starts with blue team captain's turn or he/she can choose to defer initiative to red team captain to have the first turn. The captain of the side that goes first must take his turn first.

4. Every player starts with 4 hand cards.

Game Play

The game starts with blue team captain's turn or he/she can choose to defer initiative to red team captain to have the first turn. When Red team captain starts his/her turn, the role card is rotated to indicate the start of the turn.

When Red team captain's turn is over, the Blue team captain will then be able to choose to have a turn first or let the lieutenants each have a turn first (in this case both lieutenants will have a turn in the order the captain chooses).

After the turn is over for both of Blue team's lieutenants, the Red team's lieutenants will start their turns. The Red team captain had his/her turn first as indicated by the rotated card, the team captain can only choose the order the lieutenants can have their turns.

After Red captain and the lieutenants of both team have their turns, Blue captain is the only one who has not taken a turn. Once Blue captain takes his/her turn, the first round ends.

After the first round ends, all the role cards are rotated to original positions. The Red team captain will have initiative again.

When both of the lieutenants are killed on either team, the other team will be able to have the captain and lieutenants take turns in a row. This creates a huge advantage for the team.

When all the players have taken their turns, reset the role card and continue to the next round until the Captain on either team is killed.

Turn Phases

1. Start Phase: The following abilities may be used during this phase: Siren, Astrology, Heroic Soul, Heroic Aura, Provoke, and Master of Warfare. XiaHou Yuan's swiftness may be used in between start and judgement phases.

2. Judgement phase: If a hero has a judgement card in his judgement field, he must reveal a judgement draw.

3. Draw phase: The referee will distribute 2 cards to the player. Once the referee's hand leaves the cards, the draw phase concludes. The following abilities may be used during this phase: Heroism, Assault, and Charity, where Swiftness may be used in between draw and play phases.

4. Play phase: The play phase timer is 15 seconds. During play phase, abilities must be explicitly announced before they take effect. Any number of scroll cards may be played. The target and name of a scroll card must be explicitly declared when scroll card is played. Only 1 strike card may be played per turn.

5. Discard phase: If player has more hand cards than current life, he must discard hand cards until he has the same number of cards as current life.

6. End phase: Referee announces hand card size and current health of current player during end phase. Eclipse may be used during this phase.

7. Players must announce ability activation during any phase within 5 seconds, otherwise, player relinquishes ability activation.

Victory Conditions

The time limit for 3 vs 3 Team battle is 30 minutes with overtime. The game ends with the defeat of either captain's hero:

• The Blue team wins when Red Captain's Hero is defeated.
• The Red team wins when Blue Captain's Hero is defeated.
• When both team's role cards are rotated at the end of the time limit then calculate the number of Heroes alive on each team to decide the winning team.
• When the number of Heroes alive on each team is equal, then decide the winning team base on total amount of Life points left on each team.
• At any point, any captain can forfeit the match.

Glossary

1. Hero health is determined by the health indicator on upper left of card. Captains have +1 health.

2. Captain: Captain of team. Game ends when the captain is defeated.

3. Lieutenant: Any player who defeats a lieutenant immediately draws 2 cards as reward.

4. Unrotated position: Indicates a player has not taken his turn.

5. Rotated position: Indicates a player has already taken a turn.

6. Reset: When all roles are in the rotated position, immediately return all role cards to the unrotated position.

7. Turn: Either the captain can take a turn or he may choose both lieutenants to have a turn. Only unrotated roles can take turns.

8. Round: A new round starts when all roles are Reset and ends when all roles are rotated.

9. Defeat: Once a hero loses all life, he is defeated. He must flip his role card and discard all played cards and hand cards to the discard pile.

10. Expendable ability: This ability can only be used once per game.

11. Awoken ability: The ability activates immediately when the conditions are met. The ability can only be used once; the effect is permanent and lasts until the end of the game.

12. Flip Card: Both sides draw 1 random card from the deck and places it face up to compare numbers. Ace is the smallest, King is the largest. The side with the largest number wins. If numbers are equal, repeat until one side is larger.

13. Announcement: Player must verbally announce card or hero abilities upon use (only during official tournament, no need for casual play).

14. Referee: Responsible for card distribution and judging. All players must abide by the referee's ruling.

15. Forfeit: At any point, if any captain declares he/she forfeit, that side loses the match.

16. Heroes Remaining: Number of heroes alive when match ends. If one side surrenders, their number is 0.

17. Life lost: Difference between current and maximum life. Only Heroes Remaining can calculate life lost.

18. Overtime: When normal match time expires with no victor, overtime begins according to the following: If all three heroes remain for both sides, play 1 round. If two heroes remain for both sides, play 2 rounds. If only 1 hero remains, play 3 rounds.

Additional Rules

Scroll cards:

Arrow Barrage: target all other players. The player who uses this card chooses to calculate the result clock wise or counter-clock wise.

Barbarian Invasion: target all other players. The player who uses this card chooses to calculate the result clock wise or counter-clock wise.

Bountiful Harvest: target all players starting with player. The player who uses this card chooses to calculate the result clock wise or counter-clock wise before cards are revealed from the deck.

Peach Garden: target all players starting with player. The player who uses this card chooses to calculate the result clock wise or counter-clock wise.

Monarch Abilities:

In this game mode, Heroes cannot use monarch abilities.

Table Talk:

While playing 3 vs 3 team battle, no hand gestures or verbal communication (table talk) is allowed between players.