Lightning: North Africa on to Tobruk! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Setup
• How to Win
• Steps of a Player Turn
  • Draw One Card
  • Actions
  • Battles
  • Supply Check
  • Discard
  • Draw Two Cards
• Force Cards
• Action Cards
• Tobruk Fortress
• Example of a Player Turn

Setup

1. Map Cards. Separate the six "map cards" from the other cards. Put the map cards on the table next to each other to form a continuous map of North Africa. Each card indicates the map cards that are placed on each side of it.
2. Starting Forces. The following "force cards" start the game face up and in play. Each card will indicate the region in which it starts: 7th Armored Division, 4th Indian Division, 9th Australian Division, 2nd Armored Division, 5th Panzer Regiment, 15th Panzer Division and Ariete Division & Trento Division.
3. Decks. Separate the remaining cards into an Allied deck and an Axis deck. The Allied cards show the flag of the UNITED KINGDOM or of the USA, and the Axis cards have a German or Italian flag.
4. Shuffle the Allied cards and place them face down on the table to form a deck near the Allied player.
5. Shuffle the Axis cards and place them face down on the table to form a deck near the Axis player.
6. The Allied player draws five cards from the top of his deck. The Axis player draws four cards from the top of his deck.
7. The Axis player has the first turn. The players alternate their turns over and over until there is a winner. If a deck runs out, shuffle that player's discards to create a new deck and continue the game.

How to Win

The Allied player wins if at any time there is no Axis force card in play on the map. The Axis player wins if at any time he has force cards in the Cairo region at the end of an Allied player turn.

Steps of a Player Turn

1. Draw One Card
2. Actions
3. Battles
4. Supply Check
5. Discard
6. Draw Two Cards

Draw One Card

Draw a card from your deck. Remember, however, that at no time may you ever have more than nine cards in your hand.

Actions

The player taking his turn may choose one "operation" for each of his deployed force cards. He may also decide to play any "action card" from his hand that he wishes, always choosing between performing an operation or playing an action card at each moment. While this is being done, his opponent may temporarily interrupt the sequence of playing a card in order to interpose the play of an opposing action card. The Action Phase continues until the current player "passes", either by not wanting to play any more cards at that time or by simply running out of cards to play, whichever happens first.

Battles

1. To Attack you must have one or more force cards of your side in the same map region card as the opposing player. Attacking is optional; you do not have to attack simply because you have force cards in a region together with enemy force cards.
2. The attacking player must declare which of his forces in a contested region will take part when he announces a battle there. All enemy force cards in that region are automatically part of the battle. The attacking player may carry out more than one round of battle in each region; however, the attacking forces may only attack once per turn. For example, the attacking player could divide his attacking force cards into two groups and carry out two battles, one with each group.
3. When losses are suffered and retreats are made, the player who owns the affected force card(s) carries out these steps unless a card's effect indicates otherwise.
4. If all of a player's force cards are eliminated due to losses, or leave the region due to card effects, that battle ends.
5. Attack Order
   • A) The Attacker declares the forces in the region that will attack. All opposing forces in the region are automatically and inescapably part of the battle.
   • B) The Attacker plays a "battle card". This makes available to be chosen in Step F the Attack Plan indicated in the Battle Effect section of the card.
   • C) The Defender has the opportunity to react:
     • To be able to play a card as a Reaction, it must have the same attack plan as the one just shown on the card played by the attacker. If this is done, the original battle card is cancelled and placed in the discard pile.
     • If the attack card is cancelled, its secondary effects do not take place, while any secondary effect on the defender's card takes effect immediately.

The Action Card diagram labels the parts of an action card: Nationality, Card Title, Card No., Effect on the Card, Battle Effect, and Secondary Battle Effect.

Supply Check

1. Each force will always be either "Supplied" or "Unsupplied".
2. A force is supplied unless there is an enemy force between it and its supply base (Supply Base).
3. Each unsupplied force suffers two losses during the Supply Check Step of its own side's turn.

Example: The supply base of the 7th UK Division is the Cairo map card. At present, the 7th Division is on the Benghazi map card. If there were an Axis force card in the Cairo map region, the Western Desert map region or the Tobruk map region, the 7th Division would be Unsupplied.

Example: The supply base of the 7th UK Division is the Cairo map region. At present, the 7th Division is in the Western Desert map region. If there were an Axis force card in the Cairo map region, the 7th Division would be Unsupplied.

Example: The supply base of the 7th UK Division is in Cairo. At present, the 7th Division is in Cairo. The 7th Division cannot be Unsupplied.

Discard

During the Discard step of your turn, you may decide to discard none, one, some or all of the cards currently in your hand. During this step force cards deployed on the map may not be "Discarded".

Draw Two Cards

Draw two cards from the top of your side's deck.

Force Cards

1. If a deployed force card is eliminated from the map due to losses or other effects of card play, it is removed completely for the rest of the game; do not put it in the discard pile.

2. Force cards have the word "Force" printed along the left side of the cards, and are placed in a map region when they are first played. Force cards either start the game already deployed, as noted on those particular cards, or may enter play through the "Reinforcements" process.

3. Reinforcements

   • A) Each force card has a cost printed on it. In order to put a force card into play on the map, the owning player must discard the number of cards from his hand indicated. The reinforcing player deliberately decides such discards, and they may appear again in the game later, once that player's deck runs out and the discards are shuffled.
   • B) A force card cannot perform actions during the turn in which it is deployed on the map.

4. Deployed force cards must have tokens (pennies or any other type of coin, or Bingo or Poker chips, etc.) on top of them to record the losses they have suffered. Unless the card that inflicts a loss indicates otherwise, the player always suffers that loss and assigns it to his forces.

   • (0 losses) No Token: full strength force.
   • (1 loss) One Token: disorganized.
   • (2 losses) Two Tokens: dispersed.
   • (3 losses) Removed from the game: eliminated.

   Alternatively, force cards may simply be turned to show the losses they have suffered.

   • (0 losses) Upright, 0 degrees: full strength force.

Action Cards

1. Action cards may be used to perform the action indicated on the card or for its special battle effect (one or the other, not both).

2. Some action cards have a cost to play them, such as having to discard other cards from the hand first or suffering a self-inflicted loss. If that cost is not paid, the card cannot be played.

3. Unless a specific action card indicates otherwise, all action cards are played only during the action step of their respective turns.

4. Action cards have a space at the bottom that indicates one or more "battle effects". When an action card has been played for its battle effect, it is called a "battle card". Below is a list of those effects and how they may be used.

   Encircle, Flanking, Overrun and Siege cards: When played by the attacker, each of these cards makes that type of "Attack Plan" available to choose in that particular battle. When played by the defender, each of these cards cancels that type of "Attack Plan" from the attacker's options for that battle.

   Any: the attacker or the defender may declare an "Any" effect card to be an Encircle, Flanking, Overrun or Siege card at the moment he plays it.

   Loss: each loss effect played by the attacker or by the defender inflicts one loss on the opposing forces in the region of the battle.

   Discard: when this card is played, the opposing player must immediately (and knowingly) take a card from his hand and discard it.

   Draw: when you play this card you may draw a new card from the top of your deck.

5. You may never have more than nine cards in your hand at any time. If you already have nine cards and are supposed to draw another card, do not draw it. You may discard as many cards as you like during your Discard step. Remember also that the force cards you have deployed on the map do not count as "in your hand".

Tobruk Fortress

Tobruk is a large fortress and port facility located in that map region.

1. The Allies start with control of Tobruk.
2. To have (or take) control of that region, you must have at least one force card deployed there while the opposing player must have none. Control of the region may change any number of times during a game by creating that situation. Note, however, that when you control Tobruk, that state of control does not end or change simply because the opposing player has moved one or more force cards into the region. He would first have to fight a battle there and succeed in clearing the region of all your force cards before control of Tobruk changes to the other side.
3. If you control Tobruk, you get three benefits.
   • A) All your forces in that region are supplied.
   • B) Draw an additional card during step one of your turn.
   • C) When the opposing player declares an attack in that region, he immediately suffers a loss on any one of his attacking force cards. If this eliminates his last attacking force card, his attack is cancelled.

Example of a Player Turn

It is the beginning of the game and the players have finished the setup steps. The Axis player begins his first turn.

The Axis player draws a card at the beginning of his turn, increasing the number of cards in his hand to five. He then proceeds to take actions involving the play of cards and giving operation orders to his deployed force cards. He declares a "Preparation" operation for the Italian "Ariete & Trento" Divisions, which lets him draw a card. He then plays from his hand a "Dive Bomber" card on the Allied force card of the 9th Australian Division in Tobruk and thereby inflicts a loss on the 9th Australian Division.

The Allied player does not have (or decides not to play) a card that can cancel the Axis "Dive Bomber" action card. He must therefore put a token on the 9th Australian Division to show that it has suffered a loss.

The Axis player then assigns the "5th Panzer Reg" an attack order and moves it one region to Tobruk. Merely by taking part in that attack, the 5th Panzer Regiment immediately suffers a loss due to the "Tobruk Fortress" rule. In addition, the Allied player decides to play from his hand a "Minefield" card, as an immediate reaction to the movement of the 5th Panzer Reg, to inflict a second loss. A second token is therefore placed on the "5th Panzer Reg" card.

The Axis player then moves the "15th Panzer Div" card to Tobruk by assigning it a movement operation. The Allied player decides (or is unable) not to play any reaction card. The Axis player announces that he has finished taking actions for that turn and the game proceeds to the battle step.

The Axis player attacks with the 5th Panzer Regiment, and the Allied player is defending with the 9th Australian Division. The Axis player begins with the choice between both inherent attack plans, Armored or Motorized. However, he decides to widen his options by playing a card and using its battle section (at the bottom of the card) to add a "Siege" (secondary effect: "Loss") to his attack options.

The Allied player reacts by playing a card with the word "Siege" at the bottom to cancel the Axis "Siege" card just played, and both of those cards are therefore discarded. The Axis player plays another "Siege" card, and the Allied player reacts with an "Any" card that he declares to be a "Siege" card. Both cards are therefore discarded.

The Axis player next plays an "Overrun" card (secondary effect: "Discard") to try to have that attack option available, and the Allied player does not react (or cannot), and consequently must discard a card from his hand due to the secondary effect of the Axis card.

The Axis player announces that he does not want to play any other card. The Allied player then plays an "Armored" card, and the Axis player does not react. Consequently the "Armored" attack plan option is no longer available to the Axis player for that battle. Neither player plays any further card. The Axis player may therefore choose between "Motorized" or "Overrun" as his attack plan for that battle. He secretly chooses the "Motorized" attack plan by placing that card face down on the table between him and his opponent.

The Allied player must now guess (out loud) the attack plan the Axis player has just chosen and declares: "Overrun!". The Axis attack plan card previously selected is now turned over to reveal that, in this case, the Allied player did not guess correctly the plan put into effect by the attacker. This attack is therefore said to be successful, and it inflicts one loss per attacking force card (one), plus one for each participating motorized force card (zero). Therefore, one loss is inflicted on the 9th Australian Division and it is marked with a token (or turned) to show this.

The Axis player is unable to attempt another battle round in that region. Nor does he currently have any other battle possibility in any other region. He also decides not to make any discards, so he then draws two cards from his deck to end his turn.