Pillars of Eternity: Lords of the Eastern Reach Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • City Cards
  • Dungeon Cards
  • Wilderness Cards
  • Resource Tokens
  • Phrase Tokens
  • Pet Tokens
  • Allegiance Cards
  • Hireling Cards
  • Quest Cards
  • Soul Gems
  • Dice
  • Event Tile
  • Event Die
• Setup
• How to Play
  • Steps in a Turn
  • Card Abilities
  • Start of Turn Step
  • Combat Step
• Combat
  • Common Combat Rules
  • Adventuring
  • Attacking
• Card Limits and Resources
  • Card Limits
  • Draw Resources Step
  • Build & Hire Step
  • Discard Step
  • Draw Step
• Event Step and Game End
  • Event Step
  • Game End
• Other Rules
  • Hero Items
  • Invocations
  • Soul Gems and Abilities
  • Pets
• Monsters, Bosses and Quests
  • Monster Abilities
  • Bosses
  • Quests
• Card Notes
  • Buildings
  • Troops
  • Heroes
• Scenarios
  • Team Play (4 players)
  • Quick Start Game (2-4 players)
  • PvE (2-4 players)
  • Heroics! (2-4 players)
  • Open Tasks (2-4 players)
• Solitaire Play
  • Solitaire Setup
  • How to Play the Solitaire Game
  • Scoring
• Summary of Play
  • Setup (Standard Game)
  • Steps in a Turn
  • Combat Phases
  • Common Abilities & Keywords
  • Events
  • End of Round

Components

Lords of the Eastern Reach includes the following:

• 198 City Cards
• 46 Dungeon Cards
• 44 Wilderness Cards
• 23 Quest Cards
• 13 Hireling Cards
• 6 Allegiance Cards
• 2 Reference Cards
• 50 Resource Tokens *
• 12 Phrase Tokens *
• 2 Pet Tokens
• 1 Event Tile
• 24 Soul Gems *
• 4 Six-sided Dice
• 1 Event Die
• 1 Ethereal Piglet
• 1 Resource Bag (not pictured)

* The soul gems, resource and phrase tokens are limited to the number included in the game.

City Cards

This deck of cards represents the buildings you will build to increase the size of your city, and the troops and heroes that will protect your city from monsters and the other players. Heroes marked with a combat icon, like Edér, are companions from the video game.

Dungeon Cards

The dungeons of the Eastern Reach are filled with dangerous monsters and wondrous treasure. Send your army into the dungeon to defeat the monsters for loot and glory. There are three levels to the dungeon - the deeper you go, the more danger and the better the rewards.

Wilderness Cards

Conquer the untamed wilderness to protect your city dwellers, expand your empire and gather valuable loot. The wilderness is perilous and chancy, but at least your army can run away from the truly deadly dangers. The Wilderness deck is for experienced players.

Resource Tokens

Buildings, troops and heroes all cost resources. On your turn, you will draw and spend resource tokens to play cards (see page 13). Unused resources are passed to the next player, so use them all or other players might play cards on your turn!

Phrase Tokens

Chanter troops and heroes with the Invocation ability use these phrase tokens to increase your party's Attack, block enemy blows or alter probability for your benefit (see page 15). The phrase token icon is used for phrase tokens.

Pet Tokens

Rangers tame animal companions represented by these pet tokens. Rangers gain benefits if their pet token is on the card and the pet token can be discarded to save the Ranger's life. Rangers can exhaust to replace their lost companion (see page 15).

Allegiance Cards

Each player is a Lord or Lady from a region of the Eastern Reach. These cards prove your allegiance to that region.

Allegiance cards show the maximum number of building and army cards you can have in play. One side of each card has a character with a special ability.

Hireling Cards

Once you build an Inn or a Stronghold, you can purchase the loyalties of skilled hirelings from this deck (see page 13). Hirelings are part of your army.

Quest Cards

Complete these quests and reap the rewards. There are two types of quests: main quests and tasks. Main quests are completed at the end of the game, while tasks are revealed when finished during your adventures (see page 16).

Soul Gems

Some people have stronger souls than others and these individuals can be upgraded with soul gems. Soul gems activate special powers on many troop and hero cards (see page 15). Soul gems are also worth victory points. The soul gem icon is used for soul gems.

Dice

The standard six-sided dice are used by some heroes to determine their Attack or Defense. These are "dice" or "die".

The "event die" is a special die rolled at the end of the round to represent danger and chaos in the Eastern Reach.

Event Tile

The last player takes this tile as a reminder to roll the event die at the end of the round (see page 14).

Event Die

• Ravage: Players with 4 or more troops discard one.
• Ruin: Players with 3 or more buildings discard one.
• Slay: Players with 2 or more heroes discard one.
• Bîawac: Players with 1 or more soul gems discard one.
• Circle of Peace: No effect.

(Event die faces as printed on the component page. Page 14 gives the full event rules.)

Setup

These setup rules are for 2-4 players. For solitaire play, see page 21 (Solitaire Play).

Tip: For your first game or for a faster setup, stop here, and deal five City cards (six to Dyrwood) to each player. Skip steps 6-8 below. You are ready to play!

1. The first player is the person who most recently played the Pillars of Eternity video game. Alternatively, you can roll dice or use another suitable method. The player to the right of the first player is the last player; give the last player the event die and the event tile.

2. Each player takes a random allegiance card and places it character side face up in front of them. (Alternatively, all players can agree to use the generic side with no ability.) Each player also needs room for their trophy pile, a face-down pile of defeated monsters and pillaged buildings.

3. Place the resource counters in the bag. Sort the soul gems, phrase tokens and pet tokens into piles to form the supply for each of those resources.

4. Choose one adventure. This set comes with two adventures: Dungeon (3 decks) and Wilderness (1 deck). Prepare each deck by removing the boss cards with red names, shuffling each deck and then splitting the deck in half. Shuffle the boss cards for that deck into one half, then place the other half on top to form the deck.

5. Shuffle the City cards to form a draw deck and place it in the center of the table. Remove a number of cards from the City deck without looking at them:

   • Short game: Remove about half the cards.
   • Normal game: Remove about a third of the cards.
   • Long game: Remove about a quarter of the cards.
   • Epic game: Remove 10 cards.

   Set aside the removed cards until the last round of play (see Game End, page 14).

6. Deal eight City cards to each player and place the rest of the deck in the center of the table, with room for discards next to the deck. Each player looks at their hand of eight cards and discards down to their hand limit. The hand limit is five cards for most players or six cards for the Dyrwood player.

Tip: Play the standard game for your first game or two. Then try the Scenarios to alter the standard game rules. Try PvE, where all players adventure instead of attacking each other. Or ally with another player to crush the other team. There are even solitaire rules to challenge you. See Scenarios on page 20 and Solitaire Play on page 21.

(The setup diagram on page 6 of the printed rulebook shows the layout of the Resource Bag, the First, Second and Third Player positions, the Hireling, City and Quest decks, the Discards, the Combat Dice, the Resource Discard Pool, the Soul Gem and Phrase Token supplies with their discards, the Pet Tokens, the Dungeon Decks (or Wilderness Deck), the Army Cards, Buildings, Inns & Farms, Allegiance Card, Trophy Pile, Event Tile and Event Die. It is a picture only and is not transcribed further.)

How to Play

Lords of Eastern Reach is played in a series of rounds. Starting with the first player and going clockwise around the table, each player will take one turn. Unless the game ends, a new round starts with the first player again. The player order does not change from round to round.

Steps in a Turn

Each player's turn is divided into six steps.

Step	Active Player	All Players
Start of Turn	Yes
Combat	Yes
Draw Resources	Yes
Build & Hire		Yes
Discard	Yes
Draw		Yes

The last player also performs the Event step at the end of the round (page 14).

The active player is the player currently taking their turn. All steps are performed in order. The Draw Resources and Event steps are mandatory; the other steps are optional. Each turn, all players may Build & Hire and Draw cards. After the end of the turn, the active player passes the resource bag to the next player to start the next turn.

Card Abilities

Buildings and army cards have abilities. Each card ability can be used once per turn. Cards with banners can only be used during the appropriate step. The banners are: Start of Turn, Combat, Draw Resources and Build/Hire.

Abilities that start with "Active Player:" can only be used once per round when that player is the active player.

Exhausted army cards are turned 90° and may not be used until readied at the start of your next turn. Army cards must be readied to use their ability.

Tip: Buildings do not exhaust like army cards. Building abilities without "Active Player:" can be used multiple times each round, once each turn.

Cards that are destroyed are removed from play on the table. Cards that are discarded are removed from a player's hand. Removed cards are placed in the discard pile. Unless otherwise stated, the player that controls the card or cards to be destroyed or discarded chooses which card to remove.

If there is more than one ability to resolve, the active player determines the order in which they are resolved.

Start of Turn Step

The active player readies any exhausted cards by rotating them 90° back to their readied state. Use buildings with Start of Turn abilities at this time.

Combat Step

At the start of the Combat step, the active player may choose one of three options:

• Adventure to defeat monsters and search for valuable treasure and items.
• Attack another player to reduce their army and destroy their buildings.
• Pass and do nothing.

Combat

Common Combat Rules

The following rules apply to both adventures and attacks.

Party. Army cards used to adventure or attack are collectively called the party. During an attack, each player will have their own party. Only army cards in the party and buildings can be used in combat. Exhausted cards cannot join a party.

Friends and Enemies. Cards controlled by a player are friendly. Cards controlled by other players are enemies.

Damage Pool. The total Attack of the enemy party or all monsters in the encounter is combined into a damage pool. Players destroy friendly cards in the party to reduce that damage pool by the Defense of the destroyed card. Repeat until the damage pool is reduced to 0 or there are no more army cards in the party.

Armor. Before resolving damage to a party, reduce that damage by the total Armor from army cards in the party.

Stamina. Participating army cards without Stamina are exhausted and turned 90° at the end of combat. Exhausted cards cannot defend or use abilities.

Ranged. Army cards with Ranged are not affected by enemy cards with Evasive (see page 16).

Combat Dice. Characters with a combat die icon roll one die to determine their Attack or Defense in the Roll Phase. Chanter (with an invocation phrase token) and some treasures may grant re-rolls. If a die is re-rolled, the new result replaces the old result. A die can never be re-rolled more than once.

Adventuring

The active player forms an adventuring party to explore the Dungeons or the Wilderness.

1. Declare Phase: The active player chooses from their readied army cards to form the party and pushes them forward to clearly mark who is in and out of the party. They also announce they are adventuring.

2. Target Phase: Reveal the top card from an adventure deck. If there are multiple adventure decks, the player may choose any deck. "When revealed," and Random Encounter abilities are activated at this time.

   Random Encounters. Immediately draw one additional card when a monster with Random Encounter is revealed. Random Encounter can only trigger once per combat.

3. Use Abilities Phase: The player may use any abilities from their party, army cards that say they can be used when not in the party and any of their buildings. Monster abilities must also be used during this phase, but the player can choose the order in which they are applied.

4. Roll Dice Phase: Combat dice are rolled at this time, including army cards with a combat die icon for Attack or Defense.

5. Assign Damage Phase: The Attack scores are totaled and resolved. The player assigns damage from the party to monsters. The player then destroys party cards one at a time until the monster damage pool is 0 (or less) or the whole party is destroyed (see page 8).

Defeating Monsters. The adventuring player assigns some, none or all of their totaled Attack to monsters. If the assigned Attack equals or exceeds the monster's Defense, that monster is defeated. Defeated monsters may award soul gems and are then placed face-down in the adventuring player's trophy pile.

If all monsters are defeated, the player claims any treasure cards (see page 15 for hero items). Monsters that are not defeated are discarded, along with any treasure cards they were guarding.

Drawing Adventure Cards. When the last card is drawn from an adventure deck, shuffle the discards to form a new deck and continue drawing. Treasure is always guarded. If a treasure card is drawn first, draw another card from the same deck until a monster is revealed. If the treasure card is the last card in the deck and there are no discards for that deck to shuffle, the player may claim that treasure.

If there is a revealed boss monster, the player must encounter the boss (see page 16).

Evading Wilderness Monsters. The adventuring player may attempt to evade Wilderness monsters. After all monsters are revealed, roll one die. Discard each monster with an evade number equal to or lower than the result. If all monsters are evaded, discard any revealed treasure cards as well. (Wilderness-only.)

Dungeon monsters cannot be evaded.

Example (adventuring, Dungeon). Sean forms a party of three troops: one Guards, one Paladin and one Archers. A soul gem is on the Guards, giving the party one point of Armor. The total Attack of the party is 5.

Sean explores the Level 1 Dungeon deck. He draws the top card and reveals an Endurance Potion, a treasure. Treasure is always guarded, so he draws again to reveal a Xaurip Grunt. Due to Random Encounter, Sean draws one final card and reveals a Wurm.

Because of the Evasive ability of the Wurm, each troop without Ranged loses one Attack. The total party Attack is now 3.

The total monster Attack is 3, but the Armor reduces the damage to 2. The Archers' Defense of 1 is not enough to satisfy all the damage. The Guards and the Paladin both have enough Defense to reduce the damage pool to 0 or less. Sean keeps the Guards with the soul gem and destroys the Paladin. Sean then destroys the Grunt, because with a Defense of 2, it is the only monster he can kill and claims it as a trophy worth 1 VP.

The Wurm and the Endurance Potion are discarded. Sean exhausts the Guards and the Archers to end the combat.

Example (adventuring, Wilderness). Ashley sends Zacmar (with Durgan Sword), Sagani (with no pet), a Monk and a Chanter into the Wilderness. She draws Pwgra, a boss, and tries to evade with a 4+. Her roll is 3 and she fails to evade.

Pwgra has Fear. Ashley removes the Monk from the party and returns it to her army. She uses the Blacksmiths to add +2 Attack to Zacmar and the Wall to add +3 Defense to Sagani.

The total party Attack is 7 (Zacmar 2 + Blacksmiths 2 + Durgan Sword 2 + Chanter 1) plus a die roll for Sagani. The roll is 1 for a total of 8 - not enough to defeat Pwgra's Defense of 10! She uses the Durgan Sword to re-roll the combat die and the new result is a 2 for a revised Attack of 9. Ashley is forced to discard the phrase token from the Chanter to add +2 Attack for a total of 11. Victory!

Pwgra's total Attack is 6 (4 + 2 from Fury). Zacmar's Armor reduces the damage to 5. Ashley destroys Sagani; the ranger's Defense of 2 + the Wall 3 is enough to reduce the remaining damage to 0.

Ashley takes three soul gems from the supply and adds the defeated boss to her trophy pile. She exhausts the Chanter to end the combat.

Attacking

The active player forms a raiding party to attack another player and siege the enemy city.

1. Declare Phase: The active player chooses from their readied army cards to form the party and pushes them forward to clearly mark who is in and out of the party. The attacker also announces the target (or just rudely points at the player to be attacked).

2. Target Phase: The targeted player forms their defending party by pushing forward their readied army cards that will participate in the combat.

3. Use Abilities Phase: Starting with the attacker, each player may use any abilities from their party, army cards that say they can be used when not in the party and their buildings. Players not participating may not use abilities.

4. Roll Dice Phase: Combat dice are rolled at this time, including army cards with a combat die icon for Attack or Defense.

5. Assign Damage Phase: The Attack and Defense scores are totaled, compared and resolved simultaneously (see page 8). Starting with the attacker, each player with a phrase token may use Invocation (see page 15) to alter the outcome.

Assign Damage - Attacker. The attacker destroys army cards from their party to reduce the defender's damage until it is 0 or less.

Attacker Immunity. The attacker's buildings cannot be destroyed by excess defender damage. Any excess damage after the attacker's party is destroyed is ignored.

Assign Damage - Defender. The defender destroys army cards from their party to reduce the attacker's damage until it is 0 or less. If all party cards are destroyed and there is still damage, the defender must resolve any remaining damage by destroying buildings.

Alerted Defenders. Defending army cards never exhaust. In addition, after the end of combat, the defending player readies all of their previously exhausted army cards.

Tip: Even one point of damage in the damage pool will destroy an army card. Combat is deadly! Look for Armor to protect your cards.

Destroyed buildings are claimed by the attacker as VP trophies and added face-down to their trophy pile.

Example (attacking).

• Declare Phase: Ashley declares she is attacking Sean. She sends over Edér (with a soul gem), two Monks and one Archers.

• Target Phase: Sean decides to defend with two Guards (one with a soul gem), one Cipher and one Archers.

• Ability Phase: Ashley assigns +1 Attack from the Blacksmith to Edér. She adds +4 Attack from the two Siege Engines and discards one troop card from her hand adding an additional +1 Attack (the discard only triggers one Siege Engine). Sean assigns +3 Defense from the Wall to the Cipher. Since 1 point of Armor will not be enough to alter the outcome of battle, Sean discards the Guard's soul gem to use the Cipher's Focus and add one Attack die.

• Roll Phase: Ashley rolls one die to determine Edér's Defense. She rolls a 4 and adds +2 Defense from Edér's soul gem ability for 6 total. Sean rolls one Attack die and the result is a 3.

• Damage Phase: Ashley's final Attack is 15 (Edér 3+1, Monk 2, Monk 2, Archers 2, two Siege Engines 2+2+1). Sean's final Attack is 8 (Guard 1, Guard 1, Cipher 1, Archers 2, die 3). Ashley destroys Edér (Defense 6) and one Monk (Defense 2) to satisfy Sean's Attack of 8. Edér is placed back in Ashley's hand, while the Monk is discarded. Ashley places Edér's soul gem on her Allegiance card.

  While Ashley is resolving the damage to her party, Sean destroys all of his defenders, with a total Defense of 10. There are still 5 points of damage in the pool for Sean to resolve. He destroys the Temple, with 5 Defense, to reduce the damage pool to 0. Sean passes the Temple to Ashley, who places it in her trophy pile for 2 VP at the end of the game.

• Finally, at the end of combat, Ashley exhausts her Monk and the Archers while Sean readies any exhausted army cards.

Card Limits and Resources

Card Limits

A player cannot hire more army cards than their total army limit or build more buildings than their total building limit. A player does not have to destroy cards in play to fit under their limit if their limit is later reduced.

Players at their limit may destroy friendly cards to make room for a new card. Players may not destroy a card from their city or army unless they are at their limit.

The initial army and building limits are displayed on each player's allegiance card. Farms and Inns increase the army limit. Craftsmen increase the building limit.

Draw Resources Step

Use buildings with the Draw Resources banner. The active player draws and reveals five resource tokens at random from the bag. The number of tokens drawn can be modified by cards in play. Whenever the bag is empty, take the resources from the discard pool, put them back in the bag and continue drawing.

Resource tokens are Grunts, Goods and Gold.

Build & Hire Step

Buildings with the Build & Hire banner are used in this step. Newly built buildings can be used immediately if they have a Build & Hire ability.

The active player starts by spending resources to play cards. Buildings are placed face-up in their city row and army cards are placed face-up in their army row (see page 6). When done playing cards, unused resources are passed clockwise to the next player. This continues until there are no more resources or all players have had an opportunity to play cards, then any remaining resources are discarded to the pool.

The cost to play a card is displayed on the top left of the card under the card type icon. Each cost icon displayed requires one resource of that type. Spent resources go to the discard pool after use.

Hirelings. Active players with Inn or Stronghold cards in their city can use one Gold per card to add the top card from the Hireling deck to their army. Hirelings are army cards and count against the army limit, but they are not heroes or troops. When destroyed, Hirelings go to the Hireling discard pile.

Double Resources. A player must spend both resources on a "double resource" token to play it, either on the same card or another card played at the same time.

Players can play multiple copies of the same card.

Tip: Don't hold on to a hand full of expensive cards. Cheap cards are easier to play when it is not your turn.

Discard Step

The active player may discard some, none, or all of the cards from their hand before drawing new cards.

The active player may also discard one uncompleted Quest card to draw a new card from the Quest deck.

Draw Step

Starting with the active player and going clockwise, each player draws back up to their hand size (usually five cards). If the City deck is empty, do not shuffle the discards to form a new deck. The game will end at the end of the current round. Add the stack of set aside cards to the draw pile and continue drawing, if necessary.

Event Step and Game End

Event Step

At the end of the round, the last player rolls the Event Die. Destroy and return effects apply to all players except those that have the appropriate "Protection from" card in play.

• Ravage: Players with four or more troops destroy one friendly troop.
• Ruin: Players with three or more buildings destroy one friendly building.
• Slay: Players with two or more heroes destroy one friendly hero.
• Bîawac: Each soul gem is worth 1 victory point. Players with one or more soul gems return one friendly assigned or unassigned soul gem to the supply.
• Circle of Peace: Nothing happens. Whew!

Game End

If the City deck was emptied at any point during the round, the game ends after the next event die roll. All players reveal their trophies, main quests and add up the victory points from their buildings, trophies, quests and soul gems.

The player with the most victory points is the winner. If more than one player is tied for the most points, the tied player with the most total city cards in play is the winner. If there is still a tie, the tied player with the most soul gems is the winner. If there is still a tie, the tied player with the most trophies is the winner. After all that, if there is still a tie, enjoy the shared victory!

Other Rules

These rules cover situations that may occur in multiple steps or are specific to certain cards.

Hero Items

Hero items are treasure cards found in Adventure decks. They must be assigned to a hero. If the player who wins the item from an encounter does not have a hero, they must give that item to another player's hero. If there is no available hero, discard the item. A hero can carry any number of items and their bonuses stack. Once an item is assigned to a hero that item cannot be reassigned unless that hero is destroyed.

Guards with a soul gem gain +1 Armor.

Paladins with a soul gem increase their Attack to 4.

Monks with a soul gem gain Stamina.

Archers with a soul gem gain Longshot and can add +2 Attack even if they are not in the party.

Craftsmen with a soul gem have a total building limit of +2.

Ciphers use Focus. Each Cipher may return one soul gem you control (either from one of your army cards or unassigned from your allegiance card) back to the supply during the ability step of combat. If they do, select either Attack or Defense, then add the result of one die roll to the selected ability. Each Cipher can use this ability once per turn.

Invocations

Army cards with the Invocation keyword place one phrase token on the card when hired. During the damage step of Combat, a phrase token may be returned to the supply to gain +2 Attack or +1 Armor or re-roll any one combat/ability die. The active player may exhaust a readied Chanter not in Combat without a phrase token to place one phrase token on the Chanter card.

Soul Gems and Abilities

One soul gem may be assigned to an army card with a soul gem ability. Without the soul gem, that ability does not function. Unassigned soul gems are placed on the player's allegiance card and can be assigned to a hero or troop at any time except the Combat step, even on another player's turn. Maximum of one soul gem per card.

Each Hero soul gem ability is unique and is explained on their card text. Some soul abilities require the player to return a soul gem. When that ability is used, remove the selected soul gem and place it back in the supply. Soul gems on cards are returned when the card is destroyed. Soul gems cannot be transferred to another card.

Pets

Characters with the Pet keyword place the named pet token on the card when hired. A Ranger's pet token may be removed to reduce damage by the Ranger's Defense or to prevent the Ranger from being destroyed by another effect.

The active player may exhaust a Ranger to replace a removed pet token. A pet token may not be replaced the same turn it is removed.

Monsters, Bosses and Quests

Monster Abilities

Some monsters and bosses share common abilities that may be shortened to a keyword to fit on the card. Keywords are in bold text.

• Fear: One troop (player's choice) in the party flees back to the city, unexhausted. Does not affect heroes or hirelings.
• Evasive: Reduce the Attack of each army card without Ranged by 1 when one or more Evasive cards are present.
• Fury X: Add X to this card's attack if there are one or more heroes in the party. Do not add X for additional heroes.
• Random Encounter: When revealed, draw one additional Adventure card from the same deck and add it to the current combat. If that deck is empty, reshuffle the deck and continue drawing. Random Encounter can only trigger once per combat.
• Revenge X: If this card is not defeated, the active player must destroy X friendly buildings.
• Terror: All of the troops in the party flee back to city. None of the troops are exhausted. Does not effect heroes or hirelings.

Bosses

If not defeated, boss cards stay in play on top of their Adventure deck with an ongoing effect. Any unclaimed treasure cards remain next to the boss and are claimed by the player that defeats that last revealed boss from that deck.

While a boss is in play, adventuring players must combat a revealed boss instead of drawing an adventure card.

Quests

During setup, each player receives two random quest cards. There are two types of quest cards: main quests and tasks. Main quests are revealed at the end of the game. Players that achieved the requirements listed on their main quest card count the listed victory points as part of their final total.

Tasks are revealed immediately when the player completes the requirements listed on the card. That player adds the successfully completed task to their trophy pile and draws a replacement task, if available, from the Quest deck.

An uncompleted quest card can be replaced during the Discard step (see page 13).

Card Notes

Buildings

• Stronghold: Each Stronghold adds +1 Armor, but discarding cards only adds +1 Armor per card, regardless of the number of Strongholds.
• Temple: Multiple Temples have no additional effect.
• Blacksmith: Multiple Blacksmiths can add Attack to the same hero or troop. Does not work on Hirelings.
• The Wall: Multiple Walls can add Defense to the same hero or troop. Does not work on Hirelings.
• Brewery: The single Grunt token comes from the resource pool. If the pool does not have a single Grunt token, the ability does not work.
• Tower: Multiple Towers can add Defense to the same hero or troop. Does not work on Hirelings.
• Training Field: When you are the active player, you can hire a maximum of one Paladin for each Training Field.
• Citadel: Multiple Citadels have no additional effect.
• Farm: Farms in your city are scored separately from Farms that you pillage from other players.
• Treasury: Like the Brewery, but for Gold.
• Wizard's Hut: Multiple Wizard's Huts can add Attack to the same hero or troop. Does not work on Hirelings.
• Firepit: Multiple Firepits have no additional effect.

Troops

• Archers: With a soul gem, the Archer adds +2 Attack to your party when not in the party. If Longshot is used, you cannot destroy the Archer to satisfy combat damage.
• Chanter: Starts with one phrase token when hired and can discard the phrase token to use invocation. A Chanter with no phrase token may be exhausted to replace the token. Soul gems have no effect on Chanters.
• Cipher: You do not place soul gems on Ciphers. You may return any soul gem you control to use Focus.
• Siege Engine: Each Siege Engine adds +2 Attack, but discarding cards only adds +1 Attack per card, regardless of the number of Siege Engines.
• Guards: With a soul gem, Guards add +1 Armor to their party.
• Monk: With a soul gem, Monks have Stamina and do not exhaust at the end of Combat.
• Paladin: With a soul gem, Paladins gain +2 Attack.

Heroes

• Aloth: With a soul gem, add +1 Attack to Aloth for each defending enemy troop when attacking, each attacking enemy troop when defending or each monster when adventuring.
• Dehengen: The hand size modifier stacks with other hand size modifiers. Friendly buildings lose the +1 Defense as soon as Dehengen is destroyed.
• Devil of Caroc: There is no effect if a player without exhausted troops is targeted.
• Durance: Durance must be in the party to add +2 Defense to a friendly troop in the same party.
• Edér: When Edér is destroyed, the soul gem on Edér becomes unassigned and is placed on the player's allegiance card.
• Enfws: If Enfws is the only card in the party when attacking or adventuring, his Attack is 6. His minimum Attack is 0.
• Grieving Mother: Grieving Mother cannot ignore Hero abilities. Grieving Mother can ignore "when revealed" abilities on monsters.
• Hiravias: Hiravias is either 2 Attack, 5 Defense with Ranged or 5 Attack, 2 Defense with no Ranged.
• Kana Rua: Starts with one phrase token when hired. Ignore any abilities on the discarded adventure card.
• Laudira: Starts with one phrase token when hired. Laudira may not be readied more than once a turn by discarding a card.
• Lenk: You normally only fight one boss at a time, but if you ever end up in a fight against two or more bosses, rest assured that Lenk's ability works on all bosses in the fight.

Scenarios

The standard game rules apply unless otherwise directed. It is possible to combine scenarios (Quick Start PvE or Team Heroics are possibilities, for example).

Team Play (4 players)

Divide the players into two teams of two. Players on the same team are allies. Allies cannot sit adjacent to each other at the table (so that teams cannot take back-to-back player turns). Allies may not Attack each other during Combat. During Combat, the non-active ally may send one hero to assist their ally, but the active player decides how to assign damage. Allies may share resources from their Storerooms. The active player may use one building from their ally with an Active Player ability each player turn.

At the end of the game, allies total their victory points to determine the winning team.

Quick Start Game (2-4 players)

Before shuffling the City deck, give each player one Guard, one Archer and either a Tower or Blacksmith (their choice). Players start with those cards in their city.

PvE (2-4 players)

Players may not attack other players during the Combat phase. Abilities that target enemy cards are not affected.

Heroics! (2-4 players)

Remove all troop cards from the City deck before shuffling during setup. If a player does not have a hero, they cannot be attacked. When a hero is destroyed from play, shuffle that card into the City deck. Heroes are worth 1 VP per resource token in their cost. The player with the most heroes in their army gains a +5 VP bonus. If tied, each tied player gains a +3 VP bonus.

Open Tasks (2-4 players)

Players do not receive Tasks during setup. Shuffle Main Quests and Tasks separately. Deal one Main Quest to each player and return the unused Main Quests to the box. Reveal six random Tasks and place them face-up in a common area. The remaining Tasks form the Quest deck. Any player can complete a revealed Task and add that card to their trophy pile. Replace completed Tasks with a random card from the Quest deck.

Solitaire Play

The object of the solitaire game is to score the most points before the City deck runs out of cards.

Solitaire Setup

Use the standard setup rules with the following exceptions:

• You select your Allegiance card.
• Always use one-half of the City deck.
• Do not use Main Quests.
• Draw four Task Quests at random and return the remaining cards to the game box.

You are ready to play!

How to Play the Solitaire Game

Use the standard game rules unless otherwise directed.

Combat. You may only adventure and cannot choose to attack. If you do not adventure, choose an adventure deck without a face-up boss card and reveal the top card:

• If it is a monster, place it face-up next to your army. Reveal one additional card if the first card has the Random Encounter ability.
• If it is a treasure, discard it.
• If it is a boss, place the boss face-up on top of the adventure deck and follow the standard rules.

If there are three or more face-up wandering monsters at the end of the combat step, discard all wandering monsters and destroy the building with the highest Defense (if two or more buildings are tied, you choose the building to be destroyed).

When adventuring, you can choose the wandering monsters or the adventure deck. You can always adventure against wandering monsters, even if there is a revealed boss.

Build & Hire Step. You may choose to keep one resource token instead of discarding it at the end of this step. This resource token is added to your resource pool at the start of the next Build & Hire step.

Discard Step. During this step, discard all cards except one from your hand. You may choose which card to keep. Choose wisely.

Draw Cards Step. As a reminder, you must draw back up to your hand size. The deck running out triggers the end of the game, as usual, but do not shuffle the discards or add any set aside cards.

Event Step. Roll the event die at the end of each turn. The Circle of Peace event is changed to:

• Wheel of Berath: Discard five cards from the City deck. If the deck is emptied, the game ends immediately.

Scoring

If you have defeated three or more bosses, you automatically win an Astounding Victory. Otherwise, your victory point score determines your level of victory:

Result	Victory Points
Ruinous Defeat	0-9 VPs
Defeat	10-19 VPs
Minor Defeat	20-29 VPs
Minor Victory	30-39 VPs
Victory	40-49 VPs
Major Victory	50-59 VPs
Astounding Victory	60+ VPs

Summary of Play

Setup (Standard Game)

1. Determine first player. Give last player the event tile.
2. Randomly distribute the Allegiance cards.
3. Prepare the resource token bag, soul gems, and tokens.
4. Pick Dungeon or Wilderness (advanced). Shuffle the bosses into bottom half of each adventure deck.
5. Shuffle the City cards. Remove a number of cards:
   • Short game: Remove about half the deck.
   • Normal game: Remove about a third of the deck.
   • Long game: Remove a quarter of the deck.
   • Epic game: Remove 10 cards.
6. Deal eight City cards to each player; discard down to five.
7. Shuffle the Quest cards and deal two cards to each player. Players may discard and redraw none, one or both cards. The remaining cards form the Quest deck.
8. Shuffle the Hireling cards to form the Hireling deck.

Steps in a Turn

Start of Turn, Combat, Draw Resources, Build & Hire (all players), Discard, Draw Cards (all players).

Combat Phases

Declare, Target, Use Abilities, Roll Dice, Assign Damage.

Common Abilities & Keywords

• +X Armor: Reduce damage by X.
• Evasive: Reduce Attack of non-Ranged cards by 1 if one or more Evasive cards are present.
• Fear: One troop leaves the party (un-exhausted).
• Focus: Return a soul gem you control to add one die to either Attack or Defense.
• Fury X: Increase Attack by X if there are one or more heroes in the party.
• Invocation: May use phrase tokens. When hired, starts with 1 phrase token. Discard a phrase token to add +2 Attack, +1 Armor or re-roll any one combat/ability die. Exhaust to replace 1 phrase token [max 1].
• Longshot: Adds +2 Attack to the party total even if not in the party. If so, cannot be destroyed to reduce damage.
• Random Encounter: Draw one more adventure card.
• Revenge X: If not defeated, the adventuring player must destroy X buildings.
• Stamina: Does not exhaust after combat.
• Terror: All troops leave the party (un-exhausted).

Events

• Ravage: Players with 4 or more troops destroy one.
• Ruin: Players with 3 or more buildings destroy one.
• Slay: Players with 2 or more heroes destroy one.
• Bîawac: Players with 1 or more soul gems return one.
• Peace: Nothing happens.

End of Round

The last player rolls the Event Die (applies to all players). Destroy cards in play. Discard cards from hand. Return gems to the supply.