Reinforcements Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• What Is Reinforcements?
• Overview
  • Building Stacks
  • Hidden & Revealed
  • Kingdom Actions
  • Attacking & Winning
• Set Up
• Starting the Game
• Playing the Game
  • Defend
  • Gaining New Stacks
  • Attack
  • What If They Tie?
  • Bleed Damage
  • Discard
• Deploy
  • Assassin
  • Mage
  • Peasant Mob
  • Mercenaries
    • Rally
    • Shield
    • Foresight
• Card Types
• Kingdom Actions
  • Kingdom of Red
  • Kingdom of Blue
  • Kingdom of Green
• Totems
  • Berserker Wurm
  • Guardian Elk
  • Elusive Chameleon
  • Hero of the People
• Ending the Game
• Questions
• Chaos Mode (Official Companion Sheet)
  • How to Play Chaos Mode

Contents

• Main Deck x 96
• Totem Cards x 4
• Help Cards x 4

What Is Reinforcements?

REINFORCEMENTS is a strategic battle card game for 2 to 4 people. Take turns using cards from your hand to build up your army or attack your foes. Create stacks with cards of the same color to unlock powerful abilities and passive effects. The last player with cards left on the field is the winner!

Overview

Before we dive in, let's go over some important concepts you'll need to know.

Building Stacks

You begin each game by placing three cards from your hand face down in front of you. On your turn you may choose to Defend one of these cards by placing a card from your hand face down in front of another one.

These collection of cards are reffered to as Stacks.

Hidden & Revealed

All stacks begin the game Hidden because the cards are face down.

Once a stack has three cards in it, all of the cards get flipped and the stack is now Revealed, displaying the color of the cards in the stack.

Kingdom Actions

Each Revealed stack grants additional actions you can use on your turn called Kingdom Actions depending on the color of the cards stack.

Attacking & Winning

On your turn you can also use cards from your hand to Attack other player's stacks and remove cards from them.

Once a player loses all of their stacks, they are eliminated from the game and the last player standing is the winner!

Set Up

1. Clear off the table and make sure you have ample room to play. This game can take up a lot of space!
2. Separate the Totem and Reference cards from the main deck.
3. Place each Totem card face up on the table. Make sure these cards are visible to all players.
4. Hand out a reference card to each player. These will help you remember important rules throughout the game.
5. Shuffle the Main Deck and place it on the table within reach of all players. Leave some space for a Discard Pile as well.

Starting the Game

1. To start the game, deal five cards to each player. The number located on the top left of the card indicates its Power. The higher the number, the more rare that card is.
2. Out of those five, pick the best three cards to serve as your beginning Stacks. Place those cards face down in a row in front of you.
3. Out of the two remaining cards in your hand, pick one and place it face down in the center of the table.
4. Once everyone has placed a card, flip them. Whoever played the card with the highest Power takes their turn first. If there is a tie, the player who yells "REINFORCEMENTS!" first and with the most enthusiasm goes first! Place the used cards in the Discard Pile and keep the one card you have left in your hand.

If this is your first time playing REINFORCEMENTS, try to pick cards with higher Power and different colors. This will give you a strong defense early and give you multiple options to build off of when the game begins.

Playing the Game

A typical turn for a player in REINFORCEMENTS involves 2 phases:

1. Draw Phase - Draw cards from the Main Deck until you have 5 cards in your hand.
2. Action Phase - Choose one of four Main Actions to perform: Attack, Defend, Deploy, Discard.

You may also take any Kingdom Actions you have unlocked. Your Main Action and Kingdom Actions can be taken in any order during this phase.

Once you've performed all your actions, your turn ends and the player to your left begins their turn.

Defend

Choose a card in your hand and place it in front of one of your stacks. If your stack is Hidden, then place the defending card face down. If the stack is Revealed, then place the defending card face up.

The card you choose to defend with MUST match the color of the card in the stack. It's okay to check a Hidden stack if you've forgotten the stack's color.

Accidents happen, and occasionally someone will defend a stack using a card of the wrong color. This is referred to as a Broken Stack.

To resolve this, place the top two cards of the Broken Stack into the discard pile and DO NOT draw an additional card to create a new stack. Lastly, the remaining card in the stack gets flipped back face down and the stack once again becomes Hidden.

Gaining New Stacks

When a Hidden stack is defended and has 3 cards, then that stack flips over and becomes Revealed.

Every time you reveal a stack, draw a card from the top of the deck. Then, choose a card from your hand and place it face down next to one of your other stacks. This card is now the beginning of a NEW stack. This is the ONLY way to gain new stacks.

You may only have up to five stacks at one time and each stack can only have a maximum of three cards in them.

Attack

Choose a card in your hand and place it face up in front of one of your opponent's stacks. If the chosen stack is Hidden, flip the top card of the stack face up.

If your card's Power is higher, your attack is successful and both cards are discarded.

If your card's Power is lower, then the defending card remains and your card is discarded.

If the opponent's stack was Hidden, then flip the defending card back to it's face down position.

What If They Tie?

In the likely event that both cards have the same Power, it's time to call in...

"REINFORCEMENTS!!!"

(you'll thank us later)

Each player MUST yell "REINFORCEMENTS!" when the tie occurs.

This rule is non-negotiable.

Each player draws a card from the top of the deck with the defender drawing first, then reveal your cards simultaneously. Whoever drew the card with the higher Power wins the battle! If the result is a tie again, then you continue calling for "REINFORCEMENTS!" until someone breaks the tie.

Discard all the cards used during the scenario and any additional cards that need to be discarded as a result of the Attack action.

Bleed Damage

All cards have the potential of knocking out multiple cards in a stack if their Power is high enough.

For example: If you play a card with a Power of 7 against a card with a Power of 3, then the 3 is removed from the stack and the 4 Power left over is applied to the defending card underneath.

If the card underneath is face down it must be flipped, regardless of the card's Power. If the result of this bleed effect is a tie, then its time to call for "REINFORCEMENTS!" The only card that can be saved is the one that tied, discard any cards that came before it.

Discard

Choose any number of cards from your hand and place them in the Discard Pile. DO NOT draw any cards after discarding. You will draw normally at the start of your next turn.

Deploy

There are some cards called Specialty Cards that have unique abilities denoted by an extra symbol in the top left hand corner of the card. Activating one of these special abilities is called a DEPLOY action. On your turn, Specialty Cards can be deployed from your hand or from a revealed stack (with Peasants as the one exception). You can still use these cards to Defend and Attack using the Power indicated below the icon, however their true strength is unleashed when you Deploy them on the battlefield.

Assassin

When you Deploy an Assassin, you can destroy ANY card in a stack.

Mage

When you Deploy a Mage, you can destroy the TOP TWO cards of a single stack.

Peasant Mob

When you Deploy 5 Peasants of any color FROM YOUR HAND, you can destroy an entire stack.

Mercenaries

Mercenaries are a unique type of Specialty Card indicated by a gold circle around the card's Power. Each Mercenary has a unique ability depending on the color of the card. However, you can only Deploy a Mercenary under one of these two circumstances:

1. You have a revealed stack of that Mercanary's respective color.
   • or -
2. Pay up! Discard any card of equal power or higher. Discarding a card and deploying a Mercenary counts as a single Deploy action. You can only discard one card on this action.

Rally

Attack with this Mercenary and draw a card from the top of the deck. Add that card's Power to your Attack.

Shield

Place this card on top of ANY of your cards on the field to "shield" it. This card MUST be destroyed before the bottom card is affected.

Foresight

Discard this card and draw 3 cards. Pick any 2 cards from your hand and return them to the top of the deck in any order.

Card Types

Each card in the main deck of REINFORCEMENTS represents a member of society belonging to one of three kingdoms.

Each kingdom contains 32 cards for a total of 96 cards in the main deck. In general, the higher the Power of a card, the more rare it is. Each kingdom contains the following:

• x7 Peasants: Power of 1
• x6 Soldiers: Power of 2
• x5 Rangers: Power of 3
• x4 Knights: Power of 4
• x3 Druids: Power of 5
• x2 Heirs: Power of 6
• x1 Monarch: Power of 7
• x1 Assassin: Power of 2
• x1 Mage: Power of 2
• x2 Mercenaries: Power of 3

Kingdom Actions

When a Stack becomes Revealed, you gain access to benefits associated with the color of the cards in the stack. These benefits remain as long as the stack is Revealed regardless of how many cards are in the stack.

Each color represents a kingdom: the Kingdom of Red, the Kingdom of Blue, and the Kingdom of Green.

Each kingdom grants a passive effect along with a Kingdom Action. Kingdom Actions are additional actions that you can take on your turn along with your Main Action. Each Revealed stack grants an additional Kingdom Action.

Kingdom of Red

Kingdom Action: Barrage

You may Attack with a red card from your hand or a red card in a Revealed stack.

If using a red card from a stack to Barrage, the card is removed from the stack and any cards on top of it move down a position.

Passive Effect: When using a red card to Attack or Barrage, your card wins all ties. This DOES NOT apply to red cards drawn during tie scenarios.

Kingdom of Blue

Kingdom Action: Fortify

On your turn, you may Defend a Revealed blue stack with a blue card from your hand.

Passive Effect: Revealed blue stacks may now have up to 4 cards in the stack instead of 3.

Kingdom of Green

Kingdom Action: Adapt

You may swap a green card from your hand with a green card in a Revealed stack.

• OR -

Swap the positions of two green cards in ANY Revealed green stacks. This includes two cards in different stacks.

Passive Effect: During your Draw phase, you may draw an additional card for each Revealed green stack you own.

Totems

Totems are powerful allies that can be obtained by players when creating stacks of certain color combinations. When a player meets the conditions for obtaining a Totem, take that card out of the Totem Pile and place it next to you where it is visible to all players.

These cards have powerful effects that can be used for free on your turn without using an action. Once a Totem's effect is used, it returns to the Totem Pile.

If a player has control of a Totem card, then that card cannot be obtained by another player until it is returned to the Totem Pile.

Lastly, if a player loses all of the Revealed stacks associated with the totems color, than the Totem card returns to the Totem Pile.

Berserker Wurm

If a player has a red stack, then flips and Reveals their second red stack, they call forth the rampage of the Berserker Wurm.

Effect: Remove any 3 cards currently played on the field and place them in the discard pile.

Guardian Elk

If a player has a blue stack, then flips and Reveals their second blue stack, they call forth the protection of the Guardian Elk.

Effect: A. Draw 3 cards. B. Perform 3 Defend actions.

If a stack is Revealed during this process, make sure to draw and place your new stack before taking the next Defend action. If you can only perform some of the Defend actions or can't perform any, the drawn cards still remain in your hand.

Elusive Chameleon

If a player has a green stack, then flips and Reveals their second green stack, they call forth the trickery of the Elusive Chameleon.

Effect: Swap one of your stacks with a stack of another player. Cards in the stack must remain in the same order. Additional Totems CANNOT be gained as a result of this effect.

Hero of the People

If a player has two stacks of different colors, then flips and Reveals a third stack with the last color, they call forth the guidance brought upon by the Hero of the People.

Effect: Whenever you are the target of an Attack, Deploy, or Barrage you can use the Hero of the People card to nullify the action. That player's action is wasted as a result.

Ending the Game

All good things must come to an end, and eventually so does a game of REINFORCEMENTS.

When a player attacks and destroys your last remaining Hidden stack, you are now considered Locked.

While Locked, you are unable to create new stacks and can no longer gain Totems. The remaining Revealed stacks in your possession are now what you have for the rest of the game. This is where the abilities of each Kingdom shine, as you are forced to strategize with whatever tactics you have at your disposal.

When only one player has cards left on the table, that player is the WINNER!

Questions

Scan the QR code to head on over to the F.A.Q page on our website at: reinforcementscg.com/faq

Chaos Mode (Official Companion Sheet)

The following is the official "Chaos Mode" sheet published alongside the rulebook. The rulebook's Chaos Mode callout reads: "Chaos reigns supreme in this new way to play REINFORCMENTS! Scan the QR code or check the Choas Mode sheet for the full breakdown!" (spelling as printed).

Chaos Mode is an intense, fast-paced game mode for Reinforcements that challenges players to strategize and play the game in a whole new way. In Chaos Mode, players take their actions in ROUNDS instead of turns, simultaneously laying down cards and resolving the moves as they happen. To add to the chaos, the mythical totems lurk inside the deck waiting to unleash havoc. We recommend learning how to play the game normally first, as this version of the game requires a sound understanding of the game's basic rules.

How to Play Chaos Mode

1. Start the game as usual. Shuffle the deck, deal 5 cards to each player, place 3 cards down for your beginning stacks, and then play a card to see who goes first. Whoever wins the right to go first should receive a Token of your choosing (a coin, pebble, avocado, whatever floats your boat!). This token will help keep track of who draws first.
2. Once you have done this, place the 4 Totems face up into the deck and shuffle it again.
3. Now, the first round will start. Because actions in Chaos Mode are done by all players simultaneously, each player must draw their cards before any actions can be done. The player who has the token draws to their max hand size first, followed by the player to the left until every player has drawn to their max hand size.
4. This is where the chaos begins... Immediately after the last player has drawn their last card, the round starts! Everyone performs their available actions at the same time, resolving any conflicts in the order of which card touches the table first.
5. Once the dust settles and each player has performed all of their desired available actions, the round is over. The player that drew first that round passes the token to the left. The person with the token draws first in the next round, and the process repeats.
6. Totems work a bit differently in Chaos Mode, as they are shuffled into the deck and you do not acquire one if you reveal two stacks of the same color. As the game progresses, at any point a totem card can be revealed on top of the deck as players draw cards. Whenever a totem is drawn, immediately stop all actions to resolve the effect as follows:
   • A. Each player that does not have a Revealed stack of that Totem's color must send one card of their choice currently played on the field into the discard pile. If you are in possession of a Revealed stack of that Totem's color, you do not have to discard a card.
   • B. If the Hero of the People card is drawn, each player draws a card from the top of the deck, starting with the person that drew the Hero, and uses that card as a brand new stack. You must use the card you drew from the deck as your new stack. If a player is at the maximum 5 stacks, they may choose to keep the card in their hand or put it in the discard pile.

Keep playing until only one player is left with cards on the table and declared the winner!

Now with all the inevitable chaos that will arise from this game mode, so will all of the endless scenarios about who played a card first and what should be resolved when. For this, we are granting you some wiggle room for house rules. If and when 2 or more players throw down cards at the exact same time, and you can't decide what happened first, maybe draw for REINFORCEMENTS, or play Rock Paper Scissors, or even have a yodeling contest! Whatever you decide, decide it quickly because the Chaos doesn't wait for you!