Siege of Valeria
Siege of Valeria Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 18 Siege Engine cards
- 48 Troop cards
- 18 Champion cards
- 18 Event cards
- 15 Impact tokens
- 9 Strength tokens
- 9 Magic tokens
- 8 Soldier (red) dice
- 4 Holy (blue) dice
- 1 Fortress Board
Card Anatomy
There are 4 card types: Siege, Troop, Champion, and Event. Each have a banner to help you quickly identify them.
Siege Engines
Siege Engine cards have an orange banner, a Range Chart with ranges in black and orange, a siege effect that triggers when the card is in range, and a bonus you receive when you defeat the card.
Troops
There are 2 types of Troop cards: Attack and Magical.
Attack Troop cards have a red banner and only a Strength cost to defeat them.
Magical Troop cards have a blue banner and both a Magic and Strength cost to defeat them.
Both card types have a special power you can use after you defeat the card.
Champions
Champion cards have a light purple banner and a special effect you can apply while the card is face-up on your Fortress.
Events
Event cards have a yellow banner, flavor text, and an event effect that triggers one time when the card is drawn.
Game Setup
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Shuffle the 18 Siege Engine cards and return 5 Siege Engine Cards to the box. From the remaining 13 cards, deal 5 cards face-up in a line at the top of your play area and place the remaining 8 cards to the right of the 5-card Siege Engine row you just made. This is the Siege Engine deck.
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Shuffle the 48 Troop cards and return 2 Troop cards to the box. Deal yourself 2 Troop cards as a starting hand, then deal out 20 cards face-up to complete the 5x5 Battlefield grid. Place the remaining 24 cards to the right of the top 5-card Troop row you just made. This is the Troop deck.
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The row of cards closest to you (the bottom row of the Battlefield) is the Vanguard. Place the Fortress board below the Battlefield and adjacent to the Vanguard. The 5 Champion card slots on the Fortress board should line up vertically to the 5 columns of cards above it.
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Take 5 Soldier dice and 2 Holy dice as your starting dice pool. The remaining 3 Soldier dice and 2 Holy dice are the dice supply.
Keep Dice Separate
Throughout the game, your dice pool will fluctuate. Spent dice should be kept to the left of the Battlefield, active dice should be kept below the Fortress, and all other dice to the right of the Battlefield in the supply.
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Place all of the Strength, Magic, and Impact tokens next to your dice supply. The area below the supply is reserved for your discard pile.
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Shuffle the 18 Champion cards and place them face-down as the Champions deck to the left of the Fortress.
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Shuffle the 18 Event cards and place them face-down as the Event deck to the right of the Fortress.
You are now ready to play the game.
The Battlefield is a 5x5 grid of cards, with row 5 farthest from the Fortress and row 1 (the Vanguard) closest to it. Beside the Battlefield sit your dice pool and spent dice, and to the right sits the supply of Strength, Magic, and Impact tokens plus unused dice, along with your discard pile. Your hand of cards is kept nearby. The Fortress board sits below the Battlefield, showing 5 Turrets, each with a Champion card slot and an Impact token slot.
Game Flow
The objective of the game is to defeat all of the Siege Engines on the Battlefield and in the deck.
The game takes place over 7 turns (days). In each turn you will do the following phases in order:
- Roll Your Dice
- Resolve the Siege Engines
- Resolve an Event
- Perform Your Actions
- Activate the Vanguard
- Advance the Battlefield
- Reinforce the Battlefield
Playing Cards
Most cards will be played from your hand during your Action phase, but you can play Troop (Attack or Magical) cards from your hand or Champion cards from the Fortress in any phase of the game to affect dice, cards, positioning, etc.
Playing card combos is allowed and encouraged. Troop cards are discarded after use; Champion cards may be reused or discarded, depending on the card.
Roll Your Dice
Begin your turn by flipping any face-down Champions face-up, then roll all the dice in your dice pool to your active dice area below the Fortress.
The Dice
There are 2 dice types: Soldier and Holy. Soldier dice give you Strength and Holy dice give you Magic which you spend in order to defeat Siege Engine and Troop cards. The Any Die icon refers to 1 of the 2 dice types.
Resolve the Siege Engines
The Siege Engines in the Battlefield will attack if they are within range. Each Siege Engine card has a Range Chart on the left with 5 bars that correspond to the rows in the Battlefield. The color of the bar indicates whether the Siege Engine is within range to attack:
- If the bar is black, the Siege Engine is out of range while it is in that row and will not affect you this turn.
- If the bar is orange, the Siege Engine is in range while it is in that row and its power will affect you.
Follow the Siege Effect instructions on each in-range Siege Engine, starting with the leftmost column and moving right, to resolve each effect. See "Siege Engines" on page 12 for details on each card.
Example: Both the Ballista and Battering Ram are out of range and they do not attack. Both of the Incendiaries and Catapult are within range and do attack during this phase.
Resolve an Event
When you've finished resolving the Siege Engines, draw 1 Event card and follow the instructions, then discard the Event card. See "Events" on page 15 for details on each card.
Easy Mode
The Event cards bring the unexpected to your defense of the Fortress. You may want to play a few times without the Events to build your skills.
Some Event cards will have you place Strength or Magic tokens on certain Troop cards. Each token on a card increases the dice values you must spend to defeat it.
Example: You reveal the FOOLS RUSH IN Event card and add 2 Strength tokens to the Gargoyle Talon. The card's cost to defeat is normally 4 Strength. Now, by adding the Strength tokens, the Gargoyle Talon will cost 6 Strength to defeat.
Targets Within Range
In each column of the Battlefield, the card closest to the Fortress is the Front card. It is not necessary for a card to be in the Vanguard (row 1) to be a Front card. If there are no cards between a card and the Fortress, it is considered to be the Front card.
You may directly attack any Front card. When you defeat a Front card, remove it from the Battlefield. The card directly above the defeated card is now the Front card, but it does not move forward until the last step of the turn. See Reinforce the Battlefield on page 8.
You may attack any Siege Engine that is in range (when an orange bar on the card's Range Chart matches its current row location), even if it is not a Front card.
Example: There are currently 5 Front cards. Notice that the Battering Ram is a Front card because there are no cards between it and the Fortress. 3 Siege Engines are within range because the row they are in corresponds to a yellow bar on their Range Chart. 1 Siege Engine is not in range.
Perform Your Actions
During the Perform Your Actions phase, you will use the dice you rolled to attack Siege Engine and Troop cards within your reach. There is no limit to the number of cards you can attack during this phase. You are only limited by the number of dice available to you.
When all of your dice have been spent or are unusable for any other purpose, this phase is complete. Unused dice are returned to your dice pool to roll in the next turn.
If the Siege Engine deck is exhausted and you have defeated all of the Siege Engines on the Battlefield, the remaining Troops are routed and you immediately win the game. See Winning and Losing on page 9.
Attacking the Enemy
To attack a Front card or an in-range Siege Engine, you must spend dice of equal or higher value to the Strength and Magic cost shown on the card plus any Strength and Magic tokens the card has accumulated during play. Spent dice are moved to your dice pool to the left of the Battlefield.
The amount you must spend to attack a Siege Engine changes as it gets closer to your Fortress and depends on its range. The Strength value on the orange range bar is how much you must spend to defeat the Siege Engine while it is in that row. If a Siege Engine is out of range (black range bar), but it is the Front card for that column, you may defeat it for 14 Strength.
Magic values and tokens on the cards must be spent in full with Holy dice.
A Special Use for Holy Dice
Holy dice may augment Soldier dice but Holy dice cannot defeat a card all on their own.
Example: If the cost to defeat a card is 5 Strength, you could defeat it with a 1 Soldier die and a 4 Holy die. However, you could not use a 5 Holy die by itself.
Example: The Battering Ram is out of range according to its Range Chart, but it is currently a Front card. You attack it with 11 Strength (6 and 5 Soldier die) and augment it with a 3 Holy die for a total of 14 Strength. You discard the Battering Ram, then draw a Champion card and place it in your Fortress. You attack an Orc Archer in the Front with a 6 Soldier die and take the Orc Archer into your hand. The Lycan Mage is now considered a Front card, so you attack it with a 4 Holy die and a 3 and 1 Soldier die. You take the Lycan Mage into your hand.
At times, you may have to overspend to defeat a card (spending 6 Soldier die to defeat a card with cost to defeat of 5 Strength, for example); that is acceptable. The overspent amount is lost, but some cards played from your hand will allow you to use the leftover amount for another purpose (See Overkill on page 7).
When you defeat a Troop card, add it to your hand. You may play the card immediately or at any time when appropriate. See Troops on page 13.
When you defeat a Siege Engine card, remove it from the Battlefield and place it in the discard pile. As a reward, draw a Champion card from the Champion deck and add it to an open position in your Fortress. See Champions on page 11.
Defeating a Card with Tokens
When you defeat a card with Strength or Magic tokens on it, each token gives you an immediate +1 to one of your unspent active dice of the same color. If you cannot take the +1 immediately, it is lost. Return the tokens to the supply.
Example: You defeat a Gnoll Pack with a Strength token on it. You change a 3 Soldier die in your active dice area to a 4, then return the Strength token to the supply.
Overkill
The term "overkill" is found on some Troop cards. Overkill allows you to defeat a card adjacent (directly to the left, right, above, or below) the card you just defeated. Troop cards defeated with Overkill are added to your hand.
Example: You have 3 Soldier dice all with a value of 1. This gives you a total Strength of 3 which is not enough to attack any card in the Front or a Siege Engine. You play an Orc Archer from your hand to gain a new Soldier die and roll a 2. You now have 5 Strength and could defeat the Gargoyle Talon, but you decide to do something better. You play a Goblin Warrior from your hand and change the Soldier 2 to a Soldier 3, giving you a total of 6 Strength. You play a Lycan Mage from your hand, allowing you to use those 2 extra Strength to defeat an adjacent Troop card by Overkill. You choose the adjacent Dragonkin Warlord. You've defeated an 8 Strength card for only 2 Strength. The Gargoyle Talon and the Dragonkin Warlord are removed from the Battlefield and added to your hand.
Activate the Vanguard
Any cards remaining in the Vanguard (the first row of cards above the Fortress), activate now in the following order:
- Important: If there are any Siege Engine cards in the Vanguard, you immediately lose the game. See Winning and Losing on page 9.
- Any tokens on the Vanguard cards are passed up to the next card up in that column. If there are no cards above, the tokens are returned to the supply.
- Each Vanguard card adds 1 Impact token as damage to the Fortress Turret directly in front of it. Important: If any Turret on your Fortress has 4 Impact tokens (see Fortress on page 10), the Turret collapses and you immediately lose the game.
- Discard all cards remaining in the Vanguard.
Example: The 2 Strength tokens on the Gargoyle Talon move up to the Gargan Priest. The 3 Troop cards in the Vanguard add 1 Impact token to each Turret below them. The 3 Troop cards are moved to the discard pile.
Advance the Battlefield
The cards in the Battlefield advance in the following steps:
- All of the cards in the Battlefield advance as close as possible to the Fortress while remaining in their columns. The cards in the Front will move down to the Vanguard (row 1). Some cards will advance further than others and some columns may be temporarily empty. Tokens on cards will remain on those cards as they advance.
- After advancing the Battlefield, check the state of the Troops deck. Important: If it is already exhausted, you immediately lose the game. See Winning and Losing on page 9.
Example: All of the cards in the Front move down into the Vanguard (row 1). Then all other cards move down as far as possible in their column.
Reinforce the Battlefield
New Siege Engines and Troops arrive in the following order:
- If any column does not have a Siege Engine, place a new Siege Engine card face-up in row 5 of that column.
- Draw and place 4 Troop cards from the Troop deck and place them in the Battlefield one at a time. Starting at the Vanguard row and working up, Troop cards are placed face-up into empty spaces in the Battlefield from left to right. Note: If you run out of empty spaces, discard the Troop cards you could not place.
- If there are gaps in the columns, slide the upper cards down to fill the gaps.
Example: The rightmost column does not have a Siege Engine, so you draw and place 1 face-up in the 5th row of that column. Next, you draw and place 4 Troop cards into the Battlefield starting with the bottom row and working your way up. Finally, you slide down the new Siege Engine card because there is an empty space there.
If you haven't won or lost by this point, go back to the Roll Your Dice phase and start a new turn.
Winning and Losing
The win and lose conditions are:
- You lose if there is a Siege Engine in the Vanguard when you Activate the Vanguard.
- You lose when a Turret on your Fortress receives a 4th Impact token.
- You lose if the Troop deck is exhausted when you need to Reinforce the Battlefield.
- You win if the Siege Engine deck is exhausted and there are no Siege Engines in the Battlefield.
How Badly Did You Lose?
If you lost, count the number of undefeated Siege Engines on the Battlefield and in the Siege Engine deck to determine how you're treated after the battle.
1 Undefeated Siege Engine: The General of the Armies of the Shadow Kingdoms salutes your bravery and tactics. To have a worthy opponent is all any soldier can ask. While your Fortress is now in the hands of the Shadow Kingdoms, the General sets you free in hopes that you two will meet again.
2-5 Undefeated Siege Engines: The Captain of the Watch, seeing the defeat in advance, enlisted the aid of the Steward of the Fortress to sneak you out through a secret tunnel. The swamp where you emerge is not a proud place, but you're alive and can plan for a second engagement.
6-7 Undefeated Siege Engines: The Sergeant at Arms and what few survivors she could find have imprisoned you in the dungeons beneath the Fortress. The rats in the cell are keeping their distance, as if they do not want to be associated with such a stunningly bad Warlord.
8+ Undefeated Siege Engines: Only the tradesmen and stable hands were standing when the monster-kin made their final assault, but those few citizens caught you unaware. You now lay in the dirt, trussed like a pig, a gift in trade for the leniency of the General of the Shadow Kingdoms.
How Honored Was Your Victory
If you won, count the number of cards in your hand (Defeated Troops) and in the Battlefield (Routed Troops) to determine your standing as a Defender of the Realm.
0-3 Defeated and Routed Troops: The Queen is grateful for your service, but you're not invited to her Golden Jubilee. The Margraves of all Houses each send you a platoon of their finest fighters to aid you in case there is another attack on your crumbling Fortress.
4-6 Defeated and Routed Troops: The Queen will be pleased to meet with you at Court the next time you're in Shilina. Bring a gift.
7-9 Defeated and Routed Troops: The Queen is considering you for Commandant of the Duchy of Kosk, a new but important province out in the western wilds.
10-12 Defeated and Routed Troops: The Queen of All Valeria, has announced a reception in your honor. Your bravery has inspired many at your Fortress and throughout the Kingdoms of Valeria. The Queen is considering giving you the honor of establishing your own House and accepting you into the war council to help win the war once and for all.
13+ Defeated and Routed Troops: The Queen acknowledges your triumph over the Shadow Kingdoms and proclaims you Defender of the Realm. You will serve at Court as Her Majesty's Minister of War for the remainder of the current strife between Valeria and the Shadow Kingdoms. If the Queen were to someday fall in battle or otherwise expire, you are favored to win the election as the next ruler of Valeria.
Fortress
Your Fortress is made up of 5 Turrets and each Turret has a position for 1 Champion card.
Each Turret on your Fortress can sustain 3 Impacts before it begins to fail. When a Turret has 3 Impact tokens it can no longer hold a Champion card. If there is a Champion card on that Turret when it receives the 3rd Impact token, you must discard the Champion with no repair effect (see below).
The Fortress board shows, for each Turret, 3 Impact slots and 1 Champion Card slot; the 3rd Impact both discards and blocks the Champion card on that Turret.
There are three ways in which the damages to your Fortress can be repaired:
- During the Perform Your Actions phase, you may discard a face-up Champion from the Fortress to remove 1 Impact token from the Turret on which it was located.
- During the Perform Your Actions phase, you may spend dice to remove Impact tokens at the rate of 1 token per die spent. The value or color of the die is irrelevant.
- During the Event phase, you may get lucky and draw the Shore Up The Walls card to remove all of the Impact tokens from a Turret of your choice.
Important: If a Turret receives its 4th Impact token it immediately crumbles completely, the monster-kin army rushes in, and you lose the game. See Winning and Losing on page 9. Your Fortress is all that stands between you and the hordes of monster-kin, so take care of it.
Champions
You receive a Champion when you defeat a Siege Engine and when you play certain cards from your hand. Draw the card from the Champion deck and add it to an open position on your Fortress. If you do not want the drawn Champion, you can return the card to the bottom of the deck but do not get the repair effect.
Your Fortress can hold 5 Champion cards. If your Fortress is already full, you may discard a face-up or face-down Champion from the Fortress to make room for the new card, which you'll place in the same face-up or face-down orientation. If you discard a Champion to make room for a new one, you do not also get the repair effect.
Champion cards have a special game effect available while the card is face-up on your Fortress.
Recurring effects have a Flip icon meaning that when you use the bonus, you flip the card face-down to show it's been used. You'll flip it face-up when you roll your dice next round.
One-Time effects have a Discard icon meaning that you will discard the Champion after you use it.
Cards giving an attack bonus do not physically change the die value, they're just a bonus to your attack total if the target of your attack meets the criteria shown on the Champion card.
Example: The Troll Brute is an Attack Troop and costs 7 Strength to defeat. Your dice add up to 5 Strength. Adept Immogin adds 2 Magic vs. Attack Troops, and Magic augments Strength. You now have 7 Strength to defeat the Troll Brute. Flip the Champion card to show you've used it this round.
You may combine multiple attack bonuses on a single attack if the target of your attack meets the various conditions on all of the Champion cards you're using.
A Champion's attack bonus cannot be used as an attack all on its own. It must be combined with at least one actual die to initiate the attack.
You may use a Holy die and a Champion's Strength bonus to attack a card that would normally need a Soldier die and a Holy die to defeat.
A Champion's position on the Fortress does not affect which Troop or Siege Engine cards it can be used against unless the card text or rules below say otherwise.
An alternate use for Champion cards is to repair your Fortress. You may discard a face-up Champion to remove one Impact token from the Turret on which the Champion was located.
If the Champion deck is exhausted, it is gone; no other Champions will come to your aid.
Champion Powers
- Sister Althea: Flip to add or subtract 1 from a Holy die.
- Sir J'ilko: Flip to add or subtract 1 from a Soldier Die.
- Sir Chun'nan: Flip to contribute 1 Strength to an attack against an Attack Troop.
- Sir Phanther: Flip to contribute 2 Strength to an attack against an Attack Troop.
- Sister Elina: Flip to contribute 1 Magic to an attack against an Attack Troop.
- Adept Immogin: Flip to contribute 2 Magic to an attack against a Attack Troop.
- Sir Heller: Flip to contribute 1 Strength to an attack against a Magical Troop.
- Lady Gurira: Flip to contribute 2 Strength to an attack against a Magical Troop.
- Brother Benzin: Flip to contribute 1 Magic to an attack against a Magical Troop.
- Magister Femik: Flip to contribute 2 Magic to an attack against a Magical Troop.
- Wizard Denthal: Flip to contribute 2 Magic to an attack against a Siege Engine.
- Sir Quentin: Flip to contribute 2 Strength to an attack against a Siege Engine.
- Doktor Kilter: Flip to remove all of the Strength and Magic tokens from 1 card in the Battlefield.
- Smith Laicon: Flip to move 1 Impact token from a Turret to a different Turret.
- Sister Mystique: Discard to move any 1 Troop (Attack or Magical) or Siege Engine in the Battlefield to an open space in the Battlefield. Note: If you move a Siege Engine to a different column, you could have more than five Siege Engines in the Battlefield after the next Reinforce the Battlefield phase.
- Sir Nathem: Discard to re-roll two spent Holy dice and add them to your active dice for reuse this round.
- Lady Ozwin: Discard to re-roll two spent Soldier dice and add them to your active dice for reuse this round.
- Mrs. Rye: Discard to increase any five unspent dice by 1.
Siege Engines
There are 9 different Siege Engine cards.
Siege Engines are not Troops and are not affected by any card power that specifically affects only Troop cards.
The details below describe what happens each time the Siege Engine card is "in range" during the Resolve Siege Engines phase.
Remember: If the bar matching the card's row is black, the Siege Engine is not within range and will not activate.
Ballista: Forfeit any one die from your active dice pool and return it to the supply. Then discard one Champion card from your Fortress by placing it in the discard pile.
If you have no Champions on your Fortress, ignore this part of the power but you still must forfeit one die.
Forfeited Dice
Dice returned to the supply may be regained by playing cards from your hand like the Orc Archer or Redwitch. Some Event cards will also allow you to gain dice.
Battering Ram: Roll-down all of your Soldier dice by 1.
If a die is already at 1, leave it as is.
Breach Tower: Move the adjacent Troop card with the highest Strength value onto the Breach Tower. If 2 or more adjacent Troop cards have the highest Strength, you choose.
Do not move another Siege Engine onto the Breach Tower. If no cards are adjacent, skip this step.
The cost to defeat the Breach Tower is equal to 8 Strength plus the Strength and Magic of all the Troop cards on it. The cost must be paid all at one time. For this reason, it is wise to defeat the Breach Tower before it has a chance to load up with Troops.
When you defeat the Breach Tower, any Troops loaded onto it go to your hand.
Adjacency
Adjacency is always the card directly to the left, right, above, or below the focal card. Cards separated by an empty space are not adjacent. A card in one edge column is not adjacent to a card in the other edge column.
Catapult: Select one die with value 6 from your active dice and re-roll it. If you have no value 6 dice, this Siege Engine has no effect.
Flaming Rain: Select one Champion card currently on your Fortress and discard it, then select one face-up Champion on your Fortress and flip it face-down as spent. The flipped Champion will refresh as usual when you roll your dice next round.
If you have only one Champion then discard it. If you have no Champions, this Siege Engine has no effect.
Gargan's Eye: Select one Soldier die and one Holy die from your active dice pool and place them in your spent dice pool. Those dice will be rolled in the next round as usual.
Incendiaries: Select any one die with a value 5 from your active dice pool and re-roll it. If you have no value 5 dice, this Siege Engine has no effect.
Ogre's Reach: Add two Impact tokens to the Turret directly below this Siege Engine card.
Trebuchet: Add one Impact token to the Turret directly below this Siege Engine card.
Remember: If there are three Impact tokens on the Turret, discard the Champion on that Turret. If there are four or more Impact tokens on a Turret, you immediately lose the game.
Troops
A Troop card's power is available immediately when you add it to your hand. To use a card power, simply discard the card from your hand at any time the card's power will have a meaningful effect and follow the instructions on the card.
Dragonkin Warlord: Play this card from your hand to double any single die's value. A 2 becomes a 4, a 5 becomes a 10, etc.
You may not play a second Dragonkin Warlord to double the double.
You may find it useful to combine this card with a Goblin Warrior, Gnoll Pack, or Troll Brute to get the highest possible value on the die before you double it.
Efreet Enflammé: Play this card from your hand when you defeat a card in the Battlefield, then spend an additional 2 Magic to Overkill an adjacent Siege Engine card. See "Overkill" on page 7.
You may not Overkill a Troop card with Efreet Enflammé.
Gargan Priest: Play this card from your hand during the Resolve Siege Engines phase of your turn to block the effect of one Siege Engine card.
If you want to block several Siege Engines, you must play one Gargan Priest for each Siege Engine blocked.
Gargoyle Talon: Play this card from your hand to attack any non-Front Troop card or any out-of-range Siege Engine.
Reminder: An out-of-range Siege Engine always requires 14 Strength to defeat.
You may find it useful to combine this card with a Lycan Mage or Efreet Enflammé for surprise attacks deep into the Battlefield.
Gnoll Pack: Play this card from your hand to flip any one die to its opposite side. Note: The opposite sides of a d6 always add up to 7 (1/6, 2/5, 3/4).
Goblin Warrior: Play this card from your hand to increase or decrease the value of any one die by 1.
Manipulating Dice
When adding or subtracting on a die, a 1 cannot roll down to a 6 and a 6 cannot roll up to a 1. A die's value may never be less than 1 or more than 6.
Why would anyone want to lower a die by one pip? If you had one 5 in your rolled dice and you had an Incendiary Siege Engine in column 1 and a Catapult in column 2, rolling that 5 down to a 4 would keep it safe from both Siege Engine effects.
When flipping dice, keep in mind that opposing sides will always add up to 7. So, flipping a 2 will give you a 5, etc.
Lycan Mage: Play this card from your hand when you defeat a card in the Battlefield, then spend an additional 2 Strength to Overkill an adjacent Troop (Attack or Magical) card. See "Overkill" on page 7.
You may not Overkill a Siege Engine card with this card.
Orc Archer: Play this card from your hand to add and roll 1 Soldier die from the supply to your active dice.
Red Witch: Play this card from your hand to add and roll 1 Holy die from the supply to your dice pool. Then, draw 1 Champion card from the deck and add it to your Fortress.
Fluctuating Dice Pool
Dice you add to your pool are in your pool permanently unless a card effect returns the die to the supply.
If there are no Soldier or Holy dice remaining in the supply, you may instead retrieve the die referenced in the card from your spent dice pool. You still re-roll it and can use it again in this round.
Rune Witch: Play this card from your hand to re-roll any number of your active dice.
Dice you have already spent in this round may not be re-rolled with this card.
Troll Brute: Play this card from your hand to change any one die to value 6.
Undead Samurai: Play this card from your hand to swap the locations of any two adjacent cards in the Battlefield. Cards separated by an empty space are not adjacent, however, the Undead Samurai can move a card into an adjacent empty space. Using this card to move a Siege Engine card into range does not trigger the Siege Engine effect.
Moving a Siege Engine left or right could lead to you having more than five Siege Engines active in the Battlefield on your next turn, because every column must have a Siege Engine when the Battlefield is reinforced.
Using an Undead Samurai first to line up specific cards in the Battlefield may make your subsequent use of a Lycan Mage or an Efreet Enflammé more efficient.
Event Cards
An Event card is drawn each turn after the Resolve the Siege Engines phase. Follow the instructions then discard the card.
Supply and Card Limitations
These cards may require you to manipulate cards, tokens, or dice. If there are not enough of the requested component(s), do as much as possible. If there are none of the requested component(s), the Event has no effect.
Accidents Happen: Flip two Champion cards on your Fortress face-down for this round. You'll flip these cards face-up when you roll your dice next round.
If you have only one Champion on your Fortress, flip it. If you have no Champions on your Fortress, this Event has no effect.
You can flip any Champion face-down, regardless of its status as Recurring or One-time.
Deserter: Move one of your active Soldier dice to your spent dice pool.
Back for More: Take the two Champion cards at the bottom of the discard pile and place them on top of the Champion draw deck.
If there is only one Champion in the discard pile, move that one. If there are no Champions, this Event has no effect.
Battle Lust: Add two Strength tokens from the supply to the strongest Attack Troop in the Vanguard.
If more than one Attack Troop is strongest, the choice is yours. If there are no Attack Troops in the Vanguard, this Event has no effect.
Camp Crud: Lower any three dice in your active dice pool by 1 each.
Dangerous Visions: Look at the top six cards in the Troop deck then place them back on the deck in any order.
Final Push: Add two Strength tokens from the supply to the Siege Engine card closest to the Fortress.
If more than one Siege Engine is closest to the Fortress, the choice is yours.
Foresight: Look at the top three Event cards then return them to the top of the deck in any order.
Fools Rush In: Add two Strength tokens to the weakest Attack Troop card in the Vanguard.
If more than one Attack Troop is weakest, the choice is yours. If there are no Attack Troops in the Vanguard, this Event has no effect.
Friends Arrive: Draw two Champion cards and add them to your Fortress.
If your Fortress already has the maximum allowed number of Champions, you may choose to replace existing Champions or return the new Champions to the bottom of the deck. If you replace a Champion on the Fortress you do not also get a repair benefit from the discard.
If you replace a face-down Champion, the new card is also face-down.
Gargan's Blessing: Add two Magic tokens from the supply to the Siege Engine card closest to the Fortress.
If more than one Siege Engine is closest to your Fortress, the choice is yours.
Lucky Shot: Activate one Siege Engine that is currently out of range and resolve its effect.
If more than one Siege Engine is out of range, the choice is yours. If no Siege Engines are out of range, this Event has no effect.
Shaman's Ritual: Add two Magic tokens to the Siege Engine card farthest from the Fortress. If more than one Siege Engine is farthest from your Fortress, the choice is yours.
Shore Up the Walls: Remove all of the Impact tokens from one Turret of your choice.
If there are no Impact tokens on your Fortress, this Event has no effect.
Spell Sickness: Move one of your unspent Holy dice to your spent dice pool for this round.
Trained Warriors: Add one Strength token to every Attack Troop in the Vanguard.
If there are no Attack Troops in the Vanguard, this Event has no effect.
The Turret Shudders: Add one Impact token to a Turret of your choice with less than three Impact tokens already on it.
If there are three Impact tokens on a Turret, discard the Champion card on that Turret.
Unified Rites: Add one Magic token to every Magic Troop in the Vanguard.
If there are no Magic Troops in the Vanguard, this Event has no effect.
Quick Play Reference
Game Overview — Each round consists of 7 phases:
- Roll Your Dice from your dice pool to your active dice area below your Fortress.
- Resolve the Siege Engines by activating the siege effect of Siege Engines within range (orange bar).
- Resolve an Event by revealing one Event card. Discard after following the instructions.
- Perform Your Action Phase by targeting any Front cards or in-range Siege Engines with dice from your active dice area. Troops you defeat go into your hand. Siege Engines are discarded and you gain one Champion. Continue until you have no more dice or are unable to attack with dice left over.
- Activate the Vanguard by adding 1 Impact token to a Turret if there is a Troop (Attack or Magical) above it in the Vanguard (row 1). Move tokens to the card above. Discard all Troop cards in the Vanguard.
- Advance the Battlefield by moving all cards down.
- Reinforce the Battlefield by adding a Siege Engine to row 5 of any column that does not currently have a Siege Engine. Add four Troop cards starting from the bottom and going up, from left to right. Move cards down to fill in any gaps. Continue to phase 1 if you haven't won or lost.
Winning and Losing
- You lose: if there is a Siege Engine in the Vanguard when you Activate the Vanguard; When a Turret on your Fortress receives a 4th Impact; If the Troop deck is exhausted when you need to Reinforce the Battlefield.
- You win: if the Siege Engine deck is exhausted and there are no Siege Engines in the Battlefield.
Important Concepts
- You may play Troop cards from your hand in any phase of the game. Combos are allowed and encouraged.
- Holy dice may augment Soldier dice but Holy dice cannot defeat a card all on their own.
- Adjacency is always the card directly to the left, right, above, or below the focal card.
- Spent dice go to your spent dice pool. Forfeited dice go to the supply. If you gain a die but there isn't one in the supply, you can retrieve a die from your dice pool.
- If there is not enough of a listed component, do as much as possible. Even nothing.
Credits
Design: Glenn Flaherty | Illustrations: Mihajlo Dimitrievski
Development: David MacKenzie and Isaias Vallejo
Copy Editor: Sarah Bolland
Alpha Testers: Andrew Whipple III, Ryan Whipple
Beta Testers: Andrew Migliore, Brandon Pasak, Brandon Shishido, Christophe David, Cindy Mei, Daniel Sawade, Daniel York, Eric Jack, Eric Sanson, Frikkie Borman, Gray Detrick, Imanuel Gueldner, Joseph Gurnig, Marc Gustin, Marco Teti, Mark Schaefer, Michael Hahn, Natalie Prince, Noah Lewellen, Patryk Rurek, Scott Gleason, Todd Lamb, Tomas Petru, Tyler Smith, Watson Caudill
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