Snails
Snails Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Box Contents
- Rulebook
- 1 Double-sided Board
- 2 Attack Dice
- 1 Round Counter / 1st Player Marker
- 4 Reference Sheets
- 4 Player Boards (in 4 player colors)
- 6 Faction Tiles
- 41 Double-sided Terrain Tiles (20 Beaches, 15 Meadows, 6 Mountains)
- 18 Snail Markers: 6 Leaders and 12 Soldiers (Grunt, Scout, Medic)
- 16 Plastic Bases (in 4 player colors)
- 110 Action Cards:
- 20 Basic Action Cards (4 sets of 5 cards in 4 player colors)
- 84 Arsenal Action Cards (50 red Attack Cards, 34 purple Special Cards)
- 6 Faction Action Cards (1 per faction)
- 18 Health Tokens: 6 Leaders and 12 Soldiers (Grunt, Scout and Medic in 4 player colors)
- 18 Declaration Tokens: 6 Leaders and 12 Soldiers (Grunt, Scout and Medic in 4 player colors)
- 3 Dynamite Tokens
- 8 Fire Tokens
- 2 Mine Tokens
- 10 Damaged Terrain Tokens
- 1 Contamination Marker
- 3 Used Faction Ability Markers
- 8 Shells (base rings)
Game Setup
Prepare the game together as described below by performing the following steps.
Important: The side of the board featuring islands should be used in your first games. You may use the other side in order to set up terrain tiles according to your ideas. It will also be used in other game variants, which you can find by scanning the QR code found at the end of this rulebook.
Board Setup
- Place the Board in the middle of the table, with the islands artwork face-up.
- Place the Contamination Marker on the lowest space of the Contamination Track.
- Take all Terrain Tiles, flip them face-up (the side with vivid colors) and separate them into 3 sets: 20 Beaches (yellow), 15 Meadows (green) and 6 Mountains (gray). Shuffle each tile set separately. Then place the tiles on the board spaces face-up in the following way:
- Spaces with I icons – place 1 beach tile on each such space.
- Spaces with II icons – place a pile formed of 1 beach tile (at the bottom) and 1 meadow tile (at the top) on each such space.
- Spaces with III icons – place a pile formed of 1 beach tile (at the bottom), 1 meadow tile (in the middle) and 1 mountain tile (at the top) on each such space.
- Take all Action Cards and separate them in the following way:
- Basic Action cards – separate them according to player colors into 4 sets of 5 cards. Place them face-up next to the board.
- Faction Action Cards – these 6 cards are marked with faction icons. Place them face-up next to the board.
- Arsenal Action Cards – shuffle the remaining 84 action cards and place them in a separate, face-down deck next to the board within easy reach of all players. Leave some space next to it for the discarded action cards (i.e. the Discard Pile).
- Place all Mine, Dynamite, Fire and Damaged Terrain Tokens, as well as the Attack Dice and Used Faction Ability Markers within easy reach of all players. They form the Pool.
Player Setup
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Choose (randomly or otherwise) the 1st Player. If you cannot decide, the person who last saw a snail (or the youngest player) becomes the 1st player. They take the assembled Round Counter / 1st Player Marker, set it so that it indicates "1" (1st round) and place it next to themselves.
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Starting with the 1st player and going clockwise around the table, each player chooses their Player Color. In order to do this, each player takes 1 Player Board in their color. Then they take 4 Bases, 3 Declaration Tokens and 3 Health Tokens (they feature 3 different Soldiers: a Grunt, a Scout and a Medic) in their color and 3 cardboard Soldier Markers. The soldier markers should be slided into the bases in their color, thus forming Snail Standees. Additionally, each player takes 2 Shells.
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Starting with the 1st player and going clockwise around the table, each player chooses a snail faction they will lead during the game (you may also choose your factions randomly). In order to do this, each player takes 1 Faction Tile featuring its Leader and faction special ability icon (for faction abilities, see the Faction Special Abilities section) and attaches it to their player board. Then they take the corresponding Declaration Token, Health Token and cardboard Marker, which should be slided into a base to form the Leader Standee.
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Each player places all their declaration tokens, shells and snail standees next to their player board and all their health tokens on their Health Track on the space with 30, with the side without the shell face-up.
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Each player takes 1 set of 5 Basic Action Cards in their color and 1 Faction Action Card belonging to their faction (as marked with the corresponding faction special ability). They place their faction card face-up next to their player board and take their basic action cards into their hand.
Important: If you play with less than 4 players, return all remaining game elements (unnecessary tokens, bases, basic and faction action cards etc.) into the box – they will not be needed during this game.
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Starting with the 1st player and going clockwise around the table, each player draws their starting Arsenal Action Cards from the deck in the following way:
- 1st player: 3 action cards
- Other players: 4 action cards
Important: If a player draws no red action cards, they may show their cards to the other players, set them aside, draw new cards and shuffle their original cards back into the action deck.
Tactical Tip: Advanced Starting Draw — If you want to better prepare for your first round of the game, you may decide to go for an alternative way of drawing your starting arsenal action cards. In this case, each player draws 5 cards, then chooses 3 or 4 cards (depending on the player order) and discards the rest.
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Starting with the 1st player and going clockwise around the table, each player places 1 of their snail standees on the board until all standees are placed there. The following rules apply when placing your snails:
- Snail standees cannot be placed on water spaces.
- Only 1 of the player's standees can be placed on a mountain tile.
- There is a limit of 3 standees per tile.
Tactical Tip: Initial Deployment — When deploying your snails at the beginning of the game, pay attention to your starting action cards – especially to ranges of red attack cards. It's also good to place your snails on different spaces to avoid losing multiple snails from your squad in a single well-aimed attack. Finally, remember that the high ground provides you with better options to use your weapons, so any snail starting on a mountain tile is especially valuable.
YOU ARE READY FOR BATTLE!
Player Area
- Faction Tile.
- Faction Special Ability Icon.
- Active Snail Space (with a token).
- Passive Snail Space (with a token).
- Health Track.
- Snail Health Tokens.
- Action Slots.
- Played Action Cards.
- Faction Action Card (set aside).
- Unused Action Cards.
- Unused Declaration Tokens.
- Snail Standees.
Golden Rules
In case of contradicting rules, effects from cards and faction special abilities always take precedence over the rules from this rulebook.
All decisions regarding action card effects (e.g. how to push snails) are made by the active player (the one resolving a given action).
All conflicts and decisions regarding neutral effects (e.g. effects of terrain tiles or tokens placed on the board) are resolved by the 1st player.
The terms "space" and "tile" are used interchangeably in this rulebook. The only exception are water spaces, which are printed on the board, they are never represented by tiles and are unaffected by damage or destruction of tiles.
Card effect tokens and damaged terrain tokens are unlimited – if they are no longer available in the pool, you can use any replacements.
Goal of the Game
The goal of the game is to eliminate enemy snails. If, after resolving any action by any player, or at the end of the Cleaning Phase of any round, snails belonging to only 1 player are present on the board, that player wins the game.
If this does not happen until the end of the 6th game round, check which player has the most snails on the board – they win the game. If there is a tie, add health of the snails of the tying players. The side with the highest total health wins.
If you cannot determine the winner using the methods described above or at any point of the game there are no snails on the board (all are eliminated), the game ends in a draw.
Game Overview
Each game of Snails is divided into 6 Rounds and each round into 4 Phases described below. The player performing an activity in a given moment (especially the one resolving an action during the Acting Phase) is called the Active Player.
Important: Skip the Drawing Phase in the first round of the game and proceed directly to the Planning Phase.
Phase 1: Drawing
Starting with the 1st player and going clockwise around the table, each player draws 1 action card from the arsenal deck. After drawing, each player may choose to discard 2 arsenal action cards from their hand to draw 1 additional card (a given player may choose to do so more than once).
If at least 1 snail of a player was eliminated last round, they may take their faction action card and add it to their hand.
At the end of this phase, each player can have up to 10 action cards in their hand (5 basic and 5 other).
Phase 2: Planning
Players simultaneously take all their declaration tokens into their hands, choose 2 representing snails they wish to perform actions with this round and place them face-down on the snail spaces on their player board – 1 on the active snail space (left) and 1 on the passive snail space (right). The snail from the left space will be the first to resolve actions. The remaining declaration tokens should be placed face-down next to their owners' player boards.
Important: If possible, you should always use 2 declaration tokens, even if you intend to resolve all your actions with 1 snail.
Then players simultaneously choose 5 action cards from their hands and place them in action slots under their player board.
Actions are resolved from left to right, according to slot numbers. They are resolved by a player's active snail (using the basic action Switch enables you to change your active snail).
Phase 3: Acting
The 1st player flips their active snail's declaration token (the one on the left space of their board) and their first action card (below the board on the slot number "I") face-up. The action is resolved by the active snail.
Then the player to the left of the 1st player does the same and the game proceeds this way around the table until all planned action cards are resolved. Available actions and ways of resolving them are described further.
Phase 4: Cleaning
a) End of Round Effects: All effects described below should be resolved in order.
- Token Effects: Resolve effects of fire and dynamite tokens, as well as other effects affecting the game at the end of round. The order of resolution is based on the amount of damage dealt, starting with the most damaging effects. In case of confusion or identical effects, the 1st player decides. Discard all resolved tokens from the board.
- Water Contamination: Each snail on a water space is dealt damage equal to the current Contamination as shown on the Contamination Track by the marker.
b) Collect Game Elements: Each player takes their played action cards – the basic ones and the ones with the "returns to hand" icon – back to their hand. If a player used their faction action card, they place it face-up next to their player board. All the remaining action cards should be discarded face-up on the discard pile next to the arsenal deck. Then each player takes their declaration tokens from their board and places them face-down with the others.
c) 1st Player Change: Pass the round counter / 1st player marker to the person sitting to the left. The new 1st player advances the counter by 1. If the counter indicates the "X" icon, resolve the end of the game. Otherwise, start a new round.
Actions
In the Acting Phase, players use their snails to resolve actions placed under their player boards. Each player resolves 1 action, starting with the 1st player and going clockwise around the table. In their first action, the Active Player reveals (flips face-up) a declaration token placed on the active snail space of their board and the Action Card placed in the slot marked with "I". From now on, it is the player's active snail who will be resolving this action and all the following actions, unless the player switches it to a different snail. In their next turn the player only needs to reveal and resolve their next action card.
There are 3 types of action cards in the game – basic, arsenal and faction ones.
Basic Action Cards: Each player starts with 5 basic action cards, which can be recognized by their layout – they are divided in half and provide 2 options to choose from. These cards are always available, they cannot be discarded, or lost in any way.
Arsenal Action Cards: These cards represent weapons and equipment used in combat. They are drawn from the deck during the game and have one use. They are divided into Attack Cards with a red background and Special Cards with a purple background. Once resolved, they are usually discarded.
Faction Action Cards: Each player starts with 1 faction action card marked with their faction icon and placed next to their player board. It remains unavailable until one of their snails is eliminated from the game. Once used, the card is placed back next to its owner's player board, not on the discard pile.
Important: For examples of action resolution see the Examples section.
Basic Actions
When a basic action card is revealed, the active player chooses one of two actions featured on the card, turns the card so that the chosen action is upright and resolves it with their active snail. The overview of all actions featured on these cards can be found below.
Crawl
This action enables the active player to move their active snail around the board. The active snail can use up to 2 moves in the following way:
- For 1 move, it moves to an adjacent space (tile) on the same or lower level. It can move 2 times this way.
- For 2 moves, it moves to an adjacent space (tile) 1 level higher than its current space (tile) (e.g. from a water space to a beach space, or from a meadow space to a mountain space). Movement is impossible if the level difference is 2 or more.
There can be up to 3 snails on the same space, so when a new snail moves to a space already occupied by 3 other snails, it Pushes 1 chosen snail to a chosen, adjacent space on the same or lower level (in the same way as per the push effect from arsenal cards). Snails inside shells are resistant to pushing, so the active snail cannot enter a space with 3 shelled snails.
Important: A new snail may enter a space with 3 other snails as a result of various effects, e.g. by being pushed from another space. In this case, the active player chooses where the excess snail is pushed. Such situation may result in a "chain" of pushes connected with various effects.
Dig
This action enables the active player to obtain new action cards. When the active snail resolves it, its player draws 1 card from the arsenal deck. Then they place a damaged terrain token on the snail's tile. If the tile was already damaged, it is immediately destroyed – resolve the effect featured on the back of the tile (see Spaces and Terrain Tiles). In case of a destroyed meadow tile, if its back features illustrations of action cards, the active player draws a number of additional cards from the arsenal deck as shown on the destroyed tile.
Important: This action cannot be performed on a water space.
Tactical Tip: Perfect Hand — Remember that you can have any number of action cards on your hand during the round. The 10-card limit applies only at the end of next round's Drawing Phase, so it's always good to get new action cards in order to keep only the most efficient ones in the next round.
Damaging and Destroying Terrain Tiles
Unlike water spaces printed on the board, beach, meadow and mountain spaces are represented by tiles. They can be damaged or destroyed through various effects, mostly using red action cards.
Damaging Tiles: When a terrain tile is damaged, place a damaged terrain token on it. This token does not affect a given space in any way, but from now on the next damage will cause the destruction of a given tile. When a damaged tile is destroyed, return the damaged terrain token placed on it to the pool.
Destroying Tiles: When a terrain tile is destroyed, first resolve effects of all tokens on it, which trigger upon tile destruction (e.g. a mine), discard all tokens from the tile to the pool (e.g. a damaged terrain token or a fire token), set all snails placed on the tile aside and flip the tile. Depending on the terrain type, the back of the tile can be blank or feature some effect. If the tile is blank, or after you resolve its effect, place all snail standees on the space under the destroyed tile (remember that ending up on a water space has additional consequences). For effects on tile backs, see Spaces and Terrain Tiles. Return the destroyed tile to the box.
Important: All tokens on the destroyed terrain tile (fire, mines, dynamite, damaged terrain tokens) should be placed back to the pool. Additionally, it does not matter for the tile under the destroyed tile whether the tile above was damaged upon its destruction.
Shell
This action enables a player to protect their snail soldiers from enemy attacks. When the active player resolves it, the snail hides inside a shell – its player takes one of their shells (base rings) and places it under the standee base of the active snail, then flips its corresponding health token to the side with the shell. From now on, until that snail leaves its shell, it is always dealt 5 less damage, no matter the source of the damage. Additionally, a snail inside the shell cannot be pushed, placed, or moved from its space unless a special effect enables it.
Important: This action cannot be performed on a water space.
A snail can stay inside the shell indefinitely, but it must immediately leave the shell when one of the following situations occurs:
- The standee is on a water space.
- When the snail performs any action except for the basic actions Aim, Shell or Switch.
- The snail is forced to leave the shell by an action card effect.
When a snail leaves the shell, its player places the ring representing it next to their player board and flips the corresponding snail's health token back to its side without the shell.
Important: Each player has exactly 2 shells, so up to 2 of their snails can simultaneously be inside the shells. If a third snail belonging to the same player would hide inside the shell, its player may remove the shell from their other snail and place it under the base of the new snail.
Switch
This action enables a player to change the snail resolving their played actions. When the active snail resolves it, its player switches positions of their declaration tokens, moving the one from the active space to the passive space, and vice versa. The declaration token representing the new active snail is not revealed until the next action. From now on, all actions planned until the end of the round will be resolved by the new active snail.
Important: If a player's active snail is eliminated and they still have a declaration token on the passive snail space, they immediately slide it to the active snail space as if they resolved the basic action Switch.
Aim
This action enables a player to boost the efficiency of their active snail's next attack. When the active snail resolves it and its next action (played directly to the right) is an attack (from a red card), which requires rolling attack dice, the active player may re-roll 1 die while rolling to hit (no matter the number of rolled attack dice or the number of attacks performed as part of the card).
Important: This action cannot be performed on a water space.
Tactical Tip: Protect Your Leader — Unlike other snails, leaders are particularly large and battle-hardened. This means that whenever they resolve a red action card using attack dice, they may re-roll 1 die as if they previously used the Aim action. This ability is cumulative with other effects granting re-rolls, so a leader using Aim before their attack will have 2 re-rolls available.
Punch
This action enables a player to hurt enemy snails. When the active snail resolves it, it deals 5 damage to a chosen enemy snail on their space. This action is treated like a red attack action with a range of 0 and hits automatically (see Attack Actions).
Important: This action cannot be performed on a water space.
Spaces and Terrain Tiles
The board is comprised of hexagonal spaces and tiles. Each of them features one of 4 different terrain types: Water, Beach, Meadow or Mountain. The first one is depicted directly on the board, the other 3 are represented by cardboard tiles, but all water spaces on the board and all terrain tiles of any type placed on it are treated like spaces for game purposes. Each terrain type is defined by its height marked with a number, from Level 0 to Level 3. It is relevant when moving and performing ranged attacks.
Water
Water spaces are located on level 0. Snails can normally move on them, but besides that all snails on water spaces are affected by special rules.
- Actions and Effects: Any snail on a water space immediately leaves the shell (if it was hidden inside one) and its basic action Aim is canceled. Additionally, the snail cannot resolve the basic actions Shell, Punch, Dig and Aim, or any red action cards. The basic actions Crawl and Switch, as well as purple action cards work normally, however no tokens connected with their effects (e.g. dynamite) can be placed on water spaces.
- Contamination: At the end of each round, each snail on a water space is dealt damage for the contamination, according to the contamination track.
Beach
Beach tiles are located on level 1. There are 20 of them in the box, with 10 featuring a Barrel on their backs. If a beach tile is destroyed and its back shows a barrel, immediately move the contamination marker 1 space up the track.
Meadow
Meadow tiles are located on level 2. There are 15 of them in the box, with their backs featuring 4 Traps, 6 times 1 action card and 5 times 2 action cards.
If a meadow tile is destroyed using the basic action card Dig or a special action card Golden Shovel and its back features action cards, the active player draws 1 or 2 additional cards from the arsenal deck, as shown on the tile. If a meadow space is destroyed in any other way, no additional action cards are drawn. In case of revealing a trap, each snail on the destroyed tile is dealt 5 damage.
Mountain
Mountain tiles are located on level 3. There are 6 of them in the box, with their backs featuring 3 Mines. If a mountain tile is destroyed and its back shows a mine, each snail on the destroyed tile is dealt 10 damage and, additionally, the meadow tile underneath is also destroyed (remember to check if its back features a trap, in which case it deals 5 additional damage).
Tactical Tip: Lay of the Land — From water to mountains, all spaces have their flaws and benefits (though some have only flaws). It's good to be high up in the mountains, because you can shoot everyone from there, but beware of mines, as they may quickly bring you down. Meadows are rich with loot, with extra action cards just waiting for you to dig them out, but traps are not so pleasant. Beaches are safe, however they are but one step from water, which gets contaminated faster than you can spell "Helix pomatia".
Attack Actions
Action cards from the arsenal deck with a red background represent weapons. They are used to perform attacks against enemy snails and their main task is to deal as much damage as possible. Below you can find steps performed in order to make a successful attack. Attack cards are one-use (i.e. once resolved you discard them at the end of the round) unless marked with the "returns to hand" icon.
Important: Snails on water spaces cannot perform attack actions.
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Target: Choose the target for your attack – a single snail or a space of the board. If you target the whole space (tile), all effects of a successful attack will affect all snails on the targeted space (including any friendly snails).
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Line of Sight: Check if the attacking snail sees the space with the target. If the attack card used features the ignore-Line-of-Sight icon, any space or snail in range can be targeted. Otherwise, you can only choose a space or snail on the same or lower level. Ignore spaces of higher level between the attacker and the target – only the level difference between the attacker's and target's space matters in this case.
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Range: Check if the target is in the attack range – range 0 affects the space with the active (attacking) snail, range 1 affects its adjacent space, etc.
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Hit: Roll 1 attack die (or 2 attack dice in case of some weapons) and check the effect corresponding to the result icon from the die. If you rolled 2 dice, the action card may require 2 specific results or offer a choice between various effects. If an action card features no result icons, the attack succeeds (hits) automatically. This is typical for most melee weapons. If you had to roll the attack dice but missed (the result rolled is not featured on the card used), your attack fails. Otherwise, you resolve the attack's effects.
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Attack Effects: Resolve all effects corresponding to the result icon(s) you obtained on the dice (different effects are separated by lines) or the whole card effect in case of melee weapons. You have to resolve all effects described on the attack card. If any tokens are triggered by the attack, resolve their effects. Finally, if a tile is destroyed by the attack, resolve its effect too (see Spaces and Terrain Tiles).
If the attacked snail is dealt any damage, its player slides the health token representing the attacked snail the indicated number of spaces to the left, along the health track on their player board (remember that snails inside shells are dealt 5 less damage and that all damage losses or gains are always counted in 5s). When a snail's health token leaves the track, that snail is Eliminated from the game. Immediately remove its standee, health token and declaration token from the game. If it is a player's active snail, they resolve a "free" Switch of the snails on their player board (if possible). If it is a player's passive snail, they have to reveal this information and discard its corresponding declaration token from their player board. As a recompense, any player losing a snail gains access to their faction action card next round.
Tactical Tip: Luck, Luck and a Little More Aim — If you resolve an action requiring you to roll attack dice, you'd better know what your chances are to succeed: 3 results appear on each die, 2 results appear on each die, 1 result appears on each die. The basic action Aim, each leader's skill and the Amazons' faction special ability all enable you to re-roll 1 chosen attack die, so it's always good to boost your chances for brutal mayhem.
Examples of Attack Action Cards
- Grenade: Attacks a chosen snail (range 1-4). Hit effects: 20 damage / 10 damage. Special ability: your space is damaged after this attack.
- Revolver: Attacks a chosen snail (range 1-2). Attack 2 times. Hit effect: 10 damage.
- Hammer: Ignores Line of Sight; affects 1 whole space of the board (range 0). Hit effect: 5 damage.
Card layout key: A. Name. B. This attack ignores Line of Sight. C. This attack affects 1 whole space of the board (and this attack's range). D. This attack affects 1 snail chosen by the attacker (and this attack's range). E. Hit (success) icons. F. Hit effects. G. Card special ability.
Special Actions
Action cards from the arsenal deck with a purple background represent specialized equipment used by snails on the battlefield to perform various tasks. Some of them may deal damage, others enable snails to take advantage of the board. Special cards are one-use (i.e. once resolved you discard them at the end of the round) and they can be used even on water spaces. Card descriptions inform how to use them and if they feature effect icons, they should be resolved in the same way as red action cards.
Tactical Tip: Move versus Place — Some cards enable a snail to make 1 or more moves. You resolve them just like the basic action Crawl, so you need to consider the level difference between various spaces. On the other hand, all cards instructing you to Place a snail within range 1 or more enable you to ignore level differences between spaces. A given snail "teleports" to its destination space. If some effect enables it to be placed within 2 or 3 spaces, it ignores all spaces between its current space and its destination space. However, remember that the limit of 3 snails per space, rules for pushing and snails in shells blocking their space still apply just like during any normal move.
Examples of Special Action Cards
- Fishing Rod: Place the attacked snail (even in the shell) on your space (range 1-2).
- Disintegrator: Remove a chosen terrain tile (with all tokens placed on it) from the board. Do not resolve its effect (range 0-2).
Card layout key: A. Name. B. This effect ignores Line of Sight. C. This effect affects 1 snail chosen by the active player (and this effect's range). D. This effect affects 1 whole space of the board (and this effect's range). E. Card special ability.
Faction Actions
Faction action cards are marked with their faction icon in the upper-right corner. Depending on their background, they can be attack cards or special cards. Unlike other action cards, they become available to their players once at least one snail from their faction is eliminated – its player adds the corresponding faction action to their hand in the Drawing Phase of the next round. Additionally, after a player resolves their faction action, they place it face-up next to their player board instead of discarding it to the discard pile with other arsenal cards.
Tactical Tip: Unresolvable Action Cards — When you reveal an action card, you must resolve it if possible, even if its effect isn't very beneficial to you. You can skip the action card's resolution in the following situations:
- You have to resolve a red action card, but its only valid target is a friendly snail.
- Resolving that action card would result in elimination of your active snail.
- When you were to resolve the Switch basic action, but you have no declaration token on your passive snail space.
- When a snail is on a water space and the action cannot be resolved there.
- When some effect (e.g. of a Vacuum card) forced you to return or discard your played action card and your current action slot is empty.
Examples of Faction Action Cards
- Kunai: The attacked snail leaves the shell. You may place it on your space after resolving this attack (range 0-1).
- Villain's Hat: Effect (range 0-1): each other player discards 1 arsenal action card from their hand, OR all enemy snails on your space (even in the shells) are affected.
Card layout key: A. Name. B. Faction icon. C. This effect ignores Line of Sight. D. This effect affects 1 snail chosen by the active player (and this effect's range). E. Card special ability.
Other Rules
Faction Special Abilities
You may command one of six different snail factions represented by various leaders. Each faction has a unique special ability marked with an icon on its tile and faction action card. If you use a special ability available once per round, place a Used Faction Ability Marker from the pool on the faction ability icon on your player board to remember about it (return the marker to the pool in the Cleaning Phase).
Important: Eliminating a leader does not affect a player's squad – its faction ability is granted to all snails from a given faction until the end of the game.
Amazons — Eagle Eye: When you resolve a red action card, you may choose to re-roll 1 attack die as if you played the basic action Aim before this action. This effect can be used once per round.
Barbarians — Berserker Rage: When you resolve a red action card with the "berserker" icon, the basic action Punch, or your faction card Blades of Doom, you may deal +5 damage. This effect can be used once per round.
Cowboys — Gunslingers: If your snail deals at least 5 damage to an enemy snail with a red action card requiring you to roll at least 1 attack die, you may draw 1 action card from the arsenal deck. This effect can be used once per round.
Pirates — Ships: Your snails can resolve red action cards and the basic action card Aim on water spaces (counting attacks from level 0) and you are not dealt damage for the water contamination in phase 4 of each round. Other restrictions regarding water spaces apply as normal.
Ninja — Climbers: You move around the board ignoring level differences (even larger than 1). Each move to an adjacent space always costs you 1.
Zombie — Aura of Rot: At the end of round, in the first step of the Cleaning Phase, each non-Zombie snail is dealt 5 damage, if at least 1 Zombie snail occupies its space.
Token Effects
There are various tokens in the game whose descriptions would not fit on action cards. They are described in detail below and on reference sheets.
Mine: This token appears on the board after playing a Mine action card. The active player puts this token on the space of the snail resolving this action. A mine token cannot be put on a water space.
A mine explodes:
- When its tile is damaged or destroyed.
- When any snail moves, is placed or pushed onto its tile.
When a mine explodes, each snail on its tile is dealt 10 damage and its tile is destroyed. Then discard the corresponding mine token from the board.
Dynamite: This token appears on the board after playing a Dynamite action card. The active player puts this token on the space of the snail resolving this action. A dynamite token cannot be put on a water space.
A dynamite explodes:
- When its tile is damaged or destroyed.
- In the first step of the Cleaning Phase, if it's still on the board.
When a dynamite explodes, each snail on its tile is dealt 15 damage and then it is pushed. The 1st player chooses where the affected snails are pushed. Then discard the corresponding dynamite token from the board.
Fire: This token appears on the board after an action card featuring a fire icon is played, e.g. Cocktail or Flamer. Place any fire token(s) on the tile targeted by the action card. From now on, any snail moved (ending its move or passing through), placed or pushed onto the tile with a fire token is dealt 5 damage for each fire token on the tile.
A fire token cannot be put on a water space.
In the first step of the Cleaning Phase, each tile with at least 1 fire token is damaged (regardless of the number of fire tokens), then all fire tokens are discarded from the board.
Examples
This section of the rulebook contains practical examples showing how to resolve various actions and how to use cards, whose effects might seem complex at first glance.
Important: For clarity's sake, snails are shown in examples as round tokens, but in the actual game they are represented by standees.
Examples of Moving and Placing
Using the Crawl basic action
- Snail A uses its 2 moves to crawl on the same level.
- Snail B uses its 1 move to crawl down from the mountain to the water (from level 3 to level 0).
- Snail C uses its 2 moves to crawl up to a higher tile (no more than 1 level higher). It simultaneously pushes the excess snail to a chosen space.
- Snail D (Ninja) uses its faction special ability and uses 1 move to crawl up directly from the water to the meadow. Then it proceeds with its last available move.
Using a Jetpack special action
- Snail A uses this action to safely "fly" over the fire token.
- Snail B "flies" to the space with 3 snails and pushes 1 of them. It has to choose Snail C, because the other 2 snails are inside the shells and thus cannot be moved in any way.
Examples of Attacks
Using a Missile attack action
Snail A on a beach space attacks the whole mountain tile (it can do this thanks to the whole-space icon on the card) and rolls a hit. Each snail on the tile is dealt 15 damage and the tile is destroyed. Once the destruction is resolved, all snails not eliminated from the game are pushed to an adjacent space chosen by the player controlling Snail A.
Snail B is dealt 10 damage as a result of this attack, because it is hidden inside the shell. Additionally, it is resistant to the push effect and will stay on the newly revealed meadow space.
Using a Grenade attack action
Snail A on a meadow space attacks the whole mountain space, but rolls a miss. This means that its attack misses the targeted tile. The player controlling the snail resolves the "your space is damaged" effect and chooses the adjacent meadow tile, which is destroyed. Once the tile is flipped, it turns out that its back features 2 additional action cards, but no player draws them – only the destruction of the tile using the Dig basic action or other actions with similar effects (e.g. Golden Shovel) provides additional action cards.
Using a Gatling Gun attack action
Snail A on a meadow space attacks with a Gatling Gun all snails in range 1. As it rolls a hit, they are dealt 10 damage. It hits Snail B and Snail C on a meadow tile despite the fact that Snail C belongs to its faction. It also hits Snail D on a beach tile. However, Snail E on a mountain tile is safe – it is in range, but the Gatling Gun card does not ignore Line of Sight.
Using a Ball Thrower attack action
Snail A (Pirate) uses its faction special ability to attack from a water space and targets the whole mountain tile. It rolls a hit and an effect result, which means that it may choose any effect from the card. As the attacked space is occupied by a friendly snail from the same faction, it chooses the push effect. The active snail pushes Snail B (from the same faction) to a water space and Snail C to the meadow tile with a fire token. It means that Snail C is dealt 5 damage. Snail D stays on the mountain tile, because it is resistant to the push effect thanks to its shell.
Using a Cocktail attack action
Snail A on a beach space attacks the mountain tile, obtaining a hit. Snail B is inside the shell, so it is safe from damage from the card, while Snail C is dealt 5 damage. Additionally, the active player places 1 fire token on the mountain tile. As this tile already contains a damaged terrain token, the player hopes that the effect of the fire token will damage the tile again at the end of the round, the tile will be destroyed and maybe its back will feature a mine to deal more damage to all the snails gathered there.
Examples of Damaging and Destroying Terrain Tiles
Using the Dig basic action
- Snail A digs on a beach tile. First, it draws 1 action card from the arsenal deck, then places a damaged terrain token on its tile.
- Snail B digs on a damaged meadow tile. First, it draws 1 action card from the arsenal deck, then resolves the destruction of its tile by discarding the damaged terrain token from it and flipping the tile to its back. It turns out that the back features 2 action cards. The tile is returned to the box and the player controlling Snail B draws 2 additional action cards from the arsenal deck.
- Snail C digs on a damaged mountain tile. First, it draws 1 action card from the arsenal deck, then resolves the destruction of its tile by discarding the damaged terrain token from it and flipping the tile to its back. It turns out that the back features a mine. The tile is returned to the box, all snails on it are dealt 10 damage and, additionally, the next tile underneath – a meadow – is destroyed, too. Its back features 1 action card, but no player draws it, because the tile was destroyed by a mine – not with an action card letting players obtain new cards.
Fire tokens resolution
2 fire tokens were placed on a mountain tile as a result of a Flamer action card. Their effect is resolved in the Cleaning Phase. It damages the tile (only once despite the fact that 2 fire tokens are placed there). However, a damaged terrain token is already present on this mountain tile, so fire finally causes the destruction of the tile. The fire tokens and the damaged terrain token end up in the pool, the tile is flipped and... fortunately for Snail A, its back is blank. The tile is returned to the box and the Snail A standee is placed on the meadow tile underneath.
Action Card Icons
- Successful attack (hit) / effect icon: If a card features 2 icons next to each other, a player has to obtain both results on their attack dice in order to succeed. If a card features 2 different icons separately and a player rolled 2 attack dice and obtained both results, they choose 1 effect to resolve.
- Damage dealt or a snail's health.
- This card effect affects 1 whole space of the board (range shown inside).
- This card effect affects 1 chosen snail (range shown inside).
- This card effect ignores Line of Sight.
- Terrain tile is destroyed.
- Terrain tile is damaged (or destroyed, if already damaged).
- The active player pushes the targeted snail to a chosen, adjacent space on the same or lower level.
- This card does not affect the originally targeted space, but 1 adjacent space chosen by the attacker.
- This action card is returned to its player's hand at the end of the round.
- Place 1 fire token on the affected space for each such icon.
Credits
Game Design: Damian Stankowski
Cover Art: DJIB Reynaud
Interior Art: DJIB Reynaud, Agnieszka Sikora
Editing: Aleksandra Miszta-Mars, Krzysztof Bernacki
Proofreading: Łukasz Chełmecki, Katarzyna Tkaczyk, Łukasz Tkaczyk
Graphic Design: Aleksandra Miszta-Mars, Agnieszka Sikora, Krzysztof Bernacki
Art Direction: Aleksandra Miszta-Mars
Game Development: Marek Mydel, Jan Jewuła
Project Manager: Marek Mydel
Publisher: Galakta
From the Designer: I wish to express my utmost gratitude to my sister Anna "Imi" Stankowska for her great contribution to the game, its prototype, tons of helpful suggestions and advice, ideas, hints, consultations and uncountable words written for the setting. I also wish to thank my bunch of friends "nakama", always willing to playtest the game. I would also like to thank the whole Galakta Team who brought the game to our tables to enjoy.
Playtesters: Krzysztof Bernacki, Stanisław Błaszkiewicz, Łukasz Chełmecki, Aleksandra „Nami" Derecka, Krystian Dobrowolski, Kamil Drozd, Tomek Irzyk, Jan Jewuła, Wiktoria „Hotarubi" Jureczko, Dawid Kędzia, Jakub „Kokos" Kokowski, Jakub Kutyła, Wojtek „PaxRimi" Lewandowski, Dawid „Eikiczi" Lipka, Dominika Magnowska, Aleksandra Miszta-Mars, Radosław „Caelion" Municzewski, Grzegorz Musiał, Marek Mydel, Kuba Nowak, Justyna „Biri" Orzechowska, Michał „Orzi" Orzechowski, Artur „Raikage" Pacholski, Sławek Robak, Agnieszka Sikora, Jakub Skopowski, Dominik Stachowiak, Michał „Szczery" Szczerkowski, Bartosz „Golbat" Szewczyk, Wiktoria „Kasztan" Sztompka, Monika Szymkowiak, Łukasz Tkaczyk, Dawid „Dark" Tomczak, Marcin Tomyślak, Sebastian „Ryuuga" Wełna, Filip Woch, Sławomir Krystian „Wochu" Woch, Natalia „Tal" Wojciechowska, „Xaton", Marta Zygmunt-Kowalska and the TNT playtesting group
Galakta, ul. Łagiewnicka 39, 30-417 Kraków. www.galakta.pl