Steamwatchers: Fuel For War Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Combining Expansions
• Contents
• Additional Setup
• Clan Leaders
  • Leaders in the Conclave
  • Leaders in Combat
• Gear Cards
  • Active Effect ('Operate' Keyword)
  • Using Gear Effects
  • Passive Effect
  • Replacing a Gear Card
  • Gear Cards Printed in This Rulebook
• Scenarios
  • The Hostages — Offensive
    • Setup
    • Special Rules
  • War Follows War — Offensive
    • Setup
    • Special Rules
• Archon Cards
  • Medical Samples (FFW030)
  • Experimental Munitions (FFW029)
  • Confiscation (FFW028)
  • Ride the Avalanche (FFW027)
  • The Conclave Demands Discipline (FFW026)
  • Punish Dissent (FFW025)

Introduction

The Fuel for War expansion makes for a more aggressive game, as leaders can launch a lightning offensive at any time. Allow an extra 20 minutes for games played with this expansion.

Lastly, Fuel for War includes 2 new scenarios and 6 new Archon cards.

Combining Expansions

We do not recommend combining the various expansions until you are thoroughly familiar with each one separately.

Contents

• 7 Leader miniatures
• 21 Gear cards (facedown / faceup)
• 6 numbered Archon cards (facedown / faceup)
• 14 Strength tokens (values 2, 3, 4 and 5)
• 1 Strength track
• This rulebook

Additional Setup

• Assemble the Death & Exile tile and the Strength track.
• Players place their leader's Strength tokens in their clan supply.
• Add your leader's 3 Gear cards to your hand.

When selecting a title, place your Leader miniature on the Title Claim track, rather than your Ambassador token. Leave your Ambassador token in your clan supply.

Clan Leaders

Leaders in the Conclave

While in the Conclave, leaders behave like ambassadors, apart from a few important details (described below).

Leader's strategy: After resolving your title's special ability in phase 1 – Conclave, you must choose one of the following two strategies before the effects of any other titles are applied:

• Leave your leader in the Conclave (where their strength will continue to increase).
• Send your leader into combat and summon your ambassador to the Conclave:
  • On the Conclave track, replace your Leader miniature with your Ambassador token;
  • Then place your Leader miniature in any area of the game board under your control;
  • Select a Gear card from your hand to assign to your leader. Place it faceup touching your clan board;
  • Take the Strength token with the value shown by the Round Tracker token from your clan supply. Place this token on your Gear card.

Leaders' prerogative: when you pass for the round during phase 3 – Order Activation, your leader may take the place of an Ambassador token placed on the Title Claim track. The owner of the displaced Ambassador token must immediately place it on a free space on the track. You cannot invoke leaders' prerogative to displace either an opponent's leader or the Primus token.

Leaders in Combat

On leaving the Conclave to do battle, your leader gains some special properties:

• They are treated as an elite soldier of their clan, with the clan's elite unit ability. The leader's strength, however, is indicated by the faceup Strength token on their Gear card.
• If a leader is lost in combat or cannot be supplied, remove it from play and put it back in the box, along with its Gear cards. If a leader is placed on the Death & Exile tile, put its Gear cards back in the box.
• Leaders can use some new effects, as described on their Gear card.

Gear Cards

While in play, Gear cards provide active and/or passive effects.

Active Effect ('Operate' Keyword)

In order to use an Operate effect, you must activate the area containing your leader.

An Operate effect can only be used once per round.

Using Gear Effects

When you use an active (Operate) effect, turn your Gear card sideways to show that it has been used this round. If the card also has a passive effect, it will no longer be available during the current round.

Ready all used cards during Phase 5 – Whiteout.

Passive Effect

Passive effects do not have to be activated and their use is not restricted.

Replacing a Gear Card

When choosing which contracts to keep in play during phase 5 – Whiteout, you may also decide whether to keep (at no cost) or replace your leader's Gear card. If you opt to replace your current Gear card with one from your hand, put the replaced card back in the box.

Gear Cards Printed in This Rulebook

The booklet prints the text of the following Gear cards as examples. The other Gear cards in the box are not printed in this rulebook; their text is on the cards themselves.

The Cistern (Operate example)

Operate — Remove one of your units from the board and place it on the Death & Exile tile. Then place a Quarantine token on another player's clan board. Collect 1 pure algofuel.

Sled Shock Troops (passive example, Maske)

When Maske and any accompanying units are in a coastal area, they may provide support to another coastal area adjoining the same ice floe area.

Stimulants (Delphine)

When attacking or defending with Delphine, any allocated contraband algofuel grants 2 extra strength instead of 1, and increases the incubation level by 2 instead of 1.

Raid Signal (Miéville)

When Miéville enters a coastal area, you may immediately move into that area any number of units from coastal areas adjoining the same ice floe area. These movements must comply with seafaring movement rules.

The Cannon Allfather (Maske)

When attacking with Maske, you may destroy a building in an area adjacent to the fight when resolving the combat. Put the destroyed building back in the box.

Tactical Smokescreen

When Pallas is defeated while defending, no units are lost, and fleeing units may withdraw to an adjacent uncontrolled area.

Scenarios

The scenarios included in the core game are compatible with the rules in this expansion.

The scenarios in this epansion [sic] are not compatible with the rules introduced in the other expansions.

The Hostages — Offensive

4 Rounds

The cultural exchange policy ended in fiasco: the Rhône Conglomerate was the first to suspect the presence of spies among the visiting participants. The situation quickly deteriorated, to the point that each clan now finds itself with a group of hostages! The clan leaders are meeting in the Conclave to negotiate an amicable solution to the standoff... The minimal progress achieved so far leads you to doubt that will be the outcome. You fear the clan leaders may soon abandon the debating chamber and express their arguments more forcefully, with lead and steel.

Setup

Initial steam columns: 3.

When the clans have been chosen for the game, immediately before selecting their Deployment card, each player takes hostage two base soldiers from an opposing clan, as follows:

• The first player on the Title Claim track takes two base soldiers from the clan supply of the player to their left, and immediately places these hostages in an area that they control (complying with the area capacity limit).
• The player to the left of the first player then does likewise, and play proceeds in this way until all players have captured and placed two hostages.

Special Rules

• Hostages move like base soldiers, with one exception: the hostages from a particular clan can never be separated and placed in different areas.
• Hostages do not count towards the supply limit but do count towards area capacity.
• Hostages have no combat strength and cannot be remove [sic] from play.
• Whenever a combat involving hostages is lost, the hostages stay where they are and come under the winner's control. If a clan captures its own hostages (i.e. those matching its color), or if hostages remain alone in an area, they cease to be hostages. From now on, they will behave like their clan's base soldiers.
• At the end of game: each player receives 1 GEO for every two hostages in their possession.

War Follows War — Offensive

4 Rounds

The talks at the Conclave have collapsed, shattering the fragile peace and triggering wave upon wave of fighting. War-weary clans are exhausting their resources, imposing rationing and sending ill-trained youngsters off to the front. Clan leaders order merciless assaults with no attempt to spare civilians or, on occasion, the Careeners. What will remain of Europa in the aftermath of this war, which like the winter, seems never-ending.

Setup

Initial steam columns: 3.

Before placing the initial steam columns, remove the Romandie, Koroska and Catabatia cards from the Steam Column deck and put them back in the box. Place a Target Area token (neutral side up) in each of these three areas.

Remove the Deployment 2 card from the Deployment deck.

Special Rules

Breakthrough token:

• During phase 1 – Conclave, after triggering the special ability associated with their title, each player places one of their Decoy tokens (order side up) in any area not controlled by any of the players. This token is now that clan's Breakthrough token. Multiple Breakthrough tokens may be placed in the same area.
• Breakthrough tokens are not returned to the supply after the Order tokens are revealed in phase 2 – Order Planning.
• During phase 3 – Order Activation, if a player moves units into the area that contains their Breakthrough token, replace it with any other Order token available in their clan supply. If a player moves their units into an area that contains another player's Breakthrough token, return the token to its owner's clan supply.
  • If the leader is among the units moved into the area containing their own clan's Breakthrough token, the active player may immediately activate the new Order token.
• During the upkeep step in phase 5 – Whiteout, any unused Breakthrough tokens on the game board are returned to their respective clan supplies.
• In phase 5 – Whiteout, each area containing a Target Area token grants 1 additional GEO to whoever controls it.

Archon Cards

If you are playing with the Fuel for War expansion: when forming the Archon deck, randomly remove 6 Archon cards from the core game and replace them with the 6 cards from the expansion. Then shuffle the deck.

If you want to play a game of Steamwatchers without the Fuel for War expansion, you are still free to include the expansion's Archon cards with those of the core game, as they are fully compatible.

Transcriber's note: the downward-arrow symbol (⬇) on the Archon cards below marks the card's 'when played' effect, the term the core rulebook uses for Archon card effects. The symbol is shown here as ⬇.

Card text is given as printed. Each card's number is shown in its footer.

Medical Samples (FFW030)

You are sharing an experimental treatment for the Bane... But what's to stop you lacing the remedy with a hint of poison?

⬇: In the order shown by the Conclave and Title Claim tracks, players remove a Quarantine token from their board and return it to their clan supply. The Archon may place the Quarantine token removed from their dashboard [sic] onto another player's clan board.

Experimental Munitions (FFW029)

You arrange for experimental artillery shells to be shipped to the clans, hopeful that this will dissuade them from engaging combat.

Turrets grant +3 extra strength instead of +2.

⬇: The Archon may build a turret in an area under their control.

Confiscation (FFW028)

You declare certain technologies to be illegal. You are unsure how long the ban will last, but revolt is brewing in the clans.

Elite soldiers and leaders' gear lose their special abilities. The Archon is unaffected by this card.

Ride the Avalanche (FFW027)

In the faint hope of rooting out holed-up Catabatians, you give permission to use explosives in the mountains.

Players attacking from a mountain area gain 1 extra strength. The Archon gains 2 extra strength instead.

The Conclave Demands Discipline (FFW026)

Cowards have no place in the clans. You launch into an impassioned tirade, making your values crystal clear.

In combat, the winner loses a combatant unit of their choice. The Archon is unaffected by this card.

Punish Dissent (FFW025)

Worse even than the Bane, pride and sedition can wreak havoc in an army. A little humility never killed anybody. At least, not yet...

⬇: Each player replaces one of their clan's elite soldiers in play with a base soldier from their clan supply. The Archon is unaffected by this card.