Twelve Heroes
Twelve Heroes Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 6 Territory tiles
- 20 Food tokens
- 14 Control cubes (7 per player)
- 51 Hero cards
- 2 Player Aid cards
- 3 Popularity tokens (for the advanced rule)
Anatomy of a Hero Card
- Hero name
- Military strength
- Recruitment cost, in Food
- Game mode icons
- Hero's special ability: in case of contradiction, the special ability overrides the rule.
Anatomy of a Territory Tile
- Territory name
- Victory Points
- Spaces for Control cubes
Board Areas
Camp — This is where you place the Heroes you recruit and the Food you take.
Region — This is where Heroes are deployed to control a Territory. Each player places their Heroes and Food on their own side of the Territory.
Setup
Shuffle the 6 Territory tiles. Place three stacks of two tiles face down in a horizontal line between the two players, then reveal the top tile of each stack. Form a supply with all the Food tokens, within reach of both players. Each player chooses a color and takes the 7 matching Control cubes in front of them. Each player shuffles their deck of 12 Hero cards and places it in front of them as a face-down draw pile. For a first game, it is recommended to use the preconstructed decks from the Factions game mode (see Game Modes below). The two Player Aid cards are kept near both players. Leave a little space next to your draw pile to form your discard pile, face up. Each player draws 3 cards from their draw pile and keeps them secretly in hand.
At any time during the game...
- Players are free to count the number of cards remaining in both decks.
- Players are free to look through the discard piles.
- Players may know how many cards their opponent has in hand.
Goal of the Game
The goal of the game is to win Territories for a total of 7 Victory Points or more. As soon as one of the two players reaches this goal, they win the game.
Start of the Game
Randomly determine a first player. They may choose to place as many cards as they wish from their hand back under their draw pile, without shuffling it, in order to draw the same number and complete their hand to 3 cards. Then the opponent may do the same.
The game begins with the first player's Military phase. Then players alternate turns, each successively carrying out the following 4 phases, until the end of the game.
- Control
- Maintenance
- Income
- Military
A Player's Turn
1. Control
In each Region, compare the combined strength of your Heroes with that of your opponent's Heroes. If your total is higher, add one of your Control cubes to a free space on your side of the Territory tile in that Region.
If there is no free space left when you go to place a Control cube, you win that tile, proceeding as follows.
Keep the Territory tile in front of you: it earns you the Victory Points shown on it.
Reveal the Territory tile underneath it. If no tile remains, the Region stays empty but still exists: you can still deploy or move Heroes there.
Example: With a strength of 7, the Blue player controls the Region and must place a Control cube of their color. Since they already have two cubes on the tile, they cannot do so, and therefore take possession of the Territory tile. It earns them 3 Victory Points.
2. Maintenance
You must feed your Heroes located in the Regions (but not those in your Camp). Each of your Heroes must consume 1 Food present in the Region where it is located. You must feed as many Heroes as possible. For each missing Food, you must discard a Hero of your choice from that Region.
Food Management — Food present in your Camp cannot be used for Maintenance. It can only be used to recruit Heroes or be carried into Regions by Heroes when you deploy them. If you no longer have any Heroes in a Region at any point, all your Food in that Region is discarded.
Example: The Blue player has 3 Heroes deployed in a Region where they only have 2 Food. To carry out Maintenance, they begin by spending the 2 Food. Since they are missing 1 Food, they must discard a Hero of their choice.
3. Income
Take 2 Food from the supply and add them to your Camp.
Draw 1 card from your deck and add it to your Hand. If, at any point in the game, you must draw a card and your deck is empty, shuffle all the cards from your discard pile to form a new face-down deck, then draw.
4. Military
You must carry out 3 actions in total from among the 4 possible ones:
- Supply
- Recruit
- Deploy
- Move
Each action can be used several times during the phase, and you may carry them out in any order.
Supply
Take 1 Food from the supply and add it to your Camp.
Recruit
Put a Hero from your hand into play in your Camp. Discard as much Food from your Camp as shown on the card.
If the recruited Hero has a "When recruited" special ability, apply it.
Example: The Red player spends 4 Food to recruit the Archangel, which they place in their Camp. They apply the card's effect and add 4 Food to the Region where the Strategist and the Treeman are located.
Deploy
Send Heroes from your Camp into the Regions. In one action, you may send up to one Hero into each of the three Regions. When you deploy a Hero, it may carry as much Food from your Camp with it as you wish. This Food is then placed in the Region, next to your Heroes.
If this Hero has a "When deployed" special ability, apply it.
If you deploy several Heroes with a "When deployed" ability at the same time, resolve them in the order of your choice.
Example: In one action, the Blue player deploys two Heroes into two different Regions. They choose to send 1 Food with the Goat, and none with the Giant Falcon.
Move
Move a Hero present in a Region to an adjacent Region. This Hero may carry as much Food as you wish with it, from one Region to another.
The Regions at the ends are not adjacent: you cannot move a Hero from the leftmost Region to the rightmost Region in a single action. A Region always exists for movement purposes even when there are no more tiles to control there.
If the moved Hero has a "When moved" special ability, apply it.
Example: The Blue player moves their Treeman and decides to bring 1 Food with them. When it arrives in the new Region, it triggers its special ability, which allows taking 1 Food from the supply to add to that Region.
End of Turn
After using your actions, you may not keep more than 5 cards in Hand. Discard cards of your choice if necessary. Your opponent begins a new turn.
End of the Game
As soon as a player accumulates at least 7 Victory Points from the Territory tiles they have won, they are declared the winner.
Advanced Rules
Once familiar with the game, you can add these two rules to bring a bit more strategy to your games.
Additional Actions
During their Military phase, players may discard as many cards as they wish from their hand. Each discarded card grants one additional action, usable only during this phase.
Popularity
At the start of the game, place a Popularity token on each of the Territory tiles.
During your Control phase, holding the Popularity token for a Region allows you to add a Control cube even if you are tied in strength with your opponent.
During the game, when a player deploys or moves a Hero into a Region that is empty on both sides, they gain the Popularity token located on the Territory, which they place next to their Heroes.
The holder of a Popularity token keeps it as long as at least one of their Heroes is deployed in the Region. Otherwise, they lose the benefit of the Popularity token. It passes to the opponent if the opponent themselves has at least one Hero in the Region. Otherwise, it is placed back on the Territory.
When a Territory is won by one of the players, the Popularity token is placed on the newly revealed Territory.
The Golem card exists in two versions, depending on whether or not you are playing with the Popularity rule. Be sure to use the correct card during your games.
Game Modes
The deck used by each player always consists of 12 Hero cards. Different rules are offered here for building your decks.
Factions
In this mode, each player uses one of the game's 4 preconstructed thematic decks: Mechanical Army, Elves, Humans, or Orcs and Goblins. To do this, gather the 12 cards bearing that deck's icon.
Draft
In this mode, players build their deck under constraint before facing off.
Gather the 36 cards bearing the draft icon and put the others back in the box. Shuffle the cards you kept, then proceed as follows.
- Secretly deal 6 cards to both players.
- Each player keeps 2 cards of their choice and places them face down in front of them. The remaining 4 cards are passed to the opponent.
- Each player keeps 2 cards of their choice from among these 4 and adds them to their pile, in front of them, face down. The remaining 2 cards are placed on the opponent's pile, without showing them.
Repeat these three steps once more so that each player has 12 cards in front of them.
Players shuffle their cards without looking at them and can begin the game with their deck.
Tournament
In this mode, each player must have their own copy of Twelve Heroes. The two players freely build a deck of 12 cards, choosing from among those available in the box.