Unmatched: Little Red Riding Hood vs. Beowulf Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Heroes & Sidekicks
• How to Play
• Setup
• The Field of Battle
  • Spaces and Zones
• Your Turn
  • Anatomy of a Card
• Action: Maneuver
  • Step 1: Draw a Card (Mandatory)
  • Step 2: Move Your Fighters (Optional)
  • Boost
• Action: Scheme
• Action: Attack
  • Step 1: Declare Target
  • Step 2: Choose and Reveal
  • Step 3: Resolve Combat
  • Winning the Combat
  • Combat Example
• Defeating a Fighter
• Winning the Game
• Special Rules for This Set
  • Little Red Riding Hood's Basket
  • Beowulf's Rage
  • Gameboard: Doors
• Team Play
• Icon Reference
• Credits

Contents

• 2 hero miniatures
• 2 sidekick tokens
• 4 health dials
• 2 character cards
• 60 action cards
• 3 door tokens
• 1 gameboard

Little Red Riding Hood

• 30 action cards
• 1 Little Red hero miniature
• 1 Little Red character card
• 1 Little Red's Basket card
• 1 Huntsman sidekick token
• 2 health dials

Beowulf

• 30 action cards
• 1 Beowulf hero miniature
• 1 Beowulf character card
• 1 Wiglaf sidekick token
• 2 health dials
• 3 rage tokens

Before you play for the first time, assemble the health dials by punching out the two circles for each character and connecting them with a rivet.

Heroes & Sidekicks

All of your characters in the battle are called your fighters, but your primary fighter is called your hero. Heroes are represented by miniatures that move around on the battlefield.

Your other fighters are called sidekicks. Both heroes in this set have a single sidekick. (Some heroes in other sets have multiple sidekicks, and still other heroes have no sidekick at all.) Sidekicks are represented by tokens that move around on the battlefield.

Each hero has a special ability noted on their character card. This card also lists your fighters' stats, including the starting health of your hero and their sidekick. Fighters' health is tracked on separate health dials. Fighters cannot gain health higher than the highest number on their health dial.

How to Play

Players take turns maneuvering their fighters on the battlefield, playing schemes, and attacking their opponent's fighters. To win, you must be the first to defeat your opponent's hero, which happens when they are reduced to zero health.

Setup

Note: These setup instructions and the following rules are for games with 2 players. For rules on team play with 3 or 4 players, see the Team Play section.

1. Choose a battlefield and place it on the table.
2. Each player chooses a hero and takes the corresponding 30 action cards, character card, hero miniature, sidekick token, health dials, and any other components for their hero.
3. Each player sets their hero's starting health and their sidekick's starting health on the matching health dials. Starting health is found on the character cards.
4. Each player shuffles their action cards to form a single deck and places it face down, then draws 5 cards as their starting hand.
5. The younger player places their hero in the 1 space on the battlefield. Then they place their sidekick in a separate space within the same zone as their hero. If their hero is in a space that is part of multiple zones, their sidekick may be in any of those zones. If you have to make a decision about your fighters at the beginning of the game, make it now. (There are none in this set.)
6. The older player places their hero in the 2 space on the battlefield, then places their sidekick based on the same rules as in step 5.
7. Set the door tokens to the side.
8. The younger player takes the first turn.

The Field of Battle

Spaces and Zones

The battlefield is made up of circular spaces that the fighters will move between. Each space can only contain one fighter at a time.

Two spaces connected by a line are adjacent. Adjacency is used to determine targets of attacks and various card effects.

The spaces of the battlefield are divided into zones, which are indicated by different colors. All spaces with the same color are part of the same zone (even if they are in different parts of the battlefield).

If a space has multiple colors, it is considered to be part of multiple zones. Zones are used to determine targets of ranged attacks and various card effects.

This set contains the same battlefield on both sides of the board. On one side, the colored spaces are filled in with different patterns, which can be especially helpful for players with vision deficiencies. The other side has empty circles, where zones are only indicated by the circle's color. Both sides play exactly the same.

Your Turn

On your turn, you must take 2 actions; you cannot skip an action. You may choose two different actions or the same action twice.

The possible actions are:

• Maneuver
• Scheme
• Attack

You have a hand limit of 7 cards. At the end of your turn, if you have more than 7 cards in your hand, you must discard down to 7 cards, placing any discarded cards in your discard pile.

Then it is your opponent's turn.

Anatomy of a Card

• A — Overall card type: Attack, Defense, Scheme, or Versatile (attack or defense).
• B — Attack or defense value (if any).
• C — Fighter allowed to use the card.
• D — Name of the card.
• E — Effect when played (if any).
• F — BOOST value.
• G — Deck that the card appears in.
• H — Number of copies in the deck.

Each hero's deck is different, though they may share some cards with other heroes' decks.

Action: Maneuver

When you take the maneuver action, you first draw the top card of your deck, then you may move your fighters.

Step 1: Draw a Card (Mandatory)

Draw the top card of your deck and add it to your hand.

You can have more than 7 cards in your hand during your turn, but you must discard down to 7 cards at the end of your turn.

Drawing cards — whether via the maneuver action or due to a card effect — is mandatory, unless otherwise specified.

When your deck is empty, your fighters are exhausted. If you need to draw a card while your fighters are exhausted, do not reshuffle your discard pile. Instead, each of your fighters immediately takes 2 damage.

Step 2: Move Your Fighters (Optional)

Your character card lists your move value. During this step, you may move each of your fighters, one at a time, a number of spaces equal to or less than your move value. You may also choose to BOOST your movement (see below).

When you move a fighter, each space they move into must be adjacent to their previous space. You may move a fighter through spaces occupied by other friendly fighters (i.e., your own fighters) but they cannot end their movement in an occupied space. You may not move a fighter through spaces occupied by opposing fighters.

You may move your fighters in the order of your choice, but must finish each fighter's move before starting the next. You are not required to move all of your fighters the same distance as each other; you get to choose for each fighter. You are allowed to move a fighter zero spaces.

Note: If an effect ever lets you move your opponent's fighters, you must respect all of the same movement rules, but from your opponent's perspective.

Boost

When you take the maneuver action, you may boost your movement. To do this, discard 1 card from your hand and add that card's BOOST value to your move value. Ignore any effect on the discarded card.

Certain effects (like Little Red's Stones in the Belly card) allow you to boost other things, such as an attack or defense value.

Cards that can no longer legally be played — because the corresponding fighter or fighters have been defeated — may still be discarded from your hand to boost.

Action: Scheme

When you take the scheme action, you choose a scheme card (indicated by the scheme icon) from your hand and play it onto the table, face up.

You must declare which of your fighters is playing the scheme card; they are the active fighter. Each card in your deck indicates which fighters are allowed to play it. You may not play a scheme card if the listed fighters are defeated.

Resolve the card's effect, then place the card into your discard pile.

Discard piles: Maintain your own discard pile. All cards, once played and resolved, should be placed in the discard pile. Keep your discard pile face up to differentiate it from your deck. Both you and your opponent are allowed to look through your discard pile at any time.

Action: Attack

When you take the attack action, you must declare which of your fighters is performing the attack; they are the active fighter. You may not take the attack action if you do not have an attack card in hand or if none of your fighters have valid targets to attack.

Step 1: Declare Target

Any fighter may target a fighter in an adjacent space, regardless of what zone they are in.

Fighters with melee attacks (indicated by the melee icon) may only target a fighter in an adjacent space.

Fighters with ranged attacks (indicated by the ranged icon) may target an adjacent fighter or they may target a fighter anywhere in the same zone, regardless of adjacency.

Step 2: Choose and Reveal

As the attacker, you must choose an attack card from your hand and play it face down in front of you; it must be a card that your attacking fighter is allowed to use. Then the defender may (but is not required to) choose a defense card from their hand and place it face down in front of them; it must be a card that their defending fighter is allowed to use. Once both players have chosen their cards, reveal them at the same time.

Versatile cards: Cards with the versatile icon are versatile cards. They can be used as attack cards or defense cards. Versatile cards also count as both attack cards and defense cards for the purposes of other game effects.

Step 3: Resolve Combat

Most cards have effects, with labels indicating when they occur: IMMEDIATELY, DURING COMBAT, or AFTER COMBAT. Unless otherwise specified, card effects are mandatory (which can result in dealing damage to your own fighters or other negative effects).

If two effects would ever appear to resolve at the same time, the defender's effect resolves first.

After cards have been revealed, resolve any effects that occur IMMEDIATELY. Then resolve any effects that occur DURING COMBAT.

Then determine the result of the combat. The attacker deals damage to the defender equal to the value of their played attack card. If the defender played a defense card, subtract the value of their played defense card first. For each damage that the defender takes, reduce that fighter's health by one, adjusting their health dial accordingly.

After the result of the combat has been determined, resolve any card effects that occur AFTER COMBAT. Even if a player's fighter is defeated as part of the combat, as long as that does not trigger the end of the game, combat damage and any card effects still resolve.

After card effects are resolved, resolve any other game effects that occur after combat, such as a hero's special ability.

Finally, all played cards are placed in their respective discard piles.

Winning the Combat

Some AFTER COMBAT effects check to see who won the combat.

The attacker won the combat if they dealt at least one damage to the defender from the attack itself (i.e., not from any effects).

The defender won the combat if they took no damage from the attack itself (even if they took damage from effects).

Combat Example

Bjorn is playing Beowulf. Lindsay is playing Little Red.

It's Bjorn's turn, and he wants to attack Little Red.

Bjorn attacks Little Red with Beowulf. He doesn't want to play The Ancient Heirloom because he only has 1 Rage and won't be able to use its effect, and The Equal of Grendel is a defense card. He plays Epic Poem as his attack card, face down.

Lindsay plays Stones In The Belly as her defense card, face down.

• Epic Poem (Beowulf, value 2): IMMEDIATELY: Gain 1 Rage. DURING COMBAT: This card's value is +1 for each Rage you have. (You do not spend Rage for this effect.)
• Stones In The Belly (any fighter, value 2): DURING COMBAT: Your opponent discards 1 random card. Add its BOOST value to this card's value.

Epic Poem has an IMMEDIATELY effect, and Beowulf gains 1 Rage. He now has 2 Rage.

Both cards have DURING COMBAT effects. The defender (Little Red) resolves Stones In The Belly first. Because she has a knife in her basket, Bjorn randomly discards a card, The Ancient Heirloom, which has a BOOST value of 1. That gets added to the defense value for a total of 3.

Then, the attacker (Beowulf) resolves Epic Poem's DURING COMBAT effect. Beowulf has 2 Rage, so the attack value becomes 4.

The attack value is now 4, and the defense value is now 3, so Beowulf deals 1 damage to Little Red.

Defeating a Fighter

When one of your fighters is reduced to zero health,* for any reason, they are defeated.

If your hero's sidekick is defeated, immediately remove that sidekick token from the battlefield.

If your hero is defeated, you immediately lose the game.

*In this set, zero health is represented on the heroes' dials by the words "The End."

Winning the Game

When your opponent's hero is defeated, which happens when they are reduced to zero health, the game ends immediately and you win!

(In a team game, both opposing heroes must be defeated.)

Special Rules for This Set

Little Red Riding Hood's Basket

The top card of Little Red's discard pile is called her basket and contains whichever symbol is in the banner of the top card (a knife, a pelt, or wolfsbane). When you play any card with an effect that uses a basket item, the effect only resolves if that item is in her basket. (Other effects on the card resolve as normal.)

Little Red's Basket and What's That In My Basket? cards have a wild symbol, showing all three items. If one of these cards are in your basket, you have any one of the three items in her basket, but not all three.

Basket symbols: knife, pelt, wolfsbane, wild.

At the start of the game, place LITTLE RED'S BASKET in your discard pile. (Little Red's special ability: resolve an effect on a card you play if the symbol next to the effect matches the item in your basket.)

Beowulf's Rage

Beowulf has 3 tokens to track his current Rage. He starts the game with 1 Rage and can have a maximum of 3. When Beowulf (not Wiglaf) takes damage, regardless of when he takes it or where it comes from, he gains 1 Rage. He can gain more than 1 Rage if there are different effects that deal damage on one card. You can spend Rage for effects as indicated on Beowulf's cards. Spending Rage is always optional.

Note: Use the flame side to show Rage, and flip them to the unlit side when they are spent.

EXAMPLE: Little Red attacks Beowulf with Once Upon a Time (Little Red, value 2, versatile: AFTER COMBAT: Deal 3 damage to the opposing fighter). Beowulf does not play a defense card. He takes 2 damage from the attack and gains 1 Rage. After combat, Beowulf takes an additional 3 damage and gains 1 more Rage.

Gameboard: Doors

Heorot has three door tokens. At the beginning of the game, place the door tokens to the side (the doors start open).

A fighter may open or close a door only as part of a maneuver action, but not as part of other movement effects (such as the effect on Skirmish). At any point during a maneuver action, a fighter may close an adjacent door for free, or spend 1 space of movement to open an adjacent door.

You may open and close as many doors as many times as you like with any of your fighters. You may not close a door if a large fighter occupies the two spaces on either side of it. NOTE: There are no large fighters in this set.

When a door is closed, treat any lines crossing the door as if they did not exist. This blocks movement and attacks, eliminates adjacency, and breaks up zones. (Two spaces that would normally be in the same zone are treated as if they are in different zones if there is a closed door on the shortest path between them).

EXAMPLE: Little Red couldn't use the knife effect on Never Leave The Path (Little Red, scheme: Place Little Red in any space. Gain 1 action. / Deal 2 damage to each opposing fighter in Little Red's zone. / Draw 3 cards.) to deal damage to Beowulf as they are no longer in the same zone (because the door is closed). Likewise, neither Little Red nor the Huntsman could attack Beowulf through the closed door.

Team Play

NOTE: You cannot use Team Play rules with just the Little Red vs. Beowulf set. You will need more figures and maps that have 3 and 4 spaces.

You can play Unmatched in teams of 2. Teammates sit next to each other on the same side of the battlefield, and they may communicate about their cards and tactics, but each player controls their own hero and sidekicks. Your teammate's fighters are considered friendly fighters. For team play with three players, one player will control both heroes and sidekicks for one team.

Choose a battlefield with four starting spaces. (Some battlefields have only two starting spaces and therefore cannot be used for team play.)

During setup, players place their heroes in alternating order:

• First player on Team A places their hero in the 1 space.
• First player on Team B places their hero in the 2 space.
• Second player on Team A places their hero in the 3 space.
• Second player on Team B places their hero in the 4 space.

When placing their hero, each player also places their sidekicks within the same zone, as normal.

During the game, players take turns in alternating order:

• First player on Team A takes their turn.
• First player on Team B takes their turn.
• Second player on Team A takes their turn.
• Second player on Team B takes their turn.

This order repeats for the rest of the game.

When a player's hero is defeated, immediately remove that hero miniature from the battlefield. That player still takes their turns as normal, as long as they have at least one sidekick left. If all of a player's fighters are defeated, they are eliminated and do not take any more turns.

When both heroes on one team have been defeated, the opposing team wins!

Icon Reference

• Attack icon: This card can only be used to attack.
• Defense icon: This card can only be used to defend against an attack.
• Versatile icon: This card can be used to attack or defend.
• Scheme icon: As an action, this card can be played for its effect.
• Ranged icon: This fighter may make ranged and melee attacks.
• Melee icon: This fighter may only make melee attacks.

Credits

Unmatched is a production by the war-kings and queens at Restoration Games and Mondo Games, which was restored from Star Wars: Epic Duels, designed by Craig Van Ness and Rob Daviau and published by Milton Bradley. Zone rules inspired by the Pathfinding System from Tannhäuser, designed by William Grosselin and Didier Poli and published by Fantasy Flight Games.

• Game Restoration: Brian Neff, Justin D. Jacobson, Noah Cohen, and Rob Daviau
• Graphic Design: Jason Taylor, Lindsay Daviau, and Chris Bilheimer
• Cover and Card Illustration: Marc Aspinall
• Board Illustration: Ian O'Toole
• Project Management: Suzanne Sheldon

Thank you to everyone who helped playtest the game! You're all wonderful people. We mean it. Additional thanks to Jayme Boucher, Tim Wiesch, Brad Andres, and Kimi Sandel, who are all great.

©2020 Restoration Games, LLC.