War Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Value of Armies
• Armies
• Objective Cards
• Distribution of Armies and Territories
• The Game
• Receiving Armies
  • 1) Territories Possessed
  • 2) Continent Conquered
• Attacks
• How to Attack
• Battle
  • 1) Attacker with 4 armies and defender with 3 armies
  • 2) Attacker with 3 armies and defender with 1 army
  • 3) Attacker with 10 armies and defender with 4 armies
• Territory Conquest
• Moves
• Card Conquest
• Card Trading
• Notes
• Elimination of a Competitor
• End of the Game
• Summary

Components

• 1 board
• 6 sets of armies in different colours
• 6 plastic boxes with lids
• 14 objective cards
• 44 territory cards (including 2 wildcards)
• 3 red dice
• 3 yellow dice

Important: The political division of the world shown on the board is used to make the game flow easier, and does not depict reality.

Value of Armies

Armies are represented by:

• 1 small piece = 1 army
• 1 large piece = 10 armies

Armies

Each player chooses the army of the colour they prefer from the six available (white, red, black, blue, yellow and green). This choice may be made by lot or by common agreement among the players.

Objective Cards

Each player receives one card, by lot. Once a player has learned their objective, they do not reveal it to their opponents. (The objectives that are not dealt are not used in the game.)

Before the draw, players who are new to the game should read all the possible objectives.

Obs.: if the number of players is fewer than 6, the objectives related to armies that are not in play are removed from the draw. For example, if no one plays the yellow army, the objective card that tells a player to destroy the yellow armies is removed.

Distribution of Armies and Territories

Each player picks up a die and rolls it. The player who obtains the highest number becomes the distributor.

The distributor takes the set of territory cards, removes the wildcards and shuffles the cards, then deals them one at a time clockwise, starting with the player on their left. At this point, each player places 1 soldier of their colour on each territory received during the deal. When this operation is complete, every territory will be occupied by one soldier of one of the participants.

The distributor then collects the territory cards, puts the wildcards back in, shuffles the cards again, and places this deck face down next to the board, where it is to remain for the duration of the game.

The Game

The game begins with the player following the one who received the last territory card.

In the first round, each player, in turn, must receive armies and place them on the map according to their strategy.

From the second round onward, each player, in turn, carries out the steps below, always in this order:

1. In every round, receives new armies, according to the territories possessed and, if the player is able, according to the trading of cards, and places them on the board according to their strategy.
2. Attacks the opponents, if desired.
3. Moves their armies, if convenient.
4. Receives a territory card, if they conquered at least one territory.

Receiving Armies

At the start of a turn there are three ways to receive armies:

1. from the number of territories possessed;
2. if the player possesses a whole continent;
3. if the player is able to trade cards (see the Card Trading section).

1) Territories Possessed

At the start of their turn, the player adds up the number of territories they possess and divides by 2. The result of this count is the number of armies the player must receive (considering only the whole part of the result).

Example: If a player possesses:

• 8 territories, receives 4 soldiers
• 11 territories, receives 5 soldiers

At this point the player must place all the armies received on one or more of their territories, according to their strategy.

2) Continent Conquered

If, at the start of their turn, the player possesses a whole continent, then in addition to the armies received from the territory count, the player receives further armies according to the values of TABLE I printed on the board.

NOTE: The armies received from possessing a continent must be placed, mandatorily, on the territories of that same continent.

Example: Imagine the player possesses 19 territories, 15 of them spread over several continents and the 4 of South America. The calculation at the start of the turn should be as follows:

• Number of territories possessed: 15 + 4 = 19
• Number of armies to receive: 9 (19 ÷ 2 = 9.5)
• Number of armies to receive for possessing all of South America: 2
• Total armies to receive: 9 + 2 = 11, of which the 2 corresponding to South America must be placed on that continent.

Obs.: The minimum number of armies to receive is always 3, even if the player possesses fewer than 6 territories.

Attacks

From the second round onward, players may or may not attack an opponent, trying to conquer more territories. For this it is necessary that there be at least one army in every occupied territory. This army is called the occupation army.

To attack from a territory, at least 2 armies are needed in that territory.

How to Attack

1. The attacker uses the red dice and the defending player uses the yellow dice.
2. An attack, from any territory, may only be directed at an adjacent opposing territory (one that shares a border, or that is linked by a line).
3. The attacker must announce from which territory the attack departs and which territory will be attacked, as well as how many armies will be used to attack.
4. The maximum number of armies taking part in each attack is three, even if there are more armies in the attacking territory.
5. A territory may be attacked regardless of how many armies it has.
6. The attacked territory must use its occupation army to defend itself as well.
7. On their turn, a player may attack as many times as they wish in order to conquer an opposing territory.
8. Attacks may start from one or from several territories, but always one at a time, according to the attacker's strategy. The player may also attack several territories in the same turn. Every attack requires a dice confrontation (explained in the Battle section).
9. The attacking player rolls a number of dice equal to the number of their armies taking part in the battle, and the defending player does the same. Example: if the attacker uses 3 armies against 1 defending army, the attacker rolls 3 dice against the defender's 1 die.

Caption of the example map: 3 red dice for the attack (Mexico) against 1 yellow die for the defence (New York).

Battle

Examples:

1) Attacker with 4 armies and defender with 3 armies

If the attacker has 4 armies in its territory and the defender has 3, both may roll 3 dice; that is, both the attacker (Congo) and the defender (South Africa) fight with three armies.

[Map: Congo, with 4 armies, attacking South Africa, with 3 armies.]

After the battle (carried out by rolling the dice), the attacker's points are compared with the defender's points, to see which side loses armies. The attacker's die with the most points is compared with the defender's die with the most points. Victory goes to whoever has more points. In the event of a tie, victory goes to the defence.

Next, the attacker's second-highest die is compared with the defender's second-highest die, and the victory is decided as in the previous case.

Finally, the lowest dice are compared, using the same procedure.

Example: Suppose the attacker rolled 5, 4 and 1, and the defender rolled 6, 3 and 1:

Comparison	Attack	Defence	Winner	Result
Highest	5	6	Defence	Attack loses 1 army
Second highest	4	3	Attack	Defence loses 1 army
Lowest	1	1	Defence (tie)	Attack loses 1 army

In this case the attacker loses 2 armies and the defender loses 1 army. Thus the attacker's territory, which had 4 armies, and the defender's, which had 3, are each left with 2 armies.

[Map: Congo and South Africa, each with 2 armies.]

If there were interest, the attacker could make a new attack using 1 army against the defence's 2 armies. Note that, although the attacker has been left with two armies in its territory, it could attack again with only one, since the other is the occupation army, which may not be used for attacks.

Note: The armies lost in battles return to the players' boxes, and may be reused later.

2) Attacker with 3 armies and defender with 1 army

If the attack has only 3 armies and the defence has 1, the attacker may roll 2 dice against the defender's 1 die. Supposing the points are: attack (3 and 2) and defence (6), the attacker's die with the most points (3) is compared with the defender's die with the most points (in this case the only one: 6), and the attacker's lower die is rejected. In this case the victory goes to the defence, and the attacker removes one of its armies.

Obs.: Each time an attacker loses, it removes from its territory only the number of armies with which it defended itself. In the example above, the defence used only one die. Therefore, the attacker loses only one army.

3) Attacker with 10 armies and defender with 4 armies

In this case, as we have seen, each side may use, in each battle, a maximum of 3 armies. Imagine that the values are:

[Map: Moscow, with 10 red armies, attacking Aral, with 4 green armies; Omsk also shown.]

Using the printed table (the dice faces are shown only as pictures in the booklet):

Comparison	Attack	Defence	Winner	Result
Highest	(as printed)	(as printed)	Attack	Defence loses 1 army
Second highest	(as printed)	(as printed)	Defence	Attack loses 1 army
Lowest	(as printed)	(as printed)	Defence	Attack loses 1 army

The result is one victory for the attack and two for the defence. Therefore, 8 armies remain to the attacker and 3 to the defender. If the attacker wishes, it may continue the attack, rolling 3 dice again against the defence's 3 dice. Suppose the results are:

Comparison	Attack	Defence	Winner	Result
Highest	(as printed)	(as printed)	Attack	Defence loses 1 army
Second highest	(as printed)	(as printed)	Attack	Defence loses 1 army
Lowest	(as printed)	(as printed)	Attack	Defence loses 1 army

The attacker will have 3 victories, and the defence must remove its last 3 armies from the territory.

Territory Conquest

If, after a battle (one or more dice confrontations), the attacker destroys all the armies of the defender's territory, the attacker has conquered that territory and must move its attacking armies into the conquered territory, where they will remain. This move follows this rule: the number of armies moved at this moment is at most equal to the number of armies that took part in the last attack. In the example above, the attacker could move 1, 2 or, at most, 3 armies.

[Map: Moscow, Omsk and Aral, with the armies moved into the conquered territory.]

After conquering a territory and moving the permitted armies, the attacker may, if it wishes, make a new attack from the conquered territory, still in the same turn. Only then does it carry out the new move of the attacking armies into the attacked territory.

Obs.: During attacks, attacking armies may only be moved into the territories attacked, and not into any other territory.

Moves

There are two moments in which a player may move their armies on their turn: the first, already mentioned, refers to moving the attacking armies into the conquered territory; the second refers to the moves permitted once the player has finished their attacks in their turn.

Once the attacks are finished, the player may, according to their strategy, move armies between their adjoining territories. These moves must obey the following rules:

1. In each territory there must always remain at least one army (the occupation army), which can never be moved.
2. An army may be moved only once, that is, it is not permitted to move an army into a second adjoining territory in the same turn.

Example: A player who possesses Brazil, Venezuela and Mexico may move their armies from Brazil to Venezuela, but may not, in the same turn, move those same armies from Venezuela to Mexico.

[Map: South America, showing the armies moved from Brazil to Venezuela.]

Card Conquest

A player who conquers one or more territories during their turn is entitled to one territory card at the end of the turn (after having carried out the moves).

It is important to note that the player receives only one territory card per turn, regardless of the number of territories conquered. The content of this card must be kept secret until the appropriate moment of its trade.

The player is not obliged to trade when they have formed one of the combinations described: it depends on their interest at the moment.

Card Trading

Territory cards, when properly combined, entitle the player to a certain number of armies at the start of a turn, according to TABLE II printed on the board.

Example: The first player to make a trade during the game receives 4 armies; the second player to make a trade receives 6; the third 8, and so on. This sequence does not follow the trades of each player individually, but all the trades that have occurred in the game.

To trade cards for armies, the player must possess 3 cards with different figures, or else 3 cards with the same figures.

[Card illustrations: Polônia, Islândia and Suécia, captioned "3 cards with different figures"; Polônia, Oriente Médio and Índia, captioned "3 cards with the same figures".]

[Note on the illustrations: the figures are small symbols on the cards and are not described in the text.]

However, when the player accumulates 5 cards, they are obliged, on their turn, to trade 3 cards for armies. The armies thus received may be distributed among the territories owned by the player who receives them, in whatever way suits them best.

However, if among the cards used in the trade there is one that represents a territory owned by the player, the player receives 2 extra armies, which must be placed, mandatorily, on that territory.

Remember: the player receives 2 extra soldiers for each traded card that represents a territory they own.

Notes

1. The wildcard always gives the player the choice of any one of the 3 figures in order to make a card trade.
2. Conquering one card each turn is very important, because cards give the right to receive more armies.
3. Traded cards are set aside from the game. When all the cards have been distributed, they must be collected, shuffled and returned to play to form a new "deck".

Elimination of a Competitor

If, during the game, a player completely destroys an army, and that is not their objective (in which case they would win the game), they receive the cards of the eliminated player.

If, when adding the cards received from the eliminated player to their own, the player would end up with more than 5 cards, a draw is held: the player removes, without looking, the number of cards needed to complete five.

End of the Game

The game ends when a player achieves their objective. At that moment, the player must show their objective card, proving their victory.

Summary

From the second round onward, each player, on their turn, carries out the following steps:

1. Receives new armies
   • according to the territories possessed
   • if the player possesses a whole continent, according to TABLE I
   • according to the trading of cards, according to TABLE II
2. Places these armies on the board
   • according to their strategy
3. Attacks their opponents, if desired
4. Moves their armies, if desired
5. Receives a territory card, if they conquer at least one territory

Have fun!