Quick Rules

Under Construction These pages are under heavy construction & only intended for the developers. Notice that most of the info will change. Please contact us if you want to help us out or join the dev. team.

Intro.

Disclaimer & info

• Lingual edits are allowed by anyone as long as they keep the semantics and logic of the game, the intention of a rule and so on, fully intact and don't change how the game works.
  • Rule-edits are allowed only after being cleared with snowdrop first.
• These rules are, in their current state, only intended for developers that work on the same ruleset as snowdrop, which is dubbed "the Original Rules Concept", or ORC in short. Their primary purpose is to function as a concept rules for concept testing done by the developers of ORC. This means that it doesn't matter much if a wider audience and the public understands them or not as they're internal. The concept rules will be turned into playtest rules once they are stable enough.
• The ORC intends to live up to the General Design Document & the Local Design Document for the ORC.
• This document will exist in an additional and more extensive version and also in a very short quick-start version once it's been more finalized after playtesting. For the time being, all rules that will be up for dev. testing are gathered here and aforementioned documents will be created at a later stage when the rules have matured enough.
• All content in here can and will likely change as we continue development, concept- & playtesting and revising. Nothing in here represents the finalized game nor should it be seen as set in stone.
• Questions? Please post them in our forum after asking us for an account in there or mail them.

Basics

WTactics is:

• An open source project released primarily under GPL2 or later. The game is free and libre. Anyone has the liberty to modify, duplicate and spread it.
• Customizable, modular and an ever evolving community driven project.
• A tactical card game of steel, magic and conquest. Each player is commanding forces in an attempt to conquer the opposing domain.

Winning

The game is won by being the first to take control of your opponent's kingdom by lowering his/her influence to zero or be the first one to achieve a pre-defined amount of Victory Points by completing various Quests. During the game you'll have to use a combination of skills and military tactics to ensure that your army prevails on the battlefield.

In the rare case where all remaning players both get 0 influence (or in theory less points) the player with the highest amount of victory points is the winner. If that is also equal then the game is considered a draw. To really find out who has the superior army and mnindset we recommended you to play best of three games.

Setting up the Game

Number of Players

Basic play only requires two players. The game also fully supports several multiplayer formats that allow three or more players to participate. A format is a specific rule set, which is either a variation of the core rules or almost new rules all together. They offer new exciting ways to play the game once you're acquainted with it and it's core rule system.

For the sake of simplicity in the documentation and to flatten the learning curve we will stick to the most common setup in the world of customizabel card games - the classical 2 player game, where one player versus the other, using the rules described in this Original Rules Concept (ORC).

Materials for Play

Make sure you have the following materials for each player before you start a game:

• 2 x accept tokens (beads, coins, whatever as long as they're identical and your opponent has different looking ones)
• 20 x tokens
• Way to keep track of the points

Table Layout

The playing table is divided into imaginary areas. They may be marked out with ropes or on a custom made playmat, but usually that is not necessary due to their simple structure. Each area has it's own separate property and function. Two of the areas are also called combat zones, or just zones in short, and it's in those where most of the things will happen. The below map is an example of how a game can be properly setup. It shows only the table side of one of the players, except for the Questing area that is common for both players. Each additional player is recommended to have a similar table layout.

will vary The amount of cards in the layout map below and the names of the cards is not relevant: In a normal game of WT the number of cards on the table will vary greatly during the course of the game. Typically there would be fewer cards in the start of the game and more of them as the game progresses.

Questing (0)

This area is in the middle of the table. In the center of it each player places his Quest pile faced down, hence there are two quest piles on the picture. During the game Quest cards will be revealed and offered to the players.

Offensive Zone (1)

Creatures that the player wants to be able to attack with must be placed in this zone, face up.

Defensive Zone (2)

Creatures that the player wishes to be able to defend with must be placed in this zone, face up.

Resources (3)

Gold resources are used as the games primary way to pay for the cards you wish to put into play.

• Each turn a player may put one of the cards in hand face down in the resource area.
• Cards that are placed in the resource area in that fashion become resource cards.
• Resource cards produce one gold each when they are marked.

Army Deck (4)

The player comes to the game with carefully selected cards put in a pile, face down. That pile is called the army deck. This area is where the army deck resides and from where the player draws new cards every time it becomes his/her turn.

Grave (5)

The area where all the discarded cards go, like for instance dead creatures and used Event cards. All cards in the grave are face up.

Card span & proximity

< PICTURE HERE >

Span

Compared with many popular CCG:s, the two zones are best described as two different tables, and WTactics is a game played on both of them at the same time. A card can have an effect on something and within one or more zones. Different effects have different reach. This is called span'.

• Local span: Cards that only have an effect on a local level within a zone. A huge majority of the cards have this span unless it's clearly stated with text that a card has a reach beyond the local span. Very Important: The local span is implicit and always default unless something else is explicitly stated by the card text.
  • Example: A creature with the ability All Merfolk gain the Guard ability means that all Merfolk in the same zone as that creature get the Guard ability. This would apply in your Offensive or Defensive zone, depeneding on where the creature resides, and accordingly it would apply in the opponents opposite zone, also giving his/hers Merfolk the guard ability.
  • Effects that target an x, any x et.c. do so only within that cards local zone, like in the example above, or in the targeted zone in the case of effects from Event cards.

• Global span: Cards that affect both the offensive and defensive zones.
  • Example: If a creature has the ability Merfolk in all zones gain the Guard ability it would grant the Guard ability to Merfolk everywhere on the table, no matter which player that controlled them or if they are in the Offensive or Defensive zones.

Proximity

While the span tells us how far reaching something is, the proximity tells us how we are ordered in a spatial aspect. Picture a Wizard casting some dark magic: Her span may be far reaching, affecting somebody in the other end of the world, but her proximity is the room where she is actually performing the magic, with all the objects in it like books, scrolls and candles.

Local Proximity

• All cards except for Magic & Events stay in play until they're somehow removed. Such cards, also known as permanents, always reside in a zone while in play. Whatever is in the same zone as a card in play is considered to be local to that card.
• If a creature moves into another zone it's new zone is considered to be the new local zone of that creature.

The offensive and defensive zones are two remote places in room that are only connected with the opponents counterpart. What comes into play into the offensive can't affect what goes on in the same players defensive and vice versa. Cards are hindered from interaction across the zones while controlled by the same player. Each players defensive is however connected and may interact with each other enemy players offensive, and each players offensive may interact with every other enemy players defensive. In short, opposite enemy zones are considered to be one and the same.

Non-local Proximity

All cards that don't share the same zone as a card are not local to that card.

Card States

In Play

When a card is legally moved from hand, deck, quest pile or grave onto the game table it is entering play, and if nothing hinders it the card is then in play.

All cards that have been paid for and that also meet other prerequisites such as for exampel loyalty points, if any, are considered to be in play. Typically that would be all permanents that are on the table, like your creatures, equipment and enchantment. Events, effects of abilities and Magic are technically speaking also in play for a very short moment: They enter play, are in play, resolve and then become discarded into the grave - leaving play.

Not in Play

• A card that is not in the in play state is considered to be not in play.
• All the cards in a players hand, army deck, quest piles and grave are good examples of cards that are not in play until their owner pays for them and puts them in play.
• Card that are not in play lack a span of their effects and also lack promixity since they are not yet an active part of the game. Once played they will have a span and in some cases also proximity.

Removed from Game

A card that is removed from game is not considered to have the in play state or the not in play state: A card that has been removed from the game ceases to exist for all intents and purposes for the remaining duration of the game. Removed from game cards are not placed in the grave. They are be placed in a pile more distant from the game since there will be no interaction with them while playing.

There is a huge difference between cards not in play and cards removed from the game: Cards not in play are still a part of the game and might come into play at some point. Cards in hand or in the deck or even in the grave are an example of cards not in play. Cards that have been removed from the game may never in any way become part of it again during that game.

Card Layout

1. Cost & Faction Logo: If the card has a gold cost, it will be shown there. The cost is the amount of gold you will have to spend to be able to play the card. The Faction logo (in this case a leaf for the Gaian faction) shows which faction the card belongs to.
2. Loyalty: Every deck build gives the player a Loyalty Point associated with his faction(s). The Loyalty Requirement shown on a card must be equal to or lower than what is given by your deck build. In this example the Elvish Sorceress requires a Gaian loyalty of 3, as indicated by the three Gaian Loyalty icons.
3. Card Art: The illustration has no impact whatsoever on the rules of the game and how things are played out. It's mainly of an aesthetical value and also helps the players to quickly identify and remember cards in addition to give the game a nice theme and setting.
4. Card name / types: Every card has it's unique name. All cards that have the same identification number are considered to be copies of one and the same card. That does however not necessarily make them identical while they are in play since they can be under the influence of different modifiers and effects wile being in play.
5. Additional Card Types: This line contains the types(s) of the card and possible additional subtypes. Each card type is governed by specific rules found in this document, while subtypes are usually associated with rules found on other cards.
6. Coloured border: The border around a card reveals what faction it belongs to. Our Elvish Sorceress has a green surrounding border, revealing - together with the faction logo in 1 - that this is indeed a Gaian card.
7. Card Text: Additional abilities of the card are written in this area.
8. Combat Statistics: If the card represents a creature, it's combat abilities will be shown here. The first value is it's attack (ATK), it's second value is it's defence (DEF).
9. Footer: Contains info about the cards collectors number and version, rarity and our projects website.

Card Types

WTactics provides the players with different card types that have their own associated rules:

Creatures

Creatures are the backbone of every army, they are the courageous forces that will bring a player glorious victory (or a miserable defeat that is best forgotten).

During the Entrance phase a player may put new creatures into play by meeting their loyalty requirement, paying their gold cost and then placing them into one of the two regions - the offensive or the defensive. Creatures that are part of the offensive can attack the opponent, but not defend against oppositional forces. Creatures that are part of the defensive can defend against the opponent's creatures, but not be a part of the attacks launched against them.

Unlike other cards, creatures have specific and distinct values that show their fighting skills in combat:

• Attack (ATK): The skills a creature has in combat. This is the number of damage the creature will inflict on it's enemies if they should stand in the creatures way.
• Defense (DEF): How much damage a creature can take before it becomes wounded and dies.

When other cards manipulate these combat values they are often paired and written in the form of x/y, where x is ATK and y is DEF.

• Example: +5/-2 would mean that a creature would gain 5 more to it's ATK and lose 2 of it's DEF.

Creature Types

All creatures also belong to one or more creature type. Creature types are words separated by spaces in the creatures name and subtype line. An example of a a couple of creature types a creature could have is: Leader Beast Caster. Leader would be one, Beast another type, and Caster a third creature type. They don't necessarily relate to each other in any way even if it may look like it in some cases.

Creature types have no function by themselves. They are however relevant in many situations when other cards interact with the creature cards.

Movement

• A creature can be moved between the two fronts by it's controller if:
  • it is unmarked and
  • there hasn't already occurred a movement in the other front where the creature is not located.
• To move a creature from one front to the other do the following:
  • mark it
  • announce the move
  • place it in the other front.
• A player may move any amount of creatures in this way.

Restrictions

• You may only move creatures before or after the attack phase - not both. I.e. it's not possible to move x, attack with y, and then move z.
• Reminder: You may only move creatures in one of the fronts during each turn. You may not move creatures in both fronts during the same turn.
  • Example: You can't move x from the Offensive into the Defensive, and then move z from the Defensive into the Offensive.

Life & Death

• If all damage has been resolved in a battle and the result is that a creatures defence (DEF) was equal to or smaller than the attacking creatures attack (ATK) then the creature dies.
• Creatures that die are placed in the Grave. Any and all cards attached to it go to their owners grave.
  • Exceptions to this is the Equipment pickup rule, discussed in a separate paragraph further down in this text.
• There are several cards and creature abilities that can affect the outcome of battle by manipulating what happens.

Equipment

• Cards with the Equipment cardtype are considered to be Equipment.
• A creature can carry an unlimited amount of Equipment but may only use the effects of one Equipment card from each Equipment subtype at the same time: Equipment effects only stack if the Equipment cards either lack subtypes or have different subtypes.
  • Example: A creature has an "Equipment - Weapon" card called "Damocle's Sword". The sword gives the creature +5/0. Giving the creature an additional "Equipment - Weapon" card will not add any of it's effects while Damocle's Sword is being used since both cards share an Equipment subtype.
  • If a Creature is attacking and has multiple Equipment cards with the same subtypes the creature's controller should clearly state which Equipment the creature will use during that turn. This must be announced when the creature is declared to be an attacker, before the defender's are appointed by the opposing player. When the creature is a defender instead the announcement of what equipment is used does not have to be made until after the creature has blocked an attacker.
• When equipment is put into play it is given, attached, to a specific creature. That creatures is from then and thereafter an Equipped creature. A creature is unequipped if has no equipment cards attached to it.
  • Equipment stays attached to an equipped creature and follows it wherever it's carrier is going. This includes, but is not limited to: Another front, the graveyard if sent there by some other effect than combat, and back up to hand. The equipment stays on the creature until a) the equipment it's somehow removed by an effect or b) the creature dies.
    • Equipment that came back into a players hand by following the creature that carried there becomes, when it reaches the hand, unattached from that creature. The equipment is then considered to be like any other card in hand, and has to be paid for and attached to a creature again in order for it to come into play once more.

Reassign Equipment

An equipped creature may, during it's controllers own play phase, give one target equipment it is carrying to another target local creature. To be able to perform that action the giving creature as well as the receiving creature must both be unmarked and unassigned. The player pays the cost for the equipment once again, takes the equipment card from the giver and places it on the target local receiver, and then marks both the giver and receiver.

Drop & Take equipment

• When a creature dies while in combat it drops all it's equipment on the ground: The creature is discarded and put into the graveyard while the equipment is left on the table unattached to any other creature. All of it's equipment cards are considered to be dropped on the ground for the time being.
• Equipment pick-ups allow each local allied unmarked creature under the same players control to pick up one of the dropped Equipment cards.
• Any local creature may perform an Equipment pick-up during any players play phase (while there are no ongoing attacks).
• To perform the pick-up the player must announce that it is being executed and mark the creature that does the picking-up. Once the pick-up is performed, attach one of the Equipment cards the dead creature was carrying to the creature that picked it up.
• Notice that all effects and restrictions of a an equipment are still in place even if a pick-up is attempted. Example: If a goblin tries to pick-up equipment that explicitly states that it can't be equiped to any other creature type other than Human then the goblin will not be able to make the pick-up.
• A marked creature can't pick up any Equipment since it can't meet the mark criteria.
• A player can use any amount unmarked creatures to pick up dropped equipment, but each creature may only pick-up one piece of Equipment.
• At the end of turn each player discards all dropped equipment that wasn't picked up.

Events

• Events are cards representing one time effects. In CCG terminology these are more widely known as interrupts, and in some CCG:s they're called Instants.
• You may play an Event card at any time, even on your opponents turn as a response to what he/she has done.
• After an event has been used it is always discarded, and that happens the same turn it was played.
• When you play an event, you follow the instruction provided by its rules text, then you put it in your grave.

Magic

• Magic can only be played during the player's own turn, during the play phase, and only in a front where the player has a caster around.
• Magical effects stack.
• Once a magic card has been played it is discarded.

Enchantments

• Enchantments are scrolls or magic based on reading from a book. They can only be played during the player's own play phase and only in a front where he/she has at least one unassigned and unmarked creature around.
• Enchantments are always targeting something or someone,
• are always attached to it's target,
• and are permanently in play on the table until some effect removes them.
• Enchantments that don't share a name stack.
  • Example: If a player casts two Enchantments that share a name and they each give the target creature +1/+1 then only one of them will benefit the creature.
  • Example: Same scenario as in the above example, but in this case the opponent removes one of the enchantments. There is then still one Enchtantment left on the creature, and in contrast to earlier, it now becomes activated.

Quests

Quests are mission that usually both the players have a chance of performing or get into a conflict about. Quests have specific criteria for when they are considered to be achieved or not. Whoever manages to complete the tasks at hand gets the Quest's Victory Points-value. In addition, some Quests also give other rewards.

Prep & Veto

1. The players both bring a Quest-deck of 10 cards each.
2. There may only be 1 copy of each Quest in a Quest Deck.
3. Before the game starts, players swap their Quest-decks with each other, and look at their content.
4. Players take then turns to choose which one of the other player’s revealed Quests should be removed from the game. The picked card is then removed. Repeat this step 3 times, so that there only remains 7 Quest Cards in each Q-Deck.
5. Players shuffle the opponents Quest Deck and then swap the Quest-decks back with each other. Optional re-shuffling of the own Quest Deck is allowed at that point.
6. Quest Decks are placed face down in the centre of the table, next to each other and in between the players.
7. Reveal the top card of each Quest Deck and put it back on the top of it's Quest Deck. face up. These two Quests are in play when the game starts.

Questing

During the game a player may choose to embark on an epic and adventurous Quest, pursuing their various goals to gather Victory Points and become the last one standing. Keep in mind though that Questing is an optional way of winning the game - you don't have to concentrate on Quests if you would rather just crush your enemy in all out war. If you do, make sure you sabotage the opponents Questing attempts, so he/she doesn't beat you to the throne!

Accepting & Abandon

• Accepting a Quest doesn't cost anything and usually has no special pre-requisites that have to be met. If it has, it will say so explicitly on the Quest card.
• To start pursuing any of the the two offered Quests you need to place your activation token on it any time during your own play phase. As long as a Quest has your acceptance token on it it is active for you.
• You can't have more than two active Quests simultaneously.
• Usually any amount of players are allowed to accept the same Quest(s): A Quest is never "occupied" or "reserved" to just one specific player. If two opposing players are both part of one and the same Quest they are trying to reach it's objectives on their own, and whoever succeeds first will accomplish the Quest and gain it's Victory Points while the other one will fail it.
• Once you have accepted a Quest everything you do in your fronts and game in general that counts towards it's goals or that interact with what is specified on the Quest card will take you one step closer to finishing or sabotaging it. This entails that different creatures, abilities and cards can be used during different turns to resolve the Quest while it is ongoing.
• You can choose to abandon a Quest at any time during your own play phase by removing the acceptance token from the Quest. Carefully read the Quest instructions before doing this, as it may sometimes not be forgiving against somebody that runs away in such a cowardly fashion!

Quest types

Every Quest card has one of the following three different Quest-subtypes:

Assignment

The most common type of Quests. An assignment can be accomplished by anyone. Failure to accomplish it doesn't penalize the player that tried.

Example: 
Healers Exam
Heal at least one target creature three turns in a row.

Contract

The contract type works almost like the assignments with a single but important exception. Usually anyone can try to accomplish it's objectives. The difference is that you get penalized if you fail to accomplish the contract. Often that would happen because the contract expires or because an opponent also went for the same contract and accomplished it's objectives before you did. To accept a contract you must pay it's Escrow cost at the same time as you place acceptance token on it. Don't worry though - the escrow is given back to you if and only if you complete the Quest, along with the VPs you earned for it.

Blood Vengeance 
Kill three enemy creatures of the same faction. They must have a total cost of at least 5 gold. Do it without losing a creature of your own in-between the killings. 
Duration: 3 turns. 
Reward: Place a +2/0 counter on the creature that performed the fifth kill. 
Escrow: Discard 1 card from hand face down.

Confrontation

Some Quests lack the finesse of intrigues and take the brutish but familiar shape of the hard cold steel. Confrontation cards are the bloodiest Quest sub-type around. They're usually made up of powerful creatures that have to be slain without any mercy.

While pursuing a Confrontation Quest the following applies:

• You can target the Confrontation creature(s) directly from any of your fronts, even the Defensive. While a creature is somehow engaged in a Confrontation Quest it is, for all intents and purposes, considered to be in the same zone/location - the Questing zone - along with whatever they're battling in the Confrontation.
• Because of that all abilities of the cards that are participating in the Quest are, in addition to their placement in the offenseve or defensive, also considered to be in the Questing zone where they share location with the Confrontation.
  • Cards that have local effects apply in the Confrontations Questing zone.
• Non-movable zone: The Questing zone can not be moved into or out from.
  • Confrontation Creatures are not in a players offensive or defensive zone: They are always trapped in the Questing zone, from where they can not move.
  • Your creatures can not move into the Questing zone. The zone is an abstract creation that simulates encounters with the Confrontation creatures, and not a physical location as the offensive/defensive.

While in combat against a Confrontation Creature:

• A randomly selected opponent has temporary control over it and is free to use it's special abilities if it has any.
• Any player may use the abilities of his/her own creatures to affect the Confrontation Creture or your warriors that are battling against it
• Confrontation creatures have hitpoints that are tracked and lose one HP every time they take damage, no matter how much damage that happens to be. The HP is a separate variable for each player that engages the Confrontation creature in combat.
  • Example: Kim penetrates the Confrontation Creature's DEF by doing 10 ATK on that creatures 5 DEF. The Confrontation Creature loses 1 HP due to that, and 1 HP is deducted from it's printed total HP of 5. When Kim engages the Confrontation creature the next time, it will have have 4 HP. During the next turn John attacks the Confrontation Creature. Since it's the first time he has done so and the Confrontation Creature has separate HP for each player, the Confrontation Creature has all of it's 5 HP when John attacks it.

In addition:

• Confrontation Creatures can't intiate regular attacks on a player or be used by a player somehow to launch such an attack unless explicitly written on the Confrontation Creature.
• When aborting a Quest against a Confrontation Creature your opponent may distribute damage equal to the ATK of the Confrontation Creature among any of your creatures that have previousley interacted with it by being on combat with it or using their abilities on it.
• Confrontations can't be equipped - you can still only Equip your own creatures.
• When you are the random opponent that gained control of the Confrontation Creature you can't mark it in order to use it as payment: You're still only able to mark your own creatures in the offensive & defensive as payment for other card effects.

Expiration

Quests that have been around for one full round (both players had their own turn) and that have not been activated by any player are automatically removed from the game. There are two exceptions to this:

1. Confrontations stay no matter how many rounds they haven’t been activated in.
2. Only one Quest may be removed per round due to expiration, even if both cards have expired. When this scenario arises the player with the lowest amount of VP decides which one will be removed. If both players have the same amount of VPs then the player with the lowest Influence gets to decide. If that is also a tie between the players please use a random event that will make the decision.

New Quests

The Quest Decks are normally covered by a face up Quest Card once the game has begun. Whenever a Quest card has been removed form game, for whatever reason, the Quest Deck beneath it will be revealed. All new Quests come from one of the Quest Decks that are revealed in that way.

There are only two ways in which new Quests can be revealed to the players:

1. Quest Expiration When a Quest expires it is removed from the game. As it is removed from it's Quest deck the Quest deck is revealed. Turn the top card on that Quest Deck face up. That Quest is now available to the players.

2. Quest Completion If you manage to complete a Quest you must do the following in order to reveal a new Quest:

• Take the top face down card from the now reveled Quest Deck into your hand. View it and then decides if you want that Quest to be available or not.
  • If yes, put it face up at the top of the Quest Deck it was taken from.
  • If no, the card is sent to the bottom of the same Quest Deck it was taken from, and the top card of that same Quest Deck is turned face up. That Quest is then available to the players.

Gold & Resources

Resource Cards

• Each card in WTactics can either be played face up, using it's normal card text and functionality, or placed in the resource zone face down. All cards that are placed in the resource zone face down from the players hand become Resource Cards that produce gold.
• A player may only lay down one resource card into his/her resource zone per turn, and only during the players own play phase.
• A resource card produces 1 gold each turn, if and only if it becomes marked for that purpose.
• At the end of turn all leftover gold that hasn't been used disappears: Gold can't be accumulated in between turns.
• While it's not mandatory to do so we recommend that the player stacks his/her resource cards in piles that are built by groups of 4 resource cards. Resource cards 1 to 4 would be placed in the first pile, resource cards 5 to 8 in the second, and resource cards 9 to 12 in the fourth resource pile. Using piles like that will make it easier to keep track of how much gold is available and how much is used.

Recycling Resources

Once per turn, during your play phase, you are allowed to pick up exactly four resource cards from your resource zone and place them into your hand — if you have less than four resource cards, you can not recycle them this way. Cards that you pick up that way are no longer resource cards and count as any other cards in your hand.

Notice that the rule that regulates the max size of the hand still applies: If you have more than the allowed hand size you have to discard cards down to it at the end of turn, during the discard phase.

Card Costs

Normal Gold Costs

This card costs 5 gold.

• All cards have a gold cost that has to be paid in order for the card to be able to enter play.
• Gold costs are printed with a huge number in the cards top right corner, inside of the faction symbol.
• Whenever it's referred to a cost(s) it should be read as "gold cost(s)" - there are no other costs in the game! Yet, that does not mean that there can't be any additional pre-requisites that has to be met for a card to be able to come into play.
• Usually the cost of a card ranges from 0 to 9.

Variable Gold Costs

Cost of X

This card costs X gold.

• Apart from integers, a card can have a cost of X, as well as X with a modifier. If that is the case, X is always defined in the card text.
  • Example: A card costs X + 2. It's text says that X is equal to the ATK value of the target creature. The target creature's ATK is equal to 3, thus we'd have to pay 3 + 2 = 5 gold to play our card.

Cost of T

This card costs T gold.

• T is also around as a cost, as well as T with a modifier. T is always equal the target cards gold cost.
  • Example: A card costs T - 3. The target cards gold cost is 5, which means hat we have to pay 5 - 3 = 2 gold to put our card in play.
• T reminds us of X, with the difference that it always takes into account one and the same type of variable no matter when or how it is played.

Paying a cost

1. The player looks at the card's gold cost.
2. The player then marks the corresponding amount of unmarked resource cards in order to produce that much gold.
3. The card is put into play.
4. The gold has now been spent.
5. Additional cards can be played by repeating the steps above.

Prerequisites

In order to play a card one has to be able to pay it's cost and, if any, meet all the conditions it requires to be true for it to come into play or it's effect to be activated. The more powerful the card is, the higher is the cost, and the trickier the prerequisites become.

Sometimes a card has other conditions that have to be met for them to enter play that go beyond the gold cost and the Loyalty Requirement. In such cases the prerequisites are printed in written text on the card, as a part of the card text field. These kinds of prerequisites are often custom, straight forward and vary highly depending on the card.

Examples

• This card can only be played if you control less creatures than your opponent(s).
• This Equipment can only be attached to a Northener.

If a card can not get any of it's demands met, it can't be played. If it has got all it's demands met, the player may choose if he/she wants to play the card or not.

Marking & Unmarking

• Creature and Resource cards in play are always in either a marked or an unmarked state. All other card types lack the ability to (un)mark.
• Cards always come into play in their unmarked state unless it's clearly specified otherwise.
• The marked state is normally used to show that the card has been exhausted/used somehow.
  • Examples of when a card becomes marked: When a creature attacks, moves or uses an activated ability that requires it to mark.
• An unmarked card is considered to not be exhausted.
• A card can only be marked once per round unless an effect or rule unmarks it.
• There is no limit on how many times a card can become marked or unmarked if it happens as a result of an effect.
• During every new turn the player gets all of his/her marked cards unmarked during the players own unmark/unassign-phase.

Mark me

The Mark Me symbol

Different actions, abilities and rules require a card to mark when the player wants to use it in a particular way. Marking is not a cost, as gold is. It should rather be seen as a kind of prerequisite, an action that needs to happen in order for an effect to happen. Whenever the mark me symbol is shown (a horizontal rectangle with a symbol within, ) it means that you have to mark the card itself if that is a part of the pre-requisite for whatever you're trying to accomplish.

Hints:

• "Mark me" symbol is abbreviated as just (M) when being typed out as plain text.
• In wiki you can input the Mark Me symbol inline in any text to create a 17x10 px symbol like this by writing {{M}}

Mark allies

The mark allies symbol, here showing that 3 allies have to mark.

Should the mark symbol contain a number inside it instead of the symbol it means that you have to mark that amount of other local creatures instead othe creature itself. The creature that has the Mark Allies-prerequiste can not mark itself for that reason.

Hints:

• "Mark me" symbol is abbreviated as (MaX) when being typed out as plain text, where X is the number of allies that are supposed to become marked.
  • Example: (Ma3).
• In wiki you can input the Mark Allies symbol inline in any text to create a 17x10 px symbol like this by writing {{Ma|2}}. Replace the number two with any number between 1 to 7 to get the proper symbol.

Marking vs Marked There's a huge distinction between marking a card (switching a card from it's unmarked state into it's marked state) and discussing a marked card, which is a card that is already in it's marked state).

Disclaimer How a player (un)marks cards is not decided by the rules or us behind WTactics due to legal reasons. It's up to the players to agree on it. In many CCG:s cards are rotated 90 degrees so that they lay down horizontally Rotating a card in this way is supposedly a patented idea in the U.S.A. To not violate patent(s) that protects that amazing invention we do not with this text want to give the idea that we encourage anyone to use that system to mark/unmark cards, and we also don't take any legal responsibility for players doing so.

Assigning

"A" for Assigning...

Aside from a card being in a marked and unmarked state, it sometimes has the ability to be in an alternative mode: The assigned state. It works in similar ways to marking but also differs in a couple of important aspects from the marked state, as we'll soon see.

Assigned Creatures can't

• Attack or defend.
• Mark or un-mark.
• Be targeted by their controller or ally player, but may still be targeted by an opponent.
• Become automatically unassigned.
• Use any of their non-assigned triggered/cost/permanent abilities: While an assigned card keeps its faction belonging, loyalty requirement, attack and defense values, card and subtypes, it loses all of it's abilities except the assigned one while it is in the assigned state.

Assigning

• Only unmarked and unassigned Creatures with the assignation symbol () can be assigned.
• To assign a card you need to pay it's assignment cost. This cost is indicated by the assignment symbol (a circle) followed by a cost for the assignment. After the cost there is a colon sign (:) with text that reveals what happens while the card is in an assigned state.
  • The assignation cost can vary and be nothing except for the assignation itself, a gold cost, a custom text, marking or some kind of combination of these costs/prerequisites.
• When being assigned the cards must somehow be altered so that they clearly indicate that they are in the assigned state.
  • E.g. the cards could be turned upside down.. This may be the simplest and smoothest way to solve it but it is not something we can endorse or recommend due to legal reasons. Hence we do not encourage you to use this fine solution. The way assignation is indicated should be agreed up on by the players before the game starts.
• An assigned card's assignment ability doesn't get activated until the next turn after the card was assigned. Usually that would be the opponents turn directly after the turn where the player assigned the creature.

Hints:

• "Assign" symbol is abbreviated as just (A) when being typed out as plain text.
• In wiki you can input the Assign symbol inline in any text to create a 10x10 px symbol like this by writing {{A}}

Unassigning

• Only assigned creatures may be unassigned.
• Unassignment may only occur in the unmark/unassign phase.
• Put the card in a way which indicates that it is marked and pay one gold. The card is now unassigned, but it can not mark or assign again during the same turn in which it was unassigned.

Round Structure

WTactics is played using individual player turns, that are divided into different game phases.

The player who is currently taking his turn is named the active player. All other players are considered to be passive players even if they would do something (i.e. play Event cards) during the active players turn. When we refer to "the player" we most often refer to the "active player". In cases where we don't refer to the active player, we use the "passive" or "any" player terminology.

Mulligan

• During each players first turn he/she is allowed to do a Mulligan. The Mulligan can't be performed in a later turn, nor can it be performed after a player has accepted the cards that were drawn and proceeded within the turn structure.
• To do a Mulligan the player puts back all 7 cards into the Army Deck, re-shuffles the deck, and then draws 7 new cards.
• The player can then choose to forfeit further chances to do a Mulligan, or he/she can perform yet another one.
  • If the player chooses to do another Mulligan, the player now draws x-1 cards, where x is the amount of cards he/she drew the previous time.
  • Again, the player may choose to do yet another Mulligan or stay satisfied with the cards he/she has. This process can be repeated up to 7 times, in which case the player would be allowed to draw 1-1 cards, equalling 0.

Example: Doing two Mulligans Kim draws 7 cards and then Mulligans for the first time. Again, Kim draws 7 cards. Kim isn't pleased with them, so another Mulligan is performed. This time around Kim only gets to draw 6 cards (7-1).

Tips: You usually don't want to Mulligan more than 2 or 3 times - it will make you lose momentum and limit your options early in the game, giving the advantage to your opponent since you crippled yourself.

Turn Structure

A turn is made up of the following phases, where each name is followed by the postfix "phase":

1. Unmark/Unassign
2. Upkeep
3. Draw
4. Play
5. Move or Attack
6. Play
7. Move or Attack
8. Entrance
9. Discard

The phases that are mandatory are the Unmark/unassign, Upkeep, Draw and Discard-phases. The Play, Move or Attack and Entrance phases are all optional phases and can all be omitted by you if you choose to do so. Notice that you can't use a Play or Move/Attack-phase once you have Played your entrance or Discard-phase: The phases must be played in the strict order that's specified above.

Turn Phases

Unmark/Unassign

• During the unmark and unassign phase a player must unmark all his/her cards that are marked. This replenishes them for future use and is normally a very good thing.
• In contrast, assigned cards do not automaticllay become unassigned: During the unmark/unassign-phase a player may unassign target ally creatures.

Upkeep

• Sometimes cards require that an upkeep cost is paid. This phase is only relevant when that kind of cards are around.
• All such cards have explicit text that tell the players if that is the case. Such text is written in the form Upkeep cost ~ What happens is the upkeep isn't paid.
  • Example: Upkeep 3 ~ Discard card. means that the cards upkeep is 3 gold and that if it isn't paid then the card must be discarded.
• The player always chooses if he/she wants to pay the upkeep or not.
  • If the upkeep is paid the card continues to be in play as usual and it's ~ effect isn't triggered.
  • Should the player choose not to pay the cards upkeep the text after the ~ is triggered.

Draw

• The player must draw 1 or up to 2 cards each turn if there are cards available in the Army Deck. The player decides him/herself if 1 or 2 cards are drawn and may look at the first drawn card before deciding if another one should be drawn.
• This applies even if the player already has the maximum number of allowed cards to his/her playing disposal in hand.
• If none of the players can draw any cards during the same round due to them not having any cards left to draw in their decks the game ends at the end of that round. The winner is the one with the most Victory Points. In case the players have equal amounts of VP, the winner is the one with most Influence.

Play

• The play phases allows the player to use creature abilities & play any non-creature cards if he/she wants to.
• The inactive player always gets a play phase after each one of the active players actions, i.e. to play Event-cards or use abilities.
• The number of things a player can do during his/her play phase is limited only by that player's resources and cards.
  • Though eventually the player will run out of options, as there should not exist "infinity-combos" in WTactics.

Move / Attack

• This phase is not mandatory - the player chooses if he/she will use it.
• The move/attack phase allows the player to either move or attack with any number of the creatures.
• It does not allow the player to do both and let one creature move and let another attack.
• Whatever is done in the first move / attack phase can not be done in the second move / attack phase.
  • • Each turn there's only one attack phase per player and/or one move phase per player.
  • Example: If you decide to move creatures in the first MA phase, then no creatures can move in the second.
• Please see the relevant sections for movement and attacking for more details on how to execute those actions properly.

Entrance

During the Entrance phase you may put new Creatures into play in the Offensive or Defensive.

Discard

• If the player has more than 7 cards (≥8) in his/her hand the playermust select and discard any excess cards down to 7.
• A player may notdiscard cards from hand in the discard phase if he/she has 7 or less cards in hand.

Abilities

Many creatures have special skills and some are able to perform different kind of actions. There are numerous ways how the creatures can interact with one and another without engaging in actual physical combat. These skills are called abilities, regardless of what they do, and if they have any drawbacks or not.

Abilities are not limited to just creatures – Equipment or Magic could have them as well, granting a creature additional abilities they wouldn't have without them.

There are three main types of abilities : activated, passive and triggered.

Passive

A passive ability is one that is always in effect. As soon as the object with the ability enters play, the ability effect starts, and stops when the object leaves play.

Example: "All Elvish creatures gets +3 defense" is a passive ability.

Activated

• In contrast to passive abilities, activated abilities requires the activation by the player.
• To use a card's ability the player must pay the cost required. The effect of the ability will not activate before that is done.
• Only the controller of a card may activate it's abilities. Usually that means the player that put the card in play by paying for it.

Payment for activation

WTactics uses the above simple system to tell you what the card demands from you in order to have it's effect activated. What's always common for all types of costs and prerequisites is that we always reveal the cost first, followed by a colon separator, and lastly the effect is written. It looks like this:

Cost : Effect

Whatever is on the left side of the colon (:) is the cost or prerequisites. The text on the right side of the colon is the card's effect that will activate once you have met the cost/prerequisites demands.

There are three main groups of costs and prerequisites that are used to activate abilities: Gold cost, mark (self or other) and custom.

1. The first example (gray) shows us a custom prerequisite. Custom prerequisites are often text instructions on what you need to do in order to activate the ability. If you can't or won't do exactly as the text says, then the ability is not activated. Keep in mind that custom prerequisites can be formulated in any way. They are also more rarely used in the game compared to the other types of costs & prerequisites.
2. The next example (purple) is straight forward: To activate the ability you would need to pay exactly 4 Gold. Not more, not less. If you can't afford 4 gold, then you can't activate the ability.
3. The third example (blue) introduces marking as something that must be done first in order to activate the ability. Whenever you see the empty horizontal rectangle it means that in order to activate the ability you must be able to mark the card. If the card is already marked, it can't be marked again, thus, the requirement needed to use that ability (you marking the card now when you want to use the ability) is not met, and as a result you won't be able to activate the ability.
4. Next example (green) also uses marking as a requirement to activate the ability. The difference from the previous case is that there is a number written inside of the rectangle. This means that you have to mark that many other creatures in play under your control in order to activate the ability.
5. Lastly, we have a complicated example (yellow): It shows us that a card can mix any two or more types of costs and prerequisites with each other. Although there is no limitation to how they can be mixed, mixes are seldom as complicated as in this example.

Triggered

• A triggered ability is activated if and only if it's trigger takes place.
• Triggered abilities are not optional and must always be applied if possible.
  • If a triggered ability's effect can't be applied then nothing happens.
• Example: Discard a non-Black Legion creature every time a skeleton comes into play.
  • If my opponent played that curse on you, and your opponent puts a skeleton into play, then you must discard a non-Black creature. If you have only black creatures however, then it is not possible for you to discard a creature, in which case you don't have to do anything.

Conflicting rules & effects

As in many card games, some rules & effects in WTactics may seem to contradict themselves or even do so. Always use the following two rules to resolve such situations.

Cards vs rules

• If a card contradicts the core rules found in this document, the card wins over the core rules.
• That cards can change the core rules or supersede them is an intentional feature in CCG:s. It's what makes this genre interesting and modular. Whatever a card says, it will be the case, even if the rules forbid it or lack coverage of the topic.

Effects vs effects

• If an effects forbids something to happen while another allows it, the forbidding effect wins.
  • Example: A creature has the effect "Can not fly." printed on it as card text. Playing a spell on the creature with the text "Target creature can fly." will not make the creature able to fly. The "not/no/can't" etc always outweigh what "can/could" happen.

Combat

General

Combat is a very important aspect of WTactics. It's used to try to destabilize the opponent by lowering his/her influence and also to eliminate any of the opposing forces that are somehow a threat to you.

• Only unmarked creatures may attack or defend,
• The active player is the only one that can perform one or more attacks during his/her Attack/Move-phase. When doing so he/she must use some or all of his/her creatures in the Offensive.
• In the same manner, the inactive player is the only one that can defend against attacks during the opponents turn. When doing so he/she must use some or all of his/her creatures in the Defensive.
  • A creature is, depending on this, either an attacker or defender while in combat. It is never designated as both while in one and the same combat.
• If there are several combats battled out during the same turn they do not resolve simultaneously!
  • Combat is resolved on a "per attacker basis": Each attacker (together with all it's blockers) is part of one single and specific combat.
  • The order of how a combat(s) are resolved could often matter and affect the outcome of other combats or states in the game. Choose wisely.

Combat sequence

I.

• The attacking (active) player may choose to attack during a Move/Attack phase using any number of creatures that are to his/her disposal in the Offensive. Creatures assigned to attack are called attackers.
  • Please note the difference between an attacking player and attackers: The former is a player that launched an attack, the latter are all Creatures that are currently attacking.
• The player chooses and announces all attackers that will fight that turn by marking them & announcing them as attackers.
• In cases where there are several attacking creatures the attacking (active) player gets to choose which combat will resolve first.
• Then the defending (passive) player decides which combat will resolve next. The players keep alternating turns in this manner to decide which combat is next until all combats have been resolved.
• Once the attackers are announced, the passive player gets a Response phase, that gives him/her the opportunity to play one Event card or one Ability (but not both at the same time). The attacking player then gets the same opportunity, and this process is repeated until both players make a pass on the opportunity to play something in the Response phase. When the players pass on the Response phase the attack continues as follows:

II.

• The defending player may choose to either:
  • Defend against the attack(s) with creatures in his/her Defensive front. All creatures assigned to defend are called defenders during the current battle.
  • Allow the attacks to go on undefended.
• If the player decides not to defend the attack with his/her own defenders he/she loses influence that's equal to the total amount of damage dealt by the attackers.

III.

• If the player decides to defend he/she:
  • May assign any number of creatures as defenders to any number of attackers.
  • Must clearly show which defender is assigned to which attacker.
    • Every defender can only defend against one attacker.

IV.

• Each individual combat takes place. In each the players take turns with Response phases.
• When both players pass instead of responding to the other player's actions the combat is resolved:
  • Take into account all effects and then compare the values of the Attackers ATK value with the Defenders DEF value.
    • If it is higher then the Defender will die. If it is lower the Defender will survive.
    • Regardless of the outcome the Defender successfully protects the defending players Influence.
    • Regardless of the outcome the Defender always gets to strike back at the Attacker: Compare the Defender's ATK value with the Attackers DEF value - if it is equal to or higher then the Attacker will die.
• When combat is over place all dead Creatures into the discard piles, along with all Events that were used during the combat and also any Enchantments that were attached to the Creatures.

Deck Building

Basics

Every deck should contain at least 60 cards, as follows:

• One Chapter, that is made up of x number of quest cards.
• The rest may be any mix of Creatures, Events, Enchantments, Equipment etc.

Details

Every player composes his/her pile of cards (army deck) of whichever cards he/she wants, within the limits of the loyalty restrictions mentioned below. Usually you would want to have prepared a deck and be done with the building of it before you sit down to play a game.

Each card has it's own unique identification number and a version that precedes it at the bottom right. These are the card number and card version numbers, and they're very important if you always want to stay up to date or compete with other players. The card number for a card wont ever change. Any other info on the card may however become a target for revision, and, those revision will be reflected by the cards current version number. Huge changes in card versions are always announced at the site and well in advance before people are allowed to compete with them. For casual players this isn't really that important - play the way you all agree on.

It's allowed to have 4 copies of a card in the deck. A card is only considered to be an instance of itself if it has the same card number and/or card name. Two cards are only equivalent if they share both card & version number.

The deck building process is vital for the outcome of the game. In it the decisions about your play style and possibilities are decided, directly affecting how well you could fare against your opponent. As the game proceeds you will draw a given number of cards from the deck almost every round. The deck is often shuffled and the player seldom knows what card(s) he/she will draw from it.

The back of all cards in a deck must look identical. Having somehow different backs is considered cheating and prohibited.

Loyalty

The Loyalty Requirement determines which cards you can put in your deck from which factions. Most cards have one or several symbols in place in the top right corner below the faction logo & gold cost. These symbols indicate the card's faction Loyalty Requirement that has to be matched or exceeded by your deck build for the card to be able to be part of your deck to begin with.

The loyalty requirement is a sum: The symbols are a graphical representation of a number and must be added together. I.e. three symbols would mean that the loyalty requirement for that card would be equal to 3, two symbols mean that the loyalty requirement is 2 and so on. Each faction has it's own distinct type of loyalty pre-requisites. In the example to the right we're looking at a Gaian card that has, as can be seen by the green symbols, a Gaian Loyalty pre-requisite.

To determine which factions and cards you may or may not put in your deck do the following:

1. Pick out the card with the highest loyalty requirement for each of your factions in your army deck. This will result in you picking one single card for every faction, and that card having the (shared) highest loyalty requirement for it's faction.
2. Add all their loyalty points together.
3. When building a deck that value may never exceed 3.

This means that if you want to use one or more cards of a single faction that has a maximum loyalty requirement of:

• Three, then you may only build a deck composed of that faction only. No cards from other factions may be included in that deck due to you already reaching the loyalty limit of 3.
• Two, then you may also include cards from one additional faction, but these cards from that extra faction may only have a maximum loyalty requirement of one-
• One, then you may include cards from up to two additional factions, but each card

As a result decks in WTactics can only be composed of 1 to 3 factions, and one could say that there in theory is a primary, secondary and up to a tertiary faction within a deck.

Example:

1. Emma has a Gaian card in her deck with a loyalty requirement of 3. This means that Kims deck can never include any cards from other factions.
2. Bakunin has a House of Nobles card in his deck with a loyalty requirement of 2. He has no other House of Nobles cards with a higher loyalty requirement than two. As a result he chooses to add another faction to his deck, and he picks cards from the Red Banner to do that. However, these cards from his secondary faction in his deck - the Red Banner - may only have a loyalty requirement of 1 or less. The max requirement of any House of Nobles card in his deck is 2 + the max of any Red Banner card in his deck is 1, giving us a total of 3, resulting in a legal deck build for Bakunin.

Notice: If a card lacks a Loyalty Requirement it may be played freely in any deck regardless of the above rules or other factions already present in the deck.

The first game

Learning a customizable card game is fun. To many, playing CCG:s is also a very rewarding hobby in several other ways. If you've played CCG:s before it will just be a matter of an hour before you grasp the basics in WTactics. If you on the other hand are new to the genre it will take just a little more effort and patience.

Here's the way we'd recommend you to go about it:

Friend

It's easier and more fun to learn the game if you do it together with a friend. That way you'll be able to learn from each other and will be able to help each other out. The best case scenario would be if he/she already knew how to play a CCG if you're totally new yourself. Else it doesn't matter much, the basics of the the game are easy to understand.

Preferably you should try to learn the game with someone in real life. Using the internet will make the process cumbersome if you two haven't used the on-line software before, and even more so if you don't really know the rules or lack the means of communicating verbally. Therefore, we strongly advise against using the internet as a tool to learn the game if you don't happen to know the software and also use headsets etc.

If you don't have a friend that's willing to learn the game with you then you can do it yourself and simulate a make belief friend that plays with you - that's a good thing to do before you get together anyway.

Also make sure to check out your local game store, many of them will let you hook up and play together with other visitors inside of it in a special dedicated gaming room. The stores usually have their share of CCG players that would be happy to play or learn the game with you and are an excellent place to meet new friends. In the case they haven't heard of the game - don't worry - just tell them about it and chances are they'll be interested at giving it a shot.

Rules

It may not sound exciting, but it's important that you and your friend both read the rules once or twice before you decide to play the first game. It will make the task of learning the game much easier and save you plenty of time in the longer run. It's also important that you both can easily access the rules simultaneously while playing the first games. Most practical way is to print two separate sets of the rules.

Cards

When learning the rules of the game it's easiest to skip the step where you actually choose every card that will be put in your draw pile. That process is called deck building and is both fun and very essential in every CCG, but for now we will skip out on it and save it for later when you're more comfortable with the rules and recognize the cards better.

For the purpose of your rules education we've already built two balanced decks for you and your opponent that you can use to play your first game with. [TODO.] These decks are rule learning decks and you should [Learning Decks|get them] from our site. They have been specifically designed to allow you and your friend to learn the game in an easy manner. There's also an [Learning Playing Guide|extensive playing guide] for both of them in which every card is discussed in great detail, along with tactics.

Once you have downloaded the rule learning decks you need to decide how you want to materialize them. Easiest way is to print them yourself. Fanciest, and in most cases also the cheapest if you want top quality cards, is to develop them as digital photographies. While learning the game it doesn't really matter much how you go about it. When you know for a fact that you like a certain deck, have played some games with it and plan on sticking with it, we recommend you to develop it as digital photos, cut out the cards and then sleeve them to have a cheap, great looking and sturdy deck of playing cards.

Table Regions

• The North Front must always be the front row on the table, and all cards that belong to it must clearly be a part of the front row.
• The South Front must always be the back row on the table.
• Usually there is little doubt where a card belongs. In cases where it's unclear or you play against a sloppy player, use shoelaces, strings or a custom way to mark out the limits between the regions.
• Unclear limits can cause unnecessary misunderstandings while playing. Before you start playing you should make sure that all players are satisfied with how the zones have been marked out and that all understand where the borders are located.

Tokens

In some games you'll need a bunch (10 - 20) of custom markers, preferably in two or more different sizes and/or shapes/colours. These are usually called tokens and can be bought cheaply in your local game store if you want really fancy ones. You could virtually use anything you like as tokens and objects like coins, torn up paper pieces and hobby beads etc would do perfectly fine. Just be sure that you have 2-3 different kinds of tokens so that they can be differentiated from each other.

Note that any Wtactics card can be played face down and thereby be used as a counter or a token.

Counter

There should be an easy way to keep track of how every player fares during the game. Each players standing should somehow be noted. Easiest way to do it is to simply use pen and paper to write it down and to revise it every time it changes. Another way is to use one or two role playing dices like a D20 or D50 per player. Again, like most other details this is up to you as long as you are happy with your way of keeping track of the influence each player has.

Developers note

About this chapter All that is found under this heading is to be considered as an appendix filled with scribblings from the devs. This section is not a part of the rules and not needed to play the game. It fills the function of something similar to internal footnotes.

Todo

• More love to the explanation of the combat process.
• Add a section explaining the stack.
• Explain when a player can interrupt the other one by playing an Event or using a card's ability etc.
• Initiative system may need some simplification.

Magic types

Rituals

Rituals are powerful spells that need their casters to charge them fully before they can be unleashed. This is a game technical representation of wizards meditating deeply, shamans doing their rites, tribal dances and other activities that involve more long term preparations to perform a magical act.

• Every ritual has a charge capacitor number printed in letter, followed by the Rituals effect.
• The charge capacitor starts out empty (no tokens on the card) when the Ritual is placed on a resource pile.
• The player may charge any amount of the rituals on his/her own resource piles.
• A ritual may only be charged once per turn and while it is on a resource pile.
• Charging is done by placing a charge token on the ritual during the upkeep phase.
• The player can choose to not charge a ritual during the upkeep phase.
• A ritual can't be charged beyond it's capacitor: If it's charge capacitor number is 3 then and it already has 3 charges on it that Ritual can't get a 4:th charge.
• A ritual can only come into play from the resource pile when it's charge capacitor is full.
• When it comes into play the player removes all of it's charges.
• If a ritual should somehow be removed from the queue in any other way than it coming into play, it will lose all of it's charges.

Mounts

TODO: Mounts will most likely not be in the core set, if at all. Need very heavy playtesting to become a card type on their own.

Many intelligent enough creatures have mastered the art to tame and ride members of other species. The mounts are used as tools and companions by the inhabitants of Irdya, they're there to serve their owners, willingly or not.

1. To play a mount it's gold cost must be paid and it must also meet the faction prerequisites (one or more creatures under your control in the front where you want to play the mount must share faction with the mount).
2. Mounts are a subtype to the creature type.
3. Mounts can only be mounted by a non-mount creature. A mount may only carry one creature.
4. The creature that uses a mount is defined as it's rider.
5. Mounts can never attack if they lack a rider.
6. Mounts can however always be used to block incoming attacks, even if they lack rider.
7. Mounts have abilities, but they're usually only in effect when they're mounted. In some cases they're transferred to whoever is riding them.
8. When an opponent wants to target a creature that is riding a mount he/she must target the mount instead.
9. When riders on a mount are in combat it's the mounts combat stats that are used, not the riders.
10. Riders can still use their normal abilities.
11. When a mount is killed damage always spills over/tramples to the creature that was riding it. (But the rider doesn't strike back.)
12. When mounts die the rider "falls off", getting marked if (s)he wasn't already.
13. Hopping up on a mount marks both rider and mount. Hopping off does not mark the rider.

Heroes

Heroes are prominent and renown characters in special leading positions within each faction. Each player brings one single Hero to the game that is already in play for free when the game starts. The Hero is a representation of the player and will be around for the duration of the game.

Hero cards have the following info on them:

• Abilities and skills that the Hero knows.
• Loyalty points that the Hero brings with him/her for a certain faction.
• Victory Points required for you to win the game. *
• 'Influence Amount of influence you start the game with. If you reach 0 influence you lose the game. This is also the maximal amount of influence you can ever reach with that hero, regardless of card effects.
• Hand size, the maximum number of cards you may have in hand at the end of your turn.
• Starting Resources, amount of resource cards you are allowed to put down on the table during the first time you play resources.
• Default army total cost of your basic startup army on the table. If the Hero is multi-factioned each faction will have it's own max value allowed in the default army.

* These factors are still considered. They may be removed from the Hero's stats if balancing proves to become impossible.     by: {{{2}}}

Heroes are not:

• Considered to be Creatures - they are a special card type on their own. They Are always unaffected by cards and abilities that somehow affect Creatures. They can't be selected as "target creature" or be equipped.
• Having any ATK/DEF values, can't attack or defend in any capacity.
• Able to move or be within the Offensive or Defensive fronts.
• Able to mark/unmark/assign or be unassigned.

Abilities

Every Hero has a set of 0 to 4 abilities he/she will allow you to use if you can during your own turn if you just pay the price and meet the pre-requisites. The abilities are usually powerful and versatile. As a result of that you may only use one single Hero ability per turn, and only use it once.

Passive and triggered Hero abilities are however always in effect as they would have been on a normal creature.

Loyalty Points

All Heroes are strongly connected to a faction to which they pledge their loyalty. The faction they are most loyal to and can identify the strongest with is called the Hero's Primary Faction. While it is less common, a Hero can have ties to more than just one faction, and could for instance have connections to a Secondary or even a Tertiary faction. Heroes bring with them Loyalty Points for each individual faction they are associated with. The higher the point, the more powerful cards you will be able to play from that faction during the game. The Loyalty Points (LPs) vary from 1 up to 3.

Countering

Many Heroes are at least as knowledgeable as their opponents and have the ability to counter any of their activated abilities, meaning the ones that cost gold to activate. When that happens the effects of the ability are nullified and nothing happens. Here is how to do it:

Prerequisite

In order to be able to counter an enemy Hero's acivated gold cost ability you need to make sure the following can be met. You have to have at least:

1. Spendable gold equal to the cost for the enemy Hero's ability + 1. Example: If enemy Hero tries to use an ability that costs 5 gold, you need to make sure you have at least 6 gold available that you can spend on the counter.
2. 1 unused resource card left after paying the countering gold cost.
3. 1 card in hand.

Executing the counter

1. Pay the cost for the enemy Hero's ability + 1 gold.
2. Sacrifice 1 unused resource card.
3. Discard 1 random card from your hand.

Congratulations! You have now successfully countered the ability of the enemy Hero for the remainder of that turn.

Formats & Mods

These are suggestions that alone, by themselves, are either a) totally compatible with the ORC and function as additional rules or b) total replacements of their counterpart that's already in the ORC. Some of

Multiplayer formats

Triumnvirate

While WTactics is best played with 2 or 4 players there is plenty of fun to be had with the Triumvirate version of the game. It's a small change of rules that regulates which one of your two opponents you are allowed to attack during your turn. This mod is non-competitive, fun and can have challenging twists, making it perfect for casual play for three. Here's how to set it up all up:

Preparation

• Bring a normal dice (1d6)
• Assign each player a number from 1 to 3. Who gets what number is irrelevant and you can decide it in some random fashion if you can't agree.

First round

• Somebody rolls a dice: A result of 1-3 means that the first player will attack the opponent to his/her right once the game begins. 4-6 means that the player to the left will be attacked instead.
• Start the game as you would a normal one. Keep in mind who the first player is allowed to attack: That person is either located clockwise or counter-clockwise. The rest of the players should attack in the same clock-rotation, giving us a setup where every player has one single legit target and that target being different from everyone elses.

All other rounds

round vs turn What is described in this paragraph happens every new round, not every new turn. A round in a three player game is made up of three turns (the sum of each players individual turn)

• Let the next player re-roll the dice. 1-3: You continue in the same clockrotation. 4-6: You change rotation, so everyone gets a new target instead of the old one.
• A player is allowed to attack any target player he/she wants to and disregard the rotation set by the dice if he/she can afford to
  • Discard 3 cards in hand, randomly picked by the player he/she wants to be able to attack or
  • While no gold has bee spent yet, be able to mark all his/her gold.

Rule Mods

Open Mulligan

• Each player is only allowed one single Mulligan.
• When performing a Mulligan a player may keep up to two cards his hand, while re-shuffling the rest of it.
  • If the player does keep one or two cards then the must be shown to all other players. The player draws cards until he/she has 7 in hand once again, and then keeps them.
• If the player did not keep one of the cards during the opening draw he/she draws 7 new cards as usual. The player may not perform another mulligan though after that.