Before I left for my sabbatical, the grey ninja and I bounced ideas back and forth and came up with a new game that can be played with a standard deck of cards. This post will initiate its beta testing; try it out and leave feedback. 2 Players Materials: a standard deck of cards with two jokers Objective Leave the enemy army leaderless. Without a leader, the enemy army will flee in disorder, leaving you victorious. Card Names and Valuations All cards not bearing your emblem (suit) are “observers.” Note that Assassins can fight under any emblem, or they may be considered observers. A | Diplomat | 1 | 2-10 | Minions | face value | J | Leaders | 1 | Q | | 2 | K | | 3 | Joker | Assassin | 0 |
Setup 1. Each player takes 1 card (the catalyst) from the deck and places it to the side, face up. The player with the lowest card valuation is player 1. If card valuations tie, discard these cards and repeat. 2. Deal 12 cards to each player’s hand. The remaining cards become the draw deck. 3. Player 1 chooses an emblem (suit) and deploys (treat it as a regroup phase, described below). Then player 2 chooses a different emblem and deploys. At the start of a players first deployment, that player must field a leader (as described below) either from hand or using the catalyst from step 1*. If a player fields a leader from hand, that player may take his catalyst into his hand. * Before fielding his first general, a player may first discard his hand and draw 2 cards less than were discarded. This may be repeated until a player has only two cards in hand, though it is not recommended. 4. Play then proceeds in turns starting with player 1 until the objective is met. Important Notes 1. Whenever the draw deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile and make it the new draw deck. Unless both players agree, the shuffle should only take place after the current draw deck is completely depleted. (See optional rules for an additional recommendation.) 2. At any time, you may look at your own face-down cards covertly. 3. Once a card is turned face up, it remains face up until it is discarded. The Basic Turn 1. Fate Phase: draw two cards 2. Attack Phase: attack once, if desired 3. Regroup Phase: recruit, reinforce, or reorganize as many times as desired The Basic Attack Choose one of your minions in play to attack. The enemy chooses one of his minions in play to defend. If the enemy has no minions in play, the enemy’s leaders are exposed, and one of them must defend. Flip both cards face-up. The higher valuation wins; discard the lower card. If the minions tie, both are discarded. Remember, once a card is turned face up, it remains face up until it is discarded. Note: Because of Diplomat rules below, it is helpful if the defender reveals first. Recruit Discard two observers to draw a card. Reinforce To field a minion, diplomat, or assassin, place it face down in a row with your other deployed minions. There is no cost to do so. To field a leader, place it face up behind your minion row. To do so, you must discard observers equal in number to the valuation of the leader (eg: to play a King, you must discard three observers). Reorganize You can assign a minion to a leader’s horde (see Leaders below). To do so, discard one observer for each minion so assigned. You can also remove a minion from a leader’s horde, or dissolve a leader’s horde entirely. There is no cost to do so. Leaders and their Hordes Field diplomats face up in your second row. To do so, you must discard observers equal in number to the valuation of the leader (eg: to play a King, you must discard three observers). Leaders are exempt to the “ties die” rule. If a leader is part of a skirmish involving a tie, other discards happen as normal, but the leader remains. Besides being central to the objective of the game by keeping your army motivated, leaders can amass a horde of minions. When a leader forms a horde, he joins the front row. The leader and his entire horde should be arranged so that they are clearly together and so that each card can be seen (cards that are still face down should remain face down). There can only be one leader per horde. When attacking, a leader or a leader-lead horde may choose the defender. The defender must be on the front row unless the enemy’s front row is decimated, exposing the leaders. A horde attacks and defends en masse. Use the horde’s total card valuation for comparing winners and losers. HOWEVER, a horde incurs losses up to the total valuation of the opposing force, starting with the hordes lowest valued, non-leader card. EXAMPLE: if a Queen-led horde of an 8, a 5, and an Ace, denoted Q(8, 5, A) attacks the enemy’s 9, the horde is victorious. The 9 is discarded. However, the horde discards its Ace first, and then its 5. The 8 is not discarded because it would put the casualties above the enemy’s valuation. The Queen remains; she would only be discarded last, if necessary, because she is a leader. Remember that leaders survive a tie, so if two equally valued hordes, all the minions and diplomats would be discarded, but the leaders would survive. Diplomats Field diplomats face down, as though they were normal minions. Diplomats can fight and join hordes just like any minion. In addition, a diplomat may sacrifice himself to cancel a skirmish. If you were attacking, diplomats can only cancel the skirmish if the diplomat was part of the attack. If defending, the diplomat may cancel the skirmish from anywhere in play (ie: it must already be deployed). The skirmish may be canceled either before any cards in the skirmish are revealed or after all cards in the skirmish are revealed. (Cards turned face up stay face up.) When a skirmish is canceled, discard the diplomat AND ANY ASSASSIN that was revealed. If a diplomat cancels a battle, he also defeats any associated assassination attempts. No other cards are discarded. Assassins Assassins may fight under any emblem, or they may be relegated to observer status. Field assassins face down, as though they were normal minions. Assassins MAY NOT JOIN HORDES. This rule may seem to flag assassins for easy identification. However, as you play the game, you will find that it is almost always useful to have minions that are not attached to a horde, and so assassins can blend into a well-organized army. When an attacking or defending assassin is revealed, the assassin is always discarded (even if the attack is canceled by a diplomat). If the attack is not canceled, the assassin may strike down any leader involved in the skirmish (discard that leader and disperse the horde into individual minions). Optional Rules Note: The first (rotating observers) is recommended. Rotating Observers (they might get bored, after all) It is often helpful to avoid discarding observers bearing the enemy’s emblem, especial those with high face values. However, with both players doing this, the game can stagnate. Therefore, AFTER each reshuffling of the deck is reshuffled, I recommend each player discards his entire hand and draws a cards equal in number to those discarded. Hostages If one of your observers is a leader bearing the enemy’s emblem, you may play it to your hostage area (behind your leader row). You may cancel any one attack by releasing ALL current hostages to the enemy’s hand. (See the Diplomat section for rules on canceled attacks.) One-track minions You don’t need leaders at all; your minions are motivated, dedicated, coordinated, bloodthirsty, or perhaps receiving orders from off the battlefield. The objective becomes to destroy the entire enemy army. (The biggest part of the game affected is army selection at the beginning of the game). Be Creative Feel free to play using other rules you feel would add to the play or style of the game. Please let me know of any particularly helpful or interesting rules. Questions (please give feedback) The name of the game is tentative. We needed some name, though, because my family had taken to calling it "Andrew's War." We originally called observers “resources.” Is that more intuitive? What else would you call the extra cards? When the game was first conceived, the leaders could engage in duels. I don’t remember the rules for that. If you know, or if you have a new suggestion for dueling rules, please let me know. Any ideas for including more players? Any other feedback? | 
