1212 Las Navas de Tolosa Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • Game board
  • Units
  • Combat cards
• Objective
• Deployment
• How to Play
  • Initiative phase
  • Action phase
  • Maintenance phase
  • End of the game
• Available Actions
  • How to move the troops
• Combat Actions
  • Archer attack
  • Standard attacks, Cavalry charges and karr wa-l-farr
  • Standard attack
  • Muslim cavalry charge
  • Christian cavalry charge
  • Karr wa-l-farr
• Other Actions
  • Rally
  • Switch cards
• Modifiers
  • Special Muslim units
  • For the King
• Advanced Variant
  • Muslims
  • Christians
• Victory Conditions

Components

• Game board
• 6 Reference cards
• 54 Unit markers
• 9 Combat cards
• 12 Special cards

Game board

The battlefield is represented by a board of 18 zones, divided into two areas of 9 zones: the Christian area and the Muslim area. Within each zone are the coordinates used as a reference to place the units at the beginning of the game.

The illustrations on the board representing terrain elements are purely decorative for ambience, but there are no rules associated with them. The Almohad coat of arms only serves to identify where the Almohad player should be placed, while the Christian kingdoms' coats of arms help to identify the different columns in which to place the Christian army (see the "For the King" rules below).

Units

Each unit represents in an abstract and simplified form a varied contingent of troops that can range from 400 to 800 men, although the illustration of some units may reference specific individuals who participated in the battle.

Each unit marker shows:

1. Power: This value represents both the attack and defense power of a unit, and changes depending on which face of the marker is displayed at any given time.
2. Types of attack: There are 2 different icons (archer and cavalry) to identify the combat actions that units can perform, apart from the standard attack that everyone can do.
3. Coat of arms: The coats of arms of the Christian kingdoms are used to identify to which column of the Christian army the unit belongs (see the "For the King" rules below). The Almohad coat of arms is included to identify the units of the Muslim side.
4. Deployment position: This coordinate indicates the zone in which the unit must be placed at the start of the game.
5. Star: The star is used to identify units associated to the special cards used in the advanced variant.

Combat cards

The main deck of the game includes 9 cards with two numbers, a green one at the top, always related to the Muslim side, and a red one at the bottom, always related to the Christian side. The distribution of the numbers on the cards is asymmetrical.

The coats of arms of the Christian kingdoms (Aragon, Castile and Navarre) are also relevant in the game, and relate to the column that each king commanded on the battlefield (see the "For the King" rules below). The Almohad coat of arms works as a reminder of its section of the card.

Objective

As the player on the Christian side, you will have to raze the camp of Caliph al-Nasir, and the player on the Muslim side will have to stop the Christian advance to win the battle. Both sides share a path to victory if either side manages to dominate the battlefield with twice as many occupied zones as their opponent.

Deployment

Place the markers in the zone of the game board indicated in the upper right corner, all of them showing the face with 2 Power, and without stacking them. The distribution of the units within a zone is not important.

Shuffle the deck of combat cards (with all 9 cards) and place it face down next to the board forming the game deck.

Allow space for the different areas: the Muslim initiative area and the Active Muslim card area on the Muslim side, the Christian initiative area and the Active Christian card area on the Christian side, and the game deck and the discard pile between them.

Once all these elements are placed, decide which side each player will handle and they draw 3 cards from the deck each. These cards are the initial hand of cards.

How to Play

You will start each round with 3 cards in your hand, and this sequence is repeated round after round: Initiative phase, Action phase, Maintenance phase.

Initiative phase

At the beginning of each round, each player places one of their cards face down as an initiative card, in its corresponding area, next to the deck of cards.

Next, reveal both cards to see who has played the higher value card (remember that the green numbers belong to the Muslim side and the red numbers to the Christian side). The player with the highest value card wins the initiative of the round and plays a card first in the Action phase. In case of a tie, the Christian side always wins the initiative.

Initiative cards remain face up in the initiative area until the Maintenance phase.

Example: Alba, who controls the Muslim side, has played a 3, and her opponent, Luis, has also played a 3. Therefore, Luis wins the initiative since, in case of a tie, the Christian side wins the initiative.

Action phase

Players play alternate turns, starting with whoever has won the initiative, playing a card to use the value as action points.

Place the card on your side, in the area marked as "Active card". On your turn, you will have as many action points as indicated on your section of the card you played.

You can spend these points to move your units and perform attacks, as you will learn in the "Available actions" section later on.

You must announce and resolve your actions one by one, subtracting their cost from the points available when you do them.

Example: Luis decides to play a card valued 4, so he has 4 action points available. He could, for example, spend them to first make an attack with Archers (1 point) and then a Cavalry Charge (3 points).

Some actions will exhaust your units, which you must mark by slightly tilting the affected units.

Once you have spent all your action points, or if you want to end your turn, the turn ends. Any unspent points during the turn are lost, they are not kept for your next turn. Place the played card face up in the discard pile and straighten up any exhausted units.

Example: Luis has finished his turn, so he straightens up his exhausted units and places his active card in the discard pile.

The turn of the other player starts by choosing one of their two cards to play, thus getting the points printed on the card to perform any actions they want.

By doing this, you play alternate turns until neither player has any more cards left to play.

Repeat this phase for each of the players' cards, i.e., you will play a total of 4 turns (2 turns per side).

Maintenance phase

When there are no more cards to play, the maintenance phase begins. First, retrieve your cards from the initiative area, which will return to your hands for the next round. Next, shuffle the deck and the discard pile to form a new game deck. Finally, each player draws 2 cards from the deck to replenish the 3 cards in their hands and start a new round.

Example: At the end of the round, Alba and Luis recover their initiative cards, they shuffle the remaining cards to form a new deck and draw 2 cards each.

End of the game

The rounds follow one after the other as described above, until one of the players succeeds in fulfilling one of the victory conditions specified at the end of this rulebook. Then, the game ends immediately without finishing the round in play.

Available Actions

Most of the actions are similar for both sides, although they have different costs and limitations, which leads to a highly asymmetric strategy for each player. In addition to reading this section of the rules carefully, it is advisable to have the reference cards at hand for your first games, where you will find a summary of the costs and limitations applicable to each side.

How to move the troops

When you move units on the board, keep the following in mind:

• You cannot exceed the limit of 3 units per zone, regardless of their Power value.
• Units from both sides cannot be in the same zone.
• Christian units cannot leave their king's column.
• Units cannot leave the battlefield unless they are eliminated.
• A zone where there is at least one unit of either side is considered occupied by that side.

Movement: Both players can spend 1 action point to move any number of units from a single zone controlled by them to an adjacent zone not occupied by the opponent, without exceeding the limit of 3 units per zone. If the destination zone is empty, all units must be moved from the zone of origin to the destination zone, leaving none behind.

Muslim movement: Muslim units can move in any direction, including diagonals, except for the units located in zone B1 (al-Nasir and his Black Guard) which cannot move and must remain in that zone. (The printed rulebook says "B2" here; the Black Guard rules elsewhere give B1.)

Christian movement: Christian units have more restrictive movement rules, they can only move forward and backward (the units can never switch columns). In addition, the Christian side player must spend 1 extra action point (2 in total) to move their units to an empty zone if that zone is in the Muslim area of the board.

Combat Actions

There are 3 main types of combat actions: archer attacks, standard attacks and cavalry charges. Additionally, the Muslim side player also has a special free action (karr wa-l-farr) that they can use as a reaction to Christian cavalry charges.

Combat actions are always performed from one specific zone of the board to another, i.e., units from different zones cannot be used to coordinate an attack, nor can several zones be attacked simultaneously. When you declare a combat action, you must also indicate which troops you are using and where they are attacking.

Damage: All combat actions deal damage. Damage is applied to the units in the attacked zone and it is up to the player controlling that zone to decide how to distribute the damage among the units. An unharmed unit that takes 1 point of damage is flipped over to show its 1 Power face. If it takes another damage point, it is eliminated from the game. In this way, when you take damage from an enemy attack, you can distribute the damage points any way you like. Eliminated units cannot return to the board.

If the total damage points are equal to or higher than the total power of the units in that zone, all units are eliminated and the zone is emptied, and any remaining damage is lost.

Exhaustion: Any unit performing a combat action (except those performing a karr wa-l-farr), or a Rally action (see the action "Rally" later on), is exhausted. In contrast, Movement actions do not cause exhaustion. Exhaustion indicates that a unit cannot attack or rally again that turn, but it can still move. To indicate exhaustion, and as a reminder of which units cannot attack or rally, slightly tilt the affected unit. By the end of the turn, when the active player has finished spending the action points from their card, all units are straightened to their "unexhausted" position.

Attack limitations: You can perform up to 2 combat actions per turn, and only one of them can be an Archer attack. You can spend the remaining action points on other types of actions.

Archer attack

This combat action allows to shoot with an "unexhausted" unit with the archer icon, to a zone occupied by the adversary at a distance of 2 zones. This attack can be made in any direction, laterally and/or diagonally, but must be made at a distance of 2 zones, never at an adjacent zone. Once the action is performed, the unit with the archer icon is exhausted.

The player on the Christian side must spend 1 action point to perform this type of attack and inflicts 1 damage point in the opponent's zone. The player on the Muslim side must spend 2 action points to perform this type of attack and inflicts 2 damage points in the opponent's zone. Remember that you can only perform 1 archer attack per turn.

Standard attacks, Cavalry charges and karr wa-l-farr

Any unexhausted unit in a zone can join a standard attack. However, to do a cavalry charge, at least one unexhausted unit in the zone from which the attack is made must have the cavalry icon. The rest of the unexhausted units in the zone can join the cavalry charge even if they do not have the cavalry icon. When you announce one of these combat actions, you must declare which unexhausted units present in the zone will join the attack. Remember that all units joining the attack will suffer exhaustion and will not be able to attack or rally again that turn, although they can still move.

Unlike archer attacks, these actions can only be performed against adjacent zones and inflict variable damage. To determine the result of an attack, draw 1 card from the game deck and place it face up in the discard pile. Add the card value and the power value of all units involved in the combat, as well as the applicable modifiers described later on, and compare the values for both sides. The difference between these values will be the amount of damage points inflicted on the side that lost the combat. In case of a tie, both sides will receive 1 damage point.

If you suffer damage as an attacker, you can distribute that damage among all units in your zone, including those that did not join the attack.

At the time of resolving one of these attacks, if there are no cards left in the game deck, turn the discard pile over and place it in the area of the game deck WITHOUT SHUFFLING it, in the same order in which the cards were discarded, thus becoming the new game deck. Therefore, it is important to try to remember in which order the cards were played and discarded, in order to foresee what the results of future battles may be. It is not possible to look at the decks during the game: the only information available to the players are the revealed cards and the cards in their hands.

Example: Alba, playing on the Muslim side, makes a standard attack with all her Jihad Volunteer units against the Christian occupied C4 zone. She gets a -1 power modifier for the type of attack and +1 for being a special unit (see modifiers later on). Her 3 units have 6 power in total, so she totals 6 - 1 + 1 + the Muslim card value 1 = 7. The Christian zone has 4 power plus the Christian card value 6 = 10. The card that resolves the battle gives 6 to the Christian side and 1 to the Muslim side, resulting in 10-7 in favor of the Christian side. The Muslim side suffers 3 damage points (10-7=3), so Alba decides to flip her three units to show their 1-power face as a result. She could, if she wishes, lose one unit and flip another, although as a general rule it is better to flip several units than to eliminate one, which gives you the opportunity to rally them on a later turn (see "Rally" later on).

Standard attack

This combat action can be performed in any direction, including diagonally, and the units do not advance in case of a victory.

• The player on the Christian side must spend 2 action points and gets a +2 attack power bonus.
• The player on the Muslim side must spend 1 action point and suffers a -1 attack power penalty.

Muslim cavalry charge

This combat action can be performed in any direction, even diagonally. The Muslim side player must spend 3 action points and gets a +2 attack power bonus. In addition, if as a result of the attack all the opposing units in the target zone are eliminated, the Muslim side player can immediately perform a free Move action to occupy the now empty target zone with all the units in the zone where the attack originated.

Christian cavalry charge

This combat action can only be performed forward, directing the attack frontally, for which the Christian side player must spend 3 action points and gets +5 attack power.

If the attack targets a zone containing an opposing unit with the cavalry icon, after declaring the attack and before resolving it, the Christian side player must ask the opponent if they want to use karr wa-l-farr (see "Karr wa-l-farr").

If the cavalry charge results in the elimination of all opposing units in the target zone, the player on the Christian side must move all units from the zone where the attack originated to the now empty zone. In addition, all Christian units in consecutive zones of the same column behind the zone where the attack originated must also advance one zone, i.e. the whole column advances behind them. All these movements are free but mandatory.

Karr wa-l-farr

This Muslim special action is free and can only be performed by the Muslim side during the opponent's turn when a zone in which there is a unit with the cavalry icon is the target of a Christian cavalry charge.

Before resolving the Christian cavalry charge, the Muslim side player must declare if they want to use karr wa-l-farr. If they choose to do so, after the Christian cavalry charge is resolved, another battle will take place, this time with the Muslim side as the attacker and benefiting from a +2 attack power modifier, and with the Christian side as the defender with no modifiers.

The attacking Muslim units are those that have survived the Christian cavalry charge or, if they have been eliminated and the Christian player has occupied the zone, all the units in the next zone of the same column. If that zone is empty or the Christian troops have been eliminated as a result of the Christian cavalry charge, no second combat takes place.

Example of resolution of a Christian cavalry charge and subsequent karr wa-l-farr: In the first combat, the Christian troops of Luis manage to make a very successful cavalry charge, eliminating all the Muslim units of zone B2 (8 damage), so his troops advance. The Christian side totals 6+5+5 = 16 against the Muslim 8. However, in the second combat (the karr wa-l-farr), it is the Muslim troops of the B1 zone that achieve the victory and deal 3 damage to the Christian troops that have just occupied the B2 zone. In both cases, the modifiers of each type of attack have been taken into account, +5 power for the charge of the Christian cavalry and +2 power for the karr wa-l-farr.

Other Actions

Rally

Allows you to return an unexhausted unit to its 2-Power face. After performing the action, the rallied unit is exhausted. This costs 1 action point.

Switch cards

With this action you can spend 1 action point to exchange the card in your opponent's initiative area for your own. In addition, for 1 extra action point (2 in total) you can shield this card until the end of the round, i.e. prevent your opponent from doing the same action on their turn. This is the only way to protect an initiative card and prevent it from being switched.

Modifiers

Special Muslim units

Some Muslim units have special abilities and modifiers:

• The units of Caliph al-Nasir and his Black Guard (zone B1) cannot Move but, if the Christian side player makes a standard attack or cavalry charge against zone B1, the Muslim side player gets a +2 defense power bonus. These units may also join as attackers in combat actions as usual, but with no special modifiers other than those applicable according to the type of combat action performed.
• The units of Jihad Volunteers (zone B3) also have special conditions.
  • The Muslim side player gets a +1 power bonus for any standard attack and cavalry charge in which at least one Volunteer unit joined the attack. If as a consequence of such an attack all opposing units in the target zone are eliminated, then the Muslim side player must move all units from the zone where the attack originated to the now unoccupied zone.
  • On the other hand, if a zone with at least one Jihad Volunteer unit is the target of a standard attack or a Christian cavalry charge, the Muslim side player will suffer a -1 defense power penalty when resolving the attack.

For the King

The Christian army is divided into three columns, each of them linked to one of the three Christian kings. If the Christian side player performs a standard attack, or a cavalry charge, from a column whose coat of arms matches that of the active card used to get action points, they get a +1 attack power bonus, to be added to any other modifiers, if any. The position of the Christian kings' coat of arms matches the position of their column on the battlefield (e.g. the coat of arms of king Sancho VII of Navarre, located at the right of the card, refers to the right column of the battlefield). Left column: Aragon. Center column: Castile. Right column: Navarre.

Advanced Variant

This variant adds variety and more historical flavor, and is very easy to implement. Still, it is recommended to play a few games with the basic rules to learn the standard strategies of both sides before trying this variant.

In this variant, before the start of the game, each side shuffles its 6 special cards, which are different for each side, and draws 3 of them. Then, they discard one of those cards face down and keep the other 2 cards hidden from their opponent.

These cards can only be used once and require you to spend action points, the description of the card will tell you when to use them. Each card includes an illustration of a type of unit present on the battlefield, to which it is related. If these units are eliminated, the related card can no longer be used.

This is the list of units related to special cards of the advanced variant and their effect in the game:

Muslims

• Al-Nasir: During your turn, you can use this card to get 2 additional action points.
• Al-Husayni: At the beginning of the maintenance phase, you can play this card to find a card in the discard pile or in the game deck to switch it for the card located in your initiative area, to draw it and have it in your hand for the next round.
• Black Guard: During your opponent's turn, before resolving a standard attack or cavalry charge against al-Nasir's zone (B1), you can use this card to automatically inflict 2 damage points to the zone where the attack originated.
• Jund Infantry: During your opponent's turn, if they succeed to eliminate all units after making a cavalry charge against an area where there is at least one Jund infantry unit, you can use this card to stop the advance of the Christian column.
• Kurdish cavalry: During your opponent's turn, after declaring a cavalry charge against a zone where there is at least one Kurdish cavalry unit, and after declaring a karr wa-l-farr, but before resolving the charge, you can use this card to automatically inflict 2 damage points to the zone where the attack originated.
• Jihad Volunteers: During your opponent's turn, if after resolving a standard attack or cavalry charge all Jihad Volunteer units are eliminated, you can use this card to automatically inflict 2 damage points to the zone where the attack originated.

Christians

• Alfonso VIII: During your turn, you can use this card to get 2 additional action points.
• Peter II: During your turn, you can use this card to perform a free movement action to an empty zone if there is at least one unit from the Aragonese column (left column) with the cavalry icon joining the movement.
• Sancho VII: During your turn, before resolving a standard attack of the Navarrese column (right column) against the central column, you can use this card to get a +2 attack power bonus.
• Lopez de Haro: During your turn, before resolving a standard attack or a cavalry charge that is joined by the Lopez de Haro unit, you can use this card to get a +2 attack power bonus.
• Jimenez de Rada: During your turn, you can use this card to look at a random card in your opponent's hand (you cannot look at their special cards).
• Council Militia: At the start of your turn, you can use this card to rally all units in zones where there is at least one Council Militia unit, free of charge and without suffering exhaustion.

Victory Conditions

When a victory condition is met, the side that achieves it wins immediately, without ending the turn. These are the cases:

• The Christian side player wins if the Caliph al-Nasir's unit is eliminated.
• The Muslim side player wins if the Christian side player is not occupying any zones in the Muslim area and there are 4 or less Christian occupied zones in the battlefield.
• Either side wins if it manages to occupy twice or more zones on the battlefield than those occupied by its opponent.

In the event that several of these conditions occur simultaneously, the above list determines priority, i.e., the elimination of the caliph gives victory to the Christian side, even if the Muslim side fulfills any of the other conditions.