Alicematic Heroes Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Starting Guide
• Components
  • Lore of the Lands
• Setup
• How to Play
  • Step 1: Politics
    • Summoning an Alice
    • Card Effects
    • Playing a Commoner
  • Step 2: Invasion
    • Empty spaces / Cities with spaces left
    • Spaces that are "under attack" by other players
    • Occupied spaces that do not connect to a City of the occupying player
    • Military Power
    • Mobility
    • Not enough Military Power or Mobility?
    • Enough Military Power or Mobility?
    • Mystic Forests
• The Final Scoring
• FAQ
  • Alice Rulings

Starting Guide

Welcome to Wonderland! You will play as the Queen of Hearts, Mad Hatter, Humpty Dumpty, the March Hare, or the Cheshire Cat. Once you choose the Kingdom you control, you will empower this Kingdom with an army of Alices and try fight for control of Wonderland.

To set up the game, you draw a number of tiles determined by the amount of players in the game.

Place your Kingdom cards and Territory tokens in your play area, draw 5 Alice cards, and start the game!

The basic idea is to invade as many map tiles as possible! The game ends after 14 rounds, and you will get victory points for having the majority on each tile.

Step 1 — On your turn, first you play a card to empower your Kingdom! With enough resources, you can play it face up, or you can play it face down as a Commoner.

Step 2 — You can attack any space next to a City you control (if you have enough Military Power). But if it's too far away, or too strong for you, you must wait...

If you can invade it, it's yours! Mark it as yours! You have a new Territory! And you get an invasion bonus, one for each card in that color! But... if you haven't empowered that color, you get no bonus...

In the middle of each map tile, there's a City. Invading a City will gain you Victory Points and tactical advantages. Taking Cities is a bit hard, but totally worth it!

The map is randomly generated, and when combined with each Alice's strange powers, you get a tactical and very variable game with a lot of replay value!

Come on! It's time to unite the Wonderland!

Components

15 Map Tiles. Each Map Tile shows 7 spaces. The color of a space shows what kind of land you will find there. The space in the middle is always a purple City.

Lore of the Lands

• Red spaces (Sweet Lands). These are lands covered in sweets and lovely presents.
• Blue spaces (Star Gates). Space worlds enshrouded in surprise and the unknown.
• Yellow spaces (Nostalgic Operas). Nostalgic spaces that reminds everyone of home.
• Black spaces (Mystic Forests). Forests with extremely dangerous beasts that the Alices failed to defeat in the previous war. These spaces cannot be invaded, or even passed through, without the help of Alices and under special conditions.
• Green spaces (Nature's Power). Futuristic lands, were abandoned towns have been reclaimed by plants.
• White spaces (Calm Societies). Dystopian lands, completely controlled by law and religion.
• Purple spaces (Illusion Cities). Governing entities on man-made floating islands. According to old laws, invading Cities is subject to restrictions.

25 Kingdom cards. 5 sets of cards in five colors:

• Red (Military Power) — the amount of cards in this pile determines the level of territory you can invade.
• Blue (Draw Power) — the amount of cards in this pile determines how many cards you may draw after invading a blue territory.
• Yellow (Dream Power) — the amount of cards in this pile determines the strength of Alice cards that you are able to summon.
• Green (Mobility Power) — the amount of cards in this pile determines how many spaces away you can invade from a city that you control.
• White (Victory Power) — the amount of cards in this pile determines how many victory tokens you receive for invading a white space.

90 Alice cards. The front of these represent an Alice in one of the five colors each. The back of the cards represent a regular inhabitant (a Commoner) of Wonderland. The top left number (on the front) is the card's strength — how much Dream Power (yellow) you need to summon this Alice, and the text is the "Card Effects" — that Alice's special power.

80 Territory tokens. 5 sets of 16 tokens, 1 set per player. The front means "invaded", and the back represents "under attack".

60 resource tokens. 20 each in three colors: Red (Military), Yellow (Dream Power), and Green (Mobility).

40 Victory Point (VP) tokens. 15 large (10 / 30 VP's) and 25 small (1 / 3 VP's).

Setup

1. Shuffle the map tiles, and place them, face down, as the diagram shows, depending on the number of players (the diagram marks which tiles are used for 3, 4, or 5 players, building outward from the central tiles). Then, flip all of them face up. Please note that each tile can face any direction; that's also supposed to be random.

2. Each player chooses a Kingdom (Queen of Hearts, Humpty Dumpty, Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat, or March Hare) and takes the corresponding Kingdom cards and 16 territory tokens. Each player places their Kingdom cards in the Card Slots as shown below. Cards placed in the respective card slots represent Military Power (red), Population (blue), Dream Power (yellow), Mobility (green), and Order (white).

3. Shuffle the Alice cards, and deal 5 to each player. Mulligan: Each player may then, once, discard as many cards as she likes and redraw to 5 cards. Strategy Hint: Players should choose to discard higher level Alices or discard Alices whose color is repeated in your hand.

4. Place the Victory Point tokens and the resource tokens in a suitable place. This is called the "bank", and this is where people take tokens from when instructed to take them. When players pay tokens, they pay back to this bank.

5. Select start player in any suitable fashion. Then, starting with the start player and going clockwise around the table, each player picks any tile except the center tile and places one of their territory tokens on the City at the center of that tile.

   When all players have chosen one tile each, the above is repeated, but starting with the last player and going counter-clockwise, ending with the start player. All players now have 2 Cities.

   A player is allowed to place their tokens on a City where another player has already placed. Each City has, however, a maximum limit to how many territory tokens may be on it. (You can place a token on a City where you have already placed, but you will probably never want to do that.)

How to Play

This game is played over 14 rounds. When all 14 rounds have been played, Victory Points are totalled, and the player with most Victory Points wins. The game is played in turns, starting with the start player, and each turn has the following two steps:

• Step 1: Politics
• Step 2: Invasion

When all players have had a turn, that ends the round and a new one begins. When 14 rounds have been played, the game ends: proceed to scoring.

Step 1: Politics

The player must play one card from their hand (face up: Alice or face down: Commoner), into one of their five card slots, to empower their kingdom. If the player has no cards in hand, she instead draws 3 cards from the deck and skips the rest of her turn.

Each card slot cannot hold more than 4 cards (Alices and/or Commoners).

Summoning an Alice

In order to summon (play) an Alice into a card slot, the player needs Dream Power (yellow) equal to the top left number on the Alice she wishes to summon (for some Alices, this number is 0, meaning it can always be summoned).

A player's Dream Power is equal to the number of cards in her Dream Power (yellow) card slot. (Please note that these cards generating Dream Power aren't "paid" when summoning an Alice. They stay where they are.)

An Alice can only be summoned into the card slot of her own color. For example, you cannot summon a blue Alice into your Green card slot.

If the player doesn't have enough Dream Power, but has some yellow (Dream Power) resource tokens, she can pay those tokens to make up for her lack of Dream Power. Each token paid back to the bank counts as 1 extra Dream Power (for this turn only). Using tokens is the only way a player can summon an Alice with a cost above 4, since the max number of cards per card slot is 4.

Card Effects

When an Alice has been summoned to a card slot in a kingdom, her power — her Card Effects — takes effect immediately. The timing of each Card Effects is indicated by the text on the card. Card Effects are never mandatory, but you will almost always want to use them.

If there are several identical Alices in the same kingdom, their Card Effects do NOT stack; instead they are only applied once (the only exception is "Original Alice"). Please note that a Wiccan Alice does not count as "identical" to the Alice she copies (she is still a Wiccan Alice).

It may happen (due to Card Effects) that an Alice ends up in card slots of another color than their own. This is allowed, and those Alices' Card Effects are still applied.

If any Alice is flipped face down, she reverts into a Commoner and loses her Card Effects.

Playing a Commoner

Instead of summoning an Alice, the player can simply call for any Wonderland Commoner by playing a card face down into any of her card slots. This does not require any Dream Power. The player then draws a card.

Please note that: after playing a Commoner, the player draws a new card from the deck (this is often forgotten, but important).

A Commoner can be played as any color, so you can empower any card slot you want. Also, you get to draw a card, so your hand size doesn't decrease. However, Commoners don't have a Card Effect, and they also aren't worth any Victory Points at the end of the game.

Step 2: Invasion

The player picks any space on any map tile to invade. As a base rule, Mystic Forests and spaces that belong to other players cannot be invaded.

There are three types of spaces that can be invaded:

Empty spaces / Cities with spaces left

Occupied Cities can be invaded, if there is room left based on the number of spots there.

Spaces that are "under attack" by other players

Spaces that are "under attack" (see later) can be invaded, but only if the active player can invade them directly, and not just "attack" (see "under attack" later).

Occupied spaces that do not connect to a City of the occupying player

Even Spaces taken by other players can be invaded (stolen), but only if that space is not "connected" to a City of that player. However, the bonus that the invading player will get (see later) is halved, rounded down.

In order to actually invade a space, however, the player needs enough Military Power and Mobility. If not, the space cannot be invaded, but will only be "half-invaded" (or "under attack").

Military Power

Each space has a number that indicates its "invasion difficulty" level — how much Military Power a player needs to invade it. A player's military power is equal to the number of cards in her Military (red) card slot. The player may pay extra Military (red) tokens to make up for any lack. Each military token paid counts as +1 Military Power (for that turn only).

Mobility

Mobility is needed to invade far away. When invading a space on a map tile where the player has a City, no Mobility is needed. But on other tiles, the player needs as much Mobility as the number of steps from her closest City. A player's amount of Mobility is equal to the number of cards in her Mobility (green) card slot.

When counting the distance to a space, the player may not pass through Mystic Forests. Also, each time the player passes through another player's space, she needs 1 extra Mobility.

The player may pay Mobility (green) tokens to make up for any lack. Each Mobility token paid counts as +1 Mobility (for that turn only).

Don't forget that when counting from a City, a single step is always free, as it's always on the same tile as your City. However, 2 spaces away from the City requires 2 Mobility. You can only end up with a cost of 1 Mobility if you have an Astronaut Alice.

Not enough Military Power or Mobility?

If the player doesn't have enough Military Power or Mobility (or lacks both), a space can still be invaded, but it will take more time. Instead of placing the territory token face up, place it face down, showing "under attack".

If the same player invades the same space again on a later turn, the token is flipped, and the space is invaded.

Cities, however, cannot be "under attack" — the invasion must succeed directly. The same goes for spaces that are already "under attack" by another player - there, you have to succeed directly.

A player may leave a space "under attack" and may have any number of spaces "under attack". However, do note that such spaces can be invaded by any other player at any time.

Using resource tokens when invading is not mandatory. Meaning: a player who could have invaded a space by using tokens may refrain from doing so, and simply have the space "under attack".

No matter how far away, or how powerful a space, you can always invade it in 2 rounds. However, another player can invade a space you have under attack, and if they do, your turn has been wasted!

Enough Military Power or Mobility?

If the player has both enough Military Power and enough Mobility, she invades the space and places a territory token there. She also gets a valuable invasion bonus.

If the invaded space was stolen from another player, the bonus is halved, rounded down. (This halving of the bonus only happens if the space was actually held by the other player, not if it was only "under attack". Also, bonus tokens gained by Card Effects are not halved.) The player who lost the space must remove her territory token.

Red, Yellow, or Green spaces (Military Power, Dream Power, Mobility). When invading such a space, the player gains as many resource tokens as she has cards in the corresponding card slot. There is no upper limit as to how many resource tokens a player may have. The bank, however, is limited, and if it runs out, it runs out.

It may also happen that a player has no cards in the corresponding card slot, but they may still gain tokens because of a Card Effect.

Blue spaces (Population). When invading a blue space, the player gets to draw as many cards from the deck as she has cards in her Population (blue) card slot. There is no upper hand limit. If the deck runs out, shuffle the discards (if any) to form a new deck. If that also runs out, it runs out.

White spaces (Order). When invading a white space, the player simply gets as many Victory Points as she has cards in her Order (white) card slot.

Cities. When invading a City, the player gains 3 points. This City is now one of that player's Cities, which means that it may be the starting point for counting distance when invading, that there is no Mobility cost for invading spaces on that same map tile, and that territories connected to this City cannot be stolen.

If you take a City, you can more easily invade more spaces, without needing so much Mobility! All Cities are 3 spaces away from each other. So if you have at least 3 cards in your green slot, you can reach other Cities, and expand infinitely!

Mystic Forests

The Mystic Forests (black spaces) are home to the very powerful Nothing that even the invincible Alices could not defeat. A Mystic Forest cannot normally be invaded, nor passed through (Alice Megalomanias may break these rules). However, if a Mystic Forest is completely surrounded by player-owned spaces, they can be invaded and passed through.

However, the only player who can attempt an invasion of a Mystic Forest is the strongest one there — that is, the player who controls the most spaces surrounding the Mystic Forest. If there are several players with the same number of spaces surrounding it, it's first to the mill.

A Mystic Forest requires the same amount of Military Power as the number of spaces surrounding it, and that number is also how many Victory Points a player gets for invading it. However, like Cities, Mystic Forests cannot be "under attack": the invasion must succeed directly.

A Mystic Forest that has been taken by another player but is not connected to a City of that player, like other areas, can be invaded. But as usual, the bonus (in this case, Victory Points) is halved (rounded down).

A Forest is always a Forest, even if taken by another player. A Forest surrounded by 8 spaces still requires 8 Military Power to invade — it does not revert to a lower number if the surrounding territories change hands.

The Final Scoring

When the game ends, perform the final scoring, and then the player with the most Victory Points wins. In case of a tie, the number of Alices breaks the tie. If the tie remains, it's a shared victory.

1. For each map tile, the player with the most territory tokens on it gets 6 Victory Points. The player with the second-most gets 3 points.

   In case of a tie for territory tokens, the number of Alices each player has breaks the tie. Of those tied, the player with the most Alices gets 6 points, the runner-up gets 3 Victory Points (and any remaining players get none).

   If a tie for first still remains (all have the same number of Alices), all of them get 3 Victory Points and any others get none.

   A tie for second (or third) gives nothing to the tied players.

2. For each card slot, the player(s) with the most Alices in that color gains that many Victory Points. If tied for most, all those tied players get the points.

3. Lastly, add any final Victory Points from Alice Card Effects. Note that "Original Alice" effects stack.

FAQ

Do all face up Alice powers activate or just the last one played on a color? ALL face up Alices are active at all times.

How do I play Alices of a higher level? In order to play Alices of a higher level you need Dream Power equal to their level, which can be a combination of the cards in your Dream Power (yellow) slot and Yellow tokens.

Can card effects be stacked? No, with the exception of Original Alice, you cannot stack Card Effects with multiples of the same Alice.

Are new commoners placed under Alice cards? Commoners (face down cards), as well as new Alices (face up cards), are all placed on the various colors (card slots) in your kingdom, so that they slightly overlap. You don't place cards underneath each other, but there is no real meaning to in which order you keep them.

Am I allowed to take an opponent's territory? Enemy territories that are connected to an opponent's city cannot be captured. However if an enemy territory is not connected to that player's city, you can capture said territory as if it was not occupied. The previous occupant's token is then returned to said player.

Alice Rulings

Jet Alice. Jet Alice cannot be used to "directly succeed" when invading a space for which you lack Military Power and/or Food but you are not allowed to have "under attack" (such as, a space "under attack" by another player, a City, or a Mystic Forest).

Fighter / Cheergirl / Wonder Alice. If no other player has a corresponding token, you don't gain (steal) anything.

Demonlord Alice. This card does not overwrite the rule that you must have the majority of surrounding spaces when invading a Mystic Forest.

Valkyrie Alice. The Card Effect of a flipped Alice is lost immediately. For example, if a Ninja Alice is flipped to increase your Military Power when attacking a City, the Ninja Alice effect is lost before the attack happens.

Detective Alice. The Alice you flip face up may very well be of the "wrong" color; this is allowed and not a problem.

Wiccan Alice. You may copy the effect of Little Alice or Hunter Alice; this counts as if the Wiccan Alice has gained their effect and has just been "revealed".

Little / Hunter Alice. If these are flipped to Commoners, and then flipped back face up, their effect happens again.

Astronaut Alice. Astronaut Alice lets you count invasion distance not from your Cities, but from any space you have invaded — even those not connected to your Cities. Any adjacent space is thus 1 Mobility.

Knight Alice. Knight Alice gains you 1 red resource each time a card is placed in the red card slot; regardless of whether it's an Alice (face up) or a Commoner (face down).