Allegiance: A Realm Divided Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Game Contents
• Game Setup
  • Layout of Play Area
• Game Pieces
  • Resource Board
    • Layout of a Resource Board
    • Using Glass Beads to Track Resources
  • Hero Board
    • Layout of a Hero Board
  • Hero Abilities
    • Layout of Hero Abilities
  • Shared Card Decks
    • Unit Cards
      • Layout of Unit Cards
    • Action Cards
      • Split Action Cards
      • Layout of Action Cards
  • Hero-Specific Cards
    • Weapons and Armor
      • Weapon Cards
      • Armor Cards
      • Layout of Weapon and Armor Cards
    • Special Cards
      • Layout of Special Cards
• Initial Gameplay Concepts
  • Maneuvers
  • Exhaust and Refresh
• Gameplay Flow
  • Beginning the Game
  • Phases of the Turn
    • Production Phase
    • Refresh Phase
    • Draw Phase
    • Maneuver Phase
    • End of Turn Phase
  • Gameplay Continued and Winning the Game
• Additional Gameplay Concepts
  • Selecting Targets
  • Destroying Units
  • Damage
    • Healing Damage
    • Preventing Damage
    • Battle Damage
  • Counters
    • Damage Counters
    • Augment Counters
    • Cooldown Counters
    • Other Counters
  • Equipping Weapons and Armor
• Maneuvers
  • Types of Maneuvers
  • Announcing and Resolving Maneuvers
  • Reaction Maneuvers
    • Reaction Abilities
  • Maneuvers in Detail
    • Unlocking Hero Abilities
    • Using Hero Abilities
    • Enlisting Units
    • Playing Action Cards
    • Initiating a Battle
    • Using Abilities of Cards in Play
• Battles
  • Initiating a Battle
  • Steps of a Battle
  • Declare Attackers
  • Assign Defenders
  • Deal Battle Damage
  • Using Armor to Prevent Battle Damage
  • End of a Battle
• Timing of Maneuvers and Responses
  • Announcing and Resolving Maneuvers
  • Turn Priority and Gameplay Shortcuts
  • Examples of Maneuvers and Responses
• Final Gameplay Concepts
  • Hands and Public Information
  • Discarding Cards
  • Readying a Hero Ability
  • Choose vs. Select Target
  • Temporary Attack Power Modifiers
  • Cards that Attach
  • Triggered Effects
  • Territories and Control of Cards
  • Flavor and Clarifying Text
  • Rules Conflicts
• Ready to Play
• Gameplay Formats
  • Two-Player Games
    • General Two-Player Rules
    • Standard Two-Player Game
    • Competitive Match
  • Multiplayer Games
    • General Multiplayer Rules
    • Free-for-All Format
    • Sworn Enemy Format
    • Team Game Format
• Sample Turns of a Game
  • Pre-Game
  • Turn 1 – Paul (Beledan Kind)
  • Turn 2 – Allison (Thedric Egen)
  • Turn 3 – Paul (Beledan Kind)
  • Turn 4 – Allison (Thedric Egen)
  • The Game Continues
• Gameplay Tips and Strategy
• Glossary
• Credits

Overview

Allegiance: A Realm Divided is a game of strategic combat for 2 to 4 players. Each player assumes the role of a powerful hero, and fights to defeat enemy heroes in battle.

Every hero is a unique character of a different fantasy archetype, with their own abilities, weapons, armor, and play styles. Heroes have four levels of unique abilities to choose from, and players can customize and level-up their hero by unlocking and using these increasingly powerful abilities throughout the game.

Players can also draw cards from three shared card decks and play them from their hand. They can choose to enlist basic or elite unit cards (allies that will fight alongside their hero in battle), and they can also choose to play action cards (tricky effects to disrupt their opponents' moves and enhance their own).

Players attempt to defeat enemy heroes by engaging in battle with their weapons and allied units, utilizing their powerful hero abilities, and playing timely action cards. A hero is defeated when their health reaches 0, and the game is won when all enemy heroes have been eliminated.

Game Contents

• 10 Hero Boards
• 4 Resource Boards
• 55 Glass Beads
• 60 Dice
  • 30 Red Dice
  • 30 Blue Dice
• 270 Playing Cards
  • 75 Basic Unit Cards
  • 75 Action Cards
  • 30 Elite Unit Cards
  • 70 Special Cards
  • 20 Double-Sided Cards
• 5 Card Dividers
• 2 Foam Card Spacers
• 1 Rulebook
• 1 Hero Summary Book
• 1 Art and Lore Book

Game Setup

Shuffle and place the three shared card decks — the basic unit deck, elite unit deck, and action deck — along one side of the play area. Beside each deck, leave a space for the discard piles (spots to place previously used cards from the decks).

Each player obtains a resource board and six glass beads.

Each player then selects a hero, the character they wish to play for the game. Find the corresponding hero boards and the hero-specific cards for the selected heroes (including special cards and double-sided weapon and armor cards). Hero-specific cards are listed on the hero board, and have a hero symbol on them that matches the symbol on the corresponding hero board.

Players place the hero boards and resource boards in front of them. The area in front of the boards, up to the opponents' play area, is a player's territory (the area where cards they currently have in play reside).

On the hero board, place a glass bead on the ready space of each hero's initial hero ability. On the resource boards, set each player's production rating to 5 and gold to 0, by placing glass beads on the corresponding spaces. Set each hero's initial health by placing a glass bead on the space equal to that hero's maximum health (listed for each hero on their hero board).

Place each player's special cards off to the side, in their reserves. The reserves is an area in which a player's special cards are kept while they are not in use. Whenever a special card permanently leaves play, it returns to that player's reserves.

Keep the dice and the rest of the glass beads nearby and off to the side until they are needed during the game.

Each player draws a starting hand of four cards, consisting of two basic units, one elite unit, and one action card.

Roll a die to randomly determine who plays first.

Lastly, in turn order (clockwise order), each player puts their double-sided weapon and armor cards into play. Players choose which sides of these cards they wish to have face up and in play at the start of the game.

Layout of Play Area

1. Territory
2. Hero Board
3. Resource Board
4. Reserves
5. Shared Card Decks
6. Discard Piles

Game Pieces

Resource Board

The resource board is used to keep track of a player's resources, including their hero's health, their production rating, and their current amount of gold. It also has a summary of the turn phases for reference during the game.

Layout of a Resource Board

The health tracker keeps track of a hero's health. When a hero's health reaches 0, that player is defeated and eliminated from the game. A hero's health starts at the maximum health value denoted on their hero board, and can never go above that value.

The production tracker keeps track of a player's production rating — the rate at which that player acquires gold. Players gain an increasing amount of gold each turn, and that amount gained is always equal to their current production rating. At the beginning of the game, each player's production rating starts at 5, and then increases by 1 on each of their own turns.

The gold tracker keeps track of the current amount of gold that a player has. Players spend gold to perform certain game moves, such as playing cards from their hand, or unlocking their hero's abilities. Players can choose how to spend their gold, or they can save it to use at a later time.

Layout of a Resource Board:

1. Summary of Turn Phases
2. Health Tracker
3. Production Tracker
4. Gold Tracker

Using Glass Beads to Track Resources

To track resource values, glass beads are placed on the current value of that resource. When the values change, slide the glass beads accordingly.

For tracking a hero's health, simply slide the glass bead to the space that corresponds to the hero's current health.

For tracking gold and the production rating, two beads are used to represent each value, with one bead on each horizontal number row (i.e. one bead on the single-digits row and one bead on the double-digits row). Adding the values of the two rows gives the total value of that resource.

Example: On the gold tracker, if there is a bead on 20 and a bead on 4, that player would have 24 total gold. If they spent 6 gold to play a card, they would slide the double-digits bead to 10, and slide the single-digits bead to 8, leaving them with 18 gold.

Hero Board

Each player's hero is represented by a hero board, which contains information about that hero, as well as keeps track of that hero's abilities.

Layout of a Hero Board

1. General Hero Information
2. Hero Symbol
3. Special Rules
4. Hero Art
5. Hero Abilities

The general hero information section lists the hero's name, maximum health, and their hero-specific cards including weapons, armor, and special cards.

Weapon and armor cards are double-sided, and (if the two sides of the card are different from each other) are listed on the hero board with a slash between the names that are on each side of the card. For example, "Gatekeeper's Staff / Bone Scythe" is one double-sided weapon card.

The hero symbol helps to identify any hero-specific cards that apply to that hero, as it also appears on those cards.

The special rules section details any special rules that apply to the game while that hero is in play, and explains unique ways in which that hero interacts with the game. A hero's special rules only apply while that hero is in the game, and are no longer in effect if that hero is defeated.

On each hero board, there are eight hero abilities, divided into multiple levels.

Hero Abilities

Hero abilities represent the different moves that a hero can make throughout the game. Each hero has an initial hero ability, followed by seven additional abilities that are unique to that hero. The hero abilities are divided into different levels — initial, level 1, level 2, level 3, and level 4 — with the power of the abilities increasing in each level.

At the start of the game, the initial ability is available to be used, but players must spend gold to unlock their other hero abilities before they have access to them. Abilities at each level cannot be unlocked until at least one ability from the previous level has been unlocked.

Each hero ability only needs to be unlocked once, and then it can be used multiple times throughout the game without paying any gold to do so. After each usage of an ability however, a player must wait a certain amount of time before that ability is available to be used again. This amount of time between uses of an ability is called the ability's delay, and is tracked on the ability's cooldown tracker with a glass bead. The cooldown tracker is comprised of the ready space and delay spaces. The number of delay spaces denotes that ability's maximum delay, which is the number of that player's turns that must occur between each usage of an ability.

A glass bead on an ability's cooldown tracker is called a cooldown counter. When a hero ability is used, slide the cooldown counter to that ability's maximum delay. Then, on each subsequent turn for that player, the cooldown counter moves one space closer to the ready space. When the cooldown counter reaches the ready space, the ability is available to be used again.

Layout of Hero Abilities

1. Ability Level
2. Gold Cost
3. Ability Name and Text
4. Cooldown Tracker

The gold cost is the amount of gold that must be paid in order to unlock the hero ability. Initial abilities do not have a gold cost as they are already unlocked at the start of the game.

The ability text describes the effect of the hero ability when it is used.

The cooldown tracker is comprised of a ready space and delay spaces. The cooldown tracker is used in conjunction with a cooldown counter to track when the ability is ready to be used.

Shared Card Decks

In Allegiance, players do not have their own decks of cards. Instead, there are three shared card decks, from which all players draw cards throughout the game. These decks are the basic unit deck, the elite unit deck, and the action deck. The three shared decks are kept separate from each other, and each have their own respective discard piles (where cards from that deck are placed after they have been used).

If an effect would cause a player to draw multiple cards at the same time, the cards are drawn into the hand one at a time. Unless there are restrictions on the type of cards to be drawn, the player may choose which deck they draw from on each subsequent draw.

If, during the course of a game, a player attempts to draw a card from a deck that has run out of cards, first reshuffle that deck's discard pile except for the top 10 cards (which remain in the discard pile), and then return the shuffled cards to the deck.

Unit Cards

Unit cards are allies that a hero can enlist to fight by their side. There are two types of units: basic units and elite units. When unit cards are put into play, they stay in play until another game effect removes them.

Basic units represent the common, everyday beings within the realm. They are not as powerful as elite units, but as they have a lower gold cost, they will show up earlier in the game and more often. Basic unit cards are colored blue.

Elite units represent superior and powerful allies. They are the strongest allies that can be enlisted to a hero's aid, but are more costly as a result. Elite unit cards are colored red.

Layout of Unit Cards

1. Card Name
2. Gold Cost
3. Card Type
4. Card Text
5. Attack Power
6. Health

The gold cost is the amount of gold that must be paid for a player to enlist the unit (play the unit from their hand).

The card text details any abilities that the unit may have. Some units have abilities that are always in effect while they are in play, some have abilities that occur at specific times, and some units have abilities that a player can use at times of their choosing. The card text may also contain italicized clarifying text, which helps explain how the card works, or flavor text, which doesn't have an impact on the game but provides interesting information about the theme of the card.

A unit's attack power is the amount of damage that the unit deals while in battle.

A unit's health is the amount of damage that the unit can sustain before it is destroyed.

Some game text refers to the attack and health of a unit by listing two numbers separated by a slash. The number before the slash refers to the unit's attack power, and the number after the slash refers to the unit's health. For example, a 3/5 unit would have 3 attack power and 5 health.

Action Cards

Action cards represent actions taken by a hero, events that may occur, or items that can be used by units. Most actions are one-time effects, and do not remain in play after they have been used.

When a player plays an action card, they pay gold equal to the card's gold cost, the effect of the card occurs, and then the card is placed into its respective discard pile. Action cards are colored purple.

Split Action Cards

Some action cards are in a special format, with two different cards combined into one. These cards are called split action cards, and give players the option of two different halves of the card to choose from when they play the card. You can recognize split action cards by the fact that they do not have art on them, and instead display two different card options.

When a split action card is played, the player has the choice to play the top half of the card, or the bottom half of the card, but not both. Each option has its own gold cost and its own effect.

Layout of Action Cards

Action Card: 1. Card Name, 2. Gold Cost, 3. Card Type, 4. Card Text

Split Action Card: 1. Option A, 2. Option B

The gold cost is the amount of gold that must be paid in order to play the action card.

The card text outlines the effect of the action card when it is played.

Hero-Specific Cards

Every hero has a unique set of hero-specific cards, which can include weapons, armor, and special cards. Hero-specific cards are listed in the general hero information section of the hero boards.

Hero-specific cards have a hero symbol which matches the symbol on the corresponding hero board, and identifies which hero the card belongs to.

Weapons and Armor

Each hero has access to powerful weapons and armor. These cards represent the equipment that a hero wields while fighting in battle.

Heroes can have a maximum of one weapon card and one armor card in their territory at a time. Weapons and armor are printed on double-sided cards, giving players multiple options to choose from. When a double-sided card is in play, the face up side of the card is considered in play, while the face down side is not in play.

Not all heroes have the same number of weapons and armor to choose from. The weapons and armor available to each hero are listed in the general hero information section of the hero boards.

Weapon Cards

Weapon cards allow a hero to directly attack opposing heroes and engage them in battle. Weapons have an attack power, which is the amount of damage they deal in battle, and they also have other special abilities while they are in play. Weapon cards are colored silver.

Armor Cards

Armor cards represent the armor worn by a hero, and are used to help protect that hero from incoming attacks. Armor cards have an armor rating, which is the amount of battle damage the armor prevents each turn. Like weapons, armor cards also have other abilities while they are in play, and are colored silver.

Layout of Weapon and Armor Cards

Weapon Card: 1. Card Name, 2. Hero Symbol, 3. Card Type, 4. Card Text, 5. Attack Power

Armor Card: 1. Card Name, 2. Hero Symbol, 3. Card Type, 4. Card Text, 5. Armor Rating

The card text denotes any abilities that the weapon has while it is in play. The attack power denotes the amount of damage that the weapon deals in battle.

The card text denotes any abilities that the armor has while it is in play. The armor rating denotes the amount of battle damage that the armor prevents each turn.

Special Cards

Many heroes have unique abilities that leave a lasting mark on the field of battle. Special cards are used in these instances to represent these lasting effects. It will always be explained on the cards and hero boards how these special cards will interact with the game.

Special cards can be of various types, and the color of the card face helps reflect these types. Sometimes, special cards will be of a unique card type, and these cards will have a bronze colored card face. Other times, special cards are units, and will function the same way as units from the shared card decks while they are in play. These special unit cards will have "Special" card backs, but the color of the card face will be the same as the color of that type of unit (blue for basic units, red for elite units).

Whenever a special card is not currently in play, it is kept in a player's reserves. If a special card permanently leaves play, it returns to that player's reserves so that it may be used again.

Special cards should never be placed into the discard piles for the shared card decks, nor into a player's hand. This includes special cards that are units, which should still be placed in their hero's reserves when they leave play rather than the discard pile corresponding to that unit type.

For most games, there should be an adequate amount of special cards available for when players need them. If a situation occurs where there are not enough special cards of a certain type available, players should use a temporary placeholder object to represent the special card until one becomes available.

Layout of Special Cards

Special Card - Decree: 1. Card Name, 2. Hero Symbol, 3. Card Type, 4. Card Text

Special Card - Basic Unit: 1. Card Name, 2. Hero Symbol, 3. Card Type, 4. Card Text, 5. Attack Power, 6. Health

Special Cases: Some of the cards from the shared decks may cause a player to put special cards into play. An example of this is the shared deck basic unit Reserve Force Captain, which puts the special basic unit card Militia Recruit into play. Even though special cards are all attributed to a specific hero, and have that hero's symbol on them, other players can still put these special cards into play if an effect says to do so.

In this example, Militia Recruit is attributed to the hero Thedric Egen, Commander of the Free Armies, but any player with the basic unit Reserve Force Captain could put a Militia Recruit into play, even if Thedric Egen was an opponent, or wasn't even in the current game.

Initial Gameplay Concepts

Maneuvers

Players can make many different types of moves during the game, such as playing cards from their hand, unlocking hero abilities, using hero abilities, initiating battles, using card abilities, etc. All individual game moves initiated by a player are called maneuvers.

Exhaust and Refresh

Throughout the game, cards can become exhausted. This is denoted by turning a card sideways (rotated 90 degrees clockwise). When a card is exhausted, it signifies that the card has been used for the turn.

An exhausted card cannot be declared as an attacker in a battle, cannot defend against attacks, cannot use abilities that require it to exhaust as part of the ability's cost, and cannot perform any other sort of maneuver that would require the card to become exhausted to do so.

In contrast to exhausting a card, a card can become refreshed, making it available to use again. When a card is refreshed, turn it back to vertically aligned, and it is no longer exhausted.

An effect that would exhaust a card that is already exhausted has no practical effect, the card just remains exhausted. An effect that would refresh a card that is not exhausted has no practical effect, the card just remains refreshed.

Gameplay Flow

Beginning the Game

• Each player draws a starting hand of four cards — two basic units, one elite unit, and one action card.
• Randomly determine the player who will play first. Turns occur in clockwise order.
• In turn order, players choose which of their weapon and armor cards they wish to start the game with, and then put those cards into play, face up.
• On each player's resource board, set the gold value to 0, and the production rating to 5.

Phases of the Turn

1. Production Phase
   • Increase your production rating by 1.
   • Gain an amount of gold equal to your production rating and add it to your gold total.
2. Refresh Phase
   • Move all of your hero's cooldown counters one space closer to ready.
   • Refresh all exhausted cards in your territory.
3. Draw Phase
   • Draw a card from the deck of your choice.
4. Maneuver Phase
   • You may play any number of the following maneuvers, any number of times, in any order:
     • Unlock a hero ability.
     • Use a hero ability.
     • Enlist a unit.
     • Play an action card.
     • Initiate a battle.
     • Use an ability of a card in play.
5. End of Turn Phase
   • Trigger any effects that occur at the end of the current turn.
   • Players have a final chance to play maneuvers.
   • Effects that last until the end of the current turn finish.

Production Phase

Wars are costly, as any tactic of war requires funding. To sustain the war effort, troops must be fed and paid, and supplies must be secured. To represent this concept in Allegiance, some maneuvers require a payment of gold in order to be played.

Gold is a resource that can be spent to play these maneuvers, while the production rating is the rate at which a player acquires gold. Both a player's gold and their production rating are tracked on their resource board.

In a player's production phase, their production rating increases and they gain gold. First the player increases their production rating by 1, and then adds the amount of gold equal to their current production rating to their gold tracker.

Example: A player has 3 gold, and a production rating of 6. During their next production phase, they would first increase their production rating to 7. They would then gain 7 gold, leaving them with 10 gold total.

No players may play any maneuvers during the production phase.

Note: In a two-player game, the player who plays first does not increase their production rating by 1 on the very first turn of the game.

Refresh Phase

In a player's refresh phase, their hero and units gain back some of their initiative and stamina to continue to fight. This concept is represented by moving cooldown counters closer to ready, and refreshing cards.

First, move each of that hero's cooldown counters one space closer to ready. Cooldown counters that are already on the ready space do not move. Then, refresh all exhausted cards in that player's territory. Cards that are already refreshed are not affected.

No players may play any maneuvers during the refresh phase.

Draw Phase

In a player's draw phase, they draw a card into their hand from one of the shared card decks. The player may choose which deck to draw from.

No players may play any maneuvers during the draw phase.

Note: In a two-player game, the player who plays first does not draw a card on the very first turn of the game.

Maneuver Phase

The maneuver phase is where the majority of gameplay and interactions occur in Allegiance. In a player's maneuver phase, they may play as many maneuvers as they wish and are able to. Other players may also play certain types of maneuvers as well, even though it is not their turn.

During their maneuver phase, a player may play any of the following, any number of times, and in any order they wish:

• Unlock a hero ability.
• Use a hero ability.
• Enlist a unit.
• Play an action card.
• Initiate a battle.
• Use an ability of a card in play.

For more information on the different types of maneuvers and how to play them, see Maneuvers below.

End of Turn Phase

Some cards and abilities have effects that occur at the end of the current turn. The end of turn phase is the time for these effects to occur, and also provides players with a last chance to play maneuvers before the game proceeds to the next player's turn.

First, any abilities that trigger at the end of the current turn have their effects happen. Second, players are given a final chance to play maneuvers. Finally, any temporary game effects that only last until the end of the current turn finish. The game then proceeds to the next player's turn.

Gameplay Continued and Winning the Game

After the end of turn phase, the game proceeds to the next player's turn. Turns go in clockwise order, and the game continues until all enemy heroes have been defeated. Heroes are defeated when their health reaches 0. Once all opposing heroes have been defeated, the remaining player (or team) wins the game.

Additional Gameplay Concepts

Selecting Targets

Many game effects need one or more objects to be selected as their target(s), i.e. the thing(s) that will be impacted by the effect. Targets are usually units, weapons, or heroes. Targets are selected as an effect is announced.

If an effect that targeted one or more objects no longer has any remaining targets left when the effect would occur (as they have all been destroyed, removed, etc. before the effect happens), the entire effect is canceled and lost.

Destroying Units

In general, units remain in play until they are destroyed. When a unit is destroyed, it is removed from play and placed into its respective discard pile (or into a player's reserves in the case of special unit cards). Units can be destroyed by taking damage equal to or exceeding their health, or by other game effects that destroy them outright.

Damage

Throughout the game, units and heroes will be dealt damage. When a hero is dealt damage, its health is reduced by that amount on the resource board. Dealing damage to enemy heroes is the path to victory in the game, as when a hero's health reaches 0, that hero loses the game.

When a unit is dealt damage, that amount of damage is placed on the unit in the form of damage counters. If a unit has damage on it equal to or exceeding its maximum health, then the unit has taken a lethal amount of damage and is destroyed. Damage stays on a unit until that unit is destroyed, or until the damage is removed by other game effects.

As soon as a unit has taken a lethal amount of damage, it is immediately destroyed, before any other game effects could possibly remove the damage.

Healing Damage

Players can heal damage from their hero and their units. If an effect would heal damage from a hero, increase that hero's current health by that amount. If an effect would heal a certain amount of damage from a unit, remove the corresponding amount of damage counters from the unit.

Healing cannot cause a hero's or unit's health to exceed their maximum health value. Healing cannot save a unit or hero that has already taken a lethal amount of damage, as the unit would be immediately destroyed or the hero would immediately lose the game, before the healing effect could be played.

Preventing Damage

Certain effects can prevent damage. This means that the effect would stop a certain amount of damage from occurring in the first place. Damage prevention effects happen as damage is dealt, and prevent some of that damage from occurring. In contrast, healing clears damage away after it has already been dealt. Healing cannot save a unit or hero from taking a lethal amount of damage, but preventing damage could save them before the damage occurs.

Battle Damage

Damage that is dealt as the result of a battle counts as a special type of damage, called battle damage. In most ways, battle damage is no different from any other damage in the game. There are, however, certain game effects that interact differently with battle damage specifically. Hero armor cards, for example, can prevent battle damage dealt to a hero, but do not prevent other damage dealt to that hero (see Battles below for more information on battles and battle damage.)

Counters

Throughout the game, it is common for units and heroes to accrue various types of counters. Counters are physical objects that are placed on certain game pieces and help track the current state of that game piece. Counters are represented by blue dice, red dice, and glass beads. The most common types of counters are damage counters (represented by red dice on units), augment counters (represented by blue dice on units), and cooldown counters (represented by glass beads on hero ability cooldown trackers).

Damage Counters

Damage counters show the amount of damage currently on a unit, and are tracked by red dice that are placed on the unit's picture. The number showing on the dice denotes the current amount of damage on the unit.

Example: A unit that has 3 damage on it would have a red die placed on it with the number 3 showing. If 1 damage was then healed from the unit, the die would be switched to show the number 2.

Damage counters are only ever placed on units. Red dice on unit cards only ever represent damage counters.

Augment Counters

Augment counters are modifiers that make units stronger, and are tracked by blue dice that are placed on the unit's picture. For every augment counter on a unit, that unit's attack power and health are both increased by 1. A unit can have any number of augment counters on it. The number showing on the dice denotes the current number of augment counters on the unit.

Example: A unit with an attack power of 4 and a maximum health of 6, with one augment counter on it, would have an effective attack power of 5 and an effective maximum health of 7. The augment counter would be represented by a single blue die with the number 1 showing.

Augment counters are only ever placed on units. Blue dice on unit cards only ever represent augment counters.

Cooldown Counters

Cooldown counters track the current state of a hero's ability cooldowns. They are represented by glass beads that are placed on the cooldown trackers of hero abilities. When the cooldown counter is on the ready space of a hero ability, that ability is ready, and is available to be used.

When the hero ability is used, slide the cooldown counter to the space representing that ability's maximum delay (the largest numbered delay space on that cooldown tracker). Then, on each of that player's subsequent turns, the cooldown counter moves one space closer to ready.

Other Counters

Certain game effects will sometimes place other types of counters on objects in the game, such as focus counters created by Magus Gondè Kyal, Elder Elementalist, and curse counters created by Last Triarch De'Soth Pravus, Death Knight.

The functions of these other counters are always explained by the effect that puts them into play, and are represented by either dice or glass beads.

Equipping Weapons and Armor

Players begin the game with their hero's weapon and armor cards in play. Players choose which sides of the weapon and armor cards they want face up and available for their hero to use before the game starts. They are not locked into using those specific choices for the rest of the game however, and can choose at points in the game to have their hero equip armor and/or a weapon, allowing them to change which armor and weapon cards they currently have in play. Equipping is done with a hero's initial hero ability, which starts the game unlocked and ready.

When a player equips their hero's weapon and armor, they may choose which side of each weapon and armor card they would like to have in play, and then flip those sides face up. While equipping, a player could potentially flip no cards over, flip just one card over, or flip more than one card over, depending on their choices.

If a hero's weapon or armor is exhausted when a new one is equipped, the new replacement stays exhausted as well — equipping and flipping over a card does not refresh it if it was already exhausted.

Maneuvers

Any moves that a player can make during a game of Allegiance are called maneuvers. There are six different types of maneuvers, which are detailed below.

Types of Maneuvers

• Unlocking a hero ability.
• Using a hero ability.
• Enlisting a unit.
• Playing an action card.
• Initiating a battle.
• Using an ability of a card in play.

In general, maneuvers can only be played at a specific time: on a player's own turn, during their maneuver phase, and not while any battles or other maneuvers are taking place. For some types of maneuvers, however, there is more flexibility as to when they can be played, which can allow players to interact with their opponents at opportune times.

The following section provides details about the different types of maneuvers, how they are played, and the restrictions on when each type of maneuver can be played.

Announcing and Resolving Maneuvers

When a player plays a maneuver, its effect doesn't happen immediately. Allegiance is a game with a high degree of interaction built in, and when a maneuver is played, every player is given the chance to respond with additional maneuvers before the original maneuver occurs.

A player first announces a maneuver, declaring the move they wish to play. Announcing a maneuver requires the player to:

1. Declare which maneuver they wish to play;
2. Pay any costs required to play it; and
3. Select any targets for the maneuver (if applicable).

These steps required to announce a maneuver happen immediately (when the maneuver is announced) and cannot be interrupted.

After a maneuver has been announced, it does not immediately resolve, meaning that its effect does not happen right away. Each player (in clockwise order, starting with the player that announced the maneuver) is given the chance to have responses — to play maneuvers that will occur before any maneuvers that were announced previously. Only certain types of maneuvers, called reaction maneuvers, can be played in response to another maneuver. If all players pass without responses, the announced maneuver resolves and its effect occurs.

No players may play any maneuvers while another maneuver is actually resolving — the resolving maneuver's effect happens in its entirety, uninterrupted.

Reaction Maneuvers

Many types of maneuvers are limited to only be used at a specific time: on a player's own turn, during their maneuver phase, and not while any battles are occurring or any other maneuvers have been announced and are waiting to resolve. Some types of maneuvers however can be played as reaction maneuvers, meaning they can be played on any turn, during either the maneuver phase or end of turn phase, and potentially during a battle or in response to other maneuvers. Reaction maneuvers give players the ability to interact with each other at opportune times, and disrupt other players' moves.

Maneuvers that can be played as reaction maneuvers do not necessarily have to be played as such, they can be played as regular maneuvers as well.

The following types of maneuvers cannot be played as reaction maneuvers:

• Unlocking a hero ability.
• Using most hero abilities.
• Enlisting a unit.
• Initiating a battle.

The following types of maneuvers can be played as reaction maneuvers:

• Playing an action card.
• Using a hero ability that is specially marked as a reaction ability.
• Using an activated ability of a card in play.
• Playing anything that specifically says it may be played as a reaction maneuver.

Reaction Abilities

By default, using a hero ability cannot be played as a reaction maneuver. Some hero abilities, however, are specially marked as reaction abilities. Reaction abilities can be played as reaction maneuvers if their controller so chooses. Reaction abilities have their cooldown trackers colored gold, and have a sunburst symbol on the ready space.

"Purge the Traitorous" is a reaction ability, while "Martial Law" is not.

Maneuvers in Detail

Unlocking Hero Abilities

Players are not able to use a hero ability until it has been unlocked. A player must pay an ability's gold cost to unlock it, and then the ability is available to be used for the rest of the game without further payment required. At the start of the game, a hero's initial ability is unlocked, but the rest of their hero abilities are not.

Hero abilities are split into different levels — initial, level 1, level 2, level 3, and level 4. Abilities in each level cannot be unlocked until at least one of that hero's abilities from the previous level has been unlocked. For example, a level 3 hero ability cannot be unlocked until at least one of that hero's level 2 abilities has been unlocked.

• To announce unlocking a hero ability: A player selects the ability they wish to unlock, and pays that ability's gold cost.
• To resolve unlocking a hero ability: A cooldown counter is placed on the ability's ready space, and the ability is then available to be used.

A cooldown counter on a hero ability's cooldown tracker denotes that it has been unlocked. Abilities that have not been unlocked do not have cooldown counters on their cooldown trackers. Once an ability is unlocked it can be used immediately, and never costs gold to use again in the future.

Unlocking a hero ability cannot be played as a reaction maneuver. A player may only unlock a hero ability on their own turn during their maneuver phase, and not during a battle or in response to any other maneuvers.

Using Hero Abilities

Once a hero ability has been unlocked, it is available to be used. Unlocked hero abilities can be used at no cost — a player only needs to spend gold to unlock the ability, not to use it. A hero ability can only be used if it is ready (i.e. its cooldown counter is on its ready space).

• To announce using a hero ability: A player chooses any targets for the ability (if applicable), and then slides its cooldown counter from the ready space to the ability's maximum delay (the delay space farthest away from the ready space).
• To resolve using a hero ability: The ability's effect occurs in its entirety.

After a hero ability is used, it will not be available to be used again until the cooldown counter returns to its ready space. On each of a player's turns during the refresh phase, their cooldown counters move one space closer to ready, gradually making hero abilities available to be used again over time.

There is no limit to how many hero abilities can be used in a turn, or how many times a specific ability can be used — the only determining factor as to whether or not an unlocked ability can be used is if its cooldown counter is on the ready space.

By default, using a hero ability cannot be played as a reaction maneuver. A player may only use a hero ability on their own turn during their maneuver phase, and not during a battle or in response to any other maneuvers. If an ability is marked as a reaction ability however (gold cooldown tracker, sunburst symbol on the ready space), then it can be played as a reaction maneuver.

Hero ability unlocked and ready to use. Hero ability after it has been used.

Enlisting Units

Playing a unit card from the hand is called enlisting a unit. To enlist a unit, a player pays gold equal to the unit's gold cost, and then puts the unit into their territory. Units remain in a territory until they are destroyed, or they are removed by other game effects.

• To announce enlisting a unit: A player pays that unit's gold cost, and reveals which unit they are enlisting. At this point the card is no longer in that player's hand, but has not yet entered play either.
• To resolve enlisting the unit: The unit enters play into that player's territory, under their control.

When a unit is enlisted, it enters its controller's territory refreshed, and is then available for its controller to use. A unit that has entered its controller's territory that turn, however, cannot be declared as an attacker in a battle that turn (see Battles below).

If a unit has an ability that occurs when it enters play, that ability is announced after the unit has entered play. If an ability of this type requires targets to be chosen, the targets do not need to be chosen until the ability is announced, after the unit is already in play.

Enlisting a unit cannot be played as a reaction maneuver. A player may only enlist a unit on their own turn during their maneuver phase, and not during a battle or in response to any other maneuvers.

Playing Action Cards

Another type of card that can be played from the hand are action cards. Unlike units, action cards usually do not remain in play, and instead have a one-time effect that occurs as the card resolves. After an action card's effect has taken place, it is placed into the discard pile (unless otherwise specified on the card).

• To announce playing an action card: A player pays the action card's gold cost, reveals the card they are playing, and selects any targets for the card (if applicable). At this point the action card is no longer in the player's hand, but is not yet placed in the discard pile.
• To resolve playing an action card: The action card's effect happens in its entirety, and then the action card is placed into the discard pile (unless otherwise specified on the card).

Action cards can be played as reaction maneuvers, and so they can be played on any turn, during both the maneuver phase and the end of turn phase, and potentially during a battle or in response to other maneuvers.

Initiating a Battle

In order to win the game, each opposing hero's health must be reduced to 0. The primary way for a player to accomplish this is to initiate battles, allowing them to attack enemy heroes with their own hero's weapon and with units they control. The opposing hero has the chance to defend themselves with units of their own, and then attackers and defenders deal damage to each other.

To initiate a battle, the current player chooses one opponent and declares that they are initiating a battle against them. Individual battles only occur between two players — the attacking player (the player that initiated the battle), and the defending player (the player who is being attacked). Other players may play reaction maneuvers during the battle, but only units and weapons controlled by the attacking and defending players may attack and defend in the battle.

• To announce initiating a battle: The current player selects one opponent to initiate the battle against.
• To resolve initiating a battle: The two players enter into battle with each other, and go through a multi-step process to resolve the battle.

The multi-step process to resolve a battle is explained in further detail in the section Battles, below.

Initiating a battle cannot be played as a reaction maneuver. A player may only initiate a battle on their own turn during their maneuver phase, and not during another battle or in response to any other maneuvers.

Using Abilities of Cards in Play

Many cards have abilities while they are in play. Some abilities are always in effect, some abilities occur at specified times, and some abilities can be used at any time that their controller wishes to use them. Abilities that can be used at any time their controller wishes are called activated abilities.

Activated abilities appear in the form of "activation cost: effect" in the card text. In order to use the ability, the player must first pay the activation cost. Activation costs appear in bold text, before a colon. The effect of the ability appears after the colon.

• To announce using an activated ability: A player pays the ability's activation cost, and selects any targets for the ability (if applicable).
• To resolve using an activated ability: The ability's effect (described after the colon) occurs in its entirety.

Occasionally cards with an activated ability will have the exhaust symbol as part of their activation cost. When the exhaust symbol is present as part of an ability's cost, it means that the card must become exhausted in order to pay for the cost of the ability. If the card is already exhausted, then the ability cannot be played.

Activated abilities can be played as reaction maneuvers, and so they can be played on any turn, during both the maneuver phase and the end of turn phase, and potentially during a battle or in response to other maneuvers.

Battles

The primary way to defeat enemy heroes is to engage them in battle. A battle is a multi-step process, where the current player (the player whose turn it is) attacks an opposing hero with their hero's weapon and/or with units they control. The opponent is able to defend with their own units, and then all entities involved in the battle deal damage to each other.

Initiating a Battle

To announce that they are initiating a battle, the current player selects one opponent to initiate the battle against. The two players then enter into battle with each other, and go through a multi-step process to resolve the battle. The player that initiated the battle is the attacking player, and the player that is being attacked is the defending player.

Other players may play reaction maneuvers during the battle, but only units and weapons controlled by the attacking and defending players may attack and defend in the battle.

Players may initiate as many battles as they wish during their turn.

Steps of a Battle

The order of steps to announce and resolve a battle are as follows:

Announcing a Battle

• The current player selects an opponent and announces that they are initiating a battle against them.
• All players have the opportunity to play reaction maneuvers.
• The multi-step process to resolve the battle begins.

Resolving a Battle

• Declare Attackers: The attacking player declares attackers, if any.
• Chance to play reaction maneuvers, and resolve effects that may have triggered.
• Assign Defenders: The defending player assigns defenders, if any.
• Chance to play reaction maneuvers, and resolve effects that may have triggered.
• Deal Battle Damage: Attackers and defenders deal battle damage simultaneously.
• Chance to play reaction maneuvers, and resolve effects that may have triggered.

After these steps, gameplay returns to the current player's maneuver phase.

Declare Attackers

When the attacking player declares attackers, they select any number of their units and/or their hero's weapon to attack the opposing hero, with the goal of dealing damage to that hero. Only the defending player's hero may be attacked — opposing units cannot be attacked directly. The chosen attackers then become exhausted, and all attack together at the same time.

Units and weapons that are already exhausted cannot be declared as attackers. If a unit or weapon has already attacked in a turn but has been refreshed by another game effect, that unit or weapon can attack again.

Units that entered the attacking player's territory that turn cannot be declared as an attacker, even if they are not exhausted. This applies to units that were enlisted from a player's hand that turn, as well as to units that were taken from another player's territory that turn by some game effect.

In contrast to units, weapons that were equipped and turned face up that turn can be declared as an attacker, as long as they are refreshed.

No players may play maneuvers during the "Declare Attackers" step.

Note: Once a card is declared as an attacker, it is attacking in the current battle, and it is too late for opponents to attempt to exhaust the unit or weapon to prevent it from attacking. To prevent a unit or weapon from attacking, an opponent would need to play a maneuver before the "Declare Attackers" step.

Note: In a two-player game, the player who plays first cannot attack with their hero's weapon on the very first turn of the game. In a multiplayer game, no player may attack with their weapon on their first turn.

Assign Defenders

The defending player may choose any number of their units to defend against the attackers, and assign them as defenders. Attacking units and weapons that have been defended against will not deal damage to the defending hero, and will instead deal damage to the unit that is defending against them. Defending units also deal damage back to the units that they are defending against.

Units that defend against attacking hero weapons are dealt damage, but do not deal damage back to the attacking hero.

Only units may be assigned as defenders — the defending player cannot defend with any other type of card.

Only one unit may defend against each unit or weapon that is attacking. A defending unit may only defend against one unit or weapon at a time. This means that multiple units cannot defend against a single attacker, and a single defender cannot defend against multiple attackers.

Once a defender has been assigned to an attacker, the attacker is considered to have been defended against, and will no longer deal damage to the defending hero. This remains true even if the defending unit is removed from play by some effect after it is assigned as a defender, but before battle damage is dealt.

Once defenders have been chosen, it is recommended to place units that are defending in front of the corresponding attacker until the battle is over, for clarity.

No players may play maneuvers during the "Assign Defenders" step.

Deal Battle Damage

In the final step of a battle, the attackers and defenders deal battle damage to each other equal to their attack power. Attackers and defenders deal their damage simultaneously. All damage dealt in this step counts as battle damage.

Attackers and defenders that have been assigned to each other deal damage to each other. Attackers that were not defended against deal damage to the defending hero.

Attacking weapons that were defended against deal damage to the defender, but the attacking hero is not dealt any damage in return by the defending unit.

No players may play maneuvers during the "Deal Battle Damage" step.

Using Armor to Prevent Battle Damage

While an armor card is in play, it prevents the first amount of battle damage done to that hero each turn, up to the amount of damage equal to that armor card's armor rating. For example, if a hero had an armor card in play with an armor rating of 2, the first 2 battle damage dealt to that hero each turn is prevented.

Armor only prevents an amount of battle damage equal to its armor rating each turn, rather than each battle. If an armor card has already prevented its full amount of battle damage in a turn, it does not prevent any more damage in subsequent battles that turn.

Armor only prevents battle damage, and does not prevent any other damage that may be dealt to that hero.

If multiple sources are dealing battle damage to a hero at the same time (because they are attacking together in the same battle), the player that controls the armor chooses which source(s) the armor will prevent battle damage from, and how much of the battle damage to prevent from each.

Example: A hero has an armor card in play with an armor rating of 2, and that hero is being attacked by multiple units. Two of the attacking units are not defended against, and have 3 attack power and 4 attack power, respectively. When battle damage is dealt, the defending player chooses the unit with 3 attack power, and their armor prevents 2 of the 3 battle damage that unit deals in this battle. The defending hero would then be dealt 5 battle damage total (1 damage from the first unit and 4 damage from the second unit). On subsequent attacks in that same turn, the armor would not prevent any more battle damage.

End of a Battle

After battle damage is dealt, the battle is completed, and gameplay returns to the current player's maneuver phase.

Timing of Maneuvers and Responses

Since players can play reaction maneuvers on other players' turns, and potentially during battles or in response to other maneuvers, the specific timing of announcing and resolving maneuvers is important. The following section explains the timing of maneuvers and responses in detail.

Announcing and Resolving Maneuvers

Announcing a Maneuver

When a player plays a maneuver, they must first announce the maneuver. This is done by stating which maneuver they wish to play, paying any costs for it, and choosing any possible targets.

The Chance for Responses

Before a maneuver resolves, every player is given the chance to play maneuvers of their own in response. Starting with the player who initiated the maneuver, players in clockwise order are given a chance to play response maneuvers. Every maneuver can be responded to by any player, however only reaction maneuvers are allowed to be played in response to other maneuvers.

Resolving a Maneuver

If every player passes without playing a reaction maneuver in response, the announced maneuver resolves, and its effect occurs. As a maneuver is resolving, no player may respond until the full effect has completed.

Responding to a Maneuver

If a player does not pass when a maneuver is announced, and instead announces a maneuver of their own, they are said to have a response. The response maneuver is announced just like any other maneuver — its costs are paid for, and targets are chosen. Players then have a chance to respond to this new maneuver with more responses if they wish.

Responses will lead to multiple maneuvers that have been announced and are still pending, but have not yet resolved. This list of pending maneuvers is called the chain. There can potentially be many pending maneuvers on the chain, depending on how many responses are played.

Resolving a Chain of Maneuvers

Once no new maneuvers are announced (all players have passed on their chance to respond to the latest maneuver), the pending maneuvers are resolved in reverse-order. This means that the maneuver that was announced last resolves first, the second-last maneuver that was announced resolves second, and so on until the initial maneuver that was announced is the last to resolve.

A chain of maneuvers are not all resolved in succession like a line of dominoes falling, but rather one at a time. After each individual maneuver resolves, players have yet another opportunity to announce response maneuvers if they choose. If no responses are announced following the resolution of the latest maneuver, the next maneuver in the chain then resolves. Once a maneuver resolves, it is gone and no longer part of the chain.

Turn Priority and Gameplay Shortcuts

At all points in the game, when the chain is empty (there are no pending maneuvers), the current player has the first opportunity to announce a maneuver. If they choose not to announce any maneuvers and move on to the next phase in the turn, other players are given a chance to announce maneuvers in clockwise order.

If all players pass and no maneuvers are announced, the game moves on to the next phase in the turn (or to the next player's turn).

The vast majority of the time, players will not have (or choose not to use) a response maneuver at every point in the game where they have the opportunity to do so. As a result, for the sake of game flow and time, it is assumed by default that players do not have any responses.

The onus is therefore on the players that have a response to announce their response maneuvers at the appropriate times.

Examples of Maneuvers and Responses

The following examples illustrate the timing of maneuvers and how they can affect gameplay. The examples involve the following three cards: Infantry, Skilled Strike, and Mend Wounds.

Example 1: Player A has Infantry in their territory, and it has 2 damage already on it. Player B plays the action Skilled Strike targeting Infantry. No players have any responses. Skilled Strike resolves and Infantry is dealt 3 damage. Infantry now has 5 total damage on it, and is immediately destroyed.

Example 2: Player A has Infantry in their territory, and it has 2 damage already on it. Player B plays the action Skilled Strike targeting Infantry. In response to Skilled Strike, Player A plays the action Mend Wounds targeting their Infantry. No players have any more responses. Mend Wounds resolves, and 3 damage is healed from Infantry, leaving it with no damage on it. No players have any more responses. Skilled Strike resolves and Infantry is dealt 3 damage. Infantry now has 3 total damage on it.

Example 3: Player A has Infantry in their territory, and it has 2 damage already on it. Player A plays the action Mend Wounds targeting Infantry. In response to Mend Wounds, Player B plays Skilled Strike targeting Infantry. No players have any more responses. Skilled Strike resolves and Infantry is dealt 3 damage. Infantry now has 5 total damage on it, and it is immediately destroyed. No players have any more responses. Mend Wounds resolves, but no longer has its target remaining, so its effect is canceled and lost.

Final Gameplay Concepts

Hands and Public Information

There is no maximum hand size for players.

The number of cards in each player's hand, as well as the types of cards in their hand, cannot be concealed from other players. While a card is in a player's hand, the back of the card (which indicates the type of card) is public information, but the front of the card (detailing the specific card name and text) is private to that player.

Example: A player with three cards in hand (two basic units and one action card) could be asked what types of cards are in their hand. They would have to disclose that they had three cards in hand, including two basic units and one action card.

Discarding Cards

When an effect causes a player to discard a card, it means that they must take a card from their hand and place it in its respective discard pile.

Readying a Hero Ability

If an effect says to ready a hero ability, it means to move that specific ability's cooldown counter to its ready space. Effects like this would cause that hero ability to become immediately ready, rather than waiting for its cooldown counter to reach the ready space gradually over time.

Choose vs. Select Target

Some effects may ask a player to "choose" a game object, such as choosing a unit. Unlike selecting targets, which must be selected as a maneuver is announced, choosing game objects does not occur until the effect is resolving and cannot be responded to.

Example: The hero Last Triarch De'Soth Pravus, Death Knight has the hero ability Consume Essence, which has the following effect: "Choose up to one unit you control and destroy it. If a unit is destroyed this way, heal 3 damage from your hero, draw a card, and move another of your hero's cooldown counters one space closer to ready."

Since this ability does not require targets to be selected, the unit that is destroyed and the cooldown counter that is moved are not chosen until the ability resolves. As players cannot play maneuvers while another maneuver is resolving, no players may have responses to the choices until the full effect of Consume Essence finishes.

Temporary Attack Power Modifiers

Some game effects can modify a card's attack power for a temporary period of time. These modifiers will be expressed as either "+" or "-" a certain amount, and either add or subtract that amount from the card's current attack power. As they are temporary, these modifiers are not tracked with counters.

Example: An effect that says "Target unit gains +3 attack power until the end of the current turn" would increase that unit's attack power by three until the current turn ends. A unit that originally had 4 attack power would instead have 7 attack power for the rest of that turn.

As a result of an attack power modifier, a card could potentially have a negative value for its attack power. This would cause the card to deal 0 battle damage in combat.

Cards that Attach

Some action cards and special cards attach to another card in play. These attached cards remain in play while the card they are attached to is in play, and have a lasting effect on the card they are attached to. Once the card they are attached to leaves play, the attached cards are either put into the action discard pile or returned to a player's reserves.

When a card becomes attached to another card, the attached card is placed behind and slightly overlapping the card it is attached to.

Basic Unit with an Attached Action Card.

Triggered Effects

Sometimes cards have abilities that will cause effects to automatically occur at specific times, such as when a unit enters a territory, when a unit is destroyed, or when the game reaches the end of turn phase. These automatically occurring effects are called triggered effects. At the appropriate time, when one of these triggered effects occurs, simply add the triggered effect to the chain as if it was a maneuver. Players are given the chance to respond, and then the triggered effect resolves.

While they are pending, treat triggered effects just like any other pending maneuvers on the chain. Targets of the triggered effect must be chosen when it is announced.

Effects of this type are usually written starting with the words "When," "Whenever," or "At." For example, the unit Crossbowman has the ability "When Crossbowman enters play, you may deal 1 damage to target unit or hero." After Crossbowman enters play, its triggered effect (deal 1 damage to target unit or hero) would be added to the chain automatically.

Triggered effects only occur at their specified times. Unlike activated abilities, players cannot announce these effects any time that they wish.

If a player has multiple triggered effects added to the chain at the same time, they choose the order in which the effects are added to the chain. Like other maneuvers on the chain, the effects that are added first resolve last.

If multiple players have triggered effects added to the chain at the same time, the effects are added to the chain by players in clockwise order. This means that the current player adds all of their triggered effects to the chain in the order of their choosing, then the player to the left adds all of their triggered effects to the chain, and so on.

If a triggered effect occurs at a point in time where players cannot play maneuvers (such as during the "Declare Attackers" step of a battle), it does not resolve until the next opportunity where players can respond and play maneuvers.

Territories and Control of Cards

Cards in a player's territory are under that player's control. That player gets to choose how those cards are used while they are in play, and gains the effects from them. If an effect causes a card to switch from one player's territory to another, then that card switches controllers, and is now under the other player's control.

By default, an effect that says to put a card "into play" puts the card into the territory of the player playing the effect.

If an effect removes a card from play for a temporary amount of time, the card returns to play into the territory of its most recent controller, and that player retains permanent control of the card as if it was a newly played card.

Flavor and Clarifying Text

Some cards will have text that is written in italics. If the text in italics is attached to a paragraph of regular text and surrounded by brackets, it is clarifying text, and provides extra information to explain how the card works.

If the text written in italics is entirely on its own and not part of a paragraph of regular card text, then it is flavor text. Flavor text has no impact on the game, and is there to provide interesting information related to the theme of the card.

Rules Conflicts

At times, the text on some cards and heroes will contradict the default game rules. In these cases, the game pieces themselves always override the game rules.

Ready to Play

At this point you have all of the information required to play a game of Allegiance: A Realm Divided. We recommend that you try a standard two-player game when first starting out. A good, straightforward matchup of heroes that we suggest you try for your very first game is Thedric Egen, Commander of the Free Armies vs. Principus Beledan Kind, Paladin Exemplar.

On top of standard two-player games, there are various gameplay formats in which Allegiance can be played. For information about the different formats available, including multiplayer games (3 to 4 player games), see Gameplay Formats, below.

For a sample walk-through of the first few turns of a game, see Sample Turns of a Game below.

Lastly, for some general Allegiance strategy tips, see Gameplay Tips and Strategy below.

Gameplay Formats

There are multiple different ways in which Allegiance: A Realm Divided can be played, depending on the number of players.

Two-Player Games

General Two-Player Rules

In a two-player game, a player loses the game when their hero's health reaches 0. Players can select their heroes before the game, or choose them randomly.

There are some special rules that apply to the very first turn of the game when there are only two players. The player that gets the first turn of the game:

• Does not increase their production rating by 1 on their first turn.
• Does not draw a card on their first turn.
• Cannot attack with their hero's weapon on their first turn.

These special rules do not apply to the first turn of the player who plays second.

Standard Two-Player Game

The simplest way to play Allegiance is a standard, head-to-head, two-player game. Each player chooses a hero (either by selecting specific heroes or choosing them randomly), and then plays one or more games against each other. A player wins a game when the opposing hero's health has been reduced to 0.

Players roll a die to determine which player plays first.

Note: One neat feature of Allegiance: A Realm Divided is that it can support two simultaneous two-player games with only one copy of the game. Simply divide the shared cards decks in half, and you can play two games side-by-side!

Competitive Match

For a competitive match against a single opponent, players can play a best-of series with random hero selections. An odd number of games are played, and the player that wins more than half of the games wins the match. A standard match is best two-out-of-three games, but the series could be made longer if the players so desire.

Before each game in the series, players each randomly select their hero. Each hero may only be played once in the series.

A good way to randomly select heroes is to take one weapon card from each hero, and randomly deal a weapon card to each player to determine their hero for that game. Since heroes are not played more than once in a match, those weapon cards would not be added back into the random deal for subsequent games.

For the first game of the match, players roll a die to determine who plays first. For subsequent games, the player that lost the previous game chooses whether they would like to play first or second in the next game, after the heroes for the next game are selected.

Multiplayer Games

Multiplayer games of Allegiance: A Realm Divided consist of three to four players, and can be played in various ways.

General Multiplayer Rules

For the most part, the general gameplay of a multiplayer game functions the same way as a two-player game. A player is eliminated from the game when their hero's health reaches 0. Players can select their heroes, or choose them randomly. Turns occur in clockwise order.

In a multiplayer game, all players increase their production on their first turn, and all players draw a card on their first turn (even the player who plays first). No players may attack with their hero's weapon on their first turn.

Battles can only involve two players at a time. All players are still allowed to play reaction maneuvers at certain points throughout a battle, but the attacking and defending process will only involve the weapons and units of the two players in the battle. When a battle is announced, the player initiating the battle declares which player the battle will be against.

If a player is eliminated from a multiplayer game, all cards, special rules, and effects controlled by the eliminated player disappear immediately. If there are any effects controlled by the eliminated player that are impacting other players in any way, those effects no longer apply. Damage and augment counters that originated from the eliminated player, however, do remain.

Free-for-All Format

In a free-for-all game, each player is on their own, with no allied players. All players are opponents of each other, and the last remaining player wins the game.

To determine which player gets the first turn, players each roll a die, and the winner gets the first turn. Turns then proceed in a clockwise order.

Sworn Enemy Format

A sworn enemy game is similar to a free-for-all game except for one major difference: players are only trying to defeat the person immediately to their left. Once the person sitting to the left of a player is defeated, that player wins the game and all other players lose the game. This format creates interesting game decisions, as at certain times you'll need to help opposing players so that another person doesn't win the game.

Before the game, players each roll a die to determine not only which player gets the first turn, but also the seating order. Players are seated in a clockwise direction from highest roll to lowest, and turns proceed in clockwise order.

Team Game Format

A team game consists of forming two teams of two, and players from each team are opponents of the other team. One team wins the game when the opposing two players have both been eliminated.

Turns occur in clockwise order, and players sit in an order that alternates between teams (i.e. Team 1 Player A, Team 2 Player A, Team 1 Player B, Team 2 Player B). Teams roll a die to determine who plays first, and that team chooses which player will get the first turn.

Sample Turns of a Game

The following section details the first few turns of a two-player game of Allegiance: A Realm Divided, between Paul and Allison. We recommend pulling out the following game pieces to follow along:

Heroes:

• Principus Beledan Kind, Paladin Exemplar
• Thedric Egen, Commander of the Free Armies

Weapon & Armor Cards:

• Valdruun Warhammer / Styrka Validata
• Anointed Platemail / Celestial Vestments
• Lance of Dominion / Styrka Mandatum
• Adamantine Platemail / Crimson Shield

Special Cards:

• Militia Recruit (x2)

Basic Units:

• Infantry
• Halberdier

Action Cards:

• Battle Surge
• Skilled Strike

Pre-Game

The players first set up the play area with the shared card decks along one side. Each player obtains a resource board and some glass beads, and then chooses a hero. Paul selects Principus Beledan Kind, Paladin Exemplar, and Allison selects Thedric Egen, Commander of the Free Armies. Players then find their hero board and all corresponding hero-specific cards. Special cards are set to the side, in their player's reserves.

The players place glass beads on their resource boards, setting their gold to 0, their production rating to 5, and their hero's health to the maximum health value denoted on their hero boards (38 for Beledan Kind, and 35 for Thedric Egen).

Paul and Allison each roll a die, and determine that Paul will play first. They each draw a hand of four cards — two basic units, one action, and one elite unit.

Next, each player puts their hero's weapon and armor cards into play, and in turn-order they decide which sides of these cards they would like to have face up at the start of the game. Paul decides to start the game with Valdruun Warhammer and Anointed Platemail in play, and Allison decides to start the game with Styrka Mandatum and Adamantine Platemail in play.

Note: Throughout this sample game, it is assumed by default that players do not have responses to other maneuvers unless they specifically indicate otherwise. As a result, there is no mention of each specific time that a player could potentially play a maneuver but chooses not to.

Turn 1 – Paul (Beledan Kind)

As he is playing first in a two-player game, Paul's production does not increase on his first turn, and he also does not draw a card on his first turn. This means that he gains 5 gold in his production phase, and does not draw a card during his draw phase.

In his maneuver phase, the first maneuver Paul decides to play is to enlist the basic unit Infantry from his hand. He pays 4 gold (by sliding the glass bead on his gold tracker from 5 to 1), and then puts the Infantry into his territory.

As it is the very first turn of the game, Paul cannot attack with his hero's weapon, and as Infantry entered Paul's territory this turn, it also cannot attack.

Paul has 1 gold remaining but does not wish to spend it this turn, and since he has no further maneuvers he wishes to play, he ends his turn.

Turn 2 – Allison (Thedric Egen)

At the start of Allison's turn, her production rating increases by 1 (from 5 to 6), and she gains 6 gold. She chooses to draw a card from the action deck.

In her maneuver phase, Allison decides to unlock one of her level 1 hero abilities, New Recruits. She pays the gold cost of 6 by sliding the bead on her gold tracker from 6 to 0, and places a glass bead on the ready space for the ability. She then chooses to use this newly unlocked ability, sliding its cooldown counter to the maximum delay (the fourth delay space). She then puts two Militia Recruits into her territory from her reserves.

Since this is not the very first turn of the game, Allison can attack with her hero's weapon. She cannot however attack with the Militia Recruits, as they are units that entered her territory this turn.

Allison initiates a battle, and attacks Paul's hero with Styrka Mandatum, exhausting it as she declares it as an attacker. Paul decides not to defend against the weapon with his Infantry.

Paul's hero takes 1 damage (as his armor prevents 2 of the 3 battle damage dealt to his hero), and Paul slides his hero's health from 38 to 37.

Allison then passes her turn.

Turn 3 – Paul (Beledan Kind)

Paul moves his production rating up 1, from 5 to 6. He then gains 6 gold, leaving him with 7 gold total as he had 1 gold remaining at the end of his previous turn. Paul chooses to draw a card from the basic unit deck.

In his maneuver phase, Paul first initiates a battle, and attacks with his hero's weapon Valdruun Warhammer. Allison decides not to defend against it with a unit, and so Allison's hero is dealt 1 damage (as her armor Adamantine Platemail prevents 2 of the 3 battle damage dealt by the weapon). Allison moves her hero's health from 35 to 34.

Paul then decides to initiate another battle, this time attacking with his Infantry. Once again Allison does not defend against the attacker with a unit and the damage is dealt to her hero, reducing its health from 34 to 31. In this battle, no damage is prevented by Adamantine Platemail, as it has already prevented an amount of battle damage this turn equal to its armor rating.

Paul then spends 5 gold (sliding the bead on his gold tracker from 7 down to 2) to enlist a Halberdier from his hand.

Paul then passes the turn, keeping his remaining 2 gold.

Turn 4 – Allison (Thedric Egen)

Allison increases her production from 6 to 7. She then gains 7 gold, going from 0 to 7 gold total. She slides the cooldown counter on her hero ability New Recruits one space closer to the ready space, from 4 to 3, and refreshes her hero weapon. She then decides to draw a card from the action deck.

In her maneuver phase, she unlocks her hero's other Level 1 ability, Advanced Training, by paying 3 gold, leaving her with 4 remaining gold. She then uses Advanced Training, targeting both of her Militia Recruits in play, and slides its cooldown counter to 3, its maximum delay. An augment counter is placed on each of the Militia Recruits.

Allison then uses her initial ability, Equip, and slides its cooldown counter to 3, its maximum delay. She decides to switch her hero's weapon from Styrka Mandatum to Lance of Dominion, and to leave her current armor, Adamantine Platemail, in play. To do so she flips her hero's weapon card over, revealing Lance of Dominion. Since her hero's weapon was refreshed as she equipped a new weapon, the new weapon is also refreshed.

Allison initiates a battle. She chooses to attack with Lance of Dominion and both Militia Recruits, all together in this one battle, exhausting them as she does so. After she declares her attackers, Lance of Dominion's triggered ability is added to the chain, and Allison decides to target both of her Militia Recruits with it, giving them each an extra attack power for this battle.

Since all of the attackers are attacking together in the same battle, Paul's Halberdier can only defend against (at most) one of them. Paul decides to defend against one of the attacking Militia Recruits with his Halberdier.

After defenders have been assigned, but before battle damage is dealt, Allison plays the action card Battle Surge (spending 2 of her gold), targeting her Militia Recruit that has been defended against by the Halberdier. Battle Surge would cause the Militia Recruit to deal 7 battle damage instead of 4, and also prevent the next 3 damage dealt to the Militia Recruit — which would in effect save her Militia Recruit from being destroyed by the Halberdier's battle damage, and would cause the Halberdier to take a lethal amount of damage in return.

Paul, however, has a response to Battle Surge, and spends his remaining 2 gold to play an action card of his own, Skilled Strike, targeting the same Militia Recruit. Paul chooses to play Skilled Strike in response to Battle Surge, so that Skilled Strike's effect would occur before Battle Surge's effect, allowing him to destroy the Militia Recruit.

Neither player has any more responses, so the last-announced maneuver (the Skilled Strike) resolves first, dealing 3 damage to the Militia Recruit and destroying it. The destroyed Militia Recruit is returned to Allison's reserves. Then, Battle Surge resolves, but its target is no longer in play, and so its effect is canceled and lost.

The players are then ready for battle damage to be dealt. Paul assigns his armor to prevent 2 battle damage dealt by Allison's weapon. Paul's hero is dealt 4 total damage from the Militia Recruit that was not defended against (as it had its attack power boosted to 4 total by the Lance of Dominion effect and the augment counter on it). Paul's hero's health is reduced from 37 to 33. Since the Militia Recruit that the Halberdier had defended against was not in play when battle damage was dealt (as it had been previously destroyed), the Halberdier neither dealt nor received any damage in this battle.

Allison has 2 gold remaining, but decides she would rather save it for now, and so she ends her turn.

Turn 4 Chain Summary:

• Unlocking Advanced Training is added to the chain.
• Unlocking Advanced Training resolves.
• Using Advanced Training is added to the chain.
• Using Advanced Training resolves.
• Using Equip is added to the chain.
• Using Equip resolves.
• Initiating a battle is added to the chain.
• Initiating a battle resolves.
• Lance of Dominion and two Militia Recruits are declared as attackers in the "Declare Attackers" step of the battle.
• Triggered ability from Lance of Dominion is added to the chain.
• Triggered ability from Lance of Dominion resolves.
• Halberdier is assigned as a defender against a Militia Recruit in the "Assign Defenders" step of the battle.
• Battle Surge is added to the chain, targeting Militia Recruit.
• Skilled Strike is added to the chain, targeting the same Militia Recruit.
• Skilled Strike resolves, and Militia Recruit is destroyed.
• Battle Surge resolves but has no valid target remaining, and so its effect is canceled and lost.
• Battle damage is dealt.
• The turn ends.

The Game Continues

This has just been the first four turns of a game. Gameplay would continue, with players earning an increasing amount of gold, eventually allowing them to unlock higher level hero abilities, and to play more expensive cards such as elite units. When one of the players has their hero's health reduced to 0, the other player wins the game.

Gameplay Tips and Strategy

Winning a game of Allegiance: A Realm Divided will depend on each player's tactics and overall strategy. Each game of Allegiance is unique, and a player's strategy will vary given the situation, but here are some general tips for success:

• Hero abilities become increasingly useful over time, as you only have to pay their gold cost once. As the game goes on, you will gain value from subsequent uses of your unlocked abilities.
• Unit cards are often a key part of a winning strategy, as they remain in play and have a lasting effect on the game. They can be crucial for both defending your hero from incoming attacks, as well as attacking opposing heroes.
• Action cards increase your capability to interact with your opponents and disrupt their plans, as you can play them as reaction maneuvers.
• It helps to identify, given the current game state, whether you want to spend your resources to be more aggressive and attack opposing heroes, or be more defensive and protect your hero.
• Since heroes are not dealt battle damage in return when a unit defends against their weapon, there is often no downside to attacking with your hero's weapon each turn.
• Since only one opposing unit can be assigned to defend against each of your attacking units, do not be afraid to attack an opponent that has many units in play. A defending player can't "gang up" on an attacking unit, even if they have more units in play.
• Gold is an important and limited resource. Spending it in an efficient manner is crucial to success.

Glossary

• action card: card from the action deck; usually has a one-time effect; can be played as a reaction maneuver
• action deck: shared card deck containing action cards
• activated ability: ability on a card in play that can be used at any time its controller wishes, by paying the ability's activation cost
• activation cost: the cost that must be paid in order to play an activated ability; appears in bold before the colon in the card text
• announce: declare that a maneuver is being played; costs are paid, and targets are chosen at the time of announcing the maneuver
• armor: card that represents the armor a hero wears; each turn, prevents an amount of battle damage up to its armor rating that would be dealt to that hero; each has unique abilities that affect the game
• armor rating: the amount of battle damage that an armor card prevents to its hero each turn
• attach: connecting a card to another card in play, and the attached card has an effect on the card it is connected to; stays in play until the connected card is removed from play
• attack: units and weapons are declared as attackers, become exhausted, and attempt to deal damage to an enemy hero in a battle
• attack power: the amount of battle damage a unit or weapon deals in a battle
• attacker: units and weapons while they are attacking in a battle
• attacking player: the player that initiated a battle that is currently taking place during their turn
• augment counter: modifier on a unit that increases both its attack power and health by 1; tracked using blue dice on a unit's picture
• basic unit: card from the basic unit deck; has an attack power, health, and abilities; can attack and defend in battles; stays in play until it is removed by other effects
• basic unit deck: shared card deck that contains basic units
• battle: maneuver involving a multi-step process, where one player attacks an opposing hero with units and/or their hero's weapon
• battle damage: a special type of damage dealt during the "Deal Battle Damage" step; can be prevented by armor cards
• chain: the list of currently pending maneuvers that are waiting to resolve
• clarifying text: text in italics that helps explain how a game effect works
• cooldown counter: a glass bead on the cooldown tracker of an unlocked hero ability; tracks the current status of that ability's cooldown

Credits

Lead Game Design and Development: Paul MacKinnon

Project Management: Paul MacKinnon

Product Development: Allison Porter

Early Game Development: Adrian Terek, Alex Kenny

Playtesting: Paul MacKinnon, Ian Baker, Ted Slone, Adrian Terek, Alex Kenny, Tyler Fraser, Shawn Petsche

Graphic Design: Vespertilio

Graphic Design Concepting: Vespertilio, Allison Porter, Evan Blair

Art: Michael Komarck, Matt Bulahao, Shen Fei, Rostislav Zagornov, Ralph Ryan del Mundo, Bramasta Aji, Ina Wong, Johnny Morrow, Polar Engine, Stellar Labs, Dylan Safford, Phillip Simpson, Igor Kieryluk, Evan Blair, Mateusz Ozminski, Michael Gauss, Robert Altbauer, Sergey Zabelin, Viktor Fetsch, Douglas Williamson

Art Direction: Paul MacKinnon, Allison Porter

Creative Writing and World Building: Ian Baker, Jovien Smith, Allison Porter

Rulebook: Paul MacKinnon, Allison Porter

Guest Card Design: Steven Salekin, Seth Abraham, Justin Wrenn, Miles Smith, Terry Thrasher, Matthew Davison

Guest Card Art Appearances: Jimmy Smith, Terry Thrasher, Matthew Davison, Tom Haesendonckx, Dave Strybos, Mark Aerts, Eleanor Mrazek, Nils Veuve

Thank you to Kirk Brownridge, Lorrie Matheson, Robert Foster, Ian Baker, and Tyler Fraser for helping to make the Kickstarter campaign a success, and thank you to family and friends for all of your support throughout this project.

Finally, we'd like to extend a special thank you to Miles Smith, Terry Thrasher, Matthew Davison, Barb Mrazek, Tom Haesendonckx, Nils Veuve, Steven Salekin, Seth Abraham, Justin Wrenn, and all the rest of our Kickstarter backers, for supporting Allegiance and helping to make it a reality!

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