The Battle for Hill 218
The Battle for Hill 218 Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents of Game
Everything you need to play Hill 218 is included in the deck box. In addition to this rule book, you should have a Hill 218 card plus two army decks, each with the following cards:
- 7 Infantry
- 5 Heavy Weapons
- 3 Special Forces
- 3 Tanks
- 3 Artillery
- 3 Paratroopers
- 2 Air Strikes
Setup
Place the Hill 218 card in the middle of the play area. The spaces adjacent to the short sides of Hill 218 are the respective bases of the two players. Place each player's Air Strikes face up but to the side of play. (See figure 1)
Determine randomly which player will take the first turn. Each player then draws five cards from his deck, looks at them, and chooses two to place on the bottom of his deck, leaving a three card starting hand.
FIG. 1: Initial setup — Player 1's Base and Player 2's Base sit on opposite short sides of the Hill 218 card, with each player's two Air Strikes laid face up to the side of play.
If you're starting out you can just draw three cards and not worry about choosing which ones to put on the bottom.
Object of the Game
You can win The Battle for Hill 218 in one of two ways:
- If a player occupies his opponent's base, he wins immediately.
- If both players have no cards remaining in their deck and their hand and have used both their Air Strikes, the player with the most units remaining in play wins.
Unit Card Diagrams
Each unit card has the following three diagrams that define how it plays:
Supply — Most of your units can only deploy to your base or on to a space from which you can trace a supply line back to your base.
The Supply Diagram shows the spaces from which a unit can draw supplies from other supplied units. The central square represents the unit, and the squares with arrows represent spaces from which it can draw supplies. A unit with the supply diagram shown can draw supply from any horizontally or vertically adjacent unit.
Attack — When you deploy a unit it will attack one enemy unit (if able).
The Attack Diagram shows the spaces a unit can attack and whether it can destroy an enemy on its own or whether its attack needs support. The central space represents the unit and the two attack symbols represent the spaces it can attack. A supported-attack symbol needs support to destroy its target; an unsupported-attack symbol can destroy its target without support.
A unit with the attack diagram shown can attack any diagonally adjacent enemy unit, but needs support in order to destroy it.
Support — Units already in play can support attacks made by friendly units. Any supported attack will destroy its target.
The Support Diagram shows the spaces on which the unit can support attacks.
A unit with the support diagram shown can support attacks made against enemy units that are horizontally or vertically adjacent to it.
Turn Sequence
The player taking the first turn of the game draws one card from his deck and then plays one card; on all other turns the active player draws and plays two cards. Playing a card means either deploying a unit from your hand or using an Air Strike.
Note: When you have drawn all your units, continue playing until both players have no units remaining in their hands and have used both of their Air Strikes.
As we explain how units deploy, attack and support attacks, we will use Infantry (Hill 218's basic unit) as our example and then explain which units in your army behave differently than Infantry.
Deployment and Supply
Players deploy units by playing them from their hand to an unoccupied space on the grid. Any unit can be played on its base; to deploy units elsewhere you must be able to trace a chain of supplied units (called a supply line) that extends to the base. For this reason, if your base is unoccupied at the start of your turn, your only legal plays are to deploy a unit onto your base, to deploy a unit of Paratroopers without support or to use an Air Strike.
Note: Units may not deploy on the Hill 218 card. Units deploy with their card name closest to the opposing player.
An Infantry unit can be supplied by any horizontally or vertically adjacent supplied unit. (See figure 2)
Two units deploy differently than Infantry:
- Special Forces draw supply from any diagonally-adjacent (rather than horizontally or vertically adjacent) supplied unit.
- Paratroopers draw supply like Infantry but can be deployed without supply to any space on the grid other than the enemy base.
FIG. 2: Deployment and Supply — Player 1 may play Infantry to spaces 1, 2, or 3. He cannot deploy to space 4 unless there is a supplied unit in #3.
Once a unit has deployed, it remains in play until it is destroyed. It is not affected by having its supply line interrupted by the destruction of units in the supply line. Until the supply line is re-established, however, that unit is not considered supplied and new units cannot be deployed using it as part of their supply line.
Attacking
When a unit deploys it will attack an enemy unit if able. If the unit being deployed could attack more than one unit, that player must choose only one unit to attack. A unit only attacks when it deploys; after that it will only support attacks made by other units.
An Infantry unit can attack any enemy unit that is horizontally or vertically adjacent to it. If its attack is supported by at least one friendly unit, the target is destroyed. Support is explained in depth in the next section. (See figure 3)
Three units attack differently than Infantry:
- Tanks attack horizontally or vertically like Infantry but do not need support to destroy their target.
- Heavy Weapons attack units that are diagonally adjacent (rather than horizontally or vertically adjacent).
FIG. 3: Attack and Support — Player 1 has just deployed a unit of Infantry. It attacks player 2's Tank. Since the attack has support from player 1's Special Forces, the Tank is destroyed.
- Artillery attack a unit in one of four places: the space two in front of it, the spaces to either side of that space or the space three in front of it. An Artillery attack does not need support to destroy its target. (See figure 4)
Note: It doesn't matter what unit is being attacked. If the attack has support or the attacking unit is a Tank or an Artillery, the target is destroyed.
FIG. 4: Artillery Attack — Player 1's Artillery can attack Player 2's Infantry, Heavy Weapons, or Special Forces, but not Player 2's Tank. Whichever target it chooses will be destroyed.
Support
As noted above, most units cannot destroy an enemy unit without support, which is provided by friendly units already in play.
An Infantry unit can support attack against an enemy unit in any horizontally or vertically adjacent space. (See figure 3)
Only one unit supports differently than Infantry:
- Heavy Weapons can provide support to attacks made against enemy units in any adjacent space (horizontally, vertically or diagonally).
Note: A unit supports an attack, not the attacking unit, i.e. the supporting unit must be adjacent to the target. It doesn't matter whether or not it is adjacent to the attacker.
Air Strikes
Instead of playing a unit from your hand you may use one of your Air Strikes. Simply flip the Air Strike face down to show it has been used and destroy any enemy unit in play. Once an Air Strike has been flipped, it cannot be used again.
Note: Players may review which units have been destroyed at any time.
Game Credits
Game Design: Darwin Kastle
Development: Robert Dougherty, Chad Ellis and Anthony Shaheen
Graphic Design: Kaile Dutton and Sarah Pinansky
Playtesters: Matthew DeMatteo, Jeffrey Dyer, John Fried, Andrew Gross, Brian Kelly, Thorin McGee, Raymond Mess, Brian Miller, Philip Morse-Fortier, Ben Peal, Dawn Roscoe, Rupert Sedlmayr, Jeremy Smith, Jack Wells, and ZiNOS.
David Humpherys is still on Hill 217.
Photo Credits
The World War II Virtual Museum, http://www.nps.gov/archive/amme/wwii_museum/amp_ww2_museum.html
History Link 101, http://www.historylink101.com/
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/wwphotos.html
Play Hill 218 on Your Computer... for FREE!
Just go to www.yourmovegames.com/pages/hill218.html and click the link to download a free computer version of The Battle for Hill 218.
Special thanks to Andrew Gross for designing and creating the computer version of Hill 218. (Andrew is so much cooler than Humpherys.)
© 2007 Your Move Games, Inc. All Rights Reserved.