Bomb Squad Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • Mission Setup Components
• Anatomy of an Instruction Card
• Game Features
• Setup
  • Setup Summary
  • Hand Sizes
  • Example Setup
  • Anatomy of a Robot Tile
• Game Play
  • Give Intel
  • Discard a Card to Recharge Battery
  • Play a Card
  • Activate the Robot
  • Example Actions
• Activation
  • Activation Summary
  • Battery Usage
  • Operating the Robot
    • Robot Operation Steps
    • Activation Guidelines
  • Example Activation
• Battery Life
• Bomb Detonation
• Completing Mission Objectives
• Game End Conditions
• Scoring
  • Example Final Scoring
• Variants
  • Fog of War
  • No Programming
  • Multiple Robots
• Credits
• Reference Sheet
  • Player Actions
  • Card Types
  • Roles

Components

• Modular Building Tiles (4 double-sided): Used to create the building layout for each mission the Bomb Squad team will undertake.
• Instruction Cards (54): Used to give the robot instructions on what actions to take, such as moving, opening doors, saving hostages, and disarming bombs.
• Control Frame (1): Frame is placed around the modular building tiles for the mission and is used to keep track of the instructions cards that have been programmed by the Bomb Squad team and the battery meter for the robot.
• Battery Level Markers (2): Used to indicate the current level of the robot's main battery and reserve battery. Battery cell levels are reduced when the robot is activated and performs the actions listed on the Instruction Cards.
• Timer: Used to count down the time for before each bomb detonates.
• Tokens (40): Tokens are placed on the building to indicate the location of doors, hostages, and bombs.
• Rulebook and Missions: This rulebook, plus a list of missions for the players to complete in Campaign mode, as they combat the growing terrorist threat spreading across the city.

Mission Setup Components

• Robot Cards (1): Robot cards are used to select the robot type that will be used in a mission. The Robot card indicates the starting, maximum, and reserve battery levels for Felix. In the full game there will be additional robots with different battery levels as well as special rules.
• Role Cards (9): Role cards are assigned to each player in the game, giving them special abilities that are unique to their role. There are 3 types: Blue (Standard), Black (Activation), and Purple (Advanced).

Anatomy of an Instruction Card

Instruction Cards in Bomb Squad can be uniquely identified by their Level (which is indicated by color and number), and by Action Type – which indicates what action the robot will perform when the instruction on the card is executed.

Card icons show action type, color, and level. Card Icons:

• Disarm Bomb
• Open Door
• Save Hostage
• Move Robot

Game Features

Bomb Squad has several key features that are important to keep in mind throughout the subsequent rules:

• Real time play: Each player takes a turn in clockwise order, and is free to take as long as they want on their turn. However, there is a timer counting down in real time until the bombs will detonate, so players will want to be as quick as possible with their turns.
• Hidden card information: Players hold their cards so the fronts are facing the other players, which requires that players give each other Intel to figure out which cards they have in their hands.
• Limited Communication: Players are only allowed to communicate via the Intel they give each other, which provides hints about the cards in their hands. Players can also state public information, such as how much time is left on the timer or what the battery level is.
• Cooperative game play: The players are all working together, winning or losing collectively as a team.

Setup

1. Select a Mission: Decide which mission the team will undertake and the desired difficulty level. This example will use Mission #1 from the Campaign scenarios as listed in the Mission book.
2. Set up the building tiles: The selected Mission will show the layout of the building for this mission. Find the necessary building tiles (they are marked in the lower right corner by number and letter) and lay them out in the middle of the table as shown on the mission.
3. Set up the Control Frame: Place the Control Frame around the building tiles. Later missions have larger (2x2) layouts. For those missions, use the included frame extension pieces.
4. Place Tokens: The Mission will also show the locations of the bombs, hostages, and doors in the building. Place the corresponding tokens on the spaces indicated in the building. If playing the Epic level, also place the tokens highlighted by a Red border. Place the robot at the starting location as indicated by the Mission description.
5. Select Robot Card: Select which robot you would like to use for the mission. Place the robot card next to the Control Frame. (A suggested robot is shown on each Mission description.)
6. Set the timer: The Mission description shows the detonation time for each bomb. Set the timer to the time indicated for 'Bomb A'.
7. Set starting Battery Levels: Place Battery Cell Markers on the starting level spots for the main and reserve batteries on the Robot Tile.
8. Select Role Cards (optional): Players may choose to select a role card if desired or directed by the Mission.
9. Determine the start player.
10. Shuffle the Instruction Cards.
11. Deal Instruction Cards: Deal each player their initial cards, with the hand size based on the number of players. (Reminder: Face your cards away from you!)
12. Start the timer to begin. And good luck!

Setup Summary

1. Select a Mission and difficulty level.
2. Set up the building tiles.
3. Place the Control Frame.
4. Place tokens.
5. Set the timer.
6. Select the Robot Card.
7. Set starting Battery levels.
8. Select Role cards (optional).
9. Determine the start player.
10. Shuffle and deal the cards.
11. Start the timer to begin.

Hand Sizes

# of players	Hand Size
2	6 cards
3–4	5 cards
5–6	4 cards

Example Setup

Ethan and Kaia have selected Mission #1 to play. After looking at the Mission Card, they found Building Tiles 3A and 4A, and placed them as shown on the Mission card's Map Setup. Next they placed the door, hostage, bomb, and robot tokens as indicated. Then they set the timer for 10 minutes, the time allotted before Bomb A will detonate, and selected the Felix Robot Card.

Anatomy of a Robot Tile

A Robot Tile shows the maximum and starting levels for the main battery, and the starting level for the reserve battery. Some robots have unique abilities.

Game Play

Beginning with the start player and moving clockwise, each player must perform exactly one of the following actions on their turn:

• Give Intel to one other player.
• Discard a card to recharge battery.
• Play a card.
• Activate the robot.

Give Intel

Give Intel to one other player to provide them with information about cards in their hand. When giving Intel, pick an attribute from one of the two types: Level (Color) or Action Type. Point at all cards in the other player's hand that have that attribute. Ex. These cards, here and here, are Red.

When giving Intel to another player, it is often helpful to physically touch the cards in their hand that you are giving information about.

Example Intel actions: Ethan gives Intel to Kaia about her Red cards. Kaia gives Ethan Intel that the 1st and 5th cards are Move cards. Ethan then gives Kaia Intel that the 1st and 4th cards are Disarm Bomb cards. Now Kaia knows that the 4th card is a Red Disarm Bomb card!

Discard a Card to Recharge Battery

The player states they are discarding a card, and then calls out one or two card attributes (Color, and/or Action Type) for the card the player is discarding. (Ex. "Discarding Red Bomb")

Discard the card face up into the discard pile. It is helpful to keep the discard pile tidy. When the draw pile runs out, flip the discard pile over WITHOUT SHUFFLING to make a new draw pile.

If the player is fully correct, increase the Main Battery level by one for each correct attribute. If you are not correct with all called attributes, no batteries are recharged.

If the Main Battery is full, players may discard cards without increasing battery level.

Reserve batteries can never be recharged.

After discarding, draw a card from the draw pile to refill the player's hand.

Play a Card

Note: For Training Missions, refer to the specific rules on the Mission description for how Instruction Cards should be played. The standard rules for playing cards after the Training Missions are described below.

A player selects a card from their hand and places the card face down in the next available programming slot (from left to right) on the Control Frame.

If this fills the last available programming slot, then the player who played the card automatically activates the robot. (See Activation section on page 10.)

Draw a card from the draw pile to fill the player's hand back up to the hand limit.

Note: When drawing a card, if you accidentally see the front side, simply place it in the discard pile and draw a new card.

Activate the Robot

When activating the robot, the current player turns the programmed cards face up and may rearrange them in any order. Follow the guidelines in the Activation section on page 10 for full details on how to activate the robot.

Example Actions

Ethan and Kaia need to move the robot to the first bomb before it detonates, trying to save as many hostages as they can along the way.

1. Looking at the board, they see that they ideally need the robot to move Right two spaces, save a Red Hostage, move Up, move Right, and Open a Red Door.
2. Ethan and Kaia take turns giving each other Intel, discarding cards to gain more battery, and playing cards onto the Control Frame.
3. Throughout the course of their turns, they have played the following cards face down on the Control Frame.
4. Kaia becomes concerned that they might have played a card in error, so she decides to activate on her turn, even though there is space for more program cards. (How do our heroes fare during Activation? Check page 12 to see the results.)

Activation

Activating the robot can occur in one of two ways:

• A player decides to activate the robot by choosing this as their action on their turn (as described in the Game Play section on pg. 9.)
• The robot is "auto-activated" by the current player if they play a card on the 7th programming slot on the Control Frame.

In either case, the current player becomes the robot operator.

Adjusting Programming: The robot operator receives and processes all the programming instructions (cards) that have been played by the team. The operator has an opportunity to modify those instructions before they are sent to the robot, by performing the following steps:

• The operator turns all the programmed cards face up, and can rearrange them in any order before having the robot perform the instructions. During this phase, all players are allowed to talk freely and provide suggestions, but it is the operator's decision on the final order of the cards.
• NOTE: If the robot has been activated before 6 cards were programmed, then the operator has the option to discard any one of the programmed cards. If 6 or more cards are programmed, then no cards can be discarded.
• Once the programming has been adjusted, reduce the battery level based on the total amount of battery usage shown above the last programmed card on the control frame.
• Programmed cards that cannot be performed by the robot are errors. Each error costs 2 more battery cells in addition to the programming costs stated above.

Activation Summary

1. Flip over the programmed cards and rearrange as desired.
2. If 5 or fewer cards were programmed, one card may be discarded before sending the instructions to the robot.
3. Reduce the Main Battery level based on the cost of the programmed cards. (Reduce the Reserve Battery level if necessary.)

Battery Usage

Event	# of Battery Cells Used
Robot Activation	As indicated on the Robot Control Frame based on the number of programmed cards
Programmed cards that cannot be performed (errors)	2 additional battery cells per error

Operating the Robot

After adjusting the programming and paying the battery costs, the team then operates the robot.

• The operator has the robot perform the action on each card in order from left to right.
• The Robot must be adjacent (not diagonal) to an object to perform an action (Open Door, Save Hostage, or Disarm Bomb) on that object.
• Robots cannot move onto any space where an object or token is located.
• The exact card must be used to perform an action. (i.e. a Green Open Door card will not open a Red door, and a Yellow bomb requires a Yellow Disarm Bomb card, nothing else will do.)
• Move actions from an individual card must be executed in a straight line (no diagonals.) For example, a Green Move 3 card can not be used to move two steps to the right and then one step up.
• If the robot cannot move the full distance of a Move card in a straight line, then the card action is not performed at all and the robot uses up 2 additional battery for the error.
• Before the robot can open a door of a specific level / color, they must have saved at least 1 hostage already in this mission of that same level / color. If not done, the Open Door action fails as an Error.
• When performing an Open Door, Save Hostage, or Disarm Bomb action, remove the token for that object from the board.
• After all the instructions have been performed, the programmed cards are discarded, and play continues with the next player in clockwise order.

Note: The robot must save at least one hostage of a color before it is able to open doors of that same color.

Robot Operation Steps

1. Have the Robot perform the action on each instruction card in sequence.
2. If an action cannot be performed, reduce the main battery level by 2 for that error (reduce Reserve Battery Level if needed).
3. Discard the programmed cards.
4. Continue play with the next player in turn order.

Activation Guidelines

• Robot must be orthogonally adjacent (not diagonally) to objects to activate them.
• Card type and color must be an exact match.
• Move cards are straight-line only, no diagonals.
• Can only open doors of a level after saving at least one hostage of the same level.
• Door, Hostage, and Bomb tokens are placed in the Secured area on the Control Frame.

Example Activation

Kaia has just activated the robot as the action on her turn and is ready to operate the robot.

After looking at the cards they have played, Kaia has a sinking feeling that this activation phase isn't going to go so well! Kaia rearranges the cards as best she can, realizing that they have not played the right cards to complete their objectives. She discards the Yellow Open Door card to save 1 battery cell from activation of that card, which also saves 2 more battery cells by avoiding the robot trying to perform that action in error.

Ethan reduces the Main Battery level by 7 (since 4 cards ended up being programmed), while Kaia executes the actions from each card in sequence from left to right:

1. Move right 2 spaces
2. Save Level 1 Hostage
3. Move up 1 space
4. Open Red Door (can't perform)

The robot is able to perform the actions on the first three cards, but cannot perform the Open Red Door action since it is not adjacent to a Red Door token at that point, so Ethan reduces the Main Battery level by 2 more for the Error.

The cards are discarded and play continues. Don't give up hope! There is still time to disarm that bomb!

Battery Life

• Each Robot has a Main Battery and Reserve battery. The starting and maximum levels are indicated on the robot cards.
• Reserve batteries cannot be recharged.
• If the Main Battery runs out when activating the robot, the Reserve Battery level is reduced to make up the difference.
• Each empty (used) Reserve Battery cell counts against the players' final score at the end of the mission.
• If the Reserve Battery level goes below zero, the robot runs out of energy, powers down, and the mission is ended.

Bomb Detonation

• Each bomb is set up to destroy the entire building.
• If any bomb goes off, then the mission is ended. The players will move on to Scoring to rate how the team performed.
• Usually, the mission will require that all bombs must be disarmed to successfully complete the mission objectives.

Completing Mission Objectives

• For training missions, your objectives will be to save all the hostages and disarm all the bombs before time expires. Some missions have different objectives that are stated in their mission description.
• Note: The final activation ends immediately when the Disarm Bomb action for the last bomb is performed. No remaining instructions cards that have been programmed are performed.

Completing Mission Objectives: Move saved hostages and disarmed bombs to the Secured area on the Control Frame.

Game End Conditions

The mission ends when:

• A bomb detonates and the building explodes. -OR-
• The robot has disarmed the last bomb. –OR-
• Usage of the Reserve Battery makes it fall below zero.

Scoring

• Each mission has a perfect score, which is possible if all hostages are saved and bombs disarmed without using Reserve batteries.
• The team's score is rated against a 5 Star scale, based on how well the mission objectives were met:

Criteria	Points
Each hostage and bomb token in the Secured area	2 x Face value of the token.
If all bombs were disarmed, score each hostage token remaining on the board.	1 point
All bombs disarmed	5 points
Penalties for using Reserve Batteries	-1 point per reserve battery cell used

Example Final Scoring

Ethan and Kaia have completed the mission. Let's see how well they scored: 2x Hostage and Bomb tokens in Secured Area: 24, plus Hostages remaining in the building: 2, plus All Bombs disarmed: 5, plus Reserve battery cells used: (2) → -2, = 29 (3 stars).

Variants

Fog of War

• All Bomb and Hostage tokens from a mission are placed face down and shuffled, then randomly placed at each of the bomb and hostage token locations from the Map Setup.
• Saving hostages is not required prior to opening doors.
• Tokens are flipped over when the robot moves adjacent to the token.

No Programming

• For a variant with more forgiving memory requirements, play any mission by immediately activating the robot and performing the action on each Instruction Card as it is played.
• Each card activation cost 2 battery.

Multiple Robots

• Select two Robot cards and robot tokens. Add them to the board during setup.
• Indicate which robot is currently selected by placing another robot token on the first Robot Tile.
• Include a 5th action for players' turns: Switching the current robot, which is performed by moving the token to the other Robot Card.
• All actions (discarding for battery, activating the robot) are performed by the robot that is currently selected.

Credits

This game would not be possible without the support from many people, who deserve our deepest gratitude.

Dan would like to thank Dawn, his wife, and Caleb and Ethan, his two sons, for putting up with his gaming habit.

David would like to thank Eileen, his wife, and Kaia and Micah, his children, for their support.

Playtesters: Mike Tunison, Scott Perger, Matt Manis, Rob Hoy, Rob Miles, Terry Montgomery, Chris Dickey, Jason Williams, James Jones, Rob Miles, Shawn Bramblett, Manny Leon, Josh Martin, Nathan Emmerich, Paul Ingram, Dawn Keltner, Eilieen Short, and Desiree Schachter. Special thanks for extended playtesting to Jim Becker, the Tucson Gamesmiths group (Seth Jaffee, Matt Eklund, and many others), and especially Mandy Proctor and Russell Knox.

Reference Sheet

Player Actions

(Perform one of the following on your turn:)

• Give Intel to one other player: All cards of one color or action type.
• Play a card: Face up, face down based on programming difficulty level from Mission description.
• Discard a card: Recharge 1 Main battery cell for each correctly named attribute, as long as ALL named attributes are correct.
• Activate the robot: Rearrange cards. Optionally discard a card if 5 or fewer cards are programmed. Use battery and move robot.

Card Types

Card Types	Quantity
Red (Level 1)	27 total
Move 1 Space	11
Open Level 1 Door	6
Save Level 1 Hostage	6
Disable Level 1 Bomb	4
Yellow (Level 2)	18 total
Move 2 Spaces	6
Open Level 2 Door	4
Save Level 2 Hostage	4
Disable Level 2 Bomb	4
Green (Level 3)	9 total
Move 3 Spaces	2
Open Level 3 Door	2
Save Level 3 Hostage	2
Disable Level 3 Bomb	3

Roles

Role	Description
Sergeant	When you take a Play Action, you may do so using the top card of the Discard Pile.
Technician	You may disarm any Bomb with any Bomb card when Activating on your turn.
Recon Specialist	Gain 1 additional Battery Marker Cell when you recharge a Robot's battery on your turn.
Operator	You may look at hidden programmed cards at any time.
Negotiator	You may save any Hostage with any Hostage card when Activating on your turn.
Field Agent	You may play cards Face Up when playing a card to the Robot Control Frame.
Disposal Expert	You may discard 1 additional card from the Robot Control Frame when activating on your turn.
Security Expert	You may open any Door with any Door card when Activating on your turn.
Analyst	After performing a Discard Action, you may pay 1 Battery to put that same card back into your hand.