Border States Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Sequence of Play
• Preparation
• Combat
  • I. Recruitment
  • II. Moving to Battle
  • III. Placement of the Blocks
  • Character Cards
• Resolution
  • I. Reveal Blocks
  • II. Winning Front
  • III. Conquest
  • IV. Placement of the Influence Cubes
• End of Turn
  • I. Influence of the States
  • II. Preparation for the Next Turn
• End of the Game and Victory
• Variants

Components

• 1 game board
• 2 recruitment boards
• 2 President cards
• 10 Character cards
• 17 Battle cards
• 20 General blocks (10 per side)
• 1 Bible block
• 1 Artillery block
• 20 States tokens
• 1 cloth bag & 50 Influence cubes
• 1 Initiative token
• 1 Turn token

Setup

Place the game board between you. One of you takes the role of the Union (in Blue), the other the role of the Confederation (in Red).

1. Place the Influence cubes in the cloth bag.
2. Place the Turn token on the 1861 year of the Turn track. Set the Bible and Artillery blocks close to the game board.
3. Set the President cards aside, face-up.
4. Stack the 4 State tokens of each color and place them in the central spaces of the Influence tracks of each state on the game board. 2 State tokens from Missouri are moved to the Union side, and 2 State tokens from Delaware are moved to the Confederation side.

Stickers' preparation. Before your first game, carefully peel off the stickers and place them on the large blocks, one sticker per block.

• 10 red blocks: Confederation's generals (red).
• 10 blue blocks: Union's generals (blue).
• 2 grey blocks: Artillery and Bible stickers.

5. Shuffle your 10 General blocks. Draw 4 General blocks and place them in front of you. Form a line with the 6 remaining General blocks to create your recruitment queue by drawing them randomly and placing them one by one from left to right.
6. Each player draws 4 of their 5 Character cards. The last one is placed back in the box.
7. Throw the Initiative token to determine who will place their General blocks first in case of a tie during the Combat phase.
8. Shuffle the 17 Battle cards and place 2 cards back in the box randomly. The 15 remaining cards form the Battle deck.

Sequence of Play

A game is played in 5 turns, each divided into 4 phases:

1. Preparation
2. Combat
3. Resolution
4. End of the turn

Preparation

1. Draw the first 3 Battle cards from the Battle deck and place them face up in front of the dedicated slots on the game board.
   • Each battle is identified by a number: I, II, or III depending on its position on the game board.
   • Each horizontal line of a battle is called a front. There are two fronts per battle.
2. For each battle, draw as many Influence cubes from the bag as the Intensity value of the Battle card + 2, and place them in the Conquest area.

If all the tokens of a given state are located in the players' Control areas (see End of the Game and Victory), the drawn cubes are placed back directly into the box and are not replaced.

A battle card shows: the Battle card itself, the Battle Intensity, the Battle spaces, the Battle number, and the Conquest area. The number of Influence cubes drawn is 2 + Intensity (4 in the case of a Battle card of Intensity 2).

Combat

The Combat phase lasts 3 rounds. In each round, players place two of their General blocks on the battle spaces.

I. Recruitment

1. Each player selects one General block located at either end of their recruitment queue and adds it to their available General blocks. Once per game, a player may select the General block of their choice anywhere in their recruitment queue by using the power of their President.
2. Simultaneously, each player chooses 2 General blocks from the available ones in front of them. They are stacked and placed face down.
3. Once both players have made their choice, the top-stacked General block is simultaneously revealed face-up.

The face-up block can never be the one with the value of -2. If a player makes a mistake, they must reveal their 2nd General block.

Power of the President. Once per game, a player may choose a block of their choice in their recruitment queue. The President card is then flipped over and can no longer be used.

II. Moving to Battle

The player owning the face-up block with the lowest value places their two blocks on the Accessible Battles first (see Accessible Battles below). Then their opponent does the same. In case of a tie, the player designated by the Initiative token places their blocks first. They then flip the Initiative token to its other side. In the event of a future tie, their opponent will then place their blocks first, and so on. The face-down block will remain hidden until the Resolution phase.

Example: Both players played a face-up block of value 2. The Initiative token is on the Union player's side. They must place their blocks first. The Initiative token is flipped to its other side. For the next tie, the Confederate player will place first.

Accessible Battles. Accessible Battles are those whose numbers (I, II or/and III) are printed on the face-up block. Never take into account the numbers indicated on the face-down block. The blocks with a value of 1 may access only 1 battle, those with a value of 2, 2 battles, the Siege block and the block with a value of 3, all battles.

Example: The Union player can access battles II and III and the Confederate player can access battles I and II.

Ambush block. The Ambush block has a value of 0 and no battle numbers. When played face-up, it copies the Accessible Battles of the opposing block.

Example: The Union player copies the Accessible Battles of the Confederate player's General. They can therefore send their Generals to battles I or II.

• The Ambush block copies the Accessible Battles of the opposing block but not its value.
• If both players reveal their Ambush blocks face-up at the same time, each player's 2 blocks are set aside and will have no impact during the Resolution phase.

Siege block. The Siege block has a value of 1. It allows access to one of the 3 battles I, II or III, but the player's 2 blocks must be placed on the same battle. They cannot be distributed over several battles (see the placement of the blocks below).

III. Placement of the Blocks

The players place their 2 blocks on the Accessible Battles. They may be placed, in any combination, on the same or different Accessible Battles. For a given battle, they can be distributed on the same front or on the 2 opposite fronts.

There is only one constraint: the blocks must always be placed on the free spaces closest to the arrow.

Example: The Union player plays first because the value of their face-up General block is 1 compared to their opponent's 2. They can only go to battle I and decide to place a block on each front. The Confederate player can go to battles I and II. They decide to place their face-up General block next to the Union player's face-down one in battle I and then place their face-down General block in battle II.

• When there are no more available battle spaces for a given battle, it is no longer possible to place blocks there. If a block cannot be placed, it is set aside and will not be taken into account during the Resolution phase.
• At any time, a player can consult their face-down blocks.

Character Cards

When placing their blocks, a player may play as many Character cards as they wish. Depending on its effect, a card is applied before or after the placement of the General blocks, but only on Accessible Battles. A Character card is returned to the box after its effect has been resolved.

Effect of Character cards:

• Reveal an opponent's face-down General block.
• Take the Bible block and place it on a General block. This General can no longer be eliminated by an Ambush block. If the Bible block has already been placed in the current turn, the player cannot play this card.
• Take the Artillery block and place it on an empty battle space. This block has a value of 1 at the time of resolution but remains neutral: it does not belong to the player who placed it and therefore does not count in their battle value. If the Artillery block has already been placed in the current turn, the player cannot play this card.
• Change one of the Accessible Battles for the face-up General block.
• Place an additional General block on a front if there is no free space left. A front can only get one additional block.

Resolution

The Combat phase is over once each player has placed 6 General blocks. Proceed to resolve the battles in the order I, II, III. The resolution of a battle must be completely finished before moving to the next one.

I. Reveal Blocks

The face-down blocks are turned face-up.

Ambush. Each Ambush block eliminates a General block located either to its left, right or opposite on the other front, even if it belongs to the same side as the Ambush block (the trap has turned against the player). The eliminated block is placed to the side and won't have effect.

The Ambush block remains in place, only its victim is removed.

If there are several Ambush blocks in a battle:

• Ambushes are resolved from the closest to the farthest from the arrow.
• 2 Ambush blocks facing each other are both eliminated.

Example: The Union player's ambush must eliminate a block. They have no other choice than to eliminate their own general with the value of 1.

II. Winning Front

The winning front is the front where the sum of the values of the General blocks of both players is:

• positive (> 0),
• strictly greater than the sum of the values of the General blocks of the other front.

If there is no winning front, the battle is indecisive and the Influence cubes in the Conquest area are placed in the box.

Example: There is a tie between the two fronts. The Influence cubes in the Conquest area are placed in the box.

III. Conquest

On the winning front, the player having the highest positive value wins. They are the winner. If the other player is also present on this front and their value is also positive, they are the loser. In case of a tie, the player closest to the arrow is the winner.

The winner distributes the Influence cubes of the battle:

• Battle Intensity 0 (2 cubes): they keep the 2 cubes.
• Battle Intensity 1 (3 cubes): they choose 2 cubes and give the remaining cube to the loser.
• Battle Intensity 2 (4 cubes): they choose 3 cubes and give the remaining cube to the loser.

If there is no loser, the winner gets all the cubes.

Example: The top front wins 3 (3+2-2) to 1. On this front the Union player has a value of 2 while their opponent has a value of 1 (3-2). They are the winner and the Confederate player is the loser.

Example: The top front wins 3 (3+0) against 1. On this front the Confederate player has a value of 3 while their opponent has a value of 0. They are designated the winner. The Union player has a value of 0 (not positive), so they get no cubes.

Example: The top front wins 4 (2+2) to 3. On this front, both players have a value of 2. The Union player is the winner because their General is closest to the arrow. The Confederate player is the loser.

IV. Placement of the Influence Cubes

1. The winner places their Influence cubes first in front of the Influence tracks on the game board.
2. The loser then places their cubes in the same way.
3. Proceed to the resolution of the next battle.

Example: Battle I - The Confederate player is the winner. They take the 2 brown cubes and 1 of the 2 yellow cubes. They give the last yellow cube to the Union player, who is the loser. Battle II - The Union player is the sole winner. They get the yellow cube and the 2 purple cubes.

End of Turn

I. Influence of the States

For each state, the State tokens will move to one side or the other:

• The movement capacity of a State token is equal to the difference in Influence cubes between the 2 players for that state.
• The same State token can be moved more than once.
• If the move causes a State token to leave the track into a player's Control area, it is secured. That State token is permanently controlled.

The game ends immediately if a player has 4 State tokens of 4 different colors in their Control area, or 5 State tokens of any color. If both players reach this condition at the same time, then resume the game and determine victory at the end of the 5th turn (see End of the Game and Victory).

II. Preparation for the Next Turn

1. Each player takes their 3 remaining General blocks in their recruitment queue. They then have 4 General blocks available for the next turn.
2. On the battles:
   • The 6 placed General blocks are removed, shuffled face down, and then set in a row to form a new recruitment queue.
   • The Artillery and Bible blocks are placed back next to the Initiative token.
   • The 3 Battle cards are discarded and returned to the box.
3. Move the Turn marker one year and begin the Preparation phase of the next turn.

Example: Missouri - 2 cubes for the Union player, only 1 cube for the Confederate player, so the movement capacity is 1 (2-1). One State token is moved 1 space to the Union side. Kentucky - 2 cubes for the Union player, 0 for the Confederate player, so the movement capacity is 2 (2-0). 2 State tokens are moved 1 space to the Union side into its Control area. West Virginia - No cube won in this turn, State tokens do not move. Maryland - 1 cube won by each player (1-1), no State tokens moved. Delaware - 2 State tokens are moved 1 space to the Confederate player's side. 1 State token could have been moved also twice to the Confederate Control area.

End of the Game and Victory

If the game goes till the end of the 5 turns, then calculate the score of each player. Each State token present on a player's side, i.e. either on their side of the Influence tracks or in their Control area, scores 1 point.

Example: Starting back from the previous example, the Union player scores 5 points because they have 5 State tokens (Missouri and Kentucky) on their side. The Confederate player scores 10 points because 10 State tokens are on their side (Virginia, Maryland and Delaware).

The player with the most victory points wins the game.

In the event of a tie, the winner is the one who:

• Has the most State tokens in their Control area.
• Played the fewest Character and President cards.
• And if the tie still persists, the Union player wins... we won't rewrite history this time.

Variants

Without Character cards. Play the game without the Character cards and the power of the Presidents.

Deterministic. All cubes in the bag will be drawn. At set-up:

1. Discard one Battle card of Intensity 0 and one Battle card of Intensity 2.
2. Remove 5 Influence cubes from the bag, 1 for each color.

War of attrition. Each State marker can only be moved once per turn.