Deterrence 2X62 Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Preparation
• Objective
• Game Cards
  • City Cards
  • Construction Cards
  • Resource Icons
• A Bit of History
• Game Dynamic
• The Turn
  • Movement Phase (Optional)
  • Action Phase
    • a) Playing a Construction Card on a City
    • b) Playing a Construction Card as a Treaty
    • c) Declaring an Attack
      • The Attack
      • Retaliation
    • d) Declaring Peace
  • Scoring
• End of Turn
• End of the Game
• General Mode
  • Setting Up the World Market (General Mode)
  • Movement Phase (General Mode)
  • Replenishing Market Lines

Components

• 8 City Cards (4 USSR, and 4 USA). Each side controls 4 main cities that represent their alliance (USSR or USA). The player must arm and protect them from possible enemy attacks.
• 48 Construction Cards. Construction Cards are common for both factions and are used to strengthen the attack power and defense potential of your allied cities. Some can also be used as Treaties.
• 2 Player Aids. Player Aids are small reference cards for the players to keep track of their possible actions. Also, Players can draw from these to randomly select a faction.
• 1 End Game Token. This token is used as an action to end the game, be it via a successful attack, or by declaring World Peace.
• 1 Instructions Booklet.

Preparation

1. Use both Player Aid cards to sort who's going to play as each country. For the full experience, players can arrange to play two matches, one with each Superpower.
2. Each player organizes their City Cards in front of them, as seen in the example below.
3. Shuffle the 48 Construction Cards, and hand 4 cards to each player. These are the player's starting hand, and should be kept hidden from his opponent.
4. Open 4 cards from the Construction Deck, and place them open beside the deck, forming the World Market. Every end of turn, players will buy cards from the market to replenish their hands.

Example layout of the City Cards: Omsk and Moscow at the top; Beijing and Warsaw on the middle row; Los Angeles and London on the next row; Chicago and New York at the bottom.

Objective

The final objective in Deterrence 2X62 is to win the war by destroying your opponent with a successful missile attack, or by taking control over the world's economy.

During the match, players will be able to play Construction Cards on their cities, to fortify them and threaten enemy cities, or play them out of their cities as Treaties, to avoid all hostility. Constructions may provide Missiles, Anti-Missile Batteries, Command Centers, Treaties, Range Upgrades and Investments. It is the player's duty to combine and spend these resources in the best way possible to defeat the opposing faction, and win the game.

Game Cards

City Cards

These are the 4 allied cities of each faction. They are each player's main concern, as they represent a player's development center, and his enemy's target.

The City Card diagram shows the Resource Icons, the Positioning, the USA and USSR sides, the Construction Area, and the Resource Icon (Reminder).

Construction Cards

These cards can be used by both factions. While usually played on Cities, to improve their attack, defense power and provide other benefits, some of these cards can also be played out of Cities as Treaties, to negate all possibility of attacks.

The Construction Card diagram marks the Treaty icon, the Resource Icon, and the Fixed Structure icon.

Resource Icons

• Missile. The missile is an attack unit. One missile hit is enough to obliterate an enemy city.
• Anti-Missile Battery. One Anti-Missile Battery can defend against one enemy Missile, disabling it before it hits the city.
• Range Upgrade. Defines which enemy city is the target of an attack.
• Investments. Represents the player's monetary reserves.
• Command Center. Most times, a city needs to have a Command Center to be given the right to attack. More details in the "Attacking" section.
• Treaty. Cards with this symbol can be played out of cities, representing intentions of peace by the player. More details in the "Playing Constructions Cards as a Treaties" section.
• Fixed Structure. Cards played in cities with this symbol cannot be relocated.

A Bit of History

While Deterrence 2X62 represents a situation of war, it is not composed of successive battles. In the real Cold War, nations would amass ever more powerful weapons with great destructive potential, but would be afraid to use them, fearing retaliation that could cause unacceptable damage.

Anti-Missile technology is what allows the player with the best strategy and planning to protect his cities while attacking his opponent.

Game Dynamic

The USSR always plays first, followed by the USA, alternating turns till the end of the match. USSR's first turn is composed of only one action. On USA's first turn, and all other turns for both countries, players are allowed to perform two actions.

The Turn

Every turn has two phases, which are resolved in the following order:

1. Movement phase (optional)
2. Action phase (obligatory)

Movement Phase (Optional)

The movement phase is optional: players may perform a "move" or renounce it. If the player decides to renounce it, the movement phase is over.

During this phase the player may move a single Construction Card, from one city to one of its neighbour cities. Only the top card of a city (the most recent construction) can be moved.

Example: the card stationed in Chicago can be moved to either Los Angeles or New York. The card residing on Los Angeles can only be moved to Chicago, since it is its only neighbouring city.

Alert: Cards with the Fixed Structure icon mark structures that are not mobile, and cannot be moved out of a city. In the above example, cards placed on Los Angeles and Chicago can be moved as seen, but the last card played in New York cannot be moved, as it has the Fixed Structure icon. Note that the other cards below the fixed structure will remain locked in that city for the remainder of the match.

Editor's note: the PDF's movement example diagram labels two cities in a non-English language ("Londres", "Nova York"); they are London and New York.

Action Phase

After performing or renouncing the optional movement phase, the player must perform one of the following actions:

a) Play a construction card on a city; b) Play a construction card as a treaty; c) Declare an Attack; d) Declare Peace.

a) Playing a Construction Card on a City

The most commonly performed action. The player may play one construction card on any allied city. Players are not allowed to play 2 cards in the same city during the same turn.

b) Playing a Construction Card as a Treaty

Cards with the Treaty icon can be played out of cities. The player positions the card to the side of his cities, and informs his opponent that it has been played as a treaty.

When that happens, if his opponent has one or more treaties in effect on his side of the table, mutual elimination of treaties occurs. Each player must discard one treaty from their side of the table.

Alert: Cards used as treaties work differently from cards played on cities. Treaties are only valid when the card is played out of all cities. For example, the card shown provides the player with a Treaty if played out of his cities. If played on a city, it will provide 1 Missile and 1 Investment, but absolutely no treaties.

When a Treaty is in effect, its owner is incapable of removing it from game. The only way to discard it is via mutual elimination of treaties, when an opponent plays a treaty of his own.

Example: The player controlling USA has 2 declared treaties on his side of the table, played during previous turns. The opponent, controlling USSR, decides to play a card as a treaty. This eliminates one of USA's treaties, as well as this USSR treaty that was just played. Both treaties are returned to the game box, and cannot be used again during this match.

c) Declaring an Attack

One successful attack means the end of the match, with the successful attacker as winner. However, to perform such feat, four requirements must be met:

1. The attacker must have at least 2 construction cards stationed on each of his allied cities.
2. There can be no treaties in effect at that time.
3. The attack must successfully hit an enemy city.
4. The opponent's retaliation must not be able to hit one of the attacker's allied cities.

An attack is always launched from one of the allied cities controlled by the attacker. Said city needs to have at least 1 Command Center, Missiles and Range Upgrades.

Check the example of the previous topic. You'll see that the USA can only launch an attack from London, which has 1 Command Center, 1 Range Upgrade and 3 Missiles. New York has 1 Command Center and 2 Missiles, but zero Range Upgrades. But London is not able to attack and win the match at this time just yet.

Even though requirement 1 has been fulfilled (having at least 2 construction cards on each city), requirement 2 hasn't (There's still one treaty in effect, on USA's side of the table).

The Attack

The allied cities of each faction are displayed in a way that parallels their real geographical positions on our planet. They form a closed circle, following the order: New York – London – Warsaw – Moscow – Omsk – Beijing – Los Angeles – Chicago.

When an attack is declared, the occidental cities of each player target the oriental cities of their opponent. In practice, this means that the left half of your cities point their missiles to the left, while the right half of your cities point their missiles to the right, as if following the circle around the planet.

The amount of Range Upgrades present in a city is what defines its final target when said city attacks. Each Range Upgrade represents 1 city in distance (including cities owned by the player performing the attack). So following this rule we can verify that:

• When Los Angeles is the attacking city and has 1 Range Upgrade, its target is necessarily Beijing;
• When Moscow is the attacking city and has 3 Range Upgrades, its target is necessarily New York (never Los Angeles, while Range Upgrade = 3);
• When London is the attacking city and has 4 Range Upgrades, its target is necessarily Beijing.

After defining the attacking city, and identifying its target, we must now check if the attack was successful.

Let's check the example of a complete attack attempt on the following page:

The player controlling the USSR finds an opening in his opponent's defenses. This is true because:

• There are no treaties in effect at this time;
• The USSR may attack, as its controlled cities contain at least two construction cards placed on each city;
• The USSR attack is launched from Omsk, possessing 1 Command Center, 3 Range Upgrades and 6 Missiles;
• Omsk's target is Chicago, as it has 3 Range Upgrades (It's impossible to renounce 1 Range Upgrade to attack Los Angeles, or aim the opposite way to attack London);
• This attack launches 6 Missiles towards Chicago;
• Chicago only possesses 5 Anti-Missile Batteries. Each Anti-Missile Battery nullifies one attacking Missile, but 1 Missile isn't stopped, it reaches its target, and destroys Chicago.

Retaliation

Being able to hit an enemy city is a good sign, but not enough to achieve victory just yet. The USA might be able to defend their territory by retaliating. Retaliation works similarly to attacks, and can be launched from multiple cities, as long as certain conditions are met:

• Retaliation can be launched from the target city, even if it doesn't have any Command Center.
• Retaliation can be launched by a neighbour city of the target city, as long as it has at least one Command Center.

So, was it possible for the USA to retaliate and protect Chicago in the previous example?

• Chicago doesn't have a Command Center, but could still be able to retaliate, since it is the target of the original attack. However, it still lacks Range Upgrades to allow its missiles to reach an enemy city.
• Los Angeles is a neighbour of Chicago, but is not able to retaliate without having at least one Command Center.
• London cannot retaliate, as it is not a direct neighbour of the original target city.
• New York is a direct neighbour to Chicago, and has a Command Center. Besides, it has 2 Range Upgrades, granting New York to reach Warsaw with its missiles. From here, retaliation works just like an attack: all 4 Missiles from New York are aimed towards Warsaw. Unfortunately for the USA, Warsaw has 4 Anti-Missile Batteries, effectively defending itself against all 4 Missiles from New York.

In the end, the USSR has indeed the upper hand. They are able to successfully attack an opposing city, while protecting all of its allied cities, and is declared the winner.

d) Declaring Peace

When one faction has 3 treaties in effect, and more investments than its opponent, its controlling player may win by declaring peace. When peace is declared, the match is deemed over, and the player with the biggest score is declared the winner.

Scoring

Players' final scores are based on their investments, and its distribution among allied cities, thus:

• Each Investment is worth 1 point.
• Each 3 Investments placed on the same city is worth +1 point.
• The player with most points win. (In case of a draw, the USSR is the winner)

Example: Let's follow the scoring process for the following example:

• Beijing: 3 (bonus: +1)
• Omsk: 3 (bonus: +1)
• Moscow: 1 (bonus: 0)
• Warsaw: 5 (bonus: +1)

USSR Score: 3+1+3+1+1+5+1 = 15 points

• Los Angeles: 1 (bonus: +0)
• Chicago: 3 (bonus: +1)
• New York: 7 (bonus: +2)
• London: 2 (bonus: +0)

USA Score: 1+3+1+7+2+2 = 16 points

Winner: USA

End of Turn

After finishing his actions, a player must buy new cards to replenish his hand back to 4 cards. This means that the USSR will buy only one card after its first turn (since it's only allowed to take one action). Subsequent turns will end with players buying 2 cards.

Players may draw cards from the 4 available open cards in the World Market, or draw the top card of the Construction Card deck. If the player chooses to draw from the deck, he may not reveal the content of his purchase to his opponent. If a card is bought from the Market, it is replaced by a new one from the deck immediately, before any other draws, regardless of whose turn it is.

End of the Game

Deterrence 2X62's match is over when peace is declared, or a safe attack hits an enemy city. As long as neither of those requirements are met, the game continues until there are no more Construction Cards to be drawn in the end of turns. When both the deck of construction cards and the world market are depleted, players will perform their last turns as follows:

1. USSR will draw the last construction card, but will be unable to replenish his hand back to 4 cards, keeping only 3 cards.
2. USA will then perform its last turn, playing 2 cards normally.
3. And finally, USSR will perform its last turn, playing only one card (much like its initial turn).

This way, each player will end the match with 2 cards in their hands, in a fair and peaceful manner. Scoring then occurs just like after a peace declaration. The player with higher score wins the match.

General Mode

For experienced Deterrence 2X62 players, GENERAL MODE is recommended for a more competitive experience. In this game mode, the World Market is changed, adding new layers of complexity to the game and widening its strategic possibilities.

Setting Up the World Market (General Mode)

Instead of consisting of 4 cards lined up, this mode's market consists of 3 lines of 3 open cards positioned beside the deck. Adjust the lines to form a 3 by 3 grid, as seen in the example. The construction card deck should reside to the left of the grid. When buying cards, players should only pick from the ones in the end section of the market, opposite to the deck.

Movement Phase (General Mode)

When playing General Mode, players have a new possible action during the optional Movement Phase. Instead of moving a construction card from a city to its neighbour, a player may move a buyable market card to the end of another line.

Players may not move the last card of a line.

Attention. Fixed Structures are not blocked from movement in the Market.

Replenishing Market Lines

After a player buys his two cards in the end of his turn, market lines must be replenished with new merchandise. Any remaining cards in the market are pushed towards the end of the line, and then 2 cards are drawn from the deck to fill the gaps of the original 3 by 3 grid.

Example 1. The acting player purchased 2 cards from line 1 in the market. In this case, each of the two cards drawn to replenish the market are placed in the beginning of that line, one at a time.

Example 2. This time, the player decided to purchase one card from the second line, and one card from the third. So the first card replenishes the first slot of Line 2, while the second card will replenish the first slot of line 3.