Duel for Cardia: Guardians of the Wild
Duel for Cardia: Guardians of the Wild Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 12 Guardians (3 per faction)
- 5 Locations
- 1 Summary card
Setup
- Set up Cardia as usual (see base game rulebook, pp. 2–3).
- Place the summary card from this expansion so everyone can see it.
- Shuffle all 12 Guardians, regardless of the different backs. Deal 6 of them face down in a row with the location stack. Leave about one card's width of space to the location stack as well as between the Guardians. This way, a Guardian is placed on every other encounter space. Now reveal the first Guardian (the one closest to the location stack).
Setup diagram (p. 1) is labelled: first encounter (without Guardian), second encounter (with Guardian), sixth encounter (with Guardian).
- Return the remaining Guardians to the box.
- Optional: If you are playing with a location, choose one and place it face up on the location stack as usual (more on p. 4).
Strategic Variant
Have you already played a few games with the Guardians and want to plan ahead? Then place all 6 Guardians face up during setup.
The Guardians
Only every other encounter has a Guardian. In encounters without Guardians, gameplay does not change.
Each Guardian belongs to one faction. You can identify them by the faction symbol on the front and back of the cards. In addition, each Guardian has an ability.
The Unicorn, for example, belongs to the Dynasty faction.
1. Play Cards
Play a card as you do in the base game. It does not matter whether there is a Guardian in the encounter.
2. Activate Ability
Activate character abilities and resolve them as usual with all consequences. Afterwards, you activate the Guardian's ability.
You only activate the Guardian's ability if you have played a card from its faction in this encounter.
You must resolve the Guardian's ability as fully as possible.
If you have both played a card from the Guardian's faction, you each activate the ability. The order does not matter.
Example (p. 2): You played the Palace Guard, which is a Guild card. As the Elephant belongs to the Guild as well, you activate its ability: Add +5 influence to your card in the previous encounter. You place a +5 modifier on your Saboteur (5) and now win this encounter. Your opponent has not played a Guild card and therefore does not activate the Elephant's ability.
Exception: Each faction has a Guardian whose ability is only activated if only one person has played a matching card. If both of you have played a card from that faction, nothing happens.
Example (p. 3): You played the Judge, which is the only Dynasty card in this encounter, and therefore activate the Cat's ability: "If your card is the only Dynasty card in this encounter: Flip all modifiers on any one card to their other side." You flip the +3 modifier on your opponent's Fortune Teller (6) to -3. Now your Palace Guard (7) has more influence and you win the encounter. If you had both played a Dynasty card, none of you would have triggered the Cat's ability.
Note: the modifier symbol printed in the Cat's ability text is rendered here as the word "modifier".
3. End of the Round
Reveal the next Guardian in the direction of play. Then proceed with phase 3 of the base game as usual.
If you have already revealed all Guardians, you continue playing all further encounters without Guardians.
Special Cases
- If the current encounter is discarded in phase 2 (e.g. by Hired Blade (1)), the guardian is not activated in this round. Instead, you play the next encounter in the same position as usual. You can now try to activate the guardian again.
- If a previous encounter is discarded (e.g. by the Swamp Guardian (13)), you move all encounters one position to close the gap (see base game rulebook, p. 17). This means that the Guardian may become 'free' again for the next encounter and you can activate it again. Nothing changes for past encounters (with or without Guardians).
- A card drawn with the Puppeteer (10) is considered played and activates a Guardian of the corresponding faction.
Card Explanations
Unicorn: You place an additional signet on your card in the next encounter if it wins its encounter. If the card with the additional signet is discarded, the effect is no longer active. If your opponent wins that encounter later in the game, you return the additional signet to the supply.
Parrot: You activate the ability of the card you used to activate the Parrot. It does not matter whether you have already activated the ability. When you activate an ongoing ability, place an (additional) ongoing token on the card as usual.
Parrot card text: If your card is the only Guild card in this encounter: Activate the ability of your card in this encounter.
Phoenix: You may place an ongoing token on cards with an instant ability (see FAQ, p. 2). If you play a card with an ongoing ability and activate it in phase 2, there will be 2 ongoing tokens on this card.
Phoenix card text: Add an Ongoing token to the next card you play.
Scorpion: You place the card you drew on top of your opponent's discard pile.
Scorpion card text: Draw a random card from your opponent's hand and discard it.
Basilisk: If your opponent has no cards left in their deck, they cannot play and lose immediately.
Basilisk card text: Discard the opposing card and replace it with the top card from your opponent's deck.
Toad: You may only swap 2 of your cards in consecutive encounters. All ongoing tokens and modifiers on the cards remain on them and are moved along with them.
Toad card text: If your card is the only Rebellion card in this encounter: Swap two of your cards that are adjacent.
Locations
You can add the locations from the expansion to the base game. You can also use them without the Guardians.
Senate: You place the modifier on the card immediately after revealing it (in phase 1).
Senate card text: Whenever you reveal a Dynasty card: Add -3 Influence to it.
Seer's Den: Your card has to be an Academy card and win the encounter. It doesn't matter whether you win the current or a past encounter.
Seer's Den card text: Whenever you win an encounter with an Academy card: Draw a card.
Tide & Storm
You can combine the Guardians with both deck III and IV. The rules do not change.
The new factions (shown by their faction symbols on p. 4) do not activate any Guardians. When setting up the game, we recommend that you secretly return one Guardian from each faction to the box.
If you are playing with deck IV, remove the Phoenix for the Academy.