EverZone: Strategic Battles in the Universe
EverZone: Strategic Battles in the Universe Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
"EverZone" is a strategic card game for two or more players, simulating in real time a war between different races. Each player commands a tactical base representing his race and armed forces (an individual deck of cards), which are used in battle against opponents.
Components
210 Unit cards — 90 Support cards — 30 Location cards — 3 scoring tables with 3 red and 3 blue tokens (for tens and units) — 9 race tokens — rules.
Objective of the Game
At the start, the players choose the number of Command Points (CP), which determines the length of the game. In a 1-vs-1 game the standard is 20 CP (10 for a short game, 30 for a long one). In a team game (2-vs-2 or 3-vs-3) you should use at least 30 CP, since the level of damage dealt on both sides exceeds the equivalent parameter in a classic 1-vs-1 confrontation.
Each point of damage dealt causes the player to lose 1 CP. When a player — or a faction, if playing with 4 players — loses all of their CP, they are eliminated from the game. The last player (or faction) remaining in the game wins. If the Battle deck runs out before the agreed condition has been met, the game ends and the player (or faction) with the most CP wins. If players are tied on CP, the game ends in a truce between them.
Setup
Before the game, each player assembles a personal "force deck" consisting of Unit cards and Support cards of one race: Numens, Slurrs or Utrons (race cards are distinguished by their background). Players may compete with decks of the same race — for example, Numens against Numens.
A player's deck must contain at least 50 cards. For convenience in the first games we recommend using exactly 50 cards (35 Unit cards and 15 Support cards); the box contains 6 ready-made decks.
Leader Card
Unit cards come in two types: Base cards and Leader cards. Before the start of the game, each player secretly chooses one Leader. This special card can be summoned and activated in any location. Players begin the game with this card in hand, and if the Leader is not eliminated at the end of the Combat phase, it returns to the owner's hand, so that potentially it can be deployed and activated in every battle. A player may have only one Leader card per game. If the Leader dies, nothing special happens to the player — he simply loses a very effective unit, but the game continues as normal.
Location Cards
Each player — or faction, if playing with 4 players — chooses three Location cards from their reserve. Shuffle these cards together with the three base Location cards of Earth, Sea and Space (9 cards in total) into one deck and place it in the centre of the table. There are no restrictions on what type of Location cards a player may include. And, if each player has their own copy of the game, each of them may choose Location cards from their own reserve. Choosing the 9 Location cards is largely a key element of strategy (since the player knows ⅔ of the battle deck).
Gameplay
"EverZone" is a military confrontation between rival factions, who prepare and take part in battles on the territory of locations from the battle deck, where each Location card represents a battlefield on which the fight takes place over the number of turns indicated. After the final turn of the battle (if not earlier) the game ends. Each round consists of the following five phases:
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DRAW PHASE: Players draw cards from their decks until they have 10 cards in hand. If your Leader was not destroyed, add it to your hand.
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BATTLE PHASE: Reveal the top Location card of the battle deck. Then each player chooses either to proceed to phase 3, or to discard their entire hand (except the Leader card) and draw the same number of cards, but one fewer than discarded. Players may refresh their hand as many times as they wish. Naturally, if a player has only one card in hand, they cannot refresh the hand. Also, if the deck contains at least 50 cards, then when initially drawing a fifth of the deck it is unlikely that you will fail to find useful cards if the deck is built properly. Assess the cards in hand carefully to decide whether to refresh it. In a "good" hand the number of Units is at least equal to the number of turns of the battle +1; otherwise we advise refreshing the hand. This is because each stage of the battle is fought only by the forces you deployed during the Deployment phase.
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DEPLOYMENT PHASE: Now players deploy (this is optional) any number of Units from their hands vertically (face down) onto the battlefield, next to each other. Players may deploy any of their Units, even if they cannot fight in the stated location. Important: the Deployment phase happens only once until the end of the Battle, so you may not deploy cards from your hand every turn. On each turn of the Battle players may activate units and fight, but may not deploy!
To "deploy" an already activated card, turn it face down (vertically), as if it had been laid out from the hand during phase 3.
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COMBAT PHASE: The armed clash lasts as many turns as indicated on the Location card (unless one of the sides retreats earlier, see below). Each turn consists of the following actions:
- Activation
Each player simultaneously indicates the number of deployed Units they plan to activate (reveal). To avoid tricks, we recommend giving each player a die, on which each sets the number of Units they are activating. This value must be shown by the players simultaneously.
The sum of the RESOURCE values of the active Units may not exceed the RESOURCE limit provided by the Location card for the given turn. Then the players simultaneously activate their cards by turning them face up. Players may not activate further cards later in the same turn.
If you mistakenly activated a card that cannot be used in the current location, withdraw it from the battle. If the sum of the RESOURCE values of your Units exceeds the RESOURCE limit of the Location card, withdraw one or more Units from the battle (mark this by turning the card 90º) so as not to exceed the RESOURCE limit for the turn. A withdrawn Unit may not use its ability or contribute its values, but it may still be destroyed. Playing some Support cards may cause withdrawn Units to be activated. Likewise, active Units may be instantly withdrawn from the battle by effects that change their values.
Each turn you may play no more than one Support card from your hand at any time before the end of the turn. Thus, if a battle lasts three turns, you may play a maximum of three Support cards. However, during the last turn of the battle you may play additional Support cards, bringing the total number of Support cards played to the maximum for that battle. For example, if a battle lasts four turns and you have played only one Support card, then on the last turn you may play up to three Support cards.
You may play a Support card only if you have enough resources to do so. A Support card remains in play until the end of phase 4, unless you discard it earlier (see the Retreat phase). Some effects of Support cards (as well as the abilities of Unit cards) trigger at the moment of activation/play; other effects trigger only when the player chooses to use them (see the Useful Tips section).
* **Clash**
Your active Units and Support cards during your turn make up your army. Add up the ATTACK, DEFENSE, TARGET and RESOURCE values of each active card to determine the total value of your army. If your army's RESOURCE value exceeds the RESOURCE limit for this turn, you must immediately withdraw one or more Units from the battle, then recalculate all of your army's values.
The army with the higher TARGET value attacks first (if the values are equal, the attack of each army happens simultaneously). If the ATTACK value of the attacking army is equal to or exceeds the DEFENSE value of the opponent, then all active Units of the opponent are considered destroyed and placed in that player's fallen deck. Support cards are not destroyed in the clash, but may be destroyed by the effects / abilities of various cards. In addition, the opponent receives damage equal to the difference between the ATTACK and DEFENSE values. However, if the ATTACK value is lower than the DEFENSE value of the opponent, the opponent's army survives and performs a full counterattack. In other words, if the defending army survives, the value of each of its Units remains the same.
Each player may attack only once per turn. Imagine the opponent has destroyed all of my active Units, but one (or several) of the Units under my control that had been withdrawn from the battle will be reactivated; I can then counterattack with these forces.
Another common situation: my army starts the offensive, having a greater TARGET value, and although my army is now attacking, I may reduce its TARGET value to increase its ATTACK value (or I may withdraw one Unit with an ability / effect in order to activate another, thereby reducing my army's TARGET value). Despite all these changes, the fact that my army attacks does not change, because I am already in the process of carrying it out. It can never happen that my actions are suspended and the opponent attacks because I changed some of my values during an action.
If you have no active Units on your turn, the ATTACK strength of the opponent's army inflicts proportionate damage on you (reducing your CP). At the end of each turn, active forces remain active unless they are affected by effects / abilities that change their state on the battlefield.
Through the use of effects / abilities, all values of Units (and accordingly of the army) may be changed during a turn; if the DEFENSE value of a Unit drops to 0, it is destroyed and moved to that player's fallen deck.
Remember: the RESOURCE values on a Location card do not add up from turn to turn; they are taken into account separately and are available to all players during each particular turn. After the clash is completed, a new turn begins, until the number of turns allotted by the Location card has been exhausted.
- RETREAT PHASE: At the end of the battle, all cards in play are placed face up on top of the retreated pile (both Units and Support), and the Leader card returns to hand. When your main deck runs out, shuffle the cards from the retreated pile to form a new deck for yourself. Cards in the fallen deck remain there. When this phase occurs, all bonuses and effects end their action. If necessary, players must discard surplus cards from hand, reducing their number to 10 (not counting the Leader). In addition, players may discard any number of cards to the retreated pile before the start of the next battle.
After the end of each clash turn (at least one clash turn must take place), a player may choose to "surrender" and move to the Retreat phase before the end of the specified number of turns on the Location card. A player who surrenders takes damage equal to half of the opponent's army's unmodified ATTACK value (rounded down). A player who has surrendered more than twice immediately loses the game.
At the end of the Retreat phase, a new battle begins, returning to phase 1, unless you have just played the last Location card from the deck. In that case, the player with the most CP wins.
Useful Tips
ABILITIES / EFFECTS: Both abilities and effects are listed in the card text. When players declare the use of abilities and/or effects, it is sometimes necessary to establish the order in which they resolve. The order is established by creating a kind of stack, where the last declared ability / effect is the first to be resolved. Strictly speaking, two stacks should be created: one for abilities and one for effects; and the effects stack takes priority over the abilities stack. So, for example, in a 2-vs-2 game, if several effects and abilities were declared one after another, to avoid confusion you may treat it as: all effects must be resolved before abilities, and the last declared effect is resolved first. Then you do the same with the abilities (if they can still be resolved after the effects have been resolved).
There are three types of abilities:
- Optional: whether to perform them depends on the player's choice and on the stack order. They trigger only once after being declared, such as: Meraud, Ciel, etc.
- Contextual: these depend on the situation in the game and are performed regardless of the player's will and of the stack order. They may trigger several times per game depending on the number of situations that trigger them, such as: Sniper or Moray, where in each case when your army attacks first, their abilities may be performed. This also applies to cards such as Sea Arrow, which cannot be destroyed if the opponent's army has 3 or fewer active Units.
- Continuous (extended): these do not depend on the stack order and operate constantly from the moment the card is activated until it stops being active. They often change one or more values of a Unit or army, or alter certain game actions. An example is the card Virago, which does not allow the opponent to play Support cards. This does not end until the card is removed (or until the targets of the ability themselves are removed).
There are also hybrid abilities, which are performed partly at the player's will and partly as a result of game situations. Such cards include, for example: Medusa, Xenogray, Kraken, etc., where each time the appropriate circumstances arise you may decide whether to apply the ability or not.
This is also true for Support cards. We must distinguish between Support cards that have a single effect and those that have an extended effect. Orbital Void is a good example of a single effect: once the effect has been resolved, the card becomes irrelevant and must be discarded, unless you want to keep it in play for some special reason (for example, for a combo with C.B.L. or LAK Units). On the other hand, the card Carapace is a good example of an extended effect, constantly giving +2 DEFENSE to your army while there are active forces in your play area. This effect does not end at the end of the turn, and can potentially continue into subsequent turns, unless the card is discarded or destroyed prematurely.
Resolving an ability / effect takes priority over an action in the course of the game (for example, a clash between armies), except when that action has already ended.
Once an ability / effect has been declared it cannot be cancelled, and it is kept for later use, even if the ability / effect becomes inapplicable due to subsequent actions of the opponent. If a card is withdrawn from the battle or destroyed, all of its effects disappear until the reverse occurs.
Retreat (Discard)
Whenever you must discard cards (when refreshing your hand or at the end of a battle), place them face up on the retreated troops pile. Only destroyed cards (placed face up) are piled onto the fallen deck: both Unit cards and Support cards. But discarded Support cards are placed in the retreated troops pile.
Withdrawing Units from Combat
If the RESOURCE value of your army exceeds the value stipulated by the Location card for the given turn (even if, say, the increase in a Unit's RESOURCE value was caused by the opponent), you must choose one or more Units and withdraw them from the battle in order to reduce your army's RESOURCE value to an acceptable level. A player may withdraw troops only if it is necessary for his army whose RESOURCE value exceeds the value for the current turn. Support cards cannot be withdrawn: they can be activated directly from hand only if this does not exceed the RESOURCE limit, but to reduce your army's RESOURCE value, you may move Support cards from play to the retreated troops pile.
Withdrawn troops are, in effect, the same Units as deployed ones, except that they are visible to the opponent. They cannot take part in a clash or use their abilities. The advantage of having such cards in play is that they cannot be destroyed in an attack (although they may be destroyed by abilities / effects), but they can be automatically reactivated as soon as the battle situation allows.
For example, if my army is destroyed, then my RESOURCE points are replenished, and so the withdrawn Units are automatically reactivated (if the RESOURCE limit allows). If I have two withdrawn Units but the RESOURCE limit allows only one of them to be reactivated, I may choose which of them to reactivate; otherwise both are reactivated automatically.
One thing must be perfectly clear: withdrawing troops and/or reactivating them are automatic mechanisms that depend exclusively on the conditions of the game, not on the player's choice. A player cannot arbitrarily withdraw an active Unit if his army fits within the RESOURCE limit.
Rules for Three Players
In "EverZone" the most interesting format is the 1-vs-1 confrontation, or team against team, but a game of three is also possible. In this case the rules for two players apply, with the following clarifications.
During setup, instead of using the three base locations (Earth, Sea and Space), each player chooses three locations to create a deck of 9 cards.
The game phases remain the same except for the Combat phase. Each player is given three race markers (one for each race in the game). Before the first turn of each Combat phase, each player secretly chooses one of these markers, then the players simultaneously reveal them and determine the player who will attack during this particular Combat phase. Two situations are possible:
- All three players chose different targets. In this case the Combat phase proceeds in the standard manner, and the order of attacks is determined by the TARGET value of each army, as usual. Remember that your attack is focused only on the army of the player you selected, and you will receive damage from the attack of the third army, so it is important to know the order of attacks based on the TARGET values of the armies. In case of a tie in these values, the attacks occur simultaneously, and this may result in more than one army being destroyed in a turn.
The race token determines the army against which you will concentrate your attacks throughout the battle (from the first to the last turn of the battle set by the Location card). However, effects and abilities may be aimed at any target, and they do not have to be from the army chosen by the token for attack.
- Two players chose the same target. In this case, these players become allies in the struggle against the third player. These allies must share the RESOURCES from the Location card as if they were one army made up of two races. Thus, if the Location card provides 10, 20 and 35 RESOURCES over three turns, the allies may not have more than 10 RESOURCES in total in the first turn, 20 RESOURCES during the second turn, and 35 RESOURCES during the third. On the one hand, there is a strong RESOURCE restriction for each player in the alliance, but in theory the allies have an advantage, because they have a greater number of available Units and Support cards, which gives them a wider range of abilities and card combinations.
However, the player fighting against the alliance has his own advantage: whenever his army deals damage, it is distributed to each ally. For example, if the ATTACK value of the lone player's army is 12, and the DEFENSE value of the alliance is 8, then each ally receives 4 points of damage.
When one player is eliminated, the remaining two fight under the standard rules in a 1-vs-1 format.
In a three-player game, when a player who is not part of the two-player alliance is eliminated, the battle ends immediately and the players proceed to the Retreat phase, and then begin a new battle. This is useful because the remaining players were allies and saw each other's cards on the field and in hand, which could "break" the game. However, if the interrupted battle was for the last Location card in the deck, the game ends and the player with the most CP wins (otherwise the game ends in a draw between the two survivors).
Team Rules (2-vs-2 or 3-vs-3)
Before starting a game of four or six players, you must agree on the number of CP for each team. You should start with at least 30–60 total CP per team (30 for a short game, 60 for a long one). Teams may be formed of different races.
The game develops according to the basic rules, except for the battle. After Units are activated simultaneously with the opponents, the troops of one team join together and form one army. In the end we have the same 1-vs-1 clash, but now the front is wider, thanks to the active combat units of the allies. Each player takes 10 cards, may refresh the hand, may deploy troops, fight with their companions, retreat at the end of the battle, etc. However, only a team, not a single player, may surrender (twice per game).
All abilities and effects that affect cards under your control affect only your troops, not the army of the whole team. In addition, in team games, the Zarkendra ability may destroy all active Units of only one player, of your choice; otherwise its use would be too powerful.
Card Clarifications
CARAPACE: This card, like all cards that change one or more values of an army, does not change the value of each unit, but only the army's value. If I have two active Units with 2 DEFENSE points each, then my army has 4 DEFENSE points, and Carapace brings this value to 6.
TRIBE RECALL: The effect of this card allows you to activate a Unit after a player's action. This is very useful when you have seen what the opponent activated, and you can activate one more of your own Units.
XENOGRAY AND KRAKEN: These Units may attack one Unit of the opponent's army before your other Units, which may lead to damage to the opponent. The attacking and target Units should be treated as separate armies: if there is no direct counterattack, the clash proceeds normally, but the values of Xenogray or Kraken cannot be added to the rest of the army.
FINAL PROTOCOL: If you have no Units under your control, or if the selected Unit under your control cannot be destroyed, you may destroy only an enemy Unit.
VLAD: When you take control of a Unit (this applies not only to Vlad, but to any card that allows an opponent's Unit to be placed under your control), you may use it as if it were your own, that is, you may use all of its values, restrictions and abilities. If Vlad is withdrawn from the battle or re-deployed, the captured Unit returns to the opponent's fallen deck.
ENGAGEMENT: You may destroy any two combat units under your control (active, withdrawn or deployed) in order to activate a Unit of your choice from the deck. The deck must be shuffled after this.
MERAUD: You may use Meraud's ability at any time, not necessarily immediately after activation.
CIEL: Its ability can often destroy enemy Units, because if their DEFENSE value drops to 0, they are destroyed. After using this ability, you are forced to re-deploy Ciel at the end of the turn. In other words, its ability can potentially be used every turn.
HANTAL VEXILIUM: When destroyed, all active Units in the game receive -4 DEFENSE (both yours and the opponent's).
ZARKENDRA: In team games (2-vs-2 or 3-vs-3), its ability destroys all active Units of only one player, chosen by the owner.
VIRAGO: If this card is activated during an activation, the opponent cannot play Support cards in response, because under the rules Support cards may be played only after activation, that is, when cards are already active with their ability. Conversely, if Virago is activated under the effect of other cards, say Engagement, the opponent may play a Support card in response that destroys Virago: an example of such a card is Final Protocol.
JEHRAH: To keep the card Jehrah active you must destroy one Unit under your control. This ability can be used only during activation, not during its deployment.