Faza Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Overview
  • Victory
  • Defeat
• Adjacency
• Game Setup
  • Step 1: Board Tiles
  • Step 2: The Faza
  • Step 3: Faction Zeta
  • Solo Mode
• Starting the Game
  • First Playthrough
• Player Action Cards
• The Team Phase
• Move
• Combat
  • Drone Combat Example 1
  • Drone Combat Example 2
• Injuries
  • Recovering from Injuries
  • Dying
• Points
• Rebels
• Mothership Combat
  • Mothership Combat Example
  • Mothership Defeat
• Faza Phase
• Drones
• Activation Tracker
• Motherships
  • Mothership Movement
  • Carrier Movement Example
  • Destroyer Movement Example
  • Former Movement Example
• Faza Event Cards
• Board Tiles
• Subsequent Playthroughs

Components

• 8 Character Cards
• 16 Player Action Cards
• 4 Faction Zeta Fighters Characters (meeples)
• 3 Mothership Guide Tiles (Carrier, Destroyer, Former)
• 3 Difficulty & Reference Guide Tiles
• 24 Faza Event Cards
• 16 Rebel Faza Meeples
• 42 Faza Drones Meeples
• 3 Attack Dice
• 16 Board Tiles
• 3 Mothership Standees and Dice
• 1 Mothership Activation Tracker Standee

Overview

FAZA is a cooperative science fiction board game for 1 to 4 players navigating a post-apocalyptic city. In order to save your city from the Faza, your extraterrestrial occupiers, your team will need to destroy their 3 motherships.

Your team, called Faction Zeta, has 8 characters, possessing different skills within 1 of 4 Areas of Focus: medical, political, tactical, and technological. Faction Zeta will utilize the unique skills of each member to fight for their final victory over the Faza.

Gameplay is separated into 2 repeating phases:

• The Team Phase: During the Team Phase, you and your team will work together, communicate regularly, and develop a strategy to take down the Faza Motherships.
• The Faza Phase: During the Faza Phase, your enemy will try to injure you, thwart your plans, and overwhelm your team to force you to lose.

Victory

Your team wins if you defeat all 3 Faza Motherships.

Defeat

Your team loses if any of the following occur:

• Any player on your team dies.
• No Drones are available to place when needed.
• All Outposts have been Fazaformed.
• All Rebels have been removed from the board (Hard Mode only).

Adjacency

In FAZA, whenever the rules refer to an "adjacent tile," they are only referring to orthogonally adjacent. Diagonal tiles are never considered adjacent.

Game Setup

Step 1: Board Tiles

Shuffle the 16 board tiles and lay them out in a randomized 4x4 grid with their darker (Fazaformed) side facedown, except the #16 tile which should have its darker side face up.

Step 2: The Faza

Mothership Guide Tiles

Place the 3 Mothership Guides Tiles (Carrier, Destroyer, and Former) near the board in alphabetical order. Place the Mothership Activation Tracker on the Carrier Guide.

Place Motherships and Drones

1. Place the Carrier Ship (light brown die and die standee) on the #14 tile. Place 3 Drones on this tile, then add 2 Drones on all adjacent tiles. Set this ship's die to 4 to represent the Mothership's Health.
2. Place the Destroyer Ship (dark brown die with die standee) on the #15 tile. Place 3 Drones on this tile, then add 2 Drones on all adjacent tiles. Set this ship's die to 4 to represent the Mothership's Health.
3. Place the Former Ship (black die with die standee) on the #16 tile. Place 3 Drones on this tile, then add 2 Drones on all adjacent tiles. Set this ship's die to 4 to represent the Mothership's Health.

Note: there is a maximum of 3 Drones per tile. So, if 2 Motherships share an adjacent tile, that tile will have 3 Drones placed in it.

Faza Cards

Shuffle all the Faza Event cards and place them facedown in a stack near the Mothership tiles. These will be drawn when attacking Motherships.

Reference Guide and Difficulty Setting

Decide on a difficulty level and place that Faza Phase Reference Guide next to the Mothership Guides. Use this to keep track of the Faza phase (front) and how to engage the Motherships in combat (back).

Unused Drones

Place the remaining Drones in an easily accessible pool near the board.

Step 3: Faction Zeta

Pick an Area of Focus

Everyone on your team picks their own Area of Focus (color): Medical (green), Political (yellow), Tactical (red), or Technological (blue). Each color comes with 2 characters, a deck of 4 Player Cards, and a Faction Zeta Fighter meeple.

Pick a Character

Once you have your Area of Focus, pick 1 of your 2 character card options to play as. Flip the unused character card over to serve as a reference card for the remainder of the game.

Place your Character and Rebel Allies

Place your character and 2 Rebels (purple meeples) on the Outpost tile that has an icon matching your Area of Focus. The game has 4 Outpost tiles: #1, #2, #3, and #4.

Player Cards

You have 4 Player Cards matching your Area of Focus. Place the cards in front of you in numerical order with the side showing your Area of Focus face up to help you keep track of your injuries, movements, and enhancements.

Unused Rebels

Place the remaining Rebels in an easily accessible pool near the board.

Solo Mode

To play in solo mode, you need to control at least 2 Characters in different Areas of Focus.

Starting the Game

After the board is set up, you start the game by using player cards to move or enhance dice rolls. During the Team Phase, there is no individual turn-taking; instead, you take turns simultaneously. Anyone on your team may use a player card at any time. For example, you may use 1 player card, your friend may use 2 player cards, and another friend may roll dice to combat Drones all at the same time because all movements, enhancements, and injuries will be tracked with your player cards and are also self-limiting. Your team is encouraged to use player cards in any order that is advantageous to your group strategy. After all your player cards have been used, the Faza Phase begins.

First Playthrough

For your first game, the recommended strategy is to focus on defeating Drones to gain points, which can be spent to recruit rebels. These rebels will then let you damage the Motherships and eventually defeat them.

Player Action Cards

Tracking Movements, Enhancements, and Injuries

Player Actions Cards provide you with 2 possible choices: a movement (i.e. Run) or an enhancement (i.e. Bazooka). Once you perform one, you have used the card and must rotate it 90° to denote it as used.

Cards may be used in any order. Once a card is used, you cannot use it again until after the Faza Phase is over. At the end of the Faza Phase, you may rotate all your player cards to their unused position. Injured cards remain injured.

The Team Phase

You and your teammates may perform any of the following options in any order and as many times as you are able during the team phase:

• Use a player card to do 1 of the 2 actions described on it. Rotate your player card 90° after using it.
• Engage in combat by rolling dice to fight Drones on your tile. Combat does not require a player card; injuries will limit how many times you will be able to engage in combat.
• Command 1 Rebel to attack a Mothership (see the Mothership Combat reference tile for more details).
• Use a skill on your character card. You may use a skill as many times as you are able.
• Spend 2 points (1 point = 1 defeated Drone) to recruit 1 Rebel, which must be placed on any Outpost.

Continue the Team Phase until there are no more player cards, skills, or attacks your team wishes to or is able to perform. At that point, the Faza Phase begins.

Note: You can end the Team Phase whenever you want, but players should try to optimize their actions to do as much as they can.

Move

The following rules apply to moving yourself or a group of Rebels around the board:

• All movement between adjacent tiles is in straight lines. There is no diagonal movement. This also applies to the Faza Motherships.
• No one (including Rebels) may leave a tile if there are any Drones on it. The only exception to this rule is the Scout, who has a skill that allows him to leave tiles with Drones.
• When flying or teleporting, the Drones on tiles you skip over will not hinder your movement.

Combat

A typical combat encounter against Drones looks like this:

1. Engage: When you are on the same tile as a Drone (or group of Drones), you may engage in combat at any time by rolling the white dice. As long as you haven't been killed from injuries, you may continue engaging in combat.
2. Enhance: Before rolling dice, you may choose to enhance your dice roll by using any number of player cards. These enhancements only affect the next set of dice that you roll. Remember: a player card is not required to roll dice; player cards only enhance the dice.
   • Tile Enhancements: If you're engaging in combat on a tile that matches your Area of Focus, you get to add 1 to all your dice. These are areas of your city that you are familiar with, so you have a natural advantage against the Faza.
3. Roll Dice: Roll 1 Attack Die per Drone on the tile. You must roll dice against all Drones on the tile at once, not individually.
4. Gain Points: A roll of 4 or more means you have defeated a Drone. Remove 1 Drone from the board per successful die roll. Keep the killed Drones to keep track of your Points.
5. Sustain Injuries: A roll of 3 or less means you have failed to kill a Drone, resulting in 1 injury per failed die roll. You must flip over your lowest numbered player card (starting with the number 1 Player Action Card and moving in numerical order to the number 4 Player Action Card) from the healthy side to the injured side. This will keep track of your injuries.
   • Rebels Take Damage for You: If there are Rebels on the tile with you, they will take damage for you before you receive any injuries (i.e. 1 Rebel instead of 1 injury, 2 Rebels instead of 2 injuries). Return the defeated Rebels back to the Rebel Pool.
6. Dice Effects: Notice that some board tiles and player cards will add to the dice you roll in combat. You may have more than 1 effect depending on the tile, player card, and skills being used. You may use more than 1 player card to affect your dice roll. These dice effects apply to all white dice and are always calculated from the tile you're attacking from.

Drone Combat Example 1

The Tactical Player is on a tile with 1 Rebel and 3 Drones, and she's intending to engage in combat with the Drones. She decides not to use any player cards to enhance this attack, and rolls 3 attack dice to combat the 3 Drones.

After the roll, she defeats 1 Drone by rolling a 4, but fails to defeat the other 2. This results in 2 injuries. The Rebel on her tile will sustain the first injury and be removed. She then sustains 1 injury by flipping over her lowest numbered healthy Player Action Card. Finally, she removes 1 Drone from the tile and keeps it as a Point.

Drone Combat Example 2

The Tactical Player on tile #2 uses her Bazooka (which lets her engage Drones on adjacent tiles and ignore injuries) and Raygun Player Action Cards to attack the 3 Drones on tile #3. She rolls 3 attack dice to combat the 3 Drones. Her use of Raygun gives her a +1 to all her dice rolls and because her tile matches her Area of Focus, she gains an additional +1. Her roll of 5, 2, and 1 becomes 7, 4, and 3. She defeats 2 Drones but fails to defeat the remaining 1, but she takes no injuries thanks to Bazooka. She removes 2 Drones from tile #3 and keeps them as Points.

Injuries

You may sustain injuries from the Drones you attack and other effects in the game. If you do, you will flip over the lowest numbered healthy Player Action Card to the injured side. If the healthy card you're flipping over is unused, flip it over and keep it in the unused position. The injured side of the Player Action Card will also give you new, different choices.

If your Player Action Card has already been used and is still healthy, flip it over and keep it in the used state. You may not use this card until after the Faza Phase.

Recovering from Injuries

To recover an injured player card, you must travel to, or already be at, any Outpost tile. Once there, you must "Use" the injured card (rotate it 90°) in order to recover it to its healthy side. This means that you cannot use an injured card to move and use it to heal in the same turn. The freshly recovered player card will be ready to use after the next Faza Phase is over.

Dying

If, at any time, you have sustained 4 injuries (all 4 of your Player Action Cards have been flipped over), you die and your team loses the game.

Points

• 1 for 1: Points are gained by defeating Drones. 1 Point equals 1 defeated Drone. When you defeat a Drone, hold on to it to keep track of your Points.
• Spend: Points may be spent to recruit Rebels and to activate some character skills.
• Return: When you spend any of your Points, return the Drones to their pool to be reused later in the game.
• No Sharing: You are not allowed to share points, except to remove Long Faza Event Cards (see Faza Event Cards).

Rebels

Rebels are Faza aliens that have joined forces with Faction Zeta.

• 3 Rebels: There may only ever be a maximum of 3 Rebels per tile.
• Recruiting Rebels: To recruit Rebels, you may spend 2 Points to place 1 Rebel on any Outpost.
• Rebel Movement: Rebels may be moved in the same way you move your character - by using your Player Action Cards. When using a Player Action Card to move, remember that it applies either to you or the Rebels - it cannot apply to both. You do not have to be present on the tile with the Rebels to move them.
• Rebels may not leave a tile if there are Drones on that tile. When using a Player Action Card to move a group of Rebels, you may move any number of Rebels on a single tile. However, the tile you are moving them to cannot hold more than 3 Rebels.
• Rebel Injuries: Rebels will always take injuries before players in all scenarios.
• Rebel Pool: Every time a Rebel is removed from the board, place them back in the pool of Rebels ready to be recruited again.

Note: Rebels cannot attack Drones or Motherships on their own. A player must be present for Drone or Mothership combat.

Mothership Combat

When you're ready, you may fight any of the 3 Faza Motherships, in any order you wish and as many times as you can, during the Team Phase.

Read the Reference Guide Tile titled Mothership Combat to know what to do before, during, and after an attack.

Mothership Combat Example

For this example, use the Reference Guide titled Mothership Combat.

Here, the Tactical Player is attacking the Carrier Mothership with the light brown die. She is on its tile with 2 Rebels and 3 Drones. Since there are 3 Drones, she cannot attack the Carrier. She has to defeat them first to attack the Mothership.

She rolls 3 dice because there are 3 Drones and defeats them with a very lucky roll of 6, 5, and 5, gaining them as Points.

With the Drones gone, a Rebel is now clear to board the Mothership. She removes the Rebel and reduces the Mothership's health by 1. Since the Mothership lost health, she must flip 1 Faza Event Card and resolve the effects described.

Note: She didn't use a player card or dice to attack the Mothership; attacking a Mothership is only done with a Rebel.

Mothership Defeat

A Mothership is defeated when its health reaches 0, which results in its Mothership Guide flipping over to the defeated side. The Mothership's defeated state then lists a new set of effects that will take place when the Mothership Activation Tracker is placed on it.

Note: When attempting to defeat the last Mothership, if a Faza card results in one of the lose conditions being met, you and your team still lose. The tie goes to the Faza.

Faza Phase

The Faza Phase will be based on the difficulty mode you've chosen. We will use the Hard mode as an example here.

The Faza Phase will follow these steps:

1. The Faza attack Rebels: If a Rebel is on the same tile as a Drone, remove 1 Rebel and 1 Drone from that tile.
2. The Faza attack Players: If you are on a tile with a Drone and/or Mothership, you sustain 1 injury.
3. Drones Invade: Add 1 Drone to all tiles with Rebels.
4. Mothership Activation: Repeat this step a number of times equal to the number of players (i.e. 3 players = 3 times).
   1. Shift Mothership Activation Tracker once to the right. After the last Mothership, the Tracker loops around.
   2. The Mothership with the Tracker activates. Follow all the steps on the top section of the Mothership Guide.
5. Faza Phase Over: All used cards turn to their unused state (but are not healed). Begin the Team Phase.

Drones

Drones are the front line of the Faza and are represented by orange meeples.

• Adding Drones: Motherships add Drones to Map Tiles, as detailed on each Mothership Guide.
• 3 Drones: There may only ever be a maximum of 3 Drones per tile. If a Mothership activation prompts you to add Drones to a tile already containing 3 Drones, no additional Drones can be added to this tile.
• Drone Pool: The Faza draw their Drones from a pool located near the board. If you need to place a Drone and no more are available in the pool, you lose.

Note: Be sure to spend your points wisely and frequently to prevent your team from losing the game.

Activation Tracker

During the Faza Phase, Motherships activate in alphabetical order from Carrier, to Destroyer, to Former, then back to Carrier, etc. Use the Mothership Activation Tracker to track which Mothership will activate next. The Tracker will move a number of times equal to the number of players in the game. Every time the tracker is moved to a new Mothership Guide, that Mothership immediately activates.

Motherships

The three Motherships - Carrier, Destroyer, and Former - are your main adversaries in FAZA, and are represented by 3 large Mothership Guide Tiles with associated standees and dice to track their health.

Mothership Guides: Each Mothership Guide has 2 parts. The top of the Guide has the Mothership's Activation Steps and the bottom box describes how the Mothership moves when instructed to.

Mothership Movement

• Moving around the Board: The Motherships are the only Faza pieces that move around the board. Motherships never move diagonally.
• Order of Operations: When determining the tile each Mothership should move to, begin with the tiles nearest the Mothership. Then, see if the second condition is met before moving on to tiles further away (i.e. fewest drones or fazaformed tiles).
• In Case of Ties: If a tie ever occurs (i.e. same distance to two different players), the highest numbered tile will always break the tie, and the Mothership will move toward that tile.
• On the Same Tile: Multiple Motherships may be on the same tile.

Carrier Movement Example

The Carrier always moves to an adjacent tile with the fewest Drones. It is on a tile with 3 Drones and is surrounded by tiles with 2 Drones (tiles #2 and #9 are not adjacent).

Since tiles #6, #10, and #13 all have 2 drones, the tie breaker goes to the highest numbered tile. This means the Carrier moves to tile #13.

Destroyer Movement Example

The Destroyer always moves up to 2 tiles closer to the closest player. It is on a tile with 1 player (Medical) and is equidistant from 2 players. The Destroyer will move 0 tiles because that player is the closest.

If the Medical player was not on the tile with the Destroyer, the Destroyer would move to the Tactical player because tile #9 is greater than tile #2, breaking the tie.

Former Movement Example

The Former always moves to the nearest tile that is not yet fazaformed. It is on a tile surrounded by 3 fazaformed tiles. Since all 3 adjacent tiles are fazaformed, it will look at the next set of nearest tiles: #5 and #13. #13 is greater than #5, so the tie goes to #16 and the Former moves there.

(Disclosure: the printed example text is internally inconsistent about tile numbers; transcribed as printed.)

Faza Event Cards

Faza Event Cards describe effects that might occur over the course of the game, and are meant to thwart players as they try to destroy the 3 Faza Motherships. A single Faza card is drawn during the Faza Retaliate step of Mothership Combat. After you draw a Faza card, all players must pause simultaneous play in case they are directly affected.

The Local Event will have 1 of 3 effects: adding Drones, taking injuries, or losing Rebels. Local events happen on the tile you just attacked the Mothership on.

The Global Event will describe a multitude of effects the Faza are employing to prevent you from winning the game. It can affect any number of tiles or players, or last for a certain duration. Read it carefully.

There are 4 Event Types that affect the Global Event:

• Instant: Instant Global Events will be resolved as soon as the Faza Event Card is drawn and read. Discard these after resolving.
• Short: Short Global Events will last until the next Faza Event Card is drawn. The best way to help you remember the Short Global Event is to give the card to the player that just drew the Faza Event Card. They are now responsible for remembering the Global Event. Discard these after the next Faza Event Card is drawn.
• Long: Long Global Events will last until you and your teammates can pay enough points to remove the effect. Long Faza Event Cards are designed to be more difficult with a higher player count. These cards will also tell you where they should be placed to help you remember the Global Event. To remove the Global Event and discard the Long Faza Event Card, you and your team will need to pay points equal to 2 + the number of players playing (4 points for 2 players, 5 points for 3 players, and 6 points for 4 players). This is the only instance where players may combine points.
• Reward: Reward Events are beneficial to you. Sometimes these cards will describe an event or effect that will happen immediately. Other times, it will describe an effect that can be triggered at a later time.

Board Tiles

Board tiles have 2 sides: The lighter side (earth side) represents parts of the city still controlled by Faction Zeta, and gives a combat bonus to players with a matching Area of Focus.

The darker side represents a fazaformed tile. This land has been environmentally altered to resemble the Faza homeworld. There are 3 symbols that appear on the board tiles:

• Outpost: Outpost tiles serve 3 functions. Players start the game on Outposts that match their Area of Focus. They return to them to recover from injuries. Finally, recruited Rebels are placed on the Outposts.
• Airfield: While on an Airfield, players may use the Airplane Player Action Card to travel 1 additional tile.
• Deadly: Some board tiles have Deadly fazaformed sides. If your character is on a Deadly tile at the end of the team phase, you will take 1 injury (Rebels can take this injury as normal).

Subsequent Playthroughs

If your team successfully defeats the Faza, the next time you start the game, you may increase the difficulty by doing any of the following:

• Play with a more difficult Faza phase.
• Increase every Mothership's health by 1.
• Remove rewards from the Faza Event Deck.