Fight for Olympus Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Setup
The Cards
Special Abilities
Course of Play
Game End
Credits

Components

98 cards, including:

60 Hero cards (15 in each color)
24 Soldier cards (6 in each color)
12 Equipment cards (3 in each color)
2 Overview cards

Plus:

1 game board
5 markers (4 color markers and 1 counter)
20 damage tokens

In this rule book and on the the cards' special abilities, we use the male term "hero" for both heroes and heroines.

Setup

Assemble the game board and place it between the two of you. Place the counter on space 0 of the scoring track and the color markers on the Oracle of Delphi. Keep the damage tokens nearby.

Remove 20 cards from the card deck and return them to the game box – you will not need them. Shuffle the remaining cards and place them face down as a draw pile next to Troy. Deal each player a hand of 6 cards.

Finally, determine the starting player at random.

The board layout, as labeled in the setup diagram: the counter goes on the victory point track; the color markers go on Delphi; the damage tokens are kept beside the board; the draw pile sits next to Troy; and each player has spaces for cards on their own side of the board, in the areas Mount Olympus, Delphi, and Troy.

The Cards

There are three types of cards: Heroes, Soldiers, and Equipment. The term Unit refers to a Hero or Soldier in play. Each card has the same layout, regardless of type:

Card name — at the top of the card.
Illustration.
Cost — discard cards as shown to put this card into play.
Card color — multi-colored cards are indicated by the multi-color symbol.
Special ability — the symbol indicates when the ability comes into effect.
Attack value — bottom left.
Defense value — bottom right.
Hero, Soldier, or Equipment — the card's type, named along the bottom edge.

Heroes

There is only one of each Hero card in the deck. All Heroes have a special ability (see next page for more details).

Multi-colored Heroes show the multi-color symbol. They have all 4 card colors so you may use them as any color when paying for a card. Effects of special abilities that affect a specific color ALWAYS affect multi-colored Heroes.

Soldiers

Soldiers are quite cheap, but they have lower values and usually do not have a special ability. Each Soldier card appears twice in the deck.

Equipment

Equipment cards are placed underneath a Unit to improve its values, becoming one with the Unit but losing their own color in the process.

You only discard an equipped Unit when its improved defense value is reached. When that happens, also discard the Equipment card.

When an equipped Unit changes its current location due to a special ability, the Equipment card moves with it. When an equipped Unit returns to your hand, discard the Equipment card.

The color of an Equipment card only matters when paying for another card. Once played, Equipment cards are considered to be of no color (i.e. their color does not change or add to the color of the Hero or Unit they are attached to). Only the color of the Unit card itself matters for special abilities.

Special Abilities

All Heroes as well as some Soldiers and Equipment cards have special abilities that come into effect at different points in time:

Play symbol — only once when you play this card.
Attack symbol — every time this card attacks.
Permanent symbol — always in effect.

Whether you may or must use a special ability is noted in the card text. You may play a card even if its special ability would not have any effect. Some special abilities target only Heroes or Soldiers, and not units.

Healing: Some special abilities allow you to "heal" a Unit, i.e. remove the indicated number of damage tokens (see "Attacking" on the next page) from that Unit.

Moving: When a special ability allows you to move one or more Units, there are a few things you have to consider: A Unit can never change sides when moving. Equipped Units keep their Equipment. If two Units are moved, they can change places. Cards in hand are not considered "units" for targeted special abilities.

Course of Play

The players take turns. Each turn consists of the following 3 phases that are played in the order shown below.

Playing Cards From Your Hand
Attacking
Drawing New Cards

On their first turn, the starting player must skip one of these phases. Usually, you will skip "Attacking" but you can skip another phase instead.

1. Playing Cards From Your Hand

You may play any number of cards from your hand, one after another. To play a card, you must pay its cost by discarding cards of the required colors. Multi-colored cards can be used as any one color when paying for a card. If you have a color marker (see "Delphi" below), you can use that instead of a card of that color. If you do, return the color marker to the game board.

After you pay for the card, place it on an empty space on your side of the game board if it is a Unit. If you play an Equipment card, you must add it to a Unit that is already in play, thus improving its values. Each Unit may have at most one piece of Equipment.

There are 3 spaces at Mount Olympus, 2 spaces in Delphi, and 1 space in Troy. You can place at most one Unit on each space (plus Equipment, if any). If all spaces are occupied, you cannot play any more Units.

If the card you play has a special ability with the play symbol, you must immediately carry out its effect, even before you play another card. If the text on the card requires it, you must carry out the special ability.

2. Attacking

Next, you must attack with all Units that you have in play, including Units played on previous turns. Only Units with an attack value of at least 1 may attack. Units that have an intrinsic attack value of 0 may only attack (and use attack special abilities) if an Equipment card or special ability increases that value.

Carry out the attacks in order, starting with the card space closest to the Olympus edge of the board, and then proceeding space by space to the card space at the Troy edge of the board. How your attack goes depends on whether or not there is a Unit directly opposite yours (from now on simply called the "opposing Unit").

There is an opposing Unit:

You inflict damage on your opponent. Place a number of damage tokens on the opposing Unit equal to the attack value of your Unit. Damage tokens remain on Units. Once the number of damage tokens on a Unit reaches its defense value, the Unit is defeated and must be discarded. The defender does not get to strike back immediately! Some special effects refer to "defeated" or "discarded" units; some defeated units may not be discarded!

There is no opposing Unit:

If you attack an empty space, you activate an area bonus. You do no damage in this case (unless you activate a special ability). There are the following area bonuses:

Olympus: You receive 1 victory point, i.e. move the counter 1 space towards you. The game ends, and you win immediately, if the counter reaches space "7" on your side of the board.
Delphi: You may take a color marker from the game board and place it in front of you. Color markers are considered a card of the respective color when paying for a card. If there are no color markers left on the game board, you may steal a color marker of your choice from your opponent.
Troy: Draw a card from the draw pile.

Some Heroes have special abilities with the attack symbol that activate during an attack.

Permanent abilities can also have an impact on the attack.

You must complete the attack of one Unit before you can attack with another. Remember that Units must have an attack greater than 0 to activate attack special abilities and area bonuses.

Example:

The two spaces in Delphi are occupied by Menelaus and Medea. On your opponent's side, there is only one defender: Alcmene, who is opposing Menelaus. When Menelaus attacks (1), he will deal 2 damage to Alcmene, thus reaching her defense value, so she must be discarded (2). Medea has no opponent, so when she attacks (3), she will activate the area bonus for Delphi, meaning you can choose a color marker from the game board (4).

3. Drawing New Cards

Draw 2 cards from the draw pile. There is no hand limit.

If the draw pile runs out of cards because of this (or any other card draw effect), the game ends immediately.

Game End

The game ends in one of three ways:

All spaces are occupied on one player's side at the START of their turn. That player wins.
A player has 7 victory points. That player immediately wins.
The draw pile is empty. In this case, the player with the counter on their side wins. Otherwise, the game ends in a tie.

Credits

Designer: Matthias Cramer
Editor: Stefan Stadler, Grzegorz Kobiela
US development: Alex Yeager
Illustrations: Javier González Cava
Layout: atelier198
Translation: Grzegorz Kobiela

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