Gammarauders Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Component List
• Object of the Game
• Setting Up the Game
• The Turn
  • 1. Deal Turn Cards
  • 2. Trade Cards and Draw Reinforcements
  • 3. Place Pods
  • 4. Move
  • 5. Rebuild Fortresses and Refit Bioborgs in Fortresses
  • 6. Resolve Attacks
• Your Hand of Cards
• Your Bioborg
  • Your Bioborg's Weapons
  • Your Bioborg's Special Ability
  • Bye Bye Bioborg
• Army Units
  • Reinforcements
  • Abilities of Army Units
• Energy Pods
  • Claiming Energy Pods
  • Transferring Pods
  • Storing Energy Pods in Fortresses
  • Burning Pods
• Moving
  • Terrain
  • Moving in Enemy Areas
• Rebuilding and Refitting
• Attacking
  • How You Do It
  • Calling Off an Attack
  • The Outcome
  • Fighting Over Pods
  • Trashing Fortresses
  • Attack Summary
  • Example of Combat
• Factoids
  • Factoid Cards

Introduction

The GAMMARAUDERS board game is a wahoo science-fiction brawl for two to six players. Most games will run from one to two hours.

This Rule Book contains the rules for playing the GAMMARAUDERS game. The other book is the World Book. All the background on the bioborgs and world of this game are found in the World Book.

Component List

1. Cards: 108 playing cards, with weapons, reinforcement cards, and special cards that give you extraordinary powers.
2. Board Pieces: 12 large cardboard hexagons. The hexagons are marked off into spaces called areas.
3. Cryptic Alliance Fortress Display Cards: There is one of these 3" x 5" cards for each of the six Cryptic Alliances in the game. These cards can be used to hold the units you leave to defend your fortress (your home base) while your bioborg and other units go off to stomp on everybody else. There are spaces for the 5 pods you can store in your fortress.
4. Bioborg Layout Sheets: Six sheets (printed front and back) depict the various giant bioborgs. These cybernetic bioborgs are the greatest forces of the future. The spaces on the sheets are to hold the bioborgs' weapon cards.
5. Playing Pieces: 200 cardboard tokens representing soldiers, hovertanks, gammajets, fortresses, energy pods, and game markers. The soldiers, hovertanks, and gammajets are called army units. (Sometimes they're called "popcorn" because bioborgs munch them for snacks.)

Each player has 21 army counters. The back of each counter has a different type of unit than the front. This means that you can have up to 14 units of one type (soldier, gammajet, or hovertank) in play simultaneously, but this cuts back on the number of other types of army units you can have in play. This also means that it's important to not flip the counters over accidentally.

When your army counters are in your fortress area, place them on the fortress display card to lessen the chance of flipping them with a wayward hand or elbow.

Each player also has five "coup" counters marked with his Cryptic Alliance's symbol. These are to be given out to other players when they trash your fortress (see Trashing Fortresses).

Each player gets one Fortress counter to indicate where his fortress is on the board.

6. Dice: Four ordinary six-sided dice. If the rules ask you to "roll 1d6," for example, roll one six-sided die.
7. Books: This book tells how to play the GAMMARAUDERS game. The accompanying book (the World Book) tells of this world, the history of the bioborgs, the various Cryptic Alliances, and the rivalries between the powers of the Gamma Age. Read the World Book while you're waiting for slowpokes to make their moves.
8. Plastic bag for storing the pieces.

Army Units and Markers: Soldier, Hovertank, Gammajet, Pod, Fortress, City Ruins, Trashed Fortress.

Map Terrain: Border between Areas, Mountains, Water (blue on map), Clear, Pod Area, City.

Cryptic Alliance Symbols: Crimson Moon, Dah Boys, Fowlotes, Lab Rats, Men in Black, Rayzors.

Object of the Game

In a four-, five-, or six-person game, the first player who destroys (trashes) three (3) enemy fortresses wins the game. Each player can trash an opponent's fort only once (and then must move on to other prey). You'll learn how to trash fortresses later.

Each time attackers trash someone's fort, each attacking player gets one coup counter (the counters with the Cryptic Alliance symbols) to show that he has slagged that player's fort. The first player to collect three coup counters wins the game. (And no, you cannot attack your own fortress to get a coup counter from yourself.)

In a two- or three-person game, the object is to be the first to trash everybody else's fortresses.

A player cannot win the game if his fortress is in ruins. He must rebuild it before he can win the game (see Rebuilding and Refitting, for details).

As soon as one player fulfills all the conditions for winning, the game is over. If two players fulfill the winning conditions simultaneously, the winner is the player who has the lower turn order number (see Cards) for that turn.

Usually players spend the first part of the game gathering pods (see Energy Pods). These potent bundles of energy give you extra wallop in a battle and make it easier for your bioborg to trash fortresses (and they make it easier for you to defend your fortress against marauding bioborgs).

After you've gathered some pods and feel brave, you can set out on your mission of world conquest!

Setting Up the Game

1. Choose a Cryptic Alliance: Pick a Cryptic Alliance to play. Take the fortress card, armies, fortress marker, and other markers of that Cryptic Alliance and make a large pile. Finger the pile greedily while the other players choose their alliances.

You are not held to the tendencies of your Cryptic Alliance as given in the World Book. You are free to stomp on whomever you choose.

2. Choose a Bioborg: Pick a bioborg from among the 12 available. Take the bioborg's figure and stick it in the plastic base. Talk encouragingly to your bioborg.

Also take your bioborg's layout sheet (the piece of paper with an illustration of your bioborg and spaces for weapons on its body) and place it on the table near you. Some bioborgs have more weapon spaces than others—this is to compensate for variations in the powers of the bioborgs.

The layout sheet gives a brief description of the bioborg's powers and also lists the turn sequence. It has an area to place the army units that are traveling with each bioborg and spaces for any pods (see Energy Pods) the bioborg may be carrying.

If two players have a dispute over who gets a particular bioborg, each player should roll two dice. High total wins the dispute. The losing player must choose another bioborg and try not to sulk for the rest of the game.

3. Cards: Six of the cards show large numbers from 1 to 6. Set these cards, the turn cards, apart from the others. Shuffle the turn cards and deal one face up to each player (shuffle all six cards even if there are fewer than six players).

The turn cards show the order of play in each turn: The player with the "1" card goes first, then the player with the "2" card, and so on. This is called turn order. If there are fewer than six players and some turn cards aren't used, just skip the missing turn cards and go in order of the cards that are dealt out.

From the rest of the deck, each player is dealt a hand of 10 cards, face down. Place the deck face down to one side of the board. A discard pile will be started next to the deck.

If your initial hand of 10 cards has any cards that say "Play Immediately," discard those cards and draw cards to replace them. (Once play starts, these cards will be played normally when drawn.)

Each player can place weapon cards (cards with numbers in the upper left-hand corner) from his hand face down onto the indicated spaces on his bioborg's layout sheet. Only weapons can be placed here and only one weapon per space on the sheet. These are the weapons your bioborg starts the game with. (If possible, keep one weapon card in your hand—this weapon can be used to defend your fortress if it is attacked.)

Be sure to place your bioborg's weapons face down on the layout sheet so the other players don't know what you're packing. You can look at them at any time.

If your hand of cards has no weapons, discard the entire hand and draw a new hand of 10 cards.

There is a five-card limit to the number of cards you can hold in your hand (see Your Hand of Cards). Extra cards must be placed on the bioborg layout sheet (if it's a weapon and there is an empty space on the sheet) or discarded.

Make sure that no player's hand contains more than five cards before you continue (violators should be taken outside and roughed up).

After all players have no more than five cards in their hands, reshuffle the discard pile into the rest of the deck and place it face down (so the discarded "Play Immediately" cards can be drawn later in the game).

The last pages of this Rule Book give explanations of some of the trickier Factoid cards. Skim through these before play, then refer back to them if a question arises about a Factoid card.

When the deck runs out of cards, reshuffle the discard deck and pick from the reshuffled deck.

4. Board Pieces: Shuffle the hexagons into a pile. The first player in the turn order picks up the top hexagon and lays it face up on the table. Then, in order of the numbers on their turn cards, the other players take turns laying hexagons on the table until all 12 hexagons are placed.

Each hexagon after the second must be placed so it adjoins at least two other hexagons. Except for this restriction, the hexagons can be placed in any arrangement.

5. Place Pieces: In order of the turn cards, each player places his fortress counter in a city area. Only one fortress counter per city area! Each player puts his bioborg token and four of each type of his army units into the same area as his fortress—these are the player's starting forces.

Two or more players' forts can share the same hexagon, but not the same city area.

If your fortress's area gets too crowded with counters, move them to the fortress display card (the 3" x 5" card). This keeps the board from getting cluttered and also lessens the chance that you'll accidentally knock over your stacks of counters.

A note of caution: Take care not to flip over any of the counters on the board—they have different units on the other side!

Set aside the other markers for now.

You're Ready to Start the Game!

The Turn

The GAMMARAUDERS game is played in turns. Each turn has six steps. The steps must be performed in the following order:

1. Deal Turn Cards

The six turn cards are collected and reshuffled. One turn card is dealt face up to each player. This determines turn order for this turn only. Use all six turn cards, even if there are fewer than six players in the game! Each player gets one turn card, and the rest are set aside until next turn. Skip the turn card numbers that aren't passed out.

2. Trade Cards and Draw Reinforcements

In turn order, each player takes one card from the deck.

Players can now trade cards from their hands (not from their bioborg layout sheets) for other players' cards. Wheeling and dealing is strongly encouraged. The cards do not have to be shown to the player(s) you're trading with. You can fib about what the card is, but this tends to give you a bad rep. Deals can include pods, if the pods are in fortresses. The deals can include turn cards, if you want to trade positions in turn order, but you can never have more than one turn card nor can you be left without one. Deals cannot include bioborgs or army units.

You can get reinforcements and new cards in several ways:

• You can turn in reinforcement cards in your hand for the indicated number of army units. If you do not have enough army units of the proper type, you're out of luck.

  You cannot voluntarily remove your own army units from the board to flip them over and change them into another type of army unit.

• You can burn (use up) an energy pod that is in your fortress or with your bioborg. Remove the pod from play and pick any combination of five units or cards from the deck. You can take five cards, five army units (of any type you have available), or any combination of cards and army units that totals five (two cards, two soldiers, and a hovertank, for example). Reinforcements appear in your fortress.

  Each player can burn only one pod in this step.

• You can pass this turn and cash in your turn card. Discard the turn card and take its number in either cards from the deck, army units of your choice, or any combination of cards and units. For example, a player with turn card 6 can pass this turn and get six cards, or six hovertanks, or two cards and three soldiers and one gammajet, etc. Reinforcements appear in your fortress.

  A player who has cashed in his turn card cannot move units, attack, or pick up pods (unless his units are the sole occupants of the area with the pod) this turn. He can defend against attacks, pick up uncontested pods, and play cards as usual.

After all players have finished trading, whining, bickering, and getting reinforcements, each player must play or discard cards to get down to the maximum of five cards in his hand.

3. Place Pods

Each player rolls two dice and places a pod in that numbered area. All players get to place a pod.

4. Move

In turn order, each player moves any or all of his units according to the rules given in Moving.

At any point during its move, a unit can pick up a pod if it's in the same area as the pod, but this ends the unit's movement for the turn (the unit must be capable of carrying pods to pick one up—see Energy Pods). If a unit starts its movement in the same area as a pod, it cannot move once it picks up the pod.

5. Rebuild Fortresses and Refit Bioborgs in Fortresses

A bioborg in its own fortress can be repaired and refitted, as explained in Rebuilding and Refitting. A trashed fortress can be rebuilt if any unit of the owning player brings a pod to the fortress's area during the movement step. The pod is burned during this step and the fortress is rebuilt.

6. Resolve Attacks

In turn order, each player can attack enemy units and fortresses, if he wishes. Other players can ally with either side in these battles, under the rules given in Attacking. A player is never required to attack.

Your Hand of Cards

Certain cards in the deck (those that grant your army units extraordinary powers) can only be used if they are placed face up in front of you. They are in effect continuously until you lose them or someone takes them away from you (it happens).

Both the cards you hold hidden from view and the cards placed face up in front of you count toward the five-card limit to your hand. (If you have two cards face up, you can only hold three more cards in your hand.) The cards on your bioborg's layout sheet do not count toward this limit.

The five-card limit must be observed at the end of every step of the turn (you know what to do with violators). If you gain cards during a step and go over this limit, the step cannot end until you have discarded down to five cards.

If another player gets to pick a card from your hand, shuffle your face-up cards into your hand so the sleaze can pick from them also (you can place them back down if they don't get taken). Similarly, if another player gets to take your entire hand of cards, the slime gets your face-up cards as well as the ones held hidden in your hand.

Whenever a player picks from your hand, he does so blindly, with the backs of the cards facing him.

Your Bioborg

Bioborgs are giant mutated creatures that once roamed the radioactive wastes, happily basking in the residual radiation and cheerfully tearing large pieces off of everyone they met. These semi-intelligent creatures are remarkably fast in combat, heal wounds rapidly, and are just barely smart enough to follow orders (and to rip to shreds anyone who mentions the word "semi-intelligent" within earshot). These amiable beasties were recruited by the Cryptic Alliances and outfitted with powerful weapons grafted onto their bodies. And once one Cryptic Alliance had a bioborg, they all had to have one (kind of like big, hungry, nasty status symbols).

Your Bioborg's Weapons

The weapon cards on your bioborg's layout sheet show the type and position of your bioborg's armaments. Here is what the cards mean (the sample card shown is an Intra-Galactic Missile, Range 2, "One-shot weapon. Discard after use."):

• (A) Name of the weapon: If the weapon name is printed in blue, it has a range, given under the power value. A ranged weapon can attack anything within that many areas of the bioborg. If the weapon name is printed in black, it has no range (can only attack units in the same area).
• (B) Power value of the weapon (a number from 3 to 10): The higher the number, the more easily the weapon can slag the enemy.
• (C) Special instructions: Some cards depict one-shot weapons. These must be discarded after use.
• (D) Immunity weapons: Certain weapons grant immunity against specific weapons. Immunity weapons are generally less powerful than other weapons, but they negate any attack of the weapon listed at the bottom of the card (the other player does not get the negated weapon's power value for that combat). Immunity weapons are indicated by a white circle around the power values on their cards.
• (E) Picture of the weapon.

Your Bioborg's Special Ability

Each bioborg has a unique ability that lets it break the rules of the game in a certain way. The ability is described briefly on the layout sheet and in greater depth in the World Book. Whenever a bioborg ability conflicts with these rules, the bioborg's ability prevails.

Bye Bye Bioborg

When a bioborg has no cards left on its layout sheet (a result of many lost battles), it must return to its fortress as soon as possible. There it can be repaired and refitted as usual (see Rebuilding and Refitting). If the owner's fortress has been trashed, the owner must get a pod to the fortress area and burn it to rebuild the fort. The bioborg can then refit during the Rebuild and Refit step.

Army Units

Reinforcements

You get more army units by turning in Reinforcement cards. You can turn in these cards only during step 2 (Cards and Reinforcements) of a turn. There are four sets of cards: hovertanks, soldiers, gammajets, and Any cards. Each set has four cards.

To turn in Reinforcement cards, simply place the cards in the discard pile and take the listed number of reinforcements. The units appear in your fortress. If your fortress has been trashed, you must rebuild it before you can place units. Reinforcements can move and fight right away (during the appropriate steps of the turn).

The more cards of a set turned in at once, the more units that set gives you. One card is worth two units, two cards of a set are worth five units when turned in at the same time, three cards of a set give you eight units of that type, and four cards give you all the available units of that type.

Cards labeled "Any" give you units of your choice, in any combination. Turning in two Any cards at once, for instance, gives you five units—four soldiers and a hovertank, or three gammajets and two hovertanks, or five soldiers, or any other combination. An Any card can also act as a wild card, substituting for any other Reinforcement card. For example, two hovertank cards and an Any card is treated as three hovertank cards. But no set can be turned in with more than four cards.

You can also play Reinforcement cards to give another player new units. They appear in his fortress. A set of Reinforcement cards can only be used for one player. You can't mix different players' units as reinforcements from the same cards.

Abilities of Army Units

Each type of army unit has its own unique ability:

• Soldiers are the only units besides bioborgs that can carry pods.
• Gammajets can travel anywhere on the board in one turn.
• Hovertanks can attack at a range of 1 (i.e., they can attack enemy units in areas next to their own).

All types of army units have the same combat strength (all are worth one point—see Attacking).

Energy Pods

Energy podinoids (pods for short) are mutated plants that absorb and store energy from the ground. There are certain areas where pods tend to sprout (the numbered areas on the map hexes). When placed with bioborgs or fortresses, pods can be forced to release their stored energy, enabling the owning player to gain advantages in combat or to build enough materiel to send more units onto the field of battle.

Claiming Energy Pods

A pod that is carried by a unit or located in a fortress is called a claimed pod. All other pods are unclaimed.

Usually only bioborgs and soldiers can claim pods (though a special card temporarily enables a gammajet to carry a pod). To claim a pod, you must move a bioborg or soldier (or jet if you have that card) into the area with the pod. Once a unit claims a pod, it cannot move for the rest of the turn.

A soldier can carry one pod while a bioborg can carry up to five pods. A unit moves normally while carrying pods.

If bioborgs or soldiers of two (or more) players are in an area when a pod appears, a unit of the player with the lower (lowest) turn number can grab the pod before the other player(s) has a chance. (But then that unit cannot move for the rest of the turn.)

Transferring Pods

Any time one of your pod-carrying units is in or passes through an area with another unit that can carry a pod, the pod can be transferred from one unit to another. The unit dropping the pod can continue on its way, but the unit picking up the pod must end its movement for the turn. Pods can be dropped off to a fortress as a unit passes through the fortress's area.

Pods can be transferred between units of two players in this way.

Storing Energy Pods in Fortresses

You can store up to five energy pods in your fortress. You don't even need to keep any units there to guard them (but it's a good idea).

Pods that are carried by bioborgs and army units don't count against the five-pod fortress limit.

Burning Pods

A pod with a bioborg or fortress can be burned at various times during a turn (including during an attack). When you burn a pod, it is removed from play and has one of the following effects (owner's choice):

• If burned during step 2 of a turn (Cards and Reinforcements), a pod gives you any combination of five cards and reinforcement army units. The army units can be of any type or combination of types. For example, by burning a pod during this step, you could draw two cards and get two hovertanks and a gammajet. Reinforcements appear in your fortress. You must be at or below the five-card limit to your hand before this step ends.
• Each pod burned during combat adds the roll of one die to your attack or defense total.
• It enables you to rebuild your fortress if the pod is in the fortress's area during step 5 of a turn (Rebuild and Refit).

Moving

Each hexagon of the game board is divided into areas. When it's your turn to move, you can move any or all of your units. You don't have to move any units if you don't want to. Different units move different numbers of areas.

• Soldiers move up to 3 areas/turn.
• Hovertanks move up to 4 areas/turn.
• Bioborgs move up to 6 areas/turn.
• Gammajets can move to any area on the board in one turn.
• Fortresses never move.

Pods don't move on their own, but bioborgs and soldiers can carry pods (there is also a special card that enables a gammajet to carry a pod). One soldier unit can carry one pod, while a bioborg can carry up to five pods. There is no movement penalty for a unit carrying pods.

When a unit enters an area that contains a pod, the unit can pick up the pod (if it is capable of carrying pods). The unit ends its move for the turn when it picks up a pod. If a unit starts its move in the same area as a pod, it can pick up the pod but cannot move for that turn.

You cannot move your units between areas that touch at only one point. The areas must share a common edge. If it looks close, assume the areas do not have a common edge.

Terrain

The gameboard includes several types of terrain that affect movement. Terrain is either passable to all units (clear terrain, for example), impassable to certain units (hovertanks cannot enter mountains), or passable but some units must stop in the area and then can move away next turn (cities and water have this effect).

Water: Hovertanks and flying units can cross water freely. Nonflying bioborgs must stop when they enter a water area—they can move one water area per turn. Soldiers cannot enter water areas.

Mountains: Hovertanks cannot enter mountain areas. All other units are unaffected.

Cities: The city area that contains a player's fortress is friendly to that player's units. His units treat the area as if it was clear terrain. All other city areas are unfriendly to the player. Any unit (except a flying unit or flying bioborg) that enters an unfriendly city area must stop its movement for that turn.

Destroyed Cities: A bioborg can demolish one city area per turn by entering it and saying "I'm destroying it." (It's easy when you're 60 feet tall.) The bioborg must stop moving for that turn. Place a Ruin marker on that city area to show that it's been leveled. All units can move through a ruined city area as if it was clear terrain. A bioborg can never destroy the city area that contains its Cryptic Alliance's fortress!

Any attack on a fortress automatically destroys the city area the fortress is in (regardless of whether the attack succeeds or not).

Fortresses: The player who owns the fortress must give "permission to pass" (see the next section) to any enemy unit that wants to pass through the area containing his fortress.

Moving in Enemy Areas

Army units can enter, but not pass through, areas with enemy units. Nonflying bioborgs can freely pass through areas with enemy army units, but they can only enter, not pass through, those containing enemy bioborgs. Flying bioborgs can move through any terrain and through areas with bioborgs (but they are still held to the bioborg movement limit of six areas per turn).

Gammajets fly high above the ground, so neither terrain nor enemy units hinder their movement.

When you occupy an area, you may grant "permission to pass" to enemy units that want to pass through the area. You can let some units of a force through and block others, or let some players through and block others. If more than one player occupies the area, all the players must grant permission. "Permission to pass" can be part of a deal in step 2 of a turn.

Rebuilding and Refitting

Sometimes you may want to change your bioborg layout. You can only change your bioborg's layout if it is in your fortress during the Rebuild and Refit step of the turn (playing a Mutate card enables you to refit no matter where you are).

When refitting, you can move any or all cards to new positions on the layout sheet, or exchange bioborg weapon cards for any in your hand. The new layout can be used in combat on the same turn.

This is the step in which trashed fortresses are rebuilt (see Burning Pods).

Attacking

The attack step is what the GAMMARAUDERS game is all about: bashing the other guys into radioactive dirt.

You can attack any number of times per turn. Each attack is against only one player. Each of your units can attack only once per turn. You are never required to attack.

Any of your units can attack any one player's enemy units if they finish movement in the same area (exception: hovertanks and some bioborg weapons can make ranged attacks against units one or two areas away).

Attacks are declared in turn order. The player who declares an attack is the attacker; his opponent is the defender. A defending unit can be attacked any number of times in a turn, but remember that a unit can attack only once per turn.

Resolve each attack when it is declared. After all players are finished attacking, the step is over.

Only bioborgs and army units can initiate attacks; bioborgs, army units, and fortresses can defend against attacks.

Your bioborg can attack with only one of the weapon cards on its layout sheet. If you have no bioborg or army units, you cannot attack (fortresses cannot attack). (A bioborg can attack even if it has no weapons—it gets one die roll plus one die for every pod it burns in combat.) The opponent can defend with one weapon card on his layout sheet (if his bioborg is attacked) or one card from his hand (if his fortress is attacked) and any army units that are in the area being attacked.

Even if the attacker is using a ranged weapon, the defender can reply with any weapon available (he doesn't have to use a ranged weapon to defend).

Each player in a battle can play only one weapon card.

How You Do It

1. Announce the Attack

Announce which player's units you are attacking and in which area. All of the defender's units in that area automatically defend; units of the defender outside of the attacked area cannot help out (unless he has the Gate Crashers card—see Factoid Cards). You cannot attack units of different players in one attack. Declare which of your units are attacking: your bioborg, one or more army units, or a combination.

For example, "These four hovertanks in this city area, aided by my bioborg in this mountain area over here, are attacking your bioborg in the hovertanks' area."

If the attacker has units with ranged weapons (bioborg or hovertanks), they can attack units in any area within their range. Units without ranged weapons must be in the same area as the defender to attack.

2. Other Players Join In

The attacker and defender can ask other players to add their forces to the battle. Others cannot join in unless invited by the principal attacker or defender. Units of other players can aid the defender only if they are in the same area as the defending units (or if they have the Gate Crashers card). Other players can join the attack if their units are in the same area or if they have units with ranged weapons that are within range of the battle. These invited players are called allies.

Allies add their army unit strengths, bioborg weapons (if their bioborgs are in the battle), the roll of one die, and the dice rolls for every pod burned to the totals of the sides they join.

Allied army units cannot be withdrawn once committed. However, allies can aid both sides in a battle if they have the army units to do so.

3. Declare Pods Burned

Each player in the combat must simultaneously declare how many pods he is burning to aid in his effort (each pod adds the roll of one die to the attack or defense total). Each player picks up all the pods he could use (those from his fortress or his bioborg). All players simultaneously show how many of their pods they wish to burn in the fray.

No player can burn more than five pods in a combat.

4. Show Weapon Cards

Each player with a bioborg in the combat picks a card from his layout sheet. Turn them up at the same time. If an immunity weapon negates a bioborg's weapon, that weapon's power value is not added to the owner's total (but the immunity weapon's owner gets to add the power value of his immunity weapon to his total).

If the defending forces are in their fortress, the defender can use a weapon card he is holding in his hand as his fortress's weapon.

When both a bioborg and a fortress are among the defending forces, the pods burned and weapon card used must come from the same source. If the defender uses the bioborg's pods, he must use a weapon card on the bioborg's layout sheet; if the pods come from the fortress, then a weapon from the defender's hand must be played.

5. Figure Your Attack Total

Take your weapon's power value (unless it was negated) and add 1 point for each army unit attacking. (If your bioborg isn't present, you don't get a weapon.) Then roll one die plus one die for every pod you burned. Add the dice totals to the bioborg weapon value and the army unit strength. This is your attack total.

Note: Only bioborgs and fortresses can burn pods; soldiers can carry pods but the pods cannot be used unless they are given to a bioborg or fortress before pods are declared in combat.

6. Figure the Defense Total

The defender adds the power value of his weapon (unless it was negated) to the number of army units he has defending. He gets to roll one die, plus one die if his fortress is defending, plus one die for every pod he burned. He adds the dice rolls to his weapon and army total to get his defense total.

7. Resolve the Attack

If the attack total is higher than the defense total, the attacker wins. If the defense total is equal to or higher than the attack total, the defender wins. Go to The Outcome.

Calling Off an Attack

It occasionally happens that you declare an attack and then decide that the odds don't look very good. You can call off an attack unless one of the following has occurred:

• The defender has played a card in response to your upcoming attack.
• Another player has joined the battle as an ally on either side.
• Pods to be burned in combat have been declared.

The Outcome

Winners

• Pods: Gain any of the loser's pods that he can no longer carry (i.e., if the units carrying pods were eliminated and none of the loser's other units can claim them). These pods are picked up immediately. (See Fighting Over Pods, for more information.) Energy pods are never damaged or destroyed by combat (except when burned to aid in battle).
• Cards: Turn your bioborg card face down on its layout sheet, or discard it if it is a one-shot weapon or defense. You draw one card from the principal loser's hand at random (this includes his face-up cards but not cards on his bioborg's layout sheet). After you have drawn, your allies each draw one card as well, in turn order. If the loser runs out of cards, the remaining allies get nothing.
• Army Units: Lose nothing.

Losers

• Pods: The winning side gets all the unburnt pods that can no longer be carried by your surviving units. If one losing player has to drop pods, his allies cannot pick the pods up—they must retreat and leave the pods there.
• Cards: Discard the weapon card you used. The winner and winning allies each draw, at random, one card from your hand (only the principal loser has cards picked from his hand). First the winner draws, then winning allies draw in turn order.
• Army Units: Lose a number of army units equal to the difference between your total and your opponents' (you can't lose any more army units than were in the battle). For instance, if the winning total was 35 and yours was 29, you would lose 6 army units (you choose which ones). The principal loser (either the original attacker or defender) can choose to take the losses from his allies' units—the allies have no say in the matter.
• Retreat: Retreat the bioborg and surviving army units to any adjacent area empty of enemy units. If no area qualifies, move the losing units to an adjacent enemy-occupied area. Each losing ally gets to choose which adjacent area his units retreat to.

If the losing units are in a fortress, the fortress has been trashed and the survivors must retreat.

Fighting Over Pods

If the combat loser can no longer carry all the pods he had in the area, they go uncontrolled in the area. If the principal winner of an attack (either the original defender or attacker) has any bioborg or soldier units in the loser's area, these units can claim the loser's dropped energy pods.

But if the winner has no bioborg or soldiers in the area, any winning ally with the proper units (bioborgs or soldiers) can claim the pods. If two or more allies can take the pods, the ally who goes first in turn order gets first crack at the pods.

Trashing Fortresses

When a battle occurs in an area with a fortress, the owning player's forces are considered to be in the fortress. The fortress cannot aid in an attack, but it can aid in defense with a weapon card, pods, and one extra die roll (if a bioborg is also defending, only one weapon card can be played by the defender).

When a fortress is on the losing side in a battle, the winner and winning allies trash the fortress and party on the rubble, gleefully stomping the wreckage, guzzling the loser's best wine, and generally rubbing it in.

Any player can try to trash a fortress by attacking it. The attack works just like an attack on enemy units. The owner can defend the fortress with all units in the area, any weapon card in his hand, he gets the one-die fortress bonus (a fortress adds one die—for a total of two dice—to the defense total), and he can expend any or all pods in the fortress to get more dice bonuses.

If the fortress owner loses the combat, the fort is trashed and the winner and winning allies get all the pods the loser's forces can't carry away (and they stomp on the wreckage, etc.) The winner and winning allies each get a card from the loser's hand.

The winner and winning allies also each get a coup counter with the loser's Cryptic Alliance symbol on it. This signifies that they have whumped the loser's fort and can now move on to a new target. A player can trash the same fortress more than once, but he only gets a coup counter for the first trashing. Subsequent trashings do not gain him anything.

A trashed fortress cannot be trashed again until it has been rebuilt, either by the owner or by another player using a Construction 'Bots Were Here card.

If your fortress has been trashed, you cannot refit your bioborg or bring in reinforcements until you rebuild it. See Rebuilding and Refitting.

A player cannot destroy his own fortress.

Attack Summary

Attack Total = bioborg weapon power value + 1 per army unit + roll of one die + one extra die for each energy pod spent

Defense Total = bioborg or fortress weapon power value + 1 per army unit + roll of one die + one die if defender is in his fortress + one extra die for each energy pod burned

High total wins; ties favor defender.

Winner: Winner gets any pods the losers' units can no longer carry. Winner and winning allies get one card at random from loser's hand—winner picks first, then allies in turn order. Winners keep bioborg cards played, unless one-shot cards were used. All on winning side get coup counters if a fortress has been trashed.

Loser: Army units involved in attack reduced by difference in totals. Retreat remaining units one area away. Lose any pods you cannot carry away. Lose one card to winner and each of his allies. Discard weapon card played.

Example of Combat

Player A's Hoag the Kangaroid and three soldier units attack Player B's fortress holding Squawwk the Penguinoid, a hovertank, and a gammajet. Outside the fortress, but in the same area, are two of Player C's soldiers and Player D's three hovertanks.

Committing Forces: Player A announces the attack: "Hoag and my three soldiers will attack Player B's fortress and all of his units in the area."

Now the other players, if they are invited by Player A or B, can help with their units. In this case, both Player A and B ask for any help the others will give. Player C decides not to help just yet.

Player D, hoping for a card and a pod or two, adds one of her hovertanks to B's defense.

Now Player C, seeing this, lurches a soldier into the fray to help Player A in the attack. Player D responds by adding both of her other hovertanks. Player C chickens out and leaves his remaining soldier on the sidelines.

Everyone has finished committing units. The attacking side has Hoag, A's three soldier units, and one of C's soldiers. The defending side has Squawwk, B's hovertank and gammajet, and D's three hovertanks. Player B's units are in his fortress.

Mulling this over, A decides to spend one of Hoag's energy pods to increase his attack total. He removes the pod from play and will roll one extra die. No one else spends pods.

Now A and B secretly choose weapon cards, then reveal them at the same time.

Figuring Totals: Player A chooses Hoag's duodigital laser, value 8. Player A rolls two dice (including the extra one for spending a pod) and gets a total of 9. The attack total is 8 (weapon) + 4 (four army units) + 9 = 21.

B chooses a gyrogravitic blaster (value 5). (Note that B could have played a card from his hand instead of from Squawwk's layout, since he was defending in his fortress.) He rolls two dice (one die automatically plus one die for his fortress) and gets a total of 6. The defense total is 5 (weapon) + 5 (five army units) + 6 = 16.

Player A and his ally C win by 5 points.

The Outcome: Player A picks one card at random from B's hand, then C picks one as well.

B's side must lose five army units (21 - 16 = 5). B removes his hovertank and gammajet and D's three hovertanks. Player B's fortress is now in ruins. Squawwk (the only surviving defender) retreats to an adjacent empty area. Player A and Player C each receive one of Player B's coup counters to indicate that they have smashed his fortress and partied on the rubble.

Player B must now get a pod to his fortress area and burn it to rebuild his fortress. He cannot refit Squawwk, bring on reinforcements, or win the game until he does this.

Factoids

Factoids are little robotic information terminals—monitor screens on legs that exist to collect data about everything everywhere. They wander around aimlessly, observing and recording everything they see or hear and striking up conversations with every creature they come across. When two factoids meet, they share everything they've learned. Eventually every factoid will know what every other factoid knows...in a few million years.

The Cryptic Alliances tolerate factoids because occasionally they say something useful. Often this means a short-term tactical advantage—short term because almost anything you learn from a factoid hardly ever works more than once!

Factoid Cards

The special Factoid cards in the deck let you do strange things during the game. They cannot be part of a bioborg layout. To use a Factoid card, simply play it face up and announce its effect. Most cards must be discarded as soon as you play them, but some can be placed face up in front of you. These cards remain in your possession until another player takes them away from you (lost battles and certain Factoid cards enable others to take cards from you).

Factoid cards that say "Play Immediately" must be played as soon as they are drawn. Factoid Voids do not stop these cards.

Some Factoid cards need no more explanation than is found on the cards themselves. Explanations for other cards follow. These are not complete descriptions of the cards, but rather special points, interpretations, and hints on how to use some of the cards.

Army Cards

These cards let you increase the abilities of your army units. To use an Army card, lay it face up in front of you. Your army units immediately gain the listed benefit. Unlike other Factoid cards, you don't discard most Army cards unless you have to discard your entire hand for some reason. Otherwise, they remain in force as long as you display them face up in front of you. But if another player ever picks from your hand of cards, you must pick up the Army card temporarily to make it part of your hand.

Three Army cards double the strength of hovertanks, soldiers, or gammajets. Each unit affected is treated as two units when figuring attack or defense totals (but it still counts as only one unit when removing units after a defeat in battle).

Two other Army cards let your hovertanks or soldiers move an extra area per turn.

The Cargo Jet Army card enables one of your gammajets to carry a pod, but the card must be discarded after it is used. Play this when your gammajet starts its move in an area with a pod. The gammajet can pick up the pod and move in the same turn (this is the only time a unit is allowed to move after picking up a pod in the same turn).

The last two Army cards enable all of your units in one area to move either one or two areas more than usual. These cards get discarded after they are used once.

Construction 'Bots Were Here

This card can be used to rebuild your own fortress or someone else's fortress. A tricky use is to rebuild the fort of someone who hasn't been protecting it (figuring it cannot be attacked) when you are in a position to attack it as soon as you rebuild it—an easy coup counter. If your fort has been trashed, you can leave it in ruins until you have fulfilled the winning conditions, then play the card, your fort is rebuilt and you've won the game!

Exit, Stage Left!

This card enables you to retreat from a combat. All your units in the battle move into one adjacent area and cannot be attacked by any player until next turn.

Factoid Void

This card can be played to negate a Factoid card that has been played against any player.

If a Factoid Void is tossed out to stop a Factoid card, another Factoid Void card cancels out the first Void and the original Factoid card is played.

Fortress Plumbing Repaired!

This card is cumulative with the Super Soldiers card—if you have both of these cards, each soldier counter in your fortress defends as four counters. This card must be discarded after the battle.

Freeze

This card can be played at any time during an opponent's move, but it can only freeze the units in the area they occupy when the card is played. You cannot make units go back to an area they passed through earlier in their move and stop them there.

Gate Crashers

This card can be used to move units into a battle area to attack or defend or to get attacking units within range of a battle.

Heat Wave

Any soldiers who are with your bioborg or in your fortress at the end of step 4 are safe; all other soldiers fry in the heat and are removed from the board.

Hypnosis

Play this as your combat opponent is about to choose a weapon card for his bioborg. Point to one face-down card and force him to play that one. If he is trying a ranged attack and you pick a nonranged weapon, the bioborg's attack is canceled.

Landslides

This card makes one mountain area passable to your hovertanks for this turn only. You pick which area.

The Lost Patrol

This card enables the defender to eliminate 1d6 of the attacker's army units. The defender rolls the die and chooses which attacking popcorn disappear (these units are taken off the board and placed in the player's pile of units not in play). Pods carried by these units that cannot be picked up immediately by the attackers may be picked up by the defender or his allies.

An ally of the defender can also play this card. Play it after an attack is declared, but before players reveal how many pods they are going to burn. An attack cannot be called off after this card is played.

Mutate and Mass Mutate Cards

The Mutate cards let a player rearrange the cards on his bioborg layout and switch any or all of them with cards in his hand. These can be played at any time except during a battle. They can also be used to let another player exchange cards between his hand and his bioborg layout.

The Mass Mutate card enables all players to freely exchange cards between their hands and their bioborg layout sheets, no matter where their bioborgs are. This card must be played as soon as it is drawn.

Rapid Oxidation!

This card rusts one of the weapons on an opponent's bioborg. Without looking at his layout cards, pull one of them off and place it in the discard pile. This card can be used during the combat step (step 6), but you must use it before your opponent picks his weapon for the battle.

Reverse Combat Result

This card is solely for defensive use. It cannot be used by an attacker.

Running Broad Jump

This card enables your bioborg to move seven areas this turn and ignore the terrain and units (including other bioborgs) in one of the areas it passes through. This is useful for hopping over water or bioborgs that are blocking your way.

Sleight-of-Hand

When you play this card on another player, take (without looking) up to five (5) of the cards in his hand, including those Army cards face up in front of him (but not the cards on his bioborg layout sheet). You give him your hand of cards (including face up cards but not bioborg cards) and discard this card.

Teleport

This card moves all units (including bioborg but not fortress) in one area to one other area of your choice. The teleported units do not get any other movement this turn.