Gretchinz!
Gretchinz! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
Upon opening the box you will find various elements. Here below we describe them and later on in these rules we will tell you how they work.
- 1 Rulebook
- 95 Terrain/Attack cards
- 15 Crater cards
- 7 Player panels (on the back of each panel is the klan's ability)
- 4 Buggies
- 4 Buggy counters, each corresponding to a buggy of the same color
- 12 Flames counters
- 12 Dice
Each player panel has a klan side and a neutral side.
Preparation
Shuffle the 110 terrain cards into a deck with the terrain side up. Leave it next to the crater card deck and the flames counters.
If you decide to play with the klans' abilities, then mix up the panels and randomly deal them out to each player. Alternatively, if you prefer not to use them, simply use the neutral side of the panels.
Each player takes three dice. Put the unused materials back into the game box, since you will not be using it in this particular game.
Randomly place the vehicles in a line next to one another. Place the box at a distance of seven cards from where the buggies are. The box is the finish line. Place one card in front of each of the buggies. Place two more cards, one on each side of the cards you have just placed, so that the total width of the terrain in front of the racers has the same number of cards as the number of players plus two.
Each player takes a buggy and a counter of the same color. Then you place yours in the upper spot of your player panel in order to identify the buggy you are racing.
In this example we see a race that is about to start. There are four drivers, so we have placed 4 + 2 = 6 cards. If it was a race with two players, we would put down 2 + 2 = 4 cards. We can see that during a race it may be that we have more than six cards in width, but this is not a problem. Your only limit will be the width of the table on which you are playing.
Finally, each player draws 5 cards from the terrain deck and keeps them in his hand so that he can only see the terrain side visible. This means the other players can see the attack side of their rivals' hands (and evaluate the real risk they are up against). At the start of the game, the players do not know the potential of the attacks they have in their hand. As you will soon discover, the players will guess what is on the other side of the cards in their hands as the game progresses.
Optional Rule: Races with up to 8 racers
If you want to put together a real mess (and you have a wide enough table), you can gather together up to eight intrepid Gretchinz behind the wheel of their buggies of death. To do so, you will need two copies of this game. You will have to set up the cars from the second box with their Front part in a different color than the rest of the buggy, to make them visually different from the buggies from the first box (use the binary colors of the buggy counters). The players that play with the two-color cars will use these two-color counters.
Shuffle the cards from the two decks. Place the finish line at a distance of 10 cards (instead of 7). Deal out the klans randomly and get ready for the craziest race in the galaxy.
Start the Race
As soon as all the players are ready, they take their three dice and on the count of three, they all throw their dice simultaneously on the table. Then the players can repeat their dice rolls for any of their dice, as many times as they want, and place each of them on their player panel as soon as they get the result they want, in the order that they will later use them. On the panel, the die placed on top of number one will be applied first when it is that player's turn, and the one on top of number three will be applied last.
As soon as one of the players is happy with the results of their dice rolls and has placed the last one in their panel, he immediately shouts "Waaagh!" From that moment on, no one else can roll their dice and all the players must make due with the dice roll they have on the table and place the results in their panel. At that time (and only that time), the players are allowed to cover their panel with their hand to stop the others from spying on their choices in order to strategize their own placement of results.
If you are playing with the klan abilities, this is the moment they come into play. Each player can change one "Klan ability" die roll result in accordance with the indications of his ability (see "Klan abilities" at the end of these rules). The Freebooterz player can wait until everyone has applied their klan abilities before playing their ability.
The player who yells "Waaagh!" first will be the first to play out their full turn. When it ends, the player to his left comes next, and so on, clockwise around the table. When all the players have played their turns, all the dice are picked up and a new round begins.
What does "Waaagh!" mean? The greenskins are a violent race that plough through the galaxies of the forty-first millennium attacking every living thing they find in their path. The gregarious culture of these beings leads the tribes to follow whoever is the most cutthroat of the warlords. When a warlord is able to bring together a large number of followers, he is able to command his own Waaagh! The name of this division is also the battle cry of the Ork troops when they charge in to fight against their enemies. In the heat of the race it is not uncommon to hear the Gretchin drivers screaming "Waaagh!" to stir themselves up and show everyone they are the truly out of their minds for speed.
Golden Rules
You absolutely must do what your dice say and must do them in the order you have arranged them. Even when you are not interested in that particular move any more. Even when you don't have enough cards to carry out your attacks.
You cannot have more than five cards in your hand. If at any time you exceed this limit, you must immediately discard the extra cards (you may choose which cards to discard).
If you must attack or discards and you don't have enough cards in your hand, discard what you have left and receive a flames counter.
Dice, Attack, Movement and Terrain Cards
As soon as one of the players has screamed "Waaagh!" the other players (after having played their klan abilities) place their dice in their panel to use them when it is their turn. The dice have six possible results and here below we will explain the effects of each one.
- Swerve to the right. Move the buggy to the card that is diagonally to the right.
- Swerve to the left. Move the buggy to the cart that is diagonally to the left.
- Dakka. Attack another vehicle or try to destroy a terrain card.
- Draw cards. Draw 2 cards from the terrain deck and add them to your hand, without looking at the attack side.
- The eye of Mork (or maybe Gork). Ask another player to tell you how many firing cards you have in your hand. The other player has to tell the truth.
- Klan ability. If you are playing with the klan abilities, you can use one of your dice with this result (only one, the others are of no use). If you do not use these abilities, this result counts as a pass.
Attack
In order to open fire with your cannons you must have at least one "Dakka" result in your dice. If you do, then you must attack the buggy of an adversary or try to destroy a terrain card that is on the table.
If you have two or three "Dakka" results in your dice, you can make more than one attack during your turn, either against the same target or different ones. However, you must choose carefully, since in order to make the attacks you must have enough firing cards in your hand.
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Attack an opponent. First, declare who you are going to attack. Then, take two cards from your hand and put them on the playing table at the same time with the attack side up.
- Firing Card. If both are firing cards, the attack is successful. The target vehicle receives a flames counter. Discard the cards that were used.
- Problems Card. If at least one of them is a problems card, something terrible went wrong with your weapon. Place a flames counter in your own buggie. Discard the cards that were used.
- Explosion Card. If at least one of them is an explosion card, your weapon jams at the very worst moment. Discard all the cards in your hand.
If you play one explosion card and one problems card then you win "the big one" and receive their cumulative effect: your buggy gets a flame counter AND you discard all the cards in your hand.
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Try to destroy the terrain. If you decide to open fire on a position that contains no enemy vehicle, then you must first indicate which one is the target, then take a card from your hand and play it attack side up on the table.
- Firing Card. If you play a firing card, then you destroy the target terrain card. Place a crater card on top of it. Discard the firing card that was used. If a player enters a crater card, he loses two cards (of his choosing) from his hand and leaves them in the discard pile.
- Problems Card. If you play a problems card, then something goes terribly wrong with your gun. Place a flames counter in your buggy. Discard the card that was used.
- Explosion Card. If you play an explosion card, then your weapon jams at the very worst moment. Discard all the cards in your hand.
Only one buggy is left in the race! In the case that only one buggy is left in the race, the player can only repeat his dice roll three times (in which he may roll as many dice as he likes). This may happen quite often in games with only two players.
Movement
When a driver has to apply the "Swerve" result (to the left or right), he must move his buggy diagonally (to the corresponding side) and immediately apply the effects of the card where the vehicle lands.
If the spaces are empty, then the player must then place three cards in front of the buggy in the three visible positions (directly in front and the right and left diagonal positions). The cards must be placed in the same order as they were drawn from the terrain deck (from one side to the other, and always in the same way) in front of the vehicle that just moved. There is no need to place cards on the sides of the vehicles, since the buggies cannot move to that position. If the player cannot place a card because it will not fit on the table, then the drivers simply cannot move in that direction.
If the player has several "swerve" results, then he must apply all of their effects and resolve them one by one.
When they move the buggies can run into different kinds of situations:
- If they move to a card that is open terrain, the vehicle may keep moving (if the player has more "swerve" results in his panel). With luck, a player can move through up to three spots in the same turn.
- If the buggy lands on any other kind of card besides open terrain, it will be forced to stop moving when entering the terrain and play out its effects. The player loses any further "Swerve" result they have not yet used.
- If the card that you are trying to move to is occupied by an opponent's buggie, the two vehicles crash. In this case, the buggy of the player whose turn it is does not move, and both players involved in the crash discard a card of their choice.
When all the buggies have advanced beyond a predetermined line of cards, you can discard the cards behind the line so that they will not bother you. Be careful not to mix the crater cards with the terrain cards when you do!
Flames Counters
Every time a buggy is successfully attacked, it receives a flames counter (place it on the model car or on the player panel).
When a vehicle receives its third flames counter, then it is completely immobilized and loses its next turn while the driver is attempting to put out the flames, and the player must discard all the cards in his hand. If the player has not yet played his turn in the round in play or is halfway through his turn, then all the dice in his panel are also discarded. If the player has already played his turn when he receives the third flames counter, then he may not roll his dice at the start of the next round. When he can roll his dice again, before he does the player must discard two of the three flames counters from his vehicle (one will always remain) and draw a card from the deck.
Terrain Cards
- Open terrain. Vehicles can move through this terrain without any problem. If you have multiple "Swerve" results, the drivers can just keep on trucking.
- Squig Stampede. Herds of wild squigs are always eager to chew on the buggies' tires or the drivers' guts. When a vehicle moves to this card, the player chooses a card from his hand and discards it.
- Hidden scrap materials. It is quite frequent to run into the junked remains of old contraptions that participated in past races. Despite being partially covered in dust and sand (and who knows what else), they are still useful during the race. The player draws 1, 2, 3 or 4 cards from the deck (according to the indications on the terrain card) without looking at the attack side of the cards. Note: the limit for a player's hand is 5 cards. If after drawing cards the player is over this limit, he must discard cards (he may choose which) so that he is at 5 cards maximum.
- Junk materials. These are the same as the remains of the vehicles we've just seen but they are clearly visible and can be identified and picked up on the fly despite the speeds of the race. The player takes 1, 2 or 3 cards from the deck (according to the indications on the card), but in this case he may look at the attack side of the card before adding it to his hand. The player must discard the extra cards (he may choose which) if he exceeds the 5 card limit.
- Puddle. Splashing through a puddle can help cool off a buggy in dire situations. The player can remove one of the flames counters burning his vehicle.
- Warp clouds. The Ork Weirdboyz enjoy adding a bit of chaos to the races. One way they achieve this is by casting simple spells that allow the craftiest drivers to confuse their opponents. The player takes a card from each of the other players' hands (of which he can see the attack side perfectly) and adds it to his own hand. The player must discard any cards (he may choose which) so that he does not exceed the 5 card limit.
The End of the Race
- The race comes to an end when one buggy reaches the seventh line of cards (which should be in contact with the game box). The rest of the players may still play the turns remaining in the round in play, and then the winner of the race is declared. If there is only one buggy in the last line of cards, this player is the winner of the race (even if he got there with three flames counters on his car).
- If there is more than one buggy in the last line of cards, the player with the fewest flames counters on his vehicle wins. If there is still a tie, the player with the most firing cards in his hand wins (the Gretchinz forget about driving and just shoot all the opponents until only one is left alive).
Example of a Game Turn
The yellow player is the first to shout "Waaagh!" and is therefore the first player in this round. He got the following results in his dice rolls (shown in the accompanying diagram): a swerve to the right, the eye of Mork, and a Dakka.
- First, apply the swerve movement to the right, and move the buggy to the appropriate card. As soon as the buggy enters the card, its effect is activated. In this case, it is a squig stampede, so the player must place one of the cards from his hand on the discard pile.
- Once the squig stampede has been resolved, the player places three cards in front of the buggy (in this case, from top to bottom).
- Now The eye of Mork (or maybe Gork) must be applied. The player asks the opponent seated in front of him, "How many firing cards to I have?" The other player must give him the correct answer, in this case 3 firing cards. At that time, the player knows just a little more (even though he does not know exactly which three cards in his hand are the firing ones).
- The result of the last die ("Dakka") allows the player to attack an opponent. He decides to attack the blue buggy. Since he knows he has 3 firing cards in his current 4 card hand, he trusts his luck and… is able to play two firing cards on the table. The attack is successful and the blue car gets a flames counter.
After that, the player to his left will play his turn and carry out his actions according to the order of his dice. And so on until all the players have played their turns.
Klan Abilities
Traditionally, each of the Ork klans has had something that set them apart from the others. The Bad Moons tend to grow their teef faster than the others, so they are the richest. The Evil Sunz are specialized in speed, and everyone knows red goes faster (even though, despite the blasphemy, the Evil Sunz player is not required to play the red car). These peculiarities are reflected in the abilities of the different klans.
It is recommended that you play your first game using the neutral side of the player panels, so that everyone is at the same level and no one plays with special rules. However, it will not be long before you want a little more spice in your games and you will want to apply the following rules:
- Goffs. You can change a "Klan ability" result to a "Dakka" result.
- Evil Sunz. You can change a "Klan ability" result to a "Swerve" result (to the right or left, your choice).
- Freebooterz. You can switch the "Klan ability" with any die belonging to the other players. You can wait until all the other players have applied their klan abilities before using your own (so if the player who has his die taken has already used his klan ability, he will not be able to use the die for any purpose).
- Deathskulls. If you are the first player to shout Waaagh!, you can wait until all the other players have placed their dice in the panels, and then reorder your own dice to your best advantage.
- Snakebites. You can change a "Klan ability" result to an "The eye of Mork (or maybe Gork)" result.
- Bad Moons. You can change a "Klan ability" result to a "Draw cards" result.
- Blood Axes. After the Waaagh!, you can still reroll one of your dice.