Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game – Stormbird
Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game – Stormbird Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
1 Rulebook 1 Stormbird Board
13 Tracking Deck Cards
Stormbird: 1 Miniature 2 Stormbird Data Cards (1-2 Player and 3-4 Player) 1 Stormbird Reference Card 9 Stormbird Behaviour Cards
Adding the Stormbird to Your Games
There are two ways players may encounter the Stormbird as part of their game.
The first way of including the Stormbird is by using the tracking deck included in this expansion, enabling the players to hunt this immense machine as their quarry instead of choosing from the other quests available to them.
Alternatively, players can add the Stormbird to another quest from either Horizon Zero Dawn™: The Board Game or an expansion. If playing this way, the players should add the Hunters' Call card from the Stormbird tracking deck to the end of tracking deck they wish to use for the quest, face down at the end of the row after the standard Hunter's Call card.
If the players are encountering the Stormbird using these rules, after completing the standard Hunter's Call, resolve the Campfire Phase as detailed below instead of following the normal Hunters' Call sequence.
The Victory Step
Calculate glory and allocate Sun tokens to each player as in a standard encounter, including any changes in possession of the Leader and Fledgling tokens. Do not total up the points of each player's Sun tokens to see who has won the game.
The Level-Up Step
Skip this step unless the hunters haven't yet attained level 3. If they have yet to reach this level, the players may immediately increase their level by one, then select upgrade cards as normal.
The Merchant Step
Players visit a level 3 merchant to improve their equipment further before taking on their final challenge.
After these steps are completed, flip over the Stormbird tracking card as the final encounter.
Setting Up the Stormbird Encounter
Place the Stormbird board in the centre of the table and set up the encounter as detailed on the Stormbird encounter card.
If you're playing a game with two hunters, use the 1-2 player side of the Stormbird data cards. If you're playing with 3 or 4 hunters, use the 3-4 player side of Stormbird data cards instead.
The Stormbird has two types of behaviour card, for its airborne and landed modes. Separate these cards into two piles, then shuffle each and place them face down next to the playing area to create the Stormbird's behaviour decks. Place the reference card next to the behaviour deck with the airborne side face up.
The player with the Fledgling token draws from the event deck and selects their card as normal, revealing it immediately after making their decision. If there are no cards remaining in the event deck, reshuffle all the discarded cards to form a new deck.
Although the Stormbird board is a single large piece rather than four smaller tiles, hunters observe the standard rules when deploying and are placed in the quadrant indicated on the encounter card.
The Stormbird Data Cards
Note that although the Stormbird data cards look slightly different to the data cards for other machines, many symbols are the same and serve the same function.
The data card is numbered as follows:
- Name
- Players (1-2 or 3-4)
- HP
- Armour Value
- Salvage Value
- Glory Point Value
- Encounter Point Value
- Components
- Special Rules
- Structure Threshold
In addition, there are several new rules used for this huge machine, detailed below.
Stormbird card values (1-2 player side): Name: Stormbird. Players: 1-2. HP: 50. Armour Value: 2. Salvage Value: 3. Glory Point Value: 2. Encounter Point Value: 20. (Each value is read from the numbered icon on the scanned card and matched to the legend above; the scan shows them as icons only. The two data cards overlap on the scan, and the stat column is identical on both visible faces.)
Components (card text as printed): Each component has a letter-coded attack symbol; the number printed beside each letter is shown as the component's value on the scan. The small chip-icon values beside two component rows are not reproduced (see the note below).
- Lightning Gun (attack A, 14): Disables A attacks. This enemy suffers Shock.
- Freeze Canister x2 (attack B, 6): This enemy suffers Freeze.
- Blaze Canister x2 (attack C, 6): This enemy suffers Fire.
- Thruster Engines x4 (attack D, 4): When all D components are destroyed reduce D attack damage by 2.
Transcriber's note: the status words Shock, Fire and Freeze are written for the lightning, flame and snowflake icons on the card, using the names the base game rulebook gives those conditions. The printed chip-icon values beside the Lightning Gun (10 and 4) and the Freeze Canister (3 and 3) carry no text on the scan; they are not reproduced here.
Special Rules:
- Shock Resistant: This enemy only suffers Shock from its components being destroyed.
- Flyer: This enemy has two behaviour decks. When it activates, draw from the deck which matches the current face of its reference card. At the start of the encounter the reference card should display the airborne side.
Structure Thresholds: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50.
Transcriber's note: the Special Rules and Structure Threshold panels sit on the second data card, which is partly covered on the scan, so its player-count header is not visible. The thresholds are read from the threshold panel on the scan and from the Quick Reference on the final page. The sixth icon in the threshold grid is the Structure Threshold symbol, not a value.
Structure Threshold
The Stormbird's reference card has a series of structure thresholds listed on it, representing the machine's immense frame. Unlike standard enemies, the Stormbird provides glory points not only when it's killed or when its components are destroyed but also throughout the encounter as it suffers more damage.
Structure thresholds are linked to the Stormbird's hit points. If a hunter deals damage to the Stormbird's hit points with an attack or by destroying a component that takes the Stormbird's total damage above the next structure threshold, the hunter immediately gains 1 glory point. If a hunter exceeds multiple structure thresholds in a single attack, they gain glory points for each threshold they exceed.
Multiple Components
The Stormbird is a truly massive machine, with with several systems of the same type that are linked together. These components are represented by a multiplier next to the name, which indicates the enemy has multiple components of the same type that can be destroyed.
Unlike normal components, a component with this multiplier can be destroyed as many times as is indicated by the number listed. Each time one of these components is destroyed, the hunter gains glory, and the players apply any effects and the damage listed to the Stormbird before placing a destroyed token on the enemy.
When the Stormbird has gained the number of tokens listed for that component, all of the components of that type have been destroyed, and the hunters may no longer target that component.
Immense Base
Due to its massive size, the Stormbird occupies four squares instead of a single square like most enemies. When the Stormbird moves, it enters multiple new squares per point of movement.
When moving towards a hunter, the Stormbird stops moving when the hunter is on any one of the four squares it occupies.
When determining range to or from the Stormbird players count the squares from the closest square that the Stormbird is occupying to their hunter.
In this image, the Banuk Survivor is on one of the four squares occupied by the Stormbird and is at range 0. The Nora Marksman is 2 squares away from the closest Stormbird square and so is at range 2.
Patrol Routes and Immense Base
Whilst non-alert, the Stormbird will follow a patrol route, using a single point of movement to move into multiple new squares as shown in the example image below. When moving the Stormbird along a patrol route, centre the base of the miniature on the patrol route. If any part of the Stormbird's base is outside of the playing area after it moves along a patrol route, remove it from the playing area.
Attack Modes
The Stormbird is a unique foe that fights in two different modes; airborne and landed. When the Stormbird activates, draw a behaviour card from the deck that matches the current mode shown on its reference card.
Mode
When an action shows a mode symbol, flip the reference card to show the other side before continuing to resolve any remaining actions shown on the behaviour card.
Barrage
Some of the Stormbird's behaviour cards feature a new attack symbol, Barrage. Attacks with Barrage target the hunter in range that has been attacked the least number of times during the Stormbird's current activation. If multiple hunters in range are eligible to be targets, the Stormbird targets the closest hunter instead.
Failing the Encounter
Choosing to face such an adversary is the preserve of not only the bold individuals touched by destiny but also those possessed of incredible folly and wild overconfidence.
At any time during this encounter, if the total number of times the hunters have fainted is equal to or greater than the number of hunters, or if the Stormbird leaves the playing area, the encounter immediately ends in failure.
If the encounter ends in failure, the players loses the game—the Hunters' Lodge does not entertain failure, especially not from those acting with such hubris!
Winning the Encounter
If the players defeat the Stormbird, the encounter immediately ends. The hunter that killed the Stormbird gains a Half-Sun token.
The players then resolve the victory step of the Campfire Phase to establish which hunters are awarded Sun tokens. Total how many victory points each hunter has earned, as if they had just finished the Hunters' Call.
The hunter with the most victory points is declared the winner, establishing themselves not only as the dominant figure of this quest but also as a hunter earmarked for patronage amongst the Hawks. Such an individual may look forward to a bright future within the Hunter's Lodge!
Quick Reference
Symbol Reference
Barrage
Attacks with Barrage target the hunter in range that has been attacked the least number of times during the Stormbird's current activation.
Mode
When an action shows a mode symbol, flip the reference card to show the other side before continuing to resolve any remaining actions shown on the behaviour card.
Structure Threshold
Structure thresholds: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50.
If a hunter deals damage to the Stormbird's hit points with an attack or by destroying a component that takes the Stormbird's total damage above the next structure threshold, the hunter immediately gains 1 glory point. If a hunter exceeds multiple structure thresholds in a single attack, they gain glory points for each threshold they exceed.