Intelliwar: Accession to the Throne
Intelliwar: Accession to the Throne Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 18 Unit Cards (6 classes, 3 units each)
- 18 Unit Tokens (6 classes, 3 units each)
- 12 Health Point Markers
- 12 Experience Point Markers
- 1 Game Board
- 4 Exploration Token Placement Cards
- 4 Activation Tokens
- 6 Exploration Tokens
- 15 Dice (3 colors, 5 dice each)
- 20 Dice Upgrade Tokens (double-sided)
Game Objective
In Intelliwar, players will employ all their tactical and strategic skills to claim their rightful place on the Silver Throne. To do that, you will move units around the board, activate special abilities, upgrade your forces, and strike with calculated attacks. The goal is to eliminate the enemy Prince or wipe out all enemy units except the Prince. The first player to fulfill at least one of these two victory conditions wins!
Game Setup
For a standard two-player game:
- Place the game board in the center of the table.
- Gather all dice next to the game board.
- Shuffle the Exploration Token Placement Cards. Choose one card at random and place 6 random Exploration Tokens face down on the game board according to the pattern on the Placement Card.
- Place a pile of Health Point (HP) and Experience Point (XP) Markers next to the game board within reach of both players.
To modify the setup for a four-player game, see section "Four-Player Mode".
Player Setup
- Lay out all Unit Cards face up on the table.
- Determine the first player.
- Starting from the last player, players take turns to choose Unit Cards for the game:
Step 1: Each player takes a Prince Card. Prince is a Unit Card marked with a crown symbol. Players cannot have more than one Prince each.
Step 2: Each player takes any 2 Unit Cards.
Step 3: Each player takes 2 more Unit Cards. At the end of this step, each player will have 5 Unit Cards (1 Prince and 4 other units).
Step 4: Each player takes one last Unit Card and immediately gains 1 Experience point (XP) for this unit by placing 1 Marker on the bottom space of the Experience Track on the card.
- Every time players choose and take Unit Cards, they place the corresponding Unit Tokens on the board. The tokens are placed 3 per row, in the 3 central squares marked with a pattern.
- Each player gets 6 Markers and places them on the rightmost Health Point (HP) value on each of their Unit Cards to indicate the maximum health of the unit.
- Each player gets 2 Activation Tokens.
All Unit Tokens are double-sided with two color options, one for each player. Decide who plays which color before the game begins.
Unit Card Anatomy
- Unit movement pattern: the diagram at the top of the card showing where the unit may move.
- Experience Track: the numbered track on the right edge of the card where Experience Point Markers are placed.
- Unit name
- Class Ability: the ability shared by all units of the same class.
- Special Ability: the unit's own special ability.
- Health Track: the row of HP values at the bottom of the card, with the ATK value shown in the blue box on the left.
How to Play
Players take turns, beginning with the first player.
On their turn, a player removes the two Activation Tokens from the previously activated Unit Cards and places them on two different Unit Cards, with the player-colored side facing up. When you place an Activation Token on a card with the player-colored side up, you "activate" this unit.
Activation Tokens are double-sided. The player-colored side marks units that will be used this turn, while the gray side marks those you have just used. At the start of a turn, tokens must be reassigned to new units that haven't been used on the previous turn.
Special activation cases:
- First turn of the game: You can place the Activation Tokens on any of your 6 Unit Cards as you haven't activated any units yet.
- Only 3 Unit Cards left: You must activate one Unit Card that wasn't activated last turn and one that was.
- Only 2 Unit Cards left: You activate both your remaining Unit Cards every turn.
After that, a player may perform actions with the Unit Tokens corresponding to the Unit Cards that have a colored Activation Token.
On a turn, each unit may perform up to two of the following actions:
- Move
- Attack
- Use a Special Ability
A unit cannot perform the same action twice in a turn. Each specific unit can only perform each action once per turn.
The only prohibited sequence is Attack + Move, because you are a brave warrior and won't retreat after landing a blow (unless your unit's Special Ability says otherwise).
Note that it's possible to interrupt the action sequence of one unit, begin the sequence of the other, and then go back to the first one.
After performing the desired actions with a Unit Token, flip the Activation Token on the corresponding Unit Card to its gray side. At the start of your next turn, you will reassign both Activation Tokens to another two units, flipping them to the player-colored side.
Example: Player 1 wants to perform Move + Attack for their Cavalryman and Move + Use a Special Ability for his Knight. The Cavalryman can move first, then the Knight can move. After that, the Cavalryman can attack, and finally, the Knight can use a Special Ability. Player 1 flips Activation Tokens on both of their activated Unit Cards gray side up, indicating the end of the turn for the player.
Move
Each Unit Token can move up to its maximum range, following its movement pattern on the Unit Card. Each square a unit passes through counts as 1.
The following rules apply to Unit Token movement:
- Your Unit Token can move through a square with another of your Unit Tokens. Each square still counts as 1.
- Your movement cannot end on an occupied square.
- Your Unit Token cannot move through a square with an enemy Unit Token.
- When your Unit Token passes through or lands on a square with an Exploration Token, you get this Exploration Token and may use it immediately or place it beside you face up to use later.
Attack
An Attack is an attempt to deal damage (DMG) to an opponent's unit. Some units attack only adjacent targets (melee attack) while others target only distant ones (ranged attack).
Attacks ignore movement patterns and do not cause Unit Tokens to move (unless specified in a Special or Class Ability). Units with melee attacks can attack a unit on any adjacent square. For units with ranged attacks, the squares they can attack are marked with a target symbol on their movement pattern.
To perform an attack, the player first checks the Attack (ATK) value on the Unit Card they will use to attack. The ATK value represents the number of Dice the player rolls to deal DMG.
There are 3 Dice colors:
- White: Basic dice available to both players at the beginning of the game. The faces on these dice are either blank or indicate half DMG (half sword symbol).
- Teal: Upgraded basic dice with a higher chance of success. The sides of these dice may show half DMG (half sword symbol), one full DMG (full sword symbol), or one and a half DMG (crossed swords symbol). There are fewer blank faces than on White dice.
- Purple: Fully upgraded dice. These dice deal one guaranteed full DMG (full sword symbol) and have a chance to deal one and a half DMG (crossed swords symbol).
To be able to upgrade dice into Teal or Purple, players have to earn XP.
After the player determines the number and color of dice for the attack, they roll them and do the following:
- Deal DMG equal to the number of full DMG symbols rolled. Two half DMG symbols make one full DMG (half + half = full); one and a half DMG plus one half DMG makes two full DMG (1½ + ½ = 2).
- Gain Experience (XP) points if any conditions are met (see "Experience Points and Dice Upgrades").
The opponent moves the HP Marker on the attacked Unit Card one space to the left for each full DMG dealt. When a player's unit runs out of HP, the unit is defeated, and the player removes the corresponding Unit Token from the board.
Whenever the attacking unit eliminates an opponent's unit, it earns 1 extra XP.
Example: Player 1 uses their Mighty Guard to attack the enemy Knight. The Mighty Guard unit has an ATK value of 3, which means Player 1 rolls 3 dice. Player 1 doesn't have any upgraded dice, so they roll 3 White ones. The dice show 3 half DMG symbols. This means that Player 1 deals 1 full DMG to the Knight (one remaining half DMG doesn't count). Player 2 then moves the HP Marker on their Knight Unit Card one space to the left. Given that this was the last HP of the Knight, Player 2 removes the defeated Knight Unit Token from the board. Player 1 then checks for XP.
Use a Special Ability
In the game, all units, including Princes, have Special Abilities. A Special Ability can be used on a turn as an action. To use it, simply follow the text on the Unit Card.
Special Abilities override the game rules. If an ability contradicts the rules (for example, by allowing the Attack + Move sequence), the ability takes priority and the action it suggests is still performed.
Class Abilities
Class Abilities are passive abilities inherent to each type of unit. They don't require a turn to activate—they trigger automatically or can be triggered by the unit's owner whenever their condition is met, at any point during the turn of either the player or the opponent.
Example: Player 2 uses their Cunning Crossbowman to attack and deals 1 DMG to the opponent's unit. Then Player 2 decides to perform one more action for their Cunning Crossbowman unit and uses its Special Ability to deal 1 more DMG to the enemy unit, which has almost no HP left, so Player 2 decides to activate their Cunning Crossbowman's Class Ability: they lose 2 XP to perform one more action with this unit this turn. They remove the marker from it because it reaches 0, and take a chance on another Attack action to possibly eliminate the enemy unit.
Experience Points and Dice Upgrades
Players gain Experience points (XP) in the following ways:
- at the end of every unit activation (when you flip the Activation Token on a unit to the monochrome side);
- for eliminating an enemy unit;
- for every 2 blank die sides rolled during an attack;
- as indicated by a Special Ability or an Exploration Token.
Each of these conditions grants 1 XP to the unit that fulfills it (unless a Special Ability or an Exploration Token say otherwise).
Players mark XP on Unit Cards by placing an Experience Marker on the bottom space of the Experience Track or moving it one space up. When the Marker reaches the top space on the Experience Track, you may upgrade any of the unit's dice. When upgraded, White dice are replaced with Teal, and Teal dice are replaced with Purple. You cannot get a Purple die before you get a Teal one.
In Intelliwar, players have a common dice pool. To mark that one of the dice on a unit was upgraded, take a double-sided Dice Upgrade Token and place it on your corresponding Unit Card with a teal or purple side up, depending on the color of the upgraded die. Next time you will perform an attack, you will remember which of your units have upgraded dice.
After each upgrade, the Experience Marker must be removed from the Unit Card, and players start counting XP from the beginning by placing a Marker on the bottom space of the Experience Track and then moving it one space up until it reaches the end. The dice are upgraded one by one. Once the maximum number of attack dice for the unit is Purple, they can no longer be upgraded.
Example: In the Attack action example, Player 1 used their Mighty Guard to eliminate the enemy Knight. This was the last action of this unit, so Player 1 checks for XP. They gain 1 XP for eliminating the enemy unit and 1 more because this unit's turn is over. Player 1 moves the marker on the Experience Track two spaces up, reaching the top space. This triggers an upgrade for their Mighty Guard's dice. This unit hasn't been upgraded before, so Player 1 can only upgrade a White die into a Teal one. The player takes 1 Upgrade Token and places it teal side up on the Mighty Guard Unit Card. Next time they want to attack the opponent with this unit, they will take 2 White dice and 1 Teal die from the pool to roll. After placing the Upgrade Token, Player 1 removes the XP marker from Mighty Guard to begin the point count again.
Exploration Tokens
When a unit passes over or lands on a space with an Exploration Token, the player takes it and adds it to their reserve face-up, so that the opponent can see it. Players do not hide Exploration Tokens from each other.
Players can use as many Exploration Tokens as they want at any moment during their turn to gain the listed effect.
- +1 XP (diamond symbol): Assign the specified amount of XP to any of your units.
- Reroll symbol: Reroll any dice during an Attack action.
- +1 White die symbol: For 1 Attack action, add one extra White die to your unit's dice set.
Adjacent Units
Some unit Abilities target adjacent units. In Intelliwar, adjacency includes both orthogonal and diagonal squares, regardless of the unit's movement pattern.
Game End
A player immediately wins the game when they fulfill at least one of the following victory conditions:
- Eliminate the enemy Prince;
- Eliminate all the enemy Unit Tokens except for the Prince.
Four-Player Mode
In a four-player game, players split into two teams. Within a team, players are considered allies—they control their units together and share victory or defeat.
Game and Player Setup
The four-player mode setup follows the same rules as the base game. Players choose their units together during the draft. When the players get Activation Tokens, each teammate gains control of one token.
How to Play
The gameplay for the four-player mode also follows the base game rules but with slight modifications. Instead of going by player turns, the game goes by team turns. On a team's turn, each teammate activates one unit and performs all the turn's actions with it, and the other teammate activates and controls the other unit. In a four-player mode, remember the base game rule that allows you to interrupt one unit's action sequence to activate another unit—this rule could work in your favor.