Japanime Tactics: Granblue Fantasy – Gran Starter Set Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Your First Game
• Other Formats
• Component List
• Components
• First Game: Setup
• Key Concepts
  • Command Card
  • Adjacency and Counting Reach
  • Icons, Colors, and Attributes
• Card Anatomy
  • Stat Card
  • Action Card
• First Game: Goal
• Game Round
  • 1. Draw Phase
  • 2. Action Phase
    • Activating a Character
    • Chains
    • Movement
  • Discard the Action Card
    • Push
  • Actions
    • Attacking & Defending
• Character Abilities
  • Interrupts
  • Ending Your Turn
• 3. Cleanup Phase
• Terrain
• Modules
  • Rules Changes - Setup
  • Module: 4-Unit Teams
  • Module: Objective Cards
  • Module: Free For All
  • Setup (Modules)
• First Time Assembly
• Storage and Expansions
• Important Terms

Your First Game

The sections at the beginning of this rulebook describe the suggested starting scenario for your first game, which is playable using only the contents of this starter set. This is a 2v2 Control scenario designed for two players, each of whom has two characters on their team.

Before playing your first game, see First Time Assembly, page 30 for how to assemble the 3D trees, Victory Point dials, and how to store all the components in the game box.

Other Formats

Japanime Tactics is an expandable game that is designed to be played with a variable number of players, up to four. It is also designed to be played with either two or four characters on a single player's team. In these cases, you will need more than the contents of this starter set.

Several rules change based on the number of players and characters per team. This includes rules for setup, number of cards drawn each round, and hand limits. These additional rules for more players, larger teams, and objectives are included in Modules, page 25.

Component List

• 4 Acrylic standees
• 8 Rubber standee bases (2 colors, 4 each)
• 33 Playing cards
  • 4 Character stat cards
  • 24 Character action cards (6 per character)
  • 2 Command cards
  • 3 Objective cards
• 4 3D Punchboard trees
• 4 Hills
  • 3x2 square hill (2-piece box makes 2 hills)
  • 2x2 square hill (2-piece box makes 2 hills)
• 6 Tiles
  • 4 Battlefield tiles (6x6 squares, 2-sided)
  • 1 Control Zone tile (2x2 squares)
  • 1 Round Track tile
• 2 Victory Point dials (with plastic connectors)
• 58 Tokens
  • 1 First Player token
  • 1 Current Round token
  • 8 Defense tokens (2-sided)
  • 8 Objective tokens (2 colors, 4 each)
  • 32 Damage tokens
    • 16 x 1 damage
    • 16 x 3 damage

Components

• Acrylic Standees: Illustrated standees that represent the individual characters and mark their position on the battlefield. Instead of using the clear display bases when assembling your standees, use the colored bases to show which player controls a character.
• Character Cards: These cards come in two varieties: stat cards and action cards. A set of cards represents a character from Granblue Fantasy as well as their possible techniques. A set is made up of a single stat card and six action cards.
  • Stat Cards: Each character's stat card lists their stats and any innate abilities, if the character has any. The back lists the character's set of six action cards in detail.
  • Action Cards: These cards are used every round to determine what bonuses a character receives when taking an action. They have one or more attributes as well as a character ability. Any character can use any action card, but only the matching character can perform the character ability.
• Command Card: This card represents the player as the commander of the team. The player uses this to give an additional order to their team.
• Battlefield Tiles: Tiles with a 6x6 square grid that represent the battlefield. In a game, the battlefield is made by assembling four of these tiles together in a square.
• Control Zone Tile: This 2x2 square tile is used in games with the Control scenario, and represents a desirable item on the battlefield players fight to control.
• 3D Trees: Each battlefield tile has a square with a top-view illustration of a tree. Assemble and place 3D punchboard trees on top of them!
• Hills: Place the top or bottom of these two-piece boxes on elevated areas on the battlefield tiles to add extra dimension to your game! Additionally, you can use these hill boxes to store your tokens.

First Game: Setup

Tip: This Setup is recommended for your first game: a 2v2 Control scenario designed for two players, each of whom has two characters on their team. Other scenarios and formats are listed under Modules, page 25.

1. Determine First Player: Randomly determine who will be the first player. Give that player the First Player token.
2. Set the Round: Place the Round Track tile on the table. This will form one edge of the battlefield. Place the Current Round token on the Round Track tile on the "1" spot to indicate the first round.
3. Take Command Card and VP Tracker: Each player selects a command card to represent their team. They also take a Victory Point Tracker (choosing a team color) and set the initial score to 0.
4. Choose Characters: The first player selects a character for their team. Then the other player selects both of their characters. Finally, the first player chooses the second member of their team. Each time a player selects a character, they take the following: a. The character's acrylic standee, adding the colored base that matches their team. b. The character's stat card. c. The six action cards for the character.
5. Form the Battlefield: The second player selects four of the battlefield tiles and arranges them in a square in the center of the table. Either side of the tiles can be used. After assembling the tiles, place the 2x2 square Control Zone tile in the center, overlapping all four tiles.
6. Place Character Standees: The first player chooses any one edge of the battlefield as their starting edge. The second player starts on the opposite edge. Beginning with the first player, players alternate placing one of their character standees in any of the squares along their chosen edge. Note: You cannot place character standees on squares they cannot occupy, such as blocking terrain. See Terrain, page 24.
7. Place Stat Cards: Players place their command card and character stat cards face-up on the table in a row on either side of the battlefield. Leave enough space below each character's stat card for an action card.
8. Prepare Action Decks: Each player gathers the action cards for all of their characters into a single deck, shuffles it, and places it beside their stat cards, leaving space for a discard pile.

Key Concepts

Command Card

The command card is treated like an additional character when it comes to playing action cards or choosing to pass, except that it can be used for any character, including one that has already activated.

Adjacency and Counting Reach

Attacks and many game effects require you to count the distance, known as the Reach of the effect. Squares that share an edge are adjacent and within Reach 1. Squares that share a corner are within Reach 2, and not adjacent.

Reach is shown on cards inside black circles (e.g. ④ means Reach 4).

Icons, Colors, and Attributes

The following icons and colors appear on character stat and action cards.

• Health represents the total amount of damage a character can take before being defeated. Only on stat cards.
• Defense reduces incoming damage to a character's Health from attacks.
• A Perfect Defense icon on an action card allows a character to completely block an attack, but only when using an action card that belongs to them.
• Attack indicates the amount of damage dealt by a character's attack or character ability. Every attack also has an Attack Type, which tells you how to count reach, and how any terrain affects the attack:
  • Melee
  • Ranged
  • Special
• Speed represents the number of squares a character can travel. Some terrain costs additional Speed to enter.
• Interact represents the character's ability to use objective tokens and draw cards to control the flow of battle.
• Colors represent the character's elemental affinity. Colors and the above Icons are combined to form Attributes that determine which stat bonuses a character receives when using an action card. They also allow you to play Chains. See Chains, page 12.

Note: Each color is always the same shape.

Card Anatomy

Stat Card

• Character Name & Title: A representation of the character who matches this specific card. Most characters also have a row with a descriptive title to distinguish between multiple versions. Only the character shown on an action card can use the character ability text or the perfect defense icon.
• Set ID and Collector Number: These let you know which set a card comes from. For Action cards, it also tells you which character a card belongs to.
• Attribute(s): Any action card can be used to activate any character and provides stat bonuses using the attribute icon(s) at the top.
• Character Stats & Attributes: Health, Interact, Speed, Attack Type & Reach, Attack, and Defense.
• Perfect Defense appears on some actions. Not every character has an action with a perfect defense, and some have more than one.

Action Card

• Character Ability: The bottom half of the card is a character ability that can only be used if the action card belongs to the activated character.
• Character abilities have keywords which describe their general type and ability text that is often an exception to the standard rules. Some character abilities also provide their own stats that are used instead of the matching character's stats. See Character Abilities, page 20.
• Parts of the card: Name & Title, Ability Name, Keywords, Stats, Ability Text.

Objective cards are not pictured here as they are not used in your first game. See Module: Objective Cards, page 26 for details.

First Game: Goal

For your first game, the first player to reach 12 victory points (VP) at the end of a round is declared the winner. The game also ends after the sixth round if no other victory condition has been met. If there is a tie, the winner is the player with the fewest defeated characters. If there is still a tie, the game is a draw.

Players achieve 2 victory points every round for having more characters in the squares on the Control Zone tile than their opponent. A player also gains 6 victory points for defeating an opponent's character.

After your first game, when playing with any of the Modules at the back of the rulebook, the goal will depend on the format you choose. See Modules, page 25.

Game Round

The game is played over a series of rounds, until one or more players reaches the victory condition for the scenario. Each round is split up into the following phases:

1. Draw Phase
2. Action Phase
3. Cleanup Phase

These phases are described in detail in the following sections.

1. Draw Phase

Players draw action cards from their deck. The number of cards drawn is equal to the number of characters a player has on their team. This includes defeated characters. If there aren't enough cards in a player's deck, they draw as many cards as possible, then shuffle their discard pile to make a new deck and draw the rest. For your first game, this means you will effectively have 4 cards in hand for the first Action Phase of the game.

Hand Limit: A player can never have more than five cards in hand at any time. If a player needs to draw more cards and they already have five cards in their hand, they immediately stop drawing.

2. Action Phase

Beginning with the first player, players alternate activating their characters or command cards. The Action Phase continues this way until all characters have been activated and all command cards have been used.

Activating a Character

When activating a character, you either act with that character or pass. After acting or passing, rotate the command or stat card 90º to indicate that it has been activated this round. Each character may be activated once per round.

• Act: You must play a card from your hand into the corresponding card slot associated with that character or command card. After playing the card, you then either:

  • Perform a Dash (and Push), or
  • Perform a Move followed by an Action.

  The action card played can provide a bonus to both the Move and the Action, if they match its attribute. Moving is optional.

• Pass: You may remove one card equipped to the character who is passing, or any of your characters if you are using the command card to pass. Note that passing does not require you to play or discard a card. If you do not have any action cards in hand when it is your turn to activate a character, you must pass.

Each of the actions is associated with one of the character's stat values. In addition to a numerical value and an icon, most characters have a color associated with each stat. When you play a card to activate a character, if the icon or color matches the icon or color of the character's stat card, you increase the value of the action by 1 for each matching component.

Action Bonuses (as labelled in the rulebook diagram)

• +1 bonus for color
• +1 bonus to attack for matching icon
• +2 bonus total for matching both icon and color

Example: Will activates Gran to perform an Attack action using a card with a blue Attack attribute, so the action receives a +1 bonus to his Attack for the attack icon. On a later turn, Will activates a command card to play an action with a red Speed attribute to have Gran attack again. Since the color matches Gran's Attack attribute, Gran once again receives a +1 bonus to his Attack. If the action card had been red attack, Gran would have received both bonuses for +2 to his Attack!

Chains

After finishing a character's activation, the active player can activate another character if they play an action card that matches the previous action card's color. The active player can continue chaining actions as long as all of the chained action cards have an attribute of the same color, and as long as they have characters or a command card left to activate. The activated characters do not need to perform the same action, nor do they need to receive any bonus from these action cards; they only need to be activated using action cards of the same color.

Example: Taze activates Gran using a card with a green attack attribute. They can then Chain a second card which has a green hand attribute to activate another character. In order to Chain a third card, it would also need to be green since that's the color of the chain. At this point, they could not Chain using an action card that has a red hand because the icon matches, but not the color.

Tip: You can Chain with your command card to activate one character twice in a row!

Movement

When a character activates, they may Move before taking an Action. It is possible to forfeit your move in order to remain in place and just perform an action. When Moving, the character can travel a number of squares up to their Speed stat, gaining a +1 bonus for each icon or color on the action card used that matches the character's attribute.

Movement must occur in orthogonal directions, not diagonals. Characters may pass through squares containing their allies, but must stop in a valid empty square. Characters cannot enter squares containing enemy characters or inaccessible terrain. See Terrain, page 24 for more information.

Example: Richard activates Djeeta using a card with a yellow speed attribute. First, he takes a move with Djeeta with a +1 bonus to Speed (4 total) because of the icon. After Richard finishes the movement, he performs an Attack action. Djeeta's attack gains a +1 bonus to Attack (5 total) because of the color on the action card.

Note: The action card used provides bonuses to all matching stats on a character during their activation.

Dash + Push

The character follows the same rules as a Move, with two exceptions:

• First, the character's Speed is doubled for the purpose of the movement. This occurs after adding any bonuses based on the attribute of the action card used. This makes dash an excellent way to cover large amounts of ground, even for characters with low Speed values.
• Second, the character may attempt to end their movement in a square occupied by another character and push them aside. You cannot push a character if there is no valid square to push them into; see Push Limitations on page 14. Your characters are automatically pushed, but your opponent can prevent their character from being pushed, similar to defending against an attack.

Example: Katalina (K) only has 2 Speed. She uses a card with a green speed attribute, increasing her stat to 4 Speed, which lets her Dash with a total of 8 Speed. Djeeta (D) uses 3 Speed to move 2 squares but cannot enter the Cover Terrain square because she only has 1 Speed remaining. Rackam (R) can move to any of the numbered squares by spending that much Speed.

Discard the Action Card

After activating a character, place the action card you used in your discard pile. However, some character abilities have keywords that instruct you to place the action card somewhere else instead. See Character Abilities, page 20.

Push

Follow these steps to push with a character:

1. Pause your dash movement adjacent to the occupied square. You must have enough Speed remaining to be able to enter the occupied square (including terrain costs).
2. If the square contains an ally, your push automatically succeeds: skip to step 4. If the square contains an opponent's character, that player chooses one of the following responses:
   • Do Nothing: The push succeeds.
   • Dodge: The opponent flips the top card of their action deck into their discard.
   • Defend: The opponent activates their character or command card to defend by playing an action card from hand.
3. If the opponent Dodges or Defends and the action card matches their character's Defense attribute to give them at least a +1 bonus, your push is blocked and your Dash ends. If the card is a character ability for this character and has an effect when Defending, its text also applies. See Character Abilities, page 20.
4. You push the character occupying the destination 1 square in any direction, then your character enters that square and your activation ends.

Push Limitations

Characters who are pushed:

• Ignore any movement costs to enter terrain (they can be pushed into Cover or Rough terrain, ignoring the 2-Speed cost to enter).
• Cannot be pushed into the square the pushing character occupies in step 1.
• Cannot be pushed onto a higher elevation or into terrain that they cannot enter, such as blocking terrain.
• Can be pushed onto a lower elevation, taking 1 automatic damage for each elevation level they fall.

Push Example: Gran (G) wants to push Noa (N) off the hill to deny him the high ground. Gran spends 5 of his 6 Speed to dash into square A, leaving him with 1 remaining Speed to enter Noa's square. Noa has already activated, so he can only attempt to Dodge. His Defense attribute is blue, but the card he flips provides no bonuses, so the push succeeds. Gran can push Noa into squares B, C, or D. He chooses C so Noa falls off the hill and suffers 1 automatic damage. Gran is then placed in Noa's previous square.

Actions

Draw (Interact icon)

The player draws a number of cards from their deck equal to their Interact stat, gaining a +1 bonus for each icon or color on the action card that matches the character's attribute. Remember that a player cannot draw more cards than their hand limit; further draws are ignored.

Interact (Interact icon)

Some objective cards require players to interact with objective tokens or terrain on the battlefield. In these situations, the objective card or the terrain description describes what happens with the Interact stat. The character still gains a +1 bonus for each icon or color on the action card that matches the character's attribute.

Assign First Player

The player takes the First Player token, flips it to the claimed side, and gives it to any player.

The character performs no further action. This action does not use any stat value and does not receive any bonuses. As a reminder, this action follows the normal rules for actions (a character or command must be activated by playing a card, that character may move first, etc.)

Without performing this action, the first player will never change. Once the First Player token has been assigned with an action, flip it face-down so the "Claimed" side shows. This indicates that another player cannot take the First Player token this round; it can only be claimed once in any given round.

Even if you already have possession of the First Player token, you may use this action to claim it, thereby preventing another player from reassigning it.

Attack (Attack icon)

The character attacks another unit, commonly referred to as the target. The target must be a character on the opposing team or a special target indicated by an objective.

To make an attack, follow these steps:

1. Declare Target(s) and Check Reach
2. Attacker Determines Total
3. Defender Determines Total
4. Compare Totals & Deal Damage
5. Gain a Defense Token
6. Defender's After Effects
7. Attacker's After Effects

Each step is described in detail in the following sections.

Attacking & Defending

1. Declare Target(s) and Check Reach

The attacking character declares which type of attack they are making and makes sure the target(s) is within the direction and reach (distance in squares) listed on their stat card or character ability. When counting the reach to the target, a single orthogonal square counts as 1 and a diagonal square counts as 2. Each unit you target becomes a defender.

Attack Types

• Melee: These attacks must be in a straight line from the attacker. For Melee attacks with a reach greater than 1, they can be made on diagonal lines, but they cannot pass through squares occupied by a character until they reach their target. You cannot attack through one character to reach another with a melee attack. Melee attacks ignore cover terrain. They cannot cross blocking terrain.
• Ranged: These attacks must be in a straight or diagonal line from the attacker. These attacks can shoot over or through other characters on the board. However, if the path crosses through at least one enemy on the way to the target, the target gains cover as if they were standing in cover terrain. Note that your allies will not give your enemies this bonus. The path from the attacker to the target cannot cross through any blocking terrain. In addition, if the target of a Ranged attack is in cover terrain, or the attack crosses over at least one square of cover terrain, and the attacker is not adjacent to the target, they receive +1 Defense. A target never gains the cover bonus more than once.
• Special: These attacks only care about the distance to the target. The target does not need to be in a straight or diagonal line from the attacker. The path may also cross all types of terrain and obstacles. You must choose the shortest possible when determining the path. If there are multiple shortest paths, the attacker chooses which one to use. If the target of a special attack is in cover terrain, they receive +1 Defense. Cover terrain between the attacker and target has no effect.

2. Attacker Determines Total

The attacker calculates their attack value by adding together the character's Attack stat, any bonuses for matching attributes on the attack card, and any other sources such as terrain and ongoing or equipped cards. The Attacker announces their total Attack value.

3. Defender Determines Total

The defender calculates their defense value by adding together the target's Defense stat and any other sources such as terrain, ongoing cards, equipped cards, and Defense tokens. Then, they may choose one of the following responses to the attack:

• Do Nothing: There are no further changes to their Defense value.
• Dodge: Flip the top card of their action deck into their discard, attempting to gain additional Defense and Dodge-related character ability text from the flipped card.
• Defend: Activate the character or command card. The defender plays a card from their hand to provide bonus Defense and Defense-related character ability text.

Attacking Multiple Targets: If your attack affects multiple targets, perform the remaining Attack Steps separately for each target. You choose the order each target is attacked. Unless otherwise specified, all targets must defend separately against your attack.

If the target chose to Dodge or Defend, they gain bonuses from the card as follows:

• Each Defense icon or color on the action card that matches the character's defense attribute grants that character a +1 bonus.
• If the Action card belongs to the defender and includes a Perfect Defense icon, the attack is cancelled without further effect. No damage will be taken, and any other effects of the card including "after attacking" effects are prevented. Skip steps 4 and 7 below.

The defender announces their total Defense value.

4. Compare Totals & Deal Damage

Subtract the Defense value from the total Attack value. If the attacker's total is higher, the defender takes damage equal to the difference. Otherwise, the attack deals no damage.

When a character is defeated:

• Remove their standee from the map.
• Flip their stat card face-down and discard any ongoing cards they played and cards equipped to them. Discards are always placed in the owners' discard pile(s).
• Cards that a defeated character equipped to other characters remain, unless the text on those cards says otherwise.
• If the card used to Dodge or Defend for the now-defeated character includes any ability text, it is ignored unless the card says otherwise.

Taking Damage: When a character receives damage, place a number of wound tokens on their stat card equal to the amount of damage dealt. If the number of wound tokens equals or exceeds a character's Health, they are defeated.

Editor's note: the rulebook says "wound tokens" in this step; the component list calls these Damage tokens. Transcribed as printed.

5. Gain a Defense Token (If Defending)

If the defender played a card from their hand to Defend during step 3, they gain a Defense token equal to the Defense bonus they received. Defense tokens are cleared in the Cleanup Phase. In the rare case that you receive a larger bonus than +2, gain multiple Defense tokens equal to the total.

Note: If you play a perfect defense from hand, it will still give you Defense tokens based on matching attributes, but it provides no other benefits for the rest of the round. That is, it only nullifies the current attack, not all future attacks that round.

6. Defender's After Effects

Some character abilities have additional effects with "After Defending" or "After Dodging" text. Resolve those effects now. Unless the card says otherwise, the Defender skips this step if they were defeated in Step 4.

7. Attacker's After Effects

Some character abilities have additional effects with "After Attacking" text, or the Ongoing keyword. Resolve those effects now, unless the attack was cancelled by a perfect defense.

Attack Example: Peter activated Rackam (R) using his Spitfire card and moved 5 Speed. Then, Peter declares a Ranged attack against Ellen's Gran (G). First, Peter confirms his target is within his attack's reach: 6 squares is within the Reach 8 on Rackam's stat card. Next, Peter determines Rackam's total Attack value: Rackam has 3 Attack for his stat, +1 for being on elevated terrain and above Gran, and +1 for the matching Attack icon on Spitfire, for a total of 5 Attack. Ellen determines Gran's Defense value is 2 for his stat, +1 from cover provided by the intervening cover terrain. Ellen also decides to activate Gran to Defend. Ellen plays a card from hand with a blue color to further increase Gran's defense value by 1 for matching his Defense stat, giving a total of 4 Defense. Rackam's 5 Attack is reduced by Gran's 4 Defense, so Ellen puts 1 damage on Gran. By choosing to Defend, Ellen also puts a +1 Defense token on Gran, helping to protect him against further attacks this round. Gran's card has no after effects, but Rackam's Spitfire gets equipped to him after he uses it to attack and will provide future bonuses. Peter tucks it underneath Rackam's stat card.

Character Abilities

If the action card belongs to the activated character, they can perform the character ability described on the card. While any character can use any action card to perform one of the other actions using attributes for bonuses, they can only perform character abilities with their matching cards.

Rules Conflicts: If the text for a character ability contradicts the rules, the text on the card takes precedence.

Reach: If the effect includes counting distance, the reach is listed in a circle: ④ means Reach 4.

Matching Attributes: When using an ability with its own stats, such as those with the Attack keyword, you ignore the action card's attributes for that effect. However, if you also Move before using the ability, any attribute bonuses will still apply to your Speed.

Paying Costs: Some actions have costs or requirements to perform. If an effect has a cost or requirement, you must be able to pay that cost or meet that requirement. If not, you cannot perform that character ability.

Automatic Damage (damage icon): These effects are different from an attack, and the target cannot Dodge or Defend. Instead, the target receives the listed amount of damage (e.g. 2 damage icon), regardless of their Defense stat.

Healing: When an effect heals a character, remove up to the listed number damage tokens from their stat card.

Additional Actions: Some abilities include the phrase "use this card to perform an action". If no specific action is listed, the character may do any action that is not a character ability.

Keywords: The following keywords describe how an ability works in general terms. Action, Bonus, and Interrupt are the three main types, and each has a different colored keyword bar. When an ability has multiple keywords, they are separated by dashes (e.g. Action - Attack).

• Action: This card requires a unit to use their action to perform the card text. If the card has no other keywords, then the text takes effect as described on the card.
• Attack: These character abilities have their own attack value, type, and reach instead of using the character's stats. They do not gain bonuses for their own matching attributes on the action card, but they do gain any other bonuses (e.g. from terrain or due to other cards).
  • Example: Chris activates Io using the Flowery Seven action card. After moving, he uses the character ability to attack all enemies within range 3 for 4 damage each. Even though the card has an Attack attribute icon, the ability supplies its own Attack value, so it does not gain bonuses for matching Io's stat card.
• Bonus: Bonuses are character abilities that modify an action. When you perform the action listed in the card, the additional modifiers or effects listed in their text also apply. This includes using the card to provide any attribute bonuses.
  • Example: Jackson activates Gran using the Tempest Blade action card. He attacks using the Bonus character ability to target two different enemies within reach. Gran's attack is 6 (4+2 bonus) against each target because the action card is a red attack, and the ability does not provide its own stats.
• Interrupt: Interrupts are a special kind of character ability card that can be revealed in response to the listed trigger, even when it is not your turn. Typically these are defensive or ongoing abilities that modify the outcome of another character's action or prevent an opponent from doing something.
• Ongoing: Leave this card beside the character's stat card. This card's effect continues to apply until it is discarded from play during the Cleanup Phase at the end of a round.
• Equip (Target): The card is attached to the target listed. If the target is another character such as an Ally or Enemy, the reach is listed. Tuck this card under the target's stat card so that the card text is showing. Equipped cards provide an effect for as long as they remain equipped. Each character may only have two equipped cards at a time: one from you and one from an opponent. If your character already has an equipped card from one of those sources and receives another from the same source, you must immediately choose one of those cards to discard.

Interrupts

To play an interrupt, the matching character must not be defeated and must meet the trigger condition listed. Unless specified otherwise on the card's text, playing an interrupt will not activate the corresponding character. This also means that a character who was already activated can still be used to play interrupts if trigger conditions are met.

Interrupt Example: Jaym has a team with Gran (G), Noa (N), and Rackam (R). Her opponent Ellen activates Djeeta (D), moving her into position and declaring an attack against Rackam. Jaym has Noa's Halo of Invocation action card in hand, and since Rackam is within 4 squares of Noa, she can discard it at this point in the Attack action to give Rackam a +1 Defense token.

Timing and Multiple Interrupts: Most interrupts have triggers at a specific point during an action or attack (see the numbered steps for Attack, page 15). Players should be given a chance to respond to any action or effect with their interrupts. In the event that multiple players wish to play interrupts with the same trigger, the player who is currently activating a character goes first, followed by all other players in clockwise order.

Ending Your Turn

Once you have finished activating a character and any subsequent Chains, play proceeds around the table to the next player in a clockwise direction. When it is a player's turn, they must activate a character, even if that character will pass.

If a player has no more characters to activate, skip their turn. When all characters and commands have been activated, the Action Phase ends. Proceed to the Cleanup Phase.

3. Cleanup Phase

Players perform the following steps in order:

1. Cleanup Phase Effects: Any action cards that have an effect "during the Cleanup Phase" apply now. If order matters, the first player resolves all of their Cleanup Phase effects in any order, then play proceeds clockwise around the table for each other player.
2. End of Round Effects (Scenarios): Check the scenario or objective cards for any effects that apply "at the end of Round". This usually involves scoring VP. Some objective cards have alternate end of round effects.
3. Check for Game-Winning VP Score: Check to see if either player wins the game by reaching the VP total of the scenario or their objective card. a. If players tie, the player with the most surviving characters wins. b. If players are still tied, the player with fewest total damage tokens on their surviving characters wins. c. If players are still tied, the First Player wins.
4. Last Round: If this is the last round of the game (round six), calculate the final score for the players, using the tiebreakers in step 3. If it is not the final round, advance the Current Round token to the next spot and perform the remaining steps:
5. Discard Ongoing Action Cards: All cards not equipped to characters are discarded and put into their owners' discard piles. This includes character abilities with the Ongoing keyword.
6. Remove Defense tokens: Remove any Defense tokens from stat cards.
7. Rotate Command and Stat Cards: Set all cards so they are ready to be activated next round.
8. Reset the First Player token: If the token shows the "Claimed" side, flip it so it can be claimed next round.

Terrain

The following types of terrain appear on tiles in the starter set. Squares of each type of terrain are marked with coloured outlines for ease of identification; other artwork on the tiles has no gameplay effect.

1. Cover (Blue Outline): Moving into cover terrain costs 2 Speed. Cover terrain gives the target of a Ranged or Special attack +1 Defense. This bonus only applies once to each target, and is negated if the attacker is adjacent.
2. Rough (Yellow Outline): Moving into rough terrain costs 2 Speed.
3. Blocking (Red Outline): Characters cannot move into or through blocking terrain. In addition, Melee and Ranged attacks cannot trace their attacks through blocking terrain. Some blocking terrain artwork shows trees. During setup, place 3D trees in those squares.
4. Elevation (White Dotted Outline): Elevation outlines divide a map tile into levels. During setup, place hills over these squares to make them fully 3D. Elevation has a variety of effects on movement and attacks.
   • Movement: Moving up one elevation level has an additional cost of 1 Speed (i.e. it costs 2 Speed to move between A and B in the diagram). Voluntarily moving down from a single elevation level has no effect, and no additional Speed cost. If a character is pushed down a single level, they will take 1 automatic damage.
   • Ranged Attacks: A unit making a Ranged attack against a target at a lower elevation gains a bonus +1 to their attack. This bonus applies to normal attacks and character abilities with the Attack keyword.
   • Targets of Ranged attacks gain cover (as if they were standing in cover terrain) if the attacker is on a lower elevation, or if attacker and target are on the same level but there is a single level of higher elevation between them.

Modules

Rules Changes - Setup

The previous sections of this rulebook describe your first game, which is intended to be played with the materials provided in the Starter set. However, Japanime Tactics can be played in a variety of formats.

The assumption is that each player comes to the 4-Unit Teams game with their roster of four characters. Under First Game: Setup, page 6, replace step 4. Choose Characters with the following:

4. Reveal Characters: Each player reveals their characters to the other team. Each player should be given the opportunity to quickly review their opponents' characters as well as their corresponding action cards.

The following rules are optional and will change how the game is played. When playing a game, you and the other players decide which modules to add to the game. These are designed so that you can add multiple of them at once. Some modules require others.

Module: 4-Unit Teams

If you are also playing with other modules, use the complete Setup rules under Setup (Modules), page 28 instead.

If you have additional characters from Starter Boxes or Booster Packs, Japanime Tactics supports playing a larger-scale battle with each player controlling a team of four characters. This is the recommended standard size game for Japanime Tactics.

Rules Changes - Goal: It will be necessary for each player to bring their own team (or for one player to have enough characters for two full teams). If you are not playing with the Objective Cards module, the goal for a 4v4 Control scenario changes. You still gain 6 VP for each opponent's character you defeat and 2 VP by having more characters in the Control Zone at the end of a round. However, the game is played until one player has scored 24 VP, or players have completed six rounds.

Characters are Unique: Each player may include the same Character on their team, but each player cannot use more than one copy of the same Character.

Rules Changes - Hand Limit: The hand limit increases to seven cards.

Module: Objective Cards

Requires the 4-Unit Teams Module.

Once you are comfortable with the Module: 4-Unit Teams, page 25, you can add Objective Cards as an alternative to the Control scenario. These cards give each player a unique goal and change the way players gain points. Each objective has the following sections:

• Title: The name of the objective card (e.g. Breakthrough).
• Setup: Objective setup instructions, if any. Usually this includes a diagram with blue squares representing your team's starting edge, and red squares for marked areas that either have special rules for setup or scoring. During setup, an objective token may not be placed in one of the 8 squares surrounding another objective token (i.e. orthogonal or diagonal to another objective token).
• Special Rules: If the objective card changes the rules of the game, they will be listed here. If these rules contradict anything in the rulebook, the card takes precedence.
• Scoring: Each objective card has its own rules for how a player can score VPs. Some of these points will be awarded immediately where some are only awarded at the end of the game. These are the only way(s) you can score VPs when playing with objective cards. Many do not give you points for defeating opponents' characters. You cannot score points using the default rules for scoring or by meeting the conditions of your opponent's objective card. If there is an additional way for a player with this objective to end the game before the end of the sixth round, it will be listed here.

A game with objectives can still only last a maximum of six rounds.

Example objective card (Breakthrough): Special Rules: Barricades are considered cover terrain, but they cost 4 to enter. Setup: Your opponent places three of your objective tokens in any of the red squares relative to your starting edge. These are Barricades. Scoring: At the end of each round, score 2 VP for each of your characters in area A (red shaded squares), and 3 VP for each of your characters in area B. Defeating an enemy character is worth 3 VP. The game immediately ends if you score 24 VP.

Rules Changes: When playing with the 4-Unit Teams and Objective Cards modules together, there are additional setup steps to draft objectives and set up objective tokens. See Setup (Modules), page 28.

Module: Free For All

This module allows you to play Japanime Tactics with three or four players in a free-for-all battle royale. You will need a second starter set and potentially more characters (or a starter set for each player) to have enough components for each player depending on the format you choose below:

Formats

• Small: Team: 2 characters. Hand Limit: 5 cards. Game ends immediately if one player scores 12 VP.
• Large*: Team: 4 characters. Hand Limit: 7 cards. Game ends immediately if one player scores 24 VP.

Players score 4 VP for defeating an opponent's character and 2 VP for having more characters on the Control Zone tile than all other opponents at the end of a round.

*Requires the 4-Unit Teams Module.

Rules Changes - Objective Setup: If playing with the Objective Cards module, each player's starting corner creates two possible starting edges. The player setting up the objective determines which edge to use. The objective setup diagram shown at (1) is treated as either (2) or (3), chosen by the player setting it up.

Rules Changes - Sequence of Play: The Action Phase begins with the first player and proceeds clockwise around the table. As usual, play continues this way until all characters have been activated and all command cards have been used.

Game End - Player Elimination: A free-for-all game also ends at the end of a round when one player has no remaining characters. In this case, all surviving players compare their scores to determine a winner, breaking ties as described under Cleanup Phase, page 23.

Rules Changes - Setup: Instead of choosing an edge of the battlefield and placing their characters anywhere along that edge, players choose a 3x3 square area in each corner. Characters must be placed within these starting areas.

Setup (Modules)

For your convenience, here is a full list of the setup steps if you are playing with any of the modules described on the previous pages.

Before the game, each player constructs a team using any four characters in their Japanime Tactics collection.

1. Determine First Player: Randomly determine who will be the first player. Give that player the First Player token. The player to the right of the first player is referred to as the last player.

2. Set the Round: Place the Round Track tile on the table. This will form one edge of the battlefield. Place the Current Round token on the Round Track tile on the "1" spot to indicate the first round.

3. Take Command Card and VP Tracker: Each player selects a command card to represent their team. They also take a Victory Point Tracker (choosing a team color) and set the initial score to 0.

4. Reveal Characters: Each player reveals their characters to the other team. Each player should be given the opportunity to quickly review their opponents' characters as well as their corresponding action cards.

5. Draft Objective Cards: a. Shuffle the objective cards together. Make sure not to include more than one copy of each objective. b. The last player draws objective cards equal to one more than the number of players (e.g. 3 in a 2-player game), and returns any remaining cards to the box. c. Starting with the last player, each player chooses one objective without revealing it and passes the remaining objective cards counter-clockwise. d. The first player will have two cards to choose between. The unchosen objective is placed back in the box. e. All players reveal their objectives.

6. Form the Battlefield: The last player selects four of the battlefield tiles and arranges them in a square in the center of the table.

   • Either side of the tiles can be used.
   • Place a 3D punchboard tree on each matching square on the battlefield tiles, and the matching sized hill box on each elevated area.

First Time Assembly

Some components require additional assembly before playing your first game. Once you assemble them, they can be stored in the box fully assembled.

The rulebook's diagram for this page shows Tree x4 and VP Dial x2 being assembled. Follow the diagram to assemble the trees and Victory Point dials.

Storage and Expansions

The plastic tray in your starter set box is designed to accommodate a number of additional character booster packs for easy storage as follows. The rulebook's diagram for this page shows the storage layout, including the box tray slots (x16) and the placement of trees, dials, tokens, hills, and standees.

Important Terms

• Ally: Characters on your team. If a card affects allies it also affects the character using it, unless it says "other allies".
• Action: The main way characters affect the game and each other when they Activate. p9, 11.
• Activate: Take a turn with a character to either pass or act by performing dash, or a move and an action. p11.
• Defend: When Attacked or Pushed, activating a character or command card to play an action card from your hand. This usually grants bonus Defense and/or activates an ability on the action card. p14, 17.
• Dodge: When Attacked or Pushed, discarding the top card of your deck in an attempt to gain bonus Defense. p14, 17.
• Enemy: Characters on your opponent's team(s).
• Adjacent: The four squares that share an edge with a square (not diagonal). This is identical to Reach 1. A character is never adjacent to themselves. p8.
• Hand Limit: The maximum number of cards a player can hold. Any further card draws beyond your hand limit are ignored. p10, 25.
• Attack (A): Character stat for dealing damage. p9, 15.
• Health (H): Character stat for the amount of damage they can take before being defeated. p9, 18.
• Attack Type: How the terrain and range affect an attack (Melee (E), Ranged (L), or Special (S)). p9, 16.

Editor's note: the printed "Quick Reference" back cover is a summary of the rules above and is not transcribed here.