Knight Tales
Knight Tales Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 Gaetric Player Board, 1 Miniature, 1 Base Ring and 20 Crest Tokens
- 1 Bridna Player Board, 1 Miniature, 1 Base Ring and 20 Crest Tokens
- 1 Tartos Player Board, 1 Miniature, 1 Base Ring and 20 Crest Tokens
- 1 Guscard Player Board, 1 Miniature, 1 Base Ring and 20 Crest Tokens
- 1 Lich Lord, 1 Woodwitch, 1 Warchief Boss Boards
- 4 Knight Dice, 4 Black Monster Dice, 4 Red Monster Dice
- 12 Wooden Cubes (Health, Fatigue, Wrath)
- 1 Game Board
- 1 Metal Doom Token
- 50 Plastic Gold Tokens
- 47 Effect Tokens
- 4 Dry-Erase Pens
- 1 Cotton Bag
- 4 Longsword Cards
- 36 Market Cards
- 3 Boss Cards
- 15 Boss Tactic Cards
- 24 Minion Cards
- 18 Champion Cards
- 3 Trophy Cards
- 12 Quest Cards
- 3 Renown Cards
- 6 Villager Cards
- 6 Coop Cards
- 4 Reference Cards
Assembly
Slide the two roof pieces into one another at a 90° angle. Then slide the front and back wall pieces into the side wall pieces so that all gaps connect and place the roof on top. This assembles the FARMHOUSE.
Slide the front and the back piece of the cart into the gaps of the cart bottom. Then slide the previously assembled piece into the gaps of the side pieces of the cart. Slide the two roof pieces into one another at a 90° angle. Then slide the front and back pieces into the side pieces so that all gaps connect. Slide in the bucket piece on top and place the roof on it. This assembles the OX CART.
Attach each barricade to one of the plastic stands to assemble the 3 BARRICADES.
Attach each palisade to one of the plastic stands to assemble the 6 PALISADES.
Slide the forest and market board into the supporting side pieces. Then place them on top of the bottom piece so that the forest and market boards each fit into the slot at the back of the bottom piece. This assembles the FOREST and MARKET stands.
Overview
In Knight Tales players take on the role of a brave knight that has sworn to protect the heir and villagers from the evil hordes of darkness roaming the lands. To be victorious, the players need to protect the village for three more nights until reinforcements arrive and take the wounded heir back to the capital safely. While all players have a common goal and need to work together, only one of you will achieve the honor of becoming the hero that is remembered in future songs and tales.
The game is separated into three rounds of alternating day and night phases. During the day phases, players may spend gold to equip themselves with new items and hire new companions from the market. When night approaches, the battlefield is filled with roaming groups of monster minions and champions, led by a unique boss.
Players will need to figure out the most effective strategy in order to successfully fight off all enemies; putting their skills and equipment to best use. Any monster that is not defeated by the end of the night phase will cause irreversible damage to the village that could eventually result in the death of the heir you have sworn to protect.
The game ends after the third night phase has been resolved, but may end prematurely if the palisades and the village suffer enough damage to be destroyed. In this case all players collectively lose the game. If the players can successfully fend off the horde, they are victorious!
However, only one player will be remembered as the Knight of Legend in future tales.
This will be the player with the most valor points gathered in various ways throughout the game; defeating monsters, collecting cards, fulfilling quests and gaining renown.
Setup
Place the GAME BOARD (A) in the center of the table. Place the three BARRICADES (B), the PALISADES (C), the FARMHOUSE (D), the OX CART (E) and the WELL (F) on their respective spots as indicated.
Place the COMBAT DICE (G), EFFECT TOKENS (H) and GOLD TOKENS (I) in easy reach of all players.
Shuffle the MARKET CARDS (J), place them next to the game board face-down and deal nine random market cards face-up on the MARKET SPOTS (K) on the market.
Shuffle the MINION CARDS (L) and place them face-down as a deck next to the game board. Do the same for the CHAMPION CARDS (M) and BOSS CARDS (N).
The backs of the minion and champion cards are identical as this is important for gameplay. The minion cards can be distinguished from the champion cards by their respective faces (see "Enemy Anatomy").
Take the three sets of QUEST CARDS (O), identified by I, II and III. Shuffle each deck separately and place them face-down behind the minion and champion cards as shown.
Place the three RENOWN CARDS (P), identified by I, II and III, face-down below the market cards.
Now it is time to setup the remaining 3D elements. Take the FOREST (Q) and place it at the end of the battlefield. Place the MARKET (R) directly opposite, behind the last rank of market cards.
Finally, place the three TROPHY CARDS (S) face-up on the market board.
Now each player receives their accolade by randomly drawing one of the available LONGSWORD CARDS (T). On the back of their longsword card, players will find the knight associated with that card.
Players take the KNIGHT BOARD (U) corresponding to their knight and place it face-up in front of them, while placing the longsword card next to it.
All players gather their specific KNIGHT MINIATURE (V) and CREST TOKENS (W) as identified by the crest on their knight board. Each player should attach the appropriate colored plastic ring to their knight miniature for reference.
All players collect their starting gold tokens from the common reserve (I); 10 GOLD (2 player game), 8 GOLD (3 player game) or 6 GOLD (4 player game) as appropriate.
Each player places one green HEALTH TOKEN (X) on the starting health level of their knight.
Place a red FATIGUE TOKEN (Y) on either the 1-player spot, the 2-player spot, the 3-player spot or the 4-player spot corresponding to the number of players participating in the game.
Lastly, place a blue WRATH TOKEN (Z) on the starting wrath level (see "Refresh" under Day Phase).
Player Order
At the beginning of the game the PLAYER ORDER must be determined.
Each player rolls a black, red and blue die. The player order is determined by the number of swords rolled:
The player with the fewest sword results places their knight miniature on the 4th VILLAGE SPOT (A). The player with the second fewest sword results places their knight miniature on the 3rd VILLAGE SPOT (B) and so on, until all players have placed their knight miniatures. In case of a tie, the tied players re-roll their dice and the player with fewer sword results places next.
You always start placing knight miniatures on the 4th village spot. Even in a game with less than four players you still place the first knight miniature on the 4th spot and continue from there.
The STARTING PLAYER is the player who placed their knight miniature last as player order is established from top (1st) to bottom (4th) of the village spots; the player on the lowest numbered spot takes the first turn.
In a 3-player game the last player would place their knight miniature on the 4th village spot, the second player on the 3rd village spot and the starting player on the 2nd village spot.
The player on lowest numbered village spot will be the new starting player and player turns continue with the players in their new turn order based on the village spot they occupy.
In a 3-player game the player on the 2nd village spot would be the starting player, followed by the player on the 3rd village spot and lastly the player occupying the 4th spot.
Quests
Next, the starting player reveals the QUEST for the current day. The starting player reveals the top card of the quest deck corresponding to the current round; either the DAY 1 QUEST DECK (A), the DAY 2 QUEST DECK (B) or the DAY 3 QUEST DECK (C) as appropriate.
Place the revealed quest face-up on its deck and leave it there for the remainder of the game.
Quests provide an additional way to score VALOR POINTS that help determine the winner of the game (see "End of Game"). In addition, the revealed quest card will help remind the players in which round they are in.
Each quest describes a unique condition. These conditions can be fulfilled by players during any of the subsequent night phases.
Once a player fulfills the condition of any revealed quest card, they place one of their crest tokens on it.
The first player to fulfill the condition places one of their crest tokens on the first spot (A).
Subsequent players to fulfill the condition place one of their crest tokens on the next available spot (B and C).
After three players have placed their crest tokens on a quest no further players may fulfill it.
Each player may only fulfill each quest once. Keep in mind that you may complete a quest in any subsequent night phase as it remains active until the end of the game.
A quest requires the players to defeat a monster in the 2nd or 3rd rank. Michael manages to defeat an orc minion in the 2nd rank and, as he is the first one to do so, he places his crest token on the 1st player spot of this quest. Should anyone else defeat a monster in the 2nd or 3rd rank during this or any upcoming night phase, they will place their crest token on the next available spot.
Phases & Rounds
Knight Tales is played over three rounds, with each round comprising one DAY PHASE and one NIGHT PHASE. Each round starts with a day phase followed by a night phase, after which the current round ends:
- Round 1: Day Phase 1 – Night Phase 1
- Round 2: Day Phase 2 – Night Phase 2
- Round 3: Day Phase 3 – Night Phase 3
During each phase, the players have a variable number of TURNS in which they may act. Player turns are played in turn order beginning with the starting player, until all players run out of possible actions and the current phase ends.
Day Phase
Refresh
At the beginning of the day phase reveal all face-down market cards. Then all players remove any CREST TOKENS from their cards, reset their health and fatigue tokens to their starting values and set their wrath token to the appropriate level on their knight boards:
- 1st Village spot — The player gains no wrath bonus.
- 2nd Village spot — The player gains +1 wrath; set the wrath token to the +1 Level.
- 3rd Village spot — The player gains +2 wrath; set the wrath token to the +2 Level.
- 4th Village spot — The player gains +3 wrath; set the wrath token to the +3 Level.
The Market
Refresh the market by flipping all market cards face-up (skipped in the first day phase as all market cards are already placed face-up during the setup). There are seven types of market cards: Market Card Back, Weapons, Armor, Characters, Animals, Trinkets, Relics and Trophies.
The players may now take turns purchasing market cards from those that are currently available.
Purchasing Cards
Beginning with the current starting player, each player may purchase one market card in player turn order (determined by the village spots).
Purchasing cards in turn order continues until all players have chosen to pass.
In order to purchase a market card, a player must spend GOLD from their gold pool equal to the COST of the card they want to purchase.
The cost of a market card is determined by the number of gold coins surrounding the center circle, e.g. a battle axe costs 3 gold.
Return gold used to purchase a market card to the common gold reserve. The player places the purchased market card face-up next to their knight board.
After a market card is purchased, place a new market card face-down in the vacant spot. This card remains face-down until the beginning of the next day phase when the market is refreshed. Face-down market cards cannot be purchased.
Trophies
Trophies have no gold costs on them; this is because trophies are special items forged from the spoils of defeated monsters. As their action, a player may discard minion and champion cards from their defeated monsters matching the FACTION SYMBOLS (orcs, undead, beast) on the trophy they want and purchase it.
They must discard any combination of 2 minion and/or champion cards for the faction shown. These cards are revealed to the other players and then shuffled back into the minion deck.
Susy would like to purchase the Ethereal Dagger trophy. This requires her to discard two undead minion and/or champion cards. She reveals a Ghoul and a Wraith and shuffles them back into the minion deck. Then she takes the Ethereal Dagger.
When a player purchases a trophy, do not place a new trophy card on its spot. Trophies are never refreshed! Also note that any combination of minion/champion cards can be used to purchase trophies, but no boss cards.
End of Day
As soon as a player declines to purchase a market card, either because they have insufficient gold left in their pool or they do not wish to continue purchasing, they must pass.
When a player passes, they place their knight miniature on the next available spot of the BATTLEFIELD starting from top to bottom (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th).
This means that the first player to pass will always place their knight miniature in the 1st spot (A), followed by 2nd (B), 3rd (C) and 4th (D) respectively.
Once a player has passed, they no longer take part in the day phase and cannot purchase any further market cards or trophies this round. They are removed from the current day phase turn order and must wait for the night phase to begin. The remaining players may continue to purchase cards until all players have passed.
Once all players have placed their knight miniatures on the battlefield, the current day phase ends and the night phase for the current round starts.
Day Phase — Full Example
Susy, Michael and Thomas are playing a 3-player game and are currently in the day phase of the second round. At the beginning of the day phase, all players remove their crest tokens from their used cards and set their health, fatigue and wrath token to their starting values.
Susy is the starting player as her knight miniature is on the 2nd village spot (A). Michael is second (B) and Thomas (C) is last.
Susy sets her wrath token to +1, Michael to +2 and Thomas to +3.
Susy starts the day phase by revealing the top quest card and leaves it face-up on its deck (D). As you can see, the quest card from the first day phase is still present (E).
As the group purchased 3 market cards in the first day phase, there are 3 face-down market cards which Susy refreshes by flipping them face-up (F).
As the starting player, Susy gets the first choice of market card. She purchases the warhammer (G) by spending 5 gold.
She takes the warhammer card and places a new market card face-down in the vacant spot. Next it is Michael's turn to purchase a card, followed by Thomas before returning to Susy.
In his second turn, Thomas declines to purchase any further cards even though he could afford one. He therefore passes and places his knight miniature on the 1st spot of the battlefield (H); he may no longer take part in the day phase.
The next player to pass is Susy, as she does not have enough gold left to purchase any further market cards. She places her knight miniature on the 2nd spot of the battlefield board. Michael is the only player still in the market and may continue purchasing items until he also passes.
Michael purchases the spiked shield trophy by discarding two defeated orc minions, reshuffling them into the minion deck. He does not place a new trophy face-down in the vacant spot as trophies are never refreshed. He then passes and places his knight miniature on the 3rd spot of the battlefield board.
As soon as Michael places his knight miniature, the day phase of the second round ends. The night phase of the second round now begins.
Night Phase
At the beginning of the night phase all knight miniatures will occupy one of the four battlefield spots.
These determine the turn order for the night phase and indicate which player goes 1st (A), 2nd (B), 3rd (C) and 4th (D).
To begin the night phase, it is necessary to take a look at the RENOWN CARD for the current night phase. There is one renown card for each night phase and they are indicated by I (A), II (B) and III (C) for the first, second and third night.
The renown card indicates how to assemble the MONSTER DECK for the current night phase – see the following chapter "Monster Deck".
Once you have assembled the monster deck, flip the renown card over (D). This will now indicate the RENOWN LEVEL knights earn at the end of the night (see "Gathering Renown").
Monster Deck
To assemble the monster deck, draw a total of 9 cards from the minion (A) and champion (B) decks and shuffle them.
The number of minions and champions you draw to assemble the monster deck depends on the difficulty level you wish to play.
Once you have decided on a difficulty level, you should stick with it for the rest of the game. The renown card for the current night phase will let you know the number of champions (C) and minions (D) that go into the monster deck for this night phase.
For the first night this will be:
| Difficulty | Champions | Minions |
|---|---|---|
| Heroic | 1 | 8 |
| Epic | 2 | 7 |
| Legendary | 3 | 6 |
For the second and third night, the number of minion and champion cards will differ as there will be more champions and fewer minions approaching.
The Battlefield
After shuffling the monster deck, randomly distribute each card face-down on one of the BATTLEFIELD SPOTS (A). These cards make up the RANKS and LANES of the battlefield.
Revealing Monsters
More and more of the face-down monster cards will be revealed as the night phase progresses. Revealing a card means that it is turned face-up and players may then interact with it, e.g. by attacking it. The basic rule for revealing monster cards is: each time there is an unrevealed monster in the first rank, immediately reveal it.
This means that at the beginning of each night phase all the monster cards in the first rank are revealed (B, C, D). This completes the battlefield set up as long as no revealed monster has the ability that it "moves to back" (E).
Each monster with this ability is placed at the back of their lane (F) and all other monster cards in this lane move one spot towards the front (G, H). Whenever this happens, there may be a new face-down monster in the first rank which will now need to be revealed as well (I).
If further monsters in a lane are revealed that also have the move to back ability, move them to the back rank and continue to shift the other monsters one spot towards the front.
Each time a monster card is revealed, place one gold on each of its HEALTH POINTS (J). These indicate the current health of a monster and are used to reward the players with gold when damaging a monster.
Each time there is an unrevealed monster in the first rank, immediately reveal it. Check for the "moves to back" ability and do so if required. A monster will never move behind the boss board (see next paragraph) and will only move behind the last monster in its lane.
The battlefield is arranged in three lanes and three ranks (1st, 2nd and 3rd rank). In this example, a Doom Bat has been revealed in the first rank. It is moved to the back of its lane, shifting the other two monster cards forward one rank. The new unrevealed monster in the first rank of this lane is then revealed to be a Berserker.
Bosses
Next it is time to reveal one of the bosses. Simply flip the top boss card face-up (K) and place a gold token on each health point of the boss card (L). Shuffle the tactic deck of the boss you are facing and place it face-up next to the boss card (M).
Place the corresponding BOSS BOARD (N) vertically against the forest board (O). Also, place the DOOM TOKEN in the first spot of the DOOM TRACK (P).
More details on how the boss mechanic works can be found in the "Bosses" chapter below.
The night phase setup is now complete and you can begin defending the village.
It is important to remember that minions, champions and bosses are jointly referred to as monsters. Some effects will state if they only refer to certain monster types by specifically naming or excluding them.
Enemy Anatomy
During the night phase, players act to fight off the monsters approaching the village.
Minions, Champions & Bosses
There are six types of minion/champion cards, plus one type of boss card: Monster Card Back, Orc Minion, Undead Minion, Beast Minion, Orc Champion, Undead Champion, Beast Champion, and Boss.
Even though each boss has a dedicated faction (e.g. orcs, undead or beasts) all bosses count as one and the same type; Boss.
Monster Cards
Each minion and champion is depicted by a monster card showing the following characteristics and values:
- Faction Icon — Determines the faction a monster belongs to: Orcs, Undead, Beasts.
- Monster Type — Determines the type of a monster: Minion, Champion.
- Name — The name of the monster you are facing.
- Valor Points — This indicates the amount of valor points a monster is worth once defeated.
- Rank and Lane Effect — Monsters with a rank or lane effect have a designated icon that serves to remind the players that this monster's effect involves all monsters in a rank or lane as appropriate.
- Combat Dice — Each monster has a combination of black and/or red squares that refer to the number and type of combat dice that the monster rolls.
- Damage — The number of swords behind the skull icon indicates how much damage a monster will do if not defeated by the end of the night phase.
- Effect — This text describes the effect of the monster and indicates if it is a rank or lane effect. These effects always take precedence over the core rules of this rulebook.
- Health Points — A monster has 1 health point for each blood drop symbol shown.
Boss Cards
Each boss is depicted by a boss card associated with a specific boss board and a set of tactic cards. The boss card shows the following characteristics and values:
- Monster-Type — Defines this monster as a boss.
- Name — The name of the boss you are facing.
- Valor Points — This indicates the amount of valor points a boss is worth once defeated.
- Health Points — A boss has 1 health point for each blood drop symbol shown.
Fighting Monsters
Beginning with the starting player each player will take turns attacking a revealed monster of their choice in rank 1-3. Players may never attack unrevealed monsters or attack the boss while it is still on the forest board.
Once a player has completed an attack, the turn moves to the next player in the current player turn order. This is repeated as long as players may still take attack actions (see "End of a Player's Night").
Attacking a monster is one of the main features of Knight Tales and encompasses several steps explained in the following chronological order:
1. Monster Effects
Some monster effects have an impact on the attack action of a player.
It is important to check the effects of a monster before the actual attack action of a player begins. This includes rank and lane effects from other monsters (i.e. players should check if there are any monsters with a lane/rank effect in the same lane/rank as the monster they are attacking).
All effects stack, so make sure you apply all valid effects to the monster you attack.
Thomas is attacking the Goblin. The Goblin's effect states that knights wounded by the Goblin lose 1 gold. In addition, there is a Centaur in the same rank as the Goblin. The Centaur's rank effect provides +1 shield token. Furthermore, a Shaman in the same lane as the Goblin provides +1 black die token. Thus in this example, the Goblin gains +1 shield token and +1 black die, and Thomas will lose 1 gold if his knight takes a wound in this attack.
2. Action Effects
After choosing a monster and checking for relevant effects, players must decide if they want to use any of their cards showing an ACTION ICON (D), referred to as ACTION CARDS or make use of their KNIGHT ABILITY (E), if it shows an action icon.
When an action card or knight ability is used, the player places one of their CREST TOKENS (F) on top of the action icon to mark it as exhausted for this night. If the action icon of a card or knight ability is covered by a crest token, it is exhausted and cannot be used again this night phase.
Then they apply its effect(s) – this may be an immediate effect or an effect that lasts for the duration of their current attack action. There is no limit on the number of action cards players may use during a single attack and they may use them in any combination, including their knight ability if appropriate.
Effects from action cards and knight abilities always take priority over the core rules and effects of monster cards. Players may use multiple action cards of the same type, e.g. multiple weapons, armor, etc.
As mentioned previously (see "Day Phase"), crest tokens get removed from player cards and boards at the beginning of each day phase. This essentially refreshes all exhausted cards and knight abilities making them available for the next night phase.
Thomas would like to use his spear action card (G) to reduce the dice of the Goblin by 1. He decides to remove the Goblin's red combat dice before he continues with the attack action. This reduces the Goblin to 2 black monster dice plus one additional black monster die from the Shaman's lane effect. Thomas places one of his crest tokens on the action icon of the spear (F) and cannot use the spear again until the crest token is removed at the start of the next day phase.
3. Fatigue
Each time a player attacks a monster, they must spend fatigue to do so. To spend fatigue, players move their fatigue token one step closer to their health token for each fatigue spent:
- When attacking a monster in the first rank, a player must spend 1 fatigue. Move the red fatigue token one spot towards their green health token (A).
- When attacking a monster in the second rank, a player moves their fatigue token two spots (B).
- When attacking a monster in the third rank, a player moves their fatigue token three spots (C).
If a player cannot spend the necessary fatigue, they may not attack the chosen monster and must choose a monster they can attack instead.
If there are no monsters that they can attack, they immediately end their night phase (see "End of Night").
Whenever the fatigue token of a player moves to the last empty space, right in front of the health token (C), the player may still perform their action normally but this is considered their last possible action for the night and described as "the last heroic deed" (see below).
When moving the fatigue token, it may only move to empty spaces and may never move on top or beyond the health or wrath token.
As the Goblin is in the first rank, Thomas only needs to spend 1 fatigue. He moves his fatigue token one step towards his health token.
4. Combat Roll
A player always takes three KNIGHT DICE and the appropriate red and black MONSTER DICE shown on the monster card they are attacking.
These dice are rolled simultaneously by the attacking player.
There is always an upper limit of 4 dice for each of the different dice types. This means it is never possible to roll a fifth die for any dice type (knight dice, black and red monster dice). E.g. if an effect would add a fifth black die to a monster combat roll the effect is ignored, and no fifth die is rolled.
Thomas rolls the dice for his attack against the Goblin. He has 3 knight dice and is facing 3 black monster dice (the red dice having been removed by the spear and additional black monster die from the Shaman's effect):
5. Reactions & Wrath
After the dice are rolled and before resolving them, players may use their REACTION CARDS and knight abilities with a REACTION ICON (A) or WRATH to modify the combat roll or otherwise affect the result depending on the reaction card effect.
Any card or knight ability showing a reaction icon is considered to be a reaction and may be used as long as its reaction icon is not covered by a crest token.
Reactions are used just like actions and the player using it places one of their crest tokens (B) on the reaction icon to mark it as exhausted.
The effects apply either immediately or when resolving the attack (depending on the effect). There is no limit on the number of reaction cards players may use during a single attack and they may use them in any combination, including their knight ability if appropriate.
Effects from reaction cards and knight abilities always take priority over the core rules and effects of monster cards.
Players may also choose to spend wrath to affect the outcome of a combat roll:
- Spend 1 wrath to re-roll 1 of your knight dice once.
- Spend 2 wrath to roll 1 additional knight die (up to the maximum of 4).
In order to spend wrath, a player moves their blue wrath token (A) one step closer to their green health token (B).
This means a player may only use wrath when there is at least one empty space between their wrath and health tokens. Essentially each empty space between their wrath and health token allows the use of one wrath.
When wrath is used to roll 1 additional knight die, please remember that the maximum number of any dice type is 4. Players may never roll more than 4 knight dice.
Thomas currently has 3 wrath as there are three empty spaces between his wrath (A) and health tokens (B). As soon as the wrath token reaches the spot behind the health token (C), his wrath would be reduced to 0; Thomas could not spend any further wrath.
Continuing from the previous example, where Thomas attacked the Goblin, Thomas would not defeat the Goblin as the dice stand (explained in the next section regarding resolving attacks). So he decides to roll an additional, fourth, knight die.
Thomas spends 2 wrath by moving the wrath token 2 steps towards his health token, leaving him with 1 wrath remaining. He then rolls a fourth knight die which results in another faith.
With his last available wrath, he decides to re-roll one of the faith results and scores another sword.
A player may use wrath and reaction cards at any time and in any order they wish during this step of the attack action. They may also continue to spend available wrath to re-roll the same die more than once.
When moving the wrath token, it may only move to empty spaces and may never move on top or beyond the health token. When losing health points, the empty spaces between the wrath and health token of a player increases. Thus a player may use more wrath in a later turn as they lose health.
As this is still not enough to defeat the Goblin, Thomas decides to use his longsword reaction card to turn his shield result into a sword token. He places one of his crest tokens on the longsword to mark it as exhausted for this night.
6. Resolve Attack
After the attack results have been finalized, it is time to resolve all current dice results, tokens and relevant card effects.
The knight and monster dice have different results that each have a specific effect:
Knight Dice
- Sword – Deal 1 damage to the attacked monster.
- Double Sword – Deal 2 damage to the attacked monster.
- Shield – Prevent 1 damage from the attacked monster.
- Faith – Discard 1 monster die of your choice without applying its effect.
Monster Dice
- Blank – No effect.
- Sword – Deal 1 damage to the attacking player.
- Sword – Deal 1 damage to the attacking player.
- Double Sword – Deal 2 damage to the attacking player.
- Shield – Prevent 1 damage from the attacking player.
- Shield – Prevent 1 damage from the attacking player.
- Doom – Raise the doom track of the boss by 1.
- Doom – Raise the doom track of the boss by 1.
The player who performed the attack action may resolve the dice in any order they wish.
Each die may only be resolved once. When resolving a die, set it aside to indicate that the die has been resolved.
In general, players will want to resolve faith results first to remove dice they do not wish to resolve. Then shield results to determine how many swords are blocked, before resolving remaining swords. This will leave the doom results to resolve last.
Based on Thomas' rolls from the previous examples and keeping in mind the rank effect of the Centaur (provides +1 shield token to the Goblin), this is the combat roll to resolve:
Thomas deals 3 damage from his 3 sword results. The Goblin has 1 shield result which would prevent 1 damage. In addition, the rank effect of the Centaur prevents a second damage: thus Thomas only deals 1 damage to the Goblin, which is not enough to defeat him.
However, Thomas has rolled a faith result and uses it to discard the black Goblin die with the shield result. This way he is able to deal 2 damage to the Goblin and defeat it.
But by using his longsword previously to turn his shield result into a third sword, Thomas is unable to prevent the damage done by the Goblin and suffers 1 wound in return.
7. Damage & Defeat
Each time a player causes damage to a monster, remove one gold from the monster's health points for each damage dealt and place it in the attacking player's gold pool.
Start removing gold from left to right. This is important if a monster is not defeated in one attack.
If a player causes enough damage to remove all the gold from a monster, the monster is defeated and the player defeating it gains its monster card.
Players should place their defeated monster cards in a face-down deck, so other players find it harder to track which monster types a player has already defeated. A player may always check their own defeated monster deck at any time.
If a player does not remove the last gold from a monster during an attack action, the monster is not defeated but only damaged.
In these cases, the attacking player places one of their crest tokens on each health point from which they removed gold.
When a player defeats a damaged monster they do not automatically gain the monster card. In these cases, the attacking player counts crest tokens based on those they already have on the monster plus those they would place because of damage dealt to the monster:
- If the player defeating the monster has more crest tokens than any other player on this monster, they receive the monster card.
- If any player has more crest tokens than the attacking player, that player receives the monster card instead.
- In case of a tie, where two or more players have the most crest tokens on a monster, the tied player who dealt damage first receives the monster card. This will be the player who has the leftmost crest token on the monster.
After a player has claimed a monster card any crest tokens on this card are returned to their player's pool.
A player defeating a damaged monster counts all their damage when checking the total crest tokens. Even if a monster has only 1 health point remaining and a player deals 3 damage to it, this counts as 3 crest tokens and is included in their total.
Let's assume Thomas dealt 1 damage to the Goblin (A), took 1 gold (B) and placed one of his crest tokens on it (C).
Susy is the next player and also decides to attack the Goblin. She manages to deal 2 damage to the Goblin, so she takes the last remaining gold and the Goblin is defeated. Since Susy did 2 damage to the Goblin, these count as 2 crest tokens. That is more than there are crest tokens from Thomas on it, so she gets the monster card. If she had only dealt 1 damage, it would still have been enough to defeat the goblin, but Thomas would have received the monster card as Susy's crest tokens would not have exceeded Thomas' crest tokens.
8. Player Wounds
Each time a player suffers damage that they cannot prevent they suffer a wound and need to reduce their health.
For each wound suffered, a player moves their health token (A) one step closer to their fatigue token (B).
As with the other tokens, the health token may never move on top or beyond the fatigue token.
Suffering wounds has three effects:
- The amount of fatigue that can be spent on attack actions reduces with each lost health point.
- Suffering wounds might influence the amount of renown (see "Gathering Renown") gained at the end of the night phase.
- The amount of wrath that can be spent on attack actions increases with each lost health point.
Whenever the health token of a player moves to the last empty space, right in front of the fatigue token (C), the player is immediately defeated and their night phase ends (see "End of Night").
As we saw in the previous example, Thomas suffered one wound from the Goblin as he could not prevent the damage from the Goblin's sword result. Thomas moves his health token one step closer to his fatigue token (A) which reduces the remaining amount of fatigue to 1 (B) but also increases his available wrath to 1 (C).
9. Reorganizing
Once an attack action has been completely resolved it is time to reorganize the monsters.
If a monster has been defeated, all monster cards in the lane behind that monster move one rank towards the first rank. Any monster that moves to the first rank is automatically revealed.
If this monster "moves to back", move it to the last possible position in its lane and move all cards in front of it one rank to the front once more.
The Last Heroic Deed
In a situation where a player spent their last fatigue to perform an action, this action is referred to as their last heroic deed.
It is called this because, as the health token may never cross the fatigue token, this player cannot suffer any damage during this action.
Michael has one more fatigue left and uses it to perform his last heroic deed. He attacks a Centaur in the first rank and resolves the attack action normally. The Centaur would cause 2 damage but Michael ignores them as his health token cannot move on top or beyond his fatigue token. After this action, Michael's night phase ends immediately.
End of a Player's Night
As mentioned previously, as soon as a player finishes an attack action after which they have no empty spaces between their fatigue and health token, they immediately end their night phase. In addition, if a player begins their turn and there are no eligible monsters left to attack, they also end their night phase immediately.
They are removed from the current night phase turn order and must wait for the end of the current night phase.
The remaining players continue to take attack actions in turn order until they are defeated or there are no remaining monsters to attack.
When a player's night phase ends, they place their knight miniature on the next empty spot of the village, starting from the bottom (4, 3, 2, 1).
This means that the first player to place their knight miniature on the village will always place it in the 4th spot, followed by 3rd, 2nd and 1st.
Placing their knight miniatures on the village means this player may no longer take part in the night phase and cannot perform any further actions.
Gathering Renown
When a player ends their night phase they should immediately check their current health level. The position of their health token, indicates whether they are within the green (A), yellow (B) or red (C) area of their health track.
This indicates the renown they earned during the night. Players should place one of their crest tokens on the corresponding colored zone of the renown card (A). This will grant them additional valor points at the end of the game (see "End of Game").
There is no limit to the number of crest tokens in each renown zone.
End of Night
Once all players have placed their knight miniatures on the village, it is the end of the night phase and there are two final steps to resolve before the next day phase may start.
Cleanup
Remove all gold from any remaining monsters and return it to the reserve.
Also, remove all crest tokens from monsters and return them to the respective player's pool.
Monster Damage
If the players did not manage to defeat all the monsters during the night phase, any remaining ones cause irreversible damage to the village.
First, reveal all remaining unrevealed monsters. Then each monster applies its damage to the lane it's in. Bosses deal 1 damage to every lane.
After applying damage, shuffle minions and champions back into their respective decks.
Bosses are always removed completely from the game and may not appear again in another night phase.
There is one barricade and two palisades per lane. These represent their three health points.
For each damage caused by a monster at the end of the night phase, remove one of the barricades or palisades:
- Minions cause 1 damage to their lane.
- Champions cause 2 damage to their lane.
- Bosses cause 1 damage to all 3 lanes.
If a lane would suffer damage and there are no barricades or palisades left in this lane, the damage is dealt to the village itself.
The village has three health points represented by the farmhouse, the ox cart and the well.
For each damage the village suffers, remove one of the remaining objects.
If the players ever remove the last health point of the village, the game ends immediately (see "End of Game").
Once monster damage has been resolved as required, unless this was the third night phase, the day phase for the next round starts. This cycle continues until the end of the third night phase – unless the game ends prematurely with the destruction of the village.
Susy, Michael and Thomas did not manage to defeat a Doom Bat (A), a Troll (B) and the Warchief (C). In addition, they need to reveal the last unrevealed monster, which is a Zombie (D).
They will remove the barricade from the Doom Bat's lane as it causes 1 damage (E).
The Troll causes 2 damage to its lane as the Troll is a champion.
Behind the Troll is the Zombie who also causes 1 damage to this lane.
Thus the middle lane suffers a total of 3 damage and the players remove the barricade and both palisades (F).
The Warchief causes 1 damage to all lanes, so the players remove a palisade from the left lane (G) and the barricade from the right lane (H).
As there are no more barricades or palisades left in the middle lane, the Warchief's damage is dealt to the village itself.
The players must remove either the farmhouse, the ox cart or the well. They remove the well (I).
Afterwards they reshuffle the Doom Bat and the Zombie back into the minion deck and the Troll into the champion deck.
The Warchief card and board are removed from play as each boss will only appear once per game.
End of Game
Once the third night phase has ended, or the village was destroyed, the game ends immediately. If the village was destroyed, all players lose collectively. Otherwise proceed to final scoring.
A Knight's Tale
Assuming the village was not destroyed at the end of the game, all players determine their total valor points. Valor points are gathered in multiple ways. Players can keep track of their score using the included dry-erase pens on the VALOR CHART found on the reverse of their knight board. Score using the steps as follows:
(A) Market Cards and Trophies — Each player totals the valor points on their market cards and trophies.
(B) Market Card Sets — Each player receives valor points for collecting different market card types (see table below).
(C) Monster Cards — Each player totals the valor points on their defeated monster cards.
(D) Monster Card Sets — Each player receives valor points for collecting different monster card types (see table below).
Market / Monster Card Set Bonus
| Market/Monster Card Types | Valor Points |
|---|---|
| 1 different type | 0 |
| 2 different types | 1 |
| 3 different types | 3 |
| 4 different types | 6 |
| 5 different types | 10 |
| 6 different types | 15 |
| 7 different types | 21 |
Always include trophy and boss card types.
(E) Quests — Check the bonus valor points for the quests that each player fulfilled. Each player with a crest token on a quest receives the indicated valor points.
(F) Renown — As with quests, players check the bonus valor points granted for gathered renown. Each player receives the valor points indicated by their crest tokens on the renown cards.
(G) Gold — Lastly, each player gains 1 additional valor point for each 3 gold they have in their pool at the end of the game (rounded down).
When all players have calculated their total, the player with the most valor points is the winner of the game and will become the knight of legends whose tale will be told for aeons to come.
(A) Susy has a total of 4 valor points from her market cards.
(B) At the end of the game Susy has gathered a total of 5 different market card types (weapon, armor, companion, animal, trophy). Though she has several weapon cards, they still only count as one type of market card. Her 5 different types score her 10 valor points.
(C) Susy has a total of 23 valor points from her defeated monster cards.
(D) At the end of the game Susy has gathered a total of 3 different monster card types (orc minion, undead minion, beast champion). Though she has several orc minion and undead minion cards, they still only count as one of each monster type. Her 3 different types score her 3 valor points.
(E) Michael was the first to defeat a monster in the second rank (first quest); he receives 5 valor points. Susy was second to meet this condition; she receives 3 valor points.
(F) Susy ended her first night phase with her health token in the yellow area. She ended her second and third night phases in the red area. Checking her crest tokens on the renown cards shows this earned her 3 points in total.
(G) Susy has 11 gold in her pool. She receives 3 additional valor points.
(H) Susy scores a total of 49 valor points.
Bosses
Unless otherwise stated, bosses are treated as any other monster when it comes to card effects.
Bosses are a special monster type that have some different mechanics compared to minions or champions.
Firstly, bosses only use their boss card to keep track of their health points (A). When a boss is revealed, place one gold token on each health point on the boss card (B) as normal.
However, the boss card does not include any attack dice or effects. Instead, these details are found on the boss board (C).
Bosses use a deck of five tactic cards unique to each boss. Once a boss card is revealed, take the corresponding deck of tactic cards, shuffle it and place it face-up next to the boss card (D).
Doom
After placing the current boss board on the forest board at the end of the battlefield, place the DOOM TOKEN (E) on the first spot of the DOOM TRACK (F). The doom token marks the current combat values for the boss.
Below the doom token you can see how many red monster dice (G), black monster dice (H) and armor (I) the boss currently has.
During the game, the doom level is increased whenever a doom result is resolved. Each time a player resolves a doom result, move the doom token one step to the right (J).
Increasing the doom level may result in different combat values for the boss. Usually raising the doom level will make a boss stronger and more dangerous in combat.
Boss Movement
At the beginning of a night phase, the boss board is placed on the forest board behind the battlefield. This means that the boss is not yet part of the battle and cannot be attacked.
As soon as the third rank of the battlefield is empty of monster cards, the boss moves onto the battlefield. Place the boss onto the third rank. The boss may now be the target of attacks.
Even though the boss is not part of the battle whilst on the forest board, his doom track is still raised by doom results!
As soon as the second rank is empty of monster cards, the boss moves to the second rank. The same is true for the first rank.
Each time a boss moves into a new rank, he is activated. This means that the boss ability (N) is triggered and its effects applied immediately.
Usually, this results in dealing damage to each lane with at least one monster of a specific faction in it.
Players should try to minimize the impact of the boss ability by carefully planning which monsters to defeat and when to allow the boss to move to the next rank.
Unrevealed cards in the first rank are revealed after boss movement has taken place.
Thomas has just defeated an orc monster from the first rank and claims the monster card (A). As the last step of resolving his combat dice he has to apply 2 doom results. Thomas moves the doom token one space for the first doom result (B). This triggers the boss tactic which is immediately applied and then placed underneath the tactic deck revealing the next tactic. Next, Thomas moves the doom token once more for the second doom result (C).
As he has finished resolving dice, and there is a vacant spot in the first rank where the defeated monster was removed from, he needs to reorganize the monsters. The two remaining monsters in this lane move one rank to the front (D). This leaves the third rank empty of monsters. The boss then enters the battlefield, moving to the third rank and triggering its effect (E).
As there are no orc monsters matching his effect, nothing happens. Finally Thomas reveals the new monster in the first rank (F). Although this monster is an orc and would have triggered the boss effect, nothing happens as it is revealed after activating the boss.
Attacking Bosses
The earliest a boss can be attacked is when it has moved into the third rank.
When attacking a boss, knights perform an attack action as if attacking any other monster in this rank.
The attack dice used by a boss is determined by the current position of the doom token. Use red and black monster dice corresponding to the red and black values of the current doom level respectively.
Players may attack a boss by spending the necessary fatigue for the rank the boss inhabits just like any other monster. However, a boss can only be attacked if it is on the battlefield.
This means that a boss may not be attacked whilst it is still on the forest board and thus outside of the battlefield.
Armor
Armor is a combat value used exclusively by bosses. Treat each armor as 1 shield token when resolving combat against a boss.
Armor provides shields in each combat. As this is not a dice result, armor cannot be cancelled by faith results.
Tactics
Some levels of the doom track are marked with a doom symbol (K). When the doom token lands on one of these spots, immediately apply the effects of the current face-up tactic card (D).
Each tactic card has a BASIC EFFECT (L) and an EXCEPTION (M).
If possible, apply the basic effect of a tactic card. If this would have no effect, instead apply the exception. If neither of them can be applied, nothing else happens.
After a tactic card has been resolved, place it underneath the tactic deck so the next one is visible. Continue raising the doom tracker if there are any further doom results to resolve.
If the doom token lands on another doom symbol on the doom track, repeat the steps for triggering a tactic.
Players decide the order in which they resolve their dice results. It is often best to resolve the doom results last so the monster being attacked does not benefit from a triggered tactic card.
Lane Damage
Just as with the monster damage at the end of the night, general effects causing lane damage apply damage to a specific lane.
Each time players have to apply lane damage, they apply it to the lane in which it occurs.
As noted previously, players remove either one barricade or one palisade from a lane for each point of damage dealt to it.
If there are no barricades or palisades left when dealing lane damage, deal damage to the village for each damage that needs to be applied.
Remember that the village has three health points represented by the farmhouse, the ox cart and the well.
For each damage the village suffers, no matter in which lane it occurred, remove one of its remaining health points.
Each of the three bosses have an effect that is triggered when they activate. Their effects cause lane damage to each lane with a minion or champion of a specific monster faction in it.
The Warchief causes 1 lane damage to each lane with at least one orc minion (A) or champion (B) in it. In this case the left and right lane would suffer one damage.
Tokens
There are various effects that will add tokens to monsters and knights:
- Sword tokens provide additional swords that can be resolved during the 'Resolve Attack' step.
- Shield tokens provide additional shields that can be resolved during the 'Resolve Attack' step.
- A monster with a black die token rolls one additional black monster die in combat for each such token.
- A monster with a red die token rolls one additional red monster die in combat for each such token.
- A health token adds 1 additional health point to the monster benefiting from it.
Note that you do not put gold tokens on health tokens. Health tokens must be removed to defeat a monster, but do not reward a player with gold. Players still place crest tokens for each damage dealt.
When a monster has both health tokens and gold tokens on original health points, remove the gold tokens from original health points before removing the health tokens.
As soon as a monster has no health tokens left, it is defeated.
Hints
At this point we would like to highlight some important rules and make sure everything is clear before you write your tales.
Results & Tokens
Certain effects mention that they affect or provide results or tokens.
It is important to bear in mind that an effect that references a result can only affect dice results and has no effect on tokens.
The longsword of each player lets you turn your shield or sword results into shield or sword tokens.
As the effect specifies results, it only affects dice results.
If you have another effect that grants you additional shield or sword tokens, those could not be turned into another token by using the longsword.
Special Rules Priority
The standard rules in this rulebook will often contradict the effects of monsters, market cards or knight abilities.
Each time there's a contradiction, with the core rules, the special effect takes priority over the rules in the rulebook.
When there is a contradiction between a monster effect and a market card or knight ability, the monster effect is overruled by the effect of market cards or knight abilities.
Resolving Combat
Keep in mind that players decide the order in which combat dice are resolved!
Oftentimes it is beneficial to resolve damage first and see if a monster is defeated before resolving doom results and negative effects caused by this, such as triggering a boss tactic.
Boss Movement
It can be crucial to keep an eye on fortuitous timing when it comes to moving the boss.
Before you defeat a monster that would trigger boss movement and activate its effect, you should check for monsters benefiting from or empowering the boss effect that you may want to defeat before the boss moves.
Fatigue & Health
Manage your fatigue and health wisely.
Occasionally there might be a tactical advantage in attacking a monster in a higher rank to move your fatigue token into a certain health area, as this prevents your health token from dropping into a lower area.
This will help score more valor points on a renown card. On the other hand, this may result in fewer actions that could gain you more valor points from defeated monsters.
Excess Damage
Sometimes effects refer to 'damage in excess.' This is all damage dealt above what was required to defeat a monster.
So, if a monster has 2 health points and a player does 3 damage to it, there would be 1 damage in excess.
Tartos' Ability
Tartos has the ability to deal any damage in excess to adjacent monsters in the same rank or lane as the monster he attacked.
This can be a bit tricky to understand, so here's an example:
The Tartos player deals 3 damage to a Goblin with only 1 health point remaining. He has dealt 2 damage more than needed to defeat the Goblin. This is his damage in excess and he may deal it to another adjacent monster in the same rank or lane. This could be the Ghoul or Doom Bat.
The player could deal the 2 damage in excess to the Ghoul, taking two gold but not defeating it and not gaining its card. The player could also distribute the damage to the Doom Bat in which case it would be enough to defeat it and gain its card. But then there would be a tie in crest tokens on the Goblin and the player who wounded the Goblin first would get the card.
Alternatively, the Tartos player could decide to deal 1 damage in excess to the Ghoul or Doom Bat and wound one of them. This would mean Tartos still dealt 2 damage to the Goblin, breaking the tie and gaining the Goblin card.
Solo Play
When playing Knight Tales on your own, there are a few minor changes to the rules and setup.
Goal of the Game
As you are the only player, valor points do not matter. Your only goal is to successfully defend the heir and the village until the end of the third night. If you manage to fend off the monsters and fulfill your duty, you are victorious!
Setup
During the setup, skip the step of placing the quest and renown cards. Obviously, you will not need to count valor points so there is no need to track completion of quests or gaining renown.
Instead place the three VILLAGER ACTION CARDS (A) face-up in place of the quest cards and the three VILLAGER REACTION CARDS (B) face-up in place of the renown cards.
Keep the three renown cards with their minion and champion reference nearby as you will still use these to assemble the monster deck at the start of the night phase.
In addition, you will only pick one knight to play with and you will place the fatigue token on the "1 player" spot and take 12 starting gold tokens. Also place your knight miniature on the last village spot granting you +3 wrath.
Villager Support
In addition to providing helpful effects, villagers also aid you in combat as you may distribute any damage you receive among the villagers.
Each time you choose to assign damage to a villager, simply place 1 gold token from your gold pool onto a villager's health point.
If a villager has both health points covered you may not assign further damage to them. Additionally you may not make use of their effect.
At the start of the day phase, remove all gold from the villagers and return it to the common gold reserve.
You may call on the help of each villager during your night phases. Each villager will support you with a specific effect (C) and has two health points (D) of their own.
Villager effects are defined as actions and reactions and are used in the same manner as regular market cards; by placing one of your crest tokens on them to exhaust them. You may only use a villager effect if they have health points remaining.
If you would suffer 3 damage from an attack, you could spend 3 gold and distribute them as you see fit; 1 gold on 3 different villagers or 2 gold on 1 villager and 1 gold on another. You may also choose to spend less than 3 gold and take any remaining damage normally.
Co-op Play
Instead of aiming to be the single victorious hero of future tales, you may decide to win as a group. Just as in solo play there are a few minor changes to the setup and rules of the game.
Goal of the Game
You are fighting as a group and therefore your goal is to successfully defend the heir and the village from the onslaught of monsters.
There will be no need to calculate valor points and you will simply all win or lose depending on the fate of the village.
Setup
Just as in solo play, skip the step of placing the quest and renown cards. You are all fighting as a group and you will not need to count valor points so there is no need to track completion of quests or gaining renown.
Instead of the quest and renown cards, place the three CO-OP ACTION CARDS (A) face-up in place of the quest cards and the three CO-OP REACTION CARDS (B) face-up in place of the renown cards.
Keep the three renown cards with their minion and champion reference nearby as you will still use these to assemble the monster deck at the start of the night phase.
Co-op Support
Each co-op card comes with its own effect (C). A player may choose to use the effect of any unexhausted co-op card at any time during the night phase, even when it is not their turn.
Use of a co-op card still follows the rules for applying action cards or reaction cards.
After using a co-op card, the player must place one of their crest tokens on it to mark it as exhausted.
Co-op cards may only be used once per night phase and will refresh at the beginning of the next day phase, just as with market cards.
During Michael's turn he wants to attack a monster in the second rank but it would cost him his last 2 points of fatigue. Thomas decides to use a co-op action card (D) so Michael can use his fatigue instead. After the attack, Susy uses a co-op reaction card (E) so she suffers the damage dealt to Michael.
A Tough Mob
As fully cooperative play eases the night phases for the players, the monsters will also work as a more coordinated horde.
Therefore, once it is time to reveal the monsters in the first rank, always reveal all the monsters on the battlefield instead.
Start with the first rank of monsters and apply all "move to back" effects, etc. normally. Then continue with the second rank of monsters and lastly the third rank until all monsters are revealed.
Revealing all monsters from the outset will result in more synergies and a tougher puzzle for the group of knights.
Glossary
Action Cards — May be activated once per night phase before performing an attack by placing a crest token on it. Once activated, the player benefits from its specific effect.
Armor — Adds a number of shields to a boss' combat roll.
Attacking Bosses — Only possible when the boss is in the 3rd, 2nd or 1st rank.
Attacking Monsters — A player chooses a revealed monster and spends an amount of fatigue equal to the monster's rank.
Battlefield — The side of the game board on which the monsters are laid out.
Boss Movement — Each time a boss moves to a new rank (3rd, 2nd, 1st) trigger its ability.
Bosses — Bosses count as monsters. They start behind the battlefield and may only be attacked when entering the 3rd rank or lower. When they move to a rank, they trigger their ability.
Champions — A type of monster. There are 3 different champions per faction.
Cleanup — Remove all gold and crest tokens from monsters at the end of the night.
Combat Roll — Take your blue knight dice (usually 3) and all black and red monster dice (shown on the monster card plus any from specific effects) and roll them once. Note that you may never roll more than 4 dice of the same color.
Damage — A player gets 1 gold from the monster card for each damage dealt. If a monster has no gold left, it is defeated. A knight suffers 1 wound for each damage dealt to it. Move a knight's health token one space towards its fatigue token for each wound. The health token may not move on top or beyond the fatigue token. If the health token reaches the last spot in front of the fatigue token, this player's night phase ends.
Day Phase Refresh — Return all crest tokens from cards to their player's pools. Set wrath marker to the respective starting value for each player.
Defeat a Monster — When a player deals enough damage to remove the last gold from a monster, he defeats it. This player gains the monster card if he has more crest tokens on it (including those that he would get from damage in excess) than any other player. If not, the player who has the most crest tokens on it gains the monster card.
Doom — Each time doom raises because of a doom result on a die a boss gets stronger. When hitting a golden doom symbol on the doom track, trigger the current boss tactic.
End of Day — When a player finishes their day phase, they are moved to the first available spot on the battlefield (top to bottom). When all players have done that, the day phase ends.
End of Night — When a player's health and fatigue tokens meet, this ends the night phase for this player.
Faction Symbols — Three faction symbols: orcs, beasts and undead.
Fatigue — Spend 1, 2 or 3 fatigue when attacking a monster in the 1st, 2nd or 3rd rank by moving the fatigue token closer to your health token but not on top or beyond it. When this token reaches the last spot in front of the health token, this knight completes their last heroic deed before the player's night phase ends.
Game Duration — Played over three rounds, each with one day and one night phase.
Knight Dice — A player gets 3 blue knight dice per attack. Effects or wrath could add a fourth one.
Lane Damage — At the end of the night each undefeated monster deals lane damage equal to the swords on its skull symbol. Remove a barricade/palisade in each lane for each damage done. Also certain other effects like boss movement or tactics can trigger lane damage. If all barricades/palisades of a lane have been removed, deal the damage to the village instead.
Lanes — There are three lanes, each one crossing through all three ranks and going from the forest board towards the barricades.
Last Heroic Deed — When spending the last fatigue a player may suffer unlimited damage as its health token may not move beyond the fatigue token.
Market — Describes the area of the game board that contains the market cards.
Minions — A type of monster. There are 4 different minions per faction.
Monster Effects — Describe a certain effect of a monster that overwrites the core rules. These effects can be permanent (lane and rank effects) or trigger when a monster is attacked.
Monster Deck — When preparing the night phase, you will need to draw a number of minions and champions from their discrete decks to form a shuffled, face-down monster deck.
Monster Dice — There are black and the stronger red monster dice. Each monster card shows how many of each of them a monster rolls in a combat. Never roll more than 4 of one color.
Player Order — Player with the least swords rolled is placed on 4th village spot, second least swords on 3rd village spot, and so on.
Purchasing Cards — Spend gold equal to the card's indicated gold cost to purchase it from the market.
Quests — Reveal one quest per day phase. Can be fulfilled throughout the game. First player to fulfill a quest places their crest token on the 1st spot and so on. This earns a player extra VP at the end of the game.
Ranks — There are three ranks with the first rank being the one in front of the barricades and the third rank the one in front of the forest board.
Reaction Cards — May be activated once per night phase after a combat roll has been made and before the dice are resolved. Some also specifically trigger after the attack has been resolved. To use a reaction card, place a crest token on it.
Renown — At the end of each player's night phase, place a crest token on the renown level matching the current health token level (check colored bar) of that player's knight. This earns a player extra VP at the end of the game.
Reorganizing — If there are vacant spots in any lane, move any monsters in higher ranks forwards once until there are no vacant spots in lower ranks. Always reveal any monster cards in the first rank once all movement is done.
Resolve Attack — Each sword deals one damage and each shield prevents one damage. Faith results discard a monster die of choice and doom results raise the doom track by 1. After comparing damage on each side, apply the damage caused to the knight and monster fighting each other.
Reveal Monsters — Always reveal any monsters in the first rank after all monsters have moved (including the boss). Monsters with "moves to back" move to the back of the lane and other monsters in the same lane move forward once to fill vacant spots.
Starting Player — Player with the most sword results rolled on one black, one red and one blue die at the beginning of the game.
Tactics — Trigger when the doom token reaches a golden doom symbol on the doom track. Apply its effect or exception, then place at the bottom of the deck so a new face-up tactic is visible.
Trophies — Instead of purchasing a market card, return a combination of 2 of your defeated minions and/or champions matching the faction symbols on a trophy to acquire it.
Valor Points — Gathered at the end of the game for monsters, market cards, quests and renown. The player with the most wins the game.
Village — The village consists of the farmhouse, the ox cart and the well. Each time a monster deals damage to the village, one of these components is removed. If the last component is removed, the game ends and all players lose.
Wounds — See "damage".
Wrath — Wrath can be spent to either re-roll a blue knight die once (costs 1 wrath) or add another blue knight die to your combat roll (costs 2 wrath – remember you may not have more than 4 dice of one kind). These can be done multiple times if appropriate. Each time wrath is spent, move the wrath token one step towards the health token. The wrath token may not move on top or beyond the health token.
Summary
Day Phase
1. Player Refresh — Each player removes all their crest tokens from their cards and places them back into their pool. Also, each player sets their fatigue and health token back to their starting level. Set the wrath token of each player to the spot referred to by the current player position on the village spots.
2. Reveal Quest — Reveal the top quest card from the current quest deck (I - 1st day, II - 2nd day, III - 3rd day). Leave it face-up until the end of the game.
3. Refresh Market Cards — Turn all face-down market cards face-up.
4. Purchase Cards — In turn order, each player may purchase one market card or a trophy by spending gold or discarding 2 required minion and/or champion cards as appropriate. This continues until all players have passed.
5. End of Day — After a player passes on purchasing cards, their knight is placed on the first available battlefield spot (top to bottom) and they no longer participate in the day phase. After all players have passed on purchasing cards, the day phase ends and the night phase begins.
Night Phase
1. Prepare Battlefield — Check the current number of minions and champions on the renown card for this night (I - 1st night, II - 2nd night, III - 3rd night). Then take the corresponding number of minions and champions to create a face-down deck. Shuffle it and distribute one card face-down on each available battlefield spot. Then flip the current renown card.
2. Reveal Monsters — Turn all monsters in the 1st rank face-up. Move any monsters showing "moves to back" to the back of its lane moving the other monsters one rank to the front. Then reveal any face-down monsters in the 1st rank if there are any.
3. Boss Setup — Draw the top card from the boss deck and place it face-up on the deck. This card will determine the boss for the current night phase. Place 1 gold on each of the boss' health points. Place the corresponding boss board against the forest board and set the doom token on the first level of the doom track. Shuffle the tactic deck for this boss and turn it face-up next to its boss card.
4. Attacking Monsters — In turn order, each player must attack a revealed monster by spending an amount of fatigue equal to its rank. This continues until a player has no fatigue left to spend, or there are no eligible monsters to attack, and their night phase ends.
Action Cards — Before performing the attack, choose to make use of any of your action cards by placing a crest token on them.
Combat Rolls — Perform a combat roll with 3 knight dice and an amount of black and red monster dice shown on the monster card (plus those from effects).
Reaction Cards — After rolling the dice but before resolving the combat roll, make use of any of your reaction cards by placing a crest token on them.
Wrath — Spend 1 wrath to re-roll one of your knight dice once (you may do so multiple times) or spend 2 wrath to immediately roll 1 additional knight dice (to a total of 4 maximum).
Resolve Attack — In any order, resolve your dice by: Discarding one monster die for each of your faith results. Dealing 1 damage (take 1 gold) to the monster for each of your swords not canceled by a shield (place a crest token for each damage dealt). Suffering 1 wound for each monster sword not canceled by a shield. Raising the doom level by 1 for each doom result. Then take the monster card if the monster has no health (gold) left and you are the player with the most crest tokens on it. If not, the player with the most crest tokens takes the card or the tied player who first dealt damage to it.
5. End of Night — After a player has no more health/fatigue remaining, their night ends and they place their knight on the first available village spot. After all players are out of the battlefield the night ends. Deal 1 damage to a lane for each minion in it, 2 damage for each champion and 1 damage to all lanes if the boss is still undefeated.