Krynea Battlefield Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Objective
• Card Types
• Game Modes
• Icons of the Factions
• Card Anatomy
  • Bonuses to Abilities
  • Default Range
• Icons
• Battlefield Layout
  • Range Examples
• The Risen Trait
• Preparing the Game
• Starting the Game
  • 1. Initiative Assignment
  • 2. Monoliths
  • 3. Drawing Cards
  • 4. Troop Deployment
  • 5. Movement
  • 6. Actions
  • 7. Ranged Attacks
  • 8. Magic Attacks
  • 9. Melee Attacks
  • 10. Discards
• Determining the Winner
• Priority of Rules
• Games with 3 or 4 Players
• Example of Play
• Definitions
• Quick Reference

Introduction

Krynea Battlefield is a non-collectible card game. Each player commands an army and fights rival armies for control of the battlefield over four rounds.

Objective

This game represents a battle between two or more rival armies. Each side must try to eliminate the largest number of enemy troops over the four rounds that a battle lasts.

Card Types

Abilities: These cards represent the knowledge or a special capacity of the army's general. Their effects apply for the whole game.

Actions: These cards contain various effects or tactics that can be used during the battle.

Troops: These are battle units that are acquired with resources and used in combat. Each has different abilities and expertise.

Monoliths: The gods watch the battles and influence their outcomes. Each of these cards represents the influence of one god during a round.

Game Modes

Basic: Played with 57 preselected cards: 30 action cards, 25 troop cards and 2 abilities. There are 4 predefined decks to choose from, one for each faction: Champions of Light, Lords of Magic, Dark Knights and Mercenaries. Each player builds a deck by selecting the basic cards of a faction (marked with a square).

Factions: Played with a customised deck drawn from the cards permitted for the faction the player has chosen (marked with a square or a circle). It must have the same type and number of cards as a Basic deck and also meet the requirement that the total of its troop cards adds up to at least 60 points in resources.

Free: The same characteristics as the Factions mode, but the cards may be chosen from any faction.

Players who face each other must have their decks built in the same mode. Each card has its own ID, and two cards with the same ID may not appear in the same deck. Any player has the right to check another player's deck once the game has ended, to confirm that the deck is correct. During the game every player has the right to know how many cards of each type another player holds, but no player may touch an opponent's cards without permission at any time.

Icons of the Factions

They are at the bottom left of each card. If a card is included in a faction's basic deck, the icon of that faction is marked with a square; if it is not basic but is permitted, it is marked with a circle; and if it is prohibited, there is nothing around it.

The four factions are: Champions of Light, Lords of Magic, Dark Knights and Mercenaries.

• Basic for that faction: marked with a square frame
• Permitted for that faction: marked with a circle frame
• Prohibited for that faction: no frame

Card Anatomy

Phase: Shows the moment in which the card may be played. A round has ten phases, listed on the Initiative Token card. If this position has a reaction icon, the card may only be played as a response to some action, attack, ability, monolith, enemy reaction, or any other event in which that reaction can have an effect. A reaction can be used only once against the same specific event.

Example: If a Priest uses its reaction to try to save another unit that is about to die, and fails, the reaction of a Light Infantry unit could not then be used to save it.

Nature: Shows the type of effect that the card produces: magical nature (arcane), physical nature, or theurgic nature (prayer). Its nature shows whether the card is affected by the effect of another card.

Example: The arcane card Magic Disruption would affect all cards of magical nature.

Abilities: On troop cards, or on those actions that are battle units, these abilities detail their scores in the different types of attacks and defences, as well as their ranges (enemy positions the unit can attack), already including the benefits of its expertise. This range may be reduced if the unit gains the Risen trait.

Cost: Appears only on troop cards (units and Items) and shows the cost in resources of that card. Actions have no cost icon, because all of them cost one point of resources. Because they have no cost icon, actions such as Allies or Magic Creatures are excluded from effects where cost is a condition.

Traits: These are the groups into which units are divided: Infantry, Stealth, Archery, Arcanist, Sacred, Cavalry, Noble, Siege Engine, Champion, Item, Magic Item, Magic Creature, Ally and Risen. These groups are used when applying rules, effects of actions, abilities, events or expertise of other troops.

Expertise: A special ability of a troop. Its phase, its nature and its description are shown on the card.

Description: For troops, describes its expertise, if it has one. For actions, abilities and monoliths, describes their effect and application.

Expertise that is used instead of the unit's attack cannot be used if the unit has already attacked that round.

Factions and ID: The faction icons and the card's ID number are shown at the bottom of the card.

Bonuses to Abilities

A unit is considered to have an ability when its score is zero or more, and to not have it when there is a dash in its place.

A bonus can only be applied to a friendly unit with a zero or more in the ability; never to an ability with a dash, nor to an enemy troop.

Default Range

A unit that loses its special range through expertise can only attack the front line of the enemy battalion.

Icons

• Rotate: The card must be turned 90° to cause the described effect. A card can only be rotated if it is not already rotated.
• Random roll: A random roll with a 50% chance must be made. Hitting the roll counts as a success for the player who makes it. On a failure there is no effect.
• Cost in resources: When it refers to a troop card, the amount of resources is the card's cost. When it refers to a player, it is the amount of resources.
• Reaction: The described effect is a reaction and may be played as one.
• Phase icons: A row of icons shows the phase in which the card's effect is played.
• Permanent: Indicates that the effect is permanent.
• Modifier icons: Accompanying a modifier, these indicate the combat ability on which that modifier acts. In any other case, they represent one of the phases of attack: ranged attack, magic attack and melee attack.
• Defence icons: Three shield icons, each marking a defence ability on which a modifier is applied.
• Nature icons: Indicate the physical, magical or theurgic nature, respectively, of the effect they accompany.
• Horse: The horse is the symbol of humanity and indicates that a troop is human.

Battlefield Layout

The battlefield (game table) is divided into 2 opposing sides. On each side there are 4 battalions. The column formed by two opposing enemy battalions facing each other is called a clash. The battlefield therefore has 4 clashes.

Each battalion is divided into a vanguard (the two positions closest to the enemy) and a rearguard (the support troops behind them), placed in a row. The two positions of the vanguard are called 1st line and 2nd line.

Units must always be placed so that their abilities are visible. Items or actions attached to a unit are always placed beneath it, so that the bonuses they grant can be seen.

Figure 2 - Game table layout. Labels on the diagram: Action deck, Action discard, Troop deck, Troop discard, Monolith deck, Monolith discard, Abilities, Initiative Token, Battalion, Clash, Player 1, Player 2, 1st line, 2nd line and Rearguard.

Range Examples

• A unit in the 1st line facing an enemy
• A unit in the vanguard facing an enemy
• A unit in the rearguard facing an enemy
• Any unit in the battalion facing an enemy
• A unit in the 1st line facing an enemy, or adjacent
• Any unit in the 1st line
• Any unit in the 2nd line
• Any unit in the vanguard
• Any unit in the rearguard
• Any enemy unit

The Risen Trait

This trait indicates that a unit has been summoned, resurrected or raised as undead, and is assigned by rotating the card 180°.

Every Risen loses its expertise (special range included).

If assigning this trait fails, or the Risen is destroyed, it is removed from the game without passing through the discard pile.

The Risen trait cannot be assigned more than once to the same unit. This means, among other things, that a Risen cannot be saved by converting it into a Risen again.

Preparing the Game

1. Reveal abilities: The chosen abilities are placed face up on the table.
2. Shuffle the decks: Each player shuffles their action and troop decks separately. Afterwards they may "cut" the opponent's decks if they wish. The common monolith deck is also shuffled.

Starting the Game

Each round follows the ten phases listed on the Initiative Token, in order.

1. Initiative Assignment

In the first round the Initiative Token is drawn at random. The winner will be the one who begins each of the phases in that round of play. In the following 3 rounds, initiative alternates between the players.

2. Monoliths

One of the monoliths is revealed at random and its effects are applied to all players.

3. Drawing Cards

In the first round each player has 30 points of resources to acquire troop and action cards. In the following rounds resources are 12, plus 1 resource for each friendly unit (Items do not count) that was sent to the troop discard pile in the previous round. Units sacrificed, and those that had the Risen trait, do not pass through the discard pile and therefore do not add resources.

At this point, from the second round onwards, two things must be done: straighten again the cards that were rotated 90° in the previous round, and set aside to one side the carried-over cards, so that they are not mixed with the cards being bought. This measure lets all players check that resources are being spent correctly. The set-aside cards may be used normally at any moment the card allows, but must not return to the hand until the end of the troop deployment phase.

The player with the initiative begins buying their cards, but both may carry out this step at the same time to save time.

Each troop has its cost printed on the card itself, and at any moment the first card of the troop deck may be looked at, without being obliged to buy it. Actions cost one point of resources each. Cards acquired are taken into the hand and kept secret until used.

Troops must be bought first, followed by a maximum of 5 actions (carried-over actions do not count towards this limit). No more than 5 resources may be left unspent in a round. Once the buying of actions has begun, it is no longer allowed to buy troop cards again.

Hand compensation: In the first round, once resources have been spent, each player may return up to three cards from their hand, placing them at the bottom of their respective decks and having those resources available to buy new cards, both actions and troops.

4. Troop Deployment

The player with the initiative places one of their troops on the battlefield. Then the opponent does the same step, and the players take turns deploying one troop each until all troops are on the table. These are deployed rotated 90° so that it is known which were deployed this round, except Items, or units carried over from the previous round, which are deployed without rotating.

Once all troops have been deployed, the players add the resource cost of the rotated cards, plus one point for each action they bought that round, to check that each has spent the correct amount of resources. Items are not obligatory to deploy but must be revealed.

A deployed unit always enters the last position of its battalion. It is obligatory to begin by covering all positions of the 1st line, then the 2nd line, and last the rearguard. The number of troops in the rearguard in each battalion need not be the same.

Example: The first four deployed units cover the 1st line. The next four cover the 2nd line. The remaining units are divided between two supports in the rearguard of the first battalion and one in the third.

Before moving on to the next phase, the cards carried over from the previous round must be returned to the hand, if applicable, and the units deployed in this phase must be straightened.

Equipping Items: Items can only be equipped to units with a cost. They cannot be equipped to actions (Magic Creatures, Allies, etc.).

The cost of the Item is added to the cost of the unit that equips it for all purposes: assignment of points, checking the cost of the unit, and so on.

The Item is permanent and is discarded together with the troop when that troop dies.

5. Movement

The players take turns moving their troops one by one, starting with the player who has the initiative, until both have made all the moves they can and wish to make. A player may decide not to move on their turn. The movement phase ends if all players, consecutively, decide not to move.

Units may make only one movement per round and must be rotated 90° to show that they have moved.

An empty 1st line must be covered by other units of the same army, preferably by units in the rearguard of adjacent battalions, or with the second-line units if necessary.

All movement of troops must have as its primary objective covering the two lines of the vanguard.

At the end of this phase all moved cards are straightened (rotated back).

Types of movement:

• Within the battalion: Two units that are adjacent in the battalion may exchange their positions; both are considered to have moved. Two units are considered adjacent only if they are contiguous in the same battalion.
• Moving to another battalion: Only a unit in the rearguard may move to an adjacent battalion, always entering its last position. A unit in the vanguard may never leave its battalion, except if a unit in the second line must move to cover the first line of an empty adjacent battalion.

Insertion of units: When, by the effect of some card, a unit appears in a position that is already covered, it automatically pushes the other units backwards, without affecting their movement.

6. Actions

At the start of this phase, the player holding the Initiative Token must turn face up the red banner with stars if they want to be the first to use an action, or the blue banner with arrows if they want to be the first in each of the attack phases. Their opponent acts first in the phase or phases that they have not chosen.

Then the player with the initiative in this phase may use one of their actions (marked with the icon of the action phase). After that, the players take turns using actions, one at a time, until both decide to pass consecutively.

7. Ranged Attacks

The players take turns (starting with the player who has the initiative in that phase) to attack with each of their units in the vanguard that has a ranged attack. This type of attack is not obligatory. A unit in the rearguard cannot make a ranged attack.

Units with more than one attack: If a unit has scores in several attack abilities, it may attack with all of them in the same round.

8. Magic Attacks

The players take turns (starting with the player who has the initiative in that phase) to attack with each of their units that has a magic attack. This type of attack is not obligatory and may be made from any position (including the rearguard).

9. Melee Attacks

The melee attacks of the battalions are resolved simultaneously, by comparing the total attack and defence of the opposing battalions. The player with the initiative in this phase decides the order in which the combats are resolved.

To calculate the scores of each battalion, the two units in the vanguard add their melee attack and melee defence scores together, provided that both have a melee attack (this is called "coordinating"). Otherwise only the scores of the unit in the first line are used. A Champion cannot coordinate its melee attack with another Champion.

If the total attack of a battalion exceeds the defence of the opposing battalion, the wounded unit is always the one situated in the first line. It may happen that in one attack units on both sides die at the same time.

Example: A Light Infantry unit and some Archers face a Heavy Infantry unit and a Light Infantry unit. The Archers have no melee attack, so the totals of attack and defence of the first battalion are those of the Light Infantry unit (2 and 1 respectively). But both the Heavy Infantry and the Light Infantry of the other battalion have a melee attack, so they add their scores for a total of 5 in attack and 3 in defence. As a result, the Light Infantry of the first battalion is eliminated and the Archers advance to cover its position.

Death: If an attack on a unit exceeds the defence of the same type, the unit dies. In case of a tie, the defence wins.

Whenever a unit dies it must be sent to the discard pile rotated 90° (so that it can easily be counted in the next round), except Risen units or sacrificed units, which are removed from the game automatically.

Once the card has been removed from the battlefield, the whole battalion advances to cover that position, keeping its order, without this being considered a movement.

A unit that is about to die may still use its expertise, provided it has one and that this does not involve sacrificing the unit itself.

Example: A Mage could increase the defence of a companion before dying, but a Light Infantry unit could not sacrifice itself to save another unit's life, since it is already dying.

10. Discards

The actions used this round are sent to the action discard pile.

Up to 3 cards of the player's choice may be carried over to the next round from those that remain in the hand; the rest are sent to their respective discard piles.

Once the first round is finished, these ten steps are repeated three more rounds until the game ends.

Determining the Winner

Each troop card gives as many points as its cost in resources. All troops killed are counted, together with their Items: both those in the troop discard pile and those removed from the game, as well as those troops in battle that have the Risen trait assigned. The player who scores more points in enemy casualties wins.

In case of a tie, the player who has more resources in living troops on the battlefield, not counting Risen units, wins. If these are also equal, the game is a draw.

Priority of Rules

When a card describes an action, ability or expertise that goes against a rule in the manual, the description on the card always prevails.

If two cards come into conflict, the last one that was put into play always prevails.

Games with 3 or 4 Players

Using the cards from two Krynea Battlefield boxes, a game of 3 or 4 players can be played, using a single monolith deck and a single Initiative Token. The rules are the same as for two players, with the following exceptions:

Game table: The battalions face each other between players according to this diagram:

[Diagram: Player 1, Player 2, Player 3 and Player 4 seated around the table, each adjacent to two enemies.]

The units in the 1st line are those next to the boundary lines, the 2nd line are those behind them, and so on. The clash system represented in this diagram is also valid for three players.

Initiative: Initiative rotates clockwise each round. The player who holds it acts first in all phases, and does not have to choose between actions or attacks.

Determining the winner: Instead of counting points at the end, they are added up as casualties are caused. Players may keep the count of all players on a single sheet, as is done with other classic card games.

Alliance play: The four-player mode is a game by alliances (teams). Allies sit facing each other, so that each player is adjacent to two enemies. Casualties are counted by alliance.

Example of Play

Alicia and Miguel challenge each other to a battle in Basic mode. She chooses the faction of the Lords of Magic and he chooses the Knights of the Light (Caballeros de la luz in the printed example; the faction itself is printed as Champions of Light elsewhere in this rulebook). She shows her Magic and Alchemy abilities, and her rival reveals Attunement and Faith.

They toss a coin in the air and Alicia wins the Initiative Token.

They reveal the first monolith. "Esnógar Monolith: all units in the 1st line attack the units in the 2nd line of their own battalion." As there are no troops on the table yet, the monolith has no effect on this occasion.

The card-drawing step begins. As it is the first round, both players have 30 points of resources. Alicia draws troop cards one at a time until she has exactly 25. As she wants 5 actions, which cost 1 point each, she takes no more troops. She still takes a look at the next card in the troop deck, since buying it is not obligatory. Then she draws 5 actions, and it is Miguel's turn.

Miguel draws troops one by one up to 29 points of resources and spends his last point on an action. He looks at the next troop card, a Light Infantry unit with cost 1. As he wants more actions, he decides to compensate his hand by getting rid of some Mages and some Crossbowmen (5 resources in total), in order to buy the Light Infantry and 4 more action cards, thus investing his 30 points.

Troop deployment. Alicia deploys some Paladins (rotated 90°) in the 1st line. Although she could open a new clash, her rival decides to place some Knights opposite those Paladins. Both continue, one at a time, placing their strongest melee troops in the 1st line, ranged-attack units in the 2nd line and support units in the rearguard.

Once all troops are deployed, both players add their costs together with the cost of their actions to check that neither exceeds 30 points. Having done so, they straighten their troops.

In the movement phase Alicia decides not to move, but Miguel, seeing his rival's strategy, decides to swap one of the units in the 1st line with the unit directly behind it. They move on to the next phase because neither wishes to move further.

At the start of the actions phase Alicia decides to be the first to use an action. She shows this by turning the Initiative Token so that the banner with stars is visible. She casts a Magic Bolt against some Catapults placed behind some Knights, but Miguel responds to that attack immediately with a Dispel Magic that cancels the bolt. It is Miguel's turn, and he casts an arcane card, Magic Disruption, to cancel all magic attacks of units this round. Neither of them can keep playing actions that would be useful to them.

Ranged attacks begin. As Alicia started in the actions phase, it is now Miguel who begins, attacking with his Crossbowmen (attack 3) against a Heavy Infantry unit (ranged defence 3). As the attack would do nothing, he uses an action he had kept in his hand, Hawk's Eyes, which gives him an attack of 5, killing the Infantry.

Alicia's turn. She shoots with some Archers (ranged attack 2) at some Mages that Miguel had placed in the 2nd line (ranged defence 1). The Mages would also die, but Miguel tries to save them with his Faith ability; he fails the roll and the Mages are discarded.

Alicia has no more units with a ranged attack, but Miguel still has some Catapults in the 2nd line, which fire at the vanguard of the battalion opposite them (4 points of damage to the 1st line and 3 to the 2nd line). They would eliminate a Heavy Infantry unit (ranged defence 3) in the 1st line and some Mages (ranged defence 1) in the 2nd line, but Alicia reacts with the Magic Protection expertise of the Mages who are about to die, giving her Heavy Infantry one more point of defence in extremis. The Mages die, but they save their Infantry companions.

Then comes the magic attack phase, but as Miguel had cast Magic Disruption, no Arcanist can attack this round. This annoys Alicia, who would have liked her Mages in the rearguard to attack. They move on to the melee attacks.

In two of the clashes, the 1st-line units of both players tie in attack and defence. In another, Miguel's Knights coordinate with the Heavy Cavalry in his 2nd line to attack (total melee attack of 8) Alicia's Paladins, who are supported by some Priests in the 2nd line (total melee defence of 7). The Paladins are mortally wounded, but the Priests of their battalion react successfully with their Salvation expertise to save them. At the same time (even before checking whether the Priests save the Paladins), Alicia adds up her total attack, which turns out to be insufficient to kill Miguel's Knights.

In the last clash there is a Heavy Infantry unit (attack 3 and defence 2) on each side. With no supporting units that could back them up, they kill each other.

The balance of this round is 3 dead on Alicia's side and 2 on Miguel's.

The used actions are discarded. Alicia had 4 of her 5 actions left, so she must discard 1, and Miguel has 2 left for the next round.

The first round ends and the second begins, with the Initiative Token passing to Miguel.

They reveal a new monolith: "Ceirwen Monolith, Goddess of the Hunt: +1 to ranged attack for all units."

They draw cards again. As they are now in the second round, they have 12 points of resources each, plus 1 resource for each of their units that died in the previous round. Alicia, with a total of 15 resources, has been lucky in her draws: Iderion, an Archmage Champion; a Heavy Cavalry unit that will be very useful in the 1st line; and some Crossbowmen. With the other 4 points of resources left she buys 4 actions that will be very useful for trying to avoid Miguel's attacks. Miguel decided to invest 8 points in troops and 5 in actions, wasting one of his resource points.

The two are very evenly matched. This turn there will be magic attacks, and Alicia is sure she has a chance to turn the game around. Who will win?

Definitions

Expertise: A special ability of a troop.

Item: A troop card that represents a weapon, protection, mount or object, which can be linked to a unit by placing it beneath that unit, granting it special capabilities.

Hide: Turn a card face down while keeping its position. The battalion advances to occupy its position. When it loses concealment, the battalion moves back again.

Reveal: Show a card publicly.

Round: Each of the cycles that together make up the set of game phases.

Phase: Each of the parts into which a round is divided. There are ten game phases, listed on the Initiative Token.

Turn: The moment in which each player carries out their action within a phase they are in.

Quick Reference

1 - Select decks

• Choose a faction: Champions of Light, Lords of Magic, Dark Knights, Mercenaries.
• Choose a game mode:
  • Basic: cards marked with a square.
  • Factions: cards with a square or a circle.
  • Free: any card.
• Build the deck: 30 actions, 25 troops and 2 abilities. Minimum 60 in troops.

2 - Reveal abilities

3 - Shuffle decks

4 - Phases of a round (4 rounds per game)

• 1 - Initiative assignment: Random in the first round, then alternates each round.
• 2 - Monoliths: One per round, affects all players.
• 3 - Drawing cards: 30 in the first round. In the following 3 rounds, 12 plus the units killed in the previous round.
• 4 - Deploying troops: Starts with the player who has initiative. One at a time, alternating between players. Count the resources invested.
• 5 - Movement: Alternating, 1 movement per troop and player.
• 6 - Actions: Choose initiative between actions and attacks.
• 7 - Ranged attacks: Only units in the vanguard attack.
• 8 - Magic attacks: Attack from any position.
• 9 - Melee attacks: A single global turn. Initiative chooses the order.
• 10 - Discards: Used actions are discarded. Up to 3 cards may be carried over to the next round.