League of Hackers Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• Starting Setup
• Round Overview
• Action Selection
• Action Resolution
  • I: Install
  • II: Defense
  • III: Attack
  • IV: Mitigation
• Round End
• Game End
• 2-player Game
• Card Effects
• Gameplay Examples

Game Components

Components: 40 Defense Cards, 24 Attack Cards, 26 Server Cards, 70 Damage Tokens, 22 Wooden Tokens, 4 Defense Boards, 4 Player Aids, 1 Score Board, 1 Rulebook.

Attack Card, Defense Card and Server Card:

• A. Card cost.
• B. Card type / color.
• C. Attack strength & cost combination.
• D. Victory point reminder. See page 6 for details.
• E. Defense strength provided.
• F. Card effect provided when in play. See page 7 for details.
• G. Action when this effect may be used.
• H. Vulnerable holes.
• I. Bonus victory points. See page 6 for details.
• J. Card name.

Other components: Damage Tokens, Defense Board, Score Board.

Starting Setup

1. Each player takes a set of Action Tiles, Defense Tracker, 4 cubes & 1 disc of the same color.
2. Deal out all round 1 server cards (2 holes) to the display.
3. Shuffle all defense cards & attack cards to form a draw pile.
4. Put all damage tokens in a pool nearby.
5. Deal 8 cards from the draw pile to each player.
6. Put your cubes on the "0" spaces of your Defense Board.
7. Put the round marker & action marker on their "1" space.
8. Starting clockwise from the player who is the least experienced hacker, choose one server card from the display and place it in front of you. Place the disc of your color on the "0" space of the VP track. Players should stack their discs in player order, with the first player on the bottom.
9. You can start playing!

Handicap Setup (Optional Rule): Let the less experienced players draw 1-3 extra cards during setup. All players need to discard their hands until they have 8 cards left before they start the first round. Shuffle the discard pile into the draw pile.

Round Overview

The game consists of 3 rounds, and each round is split into 3 phases:

1. Action Selection
2. Action Resolution
3. Round End

Each player will simultaneously select then resolve up to 5 actions before the round ends. If any player runs out of cards in hand, he must pass and wait for other players to carry out their actions.

Action Selection

Each player secretly chooses an action to do, and decides on which card(s) to play. Make your selection by placing the chosen action tile face-down on top of the card you want to play, and put the cost cards face-down underneath. Every card counts as 1 cost when paid to discard pile. Wait for all players to select an action before proceeding.

Players must choose an action and play at least 1 card under the action tile if they have any cards left in hand. You may only pass when you don't have any cards left.

Details on how to select each action:

• Install: Place a number of cards equal to the cost of the Server Card you wish to buy face-down under this action tile. May not choose this action when the server display is empty.
• Defense: Choose a Defense Card to play. Place this Defense Card and an extra number of cards equal to the cost of this card face-down under this action tile.
• Attack: Choose an Attack card to play. Choose the attack strength by placing an extra number of cards equal to the corresponding cost listed next to each attack strength face-down under this action tile.
• Mitigation: Choose any amount of cards to place face-down under this action tile. You must choose this action when you can't pay for the others above.

Action Resolution

After all players have chosen their action, reveal all action tokens and resolve actions in this order:

1. Install
2. Defense
3. Attack
4. Mitigation

If 2 or more players selected the same action, then the player with fewer victory points or whose disc is on top will resolve first.

Do not reveal your cards until you are resolving your action.

I: Install

Pay all cards under the tile the discard pile, and choose 1 server card from the display to place in front of you.

The cost may not be reduced to lower than 1. If another player claims the last server before you, return the cards played to your hand.

May not choose this action when the server display is empty.

Each Player can only have 5 server cards in front of them. When you install a sixth server, you must remove an existing server, count the total Damage on it, and redistribute the same amount of Damage evenly on the new Server Card. Put the removed card back in the box.

II: Defense

Reveal a Defense Card. Pay the cost cards to the discard pile. Place the Defense Card in front of you. Add the Defense strength to your total for that color on your defense board.

The defense board works as a quick reminder of a player's total defense strength on all defense cards he has. Please keep an eye on it and update when needed.

There is no limit to the amount of Defense Cards each player may have, and all Defense Cards will remain in play until the end of game.

Each Defense Card will provide a special effect and provide benefits only when they are placed in front of you, there will be no effects when they are in hand or paid to the discard pile. Please refer to page 7 for descriptions of all card effects.

There are no timing issues for this action, all players can resolve at the same time.

III: Attack

Reveal an Attack Card. Pay the cost cards underneath the action token to choose the attack strength listed for that cost on the Attack Card. The color of your attack is determined by the color of the card played, or you can choose one color now if it is a multi-colored attack card.

All opponents who has at least one hole of this color will be attacked. They will gain Damage equal to the attack strength minus their total defense strength in this color. Then they distribute damage evenly across all holes of this color, so that the number of damage tokens covering each hole is equal after this attack, they can decide where the remainders will go. Each hole can only hold 4 Damage, if all holes of this color is full then return the damage tokens back to the pool.

Direct Damage: Can not be defended, each attacked player will gain the damaged tokens listed directly. Distribute tokens in the same method above.

Gain Victory Points equal to the largest amount of Damage successfully placed on a single opponent of your attack.

IV: Mitigation

For each card paid under this action token, you may remove 3 Damage from your servers. You may choose from any hole(s) without regard to color or amount on it.

After all actions has resolved, return all action tiles back to their owners. Move the action marker 1 space ahead and go back to the start of the action selection phase again.

Round End

After players have taken 5 actions or when no players have cards left in hand, the round ends. Apply all round end effects first, then players gain points for their server cards:

1. Gain 1 VP for each hole that is not covered by Damage tokens.
2. Gain bonus VP listed on each server card that doesn't have any Damage tokens on all holes.

After scoring:

1. Remove all damage tokens from all server cards.
2. Return all rotated cards to upright orientation.
3. Discard all unused cards still in hand to the discard pile.
4. Remove all unclaimed Server Cards on display from the game, and put them back in the box.
5. Deal out all Server Cards of the next round to the display. Round 2 servers have 3 holes, Round 3 have 4 holes.
6. Move round marker ahead 1 space, move action marker to 1.
7. Each player draws 8 cards to their hand. Shuffle the discard pile into a new draw pile when needed.
8. Start new Round.

Game End

The game ends when 3 Rounds have passed.

The player with the most VPs at the end of the game wins.

In case of a tie, the player with the least amount of damage on their server cards wins. If there is still a tie then the players share a joint victory.

2-player Game

Setup: Set a defense boards for a Dummy. When players choose their starting servers, each player also chooses a server card for the dummy player, so it starts with 2 servers. The defense strength for each color is equal to the number of holes in each color for the dummy player.

Extra rules: Each player can only take 4 actions per round, max. 4 server cards. The Dummy player will gain a server card immediately when a player has more servers of the current round than the Dummy. The other player will choose which card the Dummy will gain. Adjust the Dummy's defense board so that the Defense strength is equal to the number of holes in each color.

Card Effects

D-01 Thin Provision: II Install Action Rotate this card 90 degrees when you resolve your action. You may install a server card at -1 cost. You may not use this effect when this card is rotated. Card orientation does not affect your defense strength.

D-02 Incident Response: IV Mitigation Action Rotate this card 90 degrees when you resolve your action. You may remove any 2 damage immediately. You must pay at least 1 card during the mitigation action to use this effect. You may not use this effect when this card is rotated. Card orientation does not affect your defense strength.

D-03 Soild State Cache: II Install Action When you install a server card, you immediately gain 1 VP.

(The card name is printed as "Soild State Cache" in the source rulebook.)

D-04 Auto Recovery: E Round End When the round ends, you may remove any 2 damage immediately.

D-05 Certification Audit: E Round End When the round ends, gain 1 VP for each undamaged server card you own.

D-06 Proof of Concept: III Attack Phase When you successfully deal damage to at least 1 opponent, gain 1 VP immediately.

D-07 Trojan Horse: III Attack Action When you attack in one of the 2 colors shown, increase your attack strength by 2. Can not add this to your direct damage total.

D-08 Underground Market: III Attack Action When you successfully deal damage to at least 2 opponents, gain 2 VP immediately.

D-09 Zero-Day Attack: III Attack Action When you attack in one of the 2 colors shown, add 2 direct damage to your attack.

D-10 Deep Security: II Defense Action This card counts as 1 defense in all colors.

Card effects can be "stacked", for example you can use 2 copies of D-02 Incident Response even when you only paid 1 card; gain 2 VP for every clean server if you have 2 copies of D-05 Certification Audit; and increase attack strength by 4 if your 2 copies of D-07 Trojan Horse both have the color you are attacking in.

Gameplay Examples

Attack Example: Neo attacks with a green card. He pays 2 cost, and has D-07R & D-09Y so his total attack strength is 2 + 8 direct damage.

Only Trinity has green holes on their server cards, so she is attacked. She has a green defense of 4, and stops the 2 attack strength, but still receives the direct damage. Since she only have 7 green spaces left, she takes 7 damage and fills them in.

Neo has successfully dealt 7 damage to Trinity. Since he has 2 copies of D-06, he gains 7 + 2 = 9 VP.

(Diagram labels: Attack Strength 2 + 8 Direct Damage; Defense Strength 4.)

Scoring Example: This is the status of Trinity's server cards at the end of the round. S-10 & S-22 is clean of all damage tokens, but S-14 still has 1 hole covered. D-05G and D-05B each generates 2 VP since there are 2 clean servers. Trinity gains 2 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 7 = 16 VP this round.

(Diagram labels: 2 VP, 2 VP, 3 VP, 2 VP, 7 VP.)