Legendary: A James Bond Deck Building Game – Thunderball
Legendary: A James Bond Deck Building Game – Thunderball Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Thunderball
To start off, we recommend you use:
- Emilio Largo as the Mastermind and the Thunderball Villain Group.
- The NATO Project Scheme and its Mission Group.
- Disco Volante Frogmen as the Henchmen Group.
Dive
Dive is a new Hero keyword. These Heroes can stay in play for two of your turns in a row: first they'll be right-side up like a normal Hero, and then on your next turn they'll be upside down or "Underwater" where they have a second effect.
When you play a Hero with Dive it works normally like any other Hero. But during your Clean Up Phase, instead of discarding a Hero with Dive you may have it "Dive." Rotate the card 180 degrees so its "Underwater: TEXT" is now readable.
During your NEXT Action Phase, you get that Hero's Underwater ability. You can choose when during that Action Phase you get each of your Heroes' Underwater abilities. (You don't have to get them all at once.)
Then during that turn's Clean Up Phase, you'll discard your Heroes that are Underwater normally.
The quick way to think about it is: At the end of your turn if you have a right-side up "Dive" Hero, you may turn it upside down. But at the end of your turn if you have an Underwater Hero you must discard it.
Here's a suggested play aid for using Heroes with Dive/Underwater:
- Discard any Underwater Heroes you have in play.
- You may have any number of your Heroes in play with Dive go Underwater (rotate them 180 degrees).
- Discard all of your remaining right-side up Heroes.
Having a Hero Dive underwater is optional. You can choose to discard it normally instead.
A Hero that is Underwater does NOT help trigger class special abilities since you didn't play it that turn. (The exception of this is "And the Kitchen Sink!"'s Underwater ability, because that's the whole point of that ability.)
Underwater text is in blue to parallel Submerged text found on Villains and Missions.
Submerge
Submerge is a returning mechanic from The Spy Who Loved Me expansion. If a Villain or Mission says to "Submerge" rotate it 180 degrees and then its Submerged text becomes active.
You can't fight a Villain or Mission while it's Submerged, but there will be ways to "surface" it, which means turn it 180 degrees back to right-side up.
In this expansion some Villains/Missions can be surfaced when one or more Heroes Dive during a player's turn.
Example: This Disco Volante Frogmen Henchman can be surfaced when two Heroes Dive. So at the end of your turn, if you have two or more Heroes Dive underwater, you get to surface the Disco Volante Frogmen.
Note: This does not count Heroes that are already Underwater. It only checks the moment when Heroes Dive in a single turn. (Two different players each having one Hero Dive underwater would not count.)
If there are two or more Submerged Villains and/or Missions that get surfaced by having Heroes Dive, each Hero you have Dive can apply to each of them.
Example: Let's say there are three of the Disco Volante Frogmen mentioned above that each require two Heroes to Dive. If two Heroes Dive on your turn, that will surface all three Disco Volante Frogmen.
Disguised
Disguised is a new Villain keyword that represents the Villain pretending to be a normal, harmless person.
When a Villain with Disguised is played from the Villain deck do the following:
- Instead of putting it On Assignment, the active player gains the Disguised Villain. (Put it into your discard pile.)
- Play another card from the Villain deck. (Don't forget this part!)
When you draw a Disguised Villain from your deck immediately do the following:
- Put it into the rightmost space of On Assignment, pushing other cards normally.
- You draw a card from your deck. (Don't forget this part either!)
Usually, you'll draw a Disguised Villain at the end of your turn when you draw a new hand, but it's possible to draw it during your Action Phase or even on another player's turn. Whenever you draw it, it will immediately go On Assignment.
Note: When you draw a new hand, you draw your whole hand before effects like Disguised take place.
If you ever have two or more Disguised Villains in your hand at the same time (perhaps when you draw your new hand of six cards), you choose which one to put On Assignment first, pushing other cards normally. Then put the next one On Assignment, and so on.
If the Inevitable card is in play when you need to put a Disguised Villain On Assignment, put it one space to the left of the Inevitable card.
Note: When playing with Disguised Villains, make sure a player is finished drawing their new hand before the next player starts their turn.
Disguised is in red font to make it easier to recognize when played from the Villain deck AND when you draw it.
Emilio Largo
The Mastermind for this movie has the new ability: SPECTRE Number 2. This means the Danger Level starts at 2 this game instead of 0. (This is also explained on his card.)
Largo's Master Strike and Escape abilities each refer to "2" Heroes. A "2" Hero is any Hero with the number 2 printed in its cost, attack, or class icon, or anywhere in its game text. (The word "two" does not count. The number "2" in the legal line at the bottom of the card does not count.)
Mastermind Tactics Go Places: Emilio Largo's Tactics don't go into Victory piles. Instead, two of them go next to the Mastermind, one goes onto the Inevitable card, and one becomes a Mission and enters On Assignment. (Only that last Tactic has any Victory Points.)
The Core Set has a Scheme called Fake Your Own Death which plays random Mastermind Tactics from a separate pile and then KOs them (instead of putting them into a player's Victory Pile). If one of Largo's Tactics gets played that way, ignore the "KO" instruction on the Scheme.
If this Tactic gets attached to an Inevitable card (from a different film) that doesn't require attack to complete it, just ignore the +2 attack from this Tactic.
NATO Project
This Scheme reduces the Danger Level number at which Evil Wins. At first Evil Wins at Danger Level 7, but the first Twist covers the 7 so now Evil will win at Danger Level 6. The second Twist covers the 6, and so on.
For example, if the current Danger Level is at 3 and the highest visible Danger Level is at 4, one more Scheme Twist will end the game.
Steal a Nuclear Bomber
During setup of this Scheme build the Hidden Bomber pile which includes the following Extra cards:
- 1 Nuclear Bomber
- 1 Camouflage Netting
- 1 Golden Grotto
- 6 Clear Water
You shuffle the pile and set it off to the side of the playmat and leave space for it to have its own discard pile. (Then just follow the instructions on the Scheme and cards.)
Note: The Search for the Nuclear Bomber action does not stop you from using the heal ability on normal Wounds.
Fiona Volpe (with Chase)
Her "KO that Villain" effect only happens the very first time she would push a Villain that's next to her while using her Chase ability.
Get Rescued from the Rack
You might want to note which card is the Rescuer on a piece of paper so you don't have to remember. Once this Mission is completed, cards stop being the Rescuer.
Jet Pack
This Hero has a Class Special Ability that triggers while it's in your discard pile instead of when you play it. When you play a Hero with the class icon shown on the sheet ([class icon not legible in the source; see the source note]), if you have one or more Jet Packs in your discard pile, you may put any number of them on the top of your deck.
As a play aid, you might want to set your Jet Pack cards on the top of your discard pile (the order of the discard pile never matters) or even slide them out of your discard pile so it's easier to notice them.
Note: If you choose a Hero with that same class icon with "And the Kitchen Sink!"'s Underwater Ability, that WILL trigger the Jet Packs in your discard pile.
Play a Round of Baccarat
A couple of cards say to do this. Here's how it works:
- Reveal and set aside the top two cards of the Hero deck as your Baccarat hand. After seeing them, you may reveal and add a third card.
- The total of their cost is your score. The goal is to get as close to 9 as possible.
- If you go over 9, you just use the ones place of the total. a. Example: You reveal a 2 and a 4 for a total of 6. You choose to reveal a third card which is a 7 and brings your total to 13. Your final score is 3.
- Reveal and set aside the next top two cards of the Hero deck for the Mastermind and total their costs the same way you did yours. Note: The Mastermind never reveals a 3rd card.
- If your total is higher than the Mastermind's, you win. Otherwise, you lose.
- Finally, shuffle all the set aside cards together and put them on the bottom of the Hero deck.
Note: If there are four or fewer cards left in the Hero deck, and you need to play Baccarat, you automatically win the round. (Don't reveal any cards.)
Jettison Cocoon
If this Tactic gets attached to an Inevitable card (from a different film) that doesn't require attack to complete it, just ignore the +2 attack from this Tactic.
"She's Just Dead"
This is an optional Special Wound you may shuffle into the Wound stack during setup. If you are using Special Wounds, turn the Wound stack face down.
Note: Special Wounds are not KO'd by the "Heal" effect found on Normal Wounds.
If you're playing with the Create Omega Virus Scheme from a previous expansion, if "She's Just Dead" is in your personal Wound stack, you may KO it from there as though it were in your hand.
SPECTRE Tow Sled
This is a new optional Special Gadget. You may shuffle it in with your other Gadgets during setup and turn the Gadget stack face down.
Game Contents
Rules insert and 120 cards:
- 5 Heroes of 14 cards each (Each Hero has 1 rare, 3 uncommons, 5 of one common, and 5 of another common)
- 1 Villain Group of 8 cards
- 1 Mission Group of 9 cards
- 1 Henchmen Group of 10 cards
- 1 Mastermind with 4 Mastermind Tactics
- 2 Schemes
- 1 Special Starting Hero
- 3 Special Wounds
- 3 Special Gadgets
- 9 Extra Cards
Additional Rules and Clarifications
Bullet Shield
You may reveal this in your hand once during each player's turn (including your own) to reduce the number of Wounds a player would gain by one. If multiple players would receive wounds at the same time in a turn, a Bullet Shield only reduces one Wound for one of those players. If you have multiple Bullet Shields in hand, you can reveal each of them once per turn.
Escape the Shark Pool and Golden Grotto Shark
Both of these cards give you a Wound at the end of your Action Phase. Note: This takes place BEFORE your Clean Up Phase which is when your Heroes would have a chance to Dive and surface these cards.