Locos Crononautas
Locos Crononautas Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
This box contains all the components needed to play:
- 110 game cards.
- 25 Energy Point tokens.
- This rulebook.
Before You Begin
There are two different game modes:
- Time Champion is a game with player elimination, where the winner is the player who survives all of the other Chrononauts.
- Time King is a game without player elimination, where the winner is the player who gathers enough Energy Points to win.
To play, build a deck of your choice with a total of 72 cards: 36 Chrono-Events and 36 Chrono-Troops. Set the remaining cards aside and keep them for another game in which you decide to include them. We recommend playing with Chrono-Troops from nearby historical ages.
Object of the Game
If you play the Time Champion mode: defeat your rival Chrononauts by reducing their Energy marker to zero. If this is your first game, we recommend starting with this mode so that you feel all the tension and vertigo of time travel.
If you play the Time King mode: defeat your rival Chrononauts by reaching as many Energy Points as needed for the number of players:
- For two or three players: to be the winner you must gain at least 10 Energy Points.
- For four or five players: to be the winner you must gain at least 12 Energy Points.
Game Cards
Chrono-Troop
Chrono-Troop cards contain the following elements:
- The name of the Chrono-Troop, the name by which we refer to it.
- Two numeric values: one for Attack and one for Defence.
- Icons representing the age or historical period to which the card belongs, or the specific type within the period to which it belongs.
A Chrono-Troop can be used to:
- Defend: in this case, you place the card from your hand face up on the table beside you. You may have a total of 3 Chrono-Troop cards as defences. On any of your individual turns, your action may consist of exchanging a card you have as a defence for another card in your hand that you think is more suitable to lay down as a defence. Once it is a defence, its Attack value is not taken into account.
- Attack: in this case, launch your Chrono-Troop from your hand against the defences of any player you choose. As an attacking Chrono-Troop, its Defence value is not taken into account.
Chrono-Event
Chrono-Events are all those traps and spatio-temporal tricks we will use to secure victory. The effect of each card in the game is explained on the card itself. There are three types of Chrono-Event:
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Instant: indicated on the card. They allow you to dodge attacks, redirect them to another player, return them to the attacking player, and so on. You may only use them when you receive an attack, or the negative effect of another player's use of a Chrono-Event that affects you (where applicable; the card itself indicates whether you may use it). They are a reaction to another player's action. Once played, they are discarded.
Example: a player attacks you with one of their Chrono-Troop cards. You decide to avoid it by playing an Instant Chrono-Event card. You play "¡Portal Espacio Temporal!" ("Spatio-Temporal Portal!"), opening a portal through which your opponent's Chrono-Troops slip in and disappear.
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Permanent: indicated on the card. You use them to produce a specific effect on one or more players or on the whole game, allowing or preventing the use of certain cards. The card indicates the specific duration of the effect (the whole turn; until the effect is fulfilled; the whole game if it only says "permanent"). Once its effect is fulfilled, it goes to the Chrono-Event discard pile. Once its content is resolved, it is discarded.
Example: you decide to play the Chrono-Event "Triángulo de las Bermudas" ("Bermuda Triangle"), which has a Permanent effect until the condition stated on it is fulfilled, in this case that you suffer two attacks and this card absorbs them.
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Regular: not indicated on the card. Resolve the effect it states and pass the turn to the next player. Once played, they are discarded.
Example: you decide to play "¡Una televisión en la Edad Media!" ("A television in the Middle Ages!"), with which you distract your opponents and may draw 2 cards from either of the decks at that moment.
Connection Between Chrono-Troops and Chrono-Events
Some Chrono-Events have the ability to activate Chrono-Troop cards, either to attack or to be used as the Chrono-Event indicates. This activation is carried out through icons:
The icons are:
- Fossil (Fósil)
- Dinosaur (Dinosaurio)
- Ancient (Antiguo)
- Medieval (Medieval)
- Modern (Moderno)
- Indigenous (Indígenas)
- Contemporary I (Contemporáneo I)
- Contemporary II (Contemporáneo II)
- Contemporary III (Contemporáneo III)
- Aircraft (Avión)
- Germans (Alemanes)
- Napoleonic Wars (Guerras Napoleónicas)
- Russian Army (Ejército ruso)
- North American Indians (Indios Norteamericanos)
When the icons referred to by the Chrono-Event are present on the Chrono-Troop cards indicated, the indicated effect applies to them, or it allows you to perform a special action with them.
Game Setup
- Make two decks of 36 cards: one with the Chrono-Event cards and another with the Chrono-Troop cards. Place them on the table, one next to the other.
- Each player takes 5 Energy Points. This is their starting energy.
- Draw cards from both decks in turn order, consecutively among the players, until each of you has a total of seven cards in your hand. You must always draw up to 4 cards from one of the decks and therefore 3 from the other, at your choice.
During the game, if Chrono-Events are played that allow additional cards to be drawn, the maximum number of cards held in hand is eight. You may never hold more than four cards of each type in your hand.
Example: during your first turn, you decide to draw a total of 4 Chrono-Events and 3 Chrono-Troops. For the second turn, as you think you will need more Chrono-Troops, you choose to draw 4 Chrono-Troops and 3 Chrono-Events.
Start of the Game
The game begins with the youngest player. From them, play continues clockwise.
The game is structured into:
- Turns: a turn begins with all players drawing up to 7 cards into their hand, and ends when all players pass in the same round or all players run out of cards.
- Rounds: each round of play begins with the starting player and ends when it returns to them.
- Individual Turns: each individual turn is the time each player has to carry out their action, that is, to play 1 card of their choice.
Therefore: each Turn is made up of as many Rounds as there are until the players run out of cards or all pass in the same Round, and each Round is made up of as many individual turns as there are players.
Playing the Game
During your turn you may carry out one action, which consists of playing 1 card of your choice, whether a Chrono-Troop or a Chrono-Event. (Except where a Chrono-Event card allows you to play more than one card at that moment.) Playing an Instant Chrono-Event does not count as an action; it is a reaction to another player's action.
During the first Round of the first Turn, and exceptionally, no player may use Chrono-Troop cards as an attack (so as not to favour the player who starts), but in exchange, everyone may lay down up to a total of 3 Chrono-Troop cards as defences at the same time. From the second Round of the first Turn onward, attacks between players with Chrono-Troop cards may be launched. To lay down new defences from hand to the table, this may only be done one at a time (without forgetting the maximum allowed of 3 Chrono-Troops as defences).
A player who decides to pass their Individual Turn in a Round does not mean they cannot continue playing in the next Round of the same Turn.
At the end of the Turn, players may discard any or all of the cards they wish in order to draw new cards for the next Turn of play. They draw cards up to the maximum total allowed (7) and in the permitted ratio (4 and 3), in whichever way they prefer.
NOTE: if the cards of either deck run out, the discard pile is shuffled and placed face down to continue drawing cards from it.
How Combat Is Resolved
Launch your Chrono-Troop or Chrono-Troops (if some event allows you to attack with more than one at a time) against your opponent's defences. The defender chooses which of their Chrono-Troops stops the attack. In the case of an attack with several Chrono-Troops, the defender may choose which defences stop each of them, and may stop more than one attacking Chrono-Troop with a single Chrono-Troop from their defence.
Two different situations may arise once the attack has been launched:
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If the defender stops the attack with a Chrono-Troop whose Defence value is greater than the Attack value of the attacking Chrono-Troop, the attacking Chrono-Troop stays in what we call the Battle Front. Its Attack value accumulates with future attacks that the same player receives, and makes the effective defence of the Chrono-Troop that stops the attack equal to the difference between its Defence value and the Attack value it already supports.
NOTE: if, due to the use of some Chrono-Event, the player who supports attacking Chrono-Troops in a Battle Front loses their defences, the Chrono-Troops in the Battle Front cost them as many Energy Points as the value of their Attack. The defender may in turn use other Instant Chrono-Events (reaction) to avoid this damage, but not new Chrono-Troops (these may only be used on their individual turn, as an action).
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If the defender stops the attack with a Chrono-Troop whose Defence value is lower than the Attack value of your Chrono-Troop, they may choose to:
- Accept the damage inflicted and lose the Energy Points that correspond (the difference between the Attack value of your Chrono-Troop and its Defence value); or
- Support the Chrono-Troop that decides to stop the attack (but whose defence is lower than the attack) with another of their Chrono-Troops in defence.
In this way, as shown in Example 4, if the total defence with which the attack is stopped is equal to or greater than the Attack value, the attack is stopped. In your hand lies the decision whether to lose Energy Points or to support with units whose total defence exceeds the attack and "waste" their total defensive value.
Example 1: The Castilian Infantry and the Zulu Warriors are in the defence of a player who receives an attack from a Sabre-Toothed Tiger. The attacked player decides to stop the Sabre-Toothed Tiger with the Castilian Infantry. As the Defence value of the Castilian Infantry is 5, and the Attack value of the Tiger is 4, the Tiger stays in the Battle Front, making the effective defence of the Castilian Infantry equal to 1 (5 defence − 4 attack).
Example 2: Starting from the previous case, if another player now launches an attack on the Warriors of the Kingdom of Granada, and the defending player decides to stop them again with the Castilian Infantry, the total damage borne by that unit is 8 (4 from the Sabre-Toothed Tiger and 4 from the Warriors of the Kingdom of Granada). The Castilian Infantry are therefore overcome (5 − 8) and the player loses 3 Energy Points for the difference.
Example 3: The German Landsknechts (defence 3) and the Spanish Tercios (defence 7) are in defence. They are attacked by the Roman Legion (attack 5). The defender could stop the attack with the Tercios and the Roman Legion would stay in the Battle Front, but prefers to stop the blow with the Landsknechts, so that this card is eliminated and they also lose as many Energy Points as the difference between the attack received and the defence (3 − 5), which is 2.
Example 4: Imagine that this time the Romans (defence 5) and the German Landsknechts (defence 3) are in defence, and we are attacked by the Spanish Tercios (attack 7). With any single unit that stops the attack, we would lose Energy Points. Therefore, if we do not want to lose Energy Points, we must use one card as a defence to stop the blow and another to support it. We stop the attack with the Romans and support them with our other defence card, the Landsknechts. Two points of damage remain to be stopped (5 − 7), so we support the Romans with the Landsknechts and obtain a total defence of 8. Since the sum of the defence of the card that stops the attack plus its support is greater than the Attack value, the attack is stopped and we discard all the cards involved.
Example 5: Starting from Example 2, if instead of losing 3 Energy Points we support the Castilian Infantry with the Zulu Warriors, the total attack is stopped and we lose no Energy Points. As the total defence value of the troops that stop the attack and their support is greater than the total attack value (11 − 8 = 3), no damage is suffered and all the cards involved are discarded.
From this, and as indicated in Example 4, if the total defence with which you decide to stop the attack is equal to or greater than the Attack value, the attack is stopped. In your hand lies the decision whether to lose Energy Points or to support with units whose total defence exceeds the attack and "waste" their total defensive value.
All the cards involved in combat, both attackers and defenders, that have acted to stop the attack or to support it are discarded, except those Chrono-Troops in defence or attack involved in a Battle Front. The Battle Front is undone when the combat is resolved, because when they attack again and we stop them with the defence cards that already have attackers in the Battle Front, and these are finally overcome.
End of the Game
The game ends when all the Chrononauts except one have lost all their energy to travel through time in the Time Champion mode, or at the moment one of the Chrononauts gains as many Energy Points as needed to rise as the Time King.
Recommended Starter Cards
Cards recommended for starting to play.
Chrono-Events:
Triassic Park – Bucle espacio temporal – Unos minutos antes... – ¡Traición! – ¡Garrotazo del homínido! – ¡Vuelve al museo! – Un paso por delante – ¡Y estalló la Revolución! – ¡Portal Espacio Temporal! – Tambores lejanos – Ambrosio de Spínola – Triángulo de las Bermudas – Realidades espacio temporales confusas – Cronopaleontólogo – Destino equivocado – Portal de Huída – Ucronía – Mala fama histórica – ¡Rugido de Tiranosaurio! – ¡A las Cruzadas! – ¡Los antiguos se han unido! – ¡Todos para uno! – ¡Reyes, feudos y espadas! – Multi... ¿qué? – Convención Anual de Viajeros del Tiempo – ¡Neandertal ladrón! – ¡Una televisión en la Edad Media! – Arcos de Crécy – William Wallace – El primero de la Academia de Viajes en el Tiempo – El favorito de Cronos – Tu máquina del tiempo es pura chatarra... – ¿Miedo a los Hunos? – ¡Distorsión espacio temporal! – ¡Me largo! – Pasaje al Multiverso
Chrono-Troops:
Tiranosaurio Rex – Velociraptors – Triceratops – Pterodáctilo – Jenízaros – Conquistadores de Hernán Cortés – Hoplitas atenienses – Guerreros incas – Guerreros de la dinastía Ming – Carros de Guerra Egipcios – Legión romana – Horda de Genghis Khan – Cazadores Neandertales – Cazadores Homo Erectus – Milicia Escocesa – Guerreros zulúes – Almorávides – Arqueros ingleses – Almogávares aragoneses – Guerreros de taifas – Carabineros franceses – Horda de atila el huno – Vikingos – Lansquenetes alemanes – Aborígenes australianos – Guerreros del reino de granada – Piqueros suizos – Tercios españoles – Espartanos – Guerreros babilónicos – Guerreros aztecas – Samuráis – Caballería pesada francesa – Tigre dientes de sable – Casacas rojas ingleses – Infantes castellanos