Mali Powstańcy: Warszawa 1944 Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Components
• Two Game Variants
• Basic Variant
  • Setup
  • Gameplay
  • 1. Orders Phase
  • 2. Scout Movement Phase
    • Moving Scouts
    • Jump to an Adjacent Location
  • 3. German Soldier Movement Phase
  • 4. Time Passing Phase
  • End of Game
  • Basic Variant – 3 Players
  • Basic Variant – 2 Players
• Extended Variant
  • Setup
  • Gameplay
    • 1. Orders Phase
    • 2. Scout Movement Phase
    • Actions
    • 3. Time Passing Phase
  • End of Game
  • Extended Variant – 3 Players
  • Extended Variant – 2 Players
  • Description of Secret Objectives

Objective

The goal of the game is to score as many points as possible. Points are earned above all by carrying orders issued by the commanders of insurgent units between locations. Additional points can be earned at the end of the game for the happy return of Scouts to their starting locations.

In the extended variant, players also earn additional points if, during the game, they fulfil the secret objectives they received at the start of play.

Components

The box contains the following elements:

• a board with a map of the left bank of Warsaw
• 12 Scout pawns in 4 different colors
• 12 Scout tokens in 4 different colors
• a deck of 20 movement cards
• a deck of 42 order cards
• 7 small and 3 large German unit tokens
• 1 German soldier pawn (used only in the basic variant of the game)
• a die (used only in the basic variant of the game)
• a Victory card (used only in the extended variant of the game)
• a deck of 24 secret objective cards (used only in the extended variant of the game)
• a starting player marker
• a rulebook

Two Game Variants

Mali Powstańcy has two variants of play: basic and extended. Players who are playing for the first time should start with the basic variant. Only after a few games is it worth also getting to know the extended variant.

The rulebook describes the rules of the game for four players. The rules of play for three and two players are given in parentheses and at the end of the descriptions of the individual variants.

Basic Variant

Setup

Place the board on the table. Each player chooses a color and takes the Scout pawns, Scout tokens, and a set of five movement cards in the chosen color. Place the Scout pawns on the board — one Scout of each color on Wilson Square, in the PAST building, and on Stary Mokotów. Shuffle the deck of order cards thoroughly and count out the first 20 cards from it (16 cards in a 3-player game, 12 cards in a 2-player game). Place them face down on the Order space on the board. Set the remaining order cards aside in the box. Place the German soldier pawn on Narutowicza Square. Place the small German unit tokens next to the board.

The starting player marker goes to whoever last visited the Warsaw Rising Museum. If no one has ever been there, freely choose the starting player and be sure to visit the museum at the nearest opportunity. Now it is time to begin the game.

Gameplay

The game consists of a series of successive rounds. Each round is divided into four phases:

1. Orders phase
2. Scout movement phase
3. German soldier movement phase
4. Time passing phase

1. Orders Phase

The player starting the round takes two order cards (in a 3-player game, this is two cards in odd rounds and one card in even rounds; in a 2-player game, always take one card) from the top of the order deck and lays them face up, one next to the other, on the first space of the order track.

The order card that lies face up on the order track is active. This means that any player whose Scout is at the location shown on the card as the starting location may place a token bearing that Scout's name on the order card (Example 1). In this way the player signals that their Scout has picked up the order and will try to deliver it to the destination location. A Scout may pick up an order at any moment during the player's movement. Each order can be picked up by multiple Scouts, but only one per patrol. Each Scout can carry only one order at a time, but may abandon it at any moment. In that case the player removes the Scout token from the order card.

The first Scout to deliver an order to its destination location scores points for their patrol. All Scout tokens must then be removed from that order card and returned to the players, and the card must be removed from the order track and handed to the player whose Scout delivered the order. The player places it face down in front of themselves. The other players who were also trying to deliver that order receive no points.

Example 1. A card appears on the first space of the order track: "Wilson Square – Port." Any Scout who visits the Wilson Square space may pick up this order — the player places a token bearing that Scout's name on the card. The first Scout to deliver the order to the Port earns 15 points for their patrol.

2. Scout Movement Phase

Each player chooses one of the movement cards in hand and places it face down in front of themselves. In subsequent rounds, the player places the movement card on top of the movement cards used in previous rounds. Once players have chosen their cards, everyone reveals them simultaneously. Players then, in turn, carry out the movements shown on their chosen card. The order of movement is determined by the numbers on the cards. Players move in order from number 1 to 5. If two or more players choose a card with the same number, the player holding the starting player marker moves first, or the player who sits closer to them in clockwise direction.

The information on the lower half of the card has no significance here — it applies only to the extended variant of the game.

As part of their movement, a player may:

• move their Scout pawns by the number of spaces shown on the movement card,

or

• move one Scout by jumping from one location to an adjacent location.

Immediately before their movement, a player must bring onto the board any Scout or Scouts who escaped from Prison in the previous round. These pawns may be placed on any space on the board. (More information about the Prison space is given in the description of Phase 3.)

Example 2. The red player has two movement points. Their Scout, standing in the PAST building, can therefore move to the Post Office space. The player may also decide to move that Scout only one space, and use the second movement point to move a different Scout.

Moving Scouts

If a player chooses to move Scouts, they may freely divide movement points among their Scouts. The number on the movement card indicates how many movement points the player has (Example 2). No Scout may enter a space occupied by the German soldier.

Jump to an Adjacent Location

If a player chooses to jump to an adjacent location (Example 3), they may move one of their Scouts from the location where that Scout stands to another, adjacent location. If the Scout is not in a location, but only on one of the spaces between locations, they cannot make a jump. A player may jump over the German soldier if the soldier is not standing in a location.

Once all players have made their movement, the Scout movement phase ends. The movement cards used in it remain on the table. In the second round each player will have only four cards left, in the following round three, and so on. Only once every player has used all their cards do players take back the whole set from the table and again have five movement cards to choose from.

Example 3. The red Scout is standing on Three Crosses Square. From there they can jump to the PAST building, the Powiśle Power Plant, the Czerniaków Bridgehead, Szucha Avenue, or the Post Office. The orange Scout, who is not in a location but is instead on a space between the PAST building and the Powiśle Power Plant, cannot make a jump.

3. German Soldier Movement Phase

Once all players have made their Scout movement, the German soldier movement phase follows. The soldier roams Warsaw, trying to catch Scouts. Each German soldier movement phase proceeds as follows:

• First, all Scouts located on the Prison space return to their players' hands. They have managed to escape from prison and will return to the game in the next round.
• Next, the starting player rolls the die. If a black number comes up, the German soldier moves; if a red number comes up, one of the Scouts receives an extra movement.
• If a black number came up, the German soldier moves that many spaces toward the nearest Scout, as indicated by the die. If two or more Scouts are at the same distance from the soldier, he runs toward the Scout of the player who moved later in this round (played the movement card with the higher number). If two or more Scouts who are nearest to the German soldier belong to the same player, that player decides which of their Scouts the soldier runs toward.
• If the soldier enters, during his movement, a space occupied by at least one Scout, he immediately stops and arrests all Scouts standing there. The pawns of these Scouts must be removed from the board and placed on the Prison space. If the arrested Scouts were carrying orders, they lose them. The tokens of these Scouts must be removed from the order cards (Example 4).
• If a red number came up, the Scout standing closest to the German soldier may immediately move up to as many spaces as shown by the die. If two or more Scouts are at the same distance from the soldier, the extra movement goes to the Scout of the player who moved later in this round (played the movement card with the higher number). If two or more Scouts who are nearest to the German soldier belong to the same player, that player decides which Scout receives the extra movement.

Example 4. The German soldier is at the Warsaw Breweries. The player starting the round rolls the die. A three comes up, so the soldier can move up to three spaces. The Scouts nearest to the soldier are: the red and green Scout at the Bank Polski, and a green Scout one space from the Michler Palace. The green player moved later in this round than the red player, so the soldier should run toward their Scout. However, two green Scouts are at the same distance from the soldier, so the player decides in which direction the soldier runs. The green player chooses the Scout standing at the Bank Polski. The German soldier moves two spaces and stops at the Bank Polski, arresting both Scouts standing there: the green one and the red one.

4. Time Passing Phase

At the end of the round comes the time passing phase. All order cards on the order track are shifted one space down. Those on space 1 move to space 2, from 2 to 3, and so on. Orders on the last, fifth space leave the order track.

If an order card leaves the track, it means the order was not delivered in time to the insurgent unit. As a result, enemy soldiers gain the advantage at the location to which the order was to be delivered.

Example 5. The order card from the Securities Printing Works to Szucha Avenue falls off the order track — no Scout managed to deliver the order in time. The player who moved last in this round must block one of the roads leading from Szucha Avenue. They choose the road to the Czerniaków Bridgehead and place a small German unit token on it. The pawn of the orange Scout, who was on that road, must be moved to the nearest safe space, which is the Czerniaków Bridgehead.

The player who moved last in this round takes a small German unit token and places it on one of the roads leading from the location to which the order was to be delivered. From now on this road is blocked by enemy units — no Scout may use it or pass through it in any way. If a Scout is standing on one of the spaces belonging to the road between the two locations that is to be blocked, they are immediately moved to one of the two neighboring locations. If there is more than one nearest safe space, the player chooses one of them and moves their Scout pawn there (Example 5).

At the end of the time passing phase, the starting player marker is passed to the person sitting to the left. The next round of the game begins with the orders phase.

End of Game

The game can end in two ways.

• If all the order cards from the deck have been laid out on the order track, the orders phase is no longer played in subsequent rounds. The game continues until the end of the round in which the last order leaves the track. Points are then tallied.

  Players reveal the cards of orders delivered during the game and add up the points shown on them. Additional points are earned by players whose Scouts returned to the three starting locations: Wilson Square, the PAST building, and Stary Mokotów. Several Scouts from one player's patrol may return to the same starting location. If one Scout from a patrol returned to one of the starting locations, the player earns 1 point; two Scouts — 3 points; all three Scouts — 7 points.

  Whoever scored the most points wins the game. In case of a tie, the winner is the player whose Scouts delivered more orders. If it is still a tie, both players win.

• Unfortunately, failing to deliver orders on time can lead to defeat for all players. If at any point in the game a fourth German unit token appears on the board, the game immediately ends in defeat for all players. In such a situation, points are not tallied.

Basic Variant – 3 Players

When playing the basic variant with three players, the order deck consists of 16 cards. In the orders phase, two cards are taken from the deck in odd rounds and one card in even rounds.

Basic Variant – 2 Players

When playing the basic variant with two players, the order deck consists of 12 cards. In the orders phase, one card is taken from the deck in every round of the game.

Extended Variant

The extended variant of the game is intended for advanced players who have already played the basic variant a few times. Described below are the differences in the rules of play compared to the basic variant.

Setup

Set up the game as in the basic variant, but with the three differences below.

• In the extended variant, the German soldier does not take part in the game — do not place his pawn on the board, and skip the German soldier movement phase.
• Shuffle the order deck and count out 12 cards from it (18 cards for a 3-player game, 24 cards for a 2-player game). Place them face down on the Order space on the board, then place the face-down Victory card on top of them, and on top of that in turn the remaining order cards — also face down.
• Shuffle the deck of secret objective cards and deal six cards to each player. Each player takes three of them and places them face down in front of themselves (Note! A player may not choose more than one card of the same color!). Players set the remaining cards aside in the box without showing them to the other players. If a player receives six cards in only one or two colors, reshuffle and deal the cards again.

Gameplay

1. Orders Phase

The orders phase works as in the basic variant.

2. Scout Movement Phase

In the extended variant, each movement card allows a player to move their Scout pawns as well as to carry out the action described on the card. A player may carry out the movement and the action in any order, but must completely finish one of them before beginning the other.

Example 6. The green player chose the card with the "Buddies from the Courtyard" action. They therefore first use one movement point to move their first Scout one space from the Old Town toward Pawiak. Then, carrying out the action, they swap that Scout's place with the second Scout standing at the Michler Palace.

Actions

Cards numbered 1 through 4, besides movement, allow an additional action to be carried out.

1. Buddies from the Courtyard. The player may swap the places of two of their Scouts located in the same district (Example 6).
2. Insurgent Unit. A Scout meets an insurgent unit that helps them get safely to an adjacent location. The player may move one of their Scouts from a location to an adjacent location. To use this action, the Scout must be in a location (Example 7).
3. Order Swap. The player may swap the places of two orders lying on adjacent spaces on the order track. It does not matter whether the cards lie to the right or left of the track. This action cannot be used to move the Victory card on the order track (Example 8).

Example 7. The purple player chose the card with the "Insurgent Unit" action. First they carry out the action and move their Scout from the Powiśle Power Plant to the Securities Printing Works. Then they use the first of their two movement points to move the same Scout to the Citadel. The second movement point they spend to move a different Scout.

Example 8. The red player chose the card with the "Order Swap" action. First they swap the order lying on the fourth, last space of the order track with the order lying on the third space. Thanks to this they will have one more round to deliver it to Wilson Square. Then they use three movement points and move their Scout from Three Crosses Square to the Bank Polski.

4. Rumors from the Street. The player may look at as many cards from the top of the order deck as the number of order cards that will be laid out in the next orders phase. After looking at the cards, the player puts them back face down on top of the deck. If one of these cards leads to or from a district that has already fallen, the player shows it to the other players, sets it aside in the box, and takes the next card from the order deck (Example 9).

Example 9. The orange player chose the card with the "Rumors from the Street" action. First they take the top two cards from the order deck, which will appear in the next round. They see that one of them is an order that must be picked up from the Port. They put the cards back on top of the deck and use four movement points to move their Scout from Stary Mokotów to the Port, so that they can pick up this order in the next round of the game.

3. Time Passing Phase

Note! In the extended variant the order track consists of only four spaces. An order that leaves the fourth space of the track is considered undelivered in time!

If the order is the first in that district not to be delivered on time, enemy soldiers gain the advantage at the location to which it was to be delivered. The effect is the same as in the basic variant of the game, with one difference:

• Facing the enemy's advantage, insurgent units must take appropriate action, and commanders issue new orders. Immediately take a card from the top of the order deck and place it on the first space of the order track. As a result, at the start of the next round there will be one more order on the first space of the order track. When placing a small German unit token on the roads between locations found in two different districts, make sure to place it within the correct district.

If the order is the second in that district not to be delivered on time, enemy soldiers take over the entire district in which the location to which the order was to be delivered is found. The effect is as follows:

• The district has been lost for good. Place a large German unit token on that district.
• Immediately take a card from the top of the order deck and place it on the first space of the order track. As a result, at the start of the next round there will be one more order on the first space of the order track.
• All Scouts who were located in that district are immediately moved out of it to the nearest safe spaces. If there is more than one nearest safe space, the player chooses one of them and moves their pawn there (Example 10).
• From now on, no Scout may enter the captured district. All orders leading from or to locations in that district that are drawn from the order deck from now on are discarded and replaced by the next ones. However, orders that are being carried out of that district and were already in Scouts' hands when the district fell may still be delivered.

Example 10. The order that was to be delivered to Stary Mokotów falls off the order track. A small German unit token already lies on the road from SGGW to Stary Mokotów — earlier, an order to SGGW was not delivered in time. This means the entire Mokotów district falls. The green Scout standing at SGGW has a choice of two nearest safe spaces: near Narutowicza Square or near the Post Office. The red Scout standing between Szucha Avenue and Three Crosses Square is moved to the nearest safe space — Three Crosses Square.

End of Game

The game in the extended version of Mali Powstańcy can end in two ways:

• When the Victory card appears on the order track, the orders phase is no longer played in subsequent rounds. The game continues until the end of the round in which the Victory card leaves the order track. Points are then tallied as in the basic version of the game.

  In addition, players reveal the secret objective cards chosen at the start of the game and check whether they managed to fulfil them. Players add the points shown on fulfilled secret objective cards to their scores. Whoever scored the most points wins the game. In case of a tie, the winner is the player whose Scouts delivered more orders.

• Unfortunately, failing to deliver orders on time can lead to defeat for all players. If a third district of Warsaw falls during the game, the game immediately ends in defeat for all players. In such a situation, points are not tallied.

Extended Variant – 3 Players

During a game in the extended variant with three players, the order deck is created by counting out 18 cards, placing the face-down Victory card on top of them, and then the remaining order cards on top of that in turn. In the orders phase, two cards are taken from the deck in odd rounds and one card in even rounds.

Extended Variant – 2 Players

During a game in the extended variant with two players, the order deck is created by counting out 24 cards; on top of them we place the face-down Victory card, and on top of this card in turn the remaining order cards. In the orders phase, one card is taken from the deck in every round of the game.

Description of Secret Objectives

The deck of secret objective cards contains four types of cards:

• Deliver the most orders from a given district. To fulfil this objective, the player must deliver the most orders from the district named on the card, among all the players. If no player delivered any order from that district, the objective is considered unfulfilled.
• Deliver the most orders. To fulfil this objective, the player must deliver the most orders among all the players.
• Deliver orders to 4, 5, or 6 districts. To fulfil this objective, the player must deliver at least one order each to 4, 5, or 6 different districts.
• Deliver the most important order. To fulfil this objective, the player must deliver the most important (highest point value) order among all the players.

If players tie in the number of orders of the kind described on the secret objective card, both are considered to have fulfilled it.