Marauders of the Great Wastelands Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
• How It Works
• Game Contents
• Components
• Preparation for the First Game
• Regular Game Setup
• Game Process
  • Day
  • Night
• Scoring
• Card States
  • Territories
  • Followers
• Details of the Hour
  • 1. Hire or Patch Up
  • 2. Summon a Follower
  • 3. Set Up an Ambush
  • 4. Collect Loot
  • 5. Take to Trophies
  • 6. Refresh Hand
• Advanced Rules
• Gangs of the Great Wastelands

Goal of the Game

Plunder more than the other gangs by the end of the game. To do this, send your followers into the Great Wastelands, collect loot and seize territories.

How It Works

You lead one of the gangs of raiders, which fight among themselves for the last resources of the dead world. Gangs are replenished with mercenaries; each player's detachments occupy territories, knocking rivals out of them and taking loot (pre-war goods, represented by metal bottle caps). The decks of all gangs are unique and unlike one another, and their asymmetry is preserved until the end of the game.

The game lasts four rounds: four days and three nights. Each day consists of consecutive turns of the players, called hours. At the start of the day new territories open, for which the gangs will have to fight. A day ends when the players sort out or discard all open territory cards.

Game Contents

• 63 raider cards
• 37 mercenary cards
• 20 territory cards
• 23 fodder cards (Russian: otrebye)
• 40 loot tokens (bottle caps)
• 15 loot pile cards
• 4 hint cards

Components

Loot. Loot (metal bottle caps) is 1 victory point. In the game loot lies on territory cards, from which it goes to the players' trophies.

Loot Pile card. This card (5 victory points) is needed for exchange. At any moment of the game you may exchange 5 loot from your trophies for the "Loot Pile" card.

Territories. Territory cards also bring victory points. Loot is also placed on these cards.

Followers. Using follower cards, you seize territories and take loot. Followers come in three types: raiders, mercenaries and fodder (see fig. 2).

• Raider: a colour follower card.
• Mercenary: a dark-grey follower card.
• Fodder: a double-sided light-grey follower card.

Figure 1: information on territory cards. A: territory type. B: hint for assembling the deck.

Figure 2: information on follower cards. A: name. B: way to activate the ability: ambush (the skull-and-crossbones symbol) or summons (the summoning symbol). V: the gang the raider belongs to. G: the type of follower card: raider, mercenary or fodder. D: the description of the ability or property. E: the flavour text. Yo: the hint for assembling the mercenary deck.

Preparation for the First Game

Playing for the first time? To understand the basic principles of the game more quickly, play the first game with special preparation:

1. Assemble the common territory deck from the 10 cards: 3 "Iron", 3 "Kutezha", 2 "Benzaka" and 2 "Waters". If you are playing with three, remove 2 random territory cards from the deck. If playing with two, remove 4. Removed cards take no part in the game.

Shuffle the territory deck and open half the cards (there will be 1 more than the number of players). Place them in the centre of the table and put on each of them 5 bottle caps from the general supply. This is loot.

2. Assemble the common mercenary deck from 15 cards: 3 "Prorab" (Foreman), 3 "Propovednik" (Preacher), 3 "Barabanshchitsa" (Drummer), 3 "Sorvigolovy" (Daredevils), and 3 "Proydokhi" (Passers-by). Playing with three, remove 3 random mercenary cards from it. Playing with two, remove 6 random cards.

Shuffle the mercenary deck, open the 4 top cards and lay them out where everyone can see them. This is the market of free mercenaries.

3. Give each player a coloured gang deck of one of the gangs: Unshakeable (lilac), Slave-traders (yellow), Patrol (black), Hyenas (red). In the first game do not play with the Gentlemen (blue) and the Valkyries (green).

4. Find the leader card in each gang deck:

• "Professor" of the Unshakeable gang.
• "Son of the Beast" of the Slave-traders.
• "Commander" of the Patrol.
• "Alpha" (Vozhak) of the Hyenas.

Remove the leader cards from the game.

5. The play zone in front of each player is called the lair. Before the start of the game each player lays out, face up in their lair, 2 followers, fanned out vertically, as shown in the picture on the next page:

• Unshakeable: two "Lovkach" (Trickster).
• Slave-traders: two "Okhotnika" (Hunter).
• Patrol: two "Diversanta" (Saboteur).
• Hyenas: "Marodyor" (Marauder) and "Podzhigala" (Arsonist).

6. Each player shuffles the remaining cards of their gang deck face down, lays the deck on the right of the lair, and draws 4 random cards into hand. At this moment each player's gang deck consists of 3 cards. You will draw cards into your hand from it. If your personal deck runs out of cards, shuffle the cards of your personal discard and form a new deck from them.

7. The first player is the one who reads these rules. The first game lasts only 2 days and 1 night (these are the game stages; you will learn more about them later). Then see page 5 and the hint cards.

Regular Game Setup

1. Prepare the common play zone. Assemble the mercenary and territory decks depending on the number of players:

	Territory deck	Mercenary deck
2 players	12 cards	19 cards
3 players	16 cards	28 cards
4 players	20 cards	37 cards

Shuffle each deck. Lay out the cards as shown in figure 3 (on the next page):

• Open 4 cards from the mercenary deck.
• Open cards from the territory deck, one more than the number of players.
• Place 5 loot from the general supply on each opened territory.

2. Prepare the personal play zones. Choose a gang for each player. Take the gang's deck of 10 raider cards (for the Valkyries, 13).

Place 2 raiders from the deck in each lair (the play zone directly in front of the player; see figure 3). This is the gang's "hot start":

• Unshakeable: two "Lovkach" (Trickster).
• Slave-traders: two "Okhotnika" (Hunter).
• Patrol: two "Diversanta" (Saboteur).
• Hyenas: "Marodyor" (Marauder) and "Podzhigala" (Arsonist).
• Valkyries: "Luchnitsa" (Torch-bearer) and "Kochevnitsa" (Nomad).
• Gentlemen: "Telokhranitel" (Bodyguard) and "Umnitsa" (Clever-one).

Shuffle the remaining cards; they form the gang deck. Place it face down on the table and draw 4 random cards into hand.

Leave space for your personal discard pile and trophy pile. They are not part of your lair, but they always lie face up and are visible to other players.

Deal the hint cards to the players.

Choose the first player. This is the one who has the most items useful for survival in a post-apocalyptic world, such as a lighter, a first-aid kit, a knife, a water bottle, seeds of agricultural crops, or the board game "Raiders of the Great Wastelands"...

Game Process

The game consists of 4 days and 3 nights. A day consists of several hours (their number may vary).

Day

The day begins with the first player; the right to move passes clockwise. The day ends at the end of one player's hour. The player after them becomes the first player of the new day.

Your turn (your hour) consists of 6 strictly consecutive phases:

1. Hire or patch up (this phase may be skipped). Either take 1 free mercenary from the market into your hand, or patch up 1 wounded follower in your lair.
2. Summon a follower. Place 1 follower card from your hand into your lair.
3. Set up an ambush (this phase may be skipped). Gather a squad of unwounded followers and send it to your own, a neutral, or an opponent's territory.
4. Collect loot. Take into your trophies 1 loot from each territory you have seized.
5. Take to trophies. All territories without loot are added to the trophies of the players who seized them.
6. Refresh hand. Discard any cards from your hand and draw your hand up to 4 cards.

(A detailed description of all the phases of an hour is given on page 7.)

At the end of the hour, check:

• If there are still territories in the common play zone, the next player's hour begins.
• If no territories remain in the common play zone, night begins immediately.
• If no territories remain in the common play zone and the fourth day is ending, the game ends and the players proceed to scoring.

Night

Lay out several cards from the territory deck (one more than the number of players) face up in a row. Place 5 loot from the supply on each of them.

Patch up all wounded followers in each lair (turn their cards upright).

A new day begins.

Figure 3 is an example of setup for two players. Common zone: A, the mercenary deck; B, the territory deck; V, the discard pile; G, the loot pile; D, the market of free mercenaries (4 random cards laid out); E, unclaimed territories. Personal zones: Yo, the Valkyries lair (set up with that gang's hot start); Zh, the Gentlemen lair (set up with that gang's hot start); Z, the gang deck; I, the gang discard; K, the gang trophies.

Scoring

Players evaluate their trophies by adding up points for loot and territories:

• Each loot: 1 victory point.
• Each "Loot Pile" card: 5 victory points.
• Each first territory of a given type: 5 victory points.
• The second (and each subsequent) territory of the same type: 3 victory points.

The symbols of the point types are: Kutezh (revelry), Iron, Water, Cartridges, Chemistry, and Benzak.

Example. At the end of the game the Slave-traders collected 24 loot in their trophies, 2 "Iron" territories and 3 "Benzak" territories. The gang gets 24 points for loot, 8 points for "Iron" (5 + 3), and 11 points for "Benzak" (5 + 3 + 3). In total the Slave-traders earn 43 points (8 + 11 + 24).

It is more profitable to take territories of different types into trophies: then your gang will have everything it needs, and you win!

The player who plundered (earned more victory points) than anyone else, seized the richest and most influential gang in the Great Wastelands and won!

No draw? Impossible! In case of a draw on victory points, the winner is the one with more territory cards in their trophies. If the draw also remains on the number of territory cards, only arm-wrestling is left: in the post-apocalypse the strongest survives!

Card States

Territories

Territories can be in four states:

• Territory in the deck: a card out of play.
• Neutral territory: a revealed territory card on which there are no gang followers (see figure 4).
• Seized territory: a revealed territory card on which there is a follower from at least one gang (see figure 4).
• Territory in trophies: a card out of play, on which the loot ran out and which went to a gang's trophies.

Figure 4: states of territories in the game. A: neutral territory. B: territory seized by the Slave-traders. C: territory seized by the Gentlemen.

Followers

Dispatched followers can be in only one of two zones (see figures 3 and 4): in the lair (directly in front of the player) or on one territory.

Followers in the lair can be in three states (see figure 5):

• Unwounded follower: the card lies in the lair vertically. An unwounded follower can be wounded.
• Wounded follower: the card lies in the lair horizontally. A wounded follower can be patched up.
• Follower on a territory: the card is laid over the territory card. Such a follower is considered neither wounded nor unwounded. While a follower is on a territory, it cannot be wounded or patched up.

Figure 5: followers in the game. A: unwounded followers in the lair. B: wounded followers in the lair. C: followers on territories.

Each raider and mercenary has an ability (Russian: navyk) which can be activated once: either immediately after a follower is added from hand to the lair (summon, Russian: vyzov), or immediately after it moves to a territory (ambush, Russian: nalyot).

Fodder have mandatory properties, which apply under the conditions stated on their cards.

Each gang deck and the mercenary deck contains one unique raider: the leader. Using his ability requires destroying cards from your hand. Destroyed cards leave the game until the end of the match. A "Summon" ability that requires destroying cards is marked with a double pictogram: "summon" plus "skull".

Raiders belong to specific gangs from the very beginning of the game. Mercenaries and fodder do not belong to any gang. However, during the game, mercenaries will get into the players' gang decks and remain there until the end of the game (unless removed by the leader).

Gang emblems of the Great Wastelands raider gangs: Hyenas; Slave-traders; Patrol; Unshakeable; Gentlemen; Valkyries.

The leader sends cards not to the discard pile, but removes them from the game. Put them back in the box until the next game.

Details of the Hour

1. Hire or Patch Up

This is an optional phase; if you wish, it can be skipped. You may choose only one option.

A. Hiring a mercenary. If you decided to take a mercenary, add him to your hand as the fifth card. You are not obliged to play him this hour. As with other cards, you may keep the mercenary in hand for as long as you like, waiting for a suitable moment to play him, destroy him (when playing the leader), or discard him. Once in the discard pile, the mercenary will sooner or later end up in the deck and then return to your hand. When you take a free mercenary from the market, immediately place a new face-up card from the mercenary deck in his place.

B. Patching up a wounded follower. If you decided to patch up a wounded follower, choose from your lair any raider or mercenary card lying horizontally and turn it vertically. Now this follower counts as unwounded and may join a squad to take part in an ambush.

In this phase of the hour you can patch up only one follower. But at night ALL wounded followers are patched up automatically.

2. Summon a Follower

Place any one follower card from your hand face up (vertically) into your lair.

If the follower you added to the lair has the "Summon" ability, you may (but are not obliged to) use it. "Summon" activates only once: at the moment the card is played from hand. If you decide not to use his ability when laying the follower in the lair, you will not be able to use it later.

Summon triggers once. If you patch up a follower with the "Summon" ability, he becomes unwounded, but this ability does not trigger again. Repeating an already resolved "Summon" may be done only by the Valkyries' "Healer" (Spasitel'nitsa), and by the Gentlemen's "Baron" and "Clever-one" (Umnitsa).

Discard is not wounding. If a card effect requires discarding followers from your lair, you may discard wounded followers, as well as Slaves and Fanatics. But you can wound only unwounded followers. Slaves and Fanatics are destroyed in this case.

Rule of free will. You may choose not to apply the ability of your follower if you do not want to. Nobody in the Great Wastelands has the right to limit your free will. However, the mandatory property of fodder must apply.

Rule of another's choice. If the ability of your follower (for example, the "Barman") affects a rival's followers, you only choose the territory. Its owner decides on which of their followers the ability acts. Also, if a player has to remove followers from a territory, their choice is subject to the rule of coloured markers (see page 8).

Figure 6: resolving a card from hand in the lair. Placing a card, you may use its "Summon", but not its "Ambush". (Labels: lair; hand.)

If a card's text contradicts the rules of the game, the card takes priority.

3. Set Up an Ambush

This is an optional phase; if you wish, it can be skipped. Any ambush goes through two stages: the choice of territory and the consequences of the ambush.

A. Choice of territory. A squad consisting of one or several unwounded followers from your lair may be moved to one territory (one seized by you, a neutral one, or one seized by an opponent; see figure 7).

• To move the squad to your territory (where you already have followers), simply add new followers to those already there; you knock out no one. Any followers may be in such a squad. For example, you may send a squad consisting only of "grey" followers without raiders, or even a squad consisting only of raiders.
• To move the squad to a neutral territory, it is enough to observe the coloured marker rule (see below).
• To move the squad to an opponent's territory (where there are followers of another gang), the strength of your squad must exceed the total strength of the "defending" followers. Otherwise you cannot move the squad onto that territory (see the ambush example on page 9). If the squad has no slaves or fanatics, the strength of the squad equals the number of followers in it.

Figure 7: three variants of an ambush on a territory. The strength of the Unshakeable attacking squad is 7, since the strength of each fanatic in an attack is 2. Labels: "your point" (any followers may be added); "neutral point" (minimum one raider); "rival point" (strength six or more, and at least one raider). Wounded followers cannot attack.

Coloured marker rule. Only squads containing at least one raider (a coloured card) may go to seize another player's or a neutral territory, or simply stand on territories. If a card's effect forces you to remove followers from a territory, you must choose those followers only from among mercenaries and/or fodder (grey cards).

It is not allowed to discard or return to the lair the last raider from a territory if only mercenaries and/or fodder would remain there.

Example. To seize a territory occupied by 1 rival follower, you need a squad of at least 2 followers (at least 1 of them a raider). Similarly, to seize a territory with 2 rival followers, you need a squad of at least 3 followers (at least 1 of them a raider).

B. Consequences of the ambush. If you moved the squad to a rival's territory, all rival followers that were on this territory retreat to their lair wounded (their cards are turned horizontally).

After the squad has moved, you may (but are not obliged to) use the "Ambush" abilities of the followers that have just moved. If several followers in the squad have "Ambush", you choose the order in which to apply them. Each "Ambush" activates once, at the moment its owner enters the territory. In other words, if a follower with "Ambush" leaves a territory and then moves to some territory again, its ability can be applied again.

If a card's text does not name whose lair or trophies it refers to, by default it means your lair and your trophies.

If there were fanatics in your squad, they are destroyed (as stated on their cards): return them to the general discard pile. If among the retreating rival followers there were slaves, all of them also return to the general discard pile (see figure 8).

Slaves and fanatics. The strength of a slave in an attack is 0. No matter how many slaves you add to the attacking squad, they add no strength to it. But when defending a territory, a slave's strength counts as for all other followers, equal to 1.

The strength of a fanatic in an attack is 2. But fanatics never remain on a territory. Right after seizing a territory they return to the general pool.

Rule of cannon fodder. Fodder never becomes wounded and never gets into the discard pile. Instead, their cards return to the general pool. Remember that fanatics are sent to the pool immediately after moving onto a territory, simultaneously with the application of "Ambushes". So, for example, they can be used to activate the ability of the "Brander" (Kleymitel').

The strength of an attacking or defending squad equals the number of its followers. The exception for the attacking squad: slave strength 0, fanatic strength 2.

Example (see figure 8). The Unshakeable decide to take a territory from the Slave-traders. On it there is a squad of 3 slaves and 2 raiders. Thus the total strength of the Slave-traders on the territory equals 5. To knock them out, the Unshakeable need a squad of strength 6 or more. They send to the territory a squad of 2 raiders, 1 mercenary and 2 fanatics. Each fanatic adds 2 strength to the attacking squad, so the total is 7, which is enough.

The Unshakeable knock the Slave-traders off the territory. First of all everything lying in the scuffle is lost: the slaves of the retreating side and the fanatics of the attacking squad return to the general pool. Then the Slave-traders take their 2 raiders back into the lair and turn their cards horizontally to show that they returned from the territory wounded. Now the Unshakeable get the chance to apply the "Ambush" abilities of their followers that have just seized the territory.

Figure 8: consequences of an ambush. Labels: "return to the general pool"; "retreat wounded"; "occupy the point".

4. Collect Loot

Take into your trophies 1 loot from each territory you have seized.

Loot is taken only by the player whose hour it currently is.

Example. The Patrol gather a squad and attack the "Chemistry" territory, on which there are 5 loot. At the end of the hour they take 1 loot from it into their trophies, and 4 loot remain on "Chemistry". Then the other gangs play their hours in turn, and the right to act returns to the Patrol. They seize a second point, "Iron", on which there are 5 loot. At the end of the hour they take 1 loot each from "Chemistry" and "Iron" into their trophies. As a result 3 loot remain on "Chemistry" and 4 on "Iron".

Ambushes trigger in the phase "Set up an ambush". If after their application there are no followers of yours left on a territory with loot, then by the start of the phase "Collect loot" the territory is already considered neutral and does not yield loot.

5. Take to Trophies

The seizers of territories (you and other players with followers on territories) take into their trophies those territories on which no loot is left.

All raiders and mercenaries from a territory taken into trophies move to the general discard pile.

Territories and loot that have been obtained are kept in the player's trophies. Trophies cannot interact with each other in any way, but they must always be visible to all players.

If there is no loot and no followers of any player on a territory, then in this phase it is destroyed (it leaves the game).

6. Refresh Hand

If you wish, discard any number of cards from your hand to your discard pile. If after that you have fewer than 4 cards in hand, draw cards from your gang deck so that your hand holds exactly 4 cards. If there are not enough cards in the deck, shuffle the discard pile and place it face down in front of you: this is your new deck.

At the end of the hour, check:

• If territories remain in the common play zone, the next player's hour begins.
• If no territories remain in the common play zone, night begins immediately (see page 5).
• If no territories remain in the common play zone and the fourth day is ending, the game ends and the players proceed to scoring (see page 5).

Advanced Rules

Use these to add more calculation to the game.

The mercenary cards show symbols (a square, a cross and a moon-shaped mark). Assemble the mercenary deck so that cards with different symbols are evenly distributed.

In the bottom left corner of some territory cards you can see the marks "3+" and "4". They mean that these cards are used only when a certain number of players is playing. Assemble the decks of mercenaries and territories taking these marks into account.

	Territory deck (points)	Mercenary deck
2 players	12 cards (without the "3+" and "4" marks)	19 cards (6 sets and the "Widow")
3 players	16 cards (without the "4" mark)	28 cards (9 sets and the "Widow")
4 players	20 cards (all)	37 cards (all)

No matter how many players you play with in this unbalanced layout, two types of territory (Iron and Kutezh) will always be encountered more often than the others (Water, Cartridges, Benzak, Chemistry). The victory points are the same, but because the "Iron" and "Kutezh" cards are encountered more often, they are more likely to be repeated in your trophies, which means they have lower priority when choosing territories to seize.

By their style of play the gangs divide into two types: "instigators" (aggressive: Slave-traders, Valkyries, Gentlemen) and "jackals" (control: Unshakeable, Hyenas, Patrol). Try to keep the instigators and the jackals roughly equal in number, seated alternately.

Special mercenaries.

• Seductress (Soblaznitel'nitsa) lets you take additional mercenaries from the market. Thus in her hour you can replenish your deck with 2 or more mercenaries.
• Sniper is a unique card which allows (when summoned) naming specific followers in your opponents' lairs.
• Herder (Pogonshchik) declares a delayed effect, which triggers in the phase "Set up an ambush".
• Nomad (Kochevnitsa) allows moving more than one squad per hour. If you occupy a territory with a squad that includes the Nomad, then when you apply her "Ambush" you may immediately set up a new ambush. Thus in one hour you may seize up to 4 territories. Attention: all "Ambush" abilities of the other cards in a squad with the Nomad are resolved before the Nomad's ability is applied. Loot from the territories seized is taken in the next phase of the hour ("Collect loot"), that is, after all squads have moved.

Gangs of the Great Wastelands

Gang emblems: Hyenas; Slave-traders; Patrol; Unshakeable; Gentlemen; Valkyries.

• Valkyries. An aggressive instigator deck, able to bring many followers into the lair and attack several territories in one turn. Playing as the Valkyries, try to combine emptying territories with clever combinations built around the Healer (Spasitel'nitsa). It is better to take a pair of territories and surely hold them than to over-reach and give everything to rivals.
• Unshakeable. A control "jackal" deck, which multiplies fanatics and has a huge attacking strength. Playing as the Unshakeable, first gather several fanatics using the Trickster (Lovkach); then wait for the moment when your lair has enough followers to wound and attack the Madman with fanatics, breaking through any defence.
• Slave-traders. An aggressive instigator deck, which multiplies slaves and is good both in attack and in defence. Playing as the Slave-traders, prefer not to discard your Hunters: let opponents knock them out, and accumulate slaves. Use the Brander only if there is a threat that you will be knocked out.
• Patrol. A control "jackal" deck, which effectively destroys loot and takes territories. Playing as the Patrol, try to destroy loot on territories so that you take it in one attack. Combinations of several Snipers let you sometimes play from defence.
• Gentlemen. An aggressive instigator deck, which recruits more mercenaries than any other gang and distributes them effectively. Playing as the Gentlemen, know that it is a constructor deck for building effective combinations of followers. Study the connections, plan ahead, and look for the optimal strategy in each game.
• Hyenas. A control "jackal" deck, which can knock opponents off territories before an attack, effectively plunder territories and destroy them. Playing as the Hyenas, guard the Marauders: try not to discard them, and take territories in one attack. Destroy territories you cannot take: this reduces the amount of loot in the game, and your opponents will earn less.