Naova
Naova Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
100 hero cards
The Idea and Aim of the Game
Take your best heroes into battle! But look out: It's not always the strongest who will win. Many a hero will surprise you with their special abilities. Take care what you do—only the one who vanquishes the most opposing heroes can become a true superhero in the end.
Each battle lasts for three rounds at most: Send one, then two, and finally three of your heroes into the arena. At the end of each round, players will be eliminated from the current battle. The last player left standing wins all the heroes that have been played as victory points.
The Heroes
- Of course, every hero has a name.
- Heroes with a skull symbol are "undead heroes".
- This is the basic strength your hero goes into battle with.
- Most heroes have a special ability.
- Special abilities only take effect in certain rounds of the battle (see "Special abilities" under "Determine Your Heroes' Attack!").
Setup
Shuffle all the hero cards and deal six to each player, face down. Take your cards in hand. The rest of the cards make up a draw pile. Leave some space for a discard pile next to the draw pile. You're ready to go!
Playing the Game
During the game, you will fight several battles using your heroes. Each battle lasts up to three rounds. At the end of each round, determine if one player has already won the battle. If so, you can start the next battle.
1. Send Your Heroes into Battle!
Depending on the round you're in, play a number of heroes from your hand. Put your heroes face down at first. Once all players have chosen their heroes, turn them over at the same time.
- In Round I, play exactly one hero each.
- In Round II, play exactly two heroes each.
- In Round III, play exactly three heroes each.
If you don't have enough heroes in your hand for the current round, play as many as you can.
2. Determine Your Heroes' Attack!
Determine the attack of each hero you've played this round. Their attack is a combination of their basic strength and their special ability:
a) Basic strength
The basic strength of each hero is between 0 and 4.
b) Special abilities
Heroes can only use their special abilities if it matches the current round. The round of each ability is shown by an icon on the card: the purple icon marks a Round I ability, the green icon a Round II ability, and the blue icon a Round III ability.
If you play your hero in any other round, they only count their basic strength, without their special ability!
Example #1: In Round I, each player plays one hero. Nele plays Spartacus, who has a basic strength of 1 and the "+1 attack" ability. Samu plays Blazing Devil, who has a basic strength of 3. (The Round III ability does not come into play, because it's only active in Round III.) Lara plays Jeremie, who has a basic strength of 2. Jojo plays Mountain, who has a basic strength of 2 and the "+1 attack" ability. Jojo's and Samu's heroes have an attack of 3, Lara's and Nele's heroes each have an attack of 2.
Note: If a hero is played in a round that matches their ability, their ability must take effect.
The order of special abilities
Some abilities have small numbers with a #. If more than one of these heroes is played in the same round, their abilities take effect in ascending order.
Abilities without # numbers are active for the entire round.
Note: Abilities that affect the winners or losers of a battle only take effect after determining the results. In this game's deck, this includes abilities #29 through #36.
Find out more about special abilities at the end of the rules.
3. Determine the Winner of the Battle!
Compare the total attack of all the heroes each player used. If there is only one strongest player (i.e., no ties for strongest), the battle is over and that player wins. The winner takes all the heroes played in this battle and puts them on their victory point pile.
If there is no definite winner, all players tied for the highest attack compete in the next round by playing new heroes from their hands. If the heroes you played this round weren't strong enough, you're eliminated from the battle.
Note: If a player is eliminated due to a special ability before the winner is determined, their heroes' attack is not taken into account when determining the winner.
Example #2: Lara and Nele have been eliminated from the battle after Round I. Jojo and Samu each play two heroes for Round II. Samu plays Sam Huraii (basic strength 2) and Big Bro (basic strength 1 and the "+2 attack" ability). Jojo plays GIGA Girl (basic strength 2 and the ability "If played along with GIGA Boy: +2 attack") and GIGA Boy (basic strength 2, but his Round III ability does not take effect in Round II).
Jojo's two heroes have a total attack of 6, Samu's total is only 5. Jojo wins the battle, takes all eight cards that have been played so far, and puts them on his victory point pile.
Note: The battle ends after Round III, even if there is no definite winner. Leave all cards played in this battle in the center of the table. The winner of the next battle takes all the heroes played in both battles.
4. Everybody Recharge!
After determining the battle's winner, refill your hands from the draw pile so you each have six heroes for your next battle. Then start the next battle with Round I.
The End of the Game
The game ends immediately if any player can't refill their hand at the end of a battle. All players put their hand of cards on the discard pile and count the heroes in their victory point pile. Each hero is worth 1 point.
Note: If you have Naova in your victory point pile, you get 10 bonus points!
The player with the most victory points is the winner and gets to be called "superhero". If there is a tie, you have more than one superhero!
"Strategic Withdrawal" Variant
In this variant, you can choose to withdraw from a battle at the start, before Round I, and swap out all of your cards instead. Put all the cards in your hand on the victory point pile of any one other player. Draw new cards at the end of the battle, as usual.
Special Abilities – Further Rules and Explanations
- "Opponent" always means another player, "player" means any player in the game, including you.
- If you "score" a hero, put them on your victory point pile. If you have to "discard" cards, put them on the discard pile.
- Abilities only affect opponents and cards in the current round and the heroes face-up on the table at the given moment, unless it states otherwise.
- If an ability gives you a choice (e.g. "any card"), the player who played the hero gets to decide.
- If an ability swaps out a hero, the new hero's ability only comes into play if it has a higher # number than the card you just used or no # number at all.
- If an ability affects the draw or discard pile, but the pile in question is empty, carry out the ability as far as you can.
- If Blue or Dr. Emmet copy another hero's ability, the # number of the ability copied doesn't matter: The ability at this point has Blue's (#12) or Dr. Emmet's (#16) # number.