Omen: A Reign of War
Omen: A Reign of War Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup
Remove all Spirit and Hero cards (rules for using these cards are found later in the rules) from the deck, and shuffle together the remaining 48 Unit cards and place them in a face down deck to the side of the play area. Place the 20 coins beside of the deck. Each player takes 1 of each of the 6 Feat cards and places them face up in his play area. Place the 3 City cards in the middle of the play area. Shuffle together the 12 Reward cards and place 4 Rewards face down on each City card. Each player draws 4 Unit cards and receives 4 coins.
(Note that there are also 6 Relic cards, 6 Challenge cards, and 5 Whim cards. These cards are used for variant rules covered later in this rulebook.)
The game begins and the oldest player takes the first turn.
Emissary of War: Alternate/Optimal Start Rules
Each player selects 1 Unit card from his hand and places it face down; this is the player's Emissary. Once each player has placed a face down card, both Emissaries are revealed. The Cost, Offering, and Strength Values of each Emissary is combined. The player whose Emissary has the greatest combined value is the First Player for the game. In the event of a tie, the Emissary with the highest Strength Value breaks the tie. If a tie still exists, the oldest player is the First Player.
The First Player moves his Emissary card to the discard pile. The other player returns his Emissary to his hand. The game then begins, with the First player taking the first turn.
The Cards
Omen revolves around playing cards. There are 4 different types of cards in Omen: City cards, Reward cards, Feat cards, and Unit cards.
(There are also Challenge cards, Whim cards, and Relic cards. These are covered later.)
City Cards
City cards represent 3 Cities. Throughout the course of the game, each player will play Unit cards onto his side of each of the Cities. Each City card begins the game with 4 face down Reward cards on it. One of the main goals of the game is to try to win these Reward cards.
Reward Cards
Reward cards represent blessings granted by the gods and begin the game face down on the 3 City cards. As players resolve battles in the Cities, players will add these Reward cards to their hands.
At the end of the game, players score points based on the Rewards they have earned. Each Reward a player earns can be used once each game for a powerful effect. There are 6 different Reward cards, each with a different effect. When a player uses a Reward for its effect, he places it face down in his play area. At the end of the game, any Reward in the player's hand is worth 2 points, and any face down (or played) Reward is only worth 1 point.
A player may never force another player to discard a Reward card from his hand.
Feat Cards
Feat cards represent challenges presented by the gods and each player begins the game with the same 6 face up Feat cards. Completing these Feats is key to winning the game. As players achieve these Feats, the cards are turned face down.
At the end of the game, players score points based on the Feats they have achieved. Each player scores 2 points for each achieved (or face down) Feat card in his play area.
Unit Cards
There are 5 different types of Unit cards: Soldiers, Beasts, Oracles, Spirits, and Heroes. These cards are played during the Surge step in order to win Rewards and achieve Feats. Each Unit, regardless of its type, has 3 values (Spirits, a special Unit, have a 4th value).
The Unit's Cost is the number of coins the player must spend to play the card. The Offering Value determines the number of cards or coins the player receives when the card is discarded during the Offering Step of his turn. Finally, each Unit has a Strength value. This is used in determining who wins a War-Torn City.
Parts of a Unit Card: Unit Name, Unit Type, Offering Value, Unit's Strength, Unit's Cost, Ability Details.
Soldiers (24 Different Cards)
Soldier cards are played from a player's hand into a City of his choice, and on his side of the City. When a Soldier enters a City, it has an Ability that occurs.
Beasts (12 Different Cards)
Beast cards can be played from the player's hand in one of two ways: either directly into the player's side of a City or discarded for a powerful effect. If the Beast is played in a City, its ability is ignored.
Oracles (12 Different Cards)
Oracle cards are played from a player's hand into a City of his choice, and on his side of the City. Oracle abilities occur during the player's Portent step.
Spirits (12 Different Advanced Cards)
Spirit cards are played from a player's hand into a City of his choice, and on his side of the City. Each Spirit has 2 different abilities, and when a Spirit enters a City, the player chooses 1 of those abilities and it occurs. Additionally, each Spirit card has an Invoke cost. A player may pay the Spirit's Invoke Cost and discard it to use both of the Spirit's abilities.
Heroes (6 Different Advanced Cards)
Hero cards are discarded from a player's hand to use its ability. Unlike any other Unit type, all Hero cards have an ability that can be used outside of the player's Surge step. Also, at the end of the game, each player scores 1 point for each Hero card in his hand.
Object of the Game
In Omen, players take on the role of rival brothers, bent on dominating the Grecian lands. Players have access to powerful Units, and spend coins to play Units in a variety of ways, with each way leading toward one goal: victory!
Playing Omen
Omen takes place over a series of turns. Each player takes a turn, comprised of several steps, and once his turn is complete, the other player takes his turn. This continues until either 2 Cities have been depleted Reward cards or a player has achieved 5 of his 6 Feats.
During a player's turn, he is the Active Player. The other player is the Opposing Player.
A turn in Omen is broken into several different steps, taken in the following order: Wealth, Surge, Portent, Feat, War, and Offering. Once a player has completed the above 6 steps, his turn ends and the other player takes his turn.
Step One: Wealth
The Wealth step represents the player garnering his forces and resources in preparation for the ensuing battle. During the Wealth step, the Active player gains coins or draw cards.
The Active player has 3 Wealth actions to spend during his Wealth step. He may use each action to draw 1 Unit card or gain 1 coin. He may combine these any way he chooses.
For example, the player uses 2 of his Wealth actions to draw 2 cards and spends 1 of his Wealth actions to gain 1 coin.
However, if the player uses all of his Wealth actions to draw cards, he draws 1 additional card. If the player uses all of his Wealth actions to gain coins, he gains 1 additional coin. This is called a Wealth Action Bonus.
For example, the player uses all 3 of his Wealth actions to draw 3 cards. He would draw 4 cards instead, since all of his Wealth actions were spent to draw cards.
During the first player's first turn, he only receives 2 Wealth actions.
Step Two: Surge
The Surge Step represents the player deploying his Units into the Cities, harnessing their powers, and making use of the gods' rewards to thwart the opposing player's plans. The bulk of the game takes place in the Surge step.
During the Surge Step, the Active player may spend his coins to play Unit cards from his hand. There are 3 different Unit types, each with different Abilities (refer back to the Unit Cards section if needed). He may also use a Reward card from his hand.
Playing Units Into Cities
To play a Unit from his hand into a City, the player chooses a City, takes the Unit card from his hand, places it on his side of the chosen City, and moves a number of his coins to the side of the play area equal to the Unit's Cost. If the card is a Soldier, its ability text is followed.
It is important to note that Soldier abilities are mandatory unless they include "may" in the ability text, and happen when the soldier enters a City, even if it was moved from one City to another. Any time a Soldier enters a City, its ability occurs.
The Active player may play as many Units as he wishes, in any City of his choice, and is only limited by the number of coins he has and the City Limit.
A player may never have more than 5 Units on his side of any given City. This is referred to as the City Limit. For the purpose of City Limit, Oracles, Spirits, Heroes, and Soldiers count as 1 Unit each, while Beasts count as 2 Units. A player may not play a Unit into a City in which he already has 5 Units, nor may he play a Unit into a City if it would put him over 5 Units.
Discarding Beasts
In addition to being powerful additions to the player's side of a City, Beasts can be discarded from the player's hand to utilize their Abilities. To do this, the player reveals a Beast card from his hand, moves a number of his coins to the side of the play area equal to the Unit's Cost, resolves the ability, and moves the Beast card to the Discard Pile.
Using Rewards
Once per Surge Step, the Active player may use 1 Reward card he has earned in a previous turn. To do this, he places the card from his hand face up in his play area, follows the Reward card's ability, and then flips it face down.
Step Three: Portent
During the Portent step, the Active player the uses the abilities of his Oracles.
Beginning with 1 of the player's Oracles, he completes the Oracle's ability. Once he has finished completing the first Oracle's ability, he repeats this until he has resolved the ability of each of his Oracles. Each Oracle is only used once per Portent Step.
Step Four: Feat
The Active player checks to see if he has achieved any of his face up Feats.
If the Active player has completed the requirements on any of his face up Feat cards, he announces that he has achieved the Feat, or Feats, and turns the card(s) face down.
There is no limit to the number of Feats a player can achieve in a single turn. However, earning more than one per turn may prove to be very challenging!
Step Five: War
During the War step, the player Resolves any War-torn Cities. A City is a War-torn City if: The opposing player has at least 3 Units in the City and/or if there are a total of 5 or more Units in the City, including both players' sides of the City.
To Resolve a War-torn City, each player adds together the Strength Values of all Units he has in the War-Torn City. The player with the highest combined strength is the victor, and takes the top Reward card of the City and adds it to his hand, then moves all but 1 of his Units from the City to the Discard Pile. The losing player moves all but 2 of his Units from the City to the Discard Pile.
In the event of a tie, the player with the most Soldiers in the City wins. If the tie cannot be broken, neither player wins the City, and each player moves all but 2 of his Units from the City to the discard pile.
Repeat the above steps until no War-torn Cities remain.
Beasts count as 2 Units! A player who wins a War-Torn City cannot leave a Beast in the City. If no Reward cards remain in a City, players may still play Units into that City, but it is never War-torn again.
Example: Only the far right City is War-Torn, since the Opposing Player has 3 Units on his side of the City (a Soldier and a Beast). On the far left, there are only 4 Units in the City. In the middle City, there are only 4 Units in the City, and the Active Player, not the Opposing Player, has 3 Units his side.
Step Six: Offering
During the Offering step, the player may Offer 1 of the cards from his hand as a sacrifice to the gods. In return, he is granted additional resources.
To do this, the player selects a Unit card from his hand and discards it. He then draws a number of Unit cards or gains a number of coins equal to the discarded Unit's Offering Value. The player may draw cards or gain coins in any combination he wishes.
At the end of the player's Offering Step, he discards Unit cards from his hand, and/or places Reward cards from his hand face down, until he has a maximum of 7 cards in his hand, including Reward cards. He then returns coins until he has a maximum of 10 coins.
Ending the Game and Scoring
A game of Omen ends at the end of the Active Player's turn if one of two conditions are met: Either the Opposing player has 5 face down Feat cards, or 2 or more Cities have been depleted of Reward cards.
When the game ends, players earn points, and the player with the highest score has proven to be the greater son, and receives the blessing of the gods.
Each player gains 2 points for each Reward card in his hand.
Then, gains 1 point for each face down Reward card in his play area.
Finally, each player earns 2 points for each face down Feat card in his play area.
In the event of a tie in points, the player with the most face down Feat cards wins the tie.
Additional Rules - Enraged
Enraged is a status effect. Several Units have abilities that "Enrage" another Unit or Units. Only non-Beast Units may be Enraged. When a Unit becomes Enraged, it is flipped face down. It becomes a Beast with a Strength of 4 and loses all other abilities. At the end of a player's Offering step, he turns any of his face down Enraged Units face up.
Note that an Enraged Unit counts as a Beast for the purposes of determining War-Torn and City Limit. A Unit cannot become Enraged if it would cause the player to exceed his City Limit.
Optional Units
Omen offers 2 Optional Unit types: Spirits and Heroes. Small Box Games recommends adding these 18 Units to your game after you've gotten a feel for the original 3 Unit types or if you are using either Draft Variant.
Spirits
Spirits are the disembodied remnants of fallen soldiers and focused apparitions of the gods' will. Spirits are sort of a mix of Soldier and Beast Units. Each Spirit has 2 abilities, and when it is played into a City, the player chooses 1 of those abilities to use. However, each Spirit also has an Invoke Cost. When a player pays the Invoke Cost, he moves the Spirit card from his hand to the discard pile, and uses both abilities. Spirits can never be Enraged.
Heroes
Heroes are just that, and offer very unique abilities that generally are not used during the Active Player's Surge Step. Instead, each Hero's ability notes when it can be used. All Heroes have a Cost of 0, and like all Units, may be played onto the player's side of a City. Hero cards may be discarded from a player's hand during his Offering Step. At the end of the game, each player reveals his hand. At the end of the game, each player earns 1 point for each Hero card in his hand.
Drafting
Omen offers 2 drafting variants to give players more control over the Units they can draw and play. Both variants require all 66 Units to be shuffled together and used. Each player will have his own deck and discard pile. Any unselected cards are returned to the box. When playing using the drafting rules, any ability that references "the deck" or "the discard pile" refers to the player's own deck or discard pile.
Draft Variant 1: Each player draws 3 cards, chooses 2 cards, places them face down and passes the remaining card to the other player. This continues until each player has 30 face down cards. Each player shuffles together his cards to form his deck, and the game begins as normal.
Draft Variant 2: 20 random cards are placed face up in the middle of the play area. Alternating turns, each player selects 1 card until all cards have been selected. This is repeated two additional times, with each player selecting 30 cards. Each player shuffles together his cards to form his deck.
Optional Expansions
Omen: A Reign of War. Omega Edition includes 3 additional expansions and card types to add more optional content to the game.
Zeus' Challenge
This expansion introduces the Challenges; tasks set forth by the mighty Zeus himself. There are a total of 6 Challenges, and they begin the game on the side of the play area.
When using the Challenges, each player has a Challenge Step that occurs after his Feat Step. If he has met the requirement of any face up Challenge, he may obtain that Challenge and move it to his Feat Area, face down. A player may only obtain 1 Challenge per turn. At the end of the game, Challenges are worth 3 points each.
Adding Challenges to the game adds another end game trigger. The game ends at the end of a player's turn if there are 2 Challenge cards remaining to the side of the play area.
Additionally, players may opt for a longer game of Omen by adding this requirement: the game ends at the end of a player's turn when 2 of these 3 conditions have been met:
- Two or more Cities have no Reward cards remaining.
- The opposing player has 5 or more face down Feats.
- There are 2 Challenge cards remaining to the side of the play area.
Tyche's Whims
This expansion introduces the Whim cards. These cards offer the players abilities, and at the end of the game may cost or earn the players points. These cards are shuffled together at the beginning of the game and placed in a face down pile.
After choosing a Start player for the game, the other player may draw up to 3 of these cards. He chooses up to 1 Whim card and passes it to the Start player, who adds it to his hand. The remaining drawn Whim cards are added to the other player's hand.
These Whim cards may be used when indicated by the individual Whim card. To play a Whim card, the player reveals the card from his hand during the appropriate step and then returns the revealed Whim card to the side of the play area. Whim cards count towards a player's maximum hand size during his Offering Step. Like Reward cards, a player cannot force another player to discard Whim cards.
At the end of the game, each player reveals his hand, and either gains or loses points based on what Whim card(s) he has in his hand.
Relics of Olympus
This expansion includes the Relic cards, powerful items acquired from the peak of Olympus to aid the players in the domination of ancient Greece. Each Relic offers a unique ability: some are passive, some affect both players, and some are triggered or optional. All 6 Relic cards begin the game face up to the side of the play area.
During the player's Feat Step, if he achieves 1 or more Feats during his turn, instead of flipping over 1 of his Feat cards, he may instead obtain a Relic. To do this, instead of flipping the achieved Feat face down, he rotates the Feat card 90 degrees. He then selects a Relic from the side of the play area and places it face up on his side of any City.
Rotated Feats still count towards the player's Achieved Feats for triggering end game Conditions, however, any Feat that has been Rotated cannot be achieved again by the player and is worth only 1 point at the end of the game. Each Relic card the player has at the end of the game is worth 1 point.
There may never be more than 1 Relic per City. If a player would place a Relic in a City that has a Relic, the original Relic is moved to the side of the play area.
Omen: A Reign of War offers a variety of play options for each card. The first few games should be used to get a feel for the different cards. As you play the game, you will find that different cards and strategies work in different situations.
Players may tailor the use of the aforementioned additional content in whatever way they see fit. While each has its own merits, not every expansion or variant will suit each gamer's particular tastes, which is why they are all optional; although it is strongly recommended to add the Heroes and Spirits to your games of Omen as soon as you have a grasp of how the game is played.
There is no right or wrong way to utilize these expansions, the draft variant, and additional Units. The game offers plenty of gameplay without any of these variants and expansions, but hopefully you'll find that they add additional depth, strategy, replayability, and enjoyment to your games of Omen!
Other Things You May Have Missed
- Beasts always count as 2 Units.
- Revealed cards are placed into the discard pile unless otherwise stated.
- Placing revealed cards into your hand or returning a card from the discard pile to your hand does not count as drawing.
- The discard pile is public; any player may look at the cards in the discard pile at any time.
- If there are ever no cards left in the deck, the discard pile is immediately shuffled together to form a new deck.
- A player may never force another player to discard a Reward card or Whim card.
- A player may play Units into multiple Cities during his turn. He is only restricted by the number of coins he has and the Unit cards in his hand.
- If a City has no cards remaining, players can still play Unit cards in that City, however, the City will not be War-Torn again for the remainder of the game.
- A player may only play 1 Reward card per turn.
- The First Player may still receive a Wealth Action Bonus.
- A City can be War-Torn even if the opposing player has no Units in the City.
- A player may achieve as many Feats as he is able to during his Feat Step.
- A player may only complete 1 Challenge per turn.
- A Spirit can never be Enraged.
Credits
OMEN: A REIGN OF WAR. OMEGA EDITION. (C) 2014 SMALL BOX GAMES. SMALLBOXGAMES.COM
Game Design: John Clowdus
Beast, Soldier, Hero, and Oracle Illustrations: Michael "Riiven" Ng & Justin Hernandez
Spirit Illustrations: Sandro Rybak
Feat, Reward, Challenge, Whim, and Relic Illustrations: John Ariosa
Graphic Design: John Clowdus