Operators Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Gear
• I. Training
  • Gear up
  • Combat
  • Battle
  • Evaluation
    • Token types and evaluation order
    • Example
  • Purchase
  • End of combat
• II. Combat Operations
  • Missions
    • Skirmish
    • Capture the point
    • Hostage rescue
  • Starting a new combat
• Special Operations (Classified)
• III. Operation Manual
  • Gear tokens
    • Damage dealing tokens
    • Armor increasing tokens
    • Money tokens
    • Healing tokens
    • Special tokens
  • Character abilities
    • Switch
    • Stalker
    • Coyote
    • Fox
    • Goliat
    • Murdoc

Gear

• 10 double-sided character boards
• 30 plastic cubes: 10 red cubes, 10 blue cubes, 10 yellow cubes
• 2 drawstring bags: 1 blue, 1 red
• 27 mission cards: 5x3 capture the point cards and 4x3 hostage rescue cards
• 140 tokens:
  • 10x6 gear tokens
  • 15 blue starting tokens
  • 15 red starting tokens
  • 10x2 special ability tokens
  • 28 hostage tokens
  • 2 team tokens

ATTENTION! Your training begins now! Read carefully because what you'll learn here is the core of the game. COMBAT OPERATIONS are based on this.

I. Training

Gear up

1. Form two teams with equal number of players. One team will be red, the other blue. If the number of players is uneven, one person of the smaller team can control two characters. For fewer (2-4) players it is recommended to control two or three characters by each team.
2. Pick one character for each player, and place the boards in front of the players so that each character has an opposing character in the other team. For your first game it is recommended to use the CASUAL side of the character boards. The ELITE side will be explained later.
3. Place the 6 gear tokens of the character's color and 1 red (life), 1 blue (armor) and 1 yellow (money) cubes on your board's designated places. Special abilities of the characters are only needed in ELITE mode, see the Operation Manual.
4. Place the 15 red starting tokens in the red [drawstring bag] (the source text reads "in the red"), and the 15 blue tokens in the blue drawstring bag. A bag is built and used commonly by the team members.
5. Choose a Mission: Skirmish, Hostage rescue or Capture the point. For the first game Skirmish mode is recommended, which needs no further preparation (put all cards and hostage tokens back in the box). Description of Missions can be found in the Operation Manual.
6. Randomly choose a pair of starting players. For example, let the most combative players start.

Combat

A game consists of one or more combats and a combat consists of battles. The following part is a description of a Skirmish, which is exactly one combat that you can play any time as a fast 2-10 player game. Each battle is a fight between two players of the opposing teams.

At the beginning, every character is paired with an enemy character in the other team (see the image). As players are eliminated, teams may become uneven, and some players may not have pairs. When this happens, create pairs so that some survivors of the smaller team are part of multiple pairs (see the image), they may fight several battles in a row. The last survivor of a team can win against several enemies and may even win the combat.

Battle

1. Randomly, decide who will be the attacker and the defender from the current pair of fighters. For example, you can hide the team tokens in your hands and let someone choose one to determine the attacker.
2. Both players draw three tokens from their bags at the same time and place them on the table.
3. Evaluate tokens in the following order: (1) damage dealing, (2) armor increasing, (3) healing, (4) money and (5) special tokens. See description of Evaluation phase later.
4. Now the attacker decides whether they continue drawing and evaluating new tokens (go to step 2) or stop the fight. The battle lasts until:
   • the attacker stops the battle, or
   • either party runs out of tokens in their bag, or
   • one of them loses all life points, meaning the character dies.
5. The characters who survived the battle can purchase gear for the money they gathered. Put purchased items in your team's bag.
6. Finally put all previously drawn tokens back in the bags as well, and pass them to the players who will fight the next battle.

If there are only one or two tokens in a bag, the attacker can still force a last draw. You may look inside your bag any time (except when drawing) to check the quantity and types of the tokens. The attacker always decides how long a battle will last.

When your character dies, not only the life but also the armor and money is reduced to zero, and you are instantly out of the current combat. However, your character board stays in the game and any surviving members of your team can purchase tokens left on it.

Evaluation

The attacker and defender both evaluate their tokens after each draw at same time. The different types of tokens are evaluated in a certain order.

Both of you receive damage first. If damage can be absorbed with armor, you must decrease your armor points (if you have any) instead of losing life. When all armor is gone decrease your life points for any remaining damage. Any damage caused by special situations or abilities must also be evaluated at this point, see the Operation Manual.

Next, both of you evaluate any armor increasing tokens, then healing, then money and finally the special tokens.

Always move the corresponding marker to keep track of values! None of the values can exceed 10, any excess gain is lost. Pay attention to follow the evaluation order! If your life is down to zero, you can't evaluate your remaining tokens (only the damage dealing ones). Your surviving enemy can still evaluate all their tokens and may purchase gear. Detailed description of tokens can be seen in the Operation Manual (page 8-9).

Token types and evaluation order

1. Damage dealing tokens: knife, bullet, 3-bullet, grenade
2. Armor increasing tokens: helmet, bulletproof vest, assault shield
3. Healing tokens: pills, health pack
4. Money tokens: 1, 2, 3, 4
5. Special tokens: flash-bang grenade, grenade (special effect)

Example

Both of you randomly draw three tokens.

Step 1. First, evaluate all damage dealing tokens at the same time. Your character, Fox receives 3 damage from Stalker's 3-bullet. Decrease your armor by 2 and life by 1.

Your enemy, Stalker receives 3 damage too. But armor can't absorb the knife's damage. Stalker decreases life by 1, then armor by 1 and life by 1 more.

Step 2. Next, both of you evaluate all armor increasing tokens. You receive no armor.

Stalker increases armor by 1 because of the helmet.

Step 3. Since there are no healing tokens, collect money next. You receive 1 money.

Stalker receives 2 money. Increase the values on your money tracks accordingly. If there are any special tokens, evaluate them last.

Purchase

Whoever stays alive at the end of a battle may purchase items with the money indicated on their boards. You can buy gear from two places: from your own character's board or from a fallen team member's board. Put all purchased tokens into your team's bag. Purchasing is optional, you can spend your remaining money at the end of later battles as well. When playing ELITE mode, you can also develop special character abilities in this phase.

End of combat

When the last member of a team dies, the combat ends. The team with at least one surviving character wins the game. You can play a rematch with the same or a different team composition. If all characters of both teams die in the final battle of a combat, then the attacker's team wins.

You successfully completed training! When you played through it get ready for COMBAT OPERATIONS! Read ahead!

II. Combat Operations

You can play OPERATORS in two modes, which you can select with the different sides of the character boards:

• CASUAL – This side of the character board is recommended for learning the game and for those who like faster, lighter games. Starting value of money is 2 $. Gameplay for CASUAL mode is as described above.
• ELITE – This side of the character board is recommended for trained players and for those who like more complex games. Starting value of money is 0 $.

All characters have two special abilities apart from their gear. At the beginning of a game, place the two ability tokens onto your boards onto the matching ability icons with their price facing up. During the game you can develop these abilities at any time in purchase phase. Flip the developed token to its other side indicating that it's now active. Using the abilities will grant you and your team advantages during battles. See description of abilities in the Operation Manual.

Missions

There are different types of missions in the game. Every mission can be combined with either CASUAL or ELITE mode.

Skirmish

Skirmish is only one combat in which you don't need the cards and hostage tokens. The team with at least one survivor wins the game. Estimated playing time 15-30 minutes.

Capture the point

Capture the point consists of maximum five combats in a row. Before the game, separate the Capture the point cards according to their letters. Make five decks of three cards (one deck for each letter: A/B/C/D/E). Randomly choose one card from the "E" deck and place it face down on the table without looking at it. Then one from the "D" deck and place it face down on top of the previous card. Perform the same from the "C", "B" and finally "A" decks as well in this order.

Flip the topmost card so you'll going to fight for the "A" card in the first combat, for the "B" in the second and so on. Each card has a modifying effect for the current combat. The winning team of each combat receives the card. Whichever team first acquires three cards wins the game. Estimated playing time 30-60 minutes. Description of modifying effects can be seen in the Operation manual.

Hostage rescue

Hostage rescue consists of exactly five combats. Shuffle the hostage cards and place five of them face down on the table. The winning team of each combat picks the topmost card placing it face up in front of them and puts as many hostage tokens into the team's bag as indicated on the card. Hostage tokens have no effect in battles, but they lower the possibility of drawing valuable tokens. They cannot be removed from the bag, not even with grenades or abilities. At the end of the fifth combat the team with more hostage tokens in their bag wins the game. In case of a tie the team with more cards win. Estimated playing time 45-90 minutes.

Starting a new combat

In Capture the point and Hostage rescue you play several combats in a row. Before each combat take care of the following things:

• The winning character of the previous combat's last battle can still purchase gear before preparing the next combat.
• Leave the previously purchased tokens in the bags.
• Leave any abilities developed as they are (in ELITE mode only).
• Restore all characters' life, armor and money markers to the default value.
• The losing team of the previous combat has the right to switch places of two of their characters in hope of a more favorable pairing.

Congratulations! Access granted for Special Operations! Good luck out there soldier!

Special Operations (Classified)

WARNING! These variations are recommended only for experienced soldiers. In some cases decisions at the start can lead to huge advantages on one side.

• RENEGADES – Place all special ability tokens and all character boards (ELITE side up) on the table. With a preferred method choose characters first then ANY two abilities for them. In case of less than ten players, you may ban certain characters or abilities from the game.
• COMMANDERS – Each team chooses one character as team commander and flip only their boards to ELITE side. Ability tokens can either match character's or pick ANY two of the available pool (see Renegades). Developed abilities are kept that way.
• WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE – You can purchase gear from fallen soldiers of the enemy team, not just your team. The attacker of the current battle can purchase first. Between combats, all gear must be placed back to their owner's board.
• PERFECT SOLDIERS – Before starting the game, put all gear tokens of the characters in play into the teams' bags and place all ability tokens on the boards with their developed side up.

The Cogitate Games Team wishes you to have lots of fun with the game!

III. Operation Manual

Gear tokens

Damage dealing tokens

• Knife: 1 damage, armor can't absorb it.
• Bullet: 2 damage, can be absorbed with armor.
• 3-bullet: 3 damage, can be absorbed with armor.
• Grenade: 1 damage to all enemy team members, can be absorbed with armor.

Armor increasing tokens

• Helmet: increase armor by +1.
• Bulletproof vest: increase armor by +2.
• Assault shield: increase armor by +3.

Money tokens

• Money: increase money with the number indicated on token.

Healing tokens

• Pills: increase life by +1.
• Health pack: increase life by +2.

Special tokens

• Flash-bang grenade: Your enemy will draw only one token in the next draw instead of three. Multiple flash-bang grenades of one draw have the same effect as if there were only one.
• Grenade (special effect): With a grenade you can trash one of your previously (in the current battle) drawn and evaluated tokens from the game: put the token back in the box.

Character abilities

Abilities refer to tokens drawn in current battle or different evaluations of these tokens (except for some special abilities). One characters' abilities may be used together. If both parties' abilities are triggered at the same time, the attacker performs it first.

Switch

• Surveillance [3 $] Before evaluation: You may put back one of your currently drawn tokens into your bag. With this, you force your enemy to also put back and redraw ALL their current tokens. You may repeat this action as many times as many tokens you have in the current draw. If you run out of tokens, evaluation phase comes with no tokens on your side.
• Drone [4 $] After every 6th evaluated enemy token, you deal 1 damage to your enemy, which can be absorbed with armor. (Tokens redrawn with Surveillance ability do not count.)

Stalker

• Bullet storm [4 $] Before evaluation: You may draw one additional token for each bullet and 3-bullet. If the newly drawn tokens are also bullet or 3-bullet you can evaluate those too. If they are not bullets or 3-bullets, put them next to the already evaluated tokens without evaluation. You can't draw another round, no chain reaction.
• Guerilla tactics [3 $] Before evaluation: Each knife token gives you +1 armor instantly.

Coyote

• Scout [3 $] Before evaluation: at any draw you may select one of your enemy's tokens and force them to redraw token instead of evaluating that one (except for bullets and 3-bullets drawn from STALKER's Bullet storm ability).
• Knife specialist [3 $] Each knife token deals 2 damage (instead of one), which cannot be absorbed with armor.

Fox

• Grenade specialist [4 $] You may use your grenade tokens to deal damage only to your dueling enemy. In this case each grenade causes 2 damage, which cannot be absorbed with armor.
• Nanotechnology [3 $] In any combat when you first run out of life points, you 'revive' with 3 life and continue evaluation. Can only be used once per combat.

Goliat

• Commander [3 $] You may freely distribute values (life and armor) of the helmet, bulletproof vest, assault shield, pills and health pack tokens between your and a chosen teammate's character.
• Veteran [4 $] Each token drawn in your own color has one extra value effect.

Murdoc

• Adrenalin burst [3 $] When evaluating money tokens you can choose to grant yourself +1 life per token (regardless the token's value) instead of gaining money from it.
• First aid [4 $] When evaluating health pack and pills tokens they additionally give +1 life for each teammates.

Hammer

• Sledgehammer [2 $] After purchase phase you may trash one of your previously (in the current battle) drawn tokens from the game. Put the token back in the box (see grenade token). Hostage tokens cannot be trashed!
• Regeneration [4 $] Health pack and pills tokens additionally grant you +1 life (does not affect MURDOC's First aid ability).

Dozer

• Sacrifice [2 $] During any of your teammates' draws, you may take one token's all damage instead of that player.
• Impenetrable [3 $] You can absorb any damage with armor (even knife and FOX's Grenade specialist ability).

Hawk

• Camouflage [2 $] Before evaluation: for each bulletproof vest you draw, you can put back maximum two of your enemies current tokens into their bag.
• Target scope [3 $] Bullet tokens deal 3 damage (instead of two), which can be absorbed with armor.

Chronos

• Rubber bullet [3 $] You may use any bullet token to act as a rubber bullet instead of dealing damage, so that your enemy can only draw one token on their next draw (see flash-bang grenade).
• Teamwork [3 $] All evaluated money tokens you draw (regardless their value) also grant +1 armor for all your teammates.

Cards

Capture the point cards modify one of the tokens' effect in the current combat. Modifying effect is obligatory for all tokens and all characters in the current combat.

• A1, A2, A3 – cost 1 $ less (bullet icon).
• B1, B2, B3 – cost 1 $ less (bulletproof vest icon).
• C1 – grant +1 life (pills icon).
• C2 – grants +1 armor (helmet icon).
• C3 – grant +1 armor (bulletproof vest icon).
• D1 – deals 1 damage which can be absorbed with armor (evaluate along with other damage dealing tokens) (grenade icon).
• D2 – deals +1 damage (grenade icon).
• D3 – grants +1 life (health pack icon).
• E1, E2, E3 – deal +1 damage (knife icon).