Orcs Orcs Orcs
Orcs Orcs Orcs Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Components – Basic Game
- 1 Game board
- 1 Tower – consists of two parts that have to be assembled at the start of the game
- 72 Creature markers
- 72 Creature tokens
- 76 Bases – 32x green, 24x yellow, 16x red, 4x black
- 4 Mage tokens – 1 x green, yellow, blue & red
- 4 Trophy boards – front: basic game, back: module "bonus actions"
- 34 wooden cubes – 7 x red, green, blue & yellow, 6 x white
- 32 Start spells – 8 per player, distinguishable by colored text frame
- 40 Spell cards – 20 Spells of Lore, 20 Attack Spells
- 8 Mission cards – for the module "Secret missions"
- 15 Fate cards
- 14 Poison cards
- 1 Scoring track
- 4 Reference cards
- 1 Rulebook
- 1 Supplement
Set-Up – Basic Game (exemplary setup for 4 players)
General Material
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Unfold the game board in the center of the playing area. It consists of 6 paths each with 3 sections and a corresponding tower space: the outer section, the middle section, the inner section, and the tower space.
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Assemble the tower and place it in the center of the game board. The tower must be oriented so that the numbers on the tower are facing in the same direction as the numbers on the game board.
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The poison cards: Put the poison cards in a face up pile on the poison cards box.
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The fate cards: Shuffle the 15 fate cards and put the pile face down on the fate cards draw box.
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The spell cards: Sort the spell cards by the two icons at the lower right edge and shuffle each pile separately. Put each pile face down next to the game board. Reveal the top 3 cards of each pile, this is the spell cards display.
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Creature counters: Put one white cube on the first space below each creature portrait.
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The creatures: Sort the 6 different creatures by type and keep them handy next to the game board. They come in three categories: weak, strong and brute. The creatures are: Goblin, Orc, Goblin Shaman, Orc Rider, Lava Golem, and Chief.
Place each Creature in a colored base according to its category.
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Creature markers: Depending on the number of players the following creature markers are not used and remain in the box:
Number of players 2 3 4 Creature markers numbered 3 & 4 4 none Then, mix the creature markers face down and place them at the end of each path, in two piles of equal height:
Number of players 2 3 4 Creature markers per path 8 10 12 Reveal 2 creature markers on each path and place the corresponding creature tokens on the outer section of that path. Remove the revealed markers from the game.
Individual Player Components
Each player takes one mage, all cubes, and the start spell cards of their chosen color. Give one trophy board and reference card to each player.
Start spell cards: You can distinguish the start spells by the color of the frames on the cards. Shuffle the start spell cards and place the pile face down next to the trophy board. Each player draws 4 cards as their initial hand.
The mages: Place the mage tokens on the tower as follows:
| Mage | blue | green | red | yellow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Space | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
Place each mage in a black base at the start of the game.
The trophy board (front side up): Put one wooden cube on each of the lowest space on the skull track.
- Portrait: a picture of the creature.
- A creature's life points: A mage must inflict this number of damage points in order to defeat the creature.
- Skull track: The counter goes up one space each for the first two defeated creatures of that kind.
- Creature category: Indicates the creature's category.
- Extra skill: The mage gains this extra skill once the counter has reached the top of the skull track. The extra skills are explained in detail on the supplement.
The youngest player is the start player.
Put any unused game components back into the game box, you will not need them during this session.
Sequence of Play
OOO is played over a series of game rounds. At the start of each game round, one fate card is revealed. Then, the start player performs his turn, the other players following in clockwise order. After each player has performed one turn, the next game round begins.
A player's turn consists of 3 phases:
- Reveal creature markers
- Perform actions
- Draw new spells
A Game Round in Detail
Reveal a Fate Card
The top fate card is revealed and placed on the fate card box. This card indicates which category of creatures will move one section towards the tower and special rules for this game round, if any.
Upper section: Depending on the shown category of creatures, all creatures of this category move one section towards the tower. If more categories than one are shown, all these creatures move.
Example: According to the revealed fate card all strong (yellow) and brute (red) creatures move one section closer towards the tower.
Any creature arriving at the tower is removed from the game board and that creature counter is adjusted. For each creature arriving at the tower, the counter of that creature is moved back 1 space. A counter cannot be moved back, if it has reached the last space already.
If a player's mage is standing on the same path on which a creature has arrived at the tower, that player must lose one of his previously defeated creatures of that type; it is put back into the box. In case he has not yet defeated such a creature, nothing happens.
Example: The goblin reaches the tower and is put back into the game box. Now the corresponding white cube on the creature counter is moved back 1 space. Since the red player is standing on that path, he has to discard one of his already defeated goblins.
Note: You will learn how to defeat a creature in the attack spell section.
Lower section: This special rule applies to all players during this game round. If no special rules are shown, there simply is no special rule during this game round. All special rules are explained in detail in the supplement.
Example: In this game round each creature has one extra life point.
A Player's Turn
1. Reveal creature markers
The active player must perform the following two steps in this order:
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The player reveals one creature marker on each path without any creature – provided there are any markers left. Then, the player places the corresponding creature token on the outer section of this path and removes the marker from the game. Skip this step if there is at least one creature on each path.
Example: Two paths have no creatures standing on them. The player reveals one creature marker on both paths and places the according creature tokens on the outer section.
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Next, the player chooses one path except that path currently occupied by his mage and reveals one creature marker of that path. Again, he places the corresponding creature token on the outer section of this path and removes the marker from the game.
Note: You can choose only such paths where creature markers are available.
Example: The green player chooses path 5 to reveal a creature marker. He could not have chosen path 4, since he is currently occupying that path with his mage.
2. Perform actions
During his turn, the active player may perform 2 actions. For each action, the player can choose one of three options: a) Teleport or b) Cast a spell or c) Pass.
a) Teleport: The player places his mage on any unoccupied space of the tower.
Example: The red player can place his mage only on the 1 and 4 tower space. The rest are already occupied by other mages.
b) Cast a spell: All cards of the players are powerful spells that help the players to defeat the charging creatures with their various effects. There are 3 different categories of spells:
- Attack spells can be cast on a single creature or on a group of creatures, depending on the card. These spells inflict damage on the creatures.
- Spells of Lore help the players to learn new and more powerful spells.
- Spells of support help the players to alter the current game situation to their own advantage.
Each spell card shows the type of magic (Earth, Lightning, Water or Fire), an illustration, the spell name, and a text box indicating the various effects of the spell and the appropriate spell power required.
When casting a spell, the player chooses one of his hand cards and plays it face up in front of him. This grants 1 spell power of that type of magic indicated by the icon at the top of the card.
Each line in the text box indicates the required spell power on the left side and next to it the resulting effect.
Example: The player casts the Cold Snap spell thus generating 1 water spell power. With this water spell power he can use the first effect of that spell, which will inflict 1 damage on a creature.
A player may increase his spell power by playing additional hand cards as enhancement, thus increasing the spell power accordingly with each played card.
Please note: The cards played as enhancement will increase the spell power only, their effects in the text box are ignored.
If a player does not want to play any further enhancement cards or cannot do so, he applies the effect of the spell according to the actual spell power.
Important: Only one effect of a spell can be used!
Concluding his action, the player puts the spell card and any enhancement cards he has played onto his discard pile.
All spells are explained in detail in the section "The Spells in Detail" below.
If the player has not used all his available actions yet, he may decide again to teleport, cast another spell or pass.
Example: The red player casts the Zap spell and increases his spell power by playing another hand card as enhancement. He now has 2 lightning spell power at his disposal and can use the second effect of the Zap spell thus inflicting 2 damage to the orc.
c) Pass: When choosing to pass, the player performs no further actions during this game round and continues with 3. Draw new spells of his turn.
3. Draw new spells
After the active player has completed his actions, he discards his remaining hand onto the discard pile.
After discarding his hand, the player draws 4 new spell cards from the draw pile. If the draw pile is exhausted when a player draws new cards, the discard pile is shuffled and used as the new draw pile. The player then continues drawing from this new draw pile.
Example: The player has used all of his actions and discards his remaining hand. He then draws 4 new spells.
The Spells in Detail
Attack Spells
A player may cast attack spells only on creatures that are on the same path as his mage. He can cast the spell on any creatures on that path, no matter if they are at the front of the path or further behind.
The red number in the text box next to the spell power icons indicates the amount of damage points inflicted to a creature.
If the number of damage points equals a creature's life points or exceeds them (the number inside the heart next to a creature on the trophy board), that creature is defeated and the player keeps that token next to his trophy board.
Example: The green player casts an enhanced Cold Snap spell and inflicts 2 damage on the goblin. Therefore the goblin is defeated since he has only 2 life points. He places the goblin next to his trophy board.
Additionally, the player moves his cube on the corresponding skull track of his trophy board one space upwards. Once the cube reaches the top most space, the player gains the corresponding extra skill which he can use as of now for the rest of the game. See supplement for a detailed explanation of these skills.
Example: The player moves his cube one space up on the skull track thus reaching the top most space. He now has gained the extra card skill which allows him to draw 5 instead of 4 spells at the end of his turn.
A creature keeps any inflicted damage up to the end of the player's turn. Therefore a player may inflict damage to a creature with more than one action and defeat it eventually.
However, if a creature is not defeated at the end of a player's turn, it recovers and regains its full amount of life points.
Example: The green player casts the Zap spell as his 1st action and inflicts 1 damage to the goblin. With his 2nd action he casts a Cold Snap spell inflicting 1 more damage to the goblin and that way defeating it.
Smash, Zap, Cold Snap and Fire Spark: These spells inflict up to 3 damage points on a creature on the same path the player's mage occupies.
Fireball: The Fireball inflicts up to 5 damage points on a creature on the same path the player's mage occupies.
Note: The fireball as well as the following 3 spells on this page can only be cast if they are enhanced at least once.
Example: The green player enhances his Fireball spell and inflicts 5 damage on the lava Golem. Since the Golem has only 4 life points he is defeated.
Lightning Bolt: The Lightning Bolt inflicts up to 4 damage points on a creature. The player may attack any creature on the game board, disregarding the path it is on.
Example: The green player casts an enhanced Lightning Bolt spell and defeats the goblin shaman on a neighboring path.
Earthquake: When applying the first effect, the player inflicts 2 damage points on each creature on the chosen section of that path, his mage is occupying.
Example: The green player casts the Earthquake spell and inflicts 2 damage on each creature on the middle section thus defeating both goblins. The orc rider has 1 life point left.
When applying the second effect, the player additionally inflicts 2 damage points on each creature on the adjacent section to the first affected section. It is the player's choice if this is the adjacent section to the right or to the left.
Example: The green player casts the enhanced Earthquake spell and defeats 3 goblins and 1 orc in just one action.
Ice Storm: When applying the first effect, the player inflicts 2 damage points on each creature on the chosen section of that path, his mage is occupying.
When applying the second effect, the player additionally inflicts 2 damage points on each creature on the section behind the first affected section.
Example: The blue player uses his 1st action to cast an enhanced Ice Storm inflicting 2 damage on each creature on the inner and middle section. Both goblins are defeated instantly. For his 2nd action he casts a Smash and then also defeats the goblin shaman on the inner section.
Spells of Lore
When casting one of these spells, the player plays this card only and may take one spell card from the display. He puts this card on his personal discard pile. The empty place on the display is refilled with a card from the appropriate draw pile, provided it is not exhausted yet.
Note: New spells can be used in later turns only.
Example: The player casts the Spell Book and decides to take the Fireball spell from the display. He then discards the Spell Book and the Fireball to his discard pile. The empty space in the display gets refilled.
If a Spell Book is played as enhancement, the player must decide from one of the two types of magic in order to increase his spell power accordingly.
Example: The player decides to increase his power by 1 earth spell power.
If Wisdom is played as enhancement, the player may increase the spell power of any type of magic of his choice.
Example: The player can choose in which magic type he wants to increase his spell power.
Spells of Support
Switch: When applying the first effect, the player may switch the position of any two creatures, no matter where on the game board they currently are. When applying the second effect, the player may move any creature to any section of that path his mage is currently occupying.
Example: The red player takes the lava Golem and places him on the inner section of the path his mage is occupying.
Replenish: When applying the first effect, the player may draw 2 cards from his personal draw pile and add them to his hand. When using the enhanced effect, the player draws two cards from his draw pile and can perform an extra action this turn.
Example: The player casts Replenish and draws 2 cards from his draw pile.
Magic Bonds: When applying the first effect, the player may move one creature anywhere on the game board one section forward. When applying the second effect, the player may move one creature anywhere on the game board two sections forward.
If the creature arrives at the tower when casting this spell, proceed as explained above under revealing a fate card.
Example: The player casts Magic Bonds and moves the goblin shaman one section forward. By doing that the shaman reaches the tower and is put back in the game box and the according cube on the creature counter is placed one space lower.
Voodoo: When casting this spell straightaway, the player appoints one other player to discard one of the cards in their hand to the discard pile. When using the enhanced effect, the player gains 1 extra action and all other players must discard one of their hand.
Important: The Voodoo effect only applies to players whose hand is more than 3 cards.
Example: The red player casts an enhanced Voodoo spell gaining 1 extra action while the other players have to discard one of their hand cards to the discard pile.
Enhancement Effects
There are two enhancement effects, being Teleportation and Draw a Card. However, these enhancement effects can be used only if the corresponding spells are played as enhancement.
If a player plays a card with an enhancement effect as enhancement, he may use this effect immediately. The player may choose not to use the effect.
Note: Enhancement effects must always be used before casting the spell.
Example: A) If a player casts Replenish to draw cards, he cannot use the enhancement effect. B) If a player plays Replenish as enhancement, he may place his mage on an unoccupied tower space before casting his spell (here Lightning Bolt).
Teleportation: The player moves his mage to any unoccupied space of the tower.
Do not forget: By using Teleportation, the path of the mage changes and with this the creatures on which the mage can cast his spell.
Example: The red player uses the enhancement effect of his Replenish and teleports his mage to the 3 tower space. He then inflicts 2 damage to the goblin and defeats him.
Draw a card: The player adds one card from his personal draw pile to his hand.
Example: The green player uses the Draw a Card enhancement effect and draws a Spell Book. He immediately plays the Spell Book as enhancement thus increasing the damage of his Fireball from 3 to 5.
Teleportation and/or draw a card (Wisdom): The player may teleport and/or draw one card.
Hint: It may be useful to play a card for its enhancement effect only, even if the player does not use the increased spell power.
End of the Game and Scoring
The game ends at the end of the game round during which at least 4 paths are completely cleared of any creature markers. That game round is completed as usual.
Finally, scoring takes place. To make scoring easy, the players should use the scoring track.
Each player scores victory points (VP) for:
Defeated creatures: The number of defeated creatures of each type is multiplied by the corresponding value of the creature counter.
Example: The player gains 47 points in total for his defeated creatures.
Spells of Support: Each Spell of Support card a player owns is worth 2 points.
Example: The player gains 8 points for his Spells of Support in his deck.
Poison cards: Each poison card in a player's deck reduces the total by 2 points.
Note: Poison cards are explained in the "Extra skills" section on the supplement.
Example: The player has to reduce his total by 4 points thus having a final score of 51 points.
The player with the most points is the winner of the game and declared Master Mage. In case of a tie for the most points, the tied players share the victory.
© Copyright 2014 Queen Games, D-53842 Troisdorf, Germany. All rights reserved
Supplement
Extra Skills
Draw one additional spell: During 3. Draw new spells the player always draws 5 cards to his hand instead of only 4.
No Change of rules: The player ignores any rules changes caused by fate cards.
Remove hand: As an action, the player may remove one card in his hand from the game once during his turn. The card is put back into the game box.
Note: This extra skill is very useful to get rid of poison cards and/or to focus on 2 or 3 types of magic.
Extra Action: As of now the player can perform 3 actions during his turn instead of 2.
No loss of creatures: The player does not lose one of his defeated creatures if a creature arrives at the tower on that path occupied by his mage.
Poison: As an action, the player may take a poison card from the pile on the playing board and put it in another player's discard pile. Once the draw pile for poison cards is emptied this action is no longer available. This action can only be used once per turn.
Poison cards clutter the deck of a player. They have no effect and cannot be played as enhancement.
Special Rules of Fate Cards
Creature +1 life point: Each creature has one additional life point.
No spells: No new spells can be studied (cards taken from display).
No teleportation: Mages cannot change their position on the tower.
No extra skills: Extra skills are ignored.
3 spells: During 3. Draw new spells each player is limited to 3 spells only. If a player has the extra skill "Draw one additional spell", he can draw 4 cards.
Exchange of spells: All spell cards in the display shuffled with their corresponding draw pile and then a new display is formed.
Experienced mages who master the basic game may try the two expansion modules "Secret Missions" and "Bonus Actions", both of which offer new challenges and add variety to the fight against the green skins.
Module: Secret Missions
Changes During Set-Up: Shuffle the 8 Secret Mission cards and deal 2 to each player. Each player must decide for one Secret Mission, keeping it face down next to his trophy board. Put all remaining mission cards back into the game box without looking at them.
Changes During Game End Scoring: Depending on how successful they were completing their Secret Mission, players score additional points at the end of the game:
- Weak creatures: 2 points for each own pair of defeated weak creatures.
- Strong creatures: 3 points for each own pair of defeated strong creatures.
- Brute creatures: 2 points for each own defeated brute creature.
- Many creatures: 3 points for each own group of 4 creatures, disregarding their size/sort.
- Sets: 3 points for each own set, a set being one weak, one strong and one brute creature.
- Extra skills: 2 points for each extra skill the player has gained.
- Maximum: 3 points for each creature type of which the player has defeated the most creatures (i.e., more than each other player). In case of a tie the player scores 3 points anyway.
- Spells: 3 points for each two new learned spell cards.
© Copyright 2014 Queen Games, D-53842 Troisdorf, Germany. All rights reserved
Module: Bonus Actions
Changes During Set-Up: All players use the reverse side of their trophy boards. The Bonus Actions are shown below the hearts of each strong and brute creature.
Changes During Game Play: Each time a player defeats a creature, he is entitled to perform the corresponding Bonus Action immediately; he may renounce it, however. If the player defeats more than one creature during one action, he may perform the Bonus Actions in any order he likes.
- Draw a card: The player draws one card from his personal draw pile.
- 1 action: The player may perform one additional action during his turn.
- Discard hands: All other players must put one card from their hand onto their personal discard pile. The effect only applies to players whose hand is more than 3 cards.
- Spell power: The player gains 1 spell power point of his choice for his next action during this turn. If he does not use this spell power point, it is lost.
Module: New Fate Cards
New Components: 19 fate cards.
Changes During Set-Up: Shuffle the 19 fate cards and put the pile face down on the fate cards draw box. You will not need the 15 fate cards of the basic game, put them back into the game box.
Changes During Sequence of Play: A player can cast Attack spells only on creatures that are in the front section of the path his mage is facing. The front section of a path is the first section containing any creatures, counting from the tower.
Example: The green player can only attack the Orc Rider since he is in the front section. Once he has defeated the Orc Rider, he can attack the Goblin or the Lava Golem.
Please note: You may cast "Lightning Bolt" on any path, but only creatures in the front section will be affected. "Ice Storm" and "Earthquake" can target the front section only.
Example: The green player casts his Lightning Bolt to path 5. He may only attack the Orc, because he is the only one in the front row.
Example: The green player casts his enhanced Earthquake on the front section thus defeating 3 Goblins and 1 Orc.
Reveal a Fate Card: The top fate card is revealed and placed on the fate card box. The upper section of the fate card specifies on which paths and which sections the creatures will move. The lower section states any rules changes which may occur for this game round.
Upper section: The numbers highlighted red name the paths on which the creatures will move. On these paths, all creatures currently standing on the highlighted red sections will move. They move one section forward towards the tower. If more than one section is highlighted, the creatures move one after the other, starting with the innermost section and continuing outwards.
Example: Here all creatures on the middle section who are on path 3 and 4 advance one section closer to the tower.
Any creatures arriving at the tower are removed from the game board and the creature counter is readjusted. For each creature arriving at the tower the corresponding counter is reduced by 1. If the counter is on the lowest space already, it simply remains there.
If a player's mage is occupying the path on which a creature arrives at the tower, that player must put one of his defeated creatures of that type back into the game box. If the player has not yet defeated a creature of that type, he suffers no penalty.
Lower section: This special rule applies to all players during this game round. If no special rules are shown, there simply is no special rule during this game round. Any rules changes are explained in the supplement of the basic game.
Module: Terrain
New Components: 9 terrain tiles – 3x tendrils, 3x stone field and 3x road.
Changes During Set-Up: Mix the 9 terrain tiles face down. Randomly place one tile on each path (on the section of your choice), then reveal all the tiles. The 3 remaining tiles are not used for this game, put them back into the game box.
Note: Players may agree to place fewer tiles or even all of them during setup.
Changes During Sequence of Play: If creatures are standing on a terrain tile, the following rules changes apply, depending on the terrain type:
Tendrils: Any creature standing on a tendril tile automatically loses one life point and thus makes it easier to defeat it. As soon as a creature leaves the tendril tile its life points are restored to normal.
Example: As long as the Orc Rider is standing on the tendril tile he has 2 instead of 3 life points.
Stone Field: Any creature standing on a stone field tile automatically gains one life point and thus makes it harder to defeat it. As soon as a creature leaves the stone field tile its life points are restored to normal.
Example: As long as the Goblin is standing on the Stone Field he has 3 instead of 2 life points.
Road: Creatures do not stop on this terrain tile but move one section closer to the tower. A creature entering the road tile of the inner section arrives at the tower immediately; it is removed from the game board and its creature counter is adjusted.
Example: The Lava Golem advances two sections, since he will not rest on the road.
Module: Reinforcement
New Components:
- 36 Creature tokens & 36 bases – 16x Croco Flyer, 12x Breeding Toad, 8x Bomber
- 36 Creature markers – 16x green, 12x yellow, 8x red
- 12 Toadling tiles
- 12 Trophy tiles – 4x Croco Flyer, 4x Breeding Toad, 4x Bomber
- 3 Creature counter tiles
Changes During Set-Up: At the start of the game the players should agree which of the 3 new creature types they want to include in the game. It is possible to include all of them or any combination. For each new creature type the following changes must be done:
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The players decide on a creature type of that category from the basic game which he wants to substitute with this new creature.
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Remove the appropriate creature markers from the game and replace them with the new creature markers. If the Breeding Toad is included, the toadling tiles must be mixed, front side up, and kept next to the game board.
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Give each player one trophy tile of the new creature, to be placed on the space of the removed creature on his trophy board.
Note: Croco Flyer can be included always. We recommend including Breeding Toad and Bomber only when playing with the "Bonus Actions" module.
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Finally the creature counter tile is placed on the portrait of the removed creature on the trophy board.
Changes During Sequence of Play: All new creatures grant the special skills of his exchanged creatures, but differ in the number of life points and/or bonus actions.
Croco Flyer: Its 3 life points make it much harder to defeat than its mates of the weak category.
Breeding Toad: When defeated, the player takes one toadling tile and places it on that section on which he has just defeated the toad. If any player inflicts 1 damage to that tile, he takes it and places it next to his trophy board, rear side up.
Each toadling tile enables the player to use a certain special skill during his turn, but once only:
- Draw 1 card: The player draws one card from his personal draw pile.
- 1 action: The player may perform one additional action during his turn.
- 1 Spell power: The player gains 1 spell power point of his choice for his next action during this turn. If he does not use this spell power point, it is lost.
- -1 Life point: During this turn, the player reduces the life points of a creature of his choice by 1.
Bomber: If the bomber is defeated, all creatures in that section suffer 1 damage.