Punica: Rome vs Carthage Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Winning the Game
• Core Concepts
  • Areas
  • Seas
  • Control
  • Units
• Gameplay
  • Movement
  • Card Effect
  • Fleet Deployment
  • Pass
• Battle
• Retreat
  • Armies
  • Fleets
• Special Battle Effect

Components

• 1x Game board
• 8x Roman Armies
• 6x Carthaginian Armies
• 1x Hannibal
• 7x Roman cards
• 7x Carthaginian cards
• 3x Roman Fleets
• 3x Carthaginian Fleets
• This rulebook and 4x player aids

Setup

Place the board in the middle of the table.

Choose one player to be Rome (red) and the other to be Carthage (blue).

Roman player — Place the Army and Fleet markers on the areas with corresponding setup icons:

1. 4 Armies
2. & 3. 1 Army
3. 2 Armies
4. 3 Fleets
5. Take all 7 Roman cards in your hand.

Carthage player — Place the Army and Fleet markers on the areas with corresponding setup icons:

7. 4 Armies (including Hannibal)
8. 1 Army
9. 2 Armies
10. 3 Fleets
11. Take all 7 Carthaginian cards in your hand.

Winning the Game

There are three ways to win the game. You win immediately if one of the following conditions is met:

1. You control the opposing Capital.
2. You control 3 of your opponent's areas of influence.
3. All opposing Armies are removed from the board.

If neither player has an Army on the board, the game ends in a draw.

Core Concepts

Areas

Regions — The board contains 11 regions: areas separated from each other by borders marked with yellow lines. Regions are adjacent to other regions they share a border with, and to seas they touch.

3 of the regions are islands. Islands are regions adjacent to the seas on all sides.

Capital — Each side has a Capital.

• The Roman Capital is marked by a red background and an eagle symbol.
• The Carthaginian Capital is marked by a blue background and an elephant symbol.

Areas of influence — Each side has five areas of influence marked with their symbols.

• 4 Roman areas of influence are marked with an eagle symbol.
• 4 Carthaginian areas of influence are marked with an elephant symbol.
• The island of Sicily is treated as an area of influence for both sides. A player's control of Sicily counts towards the victory condition of controlling 3 of the opponent's areas of influence.

Seas

The board contains 9 seas: areas separated from each other by borders marked with dashed lines. Seas are adjacent to seas they share a border with, and to regions they touch.

Each sea adjacent to a Capital has a Fleet symbol. On these seas, players can deploy their Fleets during the game (see Fleet Deployment), to be used during the Movement action (see Movement).

Control

You control an area if only your Units are in that area. If your and an opponent's Units are in the same area, a battle must be fought (see Battle).

Units

In the game, there are two types of Units: Armies and Fleets.

Each Unit has a strength of 1, except Hannibal, whose strength is 2 when he is attacking.

Armies

• The red Armies are the Roman Armies.
• The blue Armies are Carthaginian.
• The white elephant represents Hannibal, a special Carthaginian Army. The Hannibal symbol means that the effect applies to Hannibal OR a Carthaginian Army.

Fleets

Fleets are used to conduct battles on seas and are used to transport Armies.

• The red Fleets are the Roman Fleets.
• The blue Fleets are Carthaginian.

Gameplay

Starting with Rome, both players take alternating turns until one player wins.

On your turn, you must take one of four actions:

• Movement
• Card Effect
• Fleet Deployment
• Pass

Movement

You can move an Army or a Fleet.

An Army can move either:

A. From a region to an adjacent region, OR B. From one region to another via a chain of adjacent seas, each containing a friendly Fleet.

A Fleet symbol counts as a Fleet belonging to its owner for this purpose, unless their opponent's Fleet is in the sea with it.

Example: Julia (the Carthaginian player) moves her Army from her Capital to an adjacent region. Julia moves her Fleet to a non-adjacent sea.

Example: Titus (the Roman player) moves his Army from his Capital to one of Julia's areas of influence via a sea with a printed Fleet symbol (without any Fleets) and two seas on which he has Fleets.

A Fleet can move from a sea to any other sea (the seas do not need to be adjacent).

If, during Movement, your Units are in an area with an opponent's Units, immediately end the Movement of these Units (see Battle).

Card Effect

Each player has a deck of seven cards.

The cards can be played in two ways:

• As an action, OR
• During a battle.

When you play a card as an action:

1. Reveal the card,
2. Resolve as much of the action on the bottom of the card as you like,
3. Place it face-up next to the board.

A detailed explanation of all card effects can be found in the separate player aid.

Face-up cards may be reviewed by either player at any time. Once you have played your last card, return all played cards to your hand, except the card just played.

Example: Titus plays a card for its action which allows him to perform 4 movements by his Armies. First, he moves 1 Army via Fleets to take control of an island. Then, using 2 movements, he moves 1 Army via 2 areas to the area with a Carthaginian Army. Lastly, with the last movement from the action card, he moves 1 Army.

Example: Julia plays a card for its action. First, she moves a Fleet. Then she moves an Army via the just-moved Fleet to one of the Roman areas of influence. She now controls one of the three areas of influence she needs to win the game.

Fleet Deployment

Players start the game with all their Fleets on the board. During the game, the opponent may destroy your Fleets and remove them from the board.

You may remove an Army from anywhere on the board to place a previously destroyed Fleet in the sea with your Fleet symbol. If there is an opponent's Fleet at this location, a battle occurs.

Example: Titus removes an Army and places a Fleet from off the board into the sea adjacent to the Roman Capital.

Pass

Place a card from your hand face-up next to the board without resolving it.

Example: Julia decides to pass, so she places a card from her hand face-up next to the board, and as this is the last card in her hand she takes all previously played cards in her hand.

Battle

A battle occurs if, at the end of any action, opposing Armies or Fleets are in the same area. The player who starts a battle is the attacker and the other player is the defender.

To resolve a battle, both players must choose one card from their hand, and place it face-down in front of them. Once both players have placed their cards face-down, they reveal them simultaneously.

The strength of a played card by a player is added to the strength of their Units in battle. If any player played a card with the special battle effect symbol, the attacking player resolves its effect first.

Both players add up their strength, and the player with the higher strength is the winner. The loser must remove one of their Armies/Fleets from the board, and retreat all remaining Units.

If both players have the same strength, both players must remove an Army/Fleet from the area, and the attacker must retreat all of their remaining Units.

After you reveal a card for its strength, place it face-up next to the board. Once you have played your last card, return all played cards to your hand, except the card just played.

If more than one battle occurs during a player's turn, the active player decides the order in which they are resolved. Each battle must be fully resolved before the next one can be addressed.

Example: Titus moves one of his Armies to a region containing a Carthaginian Army, starting a battle. Both players must play a card from their hand. Both play a card with a strength of 3, meaning both Armies are removed from the board. That ends the battle as there are no more opposing Armies in the region.

Retreat

When you retreat from a battle, you must abide by the following restrictions:

• You cannot retreat to any area from which you have been attacked.
• You cannot retreat to your opponent's Capital.
• You cannot move to an area where a battle is taking place.

Armies

As an attacker you must retreat all Armies to one of the areas you attacked from, and if this is not possible, remove all retreating Armies from the game.

As a defender you must retreat in the following priority order:

1. An adjacent region with your Armies or a region with your area of influence symbol.
2. An adjacent uncontrolled region.
3. The closest region with your Armies, or your Capital, connected via sea with your Fleets.
4. The closest uncontrolled region connected via sea with your Fleets.

Fleets

You must retreat all your Fleets to an adjacent sea with your Fleet, or if this is not possible, to an adjacent sea without an enemy Fleet. You cannot retreat to a sea adjacent to an opponent's Capital. If this is not possible, remove all retreating Fleets from the game.

Special Battle Effect

If you play a card with the special battle effect symbol, you may perform the action on that card before calculating strength. The attacker resolves their card's effect first.

When you move Armies using the special battle effect, you can move Armies into the ongoing battle, but you cannot retreat Units from the ongoing battle. You cannot move your Armies via Fleets that are engaged in a battle. You cannot start a new battle with such a move.

A detailed explanation of all card effects can be found in the separate player aid.

Example: Titus is the attacker. Both players play cards. Titus plays a card with a strength of 2, so his total strength is 4. Julia plays a card with a strength of 2, but thanks to the special battle effect on a played card, she can perform 2 movement actions of her Armies. She moves an Army into the battle using both movement actions from the played card. Now, her Armies' strength in the battle is 4. As both players have the same strength, both must remove 1 Army from the game, and Titus must retreat his Army to the area from where he attacked Julia.