Strife: Legacy of the Eternals Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Overview
• Beginner's Mode
• Setup
• Champions Cards
• Winning the Game
• A Game Round
• Play Area Layout
• The Game Turn
  • I. Select Champions
  • II. Battle Phase
  • III. Legacy Phase
  • IV. Combat Phase
  • V. Clean-Up
  • VI. Set Aside
• Fatestone (Breaking Ties)
• Gameplay Variations
• Credits

Game Overview

Strife takes place over three rounds in which players compete to earn the most victory points. Clever use of their champions' abilities, combined with an ability to read their opponent, will see one of them to victory.

It is also important to note that Strife is a perfect information game, where all cards in play and in the player's hands are always known. A player may ask their opponent to clarify which champions remain in their hand at any time, or to adjust their Legacy pile to better display the champions contained therein.

Beginner's Mode

For your first game of Strife, we strongly recommend simply playing without using ANY of your champions' battle abilities. This allows players to get familiar with the flow of the game before introducing the final layer of complexity that the extra ability set brings.

All of the other normal game rules still apply, except that players will skip the Battle Phase of each Game Turn as they progress through the rounds.

Setup

Each player takes a set of orange champion cards (0-9).

Shuffle the location deck (green) and place it face down at one end of the play area.

• One at a time, reveal the top three locations and place them in the center of the play area.
• The location farthest from the location deck is considered the current location, and is where the champions will clash each turn.

The Fatestone (d10 dice) should be set aside, and will be assigned during the first turn of the game, as follows:

• During the first turn of the game, players will assign a champion, face-down, to both the current location and their Legacy pile.

• Players will simultaneously reveal their legacy champions. The player with the highest printed power level begins the game with the Fatestone.

  If there is a tie between legacy champions, reveal battle champions as normal, then assign the Fatestone to the player with the lowest printed power.

  If there is still a tie, each player rolls the Fatestone. The highest roll claims the Fatestone.

• Once the Fatestone has been assigned set its value to 1, and play continues as normal.

Champions Cards

Each champion card shows:

• Power Level — the large number in the top-left corner.
• Champion Name — at the top of the card.
• Race — printed beneath the champion name.
• Battle Ability — the upper of the two abilities in the text box (marked with the battle ability icon).
• Legacy Ability — the lower of the two abilities in the text box (marked with the legacy ability icon).

Winning the Game

The player that earns the most Victory Points over the course of three rounds, including any bonus points granted by the Fatestone or any other end-game abilities, wins the game!

• In the event of a tie, the player holding the Fatestone loses.

A Game Round

A game of Strife consists of three rounds:

Each round will see the players choosing from the 9 champions in their hand (1 champion will always start in your Legacy pile each round).

• For the first turn of the first round, players will assign any champion in their hand face-down to their Legacy pile.

• At the end of each round, the last unplayed champion remaining in each player's hand automatically becomes the Legacy champion for the next round, and is assigned to that spot face-up.

  If a player ever has more than one champion left when a round ends, simply choose the next round's Legacy champion from the remaining cards in their hand.

At the beginning of each round, shuffle the location discard deck and distribute locations face-up, as described above, until there are a total of 3 face-up locations in play.

The round ends when both players are down to exactly one champion left to play, or if there are no locations left in play.

Play Area Layout

The play area is laid out as follows, from top to bottom:

• Player 1 hand, with Player 1's Battle Champion on the left and Player 1's Legacy Pile on the right.
• The row of Current Locations in the middle, with the Location Deck at the far end.
• Player 2's Battle Champion on the left and Player 2's Legacy Pile on the right, with the Player 2 hand below.

The Game Turn

Each turn of Strife consists of the following phases, in order:

I. Select Champions

Each player chooses a champion from their hand and places him face down at the current location. Once both players have selected their champions, reveal them simultaneously.

• Immediately check for any abilities that trigger upon revealing characters! The Monk's legacy ability will always activate before either player's battle ability, so choose your champion wisely when you see him on top of a Legacy pile.

II. Battle Phase

The champion with the highest printed power activates their battle ability first. Once resolved, the lower powered champion activates its ability as well.

• If another champion enters play for any reason, its battle ability may be activated immediately. If that power level number has already been passed, it resolves immediately.

III. Legacy Phase

Using the topmost champion on each player's legacy pile, the legacy champion with the highest printed power activates its legacy ability first. Once resolved, the lower powered legacy champion activates their ability as well.

• If another champion becomes the topmost card in the Legacy pile, its legacy ability may be activated immediately. If that power level number has already been passed, it resolves immediately.

Note that some battle and legacy abilities require activation, while others are optional. If an ability is optional, it will contain the word 'may' in its description.

IV. Combat Phase

The combat phase consists of three simple steps:

• Add up the total power of the current battle champions, including any terrain bonuses or other effects that may add to a champion's power.
• Compare the final power totals. The highest total power wins.
• The winner gains any effects and/or Victory Points from the current location.

V. Clean-Up

The clean-up phase will help reset the locations and update the Legacy pile, as follows:

• Discard the location of the current combat face-up and advance the remaining locations forward (away from the location deck). Fill in any empty locations from the top of the location deck, face-up, one at a time.

  Note that any ability that advances the face-up locations will result in these empty locations being filled in immediately.

• Move the champions that just fought onto the top of each player's respective Legacy pile, after any other champions that may have been in the play area are moved over.

• Make sure to stagger your legacy pile slightly so that all champion names and power levels are visible at all times.

• Begin a new turn!

VI. Set Aside

If your hand becomes empty at any point in a turn or round for any reason, all set aside cards immediately return to your hand.

Fatestone (Breaking Ties)

The Fatestone is used to break any tie that may occur during gameplay.

Any time there is a tie, for any reason, the player currently holding the Fatestone loses. However, that player does have the option of passing the Fatestone, thereby claiming the victory for that tiebreaker. Each time the Fatestone is passed, you must increase its value by 1.

• The Fatestone may only be passed once per tie.

At the end of the game, the Fatestone is worth Victory Points equal to its final value for whichever player is in possession of it at that time.

Gameplay Variations

Want a quicker game of Strife? Just play one round to enjoy Strife as a deep and strategic filler game. If you want something in-between that and the complete game, play two rounds instead. Want an epic level match? Try a five round brain-burner!

Credits

• EU PUBLISHER: Cube Factory of Ideas
• GAME DESIGN: Christopher Hamm
• ILLUSTRATOR: Jonathan Powell
• GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Creatika Łukasz Kempiński
• ORIGINAL, ENGLISH RULES: Vision Three, LLC.