Tash-Kalar: Arena of Legends Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • The four schools
• How to Play (First Game)
  • Setting up your first game
  • Game play
  • Placing the first pieces
  • Summoning a being
  • Moves and leaps
  • Invoking a flare
  • Take backs
  • Tasks
  • Ending the game (first game)
• Rules for a Full Game
  • Player decks and pieces
  • Legends
  • The discard action
  • Piece shortage
  • Ending the game
  • Breaking ties
• Forms of Tash-Kalar
  • The High Form (2 players or teams)
  • Deathmatch Duel (2 players or teams)
  • Team Play
  • Deathmatch Melee (3 or 4 players)
• The Patterns
• Credits

Components

• The arena game board (double-sided). One side is used for the High Form and your first game; the other side (with squares marked for starting positions) is used for deathmatches.
• Pieces made of kalarite. Each player has a set in one color: 17 two-sided common/heroic pieces (a piece shows a common symbol on one side and a heroic symbol on the other) and 3 legendary pieces. Pieces come in three ranks: common (lowest rank), heroic (middle rank), and legendary (highest rank). Players place pieces on the board to form patterns for summoning beings.
• Player decks (beings). Four decks representing the four schools. Each card in your deck represents a being you can summon. The card shows a pattern, the being's rank (a symbol in the upper-left corner), the white-framed square where the being appears, and the being's effect.
• The deck of legends, shared by all players. Legendary beings have challenging patterns.
• The deck of flares, shared by all players. A flare lets you draw power from your opponent when the arena is out of balance.
• Task cards and the task board (two boards joined together), used in the High Form.
• Score boards (two boards joined together for a duel; individual boards for a melee), used in deathmatches.

The four schools

The four player decks are: the Highland School, the Sylvan School, the Southern Imperial School, and the Northern Imperial School. The two Imperial decks contain identical cards, while the Sylvan and Highland decks are unique. Certain cards may refer to red squares or green squares on the arena.

How to Play (First Game)

This chapter presents your first game as a 2-player game. A few rules are simplified so the first game is fast-paced.

Setting up your first game

• The arena: Set the arena in the center of the table with the marked-central-squares side up. It has no pieces on it when the game begins.
• Tasks: Put the two task boards together. Go through the task deck and remove all advanced cards (those with the advanced watermark) and return them to the box. Shuffle the remaining tasks and place 3 face up on the task board; these are your current tasks. (For your first game, adjust so the first three are 1-point and 2-point tasks, and try to get three tasks of different symbols.) Shuffle the deck again, place it face down, and turn up the top card, leaving it on top of the deck. This is the next task that will replace a current task when one is claimed.
• Shared deck: Shuffle the flares and place the deck near the arena. The deck of legends is not used in your first game.
• Player decks: One player takes the Northern Empire (blue deck), the other takes the Southern Empire (red deck).
• Pieces: Each player takes the pieces in his or her color. You will only use the two-sided common/heroic pieces; the 3 legendary pieces can be returned to the box for the first game.
• Discard piles: Each shared deck and player deck has its own discard pile.
• Choose a starting player. Both players shuffle their decks and draw 3 cards. Each player also draws 1 flare from the shared deck. Players keep their cards hidden. The starting player may then begin.

Game play

Players take turns. The starting player takes only 1 action on his or her first turn. For the rest of the game, each player takes 2 actions per turn. An action is either:

• Placing a common piece on the board (on an empty square), or
• Summoning a being using pieces already on the board.

You cannot use an action to move your pieces. Moves come only from the effects of certain beings or flares.

Placing the first pieces

Players start with no pieces on the board, so the first player begins by placing one piece on any square, with the common symbol up. After that, players have 2 actions per turn, so the second player can place 2 common pieces. Each piece must be placed on an empty square. You are trying to make patterns that let you summon beings from your hand.

Summoning a being

If your pieces on the board match the pattern shown on a card, you can use an action to summon that being.

• To match a pattern, match each piece shown on the card with one of your pieces on the board. A piece of higher rank can match a lower-ranked piece depicted on the card. Squares shown as empty in the pattern do not have to be empty.
• The symbol in the upper-left corner of the card gives the being's rank. The white-framed square in the pattern tells you where the being goes. To summon a being, put a piece of the correct rank on the square corresponding to the white-framed square.
• A being can be summoned onto a square occupied by a piece of the same or lower rank; this destroys that piece (you may destroy your own or an opponent's piece this way). A being cannot be summoned onto a square occupied by a piece of higher rank.
• Every being has an effect that occurs as soon as it is summoned. Resolve the effect, then put the card in your discard pile.
• If a card's effect says "You may...", the effect is optional. If it does not say something is optional, it is mandatory. Read card text carefully, since wording (e.g. "enemy piece" vs. "piece") determines what you can affect.

After the being's effect: Once resolved, the new piece on the board ceases to be that being — it is now just an ordinary piece. Pieces do not "remember" whether they were summoned or placed. If you summoned any beings, draw new cards at the end of your turn so you again hold exactly 3.

Moves and leaps

Moves come only from card and flare effects, not from your regular actions. A move is always onto one of the 8 adjacent squares. The 4 side squares are orthogonally adjacent; the 4 corner squares are diagonally adjacent.

• Standard move: onto an empty square or onto a square occupied by a piece of lesser rank. Moving onto an occupied square destroys the piece that was there.
• Combat move: onto an empty square or onto a square occupied by a piece of the same rank or lower. A heroic piece doing a combat move can go onto any of the 8 adjacent squares except those occupied by legendary pieces; a common piece doing a combat move can move onto any empty square or any square occupied by a common piece.

Two pieces can never occupy the same square. Moving onto an occupied square (standard or combat) destroys the piece there; a destroyed piece returns to its owner's supply. If a piece does multiple moves, take each in turn, destroying any pieces on squares it moves through.

A leap is like a move but is not limited to adjacent squares. A standard leap puts the piece on any other empty square, or a square occupied by a piece of lesser rank. A combat leap can go onto any other square except one occupied by a piece of higher rank. A leaping piece destroys the piece it lands on, but not any pieces in between (it did not "move through" them). Cards may add restrictions to moves and leaps.

Invoking a flare

Each player has a flare in hand. A flare lets you draw power from your opponent's pieces when the arena is out of balance. A flare has two possible effects, and you can invoke it if you meet the criterion for either effect:

• Upper criterion: your opponent's upgraded pieces (heroic or legendary; in the first game only heroic count) exceed yours by at least the number printed on the card.
• Lower criterion: your opponent's total number of pieces exceeds yours by at least the number printed on the card (counting all pieces regardless of rank).

If you meet the upper criterion you may take the upper effect; if you meet the lower criterion you may take the lower effect. If you meet both criteria when you play the card, you get both effects in order — upper first, then lower. Check the lower criterion before resolving the upper effect, not after. If you meet neither criterion, you cannot invoke the flare.

Invoking a flare is not an action. You may invoke it before or after any action, but not while an action is resolving. Resolve one or both effects, then discard it. At the end of your turn, draw a new flare. You will always start your turn with a flare, and you can never play more than 1 in a turn. ("Gain an action" adds 1 to the number of actions you have left this turn.)

Take backs

Unless you have agreed to play by other rules, you can take back an action and do it differently — even decisions made while resolving a being's or flare's effect. Once you end your turn, start drawing cards, or claim a task, it is too late to take anything back.

Tasks

The task board always has 3 current tasks (the ones you can try to accomplish) plus a visible next task on top of the deck. You can claim a task only at the end of your turn, after you are done using actions, and you can claim only 1 task per turn. Task types (shown by the upper-left symbol) include:

• Colored-square tasks: accomplished by having your pieces on colored (red/green) squares, sometimes requiring upgraded pieces.
• Configuration / central-dominance tasks: accomplished by having your pieces in a certain configuration on the board (e.g. on the central squares).
• Imprisonment tasks: accomplished by getting a certain configuration in relation to an opponent's piece.
• Summoning tasks: accomplished by summoning beings (only the "summon a being" action counts, not pieces placed by other effects).
• Destruction tasks: accomplished by destroying your opponent's pieces (by summoning over them, moving onto their squares, or effects such as "destroy" and "convert").

If you meet more than one task's criteria, you may claim only 1. To claim a task, take the card and keep it in front of you; the number in the lower-right corner is its point value. Fill the empty space with the top task from the deck, then turn up the new top card as the next task.

Ending the game (first game)

Your score is the total points of all tasks you have claimed. The game ends when a player draws the last card from his or her deck, or when either player has 6 or more points. The player with the most points wins.

Rules for a Full Game

These rules are common to all forms of Tash-Kalar and explain the differences from the simplified first-game rules.

Player decks and pieces

You can use any of the four player decks (chosen or assigned randomly), and you use all the pieces in the matching color, including the 3 legendary pieces. The Imperial decks are recommended for a first full game because they are identical.

Legends

You can summon legends from the shared deck of legends. During setup, shuffle the legends and set the deck next to the flares. Each player draws 2 legends at the start. At the end of every turn, when replenishing your hand, you should end up with 3 beings from your own deck, 2 legends, and 1 flare.

Summoning a legendary being works just like summoning a being from your deck, but legends require heroic pieces on certain squares in the pattern. If the pattern shows a common piece, any of your pieces matches it; if it shows a heroic piece, only your heroic or legendary pieces can match it. When you summon a legend, you put a legendary piece on the board. Legendary pieces are ranked higher than heroic or common pieces. For example, a legendary being can do a standard move onto a heroic being's square, but a heroic being cannot do a combat move onto a legendary being's square.

• A non-legendary piece means a common or heroic piece.
• An upgraded piece means a heroic or legendary piece.

The discard action

In the full game, you can use an action to discard cards from your hand. You cannot do more than one discard action per turn. To do it, discard 1 being that you drew from your own deck (it goes on your discard pile). Then you may also return one or more cards from your hand to the bottoms of their respective decks (face down; you choose the order among cards returned to the same deck). This all counts as one action no matter how many cards are returned. You draw back to your full complement of cards at the end of your turn.

Piece shortage

Destroyed pieces are returned to their owner's supply. It is possible to have all your pieces of one type on the board (all heroic/common, or all legendary). In that case, some card effects cannot be done (this includes convert, upgrade, downgrade, and place-a-piece effects — see the Full Rules). However, it is still possible to do a place or summon action even when no piece of the correct type is available. This is rare and usually applies to legendary pieces.

Ending the game

Different forms have different end-of-game triggers, but one rule is common to all: if the end of the game has been triggered, each player gets one more complete turn. Usually a player triggers the end by exceeding a certain point value or by drawing the last card from his or her deck. The player who was playing (or finishing) his or her turn when the end was triggered will be the last player. Then:

1. That player finishes his or her turn and announces the end was triggered (this player is the last player).
2. Play continues in the usual order, with each other player getting one final turn.
3. Then the last player gets a final turn.
4. Then players compare scores according to the rules for the form being played.

If everyone agrees the outcome is already decided, you can skip the final turns.

Breaking ties

All forms use the same tie breakers (a deathmatch melee has special tie breakers applied first). If players are tied, break the tie in favor of the player with more upgraded pieces on the board. If still tied, break it in favor of the player with more pieces on the board. If still tied, they remain tied.

Forms of Tash-Kalar

All forms use the full-game rules. They differ in scoring and a few special rules.

The High Form (2 players or teams)

The High Form uses tasks.

• Setup: Use the arena side with the marked central squares (no pieces to start). Set up the task board, then shuffle all the tasks together, including advanced tasks (those with the watermark). Two limitations apply: there can be no advanced task among the first three current tasks, and there can never be three or more face-up tasks of the same type. As you turn up the first 3 current tasks, discard any advanced ones so you end up with 3 non-advanced tasks; if all 3 are the same type, discard the third and keep drawing until you get a different type. Then shuffle discarded cards back in. Turn up the top card as the next task (it may be advanced or not — the restrictions only apply to the first 3 current tasks). If a card turned up as the next task would match the type of two current tasks, put it on the bottom and turn up a new one until it does not.
• Ending the game: Check for the end-of-game trigger only at the end of each player's turn. Your score is the point values of all tasks you have claimed plus 1 point for each legendary piece you have on the board. If either player has 9 or more points, or either player draws the last card from his or her deck, the end is triggered. Each player then gets one more complete turn. Because legendary pieces can be destroyed, both players may end with fewer than 9 points; the game ends anyway. The player with more points wins (break ties as above).

Deathmatch Duel (2 players or teams)

Deathmatches have a straightforward scoring system and can be used even for a new player's first game.

• Setup: Use the arena side with the specially marked squares. Do not use the task cards or task board. Put the two score boards together to form the deathmatch duel score board (numbers 0 to 21). Each player puts one common piece on the zero space. Players begin with a piece already in the arena: choose a starting player; the other player takes 1 common piece of each color and puts 1 on each of the two marked squares. The starting player begins with one action, then players take full 2-action turns.
• Points for destroyed pieces: During your turn, leave all the enemy pieces you destroy beside the board (converting an enemy piece to your color also counts as destroying it). At the end of your turn, return them and score: 2 points for each legendary piece; 1 point for each heroic piece; 1 point for each pair of common pieces. An unpaired common piece scores nothing. You score only for your opponent's pieces, not your own.
• Points for summoning legends: If you summon a legend (a being with the legend symbol on its card), you get 1 point. Legendary pieces that arrive some other way do not score, and you don't lose points when your legendary pieces are destroyed.
• Points for flares: Whenever you invoke a flare, your opponent gains 1 point (regardless of whether you use one effect or both).
• Ending the game: The end is triggered when either player exceeds 17 points (numerals 18 and higher are shaded), or when either player draws the last card from his or her deck. After each player has had a final complete turn, the player with more points wins (break ties as above).

Team Play

Four players can play as two teams, in the High Form or a deathmatch duel. Most rules match the two-player game.

• Setup: Teammates sit opposite each other. Each player chooses a different deck, but each team uses only one color of pieces (the two Imperial decks are recommended on different teams). After shuffling your deck, turn the six bottom cards sideways. Choose a starting player; each player draws 3 cards and 1 flare. Legends are shared between teammates — the teammate who plays earlier draws 2 legends. In a deathmatch duel, the player to the right of the starting player places 1 common piece of each color on the marked squares.
• Game play: Players take turns clockwise; because teammates sit opposite, the same team never gets two turns in a row. On your turn you use your team's pieces and only the cards in your own hand.
• Passing control: Before any action, or while resolving any card's effect, you can pass control of your turn to your teammate (announce it and hand over your team's legends). Your teammate must use up all your remaining actions by placing common pieces on empty squares — that is the only action your teammate can take on your turn (no summoning, no discarding, no invoking a flare). If you pass control while resolving an effect, your teammate finishes resolving it, then places pieces with any remaining actions. Once you pass control, you can no longer invoke a flare, and you get control back only after your teammate resolves any unresolved effect and uses up all remaining actions.
• Finishing your turn: Whether or not you passed control, you always finish your own turn (claim a task in the High Form, or count points in a deathmatch duel). Points scored by either teammate belong to both. Then draw so you hold 3 beings from your deck and 1 flare, and hand your team's legends to your teammate if you have not already (the teammate draws to 2 legends). Play then passes to the opponent on your left.
• Ending the game: The end-of-game point values are the same as in a 2-player game. The end is also triggered when any player draws his or her last non-sideways card. Each player then gets one more complete turn (so each team gets 2 more chances). Teammates win, lose, or draw together.
• Sideways cards: The six sideways cards at the bottom of your deck can come into play. You can draw a sideways card (the end trigger fires when you draw your last non-sideways card, but sideways cards remain to be drawn). Sideways cards get straightened when you return cards to the bottom of your deck via the discard action — a returned card becomes one of the six bottom cards (sideways) and the top sideways card is straightened, so you always have six.
• Communication: Teammates communicate only through passing control; they should not show each other their cards or communicate secretly. Once you pass control, it's too late to take back earlier decisions this turn.

Deathmatch Melee (3 or 4 players)

A melee lets 3 or 4 players each fight against all the others, with a strong incentive to spread destruction evenly. It was developed primarily for 3 players; a 4-player melee is longer and harsher (consider team play for a calmer 4-player game).

• Setup: Use the same arena side as a deathmatch duel. Do not use the task board or a common score board; each player has his or her own score board. Each player chooses a school and takes the matching cards, pieces, and score board. Take one heroic piece from each other player and place it on the zero space of your score board, heroic side up (during play you score points in your opponents' colors by moving these pieces; your final score is the color in which you scored the fewest points, so keep your points balanced). Choose a starting player and draw cards normally. The player to the right of the starting player places the initial pieces: in a 3-player game, 1 common piece of each color, each on a square adjacent to a different marked symbol; in a 4-player game, the same but leaving out the piece of the player who plays second (only 3 pieces start on the board in either case).
• Points for destroyed pieces: As in a duel, leave destroyed enemy pieces beside the board and score at end of turn: 2 points for each legendary piece; 1 point for each heroic piece; 1 point for each pair of common pieces in the same color. Points are scored separately for each color. After making same-colored pairs, if you have unpaired pieces of different colors, choose one of those colors and score 1 more point in it.
• Points for summoning legends: As in a duel, you get 1 point for summoning a legend, and you choose the color in which to score it.
• Points for opponents' flares: When a flare is invoked, the invoker decides which opponent is compared against (this determines whether the invoker can use the upper effect, the lower effect, or both). The player compared against scores 1 point in the invoker's color. The choice of opponent determines which effects the invoker can use and who gets the point; it does not limit choices made when resolving effects (e.g. "an enemy piece" may be any opponent's piece).
• Improvised summoning: When summoning a being, you can choose one opponent's piece and use it as though it were your piece of the same rank. Each opponent's color can be used once per game — flip the piece of that color on your score board to mark it used. You can summon any being (even a legend) this way, and use it more than once per turn, but each summoning can use only 1 enemy piece, and each color only once per game. Improvised summoning can combine with a card's effect (e.g. the War Summoner) to use more than one enemy piece in a turn. Even patterns requiring a piece on the summoning square allow improvised summoning. A piece cannot be used if it is on a square that would be illegal for the summon (e.g. a heroic being cannot be summoned onto a square with a legendary piece of any color). An enemy piece used in improvised summoning does not change sides — it is still an enemy piece during the effect (and can be a valid target of the being's effect if the card's text allows).
• Ending the game: Each score board has two marked pillars. In a 3-player game, the end-of-game pillar is the one with 3 marks (after space 11 — i.e. 12 points in a color); in a 4-player game it is the one with 4 marks (after space 9 — i.e. 10 points in a color). The end is triggered when any player crosses the end-of-game pillar with any opponent's color, or when any player draws the last card from his or her deck. Each player then gets one more complete turn.
• Scoring: Your score is the color in which you have the fewest points. If players are tied, compare their second-lowest colors, then (in a 4-player game) the remaining color; if still tied, use the standard tie breakers. The number of points you can score in a color is not limited by the size of the score board (keep track if a piece moves off the end).

The Patterns

To match patterns more easily, analyze the card and memorize the shape rather than comparing it directly to the board. For example, the Knight requires four pieces in an L shape (all orientations and mirror images count), which is easier to spot as an L than as a generic pattern. Many patterns have logic behind them — for instance, mounted beings such as the Wolf Rider share the Knight's L shape, summoned closer to the "head" of the wolf, and the military leaders have patterns recalling the formation of their units.

Credits

A game by Vlaada Chvátil. Illustration by David Cochard. Graphic design by Filip Murmak. Translation by Jason Holt. Published by Czech Games Edition, October 2013.