The Witcher: Path of Destiny – Wild Hunt
The Witcher: Path of Destiny – Wild Hunt Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Component List
- 23 Tale cards
- 1 Generals playmat
- 4 Generals miniatures
- 6 Starting cards
- 1 Wild Hunt Character board
- 1 Wild Hunt miniature
- 6 Side Quest cards
- 1 Aid card
- 16 General Trait cards
- 16 General Weakness cards
- 5 Ability tokens
- 2 Experience tokens (regular and gray)
- 1 Victory Point miniature
- 1 Character standee
- 1 Solo Mode Player Board
Introduction
The Wild Hunt expansion offers a new Tale and a new type of gameplay: one against many. One Player will take on the role of the Wild Hunt – elves desperately trying to save their world, for whom capturing Ciri is their last chance. The other Players, Heroes, form a cooperative team that won't let that happen.
You may also use this expansion to play solo against the automated opponent – the Wild Hunt Automa.
During the game, the Wild Hunt will advance his Generals on their Threat tracks, unlocking powerful Traits. Heroes must cooperate and play cards of the same color to defeat them and draw General Weakness cards.
Overview
This Tale divides Players into 2 teams: the Wild Hunt and Heroes. The Heroes gain Victory Points collectively and at the end of the game, they either win as a group, or the Wild Hunt Player wins.
The Wild Hunt acts as a regular Player, drafts cards from the offer in the Initiative order, and plays them to their timeline.
Unlike in the base game, at the Placing the Destiny token Step, the token's place is determined only by the Wild Hunt's Symbols.
There are 4 Generals on the Generals playmat, each on his own Threat track. Heroes need to stay vigilant about the Trait of each General and stop the Wild Hunt from activating the ones that will impact them the most.
Heroes may freely (and only openly) discuss their strategy, decide together which cards they will draft and play, and when they activate Abilities. They may not share cards, or any other components with each other. Heroes gain Victory Points as a group, but each Player still individually tracks their Experience Points, following the regular rules of the game.
When playing the Wild Hunt expansion, do not use any other modules, or components from other expansions.
Game Setup
Follow the regular rules of the game.
1. Place the playmat on the table. Place the Generals playmat on the table next to the main playmat, in front of the Wild Hunt Player.
2. The Wild Hunt Tale. When facing the Wild Hunt use the Tale cards provided in this expansion.
- 2a. Place the deck of the Tale card in the designated place on the playmat.
- 2b. Place the Destiny tokens next to the Tale cards. Do not use Path tokens with this expansion.
3. Place the cards. Shuffle the Main deck and place it on the designated spot on the playmat. Fill the Pool of available spots with pairs of cards.
- For 1, 2, and 3-player game – there are 4 spots available.
- For 4 and 5-player game – there are 5 spots available.
4. Extra Experience token. Place the Extra Experience token next to the bottom-most filled spot.
5. Symbol tokens. Place Symbol tokens on the table.
6. Choose Characters. Choose Characters and follow their regular setup following the Core Game rules. When playing with 2 or more Players, one of them has to pick the Wild Hunt. If playing Solo, the Player chooses 1 Character as a Hero, and fights against Automa, that controls the Wild Hunt.
- 6a. Place the Characters on the Initiative track following the Initiative order.
- 6b. Use Ciri's Victory Point marker and place it on 0 on the Victory Point track (Solo and a 2-player game exception – place the token on the 9 Victory Points spot). Place the Wild Hunt scoring miniature on the 0 spot.
- 6c. The Wild Hunt starts the game with 6 Action cards in their hand and 5 Ability markers. Place 1 on the first Ability from the left, active side up. Place 2 Experience markers on the track: regular on the 0 spot, and gray on the right of the track (treat it as the golden marker, following the Core game rules).
- 6d. Use Side Quest cards provided in this expansion, rather than the regular ones. Choose their side according to the number of Heroes.
Starting Initiative order: the Wild Hunt, Dandelion, Vesemir, Yarpen, Dijkstra, Regis, Geralt, Yennefer, Letho, Ciri, Triss.
7. Tale setup.
- 7a. Divide the General Trait deck into 4 piles, each corresponding to one of the Generals, and place 1 random card from each face-up in the designated spaces in order: Imlerith (red), Eredin (green), Nithral (blue), Caranthir (yellow) on the Generals Playmat.
- 7b. Divide the General Weakness deck into 4 piles, each corresponding to one of the Generals, shuffle them separately, and place each face-down in the designated spaces on the Generals playmat.
- 7c. Place 4 Generals miniatures on the Generals Playmat in the starting spaces.
Gameplay
Drafting Cards, Playing Cards
Players (Heroes and the Wild Hunt) draft and play cards following the regular rules. Heroes may freely discuss their strategy, especially regarding which cards to play.
Playing as Dandelion. When Dandelion activates his 3rd Ability, only the Wild Hunt is affected by the "each other Player" part of the Ability.
After the playing cards Step, play an additional Step:
The Wild Hunt
The Phantom Riders are restless. In this Step, the Players will clash in a battle.
During the Strategic Withdrawal, the Heroes will have a chance to stand up to them, by coordinating their attacks. Playing cards of one color will force a General to back out of fight… for a moment.
Then, during the Advancement, the Wild Hunt will move its Generals up on the Threat tracks to gain more power.
Strategic Withdrawal
If 1/2/3/4 Heroes (Players other than the Wild Hunt) have 2/3/4/5 cards in the same color among the 2 last cards in their Timeline, they Defeat a General corresponding to that color.
Heroes may only defeat 1 General during the Wild Hunt Step (they choose 1 if they were to defeat more).
An example: 3 Heroes have 4 red cards in total as their last 2 cards in Timelines. Imlerith is defeated.
Defeating a General:
- move the General back to the starting space on his Threat track (don't move him if he's already there),
- draw a Weakness card from his pile and place it face-up next to the playmat. Later in the game, Heroes may decide together to put it at the bottom of the General's Weakness pile to use its once-per-game effect.
Advancement
Now it's time for the Wild Hunt to act.
The Wild Hunt Player checks the color of the last 2 cards in their Timeline and moves the corresponding General(s) 1 space up on their Threat track for each matching card. Resolve each movement separately. If a multicolored card was played, the Wild Hunt chooses 1 General of only 1 of its colors to move.
During the General movement, several bonuses may be activated:
- Threat space marked with the 2-gain icon: the Wild Hunt gains 2 Experience Points.
- Dire Threat space: as long as the General remains in these spaces, his Trait card with a passive ability is in effect.
- Threat space marked with the 1-gain Victory Point icon: the Wild Hunt gains 1 Victory Point.
- Banner: if the General would move, but he's already on the highest space of his Threat track, don't move him, and the Wild Hunt gains 1 Victory Point.
Transcriber's note: the printed 2-gain icon is a diamond-cluster glyph that the PDF text layer does not carry. It is rendered here as Experience Points, a reading inferred from the Wild Hunt's Experience track and not confirmed against a text legend. Check against the printed Threat track if in doubt.
Example of Advancement: the Wild Hunt gains 2 Experience Points and Eredin's Trait is now in effect.
Example (continued): the Wild Hunt decides to use the multicolored card as yellow, moves Caranthir twice: gains 1 Victory Point from the last space and an additional 1 Victory Point.
Placing the Destiny Token
The Destiny token with the current Turn number is assigned to one of the Active Symbols the Wild Hunt Player has the most of. If there's a tie, set the token aside.
The End of the Chapter
After determining the Dominating Symbol according to the regular rules, all Players gain Experience points individually, for each of their Non-Dominating Symbols.
The Wild Hunt gains 1 Victory Point for each of their Dominating Symbols, and extra Victory Points for each Hero, who has fewer Dominating Symbols, depending on the number of Heroes:
| 1 Hero | 2 Heroes | 3 Heroes | 4 Heroes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 3 for each | 2 for each | 1 for each |
Heroes gain 1 Victory Point for each Dominating Symbol of:
- a Hero, who has the most Dominating Symbols,
- a Hero, who has the fewest Dominating Symbols.
If there is only 1 Hero Player, they score for Symbols once.
Example: after the 1st Chapter, Fight was the Dominating Symbol.
- The Wild Hunt has 4 Fight Symbols, Geralt has 6 Fight Symbols, Ciri 4 Fight Symbols, and Dandelion 2 Fight Symbols:
- the Wild Hunt scores 4 Victory Points for his Symbols and an extra 2 Victory Points for having more Fight Symbols than Dandelion,
- Heroes score 6 Victory Points for Geralt's Symbols (the most) and 2 Victory Points for Dandelion's Symbols (the fewest).
- The Wild Hunt has 4 Fight Symbols, and Dandelion has 2 Fight Symbols:
- the Wild Hunt scores 4 Victory Points for his Symbols and no extra Victory Points, as there is only 1 Hero,
- Heroes score 2 Victory Points for Dandelion's Symbols.
The End of the Game
Only 1 Hero scores Victory Points for the Heroes according to the Experience Points track, choose one, who has the most of them. The Wild Hunt scores these points according to their Experience Points track.
The Wild Hunt and Heroes score Victory Points for completing their Side Quests.
Solo Mode
When playing against Automa follow the Solo Mode rules, page 20 in the core rulebook.
Setup
Choose any of the Characters as your Hero and take the Wild Hunt Automa board.
Set up the game and follow the following rules specific for the Tale.
Place the Hero Victory Point token on the 9 Victory Points spot.
The End of the Chapter
Do not award any bonuses from the Tale cards effects.