Tomahawk
Tomahawk Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 55 Indian cards (2 tribes of 24 cards each and 7 special cards)
- 15 hunting territory cards (5 x 3, 5 x 2, 5 x 1)
- 24 scalp tokens
- 2 rule booklets, one for each player
Game Set-up
1- The Indians
- Each player takes one of the two Indian tribes.
- The 7 special cards are shuffled and dealt, three to each player. Each player chooses two of the three cards he has been dealt, adds them to his tribe and removes two standard Indian cards of the same values. Then, each player discards, face down, the special card he didn't keep and the two standard cards that have been replaced with special cards.
- Each player then has a tribe of 24 Indians - 22 standard cards from one tribe and 2 special cards. Each player shuffles his tribe and places it in front of him, face down, as his deck.
Then, each player draws the eight top cards of his deck.
Each Indian card has the following indications on it:
- Strength, or combat value, between 1 and 10.
- Scalp icons, 0 to 4, for the length, beauty and strength of the Indian's hair.
- Power icon, on the special cards (cf. Special Indians below).
2- The territories
- The back of each territory card has 1 to 3 rectangles, indicating the number of cards, and therefore of turns, required to fight the battle for this land. The territory cards are first sorted by number of turns. Then, they are arranged in four separate piles, face down, as follows, bottom to top:
- Pile 1: 3-turn card, 3-turn card
- Pile 2: 3-turn card, 2-turn card, 1-turn card
- Pile 3: 3-turn card, 1-turn card, 2-turn card
- Pile 4: 2-turn card, 2-turn card, 1-turn card, 1-turn card
- The four piles are placed in a row in the center of the table, between the players, and the top card of each pile is then turned face up.
- Each hunting territory card has the following indications on it:
- Territory type (plains, forest or mountain) and number of Indian cards (1 to 3) to be played in the battle for this territory.
- Number (1 to 5) of bison (plains), caribous (forest) or eagles (mountains) to hunt in this territory, and therefore of victory points for the winner of the battle.
- Specific icons on special territories (cf. Territories below).
- The remaining Indian and territory cards are removed from the game without looking at them.
- The scalp tokens are set aside and will be used later in the game.
- Each game is made of 6 consecutive turns.
A Game Turn
1- Playing cards
- Each player plays one Indian card, face down, on his side of each of the four hunting territories.
2- Revealing cards
- The cards played by the two players are then turned face up, except in the forests in which the total number of cards to play by each player has not been reached yet. In these forests, the cards stay face down.
- In the forests where the total number of cards has just been reached, all Indian cards played by the players this turn and in earlier turns are turned face up.
3- Scalps
- On each territory where at least one Indian with a valuable scalp (with one or more scalps on the card) has been revealed, the strength of this Indian is compared with the strength of the opposite one (the Indian played in the same turn and on the same territory by the other player).
Every time the opposing Indian has a higher strength, the opponent receives as many scalp tokens (victory points) as there are scalps on the defeated Indian card.
Both Indians stay in game to determine the overall victory in the battle for the territory card.
4- Battle resolution
- On each territory where the total number of Indian cards to play has been reached, the player whose Indians have the highest total strength wins the battle. The special rules affecting the territory card, if any, can affect the total strength of one or both players.
- The player whose Indians have the highest total strength on this territory takes the territory card and places it, face up, before himself. The card will grant him as many victory points as there are animals on it.
In case of a tie, no one wins and the territory card is simply discarded.
- The Indian cards played in the territories in which the battle is now over are discarded face down and removed from the game.
- A player who wins the battle for a mountain territory can look at all the hidden cards that were played by his opponent this turn in forest territories in which the battle is not over yet.
- All territories in which the battle is over are replaced with the next territory in the pile.
5- Drawing Indian cards
- Before the next turn starts, each player draws the four top cards of his drawing deck.
No card is drawn before the last turn, and each player must play his four last cards in the last turn.
Special Effects
- Some Indian and territory cards have special effects, described on the last page of these rules, which prevail over the standard rules.
- In some very specific cases, the order in which the Indian and territories effects are applied can have some importance. The order is as follows:
- Apply Indian special effects
- Determine individual victory for scalps
- Apply territory effects
- Determine overall victory for territories
End of the Game
- At the end of the game, every animal on the territory cards owned by a player, and every scalp token, is worth 1 point. Highest score wins.
Variant
Before the first turn, reveal one of the three territory cards that are not used in the game. The animal on this card is the most sought after, and the player who wins the most animals of this kind scores, at the end of the game, a 3 points bonus.
Special Indians
- Great Manitou: If the total strength of the opposing Indians is more than twice your total strength, you win the territory.
- Soaring Spirit: If this card played in the same territory as another of your Indians of value 2, the two Indians have a total value of 9 instead of 4 for the territory battle.
- Redwood Heart: If he fights in a forest, the caribou in this forest have double value, even if won by the opponent.
- Dancing Twilight: If there is still one or more cards to play in this territory, you randomly draw from your opponent's hand the next Indian card he puts in play in the next turn. No effect if played in forest.
- Windwand Glowing Skull: The scalps he gets have double value.
- Storm Caller: His strength is equal to that of the opposing Indian. The "6" value is only used during setup, when choosing special characters.
- Teasing Cloud: If the opposing Indian has a strength of 7, 8, 9 or 10, he is charmed and his strength is reduced to 0.
Territories
- Mountain: The winner of the battle for a mountain can look at all the cards played this turn in forest territories by his opponent.
- Forêt: Indians are left face down until the total number of Indians is reached.
- Puma: The strongest Indian(s) played in this forest fights against the puma and is (are) not counted in the battle for the territory.
- Picking: Thanks to the magic mushrooms, the strength of the weakest Indian(s) played in this territory is doubled.