True Messiah Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Contents
• Overview
• The Goal
• The Messiahs
• Set Up
• Spaces, Units, and Movement
  • Types of Spaces
  • Types of Units
  • Movement
  • "Where should I move?"
• Turn Order
• The Turn Sequence
  • The Beginning Phase
  • The Action Phase
  • The Combat Phase
  • The End Phase
• Market
• Example Game
• Rules Clarification Q&A

Game Contents

2-4 players, 60-120 minutes

• 1 game board
• 4 holy city tiles
• 16 temple tiles
• 4 prosperity monolith tiles
• 4 character cards
• 4 messiah minis
• 4 messianic mask chits
• 24 health chits
• 4 avatar chits
• 96 follower chits
• 48 nonbeliever chits
• 56 coin chits
• 8 providence chits
• 4 rule reference cards
• 78 miracle cards

Overview

Each round, players take turns in a set order. A turn proceeds through 4 phases: one where you draw cards, recruit followers, and build temples; one where you move units and perform miracles; one where adjacent units fight one another; and a wrap-up phase. At the end of each round, all players bid on new miracles at the Market. The first player to destroy any enemy player wins the game.

The Goal

Your goal is to destroy any enemy player. There are 4 things that destroy a player:

• the player's messiah has no health tokens and no messianic mask;
• the player has fewer than 4 followers left on the board;
• the player's holy city is captured or destroyed; or
• the player has fewer than 8 miracle cards total (counting their deck, hand, discard pile, cards by the board, and cards currently being played).

If you destroy a single enemy player, you immediately win the game. (In a 4-player game, you and your ally win jointly when this happens.) A player that destroys him or herself without simultaneously destroying an enemy player forfeits the game.

If 2 opposing players destroy one another simultaneously (e.g. each has less than 4 followers remaining after combat): in a 2-player or 4-player game, the game immediately ends in a draw; in a 3-player game, the surviving player wins.

Regardless of the above, if at any point all of the other players agree that a certain player has won the game, the game ends with that player the winner.

The Messiahs

Suspected to be a former militia leader turned proselytizer, Red is the most tactically proficient of the four messiahs. Red is also the most aggressive, always going first (with an associated advantage when it comes to controlling the board).

Red's starting deck includes Edict +, permitting greater mobilization during Red's turn and bigger surprise maneuvers during enemy turns.

Black is said to be a former school teacher; egged on by voices, Black abandoned the job and started a popular online religious movement. The internet no longer exists, of course...but Black's cult certainly still does.

As the most educated of the four messiahs, Black's starting deck includes Fruit of Knowledge +. This gives Black greater ability to prevent completion of enemy temples (or otherwise sabotage enemy growth).

Some have speculated that Violet was once a famous film or television personality, one whose callousness and narcissistic impulses drove them to depart the world of media and found a cult.

Whether or not this is true, Violet does have great powers of persuasion: Violet's starting deck includes Evangelize +, which lets Violet recruit extra followers more easily and flexibly.

No one knows where White came from—and most are too frightened to guess. Where White's cult goes, terrifying "angels" are known to follow.

White always goes last, making board control difficult but granting greater access to miracles each round. White's starting deck includes Providence +, which affords White more options for defending or controlling particular spaces on the board.

Set Up

1. Choose a character card; this determines the messiah you will play. (In a 4-player game, red and violet will be allies, as will black and white.)
2. Take 6 health tokens and your messianic mask token; place them on your character card.
3. Take 5 coins.
4. Take your messiah mini and your holy city tile.
5. Take 7 followers (they're the ones with praying hands on the back).
6. Place your holy city on the board in the starting spot reflecting your relative place in the turn order. Next, place your messiah and 4 followers onto your holy city, then your 3 other followers onto the associated space marked with 3 tokens below. In a 3-player game, add prosperity monolith tiles to the spaces marked P.
7. Form your 9-card starting deck. (Your starting cards should be easy to find, since they all have your player symbol in the bottom-right corner of the card!)
8. Shuffle your deck, then draw 6 cards from the top of your deck to form your hand; keep your hand secret from all enemy players.
9. Shuffle all non-starting cards to form the marketplace (the deck from which all new cards will be purchased).
10. Set your starting position by moving your units. Proceeding in turn order, each player may move all of their units, or just some. How and where to move is discussed below.

Spaces, Units, and Movement

Types of Spaces

There are 2 basic types of spaces on the board:

1. holy spaces – spaces containing a temple or holy city.
2. ordinary spaces – spaces without a temple or holy city. (Most spaces are ordinary spaces, including spaces containing a monolith!)

Types of Units

Low Units

Low units come in 2 varieties: followers and nonbelievers.

Followers are your main units; you start the game with 7 of these. Followers have 2 states: active and praying. An active follower can move, pray, and attack; a follower who is praying cannot.

Nonbelievers are identical to followers, but with 3 differences: (1) they may never occupy or move across a holy space, (2) they cannot pray, and (3) they cannot help you build temples. You don't start the game with nonbelievers, but they can be created using miracles during play.

High Units

High units come in 2 varieties: messiahs and avatars. You may only have 1 high unit of a given type at a time.

The messiah represents you. It can recruit followers, and deals devastating damage in combat. Every miracle you perform originates from your messiah.

The avatar is a manifestation of your messiah that you can summon during the game using a Create Avatar miracle. If you have an avatar, you may originate miracles from its space instead of the messiah's. The avatar has 3 health, but damage dealt to it does not persist beyond a single turn; it returns to full health when any turn ends. Thus, an avatar can be destroyed only if it takes 3 damage or more in a single turn.

Movement

Every unit in the game may move up to 2 spaces per turn. The following restrictions apply:

• Diagonal movement is not permitted.
• You cannot move onto or through a space that contains enemy units.
• You cannot move onto or through a space with a building belonging to another player (whether enemy or ally).
• A space cannot hold more than 4 low units at a time; a low unit cannot move onto or through a space that already contains 4 low units.
• A space cannot hold more than 1 high unit at a time; a high unit cannot move onto or through a space that already contains 1 high unit.
• Nonbelievers cannot move onto or through a holy space.
• Praying followers cannot move at all.
• You cannot move outside the play area. In a 2-player game, the play area is just 5 x 6; in a 3-player game, it's 8 x 7; and in a 4-player game, it's the full board. Bounds are marked on the board with a dashed line.
• A unit may never be placed onto a space that it would otherwise be prohibited from moving onto.

"Where should I move?"

You have to think ahead when moving your units; where you leave them impacts your economy in your next turn! Here are the main unit configurations to remember:

• Ordinary space with 4 followers => build a temple there on your next turn.
• Holy space with messiah and no other units => recruit 2 new followers there on your next turn.
• Holy space with 2 or more followers => recruit 1 new follower at any available holy space you possess on your next turn.
• Ordinary space with messiah => move 3 extra low units your next turn.

(If you need a reminder during the game, these are all listed on your rules reference card, on the "Unit Configurations" side.)

That first configuration is especially important. Building more temples is crucial to your success—more temples means more recruiting opportunities and more belief to play miracles. Make sure to do it often!

Turn Order

Once all players have set their starting positions, the first round begins and players start taking actual turns. The player turn order for each round is Red > Black > Violet > White. Once every player has finished his/her turn, the Market opens and all players can bid on new, more powerful cards to put into their discard piles.

This order is marked on the edge of the game board in case you forget.

The Turn Sequence

A player's turn consists of 4 phases: Beginning Phase, Action Phase, Combat Phase, then End Phase. When a player completes all of the phases of their turn, that player's turn ends and the next player's turn begins.

Let's walk through the phases of a player turn in detail.

The Beginning Phase

1. Turn Start

The Turn Start occurs before anything else happens. Unless a miracle effect or rule references it, you don't need to do anything at Turn Start.

2. Flip Over Praying Followers

All of your praying followers become active again: flip them over to the active side.

3. Recruit Followers

Recruitment depends on how your units are arranged on your holy spaces. 2 configurations recruit followers:

• Celebrity – if your messiah was on a holy space with no other units at Turn Start, you may now bring up to 2 new followers into play on that space (and only on that space).
• Numbers – for each holy space you had containing 2 or more followers at Turn Start, you may now bring 1 new follower into play at any available holy space you possess.

For example: You have 2 temples and 1 holy city—that's 3 holy spaces total. You have 2 followers on the holy city, and 4 followers and your messiah on 1 temple. This means you have 2 holy spaces with a numbers recruitment configuration, and no holy spaces with a celebrity configuration. You can recruit 2 new followers total; and because they were recruited via numbers, you can place them both on any available holy space.

One thing: remember how no more than 4 low units may occupy the same space? If you have no room on a holy space, then the space is not available and you may not place recruits there! (This applies to miracles like Evangelize or Inquisition as well—the placing of units always depends on space being available to place the unit.) If you run out of available spaces when placing units, the units simply don't get placed.

For example: You have 3 temples with 4 followers each, and 1 holy city where your messiah stands alone. In theory, you can recruit 5 new followers this turn—3 via numbers, 2 via celebrity. But only your holy city has any room, and it can only fit 4 low units. The 5th follower will not be recruited!

Placing new units also depends on the existence of available tokens. If you already have all of your follower tokens on the board, you may not recruit more followers.

4. Build Temples

• You may now build temples on ordinary spaces containing 4 of your followers. (You cannot build atop monoliths.)
• To build a temple, all 4 low units on the space must be followers: 3 followers and 1 nonbeliever will not produce a temple.
• Once you place the temple tile on the space, put the 4 followers who built the temple back on top of it.
• If you're out of temple tiles, you may destroy 1 of your existing temples and use that tile for the new temple.

5. Draw Back Up to 6 Cards

• If you have fewer than 6 miracle cards in your hand, draw exactly enough cards from the top of your deck to put your hand back at 6 cards.
• Keep your hand secret from your opponents!
• If you ever have to draw cards but don't have enough cards left in your deck, draw until your deck is exhausted, then reshuffle your discard pile to form a new deck and continue drawing. (However, you may not reshuffle in this way more than once per turn!)

The Action Phase

Next comes the action phase. The following may happen during the action phase (and only then), in any order:

Move Units

• You may move up to 6 low units; but if your messiah was on an ordinary space at Turn Start, move up to 9.
• You may move your high units (i.e. messiah and avatar) as a free move.

Pray for Belief

• Praying produces belief, the resource used to play miracles.
• Only an active follower on a holy space may pray. (A follower on an ordinary space may not pray, and non-follower units may not pray.)
• To have a follower pray, flip it over to the side that shows hands clasped in prayer. You can do this during any player's action phase, not just your own!
• When a follower prays, it produces 1 belief, which you can use toward the cost of a miracle.
• Praying followers are defenseless: they cannot move and cannot fight back in combat.
• Praying followers remain praying until your next beginning phase (see: Flip Over Praying Followers above), but their belief lasts only until the end of the current turn. You can't save up belief for a future turn!
• Because you can have active followers pray during any player's action phase, you can have followers pray during an enemy turn to play preemptive miracles (see Preemptive miracles below). If you think you're going to want to play a preemptive miracle during another player's turn, plan ahead and leave some followers active on your holy spaces so that they can pray when the time comes.

Perform Miracles

• Miracles are cards that can give you a boost or hurt an opponent. All cards in the game other than the character cards and the rules reference cards are miracles.
• You may only play a miracle if it is in your hand and you pay its belief cost. The cost appears in the top-left of all miracles; it is the amount of belief the miracle requires (see Pray for Belief above). Once you've produced enough belief to pay the cost, you may spend the belief and play the miracle.
• If you have an ally, you may pay the belief cost of a miracle to put that miracle into your ally's discard pile in lieu of playing the miracle.
• Some miracles have the word Range written on them. If a miracle has a Range, it must be targeted that number of non-diagonal spaces away or closer, counting from your messiah (or avatar, if you have one). You may never target a miracle outside its range.

For example: April has a follower that is going to be in combat this turn, and she wants to protect it using the miracle Providence. Providence has a range of 2. Thus, if the follower is more than 2 spaces away from her messiah, it's out of range and she cannot use that miracle to protect it; she'll have to move her messiah closer first.

• Preemptive miracles have the word Preemptive written on them. These cards can be played during any player's action phase, including your own! Keep some of your followers available to pray (i.e. active and on a holy space) if you think you might want to play a preemptive miracle during another player's turn. Preemptive miracles can preempt a player action (like moving a unit, or playing a miracle), or can be played after. When preempting another player's miracle, their effects are resolved in reverse order of play.

For example: April plays Smite, a preemptive miracle, during her own action phase. She targets Bob's messiah. Bob responds by playing his own preemptive miracle, Teleport, to move his messiah out of range. Teleport was played last, so it can preempt Smite; Bob opts to have it do so. Because Smite's target is now out of range, Smite card will be discarded without effect. But suppose that April responds to Teleport by playing the preemptive miracle Dissipater, which prevents the target card from taking effect: Dissipater can preempt Teleport, causing Teleport to be discarded without effect—and without Teleport, the messiah doesn't get moved, it remains in range, and Smite hits the messiah as normal!

• After you play a miracle, discard it (that is, place it face-up in your discard pile next to your deck) unless the miracle says otherwise. Discard piles may be inspected by any player at any time.
• Some miracles have Pay to Keep written on them, followed by a keeping cost. With a Pay to Keep miracle, you must pay belief equal to the keeping cost (a) immediately after you play the miracle or (b) immediately after another player causes it to be discarded—if you don't, the miracle will be removed from the game entirely. If you do pay the keeping cost, the card is discarded normally.

Declare Combat

Once you've finished all other actions in your action phase, check your units: if any of your units are adjacent to enemy units, you must declare combat. Otherwise, you may not declare combat. Either way, this is the end of your action phase: each player may now play any last-minute miracles they want to use before the action phase ends. (Miracles may not be played during combat or during the end phase.)

The Combat Phase

The following happens only if combat was declared this turn; if combat was not declared, skip the combat phase entirely:

1. Choose Targets

When combat begins, each player—starting with the active player, then proceeding from that player in turn order—states aloud which spaces his or her units are targeting for attack.

Each low unit gets 1 attack (except for praying units, who get 0). An avatar gets 3 attacks; a messiah gets 4.

Low units and high units pick attack targets differently from one another:

• Low Units on any given space always target their attacks at a single adjacent space as a group. You cannot, for instance, have 1 follower on a space target to its left while the other followers on that space target above them. The low units on each space must instead always target one single adjacent space collectively.
• Because of this fact, any given group of low units can be flanked!

For example:

Here, the black force is flanked. Both groups of 2 red followers can target the space the 4 black followers are on, while the group of black followers can only target 1 adjacent space. All 4 black followers will die while killing only 2 red followers.

• High units, by contrast, are not restricted to targeting a single space; they may divide their attacks freely among multiple adjacent spaces, independent of any low units on their space.
• For example: a messiah may distribute its 4 attacks among up to 4 adjacent spaces, concentrate them all on a single space, or do anything in between.

2. Casualties and Damage

• Once all targets are chosen, the attacks (and casualties therefrom) occur simultaneously.
• Attacks targeting a space with mixed units first hit nonbelievers, then praying followers, then active followers, then the high unit (if one is present). Allied units of the same type on a space die in turn order (e.g. red active followers will die before violet active followers).
• Each attack that hits a low unit kills the low unit; each attack that hits a high unit deals 1 damage to it.
• Messiahs and avatars both benefit from divine armor: for each space targeting a messiah or avatar's space in combat, 1 attack that would have hit the messiah or avatar is ignored instead.

For example: Here, 4 followers on 4 spaces are targeting the messiah's space; divine armor therefore nullifies 4 attacks. No attacks remain to hit the messiah. Here, 4 followers on 2 spaces are targeting the messiah's space; divine armor therefore nullifies 2 attacks. The remaining 2 attacks hit the messiah. Here, 4 followers on 1 space are targeting the messiah's space; divine armor therefore nullifies 1 attack. The remaining 3 attacks hit the messiah.

• Note: even if the messiah or avatar is sharing a space with allied low units, its divine armor effect is still equal to the total number of spaces targeting the messiah or avatar's space!

For example: Here, the black messiah's space contains 4 black followers; in combat, it is targeted by 12 red followers from 3 different spaces. The first 4 attacks will hit the 4 black followers on the messiah's space, leaving 8 attacks that could potentially hit the messiah. Divine armor will nullify the next 3 attacks (1 per each of the 3 spaces targeting the messiah's space)—the remaining 5 attacks will hit the black messiah.

• For every attack that hits your messiah, remove 1 health token from your character card. If your messiah has a messianic mask and no health tokens at the end of combat, remove the mask from the game and restore your messiah back to 6 health. If your messiah has no health tokens at the end of combat and you already removed your messianic mask from the game, however, your messiah dies.
• An avatar has 3 health total, but it returns to full health automatically at the end of every player's turn. Thus, an avatar is only destroyed if it loses 3 or more health from attacks and/or damaging miracles in a single turn!

Unit	Maximum Health	# of Attacks	Targeting Rule
Low Units	1	1	group collectively attacks 1 space
Avatar	3	3	each attack targets independently
Messiah	6	4	each attack targets independently

The End Phase

The following happens during the end phase of your turn, and only then:

1. Clear Unused Belief

All belief left over from the action phase is gone. (No saving it up for another turn!)

2. Sack Enemy Buildings

• If any player has 1 or more units adjacent to any unoccupied enemy temple or holy city at this point in the turn, they may sack it. If multiple players are in a position to sack a building, start with the active player and proceed from there in turn order; the first such player may sack the building. The sacking player may either capture or destroy the sacked building:
  • To destroy a temple or holy city, remove it from the board.
  • To capture a temple, replace it with one your own.
• If the building is a holy city, the sacking player immediately wins the game. If it is a temple, the sacking player may place up to 4 of their adjacent low units, plus 1 adjacent high unit, onto the space.
• When a player sacks a building, they also loot. To loot, take 3 cards off the top of the sacked player's deck (if there are not enough cards, draw until the deck is exhausted, reshuffle the discard pile to form a new deck, and continue drawing). Now choose 1 of these cards; you may remove it from the game, place it in your own discard pile, or leave it be. Next, take 2 coins from the sacked player; if the sacked player does not have enough coins, you may choose a second card from among the 3 cards you initially drew.

3. Discard Down to 3 Miracles

If you have more than 3 cards in your hand, discard down to 3 cards. Place discarded cards face-up in a pile next to your deck; this is your discard pile. Any player may inspect your discard pile at any time.

You will not draw replacement cards until your next beginning phase.

Your turn is now over; say so to the other players. If you are the last player in the turn order, the Market will now open; otherwise, the next player's beginning phase begins.

Market

The Market opens at the end of each round, after all players have finished their turns. This is when you finally get to use the coins you've been accumulating! The following happens during the Market—and only then—in the following order:

Reveal Cards for Sale

Remove all of your coins from view. It is no longer open information how many coins you have.

Flip over 3 cards from the top of the marketplace, plus 1 card per player. (2 players = flip 5 cards; 3 players = flip 6 cards; 4 players = flip 7 cards.) These are the cards available this round.

Secretly Bid Coins

Secretly place a certain number of your coins into a closed fist; this will be your bid. (You may choose to bid 0 coins!) Next, hold out the fist containing your bid above the board. When all players have their fists out, simultaneously turn your palms up and open your fists to reveal your bids.

Buy Cards

Once bids are revealed, each player uses their bid to buy up to 2 cards from the cards available in the Market. Whoever bids highest gets to buy first, followed by the second-highest bid, and so on. If players have equal bids, ties are broken in reverse turn order (i.e. white beats everyone, violet beats black and red, black beats red).

You may only buy cards whose combined belief cost is equal to or less than the number of coins you bid. You must always spend your entire bid even if your bid exceeds the combined belief cost of the cards you chose. Even if there are no cards at all that you can afford when it's your turn to spend your bid, your entire bid is still lost!

All purchased cards go directly into your discard pile, not your hand or deck. (Once your deck runs out of cards, you'll shuffle your discard pile to form a new deck; the cards you bought will then become available to you.)

When you buy a card, instead of keeping it, you may choose to offer it to another player. If you offer a card and the other player accepts it, the card goes into the other player's discard pile instead of your own. If the other player does not accept it, however, it goes into your discard pile as normal.

Close the Market, Get Coins

Once all players have exhausted their bids, the Market closes: shuffle all unpurchased cards and place them at the bottom of the marketplace.

Each player gains 1 coin for each holy space he or she possesses; in addition, for each prosperity monolith on which a player currently has 1 or more units, that player gains 1 additional coin.

Then, a new round starts...

Example Game

Let's look at one full round of a hypothetical 2-player game to see how the rules work in practice!

April and Bob begin a game of True Messiah. April selects the red messiah; Bob chooses black. Each gets 5 coins, their mask, and 6 health tokens; places their holy cities and starting units; creates a 9-card starting deck; and draws a hand of 6 cards off the top of their deck.

Each then sets their starting position. April moves 3 followers 2 spaces forward. She then moves 4 followers onto the space diagonal to her holy city to create a temple building site. She leaves her messiah alone on her holy city.

Bob moves the 4 followers from his holy city 2 spaces forward to create a temple building site; he he moves his messiah onto his temple building site; and he moves his other 3 followers onto his holy city.

The board now looks how you see it on the right:

The first round begins.

Since she is playing red, it is April's turn first. She takes her beginning phase; there are no praying followers to flip over, so she proceeds to recruit.

Her messiah is alone on a holy space, so she recruits 2 new followers by celebrity, placing them with her messiah on her holy city. She had no holy spaces with 2 or more followers on it at the start of her turn, so that's all the recruiting she can do for now.

Next, it is time to build temples. April notes that she has an ordinary space with 4 followers on it; she places a temple down beneath the 4 followers on that space. Her hand is already at 6 cards.

The board now looks like you see it on the left:

It is now April's action phase.

Because her messiah was on a holy space at her turn start, she can move only 6 low units this turn. April first moves 1 of the followers on her temple forward 2 spaces, and a 2nd follower forward 1 space to form a new temple building site. She moves the last 2 followers from her temple forward and sideways toward Bob.

April has some Pious Benefactors in her hand that she'd like to use—those extra coins could come in handy when the market happens at the end of the round. However, she's concerned that Bob might try something sneaky during his turn; she decides to err on the side of caution, and keeps the 2 followers that are sitting on her holy city active so they can pray for a preemptive miracle during Bob's turn if needed.

April then moves her messiah onto her vacated temple so that her messiah will recruit 2 new followers there on her next turn. She has no more actions she wishes to take.

The board now looks like you see it on the right:

There are no adjacent enemy units, so combat is skipped. It is April's end phase. She has no units left adjacent to empty enemy buildings, so there is no capturing, destroying, or looting. April discards down to 3 cards, forming a discard pile next to her deck. She keeps Edict in her hand, as it's preemptive and may come in handy during Bob's turn.

April's turn is now over; Bob begins his turn.

It is Bob's beginning phase; he has no praying units, so he proceeds directly to recruitment. Because he has 2 or more followers on his holy city, he recruits 1 new follower by numbers.

Next, Bob builds temples. He has 4 followers on an ordinary space; he successfully builds his first temple.

Bob already has 6 cards in his hand, and so he skips drawing.

The board now looks like you see it on the left:

It is now Bob's action phase; because his messiah was on an ordinary space at his turn start, Bob can move up to 9 low units this turn instead of 6. He moves his messiah off his temple to engage April's vanguard. He then moves 2 followers from his temple, as well as 2 followers from his holy city, onto the space in between them to start building a second temple.

Bob decides that it would be a good idea to play some miracles. He has Edict, Providence, and Fruit of Knowledge + in his hand. His messiah is the one engaging in combat now, so Providence won't be of much use to him; Bob decides to play Fruit of Knowledge + instead.

Bob makes 1 of the 2 followers on his holy city pray, producing 1 belief to pay the cost of Fruit of Knowledge +. Fruit of Knowledge + has a range of 5, and April's new temple building site is only 2 squares away from his messiah, so it's in range.

Bob plays the Fruit of Knowledge +, targeting a follower on the temple building site. This turns it into a nonbeliever, preventing April from completing her second temple there!

The board now looks like you see it on the right:

The delay of her second temple would be bad for April, but April remains unperturbed. She was prepared for something like this! She kept Edict + in her hand for just such an occasion, and she has enough active followers available to pray that she can pay its cost, too.

Because Edict + is a preemptive miracle, April can play it right now, during Bob's Action Phase. April has the 2 followers on her holy city pray, then uses their 2 belief to play Edict +.

Edict + allows April to immediately move up to 3 of her active low units. Because nonbelievers and followers are both low units, April can choose to move 1 of each. With a smirk, April moves the nonbeliever forward 2 spaces, off of her temple building site, then moves a nearby follower onto the temple building site to take its place.

There are once again 4 followers on the space; construction of her temple will proceed on schedule.

The board now looks like you see it on the left:

Bob is done with his Action phase. Because there are adjacent enemy units, Bob must declare combat; he does so.

The combat phase then begins. Bob and April must each choose targets for their units to attack. Bob's messiah has 4 attacks; he directs the 4 attacks at April's 2 adjacent followers. For her part, April has her 2 followers target Bob's messiah.

Since there are enemies on 1 space targeting Bob's messiah, the divine armor effect on his messiah absorbs 1 attack; the 2nd attack hits, causing the messiah to lose 1 health. Bob removes 1 health token from his character card. Simultaneously, his messiah's 4 attacks hit April's 2 followers, killing them twice over.

Combat is finished; it is Bob's end phase. Bob is nervous about the positioning of April's nonbeliever; on April's turn, it can walk right up and disrupt the building of his second temple! Providence won't help, as it's only Range 2 and his messiah is 3 spaces away. Edict might help, though; he could use that to move a follower in the way on April's turn. He makes sure to keep Edict as he discards down to 3 cards.

Bob's turn ends.

The Market opens! 5 cards are revealed from the top of the marketplace: Dissipater (cost 1), Godspeed (cost 2), Tithes (cost 3), Doomsday (cost 11), and Plague (cost 7).

Bob has 5 coins and April has 5 coins; they each secretly decide to bid all of their coins. Both place their coins into a closed fist, hold their fists over the board, then reveal.

It's a tie! Since Bob goes later in the turn order, the tie is broken in Bob's favor and Bob gets to spend his bid first. Bob chooses to spend his 5-coin bid on Godspeed and Tithes, placing them face-up in his discard pile.

April then gets to spend her bid, but she doesn't have enough coins for Doomsday or Plague; she must spend her entire 5-coin bid on Dissipater, which she places in her discard pile.

The Market is over; all remaining cards are placed beneath the marketplace. Because each player has 2 holy spaces, each player gets 2 coins.

With that, round 1 ends and round 2 begins...

Rules Clarification Q&A

Q: Can I move a follower and then pray with it? Does praying count as a move? A: Praying does not count as a move. You can move and then pray as long as you move onto a holy space.

Q: Does moving my messiah count toward my move limit? A: No; the move limit is only for low units.

Q: Can I use Edict to move a low unit that has already moved this turn? A: No; Edict lets you make extra moves, not move a unit twice in one turn.

Q: Can I use Edict to move low units during another player's turn even though I also moved them on my turn? A: Yes! As long as the unit hasn't been moved on this turn, you can use Edict to move it.

Q: A miracle card says "place." Does placing count as a move? A: No. Unless a card uses the word "move", it's not a move, and doesn't count toward your move limit.

Q: Can I move a unit (or pray with a unit) after I place it? A: Yes, as long as doing so is otherwise legal. (There is nothing like "summoning sickness" in this game.)

Q: A card makes followers pray or has me place new, praying followers. Do they produce belief? A: Unless the card specifies otherwise, followers which are forced to pray via a miracle don't produce belief.

Q: A card says "choose" or "of your choice." Can that count as the card's target for purposes of Corrupt Miracle? A: No. Unless a card uses the word "target" to refer to something, it's not the target.

Q: Does Miracle Shield protect me from being targeted by my own miracle if it's affected by Corrupt Miracle? A: No. It's still your miracle, and not an "enemy miracle." Therefore, Miracle Shield won't affect it.

Q: Can I build a temple on top of a prosperity monolith? A: No.

Q: If I preempt a move with a miracle that makes the move invalid, is that move lost—or can they move again somewhere else? A: A move preemptively rendered invalid is lost (just like the example where we preempt Smite with Teleport).

Q: Can I bring a messiah's health below zero? Will the extra damage "roll over" after its mask breaks? A: No; there is no "roll over" damage. After their mask breaks, the messiah will always return to 6 health.

Q: Can I prevent a miracle card from taking effect by preemptively destroying a follower that prayed for it? A: No. Praying and playing a card are separate actions. You can prevent a player from getting belief from a praying follower by preemptively destroying the follower as soon as it prays—but once the player uses that belief to play a specific card, preempting the praying action means preempting an action that's now 2 steps back. At that point, it's too late!

Q: I need to end a game early. How do we decide who wins if everyone's alive at the end? A: Here's an optional rule to decide who wins via victory points: each player gets 10 points per temple; 1 per follower; 5 if their avatar is in play; 1 per health point (+6 if their mask is intact); 1 per 3 unspent coins; and points equal to the cost of all non-starter cards in the player's hand, deck, discard pile, and by the board. Break ties by temples, then total followers.