Unmatched: Battle of Legends, Volume One
Unmatched: Battle of Legends, Volume One Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 4 hero miniatures
- 120 action cards
- 7 health dials
- 4 character cards
- 6 sidekick tokens
- 1 double-sided board with 2 battlefields
Sinbad
- 30 action cards
- 1 Sinbad hero miniature
- 1 Sinbad character card
- 1 Porter sidekick token
- 2 health dials
Medusa
- 30 action cards
- 1 Medusa hero miniature
- 1 Medusa character card
- 3 Harpy sidekick tokens
- 1 health dial
King Arthur
- 30 action cards
- 1 King Arthur hero miniature
- 1 King Arthur character card
- 1 Merlin sidekick token
- 2 health dials
Alice
- 30 action cards
- 1 Alice hero miniature
- 1 Alice character card
- 1 Alice size token
- 1 Jabberwock sidekick token
- 2 health dials
Before you play for the first time, assemble the health dials by punching out the two circles for each character and connecting them with a rivet.
Heroes & Sidekicks
All of your characters in the battle are called your fighters, but your primary fighter is called your hero. Heroes are represented by miniatures that move around on the battlefield.
Your other fighters are called sidekicks. Most heroes have a single sidekick, some heroes have multiple sidekicks, and still other heroes have no sidekick at all. Sidekicks are represented by tokens that move around on the battlefield.
Each hero has a special ability noted on their character card. This card also lists your fighters' stats, including the starting health of your hero and their sidekick. Fighters' health is tracked on separate health dials. Fighters cannot gain health higher than the highest number on their health dial.
If your hero has multiple sidekicks, each sidekick only has one health (unless otherwise specified). The character card instead lists the total number of sidekicks.
How to Play
Players take turns maneuvering their fighters on the battlefield, playing schemes, and attacking their opponent's fighters. To win, you must be the first to defeat your opponent's hero, which happens when they are reduced to zero health.
Setup
Note: These setup instructions and the following rules are for games with 2 players. For rules on team play with 3 or 4 players, see the Team Play section.
- Choose a battlefield and place it on the table.
- Each player chooses a hero and takes the corresponding 30 action cards, character card, hero miniature, sidekick tokens, health dials, and any other components for their hero.
- Each player sets their hero's starting health and their sidekick's starting health on the matching health dials. (Sidekicks without a health dial have only one health each.)
- Each player shuffles their action cards to form a single deck and places it face down, then draws 5 cards as their starting hand.
- The younger player places their hero in the 1 space on the battlefield. Then they place their sidekicks in separate spaces within the same zone as their hero. If their hero is in a space that is part of multiple zones, their sidekicks may be in any of those zones. If you have to make a decision about your fighter at the beginning of the game (such as Alice's size), make it now.
- The older player places their hero in the 2 space on the battlefield, then places their sidekicks based on the same rules as in step 5.
- The younger player takes the first turn.
The Field of Battle
Spaces and Zones
The battlefield is made up of circular spaces that the fighters will move between. Each space can only contain one fighter at a time.
Two spaces connected by a line are adjacent. Adjacency is used to determine targets of attacks and various card effects.
The spaces of the battlefield are divided into zones, which are indicated by different colored patterns. All spaces with the same colored pattern are part of the same zone (even if they are in different parts of the battlefield).
If a space has multiple colored patterns, it is considered to be part of multiple zones. Zones are used to determine targets of ranged attacks and various card effects.
Your Turn
On your turn, you must take 2 actions; you cannot skip an action. You may choose two different actions or the same action twice.
The possible actions are:
- Maneuver
- Scheme
- Attack
You have a hand limit of 7 cards. At the end of your turn, if you have more than 7 cards in your hand, you must discard down to 7 cards, placing any discarded cards in your discard pile.
Then it is your opponent's turn.
Anatomy of a Card
- A — Overall card type: Attack, Defense, Scheme, or Versatile (attack or defense).
- B — Attack or defense value (if any).
- C — Fighter allowed to use the card.
- D — Name of the card.
- E — Effect when played (if any).
- F — BOOST value.
- G — Deck that the card appears in.
- H — Number of copies in the deck.
Each hero's deck is different, though they may share some cards with other heroes' decks.
Action: Maneuver
When you take the maneuver action, you first draw the top card of your deck, then you may move your fighters.
Step 1: Draw a Card (Mandatory)
Draw the top card of your deck and add it to your hand.
You can have more than 7 cards in your hand during your turn, but you must discard down to 7 cards at the end of your turn.
Drawing cards — whether via the maneuver action or due to a card effect — is mandatory, unless otherwise specified.
When your deck is empty, your fighters are exhausted. If you need to draw a card while your fighters are exhausted, do not reshuffle your discard pile. Instead, each of your fighters immediately takes 2 damage.
Step 2: Move Your Fighters (Optional)
Your character card lists your move value. During this step, you may move each of your fighters, one at a time, a number of spaces equal to or less than your move value. You may also choose to BOOST your movement (see below).
When you move a fighter, each space they move into must be adjacent to their previous space. You may move a fighter through spaces occupied by other friendly fighters (i.e., your own fighters) but they cannot end their movement in an occupied space. You may not move a fighter through spaces occupied by opposing fighters.
You may move your fighters in the order of your choice, but must finish each fighter's move before starting the next. You are not required to move all of your fighters the same distance as each other; you get to choose for each fighter. You are allowed to move a fighter zero spaces.
Note: If an effect ever lets you move your opponent's fighters, you must respect all of the same movement rules, but from your opponent's perspective.
Boost
When you take the maneuver action, you may boost your movement. To do this, discard 1 card from your hand and add that card's BOOST value to your movement value. Ignore any effect on the discarded card.
Certain effects (like King Arthur's special ability) allow you to boost other things, such as the value of an attack.
Cards that can no longer legally be played — because the corresponding fighter or fighters have been defeated — may still be discarded from your hand to boost.
Action: Scheme
When you take the scheme action, you choose a scheme card (indicated by the scheme icon) from your hand and play it onto the table, face up.
You must declare which of your fighters is playing the scheme card; they are the active fighter. Each card in your deck indicates which fighters are allowed to play it. You may not play a scheme card if the listed fighters are defeated.
Resolve the card's effect, then place the card into your discard pile.
Discard piles: Maintain your own discard pile. All cards, once played and resolved, should be placed in the discard pile. Keep your discard pile face up to differentiate it from your deck. Both you and your opponent are allowed to look through your discard pile at any time.
Action: Attack
When you take the attack action, you must declare which of your fighters is performing the attack; they are the active fighter. You may not take the attack action if you do not have an attack card in hand or if none of your fighters have valid targets to attack.
Step 1: Declare Target
Any fighter may target a fighter in an adjacent space, regardless of what zone they are in.
Fighters with melee attacks (indicated by the melee icon) may only target a fighter in an adjacent space.
Fighters with ranged attacks (indicated by the ranged icon) may target an adjacent fighter or they may target a fighter anywhere in the same zone, regardless of adjacency.
Step 2: Choose and Reveal
As the attacker, you must choose an attack card from your hand and play it face down in front of you; it must be a card that your attacking fighter is allowed to use. Then the defender may (but is not required to) choose a defense card from their hand and place it face down in front of them; it must be a card that their defending fighter is allowed to use. Once both players have chosen their cards, reveal them at the same time.
Versatile cards: Cards with the versatile icon are versatile cards. They can be used as attack cards or defense cards. Versatile cards also count as both attack cards and defense cards for the purposes of other game effects.
Step 3: Resolve Combat
Most cards have effects, with labels indicating when they occur: IMMEDIATELY, DURING COMBAT, or AFTER COMBAT. Unless otherwise specified, card effects are mandatory.
If two effects would ever appear to resolve at the same time, the defender's effect resolves first.
After cards have been revealed, resolve any effects that occur IMMEDIATELY. Then resolve any effects that occur DURING COMBAT.
Then determine the result of the combat. The attacker deals damage to the defender equal to the value of their played attack card. If the defender played a defense card, subtract the value of their played defense card first. For each damage that the defender takes, reduce that fighter's health by one, adjusting their health dial accordingly.
After the result of the combat has been determined, resolve any card effects that occur AFTER COMBAT. Even if a player's fighter is defeated during the combat, as long as that does not trigger the end of the game, any AFTER COMBAT effects of their played card still resolve.
After card effects are resolved, resolve any other game effects that occur after combat, such as a hero's special ability.
Finally, all played cards are placed in their respective discard piles.
Winning the combat: Some AFTER COMBAT effects check to see who won the combat.
The attacker won the combat if they dealt at least one damage to the defender from the attack itself (i.e., not from any effects).
The defender won the combat if they took no damage from the attack itself (even if they took damage from effects).
Combat Example
Anna is playing Alice. Ken is playing King Arthur. It's Anna's turn, and she wants to attack King Arthur.
Anna attacks King Arthur with the Jabberwock. She can't play Snicker-Snack (it's an Alice card only, and Alice is not adjacent to King Arthur) and Looking Glass is a defense card. She plays Jaws That Bite (value 4: AFTER COMBAT: Deal 2 damage to any one fighter adjacent to the Jabberwock) as her attack card, face down.
Ken plays Skirmish (value 4, versatile, usable by any King Arthur fighter: AFTER COMBAT: If you won the combat, choose either fighter in the combat and move them up to 2 spaces) as his defense card, face down.
There are no IMMEDIATELY or DURING COMBAT effects. Jaws That Bite and Skirmish both have a value of 4, so the attack deals no damage. King Arthur wins the combat (for taking no damage).
Both cards have AFTER COMBAT effects. The defender (Arthur) resolves first. Ken moves the Jabberwock 2 spaces away.
Now, Jaws That Bite resolves. Anna may deal 2 damage to any one fighter adjacent to the Jabberwock. However, there is no adjacent fighter now, so the effect deals no damage.
Defeating a Fighter
When one of your fighters is reduced to zero health, for any reason, they are defeated.
If your hero's sidekick is defeated, immediately remove that sidekick token from the battlefield. (A sidekick without a health dial only has 1 health and is defeated if they take any damage.)
If your hero is defeated, you immediately lose the game.
Winning the Game
When your opponent's hero is defeated, which happens when they are reduced to zero health, the game ends immediately and you win!
(In a team game, both opposing heroes must be defeated.)
Team Play
You can play Unmatched in teams of 2. Teammates sit next to each other on the same side of the battlefield, and they may communicate about their cards and tactics, but each player controls their own hero and sidekicks. Your teammate's fighters are considered friendly fighters. For team play with three players, one player will control both heroes and sidekicks for one team.
Choose a battlefield with four starting spaces. (Some battlefields have only two starting spaces and therefore cannot be used for team play.)
During setup, players place their heroes in alternating order:
- First player on Team A places their hero in the 1 space.
- First player on Team B places their hero in the 2 space.
- Second player on Team A places their hero in the 3 space.
- Second player on Team B places their hero in the 4 space.
When placing their hero, each player also places their sidekicks within the same zone, as normal.
During the game, players take turns in alternating order:
- First player on Team A takes their turn.
- First player on Team B takes their turn.
- Second player on Team A takes their turn.
- Second player on Team B takes their turn.
This order repeats for the rest of the game.
When a player's hero is defeated, immediately remove that hero miniature from the battlefield. That player still takes their turns as normal, as long as they have at least one sidekick left. If all of a player's fighters are defeated, they are eliminated and do not take any more turns.
When both heroes on one team have been defeated, the opposing team wins!
Icon Reference
- Attack icon: This card can only be used to attack.
- Defense icon: This card can only be used to defend against an attack.
- Versatile icon: This card can be used to attack or defend.
- Scheme icon: As an action, this card can be played for its effect.
- Ranged icon: This fighter may make ranged and melee attacks.
- Melee icon: This fighter may only make melee attacks.
Credits
Unmatched is a "wonder twins" production by Restoration Games and Mondo Games, restored from Star Wars: Epic Duels, designed by Craig Van Ness and Rob Daviau, and published by Milton Bradley. Zone rules inspired by the Pathfinding System from Tannhäuser, designed by William Grosselin and Didier Poli and published by Fantasy Flight Games.
- Core Game Restoration: JR Honeycutt
- Additional Restoration: Rob Daviau and Justin D. Jacobson
- Graphic Design: Jay Shaw, Jason Taylor, and Lindsay Daviau
- Cover and Card Illustrations: Oliver Barrett
- Board Illustration: Alexander Wells
- Editing: Dustin Schwartz and Andrew Wolf
Additional thanks to Drew Dougherty for the rulebook design, Matt Taylor for Alice's size token illustration, and Kyle Ross and Senshistock for illustration pose reference.
©2019 Restoration Games, LLC.