Unmatched: Houdini vs. The Genie
Unmatched: Houdini vs. The Genie Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 2 miniatures
- 2 character cards
- 60 action cards
- 1 sidekick token
- 3 health dials
- 1 game board
Houdini
- 30 action cards
- 1 Houdini hero miniature
- 1 Houdini character card
- 1 Bess sidekick token
- 2 health dials
The Genie
- 30 action cards
- 1 Genie hero miniature
- 1 Genie character card
- 1 health dial
Before you play for the first time, assemble the health dials by punching out the 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. Heroes may have multiple sidekicks, a single sidekick, or no sidekicks 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.
Character Cards
Houdini — Hero. Attack: melee. Start health: 14. Move: 2. Special ability — ESCAPE ARTIST: When you take the maneuver action and BOOST, you may place Houdini in any space instead of moving. (Bess moves as normal.)
Bess — Sidekick. Attack: melee. Start health: 5.
The Genie — Hero. Attack: ranged. Start health: 16. Move: 3. Special ability — INFINITE POWER: At the start of your turn, you may discard 1 card to gain 1 action.
"What would'st thou have?" — The Genie
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.
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.
Setup
- Choose a battlefield and place it on the table.
- Each player chooses a hero and takes the corresponding action cards, character card, hero miniature, sidekick token (if any), and health dials.
- Each player sets their hero's starting health and their sidekick's starting health on the matching health dials. Starting health is found on the character cards.
- 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. If they have a sidekick, place it in a separate space within the same zone as their hero. If their hero is in a space that is part of multiple zones, their sidekick may be in any of those zones.
- The older player places their hero in the 2 space on the battlefield, then places their sidekick, if they have any, 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 colors. All spaces with the same color are part of the same zone (even if they are in different parts of the battlefield).
If a space has multiple colors, it is considered to be part of multiple zones. Zones are used to determine targets of ranged attacks and various card effects.
This set contains the same battlefield on both sides of the board. On one side, the colored spaces are filled in with different patterns, which can be especially helpful for players with vision deficiencies. The other side has empty circles, where zones are only indicated by the circle's color. Both sides play exactly the same.
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 would draw a card while your fighters are exhausted, each of your fighters immediately takes 2 damage instead. Do not draw a card and do not reshuffle your discard pile.
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 move value. Ignore any effect on the discarded card.
Certain effects (like Houdini's The Big Reveal card) 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 (which can result in dealing damage to your own fighters or other negative effects).
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 combat 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 combat damage (i.e., damage to the defender from the attack itself, not from any effects).
The defender won the combat if they took no combat damage from the attack itself (even if they took damage from effects).
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 the sidekick token from the battlefield.
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.)
Combat Example
Genevieve is playing the Genie. Harry is playing Houdini.
It's Genevieve's turn, and she wants to attack Houdini with the Genie. Houdini is at 3 health.
Genevieve has a few options: Careful What You Wish For, I Am Freed, and I've Made Sultans Out of Less. With Houdini so low in health, she decides to go with the biggest attack and plays Careful What You Wish For as her attack card, face down.
Harry has Grand Escape and All Part of the Show that he can play on defense. He decides to go with Grand Escape. He plays it as his defense card, face down.
The cards involved:
- I've Made Sultans Out of Less (The Genie, versatile, value 2, BOOST 1): AFTER COMBAT: Look at your opponent's hand and choose a card for them to discard. (The Genie | x2)
- I Am Freed (The Genie, attack, value 3, BOOST 2): AFTER COMBAT: Place the Genie in any empty space. Then, deal 1 damage to each adjacent fighter. (The Genie | x2)
- Careful What You Wish For (The Genie, attack, value 4, BOOST 2): AFTER COMBAT: If you lost the combat, deal 1 damage to an adjacent opposing fighter. (The Genie | x3)
- An Illusion of My Own Design (Houdini, attack, value 4): IMMEDIATELY: Your opponent may BOOST their card. DURING COMBAT: You may BOOST this card. (Houdini | x2)
- All Part of the Show (Any fighter, defense, value 2, BOOST 2 — BOOST BONUS: Houdini recovers 2 health): This card's effects cannot be canceled. AFTER COMBAT: If your fighter was defeated, set their health to 4 instead and place them in any space. (This effect happens even if Houdini was defeated.) (Houdini | x2)
- Grand Escape (Houdini, defense, value 2, BOOST 3): DURING COMBAT: You may BOOST this card. AFTER COMBAT: If you won the combat, place your fighter in any space. (Houdini | x3)
Grand Escape has a during combat effect. Harry uses All Part of the Show to BOOST the defense, adding its BOOST value of 2 to raise the defense to a 4. All Part of the Show also has a BOOST bonus, which resolves immediately. Houdini gains 2 health, putting him at 5. The value of both cards is 4, so the attack deals no damage.
Both cards have an AFTER COMBAT effect. The defender's card resolves first. Houdini won the combat since it was a tie, and Harry places him in a space on the other side of the board. Then the attacker's card resolves. The Genie lost the combat, so Careful What You Wish For deals 1 damage to an adjacent fighter. Unfortunately, Houdini is no longer adjacent, so it has no effect. It seems the crafty magician has outwitted the Genie this time.
Special Rules for This Set
Houdini: Boost Tricks
When Houdini takes the maneuver action and boosts, instead of moving him as normal, you may place him in any valid space on the game board (one without another fighter). You cannot move Bess, his sidekick, in this way, but you may move her normally as part of that maneuver action, and she can still move the additional amount from the BOOST.
Additionally, some of Houdini's cards have BOOST bonuses. Whenever you use one of these cards to BOOST, whether as part of a maneuver action or as allowed by another card effect, you trigger the BOOST bonus effect. Resolve the effect immediately and place the card in your discard pile, then resolve the rest of the action as normal. These effects do not trigger when an opponent's effect uses your BOOST value, such as the Genie's This Is No Parlor Trick.
Example BOOST bonus cards:
- And the Beautiful Bess! (Bess, versatile, value 3, BOOST 1 — BOOST BONUS: If it's your turn, gain 1 action): If you discard this card as a result of an opponent's effect, draw 1 card. (Houdini | x2)
- Flourish (Any fighter, defense, value 3, BOOST 2 — BOOST BONUS: Draw 1 card): DURING COMBAT: You may BOOST this card. (Houdini | x4)
- This Is No Parlor Trick (The Genie, attack, value 1, BOOST 2): DURING COMBAT: The value of your opponent's card is equal to its BOOST value. (The Genie | x2)
Gameboard: Secret Passages
The King Solomon's Tomb map features a system of secret passages that can be used by fighters to move quickly across the map. These passages are indicated by a secret passage symbol on certain spaces with a gray line leading away. A fighter can move from one space with a secret passage to any other space with a secret passage as if they were adjacent. Moving this way still costs 1 space of movement.
Spaces with secret passages are not considered adjacent for any other purpose, including melee attacks and other effects.
NOTE: Large figures cannot move through a secret passage. (There are no large figures in this set.)
EXAMPLE: On the Genie's turn, they move their hero to a space with a secret passage with their first movement and then across the map to another space connected by a passage with a second movement.
Team Play
NOTE: You cannot use Team Play rules with just the Houdini vs. The Genie set. You will need more figures and maps that have 3 and 4 spaces.
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 our wish come true and was 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.
- Houdini Deck Design: Sam Crane
- The Genie Deck Design: Adil M. Geresu
- Game Restoration: Noah Cohen, Rob Daviau, Justin D. Jacobson, and Brian Neff
- Graphic Design: Jason Taylor, Lindsay Daviau, Ian Reed, and Jason D. Kingsley
- Cover and Card Illustration: Peter Diamond
- Board Illustration: Brian Patterson
- Project Management: Suzanne Sheldon
Thank you to everyone who helped playtest the game! You're all wonderful people. We mean it.
©2022 Restoration Games, LLC. The following are trademarks of Restoration Games, LLC: Restoration Games, the Restoration Games logo, Unmatched, the Unmatched logo, the "In Battle, There Are No Equals" tagline, and all associated trade dress.
©2022 IELLO. Rights for this territory and this language managed by IELLO.
Actual components may vary from those shown.
WARNING! Not suitable for children under 3 years due to small parts. Choking hazard.