Viktory Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• The Map
• Game Start
• 1) Building Towns / Cities
• 2) Attacks and Movement of Military Units
• 3) Placement of Units
• Examples

Contents

VIKTORY includes 132 individual hexagons for assembly of the game map and six standard six-sided dice. Each player in VIKTORY has a supply of pieces representing towns, cities, infantry, cavalry, artillery, and frigates for their color in addition to a chip to designate their capital.

The Map

VIKTORY is played on a large hexagonal map assembled of individual smaller hexagons of either land or water. There are four types of land terrain: Plains (gold-colored), Grassland (light green), Mountains (gray), and Forest (dark green). You may customize your map or simply place the hexes randomly- the only restriction is that the outer edge of the map must be water. [The manual's map-assembly diagram is an image and is not reproduced here.]

On a 4-player map, many of the interior hexes will be water by design- on smaller maps, use more or less water to customize the importance of naval power in your games.

It's helpful to setup the map by laying down the middle row of hexes first and then building out, or laying down the center hex first and then building out hex rings. Also, note that the 2 player map has 9 hexes across and 5 hexes to a side; the 3 player has 11 hexes across and 6 hexes to a side; the 4 player map has 13 hexes across and 7 hexes to a side.

Game Start

1. Determine Player #s: Each player rolls one die. After breaking any ties, the player who rolled highest is declared Player 1, the second highest is Player 2, and so forth.
2. Determine Corner #s: Choose any corner of the hexagonal map and assign it a #1. Counting clockwise, assign the next corner a #2, the next corner a #3, etc..
3. Determine Player Corners: Player 1 rolls one die- the corner that corresponds to the number rolled is now the starting position for Player 1. Moving clockwise, Player 2 and other players would be assigned successive starting positions relative to Player 1 according to the diagrams above for 4, 3, and 2-player games. [The starting-position diagrams are images and are not reproduced here.]

Player 1 goes first, and play proceeds in a clockwise fashion around the board. Each player's turn in VIKTORY consists of 3 steps: building, movement/attack, and placement.

1. Building: the player may build a town or upgrade an existing town to a city
2. Attacks and/or Movement with the player's military units
3. Placement of units either newly created or lost in battle during the turn.

1) Building Towns / Cities

Each turn, the player has the opportunity to either build one town or upgrade one town to a city. Towns may be built upon any land hex, with some restrictions:

• The first town built by each player MUST be built on one of the hexes designated on the starting diagrams- an exception occurs when all of these hexes are water- then the player may choose any land hex closest to the designated hexes. The first town built becomes the player's permanent capital, and should have the capital chip marker placed under the town marker.
• A player must possess his capital at the beginning of his turn in order to build (first turn excepted, of course).
• No two towns or cities (whether yours or an opponent's) may be adjacent, and new towns must be built within a distance of two or three hexes from at least one of your existing towns or cities, excepting the first turn of course. Available real estate for towns may disappear before the end of the game for some or all players, in which case the player's only building option will be to upgrade a town to a city. If the player has no more towns to upgrade to cities as well, then the player will be unable to build during his turn.
• No town may be built on a hex containing an enemy unit.
• A player may also choose not to build (e.g. if building would merely provide "easy pickings" for an opponent).
• When upgrading a town to a city, the town marker is removed and replaced by a city marker. An upgrade only provides a single new unit, in addition to the infantry already supported by the replaced town.

Note: towns are built ON hexagons in VIKTORY, not at intersections; likewise units occupy hexes, not intersections.

Since building a town or upgrading a town to a city entitles a player to one additional unit (see chart below), the player should immediately add that one unit to his reserve for placement at the end of his turn (see below).

2) Attacks and Movement of Military Units

Unit Types: There are four types of military units in VIKTORY: infantry, cavalry, artillery, and frigates. Towns always support one infantry unit, whereas cities support one infantry unit plus an additional unit depending upon terrain. The infantry unit supported by the city is the same infantry unit previously supported by the town on the same hex. Plains cities support two infantry; Grassland cities support an infantry and a cavalry; Mountain cities support an infantry and artillery, and Forest cities support an infantry and a frigate.

Terrain and Units Supported (chart):

Building	Units supported
Town (any land hex)	1 infantry
Plains city	2 infantry
Grassland city	1 infantry + 1 cavalry
Mountain city	1 infantry + 1 artillery
Forest city	1 infantry + 1 frigate

One important concept in VIKTORY is that units are gained when towns or cities are built or conquered, and units are lost when towns or cities are lost. Thus, there is a one-to-one accounting between each player's towns and cities and their units. This provides an easy way to make sure every player has the appropriate number of units at all times. Example: A player with cities in each of the four terrains would have one frigate, one artillery, one cavalry, and five infantry.

Movement: Each unit in VIKTORY has unique abilities. Among these are movement, and the distinction between units that move on land and the naval unit (the frigate) that moves on the sea or water hexes. Each unit is allowed so much movement per turn, with infantry and artillery moving 2 hexes, cavalry moving 3 hexes and frigates moving 5 hexes (over water). Units may move into battle (see below), or may simply reposition.

Frigate Transport: The most important special ability of the frigate is marine transportation of land units: a frigate may pick up a maximum of three land units from adjacent hexes and drop them off to any land hex within range, including directly into battle (see below):

• It is allowable to move into position multiple times to pick up land units from different locations.
• While units can be picked up from any number of locations, they can only be dropped off in one hex.
• Land units may neither move before or after being transported- the transport consumes their entire movement for the turn. Also, artillery may not bombard after being transported.
• Optionally, a player can leave units on-board the frigate at the end of his turn, though they will be destroyed if the frigate is destroyed and are defenseless "dead weight" while on-board.
• A frigate's movement is terminated when it drops units off.

Frigate Pass-Through: While a frigate is normally restricted to the sea, a player may send his frigate into one of his towns or cities adjacent to water and then immediately exit the town or city to another water hex (even on the opposite side of the entering hex):

• Entering and exiting consumes two movements, just as if the frigate had traveled over water hexes.
• A frigate cannot end its turn in a town or city, nor can the frigate fire bombardment (see below) or pick up land units while passing through a town or city. A frigate may carry units previously picked up through a town or city, however. Once it has passed through, units from the town/city may then be picked up.
• A frigate also cannot pass through a town on the same turn the town was newly built.

Casualties in VIKTORY: Before proceeding to attacks, it is important to note VIKTORY's system for handling casualties in battle. As mentioned before, units are gained and lost when cities and towns are built or lost. In the meantime, units lost in battle are placed in an area called the "reserve" separate from each player's general supply of units (it is convenient to designate the area off the board immediately behind a player's capital and on a leftover unused hex as the reserve, with the general supply further back). In addition to units lost in battle, new units either from building or conquest are placed in the reserve. These units are replaced on the board at the conclusion of each player's turn (see below).

Attacks: There are two types of attacks in VIKTORY: bombard and regular. Bombard attacks can only be executed by a frigate or artillery, while any unit can conduct regular attacks.

• While bombard attacks are not restricted by land or sea, regular attacks can only be conducted against similar units: frigates can only attack frigates in a regular attack, and land units can only attack other land units.
• A unit may only participate in one type of attack per turn: either one bombard attack or one regular attack.
• An attack also terminates the attacking unit's movement, regardless if the unit has remaining movement ability or has yet to move at all (except for retreats, see below).

Bombard Attacks: A bombard attack can only be executed by a frigate or artillery and must be targeted on a hex containing at least one enemy unit one or two hexes away from the firing unit; the attacking unit may, of course, use its movement ability to get within range of the targeted hex. The attack consists of one die roll- if the die hits on a 3 or less, the targeted hex must lose one unit, defender's choice, unless the attack hits on a 1, in which case the attacker gets to choose; the lost unit is immediately placed in the defender's reserve. If there are no units to hit, then the bombard attack has no effect – empty towns/cities may not be taken by a bombard attack alone.

• Bombard attacks consist of this one-round shot and are not resolved "to the death"; there is also no defense to a bombard attack.
• Frigates may bombard while loaded with units and may still drop off after bombarding, though their movement is terminated.
• If a frigate holding land units is hit with a bombard, the casualty is taken upon the frigate and the land units are lost to the reserve as well.
• Remember, bombard attacks are not restricted by terrain type: artillery can fire on other land units or frigates and frigates can fire on either land units or other frigates.
• It's helpful to turn your artillery and frigates on their side after they have conducted a bombard attack to keep track of which units have been used and turn them back upright at the end of your turn.

Regular Attacks: Regular attacks are initiated by units moving into the same hexagon as enemy units. If a town or city sits on the hexagon, then the outcome of the battle determines who gets ownership. Each hexagon may only be attacked once on any player's turn. Battles are executed by rolling dice in rounds, in the following sequence:

1. Artillery First Round Attack: FIRST ROUND ONLY- Each attacking artillery rolls one die; any rolls of a 3 or less cause a casualty (defender's choice, unless a 1, then attacker's choice) that must be immediately placed in the defender's reserve.

2. Attacker Rolls: The attacker rolls one die if he has at least one infantry still in the battle, an additional two dice if he has at least one cavalry still in the battle, and one additional die if he has at least one artillery remaining in the battle, for a maximum of four dice. In naval battles, the attacker rolls one die if he has at least one frigate still in the battle. One casualty results for each roll landing on a 3 or less, defender's choice on a 2 or 3, attacker's choice on a 1 (attacker must choose first). These casualties are noted but not yet removed to the defender's reserve.

3. Defender Rolls: The defender rolls one die if he has at least one infantry still in the battle, an additional one die if he has at least one cavalry still in the battle, and one additional die if he has at least one artillery still in the battle. In addition, the defender may roll up to three additional "special defense" dice: one if defending a town, two for a city, plus one additional die if one or more of the defender's frigates is adjacent to the land hex being defended, for a maximum of six total dice for the defender. In naval battles, the defender rolls one die if he has at least one frigate still in the battle. In the first round, the defender rolls any "special defense" dice even if the city or town has no defending units. One casualty results for each roll landing on a 3 or less, attacker's choice on a 2 or 3, defender's choice on a 1 (defender must choose first).

   Note: A frigate does not roll a die to defend an adjacent hex that contains neither any defending units nor one of the defender's towns or cities. Such a hex is considered unoccupied and may be moved through freely even with an adjacent defending frigate. Also, a frigate does not roll to help defend other frigates in adjacent hexes.

4. Remove casualties: Both players now place their casualties in their respective reserves.

Players may move, transport units, conduct bombardments, and initiate regular attacks in any order. That said, it is helpful to conduct bombard attacks first, then regular attacks, then movements, in order to keep track of which units have been used. A key part of strategy in VIKTORY is planning a successful sequence of turn events to maximize the probability of success.

3) Placement of Units

Once a player has built and conducted as much attacking and movement as he wishes or is able, the final part of his turn is the placement of units on the board from his reserve. There are a number of restrictions on placement:

• If a player ends his turn without possession of his capital, then the player is not allowed to place any units. The units remain in his reserve until they are removed due to the loss of additional towns/cities or until the player is able to retake his capital.
• Units may only be placed on towns/cities corresponding to the same type of unit and terrain (see "Terrain and Units Supported" chart): One infantry may be placed in a town, two infantry in a Plains city, one infantry and a cavalry in a Grassland city, one infantry and an artillery in a Mountain City, and one infantry and one frigate in a Forest city. While units do not have to be placed in the town/city that created them in the first place, they do have to be placed in the same type of town/city. Example: A cavalry produced by building a Grassland city may be placed in another Grassland city (though only one per turn may be placed in any given Grassland city). Also, that cavalry could not be placed in a Grassland town.
• Frigates are placed in any water hex adjacent to a city; if no water hexes are adjacent, then the frigate is placed in the nearest water hex, the player chooses when multiple hexes are equidistant to the Forest city. A player may still place their frigate in a water hex containing an enemy frigate. If so, a regular attack ensues and any casualties are placed in their respective reserves until the end of that player's next turn.
• Unlimited units from the reserve may be placed in the player's capital, regardless of the capital's terrain and normal placement restrictions.

Each 3-part cycle of building, attacking and moving, and placement of units constitutes one turn for a player of VIKTORY. Play continues in a clockwise fashion until someone conquers all other players or all other players concede the game.

Examples

Game Start:

1. Player 1 places a town on one of his assigned beginning hexes, and places a capital chip marker underneath to designate this town as his capital.
2. Since building a town entitles him to an infantry, he places one infantry in his reserve.
3. Since he has no units on the board, he proceeds to place units- he must place the infantry on his only town.

Bombard Attack:

1. Player 2 has an artillery three hexes away from Player 1's frigate in a water hex. He moves the artillery one hex closer (now two hexes away, the maximum range for a bombard) and declares a bombard attack.
2. He rolls one die and it lands on a 1. The roll is a hit because it is 3 or less and a selective hit because Player 2 rolled a 1. However, since there is no "choice" as to which unit to lose (the hex contained one frigate), it is moot as to who picks the casualty: the frigate must take the casualty and is removed to Player 1's reserve. There is no defense to a bombard attack.
3. Even though the artillery has one remaining movement, it must stop for the remainder of the turn because any attack terminates a unit's movement, excepting retreats.

Regular Attack:

1. Player 3 has two infantry and a cavalry two hexes away from Player 1's Mountain city, which is defended by one infantry and one artillery, in addition to an adjacent frigate on the opposite side (the city has two adjacent water hexes opposite each other). Player 3 also has a frigate within range that can add an artillery and an additional infantry to his attacking force by picking up the additional units and dropping them off directly into the targeted city. Player 3 loads the artillery and infantry onto the frigate and moves it adjacent to Player 1's Mountain city.
2. Before unloading the infantry and artillery and advancing his other units, Player 3 uses the bombard attack against Player 1's frigate (hoping to eliminate the additional defense die the frigate provides). He rolls a 5, which is a miss.
3. After unloading and advancing his attacking army, Player 3 now has three infantry, one cavalry, and one artillery in the battle against Player 1's city defended by one infantry and artillery with an adjacent frigate supporting. Player 3 then rolls 1 die for the attacking artillery for the first-round-only artillery shot- he rolls a 4, another miss.
4. Then Player 3 rolls 4 total dice for the normal portion of the attack- since he is attacking with all three land units, he gets 1 for infantry, 2 for cavalry, and 1 for artillery (remember, in VIKTORY it makes no difference in the number of dice as long as you have at least 1 of the unit type). He rolls a 1, 3, 6, and 6 with his dice, meaning two casualties for Player 1, one attacker's choice (for the 1) and one defender's choice (for the 3). These casualties are noted but not yet removed.
5. Next, Player 1 responds with a total of 5 dice: 1 for infantry, 1 for artillery, 2 for city special defense, and 1 for adjacent frigate special defense. Player 1 rolls a 5, 4, 1, 1, and 2. This is two defender's choice casualties (for the 1's) and one attacker's choice casualty (for the 2).
6. Removal of Casualties: Since Player 3 got two hits and Player 1 only has two units, both are removed to Player 1's reserve and neither Player gets to "choose" since choosing would be moot. Player 1 got three total hits or casualties on Player 3, and since Player 3 has more than three units, Player 1 actually gets to choose two of the casualties: he chooses the cavalry and the artillery, while Player 3 assigns the third casualty to one of the remaining infantry- these units are immediately removed to Player 3's reserve.
7. Since Player 1 has no more units left to defend (the adjacent frigate does not count) and Player 3 has two remaining infantry, the battle is over and Player 3 takes possession of Player 1's Mountain city. Player 1 removes his city marker, and Player 3 replaces it with one of his own. Then Player 1 must immediately remove one infantry and one artillery (the units that correspond to a Mountain city) from either his reserve (if possible) or directly from the board. Since Player 1 just lost one infantry and one artillery to his reserve, he chooses to remove those units. Player 3 then adds a corresponding infantry and artillery to his reserve for placement at the end of his turn.

To further help players understand VIKTORY's rule system, we have prepared a short instructional video accessible online at: http://www.viktorygame.com/owners.htm