War: Batalhas Mitológicas Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Important: Differences From Classic War
• Components
• Value of Pieces
• Armies
• Objective Cards
• Distribution of Armies and Territories
• The Game
• Receiving Armies
  • 1) Territories Owned
  • 2) Conquered Region
• Attacks
  • How to Attack
  • Battle
  • Conquering a Territory
  • Movements
• Conquering Cards
• Trading Cards
• End of the Game
• Elimination of a Player
• Advanced Rules
  • Setup
  • First Round: Placing Armies Only
  • Second Round: Start of Battles
  • Mythological Figures
  • Gods and Devotion Tokens
  • Powers of the Gods
• Conquering Cards and Trading (Advanced)
  • Trading Cards
  • Sacrificing Warriors for a Trade

Important: Differences From Classic War

If you are a player of WAR, these are the main differences in WAR: Batalhas Mitológicas:

• The game is adapted for up to 4 players, not 6.
• The board depicts Ancient Greece.
• Territories are still called TERRITORIES, but the continents are called REGIONS.
• Armies are represented by: WARRIOR (equal to 1 army) and MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURE (equal to 10 armies).
• The figures on the triangle, square and circle cards are, respectively, the shield, the helmet and the sword.
• In addition to the traditional War rules, Batalhas Mitológicas includes an Alternative Rule.
• In the Basic game, ignore the mounds and the temples marked on the board.
• In the Alternative Rule, Table II is replaced by the Table III card.

Components

• 1 board
• 4 army sets
• 42 territory cards
• 12 objective cards
• 2 wild cards
• 1 Table III card *
• 3 yellow dice
• 3 red dice
• 1 yellow special die *
• 1 red special die *
• 32 devotion tokens *
• 4 mythological figure summary cards *
• 4 god power summary cards *
• 5 god cards *

* Components used only in the Alternative Rule.

Value of Pieces

Armies are represented by:

• Warrior = 1 army
• Mythological Figure = 10 armies

During the game, when the board is full, each player may choose to exchange 10 warriors for one mythological figure.

Armies

Each army set is made up of 10 mythological figures and 70 warriors.

Each player chooses the colour of army they prefer from the four available. This choice may be made by lot or by mutual agreement among the participants.

Objective Cards

Each player receives one card, at random. Upon learning their objective, the player does not reveal it to opponents. The remaining objectives are not used in the game.

It is important that, before the draw, players who are new to the game read through all the possible objectives. At minimum, [one opposing territory].

Note: In a 3-player game, an objective relating to a non-participating army must be removed from the deck. For example, if nobody plays the black armies, the objective card that orders the destruction of the black armies must be taken out.

[Transcriber's note: the text layer of this sentence is cut off after "At minimum," and the rest of the sentence could not be recovered. The bracketed words are the transcriber's reconstruction and should be checked against the printed manual.]

Distribution of Armies and Territories

Each player rolls a die, and the player with the highest result is the dealer.

The dealer takes the territory card set, removes the wild cards, and deals the cards clockwise, starting with the player on their left. At this moment, each player places 1 warrior of their colour on each of the territories received during the deal. At the end of this operation, every territory is occupied by one warrior belonging to one of the participants.

Then the dealer collects the territory cards, returns the wild cards, and shuffles the cards. Finally, the dealer places this deck, face down, next to the board, where it will remain for the rest of the game.

The Game

The game begins with the player following the one who received the last territory card.

In the first round, each player, on their turn, receives armies, places them on the map according to their strategy, and passes the turn.

From the second round onward, in each round each player, on their turn, carries out the determined steps, always in this order:

1. Receives new armies and places them on the board according to their strategy.
2. Attacks opponents, if they wish.
3. Moves their armies, if convenient.
4. Receives a territory card, if they conquered any.

Receiving Armies

At the start of every round, there are 3 ways to receive armies:

• from the number of territories owned;
• if they own a whole region;
• if they can trade cards (explained in the Card Trading section).

1) Territories Owned

At the start of their turn, the player adds up the number of territories they own and divides by 2. The result is the number of armies they receive (considering only the whole-number part of the result).

Example:

• With 8 territories, the player receives 4 warriors.
• With 11 territories, the player receives 5 warriors.

At this point, the player must place all the armies received on one or more of their territories, according to their strategy.

2) Conquered Region

If, at the start of their turn, the player owns a whole region, then in addition to the armies received from counting territories, they receive extra armies according to the values of TABLE I printed on the board.

NOTE: The armies received for owning a region must be placed obligatorily on the territories of that region.

[Transcriber's note: the values of Table I are printed on the board and are not in the text layer. The example below uses the values stated in the manual's text.]

Example:

Imagine that a player owns 19 territories, 15 spread over several regions and 4 in the region of Epirus. The reasoning at the start of the turn should be as follows:

• Number of territories owned: 15 + 4 = 19
• Number of armies to receive from territories: 9 (19 ÷ 2 = 9.5)
• Number of armies to receive for owning the whole region of Epirus: 2 (see TABLE I)

Total armies to receive: 9 + 2 = 11, of which the 2 corresponding to the region of Epirus must be placed in that same region.

Note: The minimum number of armies to receive is always 3, even if the player owns fewer than 6 territories.

Attacks

From the second round onward, players may or may not attack an opponent, trying to conquer more territories. For this, there must be at least one army on each occupied territory. This army is called the occupation army.

Thus, to attack from a territory, at least 2 armies are needed on that territory.

How to Attack

1. The attacker uses the red dice, and the defending player uses the yellow dice.
2. An attack from any territory may only be directed at an adjacent opposing territory (one that shares a border or is connected by the dotted line).
3. The attacker must announce from which territory the attack is launched, which territory is being attacked, and how many armies will be used to attack.
4. The maximum number of armies taking part in each attack is three, even if there are more armies on the attacking territory.
5. A territory may be attacked regardless of its number of armies.
6. The attacked territory may use its occupation army in its own defence.
7. On their turn, each player may attack as many times as they wish to conquer an opposing territory.
8. Attacks may start from one or several territories, but always one at a time, according to the attacker's strategy. A player may also attack several territories on their turn. Each attack requires a dice confrontation (explained in the Battle section).
9. The attacking player rolls the number of dice corresponding to the number of their armies taking part in the battle; the same applies to the defending player. Thus, if the attacker uses 3 armies against 1 defending army, they roll 3 dice against the defender's 1 die.

Battle

Example 1: Attacker with 4 armies and defender with 3 armies.

If the attacker has 4 armies on their territory and the defender has 3, both may roll 3 dice, that is, both the attacker (Sparta) and the defender (Olympia) fight with three armies.

After the battle (carried out by rolling the dice), the attacker's dice are compared with the defender's dice to determine who loses armies. The attacker's highest die is compared with the defender's highest die. The winner is whoever has the higher result. In the case of a tie, the defence wins.

Then the second-highest die of the attacker is compared with the second-highest die of the defender, and the winner is decided as in the previous case.

Then the lowest dice are compared, based on the same procedure.

Suppose the attacker rolls 5, 4 and 1, and the defender rolls 6, 3 and 1. The comparison is made as follows:

• Highest: attacker 5, defender 6. Defence wins; the attacker loses 1 army.
• Second: attacker 4, defender 3. Attacker wins; the defender loses 1 army.
• Lowest: attacker 1, defender 1. Tie, so defence wins; the attacker loses 1 army.

[Transcriber's note: the comparison table printed with this example is an image and is not in the text layer. The per-comparison outcome lines above are the transcriber's working from the rule as stated; they agree with the result the manual gives in the next paragraph.]

In this case, the attacker loses 2 armies and the defender loses 1 army.

Thus, the attacking territory, which had 4 armies, and the defending territory, which had 3, each end with 2 armies.

If they wish, the attacker may make a new attack using 1 army against the defender's 2.

Note that although the attacker is left with 2 armies on their territory, they can only attack again with one, since the other is the occupation army and cannot be used for attacks.

Note: Armies lost in battles return to the players' boxes, where they may be reused later.

Example 2: Attacker with 3 armies and defender with 1 army.

If the attack has 3 armies and the defence only 1, the attacker may roll 2 dice against the defender's 1 die. Suppose the values are: attacker 3 and 2, defender 6. The attacker's highest die (3) is compared with the defender's only die (6), and the die with the lower attacker value is discarded. The defence wins in this case, and the attacker removes one of their armies.

Note: Each time an attacker loses, they remove from their territory only the number of armies used. In the example above, the defence used only one die, so the attacker loses only one army.

Example 3: Attacker with 10 armies and defender with 4 armies.

In this case, as already seen, each side may use a maximum of 3 armies in each battle. Suppose the values are such that the result is one victory for the attack and two for the defence. Therefore, the attacker keeps 8 armies and the defender keeps 3.

If the attacker wishes, they may continue the attack, rolling 3 dice again against the defender's 3.

Suppose the results give the attacker 3 victories. The defender must then remove their last 3 armies from the territory.

[Transcriber's note: the dice values for the attacker's second battle are shown on a table that is not in the text layer, so they are not transcribed here. The outcome stated in the text is 3 victories for the attacker.]

Conquering a Territory

If, after a battle (one or more dice confrontations), the attacker destroys all of the defender's armies on the territory, they have conquered the territory and must move their attacking armies into the conquered territory, where they remain.

This movement follows this rule: the maximum number of armies that may be moved at this moment is equal to the number of armies that took part in the last attack. In the previous example, the attacker could move 1, 2, or at most 3 armies.

After conquering a territory and moving the permitted armies, the attacker may, if they wish, make a new attack from the conquered territory, still in the same turn. Only then may they carry out a new movement of the attacking armies into the attacked territory.

Note: During attacks, attacking armies may only be moved into the attacked territories, and not into any other territory.

Movements

There are two moments when a player may, on their turn, move their armies: the first, mentioned above, concerns moving attacking armies into the conquered territory; the second concerns movements allowed when the player has finished their attacks on their turn.

When finishing their attacks, the player may, according to their strategy, move armies between their contiguous territories.

These movements must obey the following rules:

1. On each territory there must always remain at least one army (the occupation army), which may never be moved.
2. An army may be moved only once; that is, it is not permitted to move an army to a second contiguous territory in the same turn.

Example: A player who owns Athens, Boeotia and Euboea may move armies from Athens to Boeotia, but may not move those same armies from Boeotia to Euboea in the same turn.

Conquering Cards

A player who conquers one or more territories during their turn is entitled to one territory card at the end of the turn (after making their movements).

It is important to note that the player receives only one territory card per turn, regardless of the number of territories conquered. The content of this card must be kept secret until the moment it is traded. Each player may hold up to 5 cards in hand.

Trading Cards

A player who has 3 cards with different symbols, or 3 cards with the same symbol, may, on their turn, trade them for extra armies, according to TABLE II printed on the board.

Example: The first player to make a trade during the game receives 4 armies; the second player to make a trade receives 6; the third, 8; and so on. This sequence does not follow the trades of each player individually, but all the trades that occur in the game.

The player is not obliged to make a trade when they have one of the combinations described: it depends on their interest at the time.

However, a player who accumulates 5 cards is obliged, on their turn, to trade 3 cards for armies. The armies, as soon as they are received, may be placed on the territories owned by the player who receives them, in whatever way best suits them.

If, among the cards used in the trade, there is one that represents a territory owned by the player, they gain 2 extra armies, which must be placed, obligatorily, on that territory.

Notes:

1. The wild card always allows the player to choose any one of the 3 symbols to make a trade.
2. Conquering a card each turn is very important, since the cards give the right to receive more armies.
3. Traded cards are set aside from the game. When all the cards have been distributed, they must be shuffled and returned to play to form a new deck.

End of the Game

The game ends when a player reaches their objective. At that moment, the player must show their objective card, proving their victory.

Elimination of a Player

If, during the game, a player completely destroys an army (another player), without this being their objective (in which case they would win the game), they receive the cards of the eliminated player.

If, when adding the cards received from the eliminated player to their own, the player has more than 5 cards, a draw is held: another player removes, without looking, the number of cards needed to bring the total to five.

Advanced Rules

These rules add the powers of the mythological figures and of the gods.

Setup

In this version you will use only Tables I and III. Therefore, place Table III on top of Table II (the trade table) on the board.

Special dice: these are the eight-sided dice, red and yellow. They are used for attack and defence respectively.

Each player will play with only 6 mythological figures, and all the warriors of the chosen colour. This is your army for the whole game. During the game, you are limited to this quantity of pieces. That is, if during the game a player has to place more pieces than the quantity available in their box, they place only those available there; they have no possibility of using the surplus.

Note that some territories have a temple or a mound. Separate the 12 cards of these territories and distribute them among the players. Each player must place two warriors on each of them.

Separate the two wild cards (remove them from the game) and distribute the rest among the players. Each player must place one warrior on each of their territories.

Each player receives one objective card, at random. Upon learning their objective, the player does not reveal it to their opponents.

The game begins with the player following the one who received the last territory card. The round proceeds clockwise.

First Round: Placing Armies Only

In this round no attacks are made.

The first player to act receives the number of warriors they are entitled to (half the number of territories) and must place them on their territories according to their objective. They also receive 2 devotion tokens.

The second player does the same and receives 3 devotion tokens.

The third and fourth players do the same and each receive 4 devotion tokens.

Second Round: Start of Battles

In the second round, each player, regardless of their position in the round order, receives, on their turn, the warriors and the devotion tokens (see the Devotion Tokens section). However, attacks are limited as follows:

[Transcriber's note: the clause stating the limit on attacks in the second round is cut off in the text layer and could not be recovered. It is not transcribed here; check it against the printed manual.]

This is a way of balancing the game at the start of matches.

From the third round onward, players are free to make as many attacks as they wish.

Mythological Figures

Each player has 6 mythological figures available to them. Each one is worth 3 warriors and is placed following the basic rules of War.

They must be placed directly from the box onto the board; that is, a player may not turn 3 warriors on the same territory into a mythological figure. The reverse may be done: a figure on the board may be "dismembered" (exchanged for 3 warriors from the box).

A player may choose to "dismember" a figure into 3 warriors at any time during their turn, between two attacks.

Mythological figures have the power to use the red special die for attack and the yellow special die for defence, in addition to the three normal dice.

For comparison of results, the three best are considered. That is, both to attack and to defend, if there is a mythological figure on the territory involved in combat, the player rolls 4 dice (three normal plus the special) and only the three best results are considered.

Note: In a combat involving two mythological figures (attack and defence), both players roll 4 dice each, but only the three best results of each are considered.

The power of a mythological figure applies to all warriors on the same territory. In other words, if a player has warriors and a mythological figure on a territory, when they lose a battle they may first discard the warriors. In this way they keep using 4 dice (three normal plus special) in the next battles.

In the reinforcement phase, mythological figures may move across two territories.

Special case: If there is only one mythological figure on the attacking territory, the player must dismember the figure to make an attack with 2 warriors (the third warrior will be the occupation army).

Gods and Devotion Tokens

There are 5 different gods, represented on the cards: Ares, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades and Athena.

To be invoked, each god requires a quantity of devotion tokens, indicated on the god's own card.

• Ares, Zeus and Poseidon are used during battles.
• Hades is used after battles.
• Athena is used at the moment of trading.

Devotion tokens serve to invoke the powers of the gods. They are gained by owning territories with a temple or a mound. At the start of their turn, each player must count how many territories with a temple or mound they own, and receive devotion tokens according to the table below:

Territories with temple or mound	Devotion tokens received
1 to 4	receives 4
More than 4	receives a quantity equal to the number of territories with a temple or mound they own
None	receives nothing

[Transcriber's note: the text layer of this table is garbled. The row "1 to 4" reads "recebe 4" in the OCR; it is transcribed as read, and should be checked against the printed table.]

Each player may accumulate a maximum of 8 tokens.

With the invocation of the gods, attacks have two moments: first the normal dice contest takes place. Then comes a god-invocation phase, started by the attacking player, which lasts until both players pass their turn. Eliminated warriors are removed from the board and returned to the box.

Each god may only be invoked once per attack, but a player may invoke more than one god to combine their powers. Example: In an attack across the sea, the same player may invoke Ares (to roll the special die, replacing their lowest result), then invoke Zeus (to re-roll their dice), and finally invoke Poseidon and force the opponent to re-roll their dice.

Powers of the Gods

Ares: In exchange for one devotion token, allows a player to roll a special die to replace their lowest result among the normal attack or defence dice.

Note: If the result of the special die is lower than the lowest of the normal attack or defence dice, the replacement must still be made.

Zeus: In exchange for one devotion token, allows a player to re-roll up to three of their dice.

Note: If Zeus is invoked in combination with Ares, the player may re-roll the special die.

Poseidon: In exchange for one devotion token, forces the opposing player to re-roll up to three dice. The player who invoked this god indicates which dice must be re-rolled.

Hades: In exchange for two devotion tokens, recovers up to 3 warriors killed in one or more attacks. A player may invoke this god right after a battle in which they have lost at least one warrior.

The lost warriors are placed on the Hades card (instead of going to the box). The power of Hades lasts until this player becomes the attacker again. While this power lasts, warriors that this player loses in other attacks or defences are also placed on the Hades card; the maximum is 3 warriors.

Note: Warriors that exceed the maximum of three go straight to the box. When this player attacks again, they must take the warriors on the Hades card and place them on any one of their territories.

Athena: In exchange for one or three devotion tokens, allows the "transformation" of the symbol of one territory card into another.

To transform 1 card, the player must spend 1 devotion token.

To transform 2 cards, the player must spend 3 devotion tokens.

Example: If the player has 1 card with the shield and 1 card with the sword, they use the power of Athena to "transform" the shield into a sword, and so will be able to make a trade according to Table III.

Conquering Cards and Trading (Advanced)

As in the basic rules, a player who conquers one or more territories during their turn is entitled to one territory card at the end of the turn (after making their movements).

The limit of cards a player may hold in hand remains 5.

Trading Cards

Card trading is carried out according to TABLE III, which replaces Table II on the board. Trades are made at the start of the player's turn, as follows. Only a set of cards with identical symbols may be used to make trades.

If the player has:

• 2 cards with identical symbols: trade for 4 warriors;
• 3 cards with identical symbols: trade for 7 warriors;
• 4 cards with identical symbols: trade for 11 warriors.

Note: No bonus armies are gained for owning the territory of a card used in the trade.

The player may also make the trade using the power of Athena.

Sacrificing Warriors for a Trade

When making a trade, the player may sacrifice warriors, returning them to the box, in exchange for devotion tokens. Each warrior sacrificed is worth 2 devotion tokens.