War For Chicken Island Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• How to Play
  • 1. Objective
  • 2. Turn Sequence
    • 2.1 Roll Dice
    • 2.2 Take Actions
    • 2.3 Draw a Card
• Action Types
  • 3.1 Build
  • 3.2 Move
  • 3.3 Retrieve
  • 3.4 Fight
• 4. Dice Results
  • 4.1 Resource
  • 4.2 Claw / Sword
  • 4.3 Star
  • 4.3 Permanent +1 Strength Bonus
  • 4.4 Temporary +2, +3 Strength Bonus
• 5. Card Types
  • 5.2 Magic
  • 5.3 Strategies
  • 5.1 Catastrophes
• Additional Rules
  • Shields
  • Ranged Attack
  • Banding
  • Epic Death
• Variants
  • Quickplay Rule
  • Hardcore Rule
  • Pelea de Gallos (2 – 4 Players)
  • Shared Dice Rule
  • Flag Mode (2 – 4 Players)
  • Teams Mode (4 Players)
• Glossary
• IX - FAQ
• House Rules

Components

Terrain Tiles

• A) 6 Territories (Each one has 4 hexes)
• B) 8 Lava/Neutral
• C) 4 Bases

Cards

• D) 9 Leaders
• E) 41 Machines
• F) 62 Scrolls
• G) 4 Reference

Miniatures

• H) 9 Leaders
• I) 9 Soldiers
• J) 6 Golems
• K) 6 Battle Cars
• L) 5 Cannons
• M) 6 Towers

Tokens/Markers

• N) 24 Chicken/Pilot
• O) 36 Resources
• P) 12 Humiliation tags
• Q) 8 Shields

Other

• R) 20 Dice
• S) 4 Player Banners

Color and shapes may vary.

Setup

1. Whoever is the most cowardly becomes the starting player.

If no player is willing to admit (or be nominated) for being the most cowardly, announce that the alternative is to determine the start player by having a fight to the death.

If you read this out loud, look around for the player who looks the most scared, this is the biggest coward and may be the first player!

Of course, you could appease the chickens and say the starting player is whoever has gone the longest without eating chicken, but where's the fun in that?

2. Each player chooses a Banner, matching Humiliation tags with the 6 Chicken/Pilot tokens of the proper color, and 5 dice.

Try placing the Lava/Neutral tiles next to tight spots on Territory tiles or next to Base tiles for easier access when the time comes to move or fight.

3. Players create the board:

a. Place a Lava/Neutral tile in the center of the board with the Lava side faceup.

b. The starting player takes one of the Territory tile and adds it to the map, touching at least one side of the Lava tile. Clockwise, the other players take turns around the table; each of them placing a Territory tile. If possible, Territory tile must be placed with at least one side touching the Lava tile (if any) and at least two sides touching other Territory tile.

c. The starting player places one Base tile adjacent to a single Territory tile which does not currently has a Base tile adjacent to it. It must be placed with at least two sides touching a single Territory tile and without adjacent sides to another Territory tile. The other players each do this in a clockwise direction around the table.

d. The starting player places one of the Lava/Neutral tiles with at least 2 sides adjacent to a Territory tile and/or its Base tile. Place the tile with the Neutral side faceup. The other players each do the same in a clockwise direction around the table for a different Territory tile.

e. The player to the right of the starting player (the one to place last during setup) chooses any unoccupied Base tile to claim along with the adjacent Territory tile. The player places the 6 Chicken/Pilot tokens on top of the chosen Base tile in a stack. The other players each do this in a counter-clockwise direction around the table until all bases are claimed.

f. If there are any spaces that are left open and completely surrounded by other tiles, place Lava tiles in those spaces.

4. Deal 2 Leader cards to each player and return the remaining cards to the box. Each player selects one of these cards to be their leader and puts it on the table faceup. The other card is kept facedown next to it in case the chosen leader dies in an Epic death. Players take the Leader miniature representing their leader and place it on top of their stack of Chicken/Pilot tokens.

5. Form a pool of 3 Resource tokens of each type (wood, stone, and steel) per player and place the rest inside of the box. Shuffle them and randomly give each player 9 Resource tokens which they must place on their banner.

6. Place the rest of the miniatures and Shield markers on the table accessible to all players' reach.

7. Shuffle the Scroll cards; each player draws 3 cards and places them in their hand. If any player gets a Catastrophe, that player draws another card and discards the Catastrophe. Do this until all players have 3 Scroll cards and without any Catastrophe. Shuffle any discarded Catastrophe back with the rest of the Scroll cards and place them on the table to form the Scroll deck.

8. Shuffle the Machine cards and deal the top 6 faceup to form the Machine stock. Place the rest facedown in a pile to form the Machine deck.

9. Each player rolls their dice and places them on top of their Banner.

Chicken Island's small extension holds such chaos and turmoil that the very island itself changes! Constant volcanic eruptions and other catastrophes on this ever-changing tiny portion of terrain is what caused the chickens to go into a continuous, tight and jammed war.

How to Play

1. Objective

Players command their chicken army in an attempt to battle and humiliate the other chicken leaders. When a player successfully humiliates another chicken leader in combat, they get to place a Humiliation tag on that player's Banner. If you are playing with 3 or more players, a player immediately wins the game when there are 2 Humiliation tags in 2 different opposing Banners. In a 2-player game, a player wins by placing 2 Humiliation tags on the single opponent's Banner.

2. Turn Sequence

Beginning with the starting player, each player takes a turn. When a turn is complete, play proceeds to the next player in clockwise direction until the game ends. Each player's turn has the following steps which must be performed in order.

2.1 Roll Dice

In this step, you will get a chance to make a single roll for any amount of dice you choose; you can take any dice from those on your Banner and any other Spent dice from previous turns. You must choose the dice to reroll before seeing the new results. After rolling the dice, place them on your Banner. See section 4. Dice results.

A cunning leader can sometimes save dice results for a future turn, but that means giving up valuable actions or bonuses. Don't be so cunning that you become lazy!

2.2 Take Actions

In this step, you get 1 free action, which can be any of the following:

Build • Move • Retrieve • Fight

In addition, you can spend dice from your Banner during this step to perform additional actions. See section 3. Action types.

2.3 Draw a Card

The final step is to draw a card from the Scroll deck. If you draw a Catastrophe, you must play it immediately and shuffle it back into the Scroll deck after the effects are applied. See section 5. Card types for more information.

Action Types

This section goes into detail about the different actions players can take on their turn, either as free actions or the result of spending dice.

3.1 Build

This action enables you to build one of the available Machine cards in the Machine stock and place it on a free hex of your Territory Tile, provided you can pay the resources to do so.

Each Machine card has the following values.

Each player has a different color of chickens and each army can't have more than 6 of them.

a) Name: The name of the machine. b) Speed: How many hexes the machine moves with a single movement action. c) Strength: The machine's raw stat to match or exceed the defender's armor. d) Pilots: The number of Chicken Tokens needed to pilot the machine, represented by the amount of chicken icons. e) Resource Cost: The amount and type of Resource Tokens that must be returned to the common supply to build the machine. f) Armor: How much strength is necessary to destroy the machine. g) Abilities: Any special abilities the machine has.

In order to build a machine, you must have an available hex on the Territory tile connected to your base. The exception to this is if the Machine you are trying to build has banding and all of the units currently on the target hex also have banding. See Banding for more information. In addition, you must have the required resources to pay the cost and enough available chickens to be pilots.

Chickens are known for truly being ruthless when dealing with their foes. They coined the phrase "a plucked chicken is worth two in the pot." And that's why it's wise to be cautious around chickens with particularly large pillows.

Finally, machines are limited based on the availability of miniatures. If no miniature for the machine is currently available, the machine cannot be built at this time – try destroying an opponent's machine with the same name.

Provided you can build the machine, you must do the following to build it.

Given that the island is so small, chickens and their machines usually must pile one on top of the other to go wherever their leader commands; the chicken at the very bottom may not have the highest honor, or the best view… it is quite unfortunate.

1. Pay the cost by removing Resource tokens from your Banner and returning them to the supply.
2. Take the required amount of Chickens tokens and flip them to the Pilot side in the space where you are building the machine.
3. Place the miniature for the machine on top of the pile of Pilot tokens. These chickens are now piloting the machine and are not acting independently. If the machine is destroyed, they are destroyed as well. The same is true for moving. Use the machine's Strength and Armor stats for attacking or defending.
4. Take the Machine card and place it in front of you, next to your Banner. At this point, immediately refill the Machine stock. There should always be 6 Machine cards available to build. If there are no more Machine cards, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck and then refill the Machine stock.

You can save a couple of Move actions if you build directly in a Hex from your Territory tile where you would like your Machine to move.

3.2 Move

When a unit or leader takes a move action, they move a number of hexes up to their speed. It is not required that a unit or leader uses all of its movement. Keep in mind that banded units may move at different speeds and you may choose to use the highest one. See Banding for more information.

Your units and leaders can pass through hexes containing your own units when you use multiple move actions, but cannot stop there unless all units and leaders have banding. No unit or leader can enter a lava tile or a tile containing any opponent's units or leaders, unless another card or ability indicates so.

Sheena wants to move two spots to attack Mike's leader. However, she cannot currently do so. The right path is blocked by a lava tile. Even though the unit has a speed of two, it can't enter the lava tile. It also cannot use the path to the left, because that path is blocked by Mike's chicken. In order to reach Mike's leader, Sheena will need to first destroy the chicken and then move two hexes.

There have been rumors of chickens working together, usually to overthrow one of the other leaders who has gotten too powerful. Luckily, these alliances rarely last as the chicken leaders inevitably feel the need to be top cluck before long.

3.3 Retrieve

You can recover any one of your destroyed chickens and place it at your Base tile.

Or

You can recover any one resource from the common supply and place it on your Banner. If this would cause you to have more than 9 resources, discard any of them until you have 9 on your Banner.

3.4 Fight

When a fight is declared, perform the following steps in order.

1. The attacker declares which unit or leader is attacking and which unit or leader is defending. All fights are between a single attacker and a single defender.
2. The attacker spends any dice on their Banner for strength bonus and places them on the attacker's card or token.
3. The attacker plays any number of Scroll cards facedown on the table to use in the fight.
4. Going clockwise around the table, players place any number of cards facedown on the table to use in the fight. This includes players who are not directly attacking or being attacked! This continues until all players are done playing cards.
5. Starting with the defender, players reveal their cards and apply their effects. Players not involved directly in the fight can choose to support either side.
6. Compare the attacker's strength to the defender's armor. If the attacker's strength is equal to or greater than the defender's armor, the attack succeeds. Otherwise the attack fails.
7. Discard any magic cards used in the fight. Strategy cards remain in play.

One would think that with all of the destruction, the island would eventually no longer be populated. And yet, somehow, chickens continue to exist, as if being created out of thin air.

Sheena decides that she is going to attack Mike's leader, trying to give Mike one of her Humiliation marks. She has one of her machines adjacent to Mike's leader and it doesn't have a shield.

She declares her attack and spends both +2 dice to add 4 to her strength. Not confident that this will be enough, she plays a single Scroll card facedown.

Play then proceeds to Mike, and he opts not to play any cards.

Play continues around the table to Jeff, and he plays two cards facedown. He doesn't say who he is helping, making Sheena doubt her ability to succeed.

When play comes back to her, she adds another card to her pile. Mike has another option to play cards.

...but continues to pass, as does Jeff. Now that all players have played their cards, it is time for the reveal.

Mike goes first, but they don't have any cards to reveal. Play continues to Jeff and he reveals his cards, showing that he is adding to Mike's armor. He didn't want Sheena to give out a Humiliation tag and get one step closer to winning.

Finally Sheena reveals her cards, one of which is a Strategy card, which will remain in play after the combat.

Totaling up the values, Sheena's strength is 15 and Mike's armor is 15. Sheena's attack was a success! She hands a Humiliation tag to Mike and he places it on his banner.

All the magic cards played during that combat are discarded, and play continues.

4. Dice Results

The dice available to you are the ones currently on your Banner; these represent your leader's orders. Once you use a die on the Take actions step of your turn, remove it from your Banner by placing it to the side. Dice outside of your Banner are considered spent. Spent dice will be rolled during the Roll dice step of your next turn, but for now they are no longer available. What players can use a die for depends on the currently visible face.

Dice can only be spent during a player's Take actions step, unless a card or ability indicates otherwise.

4.1 Resource

Spend this die to take the retrieve action twice and recover two resources from the common supply, two of your destroyed chickens, or one of each. The Resource tokens are placed on your Banner while the Chicken tokens are placed at your Base tile.

4.2 Claw / Sword

Spend this die to take an additional Move action or an additional Fight action, either one or the other, but not both actions.

4.3 Star

Several cards have special effects listed on them with a number of star icons at the beginning of the ability. In order to use those abilities, the controlling player must spend the indicated number of stars. The player can pay for this ability multiple times in order to use it multiple times in a turn, providing the player has enough dice with star results to spend. If an ability does not have any star icons in front of it, it is free to use and is always available. These abilities can be used at any time during any player's turn unless the ability indicates a specific time to activate.

This may be our saving grace. Even though the chickens are ruthless, strategic, and powerful, they are often forgetful. Some days they just wander around the fields, acting as if they forgot how to do anything beyond exist. But always remember that behind that vacant stare exists a brutal killing machine…once they remember how.

Stars can also be spent to use the following abilities. These abilities must be performed during a player's Take actions step and outside of a Fight.

• ★ Shuffle the current Machine stock into the deck and reveal 6 new cards.
• ★ Draw a Scroll, then discard a Scroll.
• ★★ Draw a Scroll.
• ★★★ Draw a Scroll, recover all your destroyed chickens, and retrieve resources until you have 9.
• ★★★★ Place a shield on a unit or leader.
• ★★★★★ Remove an opponent's Humiliation tag on your Banner.

4.3 Permanent +1 Strength Bonus

Place this die on a unit or leader. It remains on that card or token until the unit or leader is destroyed and adds 1 point to its strength. You may opt to remove this die during your Roll dice step if you choose to do so.

4.4 Temporary +2, +3 Strength Bonus

Spend this die to grant a single bonus of either +2 or +3 strength to a unit or leader during a single

One of the most famous chicken leaders of all time was Chicken Caesar. When he was given a mark of humiliation, he marched back to the offending chicken leader and convinced his opponent to take the mark back. No other chicken has managed to complete that feat to this day, which is why we honor him by naming a salad in his honor.

5. Card Types

There are three distinct types of Scroll cards: magic, strategies, and catastrophes.

5.2 Magic

Magic cards can only be played during a combat, unless the text says otherwise. They are usually single-use effects to help boost a chicken's effectiveness in combat. The card will indicate the effect. Remember, all players can play cards during a fight.

Chickens and their contraptions are not the only thing to be scared of on the island. At least the violent reconstruction of the island can be beautiful to watch. Just usually from a distance. A very great distance.

5.3 Strategies

Strategies indicate how a player's army will behave and work during the game. These are not single-use cards, but rather cards that have a persistent effect as long as they are in play. Players place strategies on the table to indicate their army is currently using that strategy. Only one strategy can be active at a time. If a player wants to activate a second strategy, they must discard the current one first.

Strategies can be played during a fight or during the Take actions step of its controller's turn.

5.1 Catastrophes

When a player draws a catastrophe card, they must reveal it and perform its effects immediately. Once they have finished, the catastrophe card is shuffled back into the Scroll deck. If a player manages to draw more than a single catastrophe card at a time, they choose the order in which to resolve the catastrophe cards.

• Earthquake: The player flips all Lava/Neutral tiles to the other side. Then, the player may move any chicken 1 Hex.
• Eruption: The player chooses a single Lava tile (if there are none, choose a Neutral tile and flip it). All chickens and machines adjacent to that tile are destroyed.
• Hurricane: The player returns two resources from an opponent's banner to the common supply. Then, the player may move any chicken 1 Hex.
• Tsunami: The player flips all lava tiles to their Neutral side. If there are no Lava tiles, the player chooses a Neutral tile. Destroy any chicken or machine in the border of the island.

How did the chicken cross the road? As a group of four-pronged feet marching in step, terrible to behold.

Additional Rules

Shields

Shields protect a unit or a leader from being destroyed. If a unit or leader with a shield loses a fight or is hit with an Eruption catastrophe, the unit or leader stays on the board and the shield token is returned to the supply. This also protects a leader from gaining a Humiliation token but the shield is lost.

Ranged Attack

Ranged attack follows all of the same rules and steps as described under Fight, but the attacker can attack from two hexes away (or more if a card says so). The ranged attacker can ignore the terrain or any units between themselves and the defender.

Banding

Any units or leaders with the banding keyword may be stacked together on the same hex. With chickens, this is easily accomplished by stacking the tiles on top of each other. With machines, it is not possible to stack miniatures; stack the machine cards in a pile and use a single miniature to represent the stack. Place the other miniatures on the stack of cards.

When a banded stack moves, they all move together. Use the speed of the fastest unit or leader in the stack. When a banded stack attacks or is attacked, the attacker chooses which specific unit or leader is attacking or being attacked.

Under normal circumstances, a leader won't be killed. However, there are a few cases where the leader may suffer an epic death.

Epic Death

When a leader is on neutral ground and it turns to lava, the leader loses all shields and is placed on an adjacent legal hex. If there is no legal hex adjacent to the leader's current location, the leader suffers an epic death. A leader can also suffer an epic death if a single other player successfully attacks them twice in one turn and they don't have a shield for either of those attacks.

If your leader suffers an epic death, flip your leader card facedown and return the miniature to the box. Reveal the remaining leader (the one not chosen and placed facedown during Setup) and place the new leader on your Base tile. If your base is currently occupied, place the new leader on the closest available space on your Territory tile. If that is not possible, you must wait until the start of your turn and then must place the leader on a legal hex if possible or until it is possible in future turns.

For some chicken leaders, simple war is not enough. They needed new ways to show their superiority and provide new means of entertainment. Their cunning minds devised alternatives to all out combat.

Variants

Quickplay Rule

Every turn, after Roll Dice step and before the Take Actions step, the active player enters into the Build step and may take the build action once. Usual rules and conditions to build machines still apply. Build can no longer be taken as a free action during the Take Actions step but players still have 1 free action for Move, Retrieve or Fight.

2-Player optional rule

Players may choose to use the Base tiles with the bonus side face up: Units and Leaders standing on Base tiles get +2 armor bonus while defending.

Hardcore Rule

After setup, place a shield marker on each leader. Recommended for experienced skirmish players looking for a more challenging game.

WARNING: Game may last longer.

Pelea de Gallos (2 – 4 Players)

Remove the machine cards and all resources from the game. In this alternative, players only use chickens and leaders. Chickens are placed facedown on the island and are only revealed when they attack or are defending. Once they are revealed, they remain faceup. In order to play this mode, whenever a player draws a Scroll card making reference to units or resources, the card must be discarded and the player keeps drawing until they draw a legal Scroll card.

Shared Dice Rule

During any Fight, while players who are not attacking or being attacked get the chance to play Scroll cards, they can also choose to place their +1, +2, or +3 Strength bonus dice from their Banner onto the attacker.

Flag Mode (2 – 4 Players)

This mode is played without leaders. During Setup, each player places one Humiliation tag on one of their chickens in their base. When a unit is destroyed in normal combat, the attacker takes the Humiliation tag of the defender. If the defender is killed by an environmental effect or a ranged attack, the flag is left in the area the defender was in. If a unit enters a space with an unclaimed Humiliation tag, they take the tag. The first player to move any opponent's Humiliation tag to their base wins the game.

Teams Mode (4 Players)

The game is made up of 2 teams with 2 players each. Players need to sit opposite from their teammate so that turns alternate from one team to the next. In order to win, the winning team needs to tag both players of the opposing team. It does not matter which Humiliation tag is applied to which player.

Glossary

• Armor: How much strength is necessary to destroy the machine.
• Attacker:
• Base: The home base for a player. It grants +2 defense to any unit or leader on this space. Machines cannot be built on this tile.
• Banding: Units with banding may be placed on top of one another to form and move as a single stack.
• Banner: a long strip of fabric with the icon that represents your leader.
• Battle Car:
• Cannon: weapon
• Catastrophe: damage by climate change
• Chicken: deadly bird
• Cost:
• Defender:
• Dice:
• Epic Death:
• Golem:
• Hex:
• Humiliation Tag:
• Lava: A dangerous type of terrain no units and leaders can enter.
• Leader: chicken
• Machine:
• Magic:
• Neutral: A tile that belongs to no one.
• Pilot: The number of Chicken Tokens needed to pilot the machine, represented by the amount of chicken icons.
• Range: Indicates a unit or leader can attack a hex up to two spaces away, ignoring terrain or any intervening units.
• Resource:
• Scroll:
• Shield: A protective trait. If a unit or leader with shield is defeated or otherwise destroyed, the shield is removed and no other effect is applied.
• Soldier:
• Speed:
• Spent dice:
• Strategy:
• Strength:
• Stock:
• Supply:
• Terrain tile:
• Tower:
• Unit: A chicken or a machine built from the Machine stock. Chicken leaders are specifically not considered units.

IX - FAQ

Q: Can I use the additional action provided by a tower on the turn that I build it? A: Yes.

Q: What happens if there are no shield markers available?

House Rules

Add any rule you want here.