Warlords of Terra Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
• Layout of the Battlefield
• Card Types
  • 1. Troops
  • 2. Spells
    • Types
    • Subtypes
  • 3. Items
    • Weapons
    • Armor
    • Trinket
    • Non-Attached Items
  • 4. Location
• Game Setup
• Player's Turn
  • 1. Beginning of Turn Phase
  • 2. Guard Phase
  • 3. Resource Phase
  • 4. Building Phase
  • 5. Summon -and forge- Phase
  • 6. Tactics Phase
  • 7. End of Turn Phase
• Combat
• Combat Steps
• Closing Text
• Specific Skills Annex

Goal of the Game

In a game of "Warlords of Terra" players represent powerful warlords, leading forces of one of the four kingdoms. Each player starts the game with 20 health points, and loses the game if his or her health points reach 0.

Each player has a playmat depicting his half of the battlefield, which, when put next to the opponents half, forms a WoT battlefield like this one.

The battlefield forms 5×5 grid. The row closest to you is your summoning line. Whenever you summon your troops they are placed on one of the spots in your summoning line. Player's life total can be attacked when opposing troops reach his summoning line and have no enemy troops adjacent to them.

Layout of the Battlefield

Building area is where you build location cards that give you gold and mana, which you will need to play your other cards. You can have up to 5 active locations in your building area, if you want to build a sixth location, you will have to destroy (discard) one of your other active locations.

Armory is where you put items that are forged. Also if a troop equipped with item dies, the item goes back to armory.

Discard area is where every used or destroyed card goes.

Battle deck area is where you place main deck of cards. It MUST have exactly 40 cards.

Hero area is where you put your hero card.

Gold/mana indicators are used to track current amount of your gold/mana.

Battlefield area is where your troops move and fight. (The first row of each playmat, or summoning line, is also considered a part of the battlefield area).

Card Types

1. Troops

Troops make up the base of your army (deck). They will fight for you and assure your victory or defeat. Let's look at the troop card elements:

a) Name: the name of the troop card.

b) Kingdom: symbol and color represent the kingdom the troop is fighting for.

c) Rarity: shows how rare the card is. (IS THERE EVEN POINT TALKING ABOUT RARITY IN THIS PARTICULAR KICKSTARTER?)

d) Level/Cost: shows the level of the card (used in some rules) and the amount of mana/gold you need to invoke it. If the cost is in both resources, the level of the card equals to the sum of both costs.

e) Type/subtype: Types can be troop, spell (or battlecry), sudden spell, item and place.

• Subtypes are different kinds of cards of the same type. For example, the type troop contains such subtypes, as Knight, Soldier, Demon, etc. This can be important for various card synergies.

f) Abilties: This describes the skills that the card has, if it has any.

g) Attack (ATK): this represents the number of damage that troop deals to another troop or player.

h) Hit points (HP): the amount of damage the troop can take without dying. Whenever troop is dealt damage you remove as much hit points from the card.

i) Speed (SPD): this shows the amount of spaces the troop can move orthogonally. On the turn that it is summoned the speed of the troop is reduced by 1.

j) Illustrator: card artist's name.

k) Code: number of the card in a set.

2. Spells

Unlike troop cards that are placed on the battlefield to do fighting, spell cards are discarded after applying their effects. There are, however, two subtypes of spells that don't get discarded after they are played – Curses and Powers. These spells remain attached to a target troop until they (or the troop) are destroyed.

What you can see here is a "regular" spell card, this is indicated by the card text and the "Spell" icon (which looks like an open spellbook) in the lower right part of the card.

Regular spells can only be cast in your tactics phase. All spells have similar layout, but different icons to help you identify their spell type and subtype. In the example here you can see a spell card that is a "regular spell" and it has a "Curse" subtype. Let's look closer into spell types and subtypes.

Types

(Regular) Spell: these spells can only be cast in your tactics phase. After the card is played and all of its effects applied, it goes into discard area.

Sudden Spell: this type of spell can be cast

– At the beginning of building phase, invocation phase or tactics phase, as well as at the end of tactics phase, on any player's turn.

– In "response" to any other played card (which means its effect will apply before the card you responded to), or in combat, during the "sudden phase" of it, before combat damage is dealt.

Example:

Tenroth (player) casts the spell Power of Fire to deal 5 damage to Battle Priestess of Elysia. The priestess would die, but Elysia casts a Healing Shield (Sudden Spell) in response. Healing Shield gives "Absorb 2" to priestess, which means she will take 2 less damage from Power of Fire. Since a Sudden Spell was played in response, its effect is applied before the original spell, therefore priestess takes only 3 damage from Power of fire.

Sudden Spell can also be played in response to another Sudden Spell, thus initiating a Spell Chain. In the spell chain effects of spells are applied in reverse order, once the players finished adding them to the chain (effect of the last spell resolving first, then effects of the spell before it and so on).

Subtypes

Curse: Curse spell must be played on an enemy troop and it stays attached to that troop.

Power: This subtype works exactly like Curse, but it must be attached to your troop.

3. Items

Items are cards you can equip to your troops, but they are very different from curses or power spells: when the equipped troop dies, the item isn't destroyed automatically.

Items have durability, as you can see on the next image. When equipped troop uses an item in combat, it loses 1 durability point and item only gets destroyed if its durability reaches 0. So, if the troop dies and equipped item durability is above 0, then the item goes back to Armory, available to be equipped to another troop. Otherwise, if the troop remains alive but the durability of the item becomes 0, it is immediately destroyed and put into discard area. Most items are neutral, which means they can be used by any kingdom (deck). That's indicated by the "Neutral" symbol in the cost area of the card (upper right area). However, some objects have a symbol of a specific kingdom, so they can only be included in that kingdom's deck.

Notice that there is no cost over neutral icon in the image. That means the item doesn't need mana to be forged, only gold, which shows in the gold cost area (3). Same is true for every card in the game: the cost needed to play a card is shown in gold and/or mana. It's important to know that there are 3 kinds (subtypes) of items: Armor, Weapon and Trinket. A troop can only have ONE of each subtype at the same time equipped. Also, depending on the subtype, the durability is spent in a different way:

Weapons

Durability is spent when the equipped troop ATTACKS in combat any other troop or player. It doesn't matter if the damage is or isn't dealt, as the durability is considered spent at the time the troop hits, regardless of the damage being absorbed or dealt.

Armor

Anything that has "armor" in its subtype loses durability when it protects from any damage. It doesn't matter if it's in combat or not: if armor was able to absorb any amount damage of any kind, its durability goes down by 1.

Trinket

Trinkets don't have durability, so they aren't destroyed unless any effect says so.

Non-Attached Items

These items are put on the battlefield as if they were a troop card. However, they don't occupy a space, so any troop can move into the same space. These items usually have durability, which is consumed when they are hit, just like in a regular combat. The only difference is that durability isn't consumed as HP: when an item is hit, it loses 1 durability point. The ATK value of the attacking troop doesn't matter; the item will always lose 1 durability point (unless any card effect says otherwise).

4. Location

These are the cards that generate resources. Your banner adds 1 gold and mana for you in every Resources Phase, but this is not much. So, in order to accelerate your resource production, your building deck contains these locations which will generate more income.

Look at the picture. You can see in the cost of the card (as usual) the amount of resources you need to build it. But in the lower left corner you can see the amount of resources that a location card produces in each resource phase. As we mentioned earlier, location cards are built in a building area.

Now that you are familiar with different types of cards in the game – it's time to get to the fun part, which is playing these cards, so let's learn about turns and phases.

Game Setup

– First all players shuffle their decks (building and battle decks) separately and put them in their respective areas on the playmat.

– Decide who is going first by flipping a coin, rolling a die or whatever any other method you prefer.

– After that, each player draws 7 CARDS, (3 place cards and 4 battle cards).

– A player that goes first doesn't draw an additional card on his very first turn.

From there game proceeds in turns, which we'll describe next.

Player's Turn

Players will take turns, which consist of several phases.

1. Beginning of Turn Phase

In this phase, every effect which says "at the beginning of your/each turn" triggers. Nothing else happens. No player can cast any spell, or do anything else.

2. Guard Phase

When a card is exhausted (turned sideways), you can put it on guard in this phase, if no effect says otherwise. No cards can be played in this phase also.

Troops in your Summoning line (which is your last lane of defense) are considered to be On Guard, which means that their Threat Area is ALWAYS active, no matter if they are exhausted or not (unless an effect disables it somehow).

3. Resource Phase

It's time to get some resources! REMEMBER: you add 1 Gold and 1 Mana each turn automatically.

From there, you can build more locations to add more resources each turn, but not in this phase. In this phase you ONLY get your produced resources, and you cannot do anything else. During this phase you must decide if you want to redirect 1 Mana to your hero, which gives him 1 Power Point. This way, your hero may accumulate power points until you decide to spend them on one of their skills. After you have collected your produced resources (and decided if you want to redirect 1 Mana to your hero), you must draw 1 card. You may choose to draw from a battle or building deck, but choose wisely! There is one exception: the player who starts the game doesn't draw on their first turn!

4. Building Phase

Your next decision will be what to build, or you may decide not to build anything. You can build as many locations as your resources allow you, without any other limitation, but they won't add resources until your next Resource phase. This is the first phase when players can cast Sudden Spells, but only at the beginning of the phase (before any location is built). As always, you can respond to a Sudden spell with another one.

5. Summon -and forge- Phase

It's time to summon some troops! After paying their cost, you can place them on any (available) space in your summoning line. Your strategy on the battlefield starts there, so think hard about where you are going to place your troops. At the beginning of this phase, players can cast sudden spells.

6. Tactics Phase

In this phase, battle takes place. You can do following actions in any order you choose:

– Equip an item. To do this, the item must be in your armory. You can attach it to any troop (unit) and its effects are applied immediately.

– Cast a spell. We already learned how to do this in the "Spells" section.

– Activate a troop, which can also take different actions:

a) Move. A troop can move as many spaces as its SPD allows it to. Exception is when the troop is summoned (it's called "Preparation turn") – during that turn its SPD is reduced by 1.

b) Activate a skill/an ability. Some troops have different skills (also called abilities), which always have a cost. These skills may be activated, if not indicated otherwise, any time you could cast a Sudden spell. However, when a troop is in its preparation turn, you must choose between moving or activating a skill. If a troop moves any number of spaces on its preparation turn, you won't be able to activate any skills of that troop until your next turn. On any other turn, your troop will be able to move and activate skills as usual. Also, when your troop is attacking (your troop starts combat on your turn), you cannot activate or attack with this troop again (unless a special effect says otherwise). However, defending troops can activate their abilities, so be careful!

c) Attack. To attack, your troop must reach a Threat Area of an enemy troop, and then exhaust (turn sideways), declaring combat. Threat Area consists of the 4 adjacent spaces to a troop, like shown on the picture.

At the end of Tactics phase players may cast Sudden spells.

7. End of Turn Phase

This means that an active player ends his turn. This phase works similarly to a Beginning of turn phase, any effects that say "At the end of your/each turn" trigger in this phase. Players can't cast spells in the End of turn phase, so if there was a spell you wanted to cast, the last opportunity for you to do so is the end of Tactics phase.

Combat

Let's talk about combat now. To initiate combat your unit has to enter opposing unit's threat area and exhaust (turn sideways). However, there are a few things you should know about combat in Warlords of Terra: First – if a troop is trying to pass through opposing troop's threat area, then it stops when first entering threat area and immediately starts combat. You should remember about this rule when arranging your troops on the battlefield.

Second is that a turned troop has NO Threat Area, so that enemy troops can pass by its adjacent spaces without having to start combat. However, if the passing troop's owner wishes, he can choose to start combat anyway.

Combat Steps

After combat has been declared there are 2 phases:

1. Sudden phase. Any player may cast a Sudden Spell or activate a skill.

2. Combat damage phase. This is when the actual damage is dealt. Remove from damaged troop HP equal to the ATK value of the opposing troop. If HP of a troop drops to 0 it dies and goes to discard area.

Let's look at the picture for an example of combat between two troops. In this example Angel deals 4 damage to Berserker and Berserker deals 3 damage to Angel. As a result Berserker dies and Angel remains alive with 1 HP left. IMPORTANT: damage is not removed from troops at the end of turn. So in the example 1 damage on any consequent turn would kill the Angel, unless it got healed due to some other effect.

All combat damage is considered physical damage, unless any effect says otherwise. Actually, any effect causes physical damage, unless it specifically states otherwise. Spells usually deal magic damage, which should be indicated in spell effect description.

So, a troop with the skill Absorb 2, takes 2 less damage every time it becomes physically damaged, but it won't absorb any magic damage.

Troops in your Summoning line (which is your last lane of defense) are considered to be On Guard, which means that their Threat Area is ALWAYS active, no matter if they are exhausted or not (unless an effect disables it somehow).

Next, let's look at some tricky rule interactions:

– If a troop passes by the Threat Area of two or more different enemy troops, attacker decides which troop it will attack, but both of the enemy troops will attack back.

– If a troop disappears from combat (due to some effect) before combat damage phase (in sudden phase, for example), it skips combat altogether. If it's replaced after declaring combat but before combat damage, the replacing troop will combat instead.

– Enemy player CAN'T be hit if there are adjacent troops in enemy summoning line (unless your troop, for example, flies, but adjacent defenders do not).

– Whenever a troop starts its turn into an (active) enemy troop's Threat Area (if it's been summoned there or for any other reason), it has two choices: leave it before Tactics phase ends or enter combat.

Closing Text

This is it! Now you know most there is to know about cards and combat in Warlords of Terra and it's time to choose one of the kingdoms and jump onto the battlefield!

Specific Skills Annex

Not included in this source. The publisher's page reads: "SPECIFIC SKILLS ANNEX CORRECTIONS WILL BE ADDED TO FINAL VERSION". Hero and specific skill rules are therefore not transcribed here.