Warzoo
Warzoo Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Summary
Warzoo is played in Battles, the first player to win three Battles is the big winner!
In each Battle, the player shall choose five cards, between the ten he or she has in hand, to face the opponent. A Battle is made of five Challenges and the player who wins the most Challenges is considered the winner of that Battle.
Components
- 1 Rulebook
- 35 tokens, being: 1 Initiative token; 1 Hierarchy token and 1 Tiebreaker token; 5 "Victory Mill" tokens; 1 Load token; 12 Strength tokens; 14 Ammo tokens
- 7 tiles, being: 2 Silo tiles; 5 Scenario tiles, front and back (for the Scenario variant)
- 54 cards, being: 19 cards from the Platipi Alliance deck; 19 cards from the Swine Axis deck; 12 neutral cards; 2 Saboteur cards; 2 Player Aid cards
Anatomy of a unit card: 1. Strength; 2. Name; 3. Load; 4. Type; 5. Faction; 6. Weapon cost; 7. Weapon/Skill description.
Rules - Basic Game
Setup
- Set the Battlefield arranging the 5 Scenario tiles in a horizontal line, side by side, forming the lanes where the Challenges will happen. Choose one of the ends to place the 'Mill' Scenario (with the Mill depicted), the remaining must be positioned at random. All Scenarios must be positioned with the rule side down. Ignore Scenario rules unless you are playing the Scenario variant (see page 13).
- Give each player a 19 card deck, and add 6 neutral cards to each of them. In the Alliance deck add 2 copies of each: Hanzo (3 Strength), Duck Bravo (7 Strength) and Shinobi (9 Strength). In the Axis deck add 2 copies of each: Joe Dredd (4 Strength) Ramphant (8 Strength) and Cobra (9 Strength). Ignore Skills and Weapons of the characters if you're not playing the Advanced Mode (see page 9).
- Give each player a Silo tile. Set aside 10 points in Ammo tokens and place them on top of the tile.
- Each player shuffles his or hers own deck and draw 10 cards.
Note: If you are acquainted with card games, we recommend using the Scenario variant for your first game (see page 13)!
Battle
A Battle is made of five Challenges and is played in three steps: Recruiting, Resolution and Replenishment. Following, we will explain each step in detail.
Recruiting
Players select, simultaneously, five cards from their hands and position each of them with the face down in each of the five lanes (see page 5).
Remember: Ignore text when choosing the units, it will be used in Advanced Mode only!
Recruiting Restrictions
A Warzoo Army is made of 12 units and an Avatar (unit with the infinity symbol). During Recruiting step, you recruit the units to take part in the Challenges. However, a unit can NEVER fight twice in a Battle. Hence, if you reveal a unit with the same NAME of other unit in that same Battle, the second unit will not count towards the resolution of the Challenge and will lose automatically. It's not necessary to pay for Load or Hierarchy for this unit.
Example: Daniel recruits Pigpoleon for the Challenge (10 Strength). In the same Battle, he tries to recruit Pigpoleon for another Challenge, however, as it was already revealed, the second Pigpoleon is considered automatically beaten.
Challenge Resolution
After Recruiting step, the players must resolve the Challenges starting by the Mill lane, going through the adjacent lane and so on. Before determining the winner, players must verify the additional costs of Load and Hierarchy.
-
Load: Load, in the basic game, is a cost linked to the units of Strength 10, 11, 12 and Infinity (infinity symbol) and is located in the upper left corner of the card (seen in the card as a golden bullet); this is the cost in Ammo that must be paid in order to use that unit in Battle. As soon as the unit is revealed, the player revealing it must pay the Load cost to use it in combat. If the player can't afford paying the Ammo cost, the unit loses the Challenge automatically.
-
Hierarchy: From the second round on, everytime a card with Strength greater than the card just below it (in the same lane) is played, the player is breaking the Hierarchy Law. The player must pay 2 Ammo points for each unit breaking the Hierarchy Law. During the resolution of the first Battle, the concept of Hierarchy is not used, since there are no cards to overlap in the lanes yet. If the player can't afford to pay the Ammo cost of Hierarchy, the unit loses the Challenge automatically.
Exception: The "Avatar" type unit (the one with the infinity symbol) doesn't need to pay for Hierarchy. The very next unit in that same lane also doesn't.
- Strength Comparison: the last step of the Challenge is the Strength Comparison. The side with the higher value is considered the winner and the players rotate (90 degrees) the Scenario tile in order to represent "Victory" and "Defeat" in that Challenge.
Exception: "Golias Effect". Cards with Strength 1, 2 and 3 beat cards with Strength 10 or greater.
Example: In round 1, a card with 1 Strength (David) was played in lane 1. In round 2, the player plays a unit with 10 Strength (Darthrinco), paying 2 Ammo points due to the Hierarchy Law (as well as 1 Ammo point for Load). If a 1 Strength unit was played instead, no Ammo would need to be paid due to Hierarchy. In this Challenge, Darthrinco and Pigpoleon are tied, with 10 Strength. Therefore, the Scenario tile does not rotate.
When resolving Challenges, always check for duplicate units and Load/Hierarchy costs.
Replenishment and Scoring
After the 5 Challenges are resolved, the player with the most wins receives a Victory Mill token. In case of a tie, the winner of the Mill lane wins the Battle. If the tie remains, break it using the lane adjacent to the Mill lane, and so on.
Each player draws cards until there are 10 cards in hand, and gains 2 Ammo points (maximum of 10 Ammo points). A new Battle begins!
If this is the 5th Battle played, there is no cards or Ammo replacement, as the game ended.
Remember: After each Battle, the cards remain where they are! They are not discarded. In the next Battle, you will place unit cards on top of the previous card, in each lane.
End Game
The first player to get 3 Victory Mill tokens wins the game and is elected Farmer of the Year!
Rules - Advanced Mode
Warzoo has three game modes. The Advanced Mode rules are described in this section. Being familiarized with the Base Game before playing the Advanced Mode is recommended.
Setup
- Set the Battlefield arranging the 5 Scenario tiles in a horizontal line, side by side, forming the lanes where the Challenges will happen. Choose one of the ends to place the 'Mill' Scenario (with the Mill depicted), the remaining must be positioned at random.
- Give each player a 25 card army deck.
- Give each player a Silo tile. Set aside 10 points in Ammo tokens and place them on top of the tile.
- Each player shuffles his or hers own deck and draw 10 cards.
- Each player places his Saboteur card side by side with the Silo tile (don't forget it DURING the game!).
- The player who last read "Animal Farm" starts with the Initiative token. He or she places the token with his or hers faction side up.
Leadership and Battle
In Warzoo's Advanced Mode, each round is made of two phases: Leadership phase and Battle Phase.
Leadership Phase
In Leadership Phase, both players resolve only ONE Challenge, in its entirety. Each player must select ONE unit from hand and place it, face side down, in the Battlefield, in the Mill tile.
After both players recruit their units, proceed to the Challenge's resolution normally (see pages 5, 6 and 7), respecting characters' Skills and Weapons.
Skills and Weapons
Advanced Mode includes characters' Skills and Weapons, absent from other game modes. The Skills differ from the Weapons in that they don't have an Ammo cost (bullet symbol).
If both units recruited to the Challenge have Skills, resolve first the Skill of the unit belonging to the player with the Initiative.
Priority: Priority only occurs when the units recruited by both players have Weapons. In this case, the player with the Initiative announces the order of Weapon usage. He or she decides who uses their unit's Weapon first.
The player chosen to go first chooses if he or she wants to use the weapon or not. In affirmative case, the player reduces the amount of Ammo necessary to use the Weapon from his or hers own Silo and activate the Weapon instantly.
The other player, then, chooses whether or not to use the Weapon. In affirmative case, the player reduces the amount of Ammo necessary to use the Weapon from his or hers own Silo and activate the Weapon instantly.
The winner of the Challenge is decided normally through Strength Comparison (see page 7). The loser of the Challenge gets the Initiative token.
Leadership Phase Example (first Challenge): Mark read "Animal Farm" last week just to gain Initiative in the first Challenge. Daniel never read the book and is left to the loss of the Initiative. Both players draw 10 cards and elect a unit for leader. Mark reveals Rocket Joe (12 Strength, 2 Load), as Daniel reveals Vault (5 Strength). According to Challenge's resolution order, Mark reduces the Ammo by 2 in order to pay for Load. As Vault has a Skill, it resolves before Priority and Daniel receives +3 extra Ammo to be used in the next Challenge. As there are no Weapons, both players skip Priority and proceed to resolution of the Challenge. Golias Effect is not applied, as the card chosen by Daniel doesn't have Strength 1, 2 or 3. This way, as 12 is greater than 5, Mark wins the Challenge. Daniel, by being defeated, receives the Initiative token.
Battle Phase
After the Leadership phase is resolved, proceed to the Battle phase, which is composed of two steps.
Step 1 - Recruiting. In this step, players select, simultaneously, four cards from hand and place them with the face side down in each of the four remaining lanes. The player with the Initiative token always chooses the Scenario where the next Challenge is going to be resolved.
Challenges are resolved normally, respecting Recruiting Restrictions (see page 3) and also Skills and Weapons.
Step 2 - Replenishment. After the 5 challenges being resolved, the player with the most wins receives a Victory Mill token. In case of a tie, the winner of the Leadership phase wins the Battle. If the tie remains, the winner of the lane adjacent to the Leadership phase lane is the winner of the Battle, and so on.
Each player draws cards until there are 10 cards in hand, and gains 2 Ammo points (maximum of 10 Ammo points). A new Battle begins!
If this is the 5th Battle played, there is no cards or Ammo replacement, as the game ended.
Saboteur
The Saboteur is a special card that stays next to the player's Silo and can be used only once in the entire game.
One of the Saboteur's Skill is to cancel an opponent's Weapon. The obstruction of a Weapon's use must be announced immediately after the use of the Weapon. The Ammo used is not regained and the Weapon's effect is cancelled.
The other Saboteurs' Skills can be used at any time BEFORE a Challenge starts.
End Game
The first player to get 3 Victory Mill tokens wins the game and is elected Farmer of the Year!
Battle Phase Example (second through fifth Challenge): After Daniel's loss in the Leadership, both players place four other cards face side down in the four remaining lanes. Daniel (Initiative) chooses to reveal the second lane, adjacent to the leader's lane. Daniel reveals Boxer Gauss (2 Strength) as Mark reveals Darthrinco (10 Strength, 1 Load). Mark pays the Load cost and verifies the Priority for resolving Skills and Weapons. Daniel has the Initiative, and passes Priority to Mark. Mark opts not to use the Weapon. Then, Daniel uses Boxer Gauss' Weapon to reduce Vault's Strength from 5 to 2. Immediately, he changes the result from the other Challenge. Vault, with 2 Strength, boasts from the Golias Effect and beats Joe Bomb. After the resolution of the Skills and Weapons, Daniel, again, boasts from the Golias Effect and Boxer Gauss beats Darthrinco. So far, it's two victories for Daniel. Mark, defeated in this Challenge, receives the Initiative token and will choose which Challenge will be the next to be revealed and resolved.
Rules - Children's Mode
Warzoo's Children's Mode is a version designed for a simpler and lighter first contact with the game.
The main simplification from the Basic Game is that there are no Load or Hierarchy costs and, therefore, no Silos or Ammo. During setup, leave these components in the game box. During all Battles, players continue to use 5 cards from their hand and drawing back up to 10 cards during Replenishment step. However, after resolving the 5 challenges in a Battle and the points (Victory Mill), all cards placed in the Challenges are discarded.
Variant - Using the Scenarios
All scenarios cards has its own rules. These are divided into two modules: Hierarchy and Special Rules. You can use one or both scenario modules when play. We do not recommend using the scenarios in the first matches of the Advanced mode, you can add a lot of complexity and increase the duration of the game.
For the Basic Set, however, we believe the scenario is a great addition and we strongly recommend that you use as soon as the rules are fixed.
-
Hierarchy in the 1st Battle: Scenario's cards have a number in brackets. To give a little more control to the first battle, you can consider the number in brackets as the Hierarchy. If you put a unit with a higher value than indicated on the card, you must pay a couple of ammunition. The Scenario Hierarchy is only valid in the first battle. In the remaining, follow the Hierarchy Law normally.
-
Special Rules for columns: A Scenario modifies the rules in columns. Simply follow the new rule in column during the challenge, as in the following examples: Major pays a couple of ammunition since it has Strength 11 and the scenario's card number is 9. Darthrinco ignores the Hierarchy as indicated in the Hen House Scenario.
Refueling
When using the special rules for column during the refueling phase, move all scenario cards one place to the right, as shown in the images in the manual (a game situation before the refueling phase, and after the refueling phase, already starting the next battle).
Deck Building
In Warzoo there are two major opposing forces: The Alliance and the Axis led respectively by Davi and Napoleon. A third and smaller group of animals not sworn allegiance to neither faction and are known as Neutrals. Adding further expansions of Warzoo to your Base Game you can assemble your own personal army of 25 cards + 1 Saboteur. To assemble your deck you should observe the following rules:
- A card from the Alliance (including Saboteurs) may not be used on a deck that contains Axis's cards and vice versa.
- A deck cannot have more than 6 Neutral's cards.
- A deck must follow the correct numeration, must possess two cards of each number (1 to 12) and one avatar, totalizing 25 cards.
- The two cards of the same number need not be equal.
Rules for 3 and 4 Players
For 3 and 4 players, Warzoo should be played in Advanced Mode. It is recommended to play some matches with two players before testing variants for more players. In 3 players matches, a player will play alone against a double. In 4 players matches, players are divided into pairs. The following changes are made:
- Each double's player starts the match with 5 cards in hand, and during the refueling phase, restores his hand to 5 cards. In 3 players matches, the player who is playing against the duo also plays with two hands, which are controlled and played separately.
- Leadership is toggled. One player will choose the Unit in Leadership Phase in the first battle and in the next battle the other double's player will necessarily be the leader.
- In the Recruitment Phase, the leader puts ONE card in one of the columns. Then, the other double's player puts the three others.
- The Ammunition is shared between the two players.
- In the first few matches, we recommend that both players look at their hands and talk about cards positioning. When both are experienced, it is advised to play without talking, just looking at the cards that were placed by another player. If so, who put the card is who decides whether it is enabled or not.
Variant - 3 Players
First player's hand (5 cards) and second player's hand (5 cards) fill the lanes as: Player 1, Player 2, Player 2, Player 2, Player 1. Unlike the Basic Game set, the third player controls two hands of five cards each (5 cards on each side).
Variant - 4 Players
First player's hand (5 cards) and second player's hand (5 cards) fill the lanes as: Player 1, Player 2, Player 2, Player 2, Player 1. The third player's hand (5 cards) and the fourth player's hand (5 cards) sit on the other side.
Glossary
- Adjacent: The adjacency is based on columns. Unit in column 2 is considered adjacent to the four units of columns 1 and 3. Unit in column 5 is only considered adjacent to the units in column 4. (Magnopig is adjacent to the four marked units.)
- Ally: A ally unit is any unit that composes your own army.
- Weapon: Any unit which text has the ammunition symbol is armed. The weapon should be used respecting the Initiative order.
- Avatar: The Avatar is a kind of unit with infinite strength. The Avatar does not pay hierarchy. The unit immediately after it does not pay hierarchy. Avatar is not affected by the effect Goliath. One Avatar against the other Avatar causes a draw and explodes half of the farm. The explosion of the farm has no practical effect on the game. Every Avatar has the infinite Strength symbol.
- Load: Load is a mandatory fee that appears on some units of the game. Cost appears in the upper left corner of the card and must be paid during the resolution phase of the challenge. If the player fails to pay the cost of load completely, it does not spend Ammunition and the unit loses the challenge automatically.
- Challenger: Challenger is the unit that is challenging against your unit. The Challenger is not considered adjacent.
- Disarm: Disarm one unit means prevent it from using the weapon. Disarm cannot be used in Skills. (As challenger, Sonic can use his Disarm skill against Darthrinco.)
- Effect Goliath: Units with original strength or modified to 1, 2 or 3 overcome Strength units 10 or greater than 10. (Goliath effect in action: Unit with Strength 1 defeats Unit with Strength 10.)
- Bury: When burying one unit, it must change positions with the immediately preceding unit in the same COLUMN. The unit that was buried is out of Battle and the unearthed unit will challenge in the Strength comparison phase. The unearthed unit must respect the recruitment restriction (no other equal in this battle). The unearthed unit pays no load nor hierarchy and cannot use Skills or Weapons. (Hanzo was buried. Shinobi could not be the target because it isn't the immediately preceding card.)
Warzoo - The Alliance: Unit Notes
- Davi: Davi's Weapon cannot reduce the opponent's Ammunition below zero. The weapon can be used even if the opponent has only 1 or 2 of ammunition, reducing it to zero.
- Darwin: Only one REVEALED unit can be the target of Darwin's Weapon. A unit can have its strength increased to more than 12.
- Obelisk: The Load just starts to be ignored from the time the Obelisk's weapon is used. Remember that both players pass to ignore the Load's costs.
- Nanny: Draws before the use of Nanny's weapon also results in victory for the Alliance of Platypus.
- Paracelsus: You cannot have more ammunition than your initial ammunition (10).
- Urban: The Initiative will be yours regardless of the Challenge outcome. The provided Ammunition is "virtual" and should not be added to Silo. May only be used in the next Challenge.
- Darthrinco: Consult "Maneuver" in Glossary.
- Ornitulk: Avatars never have to pay for Hierarchy when recruited. A unit recruited in the same column immediately after Ornitulk does not pay for Hierarchy as well.
Warzoo - The Axis: Unit Notes
- Practical: An opponent may not have the ammunition reduced below zero. You cannot have your ammo increased above 10. You can use the weapon even if the opponent has no ammunition.
- Boxer Gauss: Only one REVEALED unit can be targeted by Boxer Gauss's Weapon. A unit cannot have its strength reduced below zero. You can use the skill in a unit with Strength 1 or 2.
- Benjamin: Consult "Bury" in Glossary.
- Piggy Bank: The Ammo is virtual, and is not added to Silo. The Ammunition can only be used in the next Challenge, otherwise it is discarded. If revealed in the fifth Challenge, cannot be used in the next Battle.
- Magnopig: Only one REVEALED unit can be targeted by Magnopig's Weapon. A Unit's Strength cannot go below zero. You can use the skill in a unit with Strength 1.
- Napoleon: Napoleon's skill can only be used if the targeted Unit's Strength can be reduced. X is any amount of ammunition you want to pay. A unit cannot have its Strength reduced below zero.
- Pigsty: Avatars never have to pay for Hierarchy when recruited. A unit recruited in the same column immediately after Pigsty does not pay for Hierarchy as well.
The Neutrals: Unit Notes
- Duck Bravo: Only one REVEALED unit can be targeted by Duck Bravo's Weapon. A Unit's Strength can go beyond 12.
- Shinobi: Consult "Maneuver" in Glossary.
- Zé Dredd: The Weapon does not have retroactive effect. Hierarchies paid before using Zé Dredd are ignored.
- Snake: Your skill can only be used if the two adjacent cards to him are revealed.