Wildlands
Wildlands Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- A. Rulebook
- B. Double-sided board
- C. Damage tokens (red cubes)
- D. 42 Map cards
- E. Active Player marker
- F. 4 Colours, each consisting of:
- 5 Miniature bases
- 5 Crystal shards
- G. 4 Factions, each consisting of:
- 5 Character miniatures
- 5 Character cards (1 for each character)
- 30 Action cards
- 1 Faction card
Quick Play Rules
If this is your first game, skip ahead to 'The Brave and the Desperate'.
Goal
Be the first to five points, through any combination of knocking out other players' characters and/or claiming your own crystal shards.
Setup
- Choose a side of the board to play on.
- Each player picks a faction and a colour, taking those minis, character cards, action card decks, bases and shards.
- Attach the bases to the minis, place the minis on the character cards, and separately shuffle the action card decks.
- Deal ten map cards to each player. Each player secretly assigns one to each character, passes the remaining five to their right, then places their shards on the spaces matching the new cards they are given.
- Draw seven action cards each.
- The player whose crystal shard is on the lowest-numbered space goes first.
Your turn
- If you still have unrevealed characters, reveal at least one at the start of your turn.
- Play as many cards and reveal as many characters as you wish.
- End your turn, draw three cards (up to a maximum hand of seven), and pass the active player marker to your left.
Game End
The first player to five points wins. If any player loses all their characters, the surviving player with the most points wins.
Clarifications
- Card Play – each action card can be used to move a character, to collect crystal shards, or to take a flag action, so long as the card shows that character's symbol.
- Crystal Shards – you can only collect shards of your own colour, using three-of-a-kind of the character collecting, or of a knocked-out character.
- Climbing – going up a hill costs one extra movement per character. Going down does not.
- Interrupts – you can only interrupt after someone else takes an action that is not a reveal or an interrupt.
- Line of Sight – this is traced from core to core through the white lines that separate spaces. If no white line is crossed (i.e. spaces are separated by a wall), then there's no line of sight. There's also no line of sight:
- through cover (though shooting out of or into cover is allowed).
- through high ground if targeting low ground.
- from low ground to high ground.
The Brave and the Desperate
Everybody wants something. Some are desperate to restore the world that existed before the fall. Some want redemption. Some want respect. There is desire in every heart, and a shard for every desire.
The Guild
The Venerable Guild of Mages is older than the Empire itself. This group of elderly witches and wizards has spent most of the last century in the Guild's vast library, studying, debating, and advising the ruling class. They have age and power in common, but very little else. One thing they can agree on is the need to preserve magic, and to restore and protect their library.
The mages are powerful, but fragile, spellcasters, supported by Lunk, their mobile librarian. They seek to hoard and protect the rare magics trapped within certain shards, for the use of future generations.
The Gnomads
The roving bands of blacksmiths, tinkerers, and artificers who travel the old roads were named for the gnomes, but are composed of many races (so long as they are small enough to fit into the caravans). Extremely hard-working, most wagon-riders have a loyalty that rivals family. The gnomes Tak and Elsie have a particular talent for clockwork, giving Elsie back the mobility she had lost, and bringing life to their helper, Automate. All they're trying to do is keep each other alive.
The Gnomads are not particularly tough, but they're fast, which makes them a flexible force when they stick together. They seek the shards which will keep their clockwork machinery ticking.
The Lawbringers
When the Empire fell, and the border towns were deserted, one small militia was left with a choice: leave the prisoners in their cells to die, or set them loose. The sheriff and her deputy agreed on a third option: conscription. Working with a drunken minotaur, a serial delinquent and a murderous satyr to bring law and order back to the Wildlands might seem like a fool's errand, but all it takes is a little faith.
The Lawbringers are tough in a fight, and each character has their own speciality. They seek only the shards which will help them restore the rule of law.
The Pit Fighters
Warriors. Killers. Monsters. Slaves, prisoners and professional gladiators were made to fight for the Empire's entertainment, but who is left for them to entertain? Who do an elvish assassin, an angry gnoll, orc siblings and a mysterious challenger have left to trust but each other? Now they are free, where will they go? And who is going to stand in their way?
The Pit Fighters are extremely dangerous up close, as they are exclusively focussed on melee combat. They seek powerful shards to keep themselves free.
Card Breakdown
Character Cards
Each character has a character card showing three things:
- A character icon which matches the action cards for their faction.
- A number indicating their health.
- The character's name.
Action Cards
Action cards have a column of scales and a column of flags. If a character's icon appears in a scale, then that card can be used to move that character. A flag beside a character icon indicates an action that character can take instead of movement. A character's icon will always appear in the same position on cards in their faction's deck.
Some cards have a flag which is not attached to any character icon. This is an open action, an action that any of that faction's characters can take. Open actions cannot be used for movement, unless indicated by the flag.
Some cards in each deck will only have wild actions, some of which apply to the player rather than the characters. Each action card also has artwork of a character from that faction, which has no in-game effect.
Faction Cards
These provide a breakdown of which characters can take which actions, and how frequently they occur in that faction's action card deck.
Map Cards
The smaller map cards show a number between 1 and 42. These relate to spaces on the map, and are used during setup.
Map Breakdown
The board has two maps, the dungeon and the ruins, which have 42 spaces each. For your first game, we recommend playing in the dungeon. These symbols on the maps affect gameplay:
Spaces
These white lines divide spaces on the map. A move action will move a character from one space to an adjacent space. To move or shoot between adjacent spaces, you must cross a white line. Spaces which are alongside one another, but are separated by an artwork element, only count as adjacent if they share a white dividing line. Any artwork element which separates two spaces but does not have a white line is considered a wall.
Arrows
An arrow in a dividing line indicates a climb to higher ground. You must climb to enter these spaces, spending one additional movement to move in the direction of the arrow. Moving in the opposite direction does not cost an additional movement. There are a few of these in the ruins, but none in the dungeon.
Different arrows on the ruins board indicate that characters can move through the gate between spaces 25 and 30. It does not indicate high ground.
Cores
Each space on the map has a core: a number in a black or white circle. The number is used for setup. The colour of the core indicates whether or not the space contains cover – a white number in a black circle means that space contains cover. A black number in a white circle means that space does not contain cover.
The position of the core is used for checking line of sight between spaces. If you can draw a line from any part of the core in your character's space (including the white outline) to any part of another space's core, passing through white lines but without passing through high ground, or another space containing cover, then you have line of sight to that space.
Line of sight is explained in more detail under 'Common Concepts'.
Common Concepts
Playing out of turn
Some actions, like melee or shield, can be used on other players' turns. These are almost always used to defend your characters, and are explained under 'Flag Actions'. If an attack is prevented, the card used to attack and the ones used to defend are all discarded. This all counts as one action.
There is also a special 'interrupt' action, which can be used after another player has taken an action. This is explained under 'Wild Actions'. You cannot be interrupted immediately after revealing a character or playing an interrupt.
Damage
During the game your characters will take damage. When this happens, place the matching number of damage tokens on the character card. If the number of tokens ever equals or exceeds the health number printed on the card, that character is knocked out. Flip the character card face down, and return the tokens to the supply. The last player to injure the character takes the miniature – it counts as a point for them.
If a character is knocked out by any means other than an enemy player, remove it from the game – no player earns those points. Remember that you cannot target your own character with a ranged or melee attack.
Line of sight
To make a ranged attack on an enemy character, you must have line of sight. To determine line of sight, trace a line from any part of the core of the space the attacker is in to any part of the core of the space the target is in. If that line passes through a wall (a barrier between spaces not illustrated by a white line), you do not have line of sight. If that line passes through a space with cover that is not the attacker's or the target's space, then you also do not have line of sight. Otherwise, you have line of sight. Characters can have line of sight in or out of spaces with cover, but never through them. You always have line of sight to the space you are in.
High Ground
If you are playing in the dungeon, these rules don't apply.
High ground will always be indicated on the board by the arrows pointing into that space, indicating that characters must climb to access the space.
High ground also affects line of sight. If you are on high ground, you may make a ranged attack on any other high ground you have line of sight to. You can make a ranged attack from high ground to any lower ground which you have line of sight to, so long as that line of sight is not traced through another space with high ground. If you are on low ground, you cannot trace line of sight into or through any space on high ground.
Playing the Game
Setup
Each player should choose a faction and a colour, taking the matching cards, miniatures, bases and crystal shards. Choose which map you want to play on. If this is your first game, we recommend the dungeon.
Once you've chosen your faction, clip the coloured bases onto your miniatures. Put your character cards and faction card face up in front of you, and place each miniature on the corresponding character card. Shuffle your action cards and place them face down as a personal action deck.
Positioning
Shuffle the map cards, and deal ten to each player. Each map card has a number which matches a space on the board. Choose one card for each character by placing it face down on that character card. This is the space where that character will first appear. You may check these at any point, but must keep them secret from the other players until your characters are revealed.
Once everyone has assigned a map card to each character, pass the five remaining cards to the player on your right. Place your shards on the map spaces matching the cards you are given, then remove those cards from the game.
Tip: make sure the cards you give to the other player means their crystal shards end up in hard-to-reach spaces, and consider placing your characters in spaces where you can set up an ambush.
Once everyone has placed their shards, draw seven cards from your action deck to form a hand. The player whose shard is on the lowest-numbered space goes first, and takes the active player token.
Your turn
On most turns in a game of Wildlands, you will reveal one character, take as many card actions as you like, and then draw three cards. The player to your left will then begin their turn. Each crystal shard you claim is worth one point, and each enemy character you knock out is also worth one point. The first player to collect five points wins.
Revealing characters
If you have one or more characters still on their character cards at the start of your turn, you must reveal at least one. To reveal a character, flip over its assigned map card, and place the miniature on the matching board space. Remove that map card from the game. You may reveal more characters at any point should you wish.
Tip: You cannot be interrupted directly after revealing a character.
Card play
On your turn you may play as many action cards from your hand as you like, one at a time (unless you're climbing to high ground or collecting a shard). Each action card has multiple ways it can be used. When playing the card, you select one option, and forgo the chance to use the others.
There are two types of symbols – character icons and action flags. Character icons (in the scales) indicate which characters you can use to move or collect shards, while flags indicate actions those characters can take instead of moving or collecting shards. After you perform an action, leave a small pause to give other players the opportunity to play an interrupt card.
You can only take actions using characters who are on the board. If you wish to take an action using a character who is not yet on the board, you must reveal them first, then take the action.
Place your used action cards in a personal discard pile. If your deck ever runs out of action cards, shuffle up your discarded cards to form a new deck.
Ending your turn
Once you want to stop playing cards and revealing characters, you may declare that you are ending your turn. You will now draw three new cards from your action deck, regardless of how many cards you played this turn. If this would bring your hand to more than seven cards, you instead only draw until you have seven, then stop. Pass the active player marker to the player on your left, who then begins their turn.
Note: You might get interrupted after you declare the end of your turn, but before you draw cards! After the interrupting player is finished, you can decide whether to draw cards or continue playing.
Ending the Game
As soon as one player has five points in front of them, in the form of crystal shards, knocked-out enemy characters or any combination of both, the game immediately ends and that player wins.
If one player loses all of their characters, then the game immediately ends and the surviving player with the most points wins. If there is a tie for most points, continue playing until any surviving player has one more point than the others. That player wins.
Note: The number of points you have should always be visible to the other players.
Default Actions
You can take these actions with a character whose icon is on a card, regardless of any action flag beside it. Remember that, by choosing to take a default or flag action, you are forgoing the chance to take any other action with that card.
Move
Movement is the default action of a card. If a character's icon is on an action card, you may always use the card to move that character. One card will move a character to an adjacent space. There is no limit to the number of characters that can occupy a space, and other characters do not affect your movement. You can move between spaces separated by white lines; you cannot move through walls.
Climb
If you are playing in the dungeon, you may ignore the climb rule for now.
If a white line is marked with an arrow, that represents high ground, which you need to climb to access. To move a character in the direction of the arrow you must play two cards which allow movement for that character. This additional cost only applies when moving in the direction of the arrow – moving downwards against the direction of the arrow only requires one card.
Note: You may use a wild movement instead of a normal movement at any point.
Claim Shards
You can only claim crystal shards of your own colour. To claim one of your shards you must have a character in the same space as that token. You must then play three cards displaying that character's icon as a single action. Alternatively, you may play three cards with icons matching one other character who is already knocked out. It must be three-of-a-kind – you cannot mix icons of the character collecting the crystal shard with those of knocked-out characters, nor can you mix the icons of different knocked-out characters.
When you claim a shard, place it in front of you as one point. You can claim a shard even if there is an enemy character in the same space.
Note: A wild movement can count towards any set of three.
Flag Actions
Flag actions are usually connected to a character icon. You can always use a character's flag action instead of a default action. Flags are grouped by colour: melee (red), ranged (blue), defence (green), and manoeuvres (yellow). Each faction will have a mix of different possible actions, and no faction will have all of them. A breakdown of which action each character can take is on your faction card.
Open Actions
At the bottom of some cards are open actions, which are not associated with a particular character symbol. Any single revealed character may take that action, in defence or attack, instead of the other options on the card. This cannot be used to take a default action.
Melee
Deal one damage to an enemy character in the same space. If there are multiple enemies from the same faction in the space, the player who controls them can choose which one is being targeted. If there are multiple enemy factions present, choose one faction to attack. When another player performs a melee or heavy melee attack against this character, you may take this action out of turn to prevent all damage from that attack.
Heavy Melee
Deal two damage to an enemy character in the same space. If there are multiple enemies from the same faction in the space, the player who controls them can choose which one is being targeted. If there are multiple enemy factions present, choose one faction to attack. Unlike the normal melee action, this action cannot be used in defence.
Ranged Attack
Deal one damage to an enemy character within line of sight. If there are multiple enemies in the same space, you get to choose which one is being targeted.
Heavy Ranged Attack
Deal two damage to an enemy character within line of sight who is not more than two spaces away from the character taking this action. The two spaces are counted by line of sight – the line from the attacker's space to the defender's space cannot pass through more than one other space. If there are multiple enemies in the same space, the attacker gets to choose which one is being targeted.
Area Attack
Choose a space adjacent to your character, or the space the character occupies. Deal one damage to every revealed character in that space, including characters you control. This is the only attack which can target high ground from lower ground.
Shield
When another player performs a ranged, heavy ranged or area attack against this character, you may play this card out of turn to prevent all damage from that attack. If multiple characters are being hit with an area attack you must play a separate card for each character. You may also play this card immediately after an area attack you have made, to prevent your own character from taking damage. This action does not protect against melee attacks.
Cover
When another player performs a ranged or heavy ranged attack against this character, you may play this card out of turn to prevent all damage from that attack. This can only be used if the defending character is in a space containing cover. This action does not protect against melee or area attacks.
Rally
The rally symbol means you can move both the specified character and another of your characters, following the normal movement rules. The two characters must be in the same or adjacent spaces at the start of the action, but can move in completely opposite directions if you choose. You may choose to move just one of the characters.
If you wish to use a rally symbol to climb with either character, you must play additional cards as per a normal climb movement. The rally counts as a card for both characters, so two valid rally cards, or one rally card and two cards which allow individual movement, would allow both characters to climb. This all counts as one action for the purpose of an interrupt.
Fly
Move this character up to two spaces. You may ignore the movement rules relating to high ground when flying.
Wild Actions
Each faction's action deck has a number of special 'wild' action cards. All wild cards are identical, and each can be used to perform one of these three actions.
Wild Movement
This can be used as though it shows every character icon from your faction. As such, you may move any of your characters one space. This can be used to pay the additional cost for climbing. You may play any number of wild movement symbols to contribute towards claiming a crystal shard. You may even claim shards with any character by playing three wild movement symbols.
Draw Two Cards
Immediately draw two action cards. If this would bring you above seven cards, you instead only draw one action card.
Interrupt
You may play this card out of turn immediately after another player takes an action, and declare an interrupt. The other player must finish their action (if they have not already done so), then you can play as many of your cards as you like, one at a time, as if it was your turn. You may choose to reveal characters at this point should you wish.
The interrupting player can also be interrupted! Once whichever player interrupted last is finished, play returns directly to the active player – any players who have previously interrupted do not get to play additional cards. You do not get to draw cards when you are finished with an interrupt.
You cannot interrupt immediately after a character has been revealed or a different interrupt has been played. You must always let that player take at least one other action. Remember that sometimes multiple cards can count as one action, such as when a character is climbing, or defends against an attack.
However, if another player declares the end of their turn, you may interrupt immediately, before they pass the active player marker and draw three cards. Once play returns, that player may choose to take further actions before once again declaring end of turn.
To make sure other players have a clear opportunity to interrupt, you should mentally count to three between each action. Never declare multiple actions at once. This is particularly true if you enter a space containing an enemy character, or if someone defends against your attack. In these situations, it is often worth asking the other players if any player wishes to interrupt.
If multiple players wish to interrupt at the same time, the player closest in turn order to the active player interrupts first. Other players must then let that player take at least one other action before deciding whether to interrupt them.
Most play groups can agree on a fair amount of time for interruptions. If your play group is having trouble leaving time to interrupt, try the following when taking an action: declare the action you're taking; place the card on the table; take the action; put the card in the discard pile. Once the card is in the discard pile, the time to declare an interrupt has passed.
Defence Breakdown
- Melee – deal one damage to an enemy in the same space, or defend against a melee/heavy melee attack.
- Heavy Melee – deal two damage to an enemy in the same space.
- Ranged – deal one damage to an enemy within line of sight.
- Heavy Ranged – deal two damage to an enemy within line of sight, up to two spaces away.
- Area – deal one damage to every character in this or an adjacent space.
- Cover – prevent all damage from a ranged or heavy ranged attack if you are in a cover space.
- Shield – prevent all damage from a ranged, heavy ranged or area attack.
- Rally – move this character and/or an adjacent character.
- Fly – move this character two spaces.
First published in Great Britain in 2018 by Osprey Games. © Martin Wallace, 2018. This edition © 2018 Osprey Publishing Ltd.