Wonderland's War: Caterpillar & White Queen Expansion
Wonderland's War: Caterpillar & White Queen Expansion Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Components
Components as listed in the prototype rules.
- 2 player faction boards
- 10 castle markers
- 14 Caterpillar supporters
- 12 White Queen supporters
- 6 Caterpillar faction discs
- 4 White Queen faction discs
- 12 Wonderlandian cards
- 2 faction bags
- 2 shield tokens
- 8 starting faction chips (4 per faction)
- 12 faction artifact chips (6 per faction)
- 2 50+ scoring tokens
- 1 White Queen figure (miniature and standee)
- 22 wager cards (6 per new faction, 2 per base game faction)
- 3 chess pieces (miniatures and standees)
- 1 smoke die
- 25 smoke tokens
- 10 modular forge tracks
- 5 ally cards
- 15 reference cards
- 7 rival cards
- 15 tactics cards
Modular Forge Boards
Setup
After you choose your faction during setup, draw 2 Modular Forge Board tiles at random. Choose one and place it so that it fully covers the Forge section on your Faction Board, then return the unchosen Modular Forge Board to the box.
You may also choose to discard both Modular Forge Boards and use your base Faction Board if you prefer!
Special Rules
While a Modular Forge Board is overlaid on your Faction Board, it effectively overwrites your Forge spaces with new effects. These Forge boards follow all of the base game's rules for Forging, but feature new effects with new icons (as summarized below).
When you fill a row on your Modular Forge Board, you do still unlock one of your faction's Artifacts as normal.
New Forge Board Icons
Modular Forge Boards include several icons that are also featured in the base game, some that are featured only on Tea Party cards or other game elements. For these icons, resolve them as normal.
These boards also include the following all-new icons:
- Your Leader gains 2 Strength. (icon: +2 on a sword)
- Unlock and immediately place a Supporter. (icon: a supporter meeple)
- Immediately Forge any chip from the Supply. (icon: a gold T)
- Draw a Quest, then choose and discard a Quest from hand. (icon: a Quest and a crossed-out Quest)
- Gain 1VP for each of your Wonderlandians, Leader Strength, or fully-completed Quests at the end of the game. Note: Castles are still worth a base of 3VP each even if your Forge Board has no way to upgrade their VP value.
- Gain 1VP for each different color among your Forged chips at the end of the game.
- Gain the Strong version of whatever chip you Forged in this space. If no Strong version of this chip is available, this icon has no effect.
New Wonderlandian Cards
This expansion includes 12 new Wonderlandian cards: 2 for each of the Faction Leaders (other than the Caterpillar, who appears among the base game's Wonderlandians).
These new Wonderlandians follow the same rules as the rest of the Wonderlandians. However, since they are based on Faction Leaders, they require some special considerations:
- When you recruit a Faction-based Wonderlandian that has a standee (or miniature), use that Faction Leader's figure.
- When you recruit a Faction-based Wonderlandian that has chips, use 2 of that Faction's 1-Strength chips.
- Due to component limitations, you cannot play with a Faction and include its Leader's Wonderlandian cards in the deck. Wonderland is already a mad enough place without clones running around!
Ally Cards
The "E" set of Ally cards work the same way as the base game's ally sets: simply deal them out during setup and return all unused ally cards to the box. We still recommend playing with the cards of a single letter designation.
The new Ally card set does not have a rules section in this manual. Everything you need to know to use them is included on the cards themselves and in the base game's rules.
The prototype's sample ally cards show the following card text. Card names are not legible in this preview, so each is identified by its printed icon number only.
- Icon 1 (E): When played, this gains Strength equal to your total number of Forged and other Active Card Soldiers.
- Icon 1 (E): The first Flamingo you play each Battle gains 2 Strength. If you have exactly 2 Active Flamingos after Forging, draw 1 Quest.
- Icon 2 (E): Each time you complete a Feat, gain 1VP for each of your Forged and Active Roses. Each time you Forge a Strong Rose, you may add a Weak Rose to your bag.
- Icon 3 (E): When played, you cannot Halt until you place another chip on your Active track, even if you are the only player remaining in the Battle!
- Icon 1 (E): If this chip is Weak, it gains 1 Strength for each of your completed Feats. If it is Strong, it loses 1 Strength for each of your completed Feats.
The Caterpillar
The Caterpillar: Special Setup
When playing with the Caterpillar, take these steps during setup in addition to all base game setup instructions.
- Return the Shard die to the box and replace it with the Caterpillar's "Smoke" die.
- Establish a supply of Smoke tokens accessible to all players.
- Give one Caterpillar reference card to each player.
- The Caterpillar takes 2 Smoke from the supply.
Note: the Caterpillar's Leader figure (both its standee and miniature versions) are included in the base game!
The Caterpillar: Special Rules
The Smoke Die
As long as any player is playing the Caterpillar, the Shard die is replaced with the Smoke die. When any player would roll the Shard die, they instead roll the Smoke die. The Smoke die is identical to the Shard die except that it features the [SMOKE] icon.
For each Smoke icon a player rolls on the Smoke die, they gain 1 Smoke token. Keep your Smoke tokens in a personal supply visible to all players.
Smoke Tokens and Using Smoke Actions
Smoke tokens can be gained from the Smoke die and from the Caterpillar's special abilities, including his faction ability.
When you would pull out a chip from your bag during Battle, you may instead choose to pull and reveal an empty hand with 1, 2, or 3 fingers extended to take a Smoke Action. The number of fingers you hold up determines the Smoke action you take. See "Smoke Action Summary" below.
Smoke actions are special tactics you use in battle in place of drawing a chip. These effects may not be as powerful as some of the chips in your bag, but you can choose to pull Smoke at the exact timing when it most benefits you!
Each Smoke Action costs a number of Smoke tokens equal to the number of fingers you held up. For example, you would take the "Snuff" action by holding up 2 fingers, and it would cost 2 Smoke tokens. Smoke tokens you spend on Smoke actions are returned to the general supply. Smoke does not count as a chip, and it is not placed on your Active track.
Smoke Action Summary
- Smoke Break (1 finger): Smoke Break has no effect. Just relax, have a Madness-free draw, and see what happens to everyone else!
- Snuff (2 fingers, 2 Smoke): Gain 1 Strength, then Snuff all non-Madness chips drawn by other players. Snuffed chips are exhausted and lose their abilities and strength. Madness chips cannot be snuffed and still resolve as normal.
- Chase (3 fingers, 3 Smoke): Choose and Chase one of your Exhausted chips. A Chased chip is played directly from your Exhausted track in place of your next draw this Battle. A Chased chip cannot be Snuffed!
Note: you cannot Snuff a Chased chip!
A note on accessibility: If something is holding you back from revealing a certain number of extended fingers when drawing from your bag, don't worry! Just shout out the name of the Smoke action you wish to take when you would have pulled a chip from your bag, or set up some other plan or understanding ahead of time with your opponents. Make sure your "reveal" is timed with the other players' reveals. Don't wait to shout out your action until after you've seen your opponents' draws!
The White Queen
The White Queen: Special Setup
Take these steps during setup in addition to all base game setup instructions.
- The White Queen has two Faction Discs fewer than the other playable factions! Place 2 over her top 2 faction abilities, then place the Knight Chess Piece over the "Control the Center" ability and the Bishop Chess Piece over the "Fianchetto" ability.
- Place the King Chess Piece in the White Queen's available unit supply. Note that the White Queen has 2 fewer supporters than the other factions!
- Give each player a White Queen reference card. One of the sides of the reference card features information about the White Queen's special rules.
- Note that the White Queen's Leader Strength track is different from the other factions! Place a Faction Disc on the track's leftmost space (the first "0").
The White Queen: Special Rules
Chess Pieces
The White Queen includes Chess Pieces among her followers. Chess pieces include the King, Knight, Bishop, and the White Queen's Leader figure! The Bishop and Knight are not available until those faction abilities are unlocked. Part of unlocking those factions abilities is that you immediately place the indicated Chess Piece.
Chess pieces count as units, but they are not supporters.
The White Queen's faction ability allows her to place her available Chess Pieces whenever she could place a Supporter, but note that the White Queen herself is not considered "available" during the Tea Party. She is deployed as normal at the end of the Tea Party.
Opening Chips
At the start of a battle, if you have one or more Chess Pieces in a region, resolve a special "opening" battle step before the battle begins.
Only the White Queen participates in the Opening step, and only if she has at least one Chess Piece in the region. Remember, the White Queen's Leader counts as a Chess Piece!
If you have one or more Chess Pieces in a region at the start of a battle, you may draw an opening chip (see below).
The Opening step allows the White Queen to draw and resolve one chip from her bag before any other opponent. She gains the drawn chip's strength and abilities as normal with one exception: the White Queen loses no units to "opening" Madness chips. Opening Madness chips are still placed on the White Queen's Madness track as normal.
Additionally, some of the Queen's faction abilities lend extra power to her opening chips. For example, the Bishop allows the White Queen to draw another opening chip if the first opening chip she drew was Madness!
Miniatures or Standees?
When it comes to Leader figures and Wonderlandians, some editions of Wonderland's War over the years have included miniatures while others have included standees.
To ensure that everyone has the components that match their edition, we have included miniature and standee versions of the White Queen's Leader and her Chess Pieces.
During setup, choose whichever you like best and return the rest to the game box!
Scenarios
The following Scenarios are options for variant play. Each features its own special rules for play and setup which will alter the War for Wonderland in some way, with some of the changes being fundamental and others being just a nudge!
Cabbages and Kings (2-5 players)
Setup: Deal 2 additional Quest cards to each player.
Special Rules:
- Draw 1 Quest card every time you add a Madness chip to your bag.
- At the end of the game, lose 3VP for each of your Quests that you did not fully complete. A partially-completed Quest still awards 3VP, but then the 3VP penalty results in a net of 0VP.
Down the Rabbit Hole (3-5 players)
Setup: For each Tea Party deck, split that deck so that roughly half of the cards are face-up and half are face-down, then shuffle those cards together. As a result, you should have a Tea Party deck for each round, and each of the decks should be a random mixture of face-up and face-down cards.
Special Rules:
- Tea Party cards are dealt face-up or face-down according to their orientation in the deck. If a card is face-down in the deck, for example, it is dealt to the Tea Party face-down.
- Each time you move your leader to a face-down Tea Party card, reveal it and gain its bonuses as normal.
- When you take a face-up Tea Party action, take 1 Madness Shard.
- When you take a face-down Tea Party action, you ignore all Madness Shards and dice rolls printed on the card.
A Mad Tea Party (4-5 players)
Setup: Shuffle ALL Tea Party cards into a single deck.
Special Rules:
- Tea Party cards are dealt out from the single deck as normal. It is possible, for example, for a round 3 Tea Party card to appear in round 1.
- When you take a Tea Party card, hide it face down in your play area. You may peek at your pile, but do not show it to your opponents.
- At the end of the game, count the total of your Tea Party cards in your pile such that each Round 1 card counts as a "1," each Round 2 counts as a "2," and each Round 3 counts as a "3."
- During final scoring, the player with the highest total value among their Tea Party (as counted in the step above) will lose the game. If two or more players are tied for highest total value, all tied players lose the game.
The Croquet Ground (2-5 players)
Setup: Shuffle all unused Ally cards together to form a face-down "Rover" deck. Set each player's Leader Strength to 6.
Special Rules:
- When you would gain Leader Strength, instead draw 2 cards from the Rover deck and secretly add them to your hand.
- When you draw an Ally chip from your bag, you may play a matching Rover card from your hand to change that chip to the effects and power indicated on the Rover card you played. This counts only for the chip drawn; the rest of your chips count as their base Allies.
- If you win a fight where you played a Rover card, discard the Rover card(s) you played.
- If you lose a fight where you played a Rover card, return the played Rover card(s) to your hand.
- If the Rover deck runs out of cards, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck.
Rivals in Wonderland!
This section features rules for the Wonderland's War solo mode, and, unless the solo mode rules specify otherwise, you should follow all the same rules as a standard two-player game in the base rulebook (see the base game's two-player rules).
In the solo mode, an automated Rival will stand in as your opponent, and their decisions will be made largely by cards from the Tactics deck.
Solo Mode Components
- 7 Rival cards
- 15 Tactics cards
Solo Mode Setup
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Choose your Rival. Each faction leader has its own Rival card, and each Rival card features a unique suite of abilities. These abilities will provide a challenge at different difficulty levels as indicated by the yellow pips in the top left corner of the Rival's card. The more pips, the more challenging the Rival!
Lay out the chosen Rival card in the middle of the Rival's play area.
Note: You cannot play the same faction as your Rival!
Difficulty Reference:
- 1 Pip (Beginner): Caterpillar
- 2 Pips (Standard): Alice, Cheshire Cat
- 3 Pips (Challenging): Mad Hatter, Jabberwock
- 4 Pips (Expert): Red Queen, White Queen
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Place the Rival's trackers. Their Battle tracker at the start of the Battle track, their VP tracker on the "0" space of the VP track, and their Leader Strength tracker on the first space of the Rival card's Leader Strength track.
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Fill the Rival's bag with that faction's normal starting chips: 3x "1 strength" faction chips, 1x "2 strength" faction chip, 2x "3 strength" faction artifact chips, 3x "Madness" chips, and 2x "Forge" chips.
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Lay out all of the Rival's supporters, castles, and all of the Rival's remaining Artifact chips off to the side of the Rival's play area.
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Place the Rival's Leader figure at the Head of the Table.
Two-Player Rules Reference (as used in solo mode)
- Forging Frenzy: Each player starts with 1 additional Forge chip in their bag.
- Tea for Two: In the Tea Party, each player will take 1 additional card (5 total) before placing their Leader into a Region.
- Local Resistance: At the start of game, take 1 of the Battle Strength markers from a Faction that is not in the game to use as the "Local Resistance" token. At the start of each War Phase, place the "Local Resistance" token on the appropriate space on the Battle track for that Round.
- Players must pass or match the Strength of the "Local Resistance" to win 1st or 2nd place and gain Region Victory Awards and Castle placements.
- If only 1 player has units in a Region, they will still Battle. There will never be an uncontested battle in a 2 player game. They must surpass the Local Resistance to win in that region or match it to tie. If you are the only player left in the Battle and you have passed Local Resistance on the Battle Track, the battle immediately ends.
- Effects and abilities that target opponents have no effect on Local Resistance. When you win a Battle against Local Resistance, gain the Region Victory award and place a Castle into that Region.
- If a player ends a battle with less Strength than the Local Resistance, they will not gain any points from Region Victory awards (neither from first place nor second place). They may still complete Quests and Forge.
- Region Victory award table (fist icons, as printed on the reference): First 3, Second 5, Third 7.
- No Wagers are placed in a 2-player game.
- Castle Construction: As you have only 1 opponent, you want your Castles to be larger and grander. To build a Castle, you need to win 2 Battles in a Region. After winning your first Battle, place your Castle sideways in that Region. After winning a Battle, if you have a sideways Castle, turn it so it is standing upright.
The Golden Rule of Solo Mode
The Rival will simulate the behavior of a human opponent. If the Rival would need to make a decision, first refer to the active Tactics card (see "Rival Play: The Tea Party" and "Rival Play: The Battle Phase"). If the Tactics card does not offer guidance, refer to the Special Solo Mode Exceptions section in this rulebook. If there is still no guidance, then you may make the decision as you like on the Rival's behalf.
Rival Play: The Tea Party
In the first Tea Party of the game, you always take the first turn. Since the Rival is the second player in a two-player game, they begin the game with 1 Shard and you begin with 2.
Once you have finished your turn during the Tea Party, play passes to the Rival. To perform the Rival's Tea Party action, take the following steps:
- Reveal the top card of the Tactics deck. Whatever Tactics card was most recently revealed is considered the Active Tactics Card. If the Tactics deck is empty, reshuffle the discard pile to reform the deck.
- Advance the Rival Leader a number of spaces around the table equal to their Tactics card's Movement value (in the top left corner).
- This movement skips over spaces that have no cards, and it skips over the space occupied by your leader.
- If the Rival would move past the last available Tea Party card, resolve the Head of Table procedure as normal (including rolling the Shard die for the Rival), then finish the Rival's movement. The Head of Table does not count as a space against the Rival's movement value.
- Note that the Rival does not have a Faction board, so they may not have access to their normal abilities. For example, the Alice Rival does not move backwards around the table!
- Any decisions required by the Tea Party should be made according to the information on the Rival's Active Tactics Card.
Once the Rival has finished their turn in the Tea Party, play passes back to you and this pattern continues as normal until all players have taken their 5 cards.
Example: Alice (Rival) draws the Flamingo Tactics card. She advances her leader two spaces clockwise in the Tea Party and lands on the Tea Party card shown. Since the Tactics card's Tea Party Selection icon indicates the top half of the card, Alice chooses not to roll the Shard die for the extra ally chip. She places 1 of her supporters in the Pool of Tears, then recruits a Wonderlandian.
Tea Party Tactics Anatomy
- Movement Value: Determines how many spaces the Rival moves during the Tea Party.
- Tea Party Selection: If the Rival lands on a Tea Party card with more than one option, they choose the top or bottom option on that card as indicated by the icon. The Rival only chooses to take the additional effects from gray Tea Party cards if their Tea Party Selection icon indicates the bottom half of the card.
- Region Icon: If the Rival would need to choose a region (like when they deploy units, or from a special ability like the Walrus Wonderlandian's), they choose the indicated region.
- Ally Type: If the Rival would need to choose an ally or chip type (like from a wild ally chip icon, or from a special ability like the Dormouse Wonderlandian's), they choose the indicated ally.
Placing the Rival Leader
At the end of the Tea Party, the Rival places their Leader in the region indicated on their Active Tactics Card.
Rival Play: The Battle Phase
The Rival will battle against you in the same ways that another human player would, with you drawing their chips and tracking their strength. However, the Rival may gain certain advantages from the abilities on their Rival card, and the decisions they make in battle are determined by their Tactics cards.
At the start of the Battle Phase, the Rival's most-recently played Tactics card stays face up and continues to serve as their Active Tactics Card. This card remains active until one or more of the conditions in the card's Restrategize section are met, at which you draw a new Tactics card from the deck to replace it. Remember: if the Tactics deck runs out of cards during play, shuffle the discard pile to reform the deck.
Once a new Tactic is revealed, its battle effects apply starting the next time the Rival would draw from their bag.
Special Rival Battle Rules
- Every Rival has a unique set of abilities on their Rival card! Make sure to review their card and apply any bonuses as indicated.
- The top and bottom edges of the Rival card are reserved for their Active and Exhausted chip tracks respectively. Meanwhile, the right edge of the Rival's card serves as its Madness track with a [REFRESH] icon featured on the card's bottom Madness slot.
- Resolving Unit Losses: If a Rival loses a unit from a region (like when they draw a Madness chip, or when they're affected by a special ability), they first choose to lose any supporters they have in that region. If none remain, you pick and choose one of their Wonderlandians in the region to be removed. They only lose their Leader if they have no other units in the region.
- Forging Chips: The Rival has a special procedure for Forging chips (see below). Additionally, every Rival's card features an ability that scales to the number of chips they have forged during the game, some of which may apply bonuses during battle!
Battle Phase Tactics Anatomy
- Tactic Name: One of eight unique tactic suites that appear on cards. The name has no specific value in play, but all cards with the same tactic name have the same halt conditions, battle abilities, and restrategize conditions.
- Halt Conditions: This section determines when (or if!) the Rival will Halt during battle. If one or more of these conditions are met, the Rival will Halt the next time they could draw a chip from their bag. Remember, the first draw in each battle is not optional!
- Battle Ability: Many Tactics cards give the Rival an immediate bonus when they are first revealed, or they may feature an ongoing advantage that applies as long as the card is active. In any case, this line only applies during the Battle Phase: the Rival does not gain this bonus during the Tea Party!
- Restrategize Conditions: As soon as one or more of the Active Tactics Card's Restrategize conditions have been met, immediately draw a new card from the Tactics deck to be the Rival's new Active Tactics Card. This section is also ignored during the Tea Party Phase.
Rival Play: Forging Chips
When the Rival has an opportunity to Forge a chip, the Rival always chooses to Forge a "Forge" chip.
- If the Forge opportunity is from an active Forge chip, the Rival Forges that chip.
- If the Forge opportunity comes from any other effect and it would ask the Rival to make a decision (like if they end a battle with their tracker on a [FORGE] icon, or from a special ability), they Forge a Forge chip from the supply.
- Note that some special effects (like the Carpenter Wonderlandian's chips) instruct you to Forge a specific chip. In that case, follow the effect's text.
In any case, take the Forged chip and place it along the Rival card's left edge. The number of these chips matters because of the Rival's Forged Power ability, which grants the Rival bonuses for every Forge chip beside the Rival card. These bonuses apply and continue to escalate for the rest of the game!
Additionally, for every 2 chips the Rival has Forged, add one of their Artifacts to their bag (if available).
For example, Alice's Forged Power ability increases her Artifact chips' strength value by the number of chips she has Forged!
Special Solo Mode Exceptions
Wonderland's War was not originally designed to be a solo game, and as such some of its elements require specific rulings for solo mode! In general, remember the Golden Rule of Solo Mode, and refer to this section only if a Rival's decisions are not clearly prescribed by the base game rules or the Active Tactics Card.
If this section still does not offer the guidance to make a decision for the Rival, you make that decision as you like on the Rival's behalf.
Forging Chips
If the Rival would Forge a chip (for any reason), refer to the "Rival Play: Forging Chips" section.
Quests
The Rival does not have a hand of Quest cards. If they would ever gain a Quest, or if a special effect allows them to complete a Feat from hand, they instead add a Quest card to their personal scoring pile. The Rival scores 5vp for each of their scored Quests at the end of the game, regardless of the Quest card's text.
- Note that if an effect allows the Rival to draw 2 Quests and keep 1, you still only add one Quest to their scoring pile.
- Also note that the Rival does add their starting Quest to their scoring pile.
Faction Upgrades
The Rival does not have unlockable faction abilities! Any time the Rival would gain a Faction Upgrade, they instead gain the Upgrade effect indicated on their Rival card.
Gaining Wonderlandians
If the Rival would gain a Wonderlandian, they gain the top card of the Wonderlandian deck, discard all other Wonderlandians in the queue, then refill the queue. Remember, any units deployed by the Rival are sent to the region indicated on their Active Tactics Card.
Shields
The Rival has no Shield, and they ignore all effects that would allow them to refresh their shield.
Running Out of Supporters
If the Rival would need to place a Supporter but they have none in their supply, they choose not to relocate their supporters from other zones. Instead, the Rival gains 1vp for each supporter that they could not place.
Smoke Tokens
The Rival ignores all effects that would allow them to gain Smoke tokens.
Specific Ally Cards
Note the following:
- Card Soldiers A and B: The Rival always chooses to double the chip's strength.
- Card Soldiers C: The Rival always chooses to play the highest-strength chip among those revealed. If there is a tie, you choose the tied chip to play.
- Roses C: As always, the Rival completing a Feat allows them to add a Quest card to their scoring pile (worth 5vp at the end of the game).
- Flamingo C: The Rival chooses to advance their Forge tracker to the nearest Forge symbol only if it moves them forward on the Battle track.
- Red Rook C: The Rival is not affected by this chip's ability.
- Card Soldiers D: If the Rival has the option to triple this chip's strength, they always do.