Fantasy Dice Battles is a customizable boardgame where each player commands an army in a fierce battle against the opponent.

Armies are composed of three battalions of five units and a Hero. The objective of the game is to defeat the opponent's heroes, but first the player needs to defeat the units protecting the heroes.

In each round, the players place face down an Order Card for each battalion, trying anticipate the card the opponent will place for his opposing battalion (e.g. if the player thinks the opponent is going to place a cavalry card, he can place a halberds card to counter the cavalry).

The Order Cards allow the players to roll attack dice that will be assigned to the opponent's units as wounds; when units have a certain number of wounds they flee from the battalion. The player must manage his Units Fleeing, regrouping them before they leave the battlefield.

The game can be played with predefined armies or the players can customize their own armies as explained at the end of the rules.

Battalion breakdown.

In each player area, there are three battalions (first, second and third battalions). Each battalion is composed of six spaces to place the Unit Tiles in an inverted triangle shape with the hero on the bottom as shown on the figure.

The opponent's battalions are placed in front of the player's ones so each battalion fights only with the battalion in front of it.

Next to each battalion, there is a space for the Battalion Orders where the player will place the Order Card for that battalion.

On the right side of the battalions, there are three spaces for the Fleeing Units where the player places the unit tiles removed from his battalions. And another three spaces for the Reinforcements, where the player places the unit tiles that can be sent to his battalions.

Between both zones there is an space for the Regrouping Order where the player can place an Order Card so he can move unit tiles from Units Fleeing to Reinforcements.

On the left side of the battalions, there are two spaces for the Deck Pile and the Discard Pile.

First the player must choose a predefined army or customize his own army as explained at the end of the rules, then he takes Unit Tiles and places them on his Battalions and Reinforcements spaces as shown on his army sheet.

For each placed Unit Tile, the player takes also its Order Card, then he shuffles all the cards together and places them on the Deck Pile.

Each player draws seven cards from his deck pile and the game can start.

BATTALIONS SET UP EXAMPLE

The game is played in several rounds until a player defeats two enemy Heroes. Each round has several steps:

• Step 1: Place Order Cards face down.
• Step 2: Send Reinforcements.
• Step 3: Turn over Order Cards and activate them.
• Step 4: Roll attack dice and assign wounds.
• Step 5: Check defeated units.
• Step 6: Discard played cards and draw until seven.

At the same time, players place face down one Order Card from their hands on each Battalion Order space of their battalions.

It's mandatory to place Order Cards for the battalions where the player's hero and the opponent's hero are still on the board.

It's optional on battalions where the player's hero or the opponent's hero have been defeated. Players can do it in order to discard an Order Card and draw a new one (at the end of the round) or regroup idle units from battalions who have defeated the opponent's hero

In addition, players have the option to play an Order Card on the Regrouping Orders, in order to regroup his Units Fleeing.

A player who has finished placing his cards he must say “READY”. When both players have finished the game continues with the next step.

The player places two Order Cards face down on the first and the third battalion and none on the second battalion because his hero has been defeated and doesn't want to discard any card, additionally he decides to play another card on Regrouping Order.

During the game, the units in the battalions flee, leaving empty spaces that allow the opponent to attack the units that were behind them.

If a player has some Unit Tiles in his Reinforcements, he can move them to those empty spaces following these rules:

• Only one Unit Tile can be moved to each battalion.
• A Unit Tile can only be moved to the positions shown on its top-left corner.

The last player to say "READY" on previous step sends his Reinforcements first. This gives the other player the advantage of seeing the opponent's reinforcements before sending his own.

The player wants to send reinforcements to the empty spaces on both battalions, but he can only send one unit to the first battalion because the empty position on the second battalion is not legal for the Elite Warriors.
(They can only be placed on the second row or on the center position of the first row.)

Players turn over their played Order Cards simultaneously. When a player turns over a card he must check if the card can be activated. Any card that cannot be activated must be sent to the Discard Pile. Card Activation follows these rules:

• For active battalions (both heroes still on the board), the cards can be activated if there is at least one Unit Tile in the battalion with the same picture as the card. If the card played was a Hero, the player can check in the adjacent battalions as well. When the card is activated, it allows the player to roll Attack Dice or heal his units as explained on "Activating cards on active battalions".


• For idle battalions (opponent's hero has been defeated), the card can be activated only if it is a Hero Order Card. When the card is activated, it allows the player to regroup units on that battalion as explained on "Regrouping idle units".


• For defeated battalions (player's hero has been defeated), cards cannot be activated and are sent to the Discard Pile.


• For regrouping orders, the card always can be activated. When the card is activated, it allows the player to regroup the fleeing units as explained on "Regrouping fleeing units".

After checking the cards that can be activated (and discarding the other cards), the players must activate each card as explained in the next sections.

"Swordmen Card" can be activated because there are two Swordmen Unit Tiles in the first battalion.

"Horsemen Hero Card" can be activated too. While there aren't any Horsemen Hero Unit Tiles in the second battalion, because it's a Hero card the player checks the adjacent battalions and finds the Horsemen Hero Tile is in the third battalion.

"Horsemen Card" cannot be activated and must be sent to the Discard Pile because there aren't any Horsemen Unit Tiles in the third battalion.

Activating cards in active battalions:

When an Order Card is activated in an active battalion, the player places on the card the Attack Dice to roll for the attack and then activates the card's Support Powers.

The dice to be placed on the card must be of the colour shown on the card's Attack (top-right corner). Players don't place any dice on cards without attack. The number of dice to be placed is calculated as follows:

• Add as many dice as the number shown on the Attack of the card.


• If there are more than one unit in the battalion matching the card played, add one more die.


• If the card has an Offensive Power and its activation condition is fulfilled (see the power's description), add as many dice as shown on bottom of the Power or as explained in the power's description.


• If the opponent's card (on opposite battalion) has a Defensive Power and the Class of the player's card matches some of the classes shown inside, remove as many dice as shown on bottom of the Power.

After calculating the number of dice, the player activates the Support Powers on his card as explained in Power Descriptions. Those special powers have several effects, such as healing units, nullifying the opponent's powers or modifying some rules.

The Empire's player activates a Catapult card (there is a Catapult tile in the battalion): The player first places 3 red dice shown on the card. The Fear Power on Catapult card allows the player to place one more die. The Catapult card ends up with 4 red dice to be rolled. The Orcs' player activates an Orc Warriors card (there are two Orc Warriors unit tiles in the battalion): The player first places 2 yellow dice shown on the card. As there are two Orc Warrior units in the battalion the player adds an additional die. The Goblin Support Power allows the player to add one more die because there is a goblin unit in the battalion too. Lastly, the player checks the defensive Powers of the opponent's card. The Catapult order's defensive Power removes one die from infantry and cavalry cards. So the player removes one of the dice placed because the Orc Warriors card is an infantry card. The Orc Warriors card ends up with 3 yellow dice to be rolled.

Power Descriptions:

OFFENSIVE POWERS:

	FEAR: Add one die if the opponent's Card doesn’t have the "NO FEAR" Power.
	GOBLIN SUPPORT: Add one die if there is some goblin unit (not archers) in the same battalion.
	GOBLINS FRENZY: Add one die for each player's goblin unit (not archers) on the board (battalions, reinforcements or fleeing units zones).

DEFENSIVE POWERS:

	Opponent rolls two less dice if his card class is INFANTRY or CAVALRY.
	Opponent rolls two less dice if his card class is CAVALRY.
	Opponent rolls one less die no matter his card class.

SUPPORT POWERS:

	HEAL: Remove one wound die (placed over a morale square) from all units in the battalion.
	ANTIDOTE: Remove the poison dice (only dice that haven't been placed on a morale square yet) from all units in the battalion.
	GLOBAL HEAL: Remove all wound dice (placed over a morale square) from all units in the battalion.
	PRECISION: Ignore the arrows printed on empty spaces in battalions when assigning the dice.
	NO FEAR: Cancels fear Power on opponent's card.

Regrouping fleeing units:

Swordmen Card allows the player to move one fleeing Swordmen Unit Tile to Reinforcements.

Healers Card allows the player to move a Swordmen Unit Tile and a Halberds Unit Tile to Reinforcements.

If the player plays an Order Card on Regrouping Orders, he can regroup the fleeing units.

For each Regrouped Unit shown on the bottom of the played Order Card, the player moves one unit (with the same picture) from the Fleeing Units zone to the Reinforcements zone.

If there is no empty space in the Reinforcements zone, the regrouping is cancelled.

Regrouping idle units:

Swordmen Hero Card allows the player to move one Swordmen Unit Tile from the battalion to Reinforcements.

When a battalion has defeated the opponent’s hero, the victorious units remain in the battalion (they are chasing fleeing enemy troops) but the player can play on that battalion a Hero Order Card to regroup those units.

Only Hero Order Cards can be used; other cards are discarded without any effect.

For each Regrouped Unit shown on the bottom of the played Order Card, the player moves one unit (with the same picture) in the battalion to the Reinforcements zone.

If there is no empty space in the Reinforcements zone, the regrouping is cancelled.

Apply poison:

Before rolling any dice, each player must move all Poison dice (not placed yet on a morale square) on each of his unit tiles to an empty Morale Square.

As shown on the example, the green dice (Poison) over the Militia and Halberds Unit Tiles must be moved to an empty Morale Square.

Players roll all the Attack Dice that were placed on each of their Order Cards (one card per battalion).

After rolling the dice, the player must assign them to the opponent's Unit Tiles in the opposing battalion. The six possible die results are shown on the board between the battalions of both players. Each Attack Die is assigned to the Front Row opponent's Unit Tile in front of the matching printed die result.

If there isn't a Front Row unit in front of the printed die (because the unit was defeated) the Attack Die is assigned to the unit behind (in the Second Row) unless there is an arrow printed on the empty position in front of the matching printed die. If there is an arrow and there is also an unit on the position where the arrow is pointing, the die is assigned to that unit instead.

If the die must be assigned to a Unit Tile in the Second Row and there isn't one, the die is assigned to the Hero.

1's and 2's will be assigned to the left swordmen. 3's and 4's will be assigned to the center knight. 5's and 6's will be assigned to the right swordmen.

1's will be assigned to the Shaman Hero. 2's, 3's, 4's and 5's will be assigned to the center goblin. 6's will be assigned to the Shaman in the Second Row.

NOTE: Precision Power on Order Cards allows the player to ignore the printed arrows in the battalion where the card was played.

When an Attack Die is assigned to an Unit Tile, the die is placed over a Morale Square of that unit as a Wound.

Some units have an Armour that can protect them from one Attack Dice each round (but not for all dice colours). The die blocked by the unit's armour is placed over the armour symbol of the unit and must follow these rules:

• Normal Armour versus Normal Dice (yellow) blocks the first Attack Die.


• Normal Armour versus Poisoned Dice (green) blocks the second Attack Die.


• Golden Armour versus all Dice Colours blocks the first Attack Die.

Poisoned Dice (green) work a little differently: the first die to be placed over a Morale Square (after checking Armour) is placed instead on the center of the Unit Tile as Poison. The Poison remains over the unit until the next round and then they are moved onto Morale Squares (as explained at the beginning of this step). A Unit Tile can only have one die as Poison, so the next die assigned to the unit is placed on a Morale Square as normal.

	NORMAL ATTACKS (YELLOW) On the left, all three yellow dice are placed over Morale Squares as wounds because the Unit Tile doesn't have any Armour. On the right, Normal Armour blocks the first yellow die but the second die is placed on a Morale Square as a wound.
	POISONED ATTACKS (GREEN) On the left, the first green die is placed on the center of the Unit as Poison, remaining dice are placed on Morale Squares as wounds. On the right, the first green die is placed also on the center of the Unit as Poison, but the Normal Armour blocks the second green die. The third die is placed on a Morale Square as a wound. If the Unit has Golden Armour instead of Normal, the first die is blocked and the second die is placed as Poison.
	CRUSHING ATTACKS (RED) On the left, both red dice are placed on Morale Squares as wounds because the Normal Armour doesn't protect the Unit from red dice. On the right, Golden Armour blocks the first red die, but the second die is placed over a Morale Square as a wound.

At the beginning of this step, players must remove all dice placed over the units' Armour symbols.

Then players must check the units in their battalions (checking the Hero last). Any unit with no empty Morale Squares flees from the battalion following these rules:

• If the unit has 3 or less wounds (including a Poison die), it moves to the Units Fleeing zone.


• If the unit has 4 or more wounds (including Poison die), it's removed from the game (the unit has been annihilated).


• Hero Unit Tiles are always removed from the game and remaining Units on their battalions move to the Units Fleeing zone.


• When there is only one active battalion (both heroes still on the board), all units with no empty Morale Squares are removed from the game no matter the number of wounds.

When a Unit moves to the Units Fleeing zone, it pushes the units already in that zone one space to the right. Any unit pushed past the third position flees from the battlefield and is removed from the game.

The Orc Warrior Unit Tile in the battalion has all its Morale Squares covered by wounds so it is sent to the first position of the Fleeing Units Zone, pushing all Units in that zone one position to the right.

The goblin in the last position is pushed out of the Fleeing Units zone and is removed from the game.

All played cards are sent to the Discard pile of each player and they draw cards from the Order Deck until each has a hand of seven cards. If the Order Deck becomes exhausted, the Discard pile is shuffled and placed as a new Order Deck.

Then a new round starts for both players at STEP 1.

If any player loses two or more Heroes the game ends, and the player with more remaining Heroes is the winner.

If both player have the same number of active Heroes at the end of the game, it’s a tie.

EXAMPLE
2 Militia units (lv.1) 2 Points	4 Swordmen units (lv.2) 8 Points	2 Horsemen units (lv.2) 4 Points
2 Knights units (lv.3) 8 Points	2 Catapult units (lv.2) 4 Points	4 Archer units (lv.1) 4 Points
TOTAL POINTS: 2 + 8 + 4 + 8 + 4 + 4 = 30 Points
Swordman Hero	Horseman Hero	Archer Hero

First, each player must choose the faction of his army. Both players can choose the same faction as long as both have a copy of the game.

Each player gets 30 points to expend on non-hero units from his faction, the costs of which are:

	BRONZE: 1 point
	SILVER: 2 points
	GOLD: 4 points
	HERO: free

Players must get between 15 and 19 normal units and so all battalions get filled. For each unit selected the player gets its Order Card as well.

The players place those units face down in the first and second rows of each battalion. Remaining units are placed in the Reinforcements zone. Then the players choose a Hero for each battalion and place its unit tile face down and take its Order Card (heroes cost zero points). When both players have placed all units, they turn them up revealing their armies. An alternative to placing the units face down is to use player screens to hide deployments.

Then all the cards are shuffled together, placed on the Order Deck and then each player draws seven cards.