WTactics

Notice

These rules are currently being heavily re-worked. They’re here as a historical reference. Concepts that are likely to get ditched or revised are among others: AP:s, marking when moving, eco system, attack system.

Intro

This document is a developers version of a possible way to play the game. Everyone is welcome to contact snowdrop at contact -at- subversiva -dot- org if he/she wishes to partake in the development of this ruleset or if he/she is interested in developing a brand new one that’s separated from this one.

The rule set that follows is dubbed The Original Rules Concept (ORC). The document is not intended to be read as a finished work or as a final version for the players. On the contrary, it’s a sketchy outline that’s here for the sole purpose of game development. The end product will most likely differ in several ways. Almost eveything in here may change as a result of developer decisions, playtesting, new ideas and so on. All graphics shown should be considered as conceptual and not actual representations of finished cards.

Local design decisions

• Follow all the WTactics global design decisions to whatever extent possible.
• Focus on a 2 player game.
• Use the playing surface as a virtual table by having a slot system, adding a spatial dimension into the game.
• Avoid involving randomness, aiming at creating a game that’s as deterministic as possible.
• Minimize use of variables, tokens and administration.
• Maximize strategical depth.
• No ToD as it’s understood in BfW.
• Uncertain: Avoid using different damage types if it’s possible to get depth without them.
• Battle stats range between 1 and 7, where 3 equals “normal attack strength”, 1 is “almost no strength” and a 7 equals “exceptional strength”. Furthermore, they usually also relate to the Wesnoth and generic fantasy lore, meaning a human is weaker than a giant, an elf is more graceful than a troll, and so on.
• Creature abilities will, if possible, somehow relate to the ones had by their counterparts in BfW.
• Number of factions will be 3 – 5. Broader factions with more units in them is preferred to the opposite.
• Allowing draws is a feature, not a problem, at least not if it’s rare.
• Magic damage (ranged combat with the Magic weapon type) should probably be marked out graphically somehow if we keep it. A new container instead of the circle?

Card overview

Table overview

To the right of the army (red rectangle in picture above) there are three piles of cards: The army deck (face down, shield logo), the twilight which is located above the army deck, and also the graveyard, located to the right of the army deck.

The army

• Each player has his own army.
• Every army is always 8 slots large. Each slot can either be occupied by a creature controlled by the player or empty.
• There can never be more than one creature at the time in one and the same slot.
• Whenever a creature is put into play it becomes a part of the army.
• An army can be divided in several shapes: Two rows – the front row and the back row. The army is also divided into pairs, columns or squares

The army deck

• Before starting a game each player has to put together the deck of cards he/she wants to use. This deck of cards is called the army deck.
• The army deck may be composed of 60 cards or less.
• The army deck may be composed of any cards within one faction. Mixing cards in the deck from different factions is not allowed.
• There are no limits or restrictions to how many copies of a specific card there can be in the army deck.
• While playing the game the army deck should be face down so the opponent can’t see the cards in the deck. The opponent is strictly prohibited from viewing the cards in the other players army deck.
• Whenever a player wants to summon a new creature he/she can pick up and view his/her whole army deck without showing it’s content to the opponent. From it the player then selects the units he/she wishes to recruit. After doing so the player puts back the army deck on it’s proper place at the table.

The twilight

• The twilight pile of cards is empty when a game has just begun.
• Whenever a players creature has been killed somehow during the opponents turn it is placed face down in the twilight of it’s owner.
• The next time it’s the owners turn he/she may use it as payment for anything that costs gold. Each creature in the twilight may generate one gold (1G). If it does it is removed from the twilight and placed in the graveyard.
• When paying a cost for something it doesn’t matter if parts or all of the gold comes from creatures in play or creatures in the twilight. The only thing to take into consideration is if the sum was paid – not what generated the gold.
• At the end of a players turn all creatures left in the twilight are removed from it and placed in the graveyard: Left-over creatures in the Twilight can’t be saved there for later payment in between the player’s turns.

Example: Emma’s opponent, Eric, kills her Elvish Archer and her Mage during his own turn. Emma then places the two creatures into her twilight. Next time it’s her turn she wants to use an ability that one of her creatures in play has, and which costs one energy to activate. Emma pays the energy cost (1E) for the ability activation by removing her Elvish Archer from the twilight and placing it into the graveyard. When she has done that she then activate her creatures ability, and after that she’s satisfied and ends her turn. When doing so her left over Mage in her twilight is also moved into the graveyard, without producing any energy or gold.

The graveyard

• Whenever a creature is killed or removed from play in any other manner it is placed in the graveyard of it’s owner.
• All cards in the graveyard should be face up while playing. Any player may at any any given time view an opponents or his/her own graveyard without re-ordering the cards in it.
• A player may not recruit creatures from the graveyard unless a card specifically allows that action. For all intents and purposes, creatures in the graveyard are considered to be dead and roam around in another realm.

Numbers

• There are no decimal numbers in the game. All numbers are always integers.
• When division leads to decimal numbers they must be rounded properly. (i.e. 2,5 = 3 & 2,4 = 2)
• There are and can be no negative numbers in WT. The lowest number is always 0 (zero).

Rule Priorities

• A card to rule them all: Whenever a rule on a card contradicts or state something else than the rules in this document the card rule should be the valid one.
• No wins over Yes: Whenever a rule states something is possible/the case/true and another says it’s impossible/not the case/false, then the no-rule is valid. Negations always triumf.

Startup

• Each player brings his/her own army deck to the game.
• The players toss a coin or do any other random action that determines who becomes the first player (Player 1, P1).
• Each player selects four cards from the army deck after viewing it in private. The cards are then placed face down in any four slots in the army.
• Player 1 now selects which one of his/her face down cards he/she reveals. Player 1 then selects a card from the army deck and places it in any of the remaining slots.
• Player 2 reveals one of his/her face down cards, and then picks a card from the army deck and places it in any free slot.
• The process in the two previous paragraphs is repeated until both players have filled all their slots. The game then begins with player 1 having his/her first turn.
• Be ware that only up to one level 2 creature may be included in any army in this start setup.

Turn order

1. Unmark
2. Pay Upkeep
3. Recruit
4. Use abilities
5. Move
6. Attack / Rest / Use abilities
7. Discard Twilight

Action Points

• Every turn each player gets three action points (AP:s). The action points measure how many actions a player can perform during the turn.
• The actions that cost AP:s are as follows:
  • Attack – 1 AP
  • Move – 1 AP
  • Rest – 2 AP
• All unused AP:s are lost at the end of a players turn – they do not transfer or add up to the consecutive turn.
• Using abilities and recruiting usually doesn’t cost any AP:s.

Example: Attacking with one creature (1 x 1 AP) and moving two others (2 x 1 AP) would spend all the available AP:s for that turn.

Once the three AP:s have been spent during a turn the player can’t perform any more actions that cost AP:s.

Marking

Usually units are marked as payment for recruitment, the usage of abilities and movement.

Due to legal reasons we won’t define marking as “rotating a card 90 degrees” or “moving a card so that it becomes placed horizontal instead of standing up vertically”. While some card games utilize such a system (more commonly known as “tapping/to tap” a card) it will be suggested that the players mark the state of a cards depletion in whatever way they wish and that’s in accordance with the law(s) wherever the game is played.

Each creature can only be marked once per turn. At the start of every new turn all creatures are unmarked.

Upkeep

Some creatures/effects require a re-occurring fee to be paid every new turn. Such fees are called upkeep. If an upkeep is paid or not is up to the player.

If the player decides not to pay the upkeep the creature that requires the upkeep is put into the graveyard/the effect that requires the upkeep is broken.

Recruiting

At the start of every turn a player is allowed to summon new creatures to his/her army if there is one or more slots that are unoccupied in it and he/she can meet the payment requirement for the new recruit(s).

• When recruiting the player can freely look in his/her army deck, re-arrange cards in it and pick the units he/she wishes to recruit into the army.
• The army deck is then put back in it’s place face down.
• The player pays for the recruited creatures by marking one unmarked creature (or removing one creature from the twilight, putting it into the graveyard) for each gold the new recruit costs until the full price has been paid.
• The newly recruited unit is then placed in an empty slot chosen by the player.
• From this moment and until death the creature is considered to be in play.
• When the creature comes into play it is marked.

Levels

• A player is only allowed to have up to two level 2 units in play in the army at the same time.
• For each level 2 unit in the players army he/she has to pay 1 Gold as upkeep each new turn.
• If the player can’t pay the upkeep or chooses not to the creature is placed in the graveyard.
• [Level 3 units are reserved as god-like and meta-rule-changing units that there can only be one of per army and which don't participate in combat or occupy a slot in the army. More about that later i development.]

Movement

• All units can perform a movement unless otherwise stated on the specific card.
• Only unmarked creatures can move.
• One movement costs 1 AP.
• A creature may only move once per turn.
• Movements can take place in the four directions: North, south, east and west, and only into an adjacent slot. (Notice: A creature can’t move diagonally between slots.)
• There are two types of movement:
  • Normal Move: The creature moves into an empty adjacent slot.
  • Swap: The creature changes places with an adjacent ally creature in the army.

Resting

Unmarked creatures can heal them self for the cost of two AP:s. This is called resting. When a unit rests it recovers 1 Life Point of it’s health, and it also becomes marked.

Developers note:
I’m unsure about this: Having the option of resting as a core rule is probably a bad idea as it maybe prolongs the game and makes recruitment even more sparse. On the brighter side it means that an army deck could consist of only 30 – 40 cards instead, or even fewer. Resting has to be playtested carefully before we decide to include it in the core rules. ~ snowdrop

Abilities

Many creatures have special abilities that enable them to do something great or, in some cases, which hinders them somehow. An ability is always either a skill or a handicap.

There are four types of abilities:

• Triggered
• Permanent
• Activated
• Combat

Triggered Abilities

A triggered ability is one which activates itself when something specific happens and it’s criteria is met. Triggered abilities should always be executed whenever the conditions are met, and they are activated once per met condition.

Example I: “Graveshift – The next time another ally creature dies in combat, prevent all damage in that combat and place this creature in the Twilight instead.”

Example II: “Demoralize – Mark a target enemy creature in the Front Row for each Walking Corpse that comes into play under your control. ”


The two examples above show us what must – if it’s possible – happen if something else happens first. Let us now look at an example where the triggered ability is indeed triggered, but where the effect of it is optional, which allows the player to choose if the effect happens or not:

Example III: “Morale – You may unmark a target ally creature for each Knight that comes into play under your control.”

The ability in Example III triggers every time a Knight comes is successfully recruited. It does however not mean that the player must unmark one of his/her creatures every time that happens. The key to this is the words “you may” in the ability text.

If a triggered ability is triggered but the situation on the table makes it impossible for the effect to be properly executed nothing happens.

Permanent Abilities

Abilities that cost nothing to activate and that are always active (without the need of being triggered) are called permanent abilities. They get their name from the fact that they’re always active and in effect. Because of that they also lack a given cost or description of what triggers them.

Since a permanent ability is always in effect it can’t be activated or de-activated.

Example I: “Blessed – This creature can’t be the target of Magic attacks.”
Example II: “Steadfast – This creature does not get marked when attacking.”

Activated Abilities

This type of abilities are all activated by the player. In order for an activation to succeed the player needs to harness and exhaust the creatures power or the collective effort of other creatures in the army by marking them.

Activated abilities are recognized by the fact that they all have that requirement. Exactly how many units that need to be marked and where depends on the power of the skill and the other traits a unit may have.

Example: “[ ] [ 2 ] Heal – Restore 1 Life Point of target adjacent ally creature.”

In the example we need to mark the creature that has the ability and also 2 additional creatures, whichever the player wants, in order to use the Heal-ability once. All cost abbreviations and their meaning are described in the ability cost chart to the right. Notice that the cost for an activated ability can be made up of a single one of them or of any combination of them.

Twilight Powered Activated Abilities
In cases where [ x ] is (part of) the requirement to activate an ability any amount of those [ x ] may be paid by removing 1 creature per x from the Twilight and placing it into the Graveyard instead. In the example with the Heal-ability above a player can:

• Mark 2 other creatures in the army.
• Mark 1 other creature in the army and place 1 creature from the Twilight into the Graveyard.
• Place 2 creatures from the Twilight into the Graveyard

Marking the creature with the Heal-ability and also doing one of the above options would satisfy the criteria required to activate the Heal ability.

All other more specific requirements like for example [ P ] or [ R ] or [ ] can not be met by removing creatures in the Twilight.

Combat Abilities

Some abilities are only activated when a combat takes place. They are always related to a specific weapon/combat type. The only they get activated is in battle, when the relevant combat type is used.

These abilities are recognized by their names: The name is always within brackets [ ] and has the name of the weapon inside of them.

Example: The Elvish Druid has a combat ability called [Ensnare]: When the Druid uses it’s Ensnare-weapon (ranged combat) the Ensnare-ability is activated.

Army shapes

When playing the game the following imaginary shapes are often used as a way to categorize and describe parts the army while using abilities or counting points: Rows, squares, columns and pairs.

Row

Every army is composed of two rows. The front row:



…and the back row:



Square

There are only two possible squares in an army:



And the next one:



Every square is made up of four cards – two on the top and two on the bottom.

Column



Any two cards that are adjacent to each other vertically and in different rows make up a column. There are 4 different columns in an army.

Pair



Any two cards next to each others left or right are considered to be a pair if they’re both in the same row. The two cards in colour in the above picture is an example of a pair. There’s a total of 6 possible different pairs in an army.

Adjacent

Although not a shape, another common and re-occurring element of the game is the relationship between cards when they’re adjacent. Creatures that are next to each other and have direct vertical or horisontal contact (north, south, east & west) are adjacent. Notice that this does not apply in cases where they have diagonal contact.



In the picture above the Elvish Druid is adjacent to the three yellow marked cards. A creature can never be adjacent to more than 3 other units at any given time.

Attacking

The options that are open to deploy a combat depend on a) what weapons (ranged combat and/or close combat) a creature has and if it b) can reach it’s target, the enemy creature.

From the Front Row

Creatures in the front row can attack:

1. Enemy creatures in the enemy front row that are a) in front of them in or b) next to the enemy slot(s) that is in front of them. They can do this in either ranged or close combat.
2. Enemy creatures in the enemy back row that are in front of them if and only if the target creature isn’t covered.



As described in paragraph 1, the picture depicts which enemies the Elvish Fighter (green) can attack in the opponents first row. All legit enemy targets that can be reached are marked in red and by arrows. As seen, a unit in the front row may attack any enemy unit in the front row if it’s straight in front of the attacker or diagonally next to him/her.

In the picture below, which corresponds to paragraph 2, we’ll see the only circumstance where a unit from the front row can reach an enemy in the back row: In the case where there is no enemy creature in front of the target.



From the Back Row

• Creatures from the back row can only attack straight ahead (never diagonally) of them and only in ranged combat.
• Creatures in the back row can reach any enemy target in the first row of the opponent that is in front of them.
• They can also reach any enemy target in the opponents second row if the target is not in cover and which is in front of them.



In the picture above we can see two cases with legal attacks from the back row. Both the attackers initiate the attacks by using ranged combat. Notice: The

Attacking in Group

Sometimes an enemy is to strong for your units and you won’t be able to hurt it no matter what warrior you attack with. In such cases the group attack is the savior. Wisely used group attacks can serve several strategical purposes and get you out of trouble.

• Group attacks an only be launched by units in your front row.
• Up to three units may form the attack group.
• A group attack is considered to take place if 2 to 3 units attack the same enemy target in the same battle. A single unit can never attack or count as a group. Single units always perform normal attacks.
• All units participating in the group attack must use the same attack type, which is either close combat or ranged combat.
• A group attack that has 2 participants in it costs 2 AP to launch. A group attack that has 3 participants in it costs 3 AP to launch. Summed up: It costs 1 additional AP to launch an attack for every additional member that’s in the group.
• All units participating in the group attack must be able to properly reach/target the enemy.
• While participating in a group attack all units that are a part of the attacking group lose all of their abilities. Their abilities will be restored to them and work as usual once the group attack has been resolved and if they survived the battle.
• Every attacking unit is marked, exactly as in a normal attack.
• The combat values (close or ranged) of all the attacking units are added up. The sum of those values is their combined attack value. The combined attack value is then compared to the enemy targets defense value. If the combined attack value is equal or higher then the defender loses 1 life and the attack is a success. If the combined attack value is lower than the enemy targets defense value the attack does not affect the enemy target.
• When striking back the defending enemy target may distribute it’s comnbat damage however it pleases among the participants of the group attack.

Example: In the picture below an Elvish Archer and two Elvish Fighters launch a group attack against a Dwarvish Lord. Every participant of the attack can reach the enemy target, and they can all attack in either close combat or ranged combat.



Attack declaration

1. Check that the attackers enemy target is reachable.
2. Mark the attacker. Notice: You must always mark the attacker in order to be able to attack with him/her. If a creature is already marked then it can’t attack while being so.
3. Tell the opponent the name of the target and clarify by pointing or adding info about what row it’s located in (back/front).

Combat resolution

1. Once an attack is declared against a legal enemy target the battle resolution begins.
2. The defender starts the process by getting to use an ability if he/she wishes to and can afford it.
3. When he/she does (or doesn’t) it then becomes the attackers turn to apply an ability if he/she chooses to do so.
4. This process repeats itself back and forth until both players don’t intend to use any more abilities. The cardinal rule is that whenever a player gets to use an ability, the other player must immediately be offered a chance to do the same.
5. Once all abilities have been applied and no player is interested in applying additional ones the attackers combat value in the chosen attack type (close or ranged) is compared with the targets defense value. If the attack is equal to or greater than the defense value the attack is a success and 1 Life Point is deducted from the target.
7. The very same is also true for the target when it defends itself by striking back at the attacker.
8. Place a damage token on the creature(s) that lost a life point in order to keep track of it’s health.
9. If a creature has a number of damage tokens on it that is equal to or greater than it’s life point it dies and is placed in the graveyard (if it was the attacker) or twilight (if it was the defender) after the battle has ended.

Defending

Cover

Creatures that are in the back row and have an ally creature in front of it in the front row are covered. A covered creature can’t be the target of an attack unless it’s aggressor uses a magic weapon or an ability that specifically allows such a target to take place (i.e. the Sharpshooter ability).

Strike back

• When a creature is attacked by an enemy unit it fights back using the same combat type (close or ranged) as the attacker if it has such a weapon. If it hasn’t then it doesn’t counter attack.
• The defending creature strikes back even if it dies as a result of the attack: Both the attack and the counter attack are considered to happen at the same time.
• The strike back happens even if the aggressor happens to be in cover: For the duration of that battle the aggressor is not considered to be in cover.

Winning

There are two ways to win the game:

• Eliminate all of the opponents creatures that are in play.
• Reach 15 victory points.

Victory by points

Every time you kill an enemy creature you may get victory points if at least one of the three following shapes have been created with empty slots as a result of that specific death:

• Pair – 1p
• Column – 2p
• Square – 4p

The points are awarded directly and the player getting them is responsible for keeping track of them. It’s most easily done with pen and paper, tokens or dice.

Notice: When a kill results in more than one of the forms being created of empty slots then only the form that rewards the player with the most points is counted.

An example of earning points for a column
First our opponent kills our Elvish Archer (marked red)…



Our opponent then goes on and slays our Elvish Shaman. (In reality the dead archer should have been removed by now in the picture below, but we’ve left him/her hanging around for the sake of clarity.)



The result would then be an army that has two empty slots, as below:



The two empty slots form a column, thus our opponent earns 2p, as it says in the list in the start of this paragraph.

Please keep in mind that the opponent would have gotten 2p for a column even if he only killed the Elvish Shaman, if the Elvish Archer in the example was never around and that slot was empty to begin with. The important aspect is not how the shape came to be: It might have been a result of player and opponent interaction where a player moved a creature and left an empty slot behind, and where the opponent killed an adjacent creature. It might also have been a pure opponent creation, where the opponent killed all creatures involved in creating the form, as in the example illustrated above with the Elvish Shaman and Elvish Archer.

Also notice that an opponent is not rewarded points for any empty shapes you create yourself. To get a point the opponent must have, at the very least, contributed to the shape’s creation by killing a creature.

Victory by army elimination

If you managed to kill all of the opponents creatures in play and have at least one creature in play yourself you win the game.

Draw

• If you manage to die with your last creature in play while killing your opponents last creature in play the game ends in a draw.
• If both you and your opponent reach the victory point at the same time the game ends in a draw.
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