CCG Store : Warlord Saga of the Storm

4E EDITION GAME RULES ENGLISH VERSION PART I :

The Warlord :

In Warlord: Saga of the Storm (TM) you play the role of a powerful leader in the fantasy world of the Lands of the Accord and beyond. Your people are at war with your enemies, and you must crush your foes on the field of battle.

There is no alternative. Your cards represent the party members, equipment, and tactics you have at your disposal as you pursue victory. In addition, the cards along with the web comic will unfold an epic fantasy that continually evolves.

Victory :

This is war: your sole duty is to destroy the armies arrayed against you. Kill the soldiers, but more importantly, destroy the enemy Warlords! There is but one path to victory: vanquish. As soon as any player does not control a Warlord character, that player is out of the game. The last player in the game wins the fight.

Card Types :

There are three general types of cards in Warlord: Characters, items, and actions. Each of these card types is labeled in white just beneath the right corner of the illustration. Lets take a look at each of these card types and show you what the various bits on them mean. (Remember, in all cases, higher numbers are better.)

Characters / Items / Action cards :

You can find a complete graph description of a Warlord CCG character card at this

The items cards are the special or magical equipment your army uses in its battles. Some items affect a character's ATK and/or AC. If so, numbers appear in the ATK location of the card; otherwise these spots are blank. Of course, there's some Requirements: The Level/Class/Alignment icon matches the class of character allowed to equip the item. If you see a rogue symbol as for example, this item is allowed only to a rogue character card. The number inside the icon Level/Class/Alignment tells you what level the item is; this affects how easily it may be equipped.

Bold-faced words at the top of the text box are traits. A character may not have two items equipped that share certain traits.

The main portion of the text box contains any special abilities the item has.

The Action cards are the special tactics used by the characters in your army. An action card can be an Order given during the Decree phase or a React that is played whenever it says it is triggered. As the items, the actions cards follow also some Requirements : The Level/Class/Alignment icon must matches the class of character allowed to perform the action card. If you see a wizard symbol as for example, the item is allowed only to Wizard character card. The number inside the icon Level/Class/Alignment tells you what level the action card is; this affects which characters may perform it. All cleric and wizard action cards (including those that are multi-classed with either cleric or wizard) are also known as Spells.

The main portion of the text box contains the special effects created by the action card. Some even have more than one action - you may choose which to use.

Note : All specific terms of the game are described at this

The Fundamentals :

The Golden Rule :

Whenever the text on one of the cards specifically contradicts a game rule, the card takes precedence.

Commanding Your Army :

The forces of your army are arrayed in a formation, which consists of a number of rows of characters, called ranks. Your first rank is closest to the other players' formations and is also called ''the front rank''. Ranks behind the first are numbered sequentially. There is no maximum number of ranks you may have in your formation. When counting the distance between characters, it is one rank from your front rank to the front rank of any other player's formation. Front ranks from different formations are in front of each other. All characters face the front ranks of all other players' formations, for determining the direction of forward and backward. Ranks in your formation are not allowed to have more characters than the rank in front of them, except your first rank, which may have any number of characters in it.

Illegal Ranks :

During a game, as your characters fall in battle, you may end up with a rank that has more characters than the one in front of it. Such a rank is called an Illegal Rank, and must be corrected immediately.

If you have an illegal rank, you must adjust your formation by having characters ''fall forward''. Fixing an illegal rank in this way happens as soon as you have one, and interrupts the normal sequence of play. It takes place before any other action or effect, including the next step in a multi-step action, and is not an action itself.

To fix ranks, fall characters forward one at a time from the illegal rank(s), in any order you prefer, until you have no more illegal ranks. Ready characters that fall become spent then move forward one rank. Spent characters that fall become stunned then move forward one rank. Stunned characters that fall simply move forward one rank. When you move a character, you may put the character on the far left, far right, or between any two characters in the rank. You may move a character even if doing so causes another rank to become illegal. When falling forward triggers a react (more on reacts below), you perform the react before fixing any other illegal ranks. Falling forward does not count as maneuvering (more on maneuvering below) but does count as moving.

You may not put a character into play if it will create an illegal rank.

Melee strikes :

Whenever one of your characters is going to perform a melee strike, choose any other character within one rank of your character to be the target of your melee strike. Roll a d20 and add the strike's ATK modifier to the result. If the total is equal to or greater than your targets AC, then you hit the target, and inflict a wound (place one wound token on the target).

The ATK modifier is the strike's base ATK, plus all ATK bonuses and penalties from items and other card effects. Most strikes use the character's Primary ATK as the base, which is their first (or only) ATK modifier.

If a card effect sets a strike's ATK to a certain value, then that modifier is the base ATK (''ex. Perform a +3 melee strike''). Similarly, when performing an attack (more on attacking below), use the characters second ATK modifier for the second strike (and so on for any other strikes).

Ranged Strikes :

A ranged strike is a lot like a melee strike, except that a ranged strike shoots over one rank. For example, a character making a ranged strike from your 2nd rank targets a character in the 1st rank of another formation, and a ranged strike from your 1st rank targets a character in the 2nd rank of another formation. You may not target a character within one rank with a ranged strike.

Whenever one of your characters is going to perform a ranged strike, choose any other character two ranks away from your character to be the target of the strike. Roll a d20 and add the bonus of the ranged strike (usually the number before the words ''ranged strike'') to the result. If the total is equal to or greater than your target's AC, then you hit, and inflict a wound (place one wound token on the target).

A character's ATK bonus, and the number of melee strikes it has, does not affect ranged strikes.

Wounds, Hit points and Dying :

If the number of wounds on a character equals or exceeds its total hit points, it immediately dies. A character also dies if its level is reduced to 0 or less. Place the character and all of its equipped items and attached actions into its owner's discard pile.

Die Rolls :

Whenever you roll a twenty-sided die (a ''d20''), there are two special results to watch out for: Critical Success and Critical Failure.

* Critical Success - Whenever a character rolls a 20, that is a critical success. Whenever a roll is set (through a card effect) to a critical success, it is set to a 20. Critical successes may not be re-rolled or changed. When a character gets a critical success, they automatically succeed in whatever they are attempting, regardless of the target number or any modifiers.

* Critical Failure - Whenever a character rolls a 1, that is a critical failure. Whenever a roll is set (through a card effect) to a critical failure, it is set to a 1. Critical failures may not be re-rolled or changed. When a character gets a critical failure, they automatically fail in whatever they are attempting, regardless of the target number or any modifiers.

If two characters are rolling against one another (ex. rolling for Initiative, see below) and both critically fail or succeed, then any modifiers are applied as if there were nothing special about the 1 or 20. If two characters are rolling against one another and the results are identical, then both dice are re-rolled (with the exact same bonuses and penalties applied). If two characters are rolling against one another and one of them critically succeeds or fails, then that character wins or loses the roll, regardless of any modifiers.

Readying, Spending and Stunning :

Ready, spent, and stunned represent the orientation of each of your cards. Ready cards are upright to their owner's perspective; spent cards are rotated 90 degrees to the side; stunned cards are upside down to their owner's perspective.

When the game mechanics or card text requires you to spend a card, turn that card 90 degrees to signify that it has been spent. You may only spend a ready card; a spent or stunned card may not be spent again. When the game mechanics or card text requires you to stun a card, turn that card upside down (rotated 180 degrees, not turned face down). A stunned card may not be stunned again. A stunned card is also considered spent.

Stunned characters may not perform any actions, including those on equipped items, but they may still be affected with actions by other characters. Actions printed on stunned items may not be performed, but all stat modifiers and other effects are still in effect.

Building Your Deck :

You may play with the decks as you purchased them or you may put together your own deck from any cards in your collection. When building your own deck, you must include a minimum of 50 cards. You may have no more than three copies of any given card. A single card type (character, action or item) cannot make up more than half of your deck (if you run a 50 card deck, you cannot have more than 25 cards of one card type). Count all cards in your deck, including your starting characters.

If a card has the Epic trait, you may not have more than one copy with that name in your deck. You may not have more than one character with the Warlord, Overlord, Daemonlord or Dragon Lord trait, though you may have one of each. You must include sufficient characters to make a legal starting army.

The Rules of War :

Preparing for Battle :

To start each game, every player simultaneously presents the starting army from their deck. This consists of one character with the Warlord trait, three 1st-level characters, and two 2nd-level characters. The five non-Warlord characters must be of the same faction as the Warlord, and cannot include more than one copy of a particular Unique character. The three 1st-level characters are in the 1st rank, both 2nd-level characters are in the 2nd rank, and your Warlord is in the 3rd rank. This occurs before the first turn of the game. No actions may be performed at this time, although static text still takes effect.

There are five phases in each turn of the game. In order, these are:

1) Ready Phase. 2) Draw Phase. 3) Initiative Phase. 4) Decree Phase. 5) End of Turn Phase.

1st - Ready Phase :

All players simultaneously turn their cards 90 degrees back toward the upright position. Spent cards become ready, and stunned cards become spent.

2nd - Draw Phase :

Players may discard any cards from their hands that they wish. Then all players draw (one card after another) until they have a number of cards in their hand equal to their hand size.

A player's standard hand size is 5 cards. If a player has more cards in their hand than their hand size, they do not need to discard any (they simply may not draw any during this phase).

3rd - Initiative Phase :

Every player's Warlord simultaneously rolls for Initiative. The Warlord rolls a die and adds any appropriate bonuses (these may be generic die-roll bonuses or specific Initiative bonuses). The player whose Warlord rolls highest goes first in the Decree Phase, and play proceeds clockwise from that player. A Critical Success always wins (as stated in the Die Rolls section). If there is a tie for highest, only the tied Warlords reroll.

4th - Decree Phase :

The Decree Phase is when everything happens! The game play goes around the table, with each player giving one Decree at a time until all players pass. The player who won initiative gives one (and only one) Decree. When that decree is done, the player to the left gives a Decree, and so on. The Decree phase continues, with each player giving one Decree in turn, until all players pass consecutively. When this happens, the Decree phase ends.

When it is your turn to give a Decree, you may do one of the following:

* Put a character into play from your hand :

As a Decree, you may take a character from your hand and add it to your army by putting it into play in your formation. You must place the character in a rank exactly equal to its level. A character may be placed on the far left, far right, or between two other characters in that rank. You may not put a character into play if it would result in an illegal rank.

Loyalty Penalty - Characters of a different faction than your Warlord suffer a loyalty penalty. These characters enter play stunned. Characters with the Mercenary trait never suffer a loyalty penalty.

* Have one of your characters perform an Order :

When you want one of your characters to perform an Order, they may do any of the following :

Standard Orders - These are the three actions that any character may perform as an Order by paying the standard cost (without having the text of the action printed on the character). These orders may also be performed as part of another, larger action. If they are, then all of their standard costs or class, level and other requirements must be met, unless the larger action specifically ignores or overrides them. When performed in this manner, they are neither orders nor actions in themselves (since the larger action is, well, the action and might not even be an order).

Order: Spend this character: Perform an attack.

An Attack consists of spending a character you control to perform a number of consecutive melee strikes. The exact number and order is based on the strikes listed in the character's ATK (the battle axe), plus any strikes gained through card effects.

All of these strikes must target opposing characters; you cannot use melee strikes from an attack to strike characters you control. (Other melee strikes not coming from an attack may target any character).

While a character must always perform his first strike during an Attack, any strikes beyond the first do not have to be performed if the player chooses not to (i.e. you may stop at any time). Similarly, it is possible to gain additional strikes during an Attack and perform them as part of the action.

Order: Reveal an item card from your hand: Equip the item to this character.

A character may equip an item from your hand to enhance his or her abilities. Select a character you control to equip the item and put the card into play under the character. It is present within your army, but it has no effect on illegal ranks.

Most item cards have a class and/or trait restriction on them; only characters of that class and with the correct trait may equip these items. Other item cards have the classless symbol on them; if the card's text does not declare any restrictions, then any character may equip these. All item cards have a level; the character's level (including any modifiers for equipping the item) plus the number of the rank he currently occupies must be equal to or greater than the items level. A character cannot equip an item if that character already has an item of the same name. If the character an item is equipped to leaves play, the item card is put into its owner's discard pile.

Some items have certain traits called Equip Locations (Armor, Arrow, Bow, Familiar, Gauntlet, Helm, Shield, Stance, Steed, Trap, and Weapon). When a character successfully equips an item with one or more of these traits, any items previously equipped that have the same equip location trait(s) are destroyed and placed in the discard pile. If a character has a special ability to equip more than one item with a certain trait (two Weapons, for example), then a new item only causes one of the previously equipped items to be destroyed (so equipping a third Weapon only destroys one other Weapon in our example).

Order: Spend this character: Move this character forward or backward one rank, or to a different position in his current rank.

A character may maneuver in order to change his or her position within a formation. Maneuvering consists of spending a character you control to move him or her forward or backward one rank, or to change position within the current rank. If this results in an illegal rank, it must be immediately fixed as described under The Fundamentals. When you move a character, you may put the character on the far left, far right, or between any two characters in the rank.