*Any coincidence on how one will interpret the title acronym wise should be seen as purely coincidental
Rules (subject to change)
Key areas:
Deployment Zone: This is where your generals will be situated upon the starting of the game. What is being shown here is your own defensive half. Which means in order to make the most out of everything you have, you'll have to move your general cards into the opponent player's own deployment zone.
Discard Pile: This is where your used/discarded cards will go. At the same time, all your generals evacuated will go here as well. More on that later on.
Deck: This will be where you'll draw your cards (ofc lah! Ah bo then?). You can have a maximum of eight cards in your hand. More on that later on.
Command: This is your frontline chenghu (i.e. government in Singlish). Simply put, you cannot afford to get them all killed. Okay, actually you only need to kill one vital lobo, that's it. But anyway, if Deployment Zone is to be where your generals are, then your Command is basically where the rest of your character cards should be. More on that later on.
(Alamak! How come I like keep on repeating one sia?)
Different type of cards:
General [武将] - This is your frontline character card type where he/she can only move and act about within the Deployment Zone.
Adviser [谋臣] - This is your support character card type where he/she can only be put within your Command area.
Tactics [兵计] - Self-explanatory. Okay, I know I sound like a jerk here. But anyway, this is basically your one-shot effect card which can be used under specific conditions or on specific target type. Mostly for support, but exceptions exist where they can end up dealing direct damage.
Strategy [军谋] - Quite similar to Tactics, but only having a certain extent of lasting effect, i.e. status effect lasting for a relevant number of turns.
Title [官位] - Basically whatever military and political ranks for the respective character cards. Military Titles are reserved for Generals while political Titles are reserved for the Advisers. Yet, it's perfectly possible for a General to have a political Title and vice versa for any Adviser. The effects can basically range from actual support to actual combat.
*Latest!*
Reinforcement [援军] - Effect cards targeting any given Generals offering various types of permanent buffs.
*Latest!*
Reinforcement [援军] - Effect cards targeting any given Generals offering various types of permanent buffs.
Unique Cards:
Strategist [军师] - You can only have one Strategist in your army (i.e. every character cards being played). Character cards of this type are basically Advisers who have the option to become a Strategist. Case in point: If I have two Strategists, it will only mean that I have two character cards eligible for such a role. At the same time, Strategists can have two abilities. One as an Adviser and the other as a Strategist.
Commander [统帅] - You can only have one Commander in your army just like the character card type above. If Strategists are all about being Advisers as a prerequisite, then Commanders are basically your Generals' variation.
Lord [君主] - This is your commander in chief. Keep him safe, for if he dies, it's game over and total defeat.
Event [事迹] - Actual events in history translated onto this TCG. It's a one-shot usage with a lasting effect until the end of the game. For convenience of reference, it's advisable to reserve an area (e.g. beside your deck) where you can put any/all your Event cards used.
Card Rarity:
SR: Super Rare
R: Rare
UC: Uncommon
C: Common
Card Factions:
Wei [魏] - Founded by the great warlord Cao Cao and further strengthened by his son Cao Pi, this is the northern kingdom of cavalry driven by brutal decisiveness. Its Generals are renowned for their bravery, their Advisers being advocates of order in politics and chaos with a purpose during war.
Shu [蜀] - Founded by the wandering hero Liu Bei and continued by his firstborn son Liu Shan, this is the youngest faction filled with able wisdom coming from its Advisers and feats of valour spearheaded by its Generals. With a strong military and the land of Hanzhong as the northern most fortress, it will only take an army of fools to challenge an army of steel.
Wu [吴] - From the legendary Sun Jian to his all conquering firstborn son Sun Ce, the current lord Sun Quan may be still young. But exceptional ability to rule has now made firm Jiangdong's status as a naval force to be reckoned with.
Han [汉] - The Eastern Han is now nearing its twilight, loyal vassals are few far and in between. Dominated by the greedy and corrupted, an old era has to do battle with the new.
Qun [群] - Feeding upon a time of turmoil, none dare to stand before these warlords hungry for domination and battle. Will peace ever come to a strife riven dynasty or perhaps an eternal dark age awaits?
Q: So should I just use my Tactic and Strategy cards only during my Preparation Phase?
A: Tactic cards are mainly used during Preparation Phase. However there will be exceptions to the rule. Strategy cards can only be played during the Preparation Phase.
How to start your game
Firstly, you must select your own army. This is NOT just about choosing your own deck, it's also about choosing which character cards you will start the game with. No matter how many characters you field at the start, you can never exceed the total cost of 15 Resource points. Do take note that the minimum cost of any given character card is 1 Resource point with the maximum limit being 5 Resource points. Do take note that your chosen Lord character is included in the 15 cost quota.
Secondly after you've finished your character selection, you can opt to allocate 10 Resource points to your respective characters where Title cards are concerned. Title cards' cost range from 1 to 3 Resource points.
Lastly, you must decide which character is to be your Strategist and Commander.
After all has been said and done, you may start the game with eight cards drawn into your hand.
Note: Character selection is different from summoning any character. I will cover this in the next part.
Character Traits
This is basically your characters' passive ability indicated within your triggered ability's text box at the upper right corner. Basically, it can be separated into three types:
Assault [奇袭] - General trait. This is basically your first strike rule. If a General with Assault is attacked, he/she will still gain the first strike advantage. If both Generals have Assault, then the one with a higher Resource cost will go first.
Defend [拒守] - General trait. This is somewhat like a triggered indestructible status. Once activated, your General cannot attack until your next turn. During your General's Defend status, enemy Generals cannot declare any attack against said General.
Law [令法] - Adviser trait. You can increase the maximum value of your Resource points used for selecting your Generals' Titles by X where X is the cost of your said Adviser.
Ambush [伏兵] - Adviser trait. You can choose up till X number of Generals at the start of the game where X is the cost of your said Adviser. Any General chosen this way can never declare any attack until he/she declares an interception against any attacking enemy General. More on the interception rule later on.
Politics [施政] - Lord trait. Any Adviser's summoning cost will be reduced by 1.
War [先身] - Lord trait. You can move this Lord into your deployment zone without any penalty or bonus while any General's summoning cost will be reduced by 1. Any Lord with the War trait will be treated automatically as a Commander regardless of whether there's any such character in the first place.
Turn Phase
1. Draw Phase: Draw a card from your deck
2. Preparation Phase: This is where you will play your strategy/tactic cards. At the same time, this is the only phase where you can opt whether or not to activate any General's Defend trait.
3. Combat Phase: This is where you will declare any attack against any of your opponent player's Generals
4. End Phase: Resolves any outstanding effect. Generals on the field suffering any form of damage beforehand will also regain full Strength.
Layout (For character cards only)
Strength: This is an indication of BOTH your character's hit points and the amount of damage he/she can deal. This will be shown in the lower left corner.
Cost: The Resource cost of your respective cards. This will be shown in the upper right corner.
Triggered Ability: Situated at the bottom third of your character card with the relevant information.
Character's epithet: This is labeled on the left column where the words are written in a vertical manner.
Character's faction: Labeled on the upper left corner in the form of the respective single Chinese character.
Character's name: Just labeled beside the character's faction.
Layout (For Tactic/Strategy/Title cards)
Name: At the top centre of the card.
Cost: Same with the character card's layout.
Ability effect: Same as the Triggered Ability for character cards. Whether the card is a Title, Tactic or Strategy will be listed beforehand.
Example:
General B has been evacuated. B is a cost 4 General. Hence you must use 8 Resource points to revive General B during the aforementioned Phase.
I might have said this before, but again I repeat: You can only have ONE Strategist and ONE Commander during the entire match. Your Strategist can never go beyond your command zone while if your Commander is Evacuated, then EVERY single General will be Evacuated as well immediately.
Under such a condition, you can never have the option to revive all your Evacuated Generals unless you revive your Commander first.
If you fail to revive your Commander (or choosing not to do so for whatever reason), then the opponent Generals will be able to attack your command come that player's next turn. If your Lord's Strength drops to zero in any case, then you will have effectively lost the match. Yet, there's more than one way opponent players can secure a victory. Namely if your deck runs out of cards, you will still lose the match anyway.
Resources
How you spend your resources firstly and foremost will be down to this being only eligible during your Preparation phase. Secondly, you'll have to discard any given card from your hand in order to declare how much Resource points you'll want to spend. Simply put, only whatever cards in your hand can be treated as a relevant amount of Resource points [资源]. For example:
Discard a card with a Resource cost of 2=You'll gain 2 Resource points in return.
Do take note that you can discard any number of cards this way with the total tally being the number of Resource points able to be spent on any Tactic/Strategy/General card.
How Summoning works
Summoning is just like calling for reinforcements in the form of actual Generals with you only able to do so during your own Preparation Phase [筹划] by default. Needless to say, the amount of Resource points used is according to the respective General's cost indicated on the card.
Specific details on Tactic and Strategy cards
Do take note that while such cards can only be dealt during the Preparation Phase, certain type of Tactic cards can only be used during the Combat Phase. Such condition will be indicated in the ability effect box.
However you must remember that no matter what, Strategy cards can only be played during your Preparation Phase.
Additional info on your Lord cards
Only Lord cards with the War trait can move back and forth between your own deployment zone and command zone with no penalty/bonus. And by penalty/bonus, this is all about whatever effects dealt by Tactic/Strategy cards. Any penalty is negated because your Lord is the living icon of your army, hence whatever prestige demanded will surely override any obstacle due to his own men willing to go forth in removing any obstacle. Bonus is negated because a Lord has no need for boons reserved for deserving Generals/
At the same time, Lord cards with the Politics trait can also move into your deployment zone and back to your command zone. However he must pay an additional Resource cost of 2 before making such a decision, i.e. 2 points spent beforehand if your Lord is going into your deployment zone and 2 additional points spent if your Lord wants to return back to your command zone.
Do take note that you can only either choose to advance into your deployment zone or retreating back to your command zone during your Preparation Phase, NOT opting to do both consecutively.
How summoning Advisers and Lords work...
Simply put, you can NEVER do so. Summoning is ONLY for your General cards. Period.
Attacking during Combat Phase
(Updated 15 Feb 2013)
(Updated 15 Feb 2013)
Arguably the most important part of the gameplay. Firstly and foremost, you can only declare one attack [宣吿攻击] per General during your Combat Phase. Once your General declares an attack, a specific enemy General must be targeted. However, the defending player can choose any of his own available General(s) within his deployment zone to intercept the attack. If no opposing Generals are chosen to intercept, your General will resolve the combat with the targeted General as per normal. Combat resolution works like this:
General A declares an attack on General B. A has a Strength of 2500 while B has a Strength of 2000. General A has the higher Strength, hence General A wins the battle. General B as a result will be rendered as Vulnerable [被动].
General A however, will be left with 500 Strength, i.e. 2500-2000=500
General A however, will be left with 500 Strength, i.e. 2500-2000=500
If General B is to be attacked/damaged again while still Vulnerable, then B will be declared as Evacuated [徹退]. However if General B survives, B will revert back to Alert status [正兵] during the controller's Preparation Phase.
If General A lost the fight, then A will remain at the controlling player's deployment zone under Vulnerable status until starting of controller's next turn.
If General A lost the fight, then A will remain at the controlling player's deployment zone under Vulnerable status until starting of controller's next turn.
Do note that Generals declared as Evacuated MUST go to your discard pile together with whatever cards used/discarded.
Intercepting
If any of your General is being targeted for attack, you can declare any other General under your control to intercept the enemy General [迎击锁定] so long as your intercepting General is under Alert status. You can declare as many Alert Generals as you want for intercepting. At the same time, more than one Alert General can be selected to intercept the same attacking General.
Resolving damage under this condition is the same as any attack declared without any intercepting (refer to Attacking during Combat Phase above)
However, if your intercepting General(s) lost the resultant battle, your said General(s) will be rendered Vulnerable.
Latest note (updated 5th Feb 2013) - Generals under Ambush status can NEVER be targeted for attack by any enemy General. Any Ambush attempt by your General will be triggered by declaring an interception. If the General under Ambush status has a higher cost, he/she will win the combat as per normal. If the General being intercepted has a higher cost, he/she will not take any damage while the General performing the Ambush will still remain untapped.
Latest note (updated 15 Feb 2013) - The rule of Evacuation also applies to any of your intercepting Generals under Vulnerable status.
Latest note (updated 5th Feb 2013) - Generals under Ambush status can NEVER be targeted for attack by any enemy General. Any Ambush attempt by your General will be triggered by declaring an interception. If the General under Ambush status has a higher cost, he/she will win the combat as per normal. If the General being intercepted has a higher cost, he/she will not take any damage while the General performing the Ambush will still remain untapped.
Latest note (updated 15 Feb 2013) - The rule of Evacuation also applies to any of your intercepting Generals under Vulnerable status.
Advancing into Enemy's deployment zone
If your General managed to secure victory after a declared attack, he/she will be moved automatically into the opponent's deployment zone. At the same time, if your General failed to defeat any opponent General(s) intercepting him/her, then your attacking General cannot advance into the opponent's deployment zone. However, your General will NOT be considered as Vulnerable under such a situation.
Latest note (updated 15 Feb 2013) - If your General lost the battle this way, opposing player may choose whether or not to declare a follow up attack [追击] against said General. Rules for any follow up attack is the same as how the player declares an attack during the Combat Phase. Any General defeated this way must remain Vulnerable until starting of controller's next turn.
Latest note (updated 15 Feb 2013) - If your General lost the battle this way, opposing player may choose whether or not to declare a follow up attack [追击] against said General. Rules for any follow up attack is the same as how the player declares an attack during the Combat Phase. Any General defeated this way must remain Vulnerable until starting of controller's next turn.
Reviving your Evacuated Generals
Reviving your Evacuated Generals [再起] requires DOUBLE the amount of the respective General's cost during your Preparation Phase.Example:
General B has been evacuated. B is a cost 4 General. Hence you must use 8 Resource points to revive General B during the aforementioned Phase.
Important loose ends to tie up
Any effect linked with any card's cost can ONLY be resolved via the card's initial cost.
Example:
Card A gains immunity against all Tactic cards with the cost of 2 or less=any other effects reducing any Tactic card's cost will be ignored as a result.
Conditions for defeat/victory for any given match (but firstly a bit of notice)
Under such a condition, you can never have the option to revive all your Evacuated Generals unless you revive your Commander first.
If you fail to revive your Commander (or choosing not to do so for whatever reason), then the opponent Generals will be able to attack your command come that player's next turn. If your Lord's Strength drops to zero in any case, then you will have effectively lost the match. Yet, there's more than one way opponent players can secure a victory. Namely if your deck runs out of cards, you will still lose the match anyway.
Q&A
Q: What will happen to my Advisers if they happened to be tapped?
A: All their abilities cannot be used.
Q: So does that mean the same for my tapped Generals?
A: Yes.
Q: But what if my Advisers gets Evacuated?
A: Then they will be counted as being removed from the game.
Q: Is it acceptable for any card cost to fall below 1 due to whatever card effect?
A: No. Minimum cost should be 1.
Q: How should I use the Event cards?
A: You can opt to use it before starting of the match. However you can only use one Event per game.
Q: Do Event cards carry a certain cost?
A: No. Event cards do not require any Resource points since it's actually all about situations rather than dealing with actual stuff.
Q: So should I just use my Tactic and Strategy cards only during my Preparation Phase?
A: Tactic cards are mainly used during Preparation Phase. However there will be exceptions to the rule. Strategy cards can only be played during the Preparation Phase.
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