| Author: | Clinton R. Nixon |
|---|---|
| Copyright: | Copyright 2005 Clinton R. Nixon. |
The game is broken into turns. Each turn is made up of several phases.
Phases:
Each time you play the game, you will choose a scenario. Each scenario has winning conditions for each side. When one of those conditions is met at the end of a turn, the game is over.
When you have to make a roll in the game, roll two dice. If you have bonus or penalty dice, total them up and roll them, too. Each penalty die eats up your highest die. Take the two highest dice left over and total them, adding it to the unit's appropriate ability.
Whenever you roll, someone else will have to as well. Compare the two totals. If they are tied, roll a bonus die. Continue until you don't have a tie.
The winner consults the below chart to see how he did.
| Roll of 2 | Total defeat. Double enemy's Success Level (SL). |
| 4-7 | SL 1 |
| 8-10 | SL 2 |
| 11-13 | SL 3 |
| 14-16 | SL 4 |
| 17-19 | SL 5 |
| 20-22 | SL 6 |
Success Levels are usually damage to the defeated unit.
Units are the primary pieces in the game. Units are the only pieces that can attack, defend, or move autonomously. They are defined by their abilities and statistics and specials.
Use this to attack other units.
Use this to defend against other units.
Use this to win initiative in combat.
Some units have a "Missile Attack" ability.
All abilities are ranked from 1 to 10. Above 5 is an elite unit and very dangerous.
This is how many movement points a unit has.
This determines how hard it is to destroy the unit.
Some units have a "Missile Range" ability.
All statistics are ranked from 1 to 5, except Missile Range, which has a maximum of 3.
Specials are what they sound like: special abilities the unit has.
Almost all specials follow the following two generic specials:
Movement is halved in circumstance X.
Bonus die to X in circumstances Y.
There are some other specials, though. The other common one is Ranged.
Heroes are the other piece type in the basic game of Shadow Wars. They are powerful, charismatic leaders that can command a unit. They are defined by pools and secrets. They must always be paired with a unit. If the unit they are paired with is killed, they are removed from play ("lost").
If two units are touching, the hero can move between them for the cost of one move.
There are three pools.
You can spend 1 Vigor point to give the attached unit a bonus die to Attack.
You can spend 1 Instinct point to give the attached unit a bonus die to Defend.
You can spend 1 Reason point to give the attached unit a bonus die to React.
You can never spend more than one point from a pool on one roll (unless you have a secret that says otherwise.)
Here are some hero secrets. Some are generic.
Your scenario will tell you how to choose your units, how many resource points you start with, and where to place your units. Follow these instructions.
Place your units with the allegiance facing your opponent and the unit designation facing you. That should be obvious.
The second player and first player should take turns placing units and heroes, in that order. If one side has more units or heroes, place them at the end.
Then play!
The amount of movement you get each turn is decided by the size of the map. 8 1/2" x 11" maps get three movement. 11" x 17" maps get five movement. Other size maps will get other amounts: the scenario will explain.
Units have zones of control. All squares that touch the unit are in its zone of control. If you move your unit into an enemy's zone of control, you stop moving that unit. This includes moving from one square in the ZOC to another square in the ZOC.
Spend each of your moves. You can do the following with each of them:
A unit can only move once and shoot once and recover once. If you really want to, the same unit can move and fire and recover, though.
You can spend a resource point for another move/recover/fire.
Sure, you can stack units. (Your own, fool.) Only the top one can do anything, but only the top one can be attacked. Each unit under the top one gives you a penalty die to Defend and React. (But see Combat below!)
If an enemy unit moved within your unit's missile range, you can shoot it. You can only shoot one unit with each of yours, though. If a unit started in your range and moved out, you can't shoot it. Only if it actually goes into a square you can shoot, can you shoot it.
Same as 1st player move/recover/fire.
Same as 2nd player opportunity fire.
Every unit currently touching an enemy unit can attack that unit. In a "cluster" (all units touching), roll React for each unit. The attacks resolve in that order, from highest result to lowest.
The attacking unit rolls Attack and the defending unit rolls Defend. If the attacker wins, the defender takes damage equal to the Success Levels of the attacker. If the damage is less than or equal to your unit's Vitality, the unit is bloodied. If it is greater than Vitality, the unit is broken. If the unit was already bloodied, it is broken or dead, respectively. If is was already broken, it's dead.
The unit has a penalty die to do anything. Shift your piece so that the "/" is showing.
The unit has a penalty die to do anything. In addition, it can't attack. In addition, it has half of its normal Move. Shift your piece so that the "X" is showing.
You can defend from as many attacks as you want in a turn. Each one after the first takes a penalty die, cumulatively.
Seriously, stacking units hurts. The top unit takes penalty dice equal to the number of units it is protecting to Defend and React. Those units can do nothing and cannot be directly attacked. But, the unit directly below the top unit can roll Defend before the top unit does. The number of Success Levels it rolls are bonus dice to the top unit's Defend. If you roll a two, double the number of penalty dice you'd normally take.
Oh! By the way, if you just want to re-order your stacked units, it costs one move, but they can all reorder. You can do this if you actually move them, too.
You begin the game with a number of resource points equal to the total resource cost of your enemy's units and heroes minus the cost of your own. If that's negative, you start with zero resource points.
In this phase, you gain a number of resource points equal to the number of resource nodes you control. These should be marked with a red border on the map. The last person to touch a node controls it.
You can spend resource points in this phase to get a new unit or bring back dead ones. (You're "constructing a new unit." This isn't necromancy.) Spend the unit's cost and it can start wherever the scenario tells you it can.
You can recover a "lost hero" by spending the points to bring him back.
A difference in height between two squares will be noted with an arrow and a number. It costs that much extra move to go between the two squares. In addition, higher units get that many bonus dice to attack units below.