All the same Deck Personalisation rules apply to Lords of War: Magic and Monsters as applied to the base game (meaning that
all Units can be blended with other Factions to create Mercenary Decks) PLUS there are some other new rules to consider:
Magic & monsters
expansion
Note: The words “card” and “unit” are
interchangeable and mean the same thing.
“Adjacent” or “adjacent to” means any of the 8
spaces surrounding a card.
Welcome back to Lords of War! – a game that keeps
changing, growing and becoming better and better
– just like its players!
If you have picked up this Lords of War: Magic and Monsters Expansion Pack
but do not currently own a ‘core’ Lords of War game (e.g. Lords of War: Orcs
versus Dwarves) then this pack, while playable, is NOT going to provide you
a balanced gaming experience. If you do however, you are in for an enormous
amount of fun!
Introduction
While you can play Lords of War: Magic and Monsters without any of the Unit Effects
(i.e. ‘Basic Rules’ Lords of War) it is a LOT more fun if you add in the extra rules.
As for you people who play Advanced Rules, you are MANIACS and please keep
doing what you are doing!
The New Army Setup
With Lords of War: Magic and Monsters, the new Units we have increase each Lords of War Faction’s
deck-size from 36 to 54 cards as follows:
# in Core Pack
# in Expansion Pack
Total Once Combined
Recruits
8
N/A
8
Privates
N/A
8
8
Soldiers
8
N/A
8
Veterans
6
N/A
6
Elites
4
2
6
Special Units
4
2
6
N/A
4
4
Command Cards
5
2
7
General
1
N/A
1
36
18
54
Champions
Total:
When playing Lords of War with the Expansion Cards, please
increase your hand size from SIX to SEVEN.
Infantry Units in Lords of War are your ‘bread and butter’
normal Units. They have no inherent special function or ‘Unit
Effect’ but they can be given new Unit Effects by Magic Units
(see below).
3. The Sidebar
If you have been playing Intermediate Rules Lords of War then you are ready for this
Expansion. If you have not, please check out the Berserker and Cavalry Rules on the
‘How To Play’ section of www.lords-of-war.com.
There are several new Unit Types introduced in Lords of War:
Magic and Monsters but we will include information about all
the Unit Types, just to recap:
I. Infantry Units
When playing Lords of War with the Expansion Cards, also
take note that Victory now takes place at 30 enemy Units
Eliminated in total (rather than 20) *OR* after Eliminating 6
enemy Command Cards (rather than 4).
Martin Vaux & Nick Street
Black Box Games
Lords of War Unit Types
1. Hand Size
2. Victory Conditions
Thank you so much for playing Lords of War and we hope you enjoy what we
have made for you. More is coming – lots more, hopefully! But for now it is time
to take your Lords of War playing skills and experience to a whole new level!
Rank
The New Rules!
As detailed in the Magic Unit explanation below, there will be
occasions when players will seek to Recall Units which have
had Spell Tokens cast onto them (see ‘Magic Units’).
A unit with a Spell Token on it that is “recalled” is not placed
into the player’s hand but is instead placed in front of the
player alongside the battlemat with the Spell Token on it until
that Unit is deployed again. This area is termed “The Sidebar”.
Note: Units in The Sidebar STILL COUNT AS A
CARD IN A PLAYER’S HAND! A player cannot draw
a new card to replace a card in the sidebar – they
must, instead, count cards in the sidebar as if they
were in their hand.
4. Moving Units
If you have not yet played Lords of
War with Moving Units, look out for
Movement Arrows like this:
A Unit that can Move has one or more Movement Arrow. A
Moving Unit can be moved at any time during the controlling
player’s turn, but can only be moved if it is not being engaged
by an opposing card. A player does not have to Move their
Moving Units.
A Moving Unit can only ever be moved one space per turn in
the direction of one of its Movement Arrows and can only move
into an unoccupied space.
Note: A Moving Unit that is deployed from a player’s
hand onto the battlemat can be moved in that turn if
it is not engaged. Moving Units that have eliminated
an opposing card may still Move as long as they
have not already Moved and are not Engaged
(this may result in an additional Elimination).
The key thing to remember is that Infantry Units MUST be
played into an attack (i.e. with one or more Attack Arrow
pointing at a corner or edge of at least one adjacent Enemy
Unit) unless the battlemat is completely empty of enemies, in
which situation you can place an infantry unit adjacent to any
friendly unit on the battlemat, termed as a “Free Deployment”.
If there are no cards from either side on the battlemat you also
have a “Free Deployment” and can place an infantry unit on
any space on the battlemat.
II. Berserker Units
Berserker Units are your high risk/high reward Units. Like
Infantry, they MUST be played into an attack (unless a “Free
Deployment” is necessary – see above) BUT Berserkers DO
have a special function or ‘Unit Effect’.
When on the battlemat, if your Berserker is part of a combat
that eliminates an enemy unit and is not engaged by one or
more enemy units, that Berserker MUST move into the space
left empty by the eliminated Unit.
Once the Berserker is advanced into the empty space it is
determined whether any additional units (and/or the Berserker)
are eliminated.
The Berserker only stops advancing if:
a) It is being engaged but not eliminated
by an adjacent enemy unit.
b) It does not engage a new enemy unit.
c) It engages an enemy unit with a Shield Value
too high for the Berserker to eliminate.
d) It eliminates an enemy card and the Berserker
is eliminated in the process.
This can lead to Berserkers achieving multiple Eliminations
in one turn and suicide moves where Berserkers eliminate
themselves.
If a Berserker is involved in a combat scenario in which 2 or
more enemy units are eliminated, the controlling player may
choose which empty space to move the Berserker into.
If two or more friendly Berserkers are involved in a combat
scenario, the Berserker that has just been deployed that turn is
the one that has to be moved into the empty space.
If both Berserkers have been on the battlemat for at least a
turn it the controlling player’s choice on which Berserker to
move into the empty space.
After all the Berserkers have been moved then it is determined
whether any additional units or the Berserker has been eliminated.
Note: As the Units of the Undead Faction have
no blood to get fired-up, they have no Berserkers.
A useful fact – could come in handy later!
III. Cavalry Units
Like Infantry and Berserker Units, Cavalry Units in Lords of
War MUST be played into attack (i.e. so that one of their Attack
Arrows is pointing to the corner or edge of at least one enemy
unit). What makes Cavalry so fun however is that they have a
special ‘Recall’ function.
Whereas all other Lords of War Units cannot be recalled if engaged
by an enemy Unit during a given turn, Cavalry Units CAN be
recalled – so long as they are not Engaged by a Spear Unit.
This might seem like a subtle change if you have played Basic
Rules Lords of War up until now (and if you are a Dwarf player
then you are unlikely to care as you have no Cavalry in your army)
but this Unit Effect makes Cavalry a really devastating weapon!
IV. Spear Units
Spear Units in Lords of War function in a similar way to Infantry
in that they can be deployed to engage an enemy unit.
Spear Units are also Support Units however (like Ranged
Units and Magic Units) which means that they do NOT have
to Engage an enemy Unit when played into battle. Should
a player choose to, they can play any friendly Spear Unit
adjacent to any other friendly unit. This allows Spear Units to
become a building block of a defensive structure or to protect
weak points on friendly Units.
Additionally, Spear Units are the ONLY type of card which can
prevent Cavalry Units from escaping from battle. If engaged
by a Spear, Cavalry CANNOT be recalled into a player’s hand.
V. Ranged Units
Like Spear Units, Ranged Units in Lords of War CAN be played
into an attack directly (i.e. one of their Attack Arrows is pointing
to the corner or edge of at least one enemy unit). Also like
Spears however, Ranged Units CAN be played adjacent to
any friendly Unit on the battlemat.
There has been some confusion about Ranged Units, what they
can do and when they can fire, so let us take a moment to clarify:
i) A Ranged Unit only shoots (if it can), in the controlling
player’s turn.
ii) A Ranged Unit can shoot on the turn it is played onto the
battlemat ONLY if it is deployed as a Support Unit (adjacent to
a friendly unit) and does not have an enemy card engaging it.
This means that a Ranged Unit CANNOT shoot the same turn
it is played if it is engaging an enemy unit but it is not adjacent
to a friendly unit, as it has not been played as a Support unit.
iii) A Ranged Unit that has the opportunity to both shoot their
ranged weapon and fight in combat during their turn must
choose to do only one of them.
iv) Ranged Units who start a turn Engaged CANNOT use their
Ranged weapon that turn – even if the enemy unit that was
Engaging them is eliminated.
v) An enemy unit on the battlemat within the target grid of
the range unit is NOT “engaged” and can be recalled from
the battlemat on the controlling player’s turn according to the
normal recall rules.
vi) Ranged Units can only fire at ONE unit within their range
during their turn (unless a Weather or Terrain card gives them
a special ability OR a Spell is cast which enables them to fire
twice).
VI. Magic Units
NEW!
A Magic Unit may have a ranged target grid and/or Elemental
Attack Arrows containing an elemental symbol. In this pack,
those elements are Ice for the Dwarves and Fire for the Orcs.
Note: A Unit that has one or more of an enemy
Magic Unit’s Elemental Attack Arrows Engaging it is
Engaged and cannot be Recalled from the battlemat.
A Magic Unit is a Support Unit like a Spear Unit or a Ranged
Unit. This means that they CAN be played directly into attack
(i.e. so that one of their Elemental Attack Arrows is pointing to
the corner or edge of at least one enemy unit) but they can
also be played adjacent to any friendly Unit as a Support Unit.
Spell Tokens
Dwarf Shield Spell
Dwarf Ice Spell
Orc Berserker Spell
Orc Fire Spell
Alternatively, an Orc Magic Unit might choose to cast a
Berserk spell (the Token showing the Berserker symbol) onto
an adjacent unit. This spell would turn that Unit, whatever type
of Unit they might be, IMMEDIATELY into a Berserker.
Note: It is ABSOLUTELY allowed for an Orc player
to use a Berserk spell on an enemy Unit that is
currently Engaging another Orc before throwing a
weak card directly into the path of that enemy card
in order to get it to move.
During the controlling player’s turn, a Magic Unit can do a
Ranged Attack OR cast a Spell (represented by a Spell Token).
A Magic Unit’s Ranged Target Grid functions in the same way
as a normal Ranged Unit Target grid, BUT a Magic Unit with a
Ranged attack can still shoot at Range even if they are Engaged.
On the other hand, the Dwarves also have an Ice Shield spell.
This spell can be cast onto any Unit, friend or foe, and it will
increase that Unit’s Shield Value by 1.
There are 2 types of Spell; Magic Damage and Magic Effects.
Magic Damage causes attack damage to be cast on an
enemy unit while Magic Effects enhance a Unit’s values or
bestow onto them an additional ability.
For the Orcs, this means that an Orc Magic Unit might choose
to cast 1 point of Fire Damage (place 1 Token) onto an Enemy
card. This point of Fire damage (the Token) would remain on
the enemy card even if the Orc Magic Unit was Eliminated.
Additionally, if the Orc Magic Unit survives for several turns,
that Magic Unit could cast multiple Fire Damage spells
(Tokens) onto the same enemy unit.
Note: All Units in the Orc Faction are immune to Fire
damage – even if you are battling Orcs versus Orcs,
no Mage would be able to damage an Orc Unit with Fire
Damage. The same is true for Dwarves and Ice Damage.
Please also note, Magic Damage ignores Monstrous Values
(see part VIII).
Note: If a Unit, friend or foe, has a Spell Token cast
upon them and a player chooses to Recall that Unit,
the Spell Token is not removed from that card and the
card is not put back into the player’s hand. Instead,
the Unit MUST be placed face-up in The Sidebar.
VII. Flying Units
For the Dwarves, their Magic Units have an Ice Damage spell
which functions similarly to the Orc Fire Damage spell (and
which can, again, be cast multiple times against the same
enemy over the course of several turns).
If a Magic Unit chooses to cast a Spell, they can only cast
ONE spell per turn and that Spell can ONLY be cast onto
an adjacent Unit that has at least one of the Magic Unit’s
Elemental Attack Arrows pointing at it.
ALL Spells in Lords of War can be removed if their opposite
element is cast against them (i.e. Fire spells negate Ice spells and
vice versa) – and it ONLY TAKES ONE corresponding elemental
spell to negate ALL tokens on a unit of the opposite element.
Note: Unlike Magic Damage, Magic Effect spells,
such as the Ice Shield and Berserk spells CANNOT
be cast multiple times on the same Unit for a
cumulative effect.
NEW!
These Units behave in much the same away as Infantry
although they benefit from one MAJOR special function or
‘Unit Effect’ – Flying Units can only take damage from Ranged
Attacks or from enemy Flying Units.
A Flying Unit can be “recalled” even if engaged by any other
unit type except if being engaged by an enemy Flying Unit.
VIII. Monstrous Units
NEW!
These cards function in much the
same way as Infantry although, if
you look at the face of one, you will
notice that they have an additional
value beside their Shield Value.
This additional number is that Unit’s
‘Monstrous Value’.
The Monstrous Value signifies that this Monstrous Unit can only
be damaged in combat by enemy Units whose Attack Arrows or
Ranged Attacks are GREATER than the Monstrous Value.
The one exception to this Rule is Magic Damage – all Spell
Tokens ignore Monstrous Values!
Any engaging enemy attacks which are less than a Monstrous
Unit’s Monstrous Value do NOT contribute to eliminating the
Monstrous Unit, however Monstrous Units can still be engaged
by Units which cannot damage them!
Now to war!
Game Design: Nick Street and Martin Vaux
Illustration and Graphic Design: Steve Cox
Thanks to: Dnyan Keni-Vaux, Brenda, Scarlett
and Lucas Alvares, Rachel Vaux, Aidan Taylor,
Luke Maddocks, Darren Green, Gary Cambell-Smith,
Olly James, Marco Reinartz and all our supporters
around the world – you know who you are.
© 2014 Black Box Games and Steve Cox Illustration
All rights reserved. This work is protected by
international copyright law and may not be
reproduced in whole or in part without the written
consent of the artist and publisher.