Armies is a game inspired by Chess and Magic: the Gathering. It’s played on a chessboard and has an identical piece setup, where each piece’s movement is the same as that of chess. Each player has a (custom) deck of 60 cards (with a maximum of 4 cards with the same name), which may be played onto pieces. Each piece except the king, and any/all cards attached to it, is called an “Army”. The king’s piece is called a “General” and for most purposes is treated like an army (for details on the differences, see Winning the Game).

Cards may be any of the following types:

• Leader: Each army may have up to one leader card attached, which provides special abilities and an offensive and defensive bonus. Certain abilities distinguish between leaders that are “heroes” (individuals) and those that are “elites” (advanced troops). Each army may only have a single Leader. The General may not have a Leader card attached. (Leaders are similar to Creatures in M:tG)
• Maneuver: A one-time effect (discarded after use) that may be performed by a piece on your turn. (Similar to Sorceries)
• Technique: Like a maneuver, except that it may be played on any turn, and can even be used to interrupt enemy actions. (Instants)
• Boon/Curse: A boon or curse alters an army’s stats and/or abilities. (Enchant creatures + artifacts)
• Training: A one-time effect that boosts a piece’s maximum skill in a specific domain. (Land)
• Strategy: A “global level” card that is not tied to any specific army. (Enchantments)

Playing Cards

In Armies there are 5 “domains” of war. These domains are named after great historical figures who revolutionized the tactics of the battlefield, and brought great change to the world.

• The Domain of Gnar is that of cavalry, ferocity, mobility, and strength.

  Gnar Athulos was the first great warlord, a barbarian from the desert who rode around the entire world, uniting its peoples into the first great empire.

• The Domain of Ethyr is that of witchcraft, plague, betrayal, and fear.

  Gnar’s empire was destroyed only two decades after its founding by the witch of the wood, Ethyr Shadowcaller. Her tactics involved spreading a plague which only she could cure, turning vast legions of Gnar’s own troops against him. After the fall of the empire, she authored the Ethyric Grimoire, the most popular spellbook in all of history.

• The Domain of Lorin is that of stability, support, politics, and defense.

  After a century of strife, Shara Lorin managed to reform the old empire through cunning use of political negotiations and an indomitable wall of infantry. By promising prosperity, she was able to extinguish old feuds and make many allies.

• The Domain of Tor is that of archery, ambush, unpredictability, and aggression.

  At the height of peace within the empire, a fleet of ships led by the hot-headed Jun Tor simultaneously launched a viscous assault on nearly every imperial port, throwing the world into chaos. Tor’s archers were so masterfully trained that he was able to conquer nearly every imperial city within a month of the initial assault.

• The Domain of Shives is that of skirmishing, harrying, illusion, and trickery.

  Despite the fall of the capital cities, the simple woodsman Dorin Shives was able to muster a stunning counterattack against Tor by using guerrilla tactics and misdirection to move his opponent’s forces where they’d be least effective. Despite winning few battles, Shives was able to move the main force of his army into the capital city, and publicly execute Tor, thus signaling the beginning of the end for the invading fleet. Shives did truly not wish to lead, however, and disappeared shortly after the end of the war, leaving the empire in shambles.

Almost all troops and tacticians lend credit to one of these five figures for pioneering their personal style of combat, and each army can be said to have a certain degree of skill in each of those domains. At the start of the game, all armies are considered “green”, in that they have zero skill in each domain (for the General, see Setup). During the course of the game, Training cards may be played to increase the maximum skill points of an Army or the General.

All cards besides training and strategies are played “through” a piece, and must be played on a square that the piece threatens, or on the space the piece itself occupies. For example, a pawn that tries to use an archery maneuver could only shoot an army on a square diagonally in front of it. Additional pieces may support the primary piece, by contributing their skill if (and only if) they threaten the location the card is about the be played (including the space they’re on).

Special Rule: The General moves like a king in chess, but threatens, for the purposes of playing cards, like a queen.

Most cards require a certain amount of skill points to play. As the card is played, these skill points are temporarily used up. Skill points are restored to maximum for a single piece during the rest phase (see Turn Order). If a piece has multiple ways of spending skill points to play a card, the player decides how they are spent. Supporting pieces may spend skill points to play cards instead of the primary piece, but the primary piece must always spend at least one skill point (i.e. supporting pieces may not pay the entire cost of a card).

When a Strategy or Training card has a skill cost, it may be payed by any piece that the player owns, regardless of location or target.

Turn Order

Each turn is broken into four steps:

1. First Opportunity
2. Move
3. Second Opportunity
4. Rest

During either the First Opportunity or the Second Opportunity (but only once per turn!) the player may take a major action. Major actions consist of using a major leader ability or playing a card other than a Technique or Training.

During the Move phase, the player may move or attack with one of their armies, much like it were a basic chess piece.

Many cards and actions involving Leaders require a leader to “spend” in order to use. Armies with spent leaders cannot attack (but may move). A leader that is not spent is considered “ready”. Leader cards are spent when they come into play.

During the Rest phase, the player may rest one of their armies, restoring its skill points to maximum and returning its leader to the ready state. Finally, the player draws a card, to signal the end of their turn.

Setup

All pieces start the game without any cards attached. Each player’s General (the king) is given three skill points distributed however the player chooses, in any of the five domains. The players then draw seven cards to form their “hands” and roll to see who goes first (or white goes first; you pick).

Combat

Note: Dice in Armies are binary. That means they result in either a 1 or a 0 when rolled. Coin flips are an easy way to approximate this, but you can use standard six-sided dice if you’d like, where 1, 2, or 3 = 0 and 4, 5, or 6 = 1.

All armies have two stats: offense and defense. These stats start at zero, but often increase thanks to a card or other effect.

Unlike in chess, when a piece in Armies moves to take another it may not succeed. The attacker rolls a number of dice equal to the offense stat of their army and adds one to the result. The defender rolls dice equal to the defense stat of their army. If the offensive army gets a higher result than the defender, the defending army is destroyed and the attacker takes its place on the board, like in chess. If the defender wins the contest, or there is a tie, the attacker moves to the square adjacent to the defender in the direction of the attack. A knight that fails to successfully capture its target does not move.

Because of the automatic +1 of the attacker, unenhanced armies behave exactly like chess pieces, in that the attacker always beats the defender.

Winning the Game

Like in chess, the point of Armies is to capture your opponent’s king, also known as the General. However, because of certain special abilities that complicate the game, the General can never be “in check”.

Additionally, a player’s General is not automatically captured when it loses a battle. After each defeat, the General permanently loses a single skill point in a domain of the owner’s choice. Only if the General cannot pay this price, is the game over. In case it sounds like this makes the General nigh invincible, consider that one cannot play Leader cards on a General, meaning it has virtually no combat capabilities, and that Generals are often more vulnerable than in chess, due to needing to be in the center of the board to play cards effectively.

Special Rules

Archery: Sometimes an army can perform a ranged attack. These attacks function identically to normal, except that the attacking army does not move, and does not gain the automatic +1.

Cavalry: Armies that can attack in a line (Queens, Rooks, and Bishops) with the cavalry trait can capture multiple armies in a single move. In the case that a mounted army beats a defending army by more than two points, it has the option of moving onward in the same direction, and even attacking again (and again, and again). The moving army does not roll dice for subsequent attacks, but instead has a power equal to the amount that it beat the last defender minus one. For example, if a rook attacks a pawn and beats it by three, it can attack again, with a power of two.

Stealth: Armies with stealth can “jump” over pieces, both friend or foe, during a move. If a stealth army jumps one or more pieces it cannot then attack as part of the same move. (Some diagrams would probably help.)

Sample Cards, and How to Read Them

Skills costs are described by a string of characters like “3GG”, which means “three skill from any domain and two skill in the Gnar domain”. In a similar fashion, “E” means “Ethyr domain skill”, “L” is for “Lorin”, “T” for “Tor”, and “S” for “Shives”.

For each card type, I’ll provide a template and an example card from each domain.

Leaders

[Name]
[Hero or Elite] Leader(s) – [Optional Types]
[Skill Cost] [Offense Bonus]/[Defense Bonus]
[Ability]

Heavy Cavalry
Elite Leaders – Soldiers
5GG 6/5
*Cavalry*

Blood Cultist
Hero Leader – Magician
EE 1/1
E + Sacrifice a leader from anywhere: Blood Cultists army get’s +2 offense until end of turn.

Shield Bearers
Elite Leaders – Soldiers
L 0/3

Torani Cadet
Hero Leader – Torani Soldier
T 1/1
Torani Cadet does not come into play spent. Playing Torani Cadet does not count as a major action.

Cloaksworn Commander
Hero Leader – Secret Soldier
2S 1/1
All cards or abilities that target Cloaksworn Commander fail (even if their effects are not limited to Cloaksworn Commander).

Maneuvers

[Name]
[Optional Playing Restriction] Maneuver – [Optional Type]
[Skill Cost]
[Effect]

Battlefield Dominance
Maneuver – Military
1GG
For each extra Leader you have compared to your opponent, draw a card.

Mind Fog
Maneuver – Magic
1E
All enemy leaders threatened by this piece become spent (if they weren’t already).

Against All Odds
Leader Maneuver
1LL + (Spend Leader)
Put x +1/+1 “Hope” tokens on this Leader, where x is the number of enemy pieces currently threatening this Leader’s army minus the number of friendly pieces currently threatening this Leader’s army (not including itself).

Rain of Arrows
Maneuver – Ranged
TTT
4 power ranged attack

Know Thy Enemy
Maneuver – Espionage
1SS
Draw a card for each domain this piece has a max-skill greater than zero in.

Techniques

[Name]
[Optional Playing Restriction] Technique – [Optional Type]
[Skill Cost]
[Effect]

Second Wind
Leader Technique
G
Ready this Leader

Without a Trace
Technique – Magic
1EEE
Target Army is removed from the game.

Hold the Line
Technique – Military
1L
Target defending army gains two automatic successes. This technique may be used after dice are rolled.

Ambush
Leader Technique – Military
TT + (Spend the Leader)
Target attacking army must defend against a new attack by this army. This new attack has the standard rules for combat, except this army does not move into the target’s space if it wins. If the attacker is captured as part of this technique, the original attack does not take place.

Disruption
Technique – Espionage
SS
Target maneuver, technique, boon or curse being played fails. All skill spent on playing it is lost. This card may not be targeted by any other techniques or abilities.

Boons and Curses

[Name]
[Optional Playing Restriction] [Boon or Curse] – [Optional Type]
[Skill Cost]
[Effect]

Spirit of Fire
Army Boon
3GG
This army gains +2 offense and defense. Whenever this army successfully captures an enemy piece as part of a move, treat it as having rested (restore all of this army’s skill to maximum and ready the Leader, if any). If this army has the *cavalry* trait, it rests after the entire move/attack chain, not after each capture.

Unholy Bloodthirst
Army Curse – Magic
1E
This army must attack or move on its turn, if able.
Enemy Major Action: This army cannot move or attack this turn.

Non-aggression Order
Army Curse – Politics
LL
This army cannot attack.

Unyielding Offense
Leader Boon – Military
1T
T: This army gains +1 offense until end of turn.
When Unyielding Offense is put into a discard pile from play, return it to its owner’s hand.

Broken Supply Chain
Army Curse – Military
SS
This army cannot rest.
Enemy Major Action + Discard 2 cards: Destroy Broken Supply Chain.

Training Cards

[Name]
[Optional Target Restriction] Training – [Domain]
[Optional Cost]
[Effect]

For all five:
Teachings of [Domain]
Training – [Domain]
+1 Skill in the [Domain] domain to target piece.

A couple others:
Original Grimoire
General Training – Ethyr
E
+1 Skill in the Ethyr domain to target General. Draw a card.

Torani Longbow Training
Army Training – Tor
T
+1 Skill in the Tor domain to target Army. Target gains: Major action: 1 power ranged attack

Guerrilla Training
Army Training – Shives
S
+1 Skill in the Shives domain to target Army. Target gains: This army may not be the target of maneuvers, boons, curses, or other major actions (even from friendly sources).

Strategies

[Name]
Strategy – [Optional Type]
[Skill Cost]
[Effect]

Double March
Strategy – Military
GG
En Passant is no longer a legal move for opponents. All allied pawns may move two spaces forward, as though they were in their starting position, regardless of whether they’ve moved already/where they are on the board.

Unseasonable Weather
Strategy – Magic
EEE
When this strategy comes into play, put five “Snow” tokens on it. At the end of each turn (for any player), remove a Snow token. When all Snow tokens have been removed, destroy Unseasonable Weather. All pieces, except knights, are restricted from moving more than one space in any direction. All enemy pieces (excluding knights) have their threat ranges reduced to one space, as well.

Unfavorable War
Strategy – Politics
1L
At the end of each player’s turn they lose the game unless they reduce the skill on their General by 1, this is the same as if the General had lost a battle.
(Global Major Action + 1) or (Global Spend a Politician): The effect above does not apply this turn.

Bows and Knives
Strategy – Military
TTT
Double the power of all ranged attacks by pieces you control. All pieces you control have a maximum defense of 1.

Caught Off Guard
Strategy – Espionage
2SS
When this Strategy comes into play, put two “Surprise” tokens on it. Whenever an enemy player would draw a card, remove a Surprise token instead. When all tokens have been removed, destroy Caught Off Guard.