Pondemonium Rulesbook 1.2.1.pdf

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Rules of the free print'n'play boardgame Pondemonium.

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  • 1creditsRULES

    PIETRO TURRI

    GRAPHICS & LAYOUT PIETRO TURRI

    BETA TESTINGTANA DEI GOBLIN FORLI CESENA

    ENGLISH TRANSLATIONFILIPPO VINCENZI

    UNITS ORIGINAL DESIGNEUREKA MINIATURES

    IMPACT! MINIATURES (JUGGERNAUT)

    VERY SPECIAL THANKS TOTANA DEI GOBLIN FORLI CESENA, EUREKA MINIATURES,

    IMPACT! MINIATURES, BC STUDIO, MICIOSEGONE GAMES,BAR CAOSSI, SIMONE POGGI, FILIPPO VINCENZI, GIOELE VISANI,

    TANIA STRADAIOLI, RAFFAELLA RUFFILLI, CLAUDIO RODI, ANDREA FABBRI, DANIELE RODI, FABRIZIO PASSATEMPI,

    MASSIMO MASINI, FEDERICO PELUSO, SAVERIO SAMORI, CLAUDIO TURRI, STEFANO SPIRITO, LUCA MARCHI

    ADDITIONAL MATERIALS ABOUT PONDEMONIUM CAN BE FOUND IN THE OFFICIAL SITE:www.miciosegoneags.altervista.org/pondemonium.html

    FOR REqUESTS OR DIRECT COMMUNICATIONS:

    [email protected]

    Even if this game is clearly a fantasy battle game between human-like animals, it is impor-tant to remember that Pietro Turri and every involved subjects in this game production,

    are absolutely against any kind of animal violence.

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    Whats in the gamePondemonium is a rulebook thinked for Pond Wars miniatures of Eureka Miniatures. To play this game you will need:- This rulebook.- Pond battlefield.- Units sheets.- 12 Action cards.- Some markers.- 2 six-sided dices.- Miniatures for Frogs and Turtles.

    If in the site you downloaded this rulebook all those material was not avail-able, you will be able to find everything you need for play at this link:www.miciosegoneags.altervista.org/pondemonium.html

    In this website you will be able to find even printable Pondemonium units, but we suggest you to buy the original miniatures for a better experience.

    WHERE TO BUY THE MINIATURES:

    Pondemonium miniatures are produces by Eureka Miniatures and can be found here: www.eurekamin.com.auFor american users: www.eurekaminusa.comOfficial european distributor: www.fighting15sshop.co.uk

    N.B.: The Juggernaut miniature is the only one that is NOT in Eureka range. The unit is the Terrorpin of the american Impact! Miniatures: www.impactminiatures.com

    IntroductionSince the beginning of time, the Dark Frond Swamp was the theater of battles between Frogs and Turtles.While Turtles live in an empire based on labourers and industrial de-velopment, Frog are ruled by an evil King that focus the wellness of his reign on war and conquests.From ages Turtles were forced to rise the level of the military tactics to defend borders from the brute force of the Frog army. Battle after bat-tle, Turtle defenses weakened, giving Frogs a great opportunity.Now the Frog King is coming, with new technological warfare machines. The next assault could create a direct passage in the Turtle land.

    The time is right, and unexpected. Turtles are not warned about Frog. Will the heroic captain Cracked Shell be able to win even this desperate battle?

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    Turtles Unit points cost Army limit

    Archer 12 4

    Spearturtle 10 4

    Piketurtle 12 4

    Musketeer 14 4

    Hussar with sword 18 2

    Hussar musketeer 18 2

    Captain of Hussars 22 1

    Standard bearer 18 1

    Musician 12 1

    Sniper 18 1

    Juggernaut 22 1

    Captain 20 1

    Frogs Unit points cost Army limit

    Spearfrog 8 4

    Pikefrog 10 4

    lite spearfrog 10 2

    lite pikefrog 12 2

    Musketeer 12 4

    Marauder 8 4

    Hussar pikefrog 16 2

    Hussar marauder 14 2

    Hussar musketeer 18 2

    Hussar with gun 18 2

    Captain of Hussars 22 1

    Standard bearer 12 1

    Musician 10 1

    Captain 20 1

    Cannon 20 1

    King 25 1

    DeploymentTurtles always deploy first.Turtles must deploy minimum 3 units on bridges connected with the main island (max 2 units per bridge). Every other units must be placed in the main island. Turtles can place units only in the main island and in bridges connected with the main island. Frogs always deploy seconds.Frogs must deploy minimum 2 units on 3 different deployment zones. Deployment zones are located in Pond corners.

    Frogs must deploy every units in Pond corners.

    Units costBefore the beginning of the game, players must choose units secretly.Turtles must take the Captain.Frogs must take Captain or Hussar Captain or King (max. 2 of them. No Frog player can have all the 3 units).In the following table there are units costs. A standard match of Pandemonium is from 150 to 200 points.

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    Game TurnEvery player begin the game with 5 action cards and 1 racial card. Every action card have a number printed on it. The number is the action points you can obtain playing it.

    At the beginning of every turn both players choose a single card from the hand and reveal it at the same time. The number printed on it is the number of action points the player have in this turn, but the lower number play first.In case of a tie the Frogs player win the initiative.

    Ex: John plays a 5, Mick plays a 2. Micks start first but he has only 2 actions, John will be second; but will play with 5 actions.

    When the player who has initiative consumed every action points, the opponent turn will begin.

    Once both players used every actions the turn ends and the played cards are putted away in a discard pile. Every normal action cards will return to the game quite soon. The racial cards are single use and will be played only a single time.

    The racial card can be used instead of a normal action card but dont give at the player action points, however allow the race to use the racial ability for free on every unit on the battlefield.Every Frog can use his Jump ability.Every Turtle can use his Armor ability.Using the racial card allow to take back every normal action card played before.After that, the racial card is permanently discarded.When a player play the racial card, he win automatically the initiative. If the two racial cards are played at the same time, the Frogs win the initiative.

    When a player play his last action card he took back every normal action cards from his discard pile. Racial card is never considerated a card in hand. This means that if you have only the Racial card left you can take every normal cards from the discard pile like if you had none.

    How to read the units sheetsUnit number: identify the miniature representing the unit.Unit name: identify unit role.Wounds: number of injuries the unit can take before the death.Armour Save: the number a player must obtain to block opponents hits.Weapon name: the weapon name.Attack Dices: the number of dices to be thrown in an attack with this weapon.Damage Rate: the number that the player must obtain to inflict injuries with the used weapon.Range: the number of terrains the weapon can fire through (only dis-tance weapon).Abilities: every unit abilities.

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    To keep tack of used action points we suggest You to use the

    specific Pondemoniums markers.

    MOVEMENTS IN THE POND SCENERY:

    Every action point allow a unit to reach the center of an adjacent ter-rain, for example a unit that start in the deploy field can, with a single movement, reach the center of an adjacent bridge and, with another

    movement, reach the center of an islet.

    The white arrows are the allowed land movements that every units can do.The green arrows are jump movements that can be used only by Frogs racial Jump ability. Jump can be used in white arrows too without prob-lems.

    Use the action pointsPlayers can use an action point to do one of the following actions:MoveRange attackReloadUse of racial ability

    Every action cost one action point. Players can use action points for different units o for the same unit, but a single unit can do the same action only two times every turn.

    Exception is the racial ability that can be used only once per unit.When a unit use the racial ability, that unit cant do any other action until the next turn, so its important to use racial ability as

    the last action/s of the turn.

    Ex.: A frog can use two times the action Move and than use the racial ability Jump. This will cost the player 3 action points. The unit will not be able to do anything else, becouse Jump is a racial ability and the player will not be able to use the unit until his next turn. The player can still use other actions to move other units.

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    The position on the bridge is then directly connected on the arrival order and it is not possible to change the order unless a unit will die in com-bat.For melee combat see the normal rules in the melee combat section of this manual.

    During the match it is possible that a unit on a bridge will be surrounded (ex: frog unit - turtle unit - frog unit). The rule of maximum units will be still valid (two frogs and two turtle maximum) but will vary the combat resolution that we will see later.Only the units that in a bridge have base contact with enemy units are consid-erated engaged.

    In islets it is possible to move freely if the friendly units are more than oppo-nents units. When the majority is lost because of a move action or the death of a unit, move actions will be forbidden.

    IMPORTANT: Leaves can have only a single unit at the same time !

    facINGWith facing we intend the direction the unit is oriented. Facing is very important in Pondemonium for using in the right way some abilities.Units can see at 360. This mean units can attack range and melee at units that are located behind them with no penalties, but for some special abilities like Push it is really important a right facing placement.Every unit that move toward the center of the Pond will be facing to the next terrain closer to the center.Every unit that move away from the center will be facing the next terrain closer to the Pond corners.

    BLOCKED BRIDGES:When a unit reach the center of a bridge occupied by an enemy unit she must stop immediately in front of that unit. That unit will not be able to move again and will be considerated engaged.

    Frogs can jump over the opponents, but only using the racial ability, so this will be the last action of the turn for that unit.

    IMPORTANT: When frogs use the racial ability on a bridge, frogs can only move on one islet connected with the bridge. A frog can never jump on a leaf from a bridge.

    If a unit reach with a movement an islet, that unit will be placed in the center of the islet.

    If a unit end his movement on an islet where there are enemy units, all that units is considerated engaged (a single unit can engage all the en-emy units on a terrain).

    It is never allowed to enter in water voluntarily with a move action. Move actions allow only to move on fields or bridges.

    A bridge can have a maximum of two turtles and two frogs, while an islet can have all the units that physically can stand in it, but at max five for faction (excluding the deployment zones at the centre and at the corners).

    The second frog or turtle entering a bridge must position behind the one already standing in the bridge. It is not possible to move over friendly or unfriendly units.

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    Type of field to be considerated in the range are:- Island/Islet/deployment zone- Bridge- Water- Leaf

    Remember that you dont have to count the field where the shooting unit is, but that you must count the field where the target is.

    If the target is inside the distance weapon range, the action is used and you can proceed to damage phase.

    There are 3 limitations to distance shoot:- It is never possible to shoot from one of the four deployment zones at the corner of the pond to another. Shoots are always considerated out of range. It is still be possible to shoot from one deployment zone to the central islet of Turtles and reverse (is a range 4 shoot).- A unit can never shoot when he is on a leaf (due to the instability of the field).- It is never allowed to shot to an engaged unit, all the units that are in a land terrain (islet, deployment zone) with at least one enemy are considered engaged, in a bridge all the units that have a base contact with an enemy are considered engaged.

    Leaves always count like if they are at distance two from any adjacent territory touched by the water. (you have to count one for water and one for leaf itself).

    SHOOTING Units that have range weapons (muskets, bows, etc ...) can shoot with a cost of an action point during the player turn.It is important to remember that shooting can be done only twice per turn for every unit and that some kind of weapons like fire guns need a reloading action between each range attack.

    Range weapons can be of 2 different type: fire guns and bows.

    Fire guns are much stronger, but need an action to reload.After each shoot action, the weapon need an action to reload and will be needed an action point to do it.At the beginning of each turn, every fire gun are considerated loaded.This means that for do 2 ranged attack with fire guns the player will need 3 actions. For a single ranged attack 1 action will be enough.Bows are weaker, but can shoot more with less action points (2 action points allow 2 ranged attack) and have normally a longer range.

    The range of distance weapons can be seen on the army sheet and it is the maximum number of terrains the unit can reach with a shoot.For example, a ranged weapon with range 3 can shoot to maximum 3 terrains of distance (counting the one where is the target). If there are different combinations of terrains between the attacker and the target the shortest route must be choosed.The water is considerated a terrain for the range like any others. This means that if it is a combinations of terrains like water-leaf-water-leaf the water must be counted twice and the shoot will be range 4 (one per each type of land crossed).

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    DAMAGE CALCULATIONCalculate combat damage in Pondemonium is done by the difference of opponents successes.

    Every weapon, range and melee, has a value that indicate how many dices the attacking player must roll, and another value that indicate a number you have to reach to obtain a success with that weapon.

    The unit defending ever roll two dices for defense, both Frogs and Tur-tles, but the value to reach is different from unit to unit. Over that, Turtles can use the racial ability to add one dice to the de-fense roll.

    Once all the dices were rolled, you must compare attack and defense successes, if attacker obtained more success than defender, he inflict the difference as injuries. If the defender obtained more success than attacker nothing happened. The attack is blocked/dodged.

    Life point value of a unit is indicated in the sheet. When a unit have enough injury as the life points the unit is killed and removed from the game.

    It is important to keep track of injury taken by a unit. In Pondemonium there is no way to heal an injury.

    Range weapons can never be used for melee resolving at the end of the turn unless the unit have the Rapid Fire ability (guns), the other units must use their second weapon in melee (bite, punch....).Normally every range units have a different melee value that is used for close combat, is the weapon without the RANGE characteristic.Priority for an archer or a musketeer that is engaged is disengaging itself. Disengaging is more easy for Frogs.

    IMPORTANT: it is never possible to shoot to an engaged unit.

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    RACIAL ABILITIESTurtles and Frogs are different not only for weapons and armour, but for some abilities too. For one action point a unit can use the racial ability, but remember that using that ability is ever the last action for that unit in this turn.

    FROGS RACIAL ABILITY: JUMP

    As anticipated in the movement part, frogs can use an action point to Jump. Jump allow frogs to use shortcuts to reach the center of the Pond, to surround enemies or to disengage fast. Or can be used as a third bonus movement over the normal two al-lowed.

    A frog can jump from a field to another adjacent ending the turn in this way.A frog can never jump from a bridge to a leaf, but only to one of the islet adjacent to the sides of the bridge. Leaves can be reached only by adjacent islet or by the starting adjacent deployment zones.

    A frog can jump in an islet/bridge with an enemy unit to engage them.

    IMPORTANT: Leaves can have only one unit at the same time !

    LINE OF SIGHTIn Pondemonium the line of sight is ever free. Field obstacles and other units never block a range attack, but it is important to remember that range attack has a range value and that normally a range attack cant be used when engaged.

    reloadingAt the beginning of each player turn, fire guns are always considerated loaded, and the same is for melee phases with fire guns with Rapid Fire ability. During the turn, every time a fire gun shoots it will be consider-ate unloaded and will be necessary to spend an action to use it again in the same turn. Loading a weapon two times in the same turn is useless. Reloading is useless if you played the lower action card (the one with only two actions).

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    END OF the TURNOnce a player used all of his action points or decided to pass, melee combat are resolved. Every engaged units must do a close combat.

    There are two different phases. First the player who was in turn attack and the opponent defend. Then the opponent attack and the player in turn defend.

    The advantage to be on turn is that controlled units attack first, so it is possible to eliminate enemy units before taking a counterattack.

    It is the player on turn who decided what combat want to resolve first, but every combat must be done.

    If in a close combat there are two or more miniatures, the player on turn divide equally attackers and defenders. If possible every attacking unit fight with a different defender (it is possible to regroup miniatures on an islet for helping in this phase).It is imperative to divide equally attackers and defender. It is not possible to create different combination if the two sides have the same number of units.

    TURTLE RACIAL ABILITY: ARMOR

    At the cost of one action point, a turtle can protect herself inside the armor. Put an armored token to remember the bonus. At the beginning of the next turtles player turn every armored token must be removed.

    An armored turtle have an additional defense dice that can be used in the same turn of the turtle player and in the frog player turn (this means that can be used against range attack too).

    Racial cards are single use. When it is played, a player can activate freely the racial ability for every unit, but he will not have any other action. Over that, a player will take back every action cards he already used.This means that the frogs player will have a free movement phase for all his army. The turtle player will have a turn with an increased defense for all of his units.

    DISENGAGINGAn engaged unit can disengage only:

    - If Frog using the Jump action.- Frogs or Turtles can disengage in an islet using a movement action for leave the terrain only if the units are in overnumber ( at least one unit more than opponents).

    A Turtle can never disengage on a bridge (a Turtle is slow and too big for a fast disengaging manouvre). An engaged unit cant shoot with ranged weapons, but she can do the other actions.

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    PINCER MANEUVER

    During the match it is possible that units create a pincer maneuver on bridges. (example: frog-turtle-frog).In case of the same number of units (frog-turtle-frog-turtle) there will be two different melee combats. The player on turn will decide the fight that will be done first. If there is a superiority the single unit will have to defend against two different attack but will be able to attack only one unit.

    EXEMPLE MELEE WITH 3 UNITS ON BRIDGE

    Frog - Turtle - Frog

    The player on turn is the Turtle Player. He can choose the unit that will be attacked by the Turtle. Once the attack of the Turtle is resolved, if the Frog is survived, the unit can attack the Turtle back.In any case, the other Frog will be able to attack the Turtle.

    In this case the Turtle player will try to attack the weaker Frog, hopping to kill the unit using the advantage of the initiative.

    If the player on turn is the Frog Player, he will choose the first unit that

    Every attacker/defender that is in surplus must be putted in an already cre-ated combination and will fight only if the other unit will be killed.Once every combination is created, the player in turn decide what combat want to resolve first, but every fighting must be resolved.

    May happen that the are different units in a melee combat. The order and the combination is ever decided by the player in turn. This is a really impor-tant advantage. For example, a Turtle fights with 3 Frogs. If the Turtle player is in turn he can decide the unit the Turtle will fight with and the next unit in case of elimination of the first one.

    Only the units that are in base contact can attack/counterattack, the second, third... rank units can only advance if the allied in front of them die. Only units with the PHALANX ability can attack without the base contact (see the ability section).

    MELEE COMBAT ON BRIDGES

    Bridges can have a maximum of four units (two for every faction). If in the bridge there are at least three units the melee combat is considerated multi-ple. The difference from the islet combat is that the order is already decided and cant be changed in any way. The arrival order on a bridge is very important for

    a winning tactics.

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    FIRST PHASE: PLAYER ON TURN AGAINST OPPONENT

    The player on turn roll dices equal to the number indicated on the equipped weapon of the unit and calculate the number of successes he obtained. The opponent do the same for the armor value of his unit.

    If the attacker had more successes than defender, the difference will be inflicted as damage (injuries).

    If the unit is killed (injuries reach the life points value) and there arent other enemies in the queue the fight is over, otherwise the queue ad-vance and there is a counterattack (see second phase).If the unit survived there is a counterattack (see second phase). After that, if there is another unit against this unit (3 units in a pincer maneuver) there is another battle, but the defender will not have any counterattack.

    Normally every unit will have a single melee attack, but only if the unit will reach an opponent

    SECOND PHASE: OPPONENTS AGAINST PLAYER ON TURN

    The second phase works the same way of the first phase, but the de-fender became the attacker and reverse.

    If at the end of the melee phase there are is no unit killed, units con-tinue to be engaged.If there are other units in the queue those units will do nothing.

    Once actions and melee phases are over, the turn change and the player with less initiative will do his turn.

    When this second turn is over every player will play other cards.

    will attack the Turtle. If the Turtle will not be killed, the Turtle will coun-terattack as usual. The second Frog will attack the Turtle but there will be no counterattack by the Turtle, so there will be no risk to the second Frog to suffer damages.

    EXAMPLE MELEE WITH 4 UNITS ON BRIDGE

    Turtle - Frog - Turtle - Frog

    The number of units is the same so its the player on turn that will de-cide who will fight with. Unfortunately he must choose equally so the choice is one and only one: 1 against 2 and 3 against 4.

    Frog Turtle - Turtle - Frog

    Even in this situation the choice is only one: 1 against 2 and 3 against 4.

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    First Rank Phalanx: This ability allow Phalanx units to melee attack even if in the second position of a line. It is not necessary to be in contact of another units, but must be no more far than the second position of the line. The attacks made with this ability are always after the regulars attacks of the two first line units. The attacks resolution order is: active player first line unit, opponent first line unit, active player first/second phalanx units, opponent first/second phalanx units.

    Example: A Turtle Archer is engaged melee with a Frog Marauder and a Pikefrog is in the second position after the Frog Marauder.The turn is of Turtles player and the Turtle doesnt do any damage to the Frog Marauder. Its Frogs player time to counterattack. The Frog Marauder had one success, and the Turtle block it with a successful defense roll. Everything stand in the same way, but the Pikefrog in the second line can use the ability to attack the Turtle Archer.

    Second Rank Phalanx: This ability works like Phalanx First Rank but it al-low to attack even from the third position of a line. This ability will work even with 2 friendly units between the unit and the target. The attacks made with this ability are always after the regulars attacks of the two first line units. The attacks made with this ability are always after the regulars attacks of the two first line units. The attacks resolution order is: active player first line unit, opponent first line unit, active player first/second phalanx units, opponent first/second phalanx units.

    Overwhelm: Attack roll successes are saved from the enemy with a ma-lus of +1 applied on his armour save (a standard turtle save at 5+ in-stead of 4+)

    Rapid Fire: The units with rapid fire ability can use the ranged weapons even when engaged, both as range attack, both as melee attack.(Rapid fire weapons are always loaded in melee phase)

    This mean that it is possible for a player to do two consecutive turns, one as second player, the other as first player.

    Example: Frog-Frog-Turtle-Turtle. Frog goes first and kill the Turtle. The second Turtle will take the place of the one killed and will attack with a counterattack. If the first Turtle survive the Frog attack, the first Turtle will counterattack and the second Turtle will do nothing.

    VICTORYFrogs wins if at the end of melee phase of the Frog player turn, in the Fort in the center of the pond the Frogs are twice the number of the Turtles.

    The Turtles wins if in any moment the 80% (rounded up) of Frogs army is eliminated. You must count the number of units, not the cost of the army.

    ABILITIESIn this part of the rulebook were going to explain the unit abilities of Pondemonium:

    Chivalry: Chivalry ability allow a unit to move like if using racial ability Jump, but the unit doesnt need to end the turn after the use of it. The only limit of it is that Chivalry Units cant jump, move or stay on bridges. This means that this kind of units must use only leaf to enter inside the pond.

    Reload: Units with this ability must use an action points after a range attack to allow a second attack in the same turn.

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    of the turn. A unit with Adrenalinic Charge can move two times only if the first field is empty. Every time a unit with Adrenalinic Charge reach a field with friendly units the unit must stop and will not be able to use any other type of movements (including the Jump racial ability).The unit can use an action point as movement without moving to reacti-vate the ability in the field the unit is.

    Rex Tremendae Maiestatis: The Frog King can be targeted by ranged attack only when he is the only enemy unit in his terrain. If in the terrain occupied by the King there are other enemies, the attacking player must choose one of them as target.

    Slow reload: A unit with this ability must use two action points to reload a range weapon.

    Amphibious: The units with this ability can cross short water areas, with two movement actions a unit on a islet can reach a near islet. This ability can be used only for move between two islets, and only if the starting islet and the destination islet are divided by a straight line that cross only water. Often this special movement can allows to avoid bridges. This special movement cant start or end on bridges or leaves.The units with the Amphibious ability cant pass or stay on the bridges.

    Push: When a unit with push ability inflict an injury (after the defense roll) , can choose to move immediately the target unit to an adjacent terrain behind her.A push on a bridge will move the unit to the previous islet.This will work only if there are no other units in the line behind the unit.A unit pushed from an islet will be moved to one of the bridges in the back of the unit. This will be possible only if the bridge have not reached the maximum number of units (two units per faction). If the player that make the push is the player with the initiative, the pushed unit lose his counterattack phase.

    Patriotism: When a unit with Patriotism enters in a terrain (islet or bridge), every units of the same faction gain the chance to reroll one dice after the dice rolls in the attack phase of the melee phase. This bonus will last only for the same turn the unit with Patriotism moved and will end at the end of the melee phase. A unit with Patrio-tism can move two times only if the first field is empty. Every time a unit with Patriotism reach a field with friendly units the unit must stop and will not be able to use any other type of movements (including the Jump racial ability).The unit can use an action point as movement without moving to reacti-vate the ability in the field the unit is.

    Furious Charge: A unit with this ability will ever have the initiative and will ever attack first, even in the opponent turn. If two units with Furious Charge fight against each other the two attacks are resolved at the same time. This means that it is possible for two units with this ability to kill each other at the same time.

    Adrenalinic Charge: When a unit with this ability enters an island, islet or bridge field, every units of the same faction earn a reroll during the armor roll to protect from injuries in melee combat.This ability will last only until the end of the next melee phase at the end

  • PONDEMONIUM IS A SKIRMISH GAME FOR two PLAYERs WITH MINIATURES

    in SCALE 28mm

    The great mobility of Frogs against the impressive defensive ability of Turtles in a Pond battleground of huge variability

    that will keep you company for many matches !

    www.miciosegoneags.altervista.org/pondemonium.html