And then the Sky turned Dark

by Martin B. Enghoff

Hero Game

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IntroductionThis is the Manual for the Hero game of “And then the Sky turned Dark”. You should be familiar with the content of the Introduction manual before proceeding. If you are going to play the Village game then you do not need to read this manual.

In the Hero game you play as the most heroic member of a small fam-ily struggling to survive a cruel world. You will use Weapons forged by you family members in the Village game to defeat dangerous Foes that threaten to destroy all you hold dear.

Component overviewHero BoardSee Figure 1. This board is used to keep track of your actions during the game, and to keep the Foes you have Defeated separate for those that Got Through your defences.During each turn each player has a total of 9 Weapon actions, spread over 3 Fight phases. The 3 groups of 3 circles at the top of the board helps you track how many actions you have taken - use one of your coloured team tokens for this. To the left is an area where you can put the cards of defeated Foes. To the right is an area for Foes that Got Through. In the middle is a short summary of the Hero Game turn.

Defeated Got throughSplit sequence

Shuffle and Pick up Starting Weapons

Fight phase (3 times each turn)3 actions:i. Play a Weaponii. Pick up a WeaponAdvance and draw Foes

Hero phaseResolve Hero Points

Shared sequenceResolve Foes that were Defeated or Got Through.Collect new weapons

Hero Board

Figure 1. Hero Board.

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Foe CardsSee Figure �. At the top of the card is the name of the Foe. If there is a star after the name it means that the Foe is removed from the Game in the “Resolve Foes” phase if it has been Defeated or Gotten Through to the Village. Beneath the name is a circle with a number showing the amount of Hero Points it is worth - these points are used to find out who is the great-est Hero each turn and thus who decides who will be the First player on the turn after. Beneath the Hero Points is a short text describing any bad effects the Foe has if it Gets Through to the Village - the “Wolf” in figure � makes the team responsible for it loose 1 Hope. Sometimes this text also contain a special move-

ment rule for the Foe, such as the “Lynx” which moves an extra space forward when Foes move if there is an empty space (The “Lynch” card is shown at the end of this book, in Figure 6).Then there is a description of any reward you get for Defeating the Foe. At the bottom are two symbols with a number beneath. The number beneath the Bow symbol tells you how much damage the Foe can take from Ranged Weapons before being Defeated. The number beneath the Axe symbol tell you the same for Melee weapons.

Weapon CardsSee Figure 3. At the top of the card is the name of the Weapon. You have 1 Starting Axe and 1 Starting Bow from the start of the game and these return to you at the beginning of each Turn. In addition you get 1 Basic ranged Weapon, 1 Basic melee Weapon, and 1 Basic Trap at the start of the game. These can be lost during the game and you can gain more from your family in the Village. You have no Advanced Weapons from the start, these can only be gained from your family in the Village and they are difficult to make.Beneath the name there can be a short text if the Weapon has any

Wolf *

1 1

-1 Hope

Reward: None

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Figure �. Foe card.

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special effect. Starting Weapons and Basic Axes and Bows have no text. Then there is a symbol. An Axe means the weapon is a Melee weap-ons, a Bow means it is a Ranged Weapon, and a Trap means it is a Trap. A red symbol indicates that the Weapon is Advanced, a white sym-bol such as in fig. 3 means that the Weapon is a Basic or Starting Weap-on. The Advanced Weapon symbols are shown in figure 3a.Beneath the symbol is a number - this shows how much damage the Weapon deals, if any (Traps deal no damage).

Setup1. Prepare Weapon Cards. Each Hero player gets one of each kind of Starting Weapon (an axe and a bow), the rest are not used in the game. Shuffle each stack of Basic Weapons (melee, ranged, and traps) and Advanced Weapons (melee, ranged, and traps) and put them in separate piles, with the back side up. Each Hero player draws one Basic melee Weapon (they are all the same), one Basic ranged Weapon (they are all the same), and one Basic Trap (they are not all the same).

�. Tokens. Each Hero player takes 3 tokens of her team colour.

Basic trap

Swap a foe in one of your columns with one in

the column to the left

-Figure 3. Weapon card.

Figure 3a. Weap-on type symbols. The red colour means Advanced weapons.

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Figure �. Foe setup. Row cards are placed to the left. Tokens at the top in player team colours show which columns each player is respon-sible for. The arrow indicates the direction the Foes advance during play. The red and green squares are used in the 3. example of Weap-on play and damage, below.

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3. Hero Boards. Each Hero player takes a Hero Board and puts a token of their colour on the first of the nine circles.

�. Play area.See figure �. Take the 3 row cards (showing a Bow and a Trap with the text “Row 1”, a Bow and a Trap with the text “Row �”, and an Axe with the text “Row 3”. Place these on top of each other, with Row 1 at the top. These are the three rows that the Foes will be in. Now take � tokens of each team colour and put them above and to the right of Row 1. The first token should be the colour of the first player, the second token of the second player (going clock-wise) and so on, start-ing over with a token for player 1 until two tokens for each team have been placed. These mark the columns of Foes that each Hero player is responsible for. It is important to note that the column furthest to the left counts as being adjacent to the column furthest to the right for the purpose of card effects.

�. Prepare Foes. See figure �. Separate the “Easy” and “Hard” Foe decks. For both decks remove the cards that say “3-� teams” and “� teams” on the back from the game if you are only two teams. If you are three teams remove those that say “� teams”. From the remaining “Easy” deck fill Row 3 (the one with the Axe card to the side) with “Wolf” cards. Put a “Bandit” card in the first column of each player in row � and in the second column of every player in row 1. Put a “Big Bandit” in the second column of each player in Row � and a “Bear” in the first column of each player in Row 1. Shuffle the rest of the “Easy” deck. Take remaining “Hard” deck and shuffle it. Put the shuffled “Easy” deck on top of the “Hard” deck you just made. Now the game is set up and you are ready to play. Figure � shows the Foe setup for � teams.

You are now ready to play. Check with the players of the Village game if they are ready too before you start playing.

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Turn Structure

Split Sequence1. Shuffle and pick up starting weapons. Shuffle any Basic or Advanced Weapons played last turn into their respective piles. Starting from Turn 3 also shuffle the discarded Foes into the Foe deck.Each player picks up her two Starting Weapons if she doesn’t have them already.

�. Fight phase. This phase occurs 3 times each turn. In each Fight phase the players take turns to make an action until each player has had three actions. So when the turn ends each Player has had nine actions total - this can be tracked on the Hero Boards. At the end of each Fight phase Foes advance towards the Village.

a) Take actions. Starting with the first player and proceeding clock-wise players take turns to make an action until each player has had three actions each. An action can be either i) Play a Weapon from your hand or ii) Pick up a used Weapon

i - Play a Weapon from your handThe player may select a weapon from her hand and play it on a Foe. Ranged weapons and Traps can only be played on Row 1 and �, while Melee weapons can only be played on Row 3 (as depicted on the Row cards). Some Weapons have further instructions on how they can be played described on their card. If a Ranged or Melee Weapon was played, put red Wound tokens on the Foe corresponding to the number on the Weapon card played. If the Foe now has Wound tokens equal to or greater than the value on the Foe card corresponding to the Weapon used the Foe is Defeated and put on the players Hero Board in the “Defeated” area. Other-wise put a number of Wound tokens on the Foe corresponding to the number on the Weapon card played.

ii - Pick up a used WeaponInstead of playing a Weapon a player can elect to pick up a Weapon

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already used. This can either be one of her own Starting Weapons or it can be any Basic Weapon played during this turn by any player. Advanced Weapons can never be picked up.

b) Foes Foes in all rows advance one row towards the Village. The Foes in Row 3 now move past the defences of the Heroes and run towards the Village to wreak havock. Put those Foes on the “Got Through” area of the Hero board of the player whose column the Foe was in. Foes in Row � move to Row 3 and those in Row 1 to Row �.

Now draw Foes from the top of the Foe deck and put them in Row 1.

Repeat the Fight phase until it has occured 3 times, such that each Hero player has had 9 actions in total and the Foes have advanced 3 times.

3. Heroic phase.Each player counts the Hero points on the Foes Defeated this turn. The player with the most Hero points determine who is First Player next turn. In case of a tie the tie goes to the player who is closest to the current First Player, going clock-wise from (and not counting) her.

Examples of Weapon play and damageExample 1: Cara plays a Basic Bow (value 1) on a Wolf (in Row 1 or � - Ranged Weapons cannot be played on Row 3). She thus places 1 red Wound token on the Wolf. Since the number on the Wolf card beneath the Bow icon is 1, the Wolf is Defeated.Example �: Cara plays a Basic Bow (value 1) on a Bear and places 1 red Wound token on the Bear. The number on the Bear card beneath the Bow icon is �, so the Bear is not Defeated. If someone plays another Ranged weapon with 1 (or more) damage on the Bear it is Defeated. Since the number beneath the Melee icon on the Bear is also � it would also die if a Melee weapon was played on it later.Example 3: Andy (Blue player) play a Basic trap that says “Swap a foe in one of your columns with the Foe directly left of it” on the Foe with the red square in Figure �. Since this is the column furthest left it counts as being adjacent with the column furthest right, so she swaps her Foe with the one with the green square.

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Shared Sequence

1. Gather up.Check if the Village players are ready for the Shared sequence. If not then you can watch and cheer on your team-mates. Or go get some coffee - the others will be ready soon enough. Proceed when everyone are ready.

Example of Foe resolutionCara has defeated 3 “Wolf *” Foes and a “Bear *”, but � “Bandit” Foes got through. The Wolves do not give any rewards but the Bear rewards 1 Food, which is added to the Food pile of Cara’s team-mate in the Village.However the Bandits makes Cara’s team-mate loose two ressources of her choice. Also the Foe counter of Cara’s team is increased two steps. Since the Wolves and Bear have a star after their name on the card they are removed from the game. The Bandits are put in a discard pile and will be reshuffled into the Foe deck later.

Clarifications Defeating FoesSome Foes have different numbers of damage they can take in the Melee and Ranged category. For instance the Sorcerer can take � damage from Ranged Weapons but only 1 from melee Weapons. However this does not mean that the Sorceror dies if he has taken 1 Wound and moves into Row 3 (the Melee row). It always takes a Weapon play to kill a Foe.

Swapping Foes and empty spacesThe Basic Traps allow you to swap two Foes. Note that here must be an actual Foe to swap with, you cannot swap a Foe into an empty space (spaces become empty as Foes are Defeated). The Advanced Trap “Lure” specifically allows you to move Foes into empty spaces. These spaces must be truly empty - there can never, under any circumstance, be more than 1 Foe in a space.

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�. Resolve Foes.As the Hero players you are the experts on this phase - try to guide the Village players throught it.Firstly collect any rewards on Foes that were Defeated. Then take all Foes that Got Through and resolve bad effects on those. Remember that Foes only affect the team of the Hero who collected them on her Hero board. Move the Foe counter on the Score Board up for each team, corresponding to how many Foes Got Through to them. All Foes that were Defeated or Got Through are then either discarded or, if it has a star after it’s name it is removed from the game.Note that a few Foes can remain in play in the Village as special condi-tions (such as the “Wild Child” - see figure �.)

3. Weapons. The Village players inform the Hero players how many of each kind of Weapon (Basic or Advanced) they produced. Pick these up now - you determine what combination of Melee, Ranged, and Traps you want.

�. Hunger.Workers in the Village need to eat Food. If they don’t they starve or get sent to the Infirmary and loose Hope, so Food is important. The play-ers of the Village game will guide you through this phase.

�. End game?Check to see if any of the three conditions for the game to end applies (see page 6 of the Introduction manual). If the game ends determine the winner using the procedure described in the Introduction manual.

6. New Turn.If no-one has won, advance the Turn marker 1 step and start a new turn.

What you should know about the Village gameThe players in the Village game try to gather ressources. Food is need-ed to feed the Workers. If they do not get food one time your team looses Hope and if the Workers dont get food again they become too weak to work. So if you can get food rewards or prevent food losses it will help greatly. They also try to gather wood for Basic Weapons and metal for Ad-

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vanced Weapons (these also need wood). The less the Family needs to worry about food or other things the more Weapons they can build. You may not get new Weapons every turn so it is important that you talk about this in the Shared sequence. And if you know some nasty Foes are likely to get through it can be a good idea to warn your team-mate since that may affect what she will do.

A few special Foe cards

Wild Child *

1 1

-1 food OR -3 food to gain 1 young Worker (keep

card). Don’t feed in Hun-ger phase this turn.

Reward: None

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Figure �. Wild Child. This Foe allows your team-mate in the Village game to get another young Worker. If the Wild Child Gets Through you can choose to loose 1 Food, in which case you advance your Foe tracker as normal and then remove the Wild Child from the game.Or you can pay 3 food and your team keeps the Wild Child as an extra Work-er. The Village player on your team then keeps the card (do not advance your Foe tracker) and gets one of the spare young Workers.

Lynx

1 1

-1 Hope. Moves 1 extra spot forward if there is

an empty space

Reward: None

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Figure 6. Lynx. “Lynx” has a special movement rule. After Foes have been advanced in the Fight phase but before new Foes are drawn, check if the space in the row in front of “Lynx” is empty. If it is empty then move “Lynx” to the empty space. This means that Lynx can move direct-ly from Row 1 to Row 3, if there is no Foe in front of “Lynx” in Row 3.

This also means that “Lynx” moves di-rectly from Row � and into the Village!

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Hero game - turn summary

Split sequence (see page �)1. Shuffle and pick up starting weapons.Used Weapons are reshuffled, from Turn 3 also shuffle discarded Foes into the Foe deck. Starting Weapons picked up.

�. Fight phase (occurs 3 times).a) Actions - Take turns to either play a Weapon or pick up a used one until each player has had 3 actions.

b) Foes are advanced 1 row towards the Village. New Foes are drawn.

Repeat the Fight phase until it has occured 3 times.

3. Heroic phase.Count Hero points - the player with the most points determines who is first player in the Hero game next turn.

Shared sequence (see page 9)1. Gather up.The Heroes return to the Village.

�. Resolve Foes.Resolve both rewards and ill effects. The Foe counter of each family is moved up, if any Foes Got Through.

3. Weapons.Weapons produced in the Village are collected by the Heroes.

�. Hunger. Each worker needs � Food or they starve.

�. End game? Has the game ended for any of the 3 possible reasons (too many Foes, too low Hope, this is turn 6)? If so see who wins.

6. New Turn.if no-one has won advance the turn marker.