The Kingdom of Zizerax has been a benevolently ruled domain for hundreds of years. Well known for their verdant landscapes, abundant natural treasures, and well protected cities, they have been a model of stability and power for all nations in the realm.

But lately a dark tide has come over Zizerax. The king has been assassinated, internal strife has led to a disunified government, revolution has left the army diminished, and who the rightful heir to the throne is remains in question. Now the kingdom, once a shining example, bears little resemblance to its former self. Armies representing Dukes seeking to expand their territories, Warlords seeking glory, and Kings seeking to conquer have converged in the fallen lands.

Many have come, but only one will find victory.

 

How to Play (Quickstart)

Zizerax is a tactical card game. You will play as an army, and your goal is to defeat your enemy’s army.

1. Deal twelve cards to each player, face down. Players should keep their dealt cards in a pile and not look at them. These piles are called Reserves (as in army reserves).
2. Once all cards have been dealt, players draw the top 8 cards in their reserves.
   From these cards, players will choose six to make up their starting army. An army is two rows of three cards.
3. Once players have chosen their six, they will place their remaining two cards at the bottom of their reserves and view their reserves.
4. Players now take turns attacking their foe! On a player’s turn they may take three actions. An action is either using the ability on a fighter’s card, attacking an enemy fighter, moving a fighter, or substituting a fighter. Once they have done any of these actions, they place a token on top of that card to indicate it has been “exhausted” for that round. Cards may only be used once a round.
5. If a fighter is defeated, the owner will place it face up next to their Reserves. If the player has reserves remaining, they will replace the defeated fighter with the top card from their Reserves pile on their next turn.
6. Once all a player’s fighters are exhausted, the round is over, and all players remove all tokens from their fighters.
7. The game continues until one player remains.

Laying Out Your Army

At the start of the game, players take the top 8 cards from their Reserves pile and place six cards face up in front of them, in two piles of three. The remaining two cards are placed at the bottom of the Reserves pile.

Where you place your cards is a matter of strategy. Cards with a muzzle icon next to their name or ability they may attack from anywhere–meaning you could place them in your front lines or your rear and they would be able to attack your enemy’s front lines or rear. Cards without a muzzle icon may only attack the enemy’s front lines if they are in your front lines, and may not attack the enemy’s rear unless the card in front of them has been defeated and cannot be replaced with a card from your enemy’s reserves.

Attacking & Stats

The Three Stats

Every card has three stats.

• Attack ( for melee or for ranged): How much base damage the card deals
• Health (): How much damage it takes to kill the card
• Block (): How much damage a card can block from a foe’s attack

 

How to Attack

There are two ways to attack in Zizerax. One, is with your fighter’s base attack points, and the other is with abilities.

To attack with your fighter’s attack points, you first choose the fighter you would like to attack with, then you choose the enemy fighter you would like to attack.

You then roll 4 fudge dice Fudge Dice are six sided die that have 2 plus sides, 2 minus sides, and 2 blank sides. A minus means subtract one, a plus means add one, and blank means add nothing. and add the +/–s to your attack points.

Your foe then rolls 4 fudge dice and adds the +s they roll to their defense (ignoring any –s).

If your total is higher than the enemy fighter’s defense points, you defeat the fighter! If you don’t deal enough damage to defeat the fighter, the fighter’s health remains at the number you damaged it for. If you have actions remaining on your turn, you may keep damaging it to lower its health and eventually defeat it.

When a fighter is defeated, you ‘take it out of play’ by placing it face up next to your reserves.

A fighter’s attack points will either be shown with crossed swords or with a firing muzzle. The swords icon means that an attack is close range only, and that fighter must be placed in the front lines and can only attack other front line fighters. A ranged attacker can be anywhere and attack anywhere.

Note: If a fighter in the rear has no fighter in front of it, that fighter is treated as being in the front lines. 

Example Attack

1. Player 1’s Knight (5 attack) attacks Player 2’s Archer (10 defense).
2. Player 1 rolls 4 fudge dice and gets +,–,+,+ (equaling +2).
3. Player 1 adds 2 to their Knight’s base attack points for a total of 7 attack points.
4. Player 2 rolls 4 fudge dice and gets –,+, ,+ (equaling +1).
5. They add 1 to their Archer’s defense points, bringing it up to 11.
6. Player 1’s Knight deals Player 2’s Archer 6 damage. Archer’s defense is now 5.
7. Player 1 still has an action left on their turn, so they attack the Archer with their Wolf (6 attack points).
8. They perform the above actions again.
9. Player 1 rolls +,+,+,+ (+4) and Player 2 rolls +,–,–,– (+1).
10. Player 1’s Wolf is now doing 6+4 damage. Player 2’s Archer has 5+1 defense.
11. Because the Archer only had 6 defense points, it is defeated! Player 2 takes takes the Archer out of play by putting it in their discard pile.
12. If Player 1 had not dealt enough damage to defeat the Archer on that turn, the Archer’s defense would have returned to its original 10.

Abilities and Modifiers

Fighters have a diverse range of abilities and modifiers which enhance cards and let them attack or defend in interesting ways.

Modifiers

Modifiers generally change a fighter’s stats. They may increase the damage you do to another fighter, or how much another fighter deals to you. If a card says +4 attack against a certain race, that would mean you would add 4 to your attack roll when attacking a fighter of that race. If a card says +4 defense against a certain race, you would add 4 defense to your fighter when you are being attacked by that race.

Abilities

Fighters have a wide array of abilities. Some abilities are special attacks, others are defensive, and some even allow you to alter the battlefield. Abilities are actively used and count as an action on your turn. Abilities are usually explained on the card itself. Once you’ve used a fighter’s ability, that fighter is exhausted.

Note that abilities may only target fighters in your enemy’s front line unless the ability has a ranged attack symbol next to its name. 

Passive Abilities

Passive abilities are abilities that are triggered by other actions. In some cases, an ability is activated when a friendly fighter is killed or takes damage. Other abilities are activated when you attack.

Moving Fighters

It’s often advantageous to move fighters around the battlefield. On your turn, you may use an action to choose to move a fighter. Unless specified in the cards modifiers or abilities, a card can move one space in your army. If the space is occupied, swap the positions of the two cards. Once you have moved the card, the fighter that initiated the move is exhausted and can’t be used for the rest of the round.

Substituting Fighters

If a fighter is of no use to your current army and you have remaining reserves, you may choose to substitute a fighter with one from your reserves. To do this, you take the fighter you want to replace and place it at the bottom of your reserves pile. Draw the card at the top of your reserves and put it in the old fighter’s place. Substituting a fighter uses an action. Fighters you add by substitution are exhausted when they enter the battlefield.

Rounds and Exhaustion

A round ends when all of the fighters in your army have been exhausted. At the end of a round, remove all tokens from your fighters and resume play.

Manually Ending the Round/Manually Exhausting

If you feel you have no good moves remaining, you can choose to exhaust fighters without attacking/using an ability/moving. Exhausting this way uses an action. If a manual exhaust ends a round and you have actions remaining, end the round, but keep the manually exhausted fighter exhausted. You may use your remaining actions.

Last Fighters Standing Rule

If a player has two or fewer fighters, they do not reset their opponent’s fighters when they finish a round.

Symbols

Symbols on Zizerax cards indicate different properties.