Duel

Prepare for Combat!

Some people fight for honor, others for money. Some even fight because they enjoy it. You just fight because you’re good at it.

Choose a Fighter. Choose your cards. May the best villain win!

Each player uses a combination of attack, defence and movement cards to wear each other down and find the right moment to strike. As the fight continues, each fighter begins to tire and their options narrow. Try to get more hits but be careful not to drive yourself to exhaustion.

Small enough to fit in a tin, this game holds as much depth as you want it to. You can decide to carefully plan each attack, taking into account the cards that your opponent has played so far to find flaws or habits in their technique. Or you can just treat it as a much more interesting game of Rock, Paper Scissors. Whether being used to test your tactical genius against your opponent or to help decide who is going to make the coffee, the choice is yours.

Objective

Each turn, the Active player plays a card face down and tells their opponent what type of card they played. Bluffing is allowed but risky. The 2nd player plays a card in response.

Compare card type and the symbols on the cards to see if each Succeeds or Fails (Attack beats Move beats Defend beats Attack). Apply the effects of each card and then the other player becomes the Active player. Repeat this each turn until enough hits are scored or one of the fighters becomes exhausted.

The player who scored most hits but also showed the most skill will win!

Estimated play time: 10 - 20 minutes.

A brief tutorial - an example turn

The Fighters

This game is a quick duel between two of three different fighters, each with their own distinctive fighting style, strengths and weaknesses.

Tactics

Each fighter has a slightly different fighting style and only 12 of the 17 cards for each fighter are used in each fight. This means that it is vital to watch the cards they are playing. As time goes on and you cycle through your deck, you will tire and have to lose cards. By this time you will hopefully have an idea what sort of cards your opponent is using and should try to keep the cards that will give you the best advantage. Have they been favouring Attacks on their right? Try and keep cards that protect your left and allow you to circle around them to your right. Do they play defensively? Lure them into wasting their Defend cards by announcing Attacks and then dodging into a better position as they hide behind their shield.

Scoring is simple, but not too simple. Each time you succeed in an Attack, you take one of the tokens from the pile. When the game ends you score a point for each of the tokens you have. Don't assume that you can start swinging away and guarantee a win, however, as you also score points equal to half your remaining cards. A skilled fighter attacks well but not often. At the same time you cannot stay permanently on the defensive, one lucky hit against you and you'll find yourself playing catch-up against their sudden advantage.

As you can see, the game won't take long to play but will take a long time to learn the skills and techniques required to play well. That said, you can also just decide to ignore the tactics and brawl with your friends to pass a few minutes. No need to take it too seriously if you don't want to.

Components

51 Combat cards:

17 Brute cards,

17 Mercenary cards,

17 Criminal cards.

1 Score card (optional).

15 Hit tokens.

3 Bluff tokens.

Instructions.

Mint tin.

A quick note on the mint tin:

This game fills the tin completely, therefore please consider the below advice to ensure that packing back up is as easy as possible.

1. The tokens fit down the side of the tin beside the cards.

2. When returning the rules to the tin, make sure that the fold of the paper is on the opposite side to the hinge.This makes it easier to open the tin without the rules catching on the lid.