Skirmish

BRIEF SUMMARY

Skirmish is a fast paced, two-person card game, where players take on the role of commanders in a war-torn land.

Send out units, equip them with weapons and use powerful spells to battle over key locations until one player has united the land and is crowned the true king!

The realm awaits its true ruler - will it be YOU?

SET-UP

In order to set up a game of Skirmish, each player must have a 30 card deck (their Armory) containing:

4 Lowly Serfs, 4 Foot Soldiers, 4 Cavalry, 3 Royal Guards, 2 Crossbowmen, 1 Champion, 1 Flag Bearer, 1 King, 1 Assassin, 1 Court Jester, 1 Helping Hand, 1 Fireball of Destruction, 1 Necromancy, 1 Prying Eyes, 1 Summoning, 1 Teleportation, 1 Mists of Concealment, and 1 Battle Trance.

Once each player has their shuffled deck of 30 cards, shuffle the 10 Location cards and place 3 face-up (red side down) in the middle of the table. Place the rest nearby.

Lastly, place the 20 Gold/King tokens in a pile on the table within easy reach of both players. When this is all done, each player draws a hand of 5 cards from the top of their respective decks, and play may commence.

The Armory (or the rest of the deck) remains face-down near each player. Each player should also have their own Cheat Sheet close at hand which helps them understand turn order.

Choose a starting player by having 1 player hide a Gold/King token in their hands; if the other player correctly guesses which hand it is in, they go first.

EXAMPLE OF SET-UP

RULES OF PLAY

Every game of Skirmish is played until 1 player has acquired 10 Points.

Players take turns playing a variety of Unit, Spell and Equip Cards, attempting to win battles on the different Location Cards in play by having the most Strength. These Location Cards are worth a certain amount of Points, which are awarded to the player with the most Strength on it after the battle has been resolved.

GAME STRUCTURE

The first thing a player does on their turn is take 3 Gold. Next, the player may spend their gold to play Unit, Spell or Equip Cards from their hand. It is important to remember that a player may only play cards during their turn. They do not have to play any cards on their turn if they do not wish to and may save their Gold up. However, you cannot acquire more than 9 Gold maximum. Discarding cards in your hand is not permitted. Before ending their turn, the player whose turn it is draws back up to 5 cards. Players only ever redraw cards at the end of their turn unless a card ability says otherwise. Players take turns going back and forth until one of them has acquired 10 Points, and the game immediately ends.

EXPANSIONS

Aside from the 30 card basic decks, there are many more expansion cards soon to be available for purchase, including unique Special Unit, Equip and Spell cards. While players are encouraged to experiment on their own by adding these expansion cards to the preconstructed basic battle decks in any way they want, there are two recommended formats.

Mirror Matches: This format is perfect for players who are just starting to explore the game on a deeper level. Each player adds 5-10 of the same expansion cards into their basic battle decks. There should never be multiple copies of expansion cards added to a single deck. This ensures that the decks remain even and fair.

Asynchronous Matches: This format is perfect for players who want to create their own unique strategies. Each player adds 5-10 expansion cards of their choice to their basic battle decks. There should never be multiple copies of expansion cards added to a single deck.This deck construction makes matchups asynchronous and dynamic. A 10 card version of this is the recommended format for competitive play.