How to Play Allegiance

Rules 3.2 · for the app and for printed cards at a table

The game in one minute · Your first game · Full rules · Glossary

The game in one minute

Two commanders face off across a battlefield. You play Black Forge, zealots who spread the deadly Blight, or the Descendants, sky-born wardens who shield their allies and purge it.

Behind each army stands a Stronghold. Tear down the enemy's Strongholds one after another until you destroy their last one, the Bastion, and you win.

Every turn you get 7 Allegiance Points (AP) to spend. Bring warriors onto the field, march them forward, attack with their abilities, and back them up with weapons, battle cries and clever defensive tactics. Every warrior that falls leaves Blight behind, a corrupted space nobody can cross. Let too much Blight pile up on your side and your army is overrun.

Your first game, step by step

1. Pick a starter deck. Forge Reapers (Black Forge) hits hard and spreads Blight. Citadel Wardens (Descendants) protects its warriors with shields and heals. New players get both.
2. Set up. Shuffle. Put your two Strongholds on top of your Bastion; the Bastion always comes last. Each player draws 7 cards and places their first Stronghold in their second row (row B).
3. Turn one. The first player gets 6 AP and doesn't draw. Deploy two or three warriors straight from your hand onto your side of the field, at 2 AP each. On later turns warriors wait one turn in your Muster Zone (free) before deploying.
4. Every turn after: draw a card, get 7 AP, then deploy, move and attack in any order. Each warrior can attack once per turn.
5. Attack in straight lines. Along a row, a column or a perfect diagonal, within the range printed on the ability. Melee warriors (range 1) need to march up close; archers and mages hit from further back.
6. Defend on their turn. When the enemy attacks one of your units, you can answer with a Tactic card for free: block, dodge, counter.
7. Push to their Stronghold. Strongholds take damage like warriors. When one falls, the next one rises. Destroy the Bastion and the battle is yours.

Tip for your first games: don't rush a lone warrior forward. Advance together, keep a Tactic in hand, and watch the Blight count on each side.

Full rules

What you need

• Main deck, 40 cards: exactly 20 Warriors of one faction, plus 20 cards in any mix of War Supplies, Battle Cries and Tactics.
• Stronghold deck, 3 cards: 2 Strongholds of your faction and your faction's Bastion.
• 18 Blight tokens, damage tokens, shield tokens (Absorb and Reflect), a six-sided die (D6) and a twelve-sided die (D12). The app handles all of this for you.

Copy limits: ★1–2 cards up to 3 copies · ★3–4 up to 2 · ★5 only 1.

The battlefield

Each player has a board 4 rows deep and 6 columns wide. Push them together to make an 8 × 6 battlefield. Row A is your front line, touching the enemy's row A; row D is your back row. Beside your board is your Muster Zone, with room for 4 warriors waiting to deploy.

• You deploy only onto your own side.
• Warriors can move anywhere, including onto the enemy's side.
• Warriors, Strongholds and Blight block movement: you can't move through them or onto them.

Setup

1. Shuffle your main deck. Shuffle your 2 Strongholds and put your Bastion underneath them.
2. Decide who goes first.
3. Each player draws 7 cards.
4. Each player reveals their top Stronghold and places it on row B, rolling a D6 for the column (if the space is taken, use the nearest free one).

Your turn

1. Draw 1 card. The first player skips this on their very first turn.
2. Gain 7 AP. The first player's very first turn gets 6.
3. Take actions in any order until you run out of AP or choose to stop.
4. End of turn: discard down to 10 cards, then check for Blight Overrun and Rout (see Winning).

• First turn: your Muster Zone isn't open yet, so deploy Warriors straight from your hand for 2 AP each.
• One attack per Warrior per turn. Soul Combat counts as its attack. Support abilities (heals, shields and so on) can each be used once per turn too.
• Tapped Warriors can't move, attack, use abilities or play Tactics that turn.

Attacking

• Attacks travel in a straight line: the same row, the same column, or an exact diagonal. The target must be within the ability's range (for example "range 3–4").
• Abilities marked any direction or any range ignore the straight-line rule.
• Units in between don't block an attack.

Working out damage, in order:

1. Start with the ability's damage and add the attacker's bonuses (weapons, buffs, Battle Cry, formation).
2. The defender may play a Tactic.
3. Subtract armor (flat reductions from cards such as Shield of the Victor or Heavy Plate).
4. Each Absorb shield blocks 2 damage and is used up.
5. One Reflect shield blocks 1 damage and deals 2 back to the attacker.
6. Apply what's left. A unit at 0 HP is destroyed.

A unit can hold at most 3 Absorb and 3 Reflect shields.

Battle Cries, Tactics and War Supplies

• Battle Cry: played together with one of your attacks, for 0 AP. Max 1 per turn.
• Tactic: played when the enemy attacks one of your units, for 0 AP. Max 1 per enemy turn. Only Tactics that say so can protect a Stronghold.
• War Supply: max 1 per turn, on your turn. Weapons and armor stay on the Warrior until it dies (1 weapon and 1 armor each).

Blight and Soul Combat

• When a Warrior dies, a Blight token fills its space. Strongholds never leave Blight.
• Blight blocks movement.
• Soul Combat (2 AP, uses the Warrior's attack): challenge a Blight in a straight line within the Warrior's longest attack range. Both players roll a D12, re-rolling ties. If the Warrior wins, the Blight is destroyed. If the Blight wins, the Warrior's soul is drained: it's tapped during your next turn and can't play Tactics until then.

Strongholds

• Only one of your Strongholds is on the field at a time. It's attacked and damaged like a Warrior.
• When it falls, reveal your next one and place it on row B (roll a D6 for the column).
• Strongholds don't move unless a card says so.

Blight Beasts

• Anima of Zealot (Black Forge) can be deployed once there are 6 or more Blight on the battlefield.
• Guardian of the Castle (Descendants) can be deployed once 4 or more Blight have been destroyed this game.
• Both deploy straight from your hand for 2 AP, skipping the Muster Zone.

Formations

When 4 Warriors of your faction stand side by side in the same row, they form their faction's formation:

• Black Forge, Blood Crescent: they deal +1 damage.
• Descendants, Shield Wall: they take 1 less damage.

Winning

• Siege: destroy the enemy's Bastion.
• Rout: at the end of your turn (once both players have had 2 turns), the enemy has no Warriors on the battlefield and none in their Muster Zone.
• Blight Overrun: at the end of any turn, a player with 12 or more Blight on their side loses.
• If your deck runs out, keep playing with the cards in your hand.

Glossary

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