Playing your first game
A step-by-step guide
Followed these simplified rules for your first game to learn the basics before exploring the Riftway on your own.
Create an army
Secretly select four troops to include in your army. For your first game do not use Commanders, custom faction rules, wargear, or any advanced rules.
Use your favorite models to create your ideal army. Simply pick a unit card that best describes your models, then place them atop a base.
Setup the mission
For your first game it’s suggested you play the mission Pitched Battle. Place 4 Objective Tokens on the tabletop as shown.
Pitched Battle
Controlling the objective closest to your deployment zone earns you 1 victory point each turn.
Controlling the objective closest to your opponents deployment earns you 4 victory points each.
Controlling the center objectives earns you 2 victory points each turn.
Whoever has the most victory points at the end of 5 turns is the winner.
Set up the Battlefield
Both players takes turns setting up terrain on the battlefield. Each player may deploy:
1 Obstruction (Ex: Solid Buildings & Boulders)
2 Open Garrisons (Ex: Ruins, Forests, Thick Brush, Craters)
2 Low Cover (Ex: Barricades & Sand Bags)
Each terrain feature must be deployed 4” away from the board edge, objectives, and other terrain. If there’s not enough room to deploy a piece of terrain, it may not be placed.
Deploy your Troops
You and your opponent deploy your troops 11” from the centerline of the battlefield.
First, flip a coin to see who select their deployment zone and deploys the first troop. Then, alternate placing troops into your deployment zone until all troops have been deployed.
Preparing to play
Both you and your opponent gain a Strategic Token, plus an additional token for each of your opponents living troops. In this example, both players should have five Strategic Tokens.
Then, flip a coin to see who activates their first troop. Proceed to take turns activating troops until all troops have been activated, ending the turn.
Activating a Troop
First, select a troop to activate that has not yet been activated this turn. If a troop consists of more than one unit, activate them all sequentially.
A unit’s that’s available to activate will either have no Firefight Marker, or will show a green Firefight Marker.
Each Unit in a Troop can both Move and perform one Action.
After a unit has acted, it’s marked with a red Firefight Marker.
Movement
A unit may move a number of inches equal to its Move stat. It may not move within 1” of an enemy unit. If the unit started its movement within 1” of an enemy, it must end its move outside of 1” of an enemy.
Action: Attacking
Each troop can take one action during its activation. The most common is Attacking.
First, select a weapon on the unit and then select an enemy unit within range that’s visible to the attacking unit. Place a number of Attack Tokens on the enemy unit equal to the attack characteristic of the weapon multiplied by the number of models in the unit.
Attack Tokens
There are 5 denominations of Attack Tokens, 1 through 5 damage. Poker chips are used as these tokens. When a Unit attacks, use the attack token that matches the weapons damage characteristic.
Long, Short, and Melee
There are three types of weapons: Long Range, Short Range, and Melee. Long Range attacks have unlimited range. Short Range attacks have a limited range. Melee attacks cause the attacker to move directly toward the target into base contact.
Ranged weapons cannot target enemy units that are within 1" of another allied Unit. Long Range weapons may not be used while within 1" of an enemy.
Suppression, Block, and Scramble
All weapons Suppress, Block, or Scramble their opponent when they attack. Reduce the enemies outgoing attacks by the Suppress, Block, or Scramble value of the weapon, down to no less than 1.
Suppress is effective on long range and short range attacks.
Block is effective on melee and short ranged attacks.
Warmachines are immune to Block and Suppress, but can have any attack reduced by Scramble.
Resolving Damage
When a unit is activated, resolve all of its outgoing attacks. Additionally, when a unit has finished activating, resolve all incoming damage.
To resolve damage, apply all incoming attack tokens to the most wounded model in the unit, one at a time. When a model’s damage is equal to or greater than its health, remove it.
Armor
Some troops have Armor. Before resolving damage, reduce the number of incoming attacks down to the Armor of of the troop. Attacks with the Armor Penetrating ability ignore enemy armor.
Action: Hunker
An alternative action that most Troops have is Hunker, in which the unit goes to ground to avoid enemy ranged attacks. Remove a number of attack tokens from all sources equal to the troops Hunker score, but always leaving the last token.
Action: Run
A unit my spend its action to Run. Move up to a number of inches equal to the Troops Run score.
Intercepting Attacks
When a unit has finished taking its actions, if it's blocking the line of sight of a ranged attack targeting an ally or an ally is now blocking the line of sight of a ranged attack targeting itself, that damage is immediately redirected to the blocking unit and resolved. If the blocking unit is in melee, reduce the incoming Attack Tokens by half, rounding down.
Escaping Attacks
When resolving a ranged attack, if the attack's line of sight is broken by Obscuring terrain or an allied unit, the number of attacks is reduced by half, rounding down, to represent the volley being cut short.
Lethal Gambits
Before allocating damage to a unit, the either player can propose a strategic gamble. If the defender wins, they can ignore 2 damage for each Strategic Token wagered. If the attacker wins, the defending unit receives 1 additional 1 damage Attack Token for every Strategic Token wagered by the attacker. The winner of the bet must discard the different in the two bets.
For example: If a defender bets 3 tokens and the attacker bets 2, the defender blocks 6 damage and discards 1 strategic token.
Scoring Objectives
Once all troops have activated, see who controls each objective by counting the number of models with 3” of that objective. If any of the troops have the Operative ability, only count Operative models.
When this is complete, flip all attack markers to their green side to indicate that they’re ready to be activated.
New Turns
At the start of each new turn, each player flips all their red firefight markers to green, and then gains a number of Strategic Tokens equal to their opponents surviving troops.
Players secretly bet a number of strategic tokens to determine who may activate the first unit. Whichever player bet the most, wins. Both players discard their bet Strategic Tokens.
Ending a game
At the end of turn 5, each player reducing all incoming attacks down to a single attack token and resolves that damage simultaneously, before scoring objectives one final time. Whichever player has the most victory points at the end of 5 turns wins.
Advanced Rules
Once you’ve mastered the basics, explore all the depth Riftway Cataclysm has to offer.
Terrain Types
Secret Objectives
Custom Factions
Special War Gear
Metaphysical Powers
Advanced Missions
Commanders