You and your opponent will assume command of an historical or fictional army from the past, present, or future and strategically deploy your forces to overwhelm the other.

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• Premade Game Decks of 24 cards each that drive the gameplay. The number of decks depends on the version purchased. Each deck follows the same construction pattern, but plays uniquely.

• Duplicate Battlefield Decks that randomize each game, separated by card back color (yellow, red; blue with expansion). The number of Battlefield cards depends on the versioned purchase.

• Various helper and tracker cards that aid and track your gameplay with the help of various colored cubes.

• Circle tokens with numbers & symbols that mark cards during gameplay. The number of tokens depends on version purchased.

• 1 First Player token shaped like a Pirate coin that tracks turn order.

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• [Blue] 3 battlefield cards (the number itself is not material).

• [Green] battlefield zones where you can deploy cards. Deploy cards into the lowest numbered zone possible and you cannot exceed 6 deployed cards per battlefield.

• [Red] game deck space where you will put your deck face down to draw cards.

• [Purple] piles of cards that may accumulate during the game for various reasons like discard, destroy, and banish.

• [Yellow] round & essence tracker to keep track of each value.

• [Orange] circle tokens to mark your cards (see Tokens).

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1. Shuffle the yellow battlefield card deck and place 3 cards face-up in a vertical arrangement on the table for player 1 as shown in the example image above. Find the same battlefield cards in the red battlefield deck and mimic the arrangement for player 2, but on the opposite side of the table.

   
   

2. Choose a game deck, shuffle it, place it face-down on the table to the left of the battlefield cards, and draw 4 cards. The other player should do the same thing on their side of the table.

   
   

3. Place circle tokens within easy reach of each player.

   
   

4. Give each player an Essence/Round tracker. Place the purple cube on space #1 (to indicate round 1) and the orange cube on space #2 (to indicate you have 2 essence to spend this round).

   
   

5. Determine randomly who gets the first player token (you can use it for a coin flip if you wish) and begin round 1.

Watch the video below to see a full explanation of the game setup, round phases, and game end.

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Phase 1: Begin (do not perform on round 1) - Increase the round cube by 1 and set the essence cube to 1 more than the round cube number, regardless of what it was last round. Add or subtract any essence gained or lost last turn. Do this for both players simultaneously.

Phase 2: Draft - Draw 2 cards and keep 1 of them, placing the other on the bottom of the game deck. There is no maximum hand size. Do this for both players simultaneously. Since each deck has 24 cards, you start the game with 4 cards in your hand, and a game has 10 rounds, this means you will see every card in your deck once - unless a card causes you to shuffle your game deck. Deciding between acquiring a specific card in your deck and insuring that you see every card is one of many strategic decisions you may need to make during the game.

Phase 3: Command - Activate the command phase abilities of your revealed cards on any battlefield based on the rules of that card. Repeat for the other player in first player token order. If no command phase abilities are available on the battlefield for either player, skip this phase. Only some decks have cards that can utilize the command phase.

Phase 4: Deploy - Spend essence to deploy one or more cards face-down on open battlefield zone(s), noting the order in which cards were deployed (you can use might tokens to mark the order if it helps). Repeat for the other player in first player token order.

You may decide to "pass" your deploy phase if you don't have enough essence to deploy any cards in your hand or you simply don't want to deploy available cards at this time in the game for strategic reasons.

If you come across a battlefield with a deploy effect, follow the rules of that effect during the deploy phase.

Phase 5: Reveal - Reveal cards face-up one at a time in the order they were deployed. A card and its ability is not active on the Battlefield until it is revealed. With each reveal, do the following in order, then repeat the below reveal steps for the other player.:

1. Apply might tokens equal to the card's reveal might.

2. Resolve the card's ability, if applicable.

3. Resolve any ally card abilities that may trigger based on this card's reveal.

4. Resolve any battlefield effects that may trigger based on this card's deploy or reveal.

   
   

Phase 6: End - Resolve any card and/or battlefield "end phase" effects. Pass the first player token to the other player. After round 10, move to the "end of the game" phase.

Watch the video below to see the Round phases in action with an example Round.

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1. Tally the might for each player on each battlefield. If Player 1 has more might than Player 2 on a battlefield, then Player 1 wins that battlefield. If a player wins 2 of the 3 Battlefields, that player wins the game!

   
   

2. If there is a tie on any battlefield that prevents a player from winning 2 battlefields, then total each player's might across all 3 battlefields. The highest total might wins!

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1 = Card name

2 = Card type - abilities may affect types of cards

3 = Card image + Ability type outline color

4 = Ability type - correlates to color; see next page

5 = Card ability - note the Capitalized keywords in the text

6 = Essence cost (square)

7 = Base might (circle)

8 = Deck symbol - a fun identifier for the deck

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1. Instant (red image outline) - these abilities resolve one time as soon as you reveal the card and do not resolve again unless a card says otherwise.

2. Conditional (yellow image outline) - these abilities may resolve when you reveal the card and may continue to resolve throughout the game if their condition is triggered.

3. Passive (blue image outline) - these abilities are always active, but they resolve based on the instructions on the card.

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Deploy: Put a card face-down on a battlefield zone by spending its essence cost during the deploy phase, or put it face-down during the reveal phase if instructed by a card ability.

Reveal: Turn a face-down card face-up.

Revealed: A card is considered revealed if it is face-up.

Resolve: Implement the effect of an ability to its completion when a card is revealed or its ability triggers.

Round: Refers to a current or future turn in the game.

Ally*: Other revealed cards you deployed from your game deck.

Opponent*: Any revealed cards your opponent deployed from their deck. (*if neither Ally nor Opponent are listed, both apply)

Battlefield: One of 3 play areas designated by a battlefield card.

Here: A short way to say "on this Battlefield."

Zone: Refers to any of the 6 card spaces on a battlefield.

Open Zone: Refers to any unoccupied zone.

Add/Subtract: Increase or decrease the amount of essence available to a player, typically on the next round.

Apply/Remove: Take the appropriate circle token (numbered or symbol) and put it on or remove it from the appropriate card. See "Circle Tokens" on the next page for more info on tokens.

Move: Take a revealed card on a battlefield and put it on an open zone on another battlefield.

Discard: Take a card from your hand and put it face-down in the discard pile. You may look at cards in your discard pile.

Destroy: Remove a revealed card from the battlefield and put it face-up in the destroy pile.

Banish: Remove a card from your hand or the battlefield and put it face-down in the banish pile. This card is effectively removed from the game unless another card says otherwise.

Return: Take a revealed card from the battlefield or a designated pile and place it into your hand, removing all might from it.

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• You must have the essence to pay for the card. You may deploy more than one card per round if you can pay for them.

  
  

• You must deploy cards in the lowest numbered open battlefield zone possible, which generally means deploying them left-to-right beside the battlefield card if you follow the recommended game surface layout.

  
  

• You must mentally remember the order in which you deploy cards, as this dictates the order in which you reveal them. This is important because face-down cards are not yet active on the Battlefield and thus can't be targeted, have their abilities triggered, gain might, etc. So reveal order matters.

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1. Apply numbered circle tokens on the card equal to its base might.

2. Resolve the card's ability, if applicable.

3. Resolve other revealed ally conditional/passive card abilities.

4. Resolve any battlefield effects that may have been triggered.

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Cards collapse when a revealed card vacates a zone number on the battlefield while there are one or more cards occupying higher zone numbers. For example, cards could vacate Zones 2, 3, and 4 as shown above on Battlefield 3. In this scenario, the card in Zone 5 slides left into Zone 2 as indicated by the orange arrow, maintaining all tokens as they slide. Cards can vacate a zone because they are destroyed, returned, moved, or some other future game action. A collapse does not count as a card move and does not trigger move abilities.

You can see more detailed collapse examples in Moving Cards and Destroying Cards.

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• Effects apply separately to each player unless a battlefield refers to the first player to achieve a milestone.

• Effects are capable of changing the base game rules.

• Effects can trigger each round, on specific rounds, or at the end of the game; pay close attention to this timing as you play.

• The phrase "the first time you ..", refers to the whole game.

• When an effect triggers from a card reveal, it is the last thing resolved as part of that card's reveal. See Reveal Phase.

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When a card says move a card or specific category of cards to another battlefield, immediately choose a card and move it and its tokens to the first open zone on another battlefield. This is not optional. If there are no open zones, ignore this ability. If multiple cards are required to move, move them one at a time and you may move them to different battlefields.

When a card moves, it may cause a collapse of one or more cards on a battlefield. See Deploy / Collapse.

The example above shows:

1. Flank Attack is deployed and its ability triggers a move.

2. The player moves Horse Archers from battlefield 3 to 1.

3. Flank Attack collapses on battlefield 3 from zone 3 to 2.

You can watch how moving cards works with the Cavalry of the Parthian Empire in the video below (jump to the Example Play chapter):

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When a card is returned to your hand, this may cause a collapse of cards on a battlefield. See Deploy / Collapse.

Cards returned to your hand can be normally deployed again on any future round on any battlefield.

You can watch how returning cards works with the Defenders of the Bastion deck in the video below (jump to the Example Play chapter):

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You may look at the contents of your discard pile at any time. Some cards have abilities that allow a player to deploy a card to a battlefield from the discard pile instead of your hand.

You can watch how discarding cards works with the Samurai of the Sengoku Deck in the video below (jump to the Example Play chapter):

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During this phase, players are allowed to resolve card abilities that reference the command phase, as well as move cards with either permanent or one-time use move tokens.

All activity in the command phase resolves fully before moving to the deploy phase. This allows players to assess the full impact of the phase before deciding where to deploy cards.

Not all game decks utilize the command phase. When playing with a deck that doesn't, this phase can be ignored.

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1. The first few games will take a little longer as you get familiar with the flow of the game and the intricasies of your first game deck, so playing with the same deck multiple times before trying a new one helps to accelerate your acclimation to the game. 

2. Read the deck strategy card before playing a deck for the first time. While this doesn't cover everything you can do with a game deck, it does give you core things to think about, which helps.

3. Remember to apply base might as soon as you reveal a card. This step can be easily forgotten as a player jumps straight into reading their card, and forgetting to apply this might can cause you to lose the game!!

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Download the BforE mobile Companion App! It replaces your round and essence tracker and enables you to keep a running tally of your total battlefield might, which helps during gameplay. Scan the QR code below to download.

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• Stun and Stop Tokens can be applied to either opponent, but not both.

• Any Battlefield that involves the first player to achieve something can still only be achieved once.

• Any Battlefield that compares you to your opponent compares you to both opponents. Yes, that means you count the number of both opponent's revealed cards for The Eye of Power!!

Mash-up Mode

Combine cards from multiple decks, but remember to follow the deck template: