15th December 2002
This is the official F.A.Q. for the Warlords CCG, published by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG). If you find any errors, please let me know and I'll correct them asap.
Note: From version 4.00 onwards, the FAQ will only contain official errata, commonly asked questions, recent rulings, and a glossary. For the full rulings archive, click here
Table of Contents
Advanced Planning Change action to read: "React: Play after this character performs a Spend Order. If this character has not performed a melee strike this turn, discard a card to ready the character."
Blink Change action to read: "React: Play after this wizard is targeted by another character with a melee strike, or action."
Fireball Is a Spend Order
General Lund Change action to read: "Spend Order: Once per turn, target up to two lower level spent (not stunned) Mercenary characters. Ready the target character(s)..
Halberd Has the Weapon trait.
Hember's Signet Is level 9 and gives no ATK or AC bonuses, like the other signets.
Kharma This should read: React: After a card effect makes a die roll an automatic success, change the result to an automatic failure, or vice versa. React: After a card effect makes a die roll a 'natural 1', change the result to a 'natural 20', or vice versa.
Portable Hole First ability should read: "Order: Spend the Portable Hole to move this character forward or backward up to two ranks."
Portable Wall This should read: Order: Spend one of your adjacent characters to move this character forward or backwards one rank
Prince Alaric Add to his ability, after "the illegal rank": "...if your Warlord is a Dwarf"
Reserves Add: "You may not play a character that you could not legally play with your army's current formation."
Sir Robert Change ability to read: "You may bring Free Kingdoms characters higher than 3rd level into play as if they were 1 rank lower."
Vorgurn Change ability to read: "Spend Order: Target a rank in your army. Until the end of the turn, all of your Free Kingdoms characters gain +4 AC while in that rank."
Yedraw's Tooth Ability should read: "React: Spend the Tooth before this character makes a melee strike roll to kill the target of the melee strike if this strike inflicts one or more wounds."
Q: Hmm, I think I get it. So my fighter would create 4 ranged strikes, right? A: Yep, that's it. While he can only cast 1st level spells, any spell he casts that checks his level uses his 'real' level, which is 4.
Q: And if he's been Leveled previously, how many then? A: It would be 5, because that's his current level (4, plus the permanent +1 bonus from the Leveled)
Q: Ok, this one's a bit trickier. I have Sir Rhawn next to Sir Magnus, and Sir Rhawn kills King Xod. Can Sir Rhawn play Leveled? A: Strangely enough, no. Because of Sir Magnus, any Action card that Sir Rhawn plays considers him to be level 6. Therefore he can't play Leveled when he kills a 5th level character.
Q: Can you explain when an action targets, and more importantly what an action targets? A: Ok, first, the general rule - only ACTIONS target! Which means only effects preceded by the traits "Order" or "React" target. An action targets a card when
Q: Also, what exactly are attributes? I assume ATK, AC, Skill, Level, Class, Alignment. But is the number of wounds on a character considered an attribute? A: Wounds and text box are also considered attributes.
Q: First things first - what exactly is an 'Attack'? A: It's one of the fundamental Orders within the rulebook (see 'Smiting Foes'). To make an attack, the character first declares that he is doing so, and then spends. He can then perform one melee strike for each ATK number he has (displayed in the axe image on the top left of his or her card).
Q: So an Attack is just a series of consecutive melee strikes, right? A: Yep, that's it. Sometimes a character will only have one ATK number, so he or she can only make one strike as part of an attack. Other characters have two or more ATK numbers, and so can make one melee strike for each one.
Q: Is my character obliged to perform all his or strikes during an Attack? A: No, not at all. After you finish each melee strike, you can choose to stop or continue, up to the total number of strikes available to that character. But once you start a strike you must finish it, unless something happens to end it sooner
Q: Alright - so I've got this action card that lets my character perform a melee strike. Is that the same as an Attack? A: Not quite. A melee strike is just that - one melee strike, so even if your character has multiple ATK numbers, he or she still only gets to make one strike.
Q: And if my character does have more than one ATK number, which one do I use for the strike A: Sometimes the action will tell you what ATK bonus to use, and other times it won't. If it doesn't, always use the character's first ATK number listed on his or her card.
Q: What about weapons? If a character has a weapon equipped which gives an ATK bonus, does the bonus get added to all strikes that character makes, or just the first one? A: All of them. Any actions that create melee strikes also benefit from the bonus.
Q: Cool! So if SS-sauth is equipped with a Main Gauche (+1 ATK), and uses his Order to perform a melee strike, the strike has an ATK of +4, not +3? A: That's right! A melee strike is modified by items and/or any modifiers from other card effects. The only thing that doesn't modify it is the character's own ATK bonus, as this is replaced by the ATK bonus on the card.
Q: Last one for now on melee strikes. My fighter is in the third rank, but I've just played an action that lets him perform a melee strike. Can he do it from the 3rd rank? A: This one depends on the action that generates the melee strike. Unless the card effect says otherwise, a melee strike can only target a character within one rank. However, if the action specifically declares the target of the strike, it overrides this rule and so the character can perform the melee strike from anywhere.
Q: What is an action? A: Action is the generic term given to Orders and Reacts. All Orders and Reacts are actions, whether the order comes from a card or is one of the standard orders in the rulebook.
Q: If I perform a spend action and my opponent cancels it, do I remain spent? A: When you perform an action, you must immediately pay all costs associated with that action. This means if the action requires your character to spend, you must immediately spend him or her to play the action. If the action is cancelled, costs are not reclaimed, so your character remains spent.
Q: When you say I must pay costs, what exactly do you mean by 'costs"? For example, if I had to discard a card, or kill a character, are those considered costs? A: Whenever a card says "Do X to perform Y", or something similar, X is considered a cost. For example Toren Yscar says "Once per turn, discard a card from your hand to look at the top five cards of your deck." In this case, discarding a card is considered a cost, and so must be done as soon as you declare the action. If the action is then cancelled, the card remains discarded.
Q: Talking of cancelling, if I'm bringing a new card into play, and someone cancels my action, what happens to the card? A: It is discarded.
Q: I'm a bit confused with all these reacts that happen during a strike. Some happen after targeting, others before or after a die roll. Help! A: Ok, here's the deal. When a player declares a strike, either by using a card or by announcing an attack, here's the sequence
If at any time during this sequence a characters wounds equal or exceed his or her hit points, the character is killed. Reacts to a character being killed are immediately played at that point. If either the attacker or the target is killed during a strike, the strike ends at that point.
On the surface this seems complex, but it just follows the logical sequence of events during a strike. Once you understand the sequence, figuring out when reacts occur should be a relatively simple process. And remember, if two players wish to play a react at the same time, the player with the initiative gets to play his or her react first.
Q: I have two effects that occur as a result of an event in play - one is a react, and the other isn't. Which order should I resolve them in? A: Always resolve Reacts first. After all reacts have been played, and if the event is still valid, then resolve other effects, in initiative order. For example, if a character equipped with a Squire's Sash is killed, and a react is used that reverses that (i.e. he's no longer killed), the event has no longer happened (the character has not been killed) and so the Sash does not resolve.
Q: Can I equip more than one ring, or more than one book? A: You can attach multiple items so long as they don't have the same name and don't have the same bold-faced trait. For example, there is no ring trait, so you could equip a Ring of Vorn and a Narawat Ring, but not two Narawat Rings
Q: I've got a character who says he can equip a fighter item. What exactly is a fighter item? A: It's any item with the fighter icon on it. Classless items that can equipped by a fighter are not fighter items. The same applies to spells... if a card says you can attach a wizard spell, you can only attach an Action card with the wizard symbol in it.
Q: If my character has a Feat e.g. Riposte +3, and he equips an item that also gives him a Feat bonus e.g. Riposte +4, is my character now Riposte +3, Riposte + 4, or Riposte +7? A: Feats are cumulative, so he's Riposte +7.
Q: If I target a rank of 3 characters with Meteor Swarm, and one of the characters makes a successful Magic Resistance roll, does the entire Meteor Swarm fizzle or does it fizzle only for that one character? A: It cancels the action, so the entire effect will fizzle.
Q: Is there a maximum hand size, and if so, when do I discard down? A: No, there's no maximum. If for some reason you end a turn with more than 5 cards, you are under no obligation to discard any of them, but until you do you won't be able to draw any new ones.
Q: I've got a card that increases my hand size. What the heck does that mean? Do I draw more cards, or does it just mean I can keep more in my hand at the end of the turn, or what? A: The standard hand size if 5. This is how many cards you can draw up to during the Draw Phase. If a card increases your hand size by say, one, you could then draw back up to 6 cards each turn.
Q: Some cards give ranged strikes "up to X ranks away". Does that mean I can fire at a character in an adjacent rank? A: No. The rulebook expressly forbids firing into an adjacent rank, and the wording on these cards is not enough to override that rule.
Q: Simply put, can a character's skill go into the negatives (via Confusion, Glimmer and such) or does it stop at 0 A: Yes, it can go negative.
Q:
I heard there was a ruling coming to limit Overlords - is that right?
A: Yes. The use of multiple Overlords has caused more trouble than it ought to, so the following rule
is in effect from 1st December 2002.
Add to the end of the "Raising Troops" section of the rules the following text:
"Some characters have the Overlord trait; you may not bring an
Overlord into play if you already have a character in play with the
Overlord trait."
Q: STALLING Using two (Duplicated) Slate Gargoyles, it's possible to set up an infinite loop so that each Gargoyle readies the other indefinitely. If my opponent is currently winning, what's to stop him stalling like this for the rest of the game? A: Stalling in a tournament is illegal, pure and simple. If your opponent were to start doing this with the Gargoyles (or any other card), call over a judge. The judge must ask the player how many times he wishes to spend each gargoyle. Whatever number the player says (yes, including infinite), the judge declares that the Gargoyles have been spent that many times, and the turn ends.
Mirror Magic
Back Alley Tavern This only applies when a player draws a card as a result of his or her own card effect.
Characters
Dustin St. Gulik He can only perform the strike if the item is discarded.
Flamespitter
Silver Bane Is a Mercenary.
ItemsOther
Moving Regardless of which formation a character is in, moving 'forwards' always means in the direction of the character's own front rank. Similarly, moving 'backwards' is always in the direction away from the character's own front rank.
Scribe Multiple spells can be stacked on a character across several turns. They can all be cast in the same turn if desired.
Action: Any Order or React, whether from a card or listed in the rules.
Attack: A standard Order that does not require a card effect. A character attacks by spending to perform a number of melee strikes equal to the number of strikes listed in his or her ATK number (see Smiting Foes in the rulebook).
Draw a card: Drawing a card means taking a card from your deck (not necessarily the top of your deck) and putting it in your hand.
Hit point: The number of wounds a character can take before he dies. Found in the blood drop in the bottom right of each character card.
" Killed by a melee strike" A character is killed by a melee strike when he or she is either killed by the wounds inflicted from a melee strike, or by an action performed by the attacking character while making that melee strike.
Rank Requirements A character who ignores rank requirements when entering play does not need to enter in the rank equal to his or her level. The character still cannot enter play if doing so would create an illegal rank
Strike: Some cards refer to a 'Strike' rather than a 'Melee Strike' or 'Ranged Strike'. In these cases, the term 'Strike' refers to a melee strike only. Ranged strikes are only affected by effects that specifically state it.
Wound: Damage received by a character. Keep track of any wounds a character receives…if the number of wounds equals or exceeds the character's hit points, the character dies
Your army: A card in 'your army' is a card you put into play that is currently within your ranks.