How to Play
- The object of the game is to capture as many of your opponents' Arrow Pieces as possible.
- The game can be played with 2, 3 or 4 players.
- The game is finished when no players are able to take an action.
- A game takes about 15 to 20 minutes per player , depending on play speed - so around 30 to 40 minutes for a two player game.
First Player, First Turn
The first player to play can place a piece in any outside tile, except the corner tiles.
The tiles that the first piece can be are highlighted as follows.
Other Players, First Turn
Once the first player has placed their first piece, the next player can place in any outside tile except in the row where another player has already placed.
The tiles that the next player can place their piece on are highlighted.
Placing More Pieces
After players have placed their first piece, they can place subsequent pieces in any adjacent tile with an arrow pointing to it from one of their existing pieces already on the board.
The Y shaped piece has arrows pointing up on a diagonal. Following is an example of where pieces can be placed based on the arrows on a Y piece (and from the previously placed piece at the bottom of the board)
Attacking a Piece
Condition for Attacking
When a player has a piece adjacent to an opposing player's piece, with an arrow pointing towards the opposing player's piece, they may choose to attack the piece.
In the following example the red player can attack the highlighted blue piece from their red piece with the highlighted arrow on it.
Attack Outcome
Attack Strength: The strength of an attack is based on the number of arrows in the unbroken line of arrows (with no gaps and no opposing player's piece in between) that point towards the defending player's piece.
Also, a dice is rolled by the attacker to modify their initial attack strength by +1 , 0 or -1 .
Defence Strength: The strength of the defence is based on the number of arrows in the defending player’s unbroken (no gaps) line of arrows that point towards the attacking piece.
If the attack strength is greater than the defence strength, the attacker captures the defender's piece.
If the defence strength is greater than the attack strength the defender captures the attackers piece.
If both are even, it is a draw and neither player captures a piece.
In the following example the relevant attacking players arrows and defending players arrows are coloured in. The red player has an initial attack strength of 4 and the blue player has a defence strength of 3.
Possible outcomes of this example attack are:
-
+1 rolled on the dice
Attacker (red): 4 + 1 = 5
Defender (blue): 3
Outcome: Attacker captures the piece
-
0 rolled on the dice
Attacker (red): 4 + 0 = 4
Defender (blue): 3
Outcome: Attacker captures the piece
-
-1 rolled on the dice
Attacker (red): 4 - 1 = 3
Defender (blue): 3
Outcome: Draw, attacker does not capture the piece.
Attacking with a Y Piece
When attacking from a Y piece, in the direction from one of the diagonal arrows, the attack strength and defence strength are calculated based on the direction of any other diagonal arrows in the unbroken diagonal row.
In the following example the attacking red player has an initial attack strength of 2 based on the two Y pieces pointing towards the blue player's piece. The defending blue player has a defence strength of 1 from the Y piece in their highlighted diagonal row.
In this next example the attacker has an initial attack strength of 1 and the defender has a defence strength of 0 (since there’s a gap between their defending piece and the Y piece on the back row).
Capturing a Piece
Attack vs Defence
A piece is captured when the attack strength (including the outcome of the dice roll) is greater than the defence strength.
The captured piece is taken off the board and placed in the front of the attacking player's piece holder.
Option to Move and Rotate
When a player successfully captures a piece, they have the option to either:
-
Leave their attacking piece where it is, facing in the original direction
OR
Move the piece into the tile previously occupied by the defending piece. When moving the piece they also have the option to rotate the piece to face in any direction.
Covering a Piece
Players have the option to cover a piece when placing it on the board. Each player begins the game with 3 cover pieces. When a piece is covered, the opposing players will not know which piece is placed on tile, or which direction it faces.
In the following example, the blue player has placed a covered piece on the board. The red player can still attack the covered piece, but will not know the defence strength of the covered piece.
In the following example, the red player has attacked the blue player's covered piece. The blue player can now decide if they leave the piece covered (they won’t receive any defence arrows from the piece while it is covered) or uncover the piece to utilise the underlying arrows.
The blue player would be wise to uncover their piece, to gain the defence strength from the underlying Angle piece since it has an arrow pointing towards the attacker's piece.
Uncovering a Piece
A covered piece must be uncovered if a player wants to use the arrows under the piece to place a new piece or to attack a piece. When a cover is removed, it must be discarded and cannot be reused.
In the example below, for the red player to be able to place arrows from the covered cross piece they must first remove the cover.
Any covered pieces are not counted in the attack strength unless the covers are removed before attacking. The defending player has the option to remove the covers from any of their pieces before the dice is rolled.
In the following example, the blue player would likely leave their piece covered since it has no arrows that would contribute to the attack (no arrows pointing towards the defending piece).
Shielding a Piece
Each player starts with 3 shield pieces. A piece can have a shield placed on top of it when it is first placed on the board.
When a piece is shielded opposing players must remove the shield before the piece can be attacked and captured.
Removing a shield takes one turn. When a shield is removed, it is discarded and cannot be reused.
In the following example the blue player has a shield on one of their Cross Pieces. The red player would need to use a turn to remove this shield before they can attempt to capture the piece.
Bonus Pieces
Collecting bonus pieces
Each player starts the game with one bonus piece.
Attacking players receive one bonus piece each time they:
- Attack an opponent's piece
- AND Roll the (-1) on the dice as part of the attack
- AND fail to capture the piece.
Defending players receive one bonus piece each time:
-
An attacking player attacks one of their pieces, rolls (+1) on the dice during the attack (to receive a bonus arrow), and wins the attack by only one arrow.
-
In other words, the defending player gets a bonus piece if the attacker wins an equal/drawn attack via the dice's (+1).
Using bonus pieces
Once a player has collected two bonus pieces , they can use them as the very first action of their turn to get an extra turn (+1 turn) - it must be the first action they take at the start of their turn.
Bonus pieces can be saved up for increasingly more bonus turns. If a player collects three bonus pieces they can use them for two extra turns (+2 turns). Four for +3 turns, five for + 4 turns and so on.
When bonus pieces are used they are discarded and returned to the pile.
The Terminator
When can the Terminator be played?
The Terminator piece is placed towards the end of the game.
The first Terminator piece can be placed by any player who has used up all their other arrow pieces.
What happens when the first Terminator is placed?
Once any player has placed their terminator piece, the only piece other players can place is their own terminator piece - even if they have other pieces remaining in their piece holder.
Players can still perform other actions, like attacking or removing a shield, before placing their Terminator piece.
Once a Terminator piece has been placed on the board, pieces can no longer be moved after a successful attack - they remain where they were before attacking.
A Terminator piece cannot be covered, but can be shielded.
Finishing the game
The game ends when no players can perform an action.
The winner is the player who has captured the most arrow pieces from other players, and still has pieces remaining on the board.
A player is eliminated from the game if they have no pieces remaining on the board.
If players have an equal number of arrow pieces , the player with the most unused bonus pieces wins the game.
If players have the same number of captured arrow pieces and remaining bonus pieces, the game is a draw.
