CH 1 Components
Check the box. Everything else assumes you have these in front of you.
×1
Game board
Hex map of the Six Realms. Double-sided (winter / summer).
×6
Warband sets
8 miniatures + colour ring per Realm.
×120
Command cards
20 per Realm. Mixed move / strike / event.
×40
Bell tokens
Bronze (1), silver (5), gold (10).
×8
Dice
4 attack (red), 4 defence (white). Six-sided.
×1
Round tracker
Wooden dial. Counts 1 – 9.
×6
Faction boards
Player-specific abilities + Oath slot.
×24
Objective cards
Public + secret victory triggers.
CH 2 Setup
Ten minutes once you know it. Twenty the first time. Be patient
with yourself — the box is dense on purpose.
- Place the board between players, summer side up.
- Each player picks a Realm and takes its 8 miniatures, 20 command cards, and faction board.
- Shuffle the 24 objective cards. Deal 2 public to the centre and 1 secret face-down to each player.
- Each player places their starting units in their Realm's home hexes (printed on the faction board).
- Each player draws 4 command cards from their personal deck. This is your hand for round 1.
- Set the round tracker to 1. Player with the lowest oldest character begins.
First-time players
Use the
Tide-Light warbands (Sunlands, Verdant Marches,
Northreach). They have the cleanest decks. Save Ironspine and
Shadowfell for game three or later.
CH 3 Turn Structure
One round = one pass around the table. Each player has the same
action budget. No one waits for fifteen minutes between turns.
On your turn you take 3 actions, in any order:
- Play a card — resolve its effect immediately.
- Move a unit — up to its movement value, paid in hexes.
- Attack — declare target, roll dice (see Combat).
- Recruit — pay 2 bells, place a recruit token in a friendly hex.
- Rest — discard your hand, draw 4 fresh cards. Ends your turn.
You may take the same action twice in one turn — you may not take
it three times. Once everyone has finished, the round tracker
advances and play continues clockwise.
CH 4 Movement
The map is hexes. Hexes have terrain. Terrain costs movement.
Pay it or stop.
| Terrain | Cost | Effect |
|---|
| Road | 1 | +1 movement if entered & left this turn |
| Plain | 1 | — |
| Forest | 2 | +1 defence die |
| Mountain | 3 | Cannot be entered with cavalry |
| River | 2 | Costs +1 attack die to fire across |
| City / Town | 1 | +1 defence die, recruit at -1 cost |
| Cursed | 3 | End turn here: roll 1d6, on 1–2 lose 1 bell |
Stacking limit: 3 units per hex per player. A hex may
contain enemy units only if combat is being declared this turn.
CH 5 Combat
Roll red. They roll white. Compare. Bury the slow.
Resolving an attack
- Declare attacker hex and target hex (adjacent for melee, line-of-sight for ranged).
- Attacker rolls attack dice = sum of unit attack values.
- Defender rolls defence dice = sum of unit defence values + terrain bonus.
- Each die showing the unit's icon counts as one hit. Each white die showing a shield cancels one hit.
- Apply remaining hits as damage. Units have 1–3 wounds before they're removed from the board.
Retreat
After a combat, the defender may retreat any surviving units
to an adjacent friendly hex instead of taking the final hit. Once
per game per player.
CH 6 Command Cards
Your deck is your personality. Eight move, six strike, four event,
two oath. Each Realm tweaks the ratios.
Card types
Move
Forced March
A unit moves up to +2 hexes this turn, ignoring road bonuses.
Strike
Volley
A ranged unit gains +2 attack dice for one attack.
Event
Bell Tolls
All players lose 1 bell. You gain 3.
Oath
Sworn at Carn
Play face-down. Reveal at game-end: if a named opponent has zero units, score +5.
Hand size cap is 5. Drawing above 5 means you discard
immediately. Cards are public when played and shuffled into your
discard, except Oath cards which leave play permanently.
CH 7 Victory & Scoring
The game ends when the round tracker reaches 9, OR a player scores
25+ victory points, whichever first.
| Source | Points |
|---|
| Each public objective completed | +5 |
| Your secret objective (revealed at game-end) | +7 |
| Each enemy capital captured | +3 |
| Each oath card kept (condition met) | +5 |
| Most units on the board at game-end | +2 (ties: shared) |
Highest score wins. Ties are broken by remaining bells,
then by remaining cards in hand.
CH 8 Variants
Same box, different evenings.
Tide-Light (intro · 45 min)
Skip objective cards. First to capture two enemy capitals wins.
Round limit: 5.
Bell War (4 players · 90 min)
Two teams of two, sharing a colour ring. Score collectively. Allies
may trade 1 card per round at the cost of 1 bell.
Solo (1 player · 60 min)
Play Sunlands against an automated Pale Choir — see the
included solo book. Cursed terrain is doubled.
Campaign (3 – 5 games)
Track scars and rewards across games. Winners carry forward an oath
token; losers reroll their secret objective. Winner of game 5 takes
the season.
CH 9 FAQ
Common questions. If yours isn't here, post it in the Tavern Chat —
the design team reads it weekly.
Can I attack into my own hex?
No. Friendly units never share an attack target.
What happens when both attack and defence roll zero hits?
Nothing. The combat ends. The attacker has spent the action.
If I retreat through a Cursed hex, do I roll the curse?
Retreating does not end your turn in the hex, so no — but if a
unit retreats into a Cursed hex and survives the game-round
there, that unit rolls the curse normally.
Can Oath cards target the same player as my Strike cards?
Yes, but only one Oath card may name each opponent.
What if we run out of cards in our deck?
Shuffle your discard pile to make a new deck. Take 1 fatigue token —
at game-end, fatigue tokens count as -1 victory point each.