THE SHATTERED MARCHES: CROWNFALL Extracted from the Grand Tome for standalone reference. IV. THE SHATTERED MARCHES: CROWNFALL ==================================================================== 1. IDENTITY AND AIM Crownfall is the public-systems game of the series. It adds Houses, Archmages, Tower roles, researchable spell schools, ley anchors, Omens, and public Objectives to the Bannerfall map. It should feel heavier and more distinct while still remaining readable from the board and public aids. Players: 2 to 4 Time: 60 to 120 minutes Complexity goal: medium-heavy, open information 2. COMPONENTS Per player: - 6 Banners - 3 Towers - 1 Archmage - 4 Ley Anchors - 3 score markers, one each for Crown, Arcana, Dominion - 1 House reference sheet - markers for unlocked spell levels Shared: - the same 13-region map used in Bannerfall - an Omen deck or stack - an Objective deck or stack - Damaged tokens - Ward tokens - mana tokens 3. THE CROWNFALL MAP Use the exact same 13-region Bannerfall map. The Ruins remain: - Dawnmere - South Barrow - Old Abbey Starfall Keep remains the center. 4. HOUSES All House rules are public. HOUSE EMBERGLASS Starts with War I unlocked. Passive: the first battle each round that you initiate against an enemy Tower gains +1 strength. THE BRIAR COVENANT Starts with Warding I unlocked. Passive: the first time each round you gain Arcana from a ley network containing a Ruin, gain +1 extra Arcana. THE REDWALL COMPACT Starts with Warding I unlocked. Passive: your Strongholds grant +2 defense instead of +1. THE TIDEBOUND COURT Starts with Travel I unlocked. Passive: once per round, one March that begins in an outer region may move 1 extra region. 5. SETUP Each player chooses a House. Choose turn order. Each player chooses a different outer region as home. At that home region place: - 1 Home Tower - 1 Archmage No Banners begin on the board in the recommended setup. Each player begins with: - 2 Towers in reserve - 6 Banners in reserve - 4 Ley Anchors in reserve - 1 mana - 0 Crown - 0 Arcana - 0 Dominion Reveal the first Omen. Reveal 2 public Objectives. 6. ROUND STRUCTURE Each round has four phases. OMEN Reveal or advance the Omen for the round. INCOME Each player gains mana: - 1 base - +1 per Ruin controlled - +1 per Sanctum controlled - +1 if their active ley network includes Starfall Keep PLAYER TURNS In turn order, each player takes a full turn of 3 actions. END OF ROUND Players score tracks, refresh Objectives, and advance the round marker. Recommended game length: 6 rounds 7. ACTIONS MARCH Move 1 Banner or your Archmage 1 adjacent region. If a Banner enters an enemy-controlled region, a battle occurs. If an Archmage enters an enemy-controlled region alone, a battle occurs but the Archmage cannot claim a region alone. RAISE BANNER Place 1 Banner in an empty region adjacent to a region you control. FORTIFY Replace one of your Banners with a Tower from reserve. When you place the Tower, choose its role and mark it publicly. ANCHOR Place 1 Ley Anchor in a region you control that contains a Ruin, a Tower, or Starfall Keep. RESEARCH Pay 1 mana. Unlock the next spell level in one school you already have access to, or unlock a new school if your House ability or table agreement permits it. Recommended simple progression: you may research any school, but you must unlock level I before II, and II before III. CAST Pay the spell's mana cost and resolve the spell. All spells are public and visible. 8. TOWER ROLES STRONGHOLD Base tower defense +1. Redwall Stronghold defense +2. SANCTUM Provides +1 mana during Income. Counts as a magical node for ley network purposes. WATCHTOWER Provides +1 support to one battle in an adjacent region. A single Watchtower may support at most one battle per round. BEACON Counts as a ley node and extends the range of your spells from its region. 9. BATTLES Battles are deterministic. ATTACKER STRENGTH +1 if the attacking piece is a Banner +1 if your Archmage is present in the battle region +1 for each supporting adjacent friendly Watchtower, maximum 2 +1 from one applicable spell +1 from one applicable House ability DEFENDER STRENGTH +1 if the region contains a Banner +1 if the region contains a Tower +1 if the defender's Archmage is present +1 for each supporting adjacent friendly Watchtower, maximum 2 +1 from Stronghold, or +2 if Redwall Stronghold +1 from one applicable spell or Ward token Ties go to the defender. RESULTS If attacker loses: remove the attacking Banner, or return the attacking Archmage to one adjacent friendly region if possible, otherwise remove it for the round and return it to the home region at end of round. If defender loses and the region contains a Banner: remove the Banner. If attacker was a Banner, occupy the region. If defender loses and the region contains an undamaged Tower: place a Damaged token on that Tower. Attacker does not enter. If defender loses and the region contains a Damaged Tower: remove the Tower and its Damaged token. If attacker was a Banner, occupy the region. WARD TOKENS A Ward token gives +1 defense in that region. After helping in one battle, remove the Ward token unless a spell says otherwise. 10. SPELL SCHOOLS WAR War I, Fireball, cost 2: remove an enemy Banner in your Archmage's region or an adjacent region. If the target is a Damaged Tower instead, destroy it. War II, Siege Flame, cost 3: choose an enemy Tower in your Archmage's region or an adjacent region. Damage it, or destroy it if already damaged. War III, Scorch Ward, cost 3: choose one region in Archmage range. Until end of turn, that region provides no Stronghold or Watchtower bonuses to its controller. TRAVEL Travel I, Blink, cost 1: one March this turn may move 2 regions instead of 1. Travel II, Rift Step, cost 2: move 1 of your Banners from one controlled ley node to another controlled ley node in the same active network. Travel III, Gatewalk, cost 3: move your Archmage from one controlled ley node to another controlled ley node in the same active network. WARDING Warding I, Ward Seal, cost 1: place a Ward token in a region you control. It gives +1 defense until used or until the start of your next turn. Warding II, Bastion Sigil, cost 2: remove a Damaged token from one of your Towers, or place a Ward token on one of your Towers. Warding III, Ley Shield, cost 3: choose one ley node you control. It cannot be targeted by spells and cannot lose more than one structure step this round. SUMMONING Summoning I, Summon Host, cost 2: place 1 Banner in an empty region adjacent to your Archmage or one of your Towers. Summoning II, Oathbound Retainers, cost 3: place 1 Banner in a region you control, then immediately March that Banner 1 region. Summoning III, Phantom Garrison, cost 3: choose a controlled region. Until the start of your next turn, that region counts as if it had one extra Banner for defense only. 11. LEY NETWORKS Your active ley network consists of your linked magical nodes: - Ruins you control - Sanctums you control - Beacon Towers you control - Ley Anchors you placed - Starfall Keep, if you control it Nodes connect through uninterrupted chains of adjacent regions you control. A node is considered active only if it is connected to: - your Home Tower, or - another node in the same network Benefits: - networks containing Ruins score Arcana - networks touching the Keep improve mana income - Travel spells require valid networks - Beacons and Sanctums are much stronger when they are actually linked 12. OMENS Prepare this six-card Omen stack or use these six Omens in a rotating cycle. Ash Winter: entering a Ruin by March costs 1 extra mana this round. Bright Surge: Sanctums produce +1 extra mana this round. Red Harvest: the first battle each player wins this round grants +1 Crown immediately. Silent Roads: the first March each player makes through two connected controlled regions gets +1 extra movement. Open Veins: placing an Anchor costs no mana this round. Gloam Tide: each outer region counts +1 extra toward connected realm size this round. 13. OBJECTIVES Use a public Objective deck or choose 2 per round from this list: - Hold the Keep - Control 2 Ruins - Control the largest connected realm - Possess the largest ley network - Control 3 Towers - Control 2 linked outer regions - Win a battle against an enemy Tower this round - Control the Keep and one adjacent inner region A player who satisfies one or more Objectives gains +1 Crown from Objectives total, not per card, unless all players agree on a faster game. 14. END OF ROUND SCORING CROWN +1 if you control Starfall Keep +1 if you completed at least one Objective ARCANA +1 if your network includes at least 1 Ruin +1 more if your network includes 2 or more Ruins, or Starfall Keep and 1 Ruin DOMINION +1 if you control a connected realm of 5 or more regions +1 more if you control at least 3 Towers 15. END OF GAME You win immediately at the end of a round if you have reached threshold in any two tracks: - 6 Crown - 6 Arcana - 6 Dominion Ties: 1. highest combined total of all three tracks 2. most Towers 3. most Ruins 4. shared victory 16. CLARIFICATIONS No spell is ever a hidden reaction. A Watchtower can support only one battle per round. An Archmage can move and fight, but cannot alone claim an empty region. A Damaged Tower remains controlled by its owner until destroyed or replaced. A Beacon Tower is still a Tower for all ordinary purposes. An Anchor does not itself control a region. Research does not cast a spell by itself. A player may hold mana without limit in the base game. 17. EXAMPLE ROUND Blue, Tidebound Court, begins with Home Tower and Archmage at Thorn Coast. Blue controls Thorn Coast and South Barrow, and has an Anchor at South Barrow. Blue has Travel II unlocked. At Income Blue gains 1 base mana, +1 for South Barrow, and +1 because their network touches the Keep through controlled South Barrow and Starfall Keep. Blue gains 3 mana. Action 1: Blue casts Rift Step and moves a Banner from Thorn Coast to South Barrow through the network. Action 2: Blue Marches the Banner from South Barrow into Eastford, which is enemy-controlled by Red. A battle occurs. Blue has +1 Banner, no Archmage. Red has +1 Banner. Blue also has one supporting Watchtower adjacent at Thorn Coast? No, Thorn Coast is not adjacent to Eastford on the canonical Crownfall map, so there is no support. Total 1 to 1, defender wins. Blue loses the attacking Banner. Action 3: Blue uses Summon Host from the Archmage at Thorn Coast to place a Banner in the empty Thorn Coast adjacent region, if legal, or instead Anchors Eastford side by moving the Archmage first in a different line of play. 18. STRATEGY NOTES Crownfall is won by focus. Choose two tracks to chase and use the third as leverage. Do not research too broadly. Specialized Houses are stronger. Keep and Ruins create Arcana and Crown pressure, but Dominion often wins tiebreakers. A Tower without a network is often just a defensive rock. A Tower in a network is a system. ==================================================================== X. CROWNFALL EXTENDED FOLIO ==================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------- X.A. HOUSE PLAYSTYLES -------------------------------------------------------------------- EMBERGLASS Best when it chooses one pressure corridor and turns it into an anvil of damage, damaged Towers, and war-school inevitability. Emberglass players often lose by over-researching and under-building. BRIAR Best when its network grows in a way that looks passive until it suddenly creates repeatable Arcana and stable territory. Briar loses when it chases flashy center fights before it has structure. REDWALL Best when it turns space into certainty. Strongholds, stable lines, and deliberately chosen objectives matter more than opportunistic leaps. TIDEBOUND Best when it refuses to play the same board geometry as everyone else. Tidebound should threaten from edges, pivot through outer regions, and use Travel not as flair but as positional accounting. -------------------------------------------------------------------- X.B. CROWNFALL FAQ -------------------------------------------------------------------- Q. Does a Beacon Tower both extend spell range and count as a Tower for Fireball or Summon Host? Yes. Q. If a Damaged Tower is repaired by Bastion Sigil, does it lose its role? No. It remains the same role. Q. Can an Archmage travel through enemy-controlled regions with Gatewalk? Gatewalk ignores map movement and checks only valid controlled ley nodes in the same network. Q. Do Watchtowers support through enemy-controlled regions? No. They support only adjacent regions as defined by map adjacency. Q. Can a Ward token stack with Stronghold defense? Yes. Q. If my network is broken mid-round, do I still keep mana already gained? Yes. Income was already collected. Q. If I have the Keep and a Ruin in my network, do I score both Arcana steps? Yes. The second Arcana point is for the more complete network condition. -------------------------------------------------------------------- X.C. ADVANCED OMEN POOL -------------------------------------------------------------------- Use these to expand the public Omen deck. Ash Wind The first War spell each player casts this round costs 1 less. Bell Echo The first Ward each player places this round remains until the start of that player's next next turn instead of the next turn. Ruin Bloom The first player to newly control a Ruin this round gains +1 mana immediately. Coastal Pull Tidebound or any player controlling Thorn Coast may treat one outer-edge March as +1 movement this round. Cracked Roads The first Blink each round cannot pass through Starfall Keep. Long Dusk Objectives tied to outer regions count for +1 additional Crown if fulfilled. Use at most 8 Omens total in a deck unless your group wants high volatility. -------------------------------------------------------------------- X.D. ADVANCED OBJECTIVE POOL -------------------------------------------------------------------- Add any of the following to the Objective deck: Sanctum Chain Control 2 Sanctums connected in one active network. Bell and Banner Control a Ruin and an adjacent outer region with a Tower. Broken Gate Destroy an enemy Tower this round. Ward the Heart Control Starfall Keep and have a Ward token there. Outer Dominion Control at least 4 outer regions. Four Corners Control any 4 regions that form a ring path without owning the Keep. High Arcana Resolve two Cast actions this round and still keep your network connected. -------------------------------------------------------------------- X.E. CROWNFALL OPENING TEMPLATE -------------------------------------------------------------------- If teaching Crownfall, recommend the following opening discipline to all players: Round 1: one expansion action one structure action one mana or research action This keeps the first round from degenerating into random central aggression and helps new players feel the intended rhythm. ====================================================================