Agents of WarBeta

Goal

Reduce your opponent’s Influence to 0 or less. Both players start at 10 Influence. Some cards give other ways to win or lose, as their text says.

If both players reach 0 at the same time, the player who went second wins. If 3 turns in a row end without any change to either player’s Influence, the cards in play, or any hand or pile, the game ends and the player who went second wins.

Cards

Agents of War has its own cards, one copy of each, in two kinds.

• Agents go into play and stay there until something removes them. Each Agent has a Power.
• Orders take effect once and then go to your discard pile.

Some cards put tokens into play as Agents: Militia (Power 1), Soldier (Power 2), Drone (Power 2, with Flying), and Tank (Power 4). A token that leaves play goes back to the supply.

Setup

Each player takes a deck of 3 cards as their hand. In the basic game each player is given one of the named preconstructed decks, and Variants lists other ways to build one. Shuffle every other card into one face-down draw pile that both players share. Each player has their own discard pile. Choose the first player at random. On Play again, the other player goes first.

Play

Players take turns. Each turn has three phases.

1. Beginning phase. Ready all your Agents. Remove a Delay counter from each of your Delayed cards, and play any card whose last counter comes off, choosing its modes and targets then. Then resolve your “at the beginning of your turn” effects in any order you choose.
2. Main phase. Play cards from your hand, use abilities, and attack, in any order and as many times as you like. You can play at most 8 cards a turn, counting Replays. When you’re done, pass. Your opponent may then use abilities and play Covert cards. If they do, you go back to your main phase. Otherwise, go to the end phase.
3. End phase. Resolve your “at the end of your turn” effects. Then all damage on Agents and all “this turn” effects end.

You draw a card only when a card tells you to, and there’s no limit to the size of your hand.

Attacking

1. Choose attackers. Exhaust any number of your Ready Agents that have been under your control since your turn began. They attack your opponent together as one group. You never attack an Agent.
2. Respond. Your opponent may use abilities and play Covert cards. If they do, you may use abilities and play Covert cards, and then they may respond again.
3. Choose blockers. Your opponent may block with any of their Ready Agents that haven’t blocked this turn. An Agent that’s declared as a blocker has blocked, even if its attackers die before damage, until it’s Readied again. Blocking doesn’t exhaust an Agent. A group in which every attacker has Flying can be blocked only by Flying Agents.
4. Respond again. Blocked or not, you may use abilities and play Covert cards, and then your opponent may do the same. If they do, you may respond again.
5. Deal damage. Nothing can be played now. If nothing blocked, your opponent loses Influence equal to the total Power of your attackers. If anything blocked, the whole group is blocked and your opponent loses no Influence. Instead, each player totals the Power of their Agents in the combat and divides that much damage among the opposing Agents in the combat however they like.

During an attack, both players can play only Covert cards, even on your own turn. A blocked group stays blocked even if every blocker is removed before damage, so it deals no damage at all. After an attack, go back to your main phase. You may attack again.

Card abilities

Each card’s text is printed on it. When a card’s text contradicts these rules, follow the card. A card or ability takes effect at once, and nothing can be played in response to it.

• Ready and Exhausted. An Agent enters play Ready. It becomes Exhausted (turned sideways) when it attacks or uses an ability with the Exhaust symbol, and it’s Readied at the beginning of your turn. Only Ready Agents can attack, block, or be Exhausted.
• Abilities. Pay an ability’s cost to get its effect. You may use abilities as many times as you like, on your own turn or whenever you could play a Covert card, unless the card limits it to once each turn. An ability with the Exhaust symbol can be used only by an Agent that has been under your control since the beginning of your most recent turn.
• Killing and sacrificing. An Agent is killed when the damage on it this turn reaches its Power, or when its Power drops to 0. To sacrifice an Agent, choose one of yours in play. A killed or sacrificed Agent goes to its controller’s discard pile.
• Discarding. To discard a card, put a card from your hand into your discard pile.
• +1 Power counters. Each one adds 1 to the Agent’s Power for as long as the Agent stays in play.
• Warcry. When the Agent enters play under your control, you get the effect after the arrow. A Warcry isn’t optional.
• Covert. You can play the card on your opponent’s turn as well as your own.
• Flying. The Agent can be blocked only by Flying Agents. A Flying Agent can block Agents without Flying too.
• Redact. Remove the card from the game, face up.
• Replay. You may play the card once from your discard pile by paying its Replay cost. Then Redact it.
• Delay. When you play the card from your hand, set it aside with Delay counters equal to its Delay number. It’s not in play. At the beginning of each of your turns, remove 1 counter. When the last one comes off, play the card, choosing any modes and targets then.

Variants

Every way to play builds decks of 3 cards. In Quickplay, Pai Gow, and King of the Hill, the cards dealt for building stay out of the draw pile for the whole match.

• Preconstructed. Each player is given one of the named decks. One game.
• Quickplay. Each player is dealt 6 cards and keeps 3 as their deck. One game.
• Pai Gow. Each player is dealt 9 cards and splits them into 3 decks, in the order they’ll be played. Play one game with each deck in turn. The first player to win 2 games wins, and the loser of each game goes first in the next.
• King of the Hill. Each player is dealt 12 cards and builds a deck. After each game, the losing deck leaves the match and its player builds a new deck from their remaining cards. A deck that wins 2 games in a row also leaves, and its player builds a new one. The loser of each game goes first in the next. The first player to win 3 games wins, and a player with fewer than 3 cards left to build with loses.

Playing with your own deck

Keep track of both players’ Influence, with a die or on paper. You also need counters or dice for +1 Power and Delay counters. Mark each Agent that has blocked this turn, for example by turning it upside down.

How this version differs

• You can play at most 8 cards a turn. Replays count toward the 8, and the same limit applies to each chance to respond on your opponent’s turn. The published rules have no limit.
• A stalled game ends after 3 turns in a row that change nothing. The player who went second then wins. The published rules give that player the win when neither player can win, for example when both players pass without affecting play.
• Nobody chooses who goes first in the first game. The first player is chosen at random and shown while you build. On Play again, the other player goes first in the first game of the next match. In the published rules, the first player to finish building chooses who goes first in Quickplay, Pai Gow, and King of the Hill. As in the published rules, the loser of each game chooses who goes first in the next.
• There are no Battlefields. Every way to play is played without them, and Battle Lines, which needs them, is left out. The published rules let every way to play use Battlefields.

Open the rules page