Battle for Buckleforest

An area control, token placement game. Very simple rules, lots of variety and strategy.

Material

The material is a bunch of Wizard Tokens, and a smaller deck of bigger Area Tiles.

Setup

Place 3 area tiles.

Each player picks a specific wizard (color/symbol): they get 5 of their tokens and their role card. (This spells out the special power of that wizard.)

Leave out wizards that are not in play. Turn the remaining tokens into a shuffled deck.

Objective

The game ends as soon as all area tiles have been scored. Each player sums the scores on their area tiles: highest total score wins!

Gameplay

On your turn, either PLACE or DRAW.

Place

Place one of your tokens inside any area, facedown or faceup.

If you place it faceup,

Take its action (if it’s a wizard, not neutral)
And reveal a (facedown) token in a different area.

If an area is now full, do a battle there.

Draw

Draw a new token for your hand or a new area tile to place on the table.

Your hand limit is 10.
You can’t draw a new area if the total score of the current areas is already 10 (or higher)
(For nice consistency, the biggest area in the game also has size 10?)

Battle

A battle is always confined to its area tile. Resolve them as follows.

Reveal all tokens there.
Count which wizard has the most support. (Tokens of that wizard count for 1, special tokens pick sides depending on their special power.)
They win the area: grab it and place it on your score pile.
In case of a tie, the area goes to the player who instigated the battle. (Even if they’re not part of that tie!)
All tokens are removed from the area.

Areas

Graphically, these show a pretty empty clearing inside a forest. They also have …

A maximum capacity
A score
Any actions triggered “ON REVEAL”, “ON PLACE”, “ON BATTLE”, “ON WIN”, “ON LOSE”

For example, one area might have different rules for ties, or you might be allowed to battle prematurely, or the loser gets some consolation price (“take one of the tokens into your hand”).

Tiles

Each wizard has 10 tokens of their color.

Besides that, the token deck is filled to the brim with neutral tokens that do special things.

TOKEN = same type as the player who started the battle
TOKEN = does nothing
TOKEN = eliminates all neutral tokens (they do nothing)
TOKEN = the lowest scoring wizard wins.
TOKEN = stop the battle (without declaring a winner), discard this token
TOKEN = if placed faceup, draw two more tokens
TOKEN = a “-1” for a specific color? (There are a few of those in the expansion?)
TOKEN =

Expansions

The base game merely has the simplest neutral tiles + ignore any extra rules on areas.

The next step adds more difficult tiles + follow the special actions of areas.

The next step adds the meanest tiles? ("-1" for wizards?)

An **area control, token placement** game. Very simple rules, lots of variety and strategy. ## Material The material is a **bunch** of **Wizard Tokens**, and a smaller deck of bigger **Area Tiles**. ## Setup Place 3 area tiles. Each player picks a specific wizard (color/symbol): they get 5 of their tokens **and** their role card. (This spells out the special power of that wizard.) Leave out wizards that are not in play. Turn the remaining tokens into a shuffled deck. ## Objective The game ends as soon as all area tiles have been scored. Each player sums the scores on their area tiles: **highest total score wins!** ## Gameplay On your turn, either **PLACE** or **DRAW**. ### Place Place one of your tokens inside any area, facedown _or_ faceup. If you place it faceup, * Take its action (if it's a wizard, not neutral) * And reveal a (facedown) token in a different area. If an area is now **full**, do a **battle** there. ### Draw Draw a new token for your hand _or_ a new area tile to place on the table. * Your hand limit is 10. * You can't draw a new area if the total score of the current areas is already 10 (or higher) * (For nice consistency, the biggest area in the game also has size 10?) ## Battle A battle is always confined to its area tile. Resolve them as follows. * Reveal all tokens there. * Count which wizard has the most support. (Tokens of that wizard count for 1, special tokens pick sides depending on their special power.) * They win the area: grab it and place it on your score pile. * In case of a tie, the area goes to the player who instigated the battle. (Even if they're not part of that tie!) * All tokens are removed from the area. ## Areas Graphically, these show a pretty empty clearing inside a forest. They also have ... * A maximum capacity * A score * Any actions triggered "ON REVEAL", "ON PLACE", "ON BATTLE", "ON WIN", "ON LOSE" For example, one area might have different rules for ties, or you might be allowed to battle prematurely, or the loser gets some consolation price ("take one of the tokens into your hand"). ## Tiles Each wizard has 10 tokens of their color. Besides that, the token deck is filled to the brim with **neutral tokens** that do special things. * TOKEN = same type as the player who started the battle * TOKEN = does nothing * TOKEN = eliminates all neutral tokens (they do nothing) * TOKEN = the _lowest_ scoring wizard wins. * TOKEN = stop the battle (without declaring a winner), discard this token * TOKEN = if placed faceup, draw two more tokens * TOKEN = a "-1" for a specific color? (There are a few of those in the expansion?) * TOKEN = ## Expansions The base game merely has the simplest neutral tiles + ignore any extra rules on areas. The next step adds more difficult tiles + follow the special actions of areas. The next step adds the meanest tiles? ("-1" for wizards?)