Technical Field Manual

Transcription

1 Technical Field Manual Rev

2 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 2 Table of Contents Revision History... 5 List of Tables... 6 List of Figures Introduction Overview Updates Game Components & Terminology Common Area Rounding Down Factions Player s Area Relic Epoch Reference Card Epoch Marker Faith Tokens Faith Pool Plague Token Turn Order Tokens Pantheon Banish Godswar In Hand, In Play, Out of Play Maps Ancient Earth Map Underworld Map Controlling a Territory or Space Cards Territory Cards Miracle Cards Dice Units (Plastic Playing Pieces) Gods Armies Temples Army Resource Pool & Other Army Locations Atlantis Lost Marker Maelstrom Setup Choose Factions Determine Plague Territories The Effect of Plague Territories Populate the Map Special Two Player Setup Three, Four and Five Player Setup... 24

3 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual Place War Gods & Temples Game Play Bid for Turn Order A Player Turn Raise Armies & Collect Faith Summon Gods and Build Temples Obtain Miracle Cards Play Miracle Cards (Death and/or War Cards) Suffer Plague Invade an Ancient Earth Territory Fortify a Position Embark from Heaven (to the Underworld) Invade Underworld End Turn End of Epoch End Game Victory Conditions Miracle Cards in Review War Cards Death Cards Sky Cards Magic Cards (Relics) Limitations & Criticism Maps Pieces Maelstrom Strategy The Map Bidding for Turn Order The Gods The Miracle Cards Temples General Play Variants - House Rules Setup Variants Play Variants References & Resources Avalon Hill s Risk Godstorm Website Official Rules Frequently Asked Questions On-Line Demo Forum Review Series Board Game Geeks Forum Downloads Other Websources... 69

4 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual Appendix A Proposed Uber House Rules Appendix B Avalon Hill s FAQ from Appendix C Analysis of Faith Generation Appendix D Player Guide with Uber House Rules... 78

5 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 5 Revision History Revision Date Description Author /29/2007 Initial outline Odin /30/2007 Added Title page and updated Terminology section Zeus & Thor /01/2007 Wrote section describing game components & terminology Gilgamesh /02/2007 Wrote the Setup section Brigid & Ra /03/2007 Wrote the Game Play section Ares, Hades, Thor, Loki, Druga & Ishtar /04/2007 Wrote the Miracle Cards section Druga & Marduk /04/2007 Wrote the Errata & Clarifications sections Hekate /06/2007 Wrote the Limitations & Criticism sections Set & Osiris /07/2007 Wrote the Variants section Isis /07/2007 Wrote the Strategy section Lugh, Nuada & Arawn /09/2007 Wrote the References & Resources sections Freya /11/2007 Final Review and approval Zeus /12/ /21/ /26/ /27/ /28/ /29/ /02/2008 Re-write of Variants Section. Marduk, Ra, Odin, Zeus & Lugh were afraid the Sky gods were being nerfed. The mortal Darren of Cummings found a flaw summoning us was too cheap bringing us to earth cost 3 not 2 Faith. Minor edits for clarity & new house rules by mortal Allie the Uber Godly Fortification & Summon Gods already on Earth Added Appendix of proposed House Rules, Updated Web Resources Section & made minor edits. Clarifications after playing with mortals, Darren of Cummings, Gregory of Myers, and Emmett the Richard of Uberland. Added Appendix containing Avalon Hill s FAQ from House Rules update to make Underworld have one less Crypt than the number of players thus creating ungodly tension. Updates based on Darren of Cummings feedback. Marduk, Ra, Odin, Zeus & Lugh Ra Osiris Odin, Zues, Ra, Lugh & Marduk Set & Hekate Gilgamesh Ra

6 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 6 List of Tables Table 1 Armies & Faith Received... 9 Table 2 Continent Faith Bonuses Table 3 Heaven Names Table 4 Summary of Card Decks Table 5 Miracle Card Labors Table 6 Army Allocation Per Number of Players Table 7 Player Turn Overview Table 8 Armies & Faith Received Table 9 Continent Faith Bonuses Table 10 Miracle Card Labors Table 11 Godly Impact on Normal Combat Table 12 War God's Miracle Cards Table 13 Death God's Miracle Cards Table 14 Sky God's Miracle Cards Table 15 Magic God's Miracle Cards Table 16 Miracle Cards that Alter the Map List of Figures Figure 1 Reference Card... 9 Figure 2 The Epoch Marker Figure 3 Epoch Marker in Use Figure 4 Faith Tokens Figure 5 Plague Marker Figure 6 Turn Order Tokens Figure 7 Pantheons Figure 8 Ancient Earth Map Figure 9 The Underworld Map Figure 10 Underworld Gate Figure 11 Underworld Crypt Figure 12 Underworld Altar Figure 13 The Gods Figure 14 Army Playing Pieces Figure 15 Temple of the Gods Figure 16 Atlantis Lost Marker Figure 17 Maelstrom Figure 18 Underworld with Crypts Labeled and a No Crypt Marker... 72

7 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 7 1. Introduction This Field Manual is primarily for those players of Risk Godstorm who, after reading the Official Rules by Avalon Hill, were somewhat dizzy, disoriented, and felt that since they purchased the game they did not need to be sold on how good it was they just wanted to know how to play it. After experiencing it, they could draw their own conclusions as to its place on their list of favorite games; but first they needed to clearly understand how to play the game. The greatest challenge for a set of rules is to do two things: Improve upon the blank page Do not impede the player s ability to learn how to play the game Rules should teach game mechanics, the intrinsic value of the various game artifacts, and touch upon possible strategies; but leave all opinion, conjecture, propaganda, and fiction to articles and reviews of the game. That being said, Avalon Hill has created a unique, challenging, and at times chaotic variant of the Class Risk game that can be enjoyable once you put the game mechanics behind you and understand all the interactions of the various game components. Once you have reached that level, you can experience the game as I am sure the designers intended with its subtle strategies and devastating tactics. Only then will you be able to determine how great the game is Overview This document is divided into sections that discuss a certain aspect of Godstorm: Section 1 This Introduction Section 2 Game components & terminology specific to the game (15 pgs) Section 3 Setting up the game (2 pgs) Section 4 Rules of Play (13 pgs) Section 5 Review of the Miracle Cards (15 pgs) Section 6 Limitations & criticism of the game (1 pg) Section 7 Strategy & Tactics (11 pgs) Section 8 Variants & House Rules (5 pgs) Section 9 References & Resources (2 pgs) Section 10 Proposed Uber House Rules (3 pgs) Section 11 Avalon Hill FAQ 2004 (3 pgs) Section 12 Faith Generation Analysis (1 pg) Section 13 Player Guide with Uber House Rules (2 pgs) 1.2. Updates Any comments, questions, error corrections, additions, omissions or other types of potential updates to this document can be sent via to riskgodstorm@gmail.com.

8 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 8 2. Game Components & Terminology This section defines game play terms used in subsequent sections and describes each of the physical components of the game Common Area An area of the playing surface that is easily reachable by all players. The Common Area typically contains maps, cards, dice, etc any game artifacts that should be readily accessible by all players Rounding Down At anytime during game play it may be necessary to divide a numerical value in half. For purposes of game play when dividing a number in half always round down. So if 7 armies are to be divided in half 3 armies would be considered half of 7. If 3 armies were divided in half, then 1 army would be considered half of 3. If 2 armies were divided in half, then 1 army would be considered half of 2. If 1 army is divided in half, then zero would be considered half of 1. Notice that half of 1 is always 1 when rounding down this is essential to certain aspects of game play Factions Each player of Godstorm represents one of five Factions. The Factions are Babylonians, Celts, Egyptians, Greeks, and Vikings. Each Faction has its own color of playing pieces. In the standard game there is no difference in abilities between the five Factions Player s Area The Player s Area is the part of the playing surface immediately in front of a single player that typically contains all game artifacts that are controlled by the player. The exact nature and content of some of these artifacts may be kept private and others may be public knowledge based on the rules of the game Relic The term Relic is synonymous with the Magic god s Miracle Card deck. Each card in this deck represents a physical Relic of the ancient world. See Section for more details regarding Relics Epoch The term Epoch refers to one complete round of play consisting of each player having exercised their game turn. Each game turn allows each player to have the chance to perform the ten game play action steps described in the next section. A standard length game of Godstorm lasts five Epochs. Though there is a Miracle Card called Stop Time that causes an Epoch to be repeated thus lengthening the game to six Epochs Reference Card The Reference Card provides a place to track what Epoch is currently being played. This card also provides an Epoch Turn Overview (listing the steps each Player may take during their

9 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 9 Player Turn) and a table that determines the number of Armies & Faith received during the first action of the Turn Overview called Raise Armies & Gather Faith. The values in the table are based on how many Territories the Player controls. The figure below shows what the Reference Card looks like. Figure 1 Reference Card The table for Armies & Faith from the Reference Card above looks like this: Territories Armies & Faith Table 1 Armies & Faith Received The Epoch Turn Overview consists of the following ten steps: 1. Raise Armies & Gather Faith 2. Summon Gods & Build Temples 3. Obtain Miracle Cards 4. Play Miracle Cards 5. Suffer Plague 6. Invade Territories 7. Fortify a Position 8. Embark from Heaven 9. Invade the Underworld 10. End Your Turn

10 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual Epoch Marker The Epoch Marker is placed on the Reference Card to track the Epoch that is currently being played. The Epoch Marker is depicted in the following figure: Figure 2 The Epoch Marker An example in the figure below shows a game in Epoch three. Figure 3 Epoch Marker in Use 2.9. Faith Tokens The currency of Godstorm is the Faith Token. It represents a Faction s belief in their gods. Faith is used during game play to purchase various useful game items. Faith tokens are provided in denominations of one and five as depicted in the following figure. Figure 4 Faith Tokens

11 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual Faith Pool The Faith Pool is essentially the bank. It is the location in the Common Area where all the Faith Tokens are kept that are not owned by a Player Plague Token The Plague Token is used during the setup of the game (see section 3.2) to mark certain Territories on the Ancient Earth map as being infested with the Plague. Special rules defined in section apply to these Territories. The Plague Token is shown in the figure below. Figure 5 Plague Marker Turn Order Tokens At the beginning of each Epoch the players bid Faith Tokens for turn order. The Turn Order Tokens shown below are won by the turn order bid. See section 4.1 for an explanation of the bidding. Figure 6 Turn Order Tokens Pantheon A Pantheon is the home of a particular Faction s gods. When gods are out of play they are at home in their Pantheons waiting to be summoned back to the world of men represented by the Ancient Earth map. Each Pantheon provides a named place for each god to wait, a description of the god s particular power in battle, and the name of that Faction s Heaven. The Pantheons for each Faction are shown below.

12 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual The gods wait in this order from left to right Sky War Death Magic Figure 7 Pantheons 12

13 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual Banish This term is used to describe the act of removing a god from Ancient Earth map board and thus from play. Gods never die (well perhaps they do when no one believes in them, but in this game they never die) instead they are banished back to their Pantheon where they await to be summoned again to the Ancient Earth map Godswar A Godswar is the term used to describe a war that takes place only between gods. The details of a Godswar are explained in Section When one or more gods accompany a group of armies into battle the gods fight first in a Godswar until only one side has gods remaining in play or until both sides have no gods. When a god is defeated in a Godswar it is banished back to its Pantheon where it waits to be summoned again to the Ancient Earth map In Hand, In Play, Out of Play These terms are used to describe the state of play of Miracle Cards that are used in the game. (The details of Miracle Cards are described in section ) Miracle Cards can be in one and only one of the following places: 1. In their respective card deck (face down) ready to enter play, but not yet in play. 2. In play, meaning a card is face up in the Player s Area influencing the game in some way that is specified on the face of the card. 3. In hand, meaning a card is in a Player s possession either face down in the Player s Area or physically being held in the Player s hand. Cards in this location have not yet entered play. 4. Out of play, meaning the card has been played previously and is now discarded and can never enter play again. The terms in play and out of play are also used with respect to gods as well. A god that is in play is on the Ancient Earth map board. A god this is not in play, is out of play, and is located on its Pantheon awaiting to be summoned to the Ancient Earth map board and will then be in play Maps The game provides two maps the large main game play map called the Ancient Earth and a smaller map called the Underworld.

14 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual Ancient Earth Map The Ancient Earth is the name of the main map board of Godstorm (see Figure 8). Figure 8 Ancient Earth Map It is composed of 42 named Territories. The sea areas of the map have no bearing on play. Some coastal territories are connected by a dotted line indicating that land units may move for one coastal territory to another. There are six colored groups of territories on the map called Continents. If a player controls an entire continent they are awarded an Army and Faith bonus (and most likely the wrath of the other players). Continents are worth different values of Army/Faith bonus as defined in the following table and on the Ancient Earth map itself. For example, controlling Africa yields a bonus of 5 extra Armies and 5 extra Faith per player turn. Army & Continent Faith Bonus Europa 7 Germania 5 Africa 5 Asia Minor 3 Atlantis 3 Hyrkania 2 Table 2 Continent Faith Bonuses Underworld Map The Underworld map shown immediately below represents the field of play for Armies killed during battle in the Ancient Earth. For a map so small there is a lot of detail which will be covered in the following sub-sections.

15 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 15 The Underworld is surrounded by five Heavens, one for each Faction, which are shown in more detail below in section Each space in the Underworld may be blank, contain a Gateway, an Altar, or a Crypt. Each of these will be explained in later sub-sections of this section. The borders between some spaces of the Underworld are blocked by flames. These flames block Army movement between spaces that are separated by flames. The Underworld is a place of basic combat for Armies that have been defended on the Ancient Earth map. No gods are allowed in the Underworld. Likewise, no Miracle Cards can be played in the Underworld. Miracle Cards are discussed in Sections and 5. Figure 9 The Underworld Map Heavens Each Faction has their own Heaven which receives armies when they are defeated on Ancient Earth map. The five Heavens surround the catacombs of the Underworld. The Heavens are named as defined in the following table. Faction Babylonians Kurnugia Heaven Celts Avalon

16 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 16 Egyptians Duat Greeks Elysium Norse Valhalla Table 3 Heaven Names Gates The Underworld contains three gates as shown in the figure below. These gates serve as access points from each Heaven to the Underworld. Armies in any Heaven must initially embark into the Underworld via anyone of the three Gates. However, once a player has armies in a particular space of the Underworld, their armies in their Heaven may embark into the Underworld directly to the space they control and thus by-pass a Gate. For more information regarding the mechanics of embarking from Heaven to the Underworld see Section Figure 10 Underworld Gate Crypts The Underworld contains four Crypts as shown in the figure below. Crypts are valuable. A Faction is allowed to resurrect a soldier from each Crypt it controls into a territory on the Ancient Earth map that contains one of their Temples during the Raise Armies & Gather Faith turn (as long as at least one Army remains behind to control the Crypt). At the end of a Player Turn if one or more Crypts are controlled by a Player they draw one of the Death god s Miracle Cards this is the Death God s Labor. For more information about all the gods Labors see section Each Crypt controlled after the last Epoch contributes one victory point to the Player s total. Figure 11 Underworld Crypt

17 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual Altars The Underworld contains two Altars as shown in the figure below. Altars are valuable. A Faction is allowed to roll an extra 1d6 die in a Godwar for each Altar they control and any Altars controlled after the last Epoch of the game earns its own one victory point. Figure 12 Underworld Altar Controlling a Territory or Space You control a Territory on the Ancient Earth map and a space on the Underworld map when you occupy it with at least one Army. Gods and Temples alone do not control a Territory, there must be at least one Army in a Territory or space to control it. Gods and Temples are not allowed in the Underworld Cards There are five decks of cards in Godstorm. The five decks are summarized in the table below. Deck Description Back of Card Territory Cards This deck contains one card for each of the 42 Territories on the Ancient Earth map. Two wild cards are also included but they are only used to play Classic Risk, not Godstorm. War Cards This is the Miracle Card deck for the god of War. Death Cards This is the Miracle Card deck for the god of Death.

18 Sky Cards Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 18 This is the Miracle Card deck for the god of Sky. Magic Cards (Relics) This is the Miracle Card deck for the god of Magic. Unlike the other three Miracle Cards, these cards represent physical Relics that remain in play. Table 4 Summary of Card Decks Territory Cards Territory Cards are typically used to setup the game and they are sometimes drawn if a Miracle Card contains instructions to do so Miracle Cards The Miracle Cards represent the power of the gods. They may be purchased for 2 Faith Tokens per card or they may be earned freely if a player accomplishes a specific labor associated with each type of Miracle Card. Each of the four types of Miracle Cards has printed on its back a Labor specific to each type of god. When a player performs the Labor during game play, they are rewarded by the gods (if the god is in play) by being able to take the top Miracle Card from the deck for their use. The Labor associated with each type of Miracle Card is listed in the following table. Miracle Deck War Cards Death Cards Sky Cards Magic (Relic) Cards Labor Conquer 3 or more Territories on your turn Control a Crypt at the end of your turn Defeat one or more gods on your turn in a Godswar or in normal battle Roll at least three of the same number Table 5 Miracle Card Labors Each of the Miracle Cards will be discussed in detail in section 5. The instructions listed on most Miracle Cards are very straight forward to carry out; however, there are a few that require some clarification this will all be addressed in section 5.

19 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual War Cards The war god s Miracle Cards are relatively inexpensive to exercise. They are held until action #4 of the Players turn (see Reference Card section 2.7) at which time they may be exercised. Once a War Card is exercised it is out of play. There are 17 War Cards in the deck. The War god must be in play on the Ancient Earth map in order to play a War Miracle Card Death Cards The death god s Miracle Cards are expensive to exercise, but devastating. They are held until action #4 of the Players turn (see Reference Card section 2.7) at which time they may be exercised. Once a Death Card is exercised it is out of play. There are 17 Death Cards in the deck. The Death god must be in play on the Ancient Earth map in order to play a Death Miracle Card Sky Cards The sky god s Miracle Cards are defensive cards. They are held by a player until they are attacked on the Ancient Earth map; at which time the Player being attacked has the option of exercising the miracle. Exercising the miracle may require the expenditure of one or more Faith tokens. Once exercised the actions of the miracle are carried out and the Miracle Card is out of play for the remainder of the game. There are 17 Sky Cards in the deck. The Sky god must be in play on the Ancient Earth map in order to play a Sky Miracle Card. The Sky card should be played only after the attacking player declares their attack and the number of Armies and gods they are committing to the attack. One or more Sky cards may be played if the player has sufficient Faith Tokens Magic Cards (Relics) The magic god s Miracle Cards are unique among Miracle Cards in that they are physical objects, or Relics, with ancient powers that are revealed immediately, if the Magic god is in play, and they modify the normal game rules in some way that gives their possessor an advantage. They remain in play the entire game unless they are destroyed by some other Miracle card. They remain in play even if the Magic god is banished. There are 15 Magic Cards in the deck. A relic s effects can be invoked whenever the instructions on the card allows it Dice Godstorm comes with a set of 10 six-sided dice. Five are black with white spots and five are white with black spots. The dice are used to resolve battles on the Ancient Earth map and on

20 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 20 the Underworld map. The attacking player should use one color of die and the defending player the other color of die Units (Plastic Playing Pieces) Godstorm comes with molded plastic playing pieces colored for each of the five Factions. The pieces are divided up into gods and armies Gods Each Faction has four gods. The gods of Sky, War, Death, and Magic. The figure below depicts each of the gods in the order mentioned above. Don t let the death god s small stature fool you he s a killer. Figure 13 The Gods Armies The armies of Godstorm are divided into two denominations one denomination, which looks like an infantry soldier, represents one army and the second denomination, which looks like a war elephant, represents five armies. These two denominations can be exchanged at anytime on the board as long as the exchange is carried out at the rate of five infantry soldiers to one war elephant. The figure below shows what the armies look like. Figure 14 Army Playing Pieces Temples Temples provide an income of one Faith Token per Player turn and generate one additional Army per Player turn the Army generated must be placed in the same Territory as the Temple.

21 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 21 If a Player controls a Crypt in the Underworld with more than a single Army, then a single Army can be resurrected from the Underworld to the Territory containing a Temple. Defensively during combat Temples allow their owner to re-roll any dice that turn up one. The dice may be re-rolled until they no longer show a one. A Territory may contain one and only one Temple. Once built Temples cannot be moved and they become the property of the Player that controls the Territory in which they reside. Additional Temples may be built at the cost of 5 Faith Tokens. The number of Temples available is limited to 12. A Temple is depicted in the figure below. Figure 15 Temple of the Gods Army Resource Pool & Other Army Locations Armies are never out of play in Godstorm. Armies exist in one of four locations while in play. 1. The Army Resource Pool which is typically one of the compartments in the Godstorm box; however, it can be just a pile of Armies in the Player s Area or some other container used to hold the Armies while they are not in any of the following locations 2. On the Ancient Earth map controlling Territories and fighting for control of new Territories 3. In their Faction s Heaven awaiting an opportunity to fight in the Underworld 4. On the Underworld map controlling Underworld spaces and fighting for control of the Underworld Atlantis Lost Marker The Atlantis Lost marker is used to cover the continent of Atlantis should the Miracle Card The Sea is Your Home be played that sinks Atlantis. When this happens the action on the Miracle Card is carried out and the marker, shown in the figure below, is placed over the continent of Atlantis.

22 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 22 Figure 16 Atlantis Lost Marker Maelstrom The Maelstrom piece is often considered to be trash after punching the cardboard pieces because it is not labeled. It is used when a Miracle Card requires that the dotted line connection across the sea between two Territories is destroyed. This marker is placed over the dotted line indicated that movement is no longer possible between the once connected coastal Territories. The figure below show what the Maelstrom piece looks like. Figure 17 Maelstrom

23 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual Setup Sort the cards into their respective decks if necessary Territory Deck, Sky Deck, War Deck, Death Deck, and Magic Deck. Remove the two Wild Cards from the Territory Deck these are not used in Godstorm. Shuffle all five decks. Place the following game components in the Common Player Area: 1. The Ancient Earth Map 2. The Underworld Map 3. The Reference Card with the Epoch Marker indicating Epoch one 4. The Maelstrom Marker 5. The Faith Tokens in the Faith Pool 6. Turn Order Tokens one for each Player beginning with token marked 1 7. Four of the five Plague Markers 3.1. Choose Factions Players choose the Faction they will play by each rolling one dice. Re-roll ties. The Player with the highest die roll chooses the Pantheon of the Faction they wish to play. The Player with the next highest roll chooses a Pantheon, and so on until all Players have a Pantheon. Pantheons are kept in the Player Areas. Each Player should place their Faction s four gods in their respective locations on the Pantheon. The Pantheon specifies the color of the plastic units representing the gods and armies that a Player will use Determine Plague Territories Every game of Godstorm begins with four of the 42 Territories being decimated by the Plague. To select which four Territories are affected turn over the top four cards of the Territory Deck and place a Plague Marker in the four Territories indicated by the four cards. Return the four cards to the Territory Deck and reshuffle it. One Plague Marker will still be unused at this time (there is a Miracle Card that requires its use) The Effect of Plague Territories Movement into or out of a Plague Territory is not restricted in anyway. Players may move armies in and out of a Plague Territory just like any other Territory. When a group of 1 or more armies move into a Plague Territory for the purposes of remaining in that Territory the plague immediately destroys half of the armies (remember to round down, see section 2.2 above). Due to the nature of rounding down, a single army can hold a Plague Territory without sustaining anymore casualties.

24 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 24 A god cannot remain in a Plague Territory. Any gods that enter a Plague Territory for the purpose of remaining are immediately banished. The Official Rule Book states this is because their worshippers lose confidence in their divine power. A Plague Territory does not hinder or block the movement through it for the purposes of fortifying some other position on the map. No loses are incurred by Armies moving through a Plague Territory for purposes of fortifying a position elsewhere; and gods accompanying fortifying Armies are not banished. This is a frequent occurrence when performing step #7, Fortify a Position, on the TURN OVERVIEW listed on the Reference Card Populate the Map Each Player counts out a number of Armies based on how many Players are in the game. See the table below for the number of Armies to count out. Number of Players Army Count Table 6 Army Allocation Per Number of Players Note: A 2 player game has special setup rules discussed in the next section. That is why a 2 player game defines an Army Count of 30 Armies which seems inconsistent with the pattern of 5 players get 25, 4 players get 30, 3 players get 35; one might think that a 2 player game gets 40 Armies, but that is not the case Special Two Player Setup Shuffle and deal the Territory Cards into three piles. Each Player chooses one pile. The remaining pile represents the neutral faction. Choose one of the unclaimed Factions as the neutral player and place three armies in each of the neutral faction s territories. These neutral armies will not attack, but only defend their territories; and they are never halved by Suffer Plague. Continue with the two player setup normally as described in section Three, Four and Five Player Setup There are a couple of standard ways to determine which Player gets a particular Territory either randomly or non-randomly. Each is explained below Random Territory Selection If the Territory Deck has not yet been dealt, then deal it out one card at a time to each Player until all the Territories Cards are dealt.

25 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 25 Each Player now places one army on the Territories named by the cards they have been dealt even if the Territory contains a Plague Marker. After all Territories contain one and only one Army, then each Player takes turns placing no more than 3 Armies at a time on any Territory they own until all Players have placed their Armies on the map. The 3 Armies may be split across Territories that the Player controls. Collect the Territory Cards and re-shuffle the deck Round-Robin Territory Selection Players take turns placing one army on any unoccupied Territory until all the Territories are occupied. After all Territories contain one and only one Army, then each Player takes turns placing no more than 3 Armies at a time on any Territory they own until all Players have placed their Armies on the map. The 3 Armies may be split across Territories that the Player controls Place War Gods & Temples After all Armies have been placed on the map, the same turn sequence continues with each Player taking a turn placing their War god on a Territory they own and placing one Temple on a Territory they own. The War god and the Temple do not necessarily have to be placed in the same Territory.

26 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual Game Play Players are now ready to begin playing Godstorm. The objective of play is to amass the largest empire by the end of the last Epoch and earn the most Victory Points. See section 4.4 for the details on determining the victor Bid for Turn Order At the beginning of each Epoch the Players bid for turn order. A player who desires to be the first to choose their turn order must sacrifice more Faith Tokens than the other players. Each player places all their Faith Tokens in hand and secretly selects how many Faith Tokens they are willing to sacrifice to be the first to choose a Turn Marker. Any amount of Faith may be sacrificed from none to the maximum a Player possesses. Just remember, faith spent here goes back to the Faith Pool and is not available for the Player s turn. All players reveal their faith bid simultaneously. Ties are broken by rolling one dice. Tie dice rolls are broken by re-rolling one dice until a Player wins. The Player with the highest faith bid gets to select a Player Turn Order Token first. The Player with the second highest bid selects a Turn Order Token next and so on until every Player has a Turn Order Token. Note that a Player is not required to take the highest available Turn Order Token. It is entirely possible that some players may be bidding to go last under some circumstances A Player Turn Play now continues with the Player holding Turn Order Token one going first. Followed by the Player holding Turn Order Token two and so until all Players have had a turn. A single Player turn consists of the ten steps shown on the Reference Card (see section 2.7) and named in the following table. Some steps may not be possible to execute on every turn and some steps are optional. Each step is detailed in the following sections. Turn Action Step # Table 7 Player Turn Overview Turn Action See this section for details 1 Raise Armies and Gather Faith Summon Gods and Build Temples Obtain Miracle Cards Play Death and/or War Miracle Cards Suffer Plague 4.2.5

27 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 27 6 Invade Territories Fortify a Position Embark from Heaven Invade Underworld End Turn Raise Armies & Collect Faith Armies and Faith are generated by the following: 1. How many Territories in the Ancient Earth you control 2. How many Continents in the Ancient Earth you control 3. How many Temples in the Ancient Earth you control 4. How many Crypts in the Underworld you control Territories Count the Territories you control. You control a Territory if you have at least one Army there. Gods and Temples do not count as controlling a Territory you must have at least one Army on a Territory to control it. Look at the table at the bottom of the Reference Card (see section 2.7) or at the table below to determine how many Armies and how many Faith Tokens you receive. The table for Armies & Faith from the Reference Card looks like this: Territories Armies & Faith Table 8 Armies & Faith Received The Armies & Faith count indicated in the above table is based on counting the number of Territories a player controls and dividing that number by 3, rounding down, and limiting the resulting value to always being at least Continents If you control all the Territories in a Continent you receive additional Armies and Faith Tokens. This is called the Continent bonus. The table on the Ancient Earth map shows the value of the Continent bonus and is replicated below in Table 9. For example, if a player controls the Continent of Germania they receive an additional 5 Armies and 5 Faith each turn that they control Germania.

28 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 28 Army Continent & Faith Bonus Europa 7 Germania 5 Africa 5 Asia Minor 3 Atlantis 3 Hyrkania 2 Table 9 Continent Faith Bonuses Temples For each Temple that you control you may place one additional Army in that Territory and receive one additional Faith Token Crypts For each Crypt that you control in the Underworld that has at least two Armies, you may resurrect one Army from each Crypt to a Territory in the Ancient Earth containing a Temple you control Army Placement Place all the Armies you received in Territories on the Ancient Earth map that you control. You control a Territory if you have at least one Army there. Gods and Temples do not count as controlling a Territory you must have at least one Army on a Territory to control it. Keep the Faith, you are going to need it Summon Gods and Build Temples If you have sufficient Faith Tokens you may now summon any god still at home in its Pantheon and you may build Temples Summon Gods Any god from your Pantheon that is not yet on the Ancient Earth map may be summoned at a cost of three Faith Tokens. A god summoned may only be placed on a Territory in the Ancient Earth that is under your control. More than one god can be placed in a Territory you might call this stacking your gods Build Temples Temples cost five Faith Tokens and can only be built on a Territory in the Ancient Earth that you control and that does not already contain a Temple.

29 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual Obtain Miracle Cards You may buy a Miracle Card for two Faith Tokens if the card s corresponding god is in play on the Ancient Earth map. You may buy a maximum of four Miracle Cards per turn. Miracle Cards purchased can come from the same or different decks. You cannot look at the Miracle Cards you buy until you have purchased all of them. If you look at a Miracle Card purchased, then no further purchasing of cards is allowed this turn. The number and type of Miracle Cards you purchase is public knowledge. What specific miracle each Miracle Card represents is not public knowledge and should be kept secret. It is possible to obtain more Miracle Cards at other times during play without expending Faith Tokens if you perform the god s Labor identified on the back of each Miracle Card. Below is a table that lists the labors required to earn a free Miracle Card: Miracle Deck Labor Able to Collect More Than Once Per Turn? War Cards Conquer 3 or more Territories on your turn No, just once per turn Death Cards Control a Crypt at the end of your turn No, just once per turn Sky Cards Defeat one or more gods on your turn No, just once per turn Roll at least three of the same number Magic (Relic) Cards Table 10 Miracle Card Labors Yes, as many times per turn as you roll three of a kind Miracle Cards out of play can never re-enter play. They remain out of play for the rest of the game. For a definition of the term out of play see Section Play Miracle Cards (Death and/or War Cards) At this time you may play/exercise Death or War Miracle Cards. You may play as many cards as you hold in your hand provided the card s associated god is in play on the Ancient Earth map and provided you have sufficient Faith Tokens if the card requires an expenditure of faith. When you play a Miracle Card you must state the card s name and describe its effects on the game. Carry out the card s effects before playing another card. Cards may be played in any order. Once played and its effects on the game resolved, the card is out of play and can never be used again in this game. Some Miracle Cards may require you to draw a card from the Territory Deck. After resolving the miracle s effects on the game the Territory Card should be returned the deck and the deck re-shuffled.

30 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 30 When instructed to move Armies due to the effects of a Miracle Card you still must maintain at least one Army in a Territory. Some Miracle Cards may destroy all Armies in a Territory. In this case the Territory is unoccupied (any god there would be banished since no Armies remain) and it would no longer qualify as a controlled Territory. Thus a player would lose any Continent bonus they might have had and their Territory count is reduced by one. If any Miracle Card effect contradicts the normal rules of the game, the Miracle Card effect has precedent. The effects of a Miracle Card do not affect the Underworld unless explicitly stated on the card. Thus Armies destroyed in miracles do not go to the Underworld Suffer Plague Any Armies you own in a Plague Territory must suffer 50% casualties so half the number of Armies you have in a Plague Territory (remember to round down as defined in section 2.2 above). Due to the nature of rounding down, a single army can hold a Plague Territory without sustaining any more casualties. Any gods you have in a Plague Territory must be banished back to their Pantheon Invade an Ancient Earth Territory The Player may invade and attack a Territory controlled by another Player. Invasion can only take place between two adjacent Territories one controlled by the attacker and one controlled by the defender. The attacker must have at least two Armies in the Territory originating the invasion (gods do not count as Armies, but they may participate in the invasion). The attacker is required to always leave at least one Army behind. An invasion is resolved before another invasion is started. The Player may perform as many invasions in any order as they can legally perform. Invasions are not possible across a mountain range. If gods exist in both the attacking force (the units declared to be invading) and the defending Territory then a Godswar must first be fought between the gods. See section regarding how to resolve a Godswar. After the Godswar is resolved, then normal combat can take place between the Armies. For resolution of normal combat see section If multiple gods exist in the attacking Territory, but are not all declared to be part of the invading force, then those gods not part of the invading force will not take part in the Godswar or Normal Combat that follows a Godswar. If there are no gods or if gods only exist in the invading force or on the Defending side, then Normal Combat can take place between the Armies. For resolution of normal combat see section

31 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual Godswar During an invasion if gods are present on both the attacking invasion force and the defending force, then a Godswar must occur before Normal Combat can occur between the Armies. The purpose of a Godswar is to eliminate the gods on the attacking or the defending side. The attacking and the defending player each choose a single god that will be fighting the Godswar this is the god that will be lost should the player lose this round of the Godswar. The attacking player must choose their god before the defending player chooses their god. If there are multiple gods available in the invading or defending forces, only one is chosen. The other gods cannot be lost at this time, but their powers are combined in the Godswar all the other gods on both sides support their respective fighting gods. Note that only the offensive gods declared earlier to be in the invading force can use their powers in the Godswar. All gods in the defending Territory must participate in the Godswar. Each player rolls three dice and adds the following numbers together: 1. The total number on their roll of the three dice 2. The number of all Armies in the Territory on their god s side (even if they are not part of the invading force in the case of the attacking player) 3. The number or effects from all modifiers (see the next section for all the possible modifiers) The side with the highest total number from the above calculation wins and the losing god is banished to their Pantheon. The banished god may be summoned back into game play on a later turn. If there is a tie the defending side wins unless the god of War is part of the attacking side, then the attacker wins. If there are still gods left on both sides then the attacking player has the option of continuing the Godswar or stopping the invasion. If the attacking player decides to continue the Godswar, then the Godswar process described above is repeated. Once a Godswar yields a god on only one side, then Normal Combat can occur between the Armies involved. See section for resolution of Normal Combat Godswar Modifiers & Bonuses Each player determines their total associated with their modifiers. All the possible Godswar modifiers and effects are listed below. 1. Sky God if a Sky god is in the Godswar, then roll an extra dice 2. Magic God if a Magic god is in the Godswar, then re-roll any dice that show one until they show a number other than one 3. War God if a War god is in the Godswar, then a tie is won by the attacking player; otherwise, a tie is won by the defending player

32 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual Temple if the defending player has a Temple in their Territory they may re-roll all dice that show a one. They may continue to re-roll a die showing a one until all dice do not show a one 5. Altars a player may roll one extra dice for each Altar in the Underworld that they control 6. There are several Miracle Cards (5 Sky Cards and 2 Magic Cards) that can also provide modifiers applicable in a Godswar. See Section 5 for details regarding these Miracle Cards which are: Sky Cards o Your Idol is Fake (1 Card) o The Mighty Turn Meek (2 Cards) o Fire Sears the Sky (2 Cards) Magic Cards (Relics) o Gungnir, Spear of Odin (1 Card) o Miolnir, Hammer of Thor (1 Card) There are possible bonuses associated with a Godswar. They are: 1. If the attacking player defeats one or more gods and has a Sky god in play anywhere on the Ancient Earth map, then they draw one Sky Miracle Card. This bonus is only claimable once per player turn. 2. If any player involved in a Godswar rolls at least three of a kind and has a Magic god in play anywhere on the Ancient Earth map, then they draw one Magic Miracle Card and put it into play immediately. A player is not allowed to draw two cards if they roll six of a kind. This bonus is claimable as many times as the player rolls three of a kind Normal Combat If a Godswar was part of this invasion, the attacking player is required to attack with their Armies at least once even if they lost the Godswar. After attacking once they may choose to break-off the invasion. This requirement to do at least one round of Normal Combat after losing a Godswar may seem strange; however, the two armies are ABOUT to clash, each hopefully being led by their respective gods into combat. The gods garner their power from the faith that each of their armies invests in them. But the mortals do not necessarily realize that their gods have been banished until they experience the effect of the absence of their gods in battle -- thats why one roll of the dice must be made before an invasion can be called off. Its as if the Godswar is happening on some other godly dimension and not realized by the mortals until they actually draw blood. Similarly if no gods are involved at all and one side decides to attack, then once committed to battle they will not change their mind about fighting draws first blood and evidence of defeat presents itself. Normal combat is resolved as described below. If one or more gods are on one side, then the table below indicates how the gods impact combat resolution. Remember, during Normal Combat gods can exist on only one side, or not at all, because a previous Godswar is fought to banish gods on one side or the other.

33 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 33 God Power in Battle Power Applies Offensively Defensively Sky Roll one extra dice Yes Yes War All ties are won by the attacking War god s side Yes No Death All Armies lost in the battle do not go to the Underworld Yes No Magic If Magic god is part of attack or defense all dice rolled as 1 can be re-rolled until they do not show a 1 If a player rolls three of a kind they draw a free Magic Miracle Card immediately and put it into play immediately. This applies only if the Magic god is in play anywhere on the board. Yes Table 11 Godly Impact on Normal Combat Yes Temple Combat Effect Also if the defending player has a Temple in the Territory under attack, then any dice they roll that shows a one on can be re-rolled until they show a value between two and six. Resolving Normal Battle The following list outlines the steps in resolving a normal battle. 1. The attacking player announces the Territory being attacked and the Territory they are attacking from. 2. If one or more gods are part of the attacking force (the invading force), then declare which gods, if any, will be included in the invasion. The assumption is that all your gods will be included in the invading force unless stated otherwise. Once a god is declared to be in a battle, it must move with the attacking force if the force wins the battle and moves into the conquered Territory. 3. If any gods are involved in the battle either on offense or defense make sure their powers are used as defined in Table 11 above. 4. At this point the defending player may play one or more Sky Miracle Cards in any order, resolving them one at a time and then removing them from play. In order to play a Sky Miracle Card, the Sky god must be in play on the board, and the player must possess sufficient Faith Tokens if the card requires Faith in order to execute. 5. The attacker first declares how many dice they will be rolling. Then the defender announces how many dice they will roll. The attacker may roll up to 3 dice if the

34 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 34 invading force contains 3 or more Armies. If the invading force has less than 3 Armies, then the number of dice rolled must equal the number of Armies in the invading force. Remember that the Territory attacking from must have at least one more Army available to be left behind should the defender be defeated and the invading force moved into the defending Territory. The defender may roll up to 2 dice as long as they have at least 2 Armies. If they have only one Army they can only roll one dice. Both attacker and defender roll their dice at the same time. 6. The highest dice on each side are compared until all the dice rolled are compared. If the attacker wins, the defender must remove one Army from the Territory being attacked and place the lost Army on its heaven (unless the God of Death is on the attacker s side in which case the Army is returned to its Faction s Army Reserve Pool. Note that the Death god has no power on defense as shown in Table 11 above). If the defender wins, the attacker must remove one Army from the attacker s invading force and place the lost Army on the Faction s associated heaven. 7. The defender wins ties unless the War god is part of the attacker s invasion, then the attacker wins. See Table 11 above for a complete list of godly combat effects. 8. Neither side can lose more than Armies than the number of dice the defender rolls. This is typically two unless the Sky god in defending with 2 or more defending Armies, then the defender can roll 3 dice. 9. The attacker may call off the invasion after attacking and resolving one set of dice rolls. The attacker must attack at least once before calling off the battle. 10. The above steps are repeated until one of the following criteria is met: a. The attacker calls off the invasion as described in step #9 above b. The invading Armies are destroyed by the defender and any gods in the attacking force are banished. c. The defending Armies are destroyed and any gods in the defending forces are banished. Capturing a Territory If the attacking player destroys all the defending Armies and any defending gods are banished, then the territory can be captured. The attacking player must move at least a number of Armies into the captured Territory equal to or greater than the number of dice they last rolled. They also must leave at least one Army in the Territory they attacked from. Also any gods declared to be in the invading force in step #2 above must move with the invading Armies even if that god s power was not used during combat. Any Temple in the defending Territory is now under the attacking player s control. If entering a Plague Territory half of the invading force must be destroyed and any gods accompanying the invading force are banished. If a god is banished during normal battle, the player who caused the god to be banished draws one Sky god Miracle Card if their own Sky god is in play on the Ancient Earth board. This action is only allowed once per player turn.

35 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 35 The attacking playing may initiate another invasion if they so desire assuming they have the necessary Armies and the will power to do so. If the attacking player successfully invades three or more Territories and their War god is in play on the Ancient Earth map, then they draw one War Miracle Card. This action is only allowed once per player turn. Eliminating A Player If the defender s last Army on the Ancient Earth map is defeated they are eliminated from play and the following actions are taken: 1. Discard the eliminated player s Miracle Cards they are now out of play 2. Remove all their Armies from the Underworld they are now out of play 3. Any Temples are not removed, but remain on the Ancient Earth map board Fortify a Position This step allows the Player to strengthen one and only one Territory they control by moving one or more Armies and/or Gods from a different Territory they control. The fortifying pieces do not have to be in a Territory that is adjacent to the Territory receiving the pieces. However, the pieces must be able to move from their originating Territory to the Territory being fortified through Territories that the fortifying Player controls. Remember that at least one Army must remain in every Territory you control. Fortification moves cannot be made across mountain ranges. Plague Territories & Fortification Any Plague Territories passed through during fortification do not affect the fortifying pieces. Gods cannot end their fortification move on a Plague Territory or they are banished. If Armies end their fortification move on a Plague Territory then the standard Plague effects apply as described in section Embark from Heaven (to the Underworld) Armies lost in battle on the Ancient Earth map usually (as long as the Death god is not involved) go to their Faction s respective Heaven. During this step Armies in Heaven may descend into the Underworld to fight for control of Crypts and Altars as described in sections and respectively. If a Player does not control any of the spaces in the Underworld, then their Armies must enter the Underworld via one of the three Gates. See section for a description of an

36 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 36 Underworld Gate. However, they may only embark to an Underworld Gate if it is empty; otherwise, they must wait to the Invade Underworld step to invade an occupied Gate. If a Player controls one or more spaces in the Underworld, then their Armies may enter the Underworld directly to the spaces they control or via one of the three Underworld Gates (if the Gate is not controlled by another Player). See section for a description of an Underworld Gate Invade Underworld This step is optional and allows a Player to invade one or more of the spaces, including Gates, in the Underworld. The same invasion rules apply to the Underworld as they do in the Ancient Earth as described in section above. Controlling Underworld spaces bestows certain advantages to the controlling Player. See section for an explanation of those advantages. However, Underworld spaces are not considered Territories and do not contribute to the count of Territories used to raise Armies and gather Faith. They do not contribute to any Continent bonuses. Temples cannot be built in the Underworld. They do not count as the War god s Labor of conquering three Territories in a single turn. Gods cannot be summoned to the Underworld. Generally, Miracle Cards and/or Relics do not have any affect in the Underworld unless explicitly stated. Attacks cannot be made between Underworld spaces separated by a wall of flames. A Player must leave at least one Army in every Underworld space that they control. When an Army is lost during combat in the Underworld it does not go to Heaven but to its Faction s Reserve Army Pool ready to re-enter the game during the Raise Armies & Gather Faith step of a Player Turn. Empty Underworld Spaces Early in the game Underworld spaces may be empty. If this is the case, then invading is the equivalent of normal battle combat except no dice need to be rolled since there is no defender. Remember, at least one Army must be left in each Underworld space a Player controls End Turn If the Player controls at least one Crypt in the Underworld they collect one of the Death Miracle Cards. Play now goes to the Player holding the next highest Turn Order Token. If the last Player has finished their turn it is the End of an Epoch. Go to section 4.3 to perform end of Epoch actions.

37 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual End of Epoch The end of an Epoch occurs once all players have had a turn. If the Epoch just finished is Epoch five, then the game ends. Go to section 4.4 for directions on determining which Faction has won the game. If the Epoch just finished is not Epoch five, then the Epoch Marker is moved to the next Epoch and play continues with the next Epoch as described previously in section 4.1 Bid for Turn Order End Game Victory Conditions Godstorm lasts at least 5 Epochs. At the end of the last Epoch one Pantheon will be declared the supreme power and ruler of the Ancient Earth. The Pantheon that rules them all is the one with the highest total number of victory points. The list below defines the sources of all victory points. Each player determines their Victory Point total based on this list. 1. Total number of Territories controlled in the Ancient Earth. A single Territory is worth one Victory Point 2. Any Continent bonuses is translated to Victory Points 3. Each Altar controlled in the Underworld is worth one Victory Point 4. Each Crypt controlled in the Underworld is worth one Victory Point 5. Review any Relics you may possess. Some of them are worth a Victory Point if you control the Territory they name. See section 5.4 for details regarding these Relics. The Player with the largest Victory Point Total wins the game. There is a maximum of 78 possible Victory Points in the game: 42 territories, 5 designated on Magic Cards, 6 altars/crypts 25 continental bonuses 78 Typically a four player game can be won with between 20 and 27 Victory Points. Victory Point Ties Ties are resolved by playing a two player game of Godstorm, just kidding.

38 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 38 If two or more Players have the same number of Victory Points, then the Player with the most Faith Tokens wins the game. If there is still a tie, then the Player with the most Temples wins the game. There can be no more than 12 Temples in play. If there is still a tie, then the Player with the most Gods in play on the Ancient Earth wins the game. If there is still a tie, then the Player with the most Armies in play on the Ancient Earth wins the game. If there is still a tie, then the tied Players both win and their Pantheon s share the Ancient Earth. (At this point we think the two should really play a two player game of Godstorm to determine the winner.)

39 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual Miracle Cards in Review The following sections review each deck of Miracle Cards. In some few minor cases the descriptions of the effects of the Miracle Cards contain more information than is printed on the card. This information has been taken from the official Avalon Hill Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document found on their website and serves as further clarification. See Appendix B in Section 11 for Avalon Hill s FAQ of 2004 in its entirety. Also it is worth noting that in general when the instruction on a Miracle Card contradicts the standard rules, the instructions on the Miracle Card take precedence. Each of the sub-sections below contains a table describing each card in the Miracle Card deck. After each table is an analysis of each deck. Most of this analysis is from a post by Dave Shapiro to the Godstorm forum at Board Game Geeks. See section on how to access Board Game Geeks Godstorm Forum. The gods thank Dave Shapiro for his time and his concise review of each Miracle Card deck.

40 5.1. War Cards The following table lists all of the War god s Miracle Cards by title, number of cards in the deck, when they can be played, how many Faith Tokens they cost to play and what the miracle s effect is. Card Title Card Faith When Playable Count Cost Miracle s Effect A Shrine Is Plundered 1 Turn Action Step 4 1 Steal a Relic (Magic Miracle Card) from another player. An Empire Is Born 1 Turn Action Step 4 0 Place a Temple in any Territory you control (that does not already have a Temple) Champions Arise 1 Turn Action Step 4 0 Gain 1 Army for every 2 Faith Tokens you have. You do not have to give up the Faith Tokens. Place the Armies in any one Territory you control. Eagles Take Wing 1 Turn Action Step 4 1 Move any number of Armies and Gods from one Territory that you control to another Territory that you control. Faith Shall Deliver 1 Turn Action Step 4 1 Draw 2 cards from any one Miracle Card deck. If you draw from the Relic Deck and do not have the Magic god in play, you must hold them until you summon the Magic god. At that time you play them both immediately. If you draw two Sky Cards they can only be played when another player attacks you and you have the Sky god in play. War Cards and Death Cards can be played when you are in Turn Action Step #4 Play Miracle Cards and have the associated god in play. Heroes Are Born 1 Turn Action Step 4 0 Gain 3 armies in any one Territory that you control. This is a correction from the Avalon Hill FAQ of 2004 see Appendix B in Section 11. This card erroneously states Gain 3 armies in any one territory of your choice. Only Ash Remains 1 Turn Action Step 4 0 Destroy a Relic (Magic Miracle Card) of your choice. Our Faith Is Our Strength 1 Turn Action Step 4 0 Gain 2 Faith Tokens for each Temple you control. Prayers Are Answered 1 Turn Action Step 4 0 Choose a Territory you control. Roll one dice and gain that many Armies in that Territory. Storms Rage 1 Turn Action Step 4 0 Choose a Territory. Roll one dice and destroy up to that many Armies

41 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 41 in that Territory. (Do the Armies destroyed go to the Underworld? No.) The Faithful Gather 1 Turn Action Step 4 0 Gain 2 Armies in each Territory where you control a Temple Choose a Territory with a Plague Marker. Destroy that Plague Marker The Land Is Purged 1 Turn Action Step 4 2 and any Armies in that Territory. (Do the Armies destroyed go to the Underworld? No.) Swap all the Armies and Gods (if present) between any two The Siren Calls 1 Turn Action Step 4 3 Territories that Player controls. If a Plague Territory is involved, then Suffer Plague actions take affect immediately. Destroy 1 Army in each Territory that contains Gods for each God in The Sun Grows Cold 1 Turn Action Step 4 0 the Territory. This includes Territories owned by the Player exercising this Miracle Card. The Temple Falls 1 Turn Action Step 4 0 Move a Temple any Player controls to a different Territory that Player controls. Time Stands Still 1 Turn Action Step 4 4 Move the Epoch Marker back one Epoch. Visions Become Real 1 Turn Action Step 4 0 Look at another Player s Miracle Cards in hand and take one of those cards. Relics are typically not in hand but already in play. Total Cards in Deck 17 Table 12 War God's Miracle Cards Early in the game, the War deck is usually the most active of the four different decks, simply due to every player beginning with an active god of war. Every War card purchased is immediately available for play from the start of the game. The War deck is a somewhat mixed bag; a cross between the Magic deck and the Death deck. The majority of the War deck (9 cards) benefits the player by granting additional temples, faith cards or armies. The next largest group (5 cards) is destructive in nature, though generally not as strong as the cards found in the Death deck. The two remaining categories are very small. Two cards allow armies to be repositioned and one card extends the game by one turn. The composition of the War deck is as follows: Additions - These 9 cards increase the player s holdings in one area. Faith Shall Deliver, Our Faith is our Strength, A Shrine is Plundered, Heroes are Born, Prayers Are Answered, The Faithful Gather, The Empire is Born, Champions Arise and Visions Become Real all result in an increase in the acting player s strength.

42 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 42 Destructive - There are 5 cards that deal harm to an opponent: The Land is Purged, Only Ash Remains, The Sun Grows Cold, The Temple Falls and Storms Rage. These cards remove armies, temples, and Miracle cards/relics from opponents. Reposition - Eagles Take Wings allows a player to exchange forces on two of his own territories. The Siren Calls allows the player to swap armies on two of his opponent s territories. Both of these cards can tip the balance of the game; these are the strongest of the War cards. Time - Time Stands Still adds an extra turn to the game. For reasons detailed below, I believe this to be one of the least useful cards in the deck. The probability of drawing a particular type of card is listed below: Additions - 53% Destruction - 29% Reposition - 12% Time - 6% The only detracting feature of the War deck is, unlike the Magic deck, there is a cost to implement some of the cards in addition to the cost to purchase the card. It is great to be able to purchase a card but the inability to be able to implement the card renders it meaningless and deprives the player of Faith. Three of the cards require one Faith in order to implement them. Faith Shall Deliver permits the player to draw 2 Miracle cards from any deck - a very good exchange. The Shrine is Plundered allows the player to steal a Relic from another player. This card has relative value based on how late in the game it is played. As the Relics only provide benefits at the beginning of a turn, the later the card is implemented, the less the value. In addition to that, it is rare that many Relics are played on the first turn decreasing the value of this card even further. Other than to deprive another player who has a later turn, the card is worthless in the 5th epoch. Eagles Take Wings allows the player to reposition his forces in two areas - this can be devastatingly attractive if played at the appropriate moment. The Land is Purged allows the destruction of a Plague marker (and all the armies in the territory). The value of the card is solely dependant on the need to open possible attack routes as the plague itself will decimate the armies located there. This is the only 2 Faith card in the War deck.

43 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 43 The Siren Calls requires 3 Faith and is one of the most powerful cards in the game. The card permit s a player to swap armies of his opponents. This card can radically alter the balance and strength of positions in the game. Time Stands Still costs 4 Faith and I believe is overpriced. The card allows the player to move the epoch marker back a turn. If a player desperately needs to extend the game, it is unlikely that he possesses sufficient Faith to implement the card. The remaining 11 cards have no Faith requirement; that is, 65% of the War deck can be played for free. The War deck is a fairly aggressive deck; timing of the play of the particular cards is critical in order to reap the maximum benefit. Unfortunately, the War deck has the greatest possibility for depletion. The Labor required to obtain a free card is to simply conquer 3 territories. As the War cards aid in this endeavor, each new card increases the possibility of obtaining another card on the next turn.

44 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual Death Cards The following table lists all of the Death god s Miracle Cards by title, number of cards in the deck, when they can be played, how many Faith Tokens they cost to play and what the miracle s effect is. Card Title Card Count When Playable Faith Cost Blood Coats The Land 1 Turn Action Step 4 1 Crops Wither 2 Turn Action Step 4 2 Death s Door Closes 1 Turn Action Step 4 2 Miracle s Effect Choose a Continent randomly by rolling one dice (1=Europa, 2=Germania, 3=Africa, 5=Atlantis, 6=Hyrkania). Destroy 1 Army in each Territory of that Continent. If Atlantis is already sunk, re-roll. (Do the Armies destroyed go to the Underworld? No.) Choose a Player. That Player discards out of play all of their Miracle Cards except Relics (Miracle Cards) that are already in play. Halve the number of Armies in every Crypt and Altar space in that Underworld. Rounding down. Diamonds Turn To Rust 1 Turn Action Step 4 3 Destroy all Relics (Magic Miracle Cards) in play. Fire Rains Down 1 Turn Action Step 4 4 Destroy a Temple of your choice. Destroy 1 Army in the Temple s Territory as well as 1 Army in every adjacent Territory. (Do the Armies destroyed go to the Underworld? No.) Paradise Lost 1 Turn Action Step 4 2 Choose a Plague Marker in play. Turn over the top card of the Territory Card deck and move the Plague Marker to that Territory. Suffer Plague effects take place immediately. The Territory Card revealed is on Atlantis and that Continent is already sunken, reveal another card. Remember to re-shuffle the deck after exercising this card. Ragnarok Cometh 1 Turn Action Step 4 3 Banish all (even your own) War and Sky gods. The Dead Walk 2 Turn Action Step 4 2 Move up to 6 of your Armies from any Underworld space to a Temple you control. Must leave at least 1 Army behind in the Underworld. The Gods Forsake Us 1 Turn Action Step 4 3 Choose a Territory that does not contain a Temple or a Plague Marker. Place the extra Plague Marker in that Territory. Suffer Plague effects. The Ground Shakes 1 Turn Action Step 4 2 Choose a Continent randomly by rolling one dice (1=Europa, 2=Germania, 3=Africa, 5=Atlantis, 6=Hyrkania). If Atlantis is already

45 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 45 sunk, re-roll. Halve the number of Armies in all the Territories of that Continent. Round down. Halve the number of Armies in the three largest Army groups on the Ancient Earth map. Round Down. The player of the card gets to decide The Mighty Have Fallen 1 Turn Action Step 4 4 between Armies that are tied for the largest Armies on the board. The term three largest Armies means the three Territories on the Ancient Earth map that contain the three largest Armies. Some or all of those Territories may belong to the player exercising this miracle. Sink the Continent of Atlantis. All gods are banished. All Armies The Sea Is Your Tomb 1 Turn Action Step 4 3 returned to their Faction s Army Resource Pool. All Temples are removed from play but can be built in other Territories. Choose another Player s Territory with only 1 Army. Destory that The Trojan Horse Is 1 Turn Action Step 4 2 Army (to its Resource Pool) and roll one dice. Gain that many Armies Revealed of your own in that Territory. Choose a water connection. Place the Maelstrom Marker on that The Waters Boil 1 Turn Action Step 4 4 connection. It becomes permanently impassible for the rest of the game. The Young Grow Old 1 Turn Action Step 4 2 Destroy 1 Army in each Territory that has more than 1 Army. Includes your own Territories. Destroyed Armies return to their Resource Pools. Total Cards in Deck 17 Table 13 Death God's Miracle Cards This is the D deck - Death, Destruction, Devastation, Domination and Decimation. With the exception of the two The Dead Walk cards (which permit additional recruits from the Underworld), every Death card destroys something. Consideration of the possible side effects is mandatory as many of the Death cards are player neutral - the destruction ordered by the card may affect any player in the game including the active player. There are 8 of these player neutral cards. Listed below are the cards and their potential. The Young Grow Old - Destroys an army in every territory with two or more armies. Paradise Lost - Places a Plague marker in a random territory. Deaths Door Closes - Halves the armies in every crypt and altar space. Blood Coats the Land - Randomly chosen continent loses one army in every space. The Ground Shakes - Randomly chosen continent, every space loses half it s armies. Diamonds Turn to Rust - Destroy all relics in play.

46 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 46 Ragnarok Cometh - Destroy all War and Sky gods in play. The Mighty Have Fallen - Destroy half the armies in the 3 largest groups on the map. In the possession of an inexperienced player, these cards can have such a chaotic affect that entirely new strategies are required. If played late in the game, a player may even prevent himself from winning. The cards are very powerful and must be played carefully. Seven of the Death cards permit the player control over their use. In each case, the player is selecting the area or player to bear the burden of the card. These can be very powerful weapons in your arsenal when played properly. In your quest to expand your empire, these cards allow you to destroy interfering armies, temples, water connections and relics. A significant problem with the Death deck is the cost; every Death card has a price in Faith. Faith is scarce and the cost to implement the average Death card includes the cost to activate the god of Death, the actual purchase of the card and the price (penalty) to implement it; a very expensive proposition. Therefore consideration of a Death card must be balanced against the alternatives. Possibly the most productive method for obtaining the card is to complete the Labor of the god of Death as it is relatively simple compared with those of the other 3 gods; control a Crypt at the end of your turn. Listed below is the price to implement, the number of cards at that price and the percent of the Death deck with that particular price. 1 Faith 1 card 6% 2 Faith 9 cards 53% 3 Faith 4 cards 24% 4 Faith 3 cards 18% (Note: percentages have been rounded) The Death deck is the antithesis of the Magic deck; it is costly and destructive versus the positive approach and lack of expense for the Magic deck.

47 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual Sky Cards The following table lists all of the Sky god s Miracle Cards by title, number of cards in the deck, when they can be played, how many Faith Tokens they cost to play and what the miracle s effect is. Card Title Card Faith When Playable Count Cost Miracle s Effect 1000 Workers Amass 2 When Attacked 0 Place a Temple in the Defending Territory. When Attacked Destroy 2 Armies in the attacking Territory and gain 2 Armies in Enemies Convert 2 2 the defending Territory. The destroyed Armies do not go to the Underworld but to their Faction s Army Resource Pool. Fire Sears the Sky 2 When Attacked 0 Add +4 to any Godswar battle you fight until the end of this turn. When Attacked Roll one dice and destroy that many Armies in the attacking Lava Erupts 1 2 Territory. Repeat this action for every Territory adjacent to the attacking Territory which includes the defending Territory. Men Become Warriors 2 When Attacked 1 Gain 3 Armies in the defending Territory. When Attacked Roll one dice and destroy that many armies in the attacking Swords Become 2 1 Territory. The Armies destroyed do not go to the Underworld but Plowshares to their Faction s Army Resource Pool. When Attacked Move up to 4 Armies from one of your Territories to the The Fog Lifts 2 0 defending Territory. Remember you must leave at least 1 Army behind to control the Territory. This Ground Is Sacred 1 When Attacked Stops this invasion. The defending Territory cannot be attacked 3 this Player turn. The Mighty Turn When Attacked & Attacker Move a god from the attacking Territory to some other Territory 2 0 Meek controls a Temple with a Temple that the attacking Player controls. Your Idol Is False 1 When Attacked 1 Banish a God of your choice from the attacking Territory Total Cards In Deck 17 Table 14 Sky God's Miracle Cards This is another D deck but this time there is only one D -- Defense. Every card in the Sky deck is used for defense. 12 of the cards permit defensive actions during a non-gods war battle and the 5 remaining cards are for defense during a godswar only.

48 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 48 Of the 12 non-gods war cards there are only six types as each of the cards is duplicated. 8 of the 12 require some form of a Faith donation in order to be implemented. Six of the cards (Lava Erupts, Swords Become Plowshares and Enemies Convert) destroy portions of the attacking army. With 4 of the cards (Men Become Warriors and Enemies Convert) the defending territory receives recruits. Both of the The Fog Lift cards permit moving armies into the defending territory from elsewhere on the map. Finally, there are two 1000 Warriors Amass which allows the defender to place a temple in the defending area immediately. The remaining 5 cards in the deck affect gods during a godswar. There is a single Your Idol is Fake card that permit s the defender to remove a god prior to the battle, banishing him from the board. (Cost=1 Faith) There are two The Mighty Turn Meek cards that send an attacking god to a temple (Cost = free) and two Fire Sears the Sky cards which add a +4 to the result of a godswar battle roll. There are two significant deficiencies to consider when contemplating purchase of Sky cards. 1. Though all of the cards in the deck are defensive, strong defensive positions in any version of Risk are fleeting at best. The card a player holds may not be appropriate to the task. For example, if a player is being attacked in a non-gods war then the five cards that defend against gods (29% of the deck) are useless. That is not a great percentage for your expected return; a purchase in any of the other three decks could prove more beneficial. 2. Risk games are aggressive in nature; defensive positions are difficult to maintain. If the defense of a given area depends on a card that, once used, is unavailable on the following turn, it is probable that the same area will be attacked again, especially since your opponent is aware that you have burned the defensive card. If the territory can be held without the card then the Faith would have been better employed in purchasing a card from a deck with a more substantial return. This is the weakest of the four decks. It is the only deck that is entirely reactive and as such, is in conflict with the underlying nature of Risk. A player that is strong in Sky cards may retain territories but at the expense of a more aggressive approach. If Sky cards are purchased, it should be done late in the game to protect areas conquered. I would suggest that only the lead player should bother to purchase Sky cards as any player not in the lead should find the purchase of a more aggressive card far more valuable. If you are behind in the game, it is more important to conquer additional area than protect what you have. Purchases from the Sky deck should be rare.

49 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual Magic Cards (Relics) The following table lists all of the Magic god s Miracle Cards by title, number of cards in the deck, when they can be played, how many Faith Tokens they cost to play and what the miracle s effect is. Card Title Aegis, Shield Of Athena Card Count When Playable Faith Cost 1 Immediately 0 Miracle s Effect Discard Aegis, Shield of Athen to cancel the effects of any Miracle Card played. Does not cancel other Relics. The player of this card is allowed to know all the details of the Miracle they are cancelling before making their decision to play this card. Arawn s Cauldron of Life 1 Immediately 0 Draw a Death Card at the start of each of your turns. Excalibur 1 Immediately 0 Gain 2 additional Armies for each Continent you control at the start of each of your turns. Freya s Tears of Gold 1 Immediately 0 Gain 1 additional Faith Token at the start of each of your turns. Gungnir, Spear of Odin Miolnir, Hammer of Thor Pandora s Box Stonehenge 1 Immediately 0 1 Immediately 0 1 Immediately 0 1 Immediately 0 Re-roll all 1 s when you fight Godswar battles. This miracle allows you to even re-roll the three 1 s that might have allowed you to get this card in the first place -- according to Avalon Hill s FAQ from 2004 see Appendix B in Section 11. Add +3 to the result of any Godswar battles you fight. If you control Thule at the end of the game, this relic adds 1 point to your victory point score. Draw a Death Card at the start of each of your turns. Play that card immediately without sacrificing any Faith Tokens. If you control Graecia at the end of the game, this relic adds 1 point to your victory point score. The players does not have to have the Death god in play to use this relic according to Avalon Hill s FAQ from 2004 see Appendix B in Section 11. Sacrifice only 1 Faith Token instead of 2, to obtain Miracle Cards on your turn.

50 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 50 If you control Anglia at the end of the game, this relic adds 1 point to your victory point score. The Book of the Dead Gain 4 Faith Tokens once each turn if you choose to raise 2 fewer Armies at the start of each of your turns. The 2 fewer Armies here are 1 Immediately 0 NOT those acquired from resurrection via Crypts or from owning Temples according to Avalon Hill s FAQ from 2004 see Appendix B in Section 11. The Golden Fleece 1 Immediately 0 Draw a War Card at the start of each of your turns. The Great Pyramids Draw a Sky Card at the start of each of your turns. 1 Immediately 0 If you control Egypt at the end of the game, this relic adds 1 point to your victory point score. The Scales of Osiris 1 Immediately 0 Revive twice as many Armies from Crypts. The Tablets of Destiny When you sacrifice zero or more Faith Tokens for your turn-order bid, 1 Immediately 0 add +3 to your bid total. The Tree of Life Sacrifice 1 Faith Token instead of losing a defending Army. You may do 1 Immediately 0 this as many times as you have Faith Tokens to sacrifice. If you control Babylon at the end of the game, this relic adds 1 point to your victory point total. The Wine of Eternal Life 1 Immediately 0 Gain 1 additional Army at the start of each of your turns. Card Deck Total 15 Table 15 Magic God's Miracle Cards There are only 15 cards in the Magic deck while each of the other decks have 17 cards. However, five of the cards perform double tasks effectually resulting in a 22 card deck. The Magic deck favors the economic side of the game, reducing costs, generating extra income, providing additional armies and awarding victory points. There is usually no charge for implementing any of the Magic cards and most provide benefits for all of the game turns. It is probably prudent to acquire and play the Magic cards in the first two turns of the game in order to reap the maximum benefit. The later they are played in the game, the less effect they will introduce. The labor required to earn a free Magic card is to roll three identical dice while the goddess is in play. As the player has absolutely no control over the result of a roll, there is little, realistic expectation for the labor to generate additional cards; you must obtain them the old fashioned way - you must buy them. Fortunately, the Magic cards are free to implement, once purchased. Five of the cards offer bonus victory points in addition to the specific benefit listed. Listed below is the general composition of the Magic deck.

51 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 51 Victory Point - Five cards define additional victory point areas: Pandora s Box (Grecia), The Great Pyramids (Egypt), Stonehenge (Anglia), The Tree of Life (Babylon) and Mjolnir - Hammer of Thor. These extra victory point cards are unique to the Magic deck. These particular cards are extremely valuable as holding just two (with the appropriate areas) is the equivalent to controlling an entire continent at the end of the game. Note: there exists no card that offers additional victory points for any territory in Atlantis. Additional Cards - Five of the cards allow a player to obtain additional cards: Pandora s Box, Stonehenge, The Great Pyramids, The Golden Fleece and Arawin s Cauldron of Life. Some of these cards offer the opportunity to draw cards from decks in which the player has not activated the appropriate god. Of course to play these cards the appropriate god must be activated. Armies - Three of the cards provide additional armies: Excalibur, Wine of Eternal Life and The Scales of Osiris. This is the equivalent of controlling nine additional territories at the time the calculation for reinforcements is made. Faith - Three of the cards provide additional Faith: Book of the Dead, Feya s Tears of Gold and The Tablets of Destiny. Battles - Three of the cards affect the result of battles: Gungnir - Spear of Odin, The Tree of Life and Mjolnir-Hammer of Thor. Destroy Miracle - There is one additional card that cancels another Miracle card. The probability for obtaining each type of card is listed below: Gain victory points - 33% Gain other Miracle cards - 33% Gain extra armies - 20% Gain extra Faith- 20% Advantage in battle- 20% Destroy Miracle card- 6% (Note: the total is greater than 100% as some of the cards have a dual role.) There are two deficits to the Magic deck that must be considered:

52 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual It is not an aggressive deck; it simply improves the economic aspect of the game. While improving your resources can be advantageous, it is generally done at the expense of a more aggressive alternative. (If you can only afford a single card do you select from the Magic deck or opt for something from the War or Death decks?) 2. There are cards in each of the other decks that neutralize or even remove Magic cards. The Magic cards appear to have minimal affect on the final result of the game; these are support cards and should be employed as part of a more complex strategy.

53 6. Limitations & Criticism 6.1. Maps Both the Ancient Earth and Underworld maps are too small especially some Territories in Europa and all spaces in the Underworld. When large armies amass in these locations the map is inadequate to hold them all. Some players have scanned the Underworld, cut-off each of the five heaven lobes and reprinted the heaven lobes expanded with each on their own page of card stock. This allows each heaven to be placed in each player s Play Area. The Underworld with out the heaven lobes can then be expanded and reprinted larger on card stock and still fit into the box. Other players have a house rule that limits the number of Armies per player that can fight in the Underworld at one time. Still other players use a numbered chit on the small space and a corresponding numbered chit somewhere off the map but in the Common Area that is beside the mass of Armies that should be on the map. This idea works fine for the main Ancient Earth map, but might be rather tedious on the Underworld map Pieces The color of the Norse and Egyptian pieces are too similar. Avalon Hill has made this same mistake in other games. There have been discussions on the web forums of potentially painting one set of pieces. There is a brand of spray paint suitable for application on plastic that is called Fusion. Candidate colors are white, grey, or yellow Maelstrom A lot of purchasers of this game threw out the Maelstrom piece with the scraps after punching out all the counters. If this happened to you, just use a popsicle stick or some other similarly shaped object.

54 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual Strategy Some of the strategy in this section came to mind after playing a few games of Godstorm; however, the majority of this section was gleaned from the Godstorm forums at Avalon Hill and Board Game Geeks websites. See section 9 for details of how to access these forums. The gods thank those who contributed to these forums and whose words, or paraphrase of their words, are presented herein. Strategy is like advice, it may not always have meaning until a specific situation arises, and a player cannot implement all strategies or they would be paralyzed with too many conflicting directions. As with advice, at times one must just ignore all sense and go with what one s brain or heart tells them. Above all, its just a game, so have fun. The best way to acquire your own strategy is it play the game a lot and form your own opinions about what strategy/tactics works best for your style of play. Also having a strategy regarding strategies is a good thing as well. Observe other players s actions and try to determine their strategy every strategy has a weakness exploit the weaknesses of your enemies strategies. This could become your strategy if you do not already have one. In the end, after all the analysis of strategies and tactics won and lost, Risk Godstorm is all about managing what little Faith Tokens you have and taking advantage of the right combination of Miracle Cards at the right time. For the correct Miracle at the wrong time is just as ineffective as the wrong Miracle at the right time The Map The Continents in Godstorm (versus other Risk variants) are strategically better balanced and yield a definite advantage to the defense. This stability places greater emphasis on the value of some of the Miracle Cards in the game, in particular, cards that alter the board in some way. There are ten cards that specifically alter the map of Godstorm. When these are combined with the plague markers, the alterations to the board become critical to understand. The following table list the Miracle Cards that alter the map board is some way. Deck Card Title Effect on Altering the Map Board Death The Sea is your Tomb Sinks Atlantis Death Paradise Lost Moves a Plague Marker Death The Gods Forsake Us Place a Plague Marker War The Land is Purged Destroy a Plague Marker & all Armies Death The Water Boils Destroy one land connection over water Magic Stonehenge 1 Victory Point for controlling Anglia Magic Pandora s Box 1 Victory Point for controlling Greacia Magic Mjolnir, Hammer of Thor 1 Victory Point for controlling Thule

55 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 55 Magic Tree of Life 1 Victory Point for controlling Babylon Magic The Great Pyramids 1 Victory Point for controlling Egypt Table 16 Miracle Cards that Alter the Map Controlling two or three of these bonus Victory Point areas (shown in the Table above) at the end of the game can be the equivalent to controlling an entire Continent, increasing the potential value of these areas to players. Atlantis is a viable target especially if you hold the Death Miracle Card The Sea is Your Tomb (which sinks Atlantis). If you do not have this card, odds are this card won't be drawn early in the game, so it is a somewhat safe to use Atlantis in the early game. Atlantis is easily defensible and awards a higher continent bonus than similarly sized Hyrkania. When you get to the middle and endgame, though, you should have a solid hold somewhere other than Atlantis. Another reason to sink Atlantis is to make the other continents that share a border with Atlantis more defensible. The only map altering Miracle Card not provided would be a card to open up a mountain pass Bidding for Turn Order Do not underestimate the power of being able to bid Faith Tokens for turn order late in the game. Keep some Faith left over beyond what you need for your cards. The variable turn order, if taken advantage of can enable you to blunt that attack before it comes, or strike first and cripple an enemy or secure a continent before anyone else can stop you. On turn 5, it's often good to go last, in order to maximize your position, knowing exactly how many points everyone else has after their turns have finished is the best way to determine who you should weaken. Another strategy is to go last on an Epoch and grab a continent and then bid to go first on the next Epoch. This allows you to play back-to-back turns to build-up your continent defenses. Of course the down side is that in a 5 player game going back-to-back means that worse case you might not get another turn until everyone else has had TWO turns that s EIGHT player turns before you get your turn again. Good luck with you defense of that Sky cards would help in that case. Generally speaking, the only times you want to bid for turn order is when: 1. You are going to use the go last/go first trick to gain a huge advantage 2. You need to collect on a continent bonus before anyone else disrupts it 3. It is the final epoch

56 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual You are trying to stop another player from doing one of the things listed in 1-3 above. Just remember that every time you bid for turn order you are losing Faith Tokens that cannot be used later in other aspects of the game. Its typically not a good idea to bid for turn order on the first Epoch unless you see some configuration of forces on the map that you can take advantage of and, this is important, hold for more than just your next turn. So don t bid unless a) You're reasonably sure you'll get the turn you want and b) Taking your turn at the chosen time will recoup your loss of faith spent on the bid, while going at another time would force you to collect less faith. Often times there is great power to be gained by just watching the other players sacrifice faith bidding... many times players will have large bidding wars, losing a lot of faith between them when the turn order didn't matter a whole lot (it happens a lot with beginners but anyone can get the bidding fever in their blood) The Gods Remember gods must be in play for you to purchase and play their Miracle Cards and for you to receive their Miracle Cards for any god s Labor you might accomplish. Since the War God is always in play at the beginning of the game, the big question is what god should I summon on my first turn? There is no firm answer to this question of course. It depends on your overall goals and how the other players play, but in general the thoughts on when to buy each god, its strengths and weaknesses are discussed below. Magic God Many players feel that summoning the Magic Goddess in the first Epoch and buying her Relic cards is a strong opening position to have. Relics are best leveraged early since they usually provide an economic benefit every turn. However, be aware that certain Miracle Cards target Relics. Be advised that in a 5 player game the War card deck will likely be exhausted quickly perhaps as soon as Epoch 2. And two of the War cards allow for either the destruction of a Relic or the theft of one. So in a 5 player game it might be best to either not invest in Relics are buy one and a war card. The Magic god when together with the War god is a tough team to beat in battle. Sky God The Sky god offers a strong advantage in combat the ability to roll an extra dice and so is a favorite to team up with the War or Magic god in combat. This god should probably be your first or second summoning.

57 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 57 Sky Miracle Cards are only used for defensive purposes, so they are typically useful later in the game when a player is trying to hold a continent or defend some other strategic position. Death God In the standard rules, the Death god offers no direct offensive or defensive benefits other than the fact that if involved in the attack it keeps defeated armies from entering heaven and subsequently the Underworld. However, the Death god s ability to earn a Death Card at the end of a turn should not be overlooked. These cards are devastating and expensive to exercise but you get what you pay for. Probably by Epoch two or three you should have your Death god in play. If you have been fighting you probably are about to capture a Crypt in the Underworld so you want the god of Death in play by turns end so you can collect a free Death card. Once summoned, keep the Death god well protected, since his Labor is the easiest to earn cards with. If he sits back and you control a Crypt then the Death Cards will keep coming. But realize in order to exercise a Death Card you will need to have 2 to 3, sometimes 4 Faith Tokens. The Death god probably remains a mid- to end-game summoning because its cards require a lot of Faith to exercise; more Faith often comes only with continent ownership. Also by mid-game you should have control of at least one Crypt, ensuring a Death Card at the end of your turn. War God The god of War begins the game in play. So do what you can to fulfill the War god s Labor and collect free War Cards as often as possible -- they are relatively inexpensive to play and tend to perpetuate your war machine. When teaming the War god with the Sky or Magic god they are a formidable force on the battle field The Miracle Cards The power of the game is in the Miracle Cards get them as often as possible because the limits of your Armies are mitigated by playing Miracle Cards on offense (Death & War Cards) and on defense (Sky Cards). For more detailed break-down and analysis of each Miracle Card deck see section 5. Remember that a Miracle Card s associated god must be in play in order to buy or play a card. When a Miracle Card deck is depleted no more cards are available for the remainder of the game.

58 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 58 A card in hand without the required Faith Tokens to exercise it is a waste of you Faith Tokens and effectively renders the card useless until more Faith is available usually the next turn. Since Faith can be scarce, try to complete the god s labors to earn Miracle Cards for free. This leaves your Faith Tokens available to exercise Miracle Cards that cost Faith to play such as Death Cards and Sky Cards. The War Cards are typically free to play, though a few do cost some Faith. The Death Cards are the most expensive to play. Usually if you have a Miracle Card that will play, then play it. If you hold too many cards you look like a target for others and you risk losing them to a Miracle Card played by an enemy. So use em or lose em. Magic Cards (Relics) The Magic Cards (Relics) are maximized if they are acquired early in the game since they stay in play the entire game but be aware there are several other Miracle Cards that can destroy Relics. The Magic deck favors the economic side of the game, reducing costs, generating extra income, providing additional armies and awarding victory points. There is usually no charge for implementing any of the Magic cards and most provide benefits for all of the game turns. It is probably prudent to acquire and play the Magic cards in the first two turns of the game in order to reap the maximum benefit. The later they are played in the game, the less effect they will introduce. Many players believe the Magic deck is more powerful in 3 and 4 player games because the War deck does not become depleted so fast and thus exposing those War cards that can eliminate Magic cards. See section 5.4 for more detailed analysis of the Magic Card deck. War Cards The War Card deck is usually the most active deck and the first to be completely depleted. This is probably because every player begins the game with the War god in play. War cards are relatively cheap to play, but typically not free, (like the Magic deck) and relatively easy to acquire via the War god s Labor (capture 3 territories). Usually in a 5 player game the War cards will be exhausted by Epoch 2. The most valuable cards in the War Deck (and their cost in Faith to play) are listed below. These cards used in combination with the most valuable Death Cards listed in the Death Cards section below can be used together to make devastating attacks:

59 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 59 The Siren Calls - (3 Faith) This card allows you to swap all armies of an opponent between two territories that you select. Swap his largest army with an area that holds but a single unit. If possible position them so that they are surrounded by areas controlled by your opponent; these armies are essentially dead. Empire is Born - (Free) Place a temple; a free point. The Temple Falls - (Free) Move an opponent s temple from one of his areas to another. If possible place it for easy access (a 4 point swing). Faith Shall Deliver - (1 Faith) Take two free Miracle cards. Whenever possible, acquire them from the Death deck. Eagles Take Wings - (1 Faith) This card allows you to move a major force to any territory you control; it is great for surprise attacks. Storm Rages - (Free) Select an area, roll a die - that many enemy troops perish. Heroes are Born - (Free) Place three free reinforcements anywhere. To maximize the affect, use this card in conjunction with The Temple Falls. See section 5.1 for more detailed analysis of the War Card deck. Death Cards Death cards are, on the whole, expensive to play and often times damaging to the player who plays them as well several Death cards are player neutral the destruction ordered by the card may affect any player in the game including the player exercising the card. Since Death cards are more expensive to play, the most economic way to acquire them is to complete the Labor of the god of Death as it is relatively simple compared with those of the other 3 gods; control a Crypt at the end of your turn. Death cards are so powerful, that in the hands of a novice, they might very well help them lose the game! The most valuable cards in the Death Deck (and their cost in Faith to play) are listed below. These cards used in combination with the most valuable War Cards listed in the War Cards section above can be used together to make devastating attacks: The Gods Forsake Us - (3 Faith) This card allows you to place a plague marker anywhere. To maximize the affect, use it in conjunction with The Siren Calls. In this way it is possible to place the majority of an opponent s armies in one space and then destroy half of them.

60 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 60 The Sea is your Tomb - (3 Faith) If you do not control Atlantis, then this card will remove the entire continent and all of the armies there. This removes 7 victory points from the game. If you do control Atlantis then holding this card allows you the security of conquering the continent without fear. Death s Door Closes - (2 Faith) This halves the armies in the vital spots of the Underworld. Playing this card on turn 5 should make the quest for control of the Underworld significantly easier. Trojan Horse Revealed - (2 Faith) Select an opponent s territory, roll a die and destroy that many armies. This works best when used with either The Temple Falls or on an area containing an opponent s gods. (No god can stand alone and should you be able to eliminate all of the armies in an area, any gods in the area are lost too.) The Dead Walk - (2 Faith) 6 armies from the Underworld are revived and placed in one of your temples. Assuming you have held the temple from the first round and one crypt from the second, there should be at least 10 units available here. When played with The Eagle Takes Wings card, this unleashes a significant, surprise force onto the board. The Young Grow Old - (2 Faith) This card reduces the number of armies in every territory holding more than one army. For maximum affect, play in conjunction with The Dead Walk and The Eagle Takes Wings. The Mighty Have Fallen - (4 Faith) Play this card with caution; the damage to opponents must be greater than to your own troops. This card mutilates the three largest armies on the board by cutting each one in half. The active player is not exempt. It is often best played at the end of turn 4. See section 5.2 for more detailed analysis of the Death Card deck. Sky Cards Sky Cards are used purely for defensive purposes, they can only be played by a player when they are attacked. Investment in Sky cards is not really in alignment with Risk s aggressive nature. Using these cards may help maintain territories controlled, but they will do nothing to improve your changes of acquiring more territory. Because of their defensive nature they might best be employed in the end game when trying to hold on to your empire. If still trying to acquire an empire, Sky cards should be avoided, and your Faith better spent on more aggressive cards War and Death. See section 5.3 for more detailed analysis of the Sky Card deck.

61 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 61 Card Combinations There is no limit (if you have the required Faith Tokens) as to how many and in what order Miracle Cards can be played. Review the Miracle Card tables in section 5 and imagine what a combination of several of these cards could do. There are a lot of combinations of War cards that give faith/armies/temples. Here are some examples: An Empire is Born Faithful Gather Champions Arise The first card creates a new Temple, the second card gives a faith token for each temple, and the last card gives 1 Army for every 2 Faith Tokens you have. Faith tokens are not lost. Siren's Call Sea is your Tomb OR Land is Purged This is a killer. Use the first card to move your opponent's biggest army to either Atlantis or a Plague Land, and then the second card destroys them all. The problem with this combo is that it's tough to get the cards and faith required to pull it off. Temple Falls Fire Rains Down Move your opponent s temple to the middle of his main continent, and then destroy it and one army in every territory adjacent to it. God Forsake Us Land is Purged An army killer. First card drops a Plague, second cards destroys all armies in a Plague Your Idol is False OR Mighty Turn Meek Fire Sears the Sky Use this combo when an opponent attacks your god(s) with a Sky god and one or more other gods. Use the first card to banish your opponent s attacking sky god, and the second one to give you the edge (add +4 to a godswar battle) in the ensuing godswar (Remember, your opponent CAN T call it off until he s made at least one attack) 1000 Workers Amass This Ground is Sacred OR Men Become Warriors OR Enemies Convert OR The Fog Lifts etc. The first card gets you a free temple in a territory that s under attack, but it s not going to do you much good if you lose the temple to your opponent (in fact, you ve just handed him a temple for free). Playing other sky cards afterward will hopefully give you enough to hold it, and gain the bonuses on your next turn. The Trojan Horse is Revealed Heroes are Born OR Eagles Take Wing The Trojan Horse is a great card, but usually 1D6 armies aren t going to be able to do much. This is really two different combos: either you supplement the Trojan

62 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 62 Horse troops with Heroes are Born, or you move more guys in with Eagle s take Wing. Your opponent won t be happy to have a large army on the inside of his empire Temples Probably the first Temple should be placed away from your planned front. Its ability to re-roll ones on defense is not as valuable as its ability to generate 1 faith and 1 army per turn. So you do not want to lose a Temple if you can help it. That said, don t under-estimate the value of a Temple generating that extra Army and resurrecting Armies from a Crypt. This makes a Temple naturally re-enforcing; perhaps something that might be powerful in a Territory that is a gateway to multiple continents. Examples include Phoenicia (gateway to Europa and Africa), Egypt (gateway to Asia Minor and Europa), and the Oricaleos, Iberia, Atlas tri-continent split. It is the opinion of most players that paying 5 Faith for a Temple is too much. If purchased on Epoch one and controlled through Epoch five, you break-even on a Temple since it would generate 5 Faith by Epoch five (of course it would generate 5 Armies by then as well which may be overlooked in this argument also they serve as a location to resurrect Armies from the Underworld Crypts also perhaps overlooked here as well). However, Temples are valuable if won in a battle or conjured by a Miracle Card there are two War Cards that create new Temples. So the suggestion here is to not buy Temples, but rather acquire them through war and miracles General Play Don t over extend yourself and end up with thinly spread out Armies. This is the single most often committed mistake made by beginners. Especially those seasoned players of Classic Risk who think it is possible to pile 35 Armies someplace and just march across the map its not going to happen in Godstorm. Godstorm tends to be less about massive army build up and more about using the Miracle Cards to your advantage to help out the smaller scale forces that are typical in this game. Every Army counts in this game it is rare for a player to be able to amass more than 10 to 12 Armies in a single Territory. Often it is wise to keep at least 2 armies in every Territory when possible and to attempt to not have one of the largest armies on the board both of these will protect you from some rather devastating Miracle Cards. Godstorm is much more chaotic thanks to the Miracle Cards so the ebb and tide of who is winning changes hands often in a well played game. Attack to gain a Miracle Card, to finish off an enemy, or to secure a continent, but try and keep your borders strong this is a balancing act of course.

63 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 63 Make yourself a less tempting target of others if possible keep pointing at who else is winning and should be attacked of course if you are really the one winning this tactic probably will not work. After an invasion into enemy held territory to breakup a continent or to fulfill a mission given to you by a Miracle Card, pull back forces if possible to defend your original holdings or to setup for you next attack. At times it is useful to keep a strong force on a Territory slightly removed from your front where you expect an attack. Then if the attack comes, it gives you the space needed to launch a counter-attack. If no attack comes, you still have a strong back-up. Often times it is almost as important to have the majority of a continent as have it all and risk the wrath of the other players taking the Continent bonus away from you. For example, some players try to hold Europa. They typically cannot hold it, but it is so large and has so many small easily defendable Territories that it still provides a decent faith income even without getting its Continent bonus. Use Plague Markers to your benefit. They are expensive to move into in force and can act as a buffer zone between you and your enemies. Don't allow anyone to hold a continent, if you can help it. Unlike regular Risk, continents benefit two-fold in Godstorm -- as both a source of extra strength (armies) and extra income (faith). And of course, conversely, you should try and hold a continent for yourself if possible. Be patient. Expect loses. There is no advantage to having an early lead in this game it only makes you a target of others. Build up and collect your Miracle cards and wait for the end game when you can make difference that counts toward the victory. When attacking on the final Epoch it is important to concentrate on opponents who have yet to play. If an opponent has completed their last Epoch and is not leading in Victory Points any attacks on that player are a waste of your resources. Weaken those opponents that follow you in the turn order. So conversely, if you are last in the final Epoch the gods hope you are prepared for the worst hopefully with some Sky Cards to bolster your defense.

64 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual Variants - House Rules Some of these variants/house-rules came to mind after playing a few games of Godstorm; however, the majority of them were gleaned from the Godstorm forums at Avalon Hill and Board Game Geeks websites. See section 9 for details of how to access these forums. The gods thank those who contributed to these forums and whose words, or paraphrase of their words, are presented herein Setup Variants Homeland Setup This variant has been suggested by Mike Selinker, the lead developer of Godstorm. Before the setup begins, each Faction selects their homeland and places their starting Temple there with a single Army. Then the setup phase begins. The Faction homelands are: Babylonians Babylonia, Celts Anglia, Egyptians Egypt, Greeks Graecia, Norse Thule. Continental Setup Each Faction begins the game in control of their own Continent. The Continent of Atlantis is sunk and the Miracle Card The Sea is Your Tomb is removed from play. Capital Setup This variant can be used with other variants like Homeland Setup or Continental Setup described above or the standard rules. The Territory containing your first Temple is declared to be your capital and if that Territory is lost, you are out of the game. All of your remaining Armies on the board go their Replacement Pool and the Eliminating A Player rulse from section apply. An optional corollary to Capital Setup is that the Capital s Temple generates 2 Faith Tokens instead of 1 and 2 Armies in stead of 1 during the Raise Armies & Gather Faith step. It also can resurrect 2 Armies from a Crypt instead of 1. Faction Specific Abilities Setup A few fans of Godstorm have lamented the fact that each Faction is identical in power and abilities. Several variants have been proposed to remedy this and the most interesting is listed in this section. Each Faction can have up to 3 abilities (in a 5 player game) from a menu of 10 abilities. Since there are not enough abilities to go around, the bidding would be interesting. At the beginning of the game each Faction bids Armies out of their starting pool for the right to select an ability. Once a Faction has reached their limit of 3 abilities they can no longer bid and their starting pool of Armies has been reduced by the total amount they bid.

65 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 65 An example menu of 10 abilities follows: 1. No Rest for the Wicked Whenever an army would be removed from the game from a death god's ability or by dying in the Underworld, place it in your heaven instead of removing it from the game. 2. Desert Wanderers During your fortification move, temples you control may move in the same way as gods or units. If a territory you control is lost, you may choose to remove any temples on that space from the game. 3. Official Religion During the gather faith/raise armies phase, You gain twice as many faith and armies from temples. (This does not apply to raising armies from the Underworld.) 4. Steadfast Hope Whenever a god you control would be banished, you may put it on a temple space you control instead. 5. Holy Crusaders Gods and units you control are not effected by the plague. 6. Mystic Channeling At the beginning of the game, choose a god. That god costs one less to summon, and buying that gods cards costs one less. You may not purchase these cards for less than one faith. 7. Warrior Priesthood During your gather faith/raise armies step, you may sacrifice any number of faith to gain that many extra armies, or any number of raised armies to gain that many extra faith points. 8. Lingering Dreams When playing miracle cards, you do not have to have the corresponding god in play. 9. Inspired Prophecy During your gather faith/raise armies step, you may discard any number of miracle cards from your hand. Gain one faith for each one discarded. You may purchase more than four cards per turn. 10. Divine Intervention Whenever a miracle card is played, you may sacrifice four faith to cancel that miracle. Using this variant, in particular, you wouldn't even necessarily have to make all the abilities of equal strength. How much is it worth bidding for the best ability? Is it better to bid aggressively and get one really good ability, or bid conservatively and get three mediocre ones? What if you bid too conservatively, and end up with no abilities? For games with fewer players the total number of abilities per Faction should be increased so that there are not enough abilities to go around. For example, a 4 player game might allow 3 abilities, and a 3 player game might allow 4 abilities Play Variants Faith Income In a 5 player game Faith Tokens are in very short supply so some house rules have been created to give each player some amount of extra Faith Tokens at the beginning of their turn either a flat rate or a rate that decreases as the Epochs march on. An example of a flat rate would be to receive a bonus of 2 Faith Tokens at the beginning of every turn. No Epic Battles

66 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 66 Some house rules include a modification to battle that keeps the game moving and eliminates long player turns composed of epic battles. It s a simple rule. Normal battle ends when the attacking player loses a dice roll. Building Temples Some players believe that the cost of Temples set at 5 Faith Tokens is too much. House rules have been proposed that reduce the cost of Temples to 3 Faith Tokens; or alternatively, it should be easier for mortal man to build a Temple than to summon a god so since summoning a god to earth costs 3 Faith Tokens, building a Temple should only cost 2 Faith Tokens. No Turn Order Bidding Eliminate the bidding for turn order and determine a play order at the beginning of the game. However, this eliminates a strategic part of the game. Random Turn Order Save your Faith Tokens and roll dice for turn order. Ties are re-rolled of course. However, this eliminates a strategic part of the game. The Underworld Not A lot of players do not play with the Underworld because they think it slows the main game down. This seems like a house rule that violates the balance of the game because when you kick a player s butt on the Ancient Earth map it provides them with a lot of Armies to invade the Underworld and subsequently have the potential to hold Crypts and Altars to improve the strength of their forces on Ancient Earth map. The Underworld Only Defensive Losses Go To Heaven To limit large build-ups on the very small Underworld map, some house rules enforce that only Armies lost defending go to Heaven and thus on to the Underworld. The Underworld a Selective Club Only casualties from normal battle, both offensive & defensive casualties, go to their respective Heavens for a shot at the Underworld. All other Army losses, due to Miracles mostly, do not go to Heaven, but to their respective Army Resource Pool. This is another modification to the rules that helps to keep the population in the small Underworld lower. The Underworld Gone, Heaven as a Resurrection Pool The Underworld is removed from play. Any Armies lost in battle go to their respective Heaven as per standard rules. If the Death God is in play at the end of their turn, a player may pay 3 Faith Tokens to resurrect a total of 5 Armies or less from their Heaven. Resurrected Armies are placed on

67 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 67 any controlled Territory that contains a Temple. Resurrection takes place during the Raise Armies & Gather Faith action. Armies slain while the Death God is participating in the battle (offensively or defensively) do not go to Heaven. They go to their respective Resource Pool. After the Raise Armies & Gather Faith action is completed, those Armies still in Heaven after resurrection are returned to their respective Resource Pool. Defensive Godstorm Some players feel that it is too hard to hold territories in Godstorm and that too much offensive punch was given to the game. Gods not withstanding, the attacker typically has 3 to 2 advantage over the defender. Godstorm gives the attacker even more advantages with the power of gods and miracles. The game does not give gods much defensive clout and temples are not, as they probably should be, defensive strongholds. This variant attempts to compensate the defense for these short-comings 1. Gods retain their powers on defense: a. If a territory containing the war god is under attack, the defender may defend with 3 dice. This requires that the defender commit 3 units to the defense, and if the attacker attacks with 3 dice then there will be a total of 3 casualties; all 3 dice are compared with their counterparts. The defender must have at least 3 units in the defending space to do this. b. The death god prevents enemy casualties from going to the underworld when defending in the same manner as when attacking. c. Magic and sky god powers already work on defense and are unchanged. 2. Gods as units Gods may participate in normal battle, thus a Godswar is at the discretion of the attacking player. Gods assume physical form and engage in combat like normal Armies but with greater strength. They can sacrifice themselves in combat knowing they cannot be permanently killed. a. For purposes of combat only, gods count as armies, and can roll dice and be banished if a casualty. However, when fighting all gods roll one extra dice. The Sky god, being king of the gods, rolls two extra dice. b. Gods cannot be the only piece in a Territory, if so, they are banished. c. Miracle Cards that affect Armies do not affect gods. Unless a Miracle Card removes all Armies that are accompanying a god, then the god is banished. 3. Temples A temple is a sacred, hallowed place -- if it is conquered then the conquerors automatically re-sanctify it for their gods; but until that happens, a temple grants special powers to its owner:

68 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 68 a. Gods of another pantheon are robbed of their power when contesting a Territory containing another player s temple. In other words, when a player attacks a temple using gods, those gods lose their powers in that combat and attack as a normal Armies would. Often a player may not wish to bother bringing their gods into an enemy temple, but sometimes it may be necessary. b. If a Temple is attacked, the defending player may pay 1 Faith Token to summon to the Temple under attack a god that is currently in play somewhere else on the Ancient Earth map. c. If a Temple is attacked, the defending player may pay 3 Faith Tokens to summon a god to the Temple from its Pantheon. Death God Loves Plagues The Death God is immune to plague territories (including whatever armies are with him). If not using the Underworld, the Death God s labor is Control a plague territory at the end of your turn and receive on Death Card. Super Atlantis Since Atlantis was supposed to be the hub of culture, knowledge and technology in the ancient world, here are some variant rules proposed to make Atlantis more enticing to control. Any Faction that meets the criteria regarding Atlantis gets the following advantages: 1. Each Atlantian Territory controlled yields one extra Faith Token bonus during Gather Faith step. 2. Controlling all of the Atlantian Continent would allow a player to attack from any Atlantian Territory to any other Territory that is adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean. Godly Fortification Gods are powerful and should be allowed to move independent of the mortal units on the Ancient Earth map board. In addition to the normal rules for Fortify A Position step 7 of a Player Turn, any god may be moved from a Player controlled Territory to another Player controlled Territory. There is no limit to how many gods may be moved. Of course gods banished to their Pantheons cannot be moved to the map board. There is no Faith cost for this movement. Summon Gods Already on Earth During the Summon Gods step 2 of a Player Turn, any gods already in play on the Ancient Earth map board may be summoned to a different Territory than the Territory they are currently in for a price of 1 Faith Token per god moved.

69 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual References & Resources The two primary web resources for this game are Avalon Hill s website and Board Game Geeks website Avalon Hill s Risk Godstorm Website Official Rules Frequently Asked Questions On-Line Demo Forum Review Series This is a set of 12 articles written by the lead developer of Godstorm. Each article contains links to the other eleven in the series: Board Game Geeks Forum Downloads Other Websources The Games Journal Review Online Playable Versions of Godstorm

70 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 70 Review at RPGnet Review at Game Zombies

71 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual Appendix A Proposed Uber House Rules After playing a few games of Risk Godstorm over the Christmas Holiday 2007 and discussing observations about game play, the following house rules were proposed. After play testing they will likely be modified. In a game based on polytheism we felt that: A. the Temple did not play as significant of a role as it should B. the gods should be somewhat more mobile C. all the gods should have a defensive capability, not just the Sky and Magic gods Also an economic evaluation of the game yielded a disparity between 2, 3, 4, and 5 player games. The fewer the number of players the more Faith each player generates. For example, in a static * 3 player game the total Faith generated by each player over 5 epochs would be 28; while the same static game with 5 players only generates a total of 18 Faith over 5 epochs. This inequity suggests that it would be much more enjoyable to play a 3 player game than a 5 player game all other things considered to be equal because a player would have more Faith overall to spend in a the 3 player game. See Appendix C in Section 12 for details of the economic analysis. Therefore, a conclusion was reached that some Faith generation bonus is required to make the 4 and 5 player versions of the game generate approximately the same Faith as the 3 player game. NOTE: * The term static here implies that no territory expansion or contraction is considered on the part of each player. We assume, for the sake of simplicity, that each player retains the same number of territories throughout the game. Granted, this is not realistic, but it does serve to normalize our comparisons of different games and to help us illustrate our point. Many of these house rules are based on suggestions documented in Section Game Setup Underworld The Underworld, having 4 Crypts, is configured to provide tension in a 5 player game. We found that when playing with less than five players there tended to be less fighting and more camping out/fortifying a specific Crypt for the entire game. This house rule creates three No Crypt Markers. These markers are used to cover Crypts in the Underworld such that there is always one Crypt less than the number of players. Print out three of the No Crypt Markers below (trim to fit if you so desire) and use them as indicated below to configure the Underworld during the game setup phase. Alternatively, you can use any flat non-descript marker to do the job described herein. In a 4 player game place a No Crypt Marker on the Crypt labeled D shown in the Underworld figure below.

72 Risk Godstorm Technical Field Manual 72 In a 3 player game place a No Crypt Marker on the Crypts labeled D and C shown in the Underworld figure below. In a 2 player game place a No Crypt Marker on the Crypts labeled D, C and B shown in the Underworld figure below. Figure 18 Underworld with Crypts Labeled and a No Crypt Marker 2. Start of Epoch Faith Bonus Each player begins Epoch 1 with a 3 Faith bonus. Based on the economic discussion above, a Start of Epoch Faith Bonus is awarded in 4 and 5 player games in order to make those games generate approximately the same Faith as a 3 player game. In a 4 player game at the start of Epochs 2 thru 5 a player receives a Faith bonus of +1. In a 5 player game at the start of Epochs 2 thru 5 a player receives a Faith bonus of Building Temples It should be easier for mortal man to build a Temple than to summon a god. Since summoning a god to earth costs 3 Faith Tokens, building a Temple should only cost 2 Faith Tokens. 4. Temples Are Sacred A temple is a sacred, hallowed place and grants special powers to its owner: a. If a Temple is attacked, the defending player may pay 1 Faith Token to summon to the Temple under attack a god that is currently in play somewhere else on the Ancient Earth map. More than one god may be summoned at the cost of 1 Faith Token for each god summoned. Such a summoning may cause a Godwar to occur if both sides now have gods. b. If a Temple is attacked, the defending player may pay 3 Faith Tokens to summon a god to the Temple from its Pantheon. More than one god may be summoned at the cost of 3 Faith Tokens for each god summoned. Such a summoning may cause a Godwar to occur if both sides now have gods.