Rules of Fortress

Version 1.1 (03/16/2019)

Fortress is a fantasy combat card game for 2 or more players conceived and created by Carl Bystrom and Arne Bystrom

Materials:

• One deck of 54 standard playing cards (Jokers included) per player

Object:

• Destroy the opponents’ fortress by depleting their draw pile

Setup:

• Players shuffle their decks and place them on the left side of the playing surface
• Each player’s pile is their Fortress and their drawpile. Players do not look at the cards in their Fortress piles
• The bottom card of a player’s Fortress is their Tombstone. (A player’s Tombstone can never be played, as soon as a player’s Tombstone is drawn, that player is defeated.)
• To determine the starting player, all players “reveal their destiny” by turning over their Fortress pile and showing everyone their Tombstone cards – the Player with the highest value Tombstone starts the game (Aces are high, Jokers are the highest value card, and suit has no relevance to value).
• Play moves clockwise from the starting player

Gameplay:

• Players deploy and equip character cards and/or use direct action cards to attack their opponent’s defenses and destroy their opponent’s fortress
• Players take turns drawing cards from their own Fortress, deploying and equipping characters on the Battlefield, and attacking opponents
• On each turn, the current player is required to make exactly three moves before gameplay rotates clockwise to the next player
• If a player’s characters or fortress is attacked during their opponent’s turn, they may defend the attack using their characters or shields if able
• A player is out of the game when their Fortress is depleted
• The game ends when all but one of the players’ Fortresses have been depleted

Turns:

• Each player must take exactly three actions per turn
• A player may choose from the following actions:
  
  • Draw a card from their Fortress
  • Deploy a character to the Battlefield from their hand
  • Armor a character with a  numbered card from their hand
  • Equip a character with a numbered card, as a weapon, from their hand
  • Attack an opponent’s Fortress or character (the target character must be armored) with a fully equipped character from their Battlefield
  • Play a direct action card from their hand
  • Discard a card from their hand
  • NEW in v1.1 Discard a character (and any equipped armor and weapon) from their battlefield
• Each player may hold up to five cards in their hand at any time
• A player may not draw a card unless they have fewer than five cards in their hand

Combat (Attacking and Defending):

• On their turn, a player can attack another player’s armored characters or fortress using characters that have been deployed to the battlefield, armored, and equipped with weapons
• The attacking player must declare a target for each attacking character
• The defending player may defend their characters or fortress using any combination of armored characters and shields (see below)
• A character’s weapon can only be used one time, then discarded
• Shields can only be used one time, then discarded
• Direct attacks (using a Barrage or Angel of Death) cannot be blocked
• The order of combat proceeds as follows:
   
  • Attackers and targets are declared
  • Defenders are declared
  • Shields are declared
  • Defense from shields is assessed
  • Bladed Shield counterattack damage is assessed
  • If counterattack damage from a Bladed Shield depletes the attacker’s armor, the attack ends and the attacking character dies (and its character, armor, and weapons cards are discarded to the owner’s Graveyard)
  • If shields have not blocked all of an attacking weapon’s power (and the attacker has survived any counterattack from a Bladed Shield) the attack continues with the weapon’s remaining power
  • Defense from characters is assessed
  • Damage to characters is assessed
  • If a character’s armor is not depleted by the attack, the character is returned to the player’s battlefield with its remaining armor
  • If a character’s armor is depleted, the character dies
  • If a character dies while defending another character or fortress and the character’s armor has not blocked all of an attacking weapons power, the attacking weapon’s remaining power continues to the target character or fortress
  • Dead characters (including armor and weapon cards), shields, and attacker’s weapons are discarded
  • Damage to Fortress is assessed
  • One card is removed from the target fortress and discarded to the target player’s Graveyard  for each point of damage that has successfully reached their fortress
  • If the last card of a player’s fortress (Tombstone) is discarded, that player is out of the game

Character Cards:

• Deploying a character card  to the Battlefield counts as one move; character cards can be deployed only during a player’s turn
• Character cards must be played to the Battlefield before they can be armored or equipped
• A character cannot be attacked unless they are armored (except by an Angel of Death)
• A character must be armored in order to defend an attack
• An armored character can defend an attack against themselves or another character or a player’s fortress (see Character Types below)
• A character must be armored before they can be equipped with a weapon
• Characters can only attack on their player’s turn and only when armored and equipped with a weapon
• A weapon can only be used to attack one time and the numbered card used as a weapon is discarded immediately after use, regardless of whether or not the weapons damage was blocked
• A character dies (and is discarded, with any equipped armor and weapon cards, to their graveyard) when their armor is depleted

Character Types

Jack

• Can only attack an opponent’s characters
• Can only block attacks to characters

Queen

• Can only attack an opponent’s Fortress
• Can only block attacks to a Fortress

King

• Can attack an opponent’s characters or Fortress
• Can block attacks to any character or  Fortress

Equipping Characters:

Armor

• Armoring a character costs one move.
• Any numbered card can be used on a character as armor.
• A character’s starting armor is equal to the value of the numbered card.
• Only one numbered card may be applied as armor to a character at any time.

Weapons

• Equipping a character with a weapon costs one move.
• Any numbered card can be used on a character as a weapon.
• A weapon’s attack is equal to the value of the numbered card.
• A character can be equipped with only one weapon at any time.

Direct Action Cards:

• Direct actions cost one move
• Direct actions are played directly from the player’s hand; they are not deployed to the Battlefield
• Direct actions can only be played during a player’s turn
• Direct actions are unblockable by Characters or Shields

Joker (“Barrage”)

• Discard top five cards of any fortress

Red Ace (“Angel of Life”)

• Return any character card from the graveyard directly to that characters playing field
• Angel of Life cannot be used to retrieve Barrage or Angels from a graveyard

Black Ace (“Angel of Death”)

• Send any character (regardless of armor) directly to that character’s graveyard.

Shields (Defensive Combinations):

• Shields are played directly from the players hand (no cards already deployed to the battlefield may be used as part of a shield)
• Shields are played only in defense (when a character or fortress is attacked during opponent’s turn) with no move cost
• Shields cannot defend against Barrage or Angel of Death (Direct Action cards)
• Shields are discarded immediately after use

Pair of Numbered Cards (“Two-Handed Shield “)

• Blocks attack to character or fortress up to the value of one numbered card (e.g. a pair of sixes blocks six damage)

Three of a Kind of Numbered Cards (“Bladed Shield”)

• Blocks attack to character or fortress up to the value of one numbered card and deals that value in damage back to the attacker (e.g. a trio of threes blocks three damage and deals three damage back to attacking character)

Notes on Shields:

• Shields are played once and are discarded regardless of amount of damage blocked (e.g. an Opponent attacks a Player’s fortress using a King with an attack of 5, the Player blocks with a Two-handed Shield of defense 8, all damage is blocked and the pair of 8s is discarded).
• All unblocked damage from Shields are passed through to the target (e.g. an Opponent attacks a Player’s fortress using a King with an attack of 7, the Player blocks with a pair of threes as a Two-handed Shield, 3 damage points are blocked but the target player must still discard 4 cards from their fortress as well as the pair of threes used as a shield).
• A Bladed Shield damage is dealt prior to the attack moving forward (e.g. an Opponent attacks a Player’s armored Queen using a King with an attack of 7 and an armor of 4, the Player blocks with three fives as a Bladed Shield, only 5 damage points are blocked but the Bladed Shield counterattack (of 5) depletes the attacking King’s armor (4) and the King dies. The attack stops and the King’s remaining (2 points of) of attack are never delivered.

Winds of Fate (Alternate) Rules:

This version leaves the composition of each player’s deck to the whims of the Gods!

All of the rules of the standard game apply with the exception of the following:

• For a two player game a single deck (of 54 cards) is shuffled and dealt between each player (so that each Fortress begins with 27 randomly distributed cards)
• Add one deck for every additional odd-numbered player (i.e. 2 players = 1 deck, 3-4 players = 2 decks, 5-6 players = 3 decks, etc.) and all decks are shuffled together as one and all cards are dealt in equal number to all players in individual face down Fortress draw piles
• Aces of either color may be played as Angels of Life or Angels of Death (the attacking player’s choice)

Credits:

Fortress was originally conceived and created by Carl Bystrom and Arne Bystrom in 2004-2005. The game has been taught to dozens of people since then and has been tweaked over time, with significant input and assistance from Autumn Bystrom and Semra Aemmer.