Description

Just like the name suggests, The Art of War pays homage to the legendary treatise by Sun Zi, in how it attempts to capture and emulate its essence of extolling the depth of strategy and tactics in actual warfare, within a medieval-fantasy setting.

The objective of the game is won threefold, to either destroy all 7 Resource Areas of the opponent, to defeat the rival Lord, or should one side draw finish his deck, the player with the least amount of damaged Resource Areas wins. Should there be a tie even then, the total damage done to Resource Areas is computed, and the one with lesser damage taken is the winner.

As of the base game, there are currently four Factions, with four more to be added in sequences of two. The first four are Humankind, Elfkind, Demonkind and Orckind.

Each plays with separate themes and mechanics, with the Humans boasting strong defences and economy, the Demons formidable in all facets and arenas, except perhaps at ranged, the Elves being naturally fast and good at ranged combat, and the Orcs are brutal savages in close combat, with the ability to generate a psychic gestalt from their collective energy.

In the first expansion, we will introduce the Slannikind and Rhudkind races, with the Slannikind being the Fantasy archetype for Lizardmen, and the Rhudkind the archetype for Ratmen.

After that, in the second expansion, we will introduce the Dwarfkind forces, together with the Undeadkind, rounding off the game's eight Factions.

The game is played on two playmats, with each Faction having their own playmats, and through the throwing of dice. It is divided into two rows for each side, with the row closer to you being the Resource Line, and the one further, and closer to the Enemy's own playmat, being the Battle Line. Players have to place their Units down on either their Resource or Battle Lines, but not in the opposing force's, unless otherwise stated by a special rule.

Every Faction has a Lord Card in your Hand, which is a superpowered Unit that if defeated, leads to the destruction of your army. Every Unit has six Stats, Cost, Attack, Defence, Health, Initiative and Leadership. To resolve combat and other actions in this game, you will need to roll dice, usually three times, first for Engagement, to see who attacks first, second to see the damage done for the side that attacks first, then to see the damage done by the defending party. If this is insufficient to decide who wins the combat, the losing side has to roll a Morale Check with their Leadership roll. That is in essence the game, although there are other aspects not covered like Spellcasting Magic, Flying and Mounted.

—description from the designer