Basic Combat
- Organization
- Draw combat cards (no trading)
- Deal hits (no trading)
Army leaders: each army must be lead by a Devil (or Fallen Angels). If an army has no leader, it returns to home Realm (exception: if the army is trying to release their master, they can keep on fighting). In home Realm, the army defends normally even without leader.
An imprisoned or fled Devil, or Devil on Earth cannot lead an army. In addition, if have any attack defeats this turn you cannot send an army to join a combat.
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Organization
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This is the only one phase in combat in which trading is allowed.
Joining: any Realm with capable army leader can join the combat, by taking any number of hordes in home Realm with it. If Realm has any Souls, the army can take any number of them with it. A defeated army (retreating, time-out) can not attack again.
Troop movement: hordes and Souls left at home Realm cannot be called during combat, nor can part of the army retreat. If the composition of the army needs to be changed, retreat and then re-join. Of course this does not work for main attacker.
Retreat: any army except the defender can retreat, unless it joined combat this round. If the main attacker retreats, the combat is immediately over.
Side switching: any other army than main attacker or defender can change side at will during organization.
Free Flee: at first combat round, the defending Devil can flee by discarding a resource card from hand. This Devil is out of game until end of the turn, unless Recalled. If any effect is used to prevent free flee, any card already discarded is lost and Devil returns to home Realm.
Special Flee: On any combat round the defender can flee from combat by playing Escape special card or discarding an identical fortress card as Devil's fortress. This can only be prevented with Recall special card.
Surrendering: defendind Devil may surrender and attacker captures it. The combat still continues, unless attacker retreats.
No combat: main defender and attacker can agree that no attacking is done this round.
Draw combat cards (no trading)
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Calculate total size of each side, counting all Devil and horde cards
plus fortress, which is not yet damaged (turned face-down). Some
cards are worth more than one (Leviathan and Asmodeus, for example).
Souls have no size value.
Combat deck is shuffled and attacker draws cards from it, one by one. Number of drawn cards is 1, +1 per full 5 size in each side. So, with 7 size against 8, draw 3 cards.
For each card, check the corresponding row, by comparing total size of attacker and defending side. Use row 3:1 if attacker size is at least three times defender side, 2:1 if attacker is at least double the size, and A > D if attacker side is more than defender side. Likewise use 1:3 if defender side is three times the attacker side, 1:2 if double and A <= D if defender is bigger or of same side.
After finding the correct row, use column according to defender defense points. Note that if defending side has any allies, they also benefict from defense points (except for extra hits)
The drawing is immediately ended if sufficient hits to destroy either side is achieved, see below. These do not include any extra or revenge hits.
Deal Hits (no trading)
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Cards deal hits as defined in them. Each hit destroys one horde or
Soul counter, damages a fortress or puts Devil out of combat. Each
army taking hits decides how to assign hits, except that Juggernauts
must take a hit if possible.
Extra hits: If any units cause extra hits, they are added to total number of hits dealt, before hits are assigned. If other side has any defense points, main defender ignores extra hits if rolls defense points or less with d6. If there is any allied defenders, one of the allies then take this hit, and it is assigned first, before assigning other hits.
Revenge hits: If any destroyed units cause revenge hits, they are immediately assigned, before handling other effects of being destroyed (like Warriors of Darkness). If the target army is in home Realm with defense points, it can ignore hits by rolling with d6 same or less than number of defense points.
Allied force: If side has multiple armies, hits are dealt evenly, with first ones going to biggest one (size-wise), and if tied, ramdomized. Revenge hits are always targeted at certain army.
Allied defenders: All armies on defending side get benefict from defender defense points when combat cards is checked. However, allied defenders do not gain from defense points against extra or revenge hits.
Effect of Hits
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Souls: destroyed. Reduce counter.
Hordes: destroyed. Might have immediate side-effects.
Fortress: Fortress is damaged. Roll d6, and on a d6 roll '1' the fortress is destroyed and put to discard pile. Any Devils imprisoned on it are put aside as they had been hit in combat. If the roll was 2+, the fortress is just turned face-down (or put aside), and it has no further effect on combat. After combat the fortress is turned face-up again.
Devil: Devil is out of combat and put aside. After the combat is over, the winner captures all Devils put aside, see below. Any non-captured Devil which have been hit is classified as fled, and is out of game until end of turn (unless Recalled).
If the attacking side runs out of leaders (unless army is trying to release its master), the combat ends to attacker defeat. Otherwise if the defender has no units nor Souls left, the combat ends to attacker victory (however, the attacker may choose to continue the combat to next turn). If the defender had a fortress, the attacker can now loot and capture it, see below.
Time-Out: If the combat does not end by the end of third turn and no special card or effect is in effect, the combat ends to time-out and is classified as attacker defeat.
If the combat is attacker victory, the main attacker captures all Devils which have been hit. Otherwise the defender captures them all if (and only if) all the attackers were destroyed - if even one Soul survived, they allow any hit Devils to flee.
Note that all hit Devils are captured, regardless on which side they were fighting at.
Other Combat Rules
Attack Result
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An attack is classified as attack (for generic award and Leviathan)
if at least one combat round hit dice are thrown (with someone
possibly taking hits). Attack against empry Realm is not counted.
Attacker victory: if attacker destroys all defenders, combat is classified as attacker victory if no one has yet gained this status from that Realm. If someone already emptied the Realm and then something appears therein (Recall, non-captured nor destroyed fortress) destroying that does not count as attacker victory anymore.
Attacker defeat: attacker retreats because of time-out, loss of leader or voluntary retreat. That player cannot attack nor join combat anymore this turn. If the entire attacking side was destroyed, all hit Devils are captured by defender, otherwise they all 'flee' (out of game until end of turn)
If neither of the above happens, combat is not classified as attacker victory or defeat, it was just a combat.
Any defense wins or wins as assistant are never counted as victory or defeats.
Fortress Negating
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During first combat round, the attacker can discard an identical
fortress card than the defender has. This negates all defense points
of the fortress (even those additional granted by Heart of Fortress)
until end of this combat, and defending Devil cannot use Free Flee.
If the defending Devil already used Free Flee, that action is canceled and discarded resource card is lost.
Any special powers of the fortress still apply.
Captured Devil
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When a Devil is captured, the capturer may immediately take any
artifacts held by captive, but if captor does not take them, he or
she cannot do that later.
A captured Devil is moved to attacker's home Realm and put into attacker's fortress. If the attacker does not have a fortress, any imprisoned Devils flee automatically, and are 'out of game' until end of the turn as they would have fled from combat, if the attacker so chooses.
The capturer may immediately surrender the prisoner to any other army which joined the battle.
Looting and Capturing
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If the combat ends because the attacker destroys all defending units,
including damaging a fortress, attacker can now loot and capture the
fortress.
Looting: looting can only be made if that fortress is not yet looted this turn. To loot, draw 3 cards from the controllering Player's hand, and return any drawn Oath cards. This can be done even if the fortress was destroyed during the combat.
Capture: If the damaged fortress was not destroyed, the attacker can now either destroy it (default action if the attacker does not state otherwise), leave it to be (to defender) or capture it, making it as a new home Realm fortress. All attacker's units and Souls and other stuff is moved onto it and attacker's old fortress is discarded.
If the defending fortress had Throne of Hell, the attacker can always loot it and move it to own home fortress.
Rituals: if there was any rituals in fortress, they are automatically discarded if the attacker destroys or captures it. If the attacker returns the fortress to defender, the attacker has choice of destroying any rituals casted or leaving them intact. Unless attacker notes otherwise, all rituals are destroyed. Note that Glasya cannot discard them voluntary between combat turn and this destroying.
List of Changes (old)
- (x.11)
- Card limit removed, drawing depends on total number of cards in Realm
- Many cards changed
- Fortress (or Diabolic Fiends) needed to be able to cast rituals
- Rituals are not interrupted if the caster attacks, but rituals are destroyed when fortress is lost unless caster has Diabolic fiends at home Realm
- (Almost) all hordes, fortresses and devils have power of 1, while Souls have no power
- No attack to back anymore, except with special card
- Combat only lasts 3 turns, unless 'siege' is played
- No finish phase anymore, discard in playing phase
(21.11) - Vacancy renamed as post
- Turn order modified; vacancy phase is now award phase and soul gathering is done in it
- Players gain extra vicytory each turn they try to gather souls or attack even once
- When gaining victory points from a post, the player may instead take a card from Oath pile
- Attacks again limited - if you retreat (or run out of time), you cannot attack again, nor join combats
- Combat can be continued even if there are no opponents (to use Recall, for example)
- The fortress destroying roll is made immediately after hit is dealt, not after combat.
- Redraw and 5 cards for big realm size removed from looting
- In gathering, each porcailmed is voted, one by one, and no one is needed to support proclaimed Devils anymore, plus victory point effect changed
- Card modifications:
- Summon: calls fled Devils, too
- Recall: fiends can accompy recalled devil
- New Alliance: cannot be played on first turn.
- Heart of Fortress: the whole combat with one resource card
- Throne of Hell, Black Tower, Time of Virtue, World War: clarified
- Realm of Power, Master of Souls, Summary Sheets: updated
(27.11) - Combat changed to cards, Souls much more 'bigger', but Soul gathering and lots of cards changed because of that
- No troop movement in combat anymore, army fight as whole
- Gathering modified, free flow of order
- When taking an Oath instead of victory point, can choose instead of randomizing
- Card modifications:
- Fixed to follow new rules: Dark Critters, Warriors of Darkness, Juggernauts, Black Tower, Deadmaze of Granite, Throne of Hell, New Alliance, Mammon, Master of Souls
- Modified because of new rules: Cattle of Hell, Volcanic Caves, Furnace of Souls, Infernal Plague, Wand of Might, Drunken Agreement, Asmodeus, Memphistopheles
- Modified, not related to new rules: Shadow Critters,Recall, Winds of Chaos, Siege, Baalzebub, Belial, Glasya
(10.12) - Combat edited, number of cards modified, as is cards and revenge/extra hits.