Overview
The objective of the game is to simulate simple tactics used in a war against enemy ninja. Your objective is to eliminate the enemy ninja village while protecting your own. In order to destroy the opposing village it needs to have 20 points of damage dealt to it by attacking ninja. The attacking ninja needs to get through one of three enemy defensive lines while still protecting your own village's defences.
The Battle Field
There are 4 zones on each players fields. Three zones are for village defenses called the Western Flank, Northern Flank and the Eastern Flank. The fourth zone is for shinobi who are able to attack, called the Active Roster.
Chakra Counters (CC) & Experience Counters (EC)
Experience Counters(EC) and Chakra Counters(CC) are the resources required to bring your ninja to the battlefield. Each turn, these resources replenish and grow until they reach a maximum of 10 and 5. You gain an additional EC every turn, while you gain an additional CC every other turn.
EX: Turn 1 you would have (1)EC & (0)CC. Turn 5 you would have (5)EC & (2)CC. Turn 60 you would have (10)EC & (5)CC
Ninja Cards
All ninja cards have 6 pieces of information on them, which reflect their attributes in combat. At the top beside the name of the ninja is the Deployment Cost(DC) for the ninja in either EC, CC or a mix of them both. Following that, theres are 5 scores that range from 1-10 based on what rank the ninja is. Genin range from 1-3. Chunin range from 4-6. Jonin ranges from 7-9, and the Kage has all scores at 10. Each ninja has Attack Speed (AS), Reaction Speed (RS), Reconnaissance Ability (RA), Sensing Ability (SA), and Village Damage (VD). These scores denote each ninja's capabilities for different actions that can be taken in the Strategy and Action Steps. Ninja cards are always played face down unless they have been successfully scouted or have made a successful attack on the enemy village.
Trap Cards.
Traps are cards that can only be placed in either the Western, Northern or Eastern Fronts. They have 3 values on each card: Deployment Cost (DC), Lethality Score (LS), and Stealth Score (SS). Traps only ever turn face up once they have been scouted successfully or have been dismantled or evaded by an attacking ninja.
How to play
The players each have a deck of 40 cards containing one Kage and up to 7 Traps. They begin the game with 5 cards in their hand. To play a card, you need to pay its cost, which can be Experience Counters(EC), Chakra Counters(CC) or a mix of both. Each turn, players have a Strategy Step followed by an Action Step, and then their turn ends.
Strategy Step Actions
There are 5 actions that can be done during the Strategy Step: Battlefield Scouting, Supply Runs, Change Defenses, Deploy Ninja and Modify Active Roster. During the players turn they can do 3 Strategy actions per turn.
Battlefield Scouting
You may choose any card to scout out an opponent's card; the action will either succeed and the opponent will flip over the card, or it will fail and it will remain face down. A card can only scout and be scouted once per turn.
If the scouting ninja's Reconasence Ability is less than the enemy ninja's Stealth Ability, then the scouting failed. (RA If the scouting ninja's Reconasence Ability is greater than the enemy ninja's Stealth Ability, then the scouting was successful, and that card gets flipped and remains face up. (RA>SA) If the card the player is scouting turns out to be a trap, the scouting action will always fail. Supply Runs The player can flip any face-down card in order to draw cards equal to that card's Reconasense Ability. Any number of cards can be flipped, however face up cards cannot scout out enemy cards. Change Defenses Change the order of any number of traps and ninjas across all three battlefield fronts. Deploy Ninja Play cards face down in either the battlefield Fronts or the Active Roster by paying their Deployment Cost. Change Active Roster Move ninja from the Active Roster onto any of the 3 Fronts or move ninja from the Fronts onto the Active Roster in order to be able to attack with them. Action Step In the Action Step, you can select any number of ninjas from the Active Roster to attack any or all enemy battlefields. On the battlefields they will encounter either Traps or Enemy Ninja. If the ninja passes through successfully, they deal damage to the village and return to the Active Roster zone face up. If they fail in the attack they either return to the Active Roster or are dead and are removed from the game. Once all ninja chosen to attack have finished their action, the turn ends. Trap Interactions When encountering a trap, there are 4 possible interactions: Clean Kill, Messy Kill, Failed Trap, and Successful Disassembly. These outcomes depend on the ninja's Reaction Speed and Sensing Ability compared to the trap's Stealth Score and Lethality Score. The attacker says the ninja's Reaction Speed and Sensing Ability while the defender notifies them of the outcome. Clean Kill: If the Lethality Score is higher than the ninja's Reaction Speed and the Stealth Score is higher than the Sensing Ability, then the ninja dies. (LS&SS>RS&SA) Messy Kill: If the Lethality Score is higher than the ninja's Reaction Speed while the Sensing Ability is higher than the Stealth Score, the ninja also dies. (LS>RS&SA>SS) Failed Trap: if the Lethality Score is lower than the Reaction Speed of the ninja while the Sealth Score is higher than their Sensing Ability, the ninja survives by failing its mission and returns to the Active Roster. (LS Successful Disassembly: If the Lethality Score is lower than the Reaction Speed while the Stealth Score is lower than their Sensing Ability, the ninja disassembles the trap and continues their attack. (LS&SS Combat Interactions If the attacking ninja encounters an enemy ninja, there are three possible interactions: Quick Kill, Failed attack, and Brawl. These interactions rely on the ninja's Attack and Reaction Speed. The attacking ninja will either continue with their assault, die, or return to the Active Roster. Quick Kill: if the attacking ninja's Attack Speed is faster than the defending ninja's Reaction Speed, then the defender dies, and the attacker continues with its assault. (AS>RS) Failed Attack: If the attacking ninja's Attack Speed is lower than the defending ninja's Reaction Speed, then the attacker dies. (RS>AS) Brawl: If the attacking ninja's Attack Speed is equal to the defending ninja's Reaction Speed, then the one with the lower Attack Speed dies. (AS=RS, AS>AS)