Shroudfall is a skirmish level game. This means that you will usually field between 20 to 30 models in your army. The core rules of Shroudfall are quite easy to learn, but Shroudfall offers a lot of depth and complexity through the respective unit rules, player-placed terrain and various scenario combinations. Each and every game you will have to adapt to the changing battlefield conditions and use your unit’s abilities to their best to come out on top.
Game overview
A shroudfall game is played over 5 game rounds. A game round consists of multiple alternating unit activations. This means that both players alternatingly take turns activating units, until all units on the battlefield have been activated. Then a game round concludes. At the end of each game round each player can score victory points and potentially win the game if they have a certain lead in victory points. Alternatively, you win at the end of the 5th game round if you are ahead in victory points or by destroying all enemy units on the battlefield.
Unit Activations
Each time a unit activates, it may take two separate actions. Each unit has a choice of generic actions that allow them to move or make attacks, but actions can also be used to trigger special abilities or to interact with scenario elements on the table. And you can of course take the same action twice if it suits your needs.
Movement
A model’s movement over the battlefield is measured using movement widgets. Simply place the widget flat on the table and in base-to-base contact with the model you want to move. Then you may place the respective model anywhere in base-to-base contact with the movement widget.
Shroudfall uses three different types of movement widgets (Slow, Medium and Long) to specify the different speeds at which models traverse the battlefield.
Attacks
Shroudfall uses custom 6-sided dice to calculate the outcome of an attack in 2 steps: First, you add up the results of your “hit roll” and compare it with the target’s Defense value (DEF) to see if the attack hits. To inflict damage, you add up the results of your “damage” roll - for each multiple of the target’s Armor (ARM) value you inflict one point of damage.
You will notice that Shroudfall dice come in three different colors: Grey dice generally are the “weakest” and red dice are the most reliable and “strongest”.
Using Essence
Essence is the primary source of magic in the world of Shroudfall. Just like with Shroudfall dice, this precious resource exists on the tabletop in 3 colors – grey, yellow and red. On the battlefield Essence enables your units to use powerful abilities or to improve their combat abilities for a short while.
The most common way to generate Essence for your army is through unit activations. At the end of each activation, you may add the Essence value of the activated unit to your Essence pool. Furthermore some abilities and scenarios can also generate additional Essence. But be careful, as there is never enough Essence, so you will have to plan your abilities and activations wisely …
We will continue our “Rules Focus” article series by taking a closer look at the different types of Essence abilities in the next one. Stay tuned for blog updates!