Diskwars Homepage

The Great War

It is is distinct feature of Diskwars that each and every game of Diskwars just focuses on a single Battle within the world of Menarra. However, as known from the Diskwars website, each of these battles is only part of a major history, the Battle of the Evil Llovar and his minions against the forces of good.

To give players the opportunity to enjoy a longer game of Diskwars, I have decided to create rules for a scenario called "The Great War". In this scenario, the scope of the game will be greatly enlarged, and the background of the Battle for Menarra becomes much more real for the players. However, an effect of this scenario is that the average playing time of Diskwars will be greatly increased, most certainly forcing the players to adjurn the game once or several times.

Note: There are 3 Free Promo Disks available at this website, which I have created specially to be used in this scenario. Print them twice and glue them onto front and back of a common disk. Click here to get german versions of these disks

The Set-Up:

The scenario can be played using almost any number of factions. The only restriction is that there must be as many good factions as there are evil factions. Furthermore, the game should be played on a fairly big table. This is due to the number of terrain-disks which will be included and to give enough room for maneuvering units. If only two players participate, each player should play at least two factions (of the same alignment).

Concerning the initial placement of the homelands, the disks of the different factions should be distributed equally around the table. However, the factions should be placed as blocks with good-aligned factions on the one side and evil-aligned factions on the other. After the initial placement of the homelands, the players now can place terrain disks. If 2 to 6 factions participate, 2 terrains may be placed by each faction's player. If more factions are in the game, each player may only place 1 terrain. For the choice and placement of the terrains, the following restrictions apply:

  • Each player may only chose each terrain disk once. He may not chose two of the same kind.
  • Evil players may not chose to place a Forest or a Good Temple, Good players may not chose a Scorched Valley or an Evil Temple.
  • Terrain Disks may be placed anywhere, but a distance of at least 10 cm to any other terrain and of 20 cm to homelands must be kept.
  • In the middle of the table, a single Mountain-terrain is placed.

Concerning the armies, each player may chose units and spells worth 150 points as his starting army (players must make arrangements that no unique disk is be chosen more than once. Exception: Familiar). These are placed on or within a radius of 10 cm of his homeland. All disks are directly placed at the beginning - no stockpile of units remains. Players are not allowed to have 'mixed armies'. An army may only contain disks of one faction and factionless disks (i.e. it may contain Champions, since they require the same restriction).

Rules:

It is the objective of the game to conquer the homlands of all enemy factions. Factions of the same alignment play as a team - they can share the task of conquering the enemy homlands between them. A homeland is considered to be conquered if an enemy is in sole control of the homeland at the end of a turn.

In order to guarantee a somewhat fair playing sequence, the usual rule that each player has to activate 3 units per activation phase must be changed. At the beginning of the complete movement phase, all players must count their units. The player with most units will be used for determining the activation allowance of the other players this turn. The number of disks held by that player is divided by 3, factions rounded down. Each player who has at maximum twice this amout of disks may - if he choses to - activate only two disks during each activation phase (this may be decided for each round in the activation phase separately). Likewise, each player who has at maximum once this amount of disks may - if he choses to - activate only one disk during each activation phase. This rule introduces a bit a calculation and will slow the game slightly, but it offers more fairness during the movement sequence by eliminating the possibility that some players may already have moved all their units while another player has still quite a few of them left.

At the beginning of each new turn, number counters up the the amount of participating factions are randomly taken from a cup. These numbers determine the playing order in the new turn.

An essential part of the game will be taken by the terrain disks and by the homelands, since these will generate an income in Gold for the players, and this they may spend to acquire new units during the game. Basically, each homeland automatically generates an income of 1 Gold per turn (if a homeland is conquered, the income is not generated. The conqueror gets all Gold of the player whose Homeland he has conquered). However, a player may increase his income by 'harvesting' the following terrain disks: Forest, Lake, Mountain. As long as a player has at least one unit of Peasants (or, since Peasants are rare, a standard army unit: Men-At-Arms, Swordsmen, Regiment of the Anvil, Deepwood Warriors, Dragon Warriors, Undead Horde, Grugs, Warriors of Yllan - all of these are called "harvesters") on one of these terrains, it will generate 1 additional Gold for him (harvesters may be flipped half onto a Lake to symbolize fishing). Several players of the same alignment may have harvesters on the same terrain, and it will generate 1 Gold income for each of these players. However, no income is generated if there are equal or more enemy disks touching the terrain as there are harvesters. Also, no additional income is created by multiple harvesters of the same player on the same terrain - multiple harvesters only make it more difficult for the enemy to stop the income altogether. The income is collected at the end of the turn. A player may not collect income if his homeland is conquered. For keeping record of Gold owned by each player, the number-counters from Moon over Thelgrim seem to be quite suitable.

As said earlier, the players have the possibility to spend their income (unless they have lost their homeland, in which case they may not produce any units) This will be done at the beginning of the turn. Basically, a player may chose to buy new units for his faction. This may be any disk he still his in his collection, as long as it fits into his army following the normal rules for army construction. However, several factors have to be observed: Players may only acquire unique Disks if these have not been introduced to the game before. If a unique disk died, it may not be bought again. Furthermore, some disks need special rules:

  • Ceryx Jade and Oboros Rex are considered to be 'factionless'. They may be acquired only by players of good alignment.
  • Firbolg the Giant may only be acquired by players of evil alignment.
  • For players of good alignment, Dark Drakes are considered to be factionless. Thus, Dark Drakes may be in good and evil armies alike.
  • Mahkim are considered to be 'factionsless'. They may only be acquired by players of good alignment . Makim Champions are blue (neutral) disks, not golden Champions.

Money can be transfered freely between players of the same alignment. It may be kept secret from the other players. Newly acquired units are placed on the homelands of the players buying them. The buying of new units is done in secrecy (players of the same alignment may hold council) and revealed simultaneously. If several players want to buy the same unique unit at the same time, all the money is taken away. The players may then start bidding for that unit. The bidding is increased in steps of 1 Gold, and each bid is directly lost. Only if a player is the last player to bid on a unit, he may take it. If there is a draw in the end, nobody gains the unit.

Apart from units, a player may also acquire new spells for his spellbook. However, he may only buy 1 Spell per turn.

As a further addition, the factions and their homelands have some special abilities.

  • The homeland of Falladir's Knights gives additional protection to the defenders. All disks of players of good alignment touching the Knights' homeland gain +1 D and T. At any time during the game, the Knights player may once exchange a Standard Bearer against a Ruins-terrain. The Ruins are placed at the same place where the Standard Bearer has been. Under these circumstances, the Knights player may once acquire a new Standard Bearer.
  • Due to the healing capabilities of the Accolytes, disks of good aligned players touching their homeland are allowed to heal 1 Wound per turn. However, this only applies as long as no evil-aligned disk touches this homeland.
  • The homeland of the Lotharian Elves counts as a normal wood, falling under the Wood-Rules from Moon over Thelgrim. However, all disks controlled by the Elven player gain free movement through woods, i.e. their movement is not hindered in any way by woods. Elven peasants gain double income (i.e. 2 Gold) for "harvesting" a wood.
  • The homeland of the Dwarves has no special abilities. However, they gain double income (i.e. 2 Gold for "harvesting") a mountain and they may, if they have a Dwarven Miner on their homeland and on a mountain, bring new units into the game directly on that particular mountain (not touching or pinning the Dwarven Miner there).
  • The Orcs have the benefit that they breed fast. To represent this, they get double income (i.e. 2 Gold) for their homeland.
  • The homeland of the Undead is frightening. Disks of all players except the Undead player fight at -1 A while touching their homeland. Furthermore, the Undead player gains 2 free Undead Horde and 2 free Skeleton Archers which may never leave their homeland (disks are removed if they leave the homeland for any reason).
  • The homeland of the Dragons counts as a normal mountain terrain from Moon over Thelgrim.
  • The homland of the Uthuk is not fertile - they gain no income for it. However, the Uthuk are experts in plundering, so that they may "harvest" conquered homelands. They gain an income of 3 Gold from every conquered homeland they "harvest" (they may not harvest a homeland which was originally conquered by another player of evil alignment - the Uthuk must have defated the last defender of that homeland).

Some further restrictions and explanations are needed for some disks:

  • The scenario was written for disks from the Revised Edition and Moon over Thelgrim. Careful consideration is needed when deciding to add disks from later expansions.
  • Gaming space will always be limited. For this reason, Catapults do not get a range-increase for being on a ruins-terrain. Furthermore, the Knights player may only have 2 Catapults in play at any time during the game.
  • The Resurrection spell is the only possibility to get a dead unique disk back into the game. However, a disk can only be revived during the 3 turns following its death.
  • The Familiar is a bit too powerful. Suggested restriction: It can supply each Level I spell from the spellbock once. It can only be recharged at the owner's faction homeland for 5 Gold. However, each player is allowed to have 1 Familiar.
  • Banned Spells: Depletion (Entfernen)
  • Optional: Battle for the Bones Rules - see below !

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Special Option: The Battle for the Bones

This option for the game is based on the Battle for Oboros Scenario which can be found at the official Diskwars homapage.

At the beginning of the game, the Dragon Bones are placed onto the Mountain terrain in the Middle of the gaming table. The Bones can be taken by any UA standard army unit touching them (Men-At-Arms, Swordsmen, Regiment of the Anvil, Deepwood Warriors, Dragon Warriors, Undead Horde, Grugs, Warriors of Yllan). If they are taken to a homeland of the good players, a Level III spellcaster present at that homeland may A to remove the Bones from play. Every good faction receives 10 Gold. If the Bones are taken to the homeland of an evil player, a Level III spellcaster there may A to resurrect the Bones to a Dragon Lich. It is controlled by the player owning the Spellcaster.

If the unit carrying the Bones is killed, the are dropped to the ground at exactly that place and may be taken again. They may not be taken by any other units except standard army units, and they may not be transfered from one unit to another.

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Copyright © 2001 Frank Schulte-Kulkmann, Trier, Germany