The Raven Order — Rule Summary

Each player grows their camp into a small empire, balancing gold and workers against the risk of war. Games are short, tense, and won by whoever times their strike best.

• Shuffle the evolution cards into a deck.
• Each player receives a camp and 5 random evolution cards in hand.
• Roll a die to decide who goes first.
• The player who goes second receives 1 sentry to even out the start.

An attacker dies if its assigned defenders have at least as much power combined. In turn, the attacker kills defenders one by one until killing another would exceed its own power — you choose which ones fall. For example, a power-4 attacker stopped by two power-2 defenders kills both, but dies too, so all three units fall. If one of those defenders had power 3 instead, only that one would die.

An attacker nobody stops doesn't fight — instead it strikes a building of your choice. A building's resistance equals its gold cost, and it's destroyed once the attacking power reaches or exceeds that resistance. Two unstopped power-2 attackers can bring down a guildhall (4 gold) but not a town (5 gold). After the war phase, killed units and destroyed buildings are removed, and all other, nonlethal damage heals. Destroy every one of your opponent's buildings, and you win.

Any unit can defend, but attacking uses it up: once a unit attacks, it can't defend again until your next turn. Riders and druids can attack, but not on the turn they're trained.

Evolution cards stay hidden in your hand and are played on your own units or buildings during the construction phase, if the target is valid, you have the required academy level, and the target doesn't already carry a card. An evolution card played on a druid is called a tattoo; one played on a building has no special name. Either way, it's lost when its host is destroyed.