Chronicles of Blood

Solo Adventure Game

Solo War Game

ANTON MAKAROV (Order #14092140)

 Chronicles of Blood
Shane Garvey
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Chronicles of Blood is copyright Crystal Star Games, 2011. Photos copyright Mantic Games and are used with
permission. All names and places are completely fictional and are not meant to represent any location or person, living
or dead.

ANTON MAKAROV (Order #14092140)

 Introduction
The world of Arax is a world filled with blood and
battle, magic and monsters, slaughter and sorcery. It is
a world where the weak are crushed and the strong
survive, where those who are bigger and more
powerful bully those who are weaker and more
vulnerable. It is a world at war, with armies clashing
violently on the fields of battle. A great general is
needed to lead these armies, and that general is you!
Chronicles of Blood is a game where you, the reader,
takes on the role of an army commander in the world
of Arax. It is your job to fight lead your troops to glory,
destroying the enemy and either saving or conquering
the world, depending on the army you choose.
Arax is a dark and dangerous world and a time of
reckoning is approaching. The ancient empires of men,
dwarfs and elves are crumbling, beset on all sides by
the dark hordes of the orcs, goblins, demons and the
undead.
The once magnificent elven forests, at one time
beautiful, green and lush, are now withering and
dying, the magically-crafted towers and wondrous tree-
cities that lie within broken and shattered. Only the
elven talent at manipulating mana, the magical force
that permeates Arax, has stopped their race from being
wiped out.
ANTON MAKAROV (Order #14092140)
The dwarven fortresses built high in the mountains of
Arax are now overrun with goblins, who burrowed up
through the earth and attacked from within the
otherwise impenetrable fortress walls. One by one the
fortresses fall and, although the dwarven courage and
skill with weapons is legendary, even they find
themselves overwhelmed by the sheer number of
goblins pouring in to their homes.
And humanity find themselves sorely pressed on all
sides, their cities and towns constantly raided and
besieged. The barbaric orc tribes march down from the
north, pillaging everything in their path. The
necromantic legions from the southern desert
kingdoms shamble forward, unrelenting in their march
towards the human lands. Some humans even turn
against their own, worshipping demonic powers in
secret and plotting the downfall of their race from
within.
The final battles that will decide the fate of Arax are
fast approaching. Soldiers line up on opposite sides of
the battlefield, ready to lay down their lives in service
to their commander. Will you lead your troops to
ultimate victory, or will you fail in your leadership and
suffer humiliating, crushing defeat?
 What You Need To Play
There are a few things you will need to have handy in
order to play the game. First and foremost is a copy of
these rules. You may print these rules for your own use,
and even give them to friends and family if you want.
You will need a set of polyhedral dice. This means you
need a d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20 (check out the
glossary if you are not sure what this means).
You will also need something to represent the
regiments of soldiers that make up your army. The
cheapest, easiest way to do this is to cut out pieces of
paper or cardboard, each one 10cm by 5cm, then
simply write the name of the regiment on them.
Of course, the best-looking way to do this is to use
miniature figures to represent your regiments.
Companies such as Mantic Games
(www.manticgames.com) make wonderful figures that
would fit right in with Chronicles of Blood, and their
range is expanding all the time (the pictures of
ANTON MAKAROV (Order #14092140)
miniatures in this game are all by Mantic Games). If
you use miniatures, use as many or as few as you need,
as long as the total size of the regiment is around 10cm
by 5cm.
Model scenery will also enhance your game, though
again you can use cardboard cutouts to represent
these. Use different colours to differentiate between
different types of terrain: green for woods, brown for
hills, blue for rivers and lakes, and so on.
Obviously, you will also need somewhere to play. A
table 120cm by 120cm will suffice. You can go bigger
than this, but you won’t want to go much smaller.
Finally, you may wish to purchase some premium
content for Chronicles of Blood. This content, available
for $1 each, includes things like new Armies and
regiments and new Scenarios for you to play. All of this
is optional however; you can play the game simply
with these rules!
 The Army
In Chronicles of Blood you take on
the roll of a general of one of two
mighty armies. These two forces are
vying for control of the world of
Arax.

The Golden Alliance is trying to

defend their homes from the
invading forces of evil. It consists of
soldiers from the human kingdoms,
the woodland realms of the elves
and the dwarven strongholds, as
well as the angelic beings from the
Island of the Sun.

Or you could command the

Unholy Blight, the armies of evil
made up of the orcish tribes, goblins,
demonic legions and the undead empire.
Each army is made up of many regiments. Each one of
these regiments has a set of Battle Stats that allow us to
differentiate between them. Battle Stats show us at a
glance how good a regiment is at different aspects of
war and will be used a lot throughout the game.
There are six different Battle Stats.
Speed j
Speed measures how far a regiment can move in one
turn. This Battle Stat is measured in centimetres. An
average Speed score is 15cm.
Fight t
Fight is a measure of how well the unit can battle
against the enemy. This is measured in a die type, with
the average being a d6.
Armour e
A regiment’s Armour stat shows how much protection
they have against enemy damage. A regiment wearing
no armour into battle would have an Armour stat of 0.
Most regiments would have an Armour stat of 1 or 2.
Morale B
The Morale battle stat measures a regiment’s courage
and bravery. Morale is also measured in a die type,
with again the average being d6.
Wounds g
Finally, the Wounds stat shows how much damage a
regiment can take before they are destroyed. This is 5
for a normal regiment, with tougher regiments having
6, 7, or even more.
If a regiment ever has 0 Wounds, it is removed from
the table.

Damage l
Damage is another Battle Stat measured with a die
type. This one determines how hard the regiment hits
in battle and how many opponents the will kill if they
win a turn of battle. An average Damage score is d6.

ANTON MAKAROV (Order #14092140)

 Choosing The Armies

It is now time to choose the armies that will take part
in the battle. You must choose not only the army you
will command, but also the enemy army that you will
fight against.
Each regiment has a points value (d) that it is worth.
Before choosing the armies, you must decide on a
points limit for each force. It doesn’t really matter how
many points you choose, but somewhere between 50
(for a smallish game) to 100 (for a larger game) is about
average.
When selecting your army, choose a number of
regiments whose points total is equal to or less than the
points limit you selected for the game. For instance, if
you chose a 50 point game, you could chose regiments
whose total points value did not exceed 50.
There are some other restrictions you must
follow. You must include at least four different
types of regiment in your army, and may not
include more than four of the same regiment in
your army.

When choosing the enemy army, you must

follow the same restrictions as choosing your
army.

The rules listed in the ‘Special’ column can be

found later in the book.

The Golden Alliance - The Forces of Good

Regiment Name
Type


j t l e B h d Special

Men-at-arms

Human infantry
15cm
d6
d6
2
d6
5
5

Knights of the Realm

Human cavalry

25cm
d8
d6
3
d6
5
8
Charge!

Elven Rangers

Elf infantry

15cm
d8
d6
0
d8
5
6
Archery (60cm)

Elven Thornguard
Elf infantry

15cm
d8
d6
1
d8
5
7
Spears

Dwarf Stoneguard
Dwarf infantry

15cm
d8
d6
3
d8
6
8

Dwarf Crossbows
Dwarf infantry

15cm
d8
d6
2
d8
6
8
Archery (60cm)

Angelic Warriors
Angel infantry

35cm
d8
d6
2
d8
5
10
Fly

Soldier of the Sun

Angel infantry

15cm
d6
d8
2
d8
5
7

ANTON MAKAROV (Order #14092140)

 The Unholy Blight - The Forces of Evil

Regiment Name
Type


j t l e B h d Special

Orc Warriors

Orc infantry

15cm
d6
d6
1
d6
6
5

Orc Slingers

Orc infantry

15cm
d6
d6
1
d6
6
6
Archery (50cm)

Goblin Warriors
Goblin infantry

15cm
d4
d6
1
d4
5
2

Goblin Slinkers

Goblin infantry

15cm
d4
d6
0
d4
5
3
Archery (50cm)























Scout

Battle Demons

Demon infantry

15cm
d8
d8
2
d6
6
8

Dark Knights

Demon cavalry

25cm
d8
d6
3
d6
6
10
Charge!

Skeleton Warriors
Undead infantry
15cm
d4
d6
1
N/A
5
5
Undead

Skeleton Horsemen
Undead infantry
25cm
d4
d6
1
N/A
5
7
Charge!; Undead

Sample Golden Alliance Army Sample Unholy Blight Army

3 Men-at-Arms regiments (15 points) 2 Orc Warriors regiments (10 points)

1 Knights of the Realm regiment (8 points) 4 Goblin Warriors regiments (8 points)

2 Elven Rangers regiments (12 points) 1 Battle Demons regiment (8 points)

1 Dwarven Stoneguard regiment (8 points) 1 Dark Knights regiment (10 points)

1 Soldiers of the Sun regiment (7 points) 2 Skeleton Horsemen regiments (14 points)

Total = 50 points Total = 50 points

ANTON MAKAROV (Order #14092140)

 Playing the Game
The armies are chosen and now it’s time to play. So,
how do you start?
Set Up Terrain
The first thing you should do is place some scenery
and terrain on the battlefield. Terrain includes thing
such as forests, hills, rivers, lakes, swamps, ruins,
buildings, fences and a myriad of other items. These
things have an effect on the battle, disrupting
movement and line of sight, and therefore play an
important role in the game.
Place as little or as much terrain as you wish across the
battlefield. You should probably aim for somewhere
between 3-6 pieces of terrain. Spread it out evenly; you
won’t know what side of the battlefield you will start
on, so it is important to be fair.
Determine Deployment Area
Once the terrain is placed you must figure out which
side of the battlefield you will deploy your army on.
Assign a number from 1-4 to each side of the
battlefield, and then roll 1 d4. The number you roll
corresponds to the side of the battlefield you will
deploy on.
Deploy Your Army
It is now time to gather up your regiments and place
them on the table. You may place your regiments
anywhere up to 30cm from the table edge you rolled in
ANTON MAKAROV (Order #14092140)
the previous step. You may place them anywhere
within this area and in any order.
Deploy The Enemy Army
The enemy army is deployed within 30cm of the table
edge directly opposite the edge you deployed on.
Usually you should place them right on the 30cm line.
To determine exactly where to place the enemy
regiments, divide the enemy deployment area into six
imaginary zones, each 20cm wide. Number these from
1-6. Now, pick the first regiment and roll 1 d6. Place
that regiment in the zone that corresponds with that
number. Do this until all of the enemy regiments have
been placed.
Start The Game!
It’s time to play! The game is played in a series of turns,
with a game lasting until both your enemy’s army and
your army have played five full turns.
Your enemy always gets the first turn of the game.
While this may seem unfair, it is done to actually give
the enemy a fighting chance. Not having an intelligent
mind controlling it is a disadvantage, so this goes
someone to balancing it out.
 Deployment Example
Activating Regiments
During each army’s turn, each regiment can be
‘activated’ once. Activating a regiment means to move
it or use one of its special abilities, such as Archery.
Each regiment can only be activated once during each
turn (unless a special rule specifically states otherwise).
Moving Regiments
The most common thing a regiment will do during its
turn is to move. This is done to either get closer to the
enemy or to position itself in a strategic position.
Regiments can move across the table a distance up to
their Speed Battle Stat. For instance, a regiment with a
Speed of 15cm could move 0-15cm during their turn.
If a regiment moves through a piece of terrain such as a
hill, forest or river, their Speed is halved for that turn.
This represents the difficulty of moving through rough
terrain in a coherent way.
Some terrain, such as cliffs, chasms, or lakes and seas,
cannot be moved through at all.
Regiments can move through other friendly regiments
if they are in the way. They cannot move through
enemy regiments.
ANTON MAKAROV (Order #14092140)
There are also some special rules that deal with
moving regiments. You can find the details of these in
the appropriate Special Rules section.
Pivoting
The above rules assume you are moving a regiment in
a straight line. This is not always the case and you will
often want to move around terrain and other regiments.
You do this by pivoting the regiment.
To pivot a regiment, simply rotate it around its middle
point so that it faces the direction you want. For every
45 degrees you rotate the regiment by, it costs the
regiment 5cm of it’s Speed for that turn.
A regiment can pivot at any point during its activation,
as long as it has enough Speed left to do so.
For example, a regiment with a Speed of 25cm could
move forward 7cm, pivot up to 45 degrees (costing
5cm of Speed), then continue to move forward another
13cm if they wished.
 Retreating
A regiment can also ‘retreat’, which means to move
directly backwards. Any regiment can do this by
moving up to 5cm directly backwards, regardless of
their normal Speed battle stat.
A regiment cannot pivot in any way during this move,
it must move directly backwards.
If the regiment moves through terrain, it may move no
more than 2.5cm during a retreat.
Fighting
When a regiment moves into contact with an enemy
regiment they must fight in hand-to-hand combat. This
is done immediately and both regiments fight, not just
the regiment that moved.
To fight the battle, follow these steps:
• Roll the Fight die for your regiment, followed by the
Fight die for the enemy regiment. Note down the
totals rolled for each regiment.
• If any of the following occurred, modify the Fight
rolls as stated:
• If a cavalry regiment is fighting an infantry
regiment, add +1 to the cavalry regiment’s
Fight roll.
• If a monster regiment is fighting an infantry or
cavalry regiment, add +1 to the monster
regiment’s Fight roll.
• If a regiment charged, add +1 to that
regiment’s Fight roll.
• If a regiment has been engaged to its side
instead of its front, deduct -2 from that
regiment’s Fight roll.
• If a regiment has been engaged to its rear
instead of its front, deduct -3 from that
regiment’s Fight roll.
• Determine the winner of the battle by finding out
who has the highest Fight roll, after all modifiers have
been added and subtracted. The winner of the battle
then proceeds to deal damage (see below).
• If the Fight rolls are equal, the battle is a tie. Move
both regiments backwards 2cm. Each regiment loses
1 Wound.
ANTON MAKAROV (Order #14092140)
Moving Into Battle
When a regiment moves into contact with an enemy
regiment, we say that it has ‘charged’ that regiment and
engaged it in battle. The regiments will now fight in
ferocious hand-to-hand battle, and this is the core part
of winning a game of Chronicles of Blood.
Once a regiment has engaged another regiment, those
two regiments fight a turn of hand-to-hand battle
immediately (see below). This is outside of the normal
activation sequence; even the unit that didn’t move
gets to fight in this case.
Dealing Damage
The winner of the battle now gets to deal damage to
the other regiment. Roll the winning regiment’s
Damage die, then subtract the losing regiment’s
Armour stat. If the unit dealing the damage charged,
add +1 to the damage. The result is how many Wounds
the losing regiment loses. Note that the losing regiment
will always lose at least 1 Wound, regardless of the
result of the dice roll.
For example: a regiment of Orc Warriors has won a
battle against a regiment of Men-at-Arms. After rolling
the Damage die for the Orc Warriors (d6) and scoring
a 5, you then subtract the Men-at-Arms’ Armour stat
(which is 2). This gives a total of 3, meaning the Men-
at-Arms lose 3 Wounds.
If a regiment loses enough Wounds to reduce it to 0, it
is removed from the table immediately.
If the losing regiment survives the battle, it is moved
backwards 2cm immediately.
 Morale Tests
Once all of the regiments in an army have been
activated and all fights have been fought, it is time to
make Morale tests.
A Morale test determines whether or not a regiment’s
courage holds in the face of adversity, or whether they
falter and flee the battlefield.
Any regiment that lost 1 or more Wounds during that
turn must make a Morale test. This is done by rolling
the Morale die for each regiment.
Winning the Game
Once each army has had 5 turns the game ends. It is
now time to determine the winner of the game. This is
done by determining how many Victory Points each
army scored.
Add up the points value of each enemy regiment that
has been removed from the battlefield. This is how
many Victory Points you scored.
ANTON MAKAROV (Order #14092140)
A Morale roll of 2 or more means the regiment holds
its ground, its courage holding them steady for now.
A Morale roll of 1 means the regiment flees. Their
courage wavers and they literally abandon the field of
battle, ignoring the shouts of their commanders.
Remove the regiment from the table.
Once all Morale tests have been taken and regiments
removed (if necessary), it is the next army’s turn.
Add up the points value of each of your regiments that
have been removed from the battlefield. This is how
many Victory Points the enemy scored.
Whoever has the most Victory Points wins the battle. If
the Victory Point scores are equal, the battle is also a
draw.
 The Enemy Turn
Due to the nature of the game, there are some rules
you need to abide by in order to make the game not
only fair, but also more challenging for yourself.
As stated earlier, the enemy army gets the first turn of
the game. When it comes to activating the enemy
regiments you must do it in the following way.
Start by activating the regiment with the highest points
value. After this, continue activating the enemy
regiments in order from highest points value to lowest.
If two or more regiments have the same points values,
you can choose which order they are activated in.
When you activate a regiment, check to see if there are
any special rules the regiment can use (such as
Archery). If they can, they will use there special rule.
If they have no special rules they can use, the regiment
will move towards the nearest regiment you control. It
will pivot and move as needed.

Your Turn

During your turn you are free to activate your
Your orders get mixed
regiments in any order, and use whatever special rules
they have if you wish; you do not have to use a special
rule if you don’t want to.
However, to further balance the game out, at the start
of each of your turns you must roll a d4. On a roll of 1,
you must roll on the Unexpected Events table below
(roll a d6). Remember this is only done during your
turn, not the enemy’s.
6. Miscommunication.
up and one of your regiments does something
unexpected. Randomly select a regiment by
rolling a die, then roll a d3 to determine what
the regiment does:
1. The regiment moves directly forward it’s full
Speed.
2. The regiment makes a retreat move.
3. The regiment stands still, not moving at all.

1. Downpour. A sudden dumping of rain across

the battlefield. All Archery special rules have
their ranges halved during your turn.
2. Ambush! One of your regiments (chosen
randomly) is ambushed by the enemy. The
regiment loses d4 Wounds.
3. Reinforcements. Randomly select an enemy
regiment that has been removed from the table.
Place that regiment on the enemy’s table edge.
It may act as normal on the next enemy turn.
4. Deserters. Your lowest points value regiment
flees the battle (remove it from the table).
5. Traitors. Choose one of your regiments with
the lowest points value. That regiment now
belongs to the enemy army and will activate
during the enemy turn.

ANTON MAKAROV (Order #14092140)

 Special Rules

This section contains the special rules available to some of the regiments within the Golden Alliance
and Unholy Blight armies. Further expansions will add new special rules.

Archery
Regiments with the Archery special rule have some sort
of ranged weapons such as bows, crossbows, slings or
throwing spears.
A regiment with this rule may shoot at an enemy
regiment within the distance listed in brackets with the
Archery special rule (eg, 60cm, 50cm, etc). The
shooting regiment must be able to draw a straight line
between it and the target, and this line must not pass
through terrain or other regiments.
If the target is in range and can be seen, roll the
shooting regiment’s Fight die. If the result is 3 or less
the majority of the shooting misses and no damage is
done.
Fly
Flying regiments glide across the battlefield,
unhindered by terrain that the foot troops must slog
through. Regiments with this special rule are not
slowed down by terrain and may move at full speed
through it.
Scout
Scouts are troops that advance across the battlefield
ahead of the main army. Before the first turn of the
battle, any regiments with the Scout rule may make
one move up to their Speed stat. They may not do
anything else other than move.

If the result is 4+ the shots hit. Roll a d6 for damage, Spears

and deduct the target’s Armour stat. If the shot was over
half of the Archery range away deduct a further -1 from
the damage. The remaining total is the number of
Wounds the target regiment loses.
Spears are effective weapons when used against
charging regiments. If a regiment with this rules is
charged by an enemy regiment, they may increase their
Fight die by one type (ie, from d6 to d8, or d8 to d10,
etc).

Charge!
Regiments with the Charge! special rule are devastating Undead
when they engage an enemy in battle. If a regiment
with this special rule charges an enemy regiment, they The Undead troops are mindless, brainless creatures
may increase their Fight and Damage die by one die incapable of feeling fear. They never have to take
type (ie, from d6 to d8, or d8 to d10, etc). Morale tests.

ANTON MAKAROV (Order #14092140)

 Appendix
You now have everything you need to play the game.
This final section offers some quick extras that you may
find interesting.
Two-Player Variant
It is possible to play Chronicles of Blood as a two-
player war game instead of a solo game. This is
remarkably simple to do.
The enemy army is played by a friend who does not
need to follow the rules for playing the enemy army.
Instead, both players following the rules for ‘Your Turn’.
To determine who sets up their army first, each player
should roll a d6, with the highest roller getting to
choose whether to deploy first or last. The army that
deploys first gets to have the first turn.
Software
If you do not have the room to play the game, there is
an excellent piece of software that will allow you to
play on your computer.
ANTON MAKAROV (Order #14092140)
Battle Chronicler is a free program used to simulate
battle reports for various game systems. However, it
can also be used to play games from various systems,
and Chronicles of Blood is no different.
The battlefield map on page 9 was made with Battle
Chronicler, which can be downloaded from http://
www.battlechronicler.com/
Mantic Games
Finally, if you are looking for some great miniatures to
purchase, look no further than Mantic Games. All of
the pictures of models within this book are from
Mantic Games, who have a diverse range of models
available. This range is expanding all the time, and
they are affordable and high quality; we recommend
Mantic Games if you wish to purchase models.
Mantic Games are found at http://
www.manticgames.com/