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Gears of War

Setup:
Player:
- Choose first player.
- Each player chooses a COG Character card. Take weapons, ammo and grenade tokens per
COG card.
- Draw order cards to maximum hand size. (6, except for Marcus who draws 7).

Game:
- Shuffle Order Card deck and Random Weapon deck, place on mission reference sheet.
- Select a mission – place mission cards on mission reference sheet in order of: set up, stage 1,
stage 2, etc.
- Location deck – Specified on mission set up card. Shuffle decks separately and place on
appropriate level space on mission reference sheet.
o If mission set up card shows a locked icon on the level, place a lock token on top of
the deck.

Locust: Per mission set up card:

- Find enemy cards – place on appropriate spaced on mission reference sheet.
- AI Deck: General AI cards plus AI cards for each enemy in the mission - shuffle deck and
place on mission reference sheet.

Map:
- Draw a card from level 1 location deck. Find the matching map tile and place it.
- Spawn locust at emergence holes as listed at bottom of location card per player count.
- Repeat this until location deck is finished. On the last location card exit – place a door.
- COG figures placed on entrance – open map edge with arrow. In order of play, players may
choose to place their COG in cover if available.

End of Game:
- Win: Must complete all of their Mission cards’ objectives. The objective on the final
Mission card lists what players need to do to win the game.
- Lose: Players lose the game if every COG figure is bleeding out.

Solo Rules:
- Player controls a single COG figure.
- Order Cards: If draw a card with a player restriction (e.g. 2+), may return to box and draw a
new order card.
- “Scattered” mission cannot be played solo.
- Reaction – Follow: Once per turn, discard to move one additional area during order step.

Insane Difficulty:
- When COG receives a wound, discard an order card at random.
- Locust figures in same area as bleeding out COG may attack them. No dice are rolled, player
is eliminated from the game.
o Player no longer takes a turn but continue to resolve their ‘locust step’.

Errata:
- Roadblocks stage 1 mission card, level 3 should read “5A, 12A, 16A”.

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Playing the game:

Active player: Following steps in order:

1. Heal:
- May draw up to two order cards. Cannot exceed hand limit.
- If order deck is exhausted, shuffle discards to make a new deck.

2. Orders:
- Must choose 1 order card and discard it to do one of:
i. Resolve action printed on card, or
1. Note - may use any or all printed actions, can only be performed in
order listed.
ii. Move up to 2 areas, or
iii. Perform 1 attack.
- Special Actions:
i. During this step may also discard additional cards to:
1. Revive bleeding out COG
2. Pick up dropped weapon
3. Activate equipment in area per ability listed on location card.
ii. May do each once per turn, discarding one card for each special action.
- Note: Actions must be fully resolved, cannot interrupt with other actions.

3. Locust activation
- Draw top card of locust AI deck and resolve.
- “You” – refers to active player.
- Closest COG – COG figure least amount of movement from activated locust figure.
- If multiple figures activated – player decides order in which they act. Resolve each
figure’s entire activation one at a time.
- Locust cannot attack COGs who are bleeding out.

4. Play then passes to next player.

Exploring:
Unlocked door:
- May be explored by COG in area at any point during order step for free.
- Interrupts the active players turn, e.g. may be done midway through movement.
- Remove door token from map and take the following steps:
i. Draw location card – top card of lowest number location deck.
ii. Place Map tile – per location card. Location card placed next to tile.
iii. Spawn Locusts – per location card. Reference number of players. Spawn the listed
figures at each emergence hole on the tile. Figures will enter cover if able.
iv. Repeat steps one to three until the location card deck is exhausted.
v. Place door – on final tiles exit.

Locked door:
- If lock token on top of location deck, players cannot explore.
- Locked tokens may be discarded by certain equipment and mission cards.

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Movement:
- Elevation change – cannot move through but doesn’t block line of sight.
- Doors – cannot move through, can be removed by explore action.
- Other figures – can move in and out of spaces with other figures with no penalty.

Attacking:

- Declare Defender:
i. Figure can only be attacked if in LOS
ii. If locust figure is attacking, active player selects defender.
- Determine Attack Dice:
i. COG: Choose weapon card and take attack dice equal to weapon attack value.
ii. Locust: Number of attack dice specified on enemy card.
- Determine Defence Dice:
i. Target figure’s defence value, plus
ii. Cover: +1 if partial, +2 if full cover, plus
iii. Range: +1 for each area out of range
- Roll Dice:
i. Roll attack and defence dice
ii. Resolve triggered abilities (e.g. omen)
- Deal Wounds:
i. Number of wounds vs number of shields.
ii. Omens don’t count as wounds – unless trigger ability that deals wounds.

Line of Sight (LOS), Range and Cover:

LOS:
- COG/Locust can only attack figures that they have LOS for.
- LOS is a straight line, uninterrupted by black walls.
- Not in cover – figure considered to be anywhere in its area for LOS.
- In cover – LOS must go through at least one of the figure’s cover symbols <>.
i. Both in cover - <> symbol to <> symbol.
ii. One in cover - <> symbol to figures area.

Range:
- Count of areas required to move from current area to target area.
i. If attacking beyond maximum range, defender +1 defence die for each area outside
range.

Cover:
- After finishing movement, may enter cover for free.
- Only one figure in each cover space.
- Locust with “take cover” icon automatically move into cover after moving/spawning. If
multiple cover spaces – must select the cover space providing largest bonus should nearest
COG figure attack.
- Cover provides a defensive bonus to both COG and Locust figures.
i. Full Cover – if LOS traces through < > cover arrow, defender +2 defence dice.
ii. Partial Cover - if LOS doesn’t trace through < > cover arrow, defender +1 defence
dice.
iii. Bonus not gained if attacker is in his area.

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Weapons:

Limits:
- Each COG limited to 4 weapons: a Bolo Grenade and 3 other weapons.
- No limit on ammo tokens.
- A player may discard a weapon card at any time, returning it to the game box (excepting
bolo grenades).
- Players may not exchange weapons.

Range:
- Max distance of attack without provided defender with additional dice, +1 for each area out
of range.

Constant abilities:
- Abilities or restrictions of carried weapons - Italicised, always in effect.
- As long as a player has a weapon card, he must follow its constant ability (e.g. may restrict
movement).

Triggered Abilities:
- May only be used once for each omen is rolled unless otherwise stated.
- If triggered ability deals wounds, this is added to the wounds rolled on dice.

Ammo:
- Each weapon lists normal and overkill attack values. To use overkill, must discard an ammo
token.
- A weapon with no ammo tokens cannot be used for normal or overkill attacks (unless
otherwise stated).

Bolo Grenades:
- Must discard a grenade token to attack with bolo grenades. Ammo tokens do not apply.
- Range: Cannot attack beyond a range of 2.
- Attack: Target an area, roll once and the result is applied to all figures in the area.
i. May use dodge before attack die are rolled.
- Defence: Each figure in the area rolls defence and takes wounds separately.
i. Includes any COG figures in the area.
ii. Cover provides no defence against bolo grenades.
- Cannot be used to guard.
- May be used to seal emergence holes with triggered ability.

FAQ:
- Mulcher only slows movement during a players turn, may still follow other COGS as normal.
- Cannot use guard reaction with Torque Bow if the player moved the during same turn.
- Cannot use Bolo Grenades when wielding the Boomshield.
- Cannot attack nothing.
- Troika Heavy MG: Use once per turn; Only targets one Locust; Any Omens rolled are ignored.

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Wounds:
Health Value: Value on enemy card if healthy, value on wound marker if wounded.

Each Locust figure has two states:

- Healthy – no wound marker under base
- Wounded – a single wound marker under base

Wounded:
- If a locust figure is dealt a number of wounds less than its health value it becomes wounded,
a wound marker is placed under its base. The value on the marker is now its health.
i. If a wounded locust is dealt a number of wounds less than its health value, it is not
killed or wounded, instead it retains its wound marker.

Killed:
- If a locust figure is dealt a number of wounds equal to or more than its health value it is
killed. Remove the figure and place a dropped weapon in its area (reverse side of wound
marker, discard if marker shows a ‘X’).

Healed: If a locust figure is healed, discard its wound marker.

Beserker:
- First time wounded – marker placed with high value (5) shown.
- Second time wounded - marker placed with low value (3) shown.
- Never drops weapons.
- Healthy Beserker can only be wounded/killed if attacked with Hammer of Dawn.
- Can attack unwounded berserker with any weapon, but only Hammer of Dawn will deal
wounds. Other weapons only work on wounded berserkers.

COG Figures:
- COG’s health is equal to the number of cards in hand.
- On receiving wounds, discard one order card, player’s choice, per wound.
- If dealt a wound, but have no cards to discard, COG is bleeding out.

Bleeding out:
- If dealt a wound, but have no cards to discard, COG is bleeding out.
- A COG can have zero cards but not be bleeding out until he receives one more wound.
- Lay COG figure down to indicate this.
- AI cards ignore, and Locust cannot attack COGs who are bleeding out.
- NOTE: Cannot draw order cards while bleeding out.
- Players turn:
i. Start of turn – may crawl one area.
ii. Heal and COG order steps skipped.
iii. Locust activation resolved as normal.
i. Active player still makes choices on card, if AI card refers to ‘you’, active
player selects another COG.

Reviving a COG:
- COG may revive bleeding out COG in his area, before or after resolving an action, by
discarding an order card.
- COG figure is stood up. He will have zero order cards in hand and can now be targeted by
locusts.

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Dropped Weapon Markers:

- When Locust is killed, its wound marker is reversed and placed in its area.
- If the marker shows an ‘X’, discard it.
- Pick up dropped weapon: Before or after resolving an action, a COG figure in same space,
may discard an order card to:
i. Pick up weapon
1. Take the depicted weapon from the special weapon deck along with two
ammo tokens.
2. If no copies are left, take top card from random weapon deck.
ii. Pick up ammo
1. If player already has this weapon, receive two ammo tokens for this weapon.
(Applies whenever a player would receive a second copy of a weapon).

Reaction Abilities:
- Players may discard an order card to use the reaction ability shown in upper left corner.
- When using reaction ability, all actions on the order card are ignored.

Guard
- Discard during Locust Activation step to attack one enemy before it moves or attacks.
- Limit: Players collectively limited to one guard reaction per locust activation step.
- Can interrupt Locust movement.
- Guard reaction may be used when a locust enters an area, but before he enters cover.
- Cannot target locust that is neither moving nor attacking.
- May use any weapon per normal attack rules, excluding Bolo Grenades.
- After guard is resolved, continue AI card resolution.

Dodge
- When attacked, discard to roll two additional defence dice.
- Must be done before attack dice are rolled.
- Limit: One dodge reaction for each attack.

Follow
- When a COG moves out of another COG’s area, may discard to move figure along with
the moving figure, ending up in same final area.
- COGs may start in same area or be passing through.
- COGS may then take cover per usual rules.

Guard And Berserker:

- If AI card targets COG in its area, it will not move towards COG attacks from Guard reaction.
Only exception to the rule, moves as normal for all other guard and normal attacks.

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Clarifications

Locust:
- Spawn: If not enough locust figures to spawn specified type must spawn most powerful
figure type available. If all figures in play, no locust is spawned.
- Cover: Locust will take cover before attacking (if able).
- Spawn: If Locust spawned during activation step, the new Locust will also activate if
requirements met.
- Range: Locust can attack COG at any range without penalty. Unless specified on AI card.

General:
- “Flip When” – immediately flip when conditions are met.
- Levels: Location decks; Stages: Mission cards
- Table Secrecy: Cannot show order cards to other players, can look through mission deck at
any time.
- Adjacency: Includes diagonal and orthogonal areas.
- Component limitations: Tokens unlimited; Cards: Reshuffle discards; Figures: If run out of a
locust figure type, spawn the next most powerful available. If run out, no locust is spawned.

Orders:
- Can use Scavenging order to gain 1 ammo token for Hammer of Dawn.
- Cannot Ambush with a weapon with 0 ammo.
- Can Ambush, attacking with Hammer of Dawn without spending its ammo token.
- If active player plays Team Work, player 2 plays Sit Tight – then Locust activation skipped
this turn.

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