Welcome to Palisades, a 2 player medieval strategy war game.

It is played with a board that represents the battlefield, tokens to represent your armies, & dice to simulate random outcomes.

Your objective is to surround or capture the enemy Commander. To achieve this, you will expand your army, set up defenses, & lay siege upon the enemy.

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GAMEPLAY: BASICS

At the start of every turn, both players roll dice to determine who goes 1st.

The winner of a dice roll gets to go 1st & move twice, then the other player goes 2nd & moves only once.

Regardless of how many moves you get to perform however, each player can only deploy 1 Officer on their turn.

The match concludes when one of the Commanders is defeated.

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GAMEPLAY: MOVES

Here are the moves you can perform:

• Deploy

Select an empty tile within reach to deploy a unit there. Officers can only be deployed once per turn.

• Attack

Select an enemy within reach to attack him, as long as it’s a valid move.

• Replace

Select a linked allied Officer to replace him.

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UNITS: OFFICERS

When deciding on what Officers to deploy & where to place them, you should take their abilities into consideration.

An Officer’s abilities are the following:

• Adding to your number of Dice.

• Shielded: Harder to kill, but can be killed by Bloodthirsty siege units.

• Bloodthirsty: Can kill anything, including Shielded enemies.

Officers come in 4 variants:

• The Paladin    ()

He is Shielded & Bloodthirsty, but does not contribute to your number of Dice.

Best placed in the most challenging locations. He thrives in the thick of the action.

•  The Archer    ()

Contributes the most to your number of dice, but is neither Shielded nor Bloodthirsty.

Best kept away from direct combat, to better support your troops from the rear.

•  The Knight    ()

Bloodthirsty. Contributes to your number of dice.

Best used for leading the charge, & breaking through enemy defenses.

• The Tower    ()

Shielded. Contributes to your number of dice.

Best used for fortifying defensive objectives, & keeping your other units safe.

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UNITS: COMMANDER

The Commander  is your most important unit.

His role is to coordinate & relay commands to your troops. Make sure your units are always linked to your Commander, otherwise they won't be able to receive new orders.

Combat-wise, he is identical to the Tower, being Shielded but not Bloodthirsty (). Therefore he is naturally protected from most enemy threats, but is not invulnerable.

To defeat an enemy Commander, you can kill him with a Bloodthirsty ally.

Alternatively, you can surround him with Shielded allies. Since he’s not Bloodthirsty, he would be trapped & forced to surrender.

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DICE

Winning at dice lets you go 1st & grants you an extra move, so it’s best to maximize your chances of winning at dice by increasing your dice quantity.

This is done by fielding certain Officers on the board:

• Each Archer adds 1 dice to your Initiative Roll (approx. 50% of Rolls)

• Each Knight adds 1 dice to your Assault Roll (approx. 25%)

• Each Tower adds 1 dice to your Defense Roll (approx. 25%)

The dice winner is determined by the dice with the highest value, rather than the sum of dice values.

(This way, the player with a lower dice quantity would still have a fighting chance.)

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TURN ORDER

Every odd turn (1st, 3rd etc.) starts with an Initial Dice Check, where both players roll for Initiative.

Every even turn (2nd, 4th etc.) starts with a Combat Dice Check. Here, the winner of the previous Initial Check rolls for Assault, whereas the other player rolls for Defense.

It is wise to keep the turn order in mind when performing moves.

For instance, if the next turn will start with an Initial Check, you might want to kill enemy Archers, and/or deploy your own Archers this turn.

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Test your cunning against your opponent's. Your mind is your weapon.

Happy gaming!