How to Play
Lich's Horde

Four waves. Four Monsters per wave. Roll dice, destroy armour and hold the line until dawn.

Watch a tutorial video, download the full rule book or read on for a quick-play summary.

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How to play video

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Download

The rules for free

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For the full experience

STEP ONE

Setup

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1. Prepare Dice

Put all the dice in a pile to the side, known as the dice pool.

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2. Prepare Monster Decks

Shuffle the monster cards and deal four piles of four face-down cards in a horizontal line in front of you.

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3. Prepare Mentor Deck

Shuffle the mentor cards and place them face-down to the left of the monster Decks.

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4. Prepare Armour Deck

Shuffle the armour cards and place them face-down below the mentor deck.

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5. Prepare Health

Place the two health Tokens at 30 on the health tracker: one for your current (red) and one for your maximum (black) health.

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6. Advance

Summon the first wave.

STEP TWO

Summon Wave

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1. Reveal Monsters

Turn over the top card of each monster deck, showing the four monsters in the wave: these might be any combination of Skeletons, Zombies, Ghouls or Wraiths.

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2. Deal Mentors

1st Wave: no mentors, skip to Summon Wave step 4.
2nd: a mentor above the left-most and right-most monster; they gain its skill.
3rd: a mentor for each monster, granting thier skills.
4th: as the 3rd, plus monsters also gain their mentor's trait.

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3. Enrage Monsters

If a monster matches its mentor's suit, rotate it 45°. It is enraged and will deal extra damage.

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4. Reset Armour Deck

Shuffle the armour discard, if any, back into the armour deck.

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5. Deal Armour

Deal each monster face-up armour equal to its armour count: Skeleton 1, Zombie 2, Ghoul 3, Wraith 4.

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6. Enchant Armour

If an armour matches its monster's suit, rotate it 45°. Enchanted armour offers double protection.

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7. Advance

Start a new combat round.

STEP THREE

Combat Rounds

1. Player Phase

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a. Prepare

Take and roll 5 dice from the dice pool, add them along with any reserves (without re-rolling) to your attack dice. Each die has an attack value equal to its face-up number.

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b. Attack

While you have attack dice left, spend them to damage armour depending on the armour's type:

Brittle Armour has a defence equal to the card's rank, doubled if enchanted. Any die deals damage equal to its attack value; once the armour has taken damage equal or above its defence, it is destroyed.

Durable Armour has a weak-spot equal to its rank (Aces are 1). Only a die exactly matching the weak-spot can be spent on it, but one die destroys it or two if enchanted.

When all of a monster's armour is destroyed, the monster is defeated and goes to the monster discard pile, and its mentor (if any) goes to the mentor discard.

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c. Reserve

You may keep up to 2 unspent attack dice in reserve. They are saved as extra dice for the next player phase. Reserves can carry over between waves.

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d. Discard

All remain (unspent, unreserved) attack dice return to the dice pool.

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e. Advance

If any monsters remain, go to the monster phase. Otherwise the wave is cleared: after the 4th wave you win, else you rest.

2. Monster Phase

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a. Damage

Each remaining monster deals 1 damage, +1 if enraged, and +2 if dangerous. Reduce your current health by the total.

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b. Resolve Mentors

Resolve the repair skill and regenerating trait for any remaining monsters.

See below.

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c. Partial Recharge

Rotate items in your inventory towards upright by 45°.

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d. Advance

At zero or less health you lose the game. Otherwise start a new combat round.

MENTORS

Skills & Traits

A monster learns the skill of their mentor.

Necrolyte

These were good Aetherborn or Human folk once, now tainted by the madness of the Lich.

Repair

The monster removes all damage dealt to its armour during the monster phase. It does not replace armour that has already been destroyed.

Hag

Decendants of the Old Ones, corrupted by the Mad Aether over the millenia.

Amplify

The monster also enchants armour of the same suit colour (red hearts & diamonds, black spades & clubs), not just the same suit.

Death Knight

Fallen heroes who retained fragments of their past skills after reanimation, now fully under the Lich's control.

Protect

Attack dice cannot be spent on the monster's durable armour while it still has brittle armour remaining.

In Wave 4, the monster also gains the Trait from their mentor's suit.

Hearts

Represents a mentor has a strong connection to their necrotic energies.

Regeneration

If the monster has fewer than 5 armour cards remaining, draw a new one. If the armour deck is empty you are Overrun and lose.

Diamonds

Represents a mentor has protected the monster with an revival ward.

Resistive

When its last armour is destroyed, discard the mentor instead of defeating the monster, then re-deal armour equal to its armour count.

Spades

Represents the mentor 's dominating presence.

Imposing

You cannot damage the armour of monsters adjacent to an imposing monster, unless those monsters are also imposing.

Clubs

Represents the mentor has superior weapon training techniques.

Dangerous

The monster deals an additional 2 damage in each monster phase.

STEP FOUR

Rest

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1. Prepare

Shuffle the monster discard, then draw 3 cards face-up as the available loot.

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2. Loot

Select 1 card from the loot and convert it into the item matching the icon on the card, placing it upright and face-up in your inventory. Wraiths carry no loot.

Check out the Items page for rules about your sweet new loot

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3. Full Recharge

Flip all face-down Items face-up and return rotated items upright.

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4. Heal

Flip any number of upright, face-up items face-down. Roll 1 die plus 1 extra per item flipped and add the total to your current health, up to your maximum.

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5. Finalise

Return the unselected loot to the monster discard.

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