Overview

Tiny Epic Defenders is a little like Castle Panic, except the monster don't move--you do. Newly united races must defend the kingdom of Aughmoore from demons, ending in a confrontation with a final boss.

Setup

First, each player chooses their heroes. If playing solo, you choose two heroes. Each has a different special ability and 4 HP.

The gameboard is arranged with one card, the Capital City, in the center and six other cards (known as the outer regions) around it. Each region has a "threat counter" (the fire) that shows how close the region is to falling.

There are three decks of cards: the Horde Deck, the Turn Deck, and the Artifact Deck. On each turn, a card is drawn from the Turn deck, which indicates whether a hero can act or a region's threat level is increased.

Gameplay

The heroes start in the Capital City. On each turn, a card is drawn from Turn Deck. There are two types of cards--ones where the enemy acts, ones where one or all heroes can act. When the Turn Deck is depleted, a new round begins.

Enemy and Dire Enemy Cards

Each enemy card depicts 2 regions where an attack occurs. If an Attack occurs in a region with no Defender OR the Defender in the region chooses not to defend, the threat level is increased by 1.

If a hero is in that region at the time, they can lose 1 HP to defend it and prevent the threat level from rising.

If the region's threat level goes beyond its maximum (usually 3), the region is destroyed. Heroes can still travel to the region and defend it but cannot use its special ability. When an enemy card depicting a destroyed region is drawn, the threat level is raised on the Capital City.

A Dire Enemy card is resolved the same way as a regular Enemy card, except that A) they only attack 1 region B) Defending the region costs 2 HP instead of 1, but you get an Artifact C) If the region is not Defended, a special effect triggers in addition to the threat level being raised.

Defender Cards

Defender cards indicate which heroes may act on a turn. Each card gives 3 Action Points (4 if one region is destroyed) to spend, either on the single hero or divided between all heroes.

Defenders that start their turn/action in the Capital City get all HP restored.

Defender Actions

Each of these costs 1 Action Point

• Move: Move to an adjacent region.
• The Capital City can only be accessed by the regions to its left and right.
• The 4 regions above and below the Capital City can only be accessed from the regions to the left and right of the Capital City, but can be traversed in a circle from there.
• Secure: Reduce a non-destroyed region's threat level by 1
  • The Capital City cannot be secured except by a special ability
• Sacrifice: Pay 1 HP to gain 1 Action Point
  • Can only be done once per turn
• Special Ability: Regions, characters, and artifacts may have special abilities that use Action Points
• Fight: If the Epic Foe is on the board, and is in the same region as a Defender, that Defender can reduce its HP by 1.

Exhaustion (0 HP)

When a Defender's HP reaches 0, they cannot use the Secure, Fight, or Defend actions. They can still Move and Use character abilities and artifacts. To restore all HP, a Defender must start their turn in the Capital City.

Artifacts

Artifacts are gained by using the Defend action against Dire Enemy cards. Each Defender can have 2 "hand" artifacts and 1 "back" artifact. If the Defender gains an artifact but cannot hold it, they can choose to drop an existing one or not. Either way, the discarded artifact is shuffled back into the Artifact deck.

New Round

When the Turn Deck is depleted, the cards are shuffled and restored PLUS 1 card from the Horde Deck. The very last card in the Horde Deck is an Epic Foe that must be defeated to win the game.

Epic Foe

When the Horde Deck is depleted, an Epic Foe is added to the deck. When drawn, it is placed in its indicated region. Defenders gain a new action: Fight, which reduces the Epic Foe's HP by 1.

Each Epic Foe has a different ability that makes it difficult to fight.

Some Epic Foes invoke Epic Events when their HP reaches a certain level.

Game End

A game ends in victory if the Epic Foe's HP is reduced to 0.

A game ends in defeat when the Capital City is destroyed (when its threat level goes over capacity).