This article will go trough the existing Tabletopia leader pairs and correct any possible rule misunderstandings related to the four match ups currently available for Warsaken.
I will start by covering some generic game related rules community or I have gotten wrong so far, thanks to some clarifications made by the main developer of Warsaken, Brandon.
Gameplay rule clarifications
Official Warsaken Mulligan rule
According to Brandon, Warsaken's official Mulligan rule ( re-drawing of starting hand) Is as follows:
Both players can re-draw their hand once for free.
If they do not like their hand, they can re-draw again, but opponent gets one extra card to their starting hand.
If they re-draw third time, they forfeit the game.
Producing resources
Previous belief: Not being able to produce during production phase would mean you always lose those resources that turn. According to Brandon that is not how it works.
Once turn reaches production phase, territories are constantly trying to produce resources. This means that if a condition exists that prevents resource production ( Such as Freezing rainstorm card), if that card is removed, even during play phase, territories immediately produce resources, despite being unable to do so during production phase.
This means if a player being affecter by a weather card is able to draw a weather using any means during their turn ( Such as : natural draw, or cards effects like rummage and field research, dispatched agent or leader ability), they can trigger production by playing a weather and removing opponent's weather during play phase.
Morale win condition
One of the ways to compromise a leader is to reduce their morale to zero.
Once leader is compromised, the status stays even if the leader re-gains morale ( by card effect that allows and is usable with 0 morale).
This means that regaining morale does not prevent your leader from getting attacked, they stay vulnerable, unless the effect that does so ( example -Awati), mentions it.
Intel and other periodic gains and losses from cards and effects
All card's effects that activate every turn, trigger when ready cards would be flipped over, which is the timer reduction phase. This means cards that grant you intel ( or other effects), also activate during timer reduction, if they already are ready.
Similarly resource production units will produce once when ready and next turn onward, will only produce during the production phase.
Countdown timers and Required timers
Countdown timers, such as leader abilities and G-titan missile silo or Seized deposit pirate, reduce their timers during reduction phase. However, player is unable to use these abilities until their Play phase, even if they are ready.
Required timers ( the one with red circle), such as Hoard of resources and shadow torture facility, are reduced during reduction phase and MUST solve when their timer hits zero. This means these effects will go off during reduction phase and before production phase.
Territory cards with special effects
Tapletopia setup for Warsaken makes it's easier for people to start the game, which means some mechanics do not reflect real rules.
Example: cards such as : Mt. Pome Orchards, that say "SUPPLY : Produce two extra resources on your first turn." Do not have these bonus resources available until the first turn of said player, despite being visible on the board from start.
Additionally, as the resources are extra resources, they are not affected by cards that double resource production, such as Ideal conditions weather card.
Exception to this rule are effects that increase leader morale, these effects always are added before match begins.
Edit for clarity : And do not play again even if ownership of the territory swaps.
Taking control and transferring control of a force card
Any card that swaps sides during the game, be it from it's own effect or from opponent's, is eliminated before they appear on the controllers side.- Brandon
This has a lot of implications.
*Example *: taking control of brainwashed card eliminates the card, this means the original owner of that card takes the morale penalty of brainwash when that card is returned to their field by control effect.
Additionally, as cards activate their abilities when they enter play, when they swap sides they are considered eliminated on their original side and entering the game again on the controllers side.
This means effects such as resource production and Pick-of activate *immediately *once the card enters the play again. Only card so far that has an effect that is not re-activated by this mechanic is Agent Nika Devin and MOLE.
(So yes, Stealing a resource unit with 4 resource cards will make it lose those 4 resources, but it will produce resources again immediately after swapping sides)
Attacking and defending
All attackers specify their targets before defenders assign defenders.
This means attackers can't target cards that can't be specified ( such as G-titan missile silo), however defenders can block attackers that can't be specified, as long as other conditions to block them apply ( stealth vs stealth and so on).
Additionally, any effect that allows targeting of a card ( leader, Underground bunker) created as result of attack does not come to play until the battle phase is over. This means compromising leader or territory during battle prevents attacker from attacking said targets. This rule however, only works on battle Phase, if you compromise a leader or make territory targetable BEFORE battle phase ( leader ability, G-titan so on), you can target them normally during battle phase.
Buildings and ability to block Stealth Units. Added: 8.4.2022
Brandon, Direct quote :
"This is one of those things where the theme has to play second fiddle to the mechanics of the game. Buildings are not forces and will never have stealth. If they can take away a force's stealth ability then they can block like normal if they have ANTI-(TYPE)."
Translation : Buildings can't block stealth units, unless stealth is removed by other effect, ie Stealth land units ignore Mines.
Discard pile
All cards in discard pile are always face up, this means both players can check their own or opponent's discard pile when they need to, although needlessly using time to do so is discouraged.
Let's take a look at the Tabletopia leader pairs and cards in those pairs that might need explanation.
As we progress in this list, all cards with same mechanics on different deck's won't be explained again, if there's a card ruling you are unsure of, check the earlier pairs, that rule likely is already explained.
Chancellor Lockwood Vs Premier Zoff
Premier Zoff: PUSH " Find a specific drone force in your arsenal, show it, put it with your legion. Shuffle your arsenal."
All card's that place unit's to legion that do not use word "ready" follow the card's preparation time. This mean's card's with 0 prepation time such as G6-R75 Drone, come to play face up, while cards with timer such as GR Ultimate come to play face down with a timer. You do not pay the costs for these cards.
Chancellor Lockwood & Nuclear blast
"For each enemy, eliminate a specific territory; 2 of their others each take 50 damage."
The player using Lockwood's ability or Nuclear Blast decides the two territories that take 50 damage.
Goliath 65 "PICK-OFF : Eliminate a specific enemy force this could block in battle."
Pick-off mechanic plays when card is ready, during timer reduction phase.
If there are no forces that the card with this effect would be able to target, the effect is wasted. " Could block in battle" means unit this force card could theoretically block in single 1 v 1 battle during Battle phase, in case of Goliath, this means land forces without stealth.
X6 Scorpion and Apex-55 Mech "ANTI-AIR Can block air forces; blocked bombers are eliminated. Air forces don't damage this."
All unit's with ANTI-AIR mechanic are unable to target stealth air units, unless they have stealth or the stealth mechanic is removed from enemy forces.
**Advanced Detection facility : ** "+1 Intel per turn, SEEK enemy legions lose stealth."
SEEK mechanic is always active until the source of the effect ( in this case Advanced detection facility) is eliminated, or other effect suppresses it.
XT-T APC "DEPLOY 3 - Find soldier forces in your arsenal, show them, and put them in your hand. Shuffle your arsenal."
Earlier community opinion was that the Deploy mechanic only let's you pick the units that first come up fitting the criteria, according to Brandon, this is not how this mechanic works.
All unit's with Deploy mechanic let you go trough your entire deck and pick any soldier units of your choosing up to the number mentioned in the card.
G-titan Missile: "LAUNCH a specific enemy territory, building or leader takes damage equal to the attack value.
COVERT : Enemies can't specify this."
LAUNCH mechanic can't target unit's that can't be specified, such as territory defended by Hyper defense barrier or Leader that is uncompromised.
COVERT Means opponent can't target this card with effects, abilities or attacks. Attacks are specified, defenders are assigned. This means force card's with covert CAN be blocked by defenders if other mechanic they have does not prevent this ( such as CLOAK on 77X). In this match up, it also means Zoff can't use Calculated stagnation to delay G-titan timers.
Terrifying storm : "
Each territory and building takes 30 damage"
All weather cards with damage mechanics only affect both players once.
Additionally, Effects that target everything that fits described criteria, can damage cards protected by COVERT, is they target a type not a specific card.
Cut Corners " -2 morale * Decrease a specific non-leader timer by 1."
User of this card pays the morale cost. This card works on ANY card with timer except a leader, this includes territories, buildings and force cards that are not ready. Can target own units and cards.
Calculated stagnation "*Increase specific non-leader timer by 1."
As above. Can target own units and cards. Can't target COVERT.
Relentless raid "4 specific enemy territories each take 100 damage."
Previous community impression was that this card let's you pick your targets, as example, specify one territory 4 times for total of 400 damage or target two territories for 200.
According to Brandon, the intended effect is " Damage's four different territories by 100 each, the wording "specific" is here for multiplayer, as you might want to target territories of more than one player." This means for 1 v 1 match, this card does 100 damage to all four enemy territories.
Roman Volkov, the exile Vs Zain Lione
**Roman Volkov, the exile : Cycle : each enemy returns a card from their legion to their hand, discards a card, then Draws a card.
This ability returns** any** card in the enemy legion to hand, which means it can be used on face down cards that are still preparing such as forces and buildings and even enemy spy units on your side of the field such as Nika. ( who when discarded goes to the Discard of the side where she was at, this has card set two functions)
Additionally, this ability can't be used on resource cards in the legion area as per official rules.
Zain lione : RANSOM Take control of a specific force with a turn cost <2; turn it face down. The owner must pay 1 resource to regain control on their next turn or eliminate it.
The resource paid can be of any type. Once ransom is paid, card returns to the game ready, and not in a condition it was in ( such as returning). "Flipped card is always ready - Brandon".
If the card ransomed has effects that activate when flipped, they activate again once ransom is paid. Additionally, all cards that are ransomed lose anything attached to them when they are flipped face down ( resources, tokens, Brainwash).
Colossal Warehouse "Attach unspent resources to this; they become any type. Enemies can't specify them"
This means all unspent resources that the card owner has on the field when this card becomes ready and all resources they produce later are attached to this card. Only resources currently used to pay card costs (placed under units that are not ready), do not attach to this card.
Yes, this means every turn this is intact, all production goes to this card and those resources can be used to pay any cost in 1 : 1 ratio. Additionally, this also means the player of this card can't stop this effect and should warehouse be eliminated, they will lose ALL attached resources.
Max Harper "TERRITORIAL Eliminate all other supplier forces."
TERRITORIAL works even on the supplier providing it, meaning if you play a supplier such as Max Harper, when another Max Harper is on the legion, the Max Harper already in play gets eliminated.
Violent tornado : "Air forces can't attack or block. Each player discards the top 3 cards of their arsenal"
The discard effect plays once when the weather is played. The Effect affecting force units stays for both players turns unless weather is removed.
Restored Vechile "Find a specific discarded army, navy or air force with a turn cost <2; show it; put it with your legion."
This card can be used to target any discard pile, user's or the opponents. Additionally as with all " put your legion" mechanics, no cost is paid but ready time does apply ( so card with ready time of 1 comes to play face down, ready time 0 face up).
Agent Nika Devin "- 1 intel per turn, + 1 owner intel per turn, MOLE A specific enemy takes control of this and it must attack each turn".
This card works as follows :
When played - the person using this card gets -1 intel, then they gain + 1 intel, after this the card gets eliminated and enters selected enemy's side, then that enemy loses -1 intel, and the person who owns the card gets +1 intel. Then the card produces - 1 intel penalty to person holding it and gives a +1 intel bonus to the player who owns the card every turn during timer reduction phase of the player who's legion Nika's at.. Mole triggers only once when the card is first played, it does not trigger again after entering to play on enemy side. - Brandon.
Additionally, if Nika is targeted by Volkov's cycle when on Lione's side, she returns to Lione's hand and can be discarded to Lione's discard pile.
Advanced weather station "Find and eliminate 2 weathers from an enemy arsenal. They shuffle their arsenal."
This card allows full arsenal search, then the person who played Advanced weather station, gets to select two weathers from their enemys arsenal and discard them. This effect plays only once for each weather station, when the station becomes ready.
Stolen blueprints "Discard 2 building, army, navy or air forces in a specific enemy arsenal. They shuffle their arsenal"
This card let's you search entire enemy arsenal then pick any combination of two cards that fit the described criteria, such as 1 navy and 1 building card. To quote Brandon " This card let's you pick the best options for your win condition".
Final devotion "Attach this to a specific soldier force in your legion. If that force hits a territory, eliminate it and eliminate the force this is attached to."
Edit : 23.4 correction ( after tournament ) : Card attacking with Final devotion has to have attack value, act of hitting is not act of touching territory, it has to deal damage to trigger this effect, so for example Nika can't trigger Final devotion.
If all units this card could attach to get eliminated or controlled before the effect is ready, this effect is lost and the card gets eliminated.
Instill fear "-2 MORALE to specific enemy. A specific enemy's non-drone forces can't block during the next battle".
This card affects the entire battle phase, not just single one force vs one force battle. Meaning, unless enemy controls drone's they can't block at all during next battle phase.
Barrels of crude and hoard resources.
Specification : As these cards have timers that expire, they get eliminated during reduction phase when the timer runs out, this means they can't produce the turn they get eliminated.
Additionally, all cards with timers ( Seized Depots, Barrels of Crude, hoard of resources), do not reduce timers if the player owning the territory is the first player. This also means Seized depots can't use their ability to steal resource or produce generic resource, if the player owning that territory plays first.
Great Emperor Shang Lee vs Governor Key
**Governor Key ** "HYPERSONIC STRIKE For each enemy, a specific territory takes 350 damage, a specific territory takes 100 damage, 2 other territories take 50 damage."
User of this ability can target both the 350 damage and 100 damage to same territory, however the other 50 damage increments have to target different territories and can't target the territories that were specified earlier.
*Great Emperor Shang Lee "CUNNING : All soldier forces in your legion have a 2 x attack value for each enemy and up to 4 of them are unblockable this turn"
The enemy here means enemy players, not enemy force's.
CUNNING affects all bonuses and attack values, this means it doubles temporary effects such as Chemical augmentation and Clan temple as well.
The four unit's that are unblockable have to be decided when the ability is used.
Borblue natural Gas site: "If eliminated, your territories each take 50 damage."
This effect activates after the territory is eliminated, which happens at the end of battle phase not during battle phase.
Clan temple "+2 morale "
According to official rules, if a morale goes to 0 it can't be increased. This means that Clan temple is unable to increase morale from 0 to +2 if leader is compromised.
Corporal Mark Rockwell "CRACK SHOT Hits first in battle"
First in battle, refers to the battle between two force cards, not the battle phase.
Diversionary tactics "A specific enemy can't block during the next battle."
Same as with Instill fear, affects entire battle phase.
Raxius Geothermal Zone "Gain 1 morale if this produces generic resource".
This effect works with any effect that allows you to produce one generic with this territory. In this match up Overtime production : "Your territories produce 1 extra resource." effect does allow you to select generic as a choise for Raxius Geothermal Zone, and as such gives you +1 morale, even if you have used this effect before this turn. This also allows you to regain morale AFTER your morale has hit zero, however, your leader still stays compromised even if morale is gained in this way.
President Zeana Vs Thato Lathabo
Thato Lathabo "HEIST For each enemy, take control of a specific territory in their legion."
As controlled targets, including territories, are considered eliminated, the target of this ability pays the full morale cost of the territory stolen. The the territory then heals to full health and comes under Thato's control. If the territory gets destroyed, Lathabo Pays the Morale cost, additionally, this territory does not count towards the original four territories that need to be eliminated to compromise Thato Lathabo. The territory produces resources normally and can be affected by effects that affect resource production. It does not apply it's changes to morale during the swap, these play out before game starts during setting of the game and can't be re-activated during a game.
Sub Launched attack "Eliminate all soldier and army forces a specific enemy controls. You can only play this if you control a sub force in your legion."
You need to have a face up submarine to play this card ( face down cards have no role and as such can't be submarines), if this card becomes ready and there are no submarines ready on the legion of the person who used this card, this cards effect is lost and the card is eliminated.
This also means this card effect can't be activated if a submarine flips ready the same turn as Sub Launcher Attack does, the submarine had to be ready and face up BEFORE the card is played. In the case of this happening, the sub launched attack is lost.
Brainwash "Attach this to take control of a specific non-drone force without stealth, an attack value of <100 and a turn cost of <2. If it's eliminated, the owner loses 1 morale."
I talked about this bit earlier : All control mechanics "Eliminate" the controlled target, then it re-enters play on the controllers side. This means all cards with effects that activate when ready ( resource production, intel so on), activate again on the controllers side.
If card with Brainwash attached is flipped face down, Brainwash is lost without morale penalty.
If you steal back a card with brainwash attached, the card gets "eliminated", meaning the original owner takes 1 morale penalty from brainwash then control swaps normally.
Additionally, should you wish, you can attach multiple brainwash cards to same target ( even when you already control it), as they do not swap side's when this happens, they do not get eliminated, but you can stack up a "brainwash bomb" for the Owner for extra morale damage. ( Bit creative way to use Brandon's ruling that you can attach multiple brainwash cards to same target)
Sergeant Garbo Macada HIJACK Take Control of a specific non-soldier force without stealth, an attack value <100, and turn cost <2."
Functions as all other control effects. However, eliminating Garbo Macada does not return ownership of the hijacked card, as he does not attach.
Hyper Defense Barrier "Attach this to a specific building or territory with no other attachments; enemies can't specify it"
Enemy can't specify the protected target, but they can specify Hyper Defense Barrier and attack it. Hyper defense barrier is attached to a building but as itt itself does not have an attachment by default, this means you CAN attach hyper defense barrier to a hyper defense barrier.
Blackmail "PICK 1. A specific enemy agrees to pay you 2 resources. PICK 2. A specific enemy declines to pay you 2 resources; they lose 3 morale."
Enemy gets to pick an option. If they are unable to pick option 1 due lack of resources they have to pick option 2. If they have no morale to be lost, they can always pick option 2 without any penalties.
Non Aggression Treaty. "PICK 1. A specific enemy accepts this treaty,. They can't specify your cards, affect your morale, or attack you next turn. You can't attack this turn. You gain 1 morale. PICK 2. A specific enemy declines this treaty, they lose morale."
Enemy gets to pick an option. If an opponent has no morale to be lost, they can always pick option 2 and not gain any penanties.
Additionally, for PICK 1, all the effects mentioned apply, it's not a choice between being unable to specify cards and affect morale and attack, all effects apply.
Updated : 12.8.2023