HeroQuest UK 1st/2nd Edition Rules of Play wrote:Combat
Combat is split into two stages: attack and defence.
HeroQuest UK 2nd Edition Rules of Play wrote:The attacker rolls his dice once to score as many skulls as he can. The defender then rolls his dice once to cancel the skulls out by rolling shields.
The UK edition of the HQ rulebook is the only edition nice enough to explain how combat is broken up into two stages, and the 2nd edition of the UK rulebook even goes so far as to add an overview of how combat works.
So, for the HQ CERB, we have:
HeroQuest Combined English Edition Rulebook wrote:Combat
Combat is split into two stages: attack and defence. The attacker rolls his dice once to score as many skulls as he can. The defender then rolls his dice once to cancel the skulls out by rolling shields.
HeroQuest UK 1st/2nd Edition Rules of Play wrote:Attacking
To attack a monster or character, you must be in one of four squares: to the side, front, or rear. You cannot attack diagonally.
Example: The Elf may attack from any of the squares where he is shown in the diagram. He may not attack from any of the squares marked "X".
HeroQuest US Edition Instruction Manual wrote:Action 1 - Attack
As a Hero, you may attack any monster that you are adjacent to. You are adjacent if you are directly to the side, front, or rear of another square. You may, however, only attack once per turn. Your attack strength depends on your attack weapon. The stronger the weapon, the greater the number of Attack Dice used. Some weapons allow you to attack diagonally or from a distance. Most weapons, however, do not.
The Elf is considered adjacent to the monster in any of these four positions.
Important: You may only attack with one weapon at a time.
HeroQuest US Edition Instruction Manual wrote:Under The 2 Monster Actions:
Action 1 - Attack
A monster may attack any Hero that it is adjacent to. However, a monster may only attack once per turn. A monster's attack strength is based on its natural abilities and does not depend on a weapon.
So, we can see that the UK version of the rules opt for simplicity, where as the US version goes for a more comprehensive approach to attacking. Once again, the rules for attacking are repeated twice in the US rulebook, since both Heroes and monsters may take the Attack action. The US version of the rules describes the relationship between weapons and attack strength for Heroes, because in the US version, each Hero is given a starting weapon. This is a marked contrast to the UK edition, where Heroes do not get starting weapons, and their attack strength is listed directly on their Character Boards, causing some confusion when weapons were used, as a Barbarian was listed as rolling three Combat Dice when attacking on his board, but a Barbarian using a Shortsword would TECHNICALLY roll only two Combat Dice when attacking whilst using a Shortsword.
Finally, note that the rules technically allow for Heroes to attack each other, resulting in a much more competitive game.
For the CERB, we will be using the US rules, with some tweaks, as follows:
HeroQuest Combined English Edition Rulebook wrote:Attacking
You may attack any monster or character that you are adjacent to. You are adjacent if you are directly to the side, front, or rear of another square. You may, however, only attack once per turn.
Example: The Elf may attack from any of the squares where he is shown in the diagram. He may not attack from any of the squares marked "X".
A Hero's attack strength depends on their attack weapon. The stronger the weapon, the greater the number of Attack Dice used. Some weapons allow a Hero to attack diagonally or from a distance. Most weapons, however, do not.
Important: You may only attack with one weapon at a time.
A monster's attack strength is based on its natural abilities and does not depend on a weapon.
This covers all the rules regarding when and how a character may attack, including any information for weapons.
HeroQuest UK 1st/2nd Edition Rules of Play wrote:To attack, you roll a number of the special combat dice (with shields and skulls). The number of dice to roll is shown on the character boards and monster cards against Attack. For each skull you roll, your opponent will lose one Body point unless he can successfully defend himself. If you fail to roll any skulls the attack is wasted and your opponent need not defend.
HeroQuest US Edition Instruction Manual wrote:How a Hero Attacks
- As a Hero, you must roll the white combat dice to attack. The number of dice to roll depends on the weapon you are using for the attack. (Check your Character Sheet for your attack strength.) Failure to roll any skulls results in a failed attack.
- Each skull rolled is considered a hit, resulting in 1 Body Point of damage scored against the monster. If hit, the monster immediately defends by rolling its Defend Dice. If the monster's Body Points reach zero, the monster is considered dead and is removed from the gameboard.
HeroQuest US Edition Instruction Manual wrote:How a Monster Attacks
- An attacking monster rolls the number of Attack Dice shown in the Monster Chart on the Information Screen. Failure to roll any skulls results in a failed attack.
- Each skull rolled is considered a hit, resulting in 1 Body Point of damage scored against the Hero. If hit, the Hero immediately defends by rolling its Defend Dice. If the Hero's Body Points reach zero, the hero is considered dead. (See Dead Heroes.) Important! If the Hero has 1 Body Point remaining, and takes more than 1 hit of damage, his Body Points are still only reduced to zero.
Woah, is the amount of redundancy and repetition getting a little high with the US version of the rules. Not only do we have the repetition of the attacking rules for both Heroes and monsters, but both of these sections essentially repeat how Attack Dice are determined from the previous section. Not to mention that both sections feature a sequence break (Heroes and Monsters get to Defend immediately) before returning to resolve what happens as the result of a successful attack. In comparison, the UK version of the rules for attacking are crisper and cleaner, without a sequence break of any kind, but also do not cover the results of a successful attack until AFTER the section on defending (see below).
To avoid such needless repetition, we will solely use the UK version of the rules for attacking, since we have already covered how attack strength relates to weapons for Heroes and are set values for monsters in the previous section about how and when you can attack. So, we have the CERB as follows:
HeroQuest Combined English Edition Rulebook wrote:To attack, you roll a number of the special combat dice (with shields and skulls). The number of dice to roll is shown on the character boards and monster cards against Attack. For each skull you roll, your opponent will lose one Body point unless he can successfully defend himself. If you fail to roll any skulls the attack is wasted and your opponent need not defend.
HeroQuest UK 1st/2nd Edition Rules of Play wrote:Defending
To defend against a successful attack, a player rolls the number of special combat dice shown on his character board or monster card against Defend.
The player characters must try to roll white shields, while the monsters need round, black ones. Each shield rolled - provided it is the correct type - cancels one skull rolled by the attacker.
HeroQuest US Edition Instruction Manual wrote:How a Monster DefendsNote: If the monster survives the attack, it cannot attack the Hero back until Zargon's next turn.
- A defending monster rolls the number of Defend Dice shown in the Monster Chart on the Information Screen. Each black shield rolled by the defending monster blocks 1 hit from the attacking Hero.
- Many monsters are killed with only 1 hit. Some monsters, however, require more than 1 hit. (Refer to the Monster Chart on the Information Screen for a monster's Body Points.) For those monsters requiring more than 1 hit, monster damage is tracked by the use of skull tiles. Zargon, for each hit your monster sustains, you must record the hit by placing a skull tile under the monster figure on the gameboard.
HeroQuest US Edition Instruction Manual wrote:How a Hero Defends
A defending Hero usually rolls 2 Defend dice (less if in a pit or under certain spells, and more after purchasing armour). Each white shield rolled by the defending Hero blocks 1 hit from the attacking monster.
Once again, we see the extensive repetition of the US edition rulebook compared to the more simplistic covering of the rules in the UK edition. However, there are some useful notes that we may wish to include from the US version of the rules, such as how to deal with Monsters with more than 1 Body point (more common in the US than the UK version, where most monsters only ever have 1 Body point), and common circumstances where Heroes might roll more or less Defend Dice.
For the CERB, we will be using the UK version of the rules, with the additional notes from the US version. Note that we will NOT be including the rules for monsters with multiple Body Points, since the effects of combat, including injury and death, are covered below. This gives us:
HeroQuest Combined English Edition Rulebook wrote:Defending
To defend against a successful attack, a player rolls the number of special combat dice shown on his character board or monster card against Defend.
A defending Hero usually rolls 2 Defend dice (less if in a pit or under certain spells, and more after purchasing armour).
A defending monster rolls the number of Defend Dice shown in the Monster cards.
The Heroes must try to roll white shields, while the monsters need round, black ones. Each shield rolled - provided it is the correct type - cancels one skull rolled by the attacker.
HeroQuest UK 1st/2nd Edition Rules of Play wrote:Once the result of the defence has been determined, the player who was attacked must reduce his Body point score of his character sheet by one point for every skull not cancelled by a shield. When a character's Body points reach zero, the character is dead. Since all the monsters have only 1 Body point, they are killed by any roll of a skull which is not cancelled by rolling a black shield*.
*In the 2nd Edition UK Rulebook, this phrase is actually "they are eliminated by any roll of a skull for which they fail to roll a round black shield." We won't be using this, simply because it's not consistent terminology.
HeroQuest US Edition Instruction Manual wrote:If the monster's Body Points reach zero, the monster is considered dead and is removed from the gameboard.
HeroQuest US Edition Instruction Manual wrote:If the Hero's Body Points reach zero, the hero is considered dead. (See Dead Heroes.) Important! If the Hero has 1 Body Point remaining, and takes more than 1 hit of damage, his Body Points are still only reduced to zero.
HeroQuest US Edition Instruction Manual wrote:Many monsters are killed with only 1 hit. Some monsters, however, require more than 1 hit. (Refer to the Monster Chart on the Information Screen for a monster's Body Points.) For those monsters requiring more than 1 hit, monster damage is tracked by the use of skull tiles. Zargon, for each hit your monster sustains, you must record the hit by placing a skull tile under the monster figure on the gameboard.[/list]
Note: If the monster survives the attack, it cannot attack the Hero back until Zargon's next turn.
Now we get on to the section regarding what happens following a successful attack in combat. For convenience, I have repeated the relevant sections from the US instruction manual here too, as we find them mixed in both the Attacking and Defending sections of the TWO Attack actions listed in the US rules.
Many people still play according to the UK or US rules, and will often convert content from other editions to their favoured version. As such, we will include BOTH versions in the CERB, with relevant notation, as follows:
HeroQuest Combined English Edition Rulebook wrote:Once the result of the defence has been determined, the player who was attacked must reduce his Body point score of his character sheet by one point for every skull not cancelled by a shield. When a character's Body points reach zero, the character is dead. Important! If the Hero has 1 Body Point remaining, and takes more than 1 hit of damage, his Body Points are still only reduced to zero.
[UK]: Since all the monsters have only 1 Body point, they are killed by any roll of a skull which is not cancelled by rolling a black shield when defending.
[US]: Many monsters are killed with only 1 hit, and are killed by any roll of a skull which is not cancelled by rolling a black shield when defending. Some monsters, however, require more than 1 hit. (Refer to the Monster Chart on the Information Screen for a monster's Body Points.) For those monsters requiring more than 1 hit, monster damage is tracked by the use of skull tiles. For each hit such a monster sustains, the Evil Wizard must record the hit by placing a skull tile under the monster figure on the gameboard.
Note: If the Hero or monster survives the attack, they cannot attack back until their player's next turn.
That's a good lot of detail for attacking and defending. We will cover what happens to dead Heroes and monsters in the next post, but for now, the combat section for the HQ CERB looks like this:
HeroQuest Combined English Edition Rulebook wrote:Combat
Combat is split into two stages: attack and defence. The attacker rolls his dice once to score as many skulls as he can. The defender then rolls his dice once to cancel the skulls out by rolling shields.
Attacking
You may attack any monster or character that you are adjacent to. You are adjacent if you are directly to the side, front, or rear of another square. You may, however, only attack once per turn.
Example: The Elf may attack from any of the squares where he is shown in the diagram. He may not attack from any of the squares marked "X".
A Hero's attack strength depends on their attack weapon. The stronger the weapon, the greater the number of Attack Dice used. Some weapons allow a Hero to attack diagonally or from a distance. Most weapons, however, do not.
Important: You may only attack with one weapon at a time.
A monster's attack strength is based on its natural abilities and does not depend on a weapon.
To attack, you roll a number of the special combat dice (with shields and skulls). The number of dice to roll is shown on the character boards and monster cards against Attack. For each skull you roll, your opponent will lose one Body point unless he can successfully defend himself. If you fail to roll any skulls the attack is wasted and your opponent need not defend.
Defending
To defend against a successful attack, a player rolls the number of special combat dice shown on his character board or monster card against Defend.
A defending Hero usually rolls 2 Defend dice (less if in a pit or under certain spells, and more after purchasing armour).
A defending monster rolls the number of Defend Dice shown in the Monster cards.
The Heroes must try to roll white shields, while the monsters need round, black ones. Each shield rolled - provided it is the correct type - cancels one skull rolled by the attacker.
Once the result of the defence has been determined, the player who was attacked must reduce his Body point score of his character sheet by one point for every skull not cancelled by a shield. When a character's Body points reach zero, the character is dead. Important! If the Hero has 1 Body Point remaining, and takes more than 1 hit of damage, his Body Points are still only reduced to zero.
[UK]: Since all the monsters have only 1 Body point, they are killed by any roll of a skull which is not cancelled by rolling a black shield when defending.
[US]: Many monsters are killed with only 1 hit, and are killed by any roll of a skull which is not cancelled by rolling a black shield when defending. Some monsters, however, require more than 1 hit. (Refer to the Monster Chart on the Information Screen for a monster's Body Points.) For those monsters requiring more than 1 hit, monster damage is tracked by the use of skull tiles. For each hit such a monster sustains, the Evil Wizard must record the hit by placing a skull tile under the monster figure on the gameboard.
Note: If the Hero or monster survives the attack, they cannot attack back until their player's next turn.
Considering combat takes up the meat of most of the HeroQuest mechanics, I would say that we are on a solid foundation for the Combat section right now...