The newest Warhammer Fantasy
expansion – Triumph and Treachery is an expansion which features rules for
playing 3, 4 or even 5 player games of Warhammer. The game features new and unique rules to
ensure that there is a singular winner at the end of game whether they triumph
on the field of battle or use treachery to bring down friend and foe
alike.
The game takes a very “Highlander-esque”
approach to a multi-player battle where alliances are forged and then shattered
in the blink of an eye, where intrigue and illusion can make or break a player,
and where your allies and enemies may swap positions every round.
In the end however, there can be only one…
In
order to properly explain Triumph and Treachery, it would be best to describe
the new Rules provided in this expansion.
1.
Trust No
One - this section provides rules for battles fought with 3 or more
players.
2.
Victory
Tokens – a new resource system for keeping track of who is winning the
multi-player battle.
3.
Treachery
Cards – these are special cards that allow you to pull off dastardly ploys
or help an ally in need.
4.
Mercenaries
– these are rules for adding Mercenary companies to your roster from other
armies.
5.
Triumph
and Treachery Scenarios – they have provided three distinct scenarios
specifically designed for the Triumph and Treachery rule set.
Trust No One
The Trust
No One rule is the core rule of the Triumph and Treachery expansion. There are several rule subsets and existing
rules that have been modified to accommodate multiple players using this rule
in the game. It really boils down to a
simple explanation however: when a player takes a turn, they pick an opposing
player at the start of each phase to be their ‘enemy player’ for the
phase. Only units belonging to the enemy
player may be attacked or targeted.
1. Player Turn Cards – this game comes
with 5 different player turn cards that are represented by a certain weapon or
item (sword, axe, shield, hammer and staff).
Each player draws a card at the beginning of the game and notes which
icon they drew as that will be their icon for the duration of the game. The cards are then shuffled back into a pile.
2. Determine Turn Order – at the beginning
of every game turn of a multi-sided battle, the player turn card deck is
shuffled and the top card is turned over.
The icon that is showing will denote who’s turn it is, after that player
has finished their entire turn then another card is flipped until all player
turns have been performed and the deck reshuffled.
3. Friends and Enemies – The game
progresses much like any normal game of Warhammer only at the beginning of each
phase, the player whose turn it is must designate who the enemy player is for that turn.
The following rules apply to the enemy player:
·
All units belonging to the player whose turn it
is are considered friendly units.
·
All units belonging to the player designated as
the enemy player are considered
enemy units.
·
All units belonging to neutral players are neutral units for that turn.
Neutral units may not be
targeted or attacked in any way. That
means that:
·
Neutral units may not attack, dispel or carry
out any other actions
·
Neutral units can not be hit by attacks that use
templates or markers, attacks that scatter or attacks that randomly determine
who is hit, or by spells or game effects that affect ‘any unit’ with a certain
distance.
·
Neutral units do not count for combat results
and cannot cause disruption or affect a combat in any way. They can’t flee or pursue, and are fled
through in the same manner as an enemy unit.
Neutral units to do not take
part in the phase and thus are unaffected by what happens during that phase.
4.
Game
Phases –there are several small changes to the player turn phases as they
pertain to the neutral and enemy player designation.
A.
Movement Phase – Charges may only be
performed against Enemy units. Neutral
units serve as impassible terrain.
B.
Magic Phase – Only the enemy player receives
dispel dice, and only the enemy player may be chosen as the target for spells
(other than augment spells which affect friendly units). Spells that have Remains in Play effects or
that causes effects every magic phase do not affect neutral units.
C.
Shooting Phase – Only enemy units may be
targeted. Templates or marker weapons do
not affect neutral units.
D.
Close Combat Phase – If friendly units are
in combat with units from only one opposing army then that army’s player must
be chosen as the enemy player for the Close Combat phase. If friendly units are in combat with units
belonging to two or more opposing players, then one player must be chosen as
the enemy player and a Truce is called with the neutral player. Attacks are only exchanged between friendly
and enemy units.
Truces: When a truce is
called in Close Combat, all neutral units in base contact with a friendly unit
must be moved 1” away. If the unit can
not move due to impassible terrain or any other reason, they remain in base to
base but take no part in the close combat phase.
5. Roll Offs – In a multiple player game,
the winner of a roll off then determines the order of actions for all players
that took part in the roll off. In the
event of a tie, the tied players roll off again to determine the winner.
Victory Tokens
The Victory Token mechanic
is a fast and easy way to measure the accumulation of victory points for each
player. These Victory Tokens not only
serve as a representation of each players running victory point total, but also
serve a currency for bribing an opponent or hiring mercenaries.
1.
Coin
Designation:
A. Brass
Coin = 50 Victory Points
B. Silver
Coin = 150 Victory Points
C. Gold
Coin = 250 Victory Points
D. Gold
Ingot = 1500 Victory Points
Unless the Mercenaries rule is being used, every player
starts out with 2 Brass Coins.
2. Graining Victory Tokens – At the end of
each phase, the player will receive a victory token for every 50 Victory Points
they scored that phase (any excess points are lost). Example: If player A scores 313 Victory
Points in the Close Combat Phase then he would receive 1 Gold Coin and 1 Brass
Coin with the remaining 13 VP’s are discarded.
The player who scored the most
Victory Points in a phase will receive a single bonus Brass Coin (or each
player if there is a tie).
3. Using Victory Tokens – A player’s
collection of Victory Tokens are referred to as a paychest. The player who has
the largest paychest at the end of the game is declared the winner.
A player may use their Victory
Tokens in various ways, they may use them to bribe another player to perform an
action or bribe a mercenary unit. You
may use them to award a player for an action they performed that benefited
you. You may also promise to pay a
player then be a treacherous cur and double cross them with no payment! Not all players are honorable on the field of
battle!
Treachery Cards
Perhaps my most favorite
mechanic in this game is the addition of these Treachery Cards. These are player
cards that allow you to perform actions and countermeasures against either your
opponent or another player during anyone’s turn. These actions may aid you, hamper them, help
an ally or punish an adversary. The
Treachery Cards add a certain amount of uncertainty and chaos to his already
hectic multiplayer battle.
1.
Gaining
Treachery Cards - Players may gain
treachery cards in the following ways:
·
Automatically at the start of each game turn.
·
By rolling successfully in any phase in which
they are a neutral player.
·
By making a dirty deal to get cards from another
player.
A. Start
of Turn Cards – At the start of every game turn each player gets a specific
number of cards dependent upon their paychest.
If the player has the biggest paychest then they get 1 card, if the
player has the smallest paychest they get 3 cards while the rest get 2 cards
each. This is a good mechanic as it
helps give an edge to the players that are currently “losing” and will provide
them with a better arsenal of tricks to help them gain the upper hand.
B. Neutral
Player Cards – Immediately after the player chooses the “enemy player”, all the
neutral players get a chance to gain a Bonus Treachery Card. Each player rolls a D6, in a 3 person game a
roll of 5 or 6 grants a bonus card while in games of 4-5 players only a 6
yields a bonus card.
C. Dirty
Deals – Players may give cards from their hand to another player. This is known as a Dirty Deal. What goes on in order to broker said deals is
up to each player!
D. Hand
Size – Players are limited to a hand size of five cards. If a player has more than five cards in their
hand, they must immediately discard and may not play cards until they are down
to five cards.
E. Discarded
Cards – Treachery cards are reshuffled into the deck once the existing
Treachery deck has been exhausted.
F. Treachery
Cards - Each Treachery Card has a Title, a Description and an Effect. Specific issues that may arise have been
addressed by the Card Commentaries section of the rulebook.
Mercenaries
In the Triumph and Treachery
game the players have the opportunity to hire Mercenary companies to fight at
their side. Each player will receive extra
points to spend on Mercenary Units for their army. The number of points each player receives is
100 points for every 500 points they have in their army (example a 2,500 point
army will have 500 points to spend on Mercenaries).
1.
Hiring
Mercenaries - Using the extra points generated for Mercenary units, the
player may choose to employ Mercenaries from any army book they choose (except
that a player may not hire Mercenaries from the same army book as their army
being used). When a player hires
Mercenaries they hire what are called Mercenary Companies. The Mercenary Company must contain at least
one character to serve as the Mercenary Captain. All units in the Mercenary Company within 6”
of the Mercenary Captain may use his Leadership value in place of their own.
2.
Unspent
Mercenary Points – If a player has unspent points after hiring Mercenaries,
they may convert those unspent points to Victory Tokens (provided they have
enough points to exchange them in for tokens) otherwise they are lost.
3.
Loyalty –
All mercenary models suffer -1 to their Leadership Value. Should a mercenary unit flee and pass a Rally
test, they must immediately roll on a table and apply the result. On a 1-4 the Mercenary Company has all the
players roll off. The winner now
controls the Mercenary Company. Loyalty
comes at a price! On a 5-6 the Mercenary
Company remains loyal to their patron (for the time being).
4.
Bribing
Mercenaries – At the start of any phase, a player may attempt to bribe a
mercenary unit by spending Victory Tokens.
If the bribe is successful, the mercenary unit will stand back and do
nothing that phase. Attempts to bribe
may be performed after the enemy player has been designated for that phase and
after all neutral players have rolled to see if they get Bonus Treachery
Cards. Fleeing units may not be
bribed. A bribe is performed by placing
a certain amount of Victory Tokens by the Mercenary Unit. The controlling player (or other neutral
player also trying to bribe the Mercenaries) then has the opportunity try to “outbid”
the bribe by beating the amount of Victory Tokens bid by the neutral
players. If the controlling player
successfully outbids the neutral players, the unit functions as normal. After the bidding has been performed, all
Victory Tokens used to bribe are swept back into the Victory Token pile and
count as spent.
Triumph and
Treachery Scenarios
The Triumph and Treachery Boxed Set comes with a hardback
96 page rulebook providing you with rules, lore and modeling showcases. It comes with a large amount of cardboard
embossed victory tokens denoting different amounts as well as 5 Player Cards
and 36 Treachery Cards. I will go ahead
and say that while the game is awesome and has potential to be a fantastic
expansion, it was not worth the price that Games Workshop charged for it.
In the end, I will go ahead and say that this expansion
is a great way to diversify your collection.
It allows players to collect that one awesome unit they have always
liked but never wanted to field the entire army for. It also allows for players to forge a whole
new narrative based on the epic battles they may engage in with multiple
foes. The sheer chaotic element that the
Treachery cards introduces can swing battles in a single turn back and forth,
and in one fell swoop close the gap between someone who was a “runaway” winner
and someone who was getting ganged up on.
The fact that you may choose different enemies every phase is incredibly
fun and tactical. You could in the
movement phase charge the unit you wish to annihilate, designate another player
with little or no magic defense as your enemy in the magic phase and buff your
unit, then in the shooting phase and close combat phase chose the player you
charged as your enemy again. You could
bribe your opponents mercenaries while making a deal with another player to
wipe out another player’s big unit then in the next phase turn on the player
you just made a deal with and blow up his special units. This game has a LOT of opportunity for
memorable and fun experiences where you can never really be sure where you stand
with your fellow players until the last turn has passed and everyone’s
paychests are being counted.
The Deployment Zone Podcast will be providing a gameplay
example of Triumph and Treachery during their Chaos Christmas Episode which
will be recorded on Dec. 1st
