How to Play

Combat Crew is built around careful positioning and strategic timing.

Opponents face off on a shared battlefield of 12 Combat Zones where players Deploy and Maneuver Units throughout the game. Strategy and Tactic cards support those battlefield decisions and allow players to respond to their opponent’s plays. With four visible Reserve Stacks, a changing battlefield, and a shared turn structure, Combat Crew creates a highly interactive game experience.

Recruit

Start your turn by selecting a card to add to your hand from one of four reserve stacks. 3 of the 4 cards are visible to both players at all times; the 4th is your “Blind Reserve Stack” and remains confidential.

Deploy

Place a Unit from your hand onto your side of the battlefield paying its cost (if applicable).

Maneuver

Move a Unit from its current position to an adjacent combat zone

Retreat

Move a Unit from the Battlefield back to your hand.

Attack

Declare attacks on your opponent’s units or directly to their life. Each unit has an offense health and range. Offense is how hard it can hit, Health is how much damage it can take, and range is how far away it can strike from its current position.

Use Strategies and Tactics

Strategy and Tactic cards help facilitate your strategy by gaining special abilities and chances to respond to your opponents plays.

The Gameboard

Each player has their own half of the play area, and the two halves face each other. Your half has a few support zones on the left, a 2×3 grid of Combat Zones in the middle, and your Reserve Stacks on the right. The Battlefield is the combined 12 Combat Zones (6 per side) where Units are deployed and fight.

Life Counter Zone

Your Life Counter starts at 15 and sits here. Reach 0 and you lose.

Combat Zones

Your six Combat Zones form a 2×3 grid, numbered 1–6. Each holds one Unit.

Front Line: the three zones closest to your opponent (Zones 1–3 in the rulebook's diagrams).
Back Line: the three zones farthest from your opponent (Zones 4–6).

Enduring Zones

Two zones that hold Enduring Strategies and Tactics. Each holds one card, and the card stays there until a card effect removes it. If both zones are full, you can't play another Enduring card, and you can't remove your own Enduring cards except through card effects. Regular Strategies and Tactics don't use a zone. They're placed face up in front of you, resolved, then sent to the Cemetery.

Initiative Zone

Holds the Initiative coin. The player with Initiative takes each phase of the shared turn first, and the coin passes to the other player at the end of every turn.

Reserve Stack Zones

Four stacks arranged in a 2×2 grid. Setup deals 10 cards face down into each, and the 5 cards left over become your starting Hand (45 cards in all). The top card of three stacks is flipped face up. The fourth stack is the Blind Reserve, whose top card stays face down. Each turn's Recruitment Step takes one face-up card from a stack into your hand, then flips the next card in that stack face up. If you recruit from the Blind Reserve, you don't flip the next card. If you have no card to recruit on your Recruitment Step, you lose the game.

Cemetery

Where cards go when they die, are destroyed, are sacrificed, are discarded, or finish resolving.

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