Battle Line

Objective and victory: The players contest nine flags arranged in a line. A player immediately wins by claiming any five flags or three adjacent flags. There is no general final victory-point total: formations decide individual flags, while their positions create a second direct victory route. Place the nine flags between the players with room on each side for that player’s Troop cards.

Setup and hand: Shuffle the sixty Troop cards—six colors numbered one through ten—and deal seven to each player. Shuffle the ten Tactics cards into a separate pile. Both players cut Troop cards; the higher number shuffles and deals, and the non-dealer takes the first turn. Alternate thereafter. Players normally replace a played card by drawing from either pile that still has cards, keeping seven cards in hand. If both piles run out, no replacement draws occur, but legal play continues until someone wins.

Playing a Troop card: On a turn, place one Troop card from hand beside an unclaimed flag on your side of the line. Normally each side may have at most three Troop cards at a flag; Mud changes this to four, and the player chooses how to build the formation. Played cards are public and normally stay there; players cannot freely move a card after seeing a later draw. Some Tactics cards can move or remove cards, but only as their specific text allows.

Formation ranking: Compare formations from strongest to weakest: Wedge (same color and consecutive values), Phalanx (three equal values), Battalion (same color), Skirmish (three consecutive values), and Host (any other set). Category outranks total value. When both formations share a category, compare the sum of their three values; the higher sum wins. Equal categories and totals tie, so a high-valued Host can still lose to a lower-valued Wedge.

Claiming a flag: A player may claim one or more flags during their turn before drawing. Normally, the player must have three Troop cards at the flag and prove that no remaining possible Troop card could let the opponent complete a stronger formation. The proof uses visible cards and public information, never the claimant’s hidden hand. If the opponent has fewer than three cards there, the claimant must consider every legal completion; simply being ahead at the moment is not enough. Unplayed Tactics do not block a claim. Once a flag is claimed, neither player may add cards there or use Tactics to affect those cards.

Incomplete formations and ties: A player can claim against an incomplete opposing formation only by publicly showing that it cannot later beat theirs or can at best tie. If both complete formations tie, or public information shows the opponent can do no better than tie, the rules award the flag against the player who completed the relevant formation last; the opponent may claim it on a later turn. A claim must still be made at the proper time. Once claimed, a flag leaves the contest and both victory conditions are checked.

Tactics limits: The ten Tactics cards can stand in for a Troop card, change a flag’s conditions, or affect cards beside an unclaimed flag, depending on the card. Its timing and restrictions override the general turn procedure. A player may never have played more Tactics cards than their opponent by more than one. Each player may play at most one Leader; a second Leader must stay in hand and cannot be played.

Turns and public reasoning: The core turn is to play one Troop or Tactics card, resolve its placement or effect, and draw a replacement when possible. Because both formations and flag ownership are public, players can calculate remaining formation possibilities and paths to three adjacent flags. Only when unable to play any Troop card may a player pass or play a legal Tactics card; a pass does not stop the opponent. When both draw piles are empty, players stop drawing but continue making legal plays with their remaining cards.

End of game and series scoring: The game ends immediately when someone has five flags or three adjacent flags; no other flags are claimed. The original rules also suggest a simple series score: the winner records five points, the loser records the number of flags they claimed, and the winner starts the next game. This is an optional score for a match across games, not a victory-point system for one game.

Optional advanced claim timing: The basic rules permit a qualifying flag claim during a player’s turn before drawing. An advanced variant restricts claims to the beginning of that player’s turn, giving the opponent an opportunity to alter the position with Tactics. Agree before setup whether to use this variant; it is not mandatory in every base game.

Specific Tactics exceptions: Fog removes formation categories and compares only each side’s total value. Mud requires four cards on each side. A Leader’s color and value are defined when the flag is resolved. Companion Cavalry is an eight with a chosen color; Shield Bearers have a chosen color and a value no greater than three. Redeploy moves or discards one of your cards beside an unclaimed flag; Deserter discards an opposing Troop or Tactics card there; Traitor takes only an opposing Troop card into an available slot on your side. The Tactics-count restriction still applies.

Public-proof example: With no Environment card changing the comparison, your red three, four, and five make a Wedge against an opposing blue eight. If blue seven and blue ten are already publicly played elsewhere, every same-color consecutive triple containing blue eight lacks an essential card. The opponent therefore cannot make a stronger Wedge or win with a weaker category. A blue seven hidden in your own hand is not public evidence and cannot be used to establish that same claim.