How to Play

Bloodletting is a dark strategy game where you embody the apocalypse to overthrow the throne. Each faction you can use has unique units, action cards, abilities and strategies. There is much to learn to take over the kingdom…

2-4players
90-120minutes
6phases
1objective
1

Setup

  1. Place the board in the center of the playspace.
  2. Randomly place all 12 Location Tiles on their designated spaces.
  3. Choose your faction, take its materials, and place starting units in its staging grounds.
  4. Shuffle the Decree pile and reveal the first 3 Decrees.
2

Up-Keep Phase

  1. Each player takes 2 Blood Tokens and 4 Action Cards from their deck.
    1. More can be taken on later turns if circumstances allow.
  2. Assign the Initiative Token to one player to go first.
3

Planning Phase

You may do any of the following in any order:

  1. Summon 1 unit to your staging grounds using Blood.
  2. Move units according to their Speed stat.
  3. Play Instant and Active Cards.
  4. Ready Plot and Scheme Cards for battle.
  5. Discard unwanted cards and gain 1 Blood for every 3 cards discarded.
4

Decree Phase

  1. Calculate your Dominance using the chart on your faction sheet.
  2. The 2 lowest Dominance players will choose a Decree to enact, starting with the least Dominant player.
  3. If any Immediate decrees are revealed they must be enacted this phase.
  4. Replace the 2 used Decrees - now it's time for the Battle Phase!
5

Battle Phase

  1. Look around the board and identify units contested with each other.
  2. Add Victory cards to the battle deck equal to the strength stat of each unit that is contested.
  3. Any players with contested units on the board may look at their readied actions and add as many Plot cards to the Battle Deck as they wish.
  4. Any player may add 1 Scheme card to the Battle Deck, whether they have contested units on the board or not.
  5. Once all cards have been put in the Battle Deck, the player with the Initiative Token shuffles the deck and resolves the deck one card at a time from top-to-bottom.
6

Repeat

  1. . Return all Victory Cards to their respective piles and return all action cards to their respective players to be put in their discard piles
  2. Initiative Token is passed clockwise to the next player
  3. Up-Keep Phase begins again, and the cycle continues until one player completes their objective and wins the game!
See the full rules and gameplay
How to play video