Rules of engagement
The Basics: Movements, Attacks, and Health Points
Boxers face-off in a 5x5 ring.
They occupy a single square, and may face one of 8 directions (4 diagonals, 4 orthogonals).
This is the starting position for each round.
Boxers have a stance and only have some Movements from the eight directions.
When a player moves they will end in the shaded square at the end of the action.
Rotation Cards allows a boxer to rotate 45 or 90 degrees in either direction.
Each boxer has their own unique set of Attacks.
The number in the upper left is the Power of the Attack.
The shaded area is where the attack lands.
Each boxer’s movements can be seen on their Character Cards.
Each boxer’s attacks are labelled with the boxer’s name and the matching color.
Each player will have the entirety of their Movement and Attack Cards in their hands.
Boxers starts with a certain amount of HP (“health points”, the number in the heart).
When a player gets hit, subtract the power of the attack from their HP.
If a player runs out of HP, KO! The bout is over!
If both boxers are in the area of damage of each other’s punches, both punches land.
Placement is important!
Setup
For your first game, we recommend Inga and Fredo.
Choose a color and place the piece on the board.
Next, choose your boxer and take their Attack cards and all applicable Movement cards into your hand.
Place your Health token on the Health tracker along with the Initial Round Health Token and take the requisite Bursts (the lightning tokens) and Reacts (the eye tokens) stated on your character card and place them onto your Player Board.
You are ready to rumble!
Gameplay
There are a total of 3 Rounds.
Each of the three rounds consists of 6 Exchanges.
Each exchange contains 2 Actions.
At the end of a round, the player that dealt the most damage wins the round.
If it’s a tie, it’s a draw round.
In every exchange, each player chooses two cards, face-down (of any combination of attacks or movements), and decides the order with the first action on top. This is their resolution order.
Both players will reveal their first card and resolve it simultaneously.
Movements resolve first, then Attacks.
You will frequently dodge attacks by moving to a space outside the attack.
If both boxers move into the same space, the character with more remaining HP gets the spot, and the other player does not move.
If tied, neither move.
After the first action has been resolved, repeat for the second action.
Once both actions have been resolved for both players, they take their played attack/movement cards back into their hand.
move the Exchange Token up on the Round Tracker, and start a new exchange.
At the end of the 6th Exchange the fighter who has dealt the most Damage this Round wins the Round and takes the Round Card.
(If the Round is a draw, place the Round Card to the side of the board)
Then Boxer Pieces are reset to their starting round positions, HP is gained according to the player's Character Card (the heart and “+”) and the Initial Round Health Token is placed on the new total ready to begin Round 2.
Play continues until 3 Rounds have been played to completion or a boxers health has been reduced to 0. thats a ko!
Winning the Game
If you reduce your opponent's HP to zero then you score a KO and win the game!
If by the end of the third round, no one has been brought to zero, the player that has won more rounds wins the game.
If there’s a draw, there's a draw (just like real boxing)!
Movement Restrictions: Pressure, Same Space, and Intercepting
The Pressure Rule
Before any action, if either boxer is directly facing the other orthogonally, they may not go to the spaces to the left and right unless the boxer they are facing changes their orientation.
In this example, Blue may not move to the spaces shown.
If Blue does attempt to move into that space and Red has not changed their orientation or placement, the movement is nulled. Red is free to move.
If both Red and Blue are directly facing each other...fun times ahead!
Intercepting
If both players would travel through each other’s movements to get to their next square, neither move.
This is a great way to block your opponent from getting away from you!
On the right, Blue tried to go forward and Red tried to go right.
Since they cross through one another to get to their new squares, neither would move.
Same Space
If both boxers try to move into the same space in the same action, the character with more remaining HP gets the spot, and the other player does not move.
If tied for HP, neither move.
Bursts and Reacts
Each player has a number of Bursts (the lightning tokens) and/or Reacts (the eye tokens) they may use at any point in the bout.
Bursts allow players to use up to one extra action for that exchange and are played when choosing cards.
A player may use a maximum of 3 cards in an exchange.
Reacts allow players to look at the first card their opponent played in the Exchange.
The first player to call “React” gets to (and must) use it in this exchange.
A player may not use a Burst and React in the same exchange.
Favored Footwork
The movements with a “+” are the fighters’ best movements!
A fighter that moves in this direction may make a 45-degree rotation after completing the movement before the next action.
Stick-and-Move
If an attack labeled with Stick-and-Move lands and the boxer is not damaged in the same action, the boxer may move into any of the directions mentioned before the next exchange.
All Jabs have this benefit; A well-timed jab will help you line up your combo, or break your opponent’s!
Counter
If a player attacks (whether or not it lands) and their opponent lands an attack labelled “Counter”, the owner of the counter can’t be damaged in that action.
The attack with “Counter” must land for it to nullify the opponent’s attack. If both attacks are counters and land, resolve damage normally.
Dazed
If a player is hit with an attack with Daze...ouch!
In the next Exchange, they are not allowed to use Bursts or Reacts. Also, when they do pick 2 cards, they are shuffled and revealed in a random order.
Cooldown
If any card has a timer icon in the corner, it cannot be used in the following exchange.
Leave it on the table for that exchange to show your opponent you can’t use it.
If someone uses a card with a Cooldown in the 6th Exchange of the round, this would have no effect.
