Player's Guide

During the Planning Phase, you choose actions for your character and Companions.

Before executing your action, you can review information about characters and objects on the battle board by mousing over their portraits. Each portrait represents a combatant, obstruction or an object you can interact with or destroy. Items that are not under your control or cannot directly harm you will have silver borders and appear not as bright, so that your units and your enemies are more obvious on the board.

You can also hire a Henchman to help you with a tough battle in the planning phase of combat.

• Pirates and Companions under your control, collectively called “Units”, all have the same combat color (blue, if you’re the first or only player in the combat). They are outlined in gold and appear brighter than other players’ units or obstacles, so they stand out. Your units also appear in the lower left corner. Although the game will automatically select the next unit when you finish giving one a command, you can also click on one (either in the lower left or on the board) if you change your mind. If you intentionally skip over a unit, the game notices that and won’t auto-select it. If you move your mouse to click on the “Done” button, the game will warn – but not stop – you if there are any units that still don’t have commands.
• Other players’ Characters and Companions will all have colors unique to them (Player 2 is teal, Player 3 is green, and Player 4 is dark green). They will be outlined in a silver border and will be darker than your own units.
• Your allies (units that help you, but you can’t control) have a dark yellow background and a silver border and are also darker than your own units.
• Inanimate objects all have a brown background and a silver border. Objects with a health bar are breakable and can be destroyed.
• Enemies always have a red background and a gold border.

Click on any of your Units to choose an action or let the game auto-select each unit in turn.

• Players can walk on any gray tile.
• Your currently selected Units can move to any square that’s highlighted in blue. Their movement is limited by their own movement range and any obstructions in their path. They can walk through friendly participants, but they can’t walk through enemies or obstacles.
  • Some Companions can jump or fly to bypass enemies or obstacles! They may see more board square pathways than those that can only walk.
  • Since opponents always turn to face their attackers, there are no bonuses to attacking an enemy from the side or behind.
• Melee units can attack any enemy located on or adjacent to a highlighted blue square. Ranged units can often shoot farther than they can walk. When you mouse over an attackable enemy, your cursor will change to either a fist (for a melee unit) or a bull’s-eye (for a ranged unit). Melee units can move and attack in the same turn while ranged units cannot (that’s the trade-off for being able to attack from afar).
• Some Units can cast Powers! Some Powers have beneficial effects on friendly targets, and other Powers have negative effects on hostile targets. Not everyone starts with powers, but you can train to get them. If your selected Unit has Powers, they will show up at the bottom of the screen. You can review them by moving your mouse over them to get an informational pop-up. To use a power, click on the power. A beneficial Power shows a green target reticule over allies the Power can reach and a red target reticule for enemies the Power can affect. The Power may also be able to affect an area, rather than a single unit—in that case you see green or red colored squares that move around as you move your cursor. Click on a target to use the power. NOTE: Some Powers are auto-casting. They don’t rely on you to tell them where to be used. A self-heal Power is one such Power.
• If you want to ask someone playing with you to target a specific spot, you can right-click on that spot to “mark” that spot. A special mark will pulse—for about 3 seconds— on that tile, with your combat color. That helps indicate what square you’re talking about. Each player can trigger their own mark, so you can have up to 4 marks on the screen at a time.
• If you mouse over another player’s unit, you can see what they’re going to do. If you mouse over another player’s Character, you’ll see what all their units plan to do.
• A solid blue arrow represents someone running up to the opponent to attack
• A dotted blue arrow represents an attack from a distance

Once you’ve selected actions for all of your Units, click the green “Done” button to proceed to the Execution Phase; where the results of your actions unfold. If there are other players fighting with you, you may have to wait for them to complete their Planning Phases before you continue. When the Planning Phase timer hits 0, all players will go into the execution phase even if they have not clicked on the “Done” button.

If you decide that you’d rather not continue the battle, you can choose the red “Flee” button at the bottom of the screen—but be careful! If you flee, you will suffer all of the consequences of a defeat! If you flee from combat, you will be returned to the nearest Life Fountain and your Health will be reduced to 1.

You may also notice that certain combat squares contain an eyeball in the bottom right corner of the square. This is commonly referred to as LOS (line of sight). Any square that contains an eye ball will not allow you to use a ranged attack into that square normally due to something blocking the way.

Next Up: Execution Phase

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