Rules

[Rules] | [Fabrication Guide] | [Lore] | [To Do] | [Support]

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• Introduction
  • Story
  • Print and Play
  • Terms and Definitions
  • How to Read the Stats Cards
• Setup
  • Drafting
  • Scenario Prep
  • Game Space Setup
  • Play Area Setup
  • Terrain Placement
  • Gifts of the Forest Placement
  • Herd Placement
  • Quick Setup
• War Begins
  • Movement Phase
    • Orphaning
  • Projectile Combat Phase
  • Hand-to-Hand Combat phase
  • Cleanup Phase
• Infrequent Edge Cases
  • Splitting the herd
  • Joining the herds
  • Multiple Army Fight

Introduction

Wood Wars 3D is a tabletop miniature skirmish game. If this is your first time playing this sort of game, there are a number of things that might surprise you. It is not played on a board or grid. The "board" is any table or play surface you have. Defining the play area, movement, and attack are a much freer affair than with other games. No two games need to ever be the same.

Because individual set ups may vary it is common to adjust the rules of the game for you individual circumstances. This is normal and encouraged with this sort of game. Consider these rules more like guidelines.

Story

At the dawn of time in an enchanted woods where no man lives there was a magical spring of water. The animals that drank from that spring found themselves able to think and talk. But an evil saw this and tainted the water so that the creatures would also gain pride, greed, and form similar to man. And by so doing, soon the woods knew war.

Print and Play

Wood Wars 3D is a print-and-play game with a twist. To make a complete set you'll need a 3D printer, 2D printer, and other common components. The 3D printed components of this game are vital to it's gameplay. For full instructions on production and assembly please refer to the [Fabrication Guide].

Terms and Definitions

Before learning how to play it is helpful to review the [Key Concepts and Definitions] wiki page of Wood Wars 3D.

How to Read the Stats Cards

Every herd’s race and class combine to create a unique set of defining stats. By
placing the race and class cars side-by-side the complete stats can be read.

A Herd Type—In this example these are Wolf Soldiers.
B Herd Cost—The combined cost of the race and class. In this case Wolf Soldiers have a cost of 4.
C Match Icons—If these icons at the top of the Race and Class cards match then add an additional +2 to the cost.
D Movement—The combined stat determines how far the herd can move in the movement phase. In this example Wolf Soldiers can move 8 steps.
E Projectile Ratio—Ratio of Pawns:Shots that the herd gets during the Projectile phase. Soldiers get X:0 shots so they get no shots
F Hit Rolls—When rolling for damage in the Hand-to-Hand combat phase. Wolf Soldiers score a hit on a roll of ⚀ or ⚅.
G Herd Size—Herds may have a maximum and minimum size. The maximum is enforced at all times. The minimum is enforce in Clean Up.
H Special Abilities—Races or Classes can have special abilities. Special abilities take priority over other rules when applied.
I Part Image—A representation of how the physical part looks to help you build the marker pawn.

Setup

Setup can be done ahead of time by one player, or prepared ahead of time by both players by agreeing on a point value, or reserved until all players can contribute. The first step is to build the herds that make up your armies.

Drafting

For advanced players, the armies can be built as part of setup. Each player chooses a color and takes their filler pawns. The race heads, class bodies, and the associated race and class cards are placed in the middle of the play area.
Randomly choose a player to start.

On their turn a player can either:

• Add a filler pawn to a herd they already have.
• Create a new herd.

Until they have more points than another player, at which point they pass to the next player on the left with the fewest points.

To create a herd choose a race and class, aligning their cards and building the marker pawn for that herd. Then add filler pawns up to the minimum herd size. The total cost for the herd is the cost times the total number of pawns in it, marker and filler. Remember, if the race and class cards have matching top icons, increase the cost by 2.

In this example the Elk and Archer share a top icon so their cost is increased by 2 for a total of 3+3+2 = 8. Add 2 filler
pawns to bring the herd to it’s minimum size of 3 and the total cost of this small herd is 8 * 3 = 24 points.

When any player drafts their last filler pawn the draft immediately
ends for all players.

Scenario Prep

Scenarios can be created ahead of time based on an agreed upon point value, calculated in the same way as the drafting rules. [Preprepared scenarios] can also be found on the wiki.

Game Space Setup

The game space consists of the play area, a 1 meter square (or more) area where the terrain and herds are placed, and some the administration space outside the play area where the stats cards and discarded pawns will go. Where the administration and play areas are located will depend on your available table space and how many players are playing.

The play area should be a soft, flat surface. If your table is hard it is appropriate to use a table cloth or other covering. For longer tables the administration area could be to the sides. If your table is square, with enough room in the middle, the administration area can be right in front of the players.

The borders of the play area do not necessarily need to be marked off, it can simply be agreed upon by all players. Pawns and play elements should not pass into the Admin Area.

Play Area Setup

he play area contains the staging area where herds will enter the game. In a 2 player game the staging area can be the whole side of the play area nearest the player, measured 4 steps from the edge. In a game with more than 2
players the staging area should be 8 steps from the corners.

Terrain Placement

Since the starter set has components for only a 2 player game and 4 terrain elements many of the terrain placement rules below are not important. Just divide the board into quadrants, then alternate placing terrain elements into a quadrant that does not already have terrain until all 4 terrain elements are placed. Then jump to placing the Gifts of the Forest
.
Keep the following rules for when the game is expanded for more than 2 players.

Randomly decide which player should go first. Give the first player the Movement Coin. Give the player opposite the first player the Projectile Coin. Mentally divide the play area into 4 quadrants. The player with the Movement Coin goes first. Pick a terrain element and place it on the board (in one of the open quadrants). Then the player to the left places the next terrain element in a quadrant that is no already occupied. When all players have placed a terrain element the last player places another terrain element, and placement continues to the right. When all quadrants have the same number of terrain elements in them the next player can place their terrain in any quadrant, and then placement continues until all quadrants have the same number of terrain elements in them again.

Gifts of the Forest Placement

Divide the Gifts of the Forest tokens evenly among all players, discarding any remainders. The player with the Projectile Coin (with the 2 on it) places the first gift token and placement passes to the left until all tokens have been placed.

When placing a gift of the forest token it must be placed anywhere within 1 step of a terrain element in a quadrant not in front of the player doing the placement. This rule applies when redistributing gifts during play.

Herd Placement

Starting with the player with the Movement Coin (with the 1 on it) and passing to the left, players take turn placing their herds in the play area. When all players have placed one herd in the play area the last player to place places their second herd and placement passes to the right. Placement continues back-and-forth until no player has any herds left to place.

Rules for herd placement are:

• Herds enter in the staging area for that player.
• All pawns of the herd should be within 1 step of
• each other.
• All pawns of the herd should be at least 1 step away from pawns of another
• friendly herd.

Besides that the formation of the herd or where the marker pawn is in the herd
doesn’t matter.

A herd contains one marker pawn, designating the race and class of the herd, and at least one or more filler pawns. All pawns in a herd are the same race and class and are interchangeable with each other. In other words in a herd with a Boar Archer marker, all pawns, not just the marker pawn, are Boar Archers. At any time, and for any reason, the marker pawn can be switched with any of the filler pawns. If the maker pawn is knocked over, any of the filler pawns can be switched for it. If the marker pawn is orphaned from the main group, a filler pawn can be switched for it. If you feel that the marker pawn has a better shape for what you want to do, you can switch it.

Don’t think of it as promotion or demotion. All filler pawns are already the same as the marker pawn of that herd.

Quick Setup

Building your armies and setting up the game can be half the fun in Wood Wars 3D, but for new players it can often be good just to jump to the action. Here is how to set up the starter set quickly for first time players:

Player 1:

• Wolf Soldier and 8 filler pawns
• Bear Soldier and 6 filler pawns
• Wolf Archer and 6 filler pawns

Player 2:

• Elk Soldier and 9 filler pawns
• Elk Archer and 3 filler pawns 5 filler pawns
• Boar Soldier and 8 filler pawns

Place terrain elements near the imaginary quadrant lines, evenly spaced from the middle approximately.

Place the gift tokens within 1 step of the terrain elements towards the middle.

Build the armies shown and place them within 4 steps of the edge (the staging area). (Position the archer units behind the terrain nearest them.)

Randomly give each player a starting coin.

Place the Gifts of the Forest cards, marble roller, marbles, and step measurers outside the play area.

War Begins

After the initial herds are placed play proceeds in rounds. A round has 4 phases: Movement, Projectile Combat, Hand-to-Hand Combat, and Cleanup.

Movement Phase

Starting with the player with the Movement Coin (the one with the 1 on it) and passing to the left players take turns choosing a herd and choosing to move or pass movement on that herd until no player has any herds left to move.

• Pawns must move around terrain elements.
• Pawns can not end their movement closer than one step to a pawn in a
  different friendly herd.
• Pawns already in contact with opponent pawns can not move, but the
  pawns of the herd that are not in contact can move.
• If one pawn or more in a herd moves the whole herd is considered to have
  moved.
• Every pawn in the herd moves independently.

The herd’s movement speed is determined by their race and class stats. Pawns do not need to move their maximum distance, but can not move more than that.

Distances in Wood Wars 3D are measured in steps. Each step is 2cm. You can use the included steps measuring tool or a ruler. When moving the first step starts against the base of the pawn, and the pawn’s furthest distance can be its base against the toe of the maximum step of their movement value

If a pawn’s movement path takes it so that it would touch a gift of the forest token, remove the token, finish the pawn’s movement, and draw a gift of the forest card. The card can then be applied any time after the herd finishes moving.

Orphaning

At the end of movement phase if an individual pawn, or group of pawns smaller than the main body of the herd. is separated from its herd by more than 1 step that pawn or group of pawns are orphaned. Orphaned pawns have no race, class, or stats, cannot move, and can not defend themselves if directly attacked.

If the marker pawn is orphaned switch it for a filler pawn from the main body so the main body has an appropriate marker pawn. Remember, any one of the pawns can as easily be the marker.

At the end of movement if an orphaned pawn is within 1 step of a friendly herd it, and all orphans within 1 step of that pawn, are adopted into the friendly herd and gains the race and class of that herd. Orphaning and adoption in movement happens at the end of the movement phase, after all herds have moved. Therefore a pawn cannot be orphaned and adopted in the same movement phase.

Here the Boar Soldier herd moves around the tree they were behind to attack the Wolf Archers. After measuring it’s determined that the furthest pawn in the herd can make it around the tree to engage the Wolves, so they do.

But one pawn goes around the other way to collect the Gift token. Since Boar Soldiers have a movement stat of 7 steps that soldier does not have enough movement left after collecting the token to get back to its herd. However it is still a Boar Soldier until after the movement phase (at which time it will be orphaned and lose its race and class) so the Boar’s special ability about the Gifts of the Forest tokens is applied.

If the Wolf Archers have not passed their chance to move yet, the pawns that aren’t in direct contact have the option to move. They could increase their contact with the Boar Soldiers to do more counter damage or abandon the pawns that are engaged to avoid taking more damage in the hand-to-hand combat phase.

Projectile Combat Phase

The projectile attack stat is a ratio of the number of pawns in the herd to the number of attacks they get. Ignore remainders when calculating projectile ratios (round down). If a class has a projectile ratio of X:0 that means that the herd has no projectile attack. Any herd with one or more pawns in in contact with a pawn or pawns from an opposing herd also cannot participate in the projectile phase (because they’re lock in hand-to-hand combat).

For example: a Wolf Archer herd has a projectile stat of 2:1. This means for every 2 pawns in the herd they get 1 projectile. If the herd has 7 pawns (including the marker) that herd will have 3 projectile attacks.

Calculate the number of projectiles each herd gets and keep track of the shots. If you have enough, distribute that many marbles to each player. If there are more projectiles than marbles keep track of the number of shots available to each herd.

The player with the Projectile Coin (with the 2 on it) goes first to fire projectiles.

After the first player has taken one shot play passes to the next player with available attacks to the left. Once all players have fired one projectile the last player takes their second shot and play passes to the right. Play continues back-and-forth until no players have any projectile attacks to launch.

To fire a projectile, choose a standing pawn in a herd with available projectile attacks. If all pawns in a herd have fallen the remaining shots of that herd are lost. Place the marble roller next to the pawn with the pawn in the recess in the back of the roller.

Hold a marble above the roller’s chute and release. If the marble does not go through the chute the shot is wasted. Otherwise the shot is fair and the results are valid.

Do not clean up fallen pawns at this phase of the game. Wait until the cleanup phase. Fallen pawns are obstacles that can affect rolls.

Hand-to-Hand Combat phase

Herds that are touching resolve combat with dice.

The number of pawns in contact with an enemy herd is the number of dice you rolls you get.

Both sides fighting do their dice rolls at the same time. On the stats cards indicated by the claw icon are the sides of the dice that are a “hit” for that herd. If a hit is rolled they knock down a pawn in the opponent herd. Players knock over opponents’ pawns from the outside of the conflict with the pawns that are not directly in contact with opponent pawns, and moving towards the conflict in the middle. Pawns cannot be orphaned if it can be avoided. The number of pawn touching the opponent herd are the number of dice rolls that herd gets, so once pawns that are touching start getting knocked over that herd loses dice.

Once both sides have had all their dice rolls, both sides roll again until one herd is reduced to less than its minimum herd size, at which time the remaining pawns are immediately knocked down. That herd is defeated.

In the example picture, the Elk Soldiers managed to get 6 pawns in contact with the wolf soldier herd. The wolf soldier herd, on the other hand, only has 3 pawns in contact. So the Elk herd will have 6 rolls to every 3 rolls the Wolf herd
gets.

Both herds score a hit on a roll of ⚀ or ⚅.

In the first roll the Elk soldiers get a ⚂, ⚄, ⚄, ⚅, ⚂ and ⚄, so they score 1 hit and knock down one of the
Wolf’s 4 pawns that are not touching their herd. The Wolfs roll ⚀, ⚅ and ⚅, 3 hits, so they knock down the one blue pawn that is not touching their herd and two of the blue pawns that are touching their herd.

Both sides roll again, but this time the Elk herd only gets 4 rolls.

This continues until either herd has less than 3 pawns (including the marker pawn), their minimum herd size at which point that herd is lost and all pawns are knocked down.

Cleanup Phase

Do not ignore your Gifts of the Forest cards if you have any. Gifts can save a failing army.

The last phase of play is to clean up any fallen pawns. Do not clean up fallen pawns until the Cleanup Phase.

If a herd is reduced to less than its minimum herd size the remaining pawns are orphaned. Remove the marker pawn and replace it with a filler pawn.

If a player has no remaining herds (orphans do not count as herds) that player eliminated from the game.

Pass the Movement Coin and Projectile Coin to the left and continue the game with the Movement Phase.
Play continues until only one player remains.

Infrequent Edge Cases

Sometimes in the course of combat, particularly as a result of the unpredictability of projectile attacks, certain odd cases may come up. Here’s how to resolve them:

Splitting the herd

If a herd is split exactly in half, which half becomes orphaned? At the end of the phase if a herd has been split into 2 even groups the player opposite the player whose herd was divided gets to knock over 1 pawn in the split herd to
make one side the clear majority, and the other half becomes orphans.

Joining the herds

As the result of a projectile attack, standing pawns from two herds are pushed to within 1 step of each other so that the two herds are technically joined, how should they be divided? Leave the herds joined. Then during movement
the player with the joined herds can choose one of the herds and move them, taking as many pawns in the movement as desired, as long as the remaining herd is not made smaller than it’s minimum size. The other herd is not considered
to have moved once it’s been separated and can be moved on it’s own later in the phase.

Multiple Army Fight

If a herd is touching more than one opponent herd during the Hand-to-Hand combat phase, the total number of pawns they have in contact with any opponent herd is the number of dice roll they get, and hits can be applied to either
opponent herd they choose.

Did more edge cases come up in your game? Use the forums here on SourceForge to ask them.