Overview
Your object in Attack the Tower is to destroy the opponent's palace. To do it you'll have to recruit troops and send them through one of his three territories.
Each territory is a path that leads to the Palace and on them your opponent may build bases to halt the advancement of your troops.
Building bases and carefully planning your attacks, as well as wisely using your army's unique abilities, will allow you to crush your opponent and conquer victory.
Setting up
Each player must have his own Army, composed of a deck with 25 Ability cards and 25 Base cards, 9 counters and a board.
Separate Ability and Base cards. Shuffle them separately and place them on the board, in the spaces reserved for the Draw Piles.
Each player draws 5 cards form any of his Piles. If you're not satisfied with your cards, you may burn them as many times as you want (which means discarding them and drawing 5 more).
Players may then build any Bases they've drawn.
Building a Base means placing them on one of the reserved slots on the board. Each Territory has 3 slots. You may build a Base over one already on the board. In this case, the old Base is destroyed along with its Troops.
The game turn
In Attack the Tower, players will alternate turns in which they may attack their opponent. The player to whom the turn belongs is called the attacking player.
But Renewals apply to both players! If a player calls for it, then both shall follow the Renewal Sequence, below.
But if a player decides not to Renew, he must inform the opponent of his decision.
Recruit troops - each Base receives one new troop. Use the counters to keep count of how many troops each Base has, but remember that they cannot hold more than two troops
Draw two cards - the limit of cards you may hold is, initially, five. If you draw any further, you'll have to discard to comply with the limit.
Buid bases - this is the only moment during the turn you'll be able to do it, so use it.
In this second phase of the turn, players may also play abilities at will.
When he wishes, the attacking player may also end his turn, and his opponent then becomes the attacking player.
Battles
In Attack the Tower, battles happen between two Territories. All troops from the attacking territory will take part in the battle. From the defending territory, all of the troops and bases will take part in the battle.
To resolve a battle, follow these steps.
The attacking player must 'declare an attack', which means choosing from which of his territories the attack will come, and which of the opponent's territories is the target.
Both players may play as many abilities as they wish
Steps 3 and 4 are collectively referred to as combat (steps).
Each player calculates his Initiative damage. To do it he must add up the Power levels of all his troops with the Initiative Trait (check out 'Understanding troops and bases', below)
The players may distribute their initiative damage among the opponent's troops, destroying them if they receive as much damage as their Power.
Troops killed in this third step (Initiative) will not inflict damage during the fourth step (Regular combat).
The attacking player calculates his regular damage, which equals the combined power of all his troops (except, of course, his troops with the initiative trait that have already inflicted their due damage).
The defending player's regular damage equals the combined power of all his troops (again, except for initiative troops which have already inflicted their due damage), plus the power of the bases on the territory (since the defending base are also 'in combat').
Each player distributes his regular damage as he likes between opposing troops, killing them if the damage equals their own Power
If the attacking player manages to destroy all troops on the target territory, he has made the basea on that territory 'unmanned'. He can then distribute any remaining damage to the bases, destroying them if they take as much damage as their Power (normally 4).
At the end of the battle, all surviving Troops and Bases heal completely. None of the damage they received will be considered in future battles.
Attacking the palace
If the attacking Troops have destroyed all defending Troops and Bases, the survivors will then start another Battle, this time against the opponent's Palace.
This attack will happen automatically - with no need of it being declared - and follows the steps 2 to 5 of the Battle sequence, above.
The player who manages to destroy the opponent's Palace wins the game.
Troops, Bases and Palaces possess a Power level that defines both how much damage they cause in combat and how much damage it is needed to destroy them. The Power of Troops varies but the all Bases have Power 4 and Palaces have Power 10.
All Troops and Bases have Types. The Type of the Base is represented on its card and defines the Type of Troops it recruits.
light infantry have power 1
shooters have power 1 and 'initiative' trait (or '1+')
heavy infantry have power 2
cavalry have power 3
siege weapons have poer 4 and 'artillery' trait (or 4-)Also, Troops may have additional 'Traits'. Possible Traits are:
Initiative. Allows the Troop to inflict damage earlier in combat (see 'battles', above). This trait does not apply against Bases.
Artillery. Damage caused by Troops with Artillery can only be assigned to Bases or Palaces - other Troops are immune to it. Since Bases can only be damage if 'unmanned' (if there are no defending Troops on the Territory), be careful when deploying Artillery.
Unique. You can only have one Troop with this Trait on the field. As a newer unique troop is recruited, an older one is destroyed.
Loyal. Applies only to Special Troops. This troops do not require a complete Territory with 3 Bases to maintain them.