Game Setup

To set up a game of Ashes, each player should do the following:

1. Choose a deck to play with (see pp. 18-19 for suggested decks). Or build a deck to play with (see p. 18 for deck building rules). Or draft a deck to play with (see pp. 20-21 for drafting rules).
2. Place your Phoenixborn in your play area with the information side face up.
3. Place your conjuration pile face down in your play area.
4. Place the dice power reference cards that correspond to the dice you are using in your play area and take a phases of play reference card, if needed.
5. Place all ten of your dice to the right of your dice power reference cards. This is your exhausted dice pool.
6. Choose your First Five by taking five different cards of your choice from your deck. This is your starting hand. You cannot include more than one copy of a card in your First Five. Shuffle the rest of your deck and form a face down draw pile in
   your play area.
7. Make sure you have easy access to wound, exhaustion and status tokens.

Note: Your play area does not need to be organized like the example, but the different sections must be easily recognizable by your opponent.

Red Rains Setup

First, choose whether to play a 3 game campaign or a standalone game (see Red Rains Campaign on page 17). The campaign is the recommended experience, but players may also use any deck against the Chimera of their choice in a standalone game.²

1. Decide what difficulty level you will play at and place the corresponding Chimera card, single player side up, on its designated space on the Chimera board.
2. Create stacks of the behavior and Ultimate cards, with the phase I cards on top, followed by the phase II and phase III cards beneath them.
3. Place the behavior die near the behavior cards.
4. Set all 5 rage dice to their basic side and place them in the Chimera’s active dice pool.
5. Gather 18 aspects that all share the same subtype. In this set you will have a choice between gathering all 18 Fury aspects or all 18 Shadow aspects.
   • Recommended: Choose all aspects of the same subtype (Fury or Shadow are included in the Corpse of Viros expansion).
   • Custom Chimera: Choose any 9 Blood 1 and 9 Blood 2 aspects that you desire.
   • Random Chimera: Shuffle a stack of Blood 1 aspects and a stack of Blood 2 aspects, then draw 9 from each stack.
6. Place a row of randomized Blood 1 ( ) and Blood 2 ( ) aspect cards face down on the Chimera’s battlefield in the order shown on the Chimera card’s starting setup. The battlefield facing you is your opposing battlefield and aspects on that battlefield consider you their opposing player.
7. Shuffle the remaining Blood 1 and Blood 2 aspect cards together into a single deck to create the Chimera’s draw pile. Put the fatigued card (single player side up) on the bottom of the draw pile and place the draw pile on the Chimera board.
8. Choose your deck.
   
9. Place your Phoenixborn in your play area with the information side face up.
10. Place your conjuration pile face down in your play area.
11. Place the dice power reference cards that correspond to the dice you are using in your play area and take a phases of play reference card, if needed.
12. Place all ten of your dice to the right of your dice power reference cards. This is your exhausted dice pool.
13. Choose your First Five by taking five different cards of your choice from your deck. This is your starting hand. You cannot include more than one copy of a card in your First Five. Shuffle the rest of your deck and form a face down draw pile in your play area.
14. Place the first player token on your side of the play area.
15. Create a supply of each token type near the play area.

 

References
1. Ashes Reborn Rulebook v1.5, p5
2. Red Rains Rulebook p6