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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.

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Red Rains Setup2

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.

Next, set up the Chimera:
1. Place the Chimera card that corresponds to your selected difficulty and player count onto 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. Set the 5 rage dice to their basic side and place them on the board. Place the behavior die nearby.

4. Gather 18 aspect cards. There are multiple options for this. Keep Blood 1 and Blood 2 aspects separate for now.

  • 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.

5. Create the Chimera's starting battlefield(s) by setting up a row of random face down aspect cards facing each player in an arrangement that matches the starting setup on the Chimera card. The battlefield facing you is your opposing battlefield and aspects on that battlefield consider you their opposing player.

6. Shuffle the remaining aspect cards to create a face down draw pile. Place the fatigued card on the bottom of the draw pile with the 1 player or 2 player side face up, corresponding to the number of players.

Finally, players should set up as normal, following the standard rules in the Ashes Reborn rulebook. Give the first player token to any player.2


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

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