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Main Action

Pay a Cost

To take this main action, play or activate a card where the symbol appears in the play or activation cost.

Playing a Card

Many turns in Ashes consist of playing a card or activating a card that was played on a previous turn. It is common for your entire turn to consist of playing or activating just one or two cards. To play a card from your hand, first pay its cost [1] , then place it as directed by the card’s placement [2].

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Paying Costs

There are 5 different types of costs:
 Main Action: Take your main action for the turn.
 Side Action: Take your side action for the turn.
 Exhaust: Place 1 exhaustion token on this card.
 Discard: Discard a number of cards from your hand equal to the number shown.
     Magic: Exhaust dice of the appropriate type and number by moving them from your active pool to your exhausted pool. That number is known as the magic play cost. Remember that higher level dice can be used to pay for lower level costs.

Example: Paying Costs

image.pngTo play Summon Iron Rhino to your spellboard, take your main action for the turn and exhaust 1 or  die.

image.pngTo activate its effect, take your main action, place 1 exhaustion token on the card, and exhaust any six dice (any die can be used as  ). 


Parallel Costs

Some cards have two or more connected costs in their play cost or their activation cost. These costs are called parallel costs. To pay a parallel cost, pay one of the options, plus any other costs.

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Attack

When you Attack, 1 or more of your unexhausted units will enter battle.
Unexhausted: A card with no exhaustiontokens on it.
Battle: In battle an attacker deals damage equal to its attack value to a defender. Sometimes the defender will counter. After the battle, 1 exhaustion token is placed on the attacker, and 1 on the defender, if it countered, unless it is an aspect.
Counter: When a defender counters, it deals damage equal to its attack value back to its attacker. Attack and counter damage occur simultaneously. Aspects always counter if unexhausted, and they do not exhaust as a result of countering.

Blood Value: When an aspect is destroyed or discarded from the battlefield, place a number of wound tokens on the Chimera equal to its blood value. 

Ashes: Reborn (PvP)

To take an Attack action, first target an opponent’s PHOENIXBORN or UNIT.

If you target a PHOENIXBORN do the following in order:
  1. Declare Attackers: Choose ANY NUMBER of unexhausted units you control to be attackers.
  2. Opponent Declares Blockers: Your opponent may block each attacker with up to one unexhausted unit they control.
  3. Resolve Battles: One at a time, resolve each battle in an order of your choice.
    • If Blocked: The attacker battles its blocker and the blocker counters.
    • If Unblocked: The attacker battles the target Phoenixborn.

Note: Resolution order matters! If a blocker is destroyed before it battles, the attacker it was blocking becomes unblocked.

If you target a UNIT do the following in order:
  1. Declare Attackers: Choose ONE unexhausted unit you control to be the attacker.
  2. Opponent Declares Guard: Your opponent may guard with their Phoenixborn or with an unexhausted unit they control with the Unit Guard ability. Note: A Phoenixborn can only guard once per round, but may guard even if it is exhausted.
  3. Resolve Battle
    • If Guarded: The attacker battles the guard and, if the guard is a unit, the guard counters. If the guard is a Phoenixborn, it is rotated 90° to indicate it is unable to guard again this round.
    • If Unguarded: The attacker battles the target unit. If it is unexhausted your opponent may counter with it.
Example of an Attack

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Ashes: Red Rains (PvE)

To take an Attack action, first target the CHIMERA or one of its UNITS.

If you target a CHIMERA do the following in order:
  1. Declare Attackers: Choose ANY NUMBER of unexhausted units you control to be attackers.
  2. Declare Blockers: If the Chimera has an unexhausted aspect with the Defender ability, it will block the leftmost attacker with that aspect. If there are multiple  Defender aspects, it will assign one blocker to each attacker from left to right. Excess Defenders and Defenders on another battlefield do not block.
  3. Resolve Battles: One at a time, resolve each battle in the order of your choice.
    • If Blocked: The attacker battles its blocker and the blocker counters.
    • If Unblocked: The attacker battles the Chimera.
If you target a UNIT do the following in order:
  1. Declare Attackers: Choose ONE unexhausted unit you control to be the attacker.
  2. Declare Guard: The Chimera and its Defender aspects only guard aspects.
    • If there are one or more unexhausted units with the Defender ability on the same battlefield as the targeted aspect, the leftmost one which can guard the attack is declared as a guard.
    • If no Defender is declared as a guard, roll the behavior die. On a result of 9+, the Chimera guards, if able. Unlike Phoenixborn, the Chimera may guard any number of times per round.
    • Note: The Defender ability states that the Chimera will not guard for Defender units being attacked. Since exhausted units have no ability text, the Chimera may guard for an exhausted aspect with the Defender ability, since it is currently not considered a Defender.
  3. Resolve Battle:
      • If Guarded: The attacker battles the guard. If the guard is a unit, it counters.
      • If Unguarded: The attacker battles the target unit. If it is unexhausted, it counters.

Countering

Aspects always counter if unexhausted, and they do not become exhausted as a result of countering.

Blood Value

When an aspect is destroyed or discarded from the battlefield, place a number of wound tokens on the Chimera equal to its blood value.

Example of an Attack

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Pass

When you Pass, your main action is to do nothing. You may still take a side action.

Ashes: Reborn (PvP)

If your opponent does not Pass on their next turn, then when it is your turn again you may take any main action. If both players Pass on consecutive turns, the player turns phase ends and players move on to the recovery phase of the round.

Ashes: Red Rains (PvE)

If a player/Chimera Passes but their opponent takes a different main action, both player and Chimera may continue taking turns. If you and the Chimera both Pass on consecutive turns, the player turns phase ends and play moves on to the recovery phase.


The Red Rains halt for no one! If you take a Pass main action while there are 1 or more face down aspect cards on the opposing battlefield, the Chimera raises 1 basic rage die one level.

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