Helorian Battles is a points based deck construction card game where two-players battle for territory in Heloria!
Points Based Deck Construction
Points based deck construction is the very core of this game. Two players agree on a maximum point total before playing, and they both construct decks not to exceed this point total. This is the primary balancing mechanism for the game.
Action Economy
Every card in the game takes one action to play (unless stated differently on the card). This means you can play your most powerful card on turn one if you have it.
Each player gets 3 actions each turn to play or draw cards. Players also get 3 separate attack actions used for attacking the opponent.
Gameplay
Each player begins with one location & one general in play. These corresponding locations create an attack lane for units to be deployed and fight. Locations also provide health (known as supply) and other benefits such as increasing card draw.
Players may play additional locations throughout the game, adjacent to their starting location. These locations provide health, bonuses, and create additional combat lanes to fight in.
A player has 5 phases on their turn:
- Turn Actions: used to play cards, draw cards, gain attack actions, and move units
- Attack Actions: used to attack with units; attacker decides who their unit attacks
- Combat: resolve combat from attack actions; there are spell cards that can be played to change the outcome of battle
- Deployment: any units played in phase 1 are moved to a location
- Card Draw: every player discards their remaining hand & draws cards to their max hand size; players may sacrifice health to hold onto cards
There are two discard piles. One is known as the graveyard – this is where all played cards go when they are removed from the game (spells, defeated units, etc.). The other is known as the cache – this is where all cards discarded during the card draw phase go.
When you run out of cards in your draw deck, which happens frequently, at no cost can you reshuffle your cache into your draw pile. At this point you also have the opportunity to pay 10 health to reshuffle your graveyard into your draw pile as well.
Current Status
The game is currently on version 1.7, our first printed version for playtesting. A second print, version 1.8, is planned in Q4 2022.
The game is undergoing extensive playtesting on these printed versions, allowing us to catch unclear rules & text and improve game balance.