Board Game Beast

A tense and atmospheric overlord game in which one player, a powerful Beast from the Northlands, fights against a team of hunters.

This strategy game – one of the best representatives of the stealth movement genre.

Hunters vs. Beast

In this strategy game, one player takes on the role of the Beast, protecting the nature of the Northlands, while the other players become hunters trying to save human settlements from a terrible destruction.

At the beginning of the game, players choose a contract and the side of the map on which they will play. One player chooses the Beast – the mistress of the Blackmarsh Bolgin, the queen of the wolf pack Fangrir, the messenger of the Eternal Night Mara, the oracle of the Abyss Raagu, the leader of the war pack Hogbad, or the lost hunter Esmeria. The other players choose unique hunters. Everyone takes the corresponding tablets, tokens, and ability cards. The beast also takes creature tokens and movement cards.

Gameplay

The game lasts a certain number of rounds, according to the contract chosen during the preparation phase. Each round consists of three phases: dawn, day, and night.

Phase 1. Dawn

During dawn, all players choose and pass action cards. Each player receives a certain number of cards in their hand (the number of cards depends on the number of participants). Each player chooses one of these cards and passes the rest of the cards to another player in clockwise order. This is repeated until all the players have dealt all the cards. A player cannot pass a card they chose earlier.

Phase 2. Day

The day is the main part of the game. In the Day Phase, the Beast always takes the first turn. Then, all players take turns in a clockwise direction. This continues until all players have passed. On their turn, a player may perform one of the following actions:

• Play cards. You may play 1 card with an orange symbol and/or 1 card with a blue symbol. Some Beast trick cards or items require experience to be played. To play some ability cards, the character must be in a location of the specified type. If the card played contains the word «zone», the effects of this card apply only to the zone the character is in at the time the card is played.
• Pass. You may pass if the other players have at least as many cards in their hand. By saving, the player does not end the phase unless all other players save in the circle.
• Escape. You can move 1 step by discarding 1 card.

If the Beast plays a card with a movement effect, it does not move its token. For each step, it places 1 movement card in the “Active Movement” area of ​​the map. When the hunter moves, it moves its character token the specified distance. If the hunter enters a location where the Beast is or has recently been, the Beast player must place a footprint token in that location.

The Beast reveals its current location when it attacks or when the hunter successfully searches a location with the Beast. The Beast shows all of its active movement cards to the hunters and moves its token to its current location. When a hunter plays a card with a search effect, the Beast must reveal itself if the search location matches its actual location.

The Day Phase ends when all players pass in sequence.

Phase 3. Night

The Beast and the hunters receive their Contract rewards if they fulfill the specified conditions for the current night. They then discard any remaining Action cards from their hand, refresh the Beast`s Item Rows and Trick Cards, and return any played Ability Cards to their hand.

They remove Wound tokens from all animals, settlers, and watchtowers. If a hunter dies during the Day Phase, they regain full health and place their token in any settlement on the map. Finally, the Beast and the players purchase upgrades with experience tokens to strengthen their characters.

Victory and Defeat

The Beast usually wins if it destroys a certain number of settlers, while the hunters win if they manage to defeat the Beast or survive a certain number of days (game rounds) without reinforcements. The conditions for victory for both sides are described in detail in the contracts (various game scenarios).