Dead of Winter: Warring Colonies — Rules Manual

Character ability changes
These replace what is written on the card:
Blue: You can perform one extra search for free (no second noise token)
Melissa Gupta: She can change one fuel to an explosive trap (card doesn’t go to waste pile)
Gray Beard: He steals from enemy characters in your colony only
Anita Wallace: Cannot place wound tokens on other survivors

These characters’ abilities can be used in any location:
Annaleigh Chan

These characters’ abilities only work with friendly players:
Eric Parker, Nadia Rivers and Derek Yoshida
Rules clarification
Ambiguous rule: If an ambiguous aspect of gameplay shows up, resolve with a group vote

Unsupported card: if there is a card from an incompatible version (eg: improvements/bandits/Raxon) remove it from the game and take a second card if still your turn

Secret objectives/crossroads: the card text refers only to your own colony/friendly survivors

Barricades: these can’t be removed by players

Explosive barricades: these are never triggered by characters, if a character is in a full entrance with one, new zombies don’t trigger them (wound survivor and return to colony)

Exile/traitor: there is no exile or traitor in Warring Colonies

Taser: character can take no actions (can still be bitten) or combat until the next round

Fuel: fuel and other movement assist cards can be used during the movement stage

Abilities: non-search character abilities can be used during movement phase if there is no dice spend required (eg (1+) written on card) for example Kevin Jackson’s sniper ability

Movement exposure bites: resolve these immediately, spread bites at location moved to

Dead character items: items lost in non-colony location are first split between enemy players at that location, if none then shuffled to that location deck

Water/coffee: these give extra dice for one round

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Player aid

Victory: complete both main objective and secret objective

Player turn order
1. Crossroads: People on right of each active player take top crossroads card
2. Add a wound to each frostbitten survivor (3 wounds of any kind kills them)
3. Movement: Move each survivor up to one new location. If full, return a friendly survivor back to your colony or an enemy survivor back to their colony with 1 bullet (2 bullets if they have a weapon equipped), don't roll for exposure
4. Resolve bites
5. Actions: take actions as per below
6. Resolve bites received during actions
7. Resolve crossroads: if for both players read non-prison colony player first

All possible actions with die cost:
● Fight a zombie (equal or higher value to attack number)
● Search a location (equal or higher value to its search number, can make 1 noise to choose from 2 top cards)
● Put up a normal barricade (any die)
● Clean 3 cards from waste (any die)
● Character ability which has die cost in brackets (eg 1+)

All possible actions without dice:
● Add a food card to the colony (need enough for half the survivors in colony rounded up each round)
● Add a card to crisis
● Use a non-event/non-equip card from hand (put in waste)
● Add new survivor (plus additional helpless survivors if written) from a found card/hand
● Equip an item from hand to survivor
● Request a card (can't add to crisis)
● Move an equipped item from survivor to another in the same location or to crisis
● Use a food token to increase a die by one
● Use a medicine card to turn unruly helpless survivor back to normal
● Character ability that doesn't have a die cost (some are restricted by location)
● Remove wound token with medicine/ability

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A frosty encounter
(The leader from the non-prison colony reads the following out loud)
Life after the world turned in on itself had become such a struggle that even things like trying to muster the energy to find the day’s meal took an almost unbearable amount of self-motivation. Our group had almost given up the ghost when we stumbled across the colony by almost sheer luck a couple towns along. It wasn’t pretty with a look of ‘shanty-ville’ about it but after five months our group turned the place around and now we call it home, the other residents our family.

It was around this time that we got our first glimpse of the others. Out by the old prison we heard a mighty ruckus and when we went to take a closer eye we saw they’d cleared the place of biters and were trying to lock it up in a hasty fashion.

After one shaky introduction we learned they’d come down a ways from the North, trying to outrun a hell of a storm that promised to bring in a winter like we’d never seen. We’d all felt the crisper mornings, the thicker snow, but this really brought home the shivers.

They were setting themselves up for the long haul, right on our doorstep, but we had bigger fish to fry like rounding up fuel for the generators. Without it the cold would take one mighty toll. Like this wasn’t enough the big freeze had brought more biters along for the ride, our little neighbourhood sure was getting crowded these days.

Objective 1:
Each colony must gather 4 fuel (2 fuel for Lone Wolf) and place them in their crisis piles.

Setup:
● Add 1 barricade to each non-colony location.
● Add 9 zombies to each colony
● Add 3 bullet tokens to each colony’s supply
● Morale starts at 6
● Put the round tracker to 1
● Use Gathering of Fiends as first crisis, shuffle the rest

Failure:
● Remove the 2 survivors (1 if Lone Wolf) with the lowest influence from each colony that did not gather 4 fuel
● Set the round track to 5

Success:
● Set the round track to 5

Do not initiate colony combat, once the round is over flip this sheet and read the other side.

(The leader from the prison colony reads the following out loud)

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We have struggled for too long, come too far, and after seeing town after town either overrun or picked dry we have nowhere left to go. I can’t allow for my group to falter now, not when we finally found somewhere with walls thick enough to keep out most of the walkers. Yet, this town is not big enough for the two of us, it was inevitable really, within the short time we have been here we are already stepping on each others toes and there are barely enough supplies for even one colony.

With so much already threatening our existence the idea of fighting survivors just like ourselves makes me sick to my stomach but if it’s a question of us or them, then the answer is clear, we must make our stand and claim what we need to survive. The time has come to fight for our very existence, we will take this town by force or join the dead trying.

Now complete colony phase including colony combat at any locations occupied by both colonies before moving on to complete the main objective below.

Main Objective 2:
● Either: control the most non-colony locations (more survivors than the other colony at that location) when the round tracker reaches 0
● Or: the enemy colony’s morale is at 0
● If there is a Lone Wolf they must now complete their own randomly picked mission
● If there is a tie for locations then neither colony completes the main objective.

At the end of the game read one (two if Lone Wolf) of the following:

(If one colony is victorious, their leader reads the following)
We came to clean up what was left of them in the night, carefully avoiding the undead and sneaking through the sorry remnants of their hideaway. There was no fight as we sunk our knives deep whilst they slept before taking the few pathetic items they had of any real value. Afterwards, no one showed remorse, there had been no other choice, a small loss compared to the death the world had already sprung. We had won and there was finally some hope that we might make a future out of all this.

(If neither colony wins, the player with the least influence reads the following)
Our people grow weak from effort and the enemy have stopped putting up much of a fight as well. I had hoped one of us at least could have broken the stalemate, but victory was always slightly out of reach and this town is near picked dry. It won’t be long before either the undead find their way in or the cold takes us while we sleep. War never changes, even when we are fighting over the last tree in the forest, if the rest of the world looks like this town then humanity is surely in its final death throes, the darkness will consume us all.

(If the Lone Wolf completes their mission they read this out)
They were so busy fighting each other they barely noticed me in the beginning, well whatever happens to the last of them now the hermit will survive inside its shell, safe from the outside world until all this blows over. Time to hide myself away again now, warmed by the knowledge I will live to see another day, away from prying eyes and hungry mouths in my nest of solitude.

(If the Lone Wolf completes their mission they read this out)
The big old dog has barked it’s last. I really thought I could escape humanity and the horrors it brings, but it seems like the world is just too big to make it alone. At least when my body rises again it will wonder as part of a larger pack, one of the many hungry mouthed and empty eyed, howling at the moon for all time to come.

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Pre-game Setup
This makes distinguishing game sets/packing away much much easier, the original base
game doesn’t require any modifications.

The Long Night
● Sleeve all survivors cards and add orange dot sticker to each
● Sleeve all starter item cards
● Sleeve all secret objective cards
● Add green dot sticker to bottom of zombie stands
● Add orange dot sticker to bottom of survivor stands

The Warring Colonies
● Sleeve all survivors cards and add purple dot sticker to each
● Sleeve random item cards
● Add purple dot sticker to bottom of survivor stands

Tip: Use two types of markers to distinguish survivors belonging to each team during
gameplay, we used mini pegs and coloured them blue and red to attach to survivor stands

(Pack down on next page)

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Pack down
Stands
● Purple characters in one bag
● Orange characters in one bag
● Uncoloured characters in one bag
● Green zombies in one bag
● Uncoloured zombies in one bag
● Uncoloured characters in a pile

Cards
● Sleeved purple characters in a pile
● Sleeved orange characters in a pile
● Sleeved starter items in a pile
● Unsleeved starter items in a pile
● Sleeved random items in a pile
● Unsleeved location items divided in piles
● Unsleeved secret objectives in a pile
● Sleeved secret objectives in a pile

Items
● Items split back to each pile and then in each bag
● Dice split evenly into 2 bags

Original box items:
● Uncoloured characters
● Uncoloured zombies
● Unsleeved starter items
● Unsleeved secret objectives
● Location item cards
● Half dice
● Non-prison board
● Exposure die, knife token, round/moral markers

The Long night box items:
● Orange characters
● Green zombies
● Sleeved orange characters
● Sleeved starter item cards
● Sleeved secret objective cards
● Exposure die, knife token, round/moral markers
● Location boards
● All tokens
● Half dice
● Prison board

All other items in WC box

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