Manual — Ginormopod 2050 A.D.: Attack of the Giant Bug Monsters

GINORMOPOD
2050 A.D. ATTACK OF THE GIANT
BUG MONSTERS

A HOLLANDSPielo PRODUCTION "GINORMOPOD 2050 A.D.: ATTACK OF THE GIANT BUG MONSTERS"
DESIGNED BY RYAN HEILMAN & DAVE SHAW VISUAL EFFECTS BY WIL ALAMBRE

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2035 - Coastal flooding destroys major cities.
- New York City, Washington DC and New Orleans are saved by enormous levies.
2038
- The Great Quake destroys Western coast of the US.
2039
- Giant tunnels and mounds sighted in the West.
2040
- Dallas swallowed by a sinkhole.
- First sighting of The Swarm.
2041
- The Swarm expands rapidly west of the Mississippi River.
- Swarm Prevention Institute (SPI) formed in New York City.
- President Muffley abandons Swarm-occupied states. Denounced by World leaders.
- American Refugees flee to the Canadian Kingdom.
2042
- Dr. Medford of the SPI discovers the Swarm is sentient.
- Battle of the Mississippi: Americans halt Swarm expansion.
- Construction of the Fusion Fence along Mississippi River.
2047
- Studies of Swarm corpses by SPI determine the cause of insect mutation.
2049
- Research indicates the Swarm can control its mutations.
2050 March
May
June
July
August
- Larger more destructive Swarm monsters appear.
- Swarm exhibits tectonic telekinesis. SPI theorizes this could result in cracking
the planet.
- SPI, CDC, and DOD pool resources to begin development of an Anti-Mutagen.
- Swarm hivemind telepathy learns of Anti-Mutagen development.
- As human scientists race to complete the Anti-Mutagen, the Swarm launches an
all-out attack.

Overview 2 Fade In 7
Battleground 2 Fusion Fence 7
Set-Up 3 Allied Reinforcements 7
Flow of Play 5 FX 8
Movement 5 Danger 9
Combat 5 Victory 9
Fort Combat 6 Art 10
Fade Out 7

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GINORMOPOD 2050 AD 2

Overview
This game is for two players. The Swarm Player controls the white
pieces. They win the game by destroying any two of the following cities:
New York City
Washington DC
Atlanta

Doing so before the end of the tenth turn will prevent completion of the anti-mutagen.

Their opponent, the Human Player, controls the blue pieces. They win the game if at least two of the above cities remain undestroyed at the
end of the tenth turn.

Let’s look at the pieces. Most of them represent combat units – giant
monsters [Ginormopods] for the Swarm, infantry and tanks for the
Humans. Each piece has one or more die symbols. When the unit
attacks, you will roll dice equal to the number of symbols. Each roll
equal to or greater than the indicated die value will score a hit. The side
with the full-color illustration is its Fresh side; when a Fresh unit suffers
a hit, it is flipped to its reduced [black & white] side. A reduced unit that
suffers an additional hit is Eliminated.

Units also have a Formation printed on their counter, which
corresponds to an Activation Chit. These chits are drawn randomly from
a cup to determine which units are active and when. Each side also has
several Special Effects [FX]. These provide an advantage for their side.
Each side has a specific FX that if used endangers the planet that they
are fighting over. If a player thusly caused the end of the world, the
game ends immediately in their loss.

Battleground
Now let’s look at the map. It is made up of named Cities which are connected by road segments. Cities which share a road are adjacent.
Units move from City to City, with each move costing a Movement
Point [MP]. Some types of units have more MPs than others as indicated
on the Player Aid.

Some Cities are Forts. Each Fort has a strength track which utilizes a
cube. When a Fort takes a hit, it loses strength. When it loses its last box
of strength it is destroyed. Some Forts are part of the Fusion Fence,
which we will explain later. The westernmost Cities on the map are
Swarm Hives from which they will spawn new monsters.

You will note some of the Cities have cute baby flags. These indicate
arrival zones for reinforcements. We will talk more about that later.

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GINORMOPOD 2050 AD 3

Set-Up
Into each Hive City, place two ants, one spider, and one worm of the matching formation.

Place Human Units as indicated in the diagram on the opposite page.

Roll twelve times on the National Guard Table. For each roll, place a National Guard in the indicated City. If more than two Guards would be placed in a City, reroll. Guards are deployed with their diceless side face-up.

Set aside all other Human Units for now.

Place the following ten Activation Chits in a cup. Swarm: All three Swarm activation chits and Wasp and Pill bug. Humans: All Three Human activation chits and Drone and Laser Tower.

Place the following Activation Chits on Turn 2 of the Turn Track: Tectonic Telekinesis and Nuclear.

Place the following Activation Chits on Turn 6 of the Turn Track: Canadian Kingdom, French, Latin Coalition.

Place the Game Turn Marker on Turn 1 of the Turn Track, and the Danger Marker on the first space of the Danger Track.

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GINORMOPOD 2050 AD

2

MINNEAPOLIS
ES MOINES
ST LOUIS
MEMPHIS
JACKSON
NEW ORLEANS
CHICAGO
B
x2
B
B
x2
B
B
ATLANTA
B
B
NASHVILLE
BIRMINGHAM
MONTGOMERY
CINCINNATI
B
FRANKFORT
KNOXVILLE
RALEIGH
PITTSBURGH
HARRIS
RICHMOND
WASHINGTON DC
NEW YORK CITY
SYRACUSE
BUFFALO
BURLINGTON
SCRANTON
1
2
3
END OF TURN
GAME
TURN
DANGER LEVEL
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9+
AUG
4-6
AUG
7-9
AUG
10-12
AUG
13-15
AUG
16-18
AUG
19-21
AUG
22-24
AUG
25-27
AUG
28-30
TIME TRACKER

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GINORMOPOD 2050 AD 5

Flow of Play
Each turn generally consists of three phases performed in this order.
Fade In
Action
Fade Out

Skip the Fade In Phase on Turn 1. Because that phase makes more sense in the context of the rest of the turn, we will come back to it a little later. For now, let’s look at the Action Phase, where you will be spending most of your time.

During the Action Phase, chits are randomly drawn from the cup and resolved one at a time, until three …The End??? are drawn.
If an Activation Chit is drawn, Units from that Formation are activated for Movement and Combat.
If an FX is drawn, that Special Effect is available for the owning player to use this turn.
If …The End??? is drawn, place it on the Turn End Track.

Movement
Activated Units move one at a time from City to adjacent City, with each new City entered costing one Movement Point [MP]. Each turn,
Worms have one MP.
Infantry and Spiders have two MP.
Tanks and Ants have three MP.

Six Units from each side may occupy the same City.
For this purpose, each box of strength possessed by a Fort counts as a Unit.

When you move into a City occupied by the enemy, you must cease that Unit’s movement for this turn.
If a Swarm Unit enters a City occupied by unrevealed National Guard, flip the Guard over. If the Guard’s die symbol is blank, remove the Guard; if there are no other Human Units or Guard present in the City, the Swarm Unit may keep moving.

Note that Swarm movement is hindered by the Fusion Fence; we will get to that in a hop and a skip.

After completing all movement for a Formation, Combat is resolved.
Combat
During this step of a Formations Activation, resolve all Combats, one at a time in the order of the acting player’s choosing. If needed, you can move the Units from the City being resolved to the side of the map; use the Combat Marker to mark that City.

Players roll dice for each of their Units, keeping track of Hits scored; all Hits are applied simultaneously.
Each Unit rolls the number of dice indicated on their counter.
A Hit is scored when a die result is equal to or greater than the pips indicated on the individual die symbols. Note that this number may be modified by FX.
Fresh Tanks roll two dice and score one Hit if one or both dice are equal to or greater than the indicated pips. If the Tank rolls doubles and is within that range, it scores two Hits.

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GINORMOPOD 2050 AD 6

For each Hit suffered, the owning player must either flip a Fresh Unit or eliminate a reduced Unit [removing it from the game].
Guard Units do not have a reduced side and are Eliminated when they suffer a Hit.
Eliminated Swarm Units are placed on the Turn Track two spaces ahead of the current turn; e.g., if it is Turn 5, place them on the Turn 7 space. If it is Turn 9 or 10, simply remove them from the game.

The side that suffered more Hits must Retreat [acting side if tied]. If the side that suffered fewer Hits has no Units left, the other side does not Retreat. Acting Units that Retreat must return to the City from which they moved into battle. Non-acting Units that Retreat cannot end the Retreat in an enemy City.
A City is enemy if it only contains enemy Units. Cities that contain Units from both sides are contested and may be Retreated into if they were not enemy Cities at the start of the current Activation. In that case, the Retreating Units do not take part in any Combat to be resolved in that City during this Activation.
Undestroyed Forts are always enemy to the Swarm.
If Retreating into a City would bring the number of friendly Units in that City to more than six, some Units from that City must be displaced, moving them to another City.
If the only possible Retreat option is an enemy City, the Retreating Units each suffer an additional Hit and continue Retreating until they can end their Retreat in a non-enemy City.
National Guard cannot Retreat, and if required to do so are Eliminated.

If the acting player has at least five Units and the enemy only one,
the enemy Unit is eliminated and,
the acting Units do not suffer any Hits,
the acting Units may immediately advance one additional space regardless of MP, keeping those Units together. They may use this special move to initiate another battle. A given Unit may only advance once per turn.

Fort Combat
When the Swarm attacks a Fort, the Fort itself rolls dice equal to its current strength, scoring hits on a 5+. The Fort can suffer Hits, reducing its strength, but can only do so if there are no friendly Units left to absorb losses.
When a Fort loses its last point of strength, remove the cube from its track and place a Destroyed marker on the Fort.

If the Swarm would be forced to Retreat as the result of the Combat it does so; if the Humans would be forced to Retreat, they may choose to ignore it. If the Swarm is not forced to Retreat, they may stay in the Fort space and attack again on a subsequent Activation. Units from both sides may leave or enter the Fort on future Activations so long as they comply with stacking limits.

Forts like Units have a Formation:
A: Chicago, New York, Washington
B: St. Louis, Memphis
C: Jackson, New Orleans, Atlanta

When a Fort’s Formation is Activated, or when Units within the Fort are Activated, an undestroyed Fort whose space is occupied by Swarm Units may exercise on of the following three options.
Full Attack: Resolve as a normal Fort Combat.
Barrage: Only the Fort itself rolls dice. The Swarm does not get to fire back unless they use the Wasp’s FX.
Withdrawal: Any/all Human Units in the Fort may leave. Note that they may do this when the Fort’s Formation is Activated even if their own is not.

Sortie: If there are no Swarm Units in the undestroyed Fort, Human Units in the Fort may launch a Sortie against adjacent Swarm Units. This is resolved as a normal Combat, but if the Humans win the battle, they may either remain in the new space or return to the Fort.

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GINORMOPOD 2050 AD 7

Fade Out
During the Fade Out Phase, perform the following steps in order:
If any Formations were Activated, each side can choose one of their unactivated Activation Chits to hold for the start of the next turn. Return all other chits to the cup.
Roll For Danger. See the Danger section later in these rules.
Check For Victory.
Advance the Game Turn Marker. If there are Swarm Units on the new space give them to the Swarm Player for the next turn’s Fade In Phase. When you advance to Turn 6, add the Allied Reinforcement Chits to the cup.

Fade In
During the Fade In Phase that begins each turn except the first, perform the following steps in order:
Swarm Units retrieved from the Time Tracker during the previous Fade Out Phase are returned to the map in Hives matching their Formation, not occupied by the enemy. Obey stacking limits. If unable to do so, any unplaced Swarm Units are placed on the next turn of the track.
If the Swarm Player holds an Activation Chit from the previous turn, they Activate that Formation now.
If the Human Player holds an Activation Chit from the previous turn, they Activate that Formation now.

Play then proceeds, naturally, to the Action Phase.

Fusion Fence
The Fusion Fence shines so bright that it can be seen for several hundred miles.
At night, people east of the Mississippi, always know which way is west and rest easy knowing they are protected.

Swarm Units cannot move east of the Fusion Fence while it is active. Destroying two adjacent Forts will deactivate a portion of the Fence, allowing movement east through the hole created. That is, they may use the roads leaving the destroyed Forts to move east.

Allied Reinforcements
To contain the giant bug infestation to the western United States, several countries pledged their military assistance should the Swarm ever make a move on the Fusion Fence. But will one of them arrive in time?

On Turn 6, the three Activation Chits for foreign troops are added to the cup. Whichever of these is drawn first will come to the rescue; the other two are removed when drawn. In the Fade Out Phase of the turn in which one of these chits is first drawn, add the Activation Chit back to the cup along with the FX Chit for that Formation. Then, place the Units for that Formation in Cities bearing that nation’s flag. You must obey stacking limits, and cannot deploy these troops into Cities occupied by the Swarm.

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GINORMOPOD 2050 AD 8

FX
When an FX Chit is drawn, hand it to the owning player. They may use that FX during that Game Turn.
An FX may only be used once per Game Turn.
In any given Combat, each side may only use one FX.

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GINORMOPOD 2050 AD 9

Danger
When the FX Tectonic Telekinesis or Nukes are used, the Danger Marker is advanced: flip the marker to the side representing that FX and move it one space to the right on its track. During the Fade Out Phase, if the Danger Marker is on a space with die symbols, the player whose FX is visible must Roll For Danger. They roll two dice; if the sum is equal to or greater than the die symbols, Congratulations!, you have destroyed the Earth and lose the game immediately. Note that you Roll For Danger before checking for victory, so it is possible to lose the game despite having fulfilled your victory condition.

Victory
During the relevant step of the Fade Out Phase, the Swarm wins if they have destroyed at least two of the following Cities:
New York City
Washington DC
Atlanta

If the Swarm has not accomplished this by the end of the last turn, the Humans win. Yay! They can complete and deploy their deadly Anti-Mutagen, completely eradicating the Ginormopod population, even the babies. Maybe not so Yay!

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