How to Play Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle

Game Objective

In Harry Potter: The Battle of Hogwarts, players take on the roles of heroes like Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom in a cooperative adventure against villains trying to conquer the magical world. The goal is to prevent the villains from controlling all the Locations, ensuring the safety of Hogwarts. If the villains manage to control all Locations, the heroes fail!

Setup

To set up the game, follow the steps below:

• Organize the components from the Year 1 box. The Year 2-7 boxes are not needed for the first year.
• Give each player a Hero Guide and a Health Marker. Place the Health Marker on space 10 of the Hero Guide.
• Shuffle the Dark Arts cards and form a face-down deck.
• Stack the Location cards face up in the order indicated in the top right corner.
• Shuffle the Villain cards and form a face-down deck. In Year 1, only one Villain will be active at a time.
• Each player chooses a Hero, shuffles their Starting Spellbook of 10 cards, and draws 5 cards to form their initial hand.
• Place the 6 Hogwarts cards face up for acquisition.

Game Flow

The game is played in turns, following the Turn Order:

1. Reveal and resolve Dark Arts event cards: Consult the Location to know how many events to reveal and resolve their effects.
2. Resolve Villain abilities: Each Villain has an ability that can be activated during the turn.
3. Play Hogwarts cards and perform Hero actions: The Active Hero can play cards to gain resources, attack Villains, or acquire new cards.
4. End your turn: Discard unused cards and markers, draw five new cards, and pass the turn to the next player.

Actions and How to Play

During the turn, the Active Hero can perform the following actions:

• Play cards: Play cards to gain Influence or Attack markers and trigger effects.
• Attack Villains: Use Attack markers to defeat Villains. When the number of markers equals the Villain's Health, they are defeated.
• Acquire new cards: Use Influence markers to acquire face-up Hogwarts cards. Acquired cards are placed in the Discard Pile.

End of Game and Scoring

The game ends in two ways:

• Victory: The heroes defeat all Villains, ensuring the safety of Hogwarts.
• Defeat: The Villains control all Locations, and the heroes fail.

If the heroes win, they can advance to the next year. If they lose, they must restart Year 1.

Tips for Winning

Here are some tips to help the heroes win:

• Prioritize removing Villain Control markers: If the Villains accumulate enough markers to control a Location, the heroes have until the end of the turn to remove them.
• Use Hogwarts cards strategically: Some cards allow you to gain Influence or Attack markers, which can be crucial for defeating Villains or acquiring new cards.
• Keep an eye on Hero Health: If a Hero loses all their Health, they become Stunned and lose part of their hand. Avoid losing Health whenever possible.