# Heróis e Monstros ## General Info - **Year Published**: 2015 - **BGG Rating**: — - **BGG Rank**: — - **Players**: 2-5 - **Duration**: 45-60 min - **Weight**: — - **Publishers**: Kalango Analógico - **Categories**: Fantasy, Medieval - **Mechanics**: Deck, Bag, and Pool Building ## Verdict If you love cooperative play with an RPG twist and want to test deck‑building strategies, this game is for you!Engaging cooperativeUnique deck mechanicAsymmetric challengeMedieval settingLimited componentsModerate learning curveHIGHLY RECOMMENDED ## Description Heroes and Monsters places you and your friends on the last line of defense of a fortress on the brink of collapse. Each player takes on the role of a General, commanding a different race—Elves, Dwarves, or Humans—and must manage three types of resources (Roots, Soul Crystals, and Sacrifices) to purchase buildings, recruit units, and activate powerful effects. The deck, bag, and pool building mechanic lets you customize your deck each turn, adapting to the cards that appear. The challenge comes from the relentless attacks of the Order of Light, which reduce the number of cards in the fortress deck, and an Adversary that grows stronger as the fortress weakens. The goal is to keep the fortress standing, maintaining cards in its deck, and prevent the Adversary from winning. The game is cooperative yet asymmetrical: each General has access to different resources and controls distinct units, creating a dynamic where collaboration is essential, but each player has a unique path to victory. Components include a set of building, unit, and effect cards, plus resource tokens. Gameplay balances strategic planning with quick decision‑making, with an accessible learning curve for beginners and depth for veterans. Ideal for groups who enjoy medieval fantasy narratives and cooperative challenges with an RPG twist. ## How to Play Game Objective In Heroes and Monsters, players must work together to ensure the survival of the Last Fortress and its inhabitants. The game's universe features a world where monsters fight like heroes and heroes behave like monsters. The medieval fantasy races (Elves, Dwarves, and Humans), who would normally be heroic, are part of the extremist Order of Light and have practically exterminated intelligent creatures of evil or chaotic nature, known as monsters (Greenskins, Undead, and Dragonkin). The few surviving monsters have united in the ruins of the Last Dark Fortress, setting aside their differences to prevent the extinction of their races. However, each race leader, inside and outside the Fortress, has a personal plan to dominate the other races and be remembered as a hero. The objective of each game is to keep the Fortress standing, with cards in its deck, and to defeat the Adversary's plans. Setup To set up a game of Heroes and Monsters, follow the steps below: Determine an Adversary: Choose an Adversary for the game and place their token on the game table. For the first game, it is recommended to face Randall of the Winds. Separate the Plan cards for this Adversary, if they exist. Read the specific rules for this Adversary, found on their token, aloud to all players. Make adjustments to other setup rules, if required by the Adversary's rules. Choose a General and build your starting deck: Each player chooses a General from one of the three races in the game and places their token in front of them. Try to play with different races at the table, repeating Generals of the same race only in games with more than 3 players. The "Starting Deck" field on your General's token indicates which cards should be part of your starting deck (e.g., Wargosh starts with 2 Root cards, 1 Soul Crystal, and 1 Sacrifice; Kryssa-Ruiva starts with 1 Sacrifice, 1 Root, 1 Soul Crystal, and 1 Slave). The number next to the card icon in the bottom right corner of your General's token indicates how many cards you will draw during your Draw Phase. The resource icons in the bottom right corner of your General's token indicate which resources are automatically added to your Resource Reserve at the start of your turn (e.g., Wargosh starts every turn with 2 Roots; Kryssa-Ruiva starts every turn with 2 Soul Crystals and 2 Sacrifices). The number inside the red circle on your General's card and their Units indicates how many Damage Points you are capable of dealing to Invaders on the Battlefield, before activating any effects. Every General has a unique ability, marked at the bottom of their token (e.g., Wargosh can spend one Root to increase all damage dealt by Orcs and Goblins on their table by +1; Kryssa-Ruiva can spend 2 any resources to activate an effect of a Construction on any player's table, without paying the effect's costs). Draw cards: See the number of cards your General can draw and draw them from the top of your personal deck. These cards represent the Units you can use to attack on your turn and the Resources you can use to acquire Constructions or recruit Units from the Construction and Recruitment Area or to activate effects of cards you already possess. Build the Fortress deck: The Fortress Deck is composed of Construction cards and Defender Unit cards (non-starting). Mix all these cards and shuffle them well. The Fortress Deck must always have 54 cards. Discard any excess randomly (usually 6 cards, but this may vary with promotional or expansion cards). Starting Units (marked with "starting card" at the bottom) are not shuffled into the Fortress Deck. Build the Construction and Recruitment Area: Draw 8 cards from the top of the Fortress Deck and place them face up, in two rows of 4 cards each, in the center of the table, within reach of all players. This is the Fortress's Construction and Recruitment Area. When a player acquires a card from the first row, or if a card from the first row is removed due to an Invader's attack, move the card directly below it, in the second row, to the empty space and draw a new card from the Fortress Deck to replace it. If the Fortress Deck runs out of cards at any point, the game ends and the players lose. Build the Invasion deck: Separate all Invader Unit cards from Humans (8 cards), Elves (8 cards), and Dwarves (8 cards). Shuffle these cards well. This is the Invasion Deck. Draw 4 cards from this deck and place these Invader Units immediately above the first row of cards in the Fortress's Construction and Recruitment Area. Place one card at a time and, when a unit has a special ability, read it aloud to all players. Some Invaders cause effects the moment they enter the Battlefield; apply these effects immediately. Game Flow The game progresses in rounds, with each player taking their turn and, at the end of the round, an Invasion phase. All players, in clockwise order, starting with the first player, must execute the following phases: 1: Defenders' Turn Each player, in their turn, executes the following phases: Construction and Recruitment: You can use the resources provided by Root, Soul Crystal, and Sacrifice cards in your hand, in conjunction with the Resource Reserve provided by your General, to acquire a Construction or Unit card from the Fortress's Construction and Recruitment Area. Constructions enter play directly. Units go to your discard pile. You can only have 3 Construction cards on your table. If you acquire a fourth, discard one of the other 3. Resources provided by your General and your resource cards do not accumulate from one turn to the next. You lose all Soul Crystal, Root, and Sacrifice that you do not spend during your turn. Effects: Use any excess resources from the Construction and Recruitment phase to activate effects from your General, your Constructions, and your Units, in any order. These effects may require you to spend resources to be activated, or to discard a card for the effect to occur. Pay the costs and discard cards before moving to the next phase. Effects that have a resource cost can only be used during your turn. Effects that require you to discard a card can be used at any time during the game, including on other players' turns. Combat: Gather all Damage Points received from your General, Unit cards, and Effects. Spend these Damage Points, as you wish, on the Invaders on the Battlefield. Some Invaders may activate effects when they enter combat with your troops. Check and apply the effects of an attacked Invader before attacking the next Invader. Discard: Discard your entire hand of cards, including cards you did not use on your turn. Constructions are not discarded. Draw: Draw a new hand of cards. If your personal deck runs out of cards and you need to draw a card or reveal a card from the top of your deck, reshuffle your discard pile to rebuild your personal deck. 2: Invasion The Invasion occurs at the end of the last player's turn, after everyone has played. Each Invader will remove cards from its column, from the Construction and Recruitment Area, equal to the Damage Points it is capable of dealing. These discarded cards go to the Rubble Pile. Some Invaders may activate effects when they deal damage to the Fortress. Check and apply the effects of the active Invader, when necessary, before activating the next Invader. Replenish the cards in the Construction and Recruitment Area, destroyed by the Invaders. If there are no more cards in the Fortress Deck to replenish the area, the game ends and the players lose. Replenish defeated Invaders. Draw cards from the Invasion Deck to fill the empty spaces in the Invader line on the Battlefield until there are 4 Invaders: one in front of each card in the Construction and Recruitment Area. Draw them one at a time. Some Invaders may activate effects when they enter the Battlefield; apply these effects before drawing the next Invader card. 3: Restart the round Refer to the manual for details on this section. Actions and How to Play During your turn, you will have access to various actions and decisions: Gathering resources: You need resources to acquire Unit and Construction cards. Resources are obtained from Soul Crystal, Root, or Sacrifice cards. Each card provides 1 resource of the type marked on it. Additionally, each General has a Resource Reserve that can vary in quantity and type and is automatically added at the beginning of your turn. Remember that the resources provided by your General and your resource cards do not accumulate from one turn to the next. You lose all Soul Crystal, Root, and Sacrifice that you do not spend during your turn. Acquiring Constructions and recruiting Units: You can acquire any Unit or Construction from the Construction and Recruitment Area, as long as you can pay its resource cost. Construction cards are placed directly into play and can be used immediately. Unit cards are placed in your discard pile. Whenever a card is drawn or destroyed from the Construction and Recruitment Area, draw a new card from the Fortress Deck to replace it. If a card is removed from the first row, before acquiring a new card, move the card directly below it, in the second row, to occupy the empty space. New cards, drawn from the Fortress, always enter the second row, unless there are no cards in the column where it should enter. Activating Effects: Some effects of your Construction and Unit cards can only be activated by paying resources. Whenever possible, try to use any excess resources from your Construction and Recruitment phase to activate these effects. Effects that have a resource cost can only be used during your turn. Effects that require you to discard a card to occur can be used at any time during the game, including on other players' turns. The way to use damage bonuses, resources, and effects obtained in this way is at the discretion of the active player. Combat and Attacking Invaders on the Battlefield: The line composed of 4 Invader Unit cards, just above the two rows of the Construction and Recruitment Area, is called the Battlefield. You can attack any Invader on the Battlefield, as long as you have generated enough Damage Points to do so. Damage Points can be obtained from your Defender Units or your General. You can also increase your Damage Points through the effects of your Construction cards, your Unit cards, or your General's special power. Each Invader Unit has a Health Bar composed of Damage Levels. Whenever you gather Damage Points equal to the first Health Level of an Invader Unit, you can spend these Damage Points and place a marker on it. This marker indicates that the first Health Level of that unit has already been defeated and that you can now attack its second Health Level. When there are a number of markers on an Invader Unit equal to the number of Levels on its Health Bar, then it is defeated and is immediately placed in the discard pile. Some Invader Units will activate effects when they are defeated. These effects are activated before removing them from the Battlefield. Personal and Invasion Deck Management: At any time, if your personal deck runs out of cards and you need to draw a card or reveal a card from the top of your deck, reshuffle your discard pile to rebuild your personal deck. If the Invasion Deck runs out of cards, reshuffle the Invader Unit cards removed from play to rebuild the Invasion Deck. Hand Discard: At the end of your turn, you must discard your entire hand of cards. So, use everything you can, always. End of Game and Scoring The game can end in two ways: Players' Victory: ## FAQ ### How many players can play? 2 to 5 players. ### What is the average game duration? Between 45 and 60 minutes. ### Is the game complex or simple? It has moderate complexity; suitable for players with some experience in cooperative card games. ### What are the main components? Building, unit, and effect cards; resource tokens (Roots, Soul Crystals, and Sacrifices); and a board representing the fortress. ### Who is the target audience? Players who enjoy medieval fantasy, RPGs, and cooperative challenges with deck‑building mechanics. ### Are there rule variations or expansions? No official expansions are released, but home‑brew variations can be made with custom cards. ### How does victory work in the game? Players win by keeping the fortress standing, with cards in its deck, and stopping the Adversary from completing its plans.