Game Objective

In Tiny Epic Kingdoms: Heroes' Call, war expands to frozen lands and high peaks. Players take control of factions fighting for supremacy, seeking to gather resources, build war towers, and recruit powerful heroes. The objective is to accumulate victory points through the expansion and development of their kingdoms. Victory is decided by the final score, but the game can end early if a player manages to retire 3 heroes.

Setup

Setup follows the base game rules, and new factions and territories can be mixed in or used exclusively. For the expansion, each player must have:

• 06 war towers of the player's color.
• 01 hero meeple of the player's color.
• 01 hero level marker.
• 01 silver resource marker.

Step-by-step for each player:

1. Replace one meeple of your color on the territory board of your starting region with a hero meeple (you do not start with two regular meeples).
2. Draw two hero cards: keep one face up and discard the other.
3. Place the hero level marker on the first level of the hero card.
4. Place your war tower and silver resource markers to the side. Important: silver cannot be used as a resource at the start of the game.
5. Shuffle the discarded hero cards back into the deck.

Game Flow

The game progresses through turns where players select actions. The provided context specifically details the flow for the solo mode:

• Solo Turn: You and the dummy player take turns. When it's the dummy player's turn, roll a war die, and the compass card determines the action. If the action has already been used, proceed clockwise on the compass until an available one is found.
• Day and Night Cycle: Whenever the action card is emptied, the compass card is flipped. This alternates between day and night, affecting the dummy player's war costs and region selection. On the transition from day to night, the dummy player gains 1 resource of each type.

Actions and How to Play

Heroes and Progression

The hero meeple functions like a regular meeple (moves, initiates wars, and collects resources), but possesses special abilities described on the hero card. These abilities can be war or resource collection bonuses and affect only the hero, unless the card indicates otherwise.

• Leveling Up a Hero: Heroes have 3 levels. To level up, the player must meet the requirements indicated on the left column of the hero card (such as performing certain actions, paying resources, or winning a war).
• Retiring a Hero: Upon reaching the top level, the hero immediately retires. Replace the hero meeple with a regular meeple and place the hero card next to your faction card.
• Hero Death: If you lose a war and cannot or do not wish to retreat, the hero is removed from the game, and their hero card returns to the deck.
• Expanding: When performing the expand action, if the hero meeple is in the supply, it must be the first to return to the game (at no extra cost). At this point, draw two new hero cards, keep one, and shuffle the other back into the deck.

Resources and Territories

• Silver: Collected in the Peaks. It is a wild resource that substitutes any resource (1:1 ratio) for building, expanding, researching, or retreating. Note: silver has no value for war costs, cannot be traded, and is not collected in the Tundra or Ruins.
• Tundra: Only one meeple at a time. No wars are initiated, and no war towers are built here. When collecting resources, choose any resource. During patrols or searches, the meeple must leave the Tundra if possible, even if it initiates a war.

War Towers

Built in regions the player already occupies, leveling up on the tower card. Each region can only have one war tower marker.

• Benefits: Provide -1 to the battle cost. A player can enter a region with only one tower and form an alliance with the owner.
• Limits: The tower does not count towards the limit of two meeples per region, but the region can still only have two different players.
• Destruction: If the tower owner loses a battle in their region, the war tower is removed, and the level on the tower card is reduced.

Additional Mechanics

• Retreat: After paying battle costs, the loser can pay food (equal to the number of meeples in play) to move their meeple to an adjacent region.
• Knocked Down Meeples: They do not move, collect resources, or defend regions. They can be picked up through the patrol action. Hero meeples cannot be knocked down.
• Knocked Down Towers: They do not defend or provide war cost bonuses. They can be rebuilt at no cost using the build action.

End Game and Scoring

End Game Triggers: The game ends when:

• A player retires 03 heroes.
• The original base game triggers are met (the hero meeple counts towards the 7-meeple limit).

The game officially ends the next time the action card is emptied.

Use the base game method with the following additions:

• 03 victory points (VP) for each retired hero.
• 01 victory point (VP) for each territory card (other than your starting one) where you possess a war tower.

Tips for Winning

• Utilize Silver: Use silver as a flexible resource to speed up research or expansion, as it substitutes any needed resource at a one-to-one ratio.
• Retirement Strategy: Focus on leveling up your heroes to retire them, as this grants extra victory points and can be used as a strategic trigger to end the game.
• Tower Placement: Build war towers on different territory cards (beyond your starting one) to maximize bonus territory points at the end of the game.