Lines of Fire

Copyright Erkki Lindpere, 2012

Aztec gods gather for a final game of llamaliztli, before the imminent destruction of the world.
The winner has the privilege of becoming the sixth Sun for the new world.
Ready to start the game, the gods notice that one of the rubber balls is smoking. As they turn to
investigate closer, there's an explosion Ka-boom! When they wake up, the gods find themselves
laying besides an abandoned temple near the ball court. They realize that Huehuecyotl has played
a trick on them and filled the balls with explosives.
Combining their powers, the gods track down and capture the trickster; ignoring his pleas of
innocense, they decide to teach him a lesson. They throw and lock Huehuecyotl into the temple
and each sends one of their priests as well to play a battle of bombs. The god who's priest wins
the game will have the honor of sacrificing himself to become the next Sun.

Lines of Fire is a game of bombardment for 2-6 players. The goal is to

eliminate the others and be the last man standing. Players move around
the board and place bombs. When bombs explode, they destroy walls and
other players. Destroyed walls release disciples (power-up tokens) that
increase your chances of trapping others.
Each of the priests as well as Huehuecyotl enters the temple with two disciples: an Earth
disciple and a Fire disciple. The former provides the priest with a bomb, the latter with firepower.
There is a third kind of disciple to be found as well: Wind disciple, who provides speed. Walled into
some of the temple's vaults are captives, who when freed can join a priest's group of disciples.

Game components

1 square board (for 2-4 players)

1 hex board (for 3-6 players)
32 wall tokens for the square board
16 additional wall tokens for the hex board
36 power-up tokens for the supply
12 bomb tokens (Earth disciples)
12 fire tokens (Fire disciples)
12 speed tokens (Wind disciples)
6 player figures
6 player markers
30 bomb discs
12 explosion markers
1 first player token
1 6-sided die
1 card deck (X cards)
1 cannon token
1 end-game token

Setup
1. Choose a game board to play on.
The square board (2-4 players) is recommended for beginners.
The hex board (3-6 players) is more hectic and difficult to read.
2. Choose optional game variants to play (see "Variants" section).
3. Create the Supply sort the supply power-up tokens by type and place them in piles.
4. Shuffle and place the wall tokens on the square board, don't use the tokens with hex symbols

match the symbols on the tokens with the symbols on the board

add one bomb token from the supply to the center space with the timer symbol

5. Choose the starting player (e.g. by rolling a die) and give them the first player token.
6. Set-up for players choose a color/player figure. Take the player sheet and bomb discs
matching your choice. Take 1 bomb token and 1 fire token from the supply. These starting powerups cannot be lost in any way.
Bomb tokens should be placed on the colored bomb discs to easily determine the owner of a bomb.
Place your player figure in a corner of the board. General rules for starting positions are:

start in opposite corners if possible

if there are empty corners, one empty corner should be to the right of the starting player;
distribute the other empty corners evenly.

The game can now begin!

Play
The game is played for as many rounds as it takes to determine the last man standing. Each round
consists of three phases:
1. Bombardment players move on the board, drop bombs and pick up power-up tokens.
2. Escape (if necessary) any players remaining under fire must make escape attempts.
3. Ka-boom! bombs dropped by players explode.
In each phase, players take turns in clockwise order. Always start with the player holding the first
player token. A phase ends when all players have had their turns.
At the end of a round, the first player token moves clockwise to the next player, and a new round
begins.

Start of Round
End-game if the stopwatch symbol in the center of the board has been revealed (there is no wall
token or power-up token on it), the end-game is triggered. Place the end-game marker on the board
as a reminder of this. Players now receive extra power-ups at the start of their Bombardment turn in
each round.
Power-ups just received or picked up in the previous round take effect. Add them to your stockpile.
Resolve any effects that happen on "start of round" / "start of next round" (in turn order).

Bombardment Phase
This is the meat of the game. During your turn in this phase, you may move, pick up power-up
tokens, drop bombs and so on.
1. Receive Power-ups (only during end-game)
If the end-game has been triggered (see "Start of Round"), you may take 1 power-up token from the
supply. If no tokens are available, you get nothing.
2. Movement
A time limit of 30 or 60 seconds is recommended for each player's movement turn in this phase.
Each player can take up to a certain number of steps during their turn. In the beginning of the game,
everyone is allowed a maximum of 5 steps. Each speed token gives an additional step. A player
may move less than 5 steps or not move at all if they so desire.
Each step must be to a free adjacent space.
Adjacent spaces share a side diagonal movement on the square board is not allowed.
Free spaces a space is free if it is not a wall space and has only small tokens on it.
See the section "Game Board Details" for more information.
Actions During Movement
The players can take the following actions during movement:
Drop a Bomb (as many as you want)
Place a bomb token from your stockpile on the board, beneath your player figure. Only a
single bomb may be dropped on one space.
NB! Don't stay under fire you must move clear of your bombs' ranges by the end of your
turn. You can never end your turn with your figure standing on top of your bomb.
Pick Up a Power-up Token (once per turn)
Whenever your player figure is standing on top of a power-up token, you may pick it up.
Power-ups take effect in the next round! Place the power-up near your stockpile for now.
Push a Boulder
Spend 2 steps to push a boulder 1 space away from you (you can move 2 steps less this
turn). The boulder must be adjacent to you and there must be a free space behind it.
You don't move forward during a push spend 1 more step to end up where the boulder was.
See the sections "Free Spaces" and "Pushing Objects" for more information.
Being "under fire"
A player is under fire if a dropped bomb has enough range for the explosion to reach the space they
are on. (Ownerless bombs do not count for being under fire.)
You may be under fire temporarily during movement, but you may not voluntarily end your turn
under fire.

There are situations where you may involuntary end up under fire at the end of your movement turn:

your time limit runs out before you could finish your movement

your movement has been blocked by other players

Resolving invalid moves (at the end of your movement turn e.g when the time limit runs out)

if you are under fire directly from your own bombs, those bombs are removed from the board and placed
back to your stockpile.

if you are under fire from another player's bombs, and you had a chance of moving out from under fire,
this is interpreted as voluntarily ending your movement under fire and is an invalid move -- you are given
another chance or placed back to where you started (even if that would cause you to be under fire),
depending on how benevolent the other players are.

Escape Phase
Any players who are under fire after the Bombardment phase must make an escape attempt. An
escape attempt consists of 1 to 3 steps. Speed power-ups do not help.
The Escape phase is divided into four mini-phases, each of which is resolved in turn order:
1. 1st step players who are under fire resolve their first escape step
2. Explosions the bombs of participating players explode!
3. 2nd step players who are still under fire may take a second step
4. 3rd step players who are still under fire may take a third step
Resolving the 1st step
There are three possibilities for resolving your 1st step:
Take the step (move to an adjacent free space).
Spend the step (and the next ones, if required) for an action that costs steps.
Skip the step, but only if you are blocked i.e. have no free adjacent spaces to move to.
Explosions
When all participating players have taken/spent/skipped the 1st step, their bombs explode, in turn
order, possibly causing chain reactions! See the section "Ka-boom! Phase" for resolving explosions.
Resolving the 2nd and 3rd steps
The 2nd and 3rd steps can be taken only by players who are still under fire. First, all participating
players resolve their 2nd step; if any players are still under fire, they resolve their 3rd step.
Actions During Escape
New bombs cannot be placed, but some of the actions described in the section "Bombardment
Phase" are still available:
Push a Boulder spend 2 steps (of the 3 you have) to push a boulder for 1 space

Ka-boom! Phase
In this phase, the bombs explode, in turn order. If a player didn't drop bombs, they skip this phase.
If a player dropped multiple bombs, they choose the order of the explosions.
Explosions
An explosion happens in straight lines, in several directions: 4 on the square board and 6 on the hex
board. Precisely, the direction vectors are drawn from the center of the bomb's space to the center of
each of that space's edges.
The range of an explosion is determined by the amount of fire tokens the bomb's owner has at the
time of the explosion each fire token makes the explosion reach 1 further space from the bomb, in
all directions.
An explosion is blocked from spreading further in a given direction by:

Walls (both wall spaces and wall tokens)

Boulders

An explosion hits a space if its range reaches the space and it hasn't been blocked by another space.
Depending on what tokens were on the space that was hit, the following effects happen:

Wall space or empty space nothing

Wall token the wall token is flipped and reveals what was locked inside

Boulder the boulder is pushed away from the explosion (it doesn't have to be adjacent to
the bomb). See the section "Pushing Objects".

Player the player is killed. See the "Kills" section.

Corpse the corpse is removed (usually). See the "Kills" section.

Bomb a chain reaction occurs and the other bomb explodes. See the "Chain Reactions"
section.

an ownerless bomb power-up on the board is still a bomb! Its explosion range is that
of the bomb which triggered it.

Small token the token is discarded to the supply (or returned to the owner)

If an explosion has multiple effects, the owner of the bomb chooses their order. If the bomb is
without owner, the player who's turn it is chooses.
Flipping tokens
On the sides of the wall tokens that are revealed after wall explosions, one can find:

Power-up tokens that the players can pick up during movement.

Boulders that block movement and can be pushed around.

Empty tokens, which are immediately removed from the board.

End of Round
Winning: if only one player is alive after the explosions, they are the winner!
If all players are dead, the tie breakers are:

the number of bomb tokens

the number of fire tokens

the number of speed tokens

Move the first player token clockwise and proceed to the next round!

Game Board Details

Spaces
Free spaces a space is free if it is not a wall space, and doesn't have any Big tokens on it.
Adjacent spaces two spaces are adjacent if they share a side.

Small & Big Tokens

The following are considered Small tokens:

Bomb, fire and speed power-ups

Player markers (used when a player figure is not on the board to indicate their last location).

Special tokens without the "Big" symbol

The following are considered Big tokens:

Wall tokens & boulders, bomb discs (with bomb tokens on them)
Player figures & corpses (player figures turned on their sides)
Special tokens with the

"Big" symbol (e.g. Cannon)

Only one Big token can be on a space at a time (except temporarily while placing a bomb). Tokens
are adjacent if they are on adjacent spaces.

Game Dynamics
Chain Reactions
If a bomb's explosion hits another bomb, that bomb explodes as well, and may further cause other
bombs to explode. Other effects of the first explosion are to be fully resolved before resolving the
next explosion in the chain.
If a triggered bomb has no owner (e.g. it's a power-up token that hasn't been picked up), it explodes
with the same range as the triggering bomb and is returned to the supply.
If multiple bombs are triggered by one explosion, the owner of the bomb chooses the order in which
the chain reactions occur. If the triggering bomb has no owner, the current player chooses.

Who Triggers an Effect?

If a player's bomb directly causes an effect, that player triggers that effect. In a chain reaction, if the
bomb that directly causes an effect is without an owner, then the player who triggered that bomb's
explosion triggers that effect.

Kills
If a player is killed by an explosion, that player is eliminated from the game. Leave the player's
corpse on the board it acts as a temporary large obstacle that blocks movement, but doesn't block
explosions.
Give half (rounded down) of each of the player's power-up piles to the killer. If the player killed
themselves, put the power-ups to the supply instead. If the killer is unable to or doesn't want to
receive half of any single pile of power-ups, leave that particular pile as is.
For example, if the killed player has 1 bomb (+1 bomb still on the board), 2 fire tokens, 5
speed tokens, the winner gets:

0 bombs (1/2 rounded down)

1 fire tokens (2/2)

2 speed tokens (5/2 rounded down)

If a player's corpse is hit, triggered on a different turn than their death, or by a different player than
the original killer, give them half of the dead player's remaining bomb pile. If the second bomb to
hit was the dead player's own, put those bombs to the supply instead. Then remove the corpse.

Pushing Objects
By default, only boulders can be pushed by players (costing 2 steps) and by explosions (costing
nothing). Cards may give abilities to push other objects, and specify the cost of the push.
The following general rules apply to any push, unless otherwise noted:

The pushed object must be adjacent to the pusher.

There must be a free space behind the object, looking from the pusher's perspective.

The object is pushed 1 space away from the pusher, in a straight line.

If the object is pushed to a space containing Small tokens, those tokens remain under it.

The pusher doesn't move while pushing and must pay movement cost separately.

Boulderdash
If a boulder is on top of a small bomb and the bomb explodes, the boulder will be flung into the air
and will land somewhere on the board, crushing anything beneath it.
The triggering player determines where the boulder lands.
1. Pick 2 different directions, choosing between North/South/East/West
2. Roll a 6-sided die for each direction you picked. The roll shows how many steps the boulder
will move in that direction (it is possible for the boulder to leave the board).
Alternatively, roll 4 colored dice, each matching the compass colors; pick two results after the roll.
The crushing boulder is resolved as if an explosion hit the space, except when the explosion would
push something, the thing is destroyed instead. If the boulder hits a wall space, it is lost (remove it).

Game Variants
No Elimination
In this variant, players are not eliminated, and the player who collects most bombs is the winner!
Start of Round / End-game: If the end-game is triggered, add an end-game token to the
end-game pile.
The game ends if you add the 8th end-game token to the pile.
The game ends if at least one player has collected 8 bombs.
Start of Round: Dead players respawn at any free corners or the center space (if it is free).
The player must spawn at least 3 steps away from any other players. If there's no such free
corner/center, pick any space on the map that is at least 3 steps away from others.
Winning: The player with the most bombs is the winner! Tie-breakers are:
Being alive at the end of the last round!
Having more fire tokens
Having more speed tokens

1983
In this variant, players take one step at a time.
Bombardment is divided into mini-phases where each player takes one step at a time. The
phase ends when everyone has made the number of steps they are allowed or if every player
passed during one mini-phase. You may use a counter to show the number of the step that is
being made, or the first player can count out loud.
Movement: see below.
Being "under fire" rules don't apply.
Escape phase is skipped.
Movement rules in this variant:
It is strongly recommended that each player only has a few seconds for each step.
During each 1-step movement turn, you may:
move 1 step or pass (still spending the step)
do any number of the usual free actions
start/continue/finish an action that costs steps (spend 1 step towards the actions cost)
If an action is in progress from a previous step, you must continue that action until its cost has been
fully payed! The action might even carry over to the next round!
If you start pushing an object, the object pushed will occupy both spaces; place it on the side shared
by the spaces. It will not trigger any effect on the target space before the action is completed.
If you kick an object, it moves 2 steps on each of your movement turns: two steps now, two steps on
your next turn and so on, until it stops. Use a marker on the object to show that it's moving.

Strategy Tips
Each of the power-ups gives you advantages up to a certain point:

Bombs
Having more bombs to drop increases your chances of trapping someone and can block
others from getting close to you. Pick up as many as you want, but in practice you can only
place a few of them during each turn. In some cases you may want to leave a bomb powerup on the board to trigger its explosion with one of your own bombs.

Fire (Range)
A wider range is both a blessing and a curse you can bomb other players from further
away, but staying out of your own bombs' radius is harder.

Speed (Movement Steps)

Having more movement steps than other players in each round can be a huge advantage.
However, you cannot be the first player as long as you have a greater speed than another
player, and that may be important as well.