Set Up
To play AniMaul, you will need a clear and flat space - such as a table. Then, both players will need to sit opposite each other so grab some comfortable chairs.
Next, you will both need a deck of cards. You can build your own deck or you can get premade decks. You will also need a collection of miniature animals (matching each of your Animal and Critter cards), these can be printed on paper or toys or whatever works for you - you can find printable, foldable pieces for each Animal and Critter on the website. Additionally, you may need a bunch of small token-like counters.
The game also requires a set of five dice to play; you can share and take turns with a set but you will need lots of six-sided dice. A full set for play will require at least a four-sided dice, a six-sided dice, an eight-sided dice, a ten-sided dice, a twelve-sided dice, and a twenty-sided dice. Bear in mind that some effects call for bonus dice to be placed on cards and these are always six-sided.
Both players should shuffle their decks and then place them in the middle of the table, separated from each other by the length of 2 cards.
The next step is to place one of your Animal cards next to your deck (so that they share a top, bottom, or side), and put that animal's miniature on top of its card. Any remaining Animal cards are shuffled into your deck.
After this, each player draws 5 cards from the top of their deck and adds them to their hand. This is their starting hand.
The last thing to do before you can play is determine who plays first. Here a few ideas that can help settle this argument:
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Roll a dice and whoever rolls highest gets to take the first turn.
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Flip a coin and whoever calls the correct face gets to take the first turn.
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Whoever's birthday is next gets to take the first turn.
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The oldest or youngest player present gets to take the first turn.
Start
Once the game is set up and the first player has been chosen you can begin playing. The first player must take their first turn. However, there are some distinctions that make the first and second turns of each player slightly different to all other turns you will take.
On the first turn of the player who goes first, unlike other turns, you can only make 1 action. Then on the first turn of the player going second, you can only make up to 2 actions. For all turns after this, you can make up to the usual 3 actions.
Turns
You begin your turn by drawing a card from the top of your deck and adding it to your hand.
On your turn, you can make up to 3 actions! Except for the first and second turn. Actions include:
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Moving a card on the field to anywhere else on the field, so long as it is adjacent to a card of a matching sub-type.
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You can not move a card that is equipped or attached to another card.​
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Moving a miniature on the field, by 1 space.
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Drawing a card from your deck, adding it to your hand.
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Playing a card from your hand, to anywhere on the field, so long as it is adjacent to a card of a matching sub-type.
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Animal and Critter cards must be played adjacent to a Biome card of a matching sub-type.​
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Attacking an enemy Animal, Critter, or the enemy deck, with a miniature (representing one of your Animal or Critter cards).
However, playing a card from your hand does not necessarily use only 1 action. How many of your 3 actions you use it dependent on the rarity of the card:
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Bronze rarity cards are worth 1 action.
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Silver rarity cards are worth 2 actions.
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Gold rarity cards are worth 3 actions.
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Platinum rarity cards are worth 4 actions.
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To be able to play Platinum cards, you must gain a 4th action on your turn via certain card effects.
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Playing cards to the field has a requirement:
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It can only be played adjacent (one edge aligning) to another card that has at least 1 of the same sub-types.
To attack an enemy card (or deck), your miniature must be adjacent to the enemy miniature (or the enemy deck). Your miniature becomes the attacker and whatever you are attacking becomes the defender.
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When attacking, you roll your dice first.
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When defending, you roll your dice second.
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The attacker's dice, reduced by the defender's dice, determines how much damage is dealt to a card. Reduce its Life by this much damage.
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Rather than deal damage to the deck, you force that player to discard the top card of their deck and you earn 1 point. This is regardless of the rolls but you still roll your dice.
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The dice are indicated on the bottom left of a card, using standard dice notation.
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If a card has any bonus dice, those bonus dice are d6s.
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The deck uses 1d20.
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If a card is reduced to 0 Life, the card is flipped over and the miniature is removed from play. This card has been defeated.
You can make one reaction whenever a trigger is prompted - the trigger does not have to finish for the reaction to begin.
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Triggers can be other cards activating, or actions made. Triggers can also be natural parts of the game and its progression, such as at the start of a new turn or before the end of a turn.
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You can only play one card as a reaction and if it is in reaction to another card; it can not exceed that card’s rarity.
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You can make a reaction to another reaction.
Winning
To win a duel in AniMaul you must be the first player to reach 50 points!
Defeating enemy Animals or M-Animals in combat earns you points:
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Defeating bronze Animals earns you 10 points.
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Defeating silver Animals earns you 20 points.
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Defeating gold Animals earns you 30 points.
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Defeating Platinum Animals earns you 40 points.
Defeating enemy Critters or M-Critters earns you points too, though significantly less:
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Defeating bronze Critters earns you 1 point.
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Defeating silver Critters earns you 2 points.
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Defeating gold Critters earns you 3 points.
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Defeating Platinum Critters earns you 4 points.
Playing Biomes cards will earn you points, once again based on the card's rarity.
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Playing bronze Biomes earns you 1 point.
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Playing silver Biomes earns you 2 points.
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Playing gold Biomes earns you 3 points.
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Playing Platinum Biomes earns you 4 points.
Lastly, there are two more ways to earn points:
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Attacking the enemy’s deck will earn you 1 point (as well as discarding the top card of their deck).
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If your enemy goes to draw a card from their deck but fails to do so because they have no cards left in their deck; you earn 5 points.
Deck Building
Your deck must have enough cards to be a total between 40 and 60 deck points.
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Bronze cards are worth 1 deck point.
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Silver cards are worth 2 deck points.
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Gold cards are worth 3 deck points.
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Platinum cards are worth 4 deck points.
In your deck, you are required to have Animal cards with an exact total of 4 deck points. You can not have more or less Animals if their total deck points would be higher or lower than 4.
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Card rarities limit how many copies of that card (all sharing the same name) you can have in your deck. They are indicated by the star at the bottom of the card.
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You can have up to 3 copies of each bronze rarity card.
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You can have up to 2 copies of each silver rarity card.
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You can only have 1 copy of each gold rarity card.
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You can only have 1 platinum rarity card.
Be clear of the distinction between gold and platinum rarity cards: You can have many gold rarity cards in your deck, but only 1 copy of each. Whereas you can only have a maximum of 1 platinum card in your deck.
Animals
Animals are among the most powerful fighters in your deck. They often boast an effect of their own and have higher stats than other fighting cards (such as critters).
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However! Despite their formidable stats and special effects, animals are also a risk. While you are required to start with 1 animal in play and have 4 deck points worth of animals in your deck, you are not required to play more animals once the game has started. So be warned that they can quickly become high value targets for your opponent to score a lot of points.
Critters
While weaker and less threatening than your animal cards, these critter cards are useful tools to have. Many cards will base their use and bonuses and effects on whether or not you have critters, or how many, in play.
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Critters are also less risky to play, if one dies it only earns your opponent 1/10th of the points an animal would. So it can be wise to soften enemy animals with critters.
Morphing
Some cards allow you to morph one card into another, more powerful version - called an M-Type. For example; an Animal card could become an M-Animal, or a Critter could become an M-Critter.
Morphing any card allows you to divide up the cost of actions over multiple turns to get bigger cards out (or it can sometimes be cheaper in total). In the case of M-Animals, you can have higher rarity cards without using up your limited supply of Animal cards (M-Animals do not count towards the 4 deck point limitation of Animals).
M-Type cards can not be played straight from the hand like other cards! They can only be played by the effects of other cards, with the effects of morphing. Upon morphing a card, you can either play the M-Type from your hand or search your deck for it (shuffle deck when done). Then you place the M-Type directly on top of the card that was morphed, replacing it.
Morphing replaces the old card with the specified M-Type card. This M-Type sits directly on top of the old card. If the cards have one; replace the card's miniature with the M-Type’s miniature, in the same location.