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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Move your card on the field to anywhere else on the field, so long as it is adjacent to a card of a matching sub-type.You can not move a card that is equipped or attached to another card.
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You can not move a card that has a card equipped or attached to it.
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You can not move a card that has a miniature on it.
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You can move your cards adjacent to your deck regardless of sub-types.
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Unlike when playing an Animal or Critter, they do not have to be loved to be adjacent to a Biome card.
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Move a miniature on the field, by 1 space.
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Spaces are cards, allowing a card to move to from one card to an adjacent card.
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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 at least 1 matching sub-type.
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Animal and Critter cards must be played adjacent to a Biome card of a matching sub-type or adjacent to your deck.
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Traits must be adjacent to the card you are equipping them to, also of a matching sub-type.
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You can play cards adjacent to your deck regardless of sub-types.
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This does not bypass the need to have a Biome adjacent to playing an Animal or Critter, or the card you are equipping a Trait to.
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Playing a bronze rarity card only takes 1 action.
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Playing a silver rarity card takes 2 actions.
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Playing a gold rarity card takes 3 actions.
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Playing a platinum rarity card takes a whopping 4 actions.
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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 is 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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You do not have to use all 3 actions on your turn. If you have taken as many actions as you wish, or even none, you can then declare that you have taken all of your actions this turn and end your turn.
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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 the same size as the card's base dice.
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If a card doesn't have a size of base dice, 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 discarded and its corresponding miniature is removed from play. This card has been defeated.
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If the card that a miniature is on would be flipped to face down, the miniature is defeated.
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You can make reactions whenever a trigger is prompted - any card effect that specifies “when”, “after”, or “before”, or a similar phrasing with a conditional moment.
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Action cards with the Reaction tag must be played as a reaction.
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You can make multiple reactions per trigger, but each time you do the other player gets priority to react first.
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The player that did not perform the trigger gets priority to react first.
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Reactions are resolved backwards, from the order they were played so that the most recent reaction happens first (the trigger resolves last).
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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 a Platinum Animal earns you 40 points.
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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 a Platinum Critter earns you 4 points.
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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 a Platinum Biome earns you 4 points.
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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 would draw a card from their deck but fails to do so because they have no cards left in their deck; you earn 5 points. This includes the draw at the start of their turn.
Deck Building
Your deck must have a total number of cards between 40 and 60.
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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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.
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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.
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​Additionally, all of the cards in your deck must match the colour of at least one of your animal cards.
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If you have any animal cards with multiple colours then either colour is viable to be a requirement.
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If you have any non-animal cards with multiple colours then either colour is viable to meet this requirement.
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Cards with no colour are valid in any deck.
Reading Cards
1) Card name.
2) Image.
3) Type: Action, Animal, Biome, Critter, or Trait.
4) Sub-types.
5) Effect text that explains what special effect the card has or if in italics then it is flavour text that does not change gameplay.
6) Attack, shown as dice notation. The first number is how many dice to roll and the second number is what size dice (based on how many faces on those dice).
7) Life, reduced when attacked or damaged.
8) Rarity star: Bronze, silver, gold, or platinum.
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).
However! Despite their formidable stats and special effects, animals are also a risk. While you are required to start with 1 animal in play adjacent to your deck 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.
Animals must be played adjacent to a Biome card with at least 1 matching sub-type.
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 you have, 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.
Critters must be played adjacent to a Biome card with at least 1 matching sub-type.
Actions
The most simple of cards; you play them and follow their effect. The card will remain until its effect says to remove it from play (often by discarding it), or until another card removes it. Action cards are played to the field and require an adjacent card of at least 1 matching sub-type to be played (or it can be played adjacent to your deck).
Many actions will have a trigger (such as "At the start of your turn" or "When you defeat a critter") and their effects are followed through if and when those conditions are met. Once it completes its effect and remains in play, it must wait to be triggered again to repeat the effect.
Traits
Equipped to another card, these cards must be played adjacent to the card they are equipped to AND they can only be equipped to a card with which they share at least one sub-type.
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Traits can be equipped to your cards to empower them! Or equipped to your opponent's card to weaken them. Some traits are traps, a rare few can even be equipped to your deck, and they remain in play until their effect or the effect of another card removes them.
Biomes
These make up the land space of your deck, allowing you to connect cards and move miniatures around. They can played adjacent to a card with at least 1 matching sub-type, or adjacent to your deck.
Rarities
There are four rarity of cards:
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Bronze.
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Silver.
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Gold.
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Platinum.
Reaction
Action cards will sometimes bear the Reaction tag. This tag means that the card can not be played normally, but rather you must play it as a reaction to another action, as specified by the card effect text.
Continuous
This tag on Action cards means that they do not immediately activate their effects when you play them. Instead, the card is played to the field and there it remains to be activated depending on its effect.
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 play the M-Type from your hand directly on top of the card that was morphed; replacing it. When a card with any equipped Trait cards is replaced this way, the Traits are transferred to the new M-Type.
​ 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.
​ Some M-Types morph from another M-Type, often in a series of scaling tiers. This works just the same as morphing a non-M-Type into a M-Type.
Colossal
These cards are a small part of a bigger whole. Exclusive and rare, you can have only one set of colossal cards in your extra deck - and they must go in your extra deck, by default they can not go in your main deck.
Many colossal cards require multiple cards to be put into play before the animal or critter is played to the field, or before effects can activate. They specify how many are required in their tag, just after the word “Colossal”.
Colossal cards with multiple cards often have an order in which they must be assembled, all adjacent together. Each card's place in that order is indicated at the end of the name of the card:
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[C] Center card, this must be between the other Colossal cards in the set on the field.
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[L] Left card, this must be to the left of a [C] or [R] card.
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[R] Right card, this must be to the right of a [C] or [L] card.
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[T] Top card, this must be above a [C] or [B] card.
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[B] Bottom card, this must be below a [C] or [T] card.
All colossal cards requiring multiple cards will state which cards make up their group, using the letters above. This can be found as a small column of text to the left of the card’s effect text box.
Dice
Roll them!
Many cards will call for doc to be rolled, including the attack values of most Animals and Critters. They display this as dice notation:
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Dice notation separates two numbers by a letter “d”.
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The first number tells you.how many dice are to be rolled.
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The second number tells you how many sides the dices have.
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For example, 2d6 is a pair of regular six-sided dice.
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Sometimes they will be expressed without the first number. This can be describing the dice or naming them, or it can be shorthand for 1 dice of that size.
You will find that AniMaul uses a wide range of dice. A series of d4s, d6s, d8s, d10s, d12s, and commonly a 1d20 when your deck is defending. It is generally advised to bring the dice used by your deck, your animals, your critters, and the effects of any of your other cards, so that you can always roll what you need to play your deck.
Miniatures
These are required to represent most animals and critters. All miniatures are always available on the official website to print and play, even when their respective cards are not currently released.
Counters
A simple way to track incremental and stacking bonuses on cards. To add a counter to a card, simply place a small representation (we recommend small coins or buttons?) when any card's effect tells you to.
Some card effects will say a cost, requirement, or define another value by whether or not a card has a counter, has a specific amount of counters, or for each counter it has. Examples include:
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“If this card has a counter…”
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“If an adjacent card has more than 3 counters…”
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“If any card your opponent controls has less than 5 counters…”
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“For each counter your card has…”