Quick Guide on How to Play

Separate out the PERK cards, GLOBAL EVENT cards, QUICK REFERENCE cards and BLANK cards from the main deck.
Shuffle the remaining cards, then deal 5 cards face down to each player.
Shuffle the PERK cards and deal 1 PERK card to each player, which must be placed face up in front of them.
Choose 3 GLOBAL EVENT cards at random and insert them into the main deck face down like the rest of the cards, with roughly even spacing. It’s important that players do not know what GLOBAL EVENTS are going to occur during play.
Place the main deck and PERK cards face down on the table in separate piles. Leave space next to these for a DISCARD PILE, which is where you’ll place any played cards.
You are now ready for battle in the CONSOLE WARS! The player who has owned the oldest or most obscure retro console goes first.

The objective of the game is to be the first player to obtain 4 UNIQUE COMPLETE GENRE SETS of GAMES into your PORTFOLIO on the table in front of you.

When it’s your go, you ALWAYS pick up 2 cards to start, and then you can play up to 3 cards.
You don’t have to use all 3 plays if you don’t want to.

Card Type Breakdown

These are black at the top and are played into the centre against other players.
Instructions are in pink on the card.
Most cards have a value in the top corner – if you can’t use the card, you can add it to your fanbase to get more fans.

These are different colours at the top according to which set they belong to.
Collect four different coloured sets to win. (Most have 3 cards in a set, but some have 2 or 4).
Wild game cards are multicoloured at the top and can be added to any set – but not used on their own.
Dual game cards (two colours) can be played either way up, but if you want to change or swap them it will use one of the actions in your turn.
Players can steal your games using ACTION CARDS or FANBASE INCREASE cards – you need FANBASE cards to protect you from this.

These are blue at the top.
These need to be played into a pile called your ACTIVE FANBASE in front of you.
If someone plays a FANBASE INCREASE or ACTION card against you – you pay the debt with your fans. If you don’t have enough fans, you have to give them games (not cool!)
ACTION CARDS and FANBASE INCREASE cards can be used as fans if they aren’t useful and are sitting in your hand. The value is in the top corner.
Games CANNOT be used as FANBASE.

These are added to complete sets of games to increase the value of them.
Think of them like buildings you can place in the world’s most popular property focused board game and you’ll have the right idea!
They can also be banked as fans!

Most of these have two colours on them, though there are also “WILD” versions of the card.
These are played into the middle just like ACTION CARDS.
You can only play FANBASE INCREASE cards for the colour games you have in your portfolio on the table.
The amount you can charge depends on how many games of the colour you have played. The more games you have, the more fans you get!
Everyone has to pay the fanbase debt!
If you don’t have any of the right colour games for the FANBASE INCREASE card you have in your hand, you can play it into your ACTIVE FANBASE.
WILD FANBASE INCREASE cards can be played for any colour games – but only against one player.

Everyone gets one at the beginning of the game and they offer different benefits (these are written on the cards).
They are played face-up and everyone can see them.

Three of these at random get inserted into the deck after everyone’s hands have been dealt. Don’t look at these so it’s a surprise when they come up!
If you draw one, you have to do what is says immediately before the game can continue.

It becomes a new set of the same genre. It won’t help for winning, but if you play a FANBASE INCREASE! on that colour, it’ll certainly get you more fanbase.

No, they are only used to communicate to the player how much a GENRE SET can get them when playing a FANBASE INCREASE! card.

No, it only cancels the effect against you. Everyone else will still be required to settle fanbase debt.

CASUAL and HARDCORE fanbase can only be attached to a COMPLETE GENRE SET, which cannot be broken unless you have no other choice. However, as you are not splitting that completed set by removing that card, it can be used to settle fanbase debt. Note: It will now be forever ACTIVE FANBASE, and cannot be attached again to a GENRE SET.

Players can get multiple perk cards – either through playing the “Trade-in” ACTION card (where they can choose to draw an additional perk from the perk deck), or if the “Next Gen Console Launch” GLOBAL EVENT card is in the deck, which means all players would get one.Typically, most players will only have one PERK card throughout the game, which is dealt out at the start.

Nope! There’s only 12 Genres in Console Wars The Card Game, so you could one from all 12 out on the table – an entire rainbow of colour!)

In this scenario, you would place the WILD GAME cards together in your PORTFOLIO. If and when you place a GAME CARD down from one of the 12 GENRES, it would become automatically attached, as WILD GAME cards cannot be placed on their own.

We’ve seen a lot of Magic The Gathering players being very kind and showing players exactly how many fans they have. You don’t have to do that in Console Wars! Your active fanbase pile should be one ‘uniform’ pile of Fanbase Cards, played face-up. When you play Fanbase cards into the pile, you don’t have to specify how the Fanbase Value of each cards. You could play 3 cards in (using all your actions), with the lowest value card placed visibly at the top. Conversely, you could play the 100M Fanbase Card in and place it on top, letting players know you have it. There’s tactical reasons to do this, but ultimately, it’s up to you.
Note: Your opponent is not allowed to touch or directly examine your stack, though they can judge from the number of cards in the pile visually. (Which is why you might want to keep the value of those cards secret)

If that ACTION CARD has a value in the top right corner, and you have no use for it and want to get it out of your hand so you can draw more cards, you can always bank it into your ACTIVE FANBASE.