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How to Play

Console Wars The Card Game tasks players to compete and dominate the fierce and fast-paced video game industry.
Battle for tongue-in-cheek parodies of iconic video game franchises while growing the largest and most loyal fanbase possible.

Take the fight to your competitors with hilarious (and often evil!) moves, but remember—it’s all about the games!

Console Wars is a turn-based, strategic card game for 2-5 players where you will battle within the gaming industry for the best franchises and the
biggest fanbase you can gather.

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.

Perk Card
Active Fanbase
Portfolio

That’s a lot of cards.

What do they all do?!

Before you get started, let’s just set out what each card type actually is so you know what’s what.

ACTION CARDS

ACTION CARDS are primarily a way to attack your opponent, or make a defensive play to protect yourself. The instructions on what each ACTION CARD does are always printed in the pink box on the card itself, and the card played always takes precedence.

Some cards will let you pick up more from the draw pile, steal or swap GAME CARDS from other players and even pilfer entire COMPLETE GENRE SETS! Others can be played INSTANTLY in response to an ACTION CARD played against you, even if its not your turn. (Note: Most ACTION CARDS have a FANBASE VALUE in the top right – if you have one that can’t be used, bank it into your ACTIVE FANBASE!)

GAME CARDS

It’s always about the games! These can only ever be played into your PORTFOLIO. GAME CARDS are your primary goal, and you need to collect 4 unique COMPLETE GENRE SETS of GAME CARDS in order to win the game. There are 12 different GENRES for GAME CARDS, and most sets will require at least 3 GAME CARDS to be “complete”.

Others GENRES may be a 4 card or 2 card set, so pay attention because it will be to your tactical advantage. The number of cards required is always marked on the card. WILD GAME CARDS can be played to complete a set, and can be ANY colour/genre. You may not play a WILD GAME CARD by itself. DUAL GAME CARDS can be either color as denoted on the card, and it’ll cost a PLAY to move from one GENRE/color to the other.

As you play, your opponents will constantly be trying to steal GAME CARDS from you by playing ACTION CARDS or FANBASE INCREASE! cards against you. In order to protect your precious franchises, you’re going to need a large FANBASE to keep them protected.

FANBASE CARDS

Having fans of your video game platform is critical to success. A player can think of FANBASE as a protective shield that ringfences your precious video game franchises – i.e GAME CARDS! During play, players will play ACTION CARDS or FANBASE INCREASE! cards against each other, and demand FANBASE from you as payment. If you can’t settle the FANBASE DEBT owed with cards in your ACTIVE FANBASE, you’ll have to pay with GAME CARDS that are equal to the amount owed (as indicated in the top right of the card). So, beyond getting GAME CARDS out into your PORTFOLIO, you’ll need to work on building a healthy ACTIVE FANBASE to keep them safe.

Most cards in CONSOLE WARS have a FANBASE VALUE, indicated by a number in the top right hand corner of the card. If you don’t have a FANBASE CARD to play, any card with a value in the top right can be played into your ACTIVE FANBASE – except for GAME cards. This way, if you have say an ACTION CARD or FANBASE INCREASE card that isn’t useful or worthwhile to use at that point in time, get it out of your hand and play it into your ACTIVE FANBASE.

FANBASE CARDS come in a variety of denominations, from 10M fans all the way up to 100M fans, and can be played into your ACTIVE FANBASE, which is a single pile in front of you. (Note: You are not obliged to reveal how many fans you have to your opponents!)

There are also some CASUAL and HARDCORE FANBASE in the deck. Think of these like you may think of certain buildings in a popular property-based board game. When you have a COMPLETE GENRE SET, one of each of these group can be attached to the GENRE SET to increase its overall value. For example, a COMPLETE GENRE SET of STRATEGY titles with both THE CASUALS and THE HARDCORE attached to it, increases its FANBASE VALUE from 30M FANS to 100M fans.

FANBASE INCREASE! CARDS

FANBASE INCREASE! cards can be played against other players to steal fanbase from their platform and bring it to yours. They are played into the middle in a similar way to ACTION CARDS. You can only play FANBASE INCREASE! cards for GAMES you have in your PORTFOLIO where the color matches one of the two displayed on the FANBASE INCREASE! card.

The amount of FANBASE you can steal is based on the number of GAME cards you have in that GENRE, and is always indicated on the card. (Note: ALL FANBASE INCREASE CARDS have a FANBASE VALUE in the top right – if you have one that can’t be used, bank it into your ACTIVE FANBASE!)

PERK CARDS

PERK CARDS offer players passive, persistent buffs that last for the duration of the game. All players start with at least 1 PERK CARD, which is dealt out at the start of the game. This is placed face-up and is visible to other players, and they offer a range of benefits, from letting you pick up more cards, changing your winning scenario and increasing the value of cards.

GLOBAL EVENT CARDS

There are 6 GLOBAL EVENT cards available, and 3 should be inserted at random into the deck before play begins. GLOBAL EVENT cards are chosen at random, with players having no knowledge of what cards have been selected.

They are played immediately when drawn and MUST be resolved before a player can continue their turn.

How to Setup and Play!

1.

Before play, separate out the PERK cards, GLOBAL EVENT cards, QUICK REFERENCE cards and BLANK cards from the main deck.

2.

Shuffle the remaining cards, then deal 5 cards face down to each player.

3.

Shuffle the PERK cards and deal 1 PERK card to each player, which must be placed face up in front of them.

4.

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.

5.

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.

6.

You are now ready for battle in the CONSOLE WARS! The player who has owned the oldest or most obscure retro console goes first.

Players will take turns clockwise around the table. Each turn is started by picking up 2 cards from the DRAW PILE.

There are 3 places where cards can be played during a turn.

• Excluding GAME cards, a player can play ANY card that has a FANBASE VALUE in the top right corner, face up in their ACTIVE FANBASE.
• A player can play GAME cards face up in front of them into their PORTFOLIO.
• A player can play FANBASE INCREASE or ACTION cards in the middle DISCARD PILE against other players.

Each player can play up to 3 PLAYS per turn.

A play is considered any time a card is laid on the table (such as FANBASE cards into your ACTIVE FANBASE, GAME cards into your PORTFOLIO, ACTION cards played into the DISCARD PILE, etc). It also includes flipping a DUAL GAME or moving a WILD GAME card from one GENRE SET to another.

FANBASE INCREASE! cards are played into the DISCARD PILE to steal fans from other players. This creates a FANBASE DEBT that has to be settled before play can continue. You do not need to commit to using all 3 PLAYS per turn if you do not want to.

If you pull a GLOBAL EVENT card during your turn, it must be played and resolved immediately. You may then continue your turn as normal.

At the end of each player’s turn, they cannot have more than 7 cards in their hand, unless a PERK card says otherwise. If they do, they need to discard the excess cards into the DISCARD PILE. Play continues clockwise until a player obtains 4 UNIQUE COMPLETE GENRE SETS of GAME cards and secures themselves as Market Leader and winner of the Console Wars.

Every card in Console Wars has clear instructions on what it does and how to use it, and it can be boiled down to be as simple as “Pick up 2, Play up to 3!” Have fun – and good luck Console Warriors!

Full Genre Set

And that’s it! It’s quick to set up and easy to learn, but don’t be fooled – there are many unique strategies to discover that will help you win the war.

If you have a favourite card, a funny sequence of events or even ideas for even more evil cards to add for future versions of the game, we want to hear from you!

You can reach out to us on X via @ConsoleWarsGame.

Thanks for playing!