The rules of Posh Nosh

How to play Posh Nosh

Two players each lead a warband of units. Knock out every unit on the other side to win.

A game already in progress keeps the numbers it was dealt with.

The cards

Each player has their own 52-card deck and their own discard pile. When your deck runs short, your discard pile is shuffled back in. Cards 2 to 10 are worth their number; a Jack is worth 11, a Queen 12, a King 13 and an Ace 14.

• Pierce and Blunt cards are attack cards. Play one on an enemy unit to take that many HP off it. An attack card that lands stays on that unit, out of your deck and discard pile, until healing pays it off, a Healer mends it or the unit is knocked out. Then it goes to your discard pile. One a shield blocks goes there at once.
• Heal cards heal. Play one on one of your own units to give back that many HP, never above its maximum.
• Shield cards are shields. Play one on one of your own units. A shield cancels one whole attack card, then goes to the discard pile. That includes a card the unit is immune to: immunity protects the unit, not its shields, so a Werewolf's shield still falls to a Blunt card. Shields stay up across turns until an attack spends them, a Rogue steals them, or the unit is knocked out. A unit can hold at most 4 shields.

A knocked-out unit can't be healed, shielded, targeted, or take a turn. Some units can't shield or heal at all; their ability says so. You can still shield or heal your other units while one of them is active.

You see your own hand, and you can look through your own discard pile (tap it when no card is picked) but not rearrange or take anything from it. The rival only sees how many cards you hold and how many are in your discard pile, and neither of you sees the decks.

Setting up

1. Recruit. Each player picks their units, four unless the host chose a different size (three beside a hero and a dragon, see Dragons). The other player can't see your picks until battle starts.
2. Order. Put your units in order. The leftmost acts first, unless the host lets players choose the order (see A turn).
3. Ready. Locking in your warband makes you ready, once you have placed any opening shield or item (see below). Until your rival locks in theirs you can take it back and change it; after that it's final (at a public draft it's final at once). Battle starts when both players are ready. A coin flip decides who goes first.

The host can change how recruiting goes:

• Public draft. A coin flip decides who picks first, then you take turns picking one unit at a time, and every pick is shown to both players. There are two of every unit to share: once both are taken nobody else can pick it, and if your rival leaves the second you can take it yourself. A pick is final. When one player's warband is full the other keeps picking. Your marching order still stays secret until battle.
• One swap. Once both players have locked in, both warbands are shown. Each player may then trade one unit for any roster unit they don't already have (in a public draft, any unit with a copy left), or keep their warband. Swaps stay hidden until both players have settled; the game then says who swapped what. If both players at a public draft swap for the last copy of the same unit, whoever settled first gets it.
• Opening shield. Each player picks one of their units to start the battle with a shield as they ready up. It isn't a card: it blocks one attack like any shield, and nothing goes to the discard pile when it's spent. A unit that can't shield can't be picked.

A turn

1. Draw. Your hand fills back up to 5 cards as your turn starts. Cards you spent answering the rival's turn come back here.
2. Play. Your active unit is the one taking this turn. Play or discard 2 cards, in any mix: two plays, a play and a discard, or two discards. You can take a staged card back until you confirm. Each card is used once: you can't play a card and also discard it. With fewer cards in hand, you play what you hold. Once your staged cards knock a unit out, it is down for the rest of the turn: the next attack has to go on a unit still standing. Take back the card that knocked it out and it stands again. A Wizard is the exception: it may yet ward the blow, so you can keep piling attack cards on it. When your staged cards knock out every rival unit, you have won: confirm the turn as it stands. While a rival Wizard stands, though, the win isn't sure, so you play out the turn's cards.
3. Pass. The next living unit in your order becomes active for your next turn. Knocked-out units are skipped, and the order wraps around.

Choose the order. The host can let players choose instead. Then your turn starts with a pick: any living unit that hasn't acted this round may take it, and once every living unit has acted, a new round begins. When only one is left to act, it takes the turn without asking. A unit Medusa turned to stone can't be picked on your next turn, and the stone then wears off; it still owes its turn this round. If every unit still to act is stone, the round ends early, and if all your living units are stone, they shake it off. Your order on the table still decides nothing else. Like any house rule, it can't be ranked.

Attacks and abilities come from the active unit. An Orc's Blunt cards hit harder only while the Orc is active, for example.

Bonus damage

When a multiplier or a bonus adds damage to an attack that lands, the extra is its own bonus damage card of the same type. It belongs to neither player and comes from an endless shared pool, so it never joins a deck or discard pile. An Orc's 10 Blunt deals 15: the 10 Blunt and a 5 Blunt bonus both go on the target. An attack that doesn't land (a Werewolf shrugging off Blunt, say) brings no bonus damage either. A Healer mends one attack card at a time, so it gives back the 10 first and the 5 on a later turn. A shield still blocks the card and its bonus damage together.

Healing makes change against the attack cards on a unit, so they never add up to more than the HP it is missing. A Heal pays off the biggest attack card first; one it only partly covers becomes a bonus damage card for what is left. A 10 Pierce healed by an 8 Heal goes back to its owner's discard pile and leaves a 2 Pierce bonus. The same goes for any HP a unit gets back, from a Fairy, a stolen Heal or a Banshee's drain. A Wizard's ward pays off only the attack it answers.

Special and reactive abilities

• Special moves. The Necromancer, Rogue, Cyclops and Shape Shifter (and, with the Heroes pass, Merlin and Beowulf) each have a move they can use while active, before any card is played that turn. The move comes on top of the turn's cards: a Rogue that steals still plays its usual two afterwards.
• A card you take. A card the Rogue steals, Merlin takes from the rival's hand or Beowulf takes back from your discard pile is played at once, on the unit you choose: an attack card on any enemy unit still standing, a Heal card on any of your units that can be healed, a Shield card on any of yours with room for another shield. An attack card you take is an attack like any other: a Wizard may ward it, even with a Heal from the hand it was stolen from, and a Dwarf absorbs it if it gets past the shields. Or throw it away: it goes to the discard pile of whoever it came from. A card nobody can take, such as a Shield card when every unit is full, can only be thrown away. Until it is played, only you see it.
• Shape Shifter. A Necromancer can summon as many Skeletons as its hand pays for, but a Cyclops peeks only once a turn, even if it leaves the cards as they were. A Shape Shifter can take any other unit's ability except a hero's or a dragon's, and keeps it from turn to turn, for as long as the unit it came from stands. Whenever it is active you can take a different one instead, until a card is played or a special it took (a peek, a steal or a summon) is used. Picking again doesn't use up the special it took, and a Healer's restore still happens only once a turn. A Shape Shifter that takes a King's ability, either side's, gives every unit standing on your side the King's bonus to maximum HP, itself too; it heals nobody. They lose that maximum HP when the Shape Shifter is knocked out, when you pick a different ability, or, once that King is knocked out, when the Shape Shifter's next turn comes round and it loses the King's ability. As when a King falls, nobody loses HP they have below the new maximum, so nobody falls from it.
• The Zombie rises. The first time a Zombie is knocked out, it gets back up as soon as the move that knocked it out has landed in full, with half its max HP, rounded down. Its max HP stays where it was, so Heal cards can bring it back up, but the shields, item and attack cards it held went as it fell. The rest of that move can't touch it, but the rival's next move can, even in the same turn: knock it out with a Dragon and the turn's own cards can knock it out again. The second time, it stays down. Your side isn't beaten while your Zombie is about to get back up, and it takes its turns in order as usual. A Shape Shifter holding the Zombie's ability gets back up the same way. A Vampire or Vladamier raises a Thrall from a Zombie only once it is down for good.
• Reactions. A Knight can raise a shield the moment it is attacked, and a Wizard about to take damage can play a Heal card to block up to that much of it (it never heals earlier damage), even on the rival's turn. The game asks you when.

Mono-suit hands

If every card in your hand matches, the game offers you a special play:

• Dragon (all attack cards, Pierce and Blunt mixed): play your whole hand as attacks.
• Double Dragon (all Pierce, or all Blunt): play your whole hand as attacks, each worth 2× its value.
• Fairy (all Heal cards): every living unit on your side heals to full HP at once. This is the only way a Skeleton can heal, and the only way a Thrall can besides its Vampire.
• Blacksmith (all Shield cards): play your whole hand as shields.

A Dragon strikes on its own: the active unit's abilities and bonuses don't apply to it, but the defender's abilities and shields still do. After any of these, you draw a fresh hand and take your normal turn as well.

Changed your mind? A Dragon, Double Dragon or Blacksmith can be called off until its cards are confirmed: the cards you staged go back to your hand and you take an ordinary turn, or declare it again. Once a Knight has answered one of its attacks, it has to be played out. A Fairy heals the moment it is played, so it can't be called off.

Heroes

The Heroes pass adds eleven heroes of legend, 40 HP each. At a table opened with it, each player recruits a hero besides their warband: the usual units and one hero, never a hero in place of one of them. The hero is picked, dealt or drafted the same way as the rest (a public draft has two of each hero to share, and a swap trades a hero for another hero), takes its place in your marching order, acts when that place comes, and counts toward the last unit standing like any unit. The host may hire more heroes a side, or none, as a house rule; like any house rule (a warband of another size, the opening shield, the swap) it can't be ranked. Most heroes carry a familiar unit's trick with more behind it: Robin Hood's arrows go through shields like a Dark Knight's and break one as they pass, Vladamier drains like a Banshee and raises Thralls like a Vampire, Imhotep mends his side as his turn starts like a Healer but still attacks, and Merlin steals like a Rogue but looks at the rival's whole hand and picks the card he wants. Beowulf takes any card back from your discard pile and plays it at once, then plays his hand. Three are their own:

• Medusa's gaze. A unit Medusa damages turns to stone. The next time its turn comes it is skipped, the unit after it in your order acts instead, and the stone wears off. Your last unit standing is never skipped: it shakes the stone off and acts. Where players choose the order, a stone unit can't be picked on your next turn instead (see A turn). A shield that blocks her card keeps the unit flesh, and all of Medusa's attack cards in a turn go on the same unit, so she petrifies one unit a turn.
• Caesar's rally. While Julius Caesar stands, every attack card his side plays carries his bonus hit (his ability says how much), his own cards too. It is bonus damage like a Mercenary's: a shield blocks it with the card, a Zombie or Thrall ignores it, a Dragon or Double Dragon strikes without it, and a Shape Shifter that takes Caesar's ability rallies nobody.
• Siegfried's hide. While Siegfried stands, a Dragon or Double Dragon hand deals no damage to him or to any unit on his side. Shields still fall to it, and ordinary attack cards hit as they would anyone. Once he is knocked out, Dragons burn his side as usual. At a table with the Dragons pass he is the dragon-slayer too (see Dragons).

Dragons

The Dragons pass adds ten dragons: the Basilisk, the Hydra, the Red Dragon, the Sky Drake, the Black Dragon, the Brown Dragon, the Bone Dragon, the Wyrm, the Wyverns and the Frost Dragon. Each has 50 HP but the Brown Dragon's 60 and the Wyverns' 30 apiece. (These are units; the Dragon hand above is a hand of cards, and a Dragon hand played at a dragon hurts it like anyone else.) At a table opened with the pass, each player recruits a dragon besides their warband, exactly as a hero is hired: the usual units and one dragon, never a dragon in place of one of them. The dragon is picked, dealt or drafted the same way as the rest (a public draft has two of each dragon to share, and a swap trades a dragon for another dragon), takes its place in your marching order, acts when that place comes, and counts toward the last unit standing like any unit. The host may field more dragons a side, or none, as a house rule, and like any house rule it can't be ranked. A dragon's ability is its own, as a hero's is: a Shape Shifter can't take it. The pass also brings two units of the warband proper, the Dragon Slayer and the Dragon Caller: they are recruited in a warband's place like any other unit, never in the dragon slot.

• Heroes and dragons together. At a table opened with both passes, the standard warband is a hero, a dragon and three units, so each side still fields five. Any other number of units is a house rule there, so it can't be ranked. With only one of the passes, the warband stays four.
• What the dragons do. The Basilisk's attack cards hit like a Wizard's and the Black Dragon's like a Mercenary's; the Brown Dragon simply has the most HP in the game. The many-headed Hydra can play a third card in a turn as long as every card it plays is an attack card, the way the Elf plays a third Pierce card. The Sky Drake can play three cards if they are one attack card, one Heal card and one Shield card. The Red Dragon's Heal cards heal more than they say. Each dragon's own ability text gives the numbers.
• The Bone Dragon's barter. Before it plays a card, the Bone Dragon can swap a card in your hand for any card in either discard pile, yours or the rival's, once a turn (its ability says how many). While it chooses, you see the rival's whole discard pile; nobody else ever does. The card you give up goes on your own discard pile. A card taken from the rival's pile is yours to play, but it goes back to the rival's discard pile once it is spent. Swapping plays no card: you still play your full turn after it. A Dragon, Double Dragon, Fairy or Blacksmith comes from the hand you drew, before any ability: once you have swapped, the hand is a hand like any other, even if it is now all of one kind.
• The Wyrm and its Hatchlings. The Wyrm summons a Hatchling the way a Necromancer raises a Skeleton, paying attack cards instead of Heal cards (its ability says how much in total), as often as your hand pays for it before you play a card. A Hatchling is a 25 HP unit that joins your side and takes its turn like any other. Dragon and Double Dragon hands deal it no damage, though a shield on it still falls to them. Like a Zombie, it takes only an attack card's own value: no multiplier, no bonus damage.
• The Wyverns. One pick in the dragon slot, the Twin Wyverns, brings two Wyverns. The Barb-tail Wyvern's Pierce cards carry a bonus hit; the Mace-tail Wyvern deals extra damage with its Blunt cards. Each is a unit of its own: arrange them where you like, each acts when its place comes, and your side isn't beaten until both are down. That makes a Wyvern side one unit bigger than the rival's, but each Wyvern has only 30 HP.
• The Frost Dragon. The Frost Dragon starts the battle with a shield of its own. It isn't a card, so nothing goes to the discard pile when it is spent, and it comes on top of any opening shield. Each of its attack cards a shield blocks takes off a second shield too. A Dragon or Double Dragon hand played on its turn strikes without that, as it does without any unit's ability.
• Siegfried the dragon-slayer. At a table with the Dragons pass, each attack card Siegfried plays on a dragon carries a bonus hit (his ability says how much). It is bonus damage like a Mercenary's: a shield blocks it with the card, and a Dragon or Double Dragon hand strikes without it. Against anything but a dragon, and at a table without the pass, his cards hit as they always have. And while he stands, the rival's dragons can't play an attack card on any unit on his side, him included: they can still shield, heal and discard. Once he is knocked out, they attack as usual.
• The Dragon Slayer. While the Dragon Slayer stands, a Dragon or Double Dragon hand deals no damage to any unit on its side, as Siegfried's hide does. Siegfried is still the stronger: only he keeps the rival's dragons from attacking his side at all. A shield still falls to the hand, and ordinary attack cards hit the Dragon Slayer and its side as they would anyone. Once it is knocked out, Dragon hands burn its side as usual. Each attack card it plays on a dragon carries a bonus hit, as Siegfried's does (its ability says how much). A Shape Shifter that takes its ability guards its side from Dragon hands too, but never gets the bonus hit.
• The Dragon Caller and the Lesser Dragon. While the Dragon Caller is your active unit and every card in your hand but one is an attack card (four attack cards and one other, in a hand of five), you can summon a Lesser Dragon. The other card is discarded, and the Lesser Dragon plays the rest as attacks, each worth half its value (the Dragon Caller's ability gives the number), rounded down: a Jack, Queen, King and Ace deal 5, 6, 6 and 7. It halves a Zombie's face value too, and a unit that is immune to a card stays immune. Like a Dragon it strikes on its own, can be called off until its cards are confirmed (the discarded card comes back with the rest), and after it you draw a fresh hand and take your normal turn. It isn't a Dragon or Double Dragon hand, so Siegfried's hide, the Dragon Slayer's and the Dragon Orb don't turn it. A hand that is all attack cards is still a Dragon.
• The Amazon. The Dragon Caller took the Amazon's place in the pass, and no table deals her any more. At a table dealt with her before, she fights on: while she stands, your Dragon and Double Dragon hands burn an enemy Dragon Slayer and its side as usual, though never through Siegfried's hide.

Items

The Items pass adds eleven legendary items. An item isn't a unit: a unit carries it into battle. At a table opened with the pass, each player recruits one item beside their units. The host may hand out none, or up to four, as a house rule, and like any house rule it can't be ranked. Nobody carries more items than they have units.

• Recruiting items. Items come in the way the units do. Pick different items in secret, have them dealt at a random table, or take turns at a public draft, where there are two of each item to share. Your rival can't see your items until the battle starts. A swap trades units only, never an item. The Recruit screen says that you choose who carries each item before battle.
• Who carries what. The Ready screen asks you to choose who carries each item, with the choices in your own warband panel before your rival's. Each item starts on one of your units. Until you ready up for battle you can put it on any other: one unit carries one item at most, so an item moved onto a unit that has one trades places with it. The items are turned over with the units, and from then on both players see who holds what.
• Taking an item. Knock out a unit that carries an item and the item is yours: put it on one of your standing units that carries none. With only one such unit it goes there. If every unit you have standing already carries an item, even if that's your last one, you choose: swap the new item onto one of them, which drops its own (that one is lost, and so is any HP Excalibur's Sheath gave it), or let the new one go. A unit raised as a Thrall rises without its item.
• What the items do. Each item's text says what it does, and most do more for the hero it is named after. The Dragon Orb keeps Dragon and Double Dragon hands off its holder (shields still fall to them), and Siegfried carrying it hits dragons harder still. Robin's Bow sends its holder's attack cards through shields, as a Dark Knight's go, and Robin Hood hits harder with it. Blue Flames add bonus damage to Blunt cards, Red Dragon Fire to Pierce cards. Like any bonus damage, a shield blocks it with the card and a Zombie or Thrall ignores it. Merlin's Staff multiplies the first of its holder's attack cards each turn that deals damage, more on Merlin or the Wizard. A card a shield blocks doesn't use it up, and a Zombie or Thrall still takes face value. The Crown of Life makes the Heal cards its holder plays heal more. Achilles Armour lets its holder raise a shield the moment it is attacked, as a Knight does, even an Orc, a Minotaur or another unit that can't otherwise hold a shield. A Knight already does that, so in the armour it can answer the first two attack cards played on it each turn, not just the first. On Achilles himself, nothing goes through his shields. Caesar's Helm lets your hand fill one card higher on its holder's turn, and two on Julius Caesar's, who can then play a third card of any kind. Your other units' turns fill it to the usual size. Excalibur's Sheath adds HP to its holder as the battle starts or as a unit takes it up. The Magical Sword takes two shields off with the first of its holder's cards a shield blocks each turn.
• The Dark Sword's poison. An enemy unit hurt by the sword's holder is poisoned. It takes damage as each of its own next two turns starts, when it is the unit about to act; other units' turns don't count. Shields don't stop the poison, and the damage stays on the unit as bonus damage. In the Vampire's or Vladamier's hand it bites harder. Another wound restarts the count rather than adding a second poison. A unit the poison knocks out counts as knocked out by the sword's side, which takes any item it carried, and the next unit in line takes the turn. If the Vampire or Vladamier who poisoned it is still standing, it rises as their Thrall, just as if their attack had knocked it out.

Familiars

Each player brings a familiar to the battle, a little companion that sits beside the warband: a cat, a dog, a snake, an owl or a rat (pick yours on your profile). They all do the same thing. A familiar isn't a unit: it can't be attacked, healed or shielded, and it doesn't count toward the last unit standing.

• Sending it away. On your turn, before you play or stage a card, you can send your familiar away. It goes to your discard pile with your whole hand, and you draw a fresh hand. That plays no card: your turn's cards are all still to come.
• Coming back. Your familiar sits in your discard pile, and is counted in it, until the pile is shuffled back into your deck. The moment you draw it, it goes back beside your warband and you draw the next card in its place, so your hand still fills. Then you can send it away again, even on the same turn if it came back as you drew your fresh hand. Both players see where each familiar is, but nobody sees where it lies in a deck.

Winning

The match ends the moment one side has no units left standing. A player can also resign, or both can agree to a truce. Until either player has made a move in the battle, there is nothing to resign or make a truce over: either one can simply flee, the match is called off, and nobody wins or loses. A game against the House is only practice, so you can flee it at any point, battle or not.

The units

• Banshee (30 HP): Heals itself for the damage its attack cards deal.
• Necromancer (30 HP): Can summon a Skeleton by discarding Heal cards worth 15 or more in total.
• Healer (30 HP): As its turn starts, mends the highest attack card on every unit on your side. Cannot attack.
• Dark Knight (30 HP): Its attack cards ignore shields.
• Zombie (30 HP): Immune to multipliers and bonus damage. The first time it is knocked out, it rises again at once with half its max HP.
• Minotaur (45 HP): Its attack cards deal +5 damage. Cannot shield.
• Rogue (30 HP): Can steal a shield from an enemy unit for one of your units with room, or a random card from the rival's hand to play at once where you choose, or discard.
• Orc (45 HP): Its Blunt cards deal 1.5× damage. Cannot shield.
• Golem (50 HP): No special ability, just tough.
• Wizard (25 HP): Can play a Heal card when attacked to block up to that much damage. Its attack cards deal 1.5× damage.
• Cyclops (30 HP): Can peek at the top 5 cards of the rival's deck and reorder them.
• Mercenary (30 HP): Its attack cards deal +5 damage.
• Werewolf (25 HP): Immune to Blunt cards. Its Blunt cards deal 1.5× damage.
• Elf (25 HP): Immune to Pierce cards. Can play 3 cards in a turn if they are all Pierce cards.
• Knight (30 HP): Can play a Shield card on itself the moment it is attacked.
• Dwarf (25 HP): When attacked, absorbs the highest of the attack cards played on it that turn.
• King (30 HP): +5 HP to all your units, the King too, while the King stands.
• Shape Shifter (25 HP): Can take another unit's ability and keep it while that unit stands, but never its attack bonuses.
• Arch Mage (25 HP): Each attack card it plays strips one shield from every enemy unit.
• Crusader (30 HP): Its Pierce cards deal 1.5× damage.
• Vampire (30 HP): Each enemy unit it knocks out rises as a Thrall on your side. Your Thralls take the damage meant for it, and it can heal them while active.
• Hercules (40 HP): His attack cards deal +7 damage.
• King Arthur (40 HP): +10 HP to all your units, Arthur too, while Arthur stands.
• Robin Hood (40 HP): His attack cards ignore shields, and each one breaks a shield on the unit it hits.
• Merlin (40 HP): Can steal a shield from an enemy unit for one of your units with room, or look at the rival's hand and take a card to play at once where you choose, or discard.
• Julius Caesar (40 HP): Every attack card your side plays deals +5 damage, Caesar's own too, while Caesar stands.
• Achilles (40 HP): When attacked, absorbs the highest of the attack cards played on him that turn.
• Medusa (40 HP): A unit she damages turns to stone and misses its next turn. All her attack cards in a turn go on one unit.
• Vladamier (40 HP): Heals himself for the damage his attack cards deal. Each enemy unit he knocks out rises as a Thrall on your side. Your Thralls take the damage meant for him, and he can heal them while active.
• Siegfried (40 HP): While Siegfried stands, Dragon and Double Dragon hands deal no damage to your units.
• Imhotep (40 HP): As his turn starts, mends the highest attack card on every unit on your side.
• Beowulf (40 HP): Can take a card from your discard pile and play it at once, on whichever unit you choose, then play a normal hand.
• Basilisk (50 HP): Its attack cards deal 1.5× damage.
• Hydra (50 HP): Can play 3 cards in a turn if they are all attack cards.
• Red Dragon (50 HP): Its Heal cards heal +5 HP.
• Sky Drake (50 HP): Can play one attack card, one Heal card and one Shield card in a turn.
• Black Dragon (50 HP): Its attack cards deal +5 damage.
• Brown Dragon (60 HP): No special ability, just tough.
• Bone Dragon (50 HP): Can swap a card in your hand for any card in either discard pile before it plays a card. Swaps a turn: 1.
• Wyrm (50 HP): Can summon a Hatchling by discarding attack cards worth 15 or more in total.
• Barb-tail Wyvern (30 HP): Its Pierce cards deal +5 damage.
• Frost Dragon (50 HP): Starts the battle with a shield. Each of its attack cards a shield blocks takes off 2 shields.
• Dragon Slayer (30 HP): While the Dragon Slayer stands, Dragon and Double Dragon hands deal no damage to your units. Its attack cards deal +5 damage to dragons.
• Dragon Caller (30 HP): Can summon a Lesser Dragon when every card in your hand but one is an attack card: the other card is discarded, and the Lesser Dragon plays the rest at 0.5× damage.