Welcome to our guide on the basics of Cross the Ages.
We’ll be covering the essential elements of how to play a game.
Understanding the rules of a game and how the board is made can be used to make strategic decisions.
Seasoned gamers or new to the world of Artellium, this first stage will provide you with a solid foundation for understanding the basics of game rules and board display.
The Basics
Game’s rules
The game starts with a coin flip to determine who goes first.
Each player starts with 4 cards in hand, among those, you always have your leader at the beginning of the game. You will then draw 1 card per turn, including the 1st turn. You will also have the possibility to loot (discard then draw) up to 2 cards during the game.
The board is a 4×4 grid board with 16 spots. Each player will drop their card in these spots. You can only drop a card in a free spot, anywhere you want.
The game ends when a player reaches 65 points, or after 16 turns (8/player) or if someone’s timeline is over (5min/player for the whole game). The winner is :
– The player who has the most points
– The player with remaining time if the other has expired
If both players have the same amount of points when going over 65 points, it’s a draw.
Scoring can be done in two ways:
-Actively, by capturing (flipping) the opponent’s card (2pts/card captured)
-Passively, by controlling trinities on the board. A trinity is when you control 3 cards belonging to consecutive elements on the heptagram, such as Earth/Darkness/Water.
Board’s Display
- Show for each player:
= Number of possible loots (loot = discard one and draw)
= Number of possible chains - Turn number
- Remaining time’s countdown
- Leader card’s thumbnail
- Thunder indicates an affinity
- The card’s frame shows whether the card is an ally or an enemy
- Your hand
The background shows the field that is applied. The default field is shown on the image.
CARDS
Frame
The frame determines the tribe of the card. For now, there is only Arkhante’s tribe with a rock-looking frame.
For future updates, there might be other tribes like Mantris (circuit-looking frame.
The frame’s color, except for the in-game display, shows the rarity of the card :
- Grey: Common
- Green: Uncommon
- Blue: Rare
- Violet: Ultra-rare
- Yellow: Mythic
On the board, the frame will show a different color allowing one to identify which player has control of the card.
Gameplay Mechanics
The Heptagram
Each card belongs to one element, and each element functions in relation to the other six elements, having strengths, weaknesses, or synergies with the others.
Chains
Chains define how far your capture can cascade. When you have chain = 1, the card you captured will try to capture all other cards around it. When you have chain = 2, it will cascade one step further, and chain = 3 yet another cascade. With a chain = 3, if the conditions are correct you can almost capture the whole board even when you play in a corner!
Affixes
Affixes are random modifications to the game that are applied for both players, making each game more unique and varied. Some examples: changing how many points you need to win, the chain length, or a random field at a random turn!
To ease new players into this aspect of the game, affixes are only available for players that reach a certain ELO rating, and after that new affixes are only unlocked as the player raise in ELO rating. Which affix will be used for a game is determined by a dice roll on the screen after the starting player has been determined. Furthermore, when you achieve a high ELO rating (1700+), you could be playing with 2 different affixes at the same time!
The affixes are split into two groups called “pools”:
First Pool (0-1699 ELO rating)
- From 0 to 1199 Rating :
- No game modifier
- At 1200+ Rating :
- Elemental: A field of a random element is activated at a certain turn. You know when it will be activated, but not which element. The field lasts 2 turns:
- Field strength: 30
- If a field is already active, it will be overridden by this one.
- When a player plays a field of his own, at the end of it we return to neutral.
- 1 field activated turn rand(3-8), 1 field activated turn 8-13 (first rand + 5: if first is activated at turn 5, the other is activated at 10; if it’s activated at turn 6, the other is activated at turn 11).
- The turn of the field activation of the first field is announced at the game’s beginning. The element and activation turn of the second field is announced after the decay of the first field.
- Elemental: A field of a random element is activated at a certain turn. You know when it will be activated, but not which element. The field lasts 2 turns:
- At 1250+ Rating :
- Score Twist: Modification of end score rand (55, 60, 70).
- At 1300+ Rating :
- Extended Reach: Chain starts at 2.
- At 1350+ Rating :
- Inspiring: All cards you control with the same Element as the leader gains 25 power :
- If a player uses Banner of command, it stacks.
- Inspiring: All cards you control with the same Element as the leader gains 25 power :
- At 1400+ Rating :
- Limited reach: Chain can’t go above 1.
- At 1450+ Rating :
- Field Overflow: Fields are boosted by +25 power.
- At 1500+ Rating :
- Revolution: At the start of the duel, your leader is locked in your hand and can’t be played until turn 7-8.
Second pool (1700+ ELO rating)
- Classic: No game modifier.
- Blitz Game: You will have 24 seconds per turn.
- Shift: same as SHIFT ADVANTAGES SA, but for the whole duration of the duel. If you play a leader with shift advantage, it un-shifts for the duration of the SA.
- Golden Redraw: Only 1 draw at the start of the game.
- Affinity Stacking: When a card has 1 affinity, it gains power each turn :
- Mode D, +20 (Adds 20 power every 2 turns starting at the end of next turn, once per card).
