Quickstart Guide to the Turn Structure
You have made it this far into the expansive Realms of the Old World and you have traversed the Card Breakdown, Deck Construction, and The Battlefield.
Now you are onto the Turn Structure, this how you get your chance at a shot at glory, by putting your Warlord, and their army in the position to win!
In this Quickstart Guide you will learn the breakdown of the independent Turn Structure. This is where we guide you through how to play out an opening hand in a full walk through of a potential turn.
In this example below we have chosen the pre-constructed Hero Battle Deck that comes in the Two Player Battle Deck: Hero vs. Orc
As you can see in the image above, we have laid out a typical opening set up of the battlefield, with the standard opening hand, in the Legions Realms at War TCG, of 6 cards.
Just like previously explained in the Battlefield Quickstart Guide:
Your Veil/Realm card starts, with the Veil side face-up, in the upper left hand side of the battlefield (We have marked it with a die counter of 3, to represent the 3 Veil Counters that start on the Veil card at the start the game).
Your Warlord of choice starts in the upper left side of the battlefield as well, right beside your Veil card.
Your Synergy starts right below your Warlord card, in it's own space on the battlefield.
With your Main Deck being placed in upper right side of the battlefield in the Deck Zone.
Then below this setup, just off the edge of the battlefield, we have the opening hand of 6 cards. As you can see all cards in the hand are BLUE. This along with the Coat of Arms Legion Crest, means they are Hero cards. There are 2 Warriors, 2 Unified cards and 2 Fortified cards in this opening hand.
Knowledge and preparation are just as powerful a weapon, as the steel and majik your Warlords wield. In the game of Legions Realms at War TCG there are 4 complete parts of the turn, or what we call 'Phases', that the turn is broken down into...and these Phases are as follows...
Phase 1: The Countdown Phase
During this initial opening phase of your turn, this is where, like the name suggests, all Countdowns happen. So what does this mean?
Well before you draw or play any cards, you must look over your entire side of the battlefield. You are looking for all cards that have Veil Counters (VC) and/or Cool Down (CD) numbers on them (Like we mentioned previously in our Quickstart Guide to the Cards).
First, like in the image below, we look at the Veil card (If your Veil has not already been pierced), this is the very first thing you must Countdown before any other Cool Down. Typically, during a game, we represent VCs with a 6 sided die and therefore we would lower the die count by 1 number.
If the number on the die was already at 1, then we would immediately remove the die and Pierce the Veil (flip the Veil card over to reveal the Realm card). If you do this, then you must immediately activate the absolute effect of the Realm card before you go any further in this phase.
*Note* It is important that in these first 3 turns of the game, before your Veil has been pierced, you layout a battle plan. This is where you, rally your Warriors, activate powerful Unified cards, and set key Fortified cards that will ready you for the coming war once the Veil, has been pierced!
Alright, after we deal with the Veil/Realm card, we move onto any and all CDs on the field.
These are going to be found on your Warlord and Synergy cards. However, this is the opening turn of the game, and therefore there are no Cool Downs to worry about counting down.
*Note* Typically, once again, these number values for your CDs are going to be represented by a 6 sided die. So like the Veil Counters, we would lower the die count by 1 number. If the number on the die was already at 1, then we would remove the die and that CD effect would be available to be used during the War Phase of your turn.
Once all VCs and CDs are counted down 1 number, then we move out of this phase, and onto the next phase of your turn.
Phase 2: The Reinforce Phase
Like the phase name states, this is where you Reinforce your battle plan by drawing 1 card from the top of your main deck. This takes place at the beginning of each of your turns.
It is during this time that all preliminary effects that took place during the Countdown Phase have resolved, and you, the turn player, draws 1 card from the top of your main deck.
However, unlike the image above, the starting player of the game does not get to draw on their first turn. Instead they gain the advantage of having their Veil Counters countdown by 1 turn before their opponent gets to.
This allows for a more even playing experience between the first turn player, and the second turn player.
With the first turn player getting closer to piercing their Veil (which will allow them to access their Warlord, Synergy, and after the addition of the Ravaged Lands Booster Box, their Guardian, 1 turn sooner).
The second player, in this case your opponent, gets the additional card from the draw on their first turn, to utilize against your early game advances.
With this knowledge, we now move onto the next Phase of the turn...
Phase 3: The War Phase
This is the wild phase of the game. Very much like it's name this is where all out war takes place.
So as a result, we are going to break this down into sections for you to refer back to throughout your game. All of these sections can happen at any time and in any order, as this War Phase is an open play phase.
This means, that anything and everything can be played, or fought with, during this phase.
If you wish to activate Unified cards, set Fortified cards, Conscript Warrior cards, activate Synergy card effects, use Warlord or Guardian Special Abilities or just all out battle, you can do all of this during the War Phase.
So before this carnage is about to unfold, we will guide you through how to play this opening hand of 6 Hero cards we started with...
We will start by playing the ACT (Remains Active) Unified card 'March Of The Resistance' from our hand, into an open available Unified card zone.
This is important for what we are about to do, as the first line of 'March Of Resistance' reads: "Each time you Conscript a "Resistance" Hero Warrior to your side of the field; you can draw 1 card."
So we follow this activation up by, then Conscripting our 1 Warrior for the turn, 'Lord Asher, Power Of The Resistance' from our hand, into an open available Warrior card zone. This furthers our play, since Lord Asher is a "Resistance" Hero Warrior, having "Resistance" in his name.
This then activates the effect of 'March Of The Resistance' that we previously played, allowing us to draw 1 card from our Main Deck.
This draws us a very useful card in 'Help From The Hood', so we should activate this card next. We do this by playing it in an open available Unified card zone, just like we did before with our previous Unified card.
However, 'Help From the Hood' is not an ACT Unified card, so this means it will be moved to the discard pile after it's effect resolves.
'Help From The Hood' reads: "Search your deck for up to 3 Armament (ARM) cards; send all searched cards to your discard pile."
Seems...interesting...
*Note* It is important to remember, like most other trading card games, every time you access your deck by searching for a card, your deck must be shuffled afterwards.
So you're probably wondering why we would want to send 3 Armament cards to our discard pile, when typically, we would want those to equip to a Hero Warrior on your side of the field.
Well...you will see here the reason for this, with our choice of the Armament cards we selected below.
All 3 of these Armament cards can be equipped to Hero Warriors you control during your next turn, from the discard pile, via their own effects.
So following in suit to how the Intro Hero Deck is designed to play, we are stock piling resources, and cards for later turns.
Cards like 'Shield Of Undying Valour' that have a discard pile effect that can be used on your following turn, when you are able to activate Unified cards again, during your War Phase. This types of Unified cards, can be very useful cards. These types of cards have effects that read:
"If this card is in your discard pile, except the turn it was sent there, you can target 1 Hero Warrior on your side of the field; equip "Shield Of Undying Valour" to the targeted Warrior.
Also...
Cards like 'Pelt Of A Lion', that reads: "If this card is in your discard pile, except the turn it was sent there, you can target 1 Hero Warrior you control and pay (Bloodbourne 2); equip "Pelt Of A Lion" to the targeted Warrior.
and...
Cards like 'Hopebringer, Sword Of Resistance', that reads: "If this card is in your discard pile, except the turn it was sent there, you can target 1 Hero Warrior you control and pay (Bloodbourne 5); equip "Hopebringer, Sword Of Resistance" to the targeted Warrior.
So with these last 2 cards, at the mere cost of a combine 7 damage to your Warlord, they can be equipped to Warriors on your side of the field from the discard pile! These have the ability to boost the Warriors you play next turn, for your following turn at battle; seems very good.
All of this is thanks to 'Help From The Hood'...
So now that 'Help From The Hood' resolved it's effect, we move it to the discard pile. Then we activate the second effect of 'March Of The Resistance', dealing 2 damage to our Hero Warlord, 'Alero, The King Of Kingdoms' at the cost of (Bloodbourne 2) to activate this effect.
This effect of 'March Of The Resistance', allows us to do the following:
"Once per turn: You can pay (Bloodbourne 2); and Conscript an additional "Resistance" Hero Warrior from your hand to your side of the field."
For this Hero Warrior, we choose to Conscript 'Elijah, Monk Of The Resistance'. We do this, not only because he meets the "Resistance" card name criteria, but also because he has a Keyword Ability called (Wisdom). This Keyword Ability will be very useful for us to utilize early in a game like this.
So upon 'Elijah, Monk Of The Resistance' entering play, this activates his Keyword Ability (Wisdom) which reads: "When this Warrior enters play, the controlling player looks at the top 2 cards of their deck. They then add 1 to their hand and the other to the bottom of the deck."
So we then look at the top 2 cards of our deck, we see what they reveal...
First, a Warrior card named 'Sir Valon, Marksmen Of The Resistance' with (Atk: 3), and second, a Fortified card named 'Spoils From The Hood'.
So since we have already Conscripted our 1 Warrior for the turn, and our additional Warrior do to our 'March Of The Resistance' Unified card, we have no need for another Warrior card in our hand right now. So instead we are going to choose to add the Fortified card 'Spoils From The Hood' to our hand, and put the 'Sir Valon, Marksmen Of The Resistance' Warrior card, to the bottom of the deck.
Once 'Elijah, Monk Of The Resistance' (Wisdom) Keyword Ability resolves, we then activate the first effect of our (ACT) Unified card, 'March Of The Resistance' again.
This being: "Each time you Conscript a "Resistance" Hero Warrior to your side of the field; you can draw 1 card."
And with 'Elijah, Monk Of The Resistance' being a Warrior with "Resistance" in his name, we meet the criteria, and get to draw an additional card.
With this draw, we drew 'General Joan, Leader Of The Resistance' with the (Atk: 5), which just so happens to be one of the highest attacks among all Warriors in the game, and the highest attack Warrior card in the Intro Hero Deck.
This is great! It means we will have a powerful Warrior to Conscript on our next turn, and because she is a "Resistance" Hero Warrior, our (ACT) Unified card, 'March Of The Resistance' will grant us yet another card draw next turn!
Now we look more upon our battlefield, knowing we cannot declare an attack on our first turn, as it is the first turn of the game; we seem to be lacking a bit of defence, since we know our opponent will be able to attack us during their turn...So let's fix that!
We do this by setting 2 Fortified cards, from our hand, face down into open available Fortified card zones on our side of the battlefield.
*Remember* Fortified cards can only be activated during your opponent's turn, and they have to be set face down the turn before, so this is how we do that.
Now that we have our Fortified cards set up as some defence, we feel like we are a little more safe. However, we still have some things we can do to make our defence even a little bit stronger, since our opponent will be able to attack us during their turn; being the second turn player.
So we do this by playing the Unified Armament (ARM) card, 'Pelt Of A Lion', from our hand, into an open available Unified card zone.
Since this card is an (ARM) Unified card, once we activate it, and choose our target Warrior for it to equip to, we move it underneath the targeted Warrior.
By doing this, it shows that our 'Pelt Of A Lion'(ARM) Unified card, is equipped to that Warrior. This makes it simple and easy to keep track of, as well as, frees up the Unified card zone it was activated in, for future Unified card activation's in our following turns.
So upon looking further into our (ARM) Unified card, 'Pelt Of A Lion', we choose to equip it to our Warrior card, 'Lord Asher, Power Of The Resistance'. This Armament makes him go from a (Atk: 4) Warrior card to a (Atk: 6) Warrior card, all while making him unable to be targeted by your opponent's Unified and Fortified cards.
This (ARM) Unified card 'Pelt Of A Lion', does this by the following effect: "This card equips to a Hero Warrior you control. (Bestow) +2 Atk to the equipped Warrior.
The equipped Warrior cannot be targeted by an opponent's Unified or Fortified cards."
Wow! 'Lord Asher, Power Of The Resistance' is a strong Warrior card now!
Then because we still have a Fortified card remaining in our hand, that can work now that we have a Warrior card in our hand, we can set it face down in an open available Fortified card zone. After all Fortified cards serve no purpose in our hand during our opponent's turn, so we might as well set this 'Decree Of The Resistance' face down onto our battlefield.
This decision actually serves much more of a purpose then you may think...
At first, it just makes sense to have access to all of our Fortified cards on the field when we need them; during our opponent's turn. But also this could act as a deterrent, as our opponent now will need to find ways to play around additional Fortifications, which might make them rethink their overall strategy.
Now we would say by looking at our battlefield, we have done everything we need to do, as we cannot attack on the first turn of the game.
So we feel that we are in a safe spot, to move onto the last Phase of our turn...
Phase 4: The End Phase
During the End Phase of our turn, we still the turn player, maintain the priority to activate any effects of cards we may have that specifically say "At the end of the turn...", before priority is passed back to our opponent.
If we do not have anything left to activate; all lingering effects, that would last until the end of the turn, would now expire.
Our opponent then gets the chance to respond with any prior set Fortified cards, but since it's the first turn of the game, our opponent does not have any prior set Fortified cards to activate at this time.
This means we officially end our turn....and this Quickstart Guide to the Turn Structure...
Hopefully, this Quickstart Guide was helpful, as we broke down a turn together...and we will see you in the next Quickstart Guide, as we head on into the War!
Go Back: Quickstart Guide to the Battlefield
If you think you need a refresher on the layout of the Battlefield, or if you feel like you need a little more clarification on where cards are placed during a game, you can always go back to revisit the previous Guide. This will give you further understanding of exactly what you are looking at before you play your cards.
Up Next: Quickstart Guide to the War
If you think you got the turn structure down now, and you know the basics on how, and when to play certain cards and their abilities...then you can now move onto the exciting part...learning the War! This will be the Guide that brings you through the game at it's core, playing your part in The Great War! Take what you have learned thus far, and continue on through what Queen Decimaya started...and immerse yourself into the Realms at War!