Warrior Owls: Battle for the Tree board game
Warrior Owls: Battle for the Tree board game
Unofficially inspired by the book The Guardians of Ga’hoole: the Siege, by Katheryn Lasky
Basic Info: "In a nutshell, the games sets up like Werewolf/Mafia, plays like Risk, and ends like Capture the Flag" Minimum 2 players, 30-45mins minimum
Objective of the game:
The winner of the game will be the team with the majority of Speck captured/controlled when one teams has 5 or less owls remaining alive.
Pieces: 5 Speck markers, 5 die, 6 sets of tactic cards and 1 sets of allegiance cards (both with as many copies as players). 15 Bad and 15 Good owl markers, one Tree game board, 1 set of instructions, 1 net token, 1 spy token, possibly spare change.
Pregame setup:
Tactic cards should be separated into piles or bags with their same type and placed facedown.
1 Speck markers should be placed in each of the 5 uppermost rooms of the Tree.
Two tactic location sets should be chosen at random, secretly assigning one set to each team.
The number of players is divided by 2, rounding up 4 team Evil if necessary) and taking that many cards of each allegiance type. These cards are kept face up face up for now and matched with a corresponding tactic card from their set (facedown so that it is a secret even to the dealer). For Good that means one entrance that has been chosen at random to be blocked by a net, and for Evils it means one entrance (chosen at random) that will be opened by a spy.
Once the tactic card and the allegiance card are matched, they are kept together but the allegiance card is also turn face down so that all pairs now look alike. He should be mixed up (watch the card/wax on, wax off style) being sure to keep each pair together, before dealing one pair to each player at random.
Everyone is allowed to look at their cards but not to reveal their allegiance or tactic to anyone else yet.
Player setup: All Players take turns (in a clockwise manner around the board), placing both one Evil and one Good owl on the board in either an open space outside the tree (Evil) or a room inside the tree (Good) or one which already has at least one of that team's owl in it, being careful to try not to alert the other team as to their allegiance or tactic.
Gameplay: Once all pieces have been placed, everyone reveals their allegiance cards and teams alternate in 2 phase Risk-style battle and movement and of owls for their team. (Starting with team Evil). Teams should either agree amongst themselves upon their plans for their team’s turn, or take turns so that everyone on that team each gets a chance to play.
Owls must enter and leave the Tree through the six doors (marked in red), assuming the door is not blocked by the net.
a nickel or dime may be used to represent groups of 5 or 10 owls on a single space/room for ease of play.
1. Attack phase: Attack any number of times from any one of your rooms to any adjacent room. You may attack the same room more than once, or you may attack different rooms. You can attack the same room from the same adjacent position, or you can attack it from different adjacent positions.
When you want to attack another room, you have to declare your intentions out loud.
Because your room must be occupied at all times, you must leave at least one owl behind. The number of owls you attack with will determine how many dice you get to roll when you square off with the opponent whose room you are attacking.
1 owl = 1 die. 2 owls = 2 dice. 3 owls = 3 dice
You roll up to three dice, depending on your troop size. The defending player rolls the same number of dice as the number of troops in their defending room, with a maximum of two. Match up your highest die with your enemy's highest die, and match your second highest die with your enemy's second highest die. If there is only one enemy die, only match up your highest die with the enemy die.
Remove one of your pieces from the attacking room if the enemy die is higher or equal to your corresponding die.
Remove one of your opponent’s pieces from the defending room if your die is higher to its corresponding enemy die.
If you successfully wipe out all of the defending armies in the room you are attacking, then will need to occupy the room with at least as many attacking owls as used in the attack. If you attack with three dice (or three armies), you must colonize the newly-acquired room with at least three owls, although you can choose to colonize it with more if you wish.
2. Movement phase: . It is in your best interest to move pieces to your border rooms that are more vulnerable to attacks by your opponents. Move any number of owl pieces from a single room into an adjacent room occupied by you.
In order to retain control of the rooms that you are moving owl pieces from, make sure that you leave at least one of your owl pieces on each room that you own. Otherwise, you will no longer have control of the room.
Tactic card: a cycle is considered each team having completed both phases of their turn.. after 3 cycles, teams can choose to use their tactic card. Good will be able to permanently block their tactic space while Evil will be able to instantly conquer their tactic space via a spy. Any of the opposing team's owls in the tactic spot are removed from play and considered dead, any flex in that space controlled by the enemy are left for the opposition. Alternately, a Team could choose to wait to use their card until it seems most advantageous to them.
Capturing and moving a Speck: Team Evil must conquer each room it moves through to progress towards the flex. Once in the room with the Speck it is considered captured, but they must continue to conquer rooms on their way out to keep it unless the rooms are already controlled by their team. If at any time the group is overthrown while carrying a Speck, it is left in the room where they were defeated and reclaimed by the other team.
If a Speck is captured/controlled, a team may move their Speck through there controlled adjacent rooms once per turn during the movement phase of their turn. Victory: The winner of the game will be the team with the majority of Speck captured/controlled when one team has 5 or less owls remaining alive.
Print the tree page out at 11x17" - preferably on cardstock and cut the cards off the bottom
print the cards at 8 1/2 x 11 -preferably on cardstock and cut the cards apart, the teams, spy marker, net marker and the speck markers
For the owls themselves you can find a lot of cool "owl erasers" online that are cute and the right size for playing pieces, or you could barrow bland pieces from Sorry or some other game like checkers where the pieces are not supposed to look like anything, but just be a marker/token. Just make sure there are two colors, one for the good team and one for the evil.
Unofficially inspired by the book The Guardians of Ga’hoole: the Siege, by Katheryn Lasky
Basic Info: "In a nutshell, the games sets up like Werewolf/Mafia, plays like Risk, and ends like Capture the Flag" Minimum 2 players, 30-45mins minimum
Objective of the game:
The winner of the game will be the team with the majority of Speck captured/controlled when one teams has 5 or less owls remaining alive.
Pieces: 5 Speck markers, 5 die, 6 sets of tactic cards and 1 sets of allegiance cards (both with as many copies as players). 15 Bad and 15 Good owl markers, one Tree game board, 1 set of instructions, 1 net token, 1 spy token, possibly spare change.
Pregame setup:
Tactic cards should be separated into piles or bags with their same type and placed facedown.
1 Speck markers should be placed in each of the 5 uppermost rooms of the Tree.
Two tactic location sets should be chosen at random, secretly assigning one set to each team.
The number of players is divided by 2, rounding up 4 team Evil if necessary) and taking that many cards of each allegiance type. These cards are kept face up face up for now and matched with a corresponding tactic card from their set (facedown so that it is a secret even to the dealer). For Good that means one entrance that has been chosen at random to be blocked by a net, and for Evils it means one entrance (chosen at random) that will be opened by a spy.
Once the tactic card and the allegiance card are matched, they are kept together but the allegiance card is also turn face down so that all pairs now look alike. He should be mixed up (watch the card/wax on, wax off style) being sure to keep each pair together, before dealing one pair to each player at random.
Everyone is allowed to look at their cards but not to reveal their allegiance or tactic to anyone else yet.
Player setup: All Players take turns (in a clockwise manner around the board), placing both one Evil and one Good owl on the board in either an open space outside the tree (Evil) or a room inside the tree (Good) or one which already has at least one of that team's owl in it, being careful to try not to alert the other team as to their allegiance or tactic.
Gameplay: Once all pieces have been placed, everyone reveals their allegiance cards and teams alternate in 2 phase Risk-style battle and movement and of owls for their team. (Starting with team Evil). Teams should either agree amongst themselves upon their plans for their team’s turn, or take turns so that everyone on that team each gets a chance to play.
Owls must enter and leave the Tree through the six doors (marked in red), assuming the door is not blocked by the net.
a nickel or dime may be used to represent groups of 5 or 10 owls on a single space/room for ease of play.
1. Attack phase: Attack any number of times from any one of your rooms to any adjacent room. You may attack the same room more than once, or you may attack different rooms. You can attack the same room from the same adjacent position, or you can attack it from different adjacent positions.
When you want to attack another room, you have to declare your intentions out loud.
Because your room must be occupied at all times, you must leave at least one owl behind. The number of owls you attack with will determine how many dice you get to roll when you square off with the opponent whose room you are attacking.
1 owl = 1 die. 2 owls = 2 dice. 3 owls = 3 dice
You roll up to three dice, depending on your troop size. The defending player rolls the same number of dice as the number of troops in their defending room, with a maximum of two. Match up your highest die with your enemy's highest die, and match your second highest die with your enemy's second highest die. If there is only one enemy die, only match up your highest die with the enemy die.
Remove one of your pieces from the attacking room if the enemy die is higher or equal to your corresponding die.
Remove one of your opponent’s pieces from the defending room if your die is higher to its corresponding enemy die.
If you successfully wipe out all of the defending armies in the room you are attacking, then will need to occupy the room with at least as many attacking owls as used in the attack. If you attack with three dice (or three armies), you must colonize the newly-acquired room with at least three owls, although you can choose to colonize it with more if you wish.
2. Movement phase: . It is in your best interest to move pieces to your border rooms that are more vulnerable to attacks by your opponents. Move any number of owl pieces from a single room into an adjacent room occupied by you.
In order to retain control of the rooms that you are moving owl pieces from, make sure that you leave at least one of your owl pieces on each room that you own. Otherwise, you will no longer have control of the room.
Tactic card: a cycle is considered each team having completed both phases of their turn.. after 3 cycles, teams can choose to use their tactic card. Good will be able to permanently block their tactic space while Evil will be able to instantly conquer their tactic space via a spy. Any of the opposing team's owls in the tactic spot are removed from play and considered dead, any flex in that space controlled by the enemy are left for the opposition. Alternately, a Team could choose to wait to use their card until it seems most advantageous to them.
Capturing and moving a Speck: Team Evil must conquer each room it moves through to progress towards the flex. Once in the room with the Speck it is considered captured, but they must continue to conquer rooms on their way out to keep it unless the rooms are already controlled by their team. If at any time the group is overthrown while carrying a Speck, it is left in the room where they were defeated and reclaimed by the other team.
If a Speck is captured/controlled, a team may move their Speck through there controlled adjacent rooms once per turn during the movement phase of their turn. Victory: The winner of the game will be the team with the majority of Speck captured/controlled when one team has 5 or less owls remaining alive.
Print the tree page out at 11x17" - preferably on cardstock and cut the cards off the bottom
For the owls themselves you can find a lot of cool "owl erasers" online that are cute and the right size for playing pieces, or you could barrow bland pieces from Sorry or some other game like checkers where the pieces are not supposed to look like anything, but just be a marker/token. Just make sure there are two colors, one for the good team and one for the evil.
