Tiny Epic Defenders

1. Map Setup

1. Roll out the game mat.
2. Place Capital City in the center region.
3. Randomly arrange the six Regular Outer Regions.
4. Place a Threat Token on the 0 space of each region's Threat Track.

If playing The Great Battle Single-Game Mode:

1. Place Mode Card perpendicular on Epic Foe space so objectives will be visible under the Horde Deck, The Great Battle side up.
2. Replace the Regular Capital City with the Dark War Capital City.
3. Randomly choose an Outer Region to start as Hostile. Replace its card with the War Region on its Hostile side and perform Region Setup.
4. Randomly choose an Outer Region to start as Friendly. Replace its card with the War Region on its Friendly side and perform Region Setup.
5. Randomly choose a Caravan and place it in its starting Region.
6. Place the remaining 5 Caravans nearby.

If playing The Dark War Campaign Mode:

1. Place Mode Card perpendicular on Epic Foe space, The Dark War side up.
2. Place an Epic Foe and 2 Generals where indicated on Mode Card.
3. Replace the Regular Capital City with the War Capital City.
4. Randomly choose an Outer Region to start as Hostile. Replace its card with the War Region on its Hostile side.
5. Randomly choose another Outer Region to start as Friendly. Replace its card with the War Region on its Friendly side.
6. Randomly choose a Caravan and place it in its starting Region.
7. Place the remaining 5 Caravans nearby.

Dark War Region Setup:

• Coast: Place the 3 Fleet Dice into their Boats and place them on their marked spaces on the Region Card.
• Desert: Place the 3 Storm Tokens on the Region Card.
• Forest: Place the Great Tree Construct on the Region Card.
• Mountain: Place the Manticore Construct on the Region Card.
• Plains: Place the deck of 5 Soldier Cards near the Region Card.
• Ruins: Place the 6 Death Tokens on the Region Card.

2. Player Setup

For each Hero:

• Choose a Hero Card.
• Place your Meeple in Capital City.
• Set your Hit Point Token to full health on your Hero Card.
• If playing with XP:
  • Take Experience card and XP tracker. Set to 0 XP.
  • Draw 2 Skill Cards. Keep one and return the other to the Skill Deck.

3. Artifact Setup

1. Shuffle the Artifact Cards and place them face-down.
2. Place Artifact items near the Artifact Deck.

4. Turn Deck Setup

1. Separate cards into five piles: Regular Enemy, Dire Enemy, General, Soldier, and Defender.
2. Take 3 Regular Enemy cards and shuffle them together.
3. Take the Defender card for each player's color plus the All Defenders cards. Shuffle all Defender cards together.
4. Create the Turn Deck by stacking the 3 Enemy cards on top of the Defender cards.

5. Horde Deck Setup

1. Choose an Epic Foe card and place it face-down.
2. Take Dire Enemy cards based on desired difficulty (see table).
3. Take 3 Regular Enemy cards and shuffle them together with the Dire Enemy cards.
4. In Single-Game Mode, place this deck face-down on top of the Epic Foe card.
5. OPTION FOR NON-EXPANSION MODES: Shuffle Soldier cards into this deck.

If playing The Dark War Campaign Mode:

1. Place an Epic Foe and 2 Generals where indicated on Mode Card.
2. Remove 1 Dire Enemy from Horde Deck.
3. Place Horde Deck on top of First Battle General.

6. Remove Leftover Cards

Place all remaining unused cards face-down in the box lid.

Begin Game

Objective

WIN:

• Expansion modes: Escort all 6 Caravans to the Capital City before defeating the Epic Foe.
• All modes: Defeat the Epic Foe.

LOSE: Capital City is destroyed.

Difficulty

Dire Enemies

Dire Enemies	Difficulty
2	Easy (recommended for 1-2 players)
3	Medium (recommended for 3 players)
4	Hard (recommended for 4 players)
5+	"Your funeral..."

Other Adjustments

Easier:

In normal game mode:

• Use Experience Cards.
• Shuffle Soldier cards into the basic Horde Deck. Use Mercenaries when they are drawn.
• Start with a random Artifact

In expansions modes:

• Start with two random Friendly Regions.
• Start with a random Artifact

Harder:

• Include a General in the Horde Deck. Do not reveal the Epic Foe until the General is defeated.
• Include more Dire Enemies than Defenders.
• Shuffle Soldier cards into the basic Horde Deck. Use Barbarians when they are drawn.