REDLINE: Tactical Card Combat is an exciting card game that blends the maneuvers of tabletop wargames with the fast paced gameplay and deck construction aspects of expandable card games. In REDLINE, players need to utilize careful strategy when planning attacks to secure an ever changing array of missions in simultaneous combat where maneuver and careful planning matters!  

REDLINE: Tactical Card Combat is an expandable card game. As new cards are added to the game, the game rules can be altered to reflect new aspects of gameplay.  

Because of this, any game rule may be overridden by the text on a REDLINE card if they conflict.  

Story

In the year 2060 humanity has once again found itself embroiled in the turmoil of war. After decades of technological advancement brought on by the peaceful exploration of space, small scale conflicts over the riches within the solar system have erupted into open conflict. After a string of early victories in the conflict, the nations of China and Russia were forced off the Earth after their devastating defeat at the Battle of Tycho Crater on the Earth’s moon. 

Taking refuge within the safety of their Martian colonies, the exiled nations formed the Crimson Pact of Mars (CPM). Fighting for survival, the new alliance rebuilds its military by converting the asteroid mining facilities on the red planet into weapons factories.  

Now in sole possession of the Earth, the US and its allies created the United Nations of Earth (UNE), from what is left of the old United Nations. Their overstretched forces now find themselves struggling to defend the planet from CPM raids and to safeguard the billions of abandoned people left behind in the aftermath of the first phase of what has become known as, the Solar War.  

As humanity’s first spaceborn conflict, both sides are forced to develop new tactics and technologies as the rules of warfare are rewritten with every battle. Very quickly a new weapon, the efreet, emerges as an adaptable platform able to fight in any environment, even zero or low-G. Combining the best aspects of infantry with heavy armor, efreets are the highly mobile bipedal weapons that dominate during the Solar War.  

In REDLINE: Tactical Card Combat, it is up to you to lead your squad of efreets to gain control of the battlefield. Each victory will grant you additional resources which you can use against your opponent. Ultimate victory depends on harnessing the strengths and weaknesses of each card in your arsenal while anticipating and countering your opponents attacks. Do you have what it takes to dominate on the deadly battlefields of the Solar War?  

REDLINE Factions

The Crimson Pact of Mars

Focusing on blunt hammer and anvil tactics, the forces of the Crimson Pact of Mars bring superior firepower backed by heavy armor to every fight. The CPM excels in dealing damage to anything in their way. But that doesn’t mean they dont value subterfuge with their embracement of asymmetric warfare that can turn the tables on unsuspecting enemies through cyber warfare and deadly traps.  Having endured a long history of tragedy and hardship, the people of the CPM understand the value of sacrifice and are ready and willing to accept great losses to achieve a common goal. 

The United Nations of Earth 

After forcing the governments of China and Russia off the planet, the remaining nations came together to form the United Nations of Earth, a powerful military alliance consolidated in their unity to defend themselves from aggression. The UNE relies on advanced technology and precise strategy to overcome the firepower advantages of their enemies. Accurate and fast, their efreets can easily score critical hits in combat then reposition for further attacks. Combined with their ability to hold territory and manipulate battlefield conditions to their advantage, the UNE always has an answer for any combat situation.  

Deck Construction

Arsenal Construction

In REDLINE, players can either use pre-made decks or build their own to create powerful synergies and efreet squads. A player’s deck, or arsenal, is lead by a faction general with special abilities to be used during play, so choose your general wisely.   

All arsenals must follow the arsenal construction rules below:  

1. An arsenal must be 60 cards exactly.
2. Each arsenal must have a general to lead it. Generals do not count as a card in the arsenal.
3. Arsenals can only contain neutral cards, or cards that share a faction with the deck’s general.
4. Besides basic supply drop resource cards, an arsenal can only have up to 4 copies of any one card. 

 When building your own deck it’s fun to build around card synergies, but a strong deck is also one that is balanced. Too many or too few of certain cards will create a deck that plays inconsistently and performs poorly. Because of this a typical REDLINE arsenal will contain 24 resource cards, 16 efreets and 10 equipment and 10 tactic cards.  

Have fun experimenting with your own builds to find the right combination of cards that fits with your playstyle or strategy!  

Mission Deck Construction

In REDLINE, players battle to gain control of territory and objectives represented by the mission cards in the mission card deck. When flipped over, these cards create the red line between each player’s forces, and creates the battlefield where each game of REDLINE takes place. Many mission cards have special bonuses that grant extra abilities when captured or attacked so plan carefully before sending your efreets into combat.  

Mission decks must contain at least 20 mission cards and no more than 3 copies of any one mission card can be placed in the mission deck. 

Only 1 mission deck is needed to play between players.  

Critical Hit Deck 

When engaged in battle, you can deal extra damage to your enemies by landing critical hits from the critical hit deck. Critical hits can be devastating in combat and can turn the tide of battle in an instant so make sure to watch out for them!

The critical hit deck contains 16 cards.

Only 1 critical hit deck is needed to play between players. 

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Victory Conditions

There are two ways for a player to win a game of REDLINE.  

The first way to win is by securing a tactical victory which is a game condition where a single player has control of all 5 mission cards in play at the end of a game turn. Controlling all missions before the game turn ends does not count as a tactical victory. 

The second way is to defeat your opponent by razing cards from their arsenal into their scrapyard and destroying their base. As soon as a player’s arsenal has no more cards in it, that player has been defeated and has lost the game. 

Gameplay

Materials 

In order to play a game of REDLINE: Tactical Card Combat, players will each need their own arsenal deck, as well as a single mission deck and a single critical hit deck to be shared by both players when playing. Players will also use faction flag tokens to show ownership of missions, 10 mission dials, damage counters, and at least 1d6 capture die, 1d12 attack die  and 2d6 recon dice. 

Victory Conditions

There are two ways for a player to win a game of REDLINE.  

The first way to win is by securing a tactical victory which is a game condition where a single player has control of all 5 mission cards in play at the end of a game turn. Controlling all missions before the game turn ends does not count as a tactical victory. 

The second way is to defeat your opponent by razing cards from their arsenal into their scrapyard which destroys their base. and depletes them of resources to continue fighting As soon as a player’s arsenal has no more cards in it, that player has been defeated and has lost the game. 

REDLINE Card Layout

Learning how to read the cards in REDLINE is a fundamental key to understanding a card’s abilities and using it effectively on the battlefield. The efreet card below shows many of the most important areas of each REDLINE card. 

REDLINE Card

1. Resource cost. 

2. Card name and card subtype.

3. Faction.

4. Damage, armor and speed values.

5. Rules textbox.

6. Equipment slots. 

A. Damage

B. Armor

C. Speed

 

Mission cards make up the redline that players fight over each game. Like regular REDLINE cards, they also have special abilities unique to each card. 

Mission Card

1. Control bonus

2. Rules textbox

3. Capture cost

 

 

Setup Procedure And Battlefield Lines

To properly setup the game, players will shuffle all the decks and place them in the 3 different battlefield lines, the baseline, the frontline, and the red line.  

 

Red line: The dividing area between players contains the mission deck, the flipped over missions cards that create the red line for each game, and the critical hit deck. 5 cards are flipped over from the mission deck at the start of each game to create the battlefield players will fight over for that game. Each card in the red line has a number associated with it for gameplay purposes with the card closest to the mission deck being in position 1 and the card farthest away as position 5.  

Frontline: Below the red line on each side is a player’s frontline The frontline is where efreets are assigned to carry out their attacks on missions and engage in combat. 

Baseline: At the bottom of each player’s play area, closest to them is their baseline. The baseline is where a player’s arsenal is located along with any deployed resource cards, equipment, strategies and efreets under repair or not engaged in combat. The bunker/HQ zone is a special game location where each player’s general card resides and is also on the baseline.  Cards that have been used or destroyed during play go into a player’s scrapyard  which is located next to their arsenal. Finally, recon a special game resource, is kept track of in the baseline as well through the use of a single d6 dice.  

How To Start

To begin playing, players shuffle each deck then flip the top 5 cards of the mission deck over to create the red line for that game. 

Next, players roll the attack dice to determine initiative. The highest roll wins initiative and plays last during each turn and takes all simultaneous actions last during play. The lowest roll loses initiative and plays first during each turn and takes all simultaneous actions first during play 

Players then draw the top 7 cards of their arsenal. Once cards are in hand, a player may exchange as many of those cards as they want by placing them on the bottom of their arsenal, and then drawing that many cards off the top for a partial mulligan. A player may only do this once and must keep their starting hand afterwards. 

Game Phases

Each turn in REDLINE consists of 3 separate phases: the deploy phase, the mission planning phase, and the combat phase. 

Deploy Phase: The deploy phase marks the beginning of each new turn in REDLINE. During the deploy phase players will manage their resources, deploy cards from their hand, make repairs and upgrade units with equipment.  

To begin, the player who lost initiative goes first by drawing a card from their arsenal, adding any  bonuses from captured missions. Once those actions are done, all owned cards from previous turns are reset by flipping them face up again or returning to an unexpended position.  

After this is done, players may take actions such as deploying resources or cards from their hand into their baseline. Deploying is the act of playing a card from the hand to the table. Players may only deploy 1 resource card during each deploy phase however they may deploy as many cards from their hand as they wish as long as they can afford their costs.  To pay a deploy cost, players must first expend the correct amount of resources by turning resource cards sideways. Doing so adds the amount and type of resources on the card to the player’s deploy pool which they then spend to play cards or active abilities. Expended resources cannot be used again until the next deploy phase begins and they are reset. 

Any unused resources in the deploy pool at the end of a player’s deploy phase disappear when their deploy phase ends.  

The exception is recon, which is a special secondary resource players can collect during play. Unspent recon can be banked as it does not disappear at the end of a player’s turn.  

All cards are deployed to the baseline when played from a player’s hand. Efreets can make attacks immediately on the turn they were deployed. 

Repairs: In a game of REDLINE, expect your efreets and other cards to take heavy damage! But don’t worry! Damaged cards can be repaired during the deploy phase to make them ready for another turn of fighting. 

To repair a damaged efreet, the player flips it over then expends 1 resource to remove 1 damage counter from it. Flipped units under repair cannot act or be interacted with until they reset at the beginning of that player’s next deploy phase for that player. Players may repair as much damage during a repair as they have resources to spend.  Critical hits may also be repaired this way by spending 1 resource to remove the negative effect and flipping the unit as if it was being repaired normally. Critical hit cards that are repaired are placed on the bottom of the critical hit deck.  

Other cards such as generals and strategies may also take damage when playing. They are repaired the same way as efreets except they do not flip when repaired.  

Adding Equipment : Units can also be upgraded with equipment cards to make them even more powerful.  

At the bottom of every efreet are equipment slots that show what type of equipment and how much it can be upgraded with. An efreet may only be equipped by cards that match the  equipment slot it shares. Once a piece of equipment is attached, that slot is filled and it cannot accept any more equipment of that type. If all an efreets equipment slots are filled, it cannot accept anymore equipment until an equipment card is removed.

There are many different types of equipment REDLINE that you can use to upgrade your efreets. 

Some efreets may have an open equipment slot that will allow them to accept any type of non-pilot equipment card. Others may have a closed slot which cannot accept any equipment at all. 

If an efreet shares a matching equipment slot with a card in your hand, you may deploy it directly onto the efreet for its deploy cost. Once deployed, equipment can be moved onto other units or removed to the baseline by paying its equip cost located in the middle of the card. Equipment can only be moved from one efreet to another if it has matching and open equipment slots. 

Equipment cards may also be deployed directly to the base line if wanted. However, once an equipment card has been deployed all further transfers will have to be made by paying its equip cost in the middle of the card. 

When an efreet is destroyed, all equipment attached to it goes to the scrapyard. 

Efreet Limit and Scrapping: A player’s base line may only support a total of 5 efreets on the battlefield at any time. If a player has 5 efreets already deployed and wants to play another they must first deploy the new efreet then choose one of their efreets in play to scrap by sending it to their scrapyard. 

Any equipment on an efreet that is scrapped this way goes into the scrapyard with it. 

Players may only scrap efreets if they have 5 in play already and deploy a 6th. 

Ending the Deploy Phase

When a player’s deploy phase is over they discard down to 7 cards. Once both players have finished their deploy phases, the mission planning phase begins. 

Mission Planning Phase

It is during the mission planning phase where players simultaneously make their plans for the upcoming combat phase. This is done with the use of setting secret mission dials face down on their units to prepare their own attacks on the red line and anticipate their opponents moves.  

Mission Dials – Mission dials are what players use to plan their attacks during the combat phase. On each dial is a number 1-5 that correlates to the mission positions on the redline. The mission closest to the mission deck is in the number 1 position, all the way to the mission farthest away from the deck which is position 5. In addition, each dial has a B setting which can be chosen to move an efreet away from combat and move back to the baseline during the combat phase.  

To start the mission planning phase, all efreets are moved into the frontline to prepare for their attacks and receive their orders. To plan a mission, a player will set their dial to the correct mission position they wish their unit to carry out, then place the dial face down on their unit. Players may recheck and change dials already placed when planning missions, but once both players have set all their dials down, they are unable to check or change them. Once dials have been set for all units on the frontline, both players will flip them over at the same time to end the mission planning phase. 

 

Combat Phase

The combat phase begins once all players have flipped over their mission dials. Individual missions are then carried out in ascending order from 1 – 5. Units assigned to the baseline go there immediately. 

If some of a player’s efreets attack the same mission, they are considered squadmates while at the mission. Sometimes squadmates can help assist each other so it is up to you if you want to send your forces to attack in large groups or scattered to cover more ground when planning your attacks.

Capturing Missions: Units can roll to capture missions if they were the only units sent to that mission, or they are the only ones left there after the end of an engagement. 

Each mission has a capture cost that shows how difficult a mission is to capture and how much damage is done to the opposing player’s base once captured. Units must roll at or above the capture cost to successfully capture the mission card. A capture roll below the capture cost number means the attempt to capture ended in failure and ownership of the location remains unchanged. 

To capture missions, each efreet rolls a capture die, and gains modifiers according to their class.  Lighter efreets may be good at scouting out missions but have difficulty in hold territory while heavier units can take and hold ground with ease. Because of this, when capturing, light efreets roll 1d6-2, mediums 1d6, and heavies 1d6+2. Efreets in a squad at the same mission may combine their rolls to increase their chance of success at capturing a mission.  

If a mission capture is successful, add a capture token to that mission to show command of it. Each capture token on a mission adds +1 to its subsequent capture cost. 

 

If a player captures a mission that is already commanded by another player, change the faction token over to show new ownership. 

Captured missions can give bonuses to the players who own them. The most common bonus is the addition of extra recon or resources at the beginning of each deploy phase as shown by the blue recon symbol in the capture bonus area on each mission card. However, some  missions also bestow special benefits when captured. Capturing missions as early as you can to use their powerful bonuses to your advantage and deny them to your opponent is key to winning in REDLINE. 

If a player commands all 5 missions at the end of the combat phase, they win the game with a tactical victory. 

Capture Damage: After a mission is captured successfully, it deals damage to targets in the opposing player’s baseline equal to the capture cost shown on the mission card. Damage may be applied to a valid target at an opponent’s baseline, either arsenals, generals in the HQ, strategy cards or any efreets that remain on the baseline during the combat phase. The player that successfully captures the mission chooses the enemy target to receive damage. Resources, equipment cards and flipped efreets under repair  may not be targeted by capture damage. All damage from each mission capture must be directed at 1 target, it cannot be divided. Players cannot target themselves with capture damage. 

When assigning capture damage, you also apply the printed value of the capture cost on the mission card. 

Damage directed towards an arsenal razes an amount of cards equal to the damage dealt. When targeting other cards, they receive damage in the form of damage tokens.  

Combat

When an efreet carries out its mission it is considered an engagement. If two or more opposing efreets meet at the same engagement, then combat begins. 

Combat consists of rounds where each unit takes an action in order of their speed, with faster efreets with higher speeds going first. Once every unit has taken an action during a round, both players may declare to retreat units or continue fighting according to initiative order. If both players stay to fight,  a new combat round begins. An engagement only ends if all of a player’s units at the location are destroyed, or if a player has retreated their engaged units back to their frontline.

Efreets that share identical speeds in an engagement fire simultaneously according to initiative  However, the damage from each shot is not applied until all units with the same speed have completed their shots. 

When it is an efreet’s turn in combat, it may fire once at an enemy engaged with it, and take special actions such as activating equipment or using its abilities. 

To fire, a player declares an enemy unit to shoot that they are engaged with, and rolls a d12 die. A fired shot hits if the player rolls the target’s speed or higher, once accuracy modifiers have been factored in. If the shot equals the target’s speed exactly, then damage is dealt and a critical hit is assigned. Any roll lower then the enemy speed is a miss and deals no damage.

The number rolled after modifiers have been applied is what counts as the final shot number, not the number rolled by itself. For example, if an efreet gains +2 accuracy while firing at an enemy efreet with a speed of 5, and rolls a 4 the shot would count as a hit as the total rolled after modifiers would be 6. 

A 12 rolled when attacking is always a hit regardless of target speed. A natural 12, or a 12 rolled without any modifiers, will also always assign a critical hit. 

Once hit, damage is dealt in the form of damage tokens, REDLINE’s damage tokens are double sided so you can flip them to show the appropriate amount of damage at all times. 

Once a shot is successful, damage and any additional effects from it are applied instantly. (Except when opposing efreets shares the same speed. In that case damage isn’t assigned until each efreet with the same speed has fired.) All damage in REDLINE is permanent until repaired. Because of this, it is possible that slower units targeted early may not survive to take their turn during the combat round. Speed kills so be careful! 

When combat at one mission ends, the remaining efreets stay there until the end of the turn. 

Critical Hits:  If a shot, after modifiers, equals the enemy unit’s speed exactly, or if the roll is a natural 12, the attack is not only successful but becomes a critical hit. When a unit takes a critical hit in combat, the attacking player draws the top card from the critical hit deck and applies the effect to the enemy unit that was hit. Some critical hits are one-time effects, while others are permanent conditions that stay until repaired at base. If a critical hit card is permanent, place it under the efreet as you would equipment. 

Retreating: At the end of every combat round, players may choose to retreat units from an engagement, or stay engaged for another round of combat. Players make this decision in initiative order. Once a unit stays for combat it will not get an opportunity to retreat again until the end of the next combat round, so be careful to weigh the odds and outcomes of staying in combat versus running away to fight another day.

Unit Destruction: As soon as a unit takes damage equal to or greater than its armor value, it is destroyed and goes straight to the player’s scrapyard along with any equipment attached. Any critical hit cards attached to the destroyed unit go on the bottom of the critical hit deck.

Counters

There are many different types of counters in REDLINE: Tactical Card Combat used to track damage or the status of certain conditions while playing. 

Capture Counters – Once a mission has been successfully captured by a player, they place a capture counter from their faction to show control of it. Each capture counters also adds 1 to the capture cost of each mission they are placed on. For example, a Hardened Bunker mission card with a normal capture cost of 2 would have its cost increased to 3 with one capture counter on it. 

Unless otherwise stated, you cannot place additional capture counters on missions you control. 

Damage Counters – Damage counters are used to track damage across efreets, Generals and strategy cards. Damage counters are double sided and and track either 1 point of damage or 5 points of damage on each side. 

Entrenchment Counters – In combat, it is always wise to find extra protection behind cover. Each entrenchment counter on an efreet absorbs 1 point of incoming damage and is then removed. While an efreet has entrenchment counters on it, it is considered entrenched and cannot be assigned critical hits no matter the circumstances. All entrenchment counters are removed from efreets once an engagement ends. 

Firebase Counters – Attack the enemy base with heavy artillery! Once you have gained control of a mission on the red line, certain cards and abilities may allow placement of firebase counters on it. At the beginning of each deploy phase it razes a target opponent’s deck for 3 cards. If control of a mission with firebase counters is lost, remove the firebase counters from it. 

You may only have 1 firebase counter on a mission at a time and you may only deploy them on missions you already control. Firebase counters remain at the end of each turn. 

Mine Counters – Watch your step when enemy mines are deployed! When mine counters are placed on missions in the red line, they deal 1 damage to enemy units engaged there whenever they roll an odd number under any circumstance until removed. (yes, even capturing) If a die roll is modified, use the final value after modifiers are applied instead of the original number rolled to determine if the result is odd or even. 

You may only have 1 mine counter on a mission at a time. Mine counters are removed from all missions at the end of the combat phase. 

Card States

In REDLINE, cards exist in multiple states that affect how they can be interacted with. 

Arsenal – Cards in an arsenal exist as a group, and cannot be individually interacted with. Arsenals can be targeted by mission capture damage, or other cards directly. Each point of damage inflicted this way razes cards off the top of the arsenal into the scrapyard. When an arsenal has no more cards in it, its owner loses the game. 

Deployed – Cards in play are placed on the battlefield face up and considered deployed. They can be fully used and interacted with. 

Expended – An expended card has been turned sideways to show its one time effect has been used for the rest of the turn. While expended, these cards can still be interacted with. Expended cards return right-side up during the next deploy phase.

Flipped – A flipped card is turned facedown to show it is temporarily absent from the game. Its effects are no longer active and it cannot be interacted with while on the battlefield. Flipped cards return face up during the next deploy phase.

Bunker/HQ – The bunker/HQ is a special zone in REDLINE that affects general cards only. Generals start each game in the bunker, facedown, and have all the status of a flipped card, except they only turn over when a player pays their resource cost. Once paid, the general flips faceup and is active and in command in the HQ. 

If a general receives damage greater than their armor value, they flip facedown and go back into the bunker. Each time a player wishes to redeploy their general from the bunker after the first time, it costs an extra 2 resources to do so for each additional deployment. 

Hand – Once drawn, and before it is deployed, a card exists in a player’s hand. Like the arsenal, they exist as a group and cannot be individually interacted with. 

Reset – When a card is reset it returns to its original unexpended orientation.

Scrapyard – The Scrapyard is where cards in REDLINE go once used, discarded, scrapped, or destroyed. Like the arsenal, they exist as a group and cannot be individually interacted with. 

Deployed: Being deployed is a special one time condition that exists whenever any card is played from the hand for that turn.  Some cards in REDLINE may generate extra bonuses when deployed from a player’s hand. Any cards that return to a normal state, for example from being flipped, do not count as deployed since they are not coming into play from the hand. 

REDLINE Resources

In REDLINE: Tactical Card Combat, there are two main types of resources a player uses to deploy cards and activate abilities while playing: resources and recon. 

Resources are gained through expending resource cards and is the main resource used in REDLINE. Expended but unused resources disappear at the end of every game phase. 

Recon is a special resource that can be gained in many ways, usually through capturing missions or from attacking with efreets that have the scouting ability. Recon is collected and pooled turn after turn on a player’s recon die. A player can have no more than 6 recon at any time, and any extra gained while maxed out disappears. 

Recon can be used for a number of special circumstances, such as activating special, general, or efreet abilities. It can also be used to play tactics cards from a player’s hand in exchange for resources with 1 recon equaling 1 resource. Recon cannot be used to deploy any other cards except tactics. 

Card Types

There are a number of different card types in REDLINE that a player needs in order to build a well balanced arsenal. Knowing what each card is capable of is the key to winning every battle. 

Efreet Cards – Efreets are powerful and agile bipedal warmachines that make up the bulk of armed forces in the year 2060. Named after mythical demons, efreets are robust and highly adaptable thanks to the variety of upgrades they can be modified with to take on any mission.

Efreets have 3 core stats; the higher the value, the better the stat is:

• Damage – The amount of damage an efreet does when it attacks in combat.
• Armor – How much damage an efreet can take before it is destroyed.
• Speed – How fast an efreet is, which affects how quickly it can make attacks in combat and how hard it is to hit when targeted.

 Efreets come in three classes:

Light – Light efreets are small and nimble, typically reserved for scouting missions or as support in a squad. They are usually limited in the number of upgrades they can accept because of their small size, but excel in the early stages of a battle to secure parts of the redline and probe for weaknesses. All light efreets roll 1d6-2 when capturing missions.

 

Medium – Jacks of all trades but masters of none, medium efreets are multi-purpose units that can fill a variety of roles. Able to go toe-to-toe with their heavier cousins while keeping up with lighter units, they usually make up the main composition of a squad. Mediums roll 1d6 when capturing missions.

 

Heavy – The largest and often the slowest efreets yet developed, heavy efreets pack a large amount of fire power, and the armor required to wade into the thickest of battles. But they suffer if not supported with lighter units to cover their vulnerable flanks. Heavy efreets roll 1d6+2 when capturing missions.

Equipment Cards – Efreets can be upgraded with many types of equipment in order to make them more powerful and to grant them new abilities. Choosing the right types of equipment for your arsenal and bringing them to bear on the battlefield is critical in REDLINE to gain an advantage over your opponent. 

Equipment comes in 5 different types:

• Lasers – Energy weapons are often cheap upgrades that can give efreets a quick damage increase, or more accuracy in combat.
• Missiles – A common upgrade on the battlefield, efreets can be upgraded with improved missile types or missile launchers. However, many missile launchers have limited ammo capacity and need to be reloaded after use.
• Cannons – Devastating when they hit, cannons are capable of easily causing critical hits that can hinder an efreets internal systems.
• Systems – A large variety of upgrades fall into the systems category. Systems can be extra electronics like advanced radar systems or targeting sensors that can improve an efreet’s performance.
• Pilots – Putting a skilled pilot behind the controls of an efreet can make all the difference in the world. In addition, many pilots have perform better when piloting an efreet type they specialize in. 

Strategy Cards – Turn the tide of battle with powerful strategy cards designed to add new options to how you approach each fight. Strategy cards add static effects that persist turn after turn. Like General cards, they have an armor value and can take either capture or direct damage. They can be repaired during the deploy phase at the cost of 1 damage for 1 resource and also like General cards, do not flip when being repaired as efreets are. 

Tactics Cards – In the thick of combat, employing the right tactics is often the difference between a crushing victory or costly defeat. When played at the correct time, tactics cards can give your forces the boost they need to land a critical shot or evade a deadly ambush, so use them wisely.

Tactics cards are flexible to use in that they are the only cards in the game that can be deployed with either resources or recon. So watch out, because an opponent with expended resources but high recon may still hold a trick or two up their sleeve. 

Tactics cards can be played at any time as long as the player has the resources or recon to deploy it. Once played, tactics cards take effect and are resolved instantly unless another tactics card or ability is played in response by either player, in which case the Chain of Command is used.

Resource Cards – Having the most powerful efreets and weapons in your hand is useless if you don’t have the resources to deploy them. Resource cards help give arsenals the supplies they need to deploy units to their baseline and and keep them fighting. It is important for a player’s arsenal to contain the right amount of resources to deploy their cards, as having too many or too few can cause logistics problems that make defeat likely.

For a 60 card arsenal, 22-24 resource cards are recommended.

Players may only deploy 1 resource card each deploy phase. Resource cards cost no resources themselves to deploy.

To use their resource cards, a player may expend it by turning it sideways. This adds a resource to their logistics pool that they can then use to deploy cards from their hand. Resources in the logistics pool stay there until used or until each phase ends. Once used, resource cards do not reset until the next Deploy Phase.

General Cards – In REDLINE, a player’s arsenal is led by a unique general who brings special abilities to combat and influences what cards can be included in a player’s deck. Finding the right general and learning their play style is critical to winning games in REDLINE, so choose yours carefully!

Each general begins play face down in the bunker. During their deploy phase, a player may spend resources equal to their general’s deploy cost to flip them face up which puts the general in HQ. As soon as a general is in HQ, they are considered in play and their abilities become active. 

All generals have an armor value located in the middle of the card which displays how much damage they can take before being destroyed. Once a general is destroyed, it is flipped face down and goes back into the bunker. Players may reflip a general back to their HQ afterwards by paying its deploy cost again, and adding +2 to the cost for each time they have been destroyed. Generals may be healed during the deploy phase by paying 1 resource to remove 1 damage counter. Generals do not flip when being healed.

Once flipped face up, generals are considered to be a part of a player’s base line and may be targeted by cards and abilities that can target it. Generals cannot be targeted while flipped in the bunker.

An arsenal may only contain neutral cards and cards from the selected general’s faction. All arsenals must have a general to lead it.

Heroic Cards – In REDLINE, heroic cards represent individually famous characters, locations and technologies in the REDLINE universe. To  show these cards as unique, Heroic cards are represented with a special gold frame. While players can have up to four copies of an individual heroic card in their arsenal, they may only have 1 copy in play at a time. Opposing players may play identical copies of the same heroic card.

If a player has a heroic card in play and another of the same kind comes into play under their control, they must immediately choose which to keep on the battlefield and which to scrap. 

The Chain of Command

The Chain of Command determines the order in which game effects take place after being used. Cards, abilities, and damage are affected by this system which stacks new effects on top of older ones during gameplay. Newer effects resolve first and then players work their way down the chain of command to resolve the first effect last.

For example, during an engagement a Huojian efreet controlled by Giles uses its Salvo ability and rolls a 9 to fire at a Tigercat controlled by David. The shot hits since even with the -2 accuracy applied to the Salvo, the result is still higher than the Tigercat’s speed of 6.. Giles then plays Full Salvo from his hand to add an extra 1 point of damage to the shot which would trigger Full Salvo’s second ability to deal a critical hit and draw an extra card.  However, David plays Close Call after the Full Salvo is deployed which will take effect first since it was played as the last card in the chain. Because the adjusted damage from the shot is now 3, no critical hit is applied and Giles draws no extra card.

SPECIAL GAME FORMATS

REDLINE: Tactical Card Combat can be played and enjoyed in many different ways. Besides regular 1 v 1 battles, REDLINE can also be played with an extra friend for multiplayer battles with the Scramble format. Or you can fight a friend on a pre detrmined battlefield and test your arsenal building skills around the known missions on the red line with REDLINE Scenario Play. 

REDLINE Scramble (Multiplayer)

REDLINE Scramble is an exciting three player, 1v1v1 format where each player races to capture as many missions as possible to add to their baseline. The first player to accumulate 25 capture points by taking as many missions as they can wins! Use diplomacy to form temporary alliances of convince to take missions before your opponents do, but watch out for betrayal, because in a game of REDLINE Scramble,  every player is out for themselves! 

Objective – A game of REDLINE Scramble plays just like any other game of REDLINE with only a few differences.

• Now when successfully capturing missions, players still assign capture damage as normal. However instead of placing a capture token on it to show control, the player who owns the mission immediately removes it from the red line and adds it to their baseline then flips the top card of the mission deck over to replace it. 
• Owned missions on a player’s baseline still grant bonuses as normal and count as captured. In addition they add their capture cost to a player’s scramble count. The first player to reach a scramble count of 25 wins the game! 
• If a player owns missions with SCORCHED EARTH on their baseline, it can be targeted by capture damage just as any other card on the baseline can be. 
• If any players arsenal runs out of cards when playing a Scramble game, they lose and are removed immediately from the game along with all their cards. Any owned missions they have are shuffled back into the mission deck. 
• If a card cannot be replaced on the red line because the mission deck is out of cards, end the game on that turn. The player with the highest scramble count wins.

Setup – To begin a game of REDLINE Scramble, set up the game as you would normally except to make room for a third player at the table. Roll initiative as normal with the highest roll going last and the lowest roll going first. Flip the top 5 cards from the mission deck over to create the red line and begin play as normal, except now there is a third player taking their deploy phase before moving to the mission planning phase. 

Scenario Play

In a game of scenario play, two players fight over a pre determined red line that can be agreed upon ahead of time, or created at the beginning of a game. Scenario play can be a fun way to challenge yourself by creating special layouts of set missions with fun interactions and creating arsenals designed to take full advantage of them. Or, create the red line on the spot together to tailor it to your arsenal’s strengths. 

Pre-Determined – In this style of game, both players agree to battle over a set layout of 5 mission cards before the game begins. This can be done to create a specific battlefield with known challenges and opportunities and can be a fun way for players to prepare for the fight with arsenals tailor made to take advantage of the specific red line created. 

Pre-deterimined games are also a fun way to make epic battles of your own or in the REDLINE universe. For example, when using the mission cards from both REDLINE: Battle of Neom expansions in your pre-determined game, you can recreate the Battle of Neom for yourself! Will you save the city of Neom? Or destroy it? 

On the spot – In this variation of Scenario Play, instead of flipping the first five cards from the mission deck over to create the red line, players take turns building the red line together. 

This takes place during game setup, but after players have rolled initiative. To begin, the player who won initiative, flips the top three cards from the mission deck over and chooses one to place in the first position on the red line. The cards not chosen go back into the bottom of the mission deck. Next, the opposite player does the same for the second position in the red line with players alternating until all 5 cards are on the red line then begin play as normal. 

Card Mechanics 

Using the special card mechanics in your arsenal wisely can help to give your efreet squad the edge in combat. There are many special card mechanics in REDLINE so study them all because you never know what you will be forced to face in battle. 

AMBUSH – The ambush ability allows a unit to deal unavoidable damage equal to the ambush number, to any target unit at the beginning of an engagement before combat begins.  Great for softening up armored enemies or for setting up hit and run attacks. 

BOOST – A unit with the boost ability is able to increase its speed to try and dodge an incoming shot. To activate it, simply expend the unit when it is being fired at, to gain +2 speed for the duration of that shot. A unit cannot boost while already expended so be careful when to hit the turbo!

CASUALTY – When a unit with casualty dies, it grants a special one time effect as it goes to the scrapyard. 

COVER – In an engagement, units with cover may protect other units from damage by getting in the way of an incoming shot and absorbing it. If a squadmate takes damage, a player may choose to expend a unit with the cover ability to absorb that damage. Critical hits scored against the initial target transfer over to the covering unit, regardless of its speed. 

INTEL – The intel ability allows a player to look at the top cards of their arsenal equal to the value of the number given to the intel ability then put them back on the top or bottom of their arsenal in any order. For example, an “intel 3” ability will let the player look at the top 3 cards of their arsenal. 

PRECISION – A player may expend a unit with precision to reroll one of its die rolls during an engagement in order to obtain a more favorable result. This ability may also be used during capture rolls, as long as it is available. 

REAR GUARD – Rear guard is a powerful ability that gives players tactical flexibility during the mission  planning phase. To activate rear guard, assign a unit with the ability to the base line during the mission planning phase by selecting the “B” option on the dial.  Once dials are revealed, but before the combat phase begins, players may reassign that efreet from the baseline to any mission on the red line as long as it is attacked by an opponent and the player has no other efreets of their own already assigned there during the mission planning phase. 

Multiple efreets using rear guard may attack the same mission as long as no other units the player owns were assigned to it during the mission planning phase. 

SALVO – During combat, a unit with salvo may unleash a devastating shot against an opponent at the risk of reduced accuracy. A player may expend a unit with salvo before firing to increase its damage for that shot by 2, while lowering its accuracy by -2. 

SCORCHED EARTH – Scorched earth is a special ability that allows missions affected by it to take damage and even be destroyed during play. Missions with this ability take 1 damage in the form of a damage counter every time a shot is missed during an engagement there. Once the damage equals the mission’s capture cost the mission flips and becomes rubble. Rubble has a capture cost of 5 and provides no abilities or capture bonuses. Rubble does not turn face up at the beginning of the deploy phase. Missions flipped any other way besides through damage do not become rubble. 

In addition, missions with scorched earth can be targeted by direct damage cards and effects. Damage on mission cards cannot be repaired, even if owned.  

SCOUTING – Gathering recon during a battle is vital for performing special actions. Units with the scouting ability can help gather recon for your HQ by being sent out to gather intelligence on missions. When a unit with scouting is assigned to a mission, add + 1 to your recon pool. 

SHARPSHOOTER – Powerful weapons are useless if they can’t hit their target. The sharpshooter ability gives units more accuracy in combat by modifying shots with  +1 or -1 accuracy bonus. Aim for target speed and score a critical hit! 

SPOTTER – In combat, some units can spot for another squadmate to set up powerful and accurate shots. A unit with the spotter ability may expend itself instead of firing during its turn in the combat round to allow another squadmate to fire instead with a +1 bonus to its accuracy when it does. 

STEALTH – Stealth helps make units difficult to register on sensors and targeting systems. Units with stealth may be fired at normally while in combat, but they cannot be targeted by opponent owned cards or abilities. Any cards or abilities that do not target, will still affect units with stealth. 

SWARM – There is strength in numbers! Cards with the swarm ability gain extra bonuses when they attack in squads of 3 or more. Swarm abilities are activated at the beginning of each engagement and lasts for the entirety of it, even if members of the swarm are destroyed during fighting. 

 

Having multiple instances of the same ability on an efreet will not double the effect. For example, having multiple instances of sharpshooter will only trigger once, when the efreet with them fires. 

The exceptions are mechanics with numbered values assigned to their properties, such as Ambush 1 or Ambush 2, since the value assigned to the ability makes them two distinctly different abilities, they would each trigger separately. In this case an efreet with Ambush 1 and Ambush 2 would deal both 1 and 2 damage to a target when combat begins.

General Abilities 

As the leader of your forces, Generals bring their own unique abilities to every battle of REDLINE. It’s important to build your arsenal around your General’s abilities to get the most out of every card and opportunity while playing.  

DATA ANALYSIS – Whenever you use an intel ability, look at an extra card. 

EFREET ACE – The efreet ace ability allows a general to jump into the cockpit of a player’s efreet and fight in engagements. When equipped in an efreet using this ability, the general is treated as a pilot and cannot be targeted by cards that can target generals. If the general’s piloted efreet is destroyed in battle, the general goes back to the bunker and its owner razes 6 from their Arsenal.

AUXILIARIES – When UNE General Ronin is in play you may scrap him to use recon to help pay the deploy costs of neutral efreets in your hand for the rest of your turn. 

EFREET SALVAGE – Generals with this ability may pay recon to deploy an efreet from their scrapyard to the baseline. 

HEADHUNTER – Eliminate high value enemy targets with UNE General Mikal Armstead in command. Expend General Armstead and pay 6 recon to destroy an enemy General.

KOSKOF’S MARCH – CPM General Koskof is difficult to get rid of! By paying 4 recon you may return General Koskof to the HQ while razing yourself for 2. 

PREPARED GROUND – A general with prepared ground is able to influence total control over the battlefield. When prepared ground is activated, the player chooses 3 missions in play and flips them face down. Flipped missions cannot be attacked and while flipped, any effects, bonuses, or control of those missions are temporarily suspended until the next deploy phase when they are flipped back over and control is regained. 

SAPPER – At the end of the mission planning phase, you may pay 2 recon to place a mine counter on a mission you control without one. It deals 1 damage to any unit engaged there whenever it rolls an odd number. Remove the mine counter at the end of the combat round. 

SIEGECRAFT – For the cost of six recon, a general with the Siegecraft ability may place a firebase counter on a mission they control. 

SWAN’S PROTECTION – Defense and offense combined! By expending CPM General Red Swan and paying 5 recon you can add 4 entrenchment counters to an engaged unit you control and deal 2 damage to an enemy engaged with it. 

REDLINE GLOSSARY

Arsenal – The deck of 60 cards that makes up a player’s squad in REDLINE. 

Accuracy – The number an efreet needs to hit another when firing in combat. The number needed to roll depends on the target’s speed. 

Attack – The action taken when an efreet is assigned to and carries out a mission on the red line. 

Baseline – The bottom row of a player’s play space that contains resource cards, strategy cards, unequipped equipment cards, the scrapyard, bunker/HQ, and efreets being repaired. 

Bunker – The game zone where the general card is placed face down and considered out of play.

Capture Cost – The value shown on a mission card that represents how hard it is to capture. Efreets in a squad need to combine capture dice rolls to collectively roll the cost or higher in order to capture and control the mission. 

Capture Damage – Damage dealt to a valid target in the enemy base when a mission is captured. The damage dealt is equal to the mission’s capture cost. The player that captured the mission chooses the target of the damage; damage dealt this way cannot be split between targets. 

Chain of Command – The ordered sequence of actions being resolved when multiple cards are played at the same time, often in response to each other. Cards played first are the last to resolve, while cards played last resolve first.

Critical Hits – When an attack roll equals the target’s speed after modifiers, or if it is a natural 12, it is considered a critical hit and deals a card from the critical hit deck to the damaged target. 

Damage – Units in REDLINE take damage in the form of damage counters when hurt. 

Deploying – Playing a card from a player’s hand.

Destruction/Destroyed – When a card is destroyed and goes into the scrapyard. 

Efreets – The basic unit in REDLINE: Tactical Card Combat and the main fighting machine of the near future. 

Efreet Limit – The maximum amount of efreets a player’s arsenal can support deployed at once, which is 5. 

Engagement – When a mission is being carried out by one or more player’s efreets. 

Entrenchment – When your units have entrenchment counters on them, they are in an entrenched state until the counters are removed. 

Equipment – The upgrades an efreet can be modified with. Equipment consists of cannons, lasers, missiles, systems, and pilot cards. 

Equip Cost – The cost in resources needed to upgrade an efreet with an equipment card that is already deployed. 

Equipment Slot – The indicators at the bottom of an efreet card which shows which type of equipment it can accept. 

Expend/Expended – A card state in which  a card is turned sideways, usually to show and record an action has been taken. While expended, a card is still in play and considered active. 

Firing – The act of when an efreet shoots at another during combat. The rolling of the dice. The actual volley fired is called the shot, or the result of the die roll when firing. 

Firebase Counters – Firebase counters raze a target opponent’s arsenal for 3 cards at the start of every deploy phase. 

Flip/Flipped- A card state in which  a card is flipped face down. When flipped, the card is considered out of play and its effects are not active. 

Frontline – The middle row between the baseline and red line where efreets are deployed and go on missions. 

General – The leader of each arsenal. Arsenals are built around a general and can only include cards from each general’s faction, along with neutral cards. Generals do not count towards the arsenal 60 card limit.

Hand – The cards a player holds in their hand.

Heroic – Unique characters, locations and technologies in the REDLINE universe represented by a gold frame around the card. 

HQ – The game zone where generals are played face up and remain active.

Initiative – What players roll for at the beginning of a game, to determine who goes first and wins all tiebreakers when playing. At the beginning of the game, each player rolls a d12 die; the higher roll wins and goes last during each deploy phase. The winner of initiative also choses to retreat from engagements last after each combat round. 

Mine Counters – Mine counters are placed on missions a player controls and will deal 1 damage to any engaged unit there when it rolls an odd number. Mine counters are removed at the end of each combat phase.  

Mission Dials – What players use to plan missions. Mission dials are numbered 1-5 to correlate with each mission position and are also marked with a B for efreets that wish to stay at base during the combat phase.

Natural 12 – When a 12 is rolled on an attack die, before modifiers, when attacking. A natural 12 always hits and is always a critical hit regardless of modifiers.

Partial Mulligan – When players draw their opening hand of 7 cards, they may place any number of those cards at the bottom of their arsenal to draw that many in return. This may be done only once. Afterwards they keep all cards in hand and play begins.

Pilots – The person at the controls of an efreet. Efreets may only be equipped with 1 pilot card at a time.

Razing – The act of placing cards from the top of an arsenal into the scrapyard.

Recon – A game resource gained mainly from attempting or capturing missions. Recon collects and builds persistently between each turn of the game. Recon may be used to activate certain abilities on cards, and is used to deploy tactics cards from your hand. 

Recon Pool – The place where recon is stored, the maximum amount being six. The recon pool does not empty between turns. 

Red line – The middle of the game zone between each player where the mission deck, missions, and critical hit deck are placed. Controlling all the missions on the redline at the end of the turn results in a tactical victory.  

REDLINE Scramble – A three player format of REDLINE where players race to capture missions before the others. 

Repairs – When damage counters are taken off damaged efreets on the baseline . 

Resource – The basic material used to deploy efreets and equipment, and play tactics. Expended and unused resources disappear at the end of every game phase.

Retreat – After a round of combat ends, efreets may leave an engagement by retreating from it. 

Rounds – In combat, fighting takes place over a series of rounds. Efreets take actions in a round in order according to their speed. Once all efreets have taken their action, the round ends and a new one begins, until one player’s efreets are all destroyed or have retreated.  

Rubble – When a mission with scorched earth is destroyed, it flips into rubble. Rubble has a capture cost of 5, cannot take anymore damage and has no abilities or bonuses. 

Scenario Play – A REDLINE format where players battle over a set red line, pre-determined beforehand or on the spot together. 

Scramble Count – The total value of owned mission capture costs when playing a multiplayer game of REDLINE Scramble. The first player to get to a scramble count of 25 wins. 

Scrap – When a player is forced to chose one of their own cards to destroy, placing it in the scrapyard, it is considered to be scrapped.

Scrapyard – The game zone where used and destroyed cards are placed.

Shot – The actual volley fired at an enemy during combat equal to the number rolled when firing. 

Squad – The term for the group of efreets a player sends to attack a single mission during the combat phase. 

Squadmate – The other efreets that are grouped together into a squad.

Tactical Victory – Win condition where a player has control of all 5 mission cards at the end of a turn. 

Upgrading – The act of adding equipment cards to efreets. Efreets that have matching equipment slots may be upgraded with equipment cards played directly from a player’s hand when deployed.