Recommended Age:	8+
Cost:	$80.00
Players:	2 or 4
Play Time:	60 minutes
Official Site:	www.krosmaster.com/en
Company Site:	www.japanimegames.com
Contents:	1 double-sided game board 8 character miniatures with their cards 5 counter sheets, 15 "Gallons of Glory" tokens 24 summoning tokens, 12 each -1/+1 Action & Movement Point tokens 50 Injury tokens, 60 Demonic Reward tokens, 8 custom dice Pieces to make 4 boxes, 8 Shrubs and 8 Trees 1 sticker sheet to distinguish duplicate models & 1 32-page rulebook

Ok so it isn’t really THAT dramatic but it is sort of true. It is a tactical “fighting” game or player vs player which means that there are two teams of players using their characters and various game rules to do damage to each others characters. Winning team is the last team standing.

Krosmaster Arena is either a 2 or 4 player game. Yes EITHER a 2 or 4 player game. You could play with 3 but then one person would play as two characters which could be more fair or a disadvantage. However, this was how I played it first. I was on a team of two vs my husband who was a team of himself. We won but I am not sure that it was because he was a one man team or not. I played with my son and that was a whole different game.

For the normal game play you should have 2 or 4 players. I will assume you have 2 players and are each playing two characters. Mostly because I need to start somewhere in order to go over game play and I like this way. Moving on to the Setup.

Setup:

Each player will choose 8 of the characters. How you choose is up to you.

• You can choose and agree on each team of characters.
• Randomly passing out 4 cards each.
• Taking turns choosing either randomly or laying them all out and choosing by taking turns.

Once you have your character cards and the (fabulously detailed) miniatures to go with them the first player chooses a board side and the second player chooses where he wishes to start.

After that part is done each player creates their Timeline. This is determined by the Initiative # on their character cards. Place your cards in order from left to right with left being first. Now you’re ready to set up the board!

Place the scenery based on the board. The game board should have spots for trees, bushes and crates. Assemble them and place them on the board and then place the Kama tokens (which are the games money and look like gold coins with a K on them) on each cell with the symbol for them and one on each demon cell (these have a creepy face with glow eyes). Some cells may have more than one symbol so place the number of tokens equal to the number on the cell.

Split the demonic tokens (the blue, orange and greenish-brown tiles with the glow eyes) into 2 piles based on rank. You should have 2 piles of Greenish, Blue and Gold-Orange. Place one of each face up in front of its pile. Now you should have 6 piles and 6 face up tokens.

Next pass out the tokens that have a gold star with wings on them, These are the GG tokens and will determine who wins. Each player gets 6 and the rest are on the side of board as wild GG tokens. Also on the side of the board until needed should be the Injury Markers (little orange/red tear drop tokens with numbers on them) and the +1/-1 AP(Action Points) that are blue stars and +1/-1 MP (Movement Points) markers that are green diamonds.

Once all that is done each player can choose where they want each character to start on their side of the board. Now you are finally ready to play! There are a LOT of rules so I will be brief but try to explain the basics. Then I will try to explain how to adjust in case your 5 year old bugs you to play games too.

Play:

Tension:

At the start of EVERY turn (except the very first one) you have to roll two dice which will decide your fate. Ok not exactly but this is called a Tension roll and if you roll doubles the tension rises (so to speak) and each player takes one of the GG tokens and puts it back in the game box! (Rules for tension are different depending on how many players and other rules).

If you do not roll doubles you may place each die on a character card to let that character use the power of the symbol rolled. Powers include Critical Hit, Armour, Lock and Dodge. If you do not wish to use only one of the die or none at all you may instead exchange your roll for Kamas. If you place 1 die you may trade the other for 1 Kama but if you trade both dice you may trade for 3 Kamas.

Character Turns:

On your turn you will play each of your Krosmaster characters one by one in the order you set up earlier called your Timeline. You must play one character at a time though and they refer to that character as the Active Character. Each turn will consist of the following:

1. Roll for Tension – Only once per Person turn. Not character turn.
2. Preliminary Phase – remove or apply any game effects as needed.
3. Activation Phase – You can spend MP or AP until you run out or choose to stop.
   1. Move by spending MP or Movement Points. The number each character has is shown in the Green Diamond on their card.
   2. Cast a Spell, Punch an opponent or buy a Demonic Reward (only when standing on a certain cell on the board) which costs AP or Action Points shown on the character card in the Blue Star.
4. End Activation Phase – Triggered Effects – Implement or end any effects on the character.
5. Repeat the 3 phases for each character and then your turn is over.

So these are basics for playing Krosmaster. There are more rules for using MP or AP and Demonic Tokens but this will give you an idea. It seems overwhelming at first but once you play a few tutorials and then one actual game you realize it is way easier than you made it out to be. In your head…or that might be just me.

Now the real challenge! Playing with a 5 year old who thinks he knows everything! I think the same could be said for playing with an adult who thinks he knows everything…challenging. Moving on to adjusted game play!

I am going to assume it will be just you and your kid because that was how I played. One on One. I will do my best to explain the basics. Most of the rules will stay in place but basically it becomes a who can defeat who first. Winning is the same though. Defeat your opponent by “killing” them or making them lose all their GG tokens. Also diving right in to character selection and board selection will eliminate some whining and frustration when he just wants to play because he knows everything.

Setup – Adjusted:

Figure out two teams and have either a random draw or let your child choose a team. Setting up the teams ahead of time ensures a more fair game for him. If you leave it up to chance or his choosing it could very badly…for one of you. So set up teams and decide who is who.

Pass out the character cards and the (still fabulously detailed) miniatures to go with them and choose the easier side of the board. Decide who gets to pick their starting spot by either rolling a die or saying that whoever got to pick their guys first can’t decide where to start first. That is what we did. He picked his guys and I picked my starting side of the board.

After that part is done each player creates their Timeline. He should be able to put the numbers in order from largest to smallest but might need some help. This is a good time to explain what Initiative is and that is how you decide which character goes first. Place your cards in order from left to right with left being first and help him do the same. Now you’re ready to set up the board and go over a few things.

Place the scenery based on the board. The game board should have spots for trees, bushes and crates. Assemble them and place them on the board and then place the Kama tokens on each cell with the symbol for them and one on each demon cell. Some cells may have more than one symbol so place the number of tokens equal to the number on the cell. Don’t put coins on each cell with them though. Make it scattered and random and pass out 3 to each player. I’ll explain in a sec.

Now the GG tokens. These will determine who wins so explain this part. Place ONE or 3 but no more yet on the side of the board. If your child is old enough to start learning basic addition and subtraction you could explain the health area and the injury markers. Use the injury markers to keep track of how many HP you have left. If they are not yet you can start showing them or doing the math for them OR find a different way of keeping track of health. Like a die they can turn when they take a damage.

Now you are finally ready to play! There are a LOT of rules so explain what you think your child will be able to understand and leave out everything that won’t affect game play. Explain Line Of Sight! Use the character mini to face the way they are aiming. This helps especially if a tree or something is in the way.

Play – Adjusted:

Do not use the demon tokens, the +1/-1 tokens, AP, or most of the card or the minions or most of the game. You will need the following for the the Adjusted game.

1. Game board. Easiest side.
2. Characters and cards. Show him where health (HP) is as well as MP (Movement Points).
   1. I explained this by asking him the number in the Green Diamond and told him that is how many spaces that guy could move.
3. On the Character cards use the top level “Spell” only as an attack. I had him identify the first number. If it was a 1 that guy had to be next to mine in order to attack. If it was 2 it COULD be 2 spaces away to attack. This was a basic intro to ranged attack.
4. The dice, the Kama Tokens (Gold coins) and up to 3 GG Tokens. You will also most likely need the HP counter tokens.

Character Turns:

On your turn you will play each of your Krosmaster characters one by one in the order you set up earlier called your Timeline. You must play one character at a time though and they refer to that character as the Active Character. Each turn will consist of the following:

1. Activation Phase – Move by spending MP or Movement Points. The number each character has is shown in the Green Diamond on their card.
2. Attack or pick up coins or buy a GG Token. 1 Action per turn.
3. Repeat for each character and then your turn is over.

If you choose to attack an opponent you will have to roll one die. If it lands on the exploding symbol then you hit BUT the opponant gets to roll one die to either defend or secure your hit. If they also get the exploding symbol then you hit for 1 damage and you get 1 coin from that person.

If the attacker rolls a Rune symbol they also hit. If a Boot or Shield is rolled than they automatically miss and play continues. If a Magnet is rolled nothing happens. If the Boot/Exploding Symbol is rolled then you use another dice to decide either way. Basically a roll over.

This would be why I said 1 – 3 GG Tokens to win. It could take awhile. My son LOVED playing a big kid game though and it did introduce the basics without changing really anything. We will slowly be adding in elements as he gets the hang of it which keeps it very new for him for a long time.

There are so many ways to play this game and no matter if you play the same type over and over you NEVER get the same game twice. It is completely up to the players how the game will go and a little luck of the die as well. Kids of all ages will LOVE this game. It comes with so much and the level of detail is amazing. I can’t even complain too much about the price since the game not only comes with a TON of tokens, put it together yourself bushes, trees and crates but wonderfully created anime style character minis plus hours and hours of fun. You absolutely get your money’s worth out of this box.

“Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.”
~ Dr. Seuss