Cloudspire

2019

Cloudspire: a 1-4 player strategy board game that combines tower defense and MOBA elements. Command unique factions, build defenses, and explore to secure the powerful 'source' energy.

180
minutes

1 - 4
player(s)

13+

Heavy

About the game

Cloudspire is an epic adventure board game that transports players into a captivating world above the clouds. Set in the floating realms of Ankar, this game is a thrilling exploration of strategy, survival, and supremacy. Each player commands a unique faction, harnessing their distinct abilities and minions to outwit and outmaneuver opponents.

In this mesmerizing world, mighty factions known as Cloudspire’s races, each with their own unique abilities and units, are embroiled in a fierce struggle for control and survival. From the resourceful Brawnen to the magical Grovetenders, the technological Narora to the elusive Heirs, each faction offers a unique gameplay experience.

Game components Unboxing the fun!

Cloudspire is a highly strategic tabletop game that combines elements of tower defense, resource management, and other strategic mechanisms. The game includes a variety of components, all of which play a critical role in the overall gameplay. Here’s a detailed list of all the components included in the game:

1. Rulebook: This is the guide to understanding how to play the game. It includes detailed instructions about the game setup, how to use each component, and the rules of the game.

2. Neoprene Mats: These are the game boards where players set up their factions and play out the game. They are double-sided with different terrain types to provide varied gameplay scenarios.

3. Faction-specific Components: Each faction in the game comes with its own set of components. These include:

Faction Fortresses: The main structure that players must protect. The game ends when a player’s fortress is destroyed.
Hero and Minion Chips: These represent the individual units of each faction. They have distinct abilities and stats.
Upgrade Chips: These are used to enhance the abilities and stats of hero and minion chips.

4. Event Cards: These are used to introduce random events into the game, adding an element of unpredictability.

5. Market Cards: These cards offer various items and abilities that players can purchase during the market phase of each wave.

6. Dice: These are used to resolve combat and other random events in the game.

7. Source Tokens: This is the currency used in the game to purchase upgrades, recruit units, and more.

8. Health and Upgrade Trackers: These are used to track the health of each player’s fortress and the progress of their upgrades.

9. Landmark Tokens: These represent various points of interest on the game board that can provide benefits or obstacles to the players.

All of these components interact in various ways to create a complex and engaging game. For instance, players spend source tokens to recruit units represented by hero and minion chips. These units can then be upgraded using upgrade chips. The game board represented by the neoprene mats determines the movement and placement of these units. Event cards and landmark tokens add unpredictability and strategic depth to the game. All the while, players must protect their fortress and attempt to destroy the fortresses of their opponents.

Game setup Lay it out, line it up, let’s go

Cloudspire is a strategic tower defense board game that combines elements of resource management and tactical combat. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to set up the game:

Step 1: Select Factions
Each player chooses a faction to play. Each faction (Grovetenders, Brawnen, Airshii, Narora) has unique abilities and strategies.

Step 2: Board Placement
Place the main island game board in the center of the play area. Each player then takes their faction’s home island and connects it to the main island via the pathway.

Step 3: Prepare Source Chips
Each player receives a supply of source chips. These chips represent the magical energy that powers your units and constructs. Typically, players start with 5 source chips.

Step 4: Setup the Market
Shuffle the market chips and draw five to form the initial market. These chips represent additional units, upgrades, and constructs that players can purchase during the game.

Step 5: Prepare Your Units and Constructs
Each player takes all of the unit and construct chips for their faction. These chips should be organized and placed near your home island.

Step 6: Draw Event Cards
Shuffle the event cards and draw one. This card represents a random event that will affect all players during the game.

Step 7: Determine First Player
Randomly determine the first player. That player takes the first player marker.

Step 8: Initial Resources
Each player sets their source tracker to 5 on their faction mat to represent their starting resources.

Step 9: Setup Units
Each player places their starting units (as indicated by the faction mat) on their home island’s fortress gate.

Step 10: Random Elements
The game includes a number of random elements. Besides the initial market and event card draw, players will also draw from a randomized deck of relic cards during the game. These powerful cards can dramatically shift the balance of power.

With these steps, you are now ready to start your game of Cloudspire. Enjoy the strategic battles and may the best faction win!

Game flow Round and round we go

Cloudspire is a strategic board game that revolves around building and defending a fortress while launching an offensive against your enemies. The game is divided into several distinct phases, each with its own set of rules and actions.

The game is structured into Waves and each Wave consists of four distinct phases:

Event Phase

In this initial phase, the top card from the event deck is revealed, and the event described on the card takes place. Events can provide various advantages or obstacles that add an unpredictable element to the game.

Income Phase

During the Income Phase, players earn source points based on the number of Source Wells they control. These points are used to purchase upgrades and hire units in later phases.

Market Phase

In the Market Phase, players utilize their source points to buy new units, upgrade existing ones, or purchase additional fortress upgrades. The market offers a variety of options, allowing players to tailor their strategies according to their needs.

Build Phase

The Build Phase is where players use their remaining source points to construct buildings on their fortress. These buildings can provide additional defense, produce units, or even add new abilities to their fortress.

Preparation Phase

During the Preparation Phase, players set their purchased units on the board in strategic positions. This is a crucial stage, as the right placement can significantly impact the outcome of the ensuing battle.

Onslaught Phase

The Onslaught Phase is where the battle takes place. Units move across the board according to their movement capabilities and engage in combat with enemy units. The goal is to destroy the enemy fortress while protecting your own.

Recovery Phase

The Recovery Phase concludes the Wave. Here, players have the opportunity to heal their units, repair their fortress, and prepare for the next Wave. The game continues in this cycle until a player’s fortress is destroyed or a certain number of Waves have been completed.

Understanding the phases of a Cloudspire game is essential to devising a winning strategy. It is important to remember that each phase has its own unique rules and opportunities, and the most successful players are those who can adapt their strategy on the fly to take advantage of them.

Players'turn One turn to rule them all

In the board game ‘Cloudspire’, a player’s turn consists of several phases where they can take various actions and make strategic choices. These phases include the Income Phase, the Market Phase, the Build Phase, the Prep Phase, and the Onslaught Phase. Each phase has its unique set of rules and options for players.

Income Phase

During the Income Phase, players generate source, the currency in ‘Cloudspire’, based on the number of source wells they control. Source is crucial for purchasing units, building structures, and enhancing your fortress.

Market Phase

The Market Phase allows players to spend their source. They can purchase new units, upgrade existing ones, or buy event cards. Strategic choices during this phase can greatly affect subsequent gameplay, as players must balance their source spending between strengthening their army and enhancing their fortress.

Build Phase

In the Build Phase, players use their source to construct new buildings or upgrade existing ones on their fortress. They can choose to build towers for defense, spires for attacks, or upgrade their fortress for enhanced abilities. The positioning of these structures can significantly affect the flow of the game, as well-constructed defenses can deter enemy attacks.

Prep Phase

The Prep Phase involves setting up the units purchased during the Market Phase. Players can strategically place their units on the deployment line, considering their movement and attack range. The order of the units is also important, as it determines the sequence of attacks during the Onslaught Phase.

Onslaught Phase

The Onslaught Phase is where most of the action takes place. Players move their units, attack enemy units, and use their spires. This phase requires strategic planning as players must decide whether to focus on offense, defense, or a balance of both. The phase ends when all units have been exhausted.

A player’s turn in ‘Cloudspire’ is a complex sequence of decision-making, resource management, and strategic planning. The choices made in each phase can greatly impact the outcome of the game, making it a rich and engaging board game experience.

End of the game All good games must come to an end

In the strategic board game Cloudspire, the game ends after a predetermined number of waves. These waves are dependent on the number of players in the game. In a two-player game, four waves are played, whereas in a three or four-player game, three waves are played. Once the final wave ends, the game concludes and scoring begins.

Victory Conditions

The primary objective of Cloudspire is to protect your own fortress while attempting to eliminate the fortresses of your opponents. The victory conditions are as follows:

Elimination of Opponents: If a player’s fortress is destroyed (i.e., its health reaches zero), that player is eliminated from the game. The last player or team with a surviving fortress is the winner.
End of Final Wave: If multiple fortresses are still standing at the end of the final wave, the player or team with the most remaining fortress health is declared the winner. In case of a tie, the player or team with the most source remaining wins.

Pre-Scoring Actions

Before the final scoring, there are a few actions that players must undertake:

Completion of the final wave: Players must complete all the phases of the final wave before proceeding to scoring.
Source calculation: Players must calculate their remaining source, which is the currency used in Cloudspire. This includes source remaining in their supply as well as any unspent source on their fortress gate or heroes.
Fortress health: Players should confirm their fortress’s remaining health.

Once these steps are completed, players can proceed to determine the winner based on the victory conditions outlined above.

Scoring Did you outsmart your rivals?

Cloudspire is an intricately designed board game with a complex scoring system. Winning requires not only strategic prowess but also a keen understanding of its scoring mechanics. Below is the detailed breakdown of how points are scored and how ties are broken in Cloudspire:

1. Eliminating Units:

Minions: When a player successfully eliminates an opponent’s minion, they gain a number of Source points equal to the minion’s health value at the start of the game.
Heroes: Eliminating an opponent’s hero grants the player a number of Source points equal to the hero’s starting health value plus any upgrades.

2. Destroying Spires:

When a player destroys an opponent’s spire, they are awarded Source points equal to the spire’s starting health value plus any upgrades.

3. Controlling the Mark:

At the end of each wave, if a player’s unit is on or closest to the Mark (a specific location on the board), they gain 5 Source points.

4. End of the Game:

The game concludes after four waves. At this point, players convert their remaining Source points into victory points at a 2:1 ratio. Additionally, any surviving heroes, minions, and intact spires also convert into victory points based on their starting health values plus upgrades.

In the event of a tie, the tie-breaking rules of Cloudspire are applied in the following order:

The player with the most leftover Source points wins.
If the tie persists, the player with the most surviving units (heroes and minions) wins.
If there is still a tie, the player with the most intact spires wins.
If a tie still remains, the player who went first in the game is the winner.

Understanding the scoring system in detail is key to strategize effectively and gain the upper hand in Cloudspire. It’s not just about surviving the waves, but making the most out of every unit and structure.

Particular Cases and Exceptions Wait… is that legal?

Cloudspire is a highly strategic, complex board game that can be influenced by a wide range of factors. To ensure a fair and engaging game, it’s crucial to understand some of the rarer rules, exceptions and clarifications that apply to this game.

1. Neoprene Health Chips:

In Cloudspire, health isn’t tracked with a number, but with neoprene health chips. These chips are stackable and each chip represents one health point. This is important because the number of health chips under a unit cannot exceed its current health.

2. Relic and Event Cards:

Unlike many other board games, the relic and event cards in Cloudspire are not shuffled into a deck. Instead, they are sorted numerically and only a specific number of these cards are used in each game. The rest are returned to the box without being revealed.

3. The ‘Limited Build’ Rule:

In most scenarios, there is a limited build rule. This rule states that players can only build on their starting island. However, this rule has an exception. If a player’s fortress gate is destroyed, they can then build on any island.

4. The ‘Limited Range’ Rule:

For spires, the range is normally limited to the number of range upgrades they have. However, if a spire has no range upgrades, it can only attack units on adjacent hexes.

5. The ‘Infinite Tower’ Rule:

There is a rule that states spires cannot be stacked infinitely. The maximum height of a spire is equal to the number of its base upgrades plus two.

6. The ‘No Backtracking’ Rule:

Units must always advance towards the enemy fortress gate. They cannot backtrack or remain stationary unless affected by a talent, relic, event, or other game effect.

7. Clarification on ‘Source Spire’ Rule:

While spires can be built on source wells to retrieve source, the spire does not become a ‘source spire’. The spire simply gains the ability to retrieve source, in addition to its other abilities.

8. Clarification on ‘Adjacent’ Rule:

The term ‘adjacent’ includes all hexes surrounding a unit or spire, including diagonally. This is important for several game mechanics, such as unit attacks and spire attacks.

9. Clarification on ‘Flying’ Rule:

Flying units are not affected by terrain effects, but they are still affected by spires and opposing units. This includes being targeted by spires, being attacked by units, and being forced to stop when moving onto a hex with an opposing unit.