How to Play

Fate/Domination is a strategic battle royale game for 2-7 players in the urban fantasy setting of Fate.

You play as a mage fighting in a secret war for the Holy Grail - a magic device said to grant any one single wish. To battle, you will summon a legendary hero from human history or myth as your Servant. As their Master, they will obey your will and reason and lay down their lives for your chance to claim the miracle of the Grail.

The rules on this wiki refer to a regular 3-7 player game, but it is possible to play the game with a two player variant.

## Overview

The game is played over a total of 11 rounds, each round consisting of 4 phases:

* In **Prep** the board is populated with objectives
* In **Outpost** players deploy on the board
* In **Action** they move and play attacks
* In **Combat** they fight using the cards they played in the Action phase to claim the objectives placed in Prep.

In each individual phase all players beginning with that round's starting player perform their phase-specific turn in clockwise order. Once each player has taken their turn for that phase, move on to the next phase until you reach the end of the round where you reset the board and discard all cards in play.

## Winning the Game

Winning fights and running reconnaissance awards players with VP (=Victory Points) and players compete for the highest VP score over the game's 11 rounds.

* At the end of Round 8 the game will enter its Climax and all but the top 4 players in VP are eliminated from the game.
* At the end of Round 9 all but the top 3 players in VP are eliminated from the game.
* At the end of Round 10 all but the top 2 players in VP are eliminated from the game.

If there is a tie between players who are up for elimination, neither is eliminated.

At the end of Round 11 the player with the most VP claims the Holy Grail and wins the game.

If multiple players are tied for first place at the end of the game, the player who won the battle in Miyama this round, wins the game. If the game would still end in a tie, the grail cannot be claimed, it’s contents are spilled and everybody loses the game.

## Setup

### Select Game Length

Choose if you want to play with the quickplay variant or if you want to play a normal 11 rounds. A normal game has 8 pre-climax rounds and takes about 15-20 minutes per player. Quickplay shortens the game time by reducing the number of pre climax-rounds to the number of players.

### Select NPC

Choose, if you want to play with an NPC or not and if yes, which one. This option is recommended for player counts below 5, but is not strictly necessary and can still be used in games with 5 or more players

### Prepare Event and Objective Decks.

Select the Objective Set , then shuffle all 20 Objective Cards into a pile.

Shuffle all 10 non-climax Event Cards into a deck. Draw two event cards face-down and remove them from the game. Then prepare the Event Deck by putting these cards face-down on the three climax events in the following order:

 Round 9
 Round 10
 Round 11

### Choose Masters

Let each player choose a Master, who they want to play as. If everyone agrees, you can also randomize the selection. Each player unpacks and reads all components that belong to their Master. After that you should take turns explaining your Master's special abilities to each other.

Every Master sets their mana to 4. Determine the starting player for the first round at random.

### Summon Servants

There are different ways of summoning Servants. No matter which version you choose, the servant you receive and the class they belong to should be a secret.

## Player Area

### Master Components

* **A - Master Card**: Your Masters abilities. You always have access to these.
* **B - Additional Master Components**: Other cards that come with your master. Make sure to read all of your master's cards to learn how and when these cards affect play.
* **C - Command Seals**: Powerful once per game spells you start the game with. After using one of the abilities on a Command Seal remove it from game.
* **D - Ascension**: A special card only unlocked by the caster servant William Shakespeare.
* **E - Master**: Your game piece used to mark your location on the board.
* **F - VP Marker**: Place this on the 0 VP space on the VP track of the central board.
* **G - Mana Pool**: Your mana, starts at 4, capped at 12.

### Servant Components

* **H - Servant Tarot**: An overview of your Servant's Deck (K). While your Servant's name is revealed this card is face-up, otherwise it's face-down (it starts face-down).
* **I - Hand Cards**: you can play. After being played and deactivated, cards from your hand enter your discard at the end of the round. Disregard all effects on cards while they are in your hand, unless they are Passive.
* **J - Skill Zone Cards**: which you can play while you have 8 or more mana. After being played and deactivated Skills always return to the skill zone. Disregard all effects on cards while they are in your Skill Zone, unless they are Passive.
* **K - Deck**: Your remaining draw pile of attack cards. When you need to draw from here while it's empty shuffle your discard (L) into your deck, then continue drawing.
* **L - Discard**: (empty) Discarded cards from your deck. Cards in your discard are hidden to other players.

### Other

* **M - Play Area**: (empty): When you play cards or when they are added to your attack they enter your play area. Cards in play contribute to your power and their card texts are in effect.

## The Board

### Fuyuki

The stage for the Holy Grail war is separated into 4 locations, that players can enter:

The Magic Workshop, the two battlefields Miyama and Shinto and Reconnaissance.

The player limit at the Workshop is 4. When a player enters the Workshop they have to choose one of the 4 mana spaces (C) in the Workshop they want to occupy (even if they don't deploy). The player limit at Recon is 1. Players cannot enter locations that have reached their player limit.

Space on battlefields is unlimited. Their terrain advantage spaces (D) are reserved for players who deploy on those battlefields in the outpost phase.

* **A1 - Event Deck**: The deck of the remaining event cards.
* **A2 - Active Event/Discard**: When you draw an event put here. The top card of this pile is the active event for the current round.
* **B1 - Objective Deck**: The deck of the remaining objective cards.
* **B2/B3 - Objectives in Miyama/Shinto**: Put the active objectives in Miyama/Shinto here. There is no limit to the number of objectives on Battlefields
* **C - Mana Spaces**: Deploying here will instantly grant you mana (entering the workshop and being place there will not).
* **D - Terrain Advantage Spaces**: When you deploy on a battlefield you may place yourself on an unoccupied terrain space. While on it, it will add its value to your terrain advantage, which counts into your total power.
* **E -** **Movement Arrows**: To move out of or through this location with your regular action move, pay this amount of mana.
* **F - Victory Bonus**: When you win a fight on this battlefield, you gain this VP bonus, if at least one opponent contests you in the fight at the point of combat resolution.
* **G - Reconnaissance**: In combat resolution, the player at [Recon] gains 2 VP.
* **H - VP Track**: Players track VP here. VP is not capped at 39. If you reach the end of the track, cycle back to the beginning. VP cannot fall below 0.

### The Moon Cell

* Moon Cell Front
* Moon Cell Back
1/2The Moon Cell is a special, third battlefield that only enters play after a card mentioning the Moon Cell is used. Only cards by a Servant of the Moon Cancer Class mention the Moon Cell.

Once in play fights will only occur in the Moon Cell, if a Servant of the Moon Cancer Class has visited it that round, otherwise players in the Moon Cell receive 2 mana after combat and its objective remains in play for future rounds.

Note: That servant does not need to be revealed. During combat, players who have been in the Moon Cell that round have to answer truthfully, whether their servant is a Moon Cancer or not.

Unlike other locations, there are no movement arrows pointing to or from the Moon Cell, making regular action movement to or from this battlefield impossible. Despite that it is still possible to move to and from the Moon Cell with movement abilities that allow direct movement (like Command Seals for example).

## Round Structure

Each round consists of 4 phases: Prep, Outpost, Action and Combat, as well as one end of the round cleanup step.

### Prep Phase

1. Players draw attack cards until they have 3 cards in hand.
2. Draw an Event. Each player gains mana equal to its mana value.
3. Draw a face-up objective for Miyama plus any number of objectives that would be added due to effects.
4. Draw a face-down objective for Shinto plus any number of objectives that would be added due to effects.
5. In turn order each player takes a Prep Turn

#### Prep Turn

The only thing players get to do on a Prep turn is using **Prep** abilities.

### Outpost Phase

1. In turn order each player takes an Outpost Turn.

#### Outpost Turn

On an Outpost turn players go through the following steps:

1. They may use **Outpost** abilities
2. If they are not on the board, they must deploy, placing their game piece in any location except Recon. Otherwise they skip this step.
	* When deploying, they collect deployment bonusses from Mana spaces in the Workshop they deploy on and they claim the terrain advantage of terrain spaces they choose to deploy on if they so choose.
3. They may use **Outpost** abilities

### Action Phase

1. Reveal the face-down Objective in Shinto.
2. In turn order each player takes an Action Turn.

#### Action Turn

On an action turn players go through the following steps:

1. They may use **Action** abilities
2. They may move
3. They may use **Action** abilities
4. They must play 2 attacks at the same time. If you are on a battlefield, one of those attacks must be played face-up, while the other may be played face-down. If you are not, both can be played either face-up or face-down.
5. They may use **Action** abilities

### Combat Phase

1. In turn order each player takes a Combat Turn.
2. Combat Resolution
	1. Calculate the total power of each player.
	2. Determine the winner(s) of each fight.
		* The winners of a fight are the player(s) with the highest total power on that battlefield, who are also not [defeated].
	3. Winners and players in Recon gain VP. Players in Recon always gain 2 VP, VP for winners is calculated as such:
		1. Add the up the VP values on objectives for each fight.
		2. Add the contested bonus of the battlefield, if the fight was contested fight (a fight with at least 2 players and/or NPCs)
		3. Divide the sum by the number of winners (in case of ties in power), rounding up.
		4. Then apply all bonus VP for winning fights (for example from command seals or from preparation)

#### Combat Turn

The only thing players get to do on a Combat turn is using **Combat** abilities.

### End of the Round

1. Resolve 'After Combat' effects
2. Remove players from the board
3. Discard events and objectives
4. Players deactivate their non-permanent attacks
5. Discard face-down attacks
6. Resolve 'End of round' effects
7. Ongoing effects expire

### Elimination

At the end of Rounds 8, 9 and 10 perform an Elimination (do not perform this step in any other round).

Then start the next round with the currently second player in turn order becoming the new starting player. Continue this process until you reach the end of round 11 where the player with the most VP wins.

## Further Reading

Other topics you should know about before jumping into your first game:

* Basic Attacks
* Ongoing Effects vs. Instant Effects
* Status Effects
* Using cards and their effects
* Ruler Seals