- 2-4 Players
- 10-15 Minutes
- Ages 14+
SUMMARY
As the commander of your army’s Cannon Corps™, order your platoons of cannoneers to take aim at enemy forces. Carefully plan your shots, use your ammo strategically, and avoid enemy fire to be the last army standing with at least four platoons!
COMPONENTS
Each player needs:
- 1 12-space grid board with three lettered rows (A-C) and four numbered columns (1-4)
- 1 set of seven standard polyhedral dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d10%, d12, d20)
- d10: Treat as 1-10, with the 0 face representing 10 if necessary.
- d10%: Treat as 1-10, dividing each face by 10, with the 00 or 100 face representing 10.
SETUP
Each player:
- Place your seven dice to the left of your board. This is your Reserves.
- Block other players’ view of your board and dice with a forearm or other opaque item for the duration of the game.
- Select four of your seven dice and place them on any four empty spaces of the grid on your board. Turn them each to their highest side. These are your Platoons. Multiple Platoons cannot occupy the same space.
- Determine a random player to take the first turn.
INSTRUCTIONS
On your turn:
- READY: Secretly select one of your four Platoons. The value shown on its die will be the power of your shot.
- AIM: Pick a space on the grid to fire at. It can be any one of the twelve spaces, regardless of where your Platoons are.
- FIRE: Announce your attack using this phrase: “Power __ shot at __.”
- For example, firing with a Platoon showing 8 on its die at grid space B3 would be “Power 8 shot at B3.”
- RESULTS: Each other player replies “Hit” if they have a Platoon on the chosen space, or “Miss” if they do not.
- HIT: Any opposing Platoon hit with damage this way must reduce the value on its die by the power of your shot.
- DEFEATED: If the Platoon is reduced to 0 or less, that Platoon is removed from the board and placed out in front of its owner where others can see. See REINFORCEMENT below.
- RUN FOR COVER: If the Platoon survives the hit, its owner can secretly move the Platoon to an adjacent space, or they can bluff moving it while actually leaving it where it is. It can be moved one space in any direction: horizontal, vertical, or diagonal.
- USED AMMO: Reduce the value on the die of the Platoon you fired with by half.
- Always round the result down. For example, a value of 5 becomes 2.
- If this would reduce your Platoon from 1 to 0, see FINAL SALVO below.
- NEXT TURN: The next player to your left starts their turn.
REINFORCEMENT: After a die is DEFEATED, its owner selects one of their remaining Reserves dice to deploy on their board. They pick any empty space to place the new Platoon, and turn it to its highest side. Each player will always have four Platoons on their board. When a player’s fourth Platoon is DEFEATED they will not have any Reserves left to deploy, and they are eliminated from the game.
FINAL SALVO: Platoons save their best shot for last. When firing with a Platoon showing a value of 1, any dice that it hits are instantly DEFEATED. The Platoon that fired will then be reduced from 1 to 0, and is also DEFEATED.
END OF GAME
When a player’s fourth Platoon is DEFEATED, they will not have any Reserves left to deploy, and they are eliminated from the game.
When only one player remains with three or less DEFEATED Platoons, they are declared the winning commander!
If a FINAL SALVO would result in all remaining players having a fourth DEFEATED Platoon, the player who fired the FINAL SALVO is the winner!
CREDITS
Publisher: Join In Games™, 304 S Jones Blvd Ste 5646, Las Vegas NV 89107-2623
Contact: info@joinin.games — +1 (702) 670-2622 (Please don’t call us. We don’t like it.)
Game design and graphic design by Zach Reyburn. Art by basemartist and Zach Reyburn.
Version 2.01 — Available in Just Add Dice™ Volume 1
Permission granted to print or photocopy this document for personal use.
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FUN FACTS
Did you know that “corps” is pronounced exactly the same as the word “core”? I sure didn’t until the day before we started publishing this game!
Did you know that the game Battleship was originally played with pen and paper? But apparently no one wanted to play “10-by-10 Gridhunter” in the 1930’s, hence the plastic pieces and board we have today.
Did you know that those are impact craters from opposing cannonballs strewn about the art, not boulders or parachutes or poop?
Did you know that everyone who plays Cannon Corps for the first time asks some version of “But can’t people just cheat since everything is hidden behind their arm?” We always reply, “Yes, but you can ruin almost any game with hidden information and no overseer by cheating.” But what we don’t tell them is that we cheated when we demonstrated the game for them, declaring they hit our d4 Platoon and d20 Platoon to show different potential outcomes in the first two turns. Ha ha!
Did you know that some people prefer to start with their lowest-sided dice on their board, to try to get to a final salvo shot quickly? The d4 and d6 each fire a final salvo on their third shots.
Did you know that silver and purple dice are better at Cannon Corps than other dice? Well you do now.
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