A "Denial" is when one of God's Power cards are countered with the same number and same colour, ie, in your example yes you would need 5♣, otherwise it's treated as a normal attack. Unless there's a character power that lets you do it.
I think I should clarify in the rules, if I get the time. Thanks for checking the game out!
Yep. There's no "exactly match the value" occurrence, explained in the "Attacking a Card" section. So I presumed that every Draw will become a Denial. I understand that getting a Denial is really rare.
Also, in one of our play runs, we got a sort of draw match too. Ie. At the end of the round we beated the 300HPs of God, and he beated the 100HP of us :)
This occurrence isn't explained in the "Victory or Loss" section.
Here's additional clarification requests:
1) is this game intended to be played with no conversation between the players? Do we need to keep our card hidden (apart from the declaration of the highest one for the initiative)?
I'd say "no" at both the questions. It feels as a full cooperative and talkative game.
2) why the initiative phase every round? It seems time consuming, and almost unnecessary for the game. To be honest, it seems just a way to turn some Hero Archetypes abilities slightly less useful. But, sadly, those abilities are already less powerful than other ones, so I feel there's no need to have an initiative mechanic.
Probably the players should go in the order they like more.
Let's take an example: Reliable Mentor ability. The text says "This round any card set to the discard pile due to a Hero activating their ability is instead placed back into the Hero's hand." So, I find that this round confusing; I mean, let's say that the Mentor is the last one to act, due to the initiative mechanic: other heroes that already acted, using their abilities, can take back their cards from the discard pile, or the ability isn't retroactive, so it's useless if played late in the round?
3) Youthful hero. He can take another action too, I suppose. it says "All Heroes...". However, what's the timing? You need to do a full round, then repeat? Or you do two actions in a row, then pass to the next player, and he does two actions in a row too?
4) Monarch ability. There's no "discard phase" in the game. So, hypothetically, you could have infinite cards in the hand. Correct?
5) Fighter ability says "adjacent", but theoretically "the order doesn't matter", as written in "Setting Up the Battlefield". Then... Should I pay attention on how I place the God's cards, and what happen when I usually discard those card following an attack? Should I leave "holes" in their position, so I have to replenish the "holes" at the end of the round? Should I move them to the left, then draw the new God's cards following on the right side? May I shuffle them 'cause order doesn't matter?
Also, important, do this card have to follow the color limitation, on both the God's cards?
Also, I suppose the value of the single card is compared to the 2 God's cards individually. Ie. let's say I put a 10♠️ vs. a 2♣️ and a J♠️. At the Calculating Damage phase, do I inflict 8 damage and suffer 1?
6) Summoner ability. Am I obligated to use ALL those 4 cards? What if I can't (ie. God has only red cards, and I drew 4 black cards), or if I won't do that? Is the turn "wasted" and some/all cards discarded?
7) Warrior ability. Do I need to follow the "same color" rules? Because it's curious the exact distinction that you do "one each to their own Power Card" or "All together to attack one". Let's say that I have 4 cards in my hand; one is used to activate the Warrior ability; then I have 3 cards remaining; I can use 1, 2 or all 3; but apparently I can't use 1 on a God card, and the other 2 on a second God card. Is this intended? I suppose not.
8) Summoner ability. It's somewhere similar to Warrior ability. However, instead of using the remaining card in hand, he gains 4 brand new. Correct? While those new cards are unknown, I'd say it's probably a better ability. However, the doubts are: does the Summoner have no rules/restrictions (a-la Warrior)? Can he use multiple cards on a single God's card? Probably not. So, he need to spread those card on 4 different God's cards, if he can / have to match the colors. Correct?
9) Ranger ability. Do the extra cards to the side, taken from the Discard pile, stay on the table for several turns? I mean, let's say that, in the turn following this ability activation, a player choose a card from this "side deck". Now there are 4 card remaining. No other player choose from the "side deck". The following turn, I still have the "side deck" with 4 cards inside?
Side note: 'till now, we played drafting, a-la Magic the Gathering. Ie. we rolled a d20 die to randomly choose our Archetype (of course, rerolling values over 15). We wanted to face random situations, to better adapting our style to the actual battlefield :)
I don't know if this can be interesting to be spelled out as a standard feature of the game, or if it's just a quirk of our group :)
Thanks in advance for the attention. Also, I hope this feedback can help to describe the rules in a clearer way (or at least, to put some useful FAQs to help other players).
In addition to the previous post, other clarifications needed:
10) Assassin ability: just to be sure... ANY card, so he follows no rules? For example, God's power is a red 10♥; the assassin activate the ability, then place a black 2♣. Is that card treated like a red 10♦, correct?
11) Mage ability: what happens if the God's card you take isn't playable? Let's say I take the only black card, and the others are all red. Can the Mage simply keep it in the hand, or he need to discard it, if unplayable? Or, he can't activate the ability, 'cause all the text must be followed, ie. he need to take it and play it.
Thanks in advance.
