The dice in Blades of Ash: Clash of Legends are special 6-sided dice. Instead of numbers, each face shows a color: three red faces, two green faces, and one blue face. These colors represent the different types of energy available to heroes. During combat, the results obtained from rolling these dice will form your action dice reserve, your resource pool, which you'll use to activate hero abilities and pay the cost of action cards.

Heroes are the fundamental pieces of each game. These cards represent the champions who will fight for you on the battlefield. Each hero card contains all the necessary information to use that character in the game: from their combat attributes to their special abilities. Below, we'll explore in detail each element that makes up a hero card and its function during the game.

Action cards represent the tactical arsenal available to your heroes during battle. These cards are divided into several types, each with specific functions: equipment that enhances your heroes' capabilities, techniques and spells that unleash powerful instant effects, tricks that allow you to react to your opponent's moves or supports that provide strategic advantages. Mastering the use of these cards and their synergies with your heroes is key to victory.

Equipments

Equipment represents the physical arsenal that heroes can carry into battle. These permanent cards have the type "Equipment" and are classified according to their function: armor improves defense and is identified by protecting specific body parts (helmet, breastplate, boots, etc.), while weapons increase offensive power and are characterized by requiring one or two hands. Each piece of equipment has a dice cost that must be paid to attach it to the active hero. Once attached, the equipment remains with the hero throughout the game, unless a specific effect removes or discards it.

Restriction System: Each hero has limitations on how much equipment they can carry simultaneously:

• Armor: Can only wear one piece protecting each body part (helmet, breastplate, boots, gauntlets, etc.). If you try to equip armor that protects a body part the hero already has covered, you must choose which to keep and discard the other.
• Weapons: Are limited by the number of hands they require. A hero has two hands available, so they cannot carry weapons whose total hand requirement exceeds this limit. When equipping a new weapon that would exceed the limit, you must discard the necessary weapons to meet this restriction.

Ability Activation: A crucial aspect of equipment is that their abilities, both active and passive, are not immediately available. For a hero to benefit from an equipment's abilities, it must have been attached since the beginning of the current singular combat. This mechanic represents the time needed for the hero to adapt to the equipment and use it effectively in battle.

Superclass Cards

Superclass cards are Techniques and Spells. These cards represent specialized single-use abilities, each exclusive to a specific superclass:

• Techniques: Can only be used by Fighter superclass heroes
• Spells: Can only be used by Spellcaster superclass heroes

Unlike equipment that remains in play, these cards are discarded immediately after resolving their effects. They function similarly to heroes' active abilities: they have dice costs, attack characteristics (if applicable), and specific effects.

To play them, you must reveal the card from your hand, pay its cost, and resolve its effects. Once this process is complete, the card goes directly to the discard pile or graveyard.

Tricks

Tricks are reactive cards designed to change the course of combat at critical moments. These versatile cards allow you to respond to opponent's actions, enhance your own attacks, or defend against imminent threats when you need it most.

What makes Tricks unique is their ability to be played outside the normal flow of the game. While other cards can only be activated during your turn, Tricks can be played in response to specific situations, even during your opponent's turn. This flexibility makes them fundamental strategic tools for countering enemy plans or seizing unexpected opportunities.

Each Trick clearly specifies in its text when it can be played: "When an allied hero is attacked", "After rolling dice", "At the beginning of singular combat", among others. It's crucial to respect these conditions, as a Trick can only be activated at the exact moment indicated in its description.

1. Name: The trick's identity.
2. Type: Indicates it's a Trick card.
3. Faction Icon: Symbol identifying the faction it belongs to. The border color corresponds to the same faction.
4. Cost: The dice needed to play the trick.
5. Illustration: Visual representation of the trick.
6. Condition: Specifies the exact moment or specific situation when the trick can be activated (for example: "When an allied hero takes damage", "At the beginning of combat", "After playing a Technique").
7. Effect: The complete description of what the trick does when activated.

Supports

Support cards are strategic tools that improve your position in combat through indirect but significant means. While they don't deal direct damage or provide immediate defenses, their value lies in the tactical advantage they offer.

These versatile resources allow you to manipulate key game elements: reroll dice for better results, remove hindrance counters that limit your heroes, draw additional cards to expand your options, or reorganize the battlefield in your favor. Supports are the oil that lubricates your war machine, allowing your strategies to develop smoothly.

Underestimating Support cards is a common mistake among novice players. Although their effects may seem modest compared to a devastating attack or impenetrable armor, it's precisely these small adjustments that often make the difference between victory and defeat.

Counters are tokens placed on hero cards to represent temporary states that modify their capabilities during battle. These states are applied by various cards, hero abilities, and game effects.

Counters are classified based on whether their effects are beneficial or detrimental to the hero they are placed on.

Boon Counters: Represent positive states that enhance the hero's capabilities. They are visually identified by their bluish color.

Bane Counters: Represent negative states that limit or penalize the hero. They are visually identified by their reddish color.

A hero can have multiple counters of the same type on their card. While effects don't stack (having three Swiftness counters grants the same benefit as having one), the number of counters determines how long that state will remain active.

During the Counter Cleanup phase, which occurs at the beginning of each Singular Combat after determining initiative, each hero removes exactly one counter of each different type they have. For example, if a hero has 3 Swiftness counters and 1 Inspired counter, after cleanup they will have 2 Swiftness and no Inspired.

For specific effects of each counter, see the Complete Counter Reference in the Appendix.