Wheels of War rules

Wheels of War is the tavern card game. Each player has three cellar shelves and twelve turns. Set wheel cards on empty shelves, let them age, then Read them to bank Renown. The match ends after both players spend their twelve turns. The highest banked Renown wins, and equal scores draw. Wheels left on shelves add nothing to the final score.

The opening hand

Each player starts with six cards. You may swap up to two opening cards, one at a time, or choose Keep hand sooner. A swapped card goes to the bottom of your deck after its replacement is drawn. Play begins after both players finish choosing. The hand limit during play is seven cards.

What spends a turn

Setting a wheel, reading one, playing a craft without the Free mark, or choosing Wait spends one turn. When that action ends, only your cellar ages. Your remaining turn count falls by one and you draw one card if your deck has cards and your hand has room. A newly set wheel starts at age zero and joins this same ageing step, so it normally reaches age one immediately. Your rival's action does not age your wheels.

Peak, hold and early reading

A wheel's value is its Renown at full ripeness. Peak is the age needed to reach that value. Hold is the extra age it can gain after reaching peak before it sours. A wheel pays full value from its peak age through peak plus hold, including both ends. Before peak, Read pays value multiplied by age and divided by peak, rounded up. Cart Wheel has value 8, peak 4 and hold 2. At age 1 it pays 2 Renown. It pays 8 at ages 4, 5 and 6, then sours at age 7. Value and hold changes from crafts affect these calculations.

Free crafts and your Archaffineur

A craft marked Free resolves and lets you continue the same turn. It still spends that card, but does not trigger the normal ageing step, card draw or turn countdown. Your Archaffineur is also a free action and can be used once per match. Turn the Wheels is a regular craft. It adds one age directly, then your ending-turn ageing also happens. With no cellar condition, each of your wheels gains two age in total from that play.

Sealing and its exceptions

While choosing a shelf for a wheel, press up or down to toggle its seal. A seal hides the wheel's identity from your rival and reduces its printed hold to half, rounded down. It blocks targeted friendly crafts as well as The Souring and Purging Rind. You can still Read your own sealed wheel. Affineur's Nose can target a rival's sealed or unsealed wheel that has not soured. It removes any seal and cuts hold by one more, without refunding the original seal cost. Whole-cellar ageing, automatic reading and leader powers also reach sealed wheels. In particular, the Fen Matriarch can restore a sealed soured wheel.

Choosing a craft target

Friendly crafts that choose one wheel need an unsealed target. Bloom additionally needs an unripe wheel. Value and hold crafts cannot target soured wheels. Fen Poultice and Riftstone can target an unsealed soured wheel. Rival removal and souring crafts cannot target a wheel that has already soured. Cellarhand, Ward Rounds and the Verdenne Archaffineur choose by current positive Renown, so they can read an unripe wheel. They read fewer wheels if fewer can score, and tied values use the earlier shelf first.

Damp and chill

Damp makes the affected player's cellar gain two age at the end of each of their turns. Chill makes it gain none. These durations count the affected player's ending turns. Free actions consume neither duration. If both apply, chill wins, but both durations still count down. Reapplying the same condition keeps the longer of its remaining duration and the new duration. Durations do not add together.

Soured wheels and returning to hand

A soured wheel stays on its shelf and pays no Renown. Extending its hold later does not restore it. You may Read it for zero Renown to clear the shelf, spending a turn. Fen Poultice restores one unsealed wheel to its peak, while the Fen Matriarch restores every wheel, including sealed ones. Both retain existing value and hold changes. Riftstone returns one unsealed wheel to your hand, including a soured one. When you set that card again, its age, souring and previous value and hold changes are cleared.