Learn the game.

Each player leads a coalition of Characters and Convictions. Players spend Faith to build their field, take actions, challenge opponents, protect allies, and capture or rescue Characters.

• Each player begins with 20 Resolve.
• A player loses when their Resolve reaches 0.
• If both players reach 0 from the same resolving effect, the game is a draw.
• A successful capture makes the captured Character’s owner lose 1 Resolve, but capture-related Resolve loss can occur only once per turn.
• If a player cannot draw a required card, they lose 2 Resolve for each failed draw.

Deck construction

• Exactly 30 main-deck cards: 18 Characters, 5 Actions, 4 Events, and 3 Reactions.
• One registered three-card Set Reserve is separate from the main deck.
• No more than three main-deck copies of one card.
• No player may control more than one copy of the same named Character at the same time.

Field limits

• Up to eight Characters.
• Up to five Continuing Events.
• Up to three opposing captured Characters.

Each player has a deck, hand, field, Conviction area, captured area, discard pile, Set Reserve, and Set Area. Cards in the Set Area do not occupy field space and normally interact only through Set Defiance.

1. Shuffle an exact 30-card Alpha main deck.
2. Place one registered three-card set face up in the Set Reserve. All three components begin locked.
3. Place up to one Religion, one Political, and one Social Conviction face up.
4. Set both players’ Resolve to 20.
5. Determine the first player randomly.
6. Each player draws seven cards.

After seeing both players’ Convictions and Set Reserves, each player may take one full-hand mulligan. Shuffle the entire hand into the deck and draw seven replacement cards; the replacement hand must be kept.

1. RecoverReady all exhausted cards you control unless an effect prevents recovery.
2. DrawDraw one card. Apply the empty-deck penalty for each failed draw.
3. ResourceCalculate Faith. You may Rally once with an eligible Character.
4. ActionPlay cards, use abilities, attack, attempt captures, attempt one rescue, or attempt Set Defiance.
5. EndResolve end-of-turn effects and lose all unspent Faith.

Faith is recalculated during each Resource Phase and never carries into the next turn.

Available Faith = 5 Base Faith + 1 per active Character, to a maximum of +3

• No active Characters: 5 Faith.
• One active Character: 6 Faith.
• Two active Characters: 7 Faith.
• Three or more active Characters: 8 Faith.

Response Faith

At the beginning of each opponent’s turn, gain 3 Response Faith in a separate pool, shared between legally triggered Reaction cards and legally timed Character abilities. Spending on one reduces what remains for the others. Unspent Response Faith expires at that opponent’s turn end. Normal Faith does not carry over. Legal own-turn Reactions use normal Faith.

Rally

Once during your Resource Phase, exhaust one eligible ready Character to gain 2 temporary Faith. A Character cannot Rally during the turn it enters play. Unused Rally Faith disappears at turn end.

Rescue and resistance use current Faith, including applicable modifiers, unless a card explicitly specifies printed Faith. It does not add its full value to the resource pool.

Playing a Character

During your Action Phase, announce a Character, check deployment and named-Character limits, and pay its Faith Cost and additional costs. Use the active-first response window, with one legal Reaction per player. If not canceled and deployment remains legal, place it on your field. A canceled main-deck Character goes to its owner's discard pile; a canceled Set Character returns to its Set Reserve unlocked. Paid costs remain spent.

Ready and exhausted

Turn a card sideways to show that it is exhausted. Exhausted Characters cannot attack, capture, rescue, Rally, use Set Defiance, or pay an exhaust cost. Unless a card says otherwise, they may still defend.

Newly played Characters

A Character must have been under its controller’s control since the beginning of that controller’s turn before it can attack, capture, rescue, Rally, use Set Defiance, or use an ability with an exhaust cost. A newly played Character may defend normally.

Active Characters

For Coalition Faith, an active Character is one you control on your field that is not captured. Ready and exhausted Characters both count unless a card says otherwise.

Functional types

• Action: creates a one-time effect and is discarded after resolving.
• Immediate Event: resolves once and is discarded.
• Continuing Event: enters the field and remains for its printed duration or condition.
• Reaction: answers its printed trigger before the original occurrence resolves.

Phenomenon, Technology, Religion, Political, Social, Information, Community, Economic, and Set are identifiers—not functional card types.

Playing an effect card

1. Announce the card and pay its Faith Cost and additional costs.
2. Declare all required modes, choices, and legal targets.
3. Each appropriate response window permits one legal Reaction per player. Offer the active player first, resolve that Reaction fully, then offer the non-active player if the original occurrence remains pending and legal. Neither Reaction answers the other. If the original occurrence is canceled, stop without offering or charging another response. Do not repeat passes. Printed pre-roll, post-roll and post-defeat triggers still govern eligibility.
4. The Reaction resolves first. Then resolve the original card if it remains possible.
5. Resolve instructions in printed order and send the card to its normal destination.

Paid costs are not refunded if a card is canceled unless an effect explicitly says otherwise.

Continuing Event replacement

If you control five Continuing Events, you may play another by first discarding one you control as a free, non-interruptible additional cost. The discarded Event does not return if the new play is canceled.

Character battle

1. Choose an eligible ready attacker and one opposing Character as the target. Exhaust the attacker as an upfront cost, then use the active-first response window before rolling.
2. The attacker rolls 1d6 + Attack.
3. The target rolls 1d6 + Defense.
4. The higher completed total wins. On a tie, both remain in play.
5. If the attacker wins, the defender is defeated. If the defender wins, the attacker remains unless Combat Trained applies. Place a defeated Character in its owner’s discard pile.

Only the declared target defends. Combat does not spill excess Attack into Resolve.

Rowan 7 health

ROWAN 7 HEALTH: Rowan 7 enters play with 3 health. Each physical battle that would defeat it, including a Combat Trained counterattack, instead removes 1 health. At 0 health it is defeated. Capture bypasses health; capture and rescue preserve remaining health. Returning from the discard pile restores its starting health unless an effect says otherwise. Other defeat effects follow their printed instructions.

Direct attack

A player may be attacked directly only when they control no Characters. Exhaust an eligible attacker, use the active-first response window, then roll 1d6 + Attack. A total of 7 or higher makes the opponent lose 2 Resolve; 6 or lower fails.

Combat Trained

When a Character with Combat Trained defends and its completed Defense exceeds the attacker’s completed Attack by at least 3, the attacker is defeated after the battle. Combat Trained applies only to physical Character attacks, not capture, rescue, or Set Defiance.

Capture attempt

You cannot declare a capture attempt while holding three captives unless a card explicitly permits it.

1. During your Action Phase, pay 2 Faith, choose an eligible ready captor and legal target, and exhaust the captor as an upfront cost.
2. Choose one opposing Character.
3. The target’s controller may exhaust one other ready Character to give the target +2 Defense. Declare intervention before the Reaction opportunity; resolve the Reaction before rolling.
4. Roll 1d6 + the captor’s Attack against 1d6 + the target’s Defense.
5. A higher captor total moves the target to the captured area. A tie or lower result fails.
6. The captor and any intervention helper remain exhausted regardless of the result or cancellation.

Captured Characters are blank and inert. They cannot attack, defend, use abilities, Rally, generate Coalition Faith, assist captures, or count toward a set.

Rescue attempt

A rescue requires an open Character slot when declared and again before rolling. If the field becomes full, end the attempt without rolling; the captive remains captured, paid Faith remains spent, the rescuer remains exhausted, and the attempt counts. A legally declared rescue consumes the one rescue attempt for that turn even if canceled.

1. During your Action Phase, pay 2 Faith, choose an eligible ready rescuer and legal captive, and exhaust the rescuer as an upfront cost.
2. Choose one of your Characters in an opponent’s captured area.
3. The opponent declares one active resisting Character before the Reaction opportunity. Resolve the Reaction, check legality, then each side rolls 1d6 + its Character’s current Faith, including applicable modifiers.
4. A higher rescuer total returns the captured Character to its owner’s field exhausted and newly returned.
5. A tie or lower result fails without additional Resolve loss.
6. The rescuer remains exhausted regardless of the result or cancellation.

Only one rescue may be attempted per turn. With no active resisting Character, roll 1d6 with a resistance value of 0.

Before play, a player may select no more than one Conviction from each category: Religion, Political, and Social. Convictions begin outside the deck, are revealed before mulligans, and remain fixed unless a card explicitly changes or removes one.

Including a conviction or viewpoint represents its presence in the game. It does not represent endorsement by the creator.

Explore the real-world context in the Holy Wars Wiki: convictions and belief, including the Christianity dossier. Research findings and game rules are separate.

The Set Reserve is the Alpha’s visible endgame system. It provides access to a closing path without consuming main-deck slots, but components must still be unlocked, paid for, played, and protected.

Milestone unlocks

• Build Support: You control at least two Characters.
• Enter the Conflict: One of your Characters defeats an opposing Character, completes a successful direct attack, capture, or rescue, or wins a defensive battle. Prevented, canceled, and tied results do not qualify.
• Crisis Point: The first time either player reaches 12 Resolve or lower, both players complete this milestone after the triggering effect finishes.

Each milestone unlocks one component of that player’s choice and is completed only once. Unlocking is not playing: normal costs, timing, and limits still apply.

Playing and completing a set

• An unlocked Character deploys normally; an unlocked Continuing component remains in its normal field area.
• An unlocked one-time component resolves, then moves face up to the Set Area.
• A canceled component returns to the Set Reserve and remains unlocked.
• A set is complete when one player controls all three named components face up on their field or in their Set Area.
• Completion resolves only the first time that player completes the named set.
• While Complete applies only while all three remain controlled. Rebuilding reactivates it without repeating Completion.

Check set completion after the current card, ability, or battle finishes resolving. On first completion, announce the Completion effect and required choices. Use a separate active-first response window, with one legal Reaction per player, following printed trigger and payment requirements. Completion counts as used even if canceled. Canceling Completion does not break the set or disable its While Complete effect. Completion never repeats when rebuilt.

Ongoing set effects stop immediately when the set becomes incomplete and resume when rebuilt. Completed actions, such as Resolve changes, draws, discards, and exhaustion, are not undone. For Politics of Fear, mark the originally selected Characters: penalties and the related Resolve-loss trigger apply only while the set is complete. Rebuilding restores them only for original selections that remained on the field; leaving the field permanently removes a selection. Rebuilding chooses no new Characters.

A defeated Set Character goes to its owner's discard pile, not automatically to the Set Reserve. Returning it requires a legal recovery effect.

Set Defiance

Once during your Action Phase, pay 2 Faith and exhaust an eligible ready Character to challenge one opposing non-Character component in the Set Area. After the Reaction opportunity, roll 1d6 + Attack against 1d6 + 3.

• A higher challenger total returns the component to its Set Reserve with a Disrupted marker.
• A Disrupted component cannot be played during its owner’s next turn. It may later be replayed for its full cost.
• A successfully replayed component becomes Stabilized and cannot be targeted by Set Defiance again.
• A tie or lower result fails; the Character remains exhausted and Faith remains spent.
• Character components use normal Character interaction.

See the five Alpha sets on the Card Map →

Reaction window

Each appropriate response window permits one legal Reaction per player. Offer the active player first, resolve that Reaction fully, then offer the non-active player if the original occurrence remains pending and legal. Neither Reaction answers the other. If the original occurrence is canceled, stop without offering or charging another response. Do not repeat passes. Printed pre-roll, post-roll and post-defeat triggers still govern eligibility.

Single Application Rule

A specific prevention or replacement effect may apply only once to one triggering occurrence. A modified result does not retrigger the same effect unless it explicitly creates a separate occurrence.

Simultaneous ordering

When one occurrence affects both players, the active player applies and orders their prevention and replacement effects first. The non-active player follows. Resolve the final occurrence simultaneously.

Participants and pre-roll checks

Before rolling an attack, capture, rescue, or Set Defiance attempt, check that the acting Character remains on its controller's field under that controller and that its required target remains legal. Otherwise the attempt ends without rolling; paid costs remain spent and committed Characters remain exhausted. Legal attack redirection changes the target without ending the attack. Exhaustion paid when declaring an attempt does not make that participant illegal, and exhausting it again does not cancel the attempt.

Dice Commitment Rule

The Reaction window closes when either player releases a die from their hand, cup, or dice tower. No new Reaction or optional pre-roll effect may be declared until the roll resolves. Effects that explicitly modify, replace, or reroll a completed result still work normally.

Targets and cancellation

If every required target becomes illegal, the card does not resolve. If at least one remains legal, resolve as much as possible for legal targets. Preventing every consequence is not the same as canceling the card unless an effect explicitly says cancel.

Card text priority

Card text takes priority only when it directly addresses a general rule. “Cannot” overrides “may,” “can,” and general permission.