Field Manual

How to Play

Coldmarch is a card auto-battler. Fleets clash, but the fight is fought card by card — every trooper, priest, drone, and hunter is an individual unit with a name and a keyword. You build the fleet and set the Formation; the clash resolves on its own, round by round, until one side breaks.

01 · The Core Loop

Four steps, repeated until the line breaks

01

Muster

Draft your fleet from fifty character cards — named troopers, priests, drones, and hunters — before the engagement begins.

02

Deploy

Spend Command Points each round to place individual cards into your Formation, front to back.

03

Auto-Resolve

Every card fights on its own stats and keyword — no input once the clash starts.

04

Requisition

Surviving cards carry their damage forward, Command Points rise, and the round repeats.

02 · Resources

Command Points

Your budget for deploying cards each round. You start with a modest pool and it grows round over round — early rounds reward efficient trades, later rounds reward committing everything you have.

Unit Attrition

Damage isn’t reset between rounds. A card that survives the clash enters the next round exactly as battered as it left the last one — attrition, not recovery, wins Coldmarch.

03 · Card Keywords

Bulwark

Tanky frontline cards, like the Bulwark Sergeant, that hold the line and absorb the clash.

Vanguard

Fast strikers, like the Interceptor Wing, that lead the charge ahead of the rest.

Siphon

Cards like the Censer Drone that drain life from whatever they hit.

Deathmark

Cards like Rendmaw that mark a target so another card can finish it.

04 · Faction Synergy

Concord Fleets Linked Marines Fleet Marines grow stronger fighting alongside their kin; Field Chaplains buff attack whenever an ally dies. The Choir Resurrection Choir Confessor resurrects units it kills; Prophet-Ascendant Vell brings back up to three fallen allies on its own death. Vharn Hegemony Swarm Tokens Swarm-Mother summons Chittering Drones on turn three; Spike-Molt splits into another drone when it dies. The Silent Silence Null Probe and Static Wraith slow and delay on deploy; The Long Silence shuts down every enemy keyword on turn three. The Spiral Whatever the Job Needs Neutral cards like the Bounty Hunter and Renegade Ace slot into any fleet, no faction required.

05 · Win Condition

Break the enemy Formation across three rounds and the fight is yours. Break first, and it’s the only history anyone writes down.

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