There is no trace of humans anymore. Only plants, animals, and sentient machines continue to roam the Earth. They constantly seek energy and technological advances. The Bots were created for one unique purpose: FIGHTING! 

Rumblebots is a deck management card game inspired by Auto Battler video games. Assemble your group of fighting robots (Bots) and launch them into the arena. The last one left standing will be the winner! 

Rumblebots is divided into six rounds, each consisting of two phases: Build and Battle. In the Build Phase, you assemble new Bots, adding them to your deck. Choose synergistic Bots, recycle obsolete units, level up to build ever more powerful machines, or push your luck with an aggressive, yet risky plan made by an army of simple automatons. In the Battle Phase, one team attacks and one team defends in a series of clashes. Bot decks fight each other in an almost “automatic” way. Whoever becomes Champion is challenged by the following team. The last Champion in the game wins the battle and gets powerful crystals to improve their Workshop and level up their Bots. The last team of Bots standing during the Showdown wins! 

Each player begins with a starting deck made up of three 0-star bots (Bulby, Mechchicken, Wrench Toast).  Bot cards have an attack value at the top as well as a defense value.  The cost for the bot card is in the bottom right as well as its scrap value.  Bots may have a special ability, which is found beneath the name. Finally in the upper left, you will see the one or two factions that the bot belongs to.   

The game is played over six rounds – each with a Build phase followed by a Battle phase.  Each phase is started by the player holding the Champion token and then play goes around the table in the direction shown on the current round space on the main board. 

In the build phase, the player receives scraps equal to the round number.  Also, if you have at least 2 crystals less than the player with the most, you get one extra consolation scrap.  

Build a bot – you can build a bot of the same tier or lower than where your tier marker current lies. Bots can come from the Laboratory display or from your hand.  Pay the cost for the bot (in yellow in the bottom right) and place it above your workshop.  If it came from the market, replace the card there.  Alternatively, if you buy a Contraption card, they do not have attack or defend values; they have an action that is in play as long as the card is upright (it is rotated when used). 

Upgrade your workshop – spend 3 scraps to increase your Tier marker by one space. If you are the first player to reach a specific Tier, reveal four bots from the corresponding deck into the display. 

Recycle a bot – trash a bot into the Recycling Area gaining the number of scraps seen in green in the bottom right.   

Energize a Crystal – move a crystal from your purple storage area to the orange Reactor. For each, either gain a Scrap or Scan (draw the top 2 cards from a deck you can build from and keep them in your hand. For the rest of this turn, you can build these bots by paying their costs. Any unbuilt bots in your hand are returned to the bottom of their deck at the end of your Build phase). 

At the end of the build phase, you move any newly built bots from above your board to below. Discard any bot cards you have in your hand from energizing crystals and then reset your scraps to 0.  You do not carry Scraps from round to round, you always start over. When all players have had a chance to take their build phase, the game then moves into the battle phase. 

In the battle phase, all players participate. The player holding the Champion token is the first Champion.  Each player shuffles their Bot cards to form their deck (leave your Contraption cards out of your deck).  The Champion flips up the top card of their deck and places it with the defensive number facing the opponents. 

The next player in turn order is the first Challenger, and he flips over cards from their deck, one at a time, resolving any actions on the cards as they are revealed.   Subsequent cards are stacked on top of each other, with the total attack value being calculated as well as the total number of critical hits.  The Challenger wins if the total attack value is greater than the total defense value OR if the number of critical hits is four more than the number of barriers on the Champion’s gang.  As soon as the Challenger wins, he stops flipping over cards, and the old Champion now discards all of their defensive bots into their personal discard pile.   The Challenger loses if he runs out of cards in his deck without beating the Champion – they surrender and are out of the rest of the round.   

The Champion then chooses a Faction of bots to form their defense gang.  Cards of a single faction from their attack are stacked and then turned to point their defensive numbers at the opponents.  The rest of the attacking bots are discarded.  The next player clockwise now becomes the next challenger.  This process continues until only one player is left with cards; that player is the winner of the Battle. They take the 2 crystals from the main board and place them in their Storage area.  Now, all players move their energized Crystals from their orange Reactors to their blue Cryo-Cells.  The current champion is rewarded by being able to then move all their crystals in the Cryo-Cells to their Storage area (where they can be energized again). 

The game can end immediately if a player ever has 6 crystals more than any other opponent. Otherwise, the game will end after the sixth rounds.  There are special rules for the final Showdown on the sixth round: 

• You can build 3 bots this round (instead of 2)
• You can upgrade your workshop as many times as possible
• You can energize as many crystals as you like (instead of 3).  You can also energize any crystals in your Cryo-cell

The battle phase happens like usual, and the player who holds the Champion token at the end of the final battle is the overall winner! Rumblebots releases this month and presents a fantastic board game that will appeal to young and old and be perfect for family game night or fun with friends.