Section 10 of 13 · free · no account
Reading the board
Both players have units on the table. Count what is there, work out what happens next turn, and decide from the board rather than from instinct.
What this section covers
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1
Count before you commit
Might is added up across every unit at a battlefield, not compared one to one.
The 2 Might Stalwart Poro. Three damage kills either, so kill the bigger one, and the Poro has Shield on top of that. Killing the 1 Might unit and leaving a 2 Might Shield unit alive is spending the same damage on the smaller problem.
Their unit dies. Theirs deals 3 back, and you choose how it lands across your two units, which is the next lesson. Two small units together beat one bigger one, and that is the whole reason a wide board is worth having.
3 hands-on tests · Core Rules 171, 172 -
2
Their open runes
Ready runes on their side are a threat you can see. Count them before you commit.
Five ready runes look frightening until you notice the empty hand. Runes pay for cards, and they have none. With no possible Reaction, overcommitting costs you nothing and takes the battlefield outright.
Runes exhaust when they are used, so a row of upright runes on their side is a row of things they can still do. Count them before every commitment, and remember the count resets in their Awaken Phase.
4 hands-on tests · Core Rules 806, 164 -
3
What they do next turn
Play against the board they will have, not the one they have now.
Onto the battlefield you already hold. It takes your total there to 2, which is still under their 3, but combined with the Poro you can move in next turn it is a real defence. Playing to base leaves the holder alone against a unit you know is coming.
They have nothing that can contest either battlefield next turn, so there is no board to play around and no reason to hold anything back. Conquer and win. Playing cautiously against a board that cannot punish you is just losing slowly.
3 hands-on tests · Core Rules 143.4, 144.2 -
4
Which battlefield matters
Two battlefields, and usually only one of them decides the game.
Reinforcing the battlefield you are about to score from. It was probably safe anyway, but their unit readies before your end step never happens, and turning a likely point into a certain point is exactly what you do on 7. The empty battlefield would also have scored, but it leaves the Hold to chance.
Contest the one they hold. Holding scores at the start of their next turn, in their Beginning Phase, so leaving it alone loses the game no matter what you were doing on the other side of the board. Your 3 kills their 2 as well, so it is not even a sacrifice.
3 hands-on tests · Core Rules 172, 173
How this section is taught
Reading the board is 4 lessons and 13 tests, played on a board with real cards. Every idea above is shown with the card that does it and then handed to you to perform. Get it wrong and the trainer names the rule you missed at the moment you miss it.
Core Rules cited in this section
143.4 144.2 164 171 172 173 806
Every clause number above is checked against the official Riftbound Core Rules and printed on screen inside the lesson, so you can read the rule the trainer is teaching from.