Official Nightfall Card & Rule FAQ
David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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I've created (and will be maintaining) this geeklist to help players better understand the various cards and rules of Nightfall. I will attempt to keep this list up to date with the answers provided in the forums. Feel free to comment with questions etc on the list as a whole or on individual cards and I will get back with you asap.
Download: English Rulebook v.1.01
I'll be keeping the more general points contained at the top of the first page of the list and individual cards in alphabetical order. The card images link to image galleries for easy viewing and the game titles link to the set that the cards are included in.
Thanks to Bobby Warren for pointing out the BGG XML API and Oliver Graf for inspiring me to improve my script, including a daily cache to take some of the load off of BGG. This FAQ is now viewable in 4 other views:
HTML without pictures
HTML with Geeklist sized pictures
HTML with full size pictures
Download as DOC without pictures
There is now also a format designed for use on portable devices such as cell phones etc that is being maintained by Oliver Graf: Portable Nightfall FAQ
Also note that each of these URL's can be used via Google Translate for a rough translation should English not be your preferred language.
Player Turn Phases FAQ's
Combat, Chain, Claim and Cleanup.
For determining a first player, I recommend either flipping over wounds until someone gets a Bleed, rolling a die or a friendly game of Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock.
Some Basic Terms
All cards are "cards". There are 2 types of cards: orders and wounds. There are 2 types of orders: actions (Blood Rage) and minions (Alton Hickman). Cards that are exiled are removed from the game. Discarding a card means to move it from your hand to your discard pile.
Effect Stacking
Effects that modify (gain, additional, etc such as Yuri Koroviev) or are an immediate action (like Death Grip) stack.
Effects that set a value do not stack (in the base game, only "Indigo Six", Leave Me! and Sir John Travail's kicker).
Feed
Cards with the Feed keyword are able to have their text repeated by paying a cost. The first resoluton of the card is both free and mandatory. Any further resolutions are optional. Example:
"Chain: Target order in the chain does not resolve its chain text. Feed: Discard 2 cards." - Bait and Switch
Here you will always have to target a single order and negate its chain text. You may then optionally discard 2 cards as many times as you like. For each time you discard 2 cards you also repeat the effect.
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Sets Phases A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Change Log
Some have requested a sort of Change Log for this geeklist. Instead of having all that info cluttering up the actual geeklist, I've opted to use the forums instead. Subscribe to the Official FAQ Subscription Thread to be alerted whenever something has changed about the FAQ. Feel free to discuss these changes in the Official FAQ Discussion Thread.
Latest Change Log Entry: 5/16/2012 Clarified the timing of combat text.
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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Nightfall Cards
Starting Minions: "Bad Smoke", Charlotte Reyes, Enraged Wight, "Genesis One", J.J. McTeague and Yuri Koroviev.
Draftable Orders: Alton Hickman, "Big Ghost", Blaine Cordell, Blood Rage, Dark Awakening, Death Grip, Flank Attack, Franz Orlok, Furious Melee, Ghoul Summoning, Grim Siege, "Indigo Six", Ivan Radinsky, Leave Me!, Lilith Lawrence, Marcus Toth, Mesmeric Presence, "Overwatch Two", Rend and Tear, Shock and Awe, Sir John Travail, Tag Team Takedown, Vulko and Zacharias Sands.
Wounds: NF Wound.
Promos: Lisaveta Florescu, "Shadow Seven" and Zombie Horde.
Chart of all cards Nightfall related
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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Martial Law Cards
Starting Minions: "Bad Smoke", Charlotte Reyes, Enraged Wight, "Genesis One", J.J. McTeague and Yuri Koroviev.
Draftable Orders: All-Out Lunge, Bait and Switch, Bleak Resurrection, "Brynna & Taylor", Chan Jiang, Forlorn Hope, Grotesque Revenant, Headshot, Hysteria, Irresistible Call, Jerome Carceri, Koi Jiang, "Legion Ten", "Lone Hound", "Mad Jake", Maya Westermann, Nian Jiang, "Queen's Bishop", Relentless Grinder, Roland LeFontaine, Shining Cross, Silver Stake, Sweep and Clear and Tactical Prep.
Wounds: ML Wound, NF Wound.
Promos: Ahmad Hassan, Desperate Measures and "Pale Fury".
Chart of all cards Martial Law related
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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Blood Country Cards
Draftable Orders: Burning Meat, Damon Montez, Exit Strategy, Flesh Frenzy, Gather the Pack, "Harley Doberman", Healing Hurts, Infected Ghoul, K.C. Bigelow, LeShawn Wallace, "Mac Ten", Maggie Hawke, Meat Puppet, Pipe Bomb, Propane Improv, "Rabid Rex", "Shadow Hound", Shotgun Party, Shut Up and Soldier, "Sierra Two", "Straight Eight", Vampiric Turning, Vehicular Assault, Wight Trash.
Promos: Destiny Collins, Flayed Ghoul and Silas Bragg.
This set is not standalone, so no starters or wounds are included.
Chart of all cards Blood Country related
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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The Coldest War Cards
Starting Minions: "Clever Ivan", JAREK, "Kilo 13", Patrol Zombie, "Snowstorm" and "Victor One".
Draftable Orders: All Fears Revealed, "Asset Seven", "Banner 89", Blowtorch Triage, "Bone Cruncher", Dog Eat Dog, Doktor Nyilaszy, Emil Balev, Foul Revenant, Fresh Meat, Full Battle Rattle, Gathering Strength, Gregor Dzanic, Inhuman Wave, "Kaos 33", Kaspar Udunian, Katya Iliyevna, Power and Glory, R & D, Routine Questioning, "Smiling Biter", Sophia Otrava, Still Standing and Unholy Resurrection.
Moon Phases: Blue Moon, Butcher's Moon, Dark of the Moon, Harvest Moon, Hunter's Moon and Wolf Moon.
Wounds: ML Wound, NF Wound and CW Wound, all featuring new wound art.
Chart of cards Coldest War related
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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Combat Phase FAQ
Each minion you currently control must attack an opponent, even if that means that a minion may be attacking its original owner.
You may only select defending minions from those you currently control.
If you are attacked, you may opt to not block with your minions, however, if you have a "Bad Smoke" or Vulko in play, you must use their ability to block damage when possible.
Defending minions do not damage attackers and so attacking minions cannot be destroyed from combat.
When attacking and defending with multiple minions, the attacker chooses the order in which each of his minions attack when they are first assigned to attack a player. The defending player then assigns blockers and the order in which they block each individual attacker. The timing of attack/defense can matter with cards such as Ahmad Hassan in play.
Text prefixed with "Combat" or "Your Combat" can be activated by discarding the card. Some cards specify that they must be discarded during the beginning of the phase. Should multiple players wish to activate Combat text at the same time, players take turns resolving 1 effect starting with the active player and moving around the table clockwise (passing once does not prevent you from playing later).
Combat text must be activated between steps of the phase:
- Before declaring attackers
- After declaring attackers, but before declaring defenders
- After declaring defenders, but before applying combat damage
- After applying combat damage
You cannot complete part of a step (apply half of the combat damage), stop to use combat text (restore health) and then finish the step (allowing a low health minion to live).
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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Chain Phase FAQ
If the active player does not begin a chain, no one may play any orders.
Players link to the most recently played order, regardless as to who it may belong to and kickers are activated so long as the previous order is the indicated color, regardless as to who owns the previous order.
You may link orders with "Your Chain" effects, but you will only resolve them if they are played on your turn. "Your Chain" effects that are played on another player's turn do not benefit the active player (they aren't resolved at all).
All targets are chosen as the card resolves, not when the cards are first added to the chain. Note that cards such as Flank Attack cannot target themselves.
With effects that damage minions (such as Furious Melee, J.J. McTeague and Shock and Awe), any excess damage is lost, it does not carry over to the player.
Effects that damage a player such as Death Grip cannot be blocked by minions unless they have specific text to do so such as "Bad Smoke" and Vulko.
Cards that receive their kickers should generally be resolved in a top-down manner with the main effect taking place first. There are however, some cards such as Death Grip which modify or otherwise change the card's chain text. Therefore it is important to read the entire card before resolving any of it to ensure that the overall card text is followed.
Resolved actions are placed in their owner's discard piles. Resolved minions are placed into play in front of their owner.
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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Claim Phase FAQ
The active player may discard as many cards (including wounds) from their hand as they like to gain 1 influence per card discarded.
The active player may claim as many orders as they like, so long as they have enough influence to claim them all. You may also claim multiple copies of the same order in a single turn if you like.
You do not have to spend all of the influence generated. Any unspent influence is lost.
Players may not count the number of remaining orders in an archive.
Any card effect using the "claim" keyword also carries the rules that you may only purchase from your own private archives as well as those in the commons, regardless as to any cost or timing adjustments that the effect may make. Such effects do combo with others that would allow for purchasing from opposing archives as expected.
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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Cleanup Phase FAQ
If you have less then 5 cards in your hand, you must draw cards until you have 5 cards if possible. If your entire deck contains less then 5 cards, draw what you can, shuffle your discard pile into a new deck and finish drawing. Do not shuffle your discard pile unless you need to draw and can not.
After you've drawn your cards, you may activate 1 wound effect.
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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Ahmad Hassan
In Play: When a friendly minion is destroyed, inflict 1 damage on target player.
Kicker: All of your cards in the chain resolve their kickers.
The kicker causes your remaining cards in the chain to receive their kickers as they resolve even if they were not linked to their kicker color. Do not resolve the kickers immediately, resolve them as their cards resolve. Receiving the kicker on 2 Ahmad Hassan's does not cause your other kickers to resolve twice. The kicker does not let you go back and resolve kickers from cards that have already resolved prior to Ahmad Hassan.
Effect Stacking: In Play text does not stack ( sets a value ).
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
-
All Fears Revealed
Chain: Each opponent, in clockwise order, inflicts 2 damage on a minion of his choice. Players may not target your minions with this effect.
Kicker: Place orders you claim on top of your deck.
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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All-Out Lunge
Chain: Inflict 1 damage on target player. Feed: Discard 2 cards.
Kicker: Target order in the chain will resolve its kicker.
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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Alton Hickman
In Play: This card cannot be blocked.
Kicker: Place target card from your discard pile on top of your deck.
Cards such as "Bad Smoke" and Vulko cannot be assigned to block Alton during combat, however, they can (and must) still block the damage that would be assigned to the player from Alton Hickman's attack.
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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"Asset Seven"
Chain: Inflict 2 damage on target minion. If it was destroyed, inflict 2 damage on target minion.
Kicker: Draw 1 card each time you place a minion into play.
The kicker includes in this card.
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
-
"Bad Smoke"
In Play: This card blocks damage inflicted on you.
In Play: This card stays in play until destroyed. Exile when destroyed.
"Bad Smoke" must be used to block damage that would be dealt to the player. "Bad Smoke" must be used to block the damage that Alton Hickman would inflict on a player via combat. "Bad Smoke" cannot block effects that cause a player to receive wounds such as Death Grip's kicker.
Damage must only be blocked once, so if you have multiple "Bad Smoke"'s in play only one of them need block (assuming it has enough remaining health to block it all).
Using multiple "Bad Smoke"'s to block damage works the same as in combat: you must use a single "Bad Smoke" until all of the damage has been blocked or "Bad Smoke" has been destroyed, at which time another "Bad Smoke" could continue on with the blocking.
"Bad Smoke" can be returned to the top of a player's deck via Ivan Radinsky.
"Bad Smoke" does attack each turn even though he normally inflicts 0 damage. Mixing cards from Martial Law such as the ML Wound or Koi Jiang does allow "Bad Smoke" to inflict damage.
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
-
Bait and Switch
Chain: Target order in the chain does not resolve its chain text. Feed: Discard 2 cards.
Kicker: Shuffle 1 card from each private archive into a new common archive.
The first resolution of the chain text is both free and mandatory. The effect may optionally be repeated as many times as the player wishes by discarding 2 cards each time. Cards effected by this text remain in the chain, can still resolve their kickers and if a minion they still come into play.
When shuffling the new archive, shuffle the cards face down to prevent stacking the archive. Cards in the archive must be claimed in order, the players may not look through nor rearrange the archive.
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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"Banner 89"
Combat: Place this card from your hand into play with 1 health.
Chain: Draw 1 card.
Kicker: Target player discards 1 card.
Yes, you can place this guy into play any time during the combat phase, but keep in mind: a minion placed after declaring attackers will not attack and a minion placed after declaring defenders cannot defend.
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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"Big Ghost"
Kicker: Inflict 1 damage on each player.
"Big Ghost"'s kicker does damage to literally every player, including the player who played it. This damage can be blocked by "Bad Smoke" or Vulko.
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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Blaine Cordell
Chain: Exile target wound from your discard pile. Place this card into play with 2 health.
Kicker: Place this card into play with 4 health.
When Blaine Cordell is resolved as part of a chain, choose a wound from your discard pile and remove it from the game. If you do not have any wounds in your discard pile, you still resolve the remainder of the card normally.
Due to Blaine Cordell's chain text, he will normally come into play with only 2 health. To put him into play with 4 health you need to activate his kicker or use a card effect to bring him into play such as Dark Awakening.
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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Bleak Resurrection
Chain: Place target minion from your discard pile into play. Feed: Discard 1 card.
Kicker: Exile all minions destroyed by the previous order in the chain.
You must choose a minion and put it into play if possible, otherwise nothing happens. You may repeat this effect as many times as you like by discarding 1 card. You may discard a minion to pay the Feed cost and immediately target that minion with the chain text.
The previous order in the chain would be the red or blue order linked to Bleak Resurrection. Be careful to not exile your own minions!
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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Blood Rage
Chain: Inflict 1 damage on each opponent.
Kicker: Inflict 2 damage on target minion.
Blood Rage's chain text only damages players that are not friendly to you. In a normal game this will be every player aside from yourself. If you are playing a team game variant, this will not damage your teammates. This damage can be blocked by "Bad Smoke" and Vulko.
Blood Rage's kicker must target a minion if there is a minion in play, even if that means targeting one of your own minions. Any excess damage is lost, it does not carry over to the player.
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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Blowtorch Triage
Chain: Place 1 target wound from your discard pile on top of the wound stack. Exile this card.
Kicker: Target player's orders in the chain do not receive their kickers.
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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Blue Moon
Global Chain: All actions receive their kickers.
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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"Bone Cruncher"
Combat: Discard to make target minion and its damage unblockable.
Kicker: Inflict 2 damage on each player that has a ghoul in play.
"Bone Cruncher" must be in your hand in order to activate the combat text.
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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"Brynna & Taylor"
In Play: Draw 1 card at the end of your Cleanup Phase. This card stays in play until destroyed.
Kicker: Place target minion into its owner's hand.
During your Cleanup Phase, first draw until you have 5 cards. If you wish to resolve a wound effect, do so. Then draw the additional card. Do not discard this card after combat. This card can be affected by effects such as Ivan Radinsky.
The "this card" bit in the In Play text is referring to "Brynna & Taylor", not the card that was just drawn.
Minions targeted by the kicker return to the player who owns the card, not necessarily the player who currently has control over the card.
Effect Stacking: The In Play text does not stack (sets a value).
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David Gregg
United States
Asheboro
North Carolina
NightfallGame.com/FAQ
BoardGameGeek.com/Blog/193
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Burning Meat
Chain: Draw 2 cards. You may discard a burn wound to destroy target ghoul.
Kicker: Draw 1 card for each of your minions in the chain.
You may use a burn wound that was just drawn.
The kicker references minions still in the chain, not ones that have already resolved.
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NightfallGame.com/FAQ
