Resources have been scarce this year. Wolf packs from far and wide have descended on the lush northern forest in search of food. The tensions are high as packs compete for food, territory and Alpha status. 

In The Alpha, the player with the most food at the end of 5 rounds of play is the winner! To set up the game each player is given a Den Board, an Alpha Pair, Six Beta Wolves and one Conflict token of the same color. the food tracker, is placed in the center of the table. 

Each player will then put one of their beta wolves on the grey stone, “5” space on the food tracker board. This will be used to keep track of the score throughout the game! Then each player places their alpha pair and remaining beta wolves onto their individual den board. 

Place the weeks left token on the yellow 5 “weeks left” circle  on the food tracker board. Then set out region tiles next to the food track based on this chart. We’re going to set up for a 3 player game simply because it fits nicely on camera. 

Each round consists of 5 different phases, Stalk, Establish Dominance, Chase, Resolve and Advance. The player who howls the loudest takes the Alpha Token and they take their first turn. They are considered The Alpha for the first round.

During the Stalk Phase players will place either one Beta Wolf or an Alpha Pair from their Den Board onto a Region Tile.  Players will take turns in clockwise order placing their wolves one at a time onto region tiles until no wolves are left to place. 

Scavenge tiles allow players to definitively score 1 food during the round.  The small animal tiles such as Beaver, Hare, Fish are placed below the food tracker. This is referred to as the Near Forest. Animals that live in the Near Forest offer less food, and no payment is required to hunt here.  The Far Forest is where the medium and large-sized animals live, such as Caribou, Deer, and Bison.These animals allow an opportunity for the greatest amount of food. 

Players must pay one food in order to place a wolf on a tile in the Far Forest since it is riskier to hunt here, but can result in a greater reward. The livestock tile provides the biggest risk of all.  Each round, only one player is allowed to place a single wolf here.  Depending on the outcome of their die roll, their pack will either secure a lot or a little bit of food, or worse yet, one of their wolves could die and be removed from the game. 

After all of the wolves have been placed in the regions, next Up is the Establish Dominance phase. The dominant pack is the pack with the most wolves in each region. Count up the number of wolves on each Region Tile. The Alpha Pair counts as two wolves while the beta wolf counts as one for the sake of determining Dominant packs. If two or more packs are tied for the most wolves, they are all considered Dominant for now. 

After this the Chase begins! In Each Region where there are wolves, the Dominant pack rolls the Die matching the color of that Region. Each Region has its own die associated with it and it matches the color of the prey. 

If there are multiple Dominant Packs, the player seated closest to The Alpha in a clockwise direction rolls the die. 

There are several potential die outcomes based on the dice rolls. If the player sees a die with a number on it, it means that the hunt was successful and the number shown is the number of food available to the Dominant packs.

 If a player rolls an X, it means that the prey got away, and no food will be gained in this Region. However, if there is more than one dominant pack in that region the second dominant pack has a chance to re-roll. If the result of the die ends up being an X anyway, or the player chooses not to reroll,the result remains an X then all the wolves in that region return to their Den Board with no food. 

If a player rolls a C with a number next to it,  this means that The Regions prey was wounded and will become Carrion in the next round. All packs with wolves on this space immediately have a conflict for the amount of food shown on the die, and will move on to the Resolve phase.

After the conflict, flip the region tile over to it’s Carrion side for the next round. In the next round only, this region will skip the Chase phase and instead will have a guaranteed amount of food available to eat for the Dominant pack. 

Then we move into the Resolve Phase. Regions are resolved in order from Smallest to Largest Region. If there are no wolves in the region, move to the next one. If the hunt was a success and there’s only one dominant pack, that player advances their wolf on the food tracker equal to the number shown on the region dice. 
If there are multiple Dominant packs in a region, those packs enter into Conflict. The packs will use their Conflict token to choose to fight for food or share it.. They reveal their tokens simultaneously once chosen, If all packs choose to share, the food is distributed one at a time starting with the Alpha, going clockwise. If only one pack chooses to Fight, that pack receives all of the available food. If two or more packs fight, then one wolf from each pack is wounded and placed into the injured wolf space on the game board. These packs receive no food for being selfish. 

If there are dominant  wolf packs who chose to share in the region with 2 or more packs choosing to fight, the share packs will receive food one at a time, starting with the Alpha going clockwise. If all dominant packs fight and there are any non dominant packs left in the region, they are now considered a scavenger pack and food will be distributed to them  one at a time starting with the player closest to the alpha player going clockwise.

Then the Wolves Advance. The time advances and all wolves remaining on the Region tiles go back to their respective Dens. All Wolves in the Healing Wolves space then return to their Dens, and all wolves in the injured Wolves Space move to the Healing Wolves Space. Then move the weeks Left Token one spaces down on the “Weeks Left” portion of the board. Pass the Alpha Token to the player with the most food and then start the next round. At the end of the 5 weeks, the player with the most food is the winner of the game!

And that's how you play The Alpha! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them Below! Be Bold, Play Games, Be You! Happy Gaming!