The world of Themyscira is full of wonder but perhaps the most prominent wonder of them all are the Amazon women themselves. In Wonder Woman: the Challenge of the Amazons, players will be tasked with defeating Ares, Circe or The Cheetah in an effort to protect their home from invaders that threaten their paradise by corrupting the hearts of your fellow Amazons. 

The same set up should have the board in the middle of all players and each player takes their player board along with their miniature which will be placed in the center of the board, this is the Palace and the starting location for each of the players. A Tracker token will be placed on each of the tracks on the left and right sides of the board. The amazon defense track tells the players how close they are to being defeated and the Enemy Health track will show the players how close they are to defeating their foes. 

Each character will also have a unique ability that will give them unique advantages that they will need to leverage in order to work together and win the game, defeating in this case, the evil Ares. Throughout the game players will be striking down Ares Servants of War, winning back over the hearts of their corrupted Amazon Peers, tearing down the Blockades Ares throws in their pathways and then, assembling teams of warriors to assist them in combat. They’ll need to be careful though. Every Corrupted Amazon and every Servant of War remaining on the map at the end of a round will lower the Amazon’s defenses. If this ever drops to 0, their society as fallen at the hands of Ares.

At the start of each round the enemy will advance on Themyscira. This starts by flipping over the top card of the Ares deck and ignoring all text on the card except for the region shown on the bottom. Move Ares directly to that region immediately and then add 2 servants of war to the region he’s currently in. 

In future rounds if there are any warriors in the region Ares was moved to, he then corrupts them instead of deploying servants. But now, now things get real. Depending on the number of players, a number of cards will be drawn from the top of the deck. In this example, we’ll say that we’re playing a 3 player game using Artemis, Diana and Phillipus. This means we would then draw and resolve two cards for Ares to descend on Themyscira. The first one would deploy 3 Servants of War to the Square. The second card would then Deploy 2 corrupted Amazons to the Training ground AND THEN replace all other w arriors there with corrupted Amazons. Thankfully, there weren’t any there so this has no effect on the region as it stands. Cards like these are why it’s important to defeat as many Servants of War as possible. So how do you do that? 

Each turn players are going to take 3 total actions using a combination of icons available to them based on the cards they are given and then place either face up, or face down, on their player mat. Each enemy has an information card on the table between each pair of players which tell them how to defeat each obstacle they’re faced with. When it comes to Ares, they’ll need 3 Wisdom to remove a corrupted amazon, 2 vigor to remove a servant of war and 3 Agility to remove any blockade they’re faced with. They’ll also be able to deal damage to Ares by having four of any one symbol. Now as you’ll see on the cards that very few of them have 4 of any one icon. The Amazons will need to rely on their Relics as well as their fellow Amazons to assist in their efforts. Some of these cards will allow the player to double their own hero cards, others will allow the players to double another players hero cards. 

The second step of the game is when players strategize together. During this time they may discuss how to defend the island and they can show each other the cards they were dealt face up but they may not show or discuss the cards they have in their hand, which is secret from the other player. By default during this phase, each player is dealt 2 cards face up and 3 cards to their hand, they won’t look at these cards until phase 3, when Battle Begins. Some Heroes special abilities will give them more cards either face up or face down.  They must decide during this phase if they wish to use their hero power because once battle begins, they cannot use it if they haven’t already stated they planned to.

Once the players have decided they’ve properly strategized the Battle will begin, they must halt all communication and decide which 3 cards to place onto their player mat using a mixture of their face up cards as well as the cards from their “hand” the cards that were dealt face down to them during the Strategize Together phase. They place their face up cards face up on the mat and the cards from their hand, face down onto the mat. Once all players have locked in their three actions, they may communicate with each other again and they begin taking their actions. 

Each Hero card is revealed but each player must choose which action from each card they’re going to take. They may only use one act on using one of the emblems. Some cards have an ability written above the emblems and those can be used in addition the emblems but it’s also important to note that each card may only be doubled in value once even when Relics are the ones doing the doubling. 

Around the board there are locations which you’ll see a star icon available on them. If the player is on one of those spaces and they use the leadership emblem to take the leadership action, they’ll be able to add Amazons to assist them into that space. These white cube warriors can be used to increase an emblem by one when taking a special action. 

Players will need to communicate effectively and work together which brings us to the most important part: teaming up. Heroes can team up on special actions if they are in the same region. When performing the same special action using the same emblem, all players may add their emblems together. If Daiana and Phillipus are in the same region as ares and they each have 2 swords on their hero cards, they may deal damage to ares by combining their swords together to reach the 4 they need to decrease his health by one. Cooperation is key in defeating Ares. While players may get him down to 1 health, the final blow to any enemy must be enacted by the Sword of Hephaestus which is powered up by collecting 4 Blessing tokens each of which is available in a different or monument on the board. Once all of these have been gathered and the player with the sword is in the same region as Ares with at least 4 of the same emblem, they may deal the final blow and defeat Ares once and for all. Just keep an eye out for the other villains on the horizon.

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