Description

The game is a contest of arms between two warriors from numerous historical periods. Each game lasts a maximum of five rounds. The game is unusual for a card game in that it does not use shuffling as a randomization technique. Anachronism “decks” consist of five cards, and players do not draw cards or have a “hand” of cards. Despite the relatively small number of cards used in each game, card interactions and strategy can become surprisingly intricate, especially in the later rounds. Each player places their chosen warrior card on the playmat and their four support cards, face down, in slots corresponding to the first four rounds. The support cards may be any combination of inspiration, weapon, armor, or special cards. Each player flips their leftmost face-down support card at the beginning of each round. Initiative numbers on the support cards determine which player goes first in each round. The warrior cards may move and be turned (faced) as in a miniatures game. Support cards represent a variety of historical weapons, armor, items, deities, people, places or concepts such as the Norse sverd or Japanese book Go Rin No Sho . The game’s name is derived from the ability to mix the various support cards such that the ancient Greek Leonidas wearing a kimono may fight a Japanese ninja who is wielding a gladius. Dice are used by both the attacker and defender to determine the outcome of battles.

Each warrior card has four stats: life, speed, experience, and damage:

  • Life indicates the warrior’s starting life total. Current cards have values ranging from 5 to 10.
  • Speed shows how many actions the warrior can take each round. This is usually 3, but a few warriors have slightly more or less than this.
  • Experience has subtle but far-reaching effects as an all purpose tie-breaking stat. It is the most variable of the statistics with current extremes ranging from 1 to 10.
  • Damage shows how much damage the warrior deals with a basic attack. This is almost always 1. However, Aztec warriors usually have a base damage value of 0.

Every warrior and weapon card has an attack grid showing what bonus or penalty is applied to attacks rolls to each possible space. Blank spaces on an attack grid indicate that the warrior or weapon can not attack that square. Attack grids are relative to the orientation of your warrior, so skillful management of attack grids becomes very important to successful gameplay.

Elements

Every Inspiration and Warrior has an element reflecting the nature of the card. Elements also identify card interaction. A popular example is Maui-Tiki-Tiki, who gains +1 to all attack rolls against fire warriors. Clearly, he is a water warrior.

  • Fire “melts” Metal
  • Metal “cuts” Wood
  • Wood “penetrates” Earth
  • Earth “absorbs” Water
  • Water “puts out” Fire
  • Fire cards, like Mercury, represent speed.
  • Metal cards, like Horemheb the Restorer or Rokumonsenmon, represent strength.
  • Wood cards, like Leonidas, represent longevity.
  • Earth cards, like Zeus, represent experience.
  • Water cards, like the Oracle of Delphi, represent intelligence.
  • Wind cards, like Ninja, represent cunning.
  • Aether cards, like Seti I, represent religious or spiritual cards.

Multiplayer

Anachronism’s standard rules are for two players, but official support and rules have been given for multiplayer battles. Multiplayer Anachronism is usually played with four players, either in teams or as a free-for-all. The standard four by four battlemat is used and additional starting rows are squeezed into the normally unused border rows. This means that each corner has an overlap of two starting rows, making it possible for two warriors to start adjacent to each other. Free-for-all style multiplayer can also be played with only three participants.

This does not limit the number of participants to just four. Many players have created thier own large mats, ranging from 5X5 to a giant 8 x12 mat. With this, it is possible to have six to even eight competitors playing.

Culture Shock

Culture Shock is an alternative method of play that restricts players to only use cards within their warrior’s culture. For example, the Japanese Warrior, Ninja could never use the French weapon, Rapiere. As a result, players can still choose to play any one card, but the combinations are limited. Hence, Culture Shock is generally perceived as the best method of play to enable newer players or players with fewer cards to be able to compete against more experienced players with a larger selection of cards.