This is the System Reference Document for use with the Creative Commons Attribution Unported license. The following attribution must be provided in your text, wherever you put your own copyright, in the same size as your copyright text:

This work is based on ZipWarz Core Rules and ZipWarz Create an Army books (found at https://AnSRGames.com), a product of A’n’SR -entertainments, LLC, developed, authored, and edited by Aaron Richardson, Stephanie Richardson, and Henry Richardson, and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). ZipWarz SRD, the Powered by ZipWarz logo, and the For use with ZipWarz logo © 2024 by A'n'SR -entertainments, LLC is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International.

Use the Powered by ZipWarz logo on the cover or interior credits of any stand-alone game you create that uses the info from this SRD. Use the For use with ZipWarz logo on the cover or interior credits of any expansion or setting book you create that uses info from this SRD. These logos let people know your game is based on or compatible with other ZipWarz games.

Welcome to ZipWarz, a 2-player, rules-lite war game where you use models of any kind to represent your army. In the game, each player brings customized armies to the battlefield in an attempt to vie for victory using tactical movements, devastating attacks, and special abilities. The player who gains the most Victory Points by the end of round 4 wins the game.

What You Need to Play

This book includes…

• All the rules you need to play the game.

• 2 different army rosters to use to play the game

In addition, you will need the following items from your personal collection.

• Something to represent models on the battlefield (painted miniatures, dice, tokens, meeples, etc.)

• Multiple 6-sided dice (about 5-10 per player)

• Tokens to mark Wounds on units

• Tokens to mark Prizes on the battlefield

• (optional) Tokens to mark when a unit has activated

• A way to keep track of Victory Points earned

• A table to play on that you can divide into 24 zones.

Other ZipWarz Products

If you like ZipWarz, check out some of the other ZipWarz products available to enhance your gaming experience. Additional rules lie in books like ZipWarz Create an Army and ZipWarz Terrain. Complete settings of lore as well as additional army rosters to play are in setting books like ZipWarz Known World and ZipWarz Known Space. All ZipWarz books are compatible with one another, so mix and match as desired.

A Tabletop Miniatures Game

This game is a tabletop miniatures game. If you have never played one, it is essentially a 2-player strategy game. In the game, both players bring a customized army made up of units to the battlefield. Those units are made up of models which are essentially a player’s playing pieces for the game. The battlefield where they play is like the board of a board game. The other components, such as dice and some tokens to show how your playing pieces (models) are doing, should be pretty common if you play board games.

What Can Be Models?

In the game, units are made up of one or more models. In ZipWarz you can use whatever you want as a model for your army. There are tons of great tabletop miniatures games and miniature game companies that make some amazing models. We highly recommend buying some of them, painting them (if you like), and making an army that looks awesome. If you have some laying around from another game, bring them out and play with those. 

If you don’t have (or don’t want to get into) building and painting small plastic figures, you can use a number of alternatives like chess pieces, paper models, different tokens or dice from other games. With ZipWarz, you can use anything you have at hand to be models for your units in the game.

How Do You Win The Game?

Each game of ZipWarz is a little different. As a part of setting up the game, players choose or agree on a scenario to play. The scenario tells players where they begin the game (their deployment zones) and how they gain Victory Points (VPs). Some scenarios let players gain VPs when they have models in certain places on the battlefield. Other scenarios let players gain VPs for taking out their opponent’s units in the game. Some do both. 

Either way, at the end of 4 or 5 rounds of the game, the player with the most Victory Points is the winner. How you win and how long the game takes depends on what scenario you play.

Before you play a game, do the following set-up activities.

① Choose a Game Size. There are 4 sizes of a game you can play. The game size chosen determines the maximum point cost that each player can spend when building their army.

• • • Skirmish (250 points, 45 minutes to play)

    • Small (500 points, 45 minutes to play)

    • Medium (1,000 points, 90 minutes to play)

    • Large (2,000 points, 120 minutes to play)

② Build Your Army. Each player plays an army in the game. An army is made up of units. Each unit is represented by 1 or more models on the game’s battlefield. Each unit profile includes a unit’s name, Level, faction symbol/name, abilities, and one or more point costs based on the number of models a unit has. To build an army:

1. 1. 1. Choose a faction to play, and gather an army roster or army cards for that army.

      2. Purchase units listed on on the army roster by paying the point cost for the number of models in that unit. Be sure that your total point costs equal or is less than the maximum points for the size of a game you are playing.

③ Set-up the Battlefield. Divide the game table into 24 numbered zones in a 4 x 6 pattern that appear in numbered order. You can use cards, a printed map, or any other tools to divide the table into its 24 zones.
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24

④ Select a Scenario. Each game uses a scenario to play that determines where Prize tokens are placed, where each player deploys their army, and how to gain Victory Points (VPs). Choose a scenario to play, and set-up the battlefield per the scenario rules. These rules include 1 scenario. Others are available in ZipWarz supplements.

Scenario: Start From the Corners

Use this scenario at the Skirmish or Small game size  to play you're first few games of ZipWarz.

Battlefield Set-up

Both players roll five six-sided dice. The player with the most 4s, 5s, and 6s is the Aggressor, the other player is the Defender. 

• • Place Prize tokens (☆) in zones 6, 11, 14, and 19.

  • The Aggressor (▲) places all their units in zones 1, 5, 17, and 21.

  • The Defender (⚫) places all their units in zones 4, 8, 20, and 24.

1▲ 2 3 4⚫
5▲ 6☆ 7 8⚫
9 10 11☆ 12
13 14☆ 15 16
17▲ 18 19☆ 20⚫
21▲ 22 23 24⚫

Winning the Scenario

At the end of each round, players gain VP for meeting the following criteria.

• • 2 VP: Gain 2 VP for each zone where you have more units in a zone with a Prize token than your opponent does.

  • 5 VP: Count the number of units taken out of action this round by both players. The player that took the most units out of action this round gains 5VP. If there is a tie, no one gains VP.

At the end of round 4, the player with the most VP wins the game. If there is a tie at the end of round 4, total the Levels of each model on the battlefield for each player. The player with the highest Level total wins. If there is still a tie, the Defender wins the game.

The game plays in rounds and ends per the game end rules of the chosen scenario. Each round plays out in the following order. 

① Initiative. Count the number of units each player has on the battlefield. The player with the fewest units is Player 1, and the other player is Player 2. If there is a tie, then the Aggressor in the scenario is Player 1. 

② Players Active Units. Starting with the Player 1, and alternating between players, each player chooses 1, 2, or 3 units and does 2 actions with each unit. After a player has activated their units, it is the next player’s turn to activate 1 ,2 or 3 units. Keep alternating until all units on the battlefield have been activated.

• • Both actions for a unit must be completed before another unit can be selected. 

  • You may use any of the abilities a unit has when they are activated. These abilities may give units more actions or change what they can do during an action.

  • (optional) Place an activated token next to each unit after they have performed all their actions.

  • If a player has no more units to activate, the other player may activate all their remaining units.

③Score VPs. Once all units have been activated, the round ends. Remove any activated tokens used during the round, then score Victory Points. Starting with Player 1 then moving to Player 2, both players record the Victory Points (VPs) they earned during the round per the scenario they are playing. 

At the end of the game (usually the 4th round), the player with the most VPs wins the game. 

When a player activates a unit, that unit may take 2 Actions (unless an ability grants states otherwise). A unit may take the same Action twice, or may take 2 different Actions in any order they wish. The basic Actions a unit can take are Move Actions and Attack Actions. Some scenarios may have other Actions that a unit may take as well.

Move Actions

One of the Actions that a unit can do is a Move Action. When a unit makes a Move Action, take all models in that unit and move them 0 or 1 zones. 

• Units can only move up, down, left or right. They cannot move diagonally.

• Some abilities allow a unit to move more than 1 zone. When a unit moves into a zone with an enemy unit, it must stop moving immediately, regardless of how far it can normally move.

• All models in the unit must move into the same zone. No splitting units up. 

Example of a Move Action

The unit in zone 2 has an ability that lets them move 4 zones instead of 1 during a Move Action. 

The player wants to move the unit to zone 10. Since there are enemy units in zones 6 and 9, the player cannot use those zones to get to zone 10. Since movement can only be done orthogonal (not diagonal), the unit cannot move straight o 5 or 7. 

The player takes the unit from zone 2 to zone 3, to 7, to 11, and finally to 10.

Attack Actions

One of the actions a unit may do is an Attack Action. Use these steps to make an Attack Action. 

① Target. Choose an opponent’s unit to attack in the same zone as the attacking unit. Some abilities let you target units in other zones. If an ability allows you to target units X zones away, measure zones in up, down, left, right directions only (like you do for movement). 

② Attack. Roll a number of dice equal to the models in the attacking unit x the Level of the unit. (So if 5 Level 3 models are attacking, you roll 15 dice.) 

③ Hit. Determine the number of successful hits rolled.

• • If the attacking unit’s Level is twice or more than the target’s Level, then each 4, 5, and 6 rolled is a hit.

  • If the target unit’s Level is twice or more than the attacking unit’s Level, then each 6 rolled is a hit.

  • If neither the attacking or target unit’s Levels are twice the other’s, then each 5 and 6 rolled is a hit. 

④ Wound. Add wound tokens to the target unit equal to the successful hits that were not defended against. 

Example of an Attack Action

Stephanie has a Level 3 unit with 10 models in it in zone 1. That unit has the following ability: “Once per round when this unit makes an Attack Action, this unit may choose a target to attack that is up to 2 zones away. This unit gains an additional 6 dice to roll. This unit adds 1 Level to their current Level when determining successful hits.” Stephanie wants her unit to make an Attack Action against one of Henry’s Level 2 units with 5 models in it in zone 6. 

Since her ability lets her target any unit up to 2 zones away, she draws a line from zone 1 to 2 to 6. Then, she rolls a number of dice equal to her Level times the models in her unit. Her unit’s Level is 3 and it has 10 models in it. 3 x 10 = 30 dice. In addition, her ability lets her add 6 dice to her Attack Action. Stephanie rolls 36 dice. 

Stephanie compares her unit’s Level with the target unit’s Level to see which numbers she rolled successfully hit. Normally, a Level 3 unit trying to hit a Level 2 unit would mean that each 5 or 6 rolled is a successful hit. Because Stephanie has an ability that lets her add 1 Level to her unit’s current Level when determining successful hits, her unit is hitting like a Level 4 unit. Because Level 4 is twice as much as Level 2, each 4, 5, and 6 Stephanie rolls is a successful hit. Stephanie gets a total of 15 successful hits. Henry adds 15 wound tokens to his unit.

Henry’s unit’s total Health is 10 (Level 2 times 5 models in the unit = 10 Health). Since the unit has wound tokens equal to or greater than its Health, the unit is removed from the battlefield. Stephanie obliterated her opponent's unit in 1 Attack Action.

Health

Each unit has a total Health equal to their Level times the number of models in the unit. So, a Level 3 unit with 10 models in it has 30 Health. If at any time, a unit ever has a number of wound tokens on it equal to or greater than its Health, remove that unit from the battlefield immediately.

That’s it. That’s all there is to the game. The only other rules to keep in mind is the golden rule of gaming: have fun. This is a game, above all else. Regardless if you win or lose, this is meant to be a thing that you do to pass the time with a friend or two. So enjoy it. And make sure your opponent enjoys it. Be cordial, kind, and generous as you play. Even though this is a game about war, we’re all still here for fun. So, get something to represent your army, roll some dice, and have fun. Welcome to ZipWarz.