HOW TO
PLAY.

PLAYTEST 2.1 · RULES

Components and card types

Each fixed starter has 1 Head, 1 Core, 2 Decoys, 12 Operatives, 1 Trap, 1 Bomb, and 7 Tactics (25 cards). The Heads are Marian Vale (A2-009) and Commander Rook (A2-027). Free City's Core is The Charter (A2-048); Continuity's is For When There Is No Master (A2-041). Every card and its role appear in CARD_ROLES.csv.

For a paper prototype, put all 50 cards in identical opaque sleeves. Face-down Vaults and Guards must not be identifiable from their backs or through the paper. Print the card pages at actual size and cut along the black borders.

• Vault card: Core or Decoy. It begins facedown under one of your three systems and never moves or enters a hand.
• Guard card: Operative, Trap, or Bomb. It begins or is deployed in one of your three Guard slots, usually facedown. You can have only one Guard per system. A revealed Guard remains face up.
• Operative: Has Access 0 to 4. Higher Access defeats lower Access. Access 0 is an Engineer; Access 1 is a Scout. Neither title is a military rank.
• Tactic: Played from hand for its stated effect and then discarded. Its ability requires a citation.
• Head: Starts face up in your Chamber, grants its printed ability, and cannot be filed, moved or attacked.
• Proof: An ordinary card you permanently file into the shared Archive. The printed file sector and seal (Witness, System, or Law) identify its proof. Its former Guard or Tactic ability does not occur when filed. Core, Decoy, and Head cards cannot be filed.

PLAYTEST 2.1 · RULES

Table layout

Arrange Grain - Ways - Power in a row. Each system has one Guard slot and one Vault slot for each player. Vaults are behind Guards. Keep the shared Archive beside the three systems, with proof cards grouped by printed file sector and marked by the player who filed them. Place a Breach marker next to an enemy Vault when one of your Operatives penetrates its Guard.

For movement, Grain connects to Ways, and Ways connects to Power. Regular Operatives move only to an adjacent empty friendly Guard slot. Scouts and Engineers may move directly between any two empty friendly Guard slots. All movement uses one action; reveal a facedown Operative before moving so its move is verifiable. A revealed card stays face up. Traps, Bombs, and Vaults cannot move.

PLAYTEST 2.1 · RULES

Setup

1. Put your Head face up in your Chamber. Take your Core and two Decoys, secretly assign one to each of your three Vaults, and set them facedown. The opponent knows your three possible Vault identities but not their locations.
2. Shuffle your other 21 cards. Draw eight. Choose three Guard cards from those eight and place one facedown in each of your Guard slots. Keep the other five as your opening hand. If your eight contain fewer than three eligible Guard cards, reshuffle and redraw eight. Your remaining 13 cards form your deck.
3. Randomly choose the first player; the other player goes second. Keep that order in every round so turns alternate without interruption. Swap who starts in the next game. Put Breach markers and a record of the round number beside the board. The Vault positions are fixed throughout the game.

PLAYTEST 2.1 · RULES

Round and action

A round consists of one turn for each player. At the start of a round, turn all exhausted public proofs upright. Each player draws one card at the start of their own turn, if their deck has one. On your turn take one of the following actions:

1. File: Put one non-Vault, non-Head card from your hand into the shared Archive under its printed file sector. Mark yourself as its owner. It stays face up for the rest of the game. Its Guard or Tactic ability does not trigger. Marian may inspect the opposing Guard in that sector once this round after filing.
2. Deploy: Put one Operative, Trap, or Bomb from hand facedown in one of your empty Guard slots. You may instead retire your own existing Guard there face up to its discard pile before deploying. Deployment does not remove an enemy Breach marker: an Operative that has penetrated the Guard remains inside until its Breach expires, is used, or is explicitly removed. A Scout may voluntarily reveal itself as it is deployed to privately inspect the opposing Guard in that system.
3. Move: Reveal one of your facedown Operatives and move it between your own Guard slots according to the route rule above. The destination must be empty. Moving or retiring the Operative that holds a Breach removes that Breach.
4. Recon: Cite one ready public proof under a chosen system: turn it sideways, then privately look at the opposing Guard in that system. You may cite either player's proof. Recon never exposes a Vault.
5. Clash: Reveal your Operative in a Guard slot and attack the opposing Guard in the same system. A Trap or Bomb cannot attack. If Rook is your Head, you may first cite one ready proof you filed in that system to gain +1 Access for this clash; decide before revealing the opposing Guard. Resolve the encounter below.
6. Probe: If you have an Operative in your Guard, your Breach marker in that system, and two different public proof seals filed under that system, turn over the opposing Vault there. A Core wins the game immediately. Discard a Decoy face up, remove your Breach, and continue playing. An exhausted proof still counts toward the two seals.
7. Tactic: Play a Tactic from your hand. Cite one ready public proof in the Tactic's printed file sector with a different seal from the Tactic's own seal. Turn the cited proof sideways, apply the Tactic's text, then discard the Tactic. You cannot play it without legal proof; you can file it on another turn instead.

If you cannot or do not wish to act, pass. If a Tactic requests a draw and your deck is empty, skip that draw. The hand limit is seven after an action resolves; discard excess cards of your choice.

PLAYTEST 2.1 · RULES

Resolving a clash

• Against an empty Guard, your revealed Operative survives and gains a Breach in that system.
• Against an Operative, reveal the defender. The higher Access survives in its original Guard; discard the lower. Equal Access discards both. If the attacker survives, it gains a Breach. If not, remove any Breach it already held. A defender that survives stays revealed.
• Against a Trap, reveal it. An attacking Engineer (Access 0) removes the Trap, survives, and gains a Breach. Any other attacker and the Trap are both discarded, with no Breach.
• Against a Bomb, reveal it. Bomb and attacker are both discarded, including when the attacker is an Engineer. No Breach is gained.

Each Operative can hold only one Breach marker. A Breach lasts until the end of its owner's next turn unless it is used for a Probe or removed earlier. A rival may clear it with an effect that explicitly removes a Breach, or by defeating the breached Operative in a Clash. Deploying a replacement Guard alone does not clear the Breach; the attacker may still Probe through that Guard if the system is verified. A newly deployed Guard is not secretly attacked as part of that deployment; a fresh Clash requires another action.

PLAYTEST 2.1 · RULES

Victory and Heads

Win by probing the real opposing Core in a verified system. A Decoy is useful information but does not itself win. If neither Core is found after 20 complete rounds, the game is a draw for this test format; record which Vaults were inspected for balance review. The Core is never destroyed in a clash against a Guard.

• Marian Vale / Free City: Once per round, after you File, privately inspect one opposing Guard in that card's printed file sector.
• Commander Rook / Continuity: Once per round, before one of your Clashes, cite a ready proof you filed in the target system to give your attacker +1 Access for that clash. The cited proof turns sideways.

PLAYTEST 2.1 · RULES

Worked sequence

Free City files A2-012 Manual Control (System / Ways). Continuity files A2-013 The Compact (Law / Ways). The public Archive now verifies Ways, though neither player owns the evidence exclusively. Free City's A2-047 The Vote of the Ways (Access 3) Clashes with Continuity's A2-011 Central Authority Not Available (Access 2) in Ways. Both Guards are revealed; Free City's Operative survives and gains a Ways Breach. On Continuity's next turn it may play a legal Tactic that removes the Breach; simply Deploying a new Guard cannot undo it. If the Breach remains, Free City may Probe the opposing Ways Vault on its next turn, even if Continuity has deployed a replacement Guard. A Decoy narrows the search; the Core ends the duel.

PLAYTEST 2.1 · RULES

Constructed TCG extension

The first games use the two fixed 25-card starters. Later card pools may support decks with the same role counts: 1 Head, 1 Core, 2 Decoys, 12 Operatives, 1 Trap, 1 Bomb, and 7 Tactics. Require at least two different file seals for each system in a legal deck, and no more than two copies of an ID except exactly one Head and one Core. The starter's 50 different IDs remain fully playable without boosters. Expansion cards can add different ranks, routes, proof effects, and faction strategies while preserving the concealed-Core objective.

PLAYTEST 2.1 · RULES

Playtest questions

Record the winner, total rounds, real Core location, Decoys found, citations, Guard clashes, traps cleared, and how often a player could not act. The first tests must establish whether 20 rounds is too long, whether the limited Breach-removal effects are enough for defense, whether rank 4 dominates, and whether publishing to verify a Vault gives the opponent too much benefit. None of these balance questions is settled by the role counts alone.

Source basis: The Archive 002 record titles and chapter sequence come from Archive 002 records. The reference for Chinese military chess mechanics is Yellow Mountain Imports’ guide to Luzhanqi. This is an original Archive 002 design draft, not an assertion that its rules are identical to Junqi.