FLASHNICS

How to Play

Two players hire mercenaries and fight for four Arenas. Every round is a bidding war of one-upmanship: each side answers the other until someone can't — or won't — top it.

The cards

Every mercenary carries four attribute numbers, one per Arena, in fixed non-overlapping bands:

Only the active Arena's number counts — that's the card's Arena Value. A card that rules Discipline may be worthless in Agility.

Each mercenary also has a Nic — its Naturally Inherent Characteristic, which works like a suit:

A round, start to finish

1. The Lead Player opens with a Combo: one mercenary, optionally plus one Action or Modifier card.
2. The Follower answers with a Combo. Their mercenary cannot share the Lead's Nic. This is the only time you're allowed to play a losing Combo.
3. Highest Arena Value leads. On a tie, the dominant Nic wins.
4. Play alternates. On your turn you must play a Combo that beats the current winner — never matching its Nic — or Submit.
5. If it's your turn and you're already winning, you take the round.
6. Beaten mercenaries are discarded immediately, along with any Modifier attached to them. Action cards stay live for the whole round.

Winning a round

Your winning mercenary either Defends the Arena you won it in — one mercenary per Arena per game — or Runs Protection beside your Arena card. Either way you score its PV. Defending is the ambitious line: hold all four Arenas and every defender scores double.

Then the Arena rotates Discipline → Brains → Strength → Agility → back around, the round winner becomes the new Lead, and both players draw back up to six. First to 40 points wins.

Modifier cards (M1–M3)

Each Power card governs one matchup. Paired with the natural winner of that pair it's a straight bonus; paired with the natural loser it's a smaller bonus plus an outright reversal of that matchup. Pairing it with the third Nic isn't a legal play.

A Modifier is only alive for the mercenary it was played with, in the Arena it was played in. Change the Arena and it dies on the spot — which is exactly what Reset is for.

Action cards (A1–A4)

When you can't play

Mid-round, Submit is always yours to take — you may concede even holding a legal play, which is sometimes right if winning would cost more than the round is worth.

The opening exchange is different: the Lead must lead, and the Follower must answer if they possibly can. Only if you can't open — no mercenary in hand, or the Nic restriction locks out your whole hand — do you submit, and it costs you: publicly discard one to three cards. You choose which cards and how many, and the discard is public, so your opponent sees exactly what went. Your hand refills to six at the end of the round, so shedding three dead cards is a genuine decision, not just a punishment.

Notes on this version

This is the game exactly as it shipped: 45 mercenaries, three Power cards, four Action cards. Custom card creation and the exclusive-mercenary modifiers that went with it are documented but deliberately not implemented here.

Two small calls the printed rules leave open, resolved so the engine can be consistent: the Nic restriction applies to Switch just as it does to any other answer, and when Force makes you replay, the strongest legal mercenary in your hand is chosen for you.

Play a game

A worked round

This is the sample round from the printed rulebook, played in the Discipline Arena — so every Arena Value below is the card's blue number. It shows why the strongest card doesn't simply win.

STEP 1 — THE LEAD

Pervis Jumpsuit opens at 83

A deliberately feeble lead. It isn't about the 83 — it's Water, and that locks the Follower out of answering with any Water card at all. Leading weak also means that if it somehow survives, it scores a fat +3.

STEP 2 — THE ANSWER

Grey Dawn takes the lead at 95

Fire, so the Nic restriction is satisfied, and 95 comfortably clears 83. Pervis Jumpsuit is discarded. Grey Dawn is now leading — and if the Lead can't answer, it wins the round and banks its +3.

M1

Power

Water / Fire

Played with Water: +5 Arena Value. Only alive in the Arena it was played in.

STEP 3 — THE POWER PLAY

Brutus answers with a Power card: 94 becomes 99

Water beats Fire, and Brutus is spending an M-card for +5 to clear Grey Dawn's 95. That's a strong position — but the Modifier is only alive in this Arena, and that's the crack the Follower is about to lever open.

A4

Reset

Name a different Arena — it decides this round, and the next round follows on from it. Modifiers stranded in the old Arena die.

STEP 4 — THE TWIST

Wolfman Jake + Reset → the Strength Arena

Reset moves the fight to Strength, and the whole board re-reads itself. Brutus's +5 Modifier was played in Discipline, so it dies instantly. What matters now is the green number: Wolfman Jake's 48 against Brutus's 45. Jake leads — and he's Earth, which the Water Brutus can't answer.

STEP 5 — THE ROUND

The Lead submits. Wolfman Jake wins — in Strength

Here's the sting in the tail: the round was won in the Strength Arena, not the Discipline Arena it started in. So Jake can only defend Strength, and the next round follows on from Strength too. One Action card redirected the entire game.

Try it yourself

The Deck — 45 mercenaries

Cards 1–25 are the main set; B1–B20 were designed by the original Kickstarter backers. No attribute number is repeated anywhere in the main set — every value in every band appears exactly once, which is what makes counting cards worthwhile.

The Printed Rulebook

Scans of the 16-page booklet that shipped in the tin, plus the cover, the back and the card flats. This is the original article — the rules pages in this site were transcribed from exactly these images.

Click any page to see it full size. Every page has its own download, or take the lot in one go.

Download all 19 images

Make a Card

Build your own mercenary from a picture on your computer. The rating is worked out by the original 2013 formula, so your card is balanced on the same scale as the printed 45.

Your cards

Saved here only. Before each new game you'll be asked whether to shuffle them in — say yes and either player can draw them, exactly like a printed mercenary.