Objective: You win the game by destroying your opponent’s KnifeTank -or- by reaching your opponent’s edge of the table without falling off.

Setup:

Players should be on opposing sides of a table, preferably 36 inches, or roughly 10 card lengths, apart. Players can create their own “edges” by placing markers on a table. Different table sizes provide different gam-ing strategies. Separate the pink-backed Hit Cards, double-sided Tank Cards, and double-sided Health Cards from the KnifeTank-backed Action Cards. Shuffle the Action Cards and place them face down, off to the side of the table, between both players.

At the start of the game, players choose which tank they wish to use. Keeping their selection a secret from the opposing player, both players

close their eyes, and place their tanks on their respective edges of the table at the same time, lining up the backs of the tank cards with the edge of the table. Once placed, players open their eyes and set their tank’s Starting Health on their respective Health Cards. Starting Health is indicated by the heart icon printed on the Tank Card. Each player draws 5 cards from the Action Cards deck and battle commences!

Battle: Battle happens in turns. At the start of each turn, players select two Action Cards from their hand and place them face-down on the table. Once all Action Cards are placed, both players each flip one of them face-up, and the Actions get resolved in this order: Move, Stab, Special. This means Move cards will always resolve before Stab or Special cards, and Stab cards will always resolve before Special cards. See each card type’s description for what to do when both players play the same type of Action Card on the same turn. Players then flip their second selected

Action Card face-up, and resolve these actions as well. Once all Actions are Resolved, players then draw cards from the Action Cards deck until they each have five in their hand and battle continues until one player is victorious!

Card Types:

Move Cards: Move Cards are Action Cards, in-dicated by red & blue arrows. To Move your tank, first check to see if your Move Card fea-tures tread icons [ ] or a turret icon [

]. Place the Move Card directly over the indicated icon(s). If the Move Card has a turret symbol, this card may face any direction you choose. Once a direction has been selected, while holding the Move Card in-place, slide your tank out from under the Move Card, and line up the end-movement [ ] icon on the rear of your tank - or on the front of your tank if it’s moving in reverse - with the match-ing [ ] icon on the arrow on the Move Card.

Place movement card on top of the tank card.

Be sure the symbols are lined up properly.

Lift the tank card up and place it on the tip of the arrow of the

movement card.

If either tank ends its movement overlapping or overlapped by another tank, both tanks take a Hit! Use the Hit Numbers indicated on each tank to determine if a tank is damaged or stunned. Discard the Move Card after moving your tank. Damage occurs simultaneously.

If both players play Move Cards, and turn or-der is important, players can determine turn order by shuffling the “0”,”1”, and “2” damage cards, then each player draws a card. The low-est number goes first.

Example of stab card placement

Overlappling is considered a hit

Stab Cards: Stab Cards are Action Cards, in-dicated by sharp weapons on orange back-grounds. To Stab the enemy tank, first check to see if your Stab Card features tread icons [

] or a turret icon [ ]. Place the Stab Card directly over the indicated icon(s). If the Stab Card has a turret symbol, this card may face any direction you choose. Once a direc-tion has been selected, if your Stab Card is able to overlap an enemy tank, that’s a Hit! Use the numbers on the Stab Card to resolve the Hit against the enemy tank. Discard the Stab Card after use, regardless of whether it hits or not. If both players play Stab Cards, these resolve simultaneously.

Special Cards:

Special Cards are Action Cards. Each Special card is unique in what it does, and in how you physically play it. If both players play Special Cards, resolve them in alphabetical order.

• Blow: Indicated by a tornado. Keeping your head behind your side of the table, exhale once to push cards on the table in the desired direction. Resolve any Hits that would occur for tanks overlapping each other, or overlapping other Special cards already on the table. Discard the Blow Card after use.

• Drop (minefield): Indicated by a mine-field. Holding the card two feet above the table, drop it above the desired lo-cation. If the card lands on a tank, the Drop Card is discarded with no effect. If the Drop Card successfully lands, leave it in play until a tank overlaps it. When one does, that tank suffers a Hit using the in-dicated Hit cards. Discard the Drop Card from play once this Hit is resolved.

• Drop (supply crates): Indicated by sup-ply crates. Holding the card two feet above the table, drop it above the desired location. If the card lands on a tank,

the Drop Card is discarded with no ef-fect. If the Drop Card successfully lands, leave it in play until a tank overlaps it. When one does, that tank repairs itself by one. Rotate its Health indicator card to heal by 1, a tank cannot go over its maxi-mum Health of 4. Discard the Drop Card from play once this Hit has resolved.

• Flick: Indicated by a rocket-propelled knife. Place the Flick Card on your edge of the table with enough room to allow for your finger to flick it towards the enemy tank. Any tanks it overlaps suffer a Hit using the indicated Hit cards. Discard the Flick Card after its use.

• Spin: Indicated by a helicopter. Holding the card two feet above the table, re-lease it while spinning it above the desired location. Any tanks that the Spin Card lands on suffers a Hit using the indicated Hit cards. Discard the Spin Card after use.

• Toss: Indicated by an airplane. Keep-ing your hands behind your edge of the

table, toss the Toss Card in the desired direction. Any tanks it overlaps suffer a Hit using the indicated Hit cards. Discard the Toss Card after its use.

Hit Cards: Hit Cards feature a pink card-back, and have a 0, 1, 2 or Stun Icon [ ] on their face. Tanks can be Hit by overlapping Stab Cards and Special Cards, or when tanks overlap each other as a result of Move Cards or other ef-fects.

When a tank would suffer a Hit, the player do-ing the Hitting shuffles together the Hit Cards indicated by the numbers listed on the Action Card (or the overlapping tank) and fans them out for the other player to select. The player suffering the Hit then selects one Hit Card from these at random. If damaged, the player controlling the tank that was Hit rotates that tank’s Health card. If a tank’s Health goes be-low 1, it is destroyed.

Stunning: Some Hits don’t do damage, but in-stead Stun a tank, preventing it from playing Move Cards on its next full turn.

Redraw: At the end of each turn, if neither player is victorious, each player draws two cards from the Action deck, and a new turn begins.

Special Rulez:

Resupply: Once per game, each player may discard any number of Action Cards from their hand and draw that many cards from the Action Cards deck.

Empty Deck: If there are not enough cards in the Action Cards deck for players to draw, then shuffle all discarded cards together, and place them between the players on the edge of the table.

Fallen Tank: If a tank falls off the edge of a table, that tank’s player immediately places their tank on their side of the table using the rulez in the Setup phase, and then play proceeds as usual.

No Pre-Measuring: Pre-measuring is the act of using a card or other device to determine, before taking an Action, whether that action will succeed (eg, using a card to see if a Stab Card will have range to hit). Pre-measuring is not allowed in Knife Tank.

Random Selection: Sometimes, you might need a way to randomly select whose Actions resolve first. You can use the Hit Cards, a coin, or even flip a card to determine Random Selections.

Simultaneous Damage: Stab Cards, certain Special Cards, and colliding tanks might cause Hits on multiple tanks. When damage would be

dealt during the same Action, this damage is resolved at the same time. It is possible for both tanks to be destroyed during the same Action, so plan your turns strategically.

4 Player rulez:

2v2 Combat: Knife Tank can be played with Four-Players, with a few key rule changes. Players play on teams of two. Allied tanks start at the same table edge. Victory can only be claimed by destroying both enemy tanks. Players only select one Action Card to play each round, instead of two. Allied players may not show each other their hands. If a Stab, Special, or Tank card lands on an ally’s unit, that unit still rolls for damage as usual. If this happens, have an opponent shuffle the necessary damage cards as if they were the ones attacking your ally.

Thanks for playing Knifetank: The Shüffling! follow @knifetank on Twitter

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Knifetank © 2020 by Doctor Popular.

Game design - Doctor M. Popular

lead artist - ilcorvo

Rule writing - Michael szymanski

extreme metal font writing - Stonepaq