How to Play Bayonet Battalion

Game Info

• 2–6 players
• Game of 100 chips = 30–40 min
• Round time: 4 min

Victory Condition

A player wins when all their opponents run out of (“reserves”) army of chips.

Set Up And Parts

1. Player Chip Stack (100 in value)
2. Player Reserve Cards (one face up and one face down. Players may look at their face down card)
3. 3 Community Cards
4. Deck
5. Player Hand (starts with 2 cards and draws to 5)
6. Bet Chips (chips are not pooled together in a central pot: see Scout rules)

Set Up for Standard Game

1. Give each player 100 chips
2. Dealing cards out:
   1. Deal players Reserve cards one face up one face down. (They can look at them)
   2. Place the deck in the center of the table and deal three community cards face up.

Game Play

1. Select who will be the “Button”/Dealer. The player to their left goes first.
2. Ante
   1. All players Ante 1 chip to receive cards.
3. Hand Cards
   1. Deal all players two hand cards.
4. Betting
   1. Players may pass, raise, call or fold their hand starting with the player to the left of the button, or “first player.”
5. Player Turn
   1. Draw one card from the deck.
   2. The player may choose to either keep the card or exchange any card from their hand with one of the three community cards on the table.
6. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 until all players have a 5 card hand. (Note: there is a round of betting prior to the reserve swap and showdown)
7. Reserve Swap
   1. After the last round of betting, all players have five cards in their hand. All players who have not folded and will be a part of the showdown may…
      1. Exchange one and only one card in their hand for one card in the reserve. Placing the card from their hand into the same position as the swapped card. Either face up or face down in their reserves.
8. Show Down
   1. Players show their hands and declare the winner of the hand who collects all chips bet that round.
      1. SPECIAL RULE - Scout
         1. If a player has the scout card in a face down position and they lose a showdown they may burn the scout card from the reserves and save half of their bet. (Note: If the player's hand includes an Officer card the player saves 100% of their bet chips.)
9. Repeat this process
   1. NOTE: The deck is not reshuffled after every showdown. Only reshuffle the deck when it will no longer support the next round of play. Roughly 5 rounds for 2 players, 3 rounds for 3 players, 2 rounds for a 4 and 5 player game.
   2. NOTE: Reserve cards and community cards are not reshuffled back into the deck until 7, 14 or 21 hands have been played as decided on by the players.

SPECIAL RULES

1. Scout (If scout card is dealt into the face up position of a player's reserves burn and replace the card)
   1. If the scout card is in the reserves face down it may be burned and replaced to save a losing bet during showdown. The players saves 50% of their bet chips & will save their total bet if they have an officer card in their showdown hand.
2. Magazine
   1. The magazine acts as a wild ART card matching the value of one and only one Artillery card.
3. Dragoon
   1. Is a wild Infantry card that matches with one and only one Infantry card IF an officer is in the hand.

Tie Breakers

At showdown, if the highest hands tie on the Combo Table, use the following to determine the highest hand.

1. Determine high card order
   1. All combinations have an order of importance.
      For example if both showdown hands show a Battalion ( 2 Matching Inf + 1 CAV + 1 ART + OF) The most important cards are the INF followed by CAV followed by ART then officer. If two players have a Battalion hand and one has INF value 2 and one has INF value 3 the value 2 is the winning hand. HOWEVER. If both have the same value INF moves to CAV card then ART then OF to determine the winning hand. NOTE: every Combo is displayed below left to right order of weight in the hand.
2. All sets inside the hand using wild combinations (Magazine & Dragoon) are considered the weaker set within the hand when determining a tie breaker.

Show Down Combo Table

Ties are decided by highest cards from left to right as written below.

Features

• Lower numbers are stronger (i.e. a 2 beats a 4)
• Officer value (highest → lowest):
  1. General
  2. Captain
  3. Lieutenant
  4. Sergeant