The Rules - Basic rules

Overview

Turn based game

Let's Kill Hitler is a turn based game, with a twist: all players decide upon their actions for the upcoming turn at the same time, and the outcome of their decisions is then resolved in the descending order of the player's then current initiative score, with the non-playable Villagers faction (the good people of Braunau) being always resolved first.
The game is divided into 120 game turns, plus 3 or 4 turns, depending upon whether the game is played in Free-for-All mode or not, for preparation of the game.

Preparation phase

Diplomatic turn:
The players choose if they want the game to be Free-for-All or not. If it is not Free-for-All, then Allied players are all bound together by non-aggression pacts, meaning that an Allied player cannot engage into a direct attack against another Allied player.
Otherwise, each player can propose to any other player a secret non-aggression pact. If both players make this proposal to each another, then the pact is considered valid and accepted and the players cannot engage into direct attacks against one another
However, non-aggression pacts do not prevent indirect attacks through the use of area-wide damage dealing weapons, and the players can still use stealth attacks, targeted assassination and a number of other malevolent practices in order to damage their newlyfound "friends" without consequences....unless if they are caught doing so.
Diplomatic turn do not apply in single player and Co-op mode.
Preparation turn:
The players draw two tokens from their deck, and are able to retain or discard them.
The players then can give a number of instructions (and this without any cost) provided always that they regard matters for which there are no consequences for the other players. These matters are:

Introducing an agent in a district (if one of the drawn tokens allows this action)

Adding an ability token to an introduced agent (if one of the drawn tokens allows this action)

Using a buffer token on an introduced agent or on the faction's leader (if one of the drawn tokens allows this action)

Exchanging Nazi Gold against consumption credits or information credits (if at least one of the drawn tokens is Nazi Gold)

Gathering information from the faction's spying network

Challenge turn:
Each player receives a challenge cards deck. The challenge deck's exact content depends upon a variety of factors such as the factions at play, the mode selected (Free-for-All or not), and the level of the players.
Each player draws a challenge for each opponent faction, and a personal challenge.
Each player can then decide upon one of the factions to be challenged and whether or not the player wants to complete the personal challenge
If applicable, the player communicates the challenge to the challenged faction, which can decide to accept or not the challenge
If the challenged party succeeds, it will receive the corresponding reward, otherwise the player having started the challenge will receive the corresponding reward. The price of the reward, expressed in XP, is deducted from the score of the party having lost the challenge.
If the player has elected to complete the personal challenge, then the value of the challenge expressed in XP will be deducted from (or added to in case of success) the player score.
Taunt turn (Free-for-All mode only): Each player receives a gauntlet stack, which can be used to taunt any number of opponent factions.
Taunting a faction means that a player accepts to take a malus when confronted to this faction, but will receive a bonus if defeating this faction.
Each gauntlet allocated by one player to another faction represents a unit of taunting intensity. The more intense is the taunt, the longer the malus lasts but the highest the bonus will be.
Whenever two factions are taunting each another, the faction with the highest intensity is taunting, the intensity of the taunt being reduced by the intensity of the faction having the lowest taunt. In case of a draw, both taunts are cancelled.

Gaming phase

The gaming phase comprises of 120 turns, each turn being divided into sequences:

Villagers action sequence:

The Villagers are reacting to the changes induced by the players decisions in the previous turn, and the players can see their displacements and actions before taking their decisions
This means that all Villagers actions are resolved and applied before the players draw and action sequences begin.

Players draw sequence:

Each of the players can decide to draw tokens and to retain tokens from its faction deck, this being done according to the corresponding rules.
Aggravated Assault
Should the players have opted for the Aggravated Assault mode of the Taunt rules when setting up the game, they are entitled to use again their Gauntlets stack in order to act against other factions, provided always that a Taunt relationship exists with the said faction.
Not only a faction can increase its existing taunt against another one, but a faction which has been taunted can take the upper hand, by investing gauntlets in order to reverse the taunt.
This mechanism has for effect to either allows factions having a successful taunt to incrise their benefit, or to let factions which were victims of a taunt from a failing faction to enact retaliation, making the Taunt aspect of the game even more dynamic.

Players action sequence:

Each of the players can decide what to do during their turn, performing any number of the following actions in any order, in the limit of their available action points.
Passive abilities are automatically activated and do not cost action points.
At this stage, the players action are instructions, meaning that they are recorded but not being performed.
Putting agents in play, using agents abilities, other uses of tokens:
This is done through the faction's deck, please see the corresponding article.
Managing the spy network:
Players can do the following:

Upgrade their spy network through recruitment of new agents or by upgrading current agents.

Request their spy network to look for specific information

Retrieve general information from the spy network

Only this last action does not cost action points
Use a generic action:
-Entering / exiting stealth mode
-Movement
-Engaging enemy or NPC in a gunfight

Engaging enemy or NPC in close combat

When in stealth mode, engaging an enemy or NPC in close combat is considered a stealth assassination attempt, so it can also be carried against factions having a non-aggression pact with the player's faction.
Use an advanced action:
-Deploy a long range weapon
-Deploy an area-wide weapon
-Use a specific faction ability or perform a special action
The players are entitled to only one advanced action per turn, regardless of whether or not they could perform more according to their available action points

Players instructions resolution sequence:

An order of precedence of the players instructions is established according to the then current initiative score of the players.
All the instructions of the first player are executed without concern for potential conflicts with other players'.
Next players' instructions are executed after dismissing instructions which would conflict with the ones of the precedent player(s).
Conflicts arising in between a given player's own instructions are dealt with immediately, by acknowledging the first instruction entered and dismissing the subsequent conflicting ones.
Determining initiative
On the first turn, the order of initiative is determined at random between the Allies factions at play, the Baddies playing next and the Locals playing last.
On the next rounds, initiative corresponds to the descending order of success points collected by factions during the previous turn, the highest ranking faction playing first. In case of a tie between two factions, the faction with the highest overall success points collected through the game plays first. In case it is still a tie, the initiative is determined at random.
Consequences of dismissed and failed actions
Dismissed actions do not bear consequences for the player, unless they have to be dismissed because of a conflict amongst the player's own instructions.
If the dismissed action is an Agent's action, there is a 50% chance that the Agent's weakness is triggered.
Failure of actions have various consequences depending upon the aciton itself. If the failed action is an Agent's action, it triggers its weakness automatically.
Consequences of successful actions
The consequences of successful actions are determined and applied immediately upon success of the action.

Turn conclusion sequence:

At the end of the turn, the following happens: - Computation of indirect impact of actions (eg. building destruction, formation of Villagers mobs, etc.) .
- Success points are updated for each faction.
- In case any game-ending triggering factor is enabled, determination whether or not the game ends.

On characters death and factions removal

As a lot of the players actions in Let's Kill Hitler aims at wounding / maiming / killing other factions' characters, it is highly probable that one or several players' characters will die along the way.
The consequences of death of a character greatly vary depending upon whether or not the said character is a Companion NPC, an Agent or the faction Leader.

Companion NPCs

Under certain circumstances, a NPC can become attached to a given faction, at which point the said NPC becomes a Companion, which increases the player score by a Companion bonus.
Companions really act like wildcards. They provide a variety of bonuses and abilities to the faction, but cannot be controlled in any way by the player.
Should a Companion die, it has no consequences, except the loss of the Companion bonus, and the disabling of the corresponding bonuses and abilities.

Agents

Death of an Agent has more profound consequences on a faction, starting with immediately decreasing the faction's score by a malus, and of course immediately nullifying any effects which were applicable to the faction while the Agent was in play
Also, each Agent has a specific death / removal consequence associated to it.

Leaders

Death of a Leader generally will result into the faction being eliminated.
However, some specific Agents, if in play at the moment of the Leader's death, will be able to automatically take over the position.
This will result into the faction losing access to the specific abilities of the said Agent, who will only benefit from the faction's abilities, and a crippling malus will be applied to the faction's score

Special items

As the turns pass by, a decent amount of injuries, wounds and temporary (or permanent) effects should occur, leading to characters losing more or less gradually abilities, stats levels and hit points.
The only way to remedy the consequences of these unfortunate events is to use Food, Drinks or Medicine, which can either be found on the map or purchased from the appropriate shops and stalls in the Market.
However, only faction Leaders may use this feature. Agents and Companion NPCs will simply continue to suffer the consequences of whatever ailment, effect or wound they have suffered, until the moment of their (always untimely) death.

Food and Drinks

Braunau's rich culinary tradition heavily relies upon four components which can be found both in dedicated stalls and shops in the Market and at street food vendors, randomly scattered across Braunau's districts.
These components are Pretzels, Sausages, Beer and Schnaps. All of them are restoring health and have side effects, but with a different magnitude, both depending upon the item itself and the player's faction, as follows:

Baddies and Locals do have no side effect, and will fully benefit from the regeneration power of the items (in descending order: Schnaps, Beer, in descending order: Sausages and Pretzels, with Schnaps and Sausages having the same regeneration power, same for Beer and Pretzels).

Brits will find hard time consuming Pretzels and Schnaps, suffering respectively impact on movement and accuracy.

Yanks will not be able to consume Schnaps at all, but will suffer no side effect from Sausage and normal effect from other items (movement for Pretzels, accuracy from beer).

Commies will not be able to consume Beer, but will suffer no side effect from Schnaps and normal effect from Sausages (action) and Pretzels (movement).

Froggies, due to their delicate palate, will not be able to consume Pretzels at all and will be heavily affected by Schnaps (abilities), suffering normal side effects from Sausages, and no effect from Beer.

Medicine

Medicine, in 1889, is pretty much limited to Bandages, Onguents and Snake Oil, which for the first two can only be purchased from some shops in the Market district, and for the latter can be both purchased from the said shops and occasionally found at street peddlers randomly scattered in Braunau's districts.
Bandages allow stopping hit points losses from wounds, Onguents remove the side effects associated to food and drink consumption, and Snake Oil is either reducing or increasing other side effects, so it should be consumed with moderation.[/br] Contrary to Food and Drink, which cannot be stored, factions can hold in their inventory a total of five medecines for future use.

Weapons and Ammo

Upgrade for weapons and ammunition can be purchased from the relevant shop in the Market district, and looted from other factions. They can also be found from a number of quite unsavoury NPCs who trade in illegal and unlicensed weaponry.
Specialty weapons upgrades are also available for purchase in the Market district.

Looting items

Items can be looted from other factions Companion NPCs, Agents and Leaders. All you have to do is kill them.
Food, Drinks and Medicine can also be found in NPCs homes. Depending upon your encounter with a given NPC pans out, you might be able to receive one or several item as a gift, to trade or buy the said items from them, or simply to steal it from them, by using any technique from applying the proper level of threat to cold blooded murder.

Shops and Stalls supply level

Depending upon the chosen game difficulty, the shops and stalls in the Market have will have a different initial supply level of Food and Drinks, Medicine and Weapons and Ammo. The number of street food vendors, Snake Oil peddlers and illicit weaponry traders will also differ.
Contrary to the one-time supply available on the street, which is reserved to players, shops and stalls benefit both from a clientele of NPCs (the Villagers) which is increasing their revenue (yes, you can also rob them at gunpoint to refill your coffers should you run out of cash) while reducing their inventory, and of supply agreements with local producers.
As a result, the shops and stalls inventory will gradually deplete (and prices will go up) in between deliveries, based upon NPCs activity.

Production and delivery of items

The production and delivery of items to the Market district depends upon the number of NPCs turning up for work, so players action might have an impact on the ability of the producers to resupply the shops and stalls.
Of course, destroying the buildings of a factory or carrying mass execution of its workforce will put a definitive end to resupply of the corresponding items, while the NPCs might also go on strike at some point in time for multiple reasons, including but not limited to some factions' abilities to organize such strikes, leading to a temporary interruption of production.

Quests

Players do have the opportunity to gain bonuses and items by performing a variety of quests. For an example, quests are a great way for a faction running out of cash to access its special weapons' upgrades.
Quests also increase factions relationships with Villagers NPCs, which might prove useful.
Quests are also the usual way through which a faction can gain a Companion NPC.
Last, each faction has an Epic Quest which might make all the difference when it comes to determining the winning faction, and could even lead, who knows, to one (or several?) Easter Egg(s)....

Initiating Quests

Quests initiation will usually come from NPCs in your spy network, though you have a decent chance to receive a quest by visiting one of the Inns and engaging conversation.
You can only have one active quest at any given time in addition to the Epic Quest.

Completing a Quest

How to complete a quest pretty much depends, well...on the quest itself. Quests are only involving faction Leaders.
When accepting any quest (except the Epic Quest), your faction will enter in Quest Mode, meaning that your Leader will be performing all quest-related tasks, and you will not be able to rely upon your Agents.[br[ However, any faction-wide passive effect from Agents will keep on applying, and Companion NPCs might come to your help if they decide to do so. You are also still able to consult your spy network for information.
While you are engaged in a Quest, your Agents keep on carrying the tasks they have been assigned, but you are unable to do anything else, so this is the equivalent of entirely skipping your turn.
Other factions cannot attack your Leader or interfere with its actions while you are in Quest Mode.
Therefore, accepting a quest (to the exception of the Epic Quest) is not without consequences from the prospective of your abilities to carry on your mission.

Abandoning a quest

Once a quest has been initiated, you must carry on with Quest Mode until its completion, unless you decide to focus on more pressing matters (such as achieving your main mission) in which case you can decide to exit Quest Mode, which will be equivalent to failing the quest, with all the associated consequences, entirely depending upon the quest.
To the exception of the Epic Quest, the proposed quests are relatively short and will make you skip only a few turns. As for the Epic Quest, it allows you to enter and exit Quest Mode at any time, keeping track of your progress, so it doesn't have an impact on your strategic gameplay.

Epic Quest

Each faction has an Epic Quest associated to it. It can be the factions' default epic quest, or a supplementary Epic Quest (which you might access only after having performed the default epic quest).
Allies default epic quest: From Braunau with love
Your faction needs to bring back home three items which make the pride of Braunau's artisans : a Lederhosen, an Alpenhornen and a Tirolean hat. Start at a souvenir shop, and see where it leads you....
Baddies default epic quest: A family affair
There have been some hideous rumours spread about uncertainties as to the lineage of your beloved Fuhrer. Looks like, as both he and his parents have been evacuated, now is the time to pay a little visit to their home. Maybe you can find some information, which would certainly give you leverage once this mission is over....
Locals default epic quest: Going viral
Sure, Ursula Von der Lederhosen, your Leader, is in cahoots with Herr Pfizz, the local pharmaceutical industry tycoon, and he has been extremely generous by secretly funding your activities. Still, there is something about their new slogan "one drop of Snake Oil a day keeps the viruses at bay" which sounds fishy. Maybe it is time to visit his office in order to check what he meant exactly by "large scale clinical trials"....

Victory conditions

Main factions missions

Obviously, the Allies need to kill at least one of Hitler's ancestors, while the Baddies need to protect the said ancestors.
Things are a little bit more complicated for Locals, who need to start the liberation of Tyrol by toppling Braunau's government, which means gathering enough local support and killing or capturing the Mayor, while prohibiting the other factions from completing their mission.[br[Gathering local support means stopping the foreign factions' efforts to wreck havoc on Braunau, and prohibit them from completing their mission means getting hold of all Hitler's ancestors.

Additional conditions

In case of Allies victory, the winning faction will be determined based upon who has achieved the highest score in terms of success points, with a key factor being capturing or killing Colonel Von Apfelstrudel, the Baddies Leader.
Other factors, such as making sure not only that you succeed but also that other fail, apply (see the article on factions), and of course quests completion is a plus.