At the start of each player’s turn he has 10 action dice he can spend to pay for attacks and other special actions. Your action dice are stored in your dice pool. As you spend them, they move to your opponent’s dice pool. You’ll want to use every action die, because when your turn is over all your unused action dice also go into your opponent’s dice pool and become available for him to use on his turn.

Each player also has a game clock that tracks the number of rounds left in the period. Grind is played in two periods, each lasting five rounds. At the start of each player’s turn he takes a power die from the game clock and adds it to his dice pool. Power dice, as the name implies, are powerful and can be added to any normal dice rolls to significantly increase the chances of rolling strikes. Power dice also allow steamjacks to perform power attacks. When a player spends a power die he puts it in his dice well. When a player’s turn begins, any power dice in his dice well move into his dice pool. So as the clock runs down, each player will have more power dice available to him, which represents the frenzy to score before the buzzer sounds!

The game board is divided into four sections. The middle of the playing field is where the majority of the action will take place. Each team also has its own goal zone marked by a colored line that divides it from the main field. This area contains each team’s goal pit and is where players put their steamjacks during setup at the beginning of each period and after each goal.

The final section, called the gutter, is made up of the outermost spaces that circle the board. Gutter spaces are legally playable, but they have special rules for determining how a hit Grinder moves.

Each steamjack type has a Speed that shows how many spaces it can move during its activation. The faster and more nimble Runners can move up to 6 spaces, while the slower but more powerful Crushers can move up to 4 spaces. To move a steamjack, simply pick it up and count out the spaces on the board. A steamjack must move around any space that contains another steamjack or a pillar.

Steamjacks can move in any direction, but every diagonal move after the first counts as 2 spaces.

A steamjack’s control zone is made up the 3 spaces directly in front of it. A steamjack must therefore always face a specific side of the space it occupies. A steamjack can change its facing anytime during its movement.

To make an attack, declare the target and the arm being used. For a melee attack, the target must be in the attacking steamjack’s reach. For a ranged attack, the target must be in the range and the line of sight of the attacking steamjack.

Each steamjack arm has its own stats, which tell you the maximum number of action dice you can use in an attack with that arm and the number of boost dice to add to the roll as well as any special abilities it has.

Determine the number of action dice you will use in your attack and add the number of boost dice listed in the arm’s stats. You can also add as many power dice from your dice pool as you wish. Roll the dice and count the number of strikes. If the total is equal to or greater than the Armor stat of your target, you hit!

After you declare an attack against the Grinder, put the mark token in the space you want the Grinder to move to. Make sure the Grinder can move toward that space using only one straight direction and one diagonal direction.

In the example, the blue Crusher is making an attack with its Pulverizer arm against the Grinder. The blue player puts the mark token in the space he wants the Grinder to move to and then rolls 4 action dice and 3 boost dice. He rolls a total of 6 strikes!

After you roll, count the number of strikes and subtract the Grinder’s Armor. If the total is 0 or greater, you hit, and you can move the Grinder that number of spaces toward the mark token. The Grinder’s movement ends immediately if it moves into the targeted space.

The blue Crusher’s roll of 6 strikes is more than enough to hit the Grinder’s Armor of 0. After subtracting the Grinder’s Armor from the number of strikes the blue player can move the Grinder 6 spaces toward the marker token. Note that even though the Grinder could move more spaces it must stop once it reaches the target space.

The blue player then puts the action dice he used into the red player’s dice pool.

The blue player now moves his Runner into position to make a ranged attack against the red Crusher. To make a ranged attack the target must be in the range and the line of sight of the attacking steamjack. Ranged weapons in Grind can attack a model in line of sight up to 3 spaces away.

To determine if a steamjack has line of sight to another, draw a straight line from the center of the side it faces to the center of any side of the other space. If that line doesn’t cross a space occupied by another steamjack, the Grinder, or a pillar the attacking steamjack has line of sight.

In this case the blue Runner declares an attack against the red Crusher with its Gyro Shot arm. The blue player decides to roll the maximum number of action dice and adds his 1 free power die to the attack.

Just as with attacking the Grinder, once you have gathered your dice, roll them and count the number of strikes. If the total is equal to or greater than the Armor of your target, you hit! Subtract the number of strikes rolled from the target’s Armor to determine how far your attack sent it flying. You can move the unfortunate steamjack that many spaces away from the attacker and choose a new facing for it.

Note that even if you don’t get to move the steamjack you can always change its facing after a successful attack.

The blue Runner rolls a whopping 8 strikes. Subtract the red Crusher’s Armor of 4 from that, and the blue player can move the red Crusher 4 spaces away from the attacking blue Runner. The blue player smashes the red Crusher into the wall, knocking it down.

Knocked down steamjacks have no reach and do not block other steamjack movement. A knocked down steamjack can stand up during its activation by forfeiting either its movement or its attack.

The blue player then transfers the action dice he used to the red player’s dice pool, leaving 3 dice in his dice pool and 7 in the red player’s dice pool.

After moving his last Crusher, the blue player ends his turn and transfers the remaining 3 action dice from his dice pool to the red player’s dice pool.

The red player kicks off his turn by moving his red Crusher into position to attack the blue Runner controlling the Grinder.

The attack hits with 4 strikes, allowing the red player to move the blue Runner away from the Grinder and into the gutter. The red player also faces the blue Runner toward the wall to make sure the path toward the blue player’s goal pit is clear.

The red player now wants to attack the blue Runner protecting the blue player’s goal pit. He begins by moving his red Runner armed with the Grappler toward the blue goal. To complete its move, however, the red Runner must move into the blue Crusher’s reach (marked by the green line).

A steamjack that moves into an opposing steamjack’s control zone must either stop its movement or make a successful “block break” to continue its move past the opposing steamjack.

To make a block break, a player can roll a number of action dice up to the moving steamjack’s Armor stat. That’s up to 2 action dice for a Runner and up to 4 for a Crusher. A player can also add any number of power dice to the roll. Once you’ve rolled the dice, count the number of strikes. If the total is equal to or greater than the number of blocking steamjacks, the block break succeeds and the activated steamjack can continue to move.

In this case the red player rolls the maximum number of action dice to make the block break and succeeds with 2 strikes. The red Runner can complete its move.

Because the red Runner wants to make a ranged attack against the blue Runner guarding the goal pit, it needs to move within 3 spaces of its target. Even after moving its full Speed it is still out of range, though. So the red player declares that the Runner will redline for 2 extra spaces of movement.

A steamjack can “redline” to move up to 2 additional spaces on its turn. If it does, it must make a successful redline check or become rattled. To make the check a player rolls a number of action dice up to the steamjack’s Boiler stat. If the number of strikes is equal to or greater than the number of extra spaces moved, the redline succeeds. If the number of strikes is less, the steamjack becomes rattled and its activation immediately ends.

The red player fails his redline check and puts a rattled token next to the red Runner, ending its activation.

The red player now makes his big move on the blue player’s goal pit. First he moves the Runner with a control arm into reach of the Grinder.

Steamjacks that have at least one control arm can push the Grinder as they move, allowing them better control over where the Grinder ends up. The Grinder must be within the steamjack’s reach and not within reach of any opposing steamjacks.

When beginning the push, pick up the Grinder and move the pushing steamjack as normal.

At the end of the steamjack’s move, place the Grinder so it is not within reach of any opposing steamjacks and then face the pushing steamjack so that the Grinder is within its reach. If the steamjack has not made an attack, it can now attack the Grinder or an opposing steamjack following the normal attack rules.

Seeing an opportunity to make an early goal, the red player has his Runner attack the Grinder, targeting the blue goal pit. The attack hits with a total of 6 strikes—more than enough to move the Grinder into the goal pit. Because the Grinder will move through the blue Runner’s reach, however, he will have a chance to stop it before it moves into the goal.

Some opposing steamjacks can attempt to stop the Grinder as it rolls across the field. This pits the steamjack against the runaway Grinder’s momentum. The Grinder’s momentum is equal to the number of strikes rolled in the attack minus the number of spaces to the target space. In other words, the closer the target, the more likely the Grinder is to have a higher momentum, making it harder to stop.

A player can make a stop attempt against the Grinder when it moves into the reach of one or more of his steamjacks that have one or more control arms. First roll a number of boost dice equal to the total Control stat of all the stopping steamjacks. If the number of strikes is equal to or greater than the Grinder’s momentum, its movement immediately ends and you can move it 1 space in any direction. If the stop attempt fails, the Grinder continues moving toward the target space with no effect.

In this example the blue Runner has one control arm and would normally roll 1 boost die, but thanks to the Interceptor arm’s special rules, the blue player gets to roll 3 boost dice.

The Grinder’s momentum is 2: the number of strikes rolled to move it (6) minus its distance to the target of (4 spaces). The blue player rolls and comes up with only 1 strike!

The stop failed, so the red player finishes moving the Grinder into the blue player’s goal pit to score the first point of the match!

After a goal, the field is reset and the scoring player passes any remaining action dice to his opponent, who takes the next turn.

And that is the game of Grind! Players alternate turns for two periods of five rounds each. The player with the highest score at the end of the last round is the winner.

Now hit the grid and battle your way to victory!