Playset Selection
Now that you've decided you're going to play Manawave, the first thing to do is to establish the "meta" or playset you're going to use.
A playset is composed of 3 factions and their corresponding Monuments. Each player will have equal access to the selected factions, but the first choice of the game is what factions are represented in the Tile Card Pile.
Available playsets are listed here.
What is a Faction?
A faction is a set of hex tiles that are added to the game as a single set. Faction indicators are also included in the faction set for players to select this faction.
Faction Pieces
Factions are made up of Tribes, Monuments, and Harbingers. Tribes are the bread and butter of the game. You collect and position tribes to set up the Manawave so that your Monuments or the active Harbingers can win you the game. Monuments trigger each round of the Manawave. Each round of the Manawave, player Monuments process to see if their win conditions have been met. If so, the player wins the game at that time. Harbingers are present so that when the Draw pile is empty and the Manawave has crested, a new Age is triggered and the Spark-lighter with the best positioned side of the board ascends.
Selecting Factions
The playset gives each 3 faction choices. Each player must choose 2 distinct factions (choices are made secretly, then revealed at the same time). This leads to 9 possible faction combinations.
For example, if each player has the choice of Factions A, B, and C, their choice will be one of AB, AC, or BC. All possible Tile Card Pile outcomes are listed here.
| P1 | P2 | Union |
|---|---|---|
| AB | AB | AABB |
| AB | AC | AABC |
| AB | BC | ABBC |
| AC | AB | AABC |
| AC | AC | AACC |
| AC | BC | ABCC |
| BC | AB | ABBC |
| BC | AC | ABCC |
| BC | BC | BBCC |
Faction Pieces
Each faction includes multiple copies of tiles. So that players to make identical tile selections, there must be a copy of each tile so each player can have one.
- Indicator pieces - for faction selection phase
- Selection set - for tile selection phase
- Player sets - for tile placement phase
- Harbinger - for endgame tiebreaking