How to Play

Last Bastion

1-4 players 45-45 min 7.4 Board Game Geek Rating

Heroes defend an ancient fortress against the Baleful Queen's monstrous armies after stealing her magical relics. This cooperative tower defense game requires players to work together, repelling endless waves of enemies while protecting their citadel. All players either achieve victory together by surviving the siege, or face collective defeat when the bastion falls.

Published 2019

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Form the Bastion

Place the 4 Enclosure tiles to create the outer frame of the play area

Place Bastion tiles

Randomly arrange the 9 Bastion tiles in a 3x3 square inside the enclosure

Position Horde boards

Place 1 of the 4 Horde boards on each side of the enclosure

Choose heroes

Each player selects a Hero and places their Hero board in front of themselves, under their Horde board

Prepare hero figures

Each player takes their matching figure and color base corresponding to their Horde board, then places the assembled figure on the central Bastion tile

Distribute starting tokens

Each player receives 3 Life tokens, 1 Equipment token matching their hero's color, and 1 Call to Arms token

Place special figures

Put the Standard figure on the Standard tile symbol, the Trap figure on the Dwarven Quarry tile symbol, and the Net figure on the Trebuchet tile symbol

Prepare the deck (4 players, Normal difficulty)

Shuffle 50 Monster cards and set 8 aside, shuffle 10 Warlord cards and draw 1 blindly, place the Warlord on the 8 set-aside Monster cards, then place remaining Monster cards on top

Adjust for fewer players

Remove 4 Monster cards per player below 4, creating decks of 46 (3 players), 42 (2 players), or 38 (1 player) Monster cards

Form the reserve

Place undistributed Equipment tokens, Life tokens, Standard tokens, Grasp of Evil figures, Combat dice, and Corruption die near the board

Determine first player

The last player to have defended a person or honorable cause starts

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Apply recurring effects

At turn start, activate all recurring effects (center of cards) from Horde cards on your Horde board

Choose effect order

When multiple effects apply, the active player decides their order

Resolve Horde board action

If all 3 spaces are filled with Horde cards, apply the board's special effect; otherwise draw and place 1 Horde card

Place colored cards

Red, green, blue, or yellow cards go on a free space of the matching colored Horde board

Place black cards

Black Horde cards must be placed on the active player's Horde board

Handle full boards

If the target board is full, place on any free space; if all spaces everywhere are full, the card stays on deck and you lose 1 Life token

Apply entrance effects

Immediately suffer any entrance effect (bottom left of card) when placing a Horde card

Resolve neutral boards

For Horde boards without linked heroes, apply recurring effects but do not draw new cards

Choose action order

You may act AND move in any order you prefer

Activate Bastion tile

Use the action of the tile your figure occupies (cannot use if Grasp of Evil figure present)

Enter combat

Attack one or more Monsters on spaces adjacent to your tile

Fight corner battles

From corner tiles, fight two adjacent Monsters simultaneously by meeting their combined resistance

Apply exit effects

When vanquishing a Monster, resolve its exit effect (bottom right) before discarding it

Move your figure

Move to any adjacent Bastion tile including diagonally; multiple heroes may share tiles

Use Call to Arms

Spend a Call to Arms token as a special extra action to activate any Bastion tile without being on it, even if under Grasp of Evil

Handle Warlords

Warlords are unaffected by Tomb of Ancient Kings, Trebuchet, or Dwarven Quarry tiles but can be affected by other tiles

Manage Grasp of Evil

When placed on a tile or Hero board, that power cannot be used; any elements on the icon zone go to reserve until the figure is removed

Wounded hero recovery

A hero who loses all Life tokens is taken out; their tokens go to reserve, figure goes on Hero board, and their Horde board becomes neutral

Heal fallen heroes

Another hero using the Dispensary tile can restore a taken-out hero to the wounded side (losing their power), placing them on the Dispensary with 3 Life tokens and 1 Call to Arms token

Winning

How to claim victory.

Victory condition

Win by defeating the Warlord (or all Warlords in Difficult/Heroic modes) through combat

Apply final effects

You must still resolve the Warlord's exit effects after defeating it; victory only counts if these effects don't trigger a loss condition

Defeat by elimination

Lose immediately if all heroes are taken out

Defeat by corruption

Lose immediately if a third Bastion tile falls under Grasp of Evil

Defeat by exhaustion

Lose immediately if a Horde card must be drawn when the deck is empty

Calculate final score

Add points for difficulty mode (5 Novice, 10 Normal, 15 Difficult, 20 Heroic), plus 1 per Life token, plus 2 per Call to Arms token, minus 3 per dead Hero, minus 4 per Bastion tile in Grasp of Evil