Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze

How to play Tales to Amaze: the objective in 60 seconds

The heroes’ job is simple to state: reduce the chosen villain’s health to zero. You are not required to defeat every minion. Minions are obstacles and sources of extra attacks; removing some can help the group, but spending every action chasing them may leave the main villain free to complete its plan.

You lose in either of two circumstances. First, the villain can complete its special objective four times, reflected by four bridges destroyed in Mothman’s scenario or four invasion tokens revealed for the Martian Invader. Second, the team loses when all players’ fighters, including any sidekicks, have been defeated.

Unlike competitive Unmatched, the enemy side is run by cards rather than a human opponent. The team may discuss cards and plans openly, and players can keep hands visible if they prefer. What remains uncertain is the order of initiative cards and the enemies’ next combat cards.

The publisher recommends playing Mothman first. The Martian Invader is explicitly described as a more challenging enemy. These are distinct scenarios printed on opposite sides of the board, not two enemies you normally face together.

Cooperative setup: choose villain, minions and hero team

Select the villain and show its side of the double-sided battlefield. Place the Threat marker at the first space of that board’s Threat track. Shuffle the villain’s personal action deck and place its miniature on the numbered 5 starting space. Set its initial health to 10 per player: for a one-player game the villain has 10, with two players 20, three 30 and four 40.

Next, choose as many minions as there are players. Each minion has its own action deck and a health dial starting at 10. Place its token in an empty space adjacent to the villain. Take the matching special tokens if you selected Tarantula (webs) or the Blob (acid).

Each player chooses a Hero, places its figure on an empty numbered starting space, prepares its deck and health using the ordinary Unmatched core rules, and takes the player-order marker for that starting position. Use exactly the initiative cards corresponding to the selected players, villain and minions; shuffle them into the initiative deck.

For Mothman, randomly put the four bridge tokens, effect sides up, in their numbered positions and add one Doom token to Bridge 1. For the Martian Invader, shuffle the four Invasion tokens face down into their board positions and add the numbered Invasion Wave initiative cards required by player count.

Important setup caveat: the Ant Queen’s Strange Pheromone and Loveland Frog Strikes Again cards are not shuffled into the starting initiative deck. Their minion abilities introduce them later. The publisher’s Adventure Rules include diagrams for all tokens and the full initiative deck.

The initiative deck: why turn order is not clockwise

At the beginning of each turn, reveal the top initiative card and carry out its Right Now instruction. The card might activate a named player, the villain or one of the selected minions. Some cards carry extra instructions at the bottom that do not resolve until the end of the round.

Place each revealed initiative card face up in a left-to-right row. Once the last card has resolved, carry out all End of Round effects, again from left to right, before shuffling all eligible initiative cards for the next round. This sequence matters because a bridge or invasion effect might resolve after several enemy attacks, not immediately when that card was flipped.

When a minion or player is eliminated, remove its corresponding initiative card. If it is still hidden in the initiative deck, remove it when it is eventually revealed rather than giving a defeated fighter a turn. Certain minions deliberately add more initiative cards; the additions are shuffled in at the specified end-of-round point, not immediately beside the current reveal.

Some enemy effects move an initiative card to the bottom of the deck and can therefore produce another enemy turn during the same round. Do not assume a villain or minion can act only once per round merely because it usually has one initial card.

Player turn: Maneuver, Scheme and Attack

When your Player initiative card is revealed, take a normal Unmatched turn with two actions. Choose Maneuver, Scheme or Attack in any permitted combination. You may repeat an action where legal; for instance, you might Maneuver twice to reposition and build a hand, or Maneuver then Attack to close a gap and strike.

Maneuver ordinarily lets you draw a card and then move your fighters up to their movement value, with the option to BOOST using a discarded card for extra distance. A sidekick is a friendly fighter but is not automatically your Hero; effects naming ‘hero’ may not work on a sidekick.

Scheme means playing a Scheme card from your own deck and resolving its text. These often improve positioning, create future opportunities or manipulate hands and card decks. They are not ordinary attacks even if they deal damage through an effect.

Attack requires a legal attack card, a target in range and normal Unmatched line-of-sight and zone restrictions. Melee fighters generally need an adjacent enemy; ranged fighters can target a space in the relevant colored zone. The opponent is automated here, so the enemy receives the top card of its own deck as its defense card.

Existing competitive Unmatched rules remain in force unless Adventures expressly changes them. The boxed product includes both ordinary core Unmatched rules and separate Adventures rules; reading only one booklet will leave important details missing.

Attacking villains and minions: reveal cards and resolve combat

Choose a legal enemy target, put your chosen attack or versatile card facedown, and turn the top card of that enemy’s action deck facedown as its defense. Reveal both simultaneously. Compare the attacking player’s combat value with the defending enemy’s printed defense value, then apply immediate, during-combat and after-combat effects at their proper timing.

Enemy action cards are unusual versatile cards with separate attack and defense numbers. If an enemy card has an effect specifically in its attack-value box, do not apply that effect while the card is used as defense. Some effects apply in both situations; check the positioning of their rules text.

Combat damage to the villain or minion reduces its health dial. When an enemy reaches zero health, remove its figure or token, dial and whole deck from play. Its initiative card is removed as well. The main villain being defeated immediately wins the cooperative game, even if an unimportant minion remains on the battlefield.

Each enemy’s deck includes a Deception card that causes its discard pile to be shuffled back into its deck whenever Deception enters the discard. The effect cannot be canceled, including in the middle of another effect. Unlike player heroes, these enemies do not take exhaustion damage from running out of their card deck in the same way.

Useful distinction: if you attack a minion, use that minion’s deck for the defense. Neither the Mothman deck nor another minion’s card supplies an automatic defense for it.

Enemy turns: how targets are selected

An enemy’s initiative activation does not give it two choices like a player. It attempts one attack, moving only as needed to make the attack. Enemy targeting follows a specified priority so that nobody at the table needs to invent artificial intelligence decisions.

1. Adjacent target: if a hero or sidekick is already adjacent, attack without moving. If multiple targets are adjacent, the players choose which is targeted.
2. Closest reachable target: otherwise find the closest hero or sidekick within the enemy’s printed movement range. Use a shortest route to get adjacent; the players settle ties.
3. No reachable target: if no allied fighter can be reached within the move value, the enemy neither moves nor attacks. Instead, advance the Threat marker one space.

For combat, the enemy reveals the top card of its action deck as the attack. The defender may play an eligible defense card facedown from hand. Reveal together, use the enemy card’s attack value, and resolve all printed effects with normal Unmatched timing.

This final ‘no target’ rule is crucial for strategy. Running all heroes as far away as possible might sound safe, but it pushes the villain’s objective track forward whenever enemies cannot reach anyone. Maintaining a controlled front line can be better than hiding indefinitely.

The Threat track: what does it actually measure?

The board’s Threat marker tracks progress toward the villain’s objective. An effect may advance it by a named number of spaces; when moving it, count physical spaces rather than jumping according to the values printed below the track. The Threat level is a separate number printed under the marker’s current position, used by specific cards.

When the marker reaches its last track space, the villain completes its objective once. Resolve the villain’s special outcome immediately, ignoring any movement beyond the end. Unless that completion ends the whole game, return the marker to its first space and continue. The villains are not instantly victorious simply because the track fills once.

Both villain campaigns have four objective completions as the terminal failure, but the intermediate penalties differ. Mothman destroys a bridge each time; Martian Invader reveals another Invasion token and unlocks more effects. The fourth completion ends the heroes’ chance of victory.

Be alert to end-of-round initiative effects. Mothman’s own card advances threat by more when Doom tokens collect on the lowest-numbered bridge, meaning a single quiet round can suddenly bring the marker to the last space.

Mothman scenario: how bridges and Doom tokens work

The Point Pleasant side of the board has four numbered bridge connections. At setup each bridge has an effect side up, with a Doom token on the first bridge. A bridge counts as a connection between neighboring spaces for movement or a melee attack; the bridge token is not itself a space a fighter may stand on.

At the end of each round, Mothman’s initiative card advances Threat by one plus the number of Doom tokens currently on the lowest-numbered bridge. When that advancement reaches the end of the track, the lowest-numbered bridge is destroyed, regardless of where Mothman happens to be standing.

After destroying Bridge 1, 2 or 3, move its Doom tokens to the next lowest-numbered bridge, remove the destroyed bridge and carry out the two effects listed for that destroyed-bridge position. Then reset the Threat marker to the start. The connection is gone: the affected adjacent spaces no longer connect for movement or melee attacks. Ranged attacks across the same zone may still be legal.

After a Hero completes a Maneuver, they may discard a card to activate one adjacent bridge. They can trigger its printed effect and remove Doom tokens according to the discarded card’s BOOST value. Activating the effect is optional; Doom removal is available as the rules state even if you do not use that benefit.

Example: if Bridge 1 carries three Doom tokens when Mothman’s end-of-round ability resolves, Threat advances four spaces: one base step plus those three. The team can spend boosts to remove Doom before that initiative effect resolves. If Bridge 4 is destroyed, the heroes lose immediately.

Bridge actions and strategy in Point Pleasant

Each bridge provides a different optional activation bonus. The Drawbridge helps a player rebuild toward four cards. The Covered Bridge can restore up to three health to a fighter. The Truss Bridge can move a fighter up to three spaces. The Suspension Bridge permits looking at two cards in an enemy deck and discarding one.

These bonuses give the team reasons to fight around a bridge even when there is a more direct route to Mothman. A player using a low-impact Maneuver at a bridge might both reduce Doom and heal a teammate, buying another round before the next bridge falls. The other players can then focus more actions on actual villain damage.

Bridge numbering also determines the order of danger. When the first bridge is destroyed, Doom moves forward instead of disappearing, often accelerating the next loss. A team that ignores Doom during its first several rounds may later find that it lacks enough cards with useful BOOST values to reverse the spiral.

The printed bridge effects do not require you to fight Mothman on that bridge. They are abilities that a Hero adjacent to the bridge can activate after a Maneuver action, so changing your route can be worthwhile even if you do not draw a villain into the area.

Martian Invader scenario: fields, aliens and invasion waves

The McMinnville side of the board contains eight fields, numbered one to eight. A field borders certain spaces along its perimeter. Alien tokens are not fighters; you cannot attack, damage or choose them with a normal fighter-targeting card. Instead, they occupy fields and support the Martian invasion.

Each field can hold up to eight alien tokens. A field with any aliens is occupied, and a field with none is empty. When a card adds aliens but the common supply runs out, place as many as you can and advance Threat by one for each missing alien.

After performing a Maneuver, a player may remove one alien from a field bordering one of their fighters’ spaces. They can do this even when no miniature moved during the Maneuver. If the Hero borders multiple fields, they still remove only one alien from one field through that single option.

At setup the four Invasion tokens are shuffled facedown. Include one numbered Invasion Wave initiative card per player, so solo uses only Wave 1 and four players use Waves 1 through 4. When Threat fills, reveal the leftmost facedown Invasion token; its corresponding symbol may now make previously dormant effects on Martian cards active. Threat then resets unless this was the fourth Invasion token.

Fourth revealed Invasion token = immediate defeat. Merely having lots of aliens on the board does not in itself count as four completed objectives, but it makes several Martian card effects more threatening and can cause fast Threat increases if the alien supply is exhausted.

Which villain is easier: Mothman or Martian Invader?

The official Adventures rules recommend Mothman for the first session and explicitly identify Martian Invader as more challenging. Both use automated attacks and Threat progression, but the source of pressure differs.

Mothman is an easier visual problem: the four bridges can be seen and their numbered order is fixed. Your team can plan which bridge to defend, what BOOST cards will reduce Doom and how the board geometry changes when a bridge disappears. It is possible to learn basic initiative timing here while leaving the alien-field vocabulary for a later game.

The Martian Invader is a spatial-control and escalation challenge. A single Maneuver removes one alien from an adjacent field, while Invasion Wave cards can add aliens or advance a larger threat effect. Every revealed Invasion token permanently unlocks more card effects, so the danger rises as the team loses objectives.

For players familiar with competitive Unmatched, neither should be treated as a normal one-on-one duel. An efficient damage turn against the villain may still lose to the Threat clock if every minion spends its next initiative on an unreachable target. Prioritize coordination, not just the strongest individual attack card.

All six minions and how they change the game

At setup, choose one minion per player from a pool of six. The six are Jersey Devil, Ant Queen, the Blob, Skunk Ape, Loveland Frog and Tarantula. Each comes with its own health dial and deck, so replacing one minion can meaningfully change the puzzle even when you replay the same villain.

You are not required to beat all six in a single game. The number present scales with player count. If you are playing with one hero, choose one minion; with four heroes, choose four. Consider using fewer disruptive combinations while teaching the game, then swap in Ant Queen or Loveland Frog for a greater initiative challenge.

Web and Acid tokens: movement penalties explained

Tarantula places Web tokens on the board. When a hero or sidekick enters an empty space containing Web, it must end that movement. It may move again using a different legal action or effect, but the current movement is halted. Web does not automatically deal damage.

The Blob places Acid tokens. When a hero or sidekick enters an empty space with Acid, it takes one damage, but that does not itself stop movement. The side effects are deliberately different: one controls distance, the other costs health.

Both hazards have exceptions. A Hero or sidekick ignores Web or Acid in a space containing a friendly fighter. Enemies also ignore these hazards. Each space can contain at most one of each type, and once placed the hazard cannot be moved or removed using a normal action unless a specific rule permits an exception.

Route example: a Hero attempting to chase Mothman through a corridor containing an unoccupied Web space must stop movement upon entering it, even if their movement value was high enough to reach Mothman farther away. A different route or having a teammate in that space can avoid the disruption.

Four included heroes: Tesla, Jill Trent, Golden Bat and Annie Christmas

The box supplies four playable Unmatched heroes in addition to its cooperative villains. They also work in standard competitive Unmatched games. Each has a personal card deck and normal Hero/sidekick rules, with strengths that reward different contributions to a group.

• Nikola Tesla: a ranged fighter with an electrical-coil resource. Build or spend electrical charge to enhance key card effects, including powerful tactical interactions.
• Dr. Jill Trent, Science Sleuth: uses equipment and gadgets, making her a flexible problem-solver. The value of a tool often depends on when it is deployed and which enemy action it disrupts.
• The Golden Bat: a melee superhero with powerful effects and positional choices that can be applied to fighting villains or dangerous minions.
• Annie Christmas: a melee fighter whose abilities reward battling while behind, creating opportunities to turn a disadvantaged position into damage or movement efficiency.

The exact printed hero abilities are described in the official Set Rules PDF. Do not treat broad playstyle labels here as complete card text. Sidekicks, where included, are friendly fighters but have different rules from heroes and may remain on the board after their Hero is defeated.

Teaching suggestion: pick heroes whose deck types you can explain clearly, and spend the first round learning how your normal Maneuver, Scheme and Attack actions interact with the initiative system. The ability to swap heroes in later games is one of the product’s strengths.

Can you play Unmatched Adventures solo?

Yes. A solo player can control one Hero and play against Mothman or Martian Invader without any automated ally deck. Set villain starting health to 10 for a one-player game, add one minion and include only Player 1 among the player initiative cards. For Martian Invader, include only the Invasion Wave 1 initiative card initially.

The publisher’s official campaign FAQ also says a solo player may control up to four Heroes. In that case, use the relevant multi-hero components and counts rather than trying to apply a one-hero health dial to a four-hero setup. Managing multiple hands reduces individual decision surprises but requires more table space and attention.

The system does not introduce a personal points score for solo mode; the win condition is still reducing the villain to zero health, and losing still occurs upon the fourth objective completion or defeat of all allied fighters. Every added minion and player card changes the initiative deck’s timing, so multiplayer scaling is not just a matter of increasing villain health.

If you want the cleanest first solo session, start with Mothman, one Hero and a straightforward minion, then experiment with multi-handed play once the targeting rules feel automatic.

Can you use heroes from other Unmatched sets?

Yes, with important exceptions. Restoration Games and IELLO state that Tales to Amaze accepts nearly all previously released Unmatched heroes. The included heroes may also be used competitively with the original dueling rules on Unmatched battlefields.

However, imported cards may refer to an opponent’s hand, enemy choices or effects that assume a human-controlled side. The Adventures rulebook supplies conventions. Enemies count as opposing fighters, but you cannot select an enemy as an ‘opponent’ for an effect that asks you to choose an opponent. Enemy powers that say an enemy may choose generally decline to do so; if an effect would require an enemy to choose between options, the effect can be ignored.

If an effect examines an enemy’s hand, instead look at the top of that enemy’s deck. If it forces an enemy to discard cards, discard that number from the enemy deck. Effects causing enemies to draw cards recycle cards from the enemy discard pile back into its deck; enemies cannot become exhausted.

Restoration’s FAQ warns that a handful of specific fighters whose card sets rely heavily on player-to-player interactions are not ideal for Adventures. Check the official compatibility FAQ and the actual printed card text before assuming every crossover effect works without modification.

Amazing Event cards: adjusting the difficulty

Once the team understands the standard game, the publisher recommends increasing challenge by using Amazing Event cards. After finishing normal setup, select or randomly draw one to three of these cards and place them face up. Their effects apply throughout the game.

The cards are an optional difficulty system, not the same as the initiative deck and not the normal starting hand of a villain. The product includes a small Amazing Event set, and combining several can create especially difficult situations depending on chosen heroes and minions.

For a fair progression, first play Mothman without these modifiers. When the team wins reliably, change one minion or introduce a single Amazing Event. Adding several events, swapping both the villain and heroes, and increasing minion disruption simultaneously makes it difficult to determine which new rule caused a defeat.

Advanced challenge is often about tempo: the heroes need enough card draw and defense to survive repeated minion attacks, but also need to deal enough damage before objective completion four. Additional events make that trade-off less forgiving.

Beginner strategy: manage the objective while dealing damage

1. Prioritize stopping threat acceleration. A villain with three completed objectives is one completion from winning, even if it has only a little health left. Reduce Doom at a Mothman bridge or clear Martian aliens when that is more urgent than a speculative attack.
2. Do not send all heroes out of reach. When an enemy has no fighter it can reach, Threat advances. A controlled defending position can slow the track even if it invites one enemy attack.
3. Choose minion targets intelligently. Eliminating Ant Queen or Loveland Frog removes their future initiative effects. But defeating a low-pressure minion instead of damaging a nearly defeated villain can waste decisive time.
4. Use enemy defense decks tactically. An enemy always draws its top card to defend, making some top-deck information or manipulation effects powerful. Deception reshuffles can reset what the team expects.
5. Save high-BOOST cards for bridge maintenance where possible. Bridge activations can remove Doom according to the card’s BOOST value while providing a healing, card-draw or movement effect.
6. Remember the two-action turn. Scheme and Attack are not free after Maneuver; plan whether you need the first action for positioning or hand improvement before committing to an attack.
7. Communicate openly. Unlike hidden-hand competitive Unmatched, this game welcomes discussion of card options and objectives. Share enough information to avoid overcommitting several heroes to the same minion.

These are independent editorial principles based on the published rules, not first-hand playtest claims or untested house rules. The best decisions depend on current health, initiative cards and which enemy action decks have recently reshuffled.

Tales to Amaze compared with competitive Unmatched and TMNT Adventures

The original Unmatched system focuses on player-versus-player fighter duels. Players use unique decks and two actions to outmaneuver each other, choosing attack and defense cards secretly. Tales to Amaze replaces the human opponents with two selectable villains and automated minions, while adding initiative and scenario-specific objective tracks.

In Tales to Amaze, you can choose from Nikola Tesla, Annie Christmas, Golden Bat and Dr. Jill Trent, or bring a compatible fighter from another set. You can also take those four new heroes back into competitive Unmatched, using the included double-sided battlefield without cooperative objective tokens.

Unmatched Adventures: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is another later cooperative Unmatched Adventures title. It offers a different licensed setting, enemies and playable heroes. This guide focuses only on Tales to Amaze’s 2023 Mothman and Martian Invader scenarios, rather than borrowing TMNT-specific instructions or implying the two boxes contain identical components.

If you want more unusual cooperative games, compare Horrified: World of Monsters for individual monster puzzles, Spirit Island for asymmetric team powers, and Bomb Busters for constrained collaborative deduction. Those are different systems but attract players seeking a shared victory objective.

Frequently asked rules questions

Is Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze cooperative?

Yes. The Heroes work together against the game-controlled villain and selected minions, not against one another.

How many people can play?

One to four. A solo player can control a single Hero or multiple Heroes if desired.

How many minions are included?

Six are available. Choose as many different minions for a session as there are participating Heroes under standard setup.

Do I need another Unmatched set?

No. Tales to Amaze contains four playable Heroes and the needed cooperative battle rules. Additional Unmatched sets provide optional crossover fighters.

Which villain should I face first?

The publisher recommends Mothman. The Martian Invader is a more challenging objective.

How much health does the villain start with?

Ten health for each player in the standard setup, from 10 with one player through 40 with four players.

What causes the team to lose?

The villain completes its objective four times, or all of the players’ Heroes and sidekicks are defeated.

When does Mothman destroy a bridge?

Each time Threat reaches the end of its track. Bridge 1 is destroyed first, and the fourth destroyed bridge loses the game.

How do you remove Doom tokens?

After a Maneuver, discard a card to activate one adjacent bridge and remove Doom according to that card’s BOOST value.

What happens if no Hero is in an enemy’s movement range?

The enemy does not move or attack. Instead, Threat advances one space.

How do Martian invasion tokens work?

Reveal one new Invasion token when Threat fills. Revealed tokens allow new Martian effects; the fourth ends the game.

Can the Blob’s Acid stop movement?

No. Acid damages, while Tarantula’s Web stops that particular movement on entry.

Can a minion or villain run out of cards permanently?

No. The Deception card reshuffles its discard pile, and enemies have special handling that prevents normal player-style exhaustion.

Are all four Heroes compatible with competitive Unmatched?

Yes. The publisher explicitly permits use of the four included Heroes in normal competitive matches.

Do I need to eliminate every minion to win?

No. Defeating the main villain is sufficient for a cooperative victory.

Primary rules and editorial verification

• Restoration Games — official Tales to Amaze product, villains, minions and components
• IELLO / Restoration Games — official English Adventures Rules PDF (cooperative play)
• IELLO / Restoration Games — official English Set Rules PDF (included Heroes)
• IELLO — international product details and all downloadable rules
• Restoration Games campaign FAQ — solo, compatibility and international editions

Content fact checked October 17, 2026. This independently written guide covers the 2023 standalone Tales to Amaze edition and bases rules descriptions on the official cooperative and set rules, without reproducing proprietary cards or artwork. Examples and strategy recommendations are editorial interpretations, not claims of playing or independently testing the game. Product names and character references identify the relevant games; BoardGameArchive is not affiliated with the publishers.