Overview

The Evil Evens have taken to the skies in an attempt at deck domination! The only things stopping them are four intrepid Ace Pilots and your ace arithmetic skills.

Ace Pilot is a cooperative card game for one to four players¹ that uses a standard deck of cards. Pilots flip through the deck until they reveal an even card, then attempt to defeat it using the arithmetic abilities of the pilots in play. This continues until either all pilots have been defeated or the deck has been expunged of those Evil Evens.

Each session is designed to be brief but challenging. Though some situations may seem impossible at first glance, most are winnable. And you’ll feel oh-so-clever when you solve them.

Quick Summary

Ace pilot is, at its heart, miniature math puzzles. You’ll flip over cards to reveal a target number, carefully choose which cards to keep, then construct an equation using those cards to match that target value.

The challenge comes from this core mechanic: you may only play cards to one Ace at a time, and the arithmetic performed will be based on that Ace.

Mnemonic

Just remember the following mnemonics and you’ll be fine:

• Hearts Heighten: The Ace of Hearts performs addition (+).
• Spades Subtract: The Ace of Spades performs subtraction (-).
• Clubs Combine: The Ace of Clubs performs multiplication (x).
• Diamonds Divide: The Ace of Diamonds performs division (/).

This only applies to the Aces. Suit doesn’t matter for the rest of the cards.

The Ace Pilots

Get to know your pilots! You can skip this section if you’re a math maniac, but the game is more fun with a flair for the dramatic, and these pilots are itching to take to the skies.

Hailey (Hearts +)

Sabina (Spades -)

• Operation: Subtraction
• Height: 4’6”
• Weight: 67 lbs
• Zodiac: Aquarius
• Favorite food: Carrots
• Quote: “There’s no substitute for good planning.”

Cam (Clubs x)

Duke (Diamonds /)

• Operation: Division
• Height: 7’7”
• Weight: 776 lbs
• Zodiac: Virgo
• Favorite food: TBD
• Quote: “Many hands make light work.”

Setup

• Set the four aces aside.
• Shuffle the remaining deck, jokers included, face-down.
• Draw a hand of 3 cards.
• Pick a Starting Pilot.

Initial setup -> 3 cards drawn -> Pilot picked.

Card Zones

Recommended card zone arrangement.

• Deck: Cards are revealed from here. You win once it’s empty.
• Discard: Discarded cards end up here. Sometimes you take the top card from it into your hand.
• Hand: Ends each turn with 3 cards. Starts each equation with 4 cards.
• Revealed Odds: Any odds revealed go here. You then pick one of them. The rest are discarded.
• Revealed Evens: Once an even is revealed the Reveal step ends. This becomes your target value.
• Assault Zone: This is where you form your Assault Equation to try to match the target value.
• Defeated: Defeated pilots go here. You lose if all four pilots are defeated.
• Ready: Ace Pilots that can be used in your Assault Equation go here.
• Joker: Revealed jokers go here. Until you spend them.

Game Flow

A video which demonstrates a live session and incidentally explains most of the rules as they come into play is available here. It’s often easier to make sense of in action.

The below sections will also have annotated images from a different playthrough.

Stages

• Reveal cards until you hit an even. This is your target value.
• Draw a 4th card.
• Perform Ace Arithmetic until your Assault Equation matches the target value.
• Cleanup: Pick up all cards used in the equation. Send the pilots to the Assault/Ready/Defeated piles as is appropriate.
• Discard down to 3 cards.

In Detail

Reveal

Reveal cards from the top of the Deck one by one.

Note that jacks are worth 11 (odd), queens are worth 12 (even), and kings are worth 13 (odd).

• If the revealed card is odd, place it in the Revealed Odds pile and keep revealing.
• If the revealed card is a joker, place it in the Joker pile and keep revealing.
• If the revealed card is even, place it in the Revealed Evens pile and stop.
  • This is now your target value.
  • Move on to the Draw phase.
• If the deck runs out of cards before you reveal an even, congratulations! You win. See the section on Increasing the Challenge if you’d like to keep going.
• If your previous round ended in defeat, pick your starting pilot now. Knowing what you’re up against makes it easier.
  • This is also true if you spent a joker last round instead of letting your pilot get defeated.

Reveal Odd -> Reveal Odd -> Reveal Even.

Draw

Take a 4th card into your hand.

• If there are any cards in the Revealed Odds pile, it must be one of them.
  • Discard the remaining Revealed Odds.
• If there are no cards in the Revealed Odds pile, take the top card of the Discard pile.
• If there are no Revealed Odds nor cards in the Discard pile, draw the top card of the Deck.

We drew the 3 and discarded the 5.

Ace Arithmetic

Overview

Each Ace Pilot can only perform one arithmetical operation: Hearts heighten (+), Spades subtract (-), Clubs combine (x), and Diamonds divide (/).

The trick of the game is to find the right order to arrange your Aces such that the cards played on them resolve to your target value.

Specifics

Adding Aces

You should have exactly one Ace in the Assault Zone: it was either the last pilot played during the previous equation, the one you picked before drawing a 4th card if you were defeated last round, or the one you picked before revealing the first cards at the beginning of the game.

That Ace is considered your Starting Pilot for this round.

Starting Pilot.

The Starting Pilot must have two or more cards played on it before any additional Aces can be added to the equation.

We chose to play 3 cards here, which satisfies the minimum of 2.

Once two or more cards have been played on your Starting Pilot, you may choose to add another Ace to the equation if necessary.

• This Ace can go to the left or right of any existing Ace, or in the middle if there are two Aces. It must have at least one card played to it.
  • If you choose to play only 1 card on it, that card is called a Carryover Card. Play that card sideways.

Whichever Ace you play last, regardless of where it is in the equation, is your Ending Pilot. Keep that in mind for later.

We chose to play Duke (Diamonds /) and a 3. He becomes our Ending Pilot.
We play the 3 sideways to indicate that it’s a Carryover Card.

Resolving Values

Within an Ace

If an Ace has two or more cards played to it (such as your Starting Pilot), resolve its value according to basic arithmetic:

• Hailey (Hearts +) will add the values together.
  • 1 + 2 + 5 = 8.
• Sabina (Spades -) will subtract the values, left-to-right.
  • Negative values become positive at the end of the resolution.
  • 9 - 9 - 6 = -6. This becomes 6.
• Cam (Clubs x) will multiply the values together.
  • 4 x 3 = 12.
• Duke (Diamonds /) will divide the values in a left-to-right order.
  • Fraction values must be rounded either up or down to the nearest whole number. You get to choose.
  • 12 / 5 = 2.4. You choose whether you’d rather this be 2 or 3.
  • If you divide by 0 the game is over. Everyone loses. (Robots hate division by zero².)

9 - 9 - 6 = -6. Which becomes 6.

Between Aces

When multiple Aces exist in the Assault Zone they are resolved from left-to-right according to the following rules:

• If the Ace you’re resolving has two or more cards played on it, resolve those cards according to the Within an Ace rules first. That’s the value of this Ace.
  • If the next Ace has 2 cards on it, which can only happen if both aces have two cards, then treat the resolved value of the second Ace as though it were a 3rd card on the first Ace.
    • Hearts(1, 2), Clubs(3, 3) would resolve to 1 + 2 + (3 x 3) = 12.
  • If the next Ace has 1 Carryover Card on it, treat this Ace’s resolved value as the first value of the Carryover Card.
    • Hearts(1, 2), Clubs(2) would resolve to (1 + 2) x 2 = 6.
    • Hearts(1, 2), Clubs(3), Spades(4) would resolve to ((1 + 2) x 3) - 4 = (3 x 3) - 4 = 9 - 4 = 5.
• If the first Ace has 1 Carryover Card on it, treat the resolved value of the next Ace as its second value.
  • Hearts(2), Clubs(3, 2) = 2 + (3 x 2) = 8.
  • Hearts(2), Clubs(3), Spades(4, 2) would resolve to 2 + (3 x (4 - 2)) = 2 + (3 x (2)) = 8.
  • Hearts(2), Clubs(3, 2), Spades(4) would resolve to (2 + (3 x 2)) - 4 = (2 + (6)) - 4 = 4.
• If the last Ace has 1 Carryover Card on it, treat the resolved value of the whole equation to its left as its first value.
  • Spades(4, 1, 11), Diamonds(2) = (4 - 1 - 11) / 2 = (8) / 2 = 4.
  • Spades(13, 3), Diamonds(5) = (13 - 3) / 5 = 2.
  • Clubs(2, 4), Spades(3), Hearts(7) = ((2 + 4) - 3) + 7 = ((6) - 3) + 7 = 10.

Sabina: 9 - 9 - 6 = -6 = 6. Duke: 6 / 3 = 3!

Notes

• You’ll never end up playing more than 3 pilots; your active hand size is 4, the first pilot requires at least 2 cards, and each additional pilot requires at least 1 card.
• You can’t re-deploy a pilot – there’s no adding, dividing, then adding again. The Assault Equation is always evaluated left-to-right.
• Make sure to dramatically announce each pilot by name every time they’re deployed. This is very important.
• If you think it just cannot be done, think again! Seriously, in our testing almost every situation was solvable with enough clever thought. Usually in more than one way. But if you’re still stumped, then follow the Defeat rules in the next step. You’re not out of the fight yet!

Cleanup

Take all of the cards used in the Assault Equation into your hand. This includes the Evil Even you just defeated – the power of arithmetic has convinced them to join your side!

Cleanup Part 1: pickup all of the non-Ace cards used in the Assault Equation.

Victory

Return all but the most recently deployed pilot to the Ready pile. Leave the most recently deployed pilot in The Assault Zone – you’ll be starting with them in the next Assault Equation.

Cleanup Part 2 (Victory): The Ending Pilot (Duke) remains. The others go to the Ready pile.

• If you only used one pilot, there’s nothing to do here.
• The most recently deployed pilot is not necessarily the last pilot in the equation. If you started with Duke (Division) and then placed Sabina (Subtraction) to his left, you’d leave Sabina in The Assault Zone.

If you have a joker set aside and any Defeated pilots, you may Discard that joker and return all Defeated pilots to the Ready pile.

• You may only do this if victorious.
• You may choose not to do this if you like to live dangerously. (Perhaps you think you’ll lose another pilot later and still be able to solve an equation to get both of them back.) Not recommended.

Defeat

Send the Starting Pilot (not the one most recently played nor the one at the beginning of the equation, but the one you started the round with) to the Defeated pile face-down.

If you have a joker set aside, you must instead discard that joker and send your Starting Pilot to the Ready pile. That is not optional.

You don’t have to pick a new starting pilot until the end of the next Reveal step. This helps you get back on your feet.

Discard

Discard down to 3 cards in hand. Choose carefully which card is on top, as you may be forced to draw it next round if no odds are Revealed.

We chose to discard the 9 and the 3, keeping the 3 on top.

Then return to the Reveal step for the next round, repeating until the deck is depleted (yay) or all of your Ace Pilots are Defeated (boo).

Extended Example

Let’s continue the playthrough established in our previous images so we can demonstrate some of the above concepts as they naturally occur.

Round 2

We revealed a 2. Therefore we must draw the 3.

6 / 3 = 2!

We kept the 9, 6, and 2 and discarded the rest.

Round 3

We revealed an 8, so we must draw the 3.

First we play the 3 & 9 on Duke. Then we play Hailey to his left with the 6 & 2.
This is the rare case where two aces have two cards; we resolve it as though the left ace has 3 cards with the 3rd value being the resolution of the 2nd ace.
6 + 2 + (3 / 9 (round down)) = 8 + 0 = 8!

We drew all the valued-cards, sent our non-Ending-Pilot back to Ready, and Discarded 9 & 3 (3 on top).

Round 4

We revealed a 6 and so must draw the 3.

8 + 3 = 11. (11) / 2 (round up) = 6.
Ignore the “Oops!” – we misread the card values when image editing. Eye strain is a thing!
Because 2 is a Carryover Card, and because it’s the last Ace in the equation it uses the (8 + 3 = 11) as its input.

We drew the valued-cards, kept our Ending Pilot, and discarded what we didn’t want, leaving the 2 on top.

Round 5

We revealed a 12 (queen) and so must draw the 2.

8 / 6 (round up) = 2. 3 x 2 = 6.
Oops! According to the rules, this should evaluate as 8 / 6 / (3 x 2).
Pretend we put Cam on the left: 3 x 2 x (8 / 6 = 2) = 6 x (2) = 12!

Our Ending Pilot (Cam) stays, we pick up the other cards and Discard down to 3.

Round 6

We revealed a 13 (king) before the 4. Therefore we must take the 13.

2 x 13 = 26. (26) / 6 (round down) = 4!
Hopefully you can tell what’s going on without the arrows at this point.
They would’ve been a mess here.

Cleanup & Discard. You know the drill.

Round 7 (of sorts)

13 (king) revealed before target 12 (queen). The 13 will go into our hand.

6 / 13 (round up) = 1. 1 - 13 = -12 = 12. And some other thing in the corner.

Is it possible that that corner is more interesting than our game?

Can’t even hold a cat’s attention for more than a minute.

Bwoop! Mission accomplished.

Round 8

12 (queen) revealed, meaning 13 (king) goes into our hand.

This one’s intricate. To resolve from left-to right, we start with Duke. 4 / ?
To figure out its second value, we resolve Sabina. 13 - 6 = 7. So 4 / 7 (round down) = 0.
And to resolve Hailey, 0 + 12 = 12!

We happened to play Hailey last, though it equally well could’ve been Duke.

Round 9

Finally a joker is revealed! Set it in the Joker pile and keep revealing.
Took a long while before we hit an even.

We decide that 11 (jack) would be the most useful to draw.

Let’s say we couldn’t solve that one and our equation ended in Defeat.
Discard the joker (because we have one), then send all (non-Defeated) Aces back to Ready.
As a consolation, we won’t have to pick our Starting Pilot until next round.

Round 10

We Reveal an 8, which means we’ll draw the 11 (jack).
But first we must choose a new Starting Pilot. We pick Duke.

Only after picking the pilot do we Draw.
12 / 11 (round up) = 2. 2 x 4 = 8!

Cleanup & Discard.

Round 11 (The Finale)

We revealed a 10, which means we’d draw the 8.

Let’s say this equation can’t be solved (though it can).
Because we have no joker, our Starting Pilot is Defeated.
Then we cleanup as usual.

As per the rules of Defeat, we don’t have to pick our next pilot quite yet.

Hopefully at this point you get the picture. Certainly we ran out (of pictures).

Increasing the Challenge

What? But the game is hard enough already, you say? We say, “Nay nay!”

The game as described so far is considered Challenge Rating 1. Challenge rating 2 plays similarly, except that you Reveal cards until you hit 2 evens, and your goal is to solve the sum of them (8 + 10 = 18). Challenge Rating 3 is the same but with 3 evens, etc.

If you’re looking for an extended session, then after defeating the deck at your current Challenge Rating, keep any Defeated pilots Defeated and any unspent jokers set aside. That way it’s like you’re out on one long mission, with no breaks in-between.

Alternatively you could just choose to start at a higher Challenge Rating, but at some point you’ve clearly become too good at arithmetic and it’s time to move on. (Congratulations; you’re smart!)

In our testing we were able to defeat Challenge Ratings 1-5 consecutively, in the same sitting. While this doesn’t prove that every situation is winnable, it does strongly imply it. (We didn’t actually attempt Challenge Rating 6; our butt was sore!)

Tips

The 0 Trick

It’s often difficult starting with division; you can’t make numbers higher than they already are. But because division lets you choose to round up or down, you can often “round down” to 0 and then swap to Addition to get your desired total.

• Let’s say you have a 6, 10, and queen (12) in your hand and are trying to defeat a 10. Let’s also say you were locked in to starting this round with Duke.
• 6 / 12 = 0.5. 0.5 rounded down is 0. Then swap to Hailey and 0 + 10 = 10.

Glossary

• Ace Arithmetic: Game phase in which math is performed. It’s fun.
• Ace Pilot: The four aces, each which perform one type of arithmetical operation.
  • Hailey (Hearts): Addition.
  • Sabina (Spades): Subtraction.
  • Cam (Clubs): Multiplication.
  • Duke (Diamonds): Division.
• Assault Equation: The card values combined with the Ace Pilot arithmetic operations which attempt to match theq value of the Revealed Evil Evens.
• Assault Zone: Where the cards for the Assault Equation are played out.
• Cam: The Ace Pilot of Clubs (Combination). Multiplies.
• Carryover Card: When an Ace has only a single card played on it, it has special rules for resolution.
• Challenge Rating: The difficulty of the game. Starts at 1.
• Cleanup: Game phase in which Ace Pilots are returned to Ready (if appropriate) and previously-played cards are picked up.
• Clubs: Combination (multiplication).
• Deck: The pile of cards you’re trying to work through in order to win.
• Defeated: The pile of Ace Pilots that have been defeated. Discarding a joker after successful Ace Arithmetic restores them.
• Diamonds: Division.
• Discard (Stage): Game phase in which you discard down to 3 cards.
• Discard (Zone): The pile discarded cards go to.
• Division by Zero: Seriously, don’t do it!
• Draw: Game phase in which you add a 4th card to your hand.
• Duke: The Ace Pilot of Diamonds. Divides.
• Ending Pilot: The last pilot played in an Assault Equation. Becomes the Starting Pilot of the next round.
• Enthusiast: Someone who reads all the rules, even if they aren’t relevant.
• Evil Evens: An even-valued card when Revealed from the Deck. (They’re no longer evil once they’ve made it into your hand.)
• Hailey: The Ace Pilot of Hearts. Heightens (adds).
• Hand: Playable cards reside here. It has 3 cards at the end of a round but 4 cards at the beginning of each Ace Arithmetic phase.
• Hearts: Heighten (addition).
• Joker (Zone): Revealed joker (cards) are placed here.
• Ready: Ace Pilots which can be used in Assault Equations reside here.
• Reveal (Stage): Game phase in which cards are drawn from the top of the deck until an even arrives.
• Revealed Evens: When you reveal an even, place it here. It becomes your Target Value for Ace Arithmetic.
• Revealed Odds: Odd-valued cards during the Reveal step. You get to pick one for use in your Assault Equation.
• Sabina: The Ace Pilot of Spades. Subtracts.
• Spades: Subtraction.
• Starting Pilot: The pilot in the Assault Zone at the beginning of the Ace Arithmetic phase. Must have at least 2 cards played on it. Is Defeated if you fail the Assault Equation.
• Target Number: The value you’re trying to get your Assault Equation to resolve to in order to win.

© 2023 Strange Hill to Die On Games LLC2