Combat

The heroes always get to go first (I guess because they're the ones kicking in doors and killing the poor, innocent inhabitants of the dungeon... a statement which, I guess, lets you know where my sentiments lie in this whole shebang).  They get to decide in which order they will activate, and each hero may only activate once.  So on their turn, heroes may either use their special abilities or make a simple attack.

To make a simple attack, the player just flicks the wooden disk for their character.  If the disk hits any opposing piece directly, that creature takes a point of damage.  Potentially, a hero could hit two or more monsters with the same attack, all of which would take damage.  However, players never damage allied pieces with attacks, and secondary hits (when a monster struck by the hero hits another monster) never cause damage.  However, such maneuvering may still be beneficial because they could set up the next shot or remove a monster from having a clear line of counter-attack.

I'll run through the special abilities of the characters quickly, just to give you an idea of what things they can do:

• Barbarian - can Rage twice per game, which allows them to make four flicks in a row (but can't damage the same creature on two consecutive flicks), but leaves them incapacitated (missing a turn) afterwards.  Plus, they have a lot of hit points.
• Rogue - If they don't damage a monster on their first flick, they can get a second flick to get into a better/safer position (but which cannot damage monsters).  Plus, they get 100 extra gold for any monster they kill.
• Elf - Don't you love how they've gone all "Basic D&D" on us and made "Elf" equivalent to the other character classes.  Anyway, the Elf gets two ranged shots per room, which are smaller yellow discs that they can flick from anywhere within 1 inch of their character disc.
• Wizard - they get a deck of spell cards, which do all kinds of things such as giving different ranged attacks, summoning a skeleton, placing a shield somewhere on the board, and even healing or teleporting a character.  Each spell card may be used only once and is then discarded.

Once all the heroes have gone, the Overseer gets to activate all of the monster, which usually just means flicking all of their discs as well.  But there are some monsters that have special powers as well, most of which are related to having some number of melee and/or ranged attacks.  Each Catacomb Lord, however, has a list of special abilities that they can use each turn as well. 

The characters track their hit points on their corresponding character mats, while monsters are either eliminated on the first hit or can flip to indicate that they've taken one (of their two) health.  The Catacomb Lord itself is the only monster with a player mat and a track for health.

The Catacomb Lord and Heroic Character play mats...

Special Rooms

Heroes get gold for each monster they kill.  In the Merchant's room (usually found after the second encounter), they can spend this gold (either individually or collectively) to purchase a random assortment of six items.  Most of the items are character-specific, and give some extra special ability.  All the items have an inherent cost, but the hero players get to choose to be "on sale", which can be bought at half price.

After the fourth encounter, the heroes may make use of the Healer.  For 1000 gold, a character may be resurreced (with 2 health), and additional health may be restored for 300 gold each.  In the standard game, there's no use for gold collected after the Healer, but I suppose that you could use it as some sort of game score to track how well you did in the game (assuming that you survive, that is).

End of the Game

The game ends and the Overseer wins if all of the heroes are ever killed and/or incapacitated at the same time.  The heroes win (as a group) if they can survive to the last room and manage to slay the Catacomb Lord. 

Strategery

Catacombs is a very tactical game.  But unlike most other dungeon-crawl games, where the results are dependent on the randomness of a die roll or something similar, success in Catacombs is determined solely by the skill of the players.  This skill involves both the quality of their tactical decisions and the physical execution of the flicking actions.  There is, just to be clear, absolutely no randomness in the game.

So the first and most obvious "strategy" or, more appropriately, "skill" in the game is the actual flicking of the discs.  It takes some practice, but especially if you have some experience with Carrom or Crokinole, this should be pretty simple stuff.  If, however, you really suck at flicking or just don't like it, then Catacombs probably isn't for you.  Personally, I use a technique where I flick with my index finger, holding it on the sides (with my thumb and middle finger) and then flicking straight out.  It seems to give a lot better control than a simple "thumping" motion.

A huge part of the game is also the tactical movement and positioning around the board.  Even when you could possibly make a nice shot and hit a monster, it may not always be the best choice, especially if it leaves them wide open for several counter-attacks.  So when planning moves, you've always got to keep obstructions and other discs in mind, both to protect and to set yourself up.  Along with that, however, are also the ideas that sometimes you want to flick either into an ally or opponent because you want to position them more advantageously.  And often, the success of the first player or two in a turn will change what you can and even want to try and accomplish with your turn.

One specific positioning tidbit that I'll give away is where to put your ranged dudes (like the Elf, Skeletal Archers, Wizard using most of his spells, etc.).  Since you can place the "arrow" disc up to 1 inch away from your character/monster disc before you flick it, it's often a good idea to hide directly behind obstacles with these units.  So basically, you can then "shoot around" corners while staying under cover.  Be careful not to actually in in contact with the obstacle, however, because then someone can come along and strike it, sending you flying in the opposite direction all croquet style.

The final point to consider is when and how to use the special abilities of the heroes and monsters.  The Barbarian's rage is incredibly powerful (especially when set up by the Teleport spell), but it will set him up to take a severe beating himself if you're not careful.  So whether you're thinking about setting up the Thief to finish off monsters (for the extra cash) or when to use a particular spell, you've got to give some consideration to these kinds of choices all game long.