2019: The ARCTIC Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Objective
• Game Components
  • I - General
  • II - For players
  • III - For countries
• Game Set-up
  • A - Lay the board on the table and:
  • B - Choose the starting player
  • C - Distribute player pieces
  • D - Place lobbyists on political influence tracks
• Turn Sequence
  • Phase 1. Pass Starting Player Marker to the Left
  • Phase 2. China Sends a Ship to the Arctic
  • Phase 3. Invest in Political Influence
  • Phase 4. Occupy Political Influence Spaces in Countries
  • Phase 5. China's Action
  • Phase 6. Actions Performed in the Arctic Region Countries
• Lobbyist Actions
  • I - Diplomacy
  • II - Ship Production
  • III - Mining Platform Construction
  • IV - Ship Movement
  • V - Taxes
  • VI - Civil Unrest
  • Lobbyist actions must have an effect
• Lobbyist Reassignment
  • I - Maintain or change lobbyist position
  • II - Withdraw lobbyist
  • III - Political protection of platform
  • Phase 7. Raw Material Production
  • Phase 8. Move Lobbyists from Lobbyist Actions
  • Phase 9. End of Turn
• End of the Game
• Final Score
• The Arctic Council
  • Permanent rules concerning coastal sectors
  • Variable rules concerning sea sectors
• Glossary

Game Objective

The way to gain advantage over the competition is, on one hand, an investment policy which will provide a variety of mined resources, and on the other hand, control of many deposits of the same type to dominate a given raw material segment.

To achieve these goals players influence the internal and foreign policy of the Arctic region countries (Russia, Norway, the European Union, Canada, USA). Also China's participation in the race for access to the Arctic resources is simulated in the game.

Players may use their political influence to obtain subsidies from a given country's budget and to protect their investments in mining platforms built on the sea with behind-the-scenes lobbying. However, the main axis of gameplay is directly influencing the countries' policies by selecting favorable political and economical actions in the countries.

Final scores depend mostly on owning many mining platforms to exploit deposits. Players may also gain points by having political influence in the country which controls the north pole at the end of the game, as well as from their company's cash at the end of the game.

Game Components

I - General

1. A game board with:
   • a map of the Arctic divided into sectors
     • coastal sectors owned by countries (control circles with country colors)
     • sea sectors not owned by countries (white control circles)
     • most sectors have squares (3 types of raw material deposits)
     • some sectors have ship symbols with country colors (for placing country's new ships)
   • 5 country displays (for the Arctic region countries: Russia, Norway, EU, Canada, USA), each with:
     • a political influence track (with 3 spaces numbered 1-3)
     • 6 action spaces (with political and economic icons)
     • a conflict space
     • a treasury area to hold the country's money
   • political influence investment track
   • game turn track labeled I, II, ..., IX
   • score track labeled -10, ..., 100
   • 3 Arctic Council areas for the 3 possible applicable laws concerning Arctic exploration
2. Raw material markers:
   • blue - natural gas
   • dark green - oil
   • orange - concretions
3. 1 starting player marker.
4. 1 game turn marker.
5. 1 applicable law marker.

II - For players

1. Lobbyists (and score marker)
   • white - 7 pawns (for 2-, 3-, 4-player game)
   • black - 7 pawns (for 2-, 3-, 4-player game)
   • wood - 5 pawns (for 3-, 4-player game)
   • dark brown - 5 pawns (for 3-, 4-player game)
2. Mining platforms (2-sided square markers, showing legal and illegal platforms, for whether or not they are in sea sectors controlled by a country)
   • white - 16 platforms
   • black - 16 platforms
   • wood - 12 platforms
   • dark brown - 12 platforms

III - For countries

1. Ships

   • violet - Russia - 14 ships
   • red - Norway - 6 ships
   • dark blue - EU - 12 ships
   • green - Canada - 6 ships
   • brown - USA - 10 ships
   • yellow - China - 4 ships

2. Country markers (discs), used for marking of:

   • a) sea sectors occupied by countries,
   • b) country votes in the Arctic Council
   • c) support for admission of Norway to the European Union
   • d) conflicts

   Markers: violet - Russia - 14; red - Norway - 6; dark blue - EU - 13; green - Canada - 6; brown - USA - 12; yellow - China - 4.

Game Set-up

A - Lay the board on the table and:

• Put the game turn marker on the first space of the game turn track.

• Put country markers on Arctic Council areas:

  • "Countries can not control sea sectors": 4 vote markers (1 Norway, 2 EU, 1 Canada) and the applicable law marker.
  • "Countries control all sea sectors to the north": 1 vote marker (Russia).
  • "Ships take control of sea sectors": 1 vote marker (USA).

• Put money tokens in each Arctic region country's treasury as follows:

  • Russia: $2
  • Norway: $1
  • European Union: $3
  • Canada: $2
  • USA: $4

  (Note: China is represented more abstractly, with no country display and no treasury. During play, all payments to China go to the bank.)

• Put 1 ship of each country in each map sector on that country's ship symbol, as follows:

  • China: 1 sector
  • Russia: 3 sectors
  • Norway: 1 sector
  • EU: 2 sectors
  • Canada: 2 sectors
  • USA: 4 ships in 3 sectors (the sector near Alaska receives 2 ships while the other 2 US ship sectors (east of Canada) each receive 1 ship)

Put each country's remaining markers and ships beside the board.

B - Choose the starting player

Choose the starting player by any mutually agreeable manner, or randomly. That player receives the starting player marker. Several actions are performed by players in clockwise order, starting with the starting player.

C - Distribute player pieces

Each player chooses a player color. Each player receives lobbyists and mining platforms in their chosen color:

	2-player game	3-player game	4-player game
Lobbyists	7	5	4
Mining platforms	16	12	12

Give each player $10 and put one of their lobbyists on the 0 space of the score track. The remaining money is the bank.

D - Place lobbyists on political influence tracks

Players place their lobbyists on the political influence spaces in selected countries. This is performed in the following way (an advanced method can be used by mutual consent of the players):

Method I (basic)

Starting with the starting player and then one after the other in clockwise order, players choose a country and put one of their lobbyists on any empty space (1-3) of the country's political influence track. This continues until all lobbyists have been placed. Then the starting player pays $1 to the last player. Thus the starting player will now have $9 and the last player will now have $11 (all others have $10).

Example (3 players): Alfred (white) is the starting player. To Alfred's left is Betty (black), and then Charles (dark brown). Alfred starts by placing his first lobbyist on the "1" space of Russia's political influence track. Betty places her first lobbyist on the European Union's "1" space. Charles places his first lobbyist on Canada's "1" space.

Alfred places his second lobbyist on Norway's "1" space. Betty places her second lobbyist on USA's "1" space. Charles places his second lobbyist on Russia's "2" space (he'd prefer the "1" space, but Alfred already took it).

Alfred places his third lobbyist on European Union's "2" space. Betty places her third lobbyist on USA's "2" space. Charles places his third lobbyist on Canada "2" space.

Alfred places his fourth lobbyist on Russia's "3" space. Betty places her fourth lobbyist on Canada's "3" space. Charles places his fourth lobbyist on European Union's "3" space.

Norway's "2" and "3" spaces and USA's "3" space remain unoccupied.

Method II (advanced)

Lobbyists are placed beginning from the starting player (A) in the following pattern:

• a) 2-player game: AB AB BA BA BA AB
• b) 3-player game: ABC CBA CAB BAC
• c) 4-player game: ABCD CDAB BDAC

With this method, all the players begin the gameplay with $10.

Turn Sequence

In the first turn of the game, phases 1-4 are omitted. Actions of these phases are already dealt with during setup.

Phase 1. Pass Starting Player Marker to the Left

The player with the starting player marker passes it to the left, making that player become the new starting player.

Phase 2. China Sends a Ship to the Arctic

Place a Chinese ship in the marked place in the sector near Kamchatka (regardless of how many Chinese ships are currently there).

Phase 3. Invest in Political Influence

Starting with the starting player and going clockwise, players with unused lobbyists may place them on spaces on the political influence investment track. Use the track for the appropriate number of players (2, 3 or 4).

After placing a lobbyist on a space, the player pays the bank or receives an indicated amount of money from the bank, depending on whether the space has a negative or positive number. A player may invest to control China's action by occupying one of the two yellow spaces (and paying the indicated amount). If both yellow spaces are occupied, then only the player who paid more has the right to control China's action. (The player who invested less gains nothing for their money spent.) At the end of the turn, lobbyists on yellow spaces will return to their owners.

Phase 3 ends when all players pass one right after the other. A player who has passed but still has lobbyists may choose to rejoin the action and place another lobbyist if the phase doesn't end first due to all players having passed.

Phase 4. Occupy Political Influence Spaces in Countries

The players move their lobbyists from the political influence investment track to any unoccupied space on any country's political influence track. The lobbyists are moved in order starting from the left (highest cost) end of the political influence investment track.

Phase 5. China's Action

If a player controls China's action, that player may:

1. Move Chinese ships as desired. (See "Ship Movement".)

or

2. Build a legal mining platform in a sea sector, if the sector is controlled by China (the player pays the concession fee to the bank), or build an illegal platform in one of sea sectors with a Chinese ship. (See "Mining Platform Construction".)

If no player controls China's action, then all Chinese ships move one sector directly northwards toward the pole. In case of ambiguity (3 Russian coastal sectors each have 2 neighboring sectors to the north), the ship will move to the northeastern sector, not the northwestern. Chinese ships moving automatically do not make any attacks (but they may be attacked later by ships of other countries, when those ships move).

Option (recommended for newbies): Skip this phase during turn I. In this case also skip Phase 2 during turn II.

Phase 6. Actions Performed in the Arctic Region Countries

Political-economic actions are performed by individual Arctic region countries in the following order:

1. Russia, 2. Norway, 3. EU, 4. Canada, 5. USA

A country completes all its actions before the next country begins.

An action will occur for each lobbyist on a country's political influence track, in numerical order from lowest to highest, starting from "1". The owner of the lobbyist in the lowest-numbered occupied space of the political influence track chooses an unoccupied political-economic action and moves that lobbyist onto that action and performs it. This is repeated as long as lobbyists remain on the country's political influence track.

Lobbyist Actions

I - Diplomacy

A player moving a lobbyist onto this space performs exactly one of these actions:

1. Change the country's conflict status: If the conflict space has no marker, put some other country's marker there (starting a conflict). If the conflict space already has another country's marker, remove that marker (ending that conflict) and then optionally place a marker from a different country into the space (starting a new conflict).

Example: Canada starts a conflict with USA.

Two countries are "in conflict" if either or both has a conflict declared against the other. Each country is in at most one conflict started by itself with some other country, and also in possibly several other conflicts started by other countries against it. In addition, each Arctic country is in permanent conflict with China throughout the entire game.

2. Change the country's attitude in the Arctic Council.

Move the country's vote in the Arctic Council to a different law. In the case of the European Union, move both EU markers (or 3 EU markers if Norway has entered the EU).

Example: The European Union (blue markers) stops supporting the law that "Countries can not control sea sectors" and now supports the law that "Ships take control of sea sectors".

At the end of each turn, at most one law will have a majority of votes (at least 4 of 6 markers); if a law has a majority of votes, it becomes (or remains) the current applicable law. If no law has a majority of votes, then the current applicable law remains in effect. (See "The Arctic Council" for details.)

3. Support the acceptance of Norway into the European Union.

This can only be done in Norway. Each time this action is performed, place one blue EU marker onto one of the 2 special spaces next to Norway's 6 regular actions.

If Norway has 2 support markers at the end of any turn (see phase 9), then Norway joins the EU. This means:

• Norwegian ships are replaced by EU ships.
• Norwegian sea control markers are replaced by EU markers.
• All money in Norway's treasury goes to the bank (not to the EU treasury).
• The "4" space on the EU's political influence track is activated. Starting in the next turn, lobbyists may occupy it, permitting up to 4 EU actions in phase 6.
• Norway's ship production and tax income are added to EU's: starting in the next turn, EU may produce 3 ships and earn $4 with the respective actions "Ship Production" and "Taxes".
• The Norwegian marker in the Arctic Council is replaced by an EU marker and moved to the same space with the 2 original EU markers (if it's not already there).
• Norwegian lobbyists protecting platforms (see "Lobbyist Reassignment") are removed.

4. Defame opponent - Reduce an opponent's score by 1 point.

II - Ship Production

Each country has its own maximum ship production potential (Russia: 2, Norway: 1, EU: 2, Canada: 1, USA: 4). A country always produces as many ships as it can afford. The production cost is $1 for each ship built. If a country does not have enough money to produce the maximum, or does not have enough unbuilt ships, it produces and pays for as many ships as possible. The cost is paid from the country's treasury to the bank. Ships are placed in that country's eligible sectors (sectors with ship symbols, just like during setup) as selected by the player who performs the production. New ships may be placed in one or more eligible sectors, with no limit to the number of ships placed in a given sector.

III - Mining Platform Construction

In most map sectors there is 1 of 3 types of raw material deposits: gas (16 blue deposits), oil (10 dark green) and concretions (6 orange). To exploit a deposit, a player's company must construct a mining platform. A sector can have at most 1 mining platform.

Building a legal platform - The player performing the action may build a legal platform in a sector controlled by the currently active country, paying a concession fee of $1 to the country's treasury. The player puts a mining platform marker, legal side up, on the square deposit in the selected sector. The player must also pay construction costs to the bank: building in the sectors closest to the pole (internal ring) cost $3; sectors in the middle ring cost $2; sectors farthest from the pole (outer ring) cost $1.

Building an illegal platform - A player may build an illegal mining platform in an uncontrolled sea sector that has a ship of the currently active country. No concession fee is paid. The player puts a mining platform marker, illegal side up, in the selected sector. The player must pay construction costs ($1, $2 or $3) to the bank as for a legal platform. Ships from other countries in the sector do not block the construction.

(Illustration: legal platform in the internal ring: $1 concession fee + $3 construction costs; middle ring: $1 concession fee + $2 construction costs; outer ring: $1 concession fee + $1 construction costs.)

If a sector is controlled by a country other than the currently active country, no platform may be built there.

IV - Ship Movement

Ships can move from one sector to any adjacent sector. (Adjacent sectors touch by sides or corners.) At least 1 ship must be moved. A ship can move only 1 sector per turn.

If the current applicable law is "Ships take control of sea sectors", then any sea sector occupied by ships of only one country immediately becomes controlled by that country (indicated by placing that country's control marker in the sector). See "The Arctic Council" for details of what happens to a platform in a sector whose control changes.

Throughout the entire game, all 5 Arctic region countries are considered to be in constant conflict with China. This means that attacks by or against Chinese ships are always permitted, regardless of other countries' official conflict status (see "Diplomacy").

Attack - After moving, a country's ship may attack another country's ship if the 2 countries are in conflict (i.e. if either has declared conflict against the other; see "Diplomacy"). The attacking and defending ships are both destroyed. Other ships in the sector (regardless of their country) have no effect on the attack.

Attacks at the north pole - Each country wants to occupy the polar sector. In that specific sector all the countries are in permanent conflict with each other, regardless of the applicable law in the Arctic Council and whether or not a conflict has been declared between the countries. A country gains control of the polar sector by being the only country with ships there. The controlling country retains control even if they have no ships there, until another country moves a ship to the pole. (Effectively as if applicable law "Ships take control of sea sectors" is always in effect at the pole.) Furthermore, attacks are mandatory in the polar sector: if the controlling country has ships there and another country's ship arrives, then the entering ship automatically attacks a defending ship (thus destroying both ships, but not changing control).

Destroying platforms - before or after a move (but not both), ships can destroy:

• any illegal platform,
• any legal platform operating in a sector controlled by another country in conflict with the ships' country.

If a country controls a sector, its ships may not attack a platform in that sector.

A platform cannot be destroyed if there are ships of the country which controls the sector. All such defending ships must be attacked and destroyed first (eliminating an equal number of attacking ships as usual) before (additional) attacking ships can attack the platform. The number of ships attacking the platform must be greater than the platform's defense strength to destroy the platform. The attacking ships are not destroyed.

Platform defense strength:

• 0 for an illegal platform
• 1 for a legal platform
• +1 for each neutral ship in the sector, i.e. for each ship belonging to a country not in conflict with the country defending the sector.

Example 1: Alfred owns a platform in a sea sector which (due to the current applicable law) is not controlled by any country (so the platform is illegal). Betty is performing ship movement for Russia, and there is 1 Russian ship in this sector which has not yet moved. She wants to destroy Alfred's platform. The Russian attack strength is 1, greater than Alfred's platform's defense strength of 0, so the platform is destroyed. Betty may leave the Russian ship there or move it to an adjacent sector.

Example 2: Alfred owns a platform in a sea sector controlled by Canada (so the platform is legal). The sector also has 1 Canadian ship, 1 EU ship and 1 Chinese ship. Betty wants to destroy Alfred's platform. She moves 3 US ships into the sector. The US ships must attack the Canadian ship (so 1 US and 1 Canadian ships are destroyed). As a result, the sector now has 2 US ships, 1 EU ship and 1 Chinese ship. EU is not in conflict with Canada, so its ship is neutral. (China, as always, is in conflict with Canada, as with all Arctic countries.) The US attack strength is 2. The platform's defense strength is also 2 (1 for a legal platform +1 for the neutral EU ship). Since the attack strength is not greater than the defense strength, the platform cannot be destroyed at this time.

V - Taxes

This action adds the indicated money to the country's treasury. (Russia: $2, Norway: $1, EU: $3, Canada: $2, USA: $4). (EU receives $4 if Norway has joined the EU.)

VI - Civil Unrest

This action involves events (strikes, supply disruption, etc.) which will have negative impact upon production of companies in a given country. In phase 7, platforms in sectors controlled by countries with civil unrest will not produce any output.

Lobbyist actions must have an effect

A lobbyist may be moved to a country's action space only if it is possible for the country to actually perform that action. Specifically:

• the Ship Production action cannot be taken if the country has no money: at least one ship must be built.
• the Ship Movement action cannot be taken if the country has no ships: at least one move or attack must be made.
• the Platform Construction action cannot be taken if there are already platforms in every sector which the country controls or has ships in: a platform must be built.

The player must actually make the country do something with the action. It is not legal to take an action (e.g. merely to prevent an opponent from taking it) and then do nothing with it.

Lobbyist Reassignment

Rather than moving a lobbyist from the current country's political influence track to one of the 6 lobbyist actions, a player may instead choose to do one of the following actions with the lobbyist. In that case, the player does not perform one of the 6 regular actions.

I - Maintain or change lobbyist position

A lobbyist on the "2" space (and also the EU's "4" space) may be declared to remain on that influence space for the following turn. A lobbyist on the "1" or "3" space may not remain on that space, but it may be moved to the "2" space (if it is unoccupied) instead of taking one of the country's 6 regular actions.

II - Withdraw lobbyist

The lobbyist's owner may remove the lobbyist. The lobbyist will be available to place in phase 3 of the next turn as usual. The player may optionally receive a subsidy from the country's treasury: $1, or $2 if the player has no cash. (If the country doesn't have enough money, the player receives whatever the country has.)

III - Political protection of platform

A lobbyist can be moved from a country to any platform (even an opponent's) in the Arctic (including sectors controlled by other countries and illegal platforms). The platform also receives a marker of the country from which the lobbyist was taken. A protected platform may not be attacked by anyone throughout the rest of the current turn and until the end of this country's actions in phase 6 of the following turn. At the end of this country's actions in the next turn, the lobbyist will return to the player and the country's marker will be removed from the platform.

A platform may be protected by only 1 lobbyist.

The lobbyist that protects the platform that way also gives some benefit for the player when the country that legally controls the given sector changes (see "The Arctic Council").

Phase 7. Raw Material Production

Each platform (legal and illegal, but not platforms in sectors controlled by country with civil unrest) mines 1 unit of its sector's raw material. Players sell their mined materials in groups as desired to earn:

• Money: $1 for each unit (regardless of type).

or

• Points:
  • 10 - for each group of 3 units of 3 different raw material types,
  • 5 - for each remaining group of 2 units of 2 different raw material types,
  • 2 - for each remaining individual unit (regardless of type).

Example: Alfred's platforms mined 7 units: 4 units of gas, 2 units of oil and 1 unit of concretion. Alfred decides to earn 15 points (1 triple = 10 points, 1 pair of gas and oil = 5 points) and $2 (2 gas units).

Raw materials are sold immediately; they cannot be stored. The starting player decides first how to sell their units, then clockwise.

Phase 8. Move Lobbyists from Lobbyist Actions

For each country, certain lobbyists on lobbyist actions will return to the political influence track:

• The rightmost lobbyist (closest to the "1" space) on the upper row actions (Platform Construction, Ship Production, Diplomacy) moves to the "1" space.
• The rightmost lobbyist (closest to the "3" space) on lower row actions (Civil Unrest, Taxes, Ship Movement) moves to the "3" space.
• All other lobbyists on any of the 6 lobbyist actions return to their owners, available for placement in phase 3 of the next turn.

Phase 9. End of Turn

Do the following steps in order:

• Process Norway's acceptance to the European Union if applicable (see the Norway section of "Diplomacy").
• Check if a new law in the Arctic Council has a majority of votes. If so:
  • Move the applicable law marker to the new law.
  • Mark country ownership (with corresponding country markers) of sea sectors according to the applicable law and current ship positions.
  • Update the legality/illegality status of platforms as needed according to the applicable law and sector control.
  • Pay new concession fees for (or remove) platforms in sectors with new controlling countries as needed under a new applicable law (see "The Arctic Council").

If the game is not yet over, then any lobbyists on the yellow (China) spaces of the political influence investment track return to their owners. Then move the turn marker to the next space and begin a new turn with phase 1.

End of the Game

The game ends:

• at the end of the 9th turn,

or

• at the end of any turn in which China controls the polar sector.

When the game ends, the money in each country's treasury is paid to the players with lobbyists on the political influence track in order:

• $3 to the player whose lobbyist occupies the "1" space
• $2 to the player whose lobbyist occupies the "2" space
• $1 to the player whose lobbyist occupies the "3" space

(If the country has insufficient money to pay a player, the player receives whatever money the country has left.)

Final Score

In addition to the points gained during the gameplay, the players receive:

• 1 point for every $1 they have.
• 10 points for each of their lobbyists in the Arctic country which controls the north pole. If China controls the north pole, then 10 points for each lobbyist on the yellow China spaces of the political influence investment track (see "Phase 3").
• Points for mining specific raw materials, depending on the number of platforms (both legal and illegal), per the table below.

The manual's table has a header row for each player count giving the number of platforms, aligned over three rows of values (gas, oil, concretions). Columns 1-5 and a final "+" column (added for each platform beyond column 5):

Column	1	2	3	4	5	each further
Gas (blue)	1	2	3	4	5	+1
Oil (green)	1	2	4	6	8	+2
Concretions (orange)	1	2	5	8	11	+3

Platform-count headers: 2 players: columns 1-5 hold platform counts 1-5, then "+1" (column 6). 3 players: column 1 blank, columns 2-5 hold platform counts 1-4, then "+1". 4 players: columns 1-2 blank, columns 3-5 hold platform counts 1-3, then "+1".

Each platform of that material is worth the value in the column under the number of platforms owned.

Examples of reading the table:

• In a 2-player game, 3 concretion platforms are worth 5 points each (15 points total).
• In a 3-player game, 5 oil platforms are worth 8+2 = 10 points each (50 points total).
• In a 4-player game, 5 gas platforms are worth 5+1+1 = 7 points each (35 points total).

Example of complete final scoring: In a 3-player game, Alfred ends the game with:

• 67 points from selling raw materials during the game;
• $8: +8 points;
• two lobbyists in China (who controls the north pole): +20 points;
• 6 gas platforms: +42 points (7 points per platform);
• 1 oil platform: +2 points;
• 2 concretion platforms: +10 points (5 points per platform).

So Alfred's final score is: 67+8+20+42+2+10 = 149 points.

The player with the highest score is the winner. (There is no tie-breaker. Tied players share the victory!)

The Arctic Council

The Arctic Council defines the principles of international law that govern Arctic exploration (but have no effect on the polar sector).

Permanent rules concerning coastal sectors

• Mining platform construction in a coastal sector requires that a player pay a concession fee to the owning country's treasury.
• All platforms in coastal sectors are always legal.
• Coastal sectors may never become controlled by other countries.

Variable rules concerning sea sectors

3 different applicable laws are possible:

A - Countries can not control sea sectors. (This is the applicable law at game start.)

• Sea sectors (except the polar sector) may not be controlled by countries while this law is in effect. Remove all control markers from non-polar sea sectors. Presence of ships has no effect on control.
• Therefore all newly built platforms in sea sectors are illegal.

B - Countries control all sea sectors to the north.

• All countries control the sectors between their coastline and the pole while this law comes into effect. (The polar sector is unaffected.) Place country control markers accordingly in these sectors (7 for Russia, 2 for Norway, 3 for EU, 3 for Canada, 3 for USA). Presence of ships has no effect on control.
• Legal platforms may be constructed (with concession fees), just like in coastal sectors. Illegal platforms cannot be built (since every sector with mineral deposits is controlled).

C - Ships take control of sea sectors.

• When this comes into effect as the applicable law, sea sectors with ships of exactly one country become immediately controlled by that country, and all other sectors (with ships of 0 countries or more than 1 country) become uncontrolled. Then when later ship movements cause a sea sector to have ships of exactly one country, that country immediately gains control: update control markers accordingly.
• Legal platforms may be constructed (with concession fees), just like in coastal sectors. Illegal platforms may be built only in uncontrolled sectors.

As a result of a new applicable law, it is possible that previously legal platforms are now in uncontrolled sectors. They remain in play as illegal platforms: flip them to their illegal side.

As a result of a new applicable law or ship movements, it is possible that platforms (legal or illegal) may be in sectors controlled by new countries. All such platforms are destroyed: remove their markers from the map. This does not apply to platforms which are protected by lobbyists (see "Lobbyist Reassignment" - Political protection of platform). Politically protected platforms can become legal in the new country. If the protecting lobbyist is from the new country taking control of the platform's sector, the platform is automatically legal. If the lobbyist is from another country, the platform's owner must pay $2 as a concession fee to the country's treasury. If the owner cannot pay (or chooses not to) then the platform is destroyed (remove it from the board).

Glossary

• adjacent: Sectors are adjacent if they share a common side or corner.
• applicable law: At all times, 1 of the 3 applicable laws is in effect, depending on votes in the Arctic Council. These determine whether and how countries control sea sectors.
• Arctic Council: Countries' votes in the Arctic Council determine which applicable law is in effect.
• Arctic region country: Russia, Norway, EU, Canada, USA. (China is not an Arctic region country.)
• attack: During ship movement, each ship may attack another ship (after its move; attacking ship and defending ship both destroyed) or a platform (before or after its move; possibly several ships needed to destroy a platform).
• China: A 6th country with ships and control markers but no country display on the board; there are specific rules for its political influence. China is not an Arctic region country.
• civil unrest: 1 of the 6 lobbyist actions; civil unrest prevents platforms in that country's sector from producing.
• coastal sector: A sector with a colored control circle. The corresponding country owns it and always controls it.
• company: Each player is a company mining in the Arctic region and lobbying countries.
• concession: $1 paid by a player to a country for the right to build a platform in a sector controlled by the country.
• concretions: 1 of the 3 raw materials (brown).