Age of Galaxy Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Icons
  • Planets
  • Ideologies
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Production Phase
  • Faction Cards
  • Action Phase
    • Actions in Detail
      • Explore
      • Trade
      • Research
      • Manufacture
      • Retrieve
      • Scavenge
      • Colonize
      • Develop
      • Nominate
  • War Phase
  • Galactic Phase
  • Game End and Scoring
• Credits
• Variants
  • Faction Drafting
  • Explored Galaxy Mode
  • Standard Solo Variant
  • Advanced Solo Variant
• Technologies

Components

• 1 Main Board
• 4 Player Boards
• 40 Faction Cards
• 1 Icon Reference Card
• 4 Tip Cards
• 8 System Cards
• 5 Trade Cards
• 5 Planet Tokens
• 9 Exploration Tokens
• 4 Turn Order Tokens
• 4 20+/40+ Tokens (1 in each color)
• 24 Influence Tokens (18x value 1, 6x value 3)
• 24 Innovation Tokens (18x value 1, 6x value 3)
• 24 Relic Tokens (18x value 1, 6x value 3)
• 4 Productivity Counters
• 36 Cruisers (9 in each color)
• 64 Action Discs (16 in each color)
• 4 Credit Counters
• 4 Strength Counters
• 1 Galactic Fleet Marker
• 1 Die (used only in Advanced Solo mode)
• 5 Solo Scenario Sheets (used only in Advanced Solo mode)

If you run out of Relic, Innovation, or Influence tokens, use suitable substitutes. However, Cruisers and Action discs are limited and players may not gain any more of them.

Icons

Credit – a resource used in Colonize, Develop, Manufacture, Research and Retrieve actions. Players may never have more than 12 Credit.

Productivity – indicates how many Credit you gain every Production phase. Players may never have more than 12 Productivity. Any time during a player's turn, they may spend 2 Productivity to gain 1 Credit (any number of times).

Strength – determines the number of Cruisers a player may keep at the end of the War phase. It is also used as a tiebreaker during the War phase. Players may never have more than 12 Strength.

Cruiser – a resource used in the Explore action and during the War phase. A player may have up to 5 Cruisers in their supply at once. When a player gains a Cruiser, they take a Cruiser of their color from the common supply.

Innovation – a resource used in Research and Retrieve actions. Any time during a player's turn, they may spend 1 Innovation to gain 1 Credit (any number of times).

Influence – a resource used in Nominate and Trade actions. Any time during a player's turn, they may spend 1 Influence to gain 1 Credit (any number of times).

Prestige – each Prestige is worth 1 Victory Point. Each time a player gains 1 or more Prestige, they move their marker on the Prestige track. If they exceed 20, they place a "20+/40+" token on a designated space next to the Prestige track with 20+ face up. Then place their Prestige marker back at the space 0. If they exceed 40, they flip the token and place the marker again at the space 0.

Victory Point – the player with the most Victory Points at the end of the game wins.

Relic – each Relic is worth 1 Victory Point.

Basic Technology – an ability that may be unlocked by the Research action.

Advanced Technology – an advanced ability with a higher cost that may be unlocked by the Research action.

Free action – this action may be resolved any number of times and at any time during each of your turns.

Colonized planet – each Colonized planet is worth 1 Victory Point at the end of the game.

Developed planet – each Developed planet is worth 2 Victory Points at the end of the game.

Conquered planet – the original owner does not control it anymore.

Planet – based on the number of players, cover it with a random face-up Planet token.

Exploration point/token – when revealing a new System card (during Setup or the Galactic phase), based on the number of players, cover it with a random face-down Exploration token. These tokens are reachable by the Explore action.

Planets

• Arctic
• Desert
• Oceanic
• Volcanic
• Verdant
• Barren

Ideologies

• Cultural
• Diplomatic
• Industrial
• Militaristic
• Scientific

Setup

1. Place the main board at the center of the table.
2. Draw 3 Trade cards and place them above the main board with their face-up side up. Return all other Trade cards back to the box.
3. Determine the player order. The First player is the last person to win the Age of Galaxy. If this is your first game, determine the First player randomly. Other players in clockwise order take the corresponding Turn Order tokens.
4. In games for 1-3 players, place Action discs of a non-player color on the spaces of the Main board and Trade cards according to their player count icons.
5. Set up the Galaxy by placing 5 random System cards in a row (the 2 leftmost face up and the remaining face down) below the Main board.
6. Place the Galactic Fleet token at the top of the leftmost System card.
7. Then place random face up Planet tokens and face down Exploration tokens to cover the appropriate icons: Planet and Exploration point/token, according to their player count icons.
8. Place the Action discs and Cruisers in player colors into a common supply. Return all the remaining discs and Cruisers in non-player colors back to the box.
9. Place the remaining tokens into a common supply.

Each player:

10. Places a Player board and Tip card in front of them.
11. Places an Action disc in their color on space "0" of the Prestige track (first player disc on top, second player beneath it, etc.).
12. Places a Credit counter and Strength counter on space "0" and Productivity counter on space "3" of the Player board track.
13. Draws 7 Faction cards. They may discard up to 3 and then draw back up to 7.

Note: Players do not get any more Faction cards during the game.

Experienced players may try the "Faction drafting variant" described on pg. 18.

14. In player order, each player picks a Faction card and plays it in front of themselves to start their Alliance and gains its Debut bonus, indicated in the top left of the card and resolves all other immediate effects.

Gameplay

The game consists of 5 rounds, each made up of 4 phases in the following order:

• Production phase
• Action phase
• War phase
• Galactic phase

The War phase is skipped in round 1.

Production Phase

1. Each player takes 3 Action discs in their color to their personal supply.
2. They gain Credit according to Productivity.
3. Lose 1 Productivity.
4. All players simultaneously resolve all the effects of their Faction cards in their Alliance that activate at the end of the Production phase.

Faction Cards

Each turn, in addition to resolving an Action and any number of Free actions, players may play ONE Faction card as either:

• A Faction of the Alliance
• A True Major Ideology
• A One-time Reinforcement
• An Adaptation

As a Faction of the Alliance (maximum of 3, including the Faction chosen during setup):

• Players play a Faction card below their board into the depicted place.
• Players gain the Debut bonus and resolve any immediate effects of the played card.
• Players gain the Faction card's abilities and are able to use Faction card's Adaptation to Colonize planets of the matching type for the rest of the game.

Once a Faction card is played to an Alliance, it may not be replaced or discarded.

Ideology of the Faction card is important when determining the Major Ideology of the Alliance. At the end of the game players will gain Victory Points for their Major Ideology - Ideology shared by the most of the cards in their Alliance. If there is a tie, Player has no Major Ideology.

As a True Major Ideology:

Once per game, a player may override their Major Ideology with a True Major Ideology.

• Players play a Faction card next to their Player board into the depicted place and slide it beneath the board, so only the Ideology section remains visible.
• All other effects of that card are ignored.
• The Ideology of this card becomes the player's Major Ideology, regardless of the Ideologies of the other Factions in their Alliance.

Example: Jan has 2 Factions with Diplomatic and 1 Faction with Scientific in his Alliance. He plays 1 card next to his Player board and slides it beneath it. From now on Jan's Major Ideology is Scientific. All other effects of the played card are ignored.

As a One-time Reinforcement:

Players play a card to gain the One-time Reinforcement and then discard the card.

As an Adaptation:

Players play a card with an Adaptation matching the chosen planet type when resolving the Colonize action and then discard the card (Colonize action is described below).

Action Phase

Players, in turn order, take turns resolving 1 action. Actions may be affected by Technologies or Faction cards in Alliances.

Players repeat this process in turn order until they run out of Action discs. If a player has no discs at the beginning of their turn, they have to pass. Number of turns taken by each player during a round may vary throughout the game.

The Action phase ends once all players have passed.

In addition to resolving actions, players may also perform the following at anytime during their turn:

• Play 1 Faction card from hand.
• Activate any Free actions.

Every non-Free action requires players to place an Action disc on a specific space. Actions are described in detail below.

Actions in Detail

Explore

Cost: 1 Cruiser.

Players may only resolve this action if they have at least 1 Cruiser.

To resolve the Explore action:

• Place an Action disc on a space in the Explore section of the Main board. There may be any number of Action discs stacked on the space.
• Spend 1 Cruiser.
• Reveal any reachable Exploration token, gain the depicted resources, and discard the Exploration token.

Action discs placed on the Main board for Explore are returned to the common supply at the end of the round.

Example: Matthias wants to Explore. He places his Action disc on a space in the Explore section of the Main board and spends 1 Cruiser. Then he reveals an Exploration token, gains the depicted 3 Credit, and 2 Innovation. Finally, he discards the Exploration token.

Trade

Cost: indicated on the Trade cards.

To resolve the Trade action:

• Place an Action disc on an empty space on a chosen Trade card. If there are no available spaces on the Trade card, the card may not be chosen. There may be any number of Action discs stacked on the space.
• Spend the indicated resources to gain the indicated resources. You may resolve only 1 exchange per Trade action (even if a card shows multiple available options). If a player does not have enough resources, they may not place an Action disc on an empty space to block it.

This action is used to exchange resources. Filling up all the spaces on a Trade card triggers a Golden Age (described in detail in the Galactic Phase section).

Example: Jan wants to Trade. He places his Action disc on the Lore Exchange Trade card, then spends 3 Innovation to gain 2 Influence.

Research

Cost: Basic Technology: 3 Credit / 1 Innovation. Advanced Technology: 3 Credit and 1 Innovation / 2 Innovation.

Available Technologies:

At the beginning of the game, each player has only 3 Technologies available: Terraforming, Warp Drive, and Laser Weapon.

The mid-row and top-row Technologies are only available once the path is unlocked.

The top-row Technologies only require one mid-row Technology prerequisite of its path to be unlocked.

For example, if you have Researched Plasma Weapon, both Xenology and Antimatter Missile become available.

To resolve the Research action:

• Place an Action disc on an empty space of an Available Technology on the Player board or on a Faction card from your Alliance.
• Spend resources.
• Resolve the immediate effects (if any) of the Researched Technology.

Some Faction cards have unique Technologies. These are always Advanced Technology.

Example 1: Jan wants to Research the Planetary Shields since he has already Researched Hyperspace Scanner. He places his Action disc on the empty space of the Planetary Shields Technology on his Player board. Then he spends 3 Credit and 1 Innovation.

Example 2: Hanna wants to Research the Deep Space Telescope from the Voicavus card from her Alliance. She places her Action disc on the empty space on the Faction card and spends 3 Credit and 1 Innovation.

Manufacture

Cost: 2 Credit for each Cruiser manufactured.

To resolve the Manufacture action:

• Place an Action disc on a space in the Manufacture section of the Main board. There may be any number of Action discs stacked on the space.
• Spend any amount of Credit to gain 1 Cruiser for every 2 Credit spent.

Each player may have up to 5 Cruisers in their supply at the same time.

The Manufacture action is the main source of Cruisers, which are used for the Explore action and during the War phase.

Example: Jan wants to Manufacture 2 Cruisers. He places his Action disc on a space in the Manufacture section of the Main board, pays 4 Credit, and gains 2 Cruisers from the common supply.

Retrieve

Cost: 3 Credit and 1 Innovation for each Relic retrieved.

To resolve the Retrieve action:

• Place an Action disc on a space in the Retrieve section of the Main board. There may be any number of Action discs stacked on the space.
• Spend 3 Credit and 1 Innovation any number of times, to gain 1 Relic each time.

Each Relic is worth 1 Victory Point at the end of the game.

Example: Matthias wants to retrieve. He places his Action disc on a space in the Retrieve section of the Main board, then spends 3 Credit and 1 Innovation to gain 1 Relic. If he wanted he could spend 6 Credit and 2 Innovation to gain 2 Relic, and so on.

Scavenge

Cost: None.

To resolve the Scavenge action:

• Place an Action disc on a space in the Scavenge section of the Main board. There may be any number of Action discs stacked on the space.
• Gain 1 Credit.

Example: Hanna wants to Scavenge. She places her Action disc on a space in the Scavenge section of the Main board, then gains 1 Credit.

Colonize

Cost: Credit equal to the number of Colonized planets owned by the player before this action.

Players may Colonize a planet if it is:

• Reachable (explained below).
• Empty - there is no Action disc or Cruiser present.
• Matching their Adaptation (explained below).

To resolve the Colonize action:

• Spend Credit equal to the number of Colonized planets they have.
• Place an Action disc on the chosen planet.
• Gain the depicted resources.

Reachable

All game elements on the System card with the Galactic Fleet marker and on cards to its left are Reachable. Game elements to the right of the Galactic Fleet marker are unreachable, unless the player has researched the Warp Drive Technology.

Adaptation

A player may only Colonize a planet if:

• Its type matches the Adaptation of any Faction in the Player's Alliance.

OR

• The player plays a Faction card with an Adaptation that matches the planet type.

OR

• The player has a Faction ability or Technology providing an Adaptation matching the type of the planet (Barren planets may only be Colonized by players who have Researched the Terraforming Technology).

Example: Matthias wants to Colonize the circled planet. He checks the requirements:

• The planet is reachable, as it is not on the systems beyond the Galactic Fleet marker.
• There are no Action discs or Cruisers on it.
• Its type (Verdant) matches the Adaptation of one of Matthias' Factions in his Alliance.

All the requirements are met, so the planet may be Colonized. Matthias spends 2 Credit (he already has 2 Colonized planets), places his Action disc on the planet, and gains 2 Influence as a reward.

Develop

Cost: 7 Credit.

To resolve the Develop action:

• Spend 7 Credit.
• Place an Action disc on the chosen Colonized planet.
• Gain 1 Prestige.
• Gain either 1 Influence / 1 Credit and 1 Productivity.

Developed planets provide 2 Victory Points at the end of the game. Additionally, to resolve the Nominate action, players must have at least 1 Developed planet.

Example: Hanna wants to Develop the circled Colonized planet above. She pays 7 Credit and places her Action disc on the planet.

Nominate

Cost: 3 Influence.

Players may only resolve this action if they have at least 1 Developed planet.

To resolve the Nominate action:

• Place an Action disc on an empty space in the Nominate section of the Main board.
• Spend 3 Influence.
• Gain the amount of Prestige indicated below the space.

Action discs placed in the Nominate action remain there until the end of the game.

Example: Hanna wants to Nominate. She places her Action disc on an empty space in the Nominate action, then spends 3 Influence to gain 4 Prestige.

War Phase

This phase is skipped in round 1.

1. Players compare the number of Cruisers in their supply (those on System cards do not count).
2. Players gain rewards according to the table below. The player with the most Cruisers is considered the Overlord.
3. If tied, the player with more Strength wins the tie. If the tie remains, all the tied players gain the rewards.
4. If there is only one Overlord, the Overlord may acquire a reachable, Unprotected planet (explained below). They remove all discs from the chosen planet (if any) and place a Cruiser from their supply on it.
5. At the end of the War phase, every player discards Cruisers from their supply down to the number of their Strength.

Number of players	Overlord	Second place	Third place	Fourth place
2	1 Credit, 1 Prestige	-	—	—
3	2 Credit, 1 Prestige	1 Prestige	-	—
4	3 Credit, 1 Prestige	1 Credit, 1 Prestige	1 Prestige	-

Protected planets

Protected planets may not be acquired by the Overlord during the War phase.

• A Developed planet is always Protected.
• If a player has a number of Cruisers in their supply equal to or higher than the number of their Colonized and Developed planets, all their planets are Protected. Otherwise, they are Unprotected.
• Some Technologies and Faction abilities in players' Alliances provide Protection over certain planets.

All other planets are considered Unprotected.

Example: In a 3-player game Matthias has 4 Cruisers, so he becomes the Overlord. He gains 2 Credit and 1 Prestige. Hanna has 2 Cruisers so she gains 1 Prestige. Jan has 1 Cruiser, so he does not gain anything. Then Matthias may choose to acquire a reachable Unprotected planet. Hanna has more than 2 planets, but she only has 2 Cruisers, so all her planets are Unprotected. Matthias decides to acquire her Colonized planet. Hanna's Action discs from this planet are returned to the common supply. Then Matthias places 1 of his Cruisers on the planet. Matthias does not gain the 1 Prestige but he does prevent Hanna from earning Victory Points for this planet. Then all players discard Cruisers down equal to their Strength. Matthias only has 1 Strength, so he must discard 2 Cruisers and keeps 1.

Galactic Phase

The Galactic phase is skipped in the last round.

1. Move the Galactic Fleet marker to the next System card to the right. Then, reveal the next face-down System card (if possible) and place Exploration and Planet tokens on the appropriate spaces according to player count (if needed).
2. Move all the Action discs from the Manufacture, Retrieve, and Scavenge Action spaces to the spaces on the corresponding Trade cards (if there are no more empty spaces, simply place them on the Trade card). If any Trade card's spaces are completely filled, a Golden Age will occur.
3. Move all the Action discs from the Explore Action space back to the common supply.
4. Determine a new player order as follows: the player with the highest Prestige goes first, second most goes second, etc. If tied, the player with their disc on top goes first. Players take the corresponding Turn Order tokens.
5. Check if a Golden Age occurs. If not, proceed to the Production phase of the next round.

Example: All spaces on the Lore Exchange Trade card are filled so a Golden Age occurs.

Golden Age

• All the Action discs (including those that exceeded the slots) from fully filled Trade cards are returned to their owners.
• Each player may keep up to 3 of the returned discs to use for the next round. The rest are returned to the common supply.
• Flip over filled Trade cards. The other side has an Action space, so these Trade cards will not trigger a Golden Age again.

As a result of a Golden Age, some players may have more than 3 Action discs in the next round.

Game End and Scoring

After the War phase, if the Galactic Fleet marker is on the rightmost System card, the game ends. The Galactic phase is skipped.

Players sum up their Victory Points for:

Prestige	1 Victory Point for each Prestige.
Major Ideology	Scientific: 1 Victory Point for each Researched Advanced Technology. Diplomatic: 1 Victory Point for every 4 Prestige (rounded down). Militaristic: 1 Victory Point for each Conquered planet +1 Victory Point for every 2 Strength (rounded down). Industrial: 1 Victory Point for each Developed planet. Cultural: 1 Victory Point for every 2 Relic (rounded down). If a player has no Major Ideology, they do not score any Victory Points for Ideologies.
Galaxy	1 Victory Point for each Colonized planet. 2 Victory Points for each Developed planet. Conquered planets provide no Victory Points.
Relics	1 Victory Point for each Relic.
Faction scorings	Some Factions may also have special scoring conditions for Victory Points at the end of the game.

The player with the most Victory Points is the winner. If tied, the player with the higher Prestige wins the tie. If the tie remains, the player with the disc on top wins the tie.

Credits

Game Design: Jeffrey CCH

Illustrations: Samuel Horowitz, Hanna Kuik

Graphic Design: Mateusz Kopacz, Roxy Dai, Rafał Szyma

Project Manager: Jan Maurycy

Production Manager: Damian Mazur

English Editor: Tyler Brown

Special thanks to Karol Mandel

Variants

Faction Drafting

Each player is dealt a hand of 7 Faction cards. Each player chooses a card and places it face down in front of them. Players then pass the remaining unchosen cards to their left. This is repeated 6 times, until each player has chosen 7 cards as their hand.

Explored Galaxy Mode

Set up the game as usual but when setting up the System cards, all System cards are placed face up. During the Galaxy phase you do not reveal additional System cards.

Standard Solo Variant

The Solo variant simulates a 2-player game. Try to gain as many Victory Points as possible.

Setup changes:

1. Set up a 2-player game as normal.
2. Select a color for your Virtual Opponent. Give them 2 Cruisers and all the Action discs of their color.
3. Place the remaining Faction cards in a deck.

Rule changes:

The Virtual Opponent does not score Victory Points nor gain resources in the usual ways (unless any of the effects below cause them to).

End of the Action phase:

After you have taken all your actions, reveal a Faction card and resolve the following:

• The Virtual Opponent Colonizes the leftmost Planet with a type matching the Adaptation of the drawn card (if possible).
• The Virtual Opponent resolves an effect according to the Ideology of the revealed card (shown below).

Repeat until you resolve 2 cards.

Revealed Ideology effects:

• Scientific: The Virtual Opponent gains 1 Cruiser (max. 5 Cruisers).
• Diplomatic: The Virtual Opponent acquires 2 Influence. Then, if it has more than 2 Influence, it spends 3 Influence to resolve the Nominate action.
• Militaristic: If you have more Cruisers than Strength, you lose 1 Cruiser.
• Industrial: The Virtual Opponent acquires the leftmost Planet with an Action disc and gains 1 Influence.
• Cultural: Remove the leftmost Exploration token.

War phase:

Resolve as usual. The Virtual Opponent is considered to have all 9 Technologies and 4 Strength.

The Virtual Opponent protects its planets as normal if it has enough Cruisers.

If the Virtual Opponent acquires a planet during the War phase, it only acquires one of your Unprotected planets, chosen by you, using 1 of its Cruisers as normal. If all your planets are Protected, the Virtual Opponent does not acquire any planet.

End of the game:

The game ends as normal. Sum up your Victory Points. Next time, try to beat your own score!

Advanced Solo Variant

The Advanced Solo Variant is played based on Scenarios. All the Setup and Game changes, as well as the Victory Conditions, are listed on the Scenario sheets.

Technologies

Terraforming (Basic Technology) Immediately gain 1 Productivity. You may Colonize Barren planets.

Advanced Engineering (Basic Technology; Terraforming required) Immediately gain 1 Productivity. Every time you Develop, you may spend 2 Credit fewer total.

Planetary Shields (Advanced Technology; Advanced Engineering or Hyperspace Scanner required) Immediately gain 1 Prestige. All your Planets are Protected.

Warp Drive (Basic Technology) All Planets and Exploration tokens 1 card ahead of the Galactic Fleet marker are reachable for you.

Hyperspace Scanner (Basic Technology; Warp Drive required) Immediately gain 1 Innovation. Every time you Explore, gain 1 Innovation.

Xenology (Advanced Technology; Advanced Engineering or Hyperspace Scanner or Plasma Weapon required) Immediately gain 1 Prestige and either 2 Influence or 1 Relic.

Laser Weapon (Basic Technology) Immediately gain 1 Strength.

Plasma Weapon (Basic Technology; Laser Weapon required) Immediately gain 1 Productivity and 1 Strength.

Antimatter Missile (Advanced Technology; Hyperspace Scanner or Plasma Weapon required) Immediately gain 2 Strength.

Water Dome Shield (Legarchaea Technology) Immediately gain 1 Strength. All your Oceanic and Verdant planets are Protected.

Energy Shields (Psykrio Technology) Immediately gain 1 Strength. At the end of the War phase keep 2 additional Cruisers.

Nanoconstruct (Tekhlifa Technology) Every time you Colonize or Develop, spend 3 Credit fewer total.

Dark Matter Power (Tekhlifa Technology) Immediately gain 2 Productivity and 2 Prestige.

Quantum Physics (Zephrion Technology) Immediately gain 3 Innovation and 2 Prestige.

Deep Space Telescope (Voicavus Technology) Immediately gain 2 Relic. Place 2 Exploration tokens on this card. They may only be Explored by you.

Ocean Ecology (Mersoma Technology) Immediately gain 1 Prestige for every Oceanic and Verdant planet you have. If you acquire any more planets of these types, you do not gain more Prestige.

Cloaking Cruiser (Shrynix Technology) Immediately gain 1 Strength. All other players immediately lose 2 Cruisers (if possible).

Bioship Factories (Z-Qhik'eox Technology) Immediately gain 3 Strength. Every time you Manufacture, spend 1 Credit fewer for each Cruiser.

Ion Cannon (Us'ud Technology) Immediately gain 2 Strength and 1 Cruiser.

AI Complex (Kratox'7 Technology) Every time you Develop, gain 2 Cruisers and 1 Productivity.

Galactic Protocol (Jamareih Technology) Immediately gain 1 Relic, 1 Productivity, and 1 Influence.

Galactic Network (Jamareih Technology; Galactic Protocol required) At the end of the game, gain 1 Victory Point for each Colonized planet and 2 Victory Points for each Developed planet.

Subspace Sensor (Rt182' Technology) Immediately gain 1 Relic. Every time you Explore, gain 1 Relic and 1 Innovation.