Aldebaran Duel Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Preparation
• Driving Aspect and Goal of the Game
• Gameplay
  • a) Choose Cards from the Offer
  • b) Play a Card from Hand
  • c) Pass
• Types of Cards
  • a) Production Station
  • b) Space Shuttle (Military, Trade, Diplomatic)
  • c) Planet
  • d) Colonization Cards
  • e) Colonization Ship
• Resource Production
• Colonization of Planets
• Space Objects Tokens
• The End of an Epoch and the Start of a New Epoch
• Research – Science Cards
• Evaluation of Dominance in the Universe
• End of the Game
• Solo Mode
  • Game Preparation
  • Gameplay
  • Opponent's Actions
  • Effects of Action Cards
  • End of Epoch
  • End of Game
  • Score
• List of Basic Symbols
  • One-Time Effects (Round Symbols)
  • Permanent Effects (Square Symbols)
  • Special Effects
• Science Cards – Description of Symbols

Components

• 1 main game board with scales
  • Production scales: energy, food, metal, science
  • Scales of influence: military, trade, diplomacy
  • Point production scale: permanent point production
• 15 scoring tiles (for basic game and advanced game)
• 1 board of influence
• 2 score tiles (60 and 120)
• 117 cards for three epochs
• 2 reference cards
• 1 opponent board for solo mode
• 16 cardboard science cards
• 42 tokens: space objects tokens (colonization ship, space shuttle, production station) and wildcard resource tokens
• 8 cardboard cards for solo mode
• 20 wooden markers (10 blue, 10 red)
• 3 wooden cylinders (blue, red, grey)

Game Preparation

Choose your color (blue or red) and take 10 wooden markers and a wooden cylinder in your color.

Prepare the main game board with scales. Each player then puts their cylinder in their color on 0 on the scoring track. Additionally, each player places their wooden markers at the start of each scale.

Randomly draw four scoring tiles and place them in their areas at the respective end of the scales of energy, food, metal and science production. Put the remaining scoring tiles back into the box as you will not need them in this game. In your first game, use only the tiles with grey background on the front side. Tiles with blue background are recommended to advanced players.

Divide the cards into three epoch packs (referring to the number on their back). Place the three piles face down between the players within the reach of both. Take 6 cards from the first epoch pile and place them face up, forming a 3 × 2 grid, the offer.

Place the wildcard resource token and space objects tokens within the reach of both players.

Each player randomly draws 5 science cards (put the remaining science cards back into the box). Each keeps one and give the remaining cards to their opponent. Now each player chooses one of the four and hands three cards back. This is repeated until both players have 5 science cards.

Put the board of influence next to the main game board. Place the grey cylinder in the centre of this board.

Driving Aspect and Goal of the Game

The main driving aspect of the game lies in playing cards. Each card has two functions.

1. The card can be used as a means of payment.

The symbol at the bottom shows which resource the card represents (there are four types of resources – energy, food, metal, science). If the card has been used to pay with, remove it by putting it on the discard pile.

2. The card can be added to the player's space empire.

Put the card in front of you and use its effect. The price for playing the card is shown on the left side. You can pay for the card with other cards and wildcard resource tokens.

A card shows, from top to bottom: the card's effect (triggered upon playing the card), the symbol of the colonized planet needed to trigger the effect (for planet colonization cards), the price of the card paid when the card is played, the symbol used in the final scoring, and the resource symbol (the symbol at the bottom indicates which resource the card represents when used as payment).

Example: To play this card, the player needs to use two food resources and three metals.

At the top, the card shows which effect is triggered upon playing the card.

Example: Upon playing this card, the player gets one wildcard resource token and moves their marker on the military scale up by one.

Some cards (planets of first and second epoch and colonization ships) have the symbol of a colonized planet in their top left corner, stating the condition for playing the card.

Colonization ships, production stations, and space shuttles have a symbol of the space object in their bottom right corner. This symbol is used in final scoring.

The goal of the game is to get as many points as possible. Every time you get points, move your cylinder up the scoring track that frames the board.

If you reach 60 points, you start a new round on the scoring track, take the tile showing 60 points. If you go around the track one more time, turn the tile to show 120 points.

Gameplay

The game consists of three epochs. Each epoch consists of turns. The players take turns until they both pass. Then the epoch is over and the players receive points. In the first epoch, the younger player starts. Later epochs are started by the player who was the first to pass in the previous epoch.

In their turn, a player needs to take EXACTLY ONE of the following actions:

a) Choose cards from the offer b) Play a card from their hand c) Pass

a) Choose Cards from the Offer

Choose one or two cards with the total price of up to 3. The price of the cards in the bottom row is 1, the price of the cards in the middle is 2 and the price of the cards in the top row is 3.

You can take:

• two cards from the lowest tier (each of value 1) OR
• one card from the lowest (value 1) and one card from the middle tier (value 2) OR
• one card from the highest tier (value 3).

Take the selected cards into your hand. The hand limit is 7 cards. This is the ultimate limit, so you can never have more than 7 cards on your hand. If you are already holding 6 cards, you can only take one more card of any value. Science cards are treated differently – they are not included in the limit.

Replacing the cards – move the remaining cards downwards (towards the tier with value 1) to fill the empty slots in the grid, draw new cards from the current epoch pile.

b) Play a Card from Hand

To play a card, its price needs to be paid. The price is stated on the left side of the card.

This price can be paid in several ways:

• by discarding cards with respective resources (here 1 food and 1 metal). Each card can only be used as one resource. If the card shows two types of resources, you need to choose which of these you will use to pay with. A resource can also be paid by any two epoch cards from your hand. Epoch cards cannot be paid for with science cards.
• with wildcard resource tokens. These tokens replace energy, food or metal (NOT science). Return used wildcard tokens to the bank.
• by resource production. Card price can be reduced by resource production (see Resource Production, page 7). However, it is not possible to pay the full price by resource production.

At least one card or a wildcard resource token must be paid for each card.

c) Pass

If you can no longer choose cards from the offer or play cards from hand, you need to pass. Although rarely done, you may also choose to pass even if you still have possible actions you may do. You have no more turns in this epoch. Keep the cards on your hand for the next epoch.

Types of Cards

a) Production Station

Upon playing the card, move your marker on the production scale of the respective resource (energy, food, metal, science) up by one.

b) Space Shuttle (Military, Trade, Diplomatic)

Upon playing the card, move the marker on the military/trade/diplomacy scale up by one.

c) Planet

When adding a planet from the first or second epoch to the empire, the effect of the card is NOT triggered immediately. It is launched when the planet is completely colonized (see Colonization of Planets, page 8). The symbol of a colonized planet in the top left corner means that the effect of the card is activated at the moment when the colonization of the planet is completed.

A planet card shows, from top to bottom: the card's effect, the symbol of a colonized planet (the condition for triggering the card's effect), the price for playing the card, the symbol of a space object, and the quarters of the planet meant for colonization in the colors of the respective resource.

d) Colonization Cards

These cards can be added only to a colonized planet. They cannot be played separately. The top right corner of the colonization cards shows a colored quarter of a planet which can be added to cards of planets to colonize them.

e) Colonization Ship

A colonization ship can be added to a fully colonized planet (one ship to one planet). The effect is triggered immediately.

Some cards have multiple effects. For example, a card may give the player a wildcard resource token and four points on the permanent point production scale.

Resource Production

If you play a card with the effect of raising production of one of the resources (energy, food, metal, science), move the marker on the scale of the respective resource up.

Next time you play a card, its price is reduced by the value of your respective production.

The marker on the scale is never moved backwards.

If your production of all the resources you need is equal to or greater than the price of the card played, you still have to pay but you can choose a resource of any type.

Example of a discount: Martin is going to play a card which costs 2 energy and 4 food units. His production is currently at 2 energy and 2 food units. Therefore, he needs to pay with two more food units.

Example of a discount: Martin is going to play a card which costs 2 energy and 4 food units. Even though his production makes 2 energy and 4 food units, he needs to pay with a card of a resource of any type or with a wildcard resource token.

Colonization of Planets

To colonize planets already added to your planetary system, add colonization cards (with a colored quarter of a planet in the top right corner) to the white and colored quarters with white border. Only colonization cards in matching color can be added to a white-bordered colored quarter. Any colonization card can be added to a white quarter. No cards are added to the colored quarters without the white border.

Upon adding a colonization card to a planet, execute its effect stated at the top.

Example: To a white quarter on his card of a planet, Martin has added a grey colonization card. Then executes its effect immediately by moving his scoring cylinder five positions up on the track and his marker on the metal production scale up by one.

Once you complete colonization of a planet by filling all the empty quarters on the card, execute its effect stated at the top of the card immediately.

Example: Martin has added a colonization card to a planet card, overlapping its last remaining empty quarter. He executed the effect of the added card and, at the same time, the effect of the planet completed. He moves the marker on the food production scale up by one. He gets two wildcard resource tokens. He moves his scoring cylinder two positions up the track.

Space Objects Tokens

During the colonization of planets (adding colonization cards with planet quarters to planet cards), you can get space objects tokens. If you add a colonization card with a space object symbol or symbols which are already shown on the planet or the cards earlier added to the planet, take as many tokens of the space object(s) as displayed on the planet and the earlier added cards BEFORE the card was added.

In combination with the right cards, space objects tokens can gain a significant number of victory points (see End of the Game, page 14).

Example: To her planet with the colonization ship symbol, Emily has added a card with the same symbol. As there had been one symbol of the kind present before she added the card, she gets one colonization ship token. Although there is a colonization ship symbol on the planet card which has just been added, Emily will not get its token because the symbol had not been present on the planet BEFORE.

Example: To the same planet, Emily later adds another card with the colonization ship symbol. As there had already been two symbols of the kind present before, she gets two more colonization ship tokens.

There are planet cards with two identical space object symbols. In that case, the player gets one corresponding token immediately upon playing the card (cards 3_31, 3_34).

The End of an Epoch and the Start of a New Epoch

Once the pile of the current epoch runs out of cards, only the cards remaining in the offer can be taken (new cards are not added from a new epoch pile). Players can take cards of a lower value than 3. Cards keep being moved to the lower positions, as described earlier. When no cards remain in the current pile and the offer, players can still play the cards from their hands. If they cannot play any cards or want to keep them for the upcoming epoch, they pass.

Once both players have passed, the epoch ends. Take the following actions:

1. Research – each player can pay to play a science card (see Research – Science Cards, page 11)

2. Evaluation of dominance in the universe – moving the grey cylinder on the board of influence in correspondence with the position of the markers on the military, trade and diplomacy scales. (see Evaluation of Dominance in the Universe, page 12).

3. Evaluation of the permanent point production. Move your cylinder on the score track up by as many points as your permanent point production is.

Example: After the first round, the red player has two and the blue player three permanent production points. They move their scoring cylinders up the score track by two and three.

After permanent points are scored, the next epoch starts. Players can keep cards from the previous epochs on hand. They also keep their unused science cards and wildcard resource tokens.

For the upcoming epoch, prepare six cards of the new epoch in the 3 × 2 offer grid. The player who was the first to pass in the previous epoch starts.

After the third epoch, the game is over (see End of the Game, page 14).

Research – Science Cards

At the end of each epoch, each player can play one of their science cards. The player who was the first to pass in the epoch is also the first to play their science card.

A science card shows, from top to bottom: the profit when played, the duration of the effect, the price paid to play the card, the card's effect, and the resource symbol (science).

Science cards are played in the same way as common cards. Only science can be used as the resource to pay for playing these cards. This involves epoch cards with the science symbol as well as some science cards. Such cards include the science symbol at the bottom.

Also here, two epoch cards with any resource can replace one science unit.

A wildcard resource token can only replace energy, food and metal. It cannot be used as a resource for science. However, it can be combined with any epoch card or with another wildcard resource token to replace one science resource unit.

When paying for playing a science card, you get the discount in the value of your current science production status.

Never move the marker on the scale backwards.

Example: Emily's science production status is 2. She wants to play a science card which costs 4 science units. She uses one epoch card with the science symbol and one science card with the science symbol.

It may happen that your science production is equal to or greater than the card's price. But even here you need to pay with either one card with any type of resource or with a wildcard resource token. In this particular case, you can even pay with a science card without a science resource symbol.

Science cards may have a one-time or permanent effect, or both. The list of all science cards with details is provided at the end of the rulebook (see Science Cards – Description of Symbols, page 19).

By playing some science cards, you immediately get wildcard resource tokens or victory points (profit when played).

Evaluation of Dominance in the Universe

At the end of each epoch, dominance in the universe is evaluated. One by one, compare the difference of the position of the markers on the military, trade and diplomacy scales. According to the difference, move the grey cylinder on the board of influence.

1. Move the grey cylinder vertically by the number of squares matching the difference on the military scale in favor of the player with the higher military status. If there is no difference, do not move the cylinder.

2. Move the grey cylinder horizontally by the number of squares matching the difference on the trade scale in favor of the player with the higher trade status. If there is no difference, do not move the cylinder.

3. Now evaluate the difference in diplomacy.

If the difference is one, the player with the higher diplomacy status moves the grey cylinder by one square horizontally or vertically, at their own choice.

If the difference is greater, the player with the higher diplomacy status moves the grey cylinder by one square diagonally towards the corner in their color AND moves their own cylinder (in their color) up the scoring track (3, 6, or 9) based on the scoring chart.

4. Once the grey cylinder has been moved to reflect the difference in influence in the three areas (military, trade, diplomacy), evaluate the dominance in the universe by using the current position of the grey cylinder. The player with the military dominance gets the number of points suggested by the position on the board. The player dominating trade gets the number of points suggested by the position on the board and number of all their planets already added to their empire (both colonized and uncolonized).

Example: After the first epoch, the situation is as follows: Red player's military status is three levels higher than blue player's. They move the grey cylinder by 3 squares vertically (military axis) in the direction of their own color on the board of influence.

Blue player's trade status is one level greater than red player's. They move the grey cylinder by one square horizontally (trade axis) in the direction of their own color on the board of influence.

Blue player's diplomacy status is 2 levels higher than red player's. They move the grey cylinder diagonally towards the corner in their color on the board of influence.

In addition to this, blue player scores 3 points.

According to the position of the grey cylinder within the grid, players score points: blue player gets 2 points for each of their planets already added to their empire (blue has two planets); red player gets 5 points.

If, after evaluation of diplomacy, the grey cylinder is in either the red or the blue quadrant, the respective player gets additional points according to the number marked in the particular square.

If the grey cylinder is about to move off of the board, it stays in the grid and the player in whose favor the cylinder was supposed to move immediately gets two victory points for each square the cylinder could not be moved by.

When the epoch ends, the cylinder stays at its current position (it is NOT moved back to the centre of the board)!

End of the Game

After the third epoch, the game is over.

1. At the end of the game, perform the standard evaluation of the epoch (research, the evaluation of dominance in the universe, the evaluation of permanent point production).

2. Evaluate dominance in the individual resource production sections. Players get rewards from the scoring tiles depending on whose status on individual production scales is higher. In the case of a tie, the profit is awarded to both.

Example: The player with the higher energy production gets two points for every position on the military scale. In this case, the player's position is 2, so they get 4 points.

Example: Player's food production is equal, so they both score. In this case, the red player gets 4 and the blue player 8 points.

3. Score points for space objects tokens. According to the number of symbols on the cards of colonization ships/space shuttles/production stations, determine point value of one token of each space object which you gained for the colonization of planets. Multiply this value by the total number of respective tokens which you gained, and move your cylinder on the score counter.

Value of one token derived from the number of cards with the particular space object symbol:

• Colonization ship: 1 card → 1 point; 2 cards → 1 point; 3–4 cards → 3 points; 5 cards → 4 points; 6+ cards → 5 points
• Space shuttle: 1 card → no bonus; 2–3 cards → 1 point; 4–5 cards → 2 points; 6–7 cards → 3 points; 8+ cards → 4 points
• Production station: 1–2 cards → no bonus; 3–5 cards → 1 point; 6–8 cards → 2 points; 9–10 cards → 3 points; 11+ cards → 4 points

Example: Martin has played three colonization ship cards and five colonization ship tokens. Therefore, the value of one token is 3 points. Martin scores 15 (3 × 5) victory points.

Players can use reference cards for easier evaluation at the end of epochs and the end of the game.

4. Evaluate score for planets. For each fully colonized planet, the player gets two points.

The player with the higher score is the winner. If the score is equal, the player with the higher number of colonized planets is the winner.

Solo Mode

In the solo mode, the goal is to collect as many points as possible.

Game Preparation

Prepare both game boards (as in the duel).

Randomly draw four scoring tiles and place them in their areas at the respective scales of energy, food, metal and science production. Pick one of the two colors and put the cylinder in your color on 0 on the scoring track. Put one marker in each color at the lowest position of each scale (two markers per one scale). Place only your marker on the regular point production scale. Put the grey cylinder on the central square on the board of influence.

Take 6 cards from the first epoch pile and place them face up, forming a 3 × 2 offer grid. Take 7 random science cards. Look at the cards, keep five and put the remaining two back.

Put the single-player opponent's action board in front of you within your reach and lay eight solo mode action cards in a pile next to it, face down. The board and the solo action cards simulate your opponent.

Gameplay

The game is played in the same way as the duel. Opponent's turns are simulated through the action board and single-player action cards.

In the first and third epoch you are the starting player. In the second epoch, the opponent starts.

In your turn, take one of these actions – Choose cards, Play a card or Pass, following the rules stated above. Then perform your opponent's turn.

If you pass, your opponent passes too, automatically.

Opponent's Actions

Take the top card from the pile, turn it face up and add it to the first empty position next to the action board (from the top downwards).

Then execute its effect. If there are four cards added to the board, start placing new cards from the top downwards again.

When the eighth card is used, collect the cards, shuffle them and create a new draw pile.

Effects of Action Cards

The card with marked positions of epoch cards – immediately remove from the offer those epoch cards in the positions marked in red. If these are cards with value 3 (the third tier), remove only the card which is indicated by the complementary icon on the board. Lay the cards aside.

If the marked positions are empty, remove the closest lower card instead. If no cards remain, the card has the same effect as a blank action card (zero effect).

Card with an arrow – according to the direction of the arrow, move opponent's marker on the game board by one position. If the arrow is directed towards military/trade/diplomacy, move the marker on the scale where opponent's status is the lowest. If the status is equally low on multiple scales, choose the first relevant scale in this order: diplomacy – trade – military.

Blank card – no action is taken.

End of Epoch

At the end of an epoch, you can play one science card.

Then evaluate dominance on the board of influence. If, after evaluation, the grey cylinder is in the position where the opponent is supposed to get points, subtract half of them (rounded up) – move your cylinder towards zero. If the status of opponent's trade on the respective scale, where points are calculated on the basis of number of planets, is higher than yours, use the number of your planets as the basis for calculation.

End of Game

Proceed as in the duel mode, with the following exception: When evaluating dominance on the individual resource production scales, you are awarded additional points only on the condition that your marker shows higher production status than your opponent's. If your status is equal or lower, you get no additional points.

Score

Reaching 100 points is a great result. If you manage to beat 130 points, you should consider putting a space suit on and setting out to colonize real planets.

List of Basic Symbols

Colonized planet. Present on cards in the first and second epoch and cards of colony ships. It states the condition (colonized planet) which when met launches the effect of the card.

Each played planet (both colonized and uncolonized).

Colonization card, added to a planet.

Colonized quarter in the particular color (both on the basic planet and colonization card). This is important mainly in the case of scoring tiles with planet quarters, where all colonized quarters in the particular color are counted!

The amount of the resource which is paid for playing the card.

One-Time Effects (Round Symbols)

Wildcard resource token (energy/food/metal, NOT science). Immediately take one wildcard resource token from the bank. It can be used for paying for playing a card. When used, return it to the bank.

Instant points. Move your cylinder on the scoring track up by the stated number of points.

Space objects tokens. (see Space Objects Tokens, page 14)

Permanent Effects (Square Symbols)

Resource production boost. Move the marker on the relevant resource production scale up.

Military, trade, diplomacy boost. Move the marker on the relevant scale up.

Permanent point production boost. Move the marker on the permanent point production scale up (by the stated amount).

The permanent point production scale shows points which are automatically awarded to the particular player at the end of each epoch.

If a player exceeds number 10 on their permanent point production scale, they will use another marker to indicate the number of tens.

Example: Emily's permanent point production status is 9 and plays the card with this effect. She takes a new marker, placing one on number 10 and the second on number 2. Now her permanent point production is 12.

If there is a slash between the effects, the player has to choose exactly one effect to take.

Space objects. Symbols on production stations, space shuttles and colonization ships. They are used in final scoring.

Special Effects

Upon completing colonization of a planet with this symbol, play one of your science cards immediately for free.

Science Cards – Description of Symbols

V_1 Permanent. Every time the point production is being increased, add one more point to your permanent point production.

V_2 Instant. Add one more point per every two permanent points on the scale.

V_3 Instant. Increase your permanent point production by one point per every colonization card (card with a quarter of a planet) added to your planets.

V_4 Permanent. From now on, your limit of cards on hand is increased to eight.

V_5 Instant. Take cards of the total value of 3 from the offer (like when using action Choose cards from the offer). If no cards remain in the offer, refill the offer with cards of the upcoming epoch and choose from those.

V_6 This card has no special effect.

V_7 Instant, permanent. Increase your permanent point production by three per every point on the trade scale. Every time you move your marker on the trade scale, increase your point production by three.

V_8 Instant, permanent. Increase your permanent point production by three per every point on the military scale. Every time you move your marker on the military scale, increase your permanent point production by three.

V_9 Permanent. When playing a production station card, pay one resource of a type of your choice less. The rule stating that at least one resource (card or wildcard resource token) must be paid still applies.

V_10 Permanent. When playing a space shuttle card, pay one resource of a type of your choice less. The rule stating that at least one resource (card or wildcard resource token) must be paid still applies.

V_11 Instant, permanent. Increase your permanent point production by two per every colonization ship added to your empire. Every time you play a colonization ship, increase your permanent point production by two.

V_12 Permanent. When playing a planet card, you will pay one resource of a type of your choice less. The rule stating that at least one resource (card or wildcard resource token) must be paid still applies.

V_13 Instant, permanent. Increase your permanent point production by three for every point on your diplomacy scale. Every time you move your marker on the diplomacy scale, increase your point production by three.

V_14 Permanent. From now on, you can take two cards in the total value of 4 when using action Choose cards from the offer.

V_15 Instant. At the end of the game, increase the status of one of your space objects on the score scale by one.

V_16 Instant, permanent. Increase your permanent point production by one per every planet added to your empire. Every time you add a planet to your empire, increase your point production by one.