Celestia Duo Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
  • Starting City
  • Celestial Path
  • Pirate
  • Playing Modes
  • Getting the Aircraft Ready
  • Choosing the Captain
  • Starting Equipment
• Communication Rules
• Game Round
  • Start of Round Briefing
  • A - Carry on with the Pursuit
    • 1. Move the Aircraft
    • 2. Find Out About the Ambush's Strength
    • Dice
    • Unhappy With the Result? Use Your Smoke Grenades Wisely!
    • The Result Suits You (or you do not have any Smoke Grenade token!)
    • 3. Fight
    • 4. Collect Rewards
    • Sharing
  • B - Stop Over
• The Crew
• The Final Battle
  • Setup
  • The Final Battle
• Icons
• Push Your Limits

Components

• 2 ships (needs assembly): the Aircraft and the Pirate Ship
• 1 Starting tile
• 1 Pirate's Lair tile
• 23 Resource tokens (3 Energy, 8 Crew, 6 Gold, and 6 Smoke Grenade)
• 8 Crew cards
• 48 Equipment cards
• 7 Pirate cards
• 14 Assault cards
• 28 Ambush cards (including 4 Starting cards)
• 6 Stopover cards
• 1 Captain token
• 4 dice

Setup

Starting City

Place the Starting tile on one side of the table and put all the Resource tokens next to it. Place the Stopover, Equipment and Crew decks, face down, around the city.

Celestial Path

Randomly take one of the 4 Starting Ambush cards (with a blue sky on their back) and place it, Clouds-side up, next to the Starting tile. Return the other 3 Starting Ambush cards back to the box.

Shuffle the remaining 24 Ambush cards. Place them randomly, one after the other, Clouds-side up, to create a path.

Pirate

Place the Pirate Ship (with 3 masts) on the 12th Ambush card of the path. Place the Lair tile at the end of the path.

Playing Modes

Choose a challenge to complete the setup:

Quick (recommended for your first game)

• Goal: Catch up the Pirate.
• Place the Pirate card with this image next to the Pirate's Lair.
• Return the Assault cards to the box. You will not use them for this challenge.

Reminder: The Pirate Ship is placed on the 12th card from the starting city.

Normal

• Goal: Catch up the Pirate and defeat them.
• Find out who your opponent is: Randomly draw a card among the Pirates and place it on its Pursuit side (the side with their name on), next to the Pirate's Lair.
• Prepare for the Final Battle: Shuffle the Assault cards and place 3 of them, face down, under the Pirate card (return the remaining cards to the box).
• If you have already won a game, the next one will be more difficult: Place the Pirate Ship on a more distant card on the path (see the table on the bottom of page 12).

Expert

• Goal: Catch up the Pirate and defeat them.
• Follow the same setup and rules as with the Normal mode, but use the Pirate with this image.

Note: the rulebook calls the Quick challenge "Quick" on page 2 and refers to "Fast mode" on pages 4, 11 and 12. Both names refer to the same mode.

Getting the Aircraft Ready

Randomly pick one of the 3 upper decks and place it on your Aircraft. Then, lock the deck using the reactor.

Each deck is made of two parts:

• The generator (comprising 1 to 3 slots) which holds the Energy tokens. Each deck comes with a different generator.
• The hold (comprising 4 to 6 slots) which holds the other resources: Gold, Smoke Grenade and Crew tokens.

In the generator, insert the following tokens:

• 1 Energy token per slot (in the example just above, insert 2 Energy tokens).
• Note: Do not look at the bottom part of the Energy tokens.

In the hold, insert the following tokens:

• 1 Smoke Grenade token
• 1 Crew token. Turn the top card of the Crew pile over, place it face up next to the Starting tile and insert the matching character in the Aircraft.

The Aircraft is all set to go. Place it on the Starting tile.

Choosing the Captain

Randomly pick the player who will start the game as the Captain. Give them the Captain token and the 4 dice.

Note: The Captain token shows the details of the Equipment's distribution in the game.

Starting Equipment

Deal 4 Equipment cards to each player. Each player makes sure that the cards they hold in their hand are not visible to their partner.

Then, reveal 4 additional Equipment cards face up. In turn, starting with the Captain, each player adds one of these cards to their hand, and then a second one.

Once this step is completed, each player should have 6 cards in their hand.

There are 6 different Equipment cards, distributed as follows (the Captain token shows this distribution):

• Whips: 13
• Sabres: 11
• Crossbows: 9
• Pistols: 7
• Cannons: 5
• Wild: 3 (may be used to replace any piece of Equipment)

Example: Mary starts the game as the Captain. She is the first one to pick a card and adds the Pistol card to her hand. Then, Bruno picks the Sabre card. Finally, they each take a Whip card. They now both hold 6 cards in their hand and have some basic information about their partner's game.

Communication Rules

Most of the game is played in silence. You cannot talk nor exchange any piece of information in any way.

However, there are specific key moments during the game where you will be allowed to discuss with each other. During these consultation phases (indicated in the rules by the phrase "You may discuss together."), you must obey the following rules:

• The number of cards in each player hand is visible to all.
• The cards that make your hand are secret. You are not allowed to discuss them, either directly (e.g. "I only have green." / "I have two Wild cards."), nor indirectly (e.g. "I have a great hand." / "Things are going to be tricky for me.").
• You cannot point at the dice.
• You may discuss whether to use a game element, but without saying how you would want to use it.
• If players cannot agree, the Captain has the last word.

Game Round

Start of Round Briefing

You may discuss together (see above).

At the start of each round, the players decide together to:

• A - Carry on with the Pursuit (see below): Try to defeat the Pirate's men in order to catch up the Pirate.
• Or
• B - Stop over (see page 8): Gain new cards and buy pieces of Equipment. But be aware that, in the meantime, the Pirate will get closer to reaching their Lair.

Note: During the very first round of the game, the players have no choice but to carry on with the pursuit!

A - Carry on with the Pursuit

1. Move the Aircraft

Look at the number under the impeller of the card on which your Aircraft is located. Turn over the Ambush card located at the distance indicated by the impeller and place the Aircraft on it.

Example: The Captain decides to pursue his journey. There is a 2 under the impeller on the card on which the Aircraft is located. The Captain turns over the card that is located 2 cards further, then places the Aircraft on it.

Check the Pirate's location: If this move enables you to reach (or to pass) the card where the Pirate Ship is:

• If you are playing in Fast mode: CONGRATULATIONS, you win the game!
• If you are playing in Normal or Expert mode: Stop moving as soon as you reach it, then turn to page 11 for the Final Battle.

2. Find Out About the Ambush's Strength

The opponent's strength is shown at the top of the Ambush card. The reward in the case of victory is shown on the right of the card. The distance to travel if you choose to pursue the journey is shown at the bottom right of the card.

After moving the Aircraft onto the Ambush card, roll or place the dice indicated at the top left of the Ambush card:

• For each visible Whip, Sabre, Crossbow, Pistol or Cannon icon, place one die on the matching side.
• For each roll-a-die icon, roll a die.

The resulting combination defines the strength of the Ambush.

Example: Mary reveals this Ambush card. She places 2 dice on the Whip side and rolls 2 more dice.

Dice

The 4 dice are identical and have 6 different sides:

• 5 of the sides show an Equipment icon (Whip, Sabre, Crossbow, Pistol, Cannon).
• The Pirate Flag side indicates that the Pirate will use his Unique Ability.

Unhappy With the Result? Use Your Smoke Grenades Wisely!

You may discuss together (see page 4).

You may discard a Smoke Grenade token to roll all or some of the dice again.

Note: You are allowed to re-roll the dice that have been placed on a specific face.

Example: Mary chooses to use a Smoke Grenade to re-roll the 2 dice that are on the Whip side and gets this new result: Crossbow, Pistol, Cannon, Pirate Flag.

The Result Suits You (or you do not have any Smoke Grenade token!)

For each visible Pirate Flag, face the Pirate's Unique Ability shown on their card.

Example: Mary has no Smoke Grenade left so she has to accept this dice roll result: Crossbow, Pistol, Cannon, Pirate Flag. As a result, the Pirate Ship moves two cards forward!

All Pirates have their own Unique Abilities. Each indicates a movement of the Pirate Ship, but some inflict an additional penalty: loss of a Gold or an Equipment token, deactivation or discarding of a Crew card.

The six Pirate Unique Ability strips on page 5 show the following movement values: three strips move the Pirate Ship 2 cards, 3 cards, and 1 card; the other three strips move it 1 card plus a penalty. Transcriber's note: at the print resolution of the PDF, the penalty glyph on each of those three strips could not be matched with certainty to Gold, Equipment token, or Crew card. The per-Pirate abilities are printed on each Pirate card.

3. Fight

You may discuss together (see page 4).

The Captain chooses who starts the fight. Then, the players take turns.

On their turn, each player must:

• Choose the die they want to get rid of.
• Discard from their hand the card(s) needed to remove this die. To do so, they can:
  • either discard an Equipment card of the indicated icon;
  • or discard a Wild Equipment card;
  • or discard two Equipment cards with identical icons.

A Pirate Flag die can be disposed of by discarding any Equipment card.

Example: Mary is the Captain and she decides she'll start. She gets rid of the Orange die by discarding a Crossbow card. Bruno gets rid of the Red die. Since he doesn't have a Pistol card, he discards two identical cards.

If a player is unable to get rid of a die when it is their turn to fight: The Aircraft is attacked and loses one of its Energy tokens!

• Remove the Energy token from the Aircraft and turn it over.
• If you need to remove an Energy token, but there aren't any left in your Aircraft: you lose the game!
• Follow the token's instructions:
  • Share new cards following the directions in the "Sharing" section (see page 7).
  • Remove the indicated number of Resource tokens.
• If you need to remove more tokens than you have in your hold, then empty your hold completely.
• Otherwise, pick the tokens you want to dispose of. You may discuss together (see page 4).
• Continue fighting. Starting with the player who triggered the loss of the Energy token, carry on as usual, taking turns, until all dice have been disposed of.

Example: It's Mary's turn again. This time, she has no Wild card and no pair of identical cards. So, she has to remove an Energy token from the Aircraft and turn it over. Mary and Bruno share 5 cards (3 face-down and 2 face-up cards). Mary also has to remove 3 Resource tokens from the Aircraft. She chooses 2 Smoke Grenade tokens and 1 Crew token (she also discards the matching Crew card). Mary resumes the fight to get rid of one of the two dice. She uses the Wild Equipment card that she picked up during the sharing phase. Bruno ends the fight by getting rid of the Pirate die.

4. Collect Rewards

Collect the rewards associated with the Ambush card. Once you have done so, start a new turn, with the same Captain.

There are 4 possible rewards:

• Bonus Communication: Exchange information about your hand; each player can pass on a single piece of information about the content of their hand. You can only use one of these two phrasings: "I HAVE" or "I DO NOT HAVE", without any further indication regarding the number of cards.
  • Authorised: "I have some Sabre" or "I do not have any Pistols"; "I have some Wild"; "I have a bit of everything".
  • Non-authorised: "I have 3 Sabres".
• Bonus Equipment: Draw an Equipment card. Place it face up in the centre of the table and proceed to the sharing phase.
• Bonus Gold: Insert the number of Gold tokens indicated into the hold.
• Bonus Crew: Draw a Crew card. Insert the matching Crew token into the hold. Each Crew has their own special powers that can be activated during the game (see page 10).

Example of rewards: Later in the game, Mary and Bruno collect rewards from another fight: 2 Gold tokens. Since they already have 3 Smoke Grenade tokens and 2 Crew tokens, they do not have enough room left in the hold. They decide to discard the Crew card (and its token) and to only pick one of the 2 Gold tokens.

Note: Before collecting a reward in full or in part, you can choose to make room in your hold by removing as many Resource tokens as you want. You may discuss together (see page 4). If you decide to discard a Crew token, remove the corresponding token from the Aircraft AND discard its card.

Sharing

During the game, each time you get new Equipment cards, you have to share them between the 2 players.

1. Draw the cards that will have to be shared and place them in the centre of the table. Make sure to place them following the indicated distribution between face-down and face-up cards.
2. You may discuss together (see page 4). The Captain decides who starts.
3. In turns, each player either:
   • Takes one of the available cards to their hand
   • Or
   • Gives up on taking a card for this turn (so as to let the other player pick two cards in a row to balance the number of cards in their hands) and so on until all the cards have been picked.

B - Stop Over

You may discuss together (see page 4).

During the briefing at the start of the round, if the Captain believes that the chances of foiling another Ambush are too slim, then it is better to Stop over.

1. Draw the Top Stopover Card

Place the drawn Stopover card on the right side of the Ambush card where you are currently located so that the Stopover card covers the rewards of the Ambush that you have just faced.

Then move the Aircraft on top of this Stopover card.

2. Effects of the Stopover

Apply the effects of this Stopover, from top to bottom:

• Move the Pirate Ship forward by the number of Ambush cards indicated. If the Pirate reaches their Lair, you have been defeated and the game stops right away!
• Gain new cards. For each visible Ambush card starting from the last Stopover, draw the number of cards indicated, while respecting the distribution between face-down and face-up cards (see the example on the next page). Share these cards following the usual procedure (see "Sharing" on page 7).
• Use your Gold. Decide on how to spend your Gold depending on the costs indicated (remove the needed Gold tokens from the hold).
  • You can now buy new Equipment cards to share (see page 7) and/or Smoke Grenade tokens to store in your hold.
  • Important: You can spend your Gold any way you want and buy several cards and/or Smoke Grenade tokens by paying the indicated price. You may remove Resource tokens to make more room. You do not have to spend everything at once and may keep some of the Gold for a later Stopover.
• Reactivate your passengers... or not!
  • If this icon appears on the Stopover card, turn ALL your Crew cards upwards so that they become usable again.
  • If this icon appears on the Stopover card, leave your Crew cards as they are.

3. Change the Captain

The Captain token goes to the other player. Then, the new Captain starts a new turn.

Example: Mary decides to make a stop and draws this Stopover card. First, Mary moves the Pirate Ship 2 spaces forward. As they have won 3 fights (see the cards marked with the Ambush icon on the left) since their last Stopover, they start by sharing 6 cards. The players decide to spend 1 Gold token to buy 2 cards (one face-down, one face-up) which they share straight away; and to spend 1 Gold token to store 3 Smoke Grenade tokens in the Aircraft. Their Crew card is reactivated. Finally, Bruno becomes the new Captain and takes the Captain token.

Game Round Quick Reference

(As printed on page 12.)

Start of round briefing. You may discuss together, then either:

• Stop over: Draw a Stopover card and place your Aircraft on it, then apply the effects of this Stopover:
  • Move the Pirate Ship forward as indicated.
  • Resupply: cards, Gold, Smoke Grenade, Crew (you may discuss together).
  • Change the Captain.
• Or carry on with the Pursuit:
  1. Move your Aircraft forward as indicated. If you reach the Pirate Ship: Fast mode: Victory. Normal or Expert mode: Final Battle (see page 11).
  2. Find out about the Ambush's strength. Place the dice on the indicated sides (Whip, Sabre, Crossbow, Pistol, Cannon). Roll a die for each roll-a-die icon. Use Smoke Grenade tokens to roll all or part of the dice again (you may discuss together).
  3. Fight. On your turn, get rid of a die. You can either discard an Equipment card of the indicated icon, or discard a Wild Equipment card, or discard two Equipment cards with identical icons. If a player cannot get rid of a die: lose an Energy token and apply its effects (if you have no Energy token left, you lose). Then, the player who did not manage to get rid of a die continues fighting.
  4. Collect rewards.

The Crew

You start the game with one Crew card. You can collect additional ones during your journey.

Each Crew card gives you a Unique Ability. It's up to you to decide when it is wisest to use it. A Crew card can be used by any of the two players during their turn.

Once you used the effect of a card, turn this card sideways (at 90°) to indicate it can no longer be used. You will be able to reactivate the card by Stopping over.

• Ludvig Cyr: Discard one of the Equipment cards from your hand to get rid of ALL the dice bearing the same icon.
• Olga Benz: Advance one more Ambush card than indicated on your starting point.
• Shuki Saban: At the end of a fight, pick 2 Equipment cards among those that should have been discarded, and share them following the usual procedure.
• Kublai Heshen: For each validated Pirate Flag in the dice combination, you may insert up to 2 Gold tokens into your hold. Remove other tokens if needed.
• Baba Zogbé: Before deciding whether to Carry on with your journey or to Stop over, reveal ALL the Ambush cards from your starting point to your destination. Then, place them back, face down, in any order you like. You may discuss together (see page 4).
• Mama Lear: Any card from your hand may be used as a Wild card.
• Rhett O'Hara: For each validated Cannon in the dice combination, you may insert up to 2 Smoke Grenade tokens into your hold. Remove other tokens if needed.
• Augusta D'Epsom: After rolling the dice, choose up to 2 of them and place them on the sides you want.

Transcriber's note: the trigger icons for Kublai Heshen (Pirate Flag) and Rhett O'Hara (Cannon) were read from the card art on page 10, which is the only place the icon is printed on those cards.

The Final Battle

If you are playing in Fast mode, you only need to catch up the Pirate Ship to win and end the game. If you have chosen the Normal or Expert Mode, you need to face and defeat the Pirate to win the game.

Goal: Destroy the 3 masts of the Pirate Ship.

Setup

Turn the Pirate card over on its Boarding side and place it next to the 3 Assault cards. Follow the instructions on the card:

1. Draw the indicated number of Equipment cards, while respecting the face-up/face-down distribution, and share them using the usual procedure.
2. Spend your Gold. You may discuss together (see page 4). Choose how to spend your Gold tokens based on the costs indicated. You can then draw some more cards (which you will share as usual) and/or reactivate some of your Crew cards.
3. The Pirate has a new Unique Ability that applies all along the Final Battle each time you validate a Pirate Flag. You must play the 2 indicated Equipment cards, at the same time, to get rid of the die.

The Final Battle

The Battle involves 3 Assaults. Each Assault is resolved by following these 3 steps:

4. Reveal the first Assault card. This card shows:
   • the number of Battle dice that needs to be rolled and those that need to be turned on specific sides;
   • a constraint, specific to this round, among the following:
     • Using the effects of your active Crew card is not allowed.
     • Using Smoke Grenade tokens is not allowed.
     • Coupling two identical cards to use them as a Wild card is not allowed.
5. Follow the same fighting rules as for the Ambushes: Smoke Grenade tokens usage (if allowed), alternating players, loss of Energy tokens, etc. (see page 5).
6. If you won the Assault, remove a mast from the Pirate Ship and discard the Assault card.

If you successfully manage to take the 3 masts down: you win the game!

However, if you are asked to lose an Energy token during an Assault, but have none left in your generator: you lose the game!

Icons

Rewards

• Bonus Communication.
• Gain a Gold token and place it in the Aircraft.
• Gain a Crew card and place its token in the Aircraft.
• Gain a face-up Equipment card.

Unique Abilities

• Discard a Gold, an Equipment or a Crew (and its token) or deactivate it.

Energy tokens

• 2: Discard as many resources of your choice from your Aircraft as indicated.
• 2/3: Draw face-down and face-up Equipment cards.

Cities

• For each Ambush since your last Stopover, gain face-down and/or face-up Equipment cards.
• Spend Gold to buy one or more Smoke Grenade tokens (as many times as you want).
• Spend Gold to buy face-down and/or face-up Equipment cards (as many times as you want).
• Reactivate your Crew cards.
• Do not reactivate your Crew cards.

Push Your Limits

Record your victories! The score track has boxes for Starting Position, Normal Mode and Expert Mode, numbered 12 to 16.