Core Worlds: Galactic Orders
Core Worlds: Galactic Orders Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Component List
- 6 large Galactic Order Cards
- 93 Cards:
- Galactic Deck 0 (8 Cards)
- Galactic Deck 1 (12 Cards)
- Galactic Deck 2 (13 Cards)
- Galactic Deck 3 (12 Cards)
- Galactic Deck 4 (12 Cards)
- Galactic Deck 5 (8 Cards)
- New Starting Deck (16 Cards)
- New Home Worlds (6 Cards)
- Advancement Cards (6 Cards)
- 126 Faction Tokens (21 for each Faction)
- 5 Raven Tokens
Component Details
What follows is a description of the components included in Core Worlds: Galactic Orders.
Galactic Order Cards
The six Galactic Orders are represented by large Galactic Order Cards that are placed face up on the table. After deploying Units and Tactics with the corresponding Galactic Order Icons, players place their Faction Tokens (see below) on these cards. This represents a player's Empire currying favor with these organizations.
Faction Tokens
Each player begins the game with 21 Faction Tokens that match the Faction Symbol on his Starting Deck. Throughout the game, a player will place his Faction Tokens onto Galactic Order Cards. During his turn, a player may choose to remove one or more of his tokens from Galactic Order Cards in order to gain the special powers associated with those Orders. Alternatively, a player can choose to keep his tokens on the cards to score bonus Empire Points at the end of the game.
New Units, Tactics, and Worlds
Included in the expansion are many new Units, Tactics, and Worlds. These cards should be added to each of their respective Galactic Decks. Each new card in the Galactic Orders expansion includes two special "expansion marks" on the lower portion of the card to distinguish it from cards in the base set.
Replacement Cards
Two cards from the base set (Advanced Drones and Repair Station) have been adjusted for use with this expansion. Replacement versions are included in this set.
When playing with the expansion, remove the corresponding cards from the base set and use the replacement versions instead. As with all cards released in the expansion, the replacement cards are distinguished by two expansion marks.
Event Cards
The expansion includes a new card type called Events. Event Cards enhance the game by adding special rules to each Round. The Event Cards should be added to their respective Galactic Decks as normal. The one exception to this is the Starting Event (First Blood), which has a Sector Number of 0 and always begins the game face up in the center of the table (see Set-Up on page 5).
Advancement Cards
Advancement Cards are another card type introduced in Galactic Orders. Advancement Cards attach to a World and provide a special power while attached to that World. This expansion includes six copies of the Capital City Advancement which attaches to each player's Home World. During the Energy Phase, the Capital City allows each player with at least three Worlds in his Empire to place any one card from his hand (Unit or Tactic) beneath the Capital City; that removes the card from the player's deck for the rest of the game.
Note: A card placed beneath the Capital City is still considered part of the player's Empire for endgame scoring, but it is not considered part of the player's Warzone.
New Home Worlds
New Home Worlds are included in this expansion. Players should use these instead of the Home Worlds from the base set. The new Home Worlds feature a bonus power in addition to the power from the base set. For space considerations, both powers appear in shorthand which should be read as follows: "During the Draw Phase, if you have more Worlds than Units in your Warzone, draw 1 additional card. During the Energy Phase, you may discard 2 cards from your hand to gain 1 Energy." Just as in the base game, you may use each of these abilities only once during their respective phases.
New Starting Deck
The Galactic Orders expansion includes a sixth Starting Deck, as well as a Home World, Capital City, and a set of Faction Tokens for that deck. Players should feel free to use this new Starting Deck alongside the game's other Starting Decks. Even though a sixth Starting Deck has been included in the game, Core Worlds still only supports 2 - 5 players.
Raven Tokens
Raven is a new Core World released in the Galactic Orders expansion. The Raven Tokens are placed on top of the player boards so that the players can anticipate Raven's Fleet and Ground Strengths, as well as its bonus Empire Points.
Set Up
After performing the normal rules for Set-Up on pages 7 - 8 of the base game's rulebook, perform the following steps. Note that it is recommended that all players playing the expansion use the Pregame Draft Rules introduced on page 16 of the original rulebook.
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Choose an area off to the side of the main playing area, preferably the other side of the table opposite the Sector Cards and Galactic Decks. Lay out the six Galactic Order Cards face up in a row in this area.
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Give each player the 21 Faction Tokens that match the Faction Symbol on his Starting Deck.
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Give each player a Raven Token. Players should place these in the empty slot at the top of their Player Boards.
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Place the First Blood Starting Event face up in the Central Zone. This is the first card in a stack of Event Cards that will build throughout the game in the Central Zone. Event Cards placed in this stack do not count towards the total number of cards placed in the Central Zone during each Galactic Phase.
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Give each player the Capital City Advancement card bearing the same Faction Symbol as his Starting Deck. The players should place their Capital Cities in their Warzones to the immediate right of their Home Worlds.
The Capital Cities are considered "attached" to the Home Worlds, which is signified by the arrow on the left side of the Capital City. In future expansions, new Advancement Cards will be released that can be placed beside other Worlds.
Expansion Rules
Galactic Order Cards
Most Units and Tactics drafted in Sectors 1 - 5 have a Galactic Order Icon on their central horizontal bar. Whenever a player deploys a Unit or plays a Tactic with a Galactic Order Icon on it, he places one of his Faction Tokens on top of the corresponding Galactic Order Card. Note that the token is not added when a Unit or Tactic is first drafted, but only when it is deployed or played from hand. However, when a player drafts a Prestige Card and places it in his Warzone, he immediately places one of his Faction Tokens on the corresponding Galactic Order Card.
Each Galactic Order has a special power associated with it, as described on its respective card. At any time during a player's turn in the Action Phase, he may spend (remove) one or more of his Faction Tokens from Galactic Order Cards in order to activate the special powers associated with those Orders. A player may do this multiple times, spending tokens from the same and/or different Galactic Order Cards during the same turn. Spending a token does not cost any Actions or Energy. Players should return their spent tokens to their pool of Faction Tokens.
What follows is a summary of the special powers associated with each Galactic Order. "Player Turn" refers to a player's turn to act during the Action Phase.
Galactic Senate
During your Player Turn, gain 1 Action Point (if you have at least 1 Action Point left). This ability cannot be used if the player has passed or used up all of his Action Points. You may spend multiple Faction Tokens to gain additional Action Points, up to a maximum of 6 Action Points at any given time.
Science Guild
During your Player Turn, subtract 3 from the Draft Cost of one card in the Central Zone. You may spend multiple Faction Tokens from the Science Guild to reduce the Draft Cost of the same card multiple times. Although the cost reduction is cumulative, any extra cost reduction is lost. For example, if you remove a Faction Token from the Science Guild to reduce the draft cost of a card from 2 to 0, the extra point of reduction cannot be applied to a new card.
Merchant Alliance
During your Player Turn, subtract 3 from the Deploy Cost of one Unit. You may spend multiple Faction Tokens from the Merchant Alliance to reduce the Deploy Cost of the same card multiple times. Although the cost reduction is cumulative, any extra cost reduction is lost. In other words, a single Faction Token cannot apply to more than one Unit.
Mining Coalition
During your Player Turn, gain 2 Energy. You may spend multiple Faction Tokens to gain additional Energy. This Energy can then be used for any purpose, including drafting, deploying, invading, using card text, and so on.
Order of Knighthood
During an Invasion, add +2 to your Fleet Strength or Ground Strength. Each Token only adds to Fleet or Ground Strength, not both. You may, however, spend multiple Faction Tokens to cumulatively add more Fleet or Ground Strength to the same Invasion. This may even allow a player to conquer a World without using any Units.
Mystic Brotherhood
During your Player Turn, draw 3 cards. You may spend multiple Faction Tokens to draw additional cards. If your deck runs out of cards, you may shuffle your discard pile to form a new deck. If both your deck and discard pile possess a total of only 1 or 2 cards, then simply draw as many cards as you have left.
Event Cards
During the Galactic Phase, if a new Event Card is drawn, place it face up on top of the stack of Event Cards in the Central Zone. Event Cards do not immediately trigger upon being drawn, so ignore their text for the time being and continue to draw new cards from the current Galactic Deck. It is important to note that Event Cards do not count toward the total number of cards drawn during the Galactic Phase. They are considered neither Worlds nor non-Worlds for this purpose.
It is possible to draw multiple Event Cards during the same Galactic Phase. In this case, continue to place them one at a time on top of the Event Stack. Only the last Event Card drawn each Round will have any effect. If no Event Cards are drawn, then the previous Round's Event will repeat itself during the current Round (or, in the case of the first Round, the Starting Event will take effect).
At the end of the Galactic Phase, after all cards for the Round have been drawn and placed, the top card of the Event Stack "triggers" and its text must be obeyed by all players. Sometimes an Event will require players to take immediate action, and other times an Event will have an effect during the remainder of the current Round. If an Event affects more than one player at the same time, the players must act in player order, starting with the Destiny Marker and continuing clockwise around the table.
Garrisoning Worlds
The "Garrisoning Worlds" rule replaces the "Colonizing Worlds" rule on page 14 of the original rulebook. After a player conquers a World, he may choose to stack any one Unit that was used in that Invasion beneath the conquered World instead of discarding it. That removes the Unit from the player's deck for the rest of the game.
Note: A card used to garrison a World is still considered part of the player's Empire for endgame scoring, but it is not considered part of the player's Warzone.
Minimum Cost
If an effect ever reduces a card's Draft or Deploy Cost below 0, the card's Cost is considered 0.
Card Errata
In the base game, each Starting Deck begins with two Tactic cards titled Coordinated Assault and Tight Formation. Because these Tactics only provide their bonus during the situations described in their text, players should consider the Fleet and Ground Strength numbers printed on the cards to be "0". This also applies to the Sector I Tactic titled Pioneer Spirit.
Phantom Ship
The Phantom Ship is an ancient vessel that reappears throughout time, and only the most disciplined minds can control it. This card is unique in that it is considered both a Unit and a Tactic. As mentioned in its card text, it can only be deployed during an Invasion, and it must be used during that Invasion. Even though it is "deployed," it does not cost any Action Points to play because it is a Tactic. Unlike the Tactics described in the "Card Errata" section above, the Phantom Ship has a base Fleet Strength of 1, as printed on its card. All text and benefits that apply to both Tactics and Star Cruisers apply to the Phantom Ship, including the cost reduction text of planet Taurus. At the end of an Invasion involving the Phantom Ship, a player may play Superior Engineering to return the Phantom Ship to his hand.
Scoring the Galactic Order Cards
At the end of the game, the players score bonus Empire Points based on the Faction Tokens that still remain on the Galactic Order Cards. Faction Tokens that were removed from the Galactic Order Cards during the game have no effect on scoring. Each Galactic Order Card is scored separately.
The player who has the most tokens on a Galactic Order Card scores bonus Empire Points equal to the number of tokens he has on that Galactic Order Card. The player with the second most tokens on a Galactic Order Card scores bonus Empire Points equal to half the number of tokens he has on that Galactic Order Card (round up). All other players score no points for that Galactic Order Card.
If there is a tie for the most tokens on a Galactic Order Card, all tied players receive the full Empire Points they are entitled to; in this case no player scores points for having the second most tokens on that Galactic Order Card. If one player has the most tokens on a Galactic Order Card but there is a tie for second place, then no player receives Empire Points for second place.
Note: In a 2-player game of Core Worlds, only the player with the most tokens scores points for each Galactic Order Card; there is no second place scoring.
"Consuls of the Empire" Variant
This is an official Variant for those interested in reducing the impact of the turn order during the final two Rounds of the game. Two or more players who are prepared to conquer the same Core World at the same time can become joint Consuls of that world, sharing in the glory and majesty of governing that world. When using these rules in a 4-player game, player 4 only receives 1 Energy Surge Token during Set-Up.
During Rounds 9 & 10 (the Core Worlds), after a player conquers a Core World, every other player in the remaining turn order (up to and including the player sitting to the right of the Destiny Marker) can choose to place one of his Faction Tokens on that Core World. A player can only do this once per game. At the start of a player's turn, if he has just placed his Faction Token on a Core World, he must either spend his turn conquering that same Core World (spending 1 Action, 1 Energy, and discarding Units from his Warzone as normal), or remove his Faction Token from that World. The player must be able to conquer the Core World on his very next turn in order to become a Consul of that world.
If the player successfully conquers the World, then he gets to keep his Faction Token on that World. The original owner does not surrender control of the World, and the new conqueror cannot garrison the World. However, a player is considered an owner of a Core World bearing his Faction Token for purposes of Prestige card discounts. Furthermore, during final scoring, a player scores points for a Core World bearing his Faction Token as if that Core World were part of his own Empire. This may result in multiple players receiving different bonus points for the same Core World.
Note: The printed rulebook closes this variant with a pointer to an example on the BoardGameGeek Core Worlds page and a special-thanks credit; neither is a rule, so neither is transcribed here.