Core Worlds: Revolution Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Component List
• Component Details
  • New Expansion Cards
  • Advancement Cards
  • Heroic Tactic Cards
  • New Hero, World, and Event Cards
  • Repainted Hero Cards
  • Replacement Cards
  • Revolution Tokens
  • Core World Reminder Tokens
  • Central Zone Plaque
• Set Up
• Building Advancements
• Heroic Tactics
  • Drafting Heroic Tactics
  • Drawing Heroic Tactics
  • Playing Heroic Tactics
  • Discarding Heroic Tactics
• Revolution FAQ
• "Monarch's Revenge" Variant

Component List

97 Cards:

• 27 Advancements
• 48 Heroic Tactics
• 5 Events
• 1 Core World ("Dagda")
• 3 New Heroes
• 10 Repainted Heroes
• 3 Replacement Cards

15 Revolution Tokens

10 Core World Reminder Tokens

1 Central Zone Plaque

Component Details

What follows is a description of the components included in Core Worlds: Revolution.

New Expansion Cards

The cards included in Revolution are compatible with the Core Worlds base game and with its first expansion, Galactic Orders. Each card in Revolution includes four "expansion dots" (yellow or purple) on the lower portion of the card to distinguish it from cards in other sets. If you are playing with the base game and both expansions, play with all of the new cards. If you are playing with just the base game and Revolution, then remove the cards with the purple expansion dots and place them back in the box, as these refer to items in the Galactic Orders expansion.

Advancement Cards

Advancements are built on conquered Worlds. All Advancement Cards should be added to their respective Galactic Decks as normal. During the Galactic Phase, as new Advancement Cards are drawn from the Galactic Decks, they are placed in a face up stack in the Central Zone. A player may pay an Advancement's Build Cost (see right) to place that Advancement beside one of his conquered Worlds. Each World can hold only one Advancement, and Advancements cannot be voluntarily discarded from play. Each Advancement features an Advancement Arrow that points to the World it is attached to; the Advancement adds its Energy Generation, Empire Points, and card text to that World. When calculating a World's total Energy Generation, include the Energy provided by that World's Advancement, if any.

Heroic Tactic Cards

Each Hero in the game features 3 Heroic Tactic cards that are kept in a separate Heroic Deck above the player's draw deck. A Heroic Tactic's card back corresponds to the Hero it belongs to. Each time a Hero is deployed, the player may draw the top card of his Heroic Deck if the back of the top card matches the deployed Hero. Each player's Heroic Deck begins with 3 Tactics that correspond to his Starting Hero. As a player drafts new Heroes, he may choose whether or not to add that Hero's Tactics to his Heroic Deck.

New Hero, World, and Event Cards

Revolution includes 3 new Heroes, 1 new Core World, and 5 new Event Cards. These cards should be added to each of their respective Galactic Decks. The 3 Heroes (Captain Alexander, The Prophet, and Duke Magnus) each share a unique function if you are playing with the Galactic Orders expansion. Each of these Heroes features two different Galactic Order Icons separated by a "/". Each time a player deploys one of these Heroes, he may choose to place his Faction Token on one of the two corresponding Galactic Order Cards.

Repainted Hero Cards

10 Heroes from among those in the base game and first expansion now feature new art that corresponds to their respective Heroic Tactic cards. These Heroes include Prince Aaron, Lord Banner, Baron Viktor, Simon the Fox, Sword Master, Retired Flying Ace, Warlord Hosk, Promethean Cyborg, Albrecht, and Queen Alais. Players should remove the corresponding Hero cards from their set and use the repainted versions instead.

Replacement Cards

3 cards from the Galactic Orders expansion (Mech Champion, Phantom Ship, and Divine Energy) have been re-balanced based on player feedback. Players are encouraged to remove the corresponding cards from their set and use the replacement versions instead.

Revolution Tokens

Many cards in Revolution require players to place Revolution Tokens to track important information. Sometimes a player must "spend" a Revolution Token by removing it from play to achieve a certain effect. Revolution Tokens are double-sided, with one side showing just the generic Revolution Icon and the other side showing one of the player's Faction Icons; this can be helpful when players need to keep track of which Revolution Tokens they have played on opponents' cards.

Core World Reminder Tokens

Dagda is a new Core World released in the Revolution expansion, and Buono is a Core World that was released as a promo card for the Galactic Orders expansion. Players should place the included Core World Reminder Tokens beside their Player Boards so that they can anticipate these Worlds' Fleet and Ground Strengths, as well as their bonus Empire Points.

Central Zone Plaque

The Central Zone Plaque is placed in the center of the table to display both the Advancement Stack and, if playing with the Galactic Orders expansion, the Event Stack.

Set Up

After performing the normal rules for Set-Up on pages 7 - 8 of the base game's rulebook, perform the following steps. It is recommended that all players playing this expansion use the Pregame Draft Rules introduced on page 16 of the original rulebook.

1. Place the Central Zone Plaque in the center of the playing area. If you are playing with the Galactic Orders expansion, place the First Blood Event face up as the first card of the Event Stack. Whenever a new Advancement or Event is drawn during the Galactic Phase, place it face up on top of its respective stack. To keep these cards prominently displayed throughout the game, players should place new Worlds drawn from the Galactic Decks to one side of this plaque, and all non-Worlds to the other side. Players never place Energy Tokens on the Advancement and Energy Stacks as they do with other cards in the Central Zone.

2. Give each player a Dagda Token and, if needed, a Buono Token. Players should place these tokens beside their Player Boards. Place the Revolution Tokens in a separate pile beside the Central Zone.

3. Each player shuffles the 3 Heroic Tactics that correspond to his Starting Hero and places them in a face down stack above his normal draw deck. This stack is called the player's Heroic Deck. Leave space for a separate Heroic Discard Pile beside each player's Heroic Deck.

4. Keep all remaining Heroic Tactics in a single stack beside the Central Zone, organized so that each Hero's Tactics are kept together within the stack. This is the Master Heroic Deck, which can be picked up and examined by any player at any time.

Building Advancements

During the Galactic Phase, if a new Advancement Card is drawn, place it face up on top of the Advancement Stack in the Central Zone. Advancement 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. If multiple Advancement Cards are drawn during the same Galactic Phase, continue to place them one at a time on top of the Advancement Stack. Players may examine the cards in the Advancement Stack at any time, but they must be careful not to change the order of the cards in the stack.

During a player's turn to act during the Action Phase, he may build 1 Advancement in the Advancement Stack. To do so, he must first spend 1 Action Point and then pay an amount of Energy equal to the card's Build Cost (the number in the gold square on the card's central horizontal bar). A player may build any Advancement in the stack. In order to build an Advancement Card that is not on top of the stack, the player must spend +1 Energy for each card that is on top of the desired Advancement in the stack. For example, to build the third Advancement in the stack, the player must spend an amount of Energy equal to that Advancement's Build Cost + 2.

Building an Advancement is a turn option that takes up the player's turn, similar to drafting a card. However, "building" is not the same thing as "drafting." Game text that refers to drafting cards does not apply to building cards. For example, using Advanced Drones or spending a Faction Token in the Science Guild will not reduce an Advancement's Build Cost.

After paying an Advancement's Build Cost, the player places it to the immediate right of one of his conquered Worlds. The Advancement immediately adds its Energy Generation, Empire Points, and card text to that World. Each World may hold only 1 Advancement; if a player does not own a World without an Advancement, he is not permitted to build a new one.

Heroic Tactics

A Heroic Tactic is a special type of card. It can only be affected by cards that specifically say they affect a "Heroic Tactic." For all other purposes, a Heroic Tactic is not affected by anything that affects a normal "card" or a normal "Tactic." It is not even considered a normal part of your "hand" or "deck." For example, when anything allows you to draw or discard a normal card from your hand, you cannot draw or discard a Heroic Tactic. Similarly, the Indra Core World does not reward you for owning Heroic Tactics.

Drafting Heroic Tactics

Whenever a player drafts a new Hero (either during the pre-game draft or during the Action Phase), that player may examine the Hero's Tactics and decide whether or not he wants to draft those Tactics into his Heroic Deck. Although the Heroic Tactics are very powerful, each new Hero's Tactics will dilute a player's Heroic Deck and make it harder to draw a particular Hero's cards (see Drawing Heroic Tactic Cards for more details). Therefore, a player may choose to draft a Hero and not draft his Heroic Tactics if he prefers, in which case the Hero's Tactics remain in the Master Heroic Deck.

If a player decides to draft a Hero's Tactics, he shuffles them into his Heroic Deck. He must first combine his Heroic Deck with his Heroic Discard Pile and then shuffle in the new Heroic Tactics. From this point forward, since the backs of the cards reveal the identity of the corresponding Hero, the player must shuffle the Heroic Deck blindly (that is, under the table) so that he does not know which Hero's Tactic will be on top until after he is finished shuffling.

Drawing Heroic Tactics

Heroic Tactic cards are not drawn during the Draw Phase like normal cards. Instead, whenever a player deploys a Hero, he may automatically draw the top card of his Heroic Deck into his hand if that Heroic Tactic corresponds to the Hero he just deployed. If the Heroic Tactic belongs to a different Hero, the player cannot draw the Heroic Tactic card, even if the other Hero is in his Warzone.

After a player plays a Hero and draws one of that Hero's Tactics into his hand, he may continue deploying additional Units as part of the same Player Turn. Because of this, a player should consider deploying his Hero before his other Units to see what new options will become available.

To help players draw their Heroic Tactics, a player may, as many times as he likes during his Player Turn, discard 1 normal card from his hand in order to discard the top card of his Heroic Deck face up onto his Heroic Discard Pile. Players will often do this before deploying a Hero to make sure one of that Hero's Tactics is on top of the Heroic Deck. Because a player must always know whose Heroic Tactic is on top of the deck, the Heroic Discard Pile must be shuffled immediately (under the table) whenever the Heroic Deck runs out of cards.

Playing Heroic Tactics

Heroic Tactic cards are played just like normal Tactic cards. They are played from your hand directly to produce an effect and are then discarded into the Heroic Discard Pile.

Discarding Heroic Tactics

During the Discard Phase, each player may retain 1 (and only 1) Heroic Tactic card in his hand if the corresponding Hero is still in his Warzone. If the corresponding Hero is not in his Warzone, he must discard the Heroic Tactic card during the Discard Phase.

A player may only retain 1 Heroic Tactic card in his hand during the Discard Phase regardless of the number of Heroes still in his Warzone. Retaining a Heroic Tactic card in your hand is in addition to the normal card you can keep in your hand during the Discard Phase.

Revolution FAQ

These are answers to specific questions about some of the Revolution expansion's situations and cards.

1. If a World is removed from the game, what happens to any cards that are attached to it (Advancements, garrisoned Units, etc.)?

These cards are also removed from the game and are no longer considered a part of that player's Empire.

2. After building the Cosmic Terraformer, must I discard my Heroic Tactics?

No, since Heroic Tactics are not considered a normal part of your hand.

3. When using the text on the Wormhole Generator or Unstable Teleporter, may I choose to not use the deployed Unit and keep it in my Warzone?

No. Since the Unit is being deployed "as if it were a Tactic," it must be discarded at the end of the Invasion.

4. Since each card's text can only be used once during each situation for which it qualifies, am I unable to use the Chameleon Particle Field more than once during the same Player Turn?

You may use it more than once as long as each use occurs during a different situation. For example, you cannot remove both tokens simultaneously to activate the Science Guild's text twice in a row in order to reduce the Draft Cost of a single card by 6 Energy.

5. When playing Baron Viktor's Revenge, what is considered the "face value" of the Units in my Warzone?

This card only takes into account the printed Fleet and Ground Strengths of those Units. Ignore their card text for these purposes.

6. When playing the Retired Flying Ace's Legendary Maneuvers, how precisely do you draw his "next Heroic Tactic card"?

If the Tactic on top of your Heroic Deck belongs to another Hero, discard the top card repeatedly until the Retired Flying Ace's next Tactic is on top, and then draw it into your hand.

7. What is the duration of Captain Alexander's Amazing Stunt and the Promethean Cyborg's Flawless Commander?

The affected card retains its doubled number until the end of the current phase.

8. What is the precise timing of The Prophet's Mystic Vision?

This card is played at the very start of your Player Turn, which allows you to immediately choose to draft or invade the new card.

9. How many times can a player make use of an opponent's card after playing Duke Magnus's Opportunist?

The player may only use the text on the opponent's World or Advancement a single time.

"Monarch's Revenge" Variant

This is an official variant for players who wish to limit the powers of certain types of Units and Tactics when playing the Galactic Orders expansion.

1. All Units, Tactics, and Worlds that reference the number of Faction Tokens a player possesses on a particular Galactic Order can benefit from a maximum of 4 Faction Tokens (see exception for the Core World Raven below). For example, when playing Scout Mission (a Tactic that allows a player to draw 1 card for each of his Faction Tokens in the Order of Knighthood), a player can draw a maximum of 4 cards even if the player has more than 4 Faction Tokens in that Order.

2. Raven's bonus Empire Points can benefit from a maximum of 8 Faction Tokens that a player possesses on a particular Galactic Order Card. Therefore, the maximum number of Empire Points that a player can receive from Raven is 12.

3. A player is not limited in the number of Empire Points he can score at the end of the game for having the most (or second most) Faction Tokens in a particular Galactic Order.