Dark Frontier Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Inside This Boxset
• Starting a Game
• Ways to End the Game
• Parts of a Card
• Symbols
• Parts of a Turn
• Paying Costs
• What You Can Do Each Turn
  • Activation Phase
  • Draw Phase
  • Spaceship Phase
  • Ranged Phase
  • Assault Phase
  • Hiring Phase
  • Discard Phase
• Tel·lus Mission — How to Play the Solo Campaign Mode
  • Special Rules
  • Decks
  • Rival Deck Chart

Inside This Boxset

• English material of the beta game to play a Dark Frontier scenario in Solo Mode.
• This short rulebook.
• A cardboard token sheet with Colonization Zones, Crystal Markers, and game counters.
• A deck of cards in Spanish, as a sample of the quality of the cards.
• A DVD with the campaign Manual in Spanish, few pages of the graphic novel, the Dark Frontier trailers, and numerous game illustrations.

Starting a Game

Each player's play area holds: an Orders Deck, an Army Deck, a Spaceship (with its Crystal Marker), a Colonization Area, a Field Area, a Vanished Area, a Discard Pile for each Deck, and a Hand.

Ways to End the Game

• Destruction - If your Spaceship (in this boxset, your Bunker) is destroyed (a card is destroyed when its Structure Points or its Life Points become zero or less), you lose the game.
• Colonization - If you start a turn with 40 Colonization Points or more in your Colonization Area (10 Colonization Points in this boxset) and a Bunker in the field, you win the game.
• Abandonment - If you can't draw a card from any of your Decks in the Drawing Phase, you lose the game (if you can draw from one of your Decks, draw just 1 card from that Deck).

Parts of a Card

• On the top of each card we will find its name, and immediately under it, the Type of the card on the left and the Subtype of the card on the right.
• On Improvements and certain Buildings, this will be the place where we find the starting Structure Points of that card.
• On Troops, this will be the place where we find the amount of Colonization Points that it generates when we hire them.
• Attack Points of the Troop. They represent the damage the Troop does to other cards.
• Life Points of the Troop. They represent the wounds a Troop can get before being destroyed.

All the cards in your Decks have this area in common:

• On the left you will find the set number of the card, followed by the amount of cards in that set.
• On the center lies the Crystal Cost that you must generate to play that card.
• On the right, the name of the illustrator of that card.
• The Faction Symbol. A card belongs to your Faction if it shares Faction Symbol with your Spaceship.

Symbols

• Colonization Points - Colonization Points are needed to win by Colonization. You will find more info of winning by Colonization in the card named Bunker and the next page.
• Structure Points - Structure Points are what your Spaceship, Building or Improvement resists before being destroyed.
• Crystal - This represents Crystal. Crystal is needed to pay the Crystal Costs of cards and abilities in Dark Frontier.

Parts of a Turn

Each player plays his or her whole turn. Then, the player placed on the right of that player plays his or her whole turn, and so on. You can end your Spaceship Phase, your Ranged Phase, your Assault Phase or your Hiring Phase just saying "I do nothing".

• Activation Phase: activate all your cards.
• Draw Phase: draw a card from each of your Decks. Restore the Crystal Marker on your Spaceship, if it doesn't have it.
• Spaceship Phase: do any of the following actions in any order:
  • Play Buildings (enter the field deactivated)
  • Play Actions and Reactions (any amount you want)
  • Attach an Equipment to a Troop or an Improvement to your Spaceship (any amount you want)
• Ranged Phase: shoot with your cards to any target with Structure Points or Life Points.
• Assault Phase: assault your opponents with your Troops.
• Hiring Phase: do any of the following actions in any order:
  • Play Buildings (enter the field deactivated)
  • Play Actions and Reactions (any amount you want)
  • Hire a Troop (enters the field activated)
  • Attach an Equipment to a Troop or an Improvement to your Spaceship (any amount you want)
• Discard Phase: if you have more than 7 cards, discard until having 7. After that, your turn ends.

Paying Costs

To play cards in Dark Frontier and use some of their abilities you will need to generate Crystal to pay its costs. At the centered bottom of the cards is its Crystal Cost. This is the value of Crystal that you will need to generate to play those cards.

Almost every Building has an ability that lets you deactivate it to generate Crystal. Read them all and check which ones you like more. Your Spaceship can also generate Crystal. To generate Crystal with your Spaceship, remove the Crystal Marker and generate as much Crystal as the Spaceship's Crystal Value.

When you pay a cost, you can combine any amount of Buildings and Spaceships to generate Crystal and combine all the Crystal generated. But, if you generate more Crystal than needed, you can't save it to pay another cost. This extra Crystal is lost.

There are two variations when paying a Crystal Cost: Reducing Costs and Increasing Costs.

• Reducing Costs: when you play a card that is from your Faction (a card is from your Faction if it shares Faction Symbol with your Spaceship), you may reduce its Crystal Cost by 2 Crystal.
• Increasing Costs: when you play a card that is NOT from your Faction (a card is NOT from your Faction if it has a Faction Symbol and doesn't share it with your Spaceship), you must increase its Crystal Cost by 2 Crystal.

(Illustrated: the same card's cost if your Faction is Tel·lus, and if your Faction is NOT Tel·lus.)

What You Can Do Each Turn

Activation Phase

Activate all your cards.

Each player skips the activation of his or her cards on his or her first turn of the game.

Draw Phase

Draw a card from each of your Decks.

Restore the Crystal Marker of your Spaceship, if it doesn't have it.

Each player skips his or her Draw Phase on the first turn of the game.

Spaceship Phase

Do any of the following actions in any order:

• Play Buildings (enter the field deactivated): Pick a Building card from your Hand, pay its Crystal Cost and place it on the Field deactivated. If a Building doesn't have an ability that generates Crystal, it generates 0 Crystal.
• Play Actions and/or Reactions (any amount you want): Pick an Action or Reaction card from your hand, pay its Crystal Cost, do whatever the card says and put it into its proper Discard Pile.
• Attach an Equipment to a Troop or an Improvement to your Spaceship (any amount you want): To be able to play an Equipment or an Improvement you need to control a Troop or a Spaceship on the field, pay its Crystal Cost and attach the card to the Troop or Spaceship. If a Troop or Spaceship is destroyed or vanished all cards attached to it are also destroyed or vanished.

Ranged Phase

Shoot with your cards to any target with Structure Points or Life Points (any amount you want).

In this phase you can deactivate a card with Ranged you control to do damage to any target card (the card with the Ranged Attack says how much damage it does) with Structure Points or Life Points. If a card receives a Ranged Attack as strong as or stronger than double its Life Points, vanish that card.

Also, in this phase you can use your Spaceship to shoot. Remove the Crystal Marker from your Spaceship to shoot using its Ranged Value.

A Ranged Attack is considered an Ability, so it is ruled by all rules that affect abilities. Also, if you make a Ranged Attack against a target with Armor or Shields, reduce the damage of the Ranged Attack by the value of the Armor or Shields.

Assault Phase

Assault your opponents with your Troops.

Your activated Troops can be used to assault the Spaceships and the cards with Structure Points of your opponents. When you are ready to do it, follow these steps:

1. Place in front of your Field Area the Troops that will assault this turn. If you are going to assault different targets, say clearly which Troop assaults which target.
2. The player who is being assaulted decides which activated Troops he or she controls will intercept the assaulting Troops. More than one Troop can intercept the same assaulting Troop. Then, any Troop that is intercepted or is intercepting is considered Opposed.
3. Each Troop Opposed and activated deals damage equal to its Attack Points to the Troop or Troops opposing it at the same time, with these exceptions:
   • Troops with Speed Assault deal damage first.
   • Troops with Ranged intercepting Troops with Anti Gravity deal damage first.
4. Each Troop non-Opposed and activated deals damage equal to its Attack Points to the card it is assaulting. Reduce as many Structure Points of the assaulted card as the Attack Points of the assaulting Troop. If its remaining Structure Points are zero or less, destroy that card.
5. Each Troop that has received as much damage as its Life Points is destroyed. Then, each Troop that assaulted and is still alive becomes deactivated.

Hiring Phase

Do any of the following actions in any order:

• Hire a Troop (enters the field activated): Pick a Troop card from your Hand, pay its Crystal Cost and place it on the Field activated. Gain as many Colonization Points as the Colonization value of that Troop, if you didn't reduce or increase its Crystal Cost when Hiring it.

  If a Troop you control is destroyed and is from your Faction, you don't lose Colonization Points. Instead, if it is NOT from your Faction, you lose as many Colonization Points as the Colonization value of that Troop.

• Play Buildings (enter the field deactivated)

• Play Actions and Reactions (any amount you want)

• Attach an Equipment to a Troop or an Improvement to your Spaceship (any amount you want)

Discard Phase

If you have more than 7 cards, discard until having 7. After that, your turn ends.

Tel·lus Mission — How to Play the Solo Campaign Mode

Under the burning sun, a mining plant is attacked by a Zrug pirate gang. After receiving a SOS call, the Interplanetary Embassy has sent you and your crew to save them. You will have to end this bombing the area with your Spaceship, but you have to reduce the civilian casualties first. Put the inhabitants inside the Bunker while you reject the Zrug Troops.

Start one of your turns with 10 Colonization Points or more in your Colonization Area and a Bunker on the field to win the game.

In the Solo Campaign Mode, instead of facing a friend, your opponent will be the Rival Deck. Whatever the Rival Deck does is established by the following Purple Chart. You will find there what happens turn after turn.

When your turn ends, go to the Rival Deck's chart and do whatever it says using the cards of the Rival Deck, following a descending order. The Rival Deck proceeds as you: after your first turn goes the first turn of the Rival Deck, after your second, its second turn, and so, depending who starts the game (in this boxset you start the game).

Once you get to turn 5 of the Rival Deck you will see that the chart says "Turn 5 and so". That means that from turn 5 and until the end of game the Rival Deck does what the turn 5 chart says.

Starting Cards: Bunker, Headquarters.

Special Rules

• The Tel·lus player starts the game.
• When checking Faction to reduce costs, the Faction of the Tel·lus player is considered Tel·lus (even not having a Spaceship).
• At the beginning of the game, instead of drawing cards until 7 cards, draw 0 Army Cards and 1 Order Card.
• Skip the Assault Phase of the Tel·lus player.
• The game can't be lost by Abandonment. Game will continue until the Bunker is destroyed, the Rival Deck doesn't have any card on field and its Deck is empty, or your mission is completed.

Decks

Tel·lus's Army Deck: 3 Glider Pilot, 3 Novice Soldier, 3 Tel·lus Ranger, 1 Rocket Launcher.

Tel·lus's Orders Deck: 1 Bunker, 2 First Settlement, 3 Headquarters, 3 Communications Tower, 2 Urgent Repairs.

Zrug's Rival Deck (RD): 3 Rapid Spinner, 4 Mucosal Stinger, 3 Swift Centipede, 1 Ruthless Hunter, 4 Biting Larvae.

Rival Deck Chart

Turn	Rival Deck actions
Turn 1	Reveal the first card of the Rival Deck and put it into the field activated.
Turn 2	Reveal the first two cards of the Rival Deck and put them into the field activated. Assault with all activated Troops of the Rival Deck to the Tel·lus Bunker.
Turn 3	Reveal the first card of the Rival Deck and put it into the field deactivated. Assault with all activated Troops of the Rival Deck to the Tel·lus Bunker. If the Bunker has been damaged this turn, reveal the first card of the Rival Deck and put it into the field activated.
Turn 4	Reveal the first two cards of the Rival Deck and put them into the field deactivated. Assault with all activated Troops of the Rival Deck to the Tel·lus Bunker. Shuffle the Discard Pile of the Army Deck of the Tel·lus player into the Army Deck of the Tel·lus player.
Turn 5 and so	Reveal the first card of the Rival Deck and put it into the field activated. Assault with all activated Troops of the Rival Deck to the Tel·lus Bunker.

Results: If you have gathered the inhabitants inside the bunker, the planet will be bombed and the Zrug annihilated! If not, try it again skipping the Turn 4 and removing the Ruthless Hunter from the Rival Deck. Good Luck!