Empires of the Void II Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Learning the Game
  • Goal
  • Playing the Game
  • Actions
    • Action: Move & Attack
    • Attack (Battle)
    • Action: Research & Build
    • Action: Card Action or Diplomacy
    • Action: Recruit Units
    • Action: Scavenge
    • Missions (Power Cards)
    • Deliveries (Power Cards)
• Glossary
• Abilities & Cards
  • Unit Abilities
  • Ally Abilities
  • Technologies
  • Power Cards — Card Clarifications
  • Event Cards — Card Clarifications
  • Empire Cards
  • Card Effects and Meanings
• Valka VII Scenario
• Variants

Components

• 1 Game Board
• 10 Planet Tiles
• 12 Explore Tokens
• 6 Cargo Tokens
• 10 Fungus Tokens
• 30 Starfarers
• 8 War Bots
• 63 Power Cards
• 45 Event Cards
• 30 Empire Cards
• 60 Buildings — cities, bases, and academies
• 51 Goods — artifacts, metal, and lifeforms
• 15 Star Sloops (3 per faction)
• 5 Player Boards (1 per faction)
• 75 Influence Markers (15 per faction)
• 75 Control Cubes (15 per faction)
• 1 Doom Token
• 1 Parasite Token
• 6 Sarkeen Regency Tokens
• 40 Allied Units (4 for each of 10 planets)
• 10 Ally Tokens
• 52 Credits (23 ones, 14 threes, 15 fives)
• 9 Command Track Tokens
• 2 Path Tokens
• 14 Dice
• 4 Event Tokens
• 5 Worldships (1 per faction)
• Not pictured in this rulebook: Commander Token (1), Action Token (1), Score Card (1), Player Aid Tokens (3), Colonization Cards (5), First Player Card (1), Heecrix Invaders (2), Anonian Warriors (2)

The five factions are Decima, Earth, Eehg, Zun, and Sreech. Each faction's color is the color of its Worldship.

Setup

1. Choose eight planets. Each game you must leave out one of these planets: Corzar, Korlo Zan, or Emrok. (Also do not use the planet Valka VII in the standard game. If you wish to use it, see the scenario on page 35.) Place the unused planets in the box.

2. Place the game board in the center of the play area. Randomly place the eight chosen planet tiles face up on the eight empty circles on the board.

3. Put three credits on each action space in order from left to right, according to the number of players. For example, for two players, only the first two action spaces start with three credits. All other action spaces are empty. For five players, all action spaces start with three credits.

4. Place Sarkeen Regency tokens face up on inhabited planets (large) and uninhabited planets (small) of your choice. The number of tokens placed depends on the number of players, as detailed below:

   • 2 players: 3 inhabited & 3 uninhabited
   • 3 players: 2 inhabited & 2 uninhabited
   • 4 players: 1 inhabited & 1 uninhabited
   • 5 players: Use no Sarkeen Regency Tokens

5. Shuffle the explore tokens in a face down pile. Randomly place one explore token face down on each uninhabited planet (small) that does not have a Sarkeen Regency token.

6. Shuffle the goods tokens in a face down pile. Randomly place one goods token face down on each uninhabited planet (small) that does not have a Sarkeen Regency token. On inhabited planets without Sarkeen Regency tokens, place one goods token in orbit face down and one goods token on the surface face up. (Surface and Orbit are the two regions of an inhabited planet.)

7. Each player chooses a faction and takes all of the components that belong to their faction: a player board, influence markers and control cubes in their color, 3 Star Sloops, 6 Starfarers, and their Worldship. The color of a faction is the color of its Worldship.

8. Each player places 4 cities, 4 bases, and 4 academies on their player board.

9. Each player places one of their control cubes on the starting space on their command track. (If playing with two players, each player adds a command track token so that their track is increased by one command.)

10. Each player starts with 5 credits (or 7 in a two-player game) and a "Colonization" card.

11. Each player places an influence marker on the "0" space on the victory point track on the board.

12. Place the dice, remaining credits, War Bots, various event tokens (including fungus tokens, Anonian warriors, and Heecrix Invaders), and goods tokens (face down) near the board in their own piles. This is the supply.

13. Place the ally tokens near the board in a row. Place the 4 allied units for each planet on their respective ally tokens.

14. The power card deck that you will assemble for the game only includes cards for the planets which are on the board and which do not have Sarkeen Regency tokens. All other cards for planets not included in this game session may be placed in the box before assembling the deck.

15. Assemble the basic power card deck. First, take the seven power cards for each planet on the board that does not have a Sarkeen Regency token. Power cards have a power number and are titled either "Action," "Delivery," or "Mission." Event cards, which have no power number, should be set aside for now.

    Once you've gathered the appropriate cards, shuffle them together, place the deck face down, and deal 3 cards to each player.

16. Now add event cards to the basic power card deck. Pick one event for each planet on the board that does not have a Sarkeen Regency token. You can pick randomly, but for your first game, choose from the following cards:

    • (Tan Fu) Hexite Market
    • (Meezle III) Revitalization Efforts
    • (Arzos) Merchant Guild Forms
    • (Emrok) Deep Fungus
    • (Sentina) Heecrix Invasion
    • (Silast) Prison Break
    • (Tan Lok) Dimension Gate
    • (Korlo Zan) Orbital Vagabond Station
    • (Corzar) Pirate Outpost

    Shuffle the chosen events into the power card deck. Cut the deck roughly in half. Place the score card face down on top of the smaller half. Then place the larger half face down on top of the smaller half to make one deck of cards. The score card will be just below the middle of the deck. The power card deck is now complete! Place all unused event cards in the box.

17. Shuffle the empire card deck and deal each player two cards. Each player must now choose one of the cards to keep and one to discard. Place the discarded cards in a face up discard pile next to the empire card deck. Keep the chosen card secret from the other players.

18. Give each player one random good, drawn from the supply.

19. All players roll a die. The player with the highest result is first player and receives the first player card, the commander token, and the action token. Play starts with this player and moves in a clockwise direction around the table.

20. Players now choose starting locations in reverse turn order, starting with the last player and continuing in counter-clockwise order. Each player places their Worldship, 1 Starfarer, and 1 Star Sloop on one of the space nodes on the board that is not occupied by another player. These are a player's starting units. Their remaining units stay near their player board and must be recruited during the game to be used.

You've completed setup. You are ready to play!

Learning the Game

Goal

The goal of Empires of the Void II is to control the fringe of the galaxy! This control is measured in victory points. You will initiate scoring twice in the game. You also collect victory points as you play. You gain one victory point each time you win a battle. Some mission, event, delivery, and action cards also award victory points when completed.

When scoring, you may earn victory points for:

• planets that you control
• allies of your faction
• buildings and technologies on your player board
• empire cards completed

Sometimes victory points are abbreviated as "VP."

Playing the Game

Empires of the Void II is played over a series of rounds. Each round consists of the following:

Active Player Action: Each round, the active player chooses and performs one action from the action track on the board.

After this, in clockwise order, each remaining player may do one of the following:

a. Follow: Perform the same action as the active player.

b. Refresh: Collect income, reset command, and draw power cards up to your hand limit.

c. Any Action: Pay 2 command to take any action.

Active Player: The first player in the round. This player chooses the action for the round and has the commander token. After the round ends, the next player in turn order becomes the active player.

Example: Game Round. Ezekiel is the active player. He chooses the "move and attack" action. Rebecca follows and takes the same action. Gilgamesh pays two command to take "any action" and chooses to perform the "recruit" action.

When it is your turn to be the active player...

• You take the commander token.
• You must choose an action on the action track and move the action token to the corresponding picture on the track.
• You cannot choose the same action that was chosen last round. Each round, the token must move to a new action.
• You cannot pass. You must choose an action even if you cannot perform it.
• If you want to refresh as the active player, you must choose the Scavenge action.
• If you choose an action with credits on the action space, you take them immediately.
• At the end of the round (after all players have had a turn), you pass the commander token to the player on your left, and that player is the new active player for the next round.

Credits on Actions: Some action spaces have credits on them at the start of the game. This is to encourage players to try different actions early on. Once taken, new credits are not added to the action track.

The Action Track: The action track shows the name of each action, the resources you might need to pay when taking the action (shown as icons; if they are accompanied by the word "exact," it means you must pay these exact resources when taking the action), and the symbol for the action itself. "Refresh" and "Any Action" are options available to players when they decide not to follow the action chosen by the active player.

Credit: Credits are a resource that players use to pay for buildings, units, and some power cards. Any time a player "gains or collects income," that player collects credits according to the track at the top of their empire board (described further under Research & Build and Refresh, below).

Actions

Each possible action is described below:

Action: Move & Attack

This action allows you to move your units around the board. You may move and/or attack, in that order.

Move

First, choose a number of your units in one region to move. This is called a group. You move this group one region at a time. The group can only move to adjacent regions.

Each time you move out of a region, you must pay one command. The group can move any distance, as long as you pay one command for each region.

The group may pick up any of your units it meets as it moves. The group may not drop off units and continue moving.

On inhabited (large) planets, all space paths connected to the planet are connected to both planet regions (surface and orbit). This means that you need only pay 1 command to move a group through a large planet. Also, you may leave the planet using any path connected to the planet regardless from which planet region you leave.

A group may pass another player's units without stopping.

If a group attempts to move over a space path with a hazard, you must roll a die to see if you can pass. If the die is higher than or equal to the die symbol next to the hazard, your group can pass. If not, you must return to the region you just left. You may spend another command on the same move action to try again.

Unit: A token or figure representing various troops in your forces. A region may hold any number of your units, but a battle is limited to 3 units on each side. Star Sloops, Starfarers, allied aliens, and Worldships count as units. Bases do not count as units.

Region: A space on the board. This can include a node in space, an uninhabited planet, the orbit region of an inhabited planet, the surface region of an inhabited planet, the trade ship, and wormholes. (Hazards, including asteroids, space monsters, and mine fields, do not count as regions.) Two regions are adjacent if they are connected by a space path or share a border (such as orbit and surface regions of the same planet). Both regions of an inhabited planet have access to all space paths on that planet.

Hazard: A hazard is a potential movement blocker on a space path. It could be an asteroid field, space monster, or mine field. Hazards do not count as regions (you cannot stop movement on them). See "Hazards" in the Glossary for more details.

Example: Hazard 2nd Attempt. Sue pays 1 command to leave a planet. She attempts to cross the asteroid field and rolls a 2. The attempt fails and she moves back to the planet. She then (on the same move action) spends 1 more command to retry. She rolls a 4 and moves through the asteroid field to the next adjacent space.

Which units can travel in space? Square-shaped units cannot move over a space path without an accompanying star ship (such as a Worldship or Star Sloop). They cannot exist on a space node, trade ship, or wormhole without a star ship. They can, however, exist in an orbit region without a star ship, and can move between the surface and orbit of a planet without a star ship. (The Virshians are an exception; they can move in space without a star ship.) If an occasion arises in the game where your units are in space without a star ship, you must immediately move them to your Worldship.

Ending Movement

You can move a group as far as you want, as long as you have sufficient command. After a group stops moving, what happens next is determined by what is in the region:

• Is there a control box with no cube on it? If it is on an uninhabited (small) planet, you can place one of your control cubes there to gain control of the planet. If it is on an inhabited (large) planet, you must have a battle with the alien inhabitants! This is indicated by a battle symbol in the control box. For battle rules, see the Attack (Battle) section below.
• Is there a control box with another player's cube on it? If another player has units and/or bases on the planet, you must battle with that player! If that player has no units or bases on the planet, you return their cube to them and replace it with one of your own.
• Is it a region with no control box? Orbit regions of planets do not have control boxes and may not be controlled by any one player. If other players' units are there, you may choose to attack one of the opponent players, in which case a battle begins immediately. You do not have to attack. If you choose not to attack, your units remain in the region.
• Is there a face-down explore token? If so, turn it face up. It gives a bonus to whoever controls the region. See "Explore Tokens" in the Glossary.
• Is there a goods token? If so, after any battles, claim the token and save it for later use. If you take control of the surface of a large planet, you can also claim any goods token in orbit.

Control: When you move units to a planet's surface and end your movement there, you take control of that planet. Mark planet control with a control cube in the control box of the planet. You do not need to keep units on a planet indefinitely to retain control of it.

If a control box has a battle symbol in it, you must win a battle with the planet's inhabitants in order to take control of the planet. This does not apply if another player's control cube is already there.

Command: A representation of an empire's capability to move and perform specific actions. You will keep track of your total command with a cube placed on the command track of your player board. Each player starts with 3 command (4 if playing with two players). When you spend command, move your cube to the right a number of spaces equal to the command spent. You may not spend command once you reach the last space on your track. The last space on the track is determined by how many academies you have built. Once you reach the end of your command track, you must reset your command in order to spend it again.

Example: Movement. Harry chooses to move some of his units from an uninhabited planet he controls. The region contains his Worldship, a Starfarer, and a Star Sloop. He leaves the Star Sloop, taking only the Worldship and the Starfarer. He pays 1 command to move this group to a small planet nearby. He wants to move to the next uninhabited planet, but there is an asteroid field in the way. He pays 1 command, moves his group to the asteroids and rolls a die. He rolls a 3, so he passes the asteroids. (If he had rolled a 1 or a 2, he would have failed to pass the asteroids and he would move back to the empty planet. In that case, he could end movement there, or attempt again to pass the asteroids.) Harry moves to the new planet and ends his movement. Since the control box is empty, he places one of his control cubes there. He reveals and claims the goods token, and reveals the explore token, which gives the controller of the planet +1 credit when collecting income.

Two types of planets? There are two types of planets in the game, inhabited, which are large tiles that have two regions, and uninhabited, which are small and only have one region. When you reach an inhabited planet, you can move to either the surface region or the orbit region. Once you end movement in one region, it costs one command to move between planet regions. The surface region is on the left side of the planet. It contains the alien inhabitants, the ally ability, and a picture of the planet. The orbit region is on the right side of the planet and contains no control box.

Non-Planet Board Regions:

• Wormholes: All Wormholes are adjacent to each other (connected by a space path). It costs one command to move between wormholes. Multiple groups can rest on wormholes without battling.
• Trade Ship: When you end movement on the Trade Ship, you may immediately pay two credits to gain two random goods tokens from the supply. Multiple groups can rest on the Trade Ship without battling.
• Space Nodes: Multiple groups can rest on space nodes without battling.

Passing an Opponent's Units: A group may pass another player's units or control cube without stopping. A battle does not automatically begin when passing.

Inhabited (Large) Planet layout: the surface region is where units and buildings are placed, and where influence markers and drawn event cards are placed. Its control box requires you to fight the alien inhabitants if there is no control cube there when you end movement. The planet surface image shows the victory points awarded during scoring if you control the surface, the victory points awarded if you are allied with the planet (all tied players gain these if applicable), the allied ability (granted only to the player who owns the ally token), the alien inhabitant (with its die count, power, and any special ability), and the alien unit's recruit cost in the top corner (recruitable once you hold the ally token). The orbit region, marked with an "orbit region" symbol, has no control box, and units from multiple players can occupy it at the same time.

Attack (Battle)

A battle is a contest between two groups of units owned by different players in the same region, or a contest between a group of units owned by a player and a neutral alien unit. Starting a battle can also be called "attacking."

If you start the battle, you are called the attacker. The player that you are attacking is called the defender.

The winner of the battle is the player with the most "power." Each player follows these steps to determine their total power (simultaneously):

Steps of a Battle

1. Choose up to 3 of your units in the region to participate in the battle. (All other units remain on the space during the battle, but may not participate.) Any bases, whether on a planet or on Worldships that you have chosen to use in the battle, do not count toward the 3 unit limit, and may be used in the battle. Bases on the Worldship only count if you are using the Worldship as one of your chosen units.
2. Roll dice equal to the total dice value depicted on your 3 selected units (and any bases) in the region.
3. Take the highest result on one die from all of your rolled dice. This is your starting power. All other die results are ignored. Then add it to the sum of the power value depicted on all of your chosen units (and bases) in the battle.
4. You now must play a power card from your hand (if you can), placing it on the table, face down. When your opponent has also played a card face down (if they can), both cards are revealed simultaneously and you add the power value of your card to your power total.
5. The player with the highest total power (highest die + sum of unit power + power card value) wins the battle. Ties go to the defender. The winner places their control cube on the region (if there is a control box and their cube is not already there), and gains 1 victory point, marking it immediately on the victory point track on the board. The winner discards their played power card.
6. The loser can choose to keep their played power card OR discard it and draw a new card. The loser must also remove their control cube from the region, if it is there.
7. In most cases, units will not be destroyed in battle. The loser must, instead, retreat. They immediately move all of their units from the region to the nearest region containing one of their control cubes (if there are multiple regions that apply, the loser chooses one of them). If there are no regions with their control cube, they must move to the nearest empty space node.

Power: Each unit shows a number of dice rolled for that unit in battle. Each unit also has a power value which is added to your highest roll. Worldships give neither dice nor power in a battle, unless they carry bases.

Example: Battle. Harry moves a group that contains his Worldship and 3 Starfarers. He ends his movement on the surface of an inhabited planet that is controlled by Kim, who has a Starfarer and a base there, so a battle begins immediately. First, Harry chooses 3 units to use in the battle. His Worldship has two bases on it, which means that if he decides to use his Worldship in the battle it would give him 2 dice and 2 power. He decides to use the Worldship and 2 of his Starfarers. Kim will use her Starfarer and her base. Harry rolls 4 dice for his units, and the highest result is 5. His power from the 3 units is 4 (2 from his Worldship and 1 each from the Starfarers), so his result before playing a card is 5+4=9. Kim rolls 2 dice for her units, and the highest result is 6. Her power from her units is 2 (1 from her Starfarer and 1 from her base), so her result before playing a card is 6+2=8. Harry plays a 3 power card face down. Kim plays a 4 power card face down. They both reveal the cards at the same time. Their results are: Harry: 5 (highest die) + 4 (power) + 3 (card) = 12. Kim: 6 (highest die) + 2 (power) + 4 (card) = 12. Because Kim is the defender, she wins the battle! She gains 1 victory point immediately, marking it on the victory point track on the board. Harry must retreat to the nearest region that he controls. He moves back to where he started his movement, a small planet with his control cube.

Control of Regions: You earn victory points during scoring for regions that you control. Your control cube stays on a planet even if you leave no units there. It is removed only if another player ends movement there and takes control of the region.

Invading an Inhabited Planet: If you attack the surface of an inhabited (large) planet, and it does not contain another player's control cube, the alien inhabitants defend their home! You will battle 1 of the alien units depicted on the region. The player to your left acts as the alien inhabitants: they roll as normal, and add unit power. Then they draw the top card of the power card deck face down as their power card. This card and your power card are revealed simultaneously, as in a normal battle, and a winner is determined. (If you draw an event, draw again until you draw a power card. Read any drawn events after battle.) If you attack an inhabited planet surface region, you lose all of your influence there whether the region is controlled by another player or is uncontrolled, because the alien inhabitants do not like invaders! This occurs immediately, regardless of the battle outcome.

Sarkeen Regency? Sarkeen Regency tokens are placed on the board to make the play area smaller depending on the number of players. You can attack them, but they are very difficult to defeat. Learn how to interact with them in the "Sarkeen Regency" entries in the Glossary.

Victory Point for Winning a Battle: If you win a battle, you always gain 1 victory point, whether you are the defender or the attacker. If an ability or card that you play gives you 1 or more victory points for winning a battle, this is an additional reward to the standard 1 victory point. Be sure to count both!

Action: Research & Build

This action allows you to research new technologies and expand your empire. When you research and build, you place goods on goods slots on your player board (this is called research) and also build any number of buildings from building rows on your player board (this will increase income, command, and hand limit, as well as giving you more victory points).

You may do these actions simultaneously on your turn (for example, you could place a good, build, place another good, then build again).

Goods: Goods are collected during game play. They are placed on the building tracks or on technologies on your player board to decrease building cost or research new technologies. When you gain a goods token, place it near your player board (or on the bottom area of the board). You may only place it on a slot on your player board during the research and build action. The three goods types are Artifacts, Metal, and Lifeforms.

Research (Place Goods Tokens)

• You may place goods tokens on any of the building tracks to decrease the cost of buildings in those tracks. The goods tokens must be placed from left to right. Once a goods token is placed on the left-most goods slot on a building track, all other goods placed in that track must be the same type, and you can no longer place that goods type on any other building tracks.
• You can place goods on the six technologies in the upper-left corner of the player board to gain special abilities. The goods token placed must match the depicted good, and you must also discard power cards equal to the depicted power cost. You do not need to research technologies in any specific order. Once the good is placed and you have paid the power cost, you gain the ability listed above it, and you will also gain 1 victory point when scoring. For more details on techs, see the Technologies list under Abilities & Cards.

Example: Research on Building Tracks. Tom places the lifeforms good token on the first goods slot on the cities track. This means that the cost to build the next city will be 5 instead of 7 credits. If Tom wants to place a lifeforms good on a building track in the future, it will have to be on this one. He could place a total of 5 lifeforms goods on the track by the end of the game.

Example: Research Tech. Tom places a lifeforms good token on the "Parasites" technology. He discards a card with 1 power. Now he has the ability to place his parasite token on the board.

Build a Building

1. Choose a building you would like to build. It must be the left-most in its row.
2. Pay the credit cost to the supply. The cost to build is the sum of all the credit symbols outlined in red to the left of the building token in the same row (before it is removed from the row). Goods can cover up some of these credit amounts, reducing the cost of all buildings in the row. Buildings are paid for and placed one at a time, meaning that each building has a unique cost, but you may build any number of buildings on your turn.
3. You may only build when you can place the new building on one of two places. First, you may place a building on any planet region you control that does not already have a building, (this means your control cube must be on the planet when you place the building). Second, your Worldship can hold three or four buildings, depending on your race. (Worldship building spaces are located at the top-left corner of your player board and can be used in any order). Once you purchase a building, place it either on your Worldship, or on a planet you control. Some Worldship spaces have a power symbol and number. To build on these spaces, you must also discard a power card or cards with a sum equal to the indicated power in order to place a building there.

What do buildings do? When you build a building, it reveals new symbols on your player board. These can include victory points which you gain during scoring, credits outlined in red that increase the cost of the next building in the row, and various benefits.

Building Benefits:

• Cities increase your income.
• Bases give 1 die and 1 power to the owner when a battle takes place on the region where the base is located. Bases can also roll and participate in a battle even if other defending units are not present. Bases on a Worldship can participate in any battles in which the Worldship is used. Bases also reveal more action card symbols, increasing your hand limit.
• Academies expand your command track. Each immediately adds 1 to your total available command when built.

If you lose control of a region that contains buildings, the buildings are not removed or destroyed. The player who controls the region now controls those buildings, but you retain any benefits from revealed symbols on your player board (for income, command, hand limit, and victory points). If you lose control of a region with a base, the player who took control of the region now gains the battle benefits of that base (1 die and 1 power).

Each building token removed from a building track reveals one or more victory point symbols. These victory points are counted during scoring.

When do you pay power? You pay the power cost for Worldship spaces and technologies only at the end of your turn. Combine the total sum of power cost for everything you built or researched in that turn and then decide which cards to discard from your hand. You cannot discard cards without using them. When discarding cards for power, follow this rule: You can use multiple cards to pay your total power cost as long as all of them are needed to meet the total.

Example: You need 2 power to build a city on your Worldship, and 2 power to research cloaking. Your total power cost for this turn is 4. You could pay a 4 power card, or a 2 and a 3 together. You could not pay a 4 and a 2, or a 4 and any other card, because the extra card isn't needed to meet the total.

Player Board layout: a base built on your Worldship gives your Worldship 1 die and 1 power if used in battles. A base's cost to build can't be covered by a goods token. If a Worldship space has a power cost, you must discard a card or cards worth at least that much power to build there. Starting income is 5 credits (7 with only 2 players). Building cost is the sum of all visible credits with red outlines to the left of the token on that track — for example, a city might cost 7 credits to build. Because the first base in a row has been built, your hand limit becomes 4 power cards (instead of the starting hand limit of 3); you also gain 1 victory point during scoring for it. Because the first academy has been built, you have a total of 4 command on your command track (one has been revealed there); you also gain 1 victory point during scoring for it. Placing a lifeforms goods token on a building track decreases the cost of all buildings on that track — the next building would cost 7 credits instead. Goods must be placed left to right, and once lifeforms is the first good in a track, all remaining goods placed there must also be lifeforms, and lifeforms can no longer be placed on either of the other two tracks. Researching a technology (e.g. War Bots) requires placing the matching goods token and discarding a power card worth at least the indicated power; once researched, you gain the technology's ability (here, the ability to recruit War Bots during a recruit action) and 1 victory point during scoring.

Spending Command: When spending command, move the control cube along the track from left to right. Each time you "reset your command" you move the cube back to the left-most, blank starting space. If playing with two players, you have one more command on the track (and must use a command track token to extend the track). Any time an ability in the game increases your command track (that is not because you built an Academy) you must use command track tokens to increase it by the appropriate amount. For example, if you are playing with two players and start with one extra command, and gain an ability in the game that also gives an extra command, your track would need two extra command spaces, so you would place a command track token on your player board that has two extra command on it.

Action: Card Action or Diplomacy

Play an action card from your hand, perform a planet event action, OR attempt diplomacy using any of your power cards.

Card Action

First, pick an action card from your hand to play. The card must say "Action" on the side bar. (There are three types of power cards: the first is action cards, which can be played as actions on your turn. The other two types, delivery cards and mission cards, are played under certain conditions and are described below under Missions and Deliveries.) When you play the card, reveal it and read the title.

To play a card, you must pay any costs and/or meet any requirements listed on the card:

• Presence: You must have at least 1 unit on the surface or orbit region of the associated planet.
• Command: You must pay 1 command per command symbol, marking it on your command track on your player board.
• Credit: You must pay 1 credit per credit symbol to the supply.
• Goods Token: If the cost has a symbol of a good type, you must pay one unused token of that type to the supply. Goods tokens that have been placed on a building track or on a technology are considered already used and may not be spent.
• Other: There may be other costs or requirements which will be specified on the card in text.

After paying for the card, follow the effect instructions. (For questions about specific action cards, see the Abilities & Cards section.)

REMEMBER! Use your card actions, even early in the game! Card actions are the best way to place influence on planets. In many cases you do not even need to have a unit on the specified planet. Gaining allies through influence gives you a lot of victory points, and allows you to recruit powerful units.

Influence and Allies

Many cards direct you to place influence on a system. You also place influence when using diplomacy, described later in this section. Always place any influence tokens on the planet illustration on the game board. If there is an event card on this box, influence is placed on top of the event card, on the card illustration, so as not to cover any card text.

If you have the most influence in a system, you are allied with the inhabitants and you immediately claim the appropriate alien ally token and any unused alien unit tokens related to the system. These are placed near your player board.

If players are tied for influence on a system, the player who currently controls the ally token retains it. Any opposing player must place AT LEAST ONE MORE influence than the current ally to claim the ally token. An ally token gives a number of benefits to the player who owns it. These are:

• When performing the Recruit action, you may recruit the allied alien units. Even if you lose the ally token later, you do not lose any of the alien units you have already recruited.
• Each ally token gives a special ability, listed below the picture of the alien unit. The ability applies to you as long as you retain the ally token.

The player with the most influence in each system is also awarded a number of victory points during scoring, as depicted below the allied special ability on the planet tile. If multiple players are tied for the most influence, they all gain the victory points.

For questions about specific allied abilities, see the Abilities & Cards section. For questions about specific action card abilities, see the same section.

Influence: Each large planet is inhabited by a unique alien species. To ally with this species, you must gain influence on their planet. Place influence markers on the planet surface image on the game board. When you have the most influence on a planet, you are its ally. You now have the allied ability and may recruit the allied alien units.

Example: Action Card. Tom plays an action card from his hand and reads, "I purchase stock in one of the five great corporations." He then pays the cost, which is one command (which he marks on his player board) and two credits (which he returns to the supply). He then follows the effect text, placing one of his influence markers on Meezle III. Because he is the only player with influence on Meezle III, he is allied with the planet and takes the ally token along with any unpurchased unit tokens (Mazron Agents), which he can recruit at a later time.

Event Card Actions

If an event card on a planet has the card action icon, you can perform the described action as your "Card Action or Diplomacy" instead of playing an action card. You do not need to have any units on the planet surface or orbit regions unless the card has the presence icon, or says otherwise.

For more details on specific event cards, see the Abilities & Cards section.

Example: Event Card Action. Megan is the active player and plays an action card. It is now Tom's turn and he decides to follow Megan's action. Instead of playing an action card from his hand, he decides to perform the Fusian Beast action which is currently on the planet Sentina. He pays 2 command and moves the Fusian Beast token to the planet Corzar. He then places an influence token on Sentina.

Diplomacy

You may attempt to place one influence marker on any system in the game using diplomacy. You do not need to have any units on the planet surface or in orbit.

First, choose any number of power cards from your hand and play them face up. Then roll a die. If the die result is equal to or lower than the sum of the power numbers of all cards played, you place one influence on the system of your choice. If you have more influence on that planet than any other player, claim the ally token, as detailed above.

The cards played do not need to match the system name. Any played cards are discarded, regardless if you succeed or fail. If you fail, you do not place an influence on the system.

No Sarkeen Regency Influence: Planets that have a Sarkeen Regency token cannot hold influence. You cannot add influence to them through either Diplomacy or any card or event action, even if they are defeated.

Note on Diplomacy: This action is not the most efficient way to place influence on planets. It is meant to be a way to place influence on a system even if you do not have a card specific to that planet, and also allows you to get rid of any power cards that you may not want or need for their actions or effects. Because you are not allowed to simply discard cards without using them, this is a good way to refresh your hand if you need new cards.

Example: Diplomacy. Anthony wants to place influence on Tan Fu, so he chooses two cards from his hand with powers 2 and 3 (for a total power of 5). He plays them face up on the board and rolls a die. He rolls a 4, which is less than his total power, so he places one influence token on Tan Fu and discards his used power cards. Mel is already allied to Tan Fu with one influence. Anthony is now tied with Mel, so he does not yet claim the ally token. He and Mel would both gain the allied victory points at scoring if still tied.

Action: Recruit Units

You may pay for units and place them on the board, which is called "recruiting." You may recruit as many units in one turn as you can afford, paying the unit cost to the supply for each unit you recruit. Unit cost is listed in the upper corner of each unit token.

Once paid for, immediately place recruited units on the board. You can place recruited units on any region that contains your Worldship, or on a planet region that you control that also contains at least one building.

During the recruit action, you may recruit your Starfarers and Star Sloops. Each ally token you own allows you to recruit a new type of unit as well.

Recruiting as the Active Player

If you are the active player and you choose to recruit, you may also draw two cards from the Empire card deck. You look at these cards and choose one of them to keep, discarding the other to an Empire card discard pile face up. You keep Empire cards in your hand secret until you reveal them when scoring. Empire cards can be scored up to two times in the game, and you must meet the requirements for the card at the time of scoring in order to gain the victory points.

Action: Scavenge

This action allows you, as the active player, to refresh. This means resetting your command, collecting income, and drawing cards. Normally, the refresh action is reserved for other players as a follow action, but if you choose Scavenge on your turn, you and all other players may refresh. Refreshing is described below. If you choose this action, you must refresh, but other players may choose either to refresh as normal, OR do any action by paying only one command. (Normally, doing any action other than the action chosen costs two command.)

Follow

As a reminder, once the active player has taken their action, all other players decide whether or not to follow that same action.

If you choose to follow, you perform the same action as the active player. If you choose not to follow, you either refresh or take any action at a cost of 2 additional command.

Refresh

If you choose not to follow the active player's action, you may refresh instead. To refresh, you reset your command, collect income, and draw cards.

Reset Command: First, reset your command track. Take the cube on the track showing your current command and place it on the left-most, blank space at the start of the command track.

Income: Collect your current income, which is shown at the top of your player board. If you had built your first city, your income would increase accordingly. Your current income is the right-most visible amount on the income track. You do not add amounts from all income symbols on the track. Some other abilities you gain during the game give you extra income, so be sure to account for these when collecting income. There is no limit to the number of credits you can hold.

Draw Cards: Draw power cards from the deck up to your hand limit. (Your hand limit is 3 cards at the start of the game, but can be increased by building bases.) You may not discard power cards before drawing, or at any time unless they are used for an action, mission, delivery, combat, or diplomacy.

Building bases can increase your hand limit. For each card symbol revealed on your player board when a base is built, your hand limit increases by 1.

If the power deck runs out, reshuffle the discard pile to make a new draw pile. This triggers the end of the game, and is described further under Game End, below.

Drawing Event Cards

If you draw an event card, read the title, event description, event effect, and event action out loud. Then place it on the image of the planet surface on the matching planet tile. If there are any influence markers there, place them on top of the event card. Event card effects are immediate and last as long as the card is on the board.

After you read and play an event card, you should immediately draw again, so that you reach your hand limit.

If you draw an event card during a combat, set it aside and draw again. Once the combat is over, read and play the drawn event cards. Events take effect after the battle is complete.

For questions about specific event cards, see the Abilities & Cards section.

Any Action (Non-Active Player)

If you are not the active player, and you choose not to follow or refresh, you may pay two command (in addition to any action costs) to take any action.

Missions (Power Cards)

A mission is a type of power card which is not played as a card action. Instead, you play it immediately when you meet the requirements described in the "trigger." You then follow the instructions below the trigger, gain a reward, and discard the mission card. If something you do in the game triggers two of your mission cards at the same exact moment, you may only play only one of them.

Example: Kate has two mission cards with the following triggers: "Build a building on Emrok," and "Build an academy." On her turn, she builds an academy on Emrok. She may only play one of these mission cards for this action, even though she has met the requirements for both. She plays the "Build an academy" card and gains 1 influence on Silast as her reward.

Deliveries (Power Cards)

A delivery is a type of power card which is not played as a card action. Instead, you play it face up in front of you when you pick up a certain cargo specified on the card. Each delivery has a "pick up" requirement and a "drop off" requirement.

Pick Up: When you end a group's movement at the specified location (orbit or surface), play the card face up on the table near your player board and place a cargo token from the supply with the group on that space. If you begin your turn already at the specified location, you must spend 1 command and a move action to "end movement" there so you can pick up the cargo, even if you don't actually move the group. You do not automatically pick up cargo if you get a delivery card but are already on the pick up location.

Destination: Now you must move the cargo token with a group to a specified location (orbit or surface) to complete the delivery. As soon as the group carrying the cargo ends movement on the specified location, you deliver the token (before any battles or other actions take place). You gain the rewards listed on the delivery card, discard the delivery card and return the cargo token to the supply. You cannot simply move past the specified location to deliver the cargo — you must end movement there.

Any unit can carry cargo, but the cargo cannot be left without a unit to carry it (on a region by itself, for example). A building cannot hold cargo by itself.

Delivery Timing: When a player ends movement to deliver cargo, they must deliver the cargo and gain the rewards before starting a battle there or picking up a good token. A player may deliver a good and pick up another good on the same turn (if picking up the new good is on the same planet that they delivered to).

Stealing Deliveries: While you hold cargo in a group on the board, if another player attacks that group and wins a battle, they may choose to steal the cargo from you along with the delivery card. Now they can complete the delivery, unless you or another player steals the cargo from them.

Each player may only hold one cargo token at a time (anywhere on the board). You may not have two different groups with two different cargo tokens. If you pick up a new cargo token and you already have one, you must discard your previously played, uncompleted delivery card and undelivered cargo token. If you have one cargo token on the board, and you attack another player to steal their cargo token, you must discard your first cargo token and delivery card if you win the battle. In other words, if you choose to acquire a second cargo token, you are choosing to discard your first along with its delivery card and reward.

Colonization Card

At the start of the game, you are given a Colonization card. At any point in the game, before the Score card is drawn from the power deck, at the end of your turn, you may choose to discard this card to collect victory points, as detailed under Scoring, below. You do not need to be the active player to do this. You may only use this card once per game. When you play the card, you may also pay two credits to draw an Empire card, and you may recruit one unit (paying the standard unit cost).

Score Card (Power Deck)

When the Score card from the power deck is drawn, it signals that, by the end of the round, you must play your Colonization card if you have not already played it. When you draw the Score card, set it aside and then complete your draw as normal. Then continue game play as normal until the round ends (so that all players have had an equal number of turns).

When the round ends, any players who have not yet used their Colonization cards must play them and score VPs. If you have already played your Colonization card, you do not score again at this time.

Example: Colonization. At the end of Kim's turn, she decides to play her Colonization card. She immediately scores victory points. On her building tracks, she has built a total of 4 buildings, revealing 4 victory points. On the board, she has the most influence on Meezle III, which gives 3 allied victory points. She also controls 3 planet regions, each of which gives 2 points. The total that she collects is 4 (buildings) + 3 (ally) + 6 (planet regions) = 13 victory points.

Colonization Card: Why might you play this before the Score card is drawn from the action deck, which forces you to play it? You might be in a good position (for example, you have many allies), and you know there is a chance that your total victory points might be lower when the Score card is drawn, so you decide to score a little early. You certainly wouldn't want to score too early, but if nearly half of the power card deck has been drawn, you'll know that the Score card is coming soon and you can make a decision accordingly.

Scoring

The amount of victory points collected during scoring is determined by the following:

1. Building Tracks: Each building you have built gives one or more victory points, which are revealed when you remove the building token from your player board.
2. Technologies: Each technology you have researched gives one VP. Also, some technologies give extra VP as their power.
3. Influence: Any inhabited planet where you have the most influence (or are tied) gives victory points.
4. Control Cubes: Each planet region you control gives you a number of victory points.
5. Empire Cards: If you have completed the requirements on any Empire cards that you own, reveal the cards now and gain the points. You may keep these cards and score them again on the final scoring if you still meet the listed requirements.

Game End

When the last card of the power deck is drawn, this triggers the end of the game. Play continues as normal until the player with the 1st Player card is the new active player. At this point, there is one more normal round of play for each player in the game, (with each player getting one last turn to be the active player). After this, the game ends.

Each player collects victory points at the end of the game according to the scoring rules listed above.

The player with the highest total sum of victory points at the end of the game is the winner!

If players are tied for victory points, the player with the most units on the board wins. If still tied, the player with the most influence on the board wins. If still tied, the player with the most credits wins.

Glossary

This section is a Glossary of all the rules for each aspect of the game, organized alphabetically by subject. You do not need to read this entire section before playing the game. As questions arise, you can search in the appropriate section for answers. Entries below restate and, where noted, add detail beyond the "Learning the Game" section above; entries that are pure repeats of rules already given in full above are cross-referenced rather than reprinted.

Abilities: Any time an ability in the game (such as on a card or token) conflicts with a rule in this book, the ability takes precedence.

Action Track. See "The Action Track" and "Playing the Game" above.

Active Player. See "Playing the Game" above.

Ally Token.

• Must Exceed Influence to Claim: The player with the most influence claims the ally token. If players are tied, the player that has the token retains it. To claim an influence token from another player, you must place more influence on a planet than they already have there. When you claim an ally token from another player, you take it from them immediately. When you recruit, you can only recruit the allied alien units that have not yet been recruited by other, previous allies. Players retain any allied units on the board which are already part of their fleets, even if they lose the ally token. When necessary, make sure to use influence markers to mark which allied units belong to each player.
• Ally Token Benefits: See "Influence and Allies" above.

Any Action. See "Playing the Game" above.

Battle.

• Attacker and Defender: If you start the battle, you are called the attacker. The player that you are attacking is called the defender.
• Attack the Sarkeen Regency: If you end movement on a small planet with a Sarkeen Regency token, or on the surface region of a large planet that contains a Sarkeen Regency token, you must battle against it. The player to the left rolls for the Sarkeen Regency as though they were a normal uncontrolled alien unit. If you defeat them, you immediately claim 2 additional victory points (along with the normal 1 victory point you gain for winning the battle), and you gain control of the planet. If the battle occurred on a small planet, remove the Sarkeen Regency token from the game. If the battle occurred on a large planet, flip the Sarkeen Regency token face down to remind players that they cannot add influence on that planet (even though the Regency is defeated). Once defeated (face down), a Sarkeen Regency token cannot be fought again.
• Steps of a Battle: See "Attack (Battle)" above.
• Equidistant Retreat Regions: If there are multiple regions to which the loser can retreat (because they are equal distance from the battle), then the loser chooses where to retreat.
• Victory Point for Winning a Battle: See "Attack (Battle)" above.
• No Power Cards: A player may still participate in a battle even if they have no power cards. They roll dice and add power, but do not play a card.

Attack Without Moving. If you want to start a battle with another player who is already on the same region at the start of your turn, you must pay one command to start the battle (even though you aren't technically moving). You can do this in orbit, on wormholes, the trade ship, and space nodes.

Bases and Battles. The player who controls the region (has a control cube there) controls the bases. If a new player takes control of a planet with bases, that player now controls the bases. A base can battle without accompanying units. It also does not count toward the unit limit in battle. When a Worldship contains bases, those bases are used in the battle only when the Worldship is actively used in battle.

Buildings After Battle. If a player takes control of a planet with your buildings, they now control your buildings, but this does not affect your player board in any way. The buildings are not returned. Buildings cannot be destroyed.

Invading an Inhabited Planet. See "Attack (Battle)" above.

Limit 3 Units in Battle. Even if you have more than 3 units on a region when starting a battle, you may only choose to use 3 of them to fight. This might include your Worldship (for example, you could battle with 2 Starfarers and your Worldship, but not 3 Starfarers and your Worldship). Bases do not count as a unit, so as long as you control the planet, you can add the bases (1 die and 1 power) to any of your battles there.

Buildings.

• Building Benefits, Buildings Cannot Be Destroyed, Losing Control of a Building, Victory Points for Buildings: See "Action: Research & Build" above.

Card Action. See "Action: Card Action or Diplomacy" above.

Colonization Card. See "Missions (Power Cards)" section above. Note: once the "Score" card is drawn from the power deck, you must play your Colonization card at the end of that round; you may not save it for later in the game.

Command. See "Action: Move & Attack" above.

Control. You may only control regions that have a control box. These are located on inhabited planet surface regions and uninhabited planets. Spaces with control boxes may not hold more than one player's units. If units owned by two different players are on the same space with a control box, a battle begins immediately. If you take control of a surface region, all of your influence on that planet is removed.

• Controlling Regions without Units: Your control cubes show that you control planet regions on the board. You earn victory points when scoring for regions that you control. Your control cube stays on a planet even if you leave no units there. It is removed only if another player ends movement there and takes control of the region.

Deliveries. See "Deliveries (Power Cards)" above. Additional note: You may transfer the cargo to another group you control if that group moves over the group holding cargo. (Remember that a moving group can pick up units and cargo, but may not drop off units or cargo and continue moving.) If a defender is victorious against an attacker carrying cargo, they may not steal the cargo from the attacker.

Diplomacy. See "Action: Card Action or Diplomacy" above.

Event Cards. See "Drawing Event Cards" and "Event Card Actions" above.

Game End. See "Game End" above.

Hazards. A hazard is not a region, but you must successfully pass it in order to continue movement. If a group attempts to move over a space path with a hazard (asteroids, space monster, or mine field), follow these steps:

1. Move the group to the hazard (paying 1 command as normal for moving out of a region).
2. Roll a die. If the result is equal to or higher than the die icon near the hazard, you may move through the hazard to the target region on the other side of the path.
3. If the result is lower than the die icon near the hazard, you fail to move past the hazard and return to the region you left.
4. You may try again as many times as you want (but remember to pay 1 command each time you leave the region to attempt to pass the hazard).

Hazards do not count as regions, which means that taking hazardous routes can often mean a shorter trip to your destination (though it can be a bit risky).

Inhabited Planets. Inhabited planets have 2 regions but are effectively treated as 1 region when moving to and from the planet. All space paths connected to the planet are considered to be connected to both regions there (surface and orbit). This means that you need only pay 1 command to move a group through a large planet. It also means that when you arrive at a planet, you can decide whether to land on the orbit region or the surface region, no matter from what direction you arrive. When moving between planet regions, treat the planet as two separate regions. You must still pay 1 command if you start movement on one of the planet regions and move to the other planet region.

Making a Group. When you decide to move, choose a number of your units in one region to move. This is called a group. You move this group one region at a time. You cannot move multiple groups in the same move action.

No Dropping Off Units. A group may pick up any of your units it meets as it moves. The group may not drop off units and continue moving. To drop off units or cargo, you must end your movement.

Missions. Only Play One Mission at a Time: If doing something in the game triggers two of your mission cards at the same exact moment, you must choose to play only one of them (per turn).

Move. See "Action: Move & Attack" above.

Ending Movement. See "Ending Movement" above.

Hand Limit. If you are at your hand limit, but an ability or effect (not a refresh action) directs you to draw a card, you may draw, even though it exceeds your hand limit. If you draw cards as a refresh action, you can only draw up to your current hand limit. If you are at or above your current hand limit when you refresh, you do not draw any cards.

Recruit.

• Active Player Gains Empire Cards: See "Recruiting as the Active Player" above.
• Allied Units: Allied units do not need to be recruited on their own system. If a player loses an ally token on a future turn, the player keeps any recruited alien units from that token. If multiple players have recruited the same allied unit type, make sure to use influence markers to mark which allied units belong to each player.
• Basic Units: At the start of the game, you may recruit two types of units: Starfarers and Star Sloops.
• Pay for Each Unit: You must pay credits to the supply for each unit you recruit. Unit cost is listed in the upper corner of the tokens.
• Placing newly-recruited units: Once paid for, recruited units are immediately placed on the board. A player can place recruited units on the region that contains their Worldship, or on a planet region they control that contains at least one building.
• Recruit Limit per Turn? You may recruit as many units in one turn as you can pay for.
• Unit Tokens Run Out: If the supply of a particular type of unit runs out, that unit cannot be recruited.
• War Bots: If you gain the War Bot technology, you can recruit War Bot units from the general supply, as long as they are available. If the supply of War Bots runs out, then they are unavailable to recruit.

Refresh. See "Refresh" above.

Research and Build.

• Any Order: You may build and research in any order. You may build, then research, then build, then research in the same action, for example.
• Build a Building, Placing Goods on Building Tracks, Placing Goods on Technologies, When do you pay power for researching and building: See "Action: Research & Build" above.

Sarkeen Regency. No Diplomacy or Influence: Planets with Sarkeen Regency tokens cannot hold influence. A player can attack a region controlled by a Sarkeen Regency. If the Sarkeen Regency is defeated on an uninhabited planet, the token is removed from the game. If the Sarkeen Regency is defeated on an inhabited planet, the token remains face down to remind players that they cannot place influence on the planet. Sarkeen Regency tokens that are defeated cannot be attacked again.

Scavenge. See "Action: Scavenge" above.

Scoring. See "Scoring" above.

Score Card (in the Power deck). If a player draws this card, put it aside and continue playing the game as normal until the round ends (so that all players have had an equal number of turns). When the round ends, all players must play their Colonization cards if they have not yet played them.

Units. Keeping Track of Your Units: If a region has no control box, units from multiple players can remain without attacking each other. In this case, each player should keep their respective units in one stack. You can usually tell who owns which units because they will be on a Worldship or a Star Sloop (both of which contain a player's color). But if this isn't the case, you can place one of your influence markers on your stack of units to show that you own them.

Explore Tokens. You find explore tokens on uninhabited (small) planets. Some explore tokens stay on the planet and grant a bonus to the player who controls the planet. Some explore tokens give a one-time bonus and are discarded when revealed.

• Abandoned Stronghold: This token acts just like a base, although it does not take up a building space on the planet (the planet can still hold one building as normal).
• Ancient Artifact: If you control this planet, your command track has one extra command (use a command track token to mark this).
• Ancient Temple: This planet is worth +1 victory point when scoring if you control it.
• Hexite Mine: If you control this planet, you collect +1 credit when you gain income.
• Hidden City: This planet is worth +2 victory points when scoring.
• Hidden Treasure: When you reveal this token, gain 4 credits and discard it.
• Lost Colony: If you control this planet, your hand limit increases by 1.
• Orbital Platform: This planet can contain up to two buildings instead of one.
• Smuggler Base: If you control this planet, you gain 1 random good each time you perform the recruit action.
• Wormhole: This planet is treated as if it were a standard wormhole when moving. Any player can use it as a wormhole to move to other wormholes.

Ties. If players are tied for victory points, the player with the most units on the board wins. If still tied, the player with the most influence on the board wins. If still tied, the player with the most credits wins.

Income. Your current income is shown at the top of your player board. Your initial income is 5 (or 7 in a 2-player game). Building cities increases your income. Your current income is the right-most visible amount on the income track. You do not add amounts from all income symbols on the track. Some other abilities you gain during the game will give you extra income, so be sure to account for these when collecting income.

Influence. Many events direct you to place influence on a system. In this case, you place an influence token or tokens in the box that shows the illustration of the planet on the game board. If there is an event card on this box, influence is placed on top of the event card.

• Having the Most Influence: If you have the most influence in a system, you are allied with the inhabitants. You immediately claim the appropriate alien ally token and any unused alien unit tokens related to the system and place them near your player board. If players are tied for influence on a system, the player with the ally token retains it. An opponent player must place MORE influence to claim the ally token from that player.
• Losing Influence for Attacking: If you attack an inhabited planet, any influence you have there is removed. If no player has any influence on the planet, the ally token is returned to the supply.
• Victory Points for Influence: The player with the most influence in each system is also awarded a number of victory points during scoring, as depicted below the allied special ability on the planet tile. If multiple players are tied for the most influence, they all gain the victory points.

Non-Planet Board Regions. See "Non-Planet Board Regions" above. Additional note: A square-shaped unit cannot rest on any non-planet board region without an accompanying Worldship or Star Sloop. If you want to use the Trade Ship again but you already have units there, you must pay one command on a move action, even if you don't actually move, to be able to pay two credits to gain two goods.

Passing Opponent Units. A group may pass another player's units or control cube without stopping. A battle does not automatically begin. If a player wants to attack another player, they must end their movement to do so.

Square Units Need a Star Ship in Space. All square-shaped units (except for the Virshians) cannot exist or move in space without an accompanying star ship (such as a Worldship or Star Sloop). These units can exist in an orbit region without a star ship, and can move between the surface and orbit of a planet without a star ship. Square-shaped units cannot cross space paths without an accompanying Star Ship. If an occasion arises in the game where your units are in space without a star ship, you must immediately move them to your Worldship.

Power Cards. Cannot be discarded: You may not discard power cards without reason or because you do not want them. You may not discard power cards when you refresh. Power cards can only be used as part of an action. See "Note on Diplomacy" above.

Abilities & Cards

Unit Abilities

Eekran Forager — Ignore Limit: These units do not count against the unit limit when battling (normally 3). For example, you could choose to use 3 Starfarers and 2 Eekran Foragers in the same battle.

Mazron Agent — Disable Dice: Each Mazron Agent unit can disable one opponent die in the battle before rolling. This ability cannot reduce an opponent's dice to less than 1. For example, if you had 2 Mazron agents in the battle and your opponent had 2 dice, they would roll 1 die.

Sentinian Researcher — +1 Defense: If you are the defender, each Sentinian that you own in the battle gives you +1 power.

Silastian Technician — Engineering: The arrow symbol means that for each one of these units traveling with a group, that group can move +1 space without paying a command during a move action.

Star Sloop — Space Carry: The Star Sloop can move through a space path. A Star Sloop traveling with a group allows any number of (non-space) units in that group to move through space paths.

Tanlokian Reader — Mind Read: During combat, if you have a Tanlokian Reader, your opponent must play their power card face up before you choose your power card. This also applies to battles against uncontrolled, inhabited planet surface regions. If both the defender and the attacker have a unit with the Mind Read ability in the same battle, neither side can use it.

Virshian Zealot — Space: These units can travel in space without a Star Sloop, but they cannot "carry" other units like a Star Sloop or Worldship.

Ithric Drone — Disable Dice: This unit has the same ability that the Mazron Agent has. Each Ithric Drone unit can disable one opponent die in the battle (before rolling). This ability cannot reduce an opponent's dice in battle to less than 1. For example, if you had 2 Ithric Drones in battle and your opponent had 2 dice, they would roll 1 die. (Ithric Drones appear only when using the Valka VII scenario; see below.)

Ally Abilities

Arzos: You can place any type of good on any track, even if the goods on the track are different. If you lose this ability, the good designated for each track is the good placed first in the track (on the left-most space). This means it is possible for two tracks to have the same good type designation. If you lose this ability, you do not need to discard goods tokens that you already placed on the track.

Corzar: When you draw power cards, this ability increases your hand limit by 1.

Emrok: When you win a battle, gain one random good from the supply.

Korlo Zan: If you lose a battle and you are the defender, you immediately gain 1 VP.

Meezle III: When you collect income, collect +1 credit.

Sentina: When you gain a technology, immediately gain 1 VP.

Silast: You may build one more building on a region than the limit (normally, each region with a control box can hold only one building).

Tan Fu: In all battles in which you participate, you have +1 power. You do not need a Bloodseeker in the battle for this power to apply.

Tan Lok: When tied for having the most influence, you always claim the ally token (which means that to claim a token from another player, you must simply tie rather than exceed their current influence). All players tied for the most influence gain victory points as normal.

Technologies

Each player board has six technology slots; the specific technologies available differ by faction. Below is the full reference of all technologies in the game.

Ansible: When you draw two empire cards, keep both of them.

Bartering: You gain 1 victory point each time you complete a delivery.

Bioneural Circuits: You draw +1 card when you refresh.

Bioneural Network: You have +1 command on your command track. Use a command track token to mark this.

Cloaking: When moving your units, you may ignore all hazards on the board.

Cybernetics: Gain 3 VP when scoring if you have researched all of your technologies.

Energy Matrix: When you are the defender, you have +1 power in battle.

Enhanced Reflexes: Roll +1 die when you are involved in a battle.

Gene Splicing: The credit cost to recruit any allied unit is reduced by 1. This means that if an allied unit costs 4 credits normally, you only need to pay 3 credits to recruit it. This does not count for basic units, such as the Starfarer, Star Sloop, or War Bot.

Linguistics: Gain 1 victory point during scoring for each ally token you have (not each unit).

Medusa Drive: When you move a group that includes your Worldship, you can move 1 region without having to pay command.

Parasites: On your turn you may place the parasite token on any inhabited planet (as long as you have at least 1 unit in orbit or on the surface). This is a free action, and you can move the parasites to a new planet each turn if you choose. You gain the ally ability of this planet, even if you are not allied or you have no influence there. This does not give you the victory points for being allied, nor does it let you recruit units from the planet.

Scavenger Bots: You may pick up 1 goods token per turn while moving (you don't need to stop to pick it up). When passing an inhabited planet, you may only take one of the two goods there (if there are two goods tokens).

Spore Pods/Nanopacking: When you battle, you may use +1 unit. This means that because the basic limit is 3, you would be able to use 4 units in battle.

War Bots: You may recruit War Bots when taking the recruit action.

Warp: You may move your Worldship and any number of units with it to any region on the board as if it were adjacent. This costs 1 Empire card (which you must discard).

Worldship Lab: When you gain a technology, also gain 4 credits. (This does not count when you gain this technology.)

Power Cards — Card Clarifications

Below are clarifications for specific power card actions, quoted by their card text, organized by planet.

Tan Fu

• "I hunt a Mazron for a vengeful Tanfoon Employer": The Mazron Agent can belong to another player, or it could be the Mazron Agent you battle when attacking the Meezle III surface (if uncontrolled).

Arzos

• "I defend an Arzos freighter from mind-reading pirates.": Place a Tanlokian unit on Arzos and begin a battle with it. If there is not a free Tanlokian unit to use from the supply, consult the unit image on the planet Tan Lok. If you win or lose the battle, return the Tanlokian unit to the supply.
• "I find stolen goods for Magistrate Varn.": You do not need to pay command to move the 3 spaces. If the player does not have any unused goods tokens, you do not gain one.

Emrok

• "I rescue a lost expedition in the deep forest.": Draw 2 cards even if it would exceed your hand limit.
• "I ambush my enemies in the dense forest.": The units you place on Emrok can be from anywhere on the board.

Silast

• "I raid supplies for some desperate Silastians.": If the player does not have any unused goods tokens, you do not gain one.
• "I stop an outbreak of a mutated form of the Silastian disease.": The lifeforms goods token you pay must be unused.

Tan Lok

• "I hire Tanlokians to erase memories of my invasion.": An inhabited planet is one of the large planets.
• "I raid a starship for some Tanlokians.": A space region includes the space nodes, a wormhole, or the trade ship. In orbit includes the orbit region of an inhabited (large) planet.

Korlo Zan

• "I help build a facility to study warpgate travel.": The Worldship and units must all move from one space to one different space. This does not cost any command. The Worldship can complete a delivery by doing this.
• "I launch a Wormhole bomb at an unsuspecting ship.": When you move the enemy units to Korlo Zan orbit, they do not pick up any goods or cargo automatically. In general, if an ability forces a player to move somewhere that has goods tokens or cargo tokens, they do not pick them up at that time. They may spend a command to "end movement" there on a later move action to pick up any goods or cargo there.

Silastian Construction Co.: This discount applies to each building that you build.

Event Cards — Card Clarifications

Tan Fu

• Tribe War: When taking this action, treat it as though you were taking a diplomacy action.

Meezle III

• Market Boom: You gain 3 credits per influence you place here, so if you place 2 influence on the same turn, you gain 6 credits.

Emrok

• Deep Fungus: Gain a fungus token when you leave Emrok, whether you started in orbit or on the surface. Even if you only pass through Emrok, you still gain a fungus token. When a unit is destroyed, it is returned to the supply. On a later turn, a group with a fungus can leave behind one of their units with the fungus when they start to move (this is a good way to separate the fungus from a group). If a fungus is with only one unit and the unit dies, the fungus token is returned to the supply.
• Hunger Outbreak: To pick up a supply token (fungus token) you must end movement as if it were a delivery. To deliver the token, you must end movement on Emrok (orbit or surface). You deliver the token before battles.
• Hidden Temple Uncovered: The phrase "Explore the hidden temple" is not a game effect. It is flavor text. If players are tied for most, they both gain the 5 VP. If players are tied for second-most, they both gain the 2 VP.

Sentina

• Heecrix Invasion: You may stop in orbit without fighting the Heecrix invaders. When you fight them, you must fight both at once. If you lose, you must retreat.
• Genetics Facility and Museum: Place the Fusian Beast token here if a player rolls 4-6. If the player that finds the beast loses, the player must retreat and the beast is placed on the Sentina surface, where it immediately attacks the player that controls the region. While the beast is on the surface, players may no longer roll to search the facility, as described in the first part of the action. Once the beast is defeated, discard this card. If the beast is on the surface of the planet and a player ends movement there, they must fight the beast. If they defeat the beast, they take control of the region, but they lose no influence if they have any on the planet.
• De-extinction: Attempt a standard diplomacy action to recruit the Anonian warrior. Do not place influence on the planet if successful.
• Gathering of Scientists: You can place goods on building tracks and technologies, but you cannot build.

Silast

• Prison Break: The phrase "Attempt to capture the prisoners" is not a game effect, only flavor text.
• Slavers on Silast: You may end movement in Silast orbit without fighting the Slavers.
• Gambling on the Races: The phrase "Bet on rocket races" is not a game effect, only flavor text.

Tan Lok

• Dimension Gate: This effect does not allow players to move from anywhere to Tan Lok, only from Tan Lok to anywhere.
• Neural Transmitter Satellite: When this card is active, in all battles in the game (not just on Tan Lok), each player in the battle must reveal their entire hand of cards before playing a card. The defender chooses their card first, then the attacker chooses. A player can attack the satellite in orbit on Tan Lok, but they do not need to attack it if they end movement in Tan Lok orbit. If a player attacks the satellite, they lose all influence on Tan Lok.
• Dimension Web: This ability allows you to move from anywhere to Tan Lok as if the two spaces were adjacent, but it does not allow you to move from Tan Lok to any region.

Korlo Zan

• Ancient Doom Device: Place the doom token on the "0" space on the victory point track when this card is revealed. Each time the active player passes the command token to the player on the left, the doom token moves down one space. As soon as the token reaches space "5," Korlo Zan is destroyed and removed from the game. Any units on the planet must retreat as if they had lost a battle. No Korlo Zan power cards can be played. Cargo cannot be delivered to Korlo Zan. Influence cannot be placed on Korlo Zan. It is gone! A cloud of dust! You let it disappear into the dark vastness of space! Its inhabitants will forever haunt your dreams, and their screams will echo throughout every corner of the cosmos no matter how far away you run.
• Ship Emporium: The Vagabond Station token here is just to remind you of this event. It plays no mechanical purpose.

Empire Cards

Industrious: You must control two different planet regions, each with at least one city on it.

Merchant/Manufacturing/Collecting/Gene Splicing/Prosperous: The goods tokens can be on technologies, on building tracks, or unused.

Powerful: The War Bots need not be in the same region, but they must be on the board.

Prepared: You must control two different planet regions, each with at least one base on it.

Studious: You must control two different planet regions, each with at least one academy on it.

Unified: Adjacent planet regions will be connected by a space path. There can be a hazard on the space path.

Card Effects and Meanings

Here are some rules of thumb to use when reading card effects and abilities.

• Can't Pay the Cost: If you can't afford the card cost, or something is listed after the "cost" that you can't do or pay, you can't play or complete the card.
• Pay for Actions: If a card instructs you to do something that you would normally have to pay for, you still have to pay the standard cost unless otherwise specified on the card. For example, if a card tells you to build something, you must pay the standard credit cost to build it.
• Subject of a card effect: If a card effect doesn't specify a subject, it generally means that it applies only to the player of the card. For example, if you play a card that says, "Lose all Meezle III influence," it means that you lose all of your influence tokens on Meezle III (if you have any). This effect would not force all players in the game to lose their influence on Meezle III.
• VP: VP and victory point are used interchangeably. If you gain VPs, you immediately mark your new total on the victory point track on the right side of the game board. If you reach "20," leave your marker on that space and place another one on the "0" space, using both to keep track of your total.
• Lose Something: If a card instructs you to lose something but you cannot, you can still play the card and complete the remainder of the action.
• 4+: This means 4 or higher.
• Move: If a card instructs you to move a specific number of regions, you do not need to pay command unless otherwise specified. If you fail to pass a hazard, it counts against the total. If a card instructs you to "perform a standard move action" it means that you must pay the normal command (1 per region).
• Build: If a card instructs you to build something, it means that you need to pay the standard credit cost and have an available space to build it unless otherwise specified.
• Research a Technology: If a card instructs you to gain a technology, it means that you must pay any required power and place the correct, unused goods token.
• Recruit: If a card instructs you to recruit a unit, you must pay the standard credit cost for the unit.
• Gain: If a card instructs you to "gain" a unit, you do not need to pay the standard credit cost.
• "On" a planet: This means either on the surface or orbit region of a planet.

Valka VII Scenario

Using the planet Valka VII results in a game that is slightly more focused on combat and units.

If you want to use the planet Valka VII and accompanying tokens, follow these rules:

Setup: When choosing planets, leave out two of the following planets: Corzar, Korlo Zan, and Emrok. Use Valka VII for the eighth planet.

There are no event or power cards in the game for Valka VII. Build the deck as normal with cards from the 7 planets included in the game. Then add one set of power cards (7 cards) from one of the planets not included in the game. However, do not include the event cards from this planet.

Place one Drone unit on each of the three regions on Valka VII.

Game Play: Valka VII is treated differently than other large planets. Influence cannot be placed on the planet, and no player can be allied to Valka VII.

Valka VII has three regions and no orbit region. If a player ends movement on a region with a Drone token (that is uncontrolled by another player) they must fight the Drone. When this happens, the player on the left rolls for the Drone, following standard combat rules against alien inhabitants (roll dice, add power, and draw a power card from the top of the deck).

When a player defeats a Drone, they can immediately recruit it by paying four credits. This is the only way that players can recruit Drones. If a player does not immediately recruit the Drone, place it in the box.

If a player controls all regions of Valka VII, they gain an extra 3 victory points during scoring.

Card Play: When playing with Valka VII, there will be 7 power cards in the game that do not have an associated planet on the board. The cards cannot be played as actions, deliveries, or missions, but they can be used for their power.

Ithric Drone Ability: This unit has the same ability that the Mazron Agent has. Disable Dice: Each Ithric Drone unit can disable one opponent die in the battle (before rolling). This ability cannot reduce an opponent's dice in battle to less than 1. For example, if you had 2 Ithric Drones in battle and your opponent had 2 dice, they would roll 1 die.

Variants

Path Tokens

When setting up the game, you can use the path tokens to give the board a little more variety. Place path tokens over existing paths between planets, making sure they fit.

Explore Mode

When setting up the game, shuffle the inhabited planets and place them all face down on the board. When a player ends movement on a face down planet, turn it face up and place goods tokens on it (as described in setup). Choose before you start which planets will have Sarkeen Regency tokens (by placing them on the associated ally token). When a planet is revealed, place the Sarkeen Regency token on it. Unexplored planets cannot contain influence. If you draw an event for a face down planet, keep it to the side of the board and place it on the planet as soon as it is revealed.