Fleet Commander: Genesis
Fleet Commander: Genesis Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Components
- Welcome Aboard
- Your First Battle: the Pitched Battle
- Setup
- The Ships
- Build Your Fleet
- Deploy Your Fleet
- Prepare Your Command Bridge
- Turn Sequence
- Details of Actions
- Using Special Results
- The 4-Player Game
- The 3-Player Game
- Battles on Several Combat Zones
- Optional Rules
- Knowledge Base: Ships
- Knowledge Base: Special Abilities
- Knowledge Base: Special Sectors
- Knowledge Base: Portals
- Knowledge Base: Special Weapons
- Scenarios
- Example Turns
Components
- 36 Energy Dice (12 blue, 12 red and 12 green).
- 50 Sector tiles, each with a neutral side and a special side.
- 2 Special Sector tiles.
- 6 Portal tokens.
- 60 Signal tokens.
- 48 ship miniatures and their double-sided base discs, to tell apart 4 fleets.
- 18 Special Weapon tokens.
- 26 Command Bridge tiles.
Welcome Aboard
Fleet Commander is a space battle game in which each player takes command of a fleet of ships varying in size and power within a Combat Zone represented by a grid of sectors. On their turn, each player chooses 3 dice from their Energy Dice and rolls them. They may then play the actions corresponding to the results obtained, or keep them on their Command Bridge for subsequent turns. The dice represent the 3 main types of action in the game: movement, attack and defence. It is up to you to use them wisely or boldly to lead your fleet to victory!
Contents
- Your First Battle: the Pitched Battle — p.4
- Setup — p.5
- Turn Sequence — p.9
- Details of Actions — p.10
- Using Special Results — p.12
- The 4-Player Game — p.14
- The 3-Player Game — p.15
- Battles on Several Combat Zones — p.15
- Optional Rules — p.16
- Knowledge Base: Ships — p.18
- Knowledge Base: Special Abilities — p.19
- Knowledge Base: Special Sectors — p.20
- Knowledge Base: Portals — p.21
- Knowledge Base: Special Weapons — p.22
- Scenarios — p.24
- Example Turns — p.30
Follow these instructions before taking your first command.
Your First Battle: the Pitched Battle
The following section explains how to begin playing Fleet Commander with a classic two-player clash: the Pitched Battle. Afterwards you may vary the size of your fleets and the length of the game, play with more than 2 players, or try the different scenarios (pages 24 to 29) and so experiment with a multitude of new strategies.
Goal of the Game
In the first instance, the two-player Pitched Battle will let you discover the mechanisms of the game. Its goal is simple: each player begins the game with a fleet of 12 class points divided among their different ships. As soon as a player's fleet is worth 4 class points or fewer, their opponent wins.
If at the end of the same action both players find themselves in a defeat situation, the game ends in a draw. However, if at the end of that action one player has more fleet points than the other, that player wins the battle.
Setup
To begin, each player takes 9 Energy Dice (3 red for attack, 3 blue for movement and 3 green for shields) and places them in front of them to form their Reserve.
The last player to have observed gravitational waves starts. Failing that, all players roll all their dice; the player who obtains the most special results (r) is the first player.
Place the Special Sectors
There is a multitude of anomalies and obstacles that ships may meet in the galactic void, such as Asteroid Fields or Gas Clouds. These are the Special Sectors.
→ See the Knowledge Base, page 20, for more details on Special Sectors.
For this first Pitched Battle, we advise placing only 2 Asteroid Fields, as shown below.
Set Up the Combat Zone
The Combat Zone is made up of sectors connected to neighbouring sectors orthogonally or diagonally. Use the Sector tiles to form a 5 by 5 square, with neutral sides visible (the side with the blue border).
→ For your next Pitched Battles, you may form a Combat Zone of 5x6, 6x6, or even two 4x4 Combat Zones connected by Portals. See the Knowledge Base, page 21, for more details on Portals.
→ For your other Pitched Battles, before setting up the Combat Zone, each player (starting with the first player) sets aside 2 Special Sector tiles. After placing the Combat Zone, each player (starting with the first player) may in turn replace a neutral sector outside the Deployment Zones with one of their 2 Special Sectors, or pass. This procedure is carried out twice. There are thus between 0 and 4 Special Sectors in the Combat Zone.
→ See the Scenarios, pages 24 to 29, to discover other sizes and shapes of Combat Zone, or better still, imagine your own. We advise using between 12 and 15 sectors per player.
The Ships
The ships of your fleet vary in size, toughness and Firepower. Each type of ship (Frigate, Destroyer, Cruiser or Battleship) also has its own Special Ability. All this information is printed on the ships' bases.
- Special Ability: specific to each type of ship. See the Knowledge Base, pages 18 and 19, for more details.
- Firepower: indicates how much damage the ship inflicts when it takes part in a combat. See pages 10 and 11 for more details on combat.
- Hull Points: represent the damage the ship can sustain before being destroyed. A ship with no hull points left is destroyed and removed from the game. Turn the upper disc to keep track of the remaining hull points.
- Class: represents the ship's size, power and value. Class points are used to build balanced fleets, to determine the maximum number of ships in a sector and often to decide the victory.
- Ship Type: the type of the ship.
- Faction: the faction to which the ship belongs is shown by an emblem. w for the Phoebe League; x for the Amyclès Hegemony.
Build Your Fleet
The size of a fleet is calculated by adding up the class points of the ships that make it up. For your first game, we advise this fleet composition: 4 Frigates (class 1), 2 Destroyers (class 2) and 1 Battleship (class 4).
→ For your other Pitched Battles, you may compose your fleet as you see fit, within a limit of 12 class points per player.
→ Other scenarios offer different fleet compositions or free compositions, between 9 and 15 class points per player.
Each Battleship is equipped with a Special Weapon. For your first game, equip the Phoebe League's Battleship with Vortex Missiles, and the Amyclès Hegemony's Battleship with Proton Ray. These weapons cannot be changed or transferred to other ships during the game. A Special Weapon is lost if the ship carrying it is destroyed.
→ See page 12 for how to activate Special Weapons. → Later, you may choose your Special Weapon. See the Knowledge Base, pages 22 and 23, to discover them all. → If you wish to use the Special Abilities of all your ships, see the Knowledge Base, page 19.
Deploy Your Fleet
Once your ships have been selected, turn their base discs so that their hull points are at maximum.
Before deploying your fleet, let us clarify two points:
- The sum of the class points of the ships occupying a sector can never exceed 5.
- It is impossible to move a miniature onto a sector occupied by an enemy miniature.
Starting with the first player, each player places in turn 1 ship of their fleet in a sector of their own Deployment Zone.
When all the ships have been deployed, you are ready for battle and the game can begin!
Prepare Your Command Bridge
Take a Command Bridge tile for each type of ship in your fleet, and one for each of your Battleships. Place them between the two end tiles to form your Command Bridge. Place the Special Weapon tokens on the matching Battleship tiles (each tile and each Battleship base is recognisable by a Greek letter linking them). See the example of a Command Bridge on page 9.
Turn Sequence
A player's turn consists of 4 phases. Players take turns, each carrying out the four phases of their turn in turn.
Phase 1 – Start of Turn
Resolve the following effects in this order:
- Scenario effects.
- Special Sector effects.
- Special Weapon effects.
For the details of these effects, refer to the Knowledge Base on page 20, and pages 22 to 29.
Phase 2 – Energy Allocation
The player chooses 3 dice from their Reserve. They may be any combination of colours. They roll them and obtain results that will be used during the next Dice Actions phase, or stored on the player's Command Bridge during the Command Bridge phase.
Phase 3 – Dice Actions
The player may use the results of the dice obtained during their Energy Allocation phase, as well as the dice kept on their Command Bridge. They use each die result on a sector occupied by their ships to make all or part of those ships act, as described below. There is no constraint on the order or number of actions that ships may perform during a turn. Dice that have been used are returned to the player's Reserve and can be used again from their next turn.
Phase 4 – Command Bridge
During this phase, the player may:
- Remove as many dice as they wish from their Command Bridge and return them to their Reserve.
- Store their unused dice from the Dice Actions phase on the valid slots of their Command Bridge. To be valid, a slot must be empty and bear the symbol corresponding to the type of result the die shows (special r, or directional a, z, e) that the player wishes to store. Any stored die result may be played during the player's subsequent Dice Actions phases, or in reaction to an enemy attack (see pages 11 and 12 for more details).
The Command Bridge
Each Command Bridge is made up of:
- A right wing containing 2 slots for storing only special results of dice: r.
- A left wing containing 2 slots for storing all the other dice results: a, z, e.
- A reminder tile for each Battleship in your fleet, each with its Special Weapon token.
- A reminder tile for each other type of ship in your fleet.
Details of Actions
Whatever their colour, the dice have the same faces, which show either directions or a special symbol.
- z – Indicates orthogonal directions.
- a – Indicates diagonal directions.
- e – Indicates orthogonal or diagonal directions, at the player's choice.
- r – Special symbol. Indicates no direction.
Each die result is played from a sector where one or more of your ships are located, towards another sector.
Movement
Movement die results a, z or e are played during the player's Dice Actions phase to move ships, or stored on their Command Bridge during the Command Bridge phase. A movement die result allows all or part of the ships in one sector to move to an adjacent sector in one of the indicated directions.
Attacks
Attack die results a, z or e are played during the player's Dice Actions phase to launch attacks, or stored on their Command Bridge during the Command Bridge phase. An attack die result allows an attack to be launched, using all the ships in one sector, against a ship located in an adjacent sector, in one of the indicated directions.
To launch an attack, follow this sequence:
- Designate the ship you wish to target.
- Declare which ships take part in the attack, and which ships support it.
Support
When an attack is launched, each of the player's ships located in a sector adjacent to the target may take part in the attack without spending any additional die, whatever its position relative to the target. Each ship may support an unlimited number of attacks.
Shields and Reactions
In response to an attack, the targeted player may choose one (and only one) of these 3 reactions, using the result of a die stored on their Command Bridge:
- Use one or more shield results a, z or e, each one completely blocking the damage coming from a single sector indicated by its directions.
- Use a blue special result r to engage a Retreat manoeuvre (see the Retreat section, page 12).
- Use a red special result r to launch a Counter-Attack (see the Counter-Attack section, page 12).
Damage
The sum of the Firepower of all the ships taking part in the attack (supporting ships included) is subtracted from the hull points of the ship targeted. Turn the upper disc of its base to show the remaining hull points. As soon as a ship's hull points fall to zero, it is destroyed and removed from the game. Any damage exceeding the remaining hull points of the target is lost.
Long-Range Attacks
It is possible to attack a target without being adjacent to the sector where it is located. To do so, use as many die results as the distance separating the attacking ships from their target, respecting the directions of the dice. A long-range attack does not necessarily have to be straight, but must only pass through empty sectors (with no ship, no Special Sector and no Signal).
A long-range attack never benefits from support.
A shield result stored on the Command Bridge can block damage coming from a long-range attack if the indicated direction is that of the last sector crossed by the attack before reaching the target.
Using Special Results
Special results r indicate no direction. They may be used in the following six ways:
1 – Activating a Special Weapon
By using 2 special results r r of any colour, whether already stored on the Command Bridge and/or obtained directly during the Energy Allocation phase, a player may choose to trigger the effect of their Special Weapon, as described on page 22.
2 – Reroll
If a player has no Battleship in their fleet, or if all of them have been destroyed, a player holding 2 special results r r may, at any time during their Dice Actions phase, reroll them and play the new results normally.
3 – Change of Direction
A player may use a special result r to change the direction of another of their die results of the same colour. In this case, both dice are returned to the player's Reserve. Note that this means changing the direction (orthogonal z to diagonal a, or the reverse), and not obtaining a multi-directional result e or a special result r.
r + a = z r + z = a
4 – Reaction – Retreat
During the opponent's turn, a special movement result r allows a Retreat manoeuvre to be engaged. As these manoeuvres are slow for the immense ships involved, the damage from the attack is absorbed, then all the ships in the targeted sector are moved to an adjacent sector able to accommodate them.
5 – Reaction – Counter-Attack
During the opponent's turn, a special attack result r allows a Counter-Attack to be launched. The damage from the attack is absorbed, but the attacked player may inflict damage on a ship that attacked them.
The damage inflicted by the Counter-Attack equals the combined Firepower of all the ships present in the attacked sector. The Counter-Attack cannot be blocked with shields, nor with a reaction. The Counter-Attack does not work in response to long-range attacks.
Finally, as the Counter-Attack is simultaneous with the attack, if a ship must be destroyed by an attack, it may still Counter-Attack before being destroyed.
6 – Drain
During their Dice Actions phase, a player may play a special shield result r. The opponent then discards from their Command Bridge one die of their choice. It is not possible to counter a Drain.
The 4-Player Game
Grand Battle (4 or More Players)
Several Fleet Commanders may face each other in teams. Each player controls a fleet, its Command Bridge and its 9 Energy Dice.
- Fleets: each player builds their fleet with 9 (shorter game), 12, or 15 (longer game) class points of ships.
- Combat Zone: form one or more Combat Zones totalling between 10 and 15 Sector tiles per player.
- Special Sectors: each player places up to 2 Special Sectors, as in a Pitched Battle.
- Deployment: determine for each player 4 deployment sectors on one edge of the Combat Zone. For multiple Combat Zones, refer to the section Battles on Several Combat Zones, page 15.
- Turn Order: determine the turn order so that each side plays alternately and each player plays once. If a player has no ships left, they simply pass their turn, but they may still take part in the strategic and tactical discussions of their team.
- Interactions:
- Each player controls only the ships of their own fleet. They cannot apply their dice results to their allies' ships, nor give dice to their allies.
- A player cannot move their ships onto a sector occupied by their allies' ships.
- When an attack is launched, all allied ships on adjacent sectors may add their Firepower to the attack, following the support rule.
- Victory: as soon as one side is left with only 1/3 of its starting fleet (in class points), the other side immediately wins the battle.
Example: with 4 players each starting with 12 class points (24 points per team), defeat comes when one side has lost 16 class points of ships.
The diagrams show example layouts for 4 players: 8x5, 8x6, 10x5, 7x7 and a 41-sector layout.
The 3-Player Game
Free-for-All (3 or More Players)
Players may also play every player for themselves. Alternate the players' turns clockwise. In this case, the rules are the same as for the team game, except that when an attack is launched, the ships of the other players adjacent to the target may choose whether or not to support the attack. This choice is made for each attack die, and may differ within the same turn.
A player who loses 2/3 or more of the class points of their starting fleet loses the game and removes their remaining ships still in play, along with any tokens they have, from the Combat Zone(s). When only one player remains in play, that player wins the battle!
The diagrams show example layouts for 3 players: 37 sectors and 41 sectors.
Battles on Several Combat Zones
The battle may take place on several Combat Zones. In this case, you may move from one zone to another by using Portals placed on certain sectors. See the Knowledge Base, page 21, for more details on Portals.
Warning: you may only keep a Special Weapon active on the Combat Zone where the Battleship carrying the Weapon is located. For example, if a ship attacked by Drones uses a Portal to leave the Combat Zone, the Drones return to the Battleship. Likewise, if a Battleship that has launched an Interdictor leaves the Combat Zone, the Interdictor is automatically deactivated. See the Knowledge Base, page 22, for more details on Special Weapons.
Optional Rules
These optional rules cultivate secrecy and deception, two assets every Fleet Commander must know how to use to their advantage. You may use them as you wish, together or separately, and for each scenario (unless the scenario states otherwise).
Secret Special Weapons
You may choose to keep your Special Weapons secret until their first use. To do so, shuffle the Special Weapon tokens face down. For each Battleship in their fleet, each player draws 4 at random and keeps one of their choice. Each Special Weapon is placed face down on the player's Command Bridge and is revealed the first time it is used.
Create the necessary conditions to surprise your opponent and so gain a decisive advantage!
Hidden Deployment
At the start of the game, the ships making up the fleets are unknown to the opponents.
- During deployment, in the set-up, ships are replaced by Signal tokens. The face-down side of a Signal token indicates the class, which is known only to the player controlling the fleet.
- Two Decoy tokens, which therefore correspond to no ship, are added to each fleet.
- Only the left and right wings of the Command Bridges are placed at the start of the game. Each other Command Bridge tile is placed only when a ship of the corresponding type is revealed. If it is a Battleship, reveal its Special Weapon at that moment, or use the optional rule Secret Special Weapons.
- Signals occupy sectors and are moved like the ships they represent.
- It is impossible to inflict damage on a ship that has not been revealed. It is impossible to enter a sector occupied by an enemy Signal, or to pass a long-range attack through one.
- To reveal enemy signals, you must scan the sector. This action is performed with an attack die result a, z or e, and may be carried out at range with several die results as for a long-range attack. No damage is inflicted on this occasion, but all the Signals in the sector are revealed. It is possible to use 1 shield to foil this detection attempt.
- If an attack die result a, z or e is used towards a sector containing both Signals and revealed ships, the attacker chooses either to reveal the Signals (scanning the sector), or to inflict damage on a revealed ship (attacking the sector).
- Furthermore, a Signal token is revealed when:
- It takes damage (for example from the effects of a Special Sector or a Special Weapon).
- It launches or supports an attack.
- It uses a Special Ability. See the Knowledge Base, page 19, for more details.
Fog of War
"Because of spatial disturbances, the fleet's scanners sometimes cannot identify the Combat Zone before engagement."
- Do not place the Combat Zone sectors during set-up.
- To begin, agree on the size and shape of the Combat Zone.
- Form a draw pile with the number of sectors needed for the Combat Zone, shuffled and placed face-up on their neutral side.
- For each player, draw the first sectors from the pile to form enough neutral deployment sectors to deploy their ships.
- By spending a movement die result, you may scan all the adjacent sectors in the indicated directions instead of moving.
- For each scanned sector, roll a die: if the result is a special r, the sector is a Special Sector: take the first sector tile from the pile and place it with its special side visible. On any other result a, z, e, the sector is empty: take the first sector tile from the pile and place it with its neutral side visible.
- You may move your ships into an unscanned sector. Carry out the procedure described in 6 for that sector. If it is a Special Sector, apply its effects.
Neither long-range attacks nor Special Weapons may pass through undiscovered sectors.
End of Rules
You are now ready to access the Knowledge Base.
Knowledge Base: Ships
| Ship | Class | Firepower | Hull Points | Special Ability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frigate | 1 | 1 | 6 | Ionic Propulsion |
| Destroyer | 2 | 2 | 12 | Multipoint Weapons |
| Cruiser | 3 | 3 | 18 | Depolarized Shields |
| Battleship | 4 | 4 | 24 | Special Weapon |
Each Battleship is equipped with a Special Weapon (see Knowledge Base: Special Weapons, page 22).
Knowledge Base: Special Abilities
Ionic Propulsion
A movement die result a, z or e used on a sector containing only ships equipped with Ionic Propulsion may be played twice in succession, to move up to 2 sectors away. In addition, if a Retreat manoeuvre r is played on a sector containing only ships equipped with Ionic Propulsion, those ships suffer no hull point damage.
Multipoint Weapons
An attack die result a, z or e used by a ship equipped with Multipoint Weapons that is alone on its sector may be played twice in succession, to either:
- attack at 2 sectors' distance, following the directions indicated by the die result for each sector crossed; or
- make 2 successive attacks without support on the same adjacent sector, as long as they target 2 different targets.
Depolarized Shields
A shield die result used on a sector containing a ship equipped with Depolarized Shields may block damage coming from any direction, regardless of the directions shown on the shield die.
(The original shows this as an icon equation between two shield-face icons, which cannot be reproduced in text.)
In addition, a ship equipped with Depolarized Shields may force the opponent to target it among the ships of the attacked sector.
Special Weapon
A ship with the Special Weapon ability is equipped with a Special Weapon, which can be activated with two special results r r, as shown on page 12. See the Knowledge Base, page 22, for more details on Special Weapons.
Knowledge Base: Special Sectors
Ships may enter Special Sectors freely. Whatever the Special Sector, no long-range attack may pass through it. The following rules tell you what to do in the various situations in these sectors. If a situation is not described, there is no effect.
Asteroid Field
"It is common to find clusters of rock or wreckage drifting in space. In such refuges, where no targeting system works, pilots have no choice but to try to save their skin, lying in wait for a more favourable moment."
- Entering the sector: roll a die. On a special result r, each ship in the Asteroid Field suffers a number of damage points equal to its class.
- In the sector: from here, ships cannot attack, support an attack, be targeted, or use Special Weapons.
- Start of turn: roll a die for each Asteroid Field occupied by one or more of your ships. For each special result r, each ship in the Asteroid Field concerned suffers a number of damage points equal to its class.
Gravitational Field
"Gravitational waves sometimes generate singular points called Gravitational Fields. Pilots have learned to use the extreme gravitation of these points to move more quickly in the middle of combat."
- Entering the sector: roll a die to determine the direction of the exit movement. On a special result r, each ship on the Gravitational Field suffers 1 damage point and returns to its original sector. Any other result allows a free movement to one of the sectors indicated, according to the normal movement rules. This movement is compulsory. If no exit is possible, the ships return to their original sector.
- In the sector: no ship may stop there.
Gas Cloud
"Sometimes a sector is entirely occupied by a gas cloud, which can scramble transmissions and, as a result, supported attacks."
- In the sector: if ships in a Gas Cloud are attacked, the player controlling them may immediately roll a shield die from their Reserve. If its result cannot be played to counter the current attack, the die is immediately returned to the player's Reserve. If the player has no shield die in their Reserve, they cannot benefit from this bonus. Depolarized Shields have no effect on this bonus. From here, ships may attack without benefiting from support, but they cannot support an attack, use Special Weapons, or be targeted by anything other than a standard attack.
Knowledge Base: Portals
Portals allow movement from one Combat Zone to another. They work in pairs marked with the same letter (X, Y, Z), each Portal of the pair communicating with the other. A Portal serves as both entrance and exit. In other words, Portals work in both directions.
Placing Portals
Unless the scenario specifies their position, players placing Portals for a battle on several Combat Zones proceed as follows:
- After placing the Special Sector tiles, each side takes one Portal from each pair.
- In turn, starting with the side of the first player, each side places one Portal on a neutral sector of its choice.
- The other side then places a Portal in a different Combat Zone, and so on.
At the end of this procedure, each Combat Zone must be connected to at least one other Combat Zone by a Portal. If this is not the case, take one of the pairs of Portals that was removed from the game and repeat the procedure for its placement.
Using Portals
To use a Portal, ships must be on a sector containing one.
- The player controlling the ships uses a movement die result a, z or e, which indicates the exit direction chosen from the arrival Portal.
- They place all or part of the ships on a sector adjacent to the exit Portal, in the chosen direction.
- On a special result r, they place all or part of the ships on the sector of the exit Portal.
- If the exit is onto a Special Sector, the player applies its effects immediately.
- Ships that have just used a Portal may attack and move in the same turn.
Note: if you build a single Combat Zone to play with 4 or 6 players (for example 5x10 sectors), you may also place one or two pairs of Portals in the zone to create shortcuts. Simply follow the procedure above, with no constraint on the number or location of Portals.
Knowledge Base: Special Weapons
Except where stated, no shield or other form of reaction is possible against the tremendous potential of a Special Weapon.
Note that ships, Special Sectors, Portals and Signals are all considered obstacles.
- Vortex Missiles: the Battleship inflicts 4 damage points on a single targeted ship in any sector of the Combat Zone, except those adjacent to the Battleship.
- Proton Ray: the player targets a ship up to 2 sectors away from their Battleship. There must be no obstacle between the Battleship and its target. That ship suffers a number of damage points equal to twice its class.
- Nano-Repairer: a ship targeted in the Battleship's sector or in an adjacent sector regains 4 hull points, without exceeding its maximum. The ship targeted may be the Battleship itself.
- Magnetic Bomb: an opponent chosen by the player immediately returns all the dice on their Command Bridge to their Reserve.
- Interdictor: the player targets an empty sector up to 2 sectors away from their Battleship and places the Interdictor token on it. There may be obstacles between the Battleship and the target sector. That sector becomes impassable for all ships and shots of both fleets. This effect ends as soon as the player replays the Interdictor on another sector, deactivates it during their Dice Actions phase, or when the launching ship is destroyed or leaves the Combat Zone.
- Vortex Gate: the player targets a sector adjacent to their Battleship, or the Battleship's own sector. They teleport all or part of the ships in that sector to any empty sector of any Combat Zone, except sectors adjacent to the ships thus teleported.
- Drones: the player targets a ship up to 2 sectors away from their Battleship. There may be obstacles between the Battleship and its target. Place the Drones token near the targeted ship. At the Start of Turn of the player to whom the targeted ship belongs, that ship suffers 2 damage points, until that player uses a multi-directional attack result e to end the Drones' attacks, whereupon the Drones return to the Command Bridge of the player controlling them.
- The Drones follow the target ship in its movements.
End of the Knowledge Base. It is time to access the mission briefings and take command.
Scenarios
Pitched Battle (2 Players)
"The radars fill with hostile signals. No doubt about it, the enemy fleet is arriving in the sector. The battle is finally about to begin, and it is what you have been waiting for. One sign from you and the alarms sound on all the Command Bridges of your fleet."
This scenario suits many situations, whether they are vanguard skirmishes or a massive engagement of war fleets.
- Fleets: 12 class points of ships per player. Variants: between 9 and 15 class points.
- Combat Zone: 5x5 sectors. Variants: 5x6, 6x6, two 4x4 zones.
- Special Sectors: between 0 and 2 per player.
- Victory: as soon as one player's fleet is worth 4 class points or fewer (or 1/3 of its starting class points, rounded down), the opposing player wins the battle.
If at the end of the same action both players find themselves in a defeat situation, the game ends in a draw. However, if at the end of that action one player has more fleet points than the other, that player wins the battle.
Diagram: the Combat Zone is a square grid with a Deployment Zone at the top and at the bottom.
Pitched Battle (4 Players)
- Fleets: 12 class points of ships per player. Variants: between 9 and 15 class points.
- Combat Zone: 5x8 sectors. Variants: 5x10, 7x7, two 5x5 zones.
- Special Sectors: between 0 and 2 per player.
- Victory: as soon as one side's fleet is worth 8 class points or fewer (or 1/3 of its starting class points, rounded down), the opposing side wins the battle.
If at the end of the same action both sides find themselves in a defeat situation, the game ends in a draw. However, if at the end of that action one side has more fleet points than the other, it wins the battle.
Diagram: the Combat Zone is divided into four Deployment Zones, one per player, along its edges.
Asteroid Belt (2 to 4 Players)
"This zone of space is full of debris, and it is very unstable. It is madness to engage combat here, unless it becomes an advantage. An ideal scenario for introducing a little chaos into the battle."
This scenario is played as a Pitched Battle with the following changes:
- Players must place 2 Asteroid Fields each.
- In their Start of Turn phase, the player designates an Asteroid Field, then rolls a die. They must move the Asteroid Field into one of the sectors indicated by the die. A special result r generates no movement.
- If an Asteroid Field moves into a sector occupied by ships, those ships must make the damage test as if they had themselves entered the sector.
The Trap (2 Players)
"A war fleet falls into an ambush and its enemies await it, standing firm. Will it manage to get out? Here the ships are very close from the start, and you must act quickly."
This scenario is played as a Pitched Battle with the following changes:
- Before the game, the Amyclès player rolls 6 dice and may keep on their Command Bridge whichever results they wish. The dice not kept are discarded into their Reserve.
- The Amyclès player must deploy their fleet on both sides of the board.
- The Phoebe player deploys on the middle line.
- The Amyclès player starts the game.
Diagram: the board has three horizontal bands, with a Deployment Zone at the top and bottom edges and one in the middle band.
The Rescue (2 or 4 Players)
"Many containers full of precious materials are scattered across the zone. You must recover as many as possible before your opponent does. It is unthinkable that they bring back more than you, so do not hesitate to destroy their ships if the opportunity arises."
- Fleets: 12 class points of ships per player. Variants: between 9 and 15 class points.
- Combat Zone: 5x5 sectors.
- Special Sectors: before placing the Special Sectors, place 11 Signal tokens, each representing a container, on the middle sectors of the Combat Zone, with 2 tokens per sector and 3 on the central sector. Each player then places up to 2 Special Sectors outside the middle line and the Deployment Zones.
- Victory: when there are no ships left in the Combat Zone, the player who has evacuated the most containers wins the game. In addition, as soon as a player has evacuated 6 containers, the game ends and that player is declared the winner.
Containers: containers are considered obstacles, and are indestructible. Using Multipoint Weapons and Ionic Propulsion from a sector containing one or more containers is impossible.
Moving a container: a ship must begin its turn on the same sector in order to move a container. It therefore cannot arrive on a sector and leave with the container during the same turn. Each ship may move only one container at a time. Several ships on the same sector may therefore each move a container.
Evacuating a container: the ship carrying the container must be in its Deployment Zone. The player uses a directional movement die result (a, z or e). The miniature and the container are permanently removed from the Combat Zone together with the container.
4-player variant: 8x5 sectors. 21 Signal tokens on the middle sectors (4 per sector and 5 on the central sector). As soon as a side evacuates 11 containers, it immediately wins the game.
The Passage (2 Players)
"Protecting the passage of a damaged Cruiser between two portals is a routine mission, except when the enemy is in the zone and you do not know exactly when the Cruiser will appear! A scenario full of suspense and tension, for which you need steady nerves."
- Fleets:
- 12 class points of ships per player.
- The Phoebe player adds a damaged Cruiser (6 hull points, 0 Firepower and no Depolarized Shields).
- Combat Zone: 5x5 sectors.
- Special Sectors: place 2 Portals, X and Y, at the ends of the middle line. Then each player places up to 2 Special Sectors on any of the other sectors.
- Deployment: do not deploy the damaged Cruiser during set-up. At the Start of Turn of the Phoebe player, that player rolls a die. On a special result r, the damaged Cruiser appears on the sector of Portal X. A movement die may not be played on the damaged Cruiser during the turn in which it arrives in play. The Phoebe player starts the game.
- Victory:
- As soon as they manage to make their damaged Cruiser flee, the Phoebe player wins the game. To make the damaged Cruiser flee, it is enough to play a directional movement die (a, z or e) while located in the sector of Portal Y.
- The Amyclès player wins the game as soon as the damaged Cruiser is destroyed.
The Capture (2 Players)
"A light fleet escorting a diplomatic shuttle has just fallen into a trap. Will it manage to escape? A scenario full of finesse, which favours thought over brute force."
Capturing the diplomatic shuttle: to capture the diplomatic shuttle, it is enough for it to be alone on a sector, and for one of your ships to move onto that sector.
Restriction: the diplomatic shuttle cannot be targeted.
- Phoebe fleet: 8 class points of ships, without any Cruiser or Battleship, plus a diplomatic shuttle represented by a Signal token. Treat the diplomatic shuttle as a class 1 ship with 2 hull points. To do so, use a Signal token showing the number 2 at the start, and replace it with a Signal token showing the number 1 if the shuttle takes one damage point, notably in Asteroid Fields.
- Amyclès fleet: 12 class points of ships.
- Combat Zone: 5x5 sectors.
- Deployment: see the diagram opposite. The diplomatic shuttle begins the game on the central sector.
- Before the game, the Amyclès player rolls 6 dice and may keep on their Command Bridge whichever results they wish. The dice not kept are discarded into their Reserve.
- The Amyclès player starts the game.
- Victory:
- As soon as they manage to make the diplomatic shuttle flee, the Phoebe player wins the game. To make the diplomatic shuttle flee, it is enough to play a directional movement die (a, z or e) while located on one of the 4 corner sectors.
- The Amyclès player wins if they manage to capture the diplomatic shuttle and make it flee through one of the corner sectors, in the same way as the Phoebe player.
- If the diplomatic shuttle is destroyed, neither side wins the game.
Control (2 Players)
"Control of the portals of a sector is essential to ensure the mobility of fleets in massive engagements. Your mission here is to control the two portals of this sector before the enemy fleet does. You will have to make choices, move fast without exposing your rear."
- Fleets: 12 class points of ships per player. Variants: between 9 and 15 class points.
- Combat Zone: 5x5 sectors. Variants: 5x6, 6x6.
- Special Sectors: place 1 Portal on each of 2 sectors at the two ends of the same diagonal, as shown in the diagram. Then each player places up to 2 Special Sectors on any of the other sectors.
- Deployment: the ships begin the game outside the Combat Zone, awaiting being teleported in by the nearest Portal. Players must use a movement die result to bring ships into the Combat Zone through the Portal (up to a maximum of 5 class points per die), as indicated on page 21.
- Victory: the first player who has at least one of their ships on each Portal at their Start of Turn wins the game.
Example Turns
Turn 1 – Amyclès Player
It is the Amyclès player's turn (at the top) to play.
- Phase 1 – Start of Turn: before choosing the dice to roll, they must make a test for their Frigate located in the Asteroid Field on the right of the board. They roll a z and therefore suffer no damage points.
- Phase 2 – Energy Allocation: they choose 1 movement die, 1 attack die and 1 shield die, then roll them. They obtain: z a z.
- Phase 3 – Dice Actions: they decide to use the z to move their Battleship.
- Phase 4 – Command Bridge: they keep the two other die results, a and z, on their Command Bridge.
Their turn is over.
Turn 1 – Phoebe Player
It is the Phoebe player's turn (at the bottom) to play.
- Start of Turn: nothing to resolve.
- Energy Allocation: they decide to roll 2 movement dice and 1 attack die. They obtain: a z z.
- Dice Actions: with a z, they move their 4 Frigates; then, with another z, they launch an attack with their Destroyer against the Amyclès Battleship. Their Frigates, which are now adjacent to the target, support the attack at no extra cost. The attack can inflict 6 damage points in total on the enemy Battleship: 2 from the Destroyer and 1 per Frigate.
- Reaction: the Amyclès player decides to use the z shield on their Command Bridge, which blocks the damage coming from the Destroyer. However, they suffer the 4 damage points from the Frigates and turn their hull point disc accordingly. Note that they could not cancel the damage from the Frigates, as the directions of their shield did not allow it.
- Command Bridge: the Phoebe player keeps their last die, an a, on their Command Bridge and ends their turn.
Turn 2 – Amyclès Player
The Amyclès player begins by testing the Asteroid Field and obtains an r! Their Frigate suffers 1 damage point.
Next, they decide to roll 1 attack die and 2 movement dice. They obtain: a z a.
With the a and the other a, which are on their Command Bridge, they launch two consecutive attacks with their Battleship against the Phoebe Frigates, which have no shield. They concentrate their fire on one Frigate, which is destroyed because it suffers 8 damage points (2 times 4), more than its 6 hull points. Obviously, the two extra damage points do not carry over to the other Frigates and are therefore lost. The Battleship could instead have made 2 successive attacks on 2 different Frigates, inflicting 4 damage points on each.
Finally, the Amyclès player plays their 2 movement results, z and a, to move their Battleship away from the enemy's line of fire. Indeed, without a shield on their Command Bridge, the Battleship would have been an ideal target.
Turn 2 – Phoebe Player
It is the Phoebe player's turn. They roll 2 attack dice and 1 movement die and obtain: a a z.
They first regroup their 3 Frigates with their Destroyer by making a movement with z.
Then, from this sector, they launch a long-range attack towards the enemy Battleship, which is two sectors away. They can indeed travel the free path to the target with a and a.
As the Battleship has no shield to play, it suffers 5 damage points.
The Phoebe player keeps the a on their Command Bridge once again and ends their turn.
(The Amyclès Frigate in the Asteroid Field cannot be attacked, fortunately for it, since with these dice the Phoebe player could have destroyed it in a single turn.)