Flip Ships Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Setup
• Gameplay
  • Flip Ships
  • Resolve Attacks
  • The Enemy Marches
  • Clean Up
  • Final Assault
• Game End
• The Icons
• The Ship Powers
  • Level 1
  • Level 2
  • Level 3
• FAQ
• Variants
  • Speed Variant
  • Other Variants
• Credits

Components

• 28 Ship discs (7 each in 4 different colors)
• 12 Pilot Cards (4 each of levels 1, 2, and 3)
• 60 Enemy cards
• 1 Targeting Computer Card
• 1 Docking bay tile
• 5 Enemy Mothership pieces (4 standard, and 1 variant)
• 6 Double-Sided Battle Zone Tiles
• 1 City Health Marker & 1 Mothership Health Marker (wooden cylinders)
• 1 Turn Order Marker (2 pieces)
• 1 Launch Pad
• Launch Pad Stickers
• 1 Rulebook

Game Setup

NOTE: When playing a solitaire game, set up the game for either a 2, 3, or 4 player game, and then play all the ships on your own, following all of the standard rules.

1. If playing a 2 player game, flip all six interlocking Battle Zone Tiles to the side with the two dots in the lower right corner. If playing a 3-4 player game, flip all six tiles to the opposite side. Connect the tiles as shown, and place them so that the illustration of the city is lined up with the edge of the table. These tiles will create the spacing for the rows of enemy ships that players will be battling.

   There are three main sections shown on the Battle Zone Tiles:

   • 1a. The Atmosphere: This is the area on the table extending from the edge of the table to an invisible line between the atmosphere and the moons (as shown in the illustration).
   • 1b. The Moons: There are four Moons depicted on the tiles, and each one creates a row across the play area, as shown. Each tile space with a Moon shown on it will be referred to as a Moon space in these rules.
   • 1c. Along the right edge of the tiles are the health tracks for your city and for the mothership. Each is numbered from 0 to 20.

2. Take the Pilot Cards, and shuffle the 1s, 2s, and 3s into separate decks. For each player, deal one card from each deck and line them up to the right of the Battle Zone Tile as shown. If you are playing on a narrow table, these cards can be placed anywhere else out of the field of play, usually somewhere behind the mothership.

   Each player chooses a color and takes the Ships (discs) of that color, placing them on the appropriate cards in a single column. Level 1 ships are placed on the Level 1 Pilot Cards, etc.

3. Each player takes two of their Level 1 ships from the Pilot Card and places them on the table just above their Level 3 ships. This area is where players will keep their active ships until they are ready to attack with them.

   NOTE: In a 2 player game, each player takes all three of their Level 1 ships.

4. Place the docking bay near the pilot cards.

5. Shuffle the enemy cards together and deal cards into a deck based on the number of players and your chosen difficulty level, based on the chart below. The remaining cards can be placed back in the box, and will not be used in this game.

   From this Enemy deck, deal cards face-up to form two rows of Enemy Ships next to the Moon spaces furthest from the edge of the table. Cards should be spaced about 1/2" apart. You can use the marking on the targeting computer card to be more precise, but it is not necessary.

   # of Players	Training	Standard	Expert	Elite
   2	25	28	33	37
   3	30	34	40	45
   4	40	45	50	60

   The cards should be lined up so that the bottom edge of the cards are aligned with the bottom edges of the moon spaces. Place the remainder of the deck face-down to the right of the Moons (or somewhere out of the field of play if there isn't room there).

6. Build the mothership as shown in this illustration, and place it just above the middle card in the back row as shown, aligned with the top edge of the last Moon space. The additional mothership piece (marked with a symbol in the lower right corner) can be placed back in the box, as it is only used in the competitive speed variant described at the end of these rules.

7. Place the city health marker on space 20 of the city health track if playing the Training or Standard levels. Place it on space 15 if playing the Expert Level, and place it on space 10 if playing the Elite level.

8. Place the mothership health marker on the appropriate space, based on the number of players and the difficulty level you have chosen, as shown in this chart.

   	Training	Standard	Expert	Elite
   2 Players	2	3	5	7
   3 Players	3	4	7	9
   4 Players	4	6	9	12

   Example: This is a 3 player game that is being played on the Standard difficulty level, so the mothership health marker is placed on space 4.

9. Place the targeting computer card somewhere within reach, but not within the field of play.

10. Construct the turn order marker, and place it just above the ships for the player in the left-most position.

11. Apply the stickers to the sides of the launch pad. The Launch Pad is not required to play, but can be added to any game. It is mainly used if the table you are playing on does not have a nice 90 degree edge to flip off of, but players can choose to use it in any game. If any player is using the Launch Pad in a game, then the edge of the battle zone tile should be moved away from the edge of the table by about two inches. The Launch Pad must be placed so that ships are always flipped from behind the edge of the atmosphere. Even if the Launch Pad is not being used for most flipping, there is one ship ability that uses it, so leave it on the table where it is accessible.

Gameplay

Each round is broken up into 4 phases.

• FLIP SHIPS

• RESOLVE ATTACKS

  (Player Turns)

• THE ENEMY MARCHES

• CLEAN UP

Flip Ships

Each round, players will flip each of their active ships, trying to destroy Enemy Ships and attack the Enemy Mothership. In turn order, as shown by the order of the ships along the edge of the table, and starting with the player with the Turn Order Marker above their ships, each player will flip their active ships. "Active Ships" are the ships that are on the table above their pilot cards. After flipping all of their ships, a player will resolve their attacks. Play then proceeds to the next player, and will continue until all players have flipped and resolved all of their active ships.

To flip a ship, you must follow these rules:

• Place the ship so that it is hanging partially off the end of the table (or launch pad).
• The ship must be positioned along the edge of the table that contains the Atmosphere tile.
• Strike the ship upward with a finger(s) causing it to flip toward the Enemy Ships.
• The ship must flip at least one full rotation. If it does not, re-flip.
• After flipping a ship, leave it where it lands.
• If any Enemy cards are disrupted and move out of place, leave them where they are. Do not straighten them out or put them back in their place.
• NOTE: Any ship that lands completely in the atmosphere can immediately be re-flipped. If after re-flipping it lands in the atmosphere again, it can be re-flipped again. After three consecutive flips that land in the atmosphere, place the ship in the docking bay.

Once a player has flipped all of their active ships, they will resolve their attacks.

Resolve Attacks

After a player flips all of their active ships, they will proceed as follows:

• If a ship did not successfully attack any enemies or land in the mothership, then place it in the docking bay. (A successful attack would be either landing on an enemy ship card, or being in shooting range with the targeting computer, if the ship had one of those abilities.)
• If a ship lands in the mothership, then remove it and place it in the docking bay. Move the marker down one space on the mothership health track to show that the mothership has taken damage.
• If a ship lands on an enemy card, place the ship in the docking bay, and discard the enemy card from the game. NOTE: ships must land ON enemies, and not just touch the edge of the card. If the edge of the ship is just barely on the enemy card then it is still destroyed, as long as the ship is actually on the enemy card.
• If the ship lands on an enemy that is shielded or requires two hits (see the Icons section), then move the ship on to the center of the enemy card, and leave it where it is until either the shield has been taken down, or another ship has joined in the attack. See the Icons section for a more detailed example.
• If, after the last player in turn order has resolved their attacks, there are still ships on shielded enemies or enemies that require two hits, then move those ships to the docking bay.

Once the last player in turn order has resolved all of their attacks, move to the Enemy Marches Phase.

The Enemy Marches

If any cards were knocked out of alignment during the Flip Ships Phase, straighten them out now.

Starting with the column closest to the Moons, and moving from front to back (from the atmosphere towards the mothership) each Enemy Ship will now move forward a number of spaces, as shown on the lower left corner of the card.

• 1: Move forward 1 space.
• 2: Move forward 2 spaces, pushing any ships in front of it forward.
• 3: Move forward until it is blocked by another ship. If there is nothing in front of it, move it all the way down past the last Moon row, and into the atmosphere.

After moving the first column, proceed to the next column and so on until all five columns of enemies have been moved.

After moving all of the Enemy Ships, if any of them moved past the last Moon row and into the atmosphere area, these ships have damaged your city. Proceed as follows:

• Add up the total damage from Enemy Ships that have attacked you. This is the number shown at the bottom right corner of the card.
• Move your Health Marker down this number of spaces on the health track.
• Take these Enemy Cards and shuffle them back into the deck of Enemy Cards. These Enemy Ships will circle around and will attack you again.

Clean Up

To prepare for the next round, do the following:

• Move all the ships from the docking bay back to the space above their Pilot Cards.

• If, during the Enemy Marches Phase, the health marker reached one or more spaces with a ship icon, then reinforcements are sent in, and each player takes a number of new ships equal to the number of those spaces reached. Players must always choose their lowest available ship.

  Example: The Enemy Marches Phase resulted in your base losing 5 health. The health marker moved from 20 down to 15. Since the number 16 has a ship icon, all players receive one new ship. They move their lowest level ship from the pilot card to the area above their pilot cards with the rest of their active ships.

• Using the Enemy Deck, refill the back two rows with Enemy Ships. When filling rows, always start in the back row, filling from right to left (starting closest to the moon spaces).

• Move the Start Player marker one space to the right, so it is over the next player in turn order. They will be the starting player for the next round. Play order will still continue from left to right and looping around. (Example: The player in the 3rd position is the starting player, the turn order for this round will be 3,4,1,2).

Starting with the new start player, a new round begins with the Flip Ships Phase.

NOTE: If, at the beginning of a round, there are 6 or fewer Enemy Ships in play, then this is the Last Round before the Final Assault (see below). In this last round, all Enemy ships are assumed to have a speed-3 icon for movement and will attack at the end of the round. In this attack, all ships will become kamikazes and do double damage. These enemies are considered destroyed, and do not get shuffled to form a new deck. If your city has not been destroyed (by reaching 0 health), move to the Final Assault (see below).

NOTE: During the last round, no reinforcements are sent in when your city takes damage.

Example: The round begins with only four remaining enemy ships, so this will be the last round. At the end of the last player's turn, there are still two remaining enemy ships. Since they are both considered speed-3 for movement now, they both attack. Their attack values are a 1 and a 2, so they will do 6 damage to your city (2(1+2)). Even though the health marker moved past a number with a ship icon, no reinforcements are sent in, and no new ships are taken by the players. Since the city still has remaining health, the players move on to The Final Assault.

NOTE: At any time in the game, as soon as the last Enemy Ship has been destroyed (and there are no more cards in the deck), the current round ends immediately. This can happen even if you started the round with more than six enemy ships in play.

Final Assault

The Enemy Ships have been destroyed and you are making your final assault on the mothership. It is here that you will defeat the Enemy and be victorious… or be destroyed.

Players take all of their active ships, and in turn order flip them one at a time at the mothership. Each time a ship lands in the mothership, move the mothership health marker down one space. As soon as the health marker reaches 0, you win! If players flip all of their ships and still have not attacked the mothership the required number of times, then the mothership attacks, doing 20 damage to your city. You lose.

NOTE: NO PLAYER SHIP POWERS MAY BE USED DURING THE FINAL ASSAULT.

NOTE: Destroying the mothership only results in an immediate victory during the Final Assault, since all of the enemy ships have already been destroyed. If the mothership is destroyed during a normal round of play, players still need to destroy all of the enemy ships.

Game End

In order to win, players must destroy all of the Enemy Ships (kamikaze ships in the final round are considered destroyed), and destroy the mothership.

• Win: Defeat all Enemy Ships and Destroy the Mothership.
• Lose: Take 20 damage during the game, or fail to destroy the mothership by the end of the Final Assault.

The Icons

Shield icon: An Enemy ship with this icon is shielding all orthogonally adjacent cards. An Enemy ship cannot be destroyed if an adjacent card has a Shield icon.

NOTE: Shields cannot shield other shield cards. In other words, two shield cards adjacent to each other have no effect on each other.

Example: Kallen flips his ship and lands on an enemy that is adjacent to a shield. He leaves his ship on the enemy card (moving it to the center of the card). On Carter's turn, he flips a ship and lands on the shield generating enemy. At the end of his turn, when he is resolving his attacks, he discards the enemy with the shield and also the enemy that Kallen had hit, moving both of their ships to the docking bay.

If Carter had not destroyed the shield generating enemy (and no other player had either), then at the end of the round Kallen's ship would have been moved to the docking bay with no effect.

Double-hit (XX) icon: An Enemy ship with this icon must be hit 2 or more times in the same round in order to be destroyed. If it is hit only one time, nothing happens.

Example: Keith flips his ship and lands on an enemy with this icon. He leaves his ship on the enemy card (moving it to the center of the card). On Carrie's turn, she flips a ship and lands on this same enemy. When she resolves her attacks she will discard the enemy card, and move both her ship and Keith's ship to the docking bay. If Carrie had not landed on this enemy (and no other player had either), then at the end of the round Keith's ship would have been moved to the docking bay with no effect.

The Ship Powers

Every game will provide a different mix of ship powers for the players.

Level 1

• If your ship lands on a Moon space, you may choose any one enemy in that row and attack it.
• If your ship does not land on an enemy, you may shoot one short card length at an enemy card. Place one end of the lasers on the targeting computer card up against your ship. If the other edge of the card reaches an enemy, then it is successfully attacked.
• If your ship lands on an enemy card, you may choose to attack an adjacent enemy instead of the one that you landed on. If you choose to attack an adjacent enemy that takes two hits to destroy, or a shielded enemy, simply move your ship over to that enemy card.
• If you successfully attack the mothership, you can re-flip. Immediately after flipping and hitting the mothership, move the marker down to show that you hit the mothership, and then immediately re-flip this ship.

Level 2

• You may re-flip this ship one time. (This is in addition to any re-flips gained from landing in the atmosphere) If you choose to re-flip, any enemies that you landed on are not attacked.
• You can destroy enemies that are shielded, and you can destroy ships that require two hits with only one hit.
• If you do not land on any enemies or attack the mothership, then place the Launch Pad where this ship lands and you can take one free shot at the mothership from this spot. No other enemy ships may be attacked with this flip.
• If your ship does not land on an enemy, you may shoot one long card length at an enemy card. Place one end of the lasers on the targeting computer card up against your ship. If the other edge of the card reaches an enemy, then it is successfully attacked.

Level 3

• You may shoot one long card length at two different enemy cards. Place one end of the lasers on the targeting computer card up against your ship. If the other edge of the card reaches an enemy, then it is successfully attacked. You can attack up to two ships in this way. If you landed on any enemy cards, then those enemies count toward this total.
• If you successfully attack the mothership, you may remove two damage from your city.
• If you are attacking the mothership, you may flip up to 3 times. You must state before your first flip that you are activating this ability. Any enemy cards that you land on during these flips do not count. If you successfully attack the mothership, then you do not get to continue flipping this ship.
• Attack any enemies that you land on, and one adjacent enemy. The additional enemy can be adjacent to any of the enemies that you landed on, either vertically or horizontally. If the additional enemy that you choose requires two hits, then move your ship on to that enemy card.

FAQ

Q: My ship landed on multiple enemy cards. Can I destroy them all? A: Yes! You can attack multiple enemy ships with one flip.

Q: I landed on two different enemy cards with one ship, and both of them require two hits to destroy. What do I do with my ship? A: Leave your ship where it is for now. If one of the enemies gets hit later, then that enemy is destroyed and you can move your ship over to the center of the other enemy card. If during play the enemy cards get bumped and moved and you are no longer on one or both of the enemies, then your hit no longer counts toward that card.

Q: Speaking of bumping ships off of enemies, what if on my turn I land on an enemy and then with my next flip I knock my ship off? A: In this case, you have not successfully attacked the enemy. You don't officially determine attacks until you resolve your ships at the end of your turn.

Q: I have the following situation: There are 3 cards in a line. The back row has an enemy with speed 1, the next row has an enemy with speed 2, and the next closest row has an enemy with speed 1. I move the enemy with speed 2 first during resolution, and then I move the speed 1. The speed 1 only moves forward one row since the speed 2 is in front of it. Next I move the enemy with speed 1, and that pushes the other enemies forward. The speed 2 ship is now pushed into the atmosphere so it is attacking us. That leaves the speed 1 in the bottom row with nothing in front of it. Does the speed 1 attack us now too? A: No. The speed number refers to the speed of the enemy ship when it moves. Since it already moved, the speed icon does not activate again after being pushed forward.

Q: I flipped my ship and it fell off the table backwards. How bad do I suck? A: About a 12. I'll let you decide what scale that's on. But you're in luck! Since your ship went off the table backwards, it's still considered in the atmosphere. Re-flip!

Q: I tried to flip my ship, but it just kind of shot forward without actually flipping. Is that legal? A: No. Your ship must flip at least one full rotation. The game isn't called Frisbee Ships. In this case, re-flip your ship.

Q: I have the ship ability that lets me attack a ship in the row if I land on a Moon space. I landed on an enemy ship, and 2 Moon spaces. Is that awesome? A: Yes. That is awesome. You can attack the ship you landed on, plus a ship in each of the rows corresponding to the Moon spaces you landed on. If more than one of the attacked cards require you to leave your ship behind (double hit and/or shielded) then you'll need to decide which to attack since you can't leave your ship on them both (assuming they aren't adjacent).

Q: Do we need to wait until the Final Assault to attack the mothership? A: No! You can attack the mothership at any time. In fact, some of the special abilities of your ships will help you do that. The final assault only happens if you haven't destroyed the mothership yet when the last enemy ship is destroyed.

Q: Does the Moon Space include the area on the right with the health tracks? A: No. The moon spaces only include the rectangular area with the moon illustration.

Q: I have the ship power that allows me to attack if I land on a moon space. My ship landed so that it is touching both the moon space and an enemy card that requires two hits. Can I use my attack from the moon space to count as the second hit on this enemy? A: Yes. You can use that attack on any enemy ship in that row, including an enemy that requires two hits. Since you also landed on it with your ship, that would count as two hits.

Q: I have the ship power that lets me attack adjacent enemies instead of the one I landed on. I landed on 2 enemies. Can I attack 2 adjacent enemies instead of the ones I landed on. A: Yes. Think of each card as a separate hit. Let's say you hit cards A and B. Instead of attacking those cards you could attack a card adjacent to A and a card adjacent to B. You could not, however, attack 2 cards adjacent to A.

Variants

Speed Variant

• Play a competitive real-time game! Place the mothership an equal distance away from all players (if possible). All players take all 7 of their ships. No other components are needed. When all players are ready, yell "FLIP!" and players simultaneously start flipping their ships from the edge of the table (flipping one ship at a time). The first person to get all 7 of their ships in the mothership wins! There are no breaks in the game, so if you miss you'll need to pick up your ships quickly from wherever they landed and keep flipping! You can flip your ships from anywhere around the table. Feel free to move around!

Replace the front piece of the mothership with the extra piece (marked with a symbol in the lower right corner) when playing the speed variant.

Other Variants

• When playing on Expert Level or higher especially, but as an option in any game, you do not get to re-flip ships if they land in the Atmosphere.
• Do you find the game too easy on the Elite level? Try removing the final row from play, so that you only have three rows of enemy ships, and the mothership is just behind the third row. All other rules remain the same, and you still refill the back two rows every round.
• An easy way to adjust the difficulty level to make it either easier or harder, is to simply change the number of times you need to hit the mothership. Feeling like a sharp shooter? Set the mothership to 20 health. You can also start the game with the city health marker set lower than the setup shows.

Credits

Game Design: Kane Klenko Producer: Scott Gaeta Art Director: Kane Klenko Illustration: Kwanchai Moriya Graphic Design: Jeanne Torres Production Artist: Jeff Oglesby Lead Developer: Carrie Klenko

Renegade Game Studios:

President & Publisher: Scott Gaeta Controller: Robyn Gaeta Director of Sales & Marketing: Sara Erickson Creative Director: Anita Osburn Customer Service: Jenni Kingma

Special Thanks:

The game designer would like to thank: First, my amazing wife, Carrie. Because she's amazing. To my best playtesters on this game: my boys, Carter and Kallen. And to everyone who tested the game along the way, including: Keith Matejka, Ed Marriott, Carl Klutzke, Morgan Klutzke, Nick Neumann, Nate Hendon, Sam Bottoni, Jenny Bottoni, Sandy Klenko-Blackmon, Paul Blackmon, Chelssey Klenko, Caleb Klenko, Tracy Forkash, Frank Klenko, Liz "T" Klenko, Pat Lawton, Heidi Lawton, Patrick Whelon, Steven Dast, Peter Dast, Brett Myers, Brian Koehlinger, Kaitlyn Conway, Becci Thompson, Mariah Hansen, Alex Hansen, Doug Bjelde, Martin Schmitz Jr, Aaron Folk, Lance Martin, Scott Birrenkott, Don Eskridge, Gary Dahl, Chris Reinke, Marissa McConnell, Sean Brown, Kevin Hicks, Cortnie Pfarr, Pete Pfarr, Garrett Coombs, Natalie Coombs, Sean Wainwright, Julia Smith, Shasta Vercauteren, Julie Fromm, Kyle Fromm, Adam Prumm, Michael Petrella, Kyle Kemp, Rohan Dargad, Jeff Richard, Andrew Hanson, John Rose, Alex Hinners, Deanna Ratz, Elizabeth Barganz, Todd Barganz, Stacci Barganz, Scott Schultz, Markus B.

Renegade Game Studios would like to thank: Game Hole Con, NASA, Kwanchai Moriya, Bill Pullman, Ash the Cat, Crew 651: Danny Silva, Jordan Gaeta, Justin Gaeta, Max King, Morgan King, Emily Smith, Eli Smith, Jason Jaarsma, Tommy Moreau, Rook's Comics & Games.

For additional information or support, please visit us online: www.renegadegames.com