Galactic Warlords: Battle for Dominion Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Components
• Concepts
• Objective
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Recovery
  • Recall
  • Move Base Ship
  • Play a Mercenary
  • Action Phase
• Actions
  • Deploy
  • Deploy Only
  • Assassinate
  • Subterfuge
  • Bombard
  • Support
  • Recon
• Support Cards
• Invasion and Combat
  • 1. Planet Devastation
  • 2. Defender Reinforcements
  • 3. Combat - Players Roll
  • 4. Casualties
  • 5. Check for Victory and Gain Reputation
• 4 Player Teamplay Free Actions
• Hire a Mercenary
• Game End
• Scoring
• Additional Support Cards Explanation
• Official FAQ (Multiplayer Mode)
• Solo Mode Rules: The Galactic Rebellion
  • Solo Overview
  • Solo Concepts: The Rebellion Cards
  • Solo Setup
  • Solo Gameplay: Rebel's Turn
  • Your Turn (Solo)
  • Solo Game End
  • Solo Scoring

Overview

Galactic Warlords: Battle for Dominion is a card-driven game of tactical deployment and planet control. In this game, you play as one of the Warlords, with purpose to establish your dominion over the galaxy and score the most points at the end of the game. You will do this by playing your hired Mercenary cards from your hand in your Command Area. Each of the Mercenaries will come with their own units and actions such as Deploy Troops, Recon, Assassinate and many others. By using these units and actions, you will be able to assert control over the planets in the contested galactic region. At the end of the game, you will score points for completing Missions of the Mercenaries you have played during the game as well as other bonus points. Whoever has the most points at the end of the game is the Great Warlord and winner of the game!

Components

• 1 Galaxy Game Board
• 80 Infantry miniatures (20 per player color)
• 12 Tank miniatures (3 per player color)
• 8 Aircraft miniatures (2 per player color)
• 4 Ship standees
• 4 Player bases
• 3 Battle dice
• 8 Wound markers
• 40 Mercenary cards
• 16 Support cards
• 24 Planet tiles
• 6 Planet markers
• 8 Player markers
• 17 Recon and Action markers

Concepts

Mercenary Cards

• Mercenary Actions: The main driver of the game. You will use these actions to deploy units, bombard planets, assassinate mercenaries etc.
• Units: Each mercenary comes with his number of units. So, when you play a mercenary card, he will give you control of these units over to you so you can use them in the game. When you gain units, you place them in your Launch Pad, ready to be used.
• Mercenary Missions: By deploying units from your Base and maintaining control of the planets of the appropriate type, you will accomplish the Mercenary Missions, which will give you power at the end of the game.
• Skills: Each mercenary has a pair of skills. When placed next to another mercenary with the same skill, you can place a Guard on the now fully-colored skill circle. If it is your second guard on a skill circle of the same color (for example your 2nd Guard placed on a red circle) you can play that skill action.

Galaxy Board and Tracks

• Galactic Sectors: This is where the planet tiles are shuffled and put on the board. The sectors are also divided as Outer Sectors (Dark Blue) and The Core (Light Blue).
• Mercenary Market: The place where the mercenaries from the galaxy gather and wait to be hired! Players will hire (draft) the Mercenary Cards from this designated area.
• Reputation Track: Players will advance the Reputation track and gain bonuses and more power as their faction's influence grows stronger.
• Planet Track: Battles will influence the state of the planets, so this is where the players will be able to keep track.

Objective

The objective in Galactic Warlords: Battle for Dominion is to have the most power (victory points) at the end of the game. There are 3 ways to gain power:

• Deployment: When you deploy units on planets, you will gain power according to the position of that planet's marker on the planet track. Example: The red player decides to deploy his units on a yellow planet. Because at the moment the yellow planet marker is at the last spot on the track, he or she will gain +2 power immediately for deploying there (the bottom value at the track marked "Deploy").
• Reputation: Each time you gain Reputation, you will be able to gain either a game bonus or power. Example: The red player gained 1 reputation through playing an action. He or she can choose to either gain +1 Infantry in his base or gain +2 power immediately.
• Missions: At the end of the game, you will gain 2 power for each planet you control that matches the symbol in the upper left corner of each of your non-wounded mercenaries in play. Example: At the end of the game, the red player controls 2 blue planets and 1 yellow planet. Because he or she controls 2 blue planets, he or she gains +2 power per mercenary with the blue planet symbol, so the blue planets will give him or her 8 power total. Because the red player also controls 1 yellow planet, he or she will gain +2 power for each mercenary and because he or she has 3 mercenaries with the yellow planet symbol, he or she will gain +6 power total.

Setup

Some of the setup rules have additional rules for 2, 3, and 4 players, and for 2 vs 2.

1. Assign Factions: Each player chooses a faction and takes all of the components associated with that color: Base board, units, ship marker and other markers. Each player places his power marker on the 0 space on the power track and the units in a dedicated space beside his base called reserves.
2. Units in Base: Each player then places two Infantry units from his or her reserves in the Mission space in his base. Additionally, each player places all of his Tank and Aircraft units into the Launch Pad space in his base.
3. Seed Planets: Separate 2 planets from each color and set them aside. Then shuffle the rest face down and take 7, 8 or 9 planets for 2, 3 or 4 players accordingly and shuffle them together with the ones previously set aside. You should now have 19, 20 or 21 planets depending on the number of players. Shuffle these planets again and put them on the galaxy map randomly face down, 2 in each Outer Sector and 1 + 1 planet per player in The Core, then reveal the planets in the three middle sectors as shown on the setup diagram. Put the rest of the planets back in the box. Example: Because at this setup example 2 white planets were revealed, the planet marker representing the white planets would go 2 spaces forward. Do this for all planets revealed during setup. Remember, each time a new planet is revealed, the corresponding marker goes 1 space forward on the track!
4. Prepare Reputation Track: Shuffle the Reputation action markers face down and then place them randomly on each slot on the Reputation Track face up. Put the leftover token back in the box.
5. Deal Support Cards: Shuffle the support deck and deal 1 card to each player face-down to his hand.
6. Deal Mercenary Cards: The deck is arranged differently with different number of players:
   • 2 players: From the mercenary deck, separate the 30 cards marked with 2 in the lower right corner. Shuffle the cards and deal 5 to each player.
   • 3 players: Shuffle all of the 40 mercenary cards instead and then remove 7 cards at random to form a deck of 33 cards. Then deal 5 to each player.

Gameplay

Each round the players take turns in playing the game. Each player must take all the mandatory phases of a turn. A player's turn: Recovery, Recall, Move Ship, Play a Mercenary, Action Phase, Hire a Mercenary.

Recovery

The player moves his units one step towards the Launch Pad space in his base in this order:

1. All units from the Decon space move into the Launch Pad space.
2. Then all units from the Mission and Medical Bay space move into the Decon space.

IMPORTANT: During the next phases of the turn a player will only be able to use units that are on the Launch Pad space!

Recall

In this phase, the player may recall any ONE INFANTRY UNIT from anywhere on the board back into his Launch Pad. Please note that you cannot return a Tank or an Aircraft unit this way to your Launch Pad.

Move Base Ship

The player moves his Base Ship on the board into an adjacent sector, following these restrictions:

• Two players: only one Base Ship can be in the Outer Sectors and The Core can accommodate any number of Base Ships.
• Three and four players: two Base Ships can be in a single Outer Sector and The Core can accommodate any number of Base Ships.

For your first turn, place your Base Ship in any revealed sector following the above restrictions.

Revealing Planets: If you move the ship into an unexplored sector (it contains face down planets), you must reveal the planets immediately. Then, for each planet type revealed, move its corresponding planet marker on the planet track as previously explained.

Play a Mercenary

In this phase, the player MUST PLAY ONLY ONE of his mercenary cards from his hand into his Command Area. Each mercenary card that is played after the first one in the next turns must be played on one of the sides of the cards already in the Command Area.

Gain Units: After you play a mercenary card from your hand in your Command Area, place the number of assets (Infantry or other) shown in the bottom left corner on the mercenary card from your reserve onto the Launch Pad space in your base.

Place a Guard: If the Mercenary card you just played formed a full skill circle with the Mercenary card next to it, you can place an Infantry unit from your Launch Pad space in your base onto the circle. This unit now becomes a Guard. A mercenary in your Command Area is considered "guarded" if it has at least one guard on either of its sides.

If you decide to place a guard, it must be placed on the full skill circle that you completed during the current turn, as you cannot place a guard on that full skill circle in later turns.

What are guards for? Guards protect both of the Mercenaries they cover from the Assassinate action. An Assassinate action may target either a Guard or an unguarded Mercenary. Guards can also be used to play the skill that your mercenaries possess.

Play a Skill Action: Guards can also be used to play certain skill actions that your mercenaries possess. The next time you place a Guard on a full circle of the same color (when you have 2 Guards on 2 circles of the same color), YOU MAY PLAY the Skill Action of that color. Each skill can be played once per game per player.

• Heavy Assault (red): Wound an opponent's unguarded mercenary or kill one opponent's guard.
• Orbital Bombardment (green): Destroy all units on a single planet.
• Call for Support (blue): Draw 2 support cards.
• Covert Ops (yellow): Play a Deploy action on any planet on the board.

Guards as reinforcements: You can also use the guards you have to defend planets you control when you are being invaded. (See Invasion and Combat.)

Action Phase

You may choose to play any or all of the actions on the Mercenary card played this turn during this phase, in any order, if able. However, when you choose to play one of the actions, you have to resolve that action first before continuing to play the next action. During this phase, you may also play at most ONE Support card from your hand.

Mercenary Actions Cost: In order to play most of the mercenary actions, you will need to put an Infantry unit or other type of unit from your Launch Pad into your Mission space as an additional cost to play that action. These costs are written for each action in the action section of this rulebook.

Gaining Reputation with Actions: Some of the actions in the game will let you gain reputation. When you play an action that corresponds with the RIGHTMOST reputation action marker that is BEHIND your player marker on the track, gain 1 Reputation (move your player marker one space to the right on the track).

Example: This reputation track marker arrangement shows that in order to advance to the first two spaces of the reputation track with an action, the red player must play one Bombard action for each of the first two spaces of the track. Once his player marker gets to the 3rd and 4th space on the track, he would need to play Recon actions to advance his reputation, for the 5th a Subterfuge action etc.

Gain Reputation Bonus: After the player that gained reputation moves his marker to the next space on the reputation track, if that space contains bonuses he may choose to gain one of the available bonuses on that space (power, or one of):

• For the Cause (+1 Infantry): Fighters join your cause. Immediately put an Infantry unit from your reserves to your Launch Pad space.
• New Friends (+1 support): Immediately draw a support card.
• Need a Hand?: Repair one of your Tank units that was removed out from the game. Put that unit in your Launch Pad space.
• Recover Units: Immediately perform a recovery of all of your Infantry units.
• Gain Mission: Immediately draw a new mission card.

After you have gained reputation from playing the action, proceed to resolve that action.

Actions

Deploy

Deploy up to 3 units from your Launch Pad on a planet in the sector where your Base ship is currently located.

• Establish Planet Control: If you deploy the units on an empty planet, you gain control of that planet and gain power according to the Deploy value where that planet marker is at the moment on the planet track.
• Planet Unit Limit: A planet cannot contain more than 3 units of a single player. You can deploy units on planets already containing your units, but as written above, you cannot go over the limit of 3 units per planet.
• Invasion: If you deploy units on a planet containing other player's units, an invasion occurs. For the rules regarding Invasion and how to resolve it, see Invasion and Combat.

The Aircraft's Dropship Ability: One of the Aircraft's abilities, Dropship, lets players deploy the group of units with the Aircraft on any planet on the board with the deploy action. Example: The red player decides to deploy on a yellow planet by using the Aircraft together with 2 other units even though his Base Ship is not in the sector of that planet.

Deploy Only

Same as the Deploy action, only you CANNOT initiate invasion with this action. This means, the units you deploy with this action symbol MUST be deployed on an EMPTY planet or a planet containing your units, in the sector where your Base Ship is, or a remote empty planet with the Dropship ability in any sector if possible.

Assassinate

Send one Infantry unit from your Launch Pad space to your Mission space to put a wound marker on an unguarded opponent's mercenary card if that opponent has at least two mercenary cards in his command area, or kill an opposing guard. If you kill a guard, put that unit in its owner's Medical Bay. IMPORTANT: Wounded mercenaries do not score power at the end of the game!

Example: You can either kill the red player's guard and return it to his or her Medical Bay or you can wound the mercenary on the right because it doesn't have a guard protecting it.

Subterfuge

Send one Infantry unit from your Launch Pad space to your Mission space and choose an opponent to take one of his or her mercenary cards at random. Then either:

• A: Keep the card and give one of your Mercenary cards to him or her, or;
• B: Play one of the card's mercenary actions, resolve it and then return the card to him or her.

If you choose option B, it is important to note:

1. You cannot initiate invasion with a deploy action.
2. You cannot play another Subterfuge action with the opponent's mercenary card.
3. You do not gain Reputation by playing a corresponding action on the Reputation Track.

Bombard

Send one Infantry unit from your Launch Pad space to your Mission space to kill an opposing Infantry unit on any planet, or; send one Aircraft unit to the reserves to kill an Infantry unit on any planet. Then roll 2 dice. For each hit, remove an additional unit from that planet.

Support

Send one Infantry unit from your Launch Pad space to your Mission space to draw a Support card.

Recon

Send one Infantry unit from your Launch Pad space to your Mission space. Choose a sector with unrevealed planets, look at them secretly and return them face-down. Then you may place one of your available recon markers in that sector face-down. During your Move Base Ship phase, instead of moving your Base Ship to an adjacent sector, you may move it to a sector where one of your recon markers is located (Note: Base Ship restrictions still apply).

• Tactical Drop: When you enter this sector, you may turn this marker face-up and then play a Deploy only action on a single planet in the sector. Then, return the recon marker to your supply.
• Tactical Invade: When you enter this sector, you may turn this marker face-up and then play a Deploy/Invade action on a single planet in the sector. Then, return the recon marker to your supply.

At the end of the action phase, if your Base Ship is located in a sector where you have a recon marker, return that marker to your supply, regardless if you played its action or not.

Support Cards

Support cards represent the lesser mercenaries and guilds in the Galaxy that either want to help you with your cause, or they simply owe you a favor. These cards can be played as bonus actions during the Action Phase on your turn. A Support card can be played either before you play a Mercenary action or after. Some cards, like Blockade, can be played on the opponent's turn.

• NOTE 1: You may play only one support card per turn.
• NOTE 2: Actions that you play with support cards do not advance you on the reputation track.

The support cards let you: play an Assassinate action; play a Recon action; play a Subterfuge action; play a Deploy Only action; or (Blockade) play when a player plays a support card and block it.

Invasion and Combat

As mentioned before in the Deploy action section, if you deploy units on a planet already containing opponent's units, an invasion occurs. Follow the next steps to resolve the invasion:

1. Planet Devastation

Massive battles taking place on the surface of the planets can really harm the already devastated planets of the galaxy. Move the Planet token that corresponds with the type of planet being invaded at the moment one step backwards on the Planet track.

Example: The red player decides to Invade the blue player's yellow planet. Because of the destruction invasions cause, the yellow planet marker is moved one space backwards, thus reducing the Deploy and Domination values of the planet.

2. Defender Reinforcements

If the defender has fewer units than the invader, he or she may reinforce the defending units with 1 additional infantry unit only before the start of the battle. The defender can do this by taking a Guard from a Mercenary in his or her command area to place it on the planet that is currently under invasion. If the defender does this, that unit will add an additional die for the defender roll as if the unit was already there when the invasion was initiated.

Additionally, if the guard was placed from a Mercenary that matches its Mercenary Mission with the planet being invaded at the moment, the defender can perform an additional Defending Maneuver that only counts for the first round of the combat depending on the color of the skill that the guard was deployed from:

• Efficient Targeting (blue): After the roll, the defender may reroll any amount of dice.
• Bolster (yellow): The invader hit die roll counts during your first roll.
• Fortify (red): Defender gains an additional die.
• First Strike (green): Invader rolls -1 die.

3. Combat - Players Roll

During this step, both players roll dice to determine the number of hits they will inflict on the opposing units. Regardless of any combination of units that the player may have in the battle, a player can roll a maximum of 3 dice per battle.

Tank Special Ability - Heavy Siege: If the invader has at least one Tank in the battle, it unlocks the "invader hit" side of all of the invader's dice during the combat rolls, as long as a Tank is still present in the battle. This means that if the invader rolls an invader hit during battle, it will count as a normal hit instead of a miss.

4. Casualties

Each die has 3 combat results: a hit, an invader hit, and a miss.

After both players involved in the battle rolled their dice, each player calculates how many hits that player gives to the other player's units. Invader calculates how many hits he or she has given to the defender (regular + Invader Hits, only if the invader has a Tank present in the battle, as explained above). The defender needs to remove that many defending units from the planet. The defender also calculates how many hits (regular hits only) he or she has given to the invader, and the invader removes that many units from the planet.

NOTE: When destroyed, Tanks and Aircraft do not go back to your base. Instead, place them in your reserve pile.

5. Check for Victory and Gain Reputation

If all units from one of the players are destroyed, the other player is the winner of the combat. If the Invader won the battle, he or she gains +1 Reputation. If there are still units left from both players on the planet, another invasion round begins.

Evacuate: Additionally, if there are still units left from both players and the defender has an Aircraft present on the planet, he or she may Evacuate his or her units from that planet by using the Aircraft's Evacuate ability. If the defender does this, he or she puts the units from the planet onto the Launch Pad space in his or her base.

4 Player Teamplay Free Actions

In 4 player games, where you play in teams of 2 vs 2, each player can perform one free "Team Action" of the three Team Actions offered on his turn.

• Exchange one Mercenary card with your teammate at the same time. Your teammate must give you a card if you choose this action.
• Switch control of planets in adjacent sectors with your teammate by moving all of your units to his planet and all of his units to your planet.
• Remove X Infantry units from your Launch Pad to your reserve. Your teammate puts that many Infantry units from his reserve into his Launch Pad.

Hire a Mercenary

In the last phase of the turn, you need to choose whether you will draft a card from the Mercenary Market, or choose to draw the top card of the Mercenary deck.

• Draft a Mercenary: Take a card from the revealed Mercenary cards. After taking the card, reveal the top card of the Mercenary deck and place it in the empty slot.
• Draw a Mercenary: If you choose to draw a card from the top of the deck, remove the 4 face up cards in the Mercenary Market from the game. Then, simply add 4 new cards to the Mercenary Market from the top of the Mercenary deck, face up. (In a 3 and 4 player game, if you draw a card from the top of the deck, you DO NOT remove the 4 cards in the Mercenary Market from the game.)

Game End

A game end is triggered when:

• Last card is drawn/drafted: The last card of the Mercenary Market is drafted/drawn, after which each player plays one more turn and the game ends.
• A player reaches end of Reputation Track: A player reaches the last step on the Reputation Track. The active player finishes his turn and the game ends.
• A player plays his 4th Mercenary with the same planet symbol: A player has 4 Mercenaries with identical missions in his command area. The active player finishes his turn and the game ends.

Scoring

After the game ends, each player gains additional power for the following:

• Guards: Each player gains 1 power for each of his or her guards present on his or her mercenary cards at the end of the game.
• Units Majority: Each player that has a majority of units on a planet type (most units on planets of that planet type), gains power equal to the Domination value of that planet type. Example: Even though the red player controls more white planets than the blue player, the blue player still has majority of units on that type of planet (3 vs 2). So the blue player will gain +4 Power, because that planet token is on the last space of the planet track where the Domination value is +4 Power.
• Mercenary Symbols (Missions): As previously written, each player gains +2 power for each planet he or she controls that matches each symbol in the upper left corner of his or her mercenary cards. Example: At the end of the game, the red player controls 2 blue planets and 1 yellow planet. Because that player controls 2 blue planets, he or she gains +2 power per mercenary with the blue planet symbol, so the blue planets will give him 8 power total. Because the red player also controls 1 yellow planet, that player will gain +2 power for each mercenary and because that player also has 3 mercenaries with the yellow planet symbol, he or she will gain +6 power total.

After calculating the total power, the player with the most power is the winner and proclaimed the Galactic Warlord! In case of a tie, the winner is the player who gained more power from his Mercenary Missions than any other player. In case there is still a tie, the winner is the player who is furthest on the Reputation Track.

Additional Support Cards Explanation

• The Kickstarter Brigade: If you are the defender, you may play this card to reinforce the planet with an Infantry unit from reserves.
• Black Friday: Play any one action from a mercenary in the market. Then remove all the cards from the Mercenary Market and add 4 new ones.

Official FAQ (Multiplayer Mode)

Q: During the recall phase on my turn, can I also recall a guard from my command area? A: Yes.

Q: During the move ship phase on my turn, can I choose to not move my ship? A: No, you must move your ship on the move ship phase on your turn.

Q: When can I play the Skill Action from having put 2 Guards on the same skill circle? A: (The published FAQ repeats the previous answer here, "No, you must move your ship on the move ship phase on your turn," which is evidently a copy error. The rulebook states that you may play the Skill Action when you place your second Guard on a full circle of the same color.)

Q: When I play a Deploy action, can I deploy any combination of units during that action? A: Yes, you can deploy any combination of units during one deploy action.

Q: I played a Subterfuge action and decided to play the Bombard action on my opponent's card. What can I destroy with that action? A: If you play a Bombard action through one of your Subterfuge actions, you may destroy one infantry unit or send one Aircraft to the Mission space in your Base in order to destroy one infantry unit on any planet and roll 2 additional dice in order to determine if you will destroy an additional amount of units on that planet, just as you would play the regular Bombard action.

Q: What happens when I want to play a Recon action but all planets are revealed? A: If you play a Recon action in that case, you can choose any sector and simply place a Recon marker there for later use.

Q: What happens when a Tank or Aircraft gets destroyed? A: They go out from the game.

Q: Is there a way to get destroyed Tanks and Aircraft back into the game? A: The only way to get a destroyed Tank or Aircraft back into the game is by playing the "Need a hand?" bonus action from the reputation track.

Q: Is it possible to use the Aircraft's "Dropship" ability to deploy units on a non-revealed planet? A: No it is not possible.

Solo Mode Rules: The Galactic Rebellion

(Official Solo Mode Rules, 14 July 2018.)

Solo Overview

The solo mode puts the player in the middle of a galactic rebellion led by the notorious Warlord twins Boluth and Nazha. The player's objective is to score more points while trying to stop the Rebellion from overwhelming and gaining control over the Galaxy.

In order to make sense of these Solo Mode rules, you must read and learn the basic rules for the multiplayer game. This Solo Mode plays in a similar manner as a multiplayer game, with some rule tweaks and few additional concepts.

Solo Concepts: The Rebellion Cards

The game is played vs. an opponent controlled by the actions from his "Rebel Deck". This deck is the driving force behind the Rebellion player and his military mission. The Rebellion player doesn't need the help of the Mercenaries. The rebel cards have special actions as well as an affinity towards some planets.

• Rebellion Actions: The Rebellion will use these actions to deploy units, bombard and invade your planets, assassinate your mercenaries etc.
• Power Level: The level of the card. Used for setup.
• Target Priority: The planet symbols are used to determine the targets for some of the actions that the Rebellion may play during its turn, such as Deploy, Bombard or Assassinate. The Target Priority is taken into consideration whenever the Rebels have to take an action on a planet. Check if the leftmost planet type is eligible for that action. If not, continue to the next one (on the right), until you resolve the action. For example, if a card shows Brown, Blue, Yellow and the Rebellion would deploy units this turn, it will choose to deploy on the Brown planets first in each sector, then on the Blue planets and finally, on the Yellow planets.
• Rebellion Deployment Plan: This shows you which sectors the Rebellion will pre-deploy its forces in or which sectors it will bombard during its turn.

Solo Setup

1. Assign Factions: Choose a faction and take all of the components associated with that color: Base board, units, ship marker and other markers. Choose a faction for the Rebellion and place your and the Rebellion's power marker on the 0 space on the power track and the units in a dedicated space beside your base called reserves. The Rebellion doesn't have a reserve and all their units are considered ready to launch (on the Launch Pad).
2. Units in Base: Place two Infantry units from your reserves in the Mission space of your base. Then place all of your Tank and Aircraft units into the Launch Pad space in your base.
3. Seed Planets: Separate 12 planets, 2 of each color and put them together in a single pile. Shuffle those planets and put 2 in each middle sector and 1 planet on each outer sector face-down, then reveal all planets. Put the other planets back in the box.
4. Prepare Reputation Track and Planet Track: Remove the Recon Action Reputation marker, then shuffle the Reputation action markers face down and place one reputation action marker on each slot on the Reputation Track face up. Then place each Planet Marker on the highest value space on its corresponding planet track.
5. Draw Mercenary Cards: From the mercenary deck, separate the 30 cards marked with 2 in the lower right corner then remove 7 mercenaries with recon action. Shuffle the 23 cards and draw 5, choose 3 for your starting hand, and then shuffle the discarded two from hand back into the mercenary deck. From the formed deck, draw 3 mercenaries and place them in the Mercenary Market.
6. Draw a Support Card: From the support deck, remove the Blockade and Scout Ships support cards, then shuffle the support deck and draw 1 card to your hand.
7. Prepare Rebels: This Solo Mode makes use of the Rebel Deck in order for the Rebellion to play its actions. You can choose to play in standard mode or hard mode:
   • Standard Mode: From the Rebellion deck cards, remove 3 random Level 1 cards and 6 random Level 2 cards and place them back in the box. Then shuffle each remaining pile separately, and place the Level 1 pile on top of the Level 2 one. This is the Rebel Deck. Place all Assets from any other color in the Rebel designated area.

Solo Gameplay: Rebel's Turn

The Rebels always play first. Draw the top card of the Rebel Deck and resolve the actions on the card one by one, starting from the top action and going downwards. The Rebellion's actions are different from the standard mercenary actions:

• Bombard: The Rebellion destroys one of your infantry units on a planet in the sector which is marked for Bombardment. If there are two planets in that sector and you control both, the Target Priority determines on which planet the Rebellion will destroy that one infantry unit. Example: The Rebellion plays a bombard action in a sector in which you control both planets. To determine on which planet the Rebellion will destroy an infantry unit, it checks if there is a white planet in that sector under your control (the first planet type on the Target Priority). Since there isn't a white planet in the sector in question, it then checks if there is a blue planet in that sector that contains your infantry units. Since there is a blue planet that you control in that sector and have infantry units there, the Rebellion destroys one infantry unit on that planet. Return that unit to your Medical Bay on your base board.
• Pre-Deployment: The Rebellion places (pre-deploys) units on the sectors shown on the card according to the Rebellion Deployment Plan (but not on the planets in those sectors!). If the Rebellion would pre-deploy a unit or units in a sector where there are already 3 pre-deployed Rebellion units present, the Rebellion instead gains +1 Power for each unit that should have been pre-deployed with this card, and returns those units to the Rebellion reserve (the 3 already present pre-deployed units stay in the sector). Example: According to the Rebellion Deployment Plan, the Rebellion should pre-deploy an Infantry and Tank units in The Core sector, but since there are already 3 pre-deployed units there, the Rebellion takes them back to their reserve and gains +2 Power total (1 Power for each unit that should have been pre-deployed).
• Deploy/Invade: The Rebellion deploys all pre-deployed units in each sector onto a planet that matches the first planet type on the Target Priority of the card. If there is not a planet of that type in a sector, check to see if there is a planet that matches the second planet type on the Target Priority and deploy the pre-deployed Rebellion units on that planet in that sector. If there is not a planet of that type in a sector as well, check to see if there is a planet that matches the third/final planet type on the Target Priority and deploy the pre-deployed Rebellion units on that planet in that sector. If there is not a planet in a sector that matches any of the three types of planets on the Target Priority, the pre-deployed units in that sector stay as pre-deployed. The rebels don't score Deployment points from the Planet tracks. In case of Invasion, follow the standard Invasion rules. (The illustrated example shows several sectors: where a matching planet exists the units deploy there, and an Invasion occurs if the human player's units are on it; where none of the three types exist the units stay pre-deployed; sectors with no pre-deployed units are unaffected.)

Your Turn (Solo)

A human player's turn is played the same as in a multiplayer game, with a few rule exceptions and changes:

1. You do not use the Base Ship to deploy your units. Instead, when deploying your units, you can choose to deploy them on a planet in a sector that is adjacent to a sector where you already control at least one planet.
2. You DO NOT score deployment points from the planet tracks when deploying units.
3. When you play an Assassinate action, remove 1 pre-deployed Rebel unit from any sector you choose (not planet).
4. When you play a Subterfuge action, it lets you do the following: (1) Copy an action from one of the Mercenaries in the Market. Remove it from the Market. A new one will be added at the end of turn (e.g. after drafting, add 2 new ones); or (2) Discard one Mercenary from your hand and take one from the Market.

Skill actions are played after you put one guard on a full skill circle color instead of two guards on the same skill circle color, but you can still play each Skill action once per game. The Heavy Assault skill instead reads: Kill 2 Rebellion pre-deployed units in any sector. Orbital Bombardment (destroy all units on a single planet), Call for Support (draw 2 support cards) and Covert Ops (play a Deploy action on any planet on the board) are unchanged.

Solo Game End

• The Rebels play their last card, after which the game ends immediately.
• Either the Rebels or the human player reach the end of the Reputation Track, after which the game ends immediately.
• The last card is drawn from the Mercenary Market, after which the Rebels play one more turn.

Solo Scoring

After the game ends, the human player gains additional power for the following:

• Guards: You gain 1 power for each of your guards present at the end of the game.
• Mercenary Symbols (Missions): As in the regular multiplayer game, you gain +2 power for each planet you control that matches each symbol in the upper left corner of your mercenary cards. (Example: controlling 2 blue planets and 1 yellow planet with 4 blue-symbol and 3 yellow-symbol mercenaries gives 8 + 6 power.)
• Rebellion Sector Score: The Rebellion player gains +1 power for each non-deployed unit in a sector on the board. Example: At the end of the game, the Rebellion player has 4 undeployed units so he gains +4 power total.
• Units Majority: Both the Rebellion and the human player gain additional power for having unit majority on the six planet types. Each player that has a majority of units (most units on each of the 6 planet types) gains power equal to the top value on the planet track where that planet marker is.

After calculating the total power, the player with the most power is the winner! In case there is a tie, the winner is the player who is furthest on the Reputation Track.