Interstellar Mayhem Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Content
• Terminology
• Overview
• 1. Winning the Game
• 2. Preparation
• 3. Game Round
  • 3.1 Roll Starting Values
  • 3.2 Determine Turn Order
  • 3.3 Determine Starting Points
  • 3.4 Game Turn
    • A) Remove Overheat
    • B) Recharge 2 Dice
    • C) Recalibrate One Die
    • D) Move, Turn and Shoot in Any Order
      • Move
      • Turning
      • Shoot
      • Damage Distribution
      • Self Destruction
• Tactical Hints
• Example of a Player's Turn

Game Content

• 1 Big gameplan
• 6 Model spaceships
• 6 Spaceship templates
• 6 Start counters
• 4 big white dice
• 12 Kill counters
• 18 Asteroids
• 18 Equipment sheets
• 36 small colored dice
• 6 sequence counters
• 1 Ruleset

Terminology

A few terms are best understood before reading the game rules.

• Value dice: Dice which lie on the speed-, shields- and firepower-fields.
• Speed value: The sum of all pips on the speed dice.
• Shields value: The sum of all pips on the shields dice.
• Firepower value: The sum of all pips on the firepower dice.
• Equipment sheet: These sheets show the individual equipment of the spaceships.
• Game round: A game round consists of the game turns of all players (Step 3).
• Game turn: The complete turn of one player (Phase A-E).
• Dice pip: A single pip on a die.
• Add to die: If you add to a die the sequence is always A, B, C, D, E, F. It can never be higher than F. Every further added pip is lost.
• Subtract from die: If you subtract from a die the sequence is always F, E, D, C, B, A. If you have to subtract below A, you must put the die into the reactor. If there is a gap move your die to the left. This can lead to an overheat die becoming a value die.

Overview

1. Winning the game
2. Preparation
3. Game round
   • 3.1 Roll starting values
   • 3.2 Determine turn order
   • 3.3 Determine starting point
   • 3.4 Game turn
     • A) Remove overheat
     • B) Recharge up to 2 dice
     • C) Recalibrate 1 die
     • D) Move, turn, shoot in any order
     • E) Check victory conditions

1. Winning the Game

In Interstellar Mayhem you are a space combat pilot. The first pilot to get 3 kill counts wins the game.

2. Preparation

First you will need an asteroid field. Take the game board and put it on the table. Leave enough space for the spaceship templates. Now you take turns putting asteroids on single hexfields of the game board. After that place the 6 start counters on empty hexes. They should have a minimum distance of 6 fields and not be in a direct line to each other. The alignment within the hexfield has to be clear. The six numbers refer to the sides of the hexfield.

Example: Ingo puts the starting point counter number 1 in the upper middle of the game board. The red area shows that no further starting point counters should be placed here. Dirk has to think a little where to put the next one, but there is still some space left.

Every player takes a space ship model, 6 small dice of the same colour and one spaceship template. Shuffle the equipment sheets and put them aside as a stack. Take the kill counters and the 4 bigger dice and put them on the table so that everybody can comfortably reach them.

Important: The four bigger, white dice are for combat rolls and determination of starting points and are used by all players.

3. Game Round

3.1 Roll Starting Values

Every player whose ship is currently not on the game plan has to take this step. Take the lowermost equipment sheet from the stack. Roll your 6 colored dice and put them on Speed, Shields and Firepower. You may put 0-3 dice on each value. Take care not to change the pips of any dice. We suggest you put 2 dice on every value.

Example: Flo puts his dice very equally on his template. 2 dice with value 7 each - not the worst idea, since the values will constantly change throughout the whole game.

3.2 Determine Turn Order

The player with the highest Speed value begins this turn. Followed by the player with the second highest and so on. If there are more players with the same Speed value the player with the larger number of dice in Speed goes first. If this does not solve the conflict roll 2 white dice. The highest roller goes first in this game turn. There are 6 sequence counters you can use to keep track of the turn order.

Important: Determine the starting order anew in every single game round.

3.3 Determine Starting Points

Now a starting point is determined for every spaceship which is not currently on the game plan. This happens in turn order. Every player rolls a white die to determine the starting point and a second roll determines the orientation of the ship. If the starting point is occupied roll again until you find a free one.

Example: Ingo starts first this round. He has the highest speed value. He rolls a C and starts at the starting point 3. He rolls a second time and the die shows a D. This means his ship starts with orientation 4.

3.4 Game Turn

Every player now completes a whole turn (Phases A-E). He is followed by the next player and so on. After the last player has taken his turn the next game round begins (start with 2.1 roll starting values). The current player is also called the active player.

A) Remove overheat B) Recharge 2 dice C) Recalibrate one die D) Move, turn and shoot in any order E) Check victory conditions

A) Remove Overheat

Next to the two normal fields of speed, shields and firepower on each space ship template there is a bordered third one called overheat field. They symbolize the energy which was used to push your ship beyond the maximum of 2 dice for a short period of time. The active player now takes all his overheat dice and puts them onto his reactor.

B) Recharge 2 Dice

The active player may reroll up to 2 of his dice. He takes them either from his reactor or from another value. He rolls these dice and puts them on free fields of his values. You can put them on the overheat fields if you like. You may never change the pips of the dice. If you take dice from any value field they have to be returned to the same value field.

C) Recalibrate One Die

The active player may recalibrate one die of speed, shields or firepower. This means you may take one die without changing the pips and put it onto any free field of speed, shields or firepower.

D) Move, Turn and Shoot in Any Order

The active player may now move his ship. He has to make a movement for every single die of speed. After this movement is done the die counts as used. The player's turn only ends after all his speed dice have been used. Before and after each single movement he may turn and/or shoot (if he has turns respectively unused firepower dice left).

Move

The active player chooses any one of his unused Speed dice and moves his spaceship forward with the exact value of the die. A movement is always straight forward. After ending your movement the die counts as used and may not be used again for movement in this turn.

Ramming

When ramming another object (another spaceship or an asteroid) the ramming ship and the rammed object get damage equivalent to the value of the used speed die. The actual damage calculation will be explained later. The spaceship of the active player stays on the hexfield right before the object. This movement is ended and the speed die counts as used.

Evasion

Instead of ramming an object you can also evade one, if you have at least one turn and enough movement points left on your speed dice to reach the hexfield behind the object. The turn is subtracted from the maximum turns of this game turn's turns. If you have no turns or not enough movement points left you ram the object instead. If you want to evade more than one object you need one turn per evaded object and enough movement points on your current Speed Die left to reach a hexfield behind the objects. If you do not have enough of both you ram the first object instead.

Leaving the game plan

If you have to move your spaceship off the game plan your ship counts as destroyed (see also: Self destruction).

Turning

The active player may turn his ship before or after each single movement, if he has any turns left. The maximum number of turns a ship can have is the number of speed dice on the spaceship template. Each turn used rotates your spaceship one hexside.

Shoot

The active player may shoot before or after each single movement, if he has unused firepower dice left. You may only shoot at opponents in a straight line of sight from your ship and on which you have not already shot during this game turn. There may be no other objects (spaceships or asteroids) between the active player's ship and his target.

1. The active player counts the hexfields from his spaceship to the target. Your own spaceship's hexfield does not count, the hexfield of your target however does. This is called the distance.

2. The active player decides how many of his unused firepower dice he wants to use. He does not yet decide which these will be, but how many. The active player now throws this number of white combat dice.

3. Every thrown combat die which is as high as the distance, hits.

   Important: A rolled A never hits!

4. Now the active player decides which firepower dice deal damage. For every hit he chooses one of his dice and adds the pips up. This is the damage the target has to take.

5. The active player now subtracts one pip from every used firepower die (whether they have actually hit or not does not matter). All these dice count as used for this game turn and may not be used for firing again this game turn.

6. The target now takes the calculated damage (see also: Damage distribution).

Important: Every firepower die may only be used to fire once each game round. It does not matter if the die has hit, you have to subtract one pip from every firepower die used to fire.

Damage Distribution

Damage must be taken from the target's shields value first. For every point of damage one pip of the target's shields must be subtracted.

If any damage is left, after all shields have been used up, the remaining damage is doubled and is then subtracted from Speed and/or Firepower. If no die is left on any of your values (speed, shields or firepower) your ship is destroyed. The active player gets a kill counter for every opponent's ship he destroyed.

Note: Asteroids are indestructible.

Self Destruction

If the active player's ship is destroyed during his turn, he must return all the kill counters he got during this game turn. If he did not get any kill counters this round he must instead return one previously achieved kill counter.

Destroyed Spaceship

A player whose spaceship is destroyed puts all his remaining dice in the reactor and returns his equipment card. The player has to wait until a new game round starts to enter the fray again. Next game round he may start again by rolling his starting values (see also: 2.1 roll starting values).

E) Check Victory Conditions

If the active player has 3 kill counters the game ends and he has won!

Tactical Hints

• Do not use all your resources to attack, if you are not sure you can take out an opponent in your turn.
• Use your equipment sheet! It can be the key to winning the game.
• Try to eliminate opponents with low shield values. They are easy targets.
• Your Speed value is very important. Boost it if you want to go first next round or simply if you need that extra turn in the midst of asteroids.
• Attack is the best defense.
• An obstacle may also be an emergency brake...

Example of a Player's Turn

Dirk (red) has starting values Speed C D, Shields C A D, Firepower E.

First he has to remove his overheat die from his Shields (D) to the reactor.

He may now recharge 2 dice. He rerolls the reactor die and the A of his Shields. He rolls a B for the reactor die and an E for the A. He puts the B to his Firepower and has to put the E to his Shields. After rolling the dice he now has: Speed C D, Shields C E, Firepower E B.

Now he may recalibrate one die. Since he wants to destroy Ingo's spaceship (yellow), but does not have enough turns, he puts the C from his Shields to his Speed. After recalibrating he has: Speed C D C, Shields E, Firepower E B.

Now he may move, turn and shoot in any order.

1. First he turns to the right. This costs him one of his 3 turns (since he has 3 dice in Speed).
2. He moves forward "through" the asteroid. To achieve this he takes the C from Speed. This costs him another turn since he does not want to ram the asteroid.
3. He turns another time to the right. This costs him his last turn.
4. He moves toward Ingo's ship using the D from Speed. He is now 2 hexfields away from Ingo's ship.
5. He fires at Ingo's ship. He uses both of his Firepower dice E B and rolls a D and an A with the white dice. Since only one of his combat dice has hit (an A never hits!) he decides that the E of his Firepower dice has hit. (Ingo: Speed B C E, Shields C, Firepower -.) Ingo now subtracts Dirk's E damage from his Shields C. There are still 2 points of damage left - so these will be doubled. Ingo has to subtract another 4 points of his remaining dice. Ingo subtracts 2 from his Speed B and the 2 from the E. A Speed C C remains. Ingo's ship is not fully destroyed. Dirk now subtracts 1 point each from both Firepower dice leaving Firepower D A even though only one combat die had hit.
6. He then rams Ingo's spaceship. Dirk now has to move the remaining C of his Speed. Since he has no turns left he has no other option than to move directly into Ingo's ship. Ingo takes another Cx2 damage and Dirk C - since he has enough Shields left. Dirk subtracts that damage from his Shields E leaving Shields B. Ingo's ship only has Speed C C left and after the subtraction of 6 damage points his ship is without any remaining dice and thus destroyed! Dirk gets his third kill counter and wins the game!