ISS Vanguard: The Lost Fleet Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Campaign Setup
  • 1) Base Game Campaign Clean-Up
  • 2) Prepare Card Trays A & B
    • Card Tray A – Cards
    • Card Tray B – Cards
  • 3) Secret Envelope
  • 4) Prepare the Ship Book
  • 5) Prepare the Logbook
  • 6) Prepare Section Compartments
  • 7) Other Components
• Starting Your Game
  • Campaign
  • Operations
• Rules
  • Alien Dice
  • Situation Room
  • Equipment
  • Deadly Space
• Lost Fleet Icon Glossary
• Standees and Equipment Glossary

Components

Components are listed as printed on page 3 of the rulebook.

Planetary Exploration components:

• Rulebook
• Planetopedia
• Logbook and Operations Book
• 9 Alien dice
• 2 Lander standees
• 6 Mission Equipment tokens
• 7 Threat standees
• 1 double-sided Lander board

Ship Management components:

• System Maps
• 2 Ship Book cardholders
• 4 Ship Book pages
• 1 Card Tray B divider
• 1 Card Tray A filler box

Planetary Exploration cards:

• Small cards: 21 Unique Discovery cards, 10 Injury cards
• Other cards: 4 Reference cards, 36 Section cards, 104 Point of Interest cards, 21 Threat cards, 19 Global Condition cards, 28 Mission cards

Ship Management cards:

• Small cards: 14 Bridge cards, 6 Lander Mod cards
• Other cards: 34 Equipment cards, 2 Lander cards
• Standard cards: 10 Landing cards, 12 Research Project cards, 22 Production Project cards, 19 Situation cards, 2 Facility Upgrade cards (Survivors Quarters), 9 Facility cards, 7 Survivor cards, 2 Diplomacy/Obedience cards

Campaign Setup

Lost Fleet is a stand-alone campaign that takes place decades after the original Vanguard mission. With three of Earth's much newer starships mysteriously gone, it is up to the aging ISS Vanguard to take flight once again in a daring mission to the far fringes of the known galaxy.

Before you can enjoy the Lost Fleet campaign of ISS Vanguard, there are several preparation and unpacking steps you must complete. Since all of these steps can take some time, we recommend performing them in advance of your first play session.

All components from the Lost Fleet campaign are marked with LF. This icon will help you to discern components from the base game and this expansion if you want to set up or reset the whole game.

Note: All components removed from the game during the Lost Fleet campaign setup may be put in the Lost Fleet campaign box as they will not be used in the game.

1) Base Game Campaign Clean-Up

First, empty the Ship Book, the "Awaiting..." envelope and Section Compartments and return all the cards and dice back to the Card Trays. Next, take all components from the "Removed from the Game" slot (Card Tray B), segregate and put them behind their dividers in the corresponding Card Trays. Recreate Tutorial Decks A and B and the contents of the Secret Envelope.

The detailed arrangement of cards in Card Trays is presented later in the setup.

2) Prepare Card Trays A & B

Unpack all card packs found in the Lost Fleet campaign box.

In the Lost Fleet campaign, Card Tray A is used during Planetary Exploration and Card Tray B is used during Ship Management as in the base game campaign.

Fill Card Tray A with dividers and cards as shown on page 6 in the base game Rulebook. Next, follow the instructions listed below.

Card Tray A – Cards

• Put all 5 P000 and 3 P001 Point of Interest cards (from POI cards and Tutorial Deck A) behind the "Points of Interest" divider. Remove all other Point of Interest cards from the game. Put all Lost Fleet Point of Interest cards behind the "Points of Interest" divider in ascending order.
• Remove all Mission cards from the game. Put all Lost Fleet Mission cards behind the "Missions" divider in ascending order.
• Remove all Global Condition cards from the game. Put all Lost Fleet Global Condition cards behind the "Global Conditions" divider in ascending order.
• Remove all listed Discovery cards from the game:
  • "Hibernating Plant" Strange Flora Discovery
  • "Ultra-Durable Ceramic Crust" Mineral Discovery
  • "Telephatic Toroid" Live Specimen Discovery
  • "Ravenous Protozoa" Microorganism Discovery
  • "Monomolecular Wire" Alien Tech Discovery
• Put all other Discovery cards behind the "Discoveries" divider grouped by type.
• Remove all Unique Discovery cards from the game. Put all Lost Fleet Unique Discovery cards behind the "Unique Discoveries" divider in ascending order.
• Put all Rank-Up cards behind the "Rank-Ups" divider in any order.
• Remove all 6 Freezing Injury cards from the game. Put all other Injury cards and all Lost Fleet Injury cards behind the "Injuries" divider in alphabetical order.
• Remove all basic Event cards from the game.

Note: You can use the filler box to fill the free space left in Card Tray A.

Note: Since some cards from the base game are used in the Lost Fleet campaign, the numbering for some decks may not start at 1.

Fill Card Tray B with dividers and cards as shown on page 7 in the base game Rulebook. Next, follow the instructions listed below.

Card Tray B – Cards

• Remove Equipment cards E19-E21, E76-E79 and E101-105 from the game. Find Equipment cards E01-05, E07, E14, E16-18, E23-28, E30, E33-34, E36-41, E43-44 and E46-48 and put them behind the "Armory" divider in any order. Put all other Equipment cards and all Lost Fleet Equipment cards behind the "Unavailable Equipment" divider in ascending order.
• Put all Crewmember cards (standard cards and cards from Tutorial Deck A) behind the "Recruits" divider in any order.
• Remove all Landing cards from the game. Put all Lost Fleet Landing cards behind the "Landing Cards" divider in ascending order.
• Put all Facility Upgrade cards F01-06, Lost Fleet Facility Upgrade cards F07 and F08, and Lost Fleet Facility cards H01-09 behind the "Facility Upgrades" divider in ascending order.
• Put Situation cards S05, S08, S09, S12, , behind the "Possible Situations" divider in ascending order. Remove all other Situation cards from the game. Put Lost Fleet Situation cards behind the "Possible Situations" divider. Put all other Lost Fleet Situation cards behind the "Future Situations" divider in ascending order.

3) Secret Envelope

Gather all components from the Secret Envelope.

• Remove Ship Book pages, a cardholder, a divider and 18 Add-on Facility cards from the game.
• Put all the Wild, Expert and Universal Section dice in the additional tray separate from all the other Section dice. The remaining Section dice are your supply of unbought Section dice.
• Put all Advanced Event cards in Card Tray A behind the "Events" divider in any order.

For the list of envelope contents see page 41 in the base game Rulebook.

4) Prepare the Ship Book

• Place all cardholders and Ship Book pages in the Ship Book in ascending order with page 1 (Resuming a Saved Game) at the front and page 39 (Save Point) at the back.
• Replace the base game Ship Book pages numbered 27-28, 31-32 and 39-40 with the Lost Fleet pages with the same numbers. Remove the replaced pages from the game.
• Place the Lost Fleet cardholder numbered 41 at the back of the Ship Book.
• Find the following starting cards and place them in the cardholders as follows:

Cardholder page 3:

1. Tech Level 3
2. Medium Morale (insert the Morale card so that only its "Medium" part is visible)
3. Bridge Upgrade B11
4. Bridge Upgrade B13

Cardholder page 9:

1. Research Project R01

Cardholder page 13:

1. Production Projects C01-C04 (4 cards)

Cardholder page 14:

1. Facility Upgrade F04

Cardholder page 19:

1. Void Ranger Lander card

Cardholder page 21:

1. Lander Mods A01-A10 (10 cards)

Cardholder page 29:

1. Unique Discovery U04
2. Unique Discovery U08
3. Unique Discovery U12
4. Unique Discovery U16

Cardholder page 41:

1. Very Low Diplomacy level (insert the card so that only its "Very Low" part is visible)
2. Facility Upgrade F08
3. Very Low Obedience level (insert the card so that only its "Very Low" part is visible)
4. Survivor card V01 (Dauntless' Engineering Team)

5) Prepare the Logbook

The ISS Vanguard campaign is an ambiguous story which often faces players with meaningful choices. Some of those decisions have consequences in the Lost Fleet campaign.

If you want to apply the choices from your base game campaign play-through, check the corresponding Logs in the base game Logbook and follow the instructions below:

Important: Only mark boxes in listed Logs, do not read them.

• If box B in the base game Log 930 is NOT marked, mark the box in Log 1202.
• If box E in the base game Log 930 is NOT marked, mark the box in Log 1203.
• If box A in the base game Log 930 is NOT marked, mark the box in Log 1204.
• If box B in the base game Log 910 is marked, mark the box in Log 1205.
• If box C in the base game Log 910 is marked and box C in the base game Log 930 is NOT marked, mark the box in Log 1206.
• If the box in the base game Log 965 is marked, mark the box in Log 1207.
• If box A in the base game Log 920 is marked, mark box A in Log 1567.
• If box B in the base game Log 920 is marked, mark box B in Log 1567.
• If box C in the base game Log 960 is marked, mark box C in Log 1567.

If you don't have saved choices from the base game or simply want to change them, follow the instructions below and decide on the following matters:

Important: Only mark boxes in listed Logs, do not read them.

• If Captain Wayman is alive, mark the box in Log 1202.
• If Lead Researcher Dr Corey is alive, mark the box in Log 1203.
• If the Idemian Ambassador, Anu, is alive, mark the box in Log 1204.
• If Thrall, representative of the Visitors, has joined Vanguard's crew, mark the box in Log 1205.
• If Deadspeaker, the last memento of the Arrogators, has joined Vanguard's crew and is alive, mark the box in Log 1206.
• If Vanguard denied the Builders' request and shared their technologies with the rest of the galaxy, mark the box in Log 1207.
• If Vanguard gathered all Unique Discoveries, mark box C in Log 1567.
• ISS Vanguard had to choose its attitude towards the galaxy (choose only one!):
  • For the diplomatic path, mark box A in Log 1567.
  • For the military path, mark box B in Log 1567.

6) Prepare Section Compartments

The Lost Fleet campaign uses the base game Section Compartments. For each Section, there will again be:

Dividers:

• Rank sleeves
• Section cards

Cards and Sleeves:

• Put the Rank sleeves behind the "Rank Sleeves" divider of each Section.
• Take all the base game and Lost Fleet Section cards together and put them behind the "Section Cards" divider in order of Rank (Rank 1 first, then Rank 2, then Rank 3).

Dice:

• Take the Section dice for each Section as per the images below. The source shows each Section's dice faces as pictures; the colour and count of each Section's dice are given here, and the faces are as printed on page 6 of the source rulebook.
  • Engineering: 2 red, 2 green, 3 blue (7 dice)
  • Recon: 2 red, 3 green, 2 blue (7 dice)
  • Security: 4 red, 2 green, 1 blue (7 dice)
  • Science: 1 red, 3 green, 3 blue (7 dice)

Transcriber's note: the face symbols on these dice are pictorial in the source and are not reproduced as text. Use the source rulebook (page 6) to confirm each face.

7) Other Components

• Leave all tokens, standee bases, markers, models, rings, Planet Record sheets, Lead bag, Crew boards, Planetary Scanner, Current System bookmark, "Awaiting..." envelope and Token bag in the game box.

Note: If you ran out of Planet Record sheets during the base game campaign, visit issvanguard.com/resources for the printable pdf files.

• Put all standees and tokens from the Lost Fleet campaign in the game box.
• Add all the Alien dice to your supply of unbought Section dice.
• Remove all Threat cards and base game Threat standees NOT listed on page 8 from the game. Put all Threat cards from the Lost Fleet campaign in the additional Card Tray.
• Put the "Void Ranger" Lander card and Lander cards from the Lost Fleet campaign in the additional Card Tray. Remove the rest of the Lander cards and corresponding standees from the game.
• Remove the Danger die Reference card from the game. Leave the remaining Reference cards in the additional Card Tray. Put the Lost Fleet Reference cards in the additional Card Tray.
• The Lost Fleet campaign follows the base game rules so the base Rulebook should be used for rules reference. New rules introduced in the Lost Fleet campaign are listed on the next page.
• The Lost Fleet campaign uses the following separate components: Logbook, System Maps, Planetopedia and Operations Book. Remove the ones from the base game from the game as they will not be used in the Lost Fleet campaign.
• The new Ship Book page (Starmap) and the cardholder numbered 6A are not used at the beginning of the game and will appear soon with campaign progress. For now, please keep them with the other game components.

Once all the above steps are finished, return the Card Trays and the Ship Book to the game box.

Starting Your Game

ISS Vanguard Lost Fleet offers a campaign and several Operations (one-off scenarios).

Campaign

Estimated Playtime: 20-30 hours. Players: 1-4.

As in the base ISS Vanguard game, the campaign is the main mode of the game. The campaign consists of playing through the process in the Ship Book from start to finish, that usually includes a Planetary Exploration. Each play through the Ship Book should take 2-4 hours.

To start the campaign, go to Log 1200 in the Lost Fleet Logbook.

Operations

Estimated Playtime: 2-3 hours. Players: 1-4.

Operations are single Planetary Exploration missions that may be played as a part of the campaign, or separately as stand-alone scenarios. These scenarios require full knowledge of the rules of the game. To start an Operation, go to its setup rules in the Operations Book.

Rules

The Lost Fleet campaign introduces a few new rules, expanding the existing base game ruleset. We highly recommend familiarizing yourself with them before the first mission, as they may appear from the beginning of the campaign.

Alien Dice

The Lost Fleet campaign introduces a new type of Section dice – the Alien dice. They represent the knowledge gathered by the other alien races across the centuries. Thanks to ISS Vanguard's first mission, this knowledge may be now achievable for humankind.

Alien dice come in three colors representing three alien races met by Vanguard during its voyages - Aerugons, Idemians and Visitors. Each race has a new icon which is thematically tied to certain fields of specialized knowledge.

Alien dice follow all of the rules concerning Section dice unless stated otherwise. For the purposes of Spending and Sacrificing, Alien dice are treated as Section dice but without a specific color. The Vanguard icon may be treated as if it were any Alien icon.

Each Alien icon is connected to one type of Section dice (blue, green or red) and can be used as the following icons:

• Aerugon icon: treated as any one of the three red Section dice icons shown on page 7 of the source.
• Idemian icon: treated as any one of the three green Section dice icons shown on page 7 of the source.
• Visitor icon: treated as any one of the three blue Section dice icons shown on page 7 of the source.

Transcriber's note: the equivalences are drawn as icons in the source (page 7) and are not reproduced as glyphs here. Check the source page for the exact icon pairs.

For example, when you perform a Dice Check and roll an Aerugon icon, you may treat it as any one of the red Section dice icons shown on page 7.

Players may buy and sell Alien dice in the Debriefing step during the Ship Phase following the basic rules.

In the Prepare the Away Team step during the Mission Launch Procedure, Alien dice may be placed by players in any colored slots.

Situation Room

When solving Situations (Ship Book, Situation Room steps 1 and 2, page 17), you may choose Situation cards from the "Awaiting..." envelope in addition to the cards above the Ship Book.

Equipment

The Lost Fleet campaign introduces new versions of Equipment available in the game. They will be unlockable for players during the campaign.

New Equipment follows the rules presented in the base game Rulebook. For the purposes of Mission Equipment Upgrades (icon), treat upgraded Equipment as their basic versions.

Deadly Space

Transcriber's note: the source heading reads "Deadly Space"; the body text prints "Deady Space" [sic].

Deadly Space mode is playable with the Lost Fleet campaign.

To play with this mode, one change needs to be introduced [sic] in the Alternative Morale rule. If any Section has no Available or Resting Crewmembers left – go to Log 1554.

Lost Fleet Icon Glossary

• Alien die – An Alien die of any alien race.
• Alien icon – This icon means that this effect requires or adds any of the Aerugon, Idemian or Visitor icons.
• Idemian – Philosophy, spirituality, meditation, activities that require extraordinary concentration or intuition.
• Aerugon – Crafting, perseverance, and activities that require hunting and travel talents.
• Visitor – Subspace technologies, energy generators, and activities that require complex abstract physics.
• New Danger die icon – Roll a Danger die and compare its result to the entry with the same icon on the Danger die Reference card.
• LF – Lost Fleet – This icon marks all components which belong to the ISS Vanguard: Lost Fleet campaign.

Standees and Equipment Glossary

The source page is pictorial; names are listed as printed under each image.

Lost Fleet:

• Unknown Entity; Stunned Unknown Entity; Planidian Guard; Planidian Infiltrator
• Lost Arrogator; Stunned Arrogator
• Sin Hound; Guardian of Hell
• Sabretooth
• Top-Quality Zipline
• Biomass Creation System
• Enhanced Mining Probe
• Defense Matrix
• Glitched Stele; Rebooting Stele
• Awakened Leaftrap
• Spawn Guard; New Specimen
• Leviathan
• Pioneer Outpost
• Field Medbay

Base game:

• Ritual Guide
• Awakened Thicket
• Primal Scintillating Shardfly
• Planidian Bombardment; Planidian Assault
• Phantom
• Sprouts
• Awakened Bug

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Note on the Operations Book: the separate Lost Fleet Operations Book (four Operations: Cryptobiosis, Pilgrimage, Deeper Horizon, Tartarus) is not transcribed in this file. Its scenarios are run through numbered Logbook entries and are story-led, so they were omitted; the rulebook above is complete.