Lunation
Lunation Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 16 Character cards
- 30 Planet cards
- 20 Event cards
- 15 System cards
- 48 Action cards
- 20 Secret Objective cards
- 20 Fleets (five for each player)
- 12 Power points (double sided)
- 1 current turn counter + turn marker
- 16 Character stands + 24 colored Character movers
- 60 Resources counters
- 60 Energy counters
- 40 Victory points counters
- 1 First Player marker
Character cards: Characters in the game are mercenaries, wandering through space in small, but technologically-advanced Units, which are able to adjust and cooperate with Warships and whole Fleets. Characters have Battle bonuses as well as special abilities. Captured Characters may significantly raise the Victory points number.
Planet cards: Planets are the main source for excavation of Resources and Energy. Some of them grant additional Action cards. It is worth mentioning that some Planet cards are not actually Planets, per se – The Abyss, Dim Nebula or Ice field are exceptions.
Event cards: Starting from the 3rd turn, the Events affect all the players. They may have either positive or negative effects.
System cards: System cards affect all Planets placed around the System. Some System provides additional Energy and Resources, some additional Action cards, while others affect the movement and Battle abilities of attackers or defenders.
Action cards: Action cards influence every aspect of the game. They can provide additional Resources, Energy or even Fleets. They impact the Characters, Battle score and much more. There is no limit on Action cards in a player's hand.
Secret Objective cards: Secret Objective cards are additional ways of receiving Victory points. Some of them are focused on Battle (although not all of them require victorious conditions), while others may affect other aspects of the game like Resources, Characters or Units deployment.
Preparations and Start of the Game (4 Players)
- First Player should be randomly determined (i.e. by dice roll). He/she then receives the First Player marker.
- Each player receives three Power points.
- Each player receives one Fleet.
- Each player receives one Resource and one Energy counter.
- Shuffle the Action cards. Each player draws three Action cards.
- Shuffle the Secret Objective cards. Each player draws three Secret Objective cards. Then players can discard two of them to draw another two instead.
- Shuffle the System cards and the First Player should place five of them and place on the table, face up. Then, First Player reveals all placed System cards.
- Shuffle the Planet cards. Each player draws three Planet cards. Beginning from the First Player, each participant of the game chooses one of them and places it adjacent to one of the System cards, face down (pic1). Then, after each player placed one card, he/she passes the remaining cards to the person on his/her left at the same time receiving two cards from the player on his/her right. After that player draws one additional Planet card from the Planet deck (pic2). This process is continued until all Systems have 4 Planets assigned to them and Space map is created.
- Shuffle the Character cards. First player draws and reveals five Character cards. Now the players, beginning from the last Player, choose one Character card. First player chooses the card last. Remaining Character card goes back to the pool.
- Shuffle the Event cards.
- Put the Character cards, Action cards, Event cards and Turn counter close to the Space map made of Planet cards and System cards.
Note! After finishing game setup, put the remaining Planet, System and Secret Objective cards into the box. You will not use them in further game.
Game Setup for 2 or 3 Players
General rule is simple: number of Systems should exceed the number of players by one. So, in the game for two players, three System cards are used and for the three-player game, four System cards.
The same with Character cards, first Player draws and reveals as many Character cards as the number of Players +1.
Start of the Game
First Player chooses one System (but not the center one - this one is left for further exploration) and one Planet in it, reveals it and places both his Fleet and Character on the chosen Planet. Then next player performs the same actions, and so on.
Note that each player must choose different System!
During the choosing of the Planets, there may be a situation when player chooses the card without a Planet (Empty Space, Dim Nebula or Asteroid Field). If so, that player may reveal another Planet card in the same System and place his/her Character and Fleet there. Warning - this action may be performed only once, so if you are really unlucky you must live with it!
Power Points
As mentioned in the Preparations section, each player receives three Power points. Some actions during different phases require Power points to be spent. At the beginning of each turn, all players must place these Power points green side up. When a Power point is spent, the player turns one Power token red side up.
During every Restoration phase all three Power points are restored.
First Player
Beginning from the First Player, all players perform the actions in each phase of the turn (listed below). In each turn the Players make their actions beginning from First Player, after all Players finish the Refresh phase they start the Movement / Battle phase and so on.
At the end of the turn, First Player passes the First Player marker to the person on his/her left.
Game Turns and Events
The Game lasts seven turns. At the end of the seventh turn, the player with most Victory points wins the game!
Beginning from the third turn, the First Player draws the top Event card and reads it to all players. Effects of these Event cards apply to all players. Events apply at the beginning of the Restoration phase.
Example Event card (Mercenary Blockade): Deplete all Planets that grants any combination of three points of Energy and/or Resources.
Turn Phases
Phases of each turn:
- Restoration
- Movement/Battle
- Trade
- Activation
- Logistics
- Domination
Restoration
Each player restores (slides back to vertical position) all previously exhausted Planets and/or Characters. All Power points are turned green side up.
Exhausted Planet and refreshed Planet are shown by a card turned sideways and a card held upright, respectively.
Movement
The Movement / Battle phase was divided into separate sections to avoid any confusion in the rules. Remember that if any Fleets and / or Characters meet each other in the same location (System or Planet), Battle occurs automatically.
- Movement of both Fleets and Characters within one System is free. Every player may move as many of his/her Units as he/she wants.
- A player may move Units (Fleet or Character) simultaneously (to attack an opponent with their full strength) or one Unit at a time in order to explore as many Planets as possible.
- If a Unit moves to a previously unexplored location, that location card should be turned face up.
- To perform a Jump to another System, a player must spend one Power point for each location, from which the Jump is made, no matter how many Units (Fleets or Characters) they want to move.
- Jumps directly to a Planet's orbit are possible, although somewhat risky. To perform a Jump to a Planet in another System, a player must spend two Power points instead of one. In addition, they must roll a single Battle die. If the explosion icon appears, they lose one Fleet from the Jump participants. If a player jumps with the Character only (Characters travel in their own spaceship), the Character is not lost even if the explosion icon appears.
- Before performing the Jump, a player may gather together all Units from a single System into one location (System or Planet), and then spend the Power point to Jump. After the Jump, the Unit movement is over.
- Each Unit may Move and Jump only once per turn.
Moving units in one System: a diagram shows Units moving between locations within a System.
2-player game option: The Battle is resolved in the same way as with a larger number of players, but the players may attack each other starting from the 3rd turn.
Battle
- As mentioned above, Battle occurs automatically when opposing Units meet each other in the same location (except for individual Characters who meet in space – see the Mercenaries pact description - page 10).
- Each Fleet participating in Battle adds one Battle Die to the pool.
- Each Character has a bonus to the number of Battle Dice, varying from +0 to +2. Note that this bonus applies only to one turn of Battle - if a player wants to use the Character's bonus, he / she must exhaust the card of the Character that is used. Characters which were previously exhausted don't provide any bonuses in Battle.
- The Fleet Commander Character is the exception – his bonus is valid until the end of the Battle.
- In each turn of the Battle, the player may use only one bonus from one Character who takes part in it.
- The maximum number of the Battle Dice used during each turn of Battle is seven per player. The only exception is the Lance Formation.
Battle Dice: Each Battle Die has two explosion icons, two shield icons, one +1 icon and one empty side.
- Shield: The shield neutralizes an explosion.
- Explosion: The explosion destroys 1 enemy Fleet.
- +1: Re-roll this die and roll 1 additional die.
- Empty side: Nothing happens.
Battle resolution: Explosions and shields: both players deal damage simultaneously. Each shield negates one explosion rolled by an opponent. Each explosion that is not neutralized causes destruction of one Fleet that an opponent controls.
After destroying the Fleets, every explosion that is not neutralized causes the exhaustion of one defending Character (if any Character is engaged in the Battle). The same applies to a Battle of individual Characters.
+1 icon: re-roll each die with +1 icon and add one extra Battle Die to the pool for each of them. Remember the limit of seven dice maximum per player! If seven Battle Dice are already used, the player re-rolls only dice with +1 icons, without adding another Battle Die.
Battle does not end after one turn. If both players still have at least one Fleet (or a Character from which its Battle bonus wasn't already used), another turn of Battle must be performed.
Once the Fleets of two players are placed on the same Planet, the Battle begins.
Once the player loses, all Fleets and all Characters are exhausted, they lose the Battle.
Attacking the Characters: Individual Characters (not accompanied by any Fleet) may be attacked by an opponent. Each Character has a default of 0 Battle Die but in the first turn of Battle Character dice bonus (right upper corner) can be used (if any). Plus any additional effects from the Action cards.
Retreating from Battle
After each turn of Battle, Players may spend one Power point to withdraw their forces from Battle. If such decision is made, retreating forces must move to a location within the same System that doesn't contain enemy Units:
- If Battle occurred in the Planet's Orbit (or any other location that isn't a System itself), retreating forces must be moved onto the System card. If the System is occupied by any forces belonging to another Player, retreat is not possible.
- If Battle occurred on the System itself, retreating forces may be moved to any other location within the same System that doesn't contain any forces belonging to another Player. If all other locations in the System are occupied by any forces belonging to another Player, retreat is not possible.
- A retreating player may not divide their Fleets. They must retreat as combined Fleets to one Planet card.
- The Ambush Action card prevents players from retreating from Battle (please note that Ambush may be played by any player, not only by Battle participants!).
Captured Characters and the Mercenaries Pact
All Characters that are defeated (both in Fleet Battle or via the direct attack) are not "killed" (discarded). Instead, they are captured by the victorious player. Figures of captured Characters are removed from the game board and the defeated player gives their cards to the victorious one. Captured Characters can be recruited during the Logistics phase or released during the Domination phase.
Mercenaries Pact: Sometimes, as an effect of the Battle, both sides of the conflict lose their all Fleets, but they still have Characters which do not have any Battle bonuses and/or are exhausted. In such cases, all Characters who took part in the Battle are removed from the game and their cards reshuffled into the Character deck.
There are four types of Action cards (Focused Fire, Direct Hit, Evasive Maneuver and Lance Formation) that can be used during the Battle. Players may use these cards after the Battle Dice are rolled, in any Battle turn.
Note that the Lance Formation Action card is the only way to (temporarily) exceed the limit of the seven Battle Dice.
- Lance Formation: Use this card during any battle to roll an additional die.
- Evasive Maneuver: Use this card during Combat to add to the result of your dice roll.
- Direct Hit: Use this card during Combat to add to the result of your dice roll.
- Focused Fire: Use this card during any combat to re-roll a single die.
Trade
During the Trade phase, players may exchange the Resources and Energy between each other. There are no rules about the exchange rates - all prices should be determined by the players themselves and may vary from one turn to another.
Also, players can trade the Action cards for Energy and Resources (or other Action cards). However, there is one major drawback of such exchange - an Action card that is the subject of trade must be revealed to all players.
Note: Cards, Energy and Resources can be handed to a player for free (therefore, they can be traded for no price) - in some rare instances, this could be profitable, eg. to prevent a player from being eliminated, which can be a great advantage to one or more opponent.
Fleets, Characters and Power points cannot be traded.
Energy/Resources Exchange (Player - the Game)
In addition, players can exchange the Energy and Resources with the game itself, without the involvement of other players. However, this option has one serious drawback - obtaining 1 Energy or Resources costs 1 Power point.
Exchange rates vary depending on the number of players:
- 2 players: pay 3 Resources for 1 Energy and vice versa;
- 3 players: pay 4 Resources for 1 Energy and vice versa;
- 4 players: pay 5 Resources for 1 Energy and vice versa.
(Resources are the green counters; Energy is the blue triangle counter.)
Activation
- During the Activation phase, players can gather Resources and Energy from the Planets, Ice Fields and Dim Nebulae. In addition, some locations allow players to draw additional Action cards.
- Players can activate only the locations in which they have at least one Fleet and / or Character.
- To Activate the location, players must exhaust them.
- Some Characters allow players to gather Resources and Energy without exhausting the Planet. In this case, a Planet can be activated twice if a player has another Character or Fleet on that particular Planet.
- After the Character activates the location, the Character card must be exhausted.
Activated Planet: an activated Planet is shown turned sideways.
Logistics
- During the Logistics phase, players can spend Power points to recruit Characters, assemble Fleets and draw Action cards.
- Cost of one Fleet is one Energy, one Resources and one Power point.
- Cost of one Character is two Energy, two Resources and one Power point. In addition, players can recruit the Characters captured from their opponents. Cost to recruit the captured Character is two Energy, two Resources and two Power points.
- Cost of one Action card is one Power point.
Fleets and Characters can be placed in any location (System or Planet) in which a player already has at least one of their Units.
The maximum amount of both Fleets and Characters players can simultaneously control is 5 for each Unit type. Also, players cannot "destroy" one of their Fleets and Characters to build another one in a different location - if they have reached the limit, they are unable to build new Units until some of their Fleets are destroyed and/or Characters captured by the enemy.
A released Character may be placed on any Planet card with the regaining player's Unit on it. The Character may also be placed in the player's starting System, if there are no hostile Units on it.
- In addition, each player can buy one Victory point for 7 Energy or 7 Resources. Energy and Resources may not be combined (example: 4 Energy + 3 Resources) to buy Victory points but players can purchase as many points as they can afford.
If a player loses all their Fleets and Characters, it's still possible to buy a Fleet and / or Characters and place them anywhere in that player's starting System (either on a Planet or System card).
If a player cannot afford to buy any new Units, he/she can exchange already gathered Victory points for Energy and Resources. 1 Victory point can be exchanged for any combination of Energy and/or Resources.
If a player doesn't have sufficient Resources/Energy to buy new Units, he/she may receive one Fleet and one Character once per game.
Even if a player was eliminated from the game, he/she can still win by having the most Victory points.
Domination
- At the beginning of the Domination phase, players can complete their Secret Objectives. If during their turn, a player has met the requirements for their Secret Objective, they reveal the card and collect the reward. Each player can complete only one Secret Objective per turn.
- The player who controls the most Fleets during the Domination phase receives one Victory point. If two or more players control the same number of Fleets, no one receives the Victory point.
- The player who controls the most Characters during the Domination phase, receives one Victory point. If two or more players control the same number of Characters, no one receives the Victory point.
- During the Domination phase, players may set free any number of Characters that were captured this turn, in exchange for one Victory point for each Character. Each Character that is set free is shuffled back into the remaining Character cards. Please note that players can't set free the Characters that were captured in previous turns!
- Captured Characters can be released and given back to the player who lost this Character in this phase. The player who releases the Character gains two Victory points as the reward.
FAQ
Q: Are the Characters exhausted by the Assassination Attempt able to move or Jump? A: No, they can't move or Jump this turn.
Q: Rules state that exhausted Characters do not provide any Battle bonuses. What about their special abilities? A: Special abilities of the exhausted Characters cannot be used.
Q: Can the player use a Bounty Hunter's special ability during a different Battle turn than his Battle bonus? A: No, both Bounty Hunter's Battle bonus and special ability must be used during the same turn of Battle. Using either of them exhausts the Bounty Hunter, therefore preventing any further use during any subsequent Battle turn.
Q: Can the Assassination Attempt be used outside of the owner's Restoration phase? A: Yes, the Assassination Attempt card may be played at the end of the Restoration phase.
Q: If a player casts the Ancient Ships card, can they use the new Fleet to activate the Planet (eg. the new Fleet was placed on a Planet with an exhausted Character which was unable to activate the Planet)? A: Yes, the new Fleet can be used to activate the Planet, as long as that Planet isn't already exhausted.
Q: Can the Excavation Officer provide additional Energy if the Planet doesn't produce any Energy or Resources? A: No.
Q: Can the special abilities of the Excavation Officer, Excavation Technician, and Overseer be used during the activation of Dim Nebulae, Ice fields and the Void? A: No, they are not Planets (although they are included into Planet deck).
Q: Does the Space Rift Systems special abilities provide free Orbital Jumps? A: No, only the Jumps to the System itself are free.
Q: Can players fulfill the Secret Stash and Energy Cache Secret Objectives and then exchange the Energy and / or Resources for Victory points during the same turn? A: Yes, they can.
Q: Can the Ambush card be played during other players' Battle? A: Yes, it can be used this way.
Q: When the Event card blocks the possibility to purchase the Action cards, can players gain Action cards from Planets? A: Yes, as it isn't considered as a purchase (it occurs during the Activation Phase, not the Logistics Phase).
Q: The Exploration Secret Objective requires a player to have an Unit in each System. Can these Units be placed on the Planet cards? A: Yes, they can be located either on the Planets or the Systems.