Pentaurus: Duel Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Kit Contents
• Game Modes
• Goal
• Preparation
• Starting the Game
• Sequence of the Turn
  • Make the Discards
  • Draw Cards
  • Play Planets and Satellites
  • Spaceship Market
  • Play Actions, Facilities and Characters
  • Player Launches an Attack
  • End of the Turn
• The Symbols of the Game
• Species Cards

Kit Contents

27 spaceship cards, 16 planet cards, 16 satellite cards, 12 character cards, 8 intelligent action cards, 18 action/reaction combat cards, 8 facility cards, 5 species cards and here you have the game rules.

Game Modes

You can play Pentaurus: Duel in duel mode following these rules, and in single mode or history mode in www.amphoragames.com/core

Goal

Pentaurus: Duel is a card game in which two players take turns, and where the opponents compete for colonizing planets, building spaceships and satellites until you produce 12 units of Pentanium. Once you get it, you win the game.

There are more possibilities if you want to get the victory: When the galaxy deck is finished, the winner will be the player who produces the biggest amount of pentanium at that time, or if a player runs out of planets after have being controlling at least 3 of them, loses the game, being the winner his/her opponent.

Preparation

Shuffle the spaceship cards and put them face down on the table making a deck, this one will be production line. Get 5 of those cards ready and put them face up, this will be the spaceship market. Next to the production line, we should set the spaceship discard, making the scrap deck. Shuffle the 5 species cards and give one to each player. The first ability activated will be represented by the symbol above. Now shuffle all the other cards and make a new deck, put it face down on the table and this will be the galaxy deck. Next to this one, we will put all the discards face up.

(The setup illustration labels: Spaceship market, Deployment, Discards, Galaxy deck, Species card, Player's hand.)

Starting the Game

The player who lost the last game will be the one who starts this time. Each player draws 5 cards from the galaxy deck. If there are not any planets, the player can discard all cards by putting them with the other the discards and draw 5 new cards (you can do this as many times as necessary until at least a planet appears). And now the first player starts.

Sequence of the Turn

The sequence shall be as follows:

1. Make the discards
2. Draw cards
3. Play planets and satellites
4. Spaceship market
5. Play actions/facilities/characters
6. Player launches an attack
7. End of the turn

Make the Discards

Discard any or all of the cards in your hand, except during your first turn.

Draw Cards

Draw cards from the galaxy deck till having 5 cards in your hand. You will be able to draw more cards if you control planets, satellites or others cards which allow you to do it.

Play Planets and Satellites

Play planets from your hand and put them in your deployment (you can have a maximum of 5 planets) but you cannot exceed your opponent amount of planets plus one. If you started your turn with more planets than your opponent, you can only play one. If you already have planets on the table, you should put them on the right or on the left of the whole set, never between them. You can also play satellites by putting them under your planets but leaving all effects visible. Planets may always have one satellite as maximum, but other cards can extend this limit. Finally, you can also leave planets, discard all its content and put all the cards in the discard pile.

Spaceship Market

Discard a spaceship, if you want to, from the spaceship market and take a new one from the production line. Then you can buy spaceships from the market unless you exceed your opponent amount of spaceships plus one, paying it cost in pentanium. If you started the turn with more spaceships than your opponent, you can only buy one. If you want to know how many units of pentanium do you have, just add all the pentanium units from your deployment, but remember, this amount cannot be stored for the next turn and it is renewed every turn. All spaceships must be attached to a planet, and once it is done, you cannot move it again. Every planet can only have a spaceship, but other cards can extend this limit.

When you buy a spaceship, you cannot use it to attack in the same turn (it needs to fuel) but it can be used to defend a planet in where it is attached. A spaceship with the fuel symbol does not need to fuel so it can attack in the same turn in which it is bought.

Play Actions, Facilities and Characters

Action, facilities and characters can be played in any order. The facilities are played as support for the planets, the characters for the planets or for the spaceships if they are pilots, and the action cards make effects which are solve according to the symbol on each card. Facilities and characters stay in the game being attached to a planet or a spaceship, on the other hand action cards (or action/reaction) are discarded once they are used.

Player Launches an Attack

You can attack an enemy planet with spaceships from a planet under your control.

When you are attacking we shall compare the attack points of the attacker and defense points of the defender. The attacking points of the attacker are the sum of the spaceships attacking points in that planet (sometimes a planet can have more than one spaceship), the pilot modifiers and the action card modifiers. The defense points are the sum of the defense points of the spaceships in the planet plus the pilot modifiers (it could be because of the characters and the facilities). Once the attack is launched, the defender could play one or more reaction cards trying to add more modifiers to the combat. Later on, the attacker could play one or more reaction cards, and so on until one of the players decides not to keep playing more cards. The combat result will depend on the difference in points between attacking and defending.

• If the attacking is leading the defender by 4 points or more, or he has 5 planets, the planet is totally destroyed, with its satellites, spaceships, facilities and characters.
• If the attacking is leading the defender by less than 4 points, and he has less than five planets, the player conquers the planet (and its satellites), being this planet now under the control of the attacker. Spaceships, characters and facilities are destroyed.
• If the attacker equaled the defender, the spaceships, facilities and characters are destroyed but the planet remains unaffected.
• If the defender leads the attacker, the defender counterattacks, causing damage to the opponent spaceships, so the defender could distribute its own attacking points against the defense points of the attacking spaceships, and destroying them if their defense is at least equaled.

If the attacker conquers the defender's planet, it will be put on the right or on the left of his/her planets but not between them. Furthermore, the player could deploy in the conquered planet whichever spaceship from the battle.

End of the Turn

The result of the attack has to be completed and then it starts the opponent's turn.

The Symbols of the Game

• Pentanium. It adds a unit of pentanium to the production each turn. In spaceships, it is its cost.
• Action. You can play this card during the 5th stage of your turn, producing its effect immediately.
• Action/reaction. Apart from playing this card in the 5th stage of your turn, you can use it as a response to an enemy action, whether through action cards, facilities, characters of attacks.
• Attack. It indicates the amount of added or subtracted points for the final attacking result.
• Defense. It indicates the amount of added or subtracted points for the final defending result.
• Satellites. It indicates the amount of additional satellites that a planet can have.
• Additional card. It indicates the amount of additional cards that a player can draw in the next turn.
• Additional spaceship. It indicates the amount of additional spaceships that a planet could have.
• Facility. Facilities set in a planet.
• Peace. You can ignore the first attack on a planet. After this, discard the card with the symbol of peace.
• To fuel. 1 means you can attack with a just bought spaceship, 2 means you can attack with another spaceship from the same planet.

Species Cards

Over the course of an action or reaction, players can use their species abilities to improve an action; you shall look at the symbol placed in the upper part (active ability), and immediately, tap the card following the arrow.