Perry Rhodan: The Cosmic League
Perry Rhodan: The Cosmic League Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 Sun
- 6 Planets
- 1 Die
- 2 Miniature spaceships for counting points
- 2 Spaceships with clips
- 60 Spaceship cards (2 sets with 30 cards each)
- 30 goods cards (with different goods on each side)
Objective of the Game
As commanders of the Cosmic Hansa the players use their spaceships to transport goods and passengers between the six planets. For this they receive a certain number of Megagalax (1 Megagalax equals 1,000,000 Galax, the currency unit of the Cosmic Hansa). The players may spend the earned Megagalax to buy technologies to facilitate their tasks. But they must not forget the main objective of the game because the first player who reaches a total of 70 Megagalax will win the game.
Preparation
- Before the first game all the cardboard components must be detached carefully from their frames. Stick the two spaceships to the clips.
- Each player selects one of the spaceships and takes the corresponding card set (the backside of the cards show the spaceship) as well as the corresponding miniature spaceship.
- Each player scans his deck for his "Startkarte" (("Start Card")) and places it face up in front of him. The "Startkarte" shows the player's spaceship in the center - above it you see the technology "Container" and below the technology "Nachschub" (("Replenishment")). Each player shuffles the rest of his deck and places it as hidden draw pile beside his "Startkarte". Each players draws the top 5 cards from his deck to his hand.
- Place the sun at the right or the left edge of the playing area. Place the six planets in a row beside the sun as shown on page 3. Leave some space between the planets.
- Each player places his miniature spaceship on the outermost dot (big white triangle) of the sun spiral indicating that he possesses 0 Megagalax at the start of the game.
- The 30 goods cards are turned and shuffled and 5 goods cards are placed at each planet at random.
IMPORTANT: A goods card may never be placed in such a way that it shows the planet where it is placed. If this should happen simply flip the card over to the other side. There is always a different destination planet on the other side of a goods card.
- Group the goods card placed at a specific planet according to the destination planet they show. Cards showing the same destination planet should overlap slightly horizontally.
- The younger player now has to choose wether to execute the first turn or to select the planet where both spaceships will start. If he decides to start the game the other player selects the planet. If the younger player selects the planet the other player starts.
- The player who begins takes the die.
Overview of Gameplay
The players fly with their spaceships from planet to planet and transport goods. Each side of a goods card shows a commodity and the destination planet where it has to be taken. For transporting goods the players will receive a number of Megagalax. The number of total Megagalax gained is marked with the respective miniature spaceship on the sun spiral. As soon as a player reaches the center of the sun (white star) he owns 70 Megagalax and thus wins the game. Bit by bit the goods cards will vanish from the game and thus the opportunities to gain Megagalax will diminish. During the game both players will hold up to 5 spaceship cards in their hand. These are either "technologies" that can be bought to gain permanent advantages or "interventions" that must be discarded to gain a temporary advantage.
A Player's Turn
In his turn a player may execute up to TWO "planetary actions" and ONE "flight" in any order he likes. Additionally he may execute up to TWO "interventions". Each intervention may be executed at any time during his turn.
The Flight
A player's spaceship is either located on a planet, in the orbit of a planet or in the gap between two adjacent orbits.
IMPORTANT: When flying away from the sun the gravitational forces of the sun must be overcome. Therefore a flight in this direction costs more energy - the gaps (black dots) between the orbits (white points) must be counted. When flying towards the sun the gravitation has a positive effect on the speed and therefore only the orbits must be counted in this direction.
Starting from a planet and landing on a planet also requires an energy unit.
To determine the energy units available for the flight the player rolls the die. If he should roll a "1" the roll is repeated adding the "1" to the result. If several "1"s are rolled all are added up to the result of the final roll.
EXAMPLE: The player rolls a "1", then again a "1" and then a "5". He therefore has 7 energy units available for his flight.
A player does not have to use all available energy units.
A flight ends at the latest when a player lands on a planet or as soon as he executes a planetary action - even if this planetary action is executed by using the Technology "Orbitalstation" (("Space Station")).
A player may opt not to fly at all after rolling the die but as soon as he rolls the die his one flight per turn is used up.
Both spaceships may end their movement on the same planet, orbit or space any time.
EXAMPLE FOR A FLIGHT: The player has 5 energy units available. He uses up 4 energy units to move his spaceship from the orange planet to the yellow planet flying towards the sun. He does not have to use the fifth energy unit.
The Planetary Actions
In his turn a player may execute up to two planetary actions of his choice (even the same one twice). To do this his spaceship must be located directly on a planet. The two planetary actions may be executed on the same planet or on different planets.
The following planetary actions are possible:
- Load one "Container"
- Unload one "Container"
- Buy a technology
It is the player's choice in which order he executes his flight and his planetary actions.
EXAMPLE: The player has his spaceship on a planet at the start of his turn and loads his "Container" (first planetary action). He then rolls the die and flies to another planet (Flight) and there buys a technology (second planetary action).
Load one "Container"
If the spaceship of a player is on a planet he may load one empty "Container" (the "Startkarte" or a technology card bought later) with goods cards ready for transport at this planet. The player must put all goods cards in the "Container" that show the same destination planet. The goods cards are placed on the "Container" card. He may not look at the hidden side of the goods cards.
NOTE: After a "Container" is loaded he is sealed and my not be opened again until the spaceship reaches the destination shown on the loaded goods cards. Therefore no additional goods cards can be loaded into this "Container" even if these goods cards show the same destination.
EXAMPLE FOR LOADING A "Container": The player loads his empty "Container" with all three goods cards to be transported to the blue planet.
Unload one "Container"
If the spaceship of a player is on a planet he may unload one of his "Container"s that hold goods cards showing this planet as destination. He must unload all goods cards transported in the selected "Container" and gains as many Megagalax as indicated on the unloaded goods cards (2 or 3 Megagalax per card). For each Megagalax gained the miniature spaceship moves one dot towards the center on the sun spiral.
IMPORTANT: If - sometimes later in the game - no goods cards wait for transport at a planet before unloading a "Container" there, the player gains a bonus of one Megagalax per goods card that he unloads.
After unloading the goods cards are flipped over and grouped with the other cards already waiting at the planet. By this new transport tasks are generated when unloading a "Container".
IMPORTANT: After flipping over the unloaded cards two cards may show the same destination planet. These two cards are then removed from the game. If two such pairs appear after flipping over the unloaded goods cards the player who unloaded the cards decides which pair is removed from the game.
EXAMPLE: The player unloaded 4 goods cards at the blue planet. After flipping over the cards two of the cards show the green planet and the other two show the yellow planet. The player removes the two green cards from the game and places the two yellow goods cards at the blue planet.
Buy a technology
A player may buy a technology by selecting a technology card from his hand, placing it face open in front of him and paying a certain amount of Megagalax. The price is identical with the number of technology cards that are already face open in front of him at the start of his turn (this includes the "Startkarte").
EXAMPLE FOR BUYING A TECHNOLOGY: The player starts the game with the "Startkarte" showing the technologies "Container" and "Nachschub" and must therefore pay 1 Megagalax for each new technology that he buys from his hand in a turn. If a player (at the start of a later turn) already has 4 technology cards in front of him, he must pay 4 Megagalax for each technology that he buys in this turn.
When paying Megagalax the player moves his miniature spaceship on the sun spiral away from the center.
As soon as a player has bought a technology he can use its adavantage permanently in the game.
The Interventions
A player may in his turn play up to two intervention cards from his hand. He may play an intervention anytime in his turn.
When a player plays an intervention card the card is discarded open beside his draw pile thus forming a discard pile. After that he follows the instruction on the card.
NEUTRALIZING AN INTERVENTION: The opponent may opt to neutralize an intervention by immediately discarding exactly the same intervention card from his hand. This nullifies the effect of the intervention. IMPORTANT: The intervention "Passagier" (("Passenger")) cannot be neutralized.
End of a Player's Turn
The last action in a player's turn consists in discarding any card from his hand that he doesn't want to keep.
After that the player may draw one card from his deck to his hand for each technology card "Nachschub" (("Replenishment")) that he has open in front of him.
In no case may a player have more than 5 cards in his hand!
HINT: The initial "Startkarte" (("Start Card")) of the player shows the technology "Nachschub" (("Replenishment")) and thus both players are allowed to draw one card from their deck at the end of their turn.
As soon as a player has concluded his turn he hands the die to his opponent who now executes his turn, which again consists of two planetary actions, one flight and two interventions.
End of Game
As soon as a player reaches the center star of the sun spiral with his miniature ship he immediately wins the game.
The game will also end if - after unloading a "Container" - the last two goods cards are removed from the game. In this case the player wins who has more Megagalax at this moment. In the case of a tie the player wins who has more technology cards open in front of him. If there is still a tie - the whole game ends in a tie.
Explanations Regarding the Spaceship Cards
You do not necessarily need to read these now - it should be sufficient to refer back to this page as necessary. The number in parentheses specifies how often a card appears in each player's card set.
The Technologies
In most cases the player may use the technologies he bought anytime during his turn. Restrictions are noted in the respective description.
"Startkarte" (1x) (("Start Card")) - The "Startkarte"s each show a "Container" and a "Nachschub". This allows the players to transport goods cards from the beginning as well as drawing one card from their deck to their hand at the end of their turn.
"Container" (2x) (("Container")) - Each "Container" allows to transport any number of goods cards as long as these all show the same destination planet. To load a "Container" with new goods the "Container" must be unloaded first in all cases. If a player has more than one "Container" he is able to transport more good cards at once - specifically goods cards having different destinations. Note, that it needs a full planetary action to load or unload one "Container".
"Nachschub" (2x) (("Replenishment")) - Each "Nachschub" allows a player to draw one card from his deck at the end of his turn, as long as the number of hand cards does not exceed 5 cards. No player may ever have more than 5 cards in his hand.
EXAMPLE: A player has only 2 cards left in his hand at the end of his turn. He has his "Startkarte" (showing one "Nachschub") and bought one more "Nachschub". Therefore he may actually draw 2 cards from his deck. If he would have had 4 hand cards he could have drawn only 1 card, although he has two technologies "Nachschub".
"Fusionstriebwerk" (2x) (("Fusion Drive")) - Each "Fusionstriebwerk" increases the number of energy units available for a flight by one energy unit.
EXAMPLE: A player owning two "Fusionstriebwerk"s rolls the die and gets a "1". He rolls one more time and gets a "4". Therefore he has now 7 energy units available for his flight.
"Hypersprung nach Innen" (1x) (("Hyperjump Inward")) / "Hypersprung nach Aussen" (1x) (("Hyperjump Outward")) - This technology card may only be used at the start of the own turn. The player moves his spaceship to the orbit (!) of the planet that is nearest to ("...Innen") respectively farthest from ("...Aussen") the sun. This is not a flight and the player is still allowed to roll the die normally to execute a flight in his turn.
"Orbitalstation" (2x) (("Space Station")) - Each "Orbitalstation" that a player owns allows him to execute one of the two planetary actions in his turn from the orbit of the planet instead on the planet itself. Since "Passagier" is an Intervention card it is not allowed to use an "Orbitalstation" to transport a passenger to its destination.
The Interventions
"Passagier" (6x) (("Passenger")) - The player may only play this intervention if his spaceship is on the planet that is shown as destination of the passenger on the card. He gains 3 Megagalax by playing this intervention. A "Passagier" intervention cannot be neutralized.
"Agent einschleusen" (2x) (("Agent Infiltration")) - The player may at once execute another planetary action ("Load one Container", "Unload one Container" or "Buy a technology").
EXAMPLE: A player executes both his normal planetary actions to buy technologies and therefore places two new technologie cards face open in front of him. After that he plays the intervention "Agent einschleusen" and buys a third technology. He pays the same price for each and every of the three technologies.
"Nachbrenner zuenden" (2x) (("Afterburner Ignition")) - The player may immediately execute an additional flight - additional to the one normal flight that he is allowed to execute in his turn. But he is only allowed to roll the die and move his spaceship accordingly - this technology does not allow to execute another two planetary actions or additional interventions.
"Sonnentunnel oeffnen" (2x) (("Sun Tunneling")) - The player may in his turn fly from the orbit of the innermost planet to the orbit of the outermost planet for one energy unit. This does not apply to the reverse direction. It is allowed to throw the die first to determine the number of available energy units and moving the spaceship to the orbit of the innermost planet (nearest the sun) before playing the intervention "Sonnentunnel oeffnen". If a player has energy units left after flying through the sun he may use these as usual.
"Ladevorgang Innen" (1x) (("Inner Loading")) / "Ladevorgang Aussen" (1x) (("Outer Loading")) - The player loads one of his empty "Container"s with goods from one of the two innermost ("...Innen") respectively from one of the two outermost ("...Aussen") planets. This is executed in the same way as the planetary action "Load one Container" but does not count against the limit of two planetary actions per turn. It is hereby irrelevant where the own spaceship is currently positioned. If the spaceship currently is placed on the destination planet of the loaded goods cards and if the player has still a planetary action left he may immediately unload these goods cards and gain the according number of Megagalax.
"Bordtransmitter aktivieren" (2x) (("On-Board Transmitter Activation")) - The player selects a "Container" of his opponent and exchanges the contents of this "Container" with the contents of an own "Container". Both "Container"s must currently transport at least one goods card.
"Transmitter-Tor aktivieren" (2x) (("Transmitter Gate Activation")) - The player switches the position of his spaceship with the position of the opponent's spaceship - it is irrelevant where both ships are at this moment.
"Hypersturm ausloesen" (1x) (("Hyperstorm Release")) - The player discards all his cards from his hand and re-shuffles his draw pile and his discard pile to form a new draw pile. He then draws 5 cards to his hand. His turn ends after this action.
Credits
Autor (Author): Heinrich Glumpler Redaktionelle Bearbeitung (Editorial): TM-Spiele Beratung und Einleitung (Consulting and Introduction): Klaus N. Frick Illustration: Swen Papenbrock Grafik (Graphics): Pohl & Rick Translation: Heinrich Glumpler
© der PERRY RHODAN-Romanserie by Pabel-Moewig Verlag KG, Rastatt © 2007 KOSMOS Verlag, Pfizerstrasse 5-7, D-70184 Stuttgart