Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition – Prophecy of Kings
Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition – Prophecy of Kings Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
The Prophecy of Kings box contains the following components. Cards and planets from the expansion carry the expansion symbol, which tells them apart from base-game components.
- Mechs and leaders: 24 mech cards and 74 leader cards (agents, commanders and heroes).
- Galaxy tiles: the box holds 91 galaxy tiles; the expansion's tiles are numbered 52 to 91 and are used alongside the base game's tiles.
- Planets and planet cards: 99 planet cards, including four legendary planet ability cards.
- Action, objective and agenda cards: 120 action cards, 80 objective cards, 65 promise cards, 63 political cards and 13 relic cards.
- Exploration cards: 74 exploration cards (14 white and 20 each in red, blue and green), including relic fragments.
- Technology cards: 226 technology cards (24 common in each of eight colours and 34 faction-specific), plus 86 unit upgrade cards (nine common in eight colours and 14 faction-specific).
- Attachments and tokens: 14 attachment tokens (6 ordinary, 4 technology, 2 titan, 1 destroyed planet and 1 demilitarised zone); 6 wormhole tokens (2 alpha and beta, 3 gamma, and 1 Creuss gamma); 6 spatial rift tokens (3 Cabal and 3 Necrovirus); 20 frontier tokens; 2 assimilation tokens; 1 speaker token; 1 Mirage planet token; 1 Naalu "0" token; 5 Ul sleeper tokens; and a two-sided ion storm token.
- Faction components: 24 faction sheets, 8 command sheets, 8 leader sheets, 504 plastic unit figures in eight colours (63 per colour), 8 strategy cards, 8 ten-sided dice, a two-sided victory point tracker, 408 control tokens, 384 command tokens, 150 infantry and fighter tokens per type, and 90 two-sided trade good and commodity tokens.
- Fractional components: only the Naalu Collective, Necrovirus, Cabal, Sleeper of Ul, Embers of Muaat and the Ghosts of Creuss have fractional components and fractional galaxy tiles. Each fractional component shows the faction's symbol.
Factions and Leaders
Each faction has a faction sheet, which lists the faction's starting technologies, starting units and faction abilities. Each faction has three leaders with unique abilities. Each player also has a command sheet and a leader sheet in their chosen colour.
- Agent: after using an agent's ability, turn its card face down. Agent cards are prepared together with the other face-down cards during the Prepare Cards step of the status phase.
- Commander: each commander has a passive ability. This ability can be shared with another faction if its owner gives that faction the "Alliance" promise card.
- Hero: each hero has a particularly powerful ability, which may be used once per game.
Leaders are placed on the matching cells of the player's leader sheet. Every leader is placed with the side showing the command symbol of its cell in the upper-right corner of the card facing up.
Agent abilities are available from the start of the game. A commander's and a hero's abilities are locked. Each commander and hero card has a condition, for example "you must have three completed objectives". When the condition on a leader card is met, turn the card over: its ability is now unlocked and available for use.
Mechs
Each player has their own mech card. Mechs are produced in the same way as other units and are available from the start of the game.
Mechs are a special kind of ground force. They can be transported, and they can take part in ground combat. Each mech card gives the mech's parameters and abilities, which are unique to each faction.
Some mech cards have the DEPLOY ability. It lets a player place units on the board by an alternative method. This ability may only be used to place a unit that is in your reinforcements, and each use of a deploy ability may be applied only once each time its condition is met.
Capture
Some abilities tell you to capture a unit. When a unit is captured, place it on your faction sheet. It stays there until it is returned, and the rules for capturing and returning units depend on the kind of unit captured.
If one of your bases is blockaded, you may not capture units of the player who set up that blockade.
- Ships (other than fighters) and mechs: place a captured ship or mech on your faction sheet. When such a unit is returned, place it in the supply of the player from whom it was captured. A captured ship (other than a fighter) or mech may be returned in these cases:
- the capturing player agrees to return the ship as part of a transaction;
- an ability allows the player to return the captured ship, usually as a cost of the effect;
- the player whose unit was captured enters a blockade of the base of the player who captured that unit.
- Fighters and infantry: if you capture a fighter or a unit of infantry, return it to reinforcements instead of placing it on your board. Then place a fighter token or infantry token from your reserve on your faction sheet. Captured fighters and infantry have no colour, so they cannot be returned through a transaction or a blockade. They remain on your faction sheet until returned by a specific ability. When they are returned, fighters and infantry go back to reinforcements.
Legendary Planets
Four of the planets in this expansion are legendary, which is marked with a special symbol on the planet.
When you gain control of a legendary planet, place its ability card in front of you. If the card is taken from a deck, it enters the game prepared. Legendary planet abilities are unique, and you may use them at the end of your turn. If you gain control of a legendary planet whose ability card is face down, it stays face down.
Exploration and Attachments
When you gain control of a planet that is not controlled by another player, you explore that planet. To do so, take the top card of the exploration deck that matches the planet's type and apply the card's effect. Then discard that card, unless it is a relic fragment or has the "Attachment" ability (see below). Planets without a type cannot be explored.
Players who have the "Dark Energy Source" technology may explore frontier tokens. When you explore a frontier token, discard it and take the top card of the frontier exploration deck.
When you gain control of several planets at once, choose the order in which you explore them. Take the exploration card for the first chosen planet, apply its effect, and only then move on to the next planet.
Attached cards
When you draw an exploration card with the "Attachment" ability, attach it to the card of the explored planet: place the card under the planet card, and place the matching attachment token on the frontier tile with that planet. The planet is now modified: its numeric values have changed, and it has gained new abilities. An attached card remains in place even if another player later gains control of the planet.
Relics and relic fragments
When you draw an exploration card with a relic fragment, place it face up in front of you. The card states that three relic fragments of one type may be removed from the game to gain a relic, a card with a powerful ability. When you gain a relic, take the top card of the relic deck and place it face up in front of you. The three fragments used to gain a relic are purged, meaning they are removed from the game and returned to the box.
Relic fragments may be exchanged in a transaction.
Purge
If an ability of a card requires you to purge a component, remove it from the game and return it to the box.
Wormhole Nexus
The wormhole nexus is a unique region of the galaxy where several wormholes meet. It is a double-sided galaxy tile. The inactive side shows only a gamma wormhole, and the active side shows three wormholes at once. The nexus is treated as part of the galaxy tile and, at the start of the game, is inactive. Therefore, while inactive, it counts as adjacent only to a tile with a gamma wormhole.
When a player first places a unit in the nexus, moves a unit there, or gains control of the planet on that tile (Mallice), the nexus becomes active and that tile must be turned to its active side. An active nexus counts as adjacent to tiles with alpha, beta and gamma wormholes.
Hyperlanes
In a five-, seven- or eight-player game, the galaxy is set up with tiles that have hyperlanes.
Every continuous line that runs through one or more tiles is a hyperlane. Tiles joined by a hyperlane are adjacent.
Tiles with hyperlanes improve the balance of the starting position. Players who start next to such tiles do not receive extra trade goods at the start of the game, as described in the five-player setup below.
Hyperlanes are not systems: units cannot be placed on hyperlane tiles, and such tiles cannot be the target of effects or abilities.
Setup for Expanded Player Counts
Prophecy of Kings adds no rules beyond the setup changes in this section and the player-count variants. Players who wish to play with five, six, seven or eight players set up the galaxy as follows.
Setup for five players (with hyperlanes)
During the Distribute Tiles step, each player receives 3 blue and 2 red tiles. Before the Place Tiles step, players place the hyperlane tiles as shown in the setup diagram.
Setup for seven players (with hyperlanes)
During the Distribute Tiles step, each player receives 4 blue and 2 red tiles. Before the Place Tiles step, players place the hyperlane tiles as shown in the setup diagram. Then, before the players begin to place tiles, the speaker takes 5 random unused tiles, consisting of 2 red and 3 blue, and places them face up beside Mecatol Rex in an order of their choice, following the usual tile placement rules.
Setup for eight players (with hyperlanes)
During the Distribute Tiles step, each player receives 4 blue and 2 red tiles. Before the Place Tiles step, players place the hyperlane tiles as shown in the setup diagram. Then the speaker takes 4 random unused tiles, consisting of 2 red and 2 blue, and places them face up beside Mecatol Rex, one per side, in an order of players' choice, following the usual tile placement rules.
Alternative hyperlanes
When playing with six or eight players, players may use alternative hyperlane layouts to create a more balanced starting position for everyone. In this case the Create Galaxy step changes as described below. Because the hyperlanes make the rings non-standard in shape, fill each ring completely before starting the next one.
- Seven players: during Distribute Tiles, each player receives 3 blue and 2 red tiles. Before Place Tiles, players place the hyperlane tiles 83B, 84B, 85B, 86B, 88B and 90B as shown in the alternative-hyperlane diagram for seven players.
- Eight players: during Distribute Tiles, each player receives 3 blue and 2 red tiles. Before Place Tiles, players place the hyperlane tiles 83B, 85B, 87A, 88A, 89B and 90B as shown in the alternative-hyperlane diagram for eight players.
Big Galaxy
When playing with six players, participants who wish to play on a larger board may build a galaxy with four rings, using all the tiles available in the base game and in Prophecy of Kings. In this case the Create Galaxy step changes as written below.
- Six players (Big Galaxy): during Distribute Tiles, each player receives 6 blue and 3 red tiles.
Note: because there are many resources and influence in this variant, we recommend that players use the victory point track with fourteen spaces.
Prophecy of Kings Setup Changes in the Base Setup
The following changes apply when you play with Prophecy of Kings in the setup steps of the base game:
- Step 3, faction components: the fractional components of a faction are taken from the faction's sheet. Only the Naalu Collective, the Necrovirus, the Vuil'raith Cabal, the Sleeper of Ul, the Embers of Muaat and the Ghosts of Creuss have fractional components and fractional galaxy tiles. Each fractional component shows the symbol of its faction. Put any unused fractional components back in the box.
- Step 8, shuffle the common decks: when playing with the expansion, first remove the following policy cards from the political deck. They are not used with the expansion:
- Core developments;
- Demilitarised zone;
- Sacred Ixth homeworld;
- Galactic senate;
- Development: biotechnology;
- Development: weapons;
- Sanctuary of the senate;
- Shard of power;
- Development: cybernetics;
- Development: propulsion;
- Terraforming;
- Crown of Emphidia;
- Crown of Thalnos.