Alien Frontiers: Factions Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Components
• Setup
  • 5 Player Variant
• End of Game and Scoring
• Orbital Facilities
  • Colonist Hub
  • Orbital Market
• Faction Facilities
• Faction Boards
  • Corex Conglomerated
  • Dark Space Explorers
  • Homesteaders Union
  • New Gaia Engineers
  • Proxima Centauri Scholars
  • Scavenger Fleet
  • Smuggler's Alliance
  • Uranian Syndicate
• New Alien Tech Cards
  • Astrogation Servo
  • Chameleon Cloak
  • Electrofabricator
  • Experimental FTL Drive
  • Lunar Tunneler
  • Multiverse Window
  • Oscillation Capacitor
  • Solar Harvester
• Agenda Cards
  • Agenda Card Reference
• Faction Reference

Objective

This expansion does not change your primary objective in Alien Frontiers: to gain more influence over Planet Maxwell than your opponents, as measured in Victory Points. However, the Agenda cards add new ways to obtain Victory Points, including ways to score points that are hidden from other players until the end of the game.

Components

• 8 purple colony tokens
• 8 Alien Tech cards
• 8 Faction boards
• 24 Agenda cards
• 6 purple ships (dice)
• 1 purple scoring rocket

Setup

The Factions expansion adds the following setup steps:

Deal two Agenda cards face down to each player. Place the remaining Agenda cards in a draw deck near the Orbital Market. Players may look at their own Agenda cards. See the Agenda Cards section for more details.

Shuffle the eight new Alien Tech cards into the Alien Tech deck and deal one Alien Tech card face-up to each player. Display three Alien Tech cards face-up near the Alien Artifact and place the Alien Tech draw deck nearby, as usual.

Randomly select a number of Faction boards equal to the number of players plus one, then return the remaining Faction boards to the game box.

Determine player order, then give all of the selected Faction boards to the last player.

The last player chooses one Faction board, places it face-up on the table near the game board, and passes the remaining Faction boards counter-clockwise. This procedure continues until all players have chosen a Faction board. The remaining Faction board is returned to the box.

5 Player Variant

Each player takes six colony tokens.

The fifth player receives two fuel and one ore at the start of the game.

End of Game and Scoring

The Factions expansion changes end-game scoring and tie breaker rules as follows:

In addition to the usual VP scoring sources, players receive 1VP for each revealed Agenda card. See the Agenda Cards section for further details.

If there is a tie, the tied player with the most revealed Agenda cards is the winner. Still tied? Compare the number of Alien Tech cards held by the tied players. Tied again? Compare the number of ore tokens held by the tied players. Again? Compare the number of fuel tokens held by the tied players. If you're still tied after all of that, play again!

Orbital Facilities

The Factions expansion changes the orbital facility rules as follows:

Colonist Hub

With five players, the Colonist Hub docking ports are "freeform", like the Solar Converter. Ships may use any docking port and each ship docked earns one colony track advancement. Players are still limited to three ships docked at the Colonist Hub and only one colony working toward launch.

If all of the docking ports are occupied, no new ships can dock at the Colonist Hub until some of the docking ports become unoccupied.

The colonies themselves are also "freeform" in that they are not limited to staying on one track. If advancing your colony would place it on a circle that is already occupied, just slide your colony to a circle on a different track in the appropriate position. If the circle you need is occupied on all tracks, then you will need to adjust the number of ships you've docked to position your colony on an unoccupied circle.

If all of the launch circles are occupied and your ship is on the sixth circle, you may launch by docking one ship and immediately paying the one fuel and one ore fee.

In all cases, the three-ship limit still applies. If you already have three ships at the Colonist Hub, then you may not dock a fourth ship to advance to an unoccupied circle or to launch your colony.

Orbital Market

You may dock a pair of equal-valued ships at the Orbital Market to trade fuel for ore OR to draw two new Agenda cards. You may never have more than a total of three Agenda cards. If drawing new Agenda cards puts you over that limit, you must discard unrevealed Agendas until you have a total of three Agenda cards. You may not discard revealed Agenda cards. The Multiverse Window Alien Tech card extends your limit to four Agenda cards.

Faction Facilities

Each Faction board has an orbital facility with one docking port (top icons) and an owner's bonus (bottom icons).

If the docking port is unoccupied, any player may use that facility's Docking Ability by docking one ship of any value and paying a fuel access fee to that faction's owner. If the faction owner uses the orbital facility on their own Faction board, they do not pay the access fee. If there is an additional cost to use the faction facility, that cost is paid to the supply.

Each Faction board grants a unique game ability to the faction owner that other players may not use. Using this owner benefit is often free, but if there is a fuel or ore cost, it is paid to the supply.

Faction Boards

Corex Conglomerated

Docking Ability (top): A player docked at Corex Conglomerated pays two fuel to the supply to receive one ore for each territory they control at the time of docking.

Example 1: Blue docks a ship at Corex Conglomerated and pays the fuel access fee, then pays two fuel to the supply. Blue controls Asimov Crater, Pohl Foothills, and Bradbury Plateau, so Blue receives three ore from the supply.

Owner Ability (bottom): At the beginning of their turn, the faction owner receives one fuel plus one fuel for each territory that they control.

Example 2: Red does not control any territories. At the beginning of their turn, Red receives one fuel.

Example 3: Red controls Heinlein Plains and Lem Badlands. At the beginning of their turn, Red receives three fuel.

Dark Space Explorers

Docking Ability (top): A player docked at Dark Space Explorers pays one fuel to the supply to take the top card from the Alien Tech deck. If the card is a duplicate of one they already have, the new card is discarded without effect.

Example 1: Yellow docks a ship at Dark Space Explorers and pays the fuel access fee then pays one fuel to the supply. Yellow takes a random card from the Alien Tech deck.

Owner Ability (bottom): On their turn, the faction owner may use the discard powers of up to two Alien Tech cards instead of just one.

Example 2: Green discards the Orbital Teleporter to move a colony from Van Vogt Mountains to Burroughs Desert, then discards a Gravity Manipulator to place the Repulsor Field on Burroughs Desert.

Homesteaders Union

Docking Ability (top): A player docked at Homesteaders Union advances their colony token one circle at the Colonist Hub.

Example 1: Blue docks a ship at Homesteaders Union and pays the fuel access fee. Blue advances their colony token one circle on a Colonist Hub track.

Owner Ability (bottom): The faction owner may launch their colonies from the sixth circle of the Colonist Hub instead of the seventh.

Example 2: Red docks two ships at the Colonist Hub to advance their colony to the sixth circle. Red then pays one fuel and one ore to launch their colony.

New Gaia Engineers

Docking Ability (top): To dock at New Gaia Engineers, a player must already be docked at the Terraforming Station. The player immediately re-rolls the terraformed ship and places it back on the Terraforming Station. The result of the roll determines where the ship will go when it leaves the Terraforming Station, either on the player's next turn or if blasted by the Plasma Cannon. If it is a 1, 2, or 3, the ship will go to the supply. If it is a 4, 5, or 6, the ship will go to the Maintenance Bay.

Example 1: Red docks a ship at the Terraforming Station and pays the cost to the New Gaia Engineers faction owner. Red then docks a ship at New Gaia Engineers and pays the fuel access fee. Red rolls the terraformed ship, gets a 2, and places it back on the Terraforming Station. The terraformed ship will go to the Maintenance Bay when it leaves the Terraforming Station.

Owner Ability (bottom): When any other player uses the Terraforming Station, their fuel and ore payment is given to the faction owner instead of the supply. If the faction owner uses the Terraforming Station, their payment goes to the supply as usual.

Example 2: Green is the faction owner for New Gaia Engineers. Yellow uses the Terraforming Station and pays the usual fuel and ore fee to Green.

Proxima Centauri Scholars

Docking Ability (top): A player docked at Proxima Centauri Scholars pays one fuel to the supply to move a field generator token from one territory to another territory.

Example 1: Green docks a ship at Proxima Centauri Scholars and pays the fuel access fee. Green then pays one fuel to the supply and moves the Repulsor Field from Burroughs Desert to Pohl Foothills.

Owner Ability (bottom): The faction owner may pay two fuel to place one field generator token on the planet or remove one field generator token from the planet. The faction owner may not use this benefit to move a field generator from one territory to another. The faction owner may not place or remove more than one field generator per turn with this faction benefit.

Example 2: Blue is the faction owner for Proxima Centauri Scholars. Blue pays two fuel and removes the Positron Field token from Lem Badlands.

Scavenger Fleet

Docking Ability (top): A player docked at Scavenger Fleet may dock two unequal ships at the Shipyard and pay the usual costs to build a new ship.

Example 1: Red docks a ship at Scavenger Fleet and pays the fuel access fee. Red then docks a 3 and a 1 at the Shipyard, pays the standard fuel and ore costs to use the Shipyard, and moves a new ship from the supply to the Maintenance Bay.

Owner Ability (bottom): When the faction owner builds a new ship at the Shipyard or acquires the Relic Ship from Burroughs Desert, they immediately roll it and use it along with their other unplaced ships.

Example 2: Yellow docks a pair of ships at the Shipyard, pays the necessary costs, and moves a ship from the supply to the Maintenance Bay. Yellow immediately gathers that ship, rolls it, and uses it with their other unplaced ships.

Example 3: Yellow controls Burroughs Desert. Yellow pays fuel and ore to obtain the Relic Ship, then immediately rolls it and uses it with their other unplaced ships.

Smuggler's Alliance

Docking Ability (top): To dock at Smuggler's Alliance, a player must also simultaneously dock at the Raiders' Outpost. Once docked, the player may raid four resources AND one Alien Tech card from any combination of opponents.

Example 1: Purple docks a 2, 3, 4 at the Raiders' Outpost then immediately docks a ship at Smuggler's Alliance and pays the fuel access fee. Purple proceeds to steal one ore from Red, two ore from Blue, a Plasma Cannon from Green, and one ore from Yellow.

Example 2: Purple docks a 3, 4, 5 at the Raiders' Outpost, then immediately docks a ship at Smuggler's Alliance and pays the fuel access fee. Purple steals the Holographic Decoy from Red and then steals four ore from Red as well.

Owner Ability (bottom): The faction owner may use any sequence of three ships to bump ships already docked on the Raiders' Outpost. Higher value is not required for this faction's owner.

Example 3: Blue is the faction owner of Smuggler's Alliance. Green has a 4, 5, 6 docked at the Raiders' Outpost. Blue uses a 2, 3, 4 to bump Green's ships from the Raiders' Outpost to the Maintenance Bay.

Uranian Syndicate

Docking Ability (top): A player docked at Uranian Syndicate pays one ore to the supply to move one of their own colony tokens from one territory to another territory, or pays two ore to move one of an opponent's colony tokens from one territory to another territory.

Example 1: Blue is the faction owner for Uranian Syndicate. Blue docks one of his ships and does not pay the fuel access fee. Blue then pays two ore to move one yellow colony from Herbert Valley to Pohl Foothills, where Green already has one colony. Pohl Foothills is now contested and Blue may invoke the faction owner benefit to use the territory's bonus.

Owner Ability (bottom): A "contested" territory is a colonized territory which is not controlled by any player. The faction owner may use the territory bonus of one contested territory, whether or not the player has any colonies in that territory. Use of the territory bonus lasts for the duration of the player's turn. The only territory bonus that the Uranian Syndicate may not access in this way is the Burroughs Desert bonus.

Example 2: Red is the faction owner for Uranian Syndicate. Green and Blue each have one colony on Lem Badlands, so no one controls that territory. On Red's turn, Red uses the Lem Badlands territory bonus to get extra fuel from the Solar Converter.

New Alien Tech Cards

There is one copy each of eight new Alien Tech cards in the Factions expansion. Shuffle them into the main Alien Tech deck and apply the same general rules as with the original Alien Tech cards.

Astrogation Servo

You may pay two fuel to the supply to take any one ship from the Maintenance Bay, roll it, and use it as if it were your own ship. The borrowed ship may not be docked at the Terraforming Station. That ship's owner gathers the ship with the rest of their fleet at the start of their turn.

Example 1: Red pays two fuel and takes a blue ship from the Maintenance Bay, rolls a 6, and docks it at the Lunar Mine to receive one ore. On Blue's turn, the borrowed ship is gathered with all of Blue's other ships.

You may discard an Astrogation Servo to send all ships docked at one orbital facility to the Maintenance Bay.

Example 2: Green discards the Astrogation Servo and sends all of the ships at the Alien Artifact to the Maintenance Bay.

Chameleon Cloak

You may pay two fuel to the supply to replace an opponent's ship or ships at one orbital facility with your own ships of the same value. Pay the usual cost, if any, and gain the usual facility benefit for docking. Send the replaced ships to the Maintenance Bay. The Chameleon Cloak may not be used on a ship docked at the Terraforming Station.

Example 1: 3, 5, 6, 2 are docked at the Alien Artifact. Yellow rolls 2, 3, 5, 6. Yellow pays two fuel to use their Chameleon Cloak and replaces the 5, 6 with their own 5, 6. Yellow may now claim an Alien Tech card.

Example 2: The Lunar Mine has 6, 5, 5, 3, 2 in the docking ports. Red rolls a 3, 2, 5. Red pays two fuel to use their Chameleon Cloak and replaces the 2, 3 to receive two ore.

You may discard the Chameleon Cloak to swap all of the colonies on two territories. The Repulsor Field blocks this action.

Example 3: Burroughs Desert has one green colony and Lem Badlands has two red colonies. Red discards their Chameleon Cloak to swap all of the colonies on those two territories. Now Burroughs Desert has two red colonies and Lem Badlands has one green colony.

Electrofabricator

Once per turn, you may pay two fuel to receive one ore.

Example 1: Blue pays two fuel to the supply and receives one ore from the supply.

You may discard the Electrofabricator to receive three ore.

Example 2: Yellow discards the Electrofabricator and receives three ore from the supply.

Experimental FTL Drive

You may pay two fuel to the supply to change one of your unplaced ships to any value, then place one fuel from the supply onto this card. At the end of the turn in which the Experimental FTL Drive receives its third fuel token, return all three fuel tokens to the supply and discard the Experimental FTL Drive card. If you control the Pohl Foothills territory, the one fuel discount comes off the fuel you pay to the supply. If the Experimental FTL Drive card is stolen via the Raiders' Outpost, the fuel currently on the card stays with the card. The Experimental FTL Drive card has no discard ability.

Example 1: Red rolls a 3, 3, 4, 6. Red pays one fuel to the supply and one fuel to their Experimental FTL Drive card then changes the 4 to a 3 to form a triple for use on the Colony Constructor to place a colony on Pohl Foothills.

Example 2: Red controls Pohl Foothills and on their next turn, Red rolls a 2, 3, 5, 6. Pohl gives Red a discount on Alien Tech card use so Red does not need to pay a fuel to the supply to use the Experimental FTL Drive card. Red does pay one fuel to the card to show that it has been used a second time.

Example 3: Blue rolls a 2, 3, 4, 4 and docks the 2, 3, 4 at the Raiders' Outpost. Blue steals Red's Experimental FTL Drive. The two fuel tokens remain on the card when it transfers to Blue. Blue pays one fuel to the supply and one fuel to the Experimental FTL Drive card then changes his last 4 to a 6 and docks it at the Terraforming Station. The Experimental FTL Drive card now has three fuel tokens on it so, at the end of Blue's turn, it is discarded and those three go to the supply.

Lunar Tunneler

Once per turn, you may pay one fuel when you dock at the Lunar Mine to receive an extra ore.

Example 1: Green docks a ship at the Lunar Mine and receives one ore. Green then pays one fuel to use their Lunar Tunneler and receives a second ore.

You may discard the Lunar Tunneler to send all of the ships currently docked at the Lunar Mine to the Maintenance Bay.

Example 2: There are five ships docked at the Lunar Mine, and Yellow needs three ore. Yellow discards the Lunar Tunneler to send all five ships to the Maintenance Bay, then docks three yellow ships at the Lunar Mine to get the needed ore.

Multiverse Window

You may have a total of four Agenda cards while you possess the Multiverse Window. If you have any face-down Agenda cards when you lose or discard this card, you must discard down to a total of three Agendas. Revealed Agenda cards may not be discarded.

Example 1: Red has two revealed Agenda cards and a Multiverse Window. Red docks a pair of ships at the Orbital Market and draws two new Agenda cards. Because the Multiverse Window expands Red's limit to four Agenda cards, Red may keep both of the new cards.

Example 2: Blue docks at the Raiders' Outpost and steals Red's Multiverse Window. Red's Agenda card limit is reduced to three and Red has two revealed Agenda cards and two face-down Agenda cards. Red must immediately discard one of those face-down cards to bring the total down to three Agenda cards.

You may discard the Multiverse Window to reveal a face-down Agenda card and score the in-game VP, even if you have not met the Agenda card's condition.

Example 3: Blue has three face-up Agenda cards. Blue docks a pair of ships at the Orbital Market and draws two Agendas and keeps one to fill the four Agenda limit granted by the Multiverse Window. Blue then discards the Multiverse Window and flips up that new fourth Agenda card. Blue now has four face-up Agendas, but since the Multiverse Window was discarded, Blue is returned to a three Agenda limit. However, Blue has no face-down Agendas so there is nothing to discard. Blue retains all four face-up Agendas.

Oscillation Capacitor

Once per turn, you may re-use an Alien Tech card with a fuel cost by paying its fuel cost again. If appropriate, the Pohl Foothills bonus may also be applied to the card's second use.

Example 1: Green pays two fuel to use their Orbital Teleporter, then, because Green has the Oscillation Capacitor, they pay two fuel to use the Orbital Teleporter again.

You may discard the Oscillation Capacitor to discard one Alien Tech card of your choice held by another player without invoking that card's discard power.

Example 2: Later in the game, Green decides that Blue is overusing their Plasma Cannon. Green discards the Oscillation Capacitor and discards Blue's Plasma Cannon, without invoking its ship destruction discard power.

Solar Harvester

You may receive one fuel for each opponent's ship docked at the Solar Converter.

Example 1: On Yellow's turn, there are two blue ships and two green ships docked at the Solar Converter. Yellow activates their Solar Harvester and collects four fuel from the supply.

You may discard the Solar Harvester to return all of the fuel tokens held by all other players to the supply. Your fuel is unaffected.

Example 2: Later in the game, Yellow decides that the other players need to be slowed down a bit. Yellow discards the Solar Harvester and forces all of the fuel held by all of the other players to be returned to the supply. Yellow's fuel pile is safe.

Agenda Cards

Agenda cards add a hidden victory point scoring element to Alien Frontiers. Each Agenda card has two conditional situations. The agenda on the left is an in-game situation that a player may reveal at the time they achieve the condition to score 1VP. The agenda on the right is an end-game situation that a player may reveal at the end of the game if they have achieved the condition to score 1VP. Only 1VP, in-game or end-game, may be awarded per Agenda card.

Each player starts the game with two Agenda cards that they keep face-down on the table in front of them. A player may have up to three total Agenda cards. A player may dock a pair of ships at the Orbital Market to draw two new Agenda cards. A player may keep or discard any of their new or face-down Agenda cards.

With one exception (see Multiverse Window in New Alien Tech Cards section), a player may never have more than three Agenda cards in total.

When a player meets the condition on the Agenda card they may reveal it (flip it face-up) to score the VP.

Revealed Agenda cards may not be discarded. Agenda cards are not Alien Tech cards and thus may not be discarded by using the discard power of the Oscillation Capacitor. Ships docked at the Orbital Market may be used for trading or for obtaining new Agenda cards, but not both. Agenda cards may not be stolen via the Raiders' Outpost.

If the Agenda deck is exhausted, reshuffle the discards to form a new draw deck.

On Agendas: Some Agendas are harder to achieve than others. Don't be afraid to get new Agendas and discard ones you don't like. Also, there may be more than one way to achieve some of the In-Game Agendas, so be creative . . . it's fun!

Agenda Card Reference

In-Game Agenda	Endgame Agenda
Gather your fleet of seven ships	You possess a Resource Cache and an Oscillation Capacitor
Roll five sequential ships without using Alien Tech	You control Pohl Foothills
Land three colonies in a single turn	You control Herbert Valley
Roll four-of-a-kind without using Alien Tech	You control Van Vogt Mountains
Take control of two territories belonging to other players in a single turn	You possess a Plasma Cannon and an Electrofabricator
Gain six or more ore in a single turn	You control a territory with a single colony on it
Possess four Alien Tech cards that no other player possesses	You control Asimov Crater
Land a colony on a territory that already has the Isolation Field on it	You control Bradbury Plateau
Bump your own ships from the Raiders' Outpost	You control a territory containing three or more colonies belonging to other players

Faction Reference

The reference sheet below is reproduced as printed on the last page of the rulebook. Where it is abridged, the full Faction board text above governs.

Faction	Docking (Top)	Owner (Bottom)
Corex Conglomerate	Pay two fuel to the supply to receive one ore for each territory you control.	At the beginning of their turn, owner receives one fuel plus one fuel for each territory that they control.
Dark Space Explorers	Pay one fuel to the supply to draw the top card of the Alien Tech deck.	On their turn, the faction owner may discard two Alien Tech cards instead of one.
Homesteaders Union	Advance your colony token one circle on the Colonist Hub track.	Faction owner may launch their colonies from the sixth circle of the Colonist Hub track.
New Gaia Engineers	Roll your die docked at Terraforming Station. On a 1-3, the ship goes to the supply. On a 4-6, it goes to the Maintenance Bay instead.	Terraforming Station costs from others go to the faction owner instead of the supply.
Proxima Centauri Scholars	Pay one fuel to the supply to move a field generator token from one territory to another territory.	The faction owner may pay two fuel to the supply to place or remove any field generator.
Scavenger Fleet	May dock two unequal ships to utilize the Shipyard, paying the usual costs to build a new ship.