Blue Moon: Buka Invasion
Blue Moon: Buka Invasion Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The Game with the Buka Set
You can use the pre-sorted Buka set to face any peoples' set under the normal rules. The Buka introduce two new game elements: Ships and Bluffing.
Components
The Buka set contains 31 new cards: one Leader and 30 playing cards. The Buka can be played as their own set against any peoples' set. Alternatively, the Buka can be divided into six families of five cards each, to strengthen the peoples' sets. Of course, the Buka cards can also be used in the advanced game.
Ships
A Ship is a new kind of INFLUENCE card. Ships are action cards that are played in the "Leader Action" phase. With a Ship you can perform three actions: you can play a Ship, load it, or land it with its cargo. Some Ships have special abilities.
Playing a Ship
You may play a Ship in the "Leader Action" phase instead of a Leader action. When a Ship is played, it is placed face up in the "Influence Area" at the side of the game board opposite the Leaders. A Ship lying here has no influence on the current fight, and it is not discarded when a fight ends. A player may have more than one Ship in play. Both players may have Ships in play at the same time.
[Diagram: "How the Ships are played". Two "Place for Ship cards" areas, one on each side of the board strip.]
Loading a Ship
A Ship is loaded in the "REINFORCEMENT or SUPPORT" phase. Instead of playing a Support, a player may load one card onto one of their Ships in their Influence Area. If a player may not play a Support at this point, they may not load a card onto a Ship either. If a player may play additional Supports, they may load one card onto a Ship for each permitted Support. If more than one card is loaded, they may be distributed across several Ships. Of course, no Reinforcement may be played when loading a Ship, unless the player may play additional Reinforcements. If a player may play any number of Supports, they may both load Ships and play Supports.
Only Characters, Reinforcements and Supports may be loaded onto Ships. Cards are loaded face up. A card loaded onto a Ship does not count as "played". If the card has a special ability, that ability is neither read out nor carried out. Loading a card is not affected by special abilities that affect playing cards in general, with the exception of special abilities that affect playing Supports. Loaded cards are not "in play": they have no effect on the course of the game and are not affected by other cards. If a Ship is discarded or returned to the hand (for example by a special ability), all cards already loaded onto that Ship are discarded.
Each Ship has a (loading) Capacity, which states the maximum number of cards that may be loaded onto the Ship. This Capacity may under no circumstances be ignored.
Loaded cards are not part of the hand. If, after the end of a fight, a player has neither cards in hand nor cards in the draw pile, the game ends, even if loaded cards remain on their Ships.
Landing a Ship
In the "Start of Turn" phase, a player may remove one or more of their Ships, together with all cards loaded on them, from their Influence Area and push them in front of themselves. Attention: these cards may not be mixed with any hand cards that may be lying face up! In the turn in which a player lands Ships, they may not play Characters, Supports or Reinforcements from their hand, unless a special ability of one of the Ships expressly allows it. Instead, these cards are played from the landed Ships in the corresponding phases, as if they were in hand. This also applies to loading further Ships. Buka Characters on landed Ships are played as if they had a FREE symbol.
Important: Even in a turn in which a player lands Ships, they may play cards from their hand, as long as they are not Characters, Reinforcements or Supports. For example, a player may certainly play an action card. Also, actions such as discarding, returning and drawing cards are not affected by landing Ships. Before a player announces their strength to the opponent in the "Announce Strength" phase, all landed Ships are discarded together with all cards still on them. Landed Ships are also discarded when a player retreats, declines to start a fight, or when the turn ends early for any other reason.
Bluffing
Some Buka Characters have the FIRE BLUFF symbol (yellow), the EARTH BLUFF symbol (black), or the BLANK BLUFF symbol (colourless). These symbols are called BLUFF symbols.
A player may play a card with a BLUFF symbol face down into their Support Area. The card is not shown to the opponent. Playing this card counts as playing a Support. A card played in this way is called a Bluff card; it counts as an active Support, with the following exception: if the opponent retreats, Bluff cards are not counted when deciding whether the player has 6 or more cards in their Fight and Support Areas, which would win an extra Dragon. A face-down Bluff card is treated as if it had a BLUFF symbol but no special ability. A player may look at their own face-down Bluff cards in their Support Area at any time.
All played Bluff cards are treated as having a printed Combat value of 2 in the element in which the fight is being fought. In the other element, Bluff cards have a Combat value of 0. If the element changes during a fight, the Bluff cards change their Combat values accordingly. After a player has announced their strength, the opponent, toward the player whose turn it is, may call out "Show Colours" if that player has face-down Bluff cards. Then the following happens:
- All of that player's face-down Bluff cards are turned face up.
- If all of the revealed Bluff cards have the matching BLUFF symbol, the player whose turn it is wins a Dragon. However, if even one of these Bluff cards does not have a BLUFF symbol matching the element currently in effect, the opponent wins a Dragon. These Dragon gains are not connected with a player's retreat, and the number of Dragons won in this way cannot be changed by special abilities.
- In addition, the player must retreat immediately if one of the revealed Bluff cards does not have a matching BLUFF symbol. All the usual conditions for winning Dragons on a retreat then apply. A retreat forced in this way gives the player who is not on turn at least two Dragons: one Dragon for the failed bluff and one Dragon for the retreat.
- If all revealed Bluff cards have the matching BLUFF symbol, all of these Bluff cards are discarded and the fight continues.
Since the Bluff cards are revealed only after the strength has been announced, the opponent's strength is in any case considered to have been reached, even if after the Bluff cards are discarded the player's strength is lower than the opponent's. However, in their next turn the opponent need only reach the strength now current, as usual.
If a special ability ignores cards with symbols, Bluff cards are ignored as well. When Bluff cards are ignored, they do not count, no further Bluff cards may be played, and the opponent cannot demand that the player "Show Colours". If a special ability ignores symbols, this includes the BLUFF symbol. Bluff cards that have already been played remain Bluff cards and keep their Combat value of 2 in the current element. However, it is not possible to play further Bluff cards. If a player is called upon to "Show Colours" while BLUFF symbols are being ignored, the Bluff cards have no BLUFF symbol in the current element.
In the "Start of Turn" phase, the player may decide to discard some or all of their face-down Bluff cards. Ignored Bluff cards, or Bluff cards whose symbols are being ignored, may also be discarded in this way.
Face-down Bluff cards that are discarded voluntarily, or at the end of a fight, must be shown to the opponent before they are placed on the discard pile.
Notes
Once the B/P Characters (Brotherhood of Pirates) are in play, they are treated as no longer having a FREE symbol, no matter how they came into play and whether or not their condition for counting as a FREE card is met.
The "Spirit of the Old Goo Laa" is a Buka Character. With regard to changing elements, the same rules apply as for the Mutants.
The Buka Families
The Buka set consists of 30 cards, divided into six families of five cards each. The family membership of each card is marked by Ba to Bf on the cards. If you play with the Buka families, both players each choose one of the six families and shuffle those five cards into their own peoples' set.