Conquest of Planet Earth: Apocalypse

Expansion for Conquest of Planet Earth: The Space Alien Game

Conquest of Planet Earth: Apocalypse Rulebook

Table of Contents

Game Contents

1 Full Color Rulebook
3 Game Board Sections
12 High-detail Plastic Miniatures
- Featuring:
- 4 Orange Player Saucers
- 4 Purple Player Saucers
- 3 Unique Ally Figures in Grey
- 1 Apocalypse Cube Figure in Black
25 Card Coastal Resistance Deck
20 Event Cards
10 Resistance Cards
10 Space Stuff Cards
15 Location Cards
4 Human Tech Cards
1 Double-Sided Objective Location Card
4 Large Alien Race Sheets
2 Sheets of Full Color Die-cut Counters

Players

The Apocalypse Expansion adds all of the pieces needed to play games with up to 5 or 6 players now. There are more Game Board Sections, as well as more sets of Command Counters, Conquest Markers, and Saucer Playing Pieces (in purple and Orange).

New Counters

These counters represent the new Human Resistance included in Apocalypse, including a set of Counters just for the new Coastal Resistance. The large Navy Ship Coastal Resistance Counters should be kept seperate from the other normal Resistance Counters.

Alien Terror Factory Markers

Alien Terror Factories can be created by an Alien Race to gain extra Terror Points at a Location with no Resistance or Population (Limit one per Board Section).

Qua’to Alien Forge Markers

The Qua’to Industrial Unification is a new Alien Race that can create specialized Alien Forges on the board to advance their technology. There are two types of Alien Forge - Battle Forges and Science Forges.

Kazak-Zelos Dominance Marker

One of the new Alien Races is the Kazak-Zelos Federation, a pair of Aliens from the same planet that work together as a single faction. This marker tracks which half is currently dominant in their often disfunctional relationship.

Large Alien Menace

These large Alien Menace Tokens represent 5 Alien Menace and can be used when a player collects a large amount of Alien Menace all at once. This can be especially helpful when playing a 5 or 6 player game.

New Playing Pieces

There are two new sets of Player Saucers (4 each in Orange and Purple), as well as 3 Unique Ally Figures in Grey and 1 Unique Apocalypse Cube figure in Black.

New Cards

New cards are included for each of the existing card decks (Events, Space Stuff, Locations, Resistance, and Human Tech) and are meant to be simply shuffled in with the rest of the cards for their specific deck.

When playing the Cooperative Game, the new Event Cards are split between the Event Deck and the Resistance Event Deck as normal (based on if they have a Red Text Box at the bottom of the card, or not).

Coastal Resistance Deck

There is a new deck of cards for Coastal Resistance. These represent Navy ships, Marines, and the like, and are kept separate from the normal Resistance Deck. They are used when battling at Coastal Locations.

Coastal Resistance Locations

Several of the new Locations are water themed and are defended by Coastal Resistance.

At any Location that has the Coastal Resistance Icon (the small anchor) next to its Resistance Value, the Resistance cards should be drawn from the Coastal Resistance Deck rather than from the normal Resistance Deck. These work just like the normal Resistance cards in every way, but are simply water themed (and can be quite powerful).

Some Locations (such as Port City) do not have a Coastal Resistance Icon, but rather include game text that has the player roll for each Resistance drawn there to see if it comes from the normal Resistance Deck or the Coastal Resistance Deck. This roll is made once for each individual Fight at that Location. When a Hero is drawn, the additional Resistance drawn for it always comes from the same deck as that Hero.

Resistance Decks and Alien Abilities

Some Alien abilities allow them to use cards from the Resistance Deck (or discard pile) during a Fight, such as the Fome Guild Mages raising the dead or the Menthalars’ mind control. In these cases, the Alien may only take a card from the deck/discard pile of the type of Resistance that they are currently fighting (normal Resistance or Coastal Resistance). If a Resistance drawn for an ability would normally result in placing one or more Resistance Counters on the board (including the new Navy Ship counters), do not. These Alien-controlled Resistance are only active for that one Fight and are then discarded.

If one of these Alien abilities is used while fighting another Alien, you can only pull from the Coastal Resistance deck/discard pile if the Location you are at has the Coastal Resistance Anchor icon next to the Resistance Value.

Large Navy Ship Counters

Some Coastal Resistance cards require you to place a large Navy Ship counter at the Location when drawn. These are a new type of Resistance Counter that works a bit differently from the other normal-size Resistance Counters. Navy Ship counters represent massive warships of the Navy and can be especially difficult to overcome. These large counters are double-sided and remain on the board until fully destroyed.

When defeated, flip over a Navy Ship counter to its Damaged side instead of removing it from the board. A Navy Ship counter must be defeated twice to destroy it and actually remove it from the board!

This can be during the same Battle or at a later time. Once defeated the first time, the Navy Ship counter remains in the space with its Damaged side face up (the side with the red border) until it is defeated a second time. Fighting each side of a Navy Ship counter counts as a new Fight for all ability and card effects. Anything that automatically defeats the Resistance will only count as defeating a Navy Ship counter once (such as the Event card “We Come in Peace”).

Navy Ship Counter Reward

When a Navy Ship counter is defeated the second time, it is removed from the board and can be taken by the player that defeated it as a Trophy! Place the counter near your Alien Race card, where everyone can see it, to mark the bonus Terror you gain from it (listed on the counter itself).

This reward is gained by the player that defeats the already Damaged Navy Ship counter. It is possible for one player to defeat the Navy Ship the first time, but retreat or be destroyed before defeating it a second time, only to have a different player swoop in and defeat the counter the second time to steal away the Trophy.

Navy Ship Counters on the Board

Large Navy Ship counters that are on the board do NOT count against the normal limit of Resistance Counters in the space and are never bumped to a different space by another Resistance Counter being placed there. Existing Navy Ship counters already at a Location when an Alien moves there must be fought before any other Resistance at the Location are drawn.

It is possible to have multiple Navy Ship counters (or Navy Ship and normal Resistance Counters) in the same space. When this is the case, the player fights them in whichever order they wish, before drawing any normal Resistance for the Location.

5 and 6 Player Games

The printed 5 Player Setup and 6 Player Setup board diagrams are images and are not reproduced here.

More Players

The Apocalypse expansion adds the ability to play with up to 5 or 6 players, instead of the normal 1 to 4. Included are two additional sets of colored Saucers (Purple and Orange) as well as the corresponding Command and Conquest markers. There are also 3 additional Board Sections for creating larger board arrangements to accommodate more players.

Board Setup

The diagrams above show a standard board arrangement for a 5 player game and a 6 player game. Note that both of these board arrangements use two Center Boards and two Objective Locations (one on each of the Center Boards). Each player still starts on their own Player Board as normal.

Two Objective Locations

In a 5 or 6 player game, there are two Objective Locations in play (one on each of the two Center Boards), giving players more prime targets to conquer. The Capital City Location is usually used for both of these Objectives (an additional Capital City card is included in Apocalypse), however, there is an optional alternate side on each copy of the Capital City that players can use for one or both Objectives if all players agree before the game begins (these should be chosen and placed before determining which player board each player starts on).

Team Games

With a 5 or 6 player game, there are a lot more opponents to play cards against you. This can increase the play time for the game when all players are on their own side. Using teams can be a fun alternative, as described in the original Conquest Rulebook. With up to 6 players, this now adds the option for two teams of 3 (3 vs 3) or three teams of 2 (2 vs 2 vs 2).

Close Rivals (Optional)

One optional rule to make larger games a bit faster is to use the Close Rivals system. In this game style, players are not allowed to play Event cards during any other player’s turn except for the two players directly to their Right and Left at the table (the two players sitting next to you). This has no effect on any other aspect of the game like using Event cards during your own turn or targeting other players with Space Stuff, etc. The only limitation is on when each player can play their Event cards from hand.

This helps to cut down on the number of players that can throw hurdles in your way during your turn and can streamline larger games from potentially going long.

The Close Rivals rule is not intended to be used with Team Games or Cooperative Play, only games with 4 or more players where every player is on their own side.

5 or 6 Player Cooperative Play

Cooperative Play works exactly the same with 5 or 6 players as described in the original Conquest rulebook. The only change is the number of Terror Points needed to win.

5 Players = 40 Terror Points
6 Players = 48 Terror Points

Captain Fantastic

Always ready to defend the Earth from Alien attack, Captain Fantastic has stepped up his defense in the Apocalypse expansion. There is a copy of Captain Fantastic in the Coastal Resistance deck as well as an additional copy of him in the regular Resistance deck. This keeps a good probability of him showing up to defend a Location, whether on land or at sea.

This does however create the possibility that if multiple Resistance are drawn at once, you could potentially get two or more copies of Captain Fantastic at the same time. As the Captain is a unique Superhero, any time this occurs, it represents Captain Fantastic doing a super attack. Do not add the extra Strength or abilities of the second copy of the card, but instead the Resistance automatically counts as having a Crushing Victory. There is no need to roll for them and this effect lasts as long as both copies of Captain Fantastic are still in the Fight.

Alien Terror Factories

With Apocalypse, the Aliens have now gained the ability to create sinister Alien Terror Factories to terrorize the local populace. This ability is now available to all Alien players and can be a great way to take advantage of some of the open area Locations you come across while exploring (such as Mountains or Forests).

During their Action Phase, any player may build an Alien Terror Factory at a Location that currently has 0 Resistance and 0 Population where they have at least one of their Alien Saucers present (not an Ally).

To build the Factory, pay 3 Action Points and remove your saucer from the space (just as though it had been destroyed). Place your Conquest marker there as well as an Alien Terror Factory marker. As noted on the marker, you gain +1 Terror Point for each Alien Terror Factory that you control. If your Conquest marker is ever removed from the Location, also remove the Alien Terror Factory as it is destroyed. The only exception to this is that if another Alien Player takes over the Location (replacing your Conquest marker with their own), they may keep the Alien Terror Factory for themselves.

There may never be more than 1 Alien Terror Factory per board section (there is only so much extra Terror to go around).

A player may dismantle (remove) an Alien Terror Factory that they control at any time during their own turn to immediately gain D3 Alien Menace Tokens.

Location Liberation

Previously only part of the Cooperative Game, the Humans can now Liberate Locations conquered by the Alien players during the Competitive Game as well. At the end of a Game Round, any Location that has a Conquest Marker on it as well as a Resistance Counter, but no Aliens present, must roll a D6. On the roll of 1, 2, or 3, the Location is Liberated by the Resistance and the Conquest Marker is removed.

Note that this is only for the Competitive Game. In the Cooperative Game (or when using the Active Resistance optional rule), Locations are still automatically Liberated as normal during the Resistance Phase.

New Alien Race Profiles

Kazak-Zelos Federation

The Kazak and the Zelos are two species that evolved side by side on the same planet. Large, armored primates, the orange-furred Kazak use their brute strength to crush any opposition; while the diminutive, insectoid Zelos are scheming masterminds, using their cunning to get the upper hand. Working together, these two aliens have built an uneasy alliance, with both sides struggling to be the dominant species. Begging the question of this odd couple...can two different Aliens share a planet without driving each other crazy?

The Martian Confederacy

Known for their intelligence operations and scouting vanguards, the Martian Confederacy is a tightly run military race. They are small and fragile by nature, but compensate for this with an aggressive arrogance and the use of advanced pack tactics, high-tech weapons, and even devastating creatures captured and released on the battlefield to terrorize their foes. Though individually, these Martians are not taken seriously by the other aliens of the armada, when a full Martian phalanx descends in their saucers, even the most hardened warriors take pause.

Selenian Sirens

These femme fatales of the deep use their exotic undersea charms and sultry siren’s call to bend the will of any who stray too close. Hailing from an aquatic world, the Sirens build water-filled spacecraft to carry their warrior maidens across the stars. Possessing both gills and a robust set of lungs, Selenian Sirens can thrive both in and out of water, however, their lack of legs makes the latter a bit...awkward at times. Though beautiful to the eyes, the real power of the Sirens lay in their voice...impossible to resist.

The Qua’to Industrial Unification

Short and pudgy, the Qua’to are not traditionally known for their battle prowess. They are, however, considered the best technology and weapons manufacturers in the known universe. Everyone who’s anyone deploys Qua’to tech in their campaigns of conquest! It’s sort of a status symbol thing. With a vast number of Forge planets throughout the galaxy, the Qua’to are always developing new tech and armaments for the highest bidder. Occasionally, they amass a small army to try out and show off their newest trades on the battlefield. This often leads to the construction of Forges right on the front lines.

FAQ and Clarifications

Q - Does the Martian Confederacy’s Pack Tactics include Ally ships that are in the space?

A – Yes, it includes your Martian Saucers and any Allies you have there.

Q - Does the Selenian Sirens Irresistable Musk ability only take a Hero’s Strength Bonus or does it also include any ability they may have?

A – It includes the Strength Bonus as well as any abilities that are applicable.

Q - With the Repair ability that some Resistance have, what happens if the Resistance is prevented from being destroyed?

A – The Aliens do count has having won the Fight, but because the Resistance is not destroyed, they must be fought again (unless the Aliens decide to retreat).

Q - With the Resistance ability Escort, what happens when the extra Resistance drawn is a Hero?

A – Continue adding Resistance until you have two full Resistance in the Fight (plus any Heroes drawn).

Q - Some new Locations like the Coastline have a Resistance Value but are Population Value 0? When conquered do you put a Conquest Marker there?

A – Yes. Even though there is 0 Population to gain Terror Points from, the Conquest Marker shows that the Resistance Value has been defeated (and reduced to 0).

Q - If the Atomic Power Plant Location is Demolished and destroys any Resistance there, can anyone gain a Trophy or play a Victory card for this?

A – No. There is not enough left to be a Trophy.

Q - Can the Event card Betrayal target the Apocalypse Cube (since it can’t be moved)?

A – No. Because the Apocalypse Cube cannot be moved other than on its own terms, Betrayal has no effect on it.

Q - What effect does the Event card Apocalypse have on Navy Ship Counters?

A – They are flipped to their Damaged side (or destroyed if already Damaged). The player does still gain the 2 Alien Menace Tokens for each Ship counter Damaged.

Optional Brutal Setup

For a fast-paced and brutal game with a lot more Alien-on-Alien battles, you can use one of the above ‘Brutal’ game setups for the board. In this setup, there is no Objective board, but rather the Objective Location itself is placed in the center, overlapping board edges to create a new space (as in the diagrams above). This space works just like any other, but as it is not at the center of one board in particular, Resistance Counters will never get pushed to the Objective Location by new counters being placed. The four spaces (two above and two below) are considered adjacent to this new Objective Location space.

One reason that this setup is considered brutal is that each player starts only a couple of spaces away from one or two other Alien Landing Sites. This creates a lot of fighting to capture and control territory between the Alien players.

Note that the 4-Board setup is meant for 2-4 players and the 6-Board setup is meant for 5-6 players. You should always use all four or six boards even if there are fewer players than Landing Sites. The extra Landing Site areas are considered empty spaces that draw a Location when explored as normal. Also note that the Brutal setup is only really meant for the Competitive Game.

The printed 4 Player Brutal Setup and 6 Player Brutal Setup board diagrams are images and are not reproduced here.