Cosmic Kaboom Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Objective
• Setting Up
  • 1. Determine Factions
  • 2. Distribute Energy Cubes
  • 3. Deal Advancement Cards
  • 4. Define Boundaries of Space
  • 5. Deploy Planets
  • 6. Distribute Energy Crystals
  • 7. Dock Spaceships
  • 8. Determine First Player
• I: Piloting Your Spaceship
  • Safe
  • Destroyed!
• II: Collecting Energy Cubes
• III: Transferring Energy Cubes
• IV: The Space Bomb
  • Destroyed!
• V: Advancement Cards
• VI: Moving Planets
• Game End
  • Victory Points

Components

• 4 Base tiles
• 4 Spaceships
• 16 Energy Cubes
• 4 Energy Crystals
• 4 Cargo Holds
• 12 Planet tiles
• 1 Space Bomb
• 20 Advancement cards

Objective

The winner of the game will be the player with the most points at the end of the game, counting both surviving and exploded planets, seizing their control of the universe!

Setting Up

1. Determine Factions

Each player chooses an alien faction and takes the Base, Planets, Cargo Hold, and Spaceship for that faction.

NOTE: If this is a two- or three-player game, distribute the remaining Planets evenly among all players.

2. Distribute Energy Cubes

Give each player four Energy cubes, one of each color, for tracking energy collection.

3. Deal Advancement Cards

Shuffle the Advancement cards and deal two to each player. Each player chooses one of those cards to keep, and places the other at the bottom of the Advancement card pile.

4. Define Boundaries of Space

Place the Bases on the table as though they were the corners of a square or rectangle. Any Bases for factions not in play are still used in this manner to create the "boundaries of space". The area inside these "corners" will be where the game is played.

VARIANT: If the players agree, they may use the edge of the table as the boundaries of space, or any combination of table edges and Bases, depending on the shape of the table. Roughly 18" x 18" is recommended as a minimum size.

5. Deploy Planets

Players now take turns placing their Planets on the table within the boundaries of space. Planets may not touch when placed, and all Planets must be completely within the boundary lines.

6. Distribute Energy Crystals

Place the Energy Crystals for each faction on the matching color Planets marked with 1 dot on its border.

7. Dock Spaceships

Place the player Spaceships on their associated Bases.

8. Determine First Player

The last player to have destroyed something takes the first turn. Play passes to the left.

I: Piloting Your Spaceship

On each player's turn, they will have the opportunity to "flick" their Spaceship once with their finger to move it around the play area.

The results of the Spaceship movement depends on what, if anything, it collides with.

If a Spaceship leaves the boundaries of space, it is considered destroyed. A Spaceship must be completely outside of the boundary lines to be destroyed.

Safe

If a Spaceship collides with a Planet that has an Energy Crystal, place an Energy Cube of that Planet's color on the Cargo Hold for that Spaceship, if they don't already have an Energy Cube of that color.

When a player successfully collects an Energy Cube, they may flick their Spaceship again that turn.

If a Spaceship collides with a planet that has an Energy Crystal that is already in that player's Cargo Hold or Base, the Energy Crystal does not move, and the player does not get to take an Energy Cube or make another flick.

Destroyed!

If a Spaceship is destroyed, that player loses all the Energy Cubes on their Cargo Hold and places their Spaceship back on their Base.

NOTE: It is possible for your Spaceship to "push" another player's Spaceship out of the boundaries of space! If it does, that player's Spaceship is destroyed as detailed above.

II: Collecting Energy Cubes

A Player may only hold one of each color Energy Cube between their Cargo Hold and Base.

Whenever an Energy Cube is successfully collected, move the Energy Crystal from the Planet it was on to the next Planet of that color in sequence based on the number of dots on the edge of the planet (1 dot --> 2 dots --> 3 dots --> 1 dot).

III: Transferring Energy Cubes

Instead of flicking, a player may choose to return their Spaceship to their Base. If they do, the Spaceship is moved directly to its Base (regardless of distance) and all Energy Cubes on its Cargo Hold are transferred to the Base.

Once the player is done piloting their ship, play passes to the left.

OPTIONAL ADVANCED VARIANT: For an extra challenge, players may not automatically return their Spaceships to their Base; they must flick their way back, instead.

IV: The Space Bomb

If a player has all four Energy Cubes of different colors on their Base at the beginning of their turn, they do not pilot their Spaceship. Instead, they must launch the Space Bomb! That player takes the Space Bomb tile, and tosses it into the playing area in an attempt to blow up one or more planets.

NOTE: The Space Bomb must be released from the player's hand from behind their home Base.

Destroyed!

Once the Space Bomb has come to rest, any Planet(s) the Space Bomb is on top of are destroyed by the Space Bomb. Remove any Planets that were destroyed from the table, giving them to the player who destroyed them.

NOTE: Spaceships and Bases are unaffected by the Space Bomb.

If the Space Bomb was successful in destroying one or more Planets, the player who launched it discards all 4 Energy Cubes from their Base.

If nothing was destroyed, the player keeps their Energy Cubes and will try again on their next turn. If a Space Bomb throw is considered illegal by the other players (by releasing from in front of their home Base, for example), the player will have to wait until their next turn to try again.

V: Advancement Cards

At the start of the game, each player has one Advancement card. Any time a player has one of their Planets destroyed, they immediately gain another Advancement card: the player draws two cards, chooses one to keep, and places the other at the bottom of the Advancement deck (just like at the start of the game).

Advancement cards give the player the ability to change some of the standard rules of the game. In all cases, the Advancement card takes precedence over all other rules. Unless the card says otherwise, each Advancement card may be used only on the player's own turn.

VI: Moving Planets

Planets are going to move during the course of playing the game with spaceships crashing into them and that's OK! On the rare occasion a Planet is pushed out of the boundaries of space, the player who owns that Planet immediately places it back on the table anywhere within the boundaries of space.

Game End

The game continues until either of the following conditions is met:

• All Planets of a single faction have been destroyed; or
• Seven Planets have been destroyed.

Victory Points

At the end of the game, players score points for the following:

• 2 points for each Planet of their faction that is still in play.
• 3 points for each 1-dot Planet that they have destroyed.
• 4 points for each 2-dot Planet that they have destroyed.
• 5 points for each 3-dot Planet that they have destroyed.

EXCEPTION: Any planets of your own faction that you have destroyed are worth no points!

The player with the highest score is the winner! Their alien faction will be crowned RULERS OF THE UNIVERSE, even if they may not have a planet to call home anymore. After all, every ruler's reign will eventually come to an end.