Delta V Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Object of the Game
• Components
• Setting Up the Game
• Play
  • 1) Take an Action
    • Action: Move Rockets
    • Action: Prospect
    • Action: Satellite Survey
    • Action: Buy a Rocket
  • 2) Try to Fulfill a Contract
    • Declare the Contract
    • Reveal the Asteroid Tiles
    • Revealing Incident Tiles
    • Incident Tile Explanations
• Bribe Counters
  • Bribe: Satellite Survey
  • Bribe: Mineral Replacement
  • Bribe: Bidding Up
• Game End

Object of the Game

Delta V is a game for two to four players in which you and your opponents control rival mining corporations. You are trying to fulfill government contracts through memory, strategy, and the judicious use of bribes.

You score points by locating the minerals required for each contract that you fulfill. At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins.

Components

• Asteroid Tiles: These 48 tiles represent the asteroids in the asteroid field. Most of these are mineral tiles, with a mineral type and a point value printed on one side of each of them. The other tiles are incident tiles, which trigger special events. (Mineral and incident tiles are detailed below.)
• Space Station Tile: The space station tile is placed in the center of the asteroid field, and is the hub for all space traffic.
• Contracts: These are the contracts for which the players are competing. Each contract has one or more required minerals listed on it. Players fulfill contracts by revealing mineral tiles with the required minerals. (Fulfilling contracts is detailed below.)
• Rockets: There are 20 rockets in four different colors. Before playing, each player chooses a color and takes all the rockets of that color. Your pool of rockets is your shipyard.
• Bribe Counters: Like the rockets, the 20 bribe counters are divided into four different colors. Before playing, each player takes all the bribe counters of his or her color. (Bribe counters and how to use them are detailed below.)
• Alien: Besides tracking asteroids and competing with rival corporations, the miners also have to watch out for a hostile alien. At the beginning of the game, the alien is not in play, but is placed beside the playing area.

Setting Up the Game

1. Each player chooses a color and takes all the rockets and bribe counters of that color.
2. Shuffle the asteroid tiles and randomly place them, face-down, in a seven-by-seven grid. Place the space station tile in the center space of the grid.
3. Each player places one rocket of his or her color on the space station.
4. Place the contracts beside the playing area so that they can be clearly seen by all the players.
5. Place the alien beside the playing area.

(The Game Setup diagram in the booklet shows the asteroid tiles placed in a 7x7 grid, with the space station tile in the center of the grid.)

Play

Randomly choose which player will go first. When that player's turn is over, the player to his or her left takes a turn. In this manner, play rotates clockwise.

During your turn, you must do the following, in the order below:

1. Take an action

AND

2. Try to fulfill a contract

1) Take an Action

During your turn, you must take one action. Your action may be one of the following:

• Move one or more of your rockets,
• Prospect,
• Satellite survey, or
• Buy a rocket

Action: Move Rockets

When you spend an action to move your rockets, you may move each rocket once. You may move a rocket from the space station to any asteroid tile, or from any asteroid tile to the space station. You may move multiple rockets onto the same asteroid tile.

If a rocket ends its movement on an asteroid tile (not the space station) occupied by an opponent's rocket, both rockets are immediately removed and placed back into their owners' shipyards. (Moving a rocket onto an asteroid occupied by one or more of your own rockets has no effect.)

If the alien is on the same tile as one or more of your rockets, you may not move those rockets while the alien is there. (The alien and its movement are detailed below.)

Action: Prospect

When you spend an action to prospect, you may secretly look at each of the asteroid tiles on which you have rockets.

If one of the tiles you look at is an incident tile, you may choose to reveal it. Flip the tile over so that all the players may see it, then resolve the incident accordingly. (Revealing incident tiles is explained below.)

You may only reveal one incident tile per prospect action.

Action: Satellite Survey

By bribing the government officials on the Delta V space station, you can use the station's satellite system to survey for mineral deposits.

Secretly look at three asteroid tiles. All three tiles must be in the same row or column, but do not have to be in sequence.

A satellite survey action costs you one bribe. Turn one of your bribe counters face-down to show that it has been spent. [Source prints "that is has been spent"; "it" is read as intended.] (More details on bribes and how to spend them are presented below.)

Note: You may not look at tiles occupied by the alien or by opponents' rockets, nor may you reveal any incident tiles you discover.

Action: Buy a Rocket

When you spend an action to buy a rocket, simply take one of the rockets from your shipyard and place it on the space station tile. If you have no more rockets in your shipyard, you may not buy a rocket.

2) Try to Fulfill a Contract

When you try to fulfill a contract, first declare which contract you are trying to fulfill, then reveal asteroid tiles until you either succeed or fail in fulfilling the contract.

Declare the Contract

Choose one contract that has not yet been fulfilled, and declare that you are trying to fulfill this contract.

Reveal the Asteroid Tiles

After declaring which contract you are trying to fulfill, you must begin revealing asteroid tiles. When you reveal a tile, flip it face-up so that all the players may see what is on it.

Note: You may not reveal a tile occupied by an opponent's rocket or the alien.

Tiles are revealed one at a time. If you reveal a tile that does not match one of the minerals on the contract, you immediately fail to complete the contract. Reveal no more tiles, and flip all the revealed tiles upside down again. If you reveal an incident tile, it must be resolved at this time. (Incident tiles are detailed below.) Your turn is over.

If you reveal tiles that match all the minerals on the contract, you fulfill the contract. If you have rockets on the matching tiles, place those rockets on the space station. Remove the matching tiles from the game. Place the matching tiles and the fulfilled contract in front of you.

Note: Omnidium is a "wildcard" mineral. That is, if you reveal an Omnidium mineral tile, it will always match one of the minerals on the contract you are trying to fulfill. If you reveal more than one Omnidium tile, each Omnidium tile may match a different required mineral. You do not need to declare which mineral on the contract the Omnidium is matching.

Revealing Incident Tiles

If you reveal an incident tile, remove any rockets from the tile and place them on the space station. Unless the incident is an alien encounter, remove the tile from the playing area and place it face-up in front of you. These tiles may be discarded later (not during this turn) to give you special benefits, as explained below.

Incident Tile Explanations

To use an incident tile, you must discard it. Discarding an incident tile does not count as an action. Here is a complete list of incident tiles with explanations of their special benefits:

• Mineral Scan: You may discard this tile during your turn to secretly look at each of the asteroid tiles on which you have rockets (as if you were spending an action to prospect). In addition, you may also secretly look at a number of tiles equal to the number of rockets you have in play. If you discover another incident tile, you may reveal it, but you may only reveal one, and only if your rocket occupies the tile.

• Sabotage: You may discard this tile during your turn to remove one opponent's rocket from the playing area and put it back into that player's shipyard. If you wish, you may move one of your rockets already in play to the tile where your opponent's rocket formerly was.

• Rocket Acquisition: You may discard this tile during your turn to place a rocket from your shipyard (if you have any) onto the space station.

• Pirate Attack: You may discard this tile during your opponent's turn, before he or she takes an action, to prevent that player from taking an action. Your opponent may still try to fulfill a contract and discard incident tiles, but may not move rockets, prospect, satellite survey, or buy a rocket.

• Meteor Storm: You may discard this tile during your opponent's turn, before he or she tries to fulfill a contract, to prevent that player from trying to fulfill a contract.

• Alien Encounter: An alien encounter incident is resolved differently from the other incidents. Unlike the other incident tiles, which are removed from the playing area and later discarded to produce their special benefits, the alien encounter remains in play face-up, and takes effect immediately.

  If you reveal an alien encounter incident, you may immediately move the alien onto any asteroid tile (but not the space station). Note that if the alien moves onto an asteroid tile occupied by one or more rockets, those rockets cannot move while the alien is there.

  You may also steal one incident tile or unspent bribe counter from an opponent of your choice.

  There are five alien encounter incident tiles in the game. When the fifth alien encounter tile is revealed, the game ends immediately. (Do not move the alien or steal anything from your opponents.)

Bribe Counters

Amidst the corruption on the Delta V space station, hard work often needs to be supplemented by bribery. Each player begins the game with five bribe counters, each with one of the five minerals printed on it. When you spend a bribe counter, flip it upside down so everyone can see that it has been spent.

You may spend each bribe counter once per game, in one of three ways:

• Satellite Survey
• Mineral Replacement
• Bidding Up

Bribe: Satellite Survey

You may spend a bribe counter (and an action) to conduct a satellite survey, as described above.

Bribe: Mineral Replacement

While trying to fulfill a contract, you might reveal a mineral tile that does not match the contract you are trying to fulfill. If this happens, you have the option to replace the mineral you revealed with bribe mineral.

Each bribe counter has one of the five minerals on it. To replace a revealed mineral with a bribe mineral, you must spend a bribe counter to replace the revealed mineral with the mineral on the bribe counter.

Example: John is trying to fulfill a contract for Alphatite and Deltamite, but reveals a Betamite tile. Normally, this would mean that he fails to fulfill the contract, but instead he spends his Alphatite bribe counter to replace the Betamite with Alphatite. The Betamite tile is now an Alphatite tile of an equal point value, and John may continue revealing asteroid tiles.

Other Rules for Mineral Replacement:

• If you replace a revealed mineral with a bribe mineral, the point value of the mineral tile remains the same.
• If you have more minerals to collect to fulfill the contract, you may continue revealing asteroid tiles.
• If you fail to fulfill the contract, even after replacing one or more minerals, your bribe counters remain spent.
• You may spend as many bribe counters as you wish to replace revealed minerals during your turn.
• You may not spend bribe counters to replace incident tiles.

Bribe: Bidding Up

Immediately after you fulfill a contract, your opponents have the opportunity to bid-up that contract. When an opponent bids up a contract, he or she must spend a bribe counter, and you must immediately reveal a new mineral tile that matches the mineral on the bribe counter. If you are unable to reveal a matching mineral tile, you fail to fulfill the contract (as described above). If you do reveal a matching mineral tile, you fulfill the contract. The matching tile is removed along with the other tiles you used to fulfill the contract. [Source prints "is remove along with"; read as "is removed".]

Example: Greg has just fulfilled a contract requiring Betamite, Gammatite, and Deltamite. Before he collects the contract and tiles, his opponent Brian decides to bid-up the contract. Brian spends his Gammatite bribe counter to bid-up the contract. Now Greg must try to reveal a Gammatite mineral tile. Greg picks a tile he thinks is a Gammatite tile and turns it over: He is right! The tile is a Gammatite tile, so Greg fulfills the contract. He collects the contract, and all four tiles. Brian's Gammatite bribe counter remains spent.

Other Rules for Bidding Up:

• Only one player may bid-up a contract. If more than one player wants to bid-up, the first player clockwise from the player fulfilling the contract gets to bid-up.
• A contract may only be bid-up once per turn.
• To bid-up a contract, you may only spend a bribe counter with a mineral that matches one of the minerals on the contract. (In the example above, Brian could only spend a Betamite, Gammatite, or Deltamite bribe counter. [Source prints "Brian could could only spend"; repeated word dropped.])
• If an opponent bids up a contract you have fulfilled, and you reveal a mineral that does not match your opponent's bribe counter, you may spend a bribe counter of your own (of the same mineral) to replace that mineral tile (as described above).
• If you bid-up a contract, and your opponent fails to fulfill the contract, your bribe counter is not spent. (It is not flipped over, and you may use it again.)

Game End

The game ends immediately upon any of the conditions below:

• The last contract is fulfilled
• The fifth alien encounter incident tile is revealed
• There are no tiles without rockets or the alien on them at the end of a player's turn.

When the game ends, the players add up the point values of all the mineral tiles they have collected, then subtract two points for each bribe counter they have spent. The player with the most total points is the winner.

If two or more players are tied for the most points, the tied player with the most fulfilled contracts wins. If even this is tied, the tied player with the most unspent bribe counters is the winner.