Galaxy: The Dark Ages Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Winning the Game
  • Determining Victory
• Setup
  • The Galaxy
• Turn Sequence
• Determining the First Player
• Playing a Ship Card (Action A1)
• Discarding a Ship Card (Action A2)
• Deploying an Available Base (Actions B and A3)
• Governors
• Reserve
• Using Ship Abilities (Action C)
• Combat
  • Engagement Opportunities: Example
• Playing a Technology Card (Action D)
• Governor Powers (Phase 2)
• Surrender of Planets (Phase 3)
• Drawing a Card (Phase 4)
• Example: Three Rounds of Play
  • Dealing and Determining the First Player
  • Round 1
  • Round 2
  • Round 3
• Summary of Governor Powers
• Summary of Ship Abilities
• Turn Sequence Summary

Components

The game contains the following parts:

• This rulebook
• 25 chips (Bases); five in each of the five colors
• Four six-sided dice
• 120 cards, divided as follows:
  • Two for each of the eight planet cards, showing the race that inhabits the planet (marked "GALAXY, World Card")
  • Eight sets of eleven ship cards (numbered 0 to 10), one set for each planet (each bears the word "Galaxy" on its back)
  • One set of eleven ship cards (numbered 0 to 10) designated as Ally cards (each bears the word "Galaxy" on its back)
  • Five technology cards (with the word "Galaxy" printed on their backs)
• A board for holding the draw pile and the discard pile

Winning the Game

The game ends after five rounds of play, when only three planets have survived, or at the end of a turn in which the Hands and Reserves of all players are exhausted. At that moment all secret bases are revealed, and, if their planet has survived, they are placed above the Galaxy. The player with the highest total Influence (the sum of the value of the surviving bases) is the winner (see Figure 1).

In case of a tie in Influence, the tied players count the value of the cards in their Hand. Each ship of a surviving planet counts double. Each ship of a planet that has surrendered counts its printed value. Each technology card has no value. In case of a tie, the winner is the player with the highest Hand value. If a tie still remains, the winner is the player who played last.

Determining Victory

The object of the game is to obtain the highest total Influence on the three planets that survive at the end of the five rounds of play. Figure 1 shows the situation at the end of a game. The planets of the Imperials, the Kha'Farjimmn, and the Divergence have survived. At this point the value of the cards played earlier is not counted; what matters instead are the base chips and their Influence value. The value of each Base chip depends on how high its position is in the planet's column (chapter 9 describes Bases in detail). The final count in the example is: Green (G) 14, Yellow (Y) 13, Blue (B) 7, and Red (R) 5. The player with the green chips is the winner.

Setup

1. Give each player five Base chips of the same color.
2. Place one card for each of the eight planets at random, face up, side by side so as to form a row (each card bears the white text "World Card" on its back). This is the GALAXY. The second card of each planet is later given to the Governor who establishes himself on that planet during play.
3. Each player rolls a die to determine who deals the cards. The player with the highest result shuffles the cards that are not planet cards (those without the white text on their backs) and deals eight to each player. The rest of the deck is placed face down on the board, and cards are drawn from it during play. Each player takes and looks at their eight cards (which form their Hand). The game can now begin.

The Galaxy

Figure 2: Setup. Four players sit at the table to play. They lay the eight planet cards in a row, side by side. Each of these will be the top of the column under which cards will be played during the game.

Turn Sequence

A player's turn consists of the four phases described below. Each phase must be completed before moving on to the next. When a player has completed all of their phases, the turn passes to the player on their left. The details of these phases are described in the following chapters.

1. ACTION PHASE: there are three possible actions (A1, A2, and A3), as described below. You must perform one and only one of the three A actions in your phase (exception: if you have no ship cards in hand, you cannot perform any of the three). There are also three optional actions (B, C, and D). These are not mandatory; you may perform one, some, or none of them. You may perform actions A, B, C, and/or D in any order during your Action Phase.
   • A1 Play a ship card from your Hand onto the column of a corresponding planet still in play.
   • A2 Discard from your hand a ship card of a planet that has surrendered.
   • A3 Play a ship card face down as a garrison and place an unplayed Base on top of it; this is a Secret Base. When you choose to perform this action, you can no longer perform actions B or C this turn.
   • B Place one of your unplayed Bases, or reveal one of your Secret Bases.
   • C Use the naval strength of the ship you played (including resolving any combat).
   • D Play one of the technology cards in your hand.
2. GOVERNOR POWER PHASE: if during the Action Phase you were the Governor of a planet on which you played a corresponding ship card (or Ally card), you may now use your Governor Power (you may also decline to do so). The Cylor, Divergence, and Kha'Farjimmn powers are exceptions, usable during other phases of the turn as specified by their power.
3. PLANET SURRENDER PHASE: if every remaining planet has a ship in play in its column, in the round row, turn face up the top card of the round row of the Kha'Farjimmn column (if present). If there is only one ship with the lowest value in the round row, its planet surrenders. The Governor, or, in case of a tie, the Governors, who control the highest-value ship in the current round row receive the Spoils of War when another planet surrenders. After the Spoils of War have been taken, the round ends.
4. DRAW: draw one card from the draw pile or take all the cards of your Reserve back into your hand.

Determining the First Player

Players declare an opening bid to acquire the right to play first. Examine your Hands, choose the ship you want to play, and declare its value to the others. The dealer declares first and is obliged to do so. The players then declare or pass in turn clockwise. The opening declaration may go around the table several times if necessary. Passing on the opportunity to declare the opening does not preclude the possibility of declaring and opening later, if the turn should come back to the player. The opening is made when a 10 is declared or when all other players have passed. Whoever declared the highest-value ship then opens play. The opener must play a ship of the declared value and may not play it as a secret base. The other players are not bound by their declaration and may play any card on their turn.

If the player who won the opening does not have a card of the declared value, they permanently lose one of their Bases and may use only 4 for the rest of the game. In this case the second-highest declaration must open and play a card equal to their own declaration or suffer the same penalty. The opening player is never allowed to play cards of a value greater than the declared opening.

The opening declaration is made only to establish who will begin playing in the first turn. Afterward play proceeds clockwise around the table; each player takes their turn, followed by the player on their left, and so on.

Playing a Ship Card (Action A1)

On your turn you may play a ship card from your Hand onto a planet still in play; remember that you may perform only one of actions A1, A2, or A3, unless you have no ship cards in hand. To play a ship card, place one of the cards from your Hand into the column of its corresponding planet, in the current round row. In the first turn the "round row" is the one immediately below the row of Galaxy planets. In subsequent turns the "round row" will be a new row below that of the round just concluded.

Ally cards are an exception to the requirement of placing ships under the column of the corresponding planet. Ally cards do not belong to any planet in this game: they are special cards that may be played on any planet.

You may play onto ships already existing in the round row. The values of ships are never cumulative; if a new ship is played in the round row, it covers and replaces the previous ship. The previous card is covered and can no longer be examined. It is considered out of the game once covered. It is not possible to examine or count cards that have been covered by other played or discarded cards.

Talking at the table is permitted, suggesting alliances and/or particular actions, and the limits are left to the tolerance of each group of players. Such agreements, however, are not binding. The only penalty for not keeping your word is the loss of future credibility. Despite this "permissive" attitude, you are never allowed to show your cards to another player until they have been played or discarded, except when explicitly required by the rules (for example, when you reveal a secret base you must show the garrison ship). You may promise or threaten to play a particular card, but you may never back up your threats by showing the card in your possession as proof of your intentions. If you show the card "by mistake" or for other reasons, the player on your left draws a card from your hand and discards it as a penalty.

When, at the beginning of the Planet Surrender Phase, each planet has a ship card in the round row of its own column, check which planet has the lowest-value card (reveal the Kha'Farjimmn card at this moment, if hidden). If only one planet has the lowest card, the round ends and that planet surrenders. If two or more planets have the lowest card, the round does not end. Players continue the round normally and may play cards under any planet: they are not limited to the tied planets. The round continues until there is only one planet with the lowest card and every planet has at least one ship card in the round row of its own column at the beginning of the Planet Surrender Phase.

Discarding a Ship Card (Action A2)

On your turn you may discard a ship card from your Hand if its planet has surrendered. The planet must already have surrendered in order to discard one of its ships. Place the discarded ship face up on the discard pile. The discarded ship cannot use its ability. You may discard only one card per turn.

Remember that you must perform only one of actions A1, A2, or A3, unless you have no ship cards in hand. Discarding is equivalent to giving up the opportunity to deploy a secret base or to play in the round row, since you are not allowed to play a ship card in the same turn in which you discard. Cards of surrendered planets are important because they provide a certain protection to your Hand, diluting the odds that more valuable cards will be taken from your hand by other players using their Governor Powers.

Deploying an Available Base (Actions B and A3)

There are two types of Bases: visible and secret. Each Base is represented by one of your five colored chips. It is worthwhile to play all five of your Bases during the game. Try to avoid leaving them out of the game.

VISIBLE BASES: you may deploy a visible Base in a planet's column, immediately above the round-row card, but not in previous rows. A Base may be played only if a planet has no visible Bases in the round row. You may play this Base even if another Base previously played in the planet column's round row has been removed. The presence or absence of a ship in the planet column's round row has no effect on deploying a Base in that position. There is no limit to the number of Bases you may deploy in a round, but you may play only one per turn. You may deploy a Base on every turn in which you have at least one available.

During the game Bases may be reinforced or damaged (by moving them up or down the columns into different rows). There is no limit to the number of Bases that may be above a row's card, including the Galaxy. To deploy a new visible Base, however, the round row must be free of other counters.

SECRET BASES (action A3): you may deploy only one Secret Base per game. It must be deployed in the first phase of your turn, before any planet surrenders. To deploy a Secret Base, play a ship card face down and place a Base chip on top of it. The ship played is called the garrison. You cannot perform actions B or C in the turn in which you deploy a secret base. Ally ships cannot be deployed as garrisons. A player may freely examine the ships of their own garrison at any time. When the secret base is revealed it is placed above the Galaxy, at the top of the column corresponding to the color of the garrison ship assigned to it.

REVEALING: during your turn you may reveal a secret base instead of deploying an available base. Turn the garrison ship face up, take it back into your hand, and place the chip as a visible base on the Galaxy above the corresponding planet. If the garrison ship's planet has surrendered, the card is discarded (it counts as an A2 action), and the Base is removed from the game.

The recovered garrison ship may be played in the same turn, or kept in hand for later use (in the latter case, however, you must play or discard another ship to perform one of the mandatory A1 or A2 actions). At the end of the game all secret Bases are revealed and deployed or discarded according to the rules.

INFLUENCE: Bases grant their owners Influence on planets. The player with the most "visible" Influence on a planet is its Governor. The player who at the end of the game has the most total Influence on the three surviving planets is the winner.

The Influence value of a Base depends on the current position it occupies relative to the planet:

• Each Base above the Galaxy has a value of 5 Influence points.
• Each Base above the first row of a planet is worth 4 Influence points.
• Each Base above the second row of a planet is worth 3 Influence points.
• Each Base above the third row of a planet is worth 2 Influence points.
• Each Base above the fourth row of a planet is worth 1 Influence point.
• Bases deployed on or beyond the fifth row have no Influence value.

Governors

The player with the highest Influence score in a planet's column is its Governor. They are given the second card of that planet, symbolizing their control. During the game Bases can gain or lose Influence value when, reinforced or damaged, they are moved along their planet's column. When another player gains more Influence on a planet than the current Governor, they take the planet card from them and become the new Governor themselves. When a player's Influence is merely equal to that of the incumbent Governor, nothing happens. There can be only one Governor per planet in play at the same time.

If the Governor's current Influence drops below that of two (or more) players tied on the same score, the player who reduced the Governor's Influence must choose which of them will take their place.

A planet's current Governor is the only player who may use the corresponding Governor Power. A planet's Governor may (but is not obliged to) use the Governor Power when they play a ship in that planet's column, whether it is a ship of the planet or an Ally card. A player must be Governor before playing a ship card in order to use the relevant Governor Power.

When a player's turn ends, the ships they played pass under the control of the Governors of the planets where they were deployed. From then on it is the relevant Governors who control the ships for the purposes of Spoils of War and future combat. The Governor cannot use their powers when another player plays a ship card on their planet.

Reserve

A Drones card played by another player (see chapter 12) or the use of a Myrmidon Governor's power (see chapter 15) can place some of your cards in Reserve. Cards taken from your Hand are placed face down in front of you, forming a single stack. They are no longer considered part of your Hand. Even though you retain control of them, you cannot play or discard them, because they are no longer cards in your Hand. Likewise, since you do not hold them, other players can never draw them from your reserve; they are therefore immune to Drones, Raiders, and the Myrmidon Governor. You may examine the cards of your reserve at any time, but to do so you must place the cards of your Hand on the table, face down and separate from the Reserve (reversing the process when you are finished; you cannot substitute the Reserve for the Hand). You may take the cards of the Reserve back into your hand only by giving up drawing a new card from the draw pile in the last phase of the turn.

Using Ship Abilities (Action C)

In addition to its numerical value, each ship card has a particular ability that may be used in the turn in which it is played.

NOVA (0): this ship cannot be attacked by other ships. The only way to act against this card is to play another card on top of it, or to use the Warp Drive, or the Felowi Governor Power against it.

DRONE (1): playing this ship lets you draw a random card from the hand of the Governor of the relevant planet and, after inspecting it, place it in the Governor's reserve; the card is no longer part of their hand. You may give the other players more or less accurate information about the nature of the card drawn, but you may not show it to them.

SHUTTLE (2): the ship lets you examine and reject the first card drawn at the end of the turn and put it on the bottom of the draw pile. You must, however, accept the card drawn immediately afterward and thus end your turn. Alternatively, instead of drawing again, you may put the first card drawn on the bottom of the draw pile and take the reserve back into your hand.

TRANSPORTS (3): lets you reinforce a visible base, moving it up one row toward the planet (or above its card on the Galaxy, if it is in the row immediately below). This increases the base's Influence by one point. A Base can never be reinforced beyond five Influence points. With this mechanism more Bases can occupy the same row of the planet's column.

ASSAULT CRAFT (4): playing this ship lets you damage a visible base deployed on the relevant planet, moving it one row away from the planet downward (you may hit it even if it is at the top of the Galaxy's planet card, moving it to the row below). This decreases a base's Influence by one point. A Base cannot be moved more than one row. For example, if the row it occupies is worth 4 Influence points, the Base cannot be reduced below 3 points. With this mechanism more Bases can occupy the same row of the planet's column.

RAIDER (5): playing this ship lets you draw a random card from the Hand of the Governor of the relevant planet and add it to yours. This does not prevent you from drawing a new card at the end of your turn; your Hand grows and the opponent's shrinks.

WARSHIPS (6-10): Frigates, Destroyers, Cruisers, Battle Cruisers, and Dreadnaughts are the Warships that share the same ability to give battle, but have different values printed on their cards. Playing a Warship lets you attack other ships and/or Bases if an opportunity presents itself.

Combat

ENGAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES: you may attack a ship and/or a Base with any Warship played in the current turn if one of the following situations applies. You gain as many opportunities as are available at the moment you play the card.

• COVERING: when you play a Warship on top of another ship, you gain one attack opportunity.
• MATCHING: when you play a Warship whose value equals that of another visible fleet in the same row, but in a different column, you gain one attack opportunity for each Warship whose value equals yours.
• IMPERIALS: when you are the Governor of the Imperials and play a Warship card in the Imperial column, you gain one engagement opportunity.

The engagement opportunities are all cumulative. You may perform one attack for each engagement opportunity you have acquired.

NAVAL COMBAT: if you have an engagement opportunity you may attack any visible fleet in the same row, including ships of a planet of which you are the Governor (obviously excluding the ship you just played, which is the attacking ship).

To resolve combat the attacker and defender each roll two dice and add the result to the value of their respective ships. For the defending ship, the Governor of the planet to which it belongs rolls the dice. If there is no Governor on the planet, the player to the attacker's left rolls the dice for the defending ship.

• If the attacker's total is greater than the defender's total, the defender's ship is eliminated and discarded.
• If the attacker's total is equal to or lower than the defender's, the defending ship is unharmed and may counterattack; a defending ship on a planet without a Governor must counterattack.

If neither ship was eliminated after an attack, and possibly a counterattack, the combat ends with no result. The attacker has spent one of their engagement opportunities. If the attacker's ship survived the combat and has other engagement opportunities, it may attack the same ship again, or may change target.

COUNTERATTACK: when an attacking ship fails to eliminate the defending ship, the latter may counterattack. The defending ship is not obliged to counterattack if there is a Governor on its planet. If, however, the defending ship's planet has no Governor, the ship must counterattack. Both players again roll two dice and add the result to the value of their ships. If the counterattacking ship's total is greater, the counterattack succeeds and the enemy ship is eliminated; otherwise the combat ends with all ships unharmed.

ELIMINATION: when a ship has been eliminated it is placed on top of the discard pile. If there was another ship card in play beneath it, that card immediately becomes the ship defending the planet in the current round. If there were no other cards beneath it in the round row, the planet is currently undefended.

Engagement Opportunities: Example

Figure 3: in the situation shown above, if you played the Felowi Cruiser (8), you could not attack at all, since you would not have played it on top of another card in play and its value would not equal that of any other visible ship in play in the round row.

Playing a Felowi Destroyer (7) you could attack only once, since your ship matches the value of the Ecup Contract's Ally Destroyer.

If you played a Felowi Frigate (6), you would have two attack opportunities, because its value equals that of two other visible ships.

If you played a Myrmidon Frigate (6), you could attack three times, because you would have played on top of an existing ship and your card's value would equal that of two other fleets (Imperials and Divergence).

SHIPS AGAINST BASES: Every visible, undefended Base, in any row, may be attacked by any Warship with an engagement opportunity. A Base is undefended if it has no ships in the current round row. Unless the player who controls it obtains a result greater than the ship's value with a roll of two dice, the Base is damaged and is moved one row down and loses one Influence point. Bases, like ships, can be attacked repeatedly, until the attacker has remaining engagement opportunities. A Base, however, can never be damaged so much as to drop more than one row below the current turn's row.

NAVAL CONTROL: you always control the ship you play until the following player begins their turn. From that moment, for the purposes of combat and Spoils of War, all ships played are controlled by the Governors in office on their respective planets.

Playing a Technology Card (Action D)

Technology cards increase a player's abilities for the duration of one round (exception: Advanced Processing may be used only once). They are played in addition to the ship card and shown face up in front of the player. They are all discarded at the end of the round.

PHASER BANKS: any ship/base you control adds two (+2) to the result of combat dice for the rest of the current round.

SCREENS: any ship(s) you control are invulnerable in combat for the rest of the current round, unless you allow them to be attacked.

SENSORS: if you obtain (with two dice) a result equal to or lower than the value of the ship played, all players except you must check their secret bases and reveal them if they belong to the planet on which you played the ship. You roll the dice and compare them with your ship's value every turn in which you play a ship using the sensors. Using the sensors is optional, not mandatory. You may choose not to use them and not roll the dice when you play a ship. The garrisons of the revealed Secret Bases are taken back into hand by their respective players and the bases are placed at the top of the corresponding planet's column, above the Galaxy. Secret Bases are revealed before the ship uses its ability. If at the end of the game it is discovered that a player did not reveal their secret Base when the sensors had been used successfully on the planet, that player receives zero Influence points regardless of the value of their bases still in play.

WARP DRIVE: on each of your turns, for the rest of the round, you may take and add to your Hand any visible card from the row preceding the current round row, in the same planet column where you play a ship. If, thanks to the Divergence Governorship, you play two ships per turn, you may also take one card from each column on which you play. If you are also the Felowi Governor and play on Felowi, this turn you may take two cards from the Felowi column.

ADVANCED PROCESSING: you immediately draw three cards and add them to your Hand. You must, however, immediately discard this technology card.

Governor Powers (Phase 2)

Each planet has a particular power that can be used only by that planet's Governor when they play a ship in its column. A Governor is never obliged to use their power. If you are not already the incumbent Governor of a planet at the moment you play a ship, then you cannot use the powers of that office for that turn. You may, however, deploy a Base (or reveal a secret Base) to become Governor of the planet before playing a ship card on it. You may use the Governor power in the turn in which you take office, as long as you obtain the governorship before playing the ship card. It does not necessarily have to survive the Action Phase in order to trigger the use of the Governor power. In other words, you may use the Governor power even if the Warship you played is eliminated in combat. A Governor power is used during phase 2 of the turn unless otherwise specified (see Cylor, Divergence, and Kha'Farjimmn below for the exceptions).

CYLOR: each turn the Cylor Governor may discard from their Hand up to three ship cards of a planet that has surrendered and replace them with as many cards drawn from the draw pile. The player must use this power before, and in addition to, drawing normally. The Cylor Governor cannot discard one or more ships that are Garrisons or in reserve until they first take them back into hand. The ship cards discarded in a turn do not all have to be of the same planet. They could, for example, be: one card for each of the three surrendered planets, or two cards of one and one of another, or three cards of the same planet.

FELOWI: the Felowi Governor may claim and take into hand one visible card from any row of a past round of the Felowi column. When a card is thus claimed, the card beneath it (if any) becomes visible again and may be claimed in turn by later uses of the Felowi power. Removing cards from the rows of past rounds does not change the value of any bases present in that row. Claiming a card does not prevent you from drawing a card at the end of the turn. This power lets you increase your hand by one card for each turn in which you play on Felowi.

MYRMIDON: the Myrmidon Governor may draw at random half (rounded up) of the cards from a player's Hand ("the victim") and, without looking at them, place them in the victim's reserve.

DIVERGENCE: the Divergence Governor may play a second ship in their Action Phase, after having used, or declined to use, the first ship's ability. The second ship may NOT be played in the Divergence column. If the player is also the Governor of another planet, they may use both Governor powers by playing a ship on each planet. The Divergence power requires the use of two cards and therefore reduces the player's hand, because at the end of the turn they may draw only one new card. The Divergence Governor's ability to play a second ship remains in effect even if the first ship is eliminated in combat before the second is deployed.

ECUP CONTRACT: the Ecup Contract Governor may draw a random card from another player. After inspecting it they may:

• return it, or
• keep it, in exchange for a card of their choice from their own hand.

IMPERIALS: the Imperial Governor gains an engagement opportunity each time they play a Warship (6-10) in the Imperial column. This engagement opportunity is in addition to the other opportunities possibly gained (by covering or matching other ships). They may therefore perform an attack (against a Base) even if it is the first ship played in the round.

KHA'FARJIMMN: the Kha'Farjimmn Governor may play their ships face down in their own planet's column. Such a card is not visible and cannot be played while it is face down. It remains face down until all worlds have a ship in the current round row at the beginning of the Planet Surrender Phase. At that point, the card at the top of the current row in the Kha'Farjimmn column is turned face up. If the round continues, due to a tie among the lowest-value ships, the ship in question remains in play face up and therefore vulnerable to attacks. The Kha'Farjimmn Governor may continue to play cards face down in the Kha'Farjimmn column, but they will be revealed in the Planet Surrender Phase of their turn if all planets still have a ship in play in the round row.

Face-down ships cannot use their ability. A face-down ship may be played on top of another ship. Likewise, a face-up ship may be played on top of a face-down ship. Bases are defended if there is a face-down ship in the round row of their column. The Kha'Farjimmn Governor is free to examine a face-down ship during their turn if it is at the top of the round row.

ERITHIZONIAN: the Erithizonian Governor, when playing a ship in their own planet's column, may move an Ally card from the current round row of one planet to that of another planet's column.

Surrender of Planets (Phase 3)

When, at the beginning of the Planet Surrender Phase, every planet has a ship in play in its column in the round row, identify the planet with the lowest-value ship. Turn face up the top card of the round row of the Kha'Farjimmn column. If only one planet has the lowest-value ship, the round ends and the planet surrenders. If there are two or more ships with the lowest value, the round continues.

The card of the surrendered planet is removed from the Galaxy and set aside. The planet's second card is also set aside. All ship cards in the relevant column are placed on the discard pile. Each secret Base of the planet is set aside; its owner can no longer use it. Secret bases on the surrendering planet are NOT revealed; they remain in play and let you deceive opponents, even though they have no value at the end of the game.

SPOILS OF WAR: a bonus called Spoils of War is awarded to the player who controls the highest-value ship in the current round row when a planet surrenders. They may reinforce or damage a visible base in the column of the ship's planet. This includes moving the base to or from the position above the planet card on the Galaxy. A Base can never be damaged so much as to drop more than one row below the current turn's row. In other words, at the end of the first round, when every Base above the round row is worth four Influence points, its value can never be reduced below three because of Spoils of War.

Since ships are usually controlled by a Governor, it is normally the Governor who receives the Spoils of War. When, however, it is the player whose turn it is who played the highest-value ship, since they retain control of the ship until the end of the turn, it is they who receive the Spoils of War, whether or not they are the planet's Governor.

In case of a tie, each player who controls a highest-value ship in the round row gains the Spoils of War, starting with the player whose turn it is and proceeding clockwise around the table. If the highest-value ship is uncontrolled (belongs to no Governor), no one obtains Spoils of War.

Drawing a Card (Phase 4)

There is no limit to the number of cards you may hold in hand. The number of cards in your Hand will vary during the game depending on how many you take or subtract from opponents. At the end of your turn, you may draw a new card from the draw pile or take the cards of your reserve back into your hand (see chapter 11). When the draw pile runs out, you can no longer draw. This is likely to happen and is part of the game.

When you end your turn, your ships pass under the control of the Governor of the planet on which you played them. The turn now passes to the player on your left (clockwise).

Example: Three Rounds of Play

Dealing and Determining the First Player

The players choose their color and roll a die to determine who will deal (clockwise, starting with the dealer: Green, Red, Blue, and Yellow). After dealing eight cards to each player, the dealer (Green) declares an opening of 3, Red declares 5, Blue 6, Yellow 8, the dealer raises to 9, and all the others decide to pass. Green has won the opening, will be first to play, and must play a 9. The first round thus begins.

Round 1

Green: deploys a base under the Kha'Farjimmn column and takes the Governor card. Plays the Cylor 9. Draws a card from the draw pile.

Red: deploys a base under the Erithizonian column and takes the Governor card. Plays the Felowi 5. Draws a card from the draw pile.

Blue: Plays the Kha'Farjimmn 4. Uses its ship ability to damage Green's base by one level. Deploys a Base in the now-free row of the Kha'Farjimmn column, taking the governorship card away from Green. Draws a card.

Yellow: Deploys a Base on the Myrmidon planet, securing its governorship. Plays the Ecup Contract 8. Draws a card.

Green: plays a secret base with a Kha'Farjimmn 1 card face down. Draws a card.

Red: plays a secret base with an Ecup Contract 5 card face down. Draws a card.

Blue: plays a secret base with a Myrmidon 4 card face down. Draws a card.

Yellow: plays a secret base with a face-down Divergence 0 card. Draws a card.

Green: plays a visible base on the Divergence, gaining its governorship. Plays Felowi 9 (gaining two engagement opportunities, one for covering the Felowi ship and one for matching the Cylor 9 ship). Green decides to use both attacks against Bases rather than ships. Attacks Yellow's Base on Myrmidon (Yellow rolls too low: a 6, which is less than the attacking ship's value, and the base is damaged by one level). Attacks Red's Erithizonian base and (Red obtains a sufficiently high result, a 12, to make the attack fail). Draws a card from the draw pile.

Secret bases not shown in the figure.

Figure 4: the first round continues [R=Red, B=Blue, Y=Yellow, G=Green]. This is the situation after Green's two attacks. Regardless of the number of turns taken and cards played, the round cannot end until all worlds have a ship card in the current round's row in the Planet Surrender Phase. Often players do not have the same opportunities to play in a round.

Red: deploys a base in the Imperial column and assumes its governorship. Plays Erithizonian 8 (gaining an engagement opportunity for matching a ship's value). Attacks Green's Base on the Divergence (Green rolls a 10: the attack fails). Draws a card from the draw pile.

Blue: deploys a base on Felowi, becoming its Governor. Plays Myrmidon 10. Draws a card from the draw pile.

Yellow: Plays the Imperial ship 6 (gaining an engagement opportunity). Attacks the Kha'Farjimmn ship. Rolls a 4 (+6 for the Imperial ship's value) for a total of 10, while Red obtains 8 (+4 for the Kha'Farjimmn ship) for a total of 12; the attack fails. The counterattack also has no effect, because Blue rolls 7 (+4)=11 and Yellow rolls 6 (+6)=12. Draws a card from the draw pile.

Green: plays a base in the current round row of the Myrmidon planet (free because of their attack on Yellow's base in the previous turn), gaining its governorship. Plays Divergence 6 (gains an engagement opportunity, which they decline to use). As the incumbent Governor of the Divergence, uses its power and plays another card: Ecup Contract 3. Note that, although they covered another card, they do not gain an engagement opportunity, since Transports are not a Fleet ship card. After the Planet Surrender Phase, draws a card from the draw pile (note that Green's hand now has only seven cards because they used the Divergence Governor power).

Figure 5: Round 1, Planet Surrender [R=Red, B=Blue, Y=Yellow, G=Green]. The Ecup Contract planet is the only one with the lowest-value ship in play, so the round ends. The Myrmidon Governor (Green), whose planet has the highest ship, obtains the round's Spoils of War. Green moves the green base on Myrmidon up one level (placing it above the Galaxy and thereby giving it a value of five Influence points).

Round 2

Play continues where it left off, with Red taking their turn (since Red is seated to the left of the player who just ended the round). Now ships and bases are played in a new round row, below that of the previous round.

Red: deploys a Base above the row of the Felowi column. Plays Myrmidon 3 (but decides not to reinforce the base with the ship's ability). Draws a card from the draw pile.

Blue: deploys a Base above the row of the Cylor column. Plays the technology card Advanced Processing. Plays Felowi 8. As the Felowi Governor, Blue uses the power to claim Felowi 9 played in the previous round. Draws a card from the draw pile (note that Blue's Hand now has nine cards thanks to the use of the Felowi power).

Yellow: deploys a Base above the row of the Divergence column. Plays an Ally 8 on Cylor (gaining an engagement opportunity) and attacks Green's base on Kha'Farjimmn. Green rolls a seven with the dice and the attack succeeds; the green Base is damaged by one level. As the Cylor Governor, Yellow uses the power to discard Ecup 0. Draws two cards from the draw pile (note that their Hand returns to eight cards).

Green: plays Sensors. Deploys a Base in the vacant Kha'Farjimmn row and takes the governorship from Blue. Plays a Kha'Farjimmn 3 card face up (declining the possibility of using the Governor power in order to use the ship's ability to reinforce the Green Base by two points instead). Uses the Sensors ability on Kha'Farjimmn, but obtains a 4 (greater than the ship's value), which is too high to detect the secret Base. Draws a card from the draw pile.

Figure 6: The second round continues [R=Red, B=Blue, Y=Yellow, G=Green]. Here is the situation after Green has recovered the Kha'Farjimmn governorship. Note that Green [G] now owns two bases in the three-point row of the Kha'Farjimmn column, but their Transports (which could have been covered) were played face up so as to increase Influence on the planet.

Red: plays Imperials 10 (thus gaining an attack opportunity for the Imperial ability). Attacks the Ally 8 (on Cylor). Red rolls a 9 (+10 for the Imperial ship)=19, while Yellow (Cylor Governor) rolls a 7 (+8 for the Ally ship)=15, and the Ally ship is destroyed (and discarded). Draws a card from the draw pile.

Blue: deploys a base on the Imperial planet. Plays an Ally 2 on Erithizonian. Draws a card from the draw pile, but decides to use their ship's ability to put it on the bottom of the deck and draw another.

Yellow: plays an Ally 7 on the Divergence. Draws a card from the draw pile.

Green: Plays Cylor 10 (gaining an engagement opportunity, which they refuse). Uses Sensors, and rolls an 8 with two dice, revealing all Cylor Bases: there are none in play. After the Planet Surrender Phase, draws a card from the draw pile.

Figure 7 (previous page): Round 2 Planet Surrender. The Erithizonian planet, as the planet with the lowest-value ship, is removed from the game. The Imperial Governor (Red), who controls one of the two highest-value ships, obtains this round's Spoils of War and moves the red Imperial base up one level. Green retains control of the Cylor Dreadnaught until the end of their turn. The Cylor ship's value equals that of the Imperial ship, so Green also obtains the round's Spoils of War and decides to damage the yellow base on Cylor.

Round 3

Red: deploys a Base in the new round row under Felowi, taking the governorship from Blue. Plays Felowi 10. Uses the Felowi power to claim Felowi 8 from the previous round row. Draws a card from the draw pile.

Blue: plays an Ally 4 on the Imperial planet. Damages the red Imperial Base by one level. Draws a card from the draw pile.

Yellow: deploys a Base in the new Divergence row, taking the governorship from Green. Plays Phaser Banks. Plays Ally 9 on the Divergence. As the Divergence Governor, Yellow uses their power to play Felowi 0. Draws a card from the draw pile.

Green: plays a face-down card on Kha'Farjimmn (the 9) using the Governor power (they do not gain an attack opportunity because the card was played face down). Draws a card from the draw pile.

Red: plays Myrmidon 0. Draws a card from the draw pile.

Blue: plays Cylor 3 and uses the ship ability to reinforce the blue Base (Yellow remains Governor). Since all planets have a ship in the Planet Surrender Phase, the Kha'Farjimmn card must be revealed (this does not generate an engagement opportunity). Draws a card from the draw pile.

Note in the right margin of page 20: The use of the Felowi power has left a space vacant in the previous round row. This has no effect on the game other than to offer Felowi fewer cards to claim.

Note at the bottom of page 20: The round row has all its spaces occupied, so the face-down ship must be revealed.

Figure 8: Planet Surrender Phase of Blue's turn. Since the round row has been completed, the face-down Kha'Farjimmn ship must be turned and revealed (a Battle Cruiser). No planet surrenders, however, and the turn continues due to the tie between Myrmidon and Felowi, both with the lowest-value ships. It is now Yellow's turn.

Yellow: plays Myrmidon 5. Uses the ship ability to draw a card from the Hand of the Myrmidon Governor (Green). The Planet Surrender Phase is resolved, after which they draw a card from the draw pile.

Figure 9: Planet Surrender Phase of the third round [R=Red, B=Blue, Y=Yellow, G=Green]. The Felowi planet, as the one with the lowest-value ship, is removed from the game. The Divergence Governor (Yellow) and the Kha'Farjimmn Governor (Green) each control one of the two highest-value ships in play and both obtain the Spoils of War. Yellow reinforces their two-point base. Green instead decides to damage the Blue Base by moving it one row down.

The surrender of the Felowi planet is a hard blow for both Blue and Red, who abandons all hope of winning, having lost their secret Base in the surrender of Erithizonian, a fact still unknown to their opponents. The other players still have operating secret bases, but the reinforcement or damaging of visible Bases can still be important in calculating final Influence.

Our example ends here, and we refer you to Figure 1 (page 3) to see the final result after a few more minutes (and two rounds) of play.

Summary of Governor Powers

• Cylor: each turn may discard from their Hand up to three ship cards of a planet that has surrendered and replace them with as many cards drawn from the draw pile. The player must use this power before, and in addition to, drawing normally.
• Divergence: may play a second ship (not in the Divergence column) on their turn, after having used, or declined to use, the first ship's ability.
• Ecup Contract: may draw a random card from another player. Inspect it and: a) return it, b) keep it, in exchange for a card of their choice from their own hand.
• Erithizonian: may move an Ally card from the round row of one planet to the current round row of another planet's column.
• Felowi: may claim and take into hand one visible card from any row of a past round of the Felowi column.
• Imperials: gains an engagement opportunity each time they play a Warship (6-10) in the Imperial column.
• Kha'Farjimmn: may play their ships face down in their own planet's column.
• Myrmidon: may draw at random half (rounded up) of the cards from a player's Hand ("the victim") and, without looking at them, place them in the victim's reserve.
• Ally cards: these cards may be played on any planet to activate the relevant Governor power.

Summary of Ship Abilities

• Nova (0): cannot be attacked by other ships.
• Drone (1): lets you draw a random card from the hand of the Governor of the relevant planet, inspect it, and place it in the Governor's reserve.
• Shuttle (2): lets you examine and reject the first card drawn at the end of the turn.
• Transports (3): can reinforce a visible base in the planet's column.
• Assault Craft (4): can damage a visible base in the planet's column.
• Raider (5): lets you draw a random card from the Hand of the planet's Governor and add it to your own.
• Warships (6-10): can attack other ships and/or Bases if they have an engagement opportunity.

Turn Sequence Summary

1. ACTION PHASE: there are three possible actions A1, A2, and A3, as described below. You must perform one and only one of the three actions in your phase (exception: if you have no ship cards in hand, you cannot perform any of the three). There are also three optional actions (B, C, and D). These are not mandatory; you may perform one, some, or none of them. You may perform actions A, B, C, and/or D in any order during your Action Phase.
   • A1 Play a ship card from your Hand onto the column of a corresponding planet still in play.
   • A2 Discard from your hand a ship card of a planet that has surrendered.
   • A3 Play a ship card face down as a garrison and place an unplayed Base on top of it; this is a Secret Base. When you choose to perform this action, you can no longer perform actions B or C this turn.
   • B Place one of your unplayed Bases, or reveal one of your Secret Bases.
   • C Use the naval strength of the ship you played (including resolving any combat).
   • D Play one of the technology cards in your hand.
2. GOVERNOR POWER PHASE: if during the Action Phase you were the Governor of a planet on which you played a corresponding ship card (or Ally card), you may now use your Governor Power (you may also decline to do so). The Cylor, Divergence, and Kha'Farjimmn powers are exceptions, usable during other phases of the turn as specified by their power.
3. PLANET SURRENDER PHASE: if every remaining planet has a ship in play in its column, in the round row, turn face up the top card of the round row of the Kha'Farjimmn column (if present). If there is only one ship with the lowest value in the round row, its planet surrenders. The Governor, or, in case of a tie, the Governors, who control the highest-value ship in the current round row receive the Spoils of War when another planet surrenders. After the Spoils of War have been taken, the round ends.
4. DRAW: draw one card from the draw pile or take all the cards of your Reserve back into your hand.