Micro Space Empire
Micro Space Empire Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Objective
The object is to survive and accumulate as many victory points as possible. Victory points are awarded for systems in your Empire at the end of the game, for technology that you researched, and for certain bonuses.
What You Will Need
- These rules
- The system cards
- The event cards (preferably printed on a different color than the system cards)
- The player mat
- Tokens of some kind (coins, beads, buttons, etc)
- A 6 sided die
Setup
- Find the Home World system card and lay it face up in the middle of the play area. This is your starting card.
- Separate the system cards into two categories: Near Systems (7) and Distant Systems (3).
- Shuffle the separate system card categories and lay them face down in a convenient spot.
- Place the player mat in a central, easily accessible location in your play area.
- Place tokens on: 0 metal storage, 0 wealth storage and 0 military (these are on the left side of the mat).
- Place tokens on +1 metal production and +1 wealth production for your Home World (these are on the right side of the mat).
- Remove one card from the event cards and set it aside without looking at it.
You are now ready to begin. The turn sequence is as follows:
1. Explore-Attack/Conquer/Bide Time
You may do one of the following:
Explore and Attack: turn over a card from the systems deck. You cannot explore a distant system until you have acquired the Forward Starbases technology AND all near systems currently in play are part of your Empire (that is, no unaligned systems) (explained below). This does not necessarily mean all near systems must be in play, just that all you have explored are part of your Empire.
The system card you turn over will have a Resistance factor. Roll a die and add your current Military Strength. If the total is equal to or greater than the Resistance, you have conquered the system and brought it into your Empire. Place the card in your play area. If the system grants metal or wealth, adjust your production level (right side of player mat) to reflect your total metal and wealth production.
If your Military Strength plus your die roll was less than the system's Resistance, your conquer attempt has failed. Reduce your Military Strength by 1. Your Military Strength cannot be less than zero. The system is explored, but not part of your Empire. It is unaligned. Place the card sideways in your play area to reflect this. Note attack is a mandatory follow-up to an explore action. You cannot turn over a card and opt to avoid battle.
Conquer: instead of turning over a system card, you may attempt to conquer one previously explored unaligned system. The sequence is the same as above in all ways except turning over a system card; instead you select which unaligned system to attack. Remember to reduce your Military Strength if your attempt fails.
Bide Time: do not turn over a system card and do not attack a previously discovered system; instead completely skip this step. You do not add a new system to your Empire, but you also do not risk losing a battle and reducing your Military Strength.
2. Collect Metal and Wealth
Add Metal and Wealth (both are "resources") to your stockpile based on the production of your systems. The production levels on the right side of the mat show how much Metal and Wealth your systems produce per turn. Add these amounts to your stockpile on the left side of the mat. Note the limit is 3 of each until you discover Interstellar Banking and after that the limit is 5. Any excess beyond your storage limit is wasted. During the last part of this phase, if you have Interspecies Commerce, you may reduce your Metal stockpile by 2 to gain 1 Wealth, OR reduce your Wealth stockpile by 2 to gain 1 Metal. This can only be done once per turn and only during this phase.
3. Build Military and Technology
The player may do either or both actions in either order:
Build Military: Reduce your Metal by 1 and your Wealth by 1 to increase your Military Strength by 1. This can only be done once per turn; that is you can only increase your Military Strength by 1 each turn. Note that Military Strength is limited to 3 until you discover Capital Ships, and afterward it is limited to 5.
Discover Technology: Reduce your Wealth by the amount shown on the technology table to gain that benefit for the rest of the game. For a technology on the same row, the first on the list must be discovered before you can progress to the second. For example, you must have Capital Ships before you can discover Forward Starbases. Place a token on that technology to show you have acquired it. Only 1 technology may be discovered per turn.
Technology:
- Capital Ships: required for advancing Military Strength beyond 3
- Forward Starbases: required for selecting Distant Systems to explore/conquer
- Robot Workers: receive 1/2 resources instead of zero during a strike event
- Planetary Defenses: add +1 to Resistance during invasion events
- Hyper Television: add +1 to Resistance during revolt events
- Interstellar Diplomacy: in the immediate turn after discovering this technology, the player has a phase 1 as normal, but may successfully explore-attack a world without rolling the dice, or re-conquer an unaligned world without rolling the dice. This may only be done once, on the following turn after discovery and it counts as a normal phase 1 action.
- Interspecies Commerce: may exchange Metal for Wealth or Wealth for Metal, explained in detail under Phase 2, above.
- Interstellar Banking: required to stockpile more than 3 Metal/Wealth.
4. Event Phase
Turn over the top event card. If it is Year 1 (explained below) read that section of the card; if it is Year 2 (explained below) read that section of the card. Possible events are as follows:
Strike: do not collect Metal or Wealth next turn. If you have the Robot Workers technology, collect half of each next turn instead of zero, round up.
Derelict Ship/Asteroid: add the resource shown to your stockpile. If the stockpile is at its maximum allowable level, the resource is not added and the event is ignored. Note that you cannot use the Interspecies Commerce technology during this phase.
Revolt: select the system in your Empire that has the lowest Resistance. If there is a tie, choose randomly. Roll the die and add the Force shown on the card. If this result is less than the system's Resistance, the revolt fails. If the die roll plus the Force number is equal to or greater than the Resistance number, it now becomes an unaligned world and leaves your Empire. Turn the card sideways to show its new status, and if it provided Resources, adjust your production levels. This system may be brought back into your Empire by executing a successful Conquer move during phase 1 of the turn. Add +1 to the system Resistance level if you have the Hyper Television technology. Easily conquered worlds are easily lost!
If you are in Year 1 and there are no systems in your Empire other than the Home World, this event has no effect. If it is Year 2 and you have no systems in your Empire, your Home World revolts and you lose the game.
Invasion: an opposing Empire is attempting to conquer one of your systems. Select the system that is part of your Empire (disregard unaligned systems) and was added most recently. Roll the die and add the Force shown on the card. If this result is less than the system's Resistance, the invasion fails. If the die roll plus the Force number is equal to or greater than the Resistance number, it now becomes an unaligned world and leaves your Empire. Turn the card sideways to show its new status, and if it provided Resources, adjust your production levels. This system may be brought back into your Empire by executing a successful Conquer move during phase 1 of the turn. Add +1 to the Resistance level if you have the Planetary Defenses technology. Easily conquered worlds are easily conquered by opposing Empires!
If you are in Year 1 and there are no systems in your Empire other than the Home World, this event has no effect. If it is Year 2 and you have no systems in your Empire, your Home World is conquered and you lose the game.
No event: nothing happens.
If there are event cards remaining, return to the Exploration-Attack/Conquer/Bide Time phase.
The game starts in Year 1. If you have used the last event card during Year 1, shuffle the event cards, including the card that was discarded during the setup. Randomly remove two cards and place them out of play without looking at them. It is now Year 2; return to the Exploration-Attack/Conquer/Bide Time phase. If you have exhausted the event deck in Year 2, the game ends.
Scoring
After you have exhausted the event deck in Year 2, add up your points. They are scored as follows:
- Gain Victory Points for every system in your Empire, shown on the bottom of the card. Ignore unaligned worlds.
- Gain 1 Victory Point for every technology you discovered.
- Exploration Bonus: Gain 1 extra Victory Point if you have turned over every system card in the game, even if some are not part of your Empire.
- Scientific Bonus: Gain 1 extra Victory Point if you have researched all the technologies.
- Warlord Bonus: Gain 3 extra Victory Points if all of the system cards in the game are part of your Empire.