Pax Expanse
Pax Expanse Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Outline of Play
In terms of gameplay, Pax Expanse is essentially a tableau builder and area-control game. Players will spend most of their turns purchasing cards from a central market and then playing those cards in front of them in a single row called a Network. Playing cards adds units to the game's map to control areas and also grants access to additional actions that can be taken to disrupt other players and affect the course of the game. That last point is worth emphasizing. Though everyone is building their own row of cards, the game offers many ways for players to interact with each other, both directly and indirectly.
To survive, players will support and seek the support of different factions. Two of the factions (Mars and Earth) represent the major powers of the Solar System. The third faction (the Belt) is composed of residents of the outer Solar System who seek to end the dictatorial regime of the inner planets.
Throughout the game, the different factions will be evaluated when a special event card, called a Dominance Check, is resolved. If a single faction has a commanding lead during one of these checks, players loyal to that faction will receive victory points based on their reputation with that faction. However, if the expanse remains fragmented during one of these checks, players instead will receive victory points based on their personal power base.
Components
The Map
The map consists of six regions, representing key areas of the Solar System. There is no limit to the number of pieces that can be placed on a specific region or border, and pieces belonging to different players and factions can occupy the same region or border.
The map is bordered by a victory point track and has spaces to mark the current political climate.
Faction Tokens (36)
Each faction has twelve tokens in its color: blue for Earth (United Nations), red for Mars (Mars Congressional Republic) and yellow for the Belt (Outer Planets Alliance).
If you want to use the blocks from Pax Pamir, instead of tokens, then assign green for Earth, pink for Mars and yellow for the Belt.
What a token represents depends on where it is placed. A token placed in a region is called a fleet. If placed on a border, the token is called a transport. The tokens are double-sided and should be placed with the correct side face up to indicate what they represent.
In general, faction tokens only help players who are currently loyal to that faction. So, even if you helped raise the fleet, your navy will not follow you if you change your loyalty.
Control Markers (44)
Each player has eleven control markers in their color. One is used to track victory points. The remaining control markers represent different things based on where they are placed. A control marker placed in a region is called a supporter. If placed on a card in a player's Network, the control marker is called an agent.
If you want to use the control markers from Pax Pamir, you may do so.
Unlike faction tokens, control markers will always be on your side, even if you change loyalty.
Influence Tokens (36)
There are 36 tokens in the game. Each represents a single point of "influence". Unlike other components in the game, there is no hard limit to the number of influence tokens, but it is very rare to need additional tokens. In Pax Expanse, influence represents political capital. During this time, political capital is largely a zero sum game, and that is true as well in Pax Expanse.
Cards (142)
There are four types of cards in Pax Expanse: event cards (16), assets (100), loyalty (12) and Rocinante cards (24 AI and 7 reference).
Event cards are fairly straightforward. Each has two effects. The top effect is triggered if it is purchased by a player. The bottom effect is triggered if the card is automatically discarded during the cleanup phase at the end of a player's turn.
Players should note that four of these event cards are a different color to the rest; these are special event cards called Dominance Checks that determine when and how victory points are awarded.
The majority of the cards in the game are called assets. Asset cards hold a lot of information and understanding them is critical to playing Pax Expanse. Their anatomy is described below.
Core Anatomy (all asset cards have these features):
- Suit and Rank: the suit emblem and the rank stars in the top left corner of the card (see Rank and Privilege below).
- Region: the region printed across the top of the card.
- Impact Icons: the icons on the right side of the card, resolved after the card is played.
- Card-based Actions: the action icons printed on the card, each with a number showing its rank.
Advanced Anatomy (some asset cards have these features):
- Loyalist (coloured bar): marks the card as a loyalist, with the bar coloured for its faction.
- Special Ability: a small text box describing an ability that is active while the card is in a Network.
- Reward: an icon on the bottom edge of the card that a player may collect as a reward when the card is eliminated.
Each player gets a set of 3 Loyalty cards; each card represents one of the three factions in the game.
The Rocinante AI cards feature one or two actions, and a location that the Rocinante will move to. These cards are activated once every round, after every player has had a turn.
Other Playing Pieces
Other playing pieces that perform various functions throughout the game include: player boards, the market board, dominance markers and the political climate marker.
Setup
Starting Political Climate
Place the political climate marker on the "Peace" space on the political climate track.
Build the Draw Deck
Build the draw deck using the following steps:
- Separate the events and the four Dominance Check cards from the rest of the asset cards.
- Shuffle the event cards, then create six piles of cards using the following compositions.
| Pile # | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assets | 12 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 12 |
| Events | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
The Dominance Check cards should be added to the top of piles 3 to 6 in ascending number order (so Dominance Check card 1 is the top card of pile 3, card 2 is at the top of pile 4, and so on).
- Then place each pile on top of the next to form a single deck, with the lowest-numbered pile on the top and the highest-numbered pile on the bottom.
- Determine a first player randomly. Place the Rocinante reference cards to the right of the first player (meaning that the Rocinante's actions will be resolved after all other players have had a turn). Shuffle the Rocinante AI deck and place it face-down near the Rocinante reference cards, then flip the top card of the Rocinante AI deck faceup, leaving it on top of the deck.
- Place the Eros objective token in the Belt region. Place the Rocinante token in the Outer Planets region. Place 1 Dominance token in each region showing the white "uncontrolled" side faceup.
- Give players starting influence tokens according to the following table.
| No. of Players | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | - |
| 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Turn Order is shown across the top of the table: 1st through 4th.
Create the Market
In Pax Expanse, cards enter play through a market. The market is an array of 12 face-up cards, arranged in a grid of two rows and six columns. During setup, create this market by drawing cards from the draw deck and filling each market column (top row first), starting with the leftmost column. Then place the draw deck to the right of the market.
Take Player Pieces
Give each player a set of eleven control markers, three loyalty cards (one for each faction), and a player board. Place one control marker from each player on the zero space of the victory point track and the rest on each player's player board.
Bank and Faction Tokens
Place the remaining influence tokens and the faction tokens near the area of play.
Starting Loyalty
Each player secretly chooses 1 of their loyalty cards to be their starting loyalty. Once all players have chosen, they reveal their chosen loyalty cards simultaneously and place them on their player boards. Play then begins with the player to the left of the Rocinante reference cards.
Key Terms and Concepts
The Four Suits
The vast majority of the cards in Pax Expanse are divided into four suits that each correspond to a different mode of power: economics, war, politics, and subterfuge. Each suit has its own advantages. Generally speaking:
- The war suit commands fleets and helps secure a faction's dominance.
- The political suit consolidates power and controls which cards are able to be played.
- The subterfuge suit grants diplomatic flexibility and the ability to compromise enemies.
- The economics suit controls the flow of influence, loyalty and the movement of pieces.
The Political Climate
One suit is always considered favoured by the current political climate. This suit determines which cards take bonus actions. The political climate changes when certain cards are played.
Your Network
Each player is associated with a single row of cards called a Network. Players begin the game without any cards in their Network, but will gradually add cards to and remove cards from their Network over the course of the game. Cards in a Network cannot be freely rearranged. While your Network can grow to any size during your turn, during cleanup you must discard cards from your Network so that you do not have more assets than three plus the sum of green (political) stars on cards in your Network.
Your Hand
Each player is associated with a hand of cards. While your hand can grow to any size during your turn, during cleanup you must discard cards from your hand so that you do not have more cards in hand than two plus the sum of yellow (subterfuge) stars on cards in your Network.
Rank and Privilege
Each asset has a rank from one to three stars. Rank has two important consequences. First, a card's rank determines the strength of some of its actions. These actions feature additional symbols to help players remember which actions depend on rank. Second, a card's rank is also added to your total stars in a specific suit. Each sum of stars in a suit expands an important privilege, as indicated here:
- Economic Stars (blue): help preserve your reputation with factions when you change loyalty.
- War Stars (red): serve as a tie-breaker when scoring Dominance Checks.
- Political Stars (green): enable you to maintain a larger Network.
- Subterfuge Stars (yellow): allow you to hold more cards in your hand.
Loyalty and Reputation
Players in Pax Expanse are always loyal to one of three factions: the United Nations (UN, representing Earth), the Mars Congressional Republic (MCR, representing Mars) and the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA, representing the Belt). Your loyalty determines the color of faction tokens that you will place when playing cards e.g. players loyal to the Mars faction place tokens that are red.
The extent of your loyalty to a faction is measured in reputation points. We'll get to the various ways you'll acquire these things later, but, for now, know that your total reputation with a faction is the sum of the number of that faction's loyalists in your Network, the number of your rewards for that faction, and the number of your favours.
To change your loyalty, you must gain a reputation point associated with a different faction than your own (either by playing loyalists or by eliminating cards with rewards). Whenever you change loyalty, first return your favours to your supply and discard any rewards and loyalists you had previously accumulated (economic stars on cards in your Network can help you retain loyalists and rewards). Finally, adjust your loyalty cards to indicate your new loyalty.
Controlling a Region
Pax Expanse is primarily an area-control game, with each player vying to control each of the six most important regions of the Solar System: Earth, Mars, the Belt, Tycho Station, the Jupiter System and the Outer Planets. Each region can be controlled in two different ways, often simultaneously. A faction can control a region by having fleets in that region and transports bordering it. A player can control a region by having supporters (control markers) in that region, along with loyal fleets. It is possible for a region to be under player control by one player, while also being under faction control by one of the three factions (not necessarily the faction that the player who controls the region is loyal to).
To determine which faction controls a region, total up the number of fleets in the region and transports bordering the region that belong to each faction (transports always border two regions, and will count for both such regions). The faction with the highest total controls the region. In the case of a tie, no faction controls it.
To determine which player controls a region, total up the number of each player's supporters in the region, plus the number of loyal fleets in that region (i.e, fleets belonging to the faction the player is loyal to). The player with the highest total controls the region. In the case of a tie, no player controls it.
Note that players can only control regions if they have at least one supporter in the region; a player cannot control a region using loyal fleets alone. However, enemy fleets can prevent a player from controlling a region, even if the region contains no other player's supporters.
Dominance tokens are used to help keep track of which faction and which player controls a region at any one time. When a new faction gains control of a region, flip or exchange the Dominance token in the region so that the faction's emblem is displayed (if no faction controls the region, set the Dominance token to its white "uncontrolled" state). When a player controls a region, that player should stand all of their supporters in the region on top of the Dominance token. If no player controls a region, remove all supporters from the Dominance token and stand them in any free space in the region on the board instead.
Example: Chris, Robin and Mel are playing. Chris is loyal to the MCR, Robin is loyal to the UN, and Mel is loyal to the OPA. Chris and Robin each have 2 supporters in the Belt region, and Mel has 1. There are 2 MCR fleets, 1 UN fleet and 1 OPA fleet in the region, and 2 OPA transports on its borders.
Chris currently has player control of the Belt: 2 supporters plus 2 loyal fleets are greater than anyone else's total. However, it is the OPA that has faction control of the region, as their 1 fleet plus 2 transports is the highest total of all the factions.
1 of Chris's supporters is destroyed by Robin. Now no one has player control of the Belt, as both Chris and Robin are now tied on 3 supporters + loyal fleets each. Robin then places another UN fleet in the region. This allows Robin to take player control of the Belt. Finally, Robin places a UN transport on the border of the Belt, causing the OPA to lose faction control there; the region reverts to uncontrolled status (as the UN and OPA are tied on 3 fleets + transports each).
Sequence of Play
Pax Expanse occurs over a series of turns. Each turn, the active player performs the following sequence of steps:
- Actions
- Perform up to 2 actions (and any number of free actions).
- Cleanup
- Discard excess cards from Network and hand.
- Discard and resolve events in the left-most space(s) of the market.
- Move cards in the market to the left to fill empty spaces and refill the market.
Play then continues clockwise with the next player.
After each player has taken a turn, the faceup card on the top of the Rocinante AI deck is resolved. Then a new card is revealed, and play continues with the next player to the left.
At four points during the game (possibly fewer) a Dominance Check will occur, during which players will score points based on their presence on the board. After the last Dominance Check is completed, the game ends and the player with the most victory points wins.
Core Actions
The two core actions of Pax Expanse are described in this section. You always have access to the following core actions: purchase and play. In addition, the cards in your Network provide you access to the actions listed on that card. Each card in your Network can normally only be used for one action per turn. That is, even if a card has three actions on it, only one of those actions can be used each turn. The current political climate may modify this rule (see Political Climate).
Purchase
Purchase a card from the market and add it to your hand. If you purchase a card that has influence tokens on it, you receive those influence tokens along with the card.
In order to purchase a card, you must be able to pay the card's cost to the market.
The cost of the card depends on its current column in the market. The leftmost column is free, the next column costs one influence, then two, etc. Pay this cost by placing one influence token on each card in the same row to the left of the card you are purchasing. If you are ever required to place an influence token on a vacant market spot, pay the cost to the card in the same column in the other market row. If you place an influence token on a card in the market for any reason, you may not purchase that card this turn.
Event Cards: event cards (including Dominance Checks) never enter a player's hand and are resolved the moment they are bought from the market. Many event cards have a persistent effect that lasts until the next Dominance Check is resolved. Players who take these event cards should place them below their Network. Event cards that alter the general game should be placed near the map in easy view of all players.
Play
Play any card from your hand to your Network.
In order to play a card, first reveal that card to everyone and announce its name and region. If you are the controller of that card's region or if no one controls the region, you can freely play the card. If someone else is that region's controller, you must pay a bribe of influence to them that is equal to the number of the controller's supporters in that region. Any portion of this cost can be waived with the permission of the controller. If the bribe is not paid (or waived), play continues as if the action had never been taken.
The played card may be added to either the left or right end of your Network.
If the card is a loyalist that does not match your loyalty, discard all of your old loyalists, favours and rewards. Then change your loyalty card to match that of the new loyalist.
After a card is played, resolve each impact icon on the right side of the card from top to bottom. The effects of impact icons are described below:
- Place one faction token of your loyalty on any border of this region. This piece is now a transport.
- Place one of your control markers on a card in any player's Network that matches the played card's region. This piece is now an agent.
- Place one faction token of your loyalty in this region. This piece is now a fleet.
- Place one of your control markers in this region. This piece is now a supporter.
- Take two influence tokens from the bank.
- Move the Political Climate marker 1 space towards War or Prosperity (depending on the color of the icon).
Card-Based Actions
The rest of the actions in Pax Expanse are associated with assets and can only be taken if you have a card in your Network which displays that action. Each card can only be used for one action each turn, regardless of the number of action icons on that card.
Some card-based actions are modified by the rank of a card. The higher the rank, the more effective the action is. To help you remember this, action icons modified by rank feature additional symbols.
Bonus Actions
Actions on cards matching the current political climate do not count against your turn's two-action limit. Remember: each of these cards can still only be used for a single action per turn.
Action Costs
Some card-based actions require the acting player to pay an amount of influence to cards in the market. This influence is always paid in a similar fashion: influence tokens equal to the cost should be placed on the rightmost market cards of both rows, with a single influence token being paid to each card. If a market slot is vacant, skip that vacancy and pay the next market card(s) in the row. Reminder: if you place an influence token on a market card for any reason, you may not purchase that card this turn. For an example of paying action costs, see the example of the rally Action on the next page. If a player ever needs to pay an odd amount of influence, they may choose which row to place the final influence token on.
Intimidation
Asset cards in a player's Network can be intimidated. To intimidate an asset, a single enemy player must have more agents on the card than each other player. When a card in a player's Network is intimidated, that player can only use the card's actions if the player intimidating it is paid a bribe equal to the number of their agents on the card. Any portion of this payment can be waived with the permission of the intimidating player. Special abilities (those described in a small text box) are never prevented by intimidation.
Exhausting an Asset
When using an asset for its action, exhaust the card by turning it sideways to show that it has been used. This acts as a visual reminder of which assets have been used for an action. Some special abilities may also refer to this. An exhausted asset may not be exhausted again (and therefore cannot be used for actions). All assets are refreshed (turned upright) at the end of a player's turn.
Extort
The Extort action allows players to take influence from:
- Other players who have supporters in the region matching the extorting asset's region, or
- Assets in the market whose region matches the extorting asset's region.
The amount of influence taken is equal to the rank of the extorting asset.
Favour
The Favour action may be used for one of three effects:
- Gain Favour: Pay 2/4/6 influence tokens to gain a favour with the faction you are loyal to. The first favour gained costs 2 influence, the second 4 influence and the third 6 influence. A player cannot gain more than 3 favours with a faction. Place a control marker on one of the favour spaces on your Loyalty card to denote this. All favours are lost when a player changes loyalty (and the cost for purchasing the first favour with the new faction resets to 2 influence).
- Move the Rocinante: If the Rocinante is in a region adjacent to this asset's region, move it to this asset's region. If the Rocinante is in this asset's region, move it to any adjacent region. This may only be done if the Rocinante is undamaged.
- Place Supporter: Choose either the asset's region or another region controlled by the faction you are loyal to. Pay 2 influence tokens per supporter you currently have in that region to place a supporter in that region.
Rally
Players may build fleets and/or transports in the rallying asset's region, or in any region the player controls, via the Rally action. The built fleets/transports must be of the faction the player is loyal to. Any combination of fleets and/or transports may be purchased. The cost of this action is equal to two influence per unit placed (up to a maximum of 3 units).
Mobilise
You may perform a number of moves equal to the rank of the asset allowing the moves. Each move allows a player to move one loyal fleet, supporter or agent. Multiple moves may be split across several of your agents, supporters and loyal fleets.
- A loyal fleet may be moved to an adjacent region. Each fleet may only be moved once per Mobilise action.
- An agent may be moved to an adjacent asset card. Each player's Network is considered adjacent to the Networks of the players to their left and right (for example, the left-most card in a player's Network is adjacent to the right-most card in the Network of the player to their left). In this way, the assets in each Network form a "ring" around the table, and agents can move between the cards in each player's Network.
- A supporter may be moved to an adjacent region by way of a loyal transport that lays on the border of the two regions. Each transport may only be used in this way once per Mobilise action (however, it is possible for a single supporter to move across multiple regions using a single Mobilise action, as it will be using a different transport each time).
Eliminate
Discard one asset card where you have an agent (including cards in your own Network). Return one of your agents on that asset to your player board. Any other agents on the eliminated card are moved to adjacent cards by their controllers (in player order if multiple players have agents present). This action always costs two influence.
Additionally, the player performing the Eliminate action may remove 1 supporter belonging to the player whose asset was eliminated from the region matching the eliminated asset's region.
After the eliminated card is discarded, if the card featured a Reward icon on the bottom edge, the player who eliminated it may accept it as a reward, tucking it partially behind their loyalty card. If the Reward icon is different from your current loyalty, first discard all favours, rewards, and loyalists in your Network matching your current loyalty, then change loyalty to the faction shown on the reward.
Combat
Start combat in a single region or on a single asset. At the site of the combat, remove any combination of supporters, agents, transports, or fleets equal to the acting card's rank. There are three restrictions to this rule:
- You cannot remove more units than you yourself have fleets or agents in that combat.
- You cannot remove fleets or transports that are of your loyalty.
- You cannot remove supporters belonging to players that share your loyalty. However, their agents may be removed!
After a player performs a Combat action, for each supporter that was killed, that player may choose an asset controlled by the same player as the killed supporter that matches the killed supporter's region and exhaust that asset (this is known as destabilisation).
Cleanup
Cleanup has four steps:
- First, if you have more cards in your Network than three plus the sum of the green (Diplomacy) stars on cards in your Network, discard cards in your Network until you are within your limit.
- Second, if you have more cards in your hand than two plus the sum of the yellow (Subterfuge) stars on cards in your Network, discard cards in your hand until you are within your limit.
- Third, discard any event cards that are in the leftmost column of the market. Any influence tokens on the discarded event will remain in their position. The top row is always discarded first, followed by the bottom row. When an event card is discarded, resolve the text at the bottom of the card.
- Fourth, fill any empty spaces in the market by moving all the cards in that market row (along with their influence tokens) to their leftmost position and then draw new cards to fill in any rightmost empty spaces, returning the market to its normal size, if possible. If a card moves into a space with influence tokens from a previously-discarded event card, those tokens are placed on the new card taking that position.
Instability. If a Dominance Check card is revealed and there is already a Dominance Check card in the market, immediately perform a Dominance Check using the lower-numbered card, place the objective token as instructed by the higher-numbered card, and then discard both Dominance Check cards and fill the empty spaces in the market as described above. If the final Dominance Check card was discarded in this way, the Dominance Check will count as the final check and the game ends.
The Rocinante
The Rocinante and its crew act as independent agents and will typically hurt leading players or aid trailing players.
The Rocinante is represented on the board by the Rocinante token, which starts in the Outer Planets region but will move around the board as the game progresses. Actions performed by the Rocinante will only ever affect components present in the Rocinante's current region.
After every player has taken a turn, the Rocinante will take a turn. To do this, resolve the top card of the Rocinante AI deck (which should always be faceup). Each AI card features one or two actions, and then a location that the Rocinante will move to. For all AI cards except for James Holden's, perform the top action; only if you cannot resolve the top action (usually because no pieces of the required type exist in the Rocinante's current region) then perform the bottom action instead. For James Holden's cards, perform both actions, top to bottom. Full details of how to carry out each crew member's actions are explained on their respective reference cards.
Once the actions have been performed, the Rocinante moves directly to the location stated at the bottom of the card. Then discard the card and flip the new top card of the deck faceup.
If the Rocinante AI deck ever runs out of cards, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck.
Attacking the Rocinante
The Rocinante can be attacked by fleets in its region, as if it were a fleet itself. However, the Rocinante is never destroyed; instead, the player flips the Rocinante token to its damaged side; the Rocinante will not move during its upcoming turn (but the actions will still be performed).
The Rocinante crew are always considered to be located in the region containing the Rocinante token, so any abilities that affect how agents move between assets should take this into account (it is as if the Rocinante reference cards have the Rocinante token's current region printed in the upper-right corner). There is one exception to this: Rocinante asset cards do not count when targeted by Rocinante AI cards (for example, Amos will never try to eliminate Alex).
At the end of the Rocinante turn, the Rocinante flips back to its undamaged side.
Rocinante Assets
Four of the assets in the asset deck correspond to the four crew members of the Rocinante. These act like normal assets in every way, and usually give the players some control over the Rocinante or what is happening in its region.
The region for the four Rocinante cards is always "Rocinante", which simply means that the card's region is always considered to be the region that currently contains the Rocinante token. This region can change as the Rocinante token moves around the board.
Dominance Checks
Dominance Checks are resolved whenever one of the Dominance Check event cards is purchased by a player or triggered during cleanup. Dominance Checks are the main method by which players score Victory Points.
When a Dominance Check occurs, check to see if one faction controls more regions than each other faction. If so, then faction scoring will take place. If there is a tie between two or more factions for control of the most regions, then player scoring will take place instead.
Additionally, the player who controls the region with the current Objective token will score some bonus points.
Faction Scoring
If faction scoring occurs, then only players who are loyal to the dominant faction (i.e., the faction that controls the most regions) will score VPs. How many VPs each of those players scores is dependent on that player's reputation with that faction. A player's reputation with a faction is the sum of:
- The number of Loyalists the player controls of that faction.
- The number of rewards the player has collected for that faction.
- The number of favours the player has gained for that faction.
The player with the highest reputation collects the 1st place VPs as listed on the Dominance Check card under "faction scoring". The player with the second-highest reputation collects the 2nd place VPs, and the player with the third-highest reputation collects the 3rd place VPs. If there are more than three players loyal to the faction, then any remaining players do not collect any VPs. If there is a tie between the reputations of any of the loyal players, then the tie is broken by the number of military (red) stars in the player's Network. If there is still a tie, combine the VPs for the tied position(s) and then split them as evenly as possible between the tied players (with any remainder being lost).
Player Scoring
If player scoring occurs, then the two players who control the most and second-most regions will score VPs for 1st and 2nd place, respectively, as listed under "player scoring" on the Dominance Check card. Resolve ties in the same way as with faction scoring (using military stars first, then splitting the VPs for any tied positions).
Objective Token
Finally, the player (not faction) who controls the region containing the current objective token scores the related points as stated at the bottom of the Dominance Check card. This is completely independent of whether that player scored any other VPs earlier during the Dominance Check, or whether faction scoring or player scoring is taking place. Then move the Objective token to the region stated at the bottom of the Dominance Check card.
Political Climate
The political climate is a linear track, with Prosperity (corresponding to the Economic cards) at one end and War (corresponding to the Military cards) at the other end. The political climate marker moves up and down this track due to various effects on asset cards.
When the Political Climate marker is on a particular space, it indicates that actions performed using assets of the matching suit are free actions and do not count against the normal limit of 2 actions per turn. Players are still limited to performing only 1 action with each asset, however.
Additionally, each political climate status has its own special ability associated with it, as detailed below.
Prosperity: While the political climate is at Prosperity, players do not have to pay bribes to a region's controller when playing cards (they still need to pay bribes due to the presence of intimidating agents when performing actions, however).
Peace: While the political climate is at Peace, supporters are not lost when assets are eliminated, and assets are not exhausted due to destabilisation when a player's supporters in a region are killed.
Cold War: While the political climate is at Cold War, players may treat asset cards in play that share the same region as adjacent for the purposes of agent movement (for example, a Jupiter System asset is adjacent to all other Jupiter System assets).
War: While the political climate is at War, players may split their Combat actions between any number of different regions and/or asset cards.
General Rules
Negotiation
Players are free to discuss the game during play and explicitly coordinate their actions. However, any agreed-upon deal should be considered non-binding. Asset cards may never be transferred between players. Influence can only be transferred from one player to another if explicitly allowed by gameplay effects.
Component Limits
If asked to place a unit and none remain in the supply, you may take a piece of the required shape/color from anywhere in play, excluding any pieces placed this turn. In taking and placing a piece this way, you may convert one type of unit to another.
Example: You must place an agent, but you have no tokens remaining in your stock, so you take one of your supporters in play and place it as an agent as instructed.
Card Precedence and Special Abilities
Some event cards and assets with special abilities will modify the rules of the game. These cards always take precedence over the rules. If an asset has a special ability, it is active as long as the card remains in your Network.
Agents on Discarded Assets
Agents are only removed from assets in two situations:
- They perform an Eliminate action, or
- They are killed as part of a Combat action.
If an asset card that an agent is placed on is removed from play then the agent's controller may instead move the agent to an adjacent asset for free (if the political climate is at Cold War, then this may be an asset that shares the same region). If multiple players have agents on the discarded asset, then the players move the agents in player order, starting with the current player.
Game End and Victory
A game of Pax Expanse ends after the final Dominance Check is resolved, and the player with the most victory points wins.
If one or more players have the same number of victory points when the game ends, the player with the most red stars in their Network among the tied players wins. If there is still a tie, the player with the most influence among the tied players wins. If there is still a tie, whoever can make the best pot of coffee wins.