Space Cadets: Dice Duel
Space Cadets: Dice Duel Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
Space Cadets: Dice Duel pits two starships against each other in quick-paced combat. The players are divided into two teams, each team playing the crew of their ship. The team will win or lose together. The game ends when one side destroys their opponent by causing four points of damage through torpedoes or mines.
Each ship has six stations. Engineering generates power for the other stations. Helm maneuvers the ship on the map. Weapons loads the torpedo tubes to attack the enemy. Sensors locks onto the enemy so torpedoes can hit, and uses jammers to stop the enemy from locking on. Shields helps protect the ship from enemy torpedoes. Finally, Tractor Beams can grab the powerful crystals, move the enemy ship on the map, and launch Mines.
There are no turns in Space Cadets: Dice Duel. The game continues with players acting as quickly as possible until one side wins.
Each player will be in charge of one or more of these stations, or have the overall role of Captain to coordinate everything.
Winning
To win the game you must cause four damage to the enemy ship, destroying it. Damage is caused by torpedoes and mines. The Weapons and Tractor Beam rules give all the details.
Components
Shared Components:
- 2 Starship Plastic Miniatures
- 6 Purple Acrylic Crystals
- 12 Asteroid/Nebula/Wormhole Tokens, double-sided
- 1 Game Board
- 1 Rulebook
Each Starship gets the following components:
- Engineering Station Display
- 6 White Energy dice
- Helm Station Display
- 3 Yellow Helm Dice
- Sensor Station Display
- 4 Green Sensor Dice
- Weapons Station Display
- 6 Red Weapon Dice
- Shield Station Display
- 3 Blue Shield Dice
- Tractor Beam Station Display
- 3 Orange Tractor Beam dice
- 2 Mine Tokens
Setup
Divide the players into two teams. Both teams should have the same number of players. If you have an odd number, you can put the less experienced players on the larger team, or the extra player can moderate the game and keep things moving. The game is fast enough that an extra player will be able to rotate in for the next play.
Regardless of the number of players, each team should sit on the same side of the table, within distance to pass dice between their teammates. Engineering should be located in the center of the team.
Players take the stations that are assigned to them, in the color of their ship, and the associated dice. Two mine tokens are placed on the Tractor Beam display. Place each Starship miniature and the six crystals on the indicated map squares.
Next, teams take turns placing the Asteroid and Nebula tokens on the map as desired, on either side. It is recommended that they be spread out fairly evenly, but players are free to place them as they wish. The Wormhole token sides are advanced rules, and should not be used until you have played a few games.
The game is now ready to begin! Someone says "BEGIN!" and the game starts with Engineering rolling the energy dice.
Station Assignments
The stations can be assigned as desired by each team. However, we recommend the following station assignments for your first play:
2 Players per team
- Player A: Helm, Shields, Tractor Beams
- Player B: Weapons, Sensors
- Shared: Engineering (see Engineering rules)
3 Players per team
- Player A: Helm, Shields, Tractor Beams
- Player B: Weapons, Sensors
- Player C: Engineering
4 Players per team
With a fourth player on a team, a new role is introduced: Captain. The Captain does not take any stations, but should direct the activities of the rest of their team. The other three players should divide the Stations as described above.
Game Board Areas
The board shows a Used Crystal Holding Area, a Damage Track, the White Ship start location, the Black Ship start location, and numbered Crystal Spaces.
Basic Game Flow
Space Cadets: Dice Duel has no turns. Players simply continue to roll dice and take actions as quickly as possible until one side emerges victorious. There are a few times when the action stops, but we'll get to those later.
How Stations Work
Each Station gets a set of dice, color-coded for that Station. The white dice are called Energy Dice and are used at the Engineering Station. The other dice are called Station Dice.
When Energy and Station dice are rolled, you may roll and re-roll them as many times as you like until you are satisfied with the result. You may choose to re-roll dice individually if multiple dice were rolled.
Whenever Energy Dice are available on the Energy Display, Engineering may roll and move any dice to the corresponding Stations matching that number, as shown on the Engineering Display and each individual Station Display.
Example: After rolling Energy dice, a die with a result of '1' may be placed on the Weapon Display or may be re-rolled to achieve a number corresponding to a different station. Remember, Energy dice can be re-rolled until you get the number you want.
Each Station Display, except Engineering, has a special ENERGY section, shown by the stripes. When Engineering passes dice to a Station, they are placed on the striped Energy section of the Station Display.
The Station dice MAY NOT be rolled until that Station receives Energy Dice. When a Station receives Energy Dice you may immediately begin rolling one die for each Energy die in the Energy section of the Display. For example, if Engineering places two '4's on the Shield Display, the Shields player can start rolling two Shield dice.
You can roll and reroll as many times as you want, as with Energy dice. When you are satisfied with one or more dice, place them onto the correct area of the Displays (more on that later), and return the same number of Energy dice back to Engineering by placing them anywhere on the Engineering Station Display. Engineering can immediately start to roll the returned Energy dice to give them back out to Stations.
Dice that are placed on a Station Display (except Engineering) can no longer be rerolled. You can remove a die from a Station Display at any time. However, you won't be able to put it back onto the Display until the Station receives more Energy Dice.
The Engineering Display shows the die roll required for each station: 1 = Weapons (red), 2 = Sensors (green), 3 = Tractor Beams (orange), 4 = Shields (blue), 5 = Helm (yellow). There is no slot for sixes.
Basic Game Flow Example
Engineering has three available Energy Dice. One Helm Die has previously been placed on the Helm Display.
The Captain has instructed the team to try to get a Weapon lock, and move the ship into firing position.
Engineering rolls the three Energy Dice, and gets a '1', '2', and '4'. She passes the 2 to Sensors and rerolls the other two dice until she gets a 2 and a 5, passing the 2 to Sensors and the 5 to Helm.
As soon as Energy Dice are received by the Stations they can begin to roll their Station Dice. Sensors rolls two dice since they have two energy. Helm has one energy die, and so only rolls one of the Helm Dice.
After rolling and rerolling, Sensors eventually gets a Single Lock and Double Lock result, and places them on the Sensor Display.
As soon as those dice are placed, the Energy Dice are returned to Engineering, placing them on the Engineering Display.
In the meantime Helm has rolled a 'Forward' result and placed it on the B Slot of the Helm Display, returning the Energy die back to Engineering.
As soon as Energy Dice as passed back to Engineering she can being to roll them again. She does not need to wait until all of them are returned.
Engineering
Engineering produces Energy Dice that are used to activate the dice for the other Stations.
The Engineering Officer does this by rolling as many Energy dice as are available. Each die can either be used as is, or re-rolled. If you decide to keep a die, pass it to the Station that matches the number and place it in the Energy Section of that Display. There is no slot for sixes. Sixes must be rerolled.
Example, Engineering has three unused Energy Dice. They roll a 1, 2, and 4. They decide to give the 1 to Weapons and the 4 to Shields. The team really wants another Energy die in Shields, so Engineering keeps rerolling the '2' until getting a '4', then passes it to Shields.
As soon as Energy dice are returned to Engineering the Engineering Officer can start to roll them and give them back to Stations.
The Displays may show either black or white symbols for the energy dice, but all energy dice are white.
SPECIAL RULE FOR TWO PLAYER TEAMS: If there are only two players per team, the Engineering Station is shared. Either player may roll the Engineering dice and pass them to the appropriate Station.
Play tip: Cycling energy as quickly as possible through the ship is one of the keys to victory.
Helm
Helm moves the ship across the map. The ship is always in a single square, and faces a particular side.
The Helm dice have icons that show how the ship will move. The Helm die faces are:
- Move forward 1 space
- Move forward 2 spaces
- Move forward 1 space and turn right
- Move forward 1 space and turn left
- Move forward 1 space and turn around
One Helm die may be placed in each spot on the Helm Display, labeled A, B, and C. They can be placed in any order, but once placed cannot be moved to another spot without being removed first.
Once all three dice are placed on the Display, Helm immediately moves the ship on the map as directed by the Helm dice. The die in the A position is resolved first, then B, and finally C.
NOTE: The ship DOES NOT move until all three Helm Dice are placed. You may not move after one or two dice are placed on the Helm Display.
After the ship is moved, all Helm Dice are removed from the Display, and new Energy Dice must be received from Engineering to place them again.
There are various obstacles on the map. If a ship moves into one of these squares, apply the effects shown below. Icons indicating these effects are shown on the Helm Display.
Both ships may occupy the same square. If that happens, move the ship that occupied the square in the half of the square away from the direction the other ship entered. The moving ship is placed in the half close to the edge of the square from where they entered, with the correct facing.
If a ship enters the same square as another ship from a diagonal due to Tractor Beams, the moving ship has the option of which side they are considered to have entered from.
There is no way to Ram an enemy ship.
If a Helm die would move a ship off of the map, simply ignore the forward movement on the die, but change facing as normal.
All Helm Dice icons move the ship forward at least one square. So you will always move into the square you are currently facing first. Take this into consideration when facing a square containing an asteroid or nebula square, or a mine.
Effects of moving into or through a Map Obstacle square
- Asteroids: Remove two dice from the Shield Display. If there are fewer than two, remove all the dice.
- Nebula: Remove two dice from the Sensors Display. If there are fewer than two, remove all the dice.
In both cases the Officer in charge of the station decides which dice to remove.
Movement Example
A: Your ship has rolled and placed three dice on the Helm Display. The ship is moved one square forward, then one forward and turned to the left, and finally one forward and turned to the right. It ends in the square shown.
Moving into the same square as the enemy
B: In the previous example, let's say that the enemy ship was in the final square, facing downwards. Your ship would move just as before. As you enter the final square, push the opposing ship towards the back half, and put your ship at the correct rotation.
C: The final position is shown here. Note that from this position, the Black ship can fire at the White ship, but the White ship cannot return fire.
Tip for placing helm dice
D: If you find it simpler, you may place the dice with the arrows pointing in the direction the ship will be facing. Some players find it easier to keep track of the final ship facing by doing this.
Playing on Space Cadets Map Tiles
If you also have a copy of the original Space Cadets you may use the Space Cadets map tiles to play Dice Duel instead of the game board. Lay out the tiles however you'd like. Use Shield tokens to denote the Crystal squares, 1 through 6.
Asteroids and Nebula are treated the same. Moving through a Rift forces the loss of ALL shield dice. Also, weapons fire may not be traced through a Rift, which usually only happens if you and the enemy are directly on the same row.
If the ship moves AGAINST a gravity arrow for one of the first two Helm Dice (A or B) you do not perform the action on the C die. If using the C die moves against a gravity arrow (but not A or B), there is no effect. Just resolve it as normal.
For each gravity arrow that move WITH, you get to save one Helm Die. Instead of pulling it off the display, move it to the Energy portion. Other dice are removed as normal. You may then rotate and place the saved dice as if you were using a Station Override crystal.
If you move both with and against a gravity arrow, apply both rules (don't use Die C, but keep a die).
Weapons, Shields and Sensors
Firing Torpedoes at the enemy is the primary way of causing damage and winning the game. There are three systems that are involved in launching and resolving torpedo fire: Weapons, Sensors and Shields. The next section covers all the details on launching torpedoes, but first here's an overview of these three systems.
Weapons
The Weapons Display is used to load and launch torpedoes.
The ship is equipped with four torpedo tubes - two in the front of the ship, and two in the rear.
It takes three dice to load a torpedo. Since there are six torpedo dice, at most two torpedoes can be loaded at the same time. These can be both in the front, both in the rear, or one on each side of the ship.
A torpedo requires one Nose die, one Body die, and one Tail die to be loaded. When all three slots on a torpedo have dice, the torpedo is said to be 'loaded'.
The Weapon die faces are: Nose, Body, Tail, 1 Hit (one Blast symbol), and 2 Hits (two Blast symbols).
Shields
Shields are used to protect the ship from enemy torpedoes.
There are four sectors on the shield display, which represent the four different sides of the ship. Each shield only protects against torpedoes coming in from that side of the ship.
Shield dice of the indicated number may be placed in the matching sector. The sectors are: Front (1), Right (2), Back (3), Left (4).
As many shield dice as desired may be placed in the same sector.
Any torpedoes launched at the ship from squares on a given side of the ship will hit that side's shield sector — for example, torpedoes coming from the right side hit Shield 2, and torpedoes coming from behind hit Shield 3. Any torpedoes launched directly along a diagonal will hit the stronger shield.
Sensors
Sensors are required to successfully fire weapons. They can also be used to make it harder for the enemy to hit the player ship with weapons.
There are two areas on the Sensor Display: Weapon Lock and Jammers.
Dice showing Lock icons are placed in the Weapon Lock area, and Jammers in the Jammer area. The Sensor die faces are: 1 Lock, 2 Locks, 1 Jammer, and 2 Jammers.
Each icon on a die generates one point. For example, three 1 Jammer dice and one 2 Jammer die generate 5 Jammer points.
Launching Torpedoes
To launch a torpedo, the Captain shouts "Fire 1" or "Fire 2" depending on whether he wants to launch one or two torpedoes. You may choose to launch one even if you have two loaded. If there is no Captain, this responsibility falls to the player manning the Weapons station.
As soon as "Fire 1!" or "Fire 2!" is shouted, the action on both ships immediately stops, and dice are placed down. Once the torpedo launch is resolved, the action starts up again.
There are three steps to a Torpedo Launch:
- A. Check to see if the torpedoes hit
- B. If they hit, check to see if they do damage
- C. Clean-up
A. Check to see if the torpedoes hit
In order to successfully hit the enemy, three conditions must be met:
- The enemy ship must be either in the front or rear arc of your ship (see the Front Arc / Rear Arc diagram)
- At least one torpedo must be loaded on that side (front or rear)
- The launching ship must have Lock points at least equal to the Range plus enemy Jammer points. Range is NOT counted diagonally.
SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH: Lock ≥ Range + Jammers
Whether or not the torpedo hits, the following happens:
- The launching ship must remove all Weapon dice from the number of torpedoes declared. If there is no torpedo on this side, or if the enemy is on a side facing, the torpedoes must be removed from wherever they are available.
- The launching ship must remove all Lock dice from the Display.
- If the enemy ship was within a front or rear arc, and a torpedo was on that side, Jammer dice on the target's Sensor Display are removed. Note that these are removed even if there were not enough Lock points in the launching ship's Sensor Display - in fact even if there were none. As long as a torpedo is launched in the correct direction the Jammer dice are removed.
Example: The White ship is firing on the Black ship, which is in the Front Arc. One torpedo is loaded in a front tube. The range is 3 squares (remember you cannot count diagonally). There are 5 points in Weapon Lock for White, and 1 point in Jammers for Black. Since the 5 weapon lock points are greater than the range (3) plus jammers (1), all three criteria are met and the torpedo hits the enemy!
B. Check to see if the torpedoes do damage
If one or more torpedoes hit the enemy ship, that does not mean that they penetrate the enemy shields. Follow these steps:
- The Weapon Officer determines which shield sector is hit, matching the direction the torpedoes hit the ship. If it is directly on a diagonal, the sector with more Shield Dice is hit, or the defending Shield Officer chooses if tied.
- If there are no shields on the sector hit, each torpedo automatically does one damage point. Proceed to step 4. If there are three shield dice on the sector, each torpedo automatically causes no damage.
- If there are one or two shield dice, the Weapon Officer rolls one Weapon die for each torpedo, looking for Blast symbols. At least one blast symbol is needed to penetrate a side with one shield die. The Two Blast symbol must be rolled to penetrate a side with two shield dice. This roll may not be rerolled. If two torpedoes are launched, each is rolled for separately.
- For each damage caused, the enemy loses one Energy die and places it on the Damage Display on the board. When a ship loses its fourth die it explodes.
Any shield dice that were on the sector that was hit are removed from the Shield Display, regardless of whether any damage was caused.
Shield dice in the sector hit — roll required for damage:
- 0 shield dice: AUTOMATIC HIT
- 1 shield die: One Blast or Two Blasts
- 2 shield dice: Two Blasts
- 3 shield dice: AUTOMATIC MISS
Example 1: Two torpedoes are launched and there are two shield dice. One torpedo rolls One Blast, and one rolls Two Blasts. The second torpedo hits, and one damage is caused.
Example 2: Two torpedoes are launched and there are two shield dice. One torpedo rolls One Blast, and the other also rolls One Blast. Neither torpedo causes damage.
C. Cleanup
After the Torpedo Launch is resolved, check to make sure that all Weapon, Sensor, Jammer, and Shield dice that need to be removed have been removed. Remember that Shield dice are only removed if the torpedoes hit, even if they do not cause any damage.
Place any used Crystals back on the map (see Crystals, below).
After this is complete, start the action back up again.
Continuing the torpedo example from the previous page, the torpedo will hit Shield 2. There is one die in Shield 2, so the torpedo may be blocked. White takes one of the dice from the torpedo and rolls it, getting one Blast symbol, so the torpedo causes one damage! Black takes one of their energy dice and places it on the Damage Display on the board.
After the weapon fire is resolved, the Torpedo dice and Weapon Lock dice are removed from the displays on White, and the Jammer dice and Shield 2 die are removed from the displays on Black. The Sensor die in Weapon Lock and the die in Shield Sector 3 are not removed, as they were not involved in the attack.
Special Notes on Weapons
- If you announce "Fire 2!" but only have one torpedo on the correct side of the ship, only one is launched, and resolution proceeds normally.
- A weapon launch may not be announced while the enemy ship is being physically moved on the map.
- See the Movement rules for how two ships being in the same square is handled.
- You can never hit an Enemy Ship with no lock points, even if you are in the same square.
Tractor Beams
Tractor Beams may be used to capture Crystals that are on the map, move the enemy ship, and deploy Mines.
Tractor Beam dice showing Tractor Beam icons generate Tractor Beam strength equal to the number of icons. The Tractor Beam die faces are: Mine A, Mine B, 1 Tractor Strength, and 2 Tractor Strength.
In order to succeed in a Tractor Beam attempt you must have Tractor Beam strength equal to DOUBLE the range to the target. Range is the distance to the object, NOT counting diagonally. If the range to the object is zero, one Tractor Beam strength is still required. The ship's facing does not affect tractor beams. The target can be in any direction.
To use the Tractor Beams to capture a Crystal simply remove the Crystal from the map and place it in the team Crystal area. The action does not need to be stopped.
If using Tractor Beams to move the Enemy ship, the Captain shouts "Tractor!" and the action stops in the same manner as launching Torpedoes.
If the enemy ship is successfully tractored, the Tractor Beam officer moves the opponent ship into an adjacent space (including diagonally). If that space has asteroids, nebula, or a Mine apply the penalty immediately as normal.
Regardless of whether tractoring a crystal or enemy ship, discard all Tractor Beam dice on the Tractor Beam display. New energy dice will be required to put those dice back onto their Displays. If the action has stopped due to tractoring the enemy ship, play now resumes as normal.
Tractor Beam Example (moving the enemy ship): The black ship has six Tractor Beam points available, and decides to move the enemy ship. They announce "Tractor" and the action stops. All Tractor beam dice on the black ship's Display are moved off the Display. The Captain of the black ship may move the white ship to any of the eight indicated squares, keeping the same facing. He decides to move it to the square shown, with the asteroids. This will cause the white ship to remove two shield dice, move his ship out of their front arc, and their ship into his!
Tractor Beam Example: The ship is two squares away from the Crystal, so to successfully tractor beam it you need four Tractor Beam strength. You have one die showing 1 Tractor Strength and two dice showing 2 Tractor Strength on the Display for 5 strength total, so the attempt succeeds and you take the crystal. All Tractor Beam dice are removed from the display, even though only four points were required.
Mines
The Tractor Beam officer is also in charge of releasing mines. To activate a mine, roll a Mine A/B result and place it on the appropriate space on the display. Once a mine is activated, it may be released at any time. If the die is removed from the display, the mine is no longer active and cannot be released.
When released, place the mine token in the same space as the ship and remove all dice from the Tractor Beam Display. Only one mine counter may be in a space at a time. If there is already a mine counter in a space with the ship, a new mine may not be released. Mines may not be released while either ship is being actively moved on the map. This means that mines may not be released in squares the ship moves through - only in the square where it ends movement.
Once launched, mines may never be recovered. So each ship can place at most two mine tokens.
If any ship moves into a mine space, or is pushed into one by a tractor beam, it takes one point of damage, and the mine token is removed from the map. Note that a ship must ENTER the space to trigger the mine, so it does not detonate when it is placed.
Shields do not block mine damage, and mines will affect anyone, regardless of who placed it.
Mine tokens may be destroyed by hitting them with a torpedo, using the normal Weapon rules. Mines do not have jammers or shields, so any torpedo hit will automatically remove the token.
Special Notes on Tractor Beams
- If your own ship is being physically moved you may not announce a Tractor Beam attempt until the move is complete.
- If the Tractor Beam officer wishes to use tractor beams on the enemy ship, she may not interrupt if their Helmsman is physically moving their ship.
- If you announce a tractor beam attempt against the enemy ship it may not be moved until the attempt is resolved.
- Crystals that are on a ship may not be the target of tractor beams.
- If there are two crystals in the same square, they must be tractored separately, using two different Tractor Beam attempts.
Other Rules About Dice and Displays
Looking at the Opponents' Displays
A ship's Station Displays must be visible to their opponents. Looking at what your opponents are doing is a viable strategy that you can use to gain an edge. If you are playing with a dedicated Captain player, this is a good thing for them to keep an eye on.
Placing Dice On Displays
Dice that are placed on Displays must go in the appropriate section. For example, a Sensor die showing a Jammer icon must be placed in the Jammer box, not the Weapon Lock box. This is so that the other team may glance at a Display and easily tell the status of the other ship.
This rule is not intended to force players to place the die exactly within the dice outlines shown. It is to prevent deceptive placement by, for example, placing a Rear shield die in the Front shield slot. If a die is found to be in the wrong area it is removed from the display.
Removing Dice
Several rules mention REMOVING dice. This always means removing dice from a Station Display. But they can be brought back onto the Display via Energy dice as normal. The only time dice are lost from the ship is the loss of Energy Dice after taking damage.
Expansion Symbols
The Sensor Dice, Tractor Beam Dice, and Shield Dice have symbols that are not used in the base game of Space Cadets: Dice Duel. These will be used in future expansions. If these symbols are rolled the dice must be re-rolled.
Action Timing
If one team starts an action that freezes the game (firing a torpedo, using tractors on an enemy ship, or warp jump), the opposing team may declare that they want to do another 'freeze' action as soon as that one is completed. This may be declared at any time during the play stoppage, and has priority over the opponents doing a second freeze action.
Example: The Captain of the white ship shouts 'Fire 1' and freezes the game to launch a torpedo. During the launch, both teams realize that the black ship can launch two torpedoes back at the white ship. The white ship would like to declare a Warp Jump to try to get out of firing range. But the black ship announces that they will fire their torpedoes when the white torpedo launch is complete. White cannot perform the Warp Jump until after the Black torpedo launch.
Once play resumes, either team may declare a freeze action as normal.
Crystals
Crystals are gained by successfully using the Tractor Beams to take them from the map. There is no limit to the number of crystals a ship may have.
There are three special abilities that can be triggered by discarding different amounts of crystals:
Station Override: 1 Crystal
Instead of getting energy to activate a Station die and rolling it normally, a player may discard a crystal to the Used Crystal box to simply place a Station die on the face of their choice, bypassing both Engineering and rolling. The player must physically rotate the die to that face and place it on the Station Display. They cannot just announce the face they want.
Warp Jump: 1 Crystal
Announce "WARP JUMP!" in a loud voice. All action is stopped in the same fashion as a torpedo launch. Then:
Roll two Energy dice. Your ship is moved to the crystal space with the number of your choice, keeping the same facing. You may not move to a crystal space where the enemy ship is located. If one of the results would put you in the same square as the enemy you must choose the other result. If you roll doubles, and the enemy is located in that space, roll again.
After seeing the results of the dice roll, you may spend another crystal to roll two more dice. Then you may select your destination from these four options. You may continue spending crystals and rolling additional dice until you receive a result you are happy with, or you run out of crystals.
After moving the ship, return the Energy dice to wherever they were taken from. Place the crystals in the Used Crystal box, and resume the action.
Energy Surge: 2 Crystals
May only be done when the ship has suffered at least one damage during the game. Take one of the crystals and place it on your damage track in place of an Energy die, and return the Energy die to your Energy die pool. Your overall damage level remains the same. This only allows you to regain an energy die.
The other crystal is placed in the Used Crystals box.
Returning Crystals to Play
Used Crystal are placed in the Used Crystals box on the board (except for the one placed on the Damage Track for Energy Surge). After the next torpedo launch any crystals in this box are returned to the map.
Roll and place it on the matching number crystal space on the map, where it can be tractored again by either ship.
There is no limit to the number of crystals that may be in the same space on the map, but each must be tractored individually.
Crystal Example: Earlier in the game you used your Tractor Beams to pick up two Crystals, which you have yet to use. Your opponents have just maneuvered their ship so that it is behind you, with torpedoes almost loaded. You have no shields on the Aft of your ship, sector 3, and quickly decide to use one of your crystals for Station Override. You immediately take a Shield die and turn it to the '3' side, and place it on the Display just as the enemy announces their torpedo launch. During the Cleanup phase of the Torpedo Launch you take the crystal, roll a '2', and place it on the '2' square on the map.
Optional Rules
Wormholes
After playing a few games you may wish to introduce the Wormholes into play. Both Wormhole tokens must be used. Place them on the map as desired, but they are best if placed symetrically relative to the ships' starting squares.
When any ship enters a Wormhole square, either through movement or via Tractor Beam, it is instantly moved to the other wormhole square without changing facing. This does not take up any movement arrows from the Helm dice. The ship is simply shifted in the middle of its move.
When counting range for Weapons Fire and Tractor Beams you may not go 'through' a wormhole to the connecting wormhole. You simply count through the wormhole square as if it wasn't there.
Multiple Ships Per Side
So you and a friend each bought a copy of Space Cadets: Dice Duel and want to play a massive four ship encounter? No problem! Divide the ships into two teams. Each ship gets a crew of 2-4 players. Place one ship on the normal starting square, and the second ship along the same row in the adjacent square. You will need to mark the miniatures so you can tell them apart, or use a miniature from a different game.
All rules apply as normal, except when you launch torpedoes you must also announce a target. Using the name of one of the crew members is a simple way to do this. You MAY tractor beam a friendly ship. You MAY NOT fire weapons at a friendly ship. Crystals belong to the ship that picked them up, and may only be used by that ship. You'll need to make a separate Crystal area for each ship.
Four ship free-for-all is possible, but not for the faint of heart. If you want to try it, simply start each ship in a corner of the board.
Strategy Tips
- Moving energy quickly between all the stations is a key to victory.
- Before launching torpedoes check your opponents' Jammers to make sure you can hit them.
- Using Tractor Beams on the enemy ship can give you a lot of tactical options, like pushing them into asteroids to reduce their shields, or moving them into a position where they can't shoot you.
- If the enemy has lots of Jammers or Shields and you have two torpedoes loaded, launch one torpedo to clear them out, then quickly get Weapon Lock to launch another.
- Don't forget to move! Maneuvering your ship to shoot at an unprotected side of the enemy can be much more effective than staying still and just loading torpedo after torpedo.
- Using crystals at a critical moment can be the difference between victory and defeat. If you're the Captain, be creative!
Credits
Designed by Sydney and Geoffrey Engelstein. Cover Art by Michael Christopher. Graphic Design by Cody Jones. Project Management by Stephen Buonocore. © 2013 Stronghold Games, All Rights Reserved. Please visit our website at www.StrongholdGames.com. If you have any questions, please email us at [email protected]