Supernova: A New Exodus Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Overview
• Components
• Game Cards
• Setup
• How to Play
  • 1: Planning Phase
  • 2: Command Phase
  • Command Phase Actions
    • Movement Action (Cost: 1 command per quadrant)
    • Recruitment Action (Buy Force Card – Cost: 1 command)
    • Research Action (Buy Special Card – Cost: 2 commands)
    • Attack Action (Cost: 1 command)
    • Intelligence Action (Play Action Card ★) (Cost: 1 command)
• Conquered Quadrants
• End of Game and Scoring
  • Determining the Winner
• Variants
  • Wormhole Variant
  • "Lost in Space" Variant (Perdidos no Espaço)
• Card Reference
  • Force Cards
  • Special Cards
  • Special Card Effects
• Quick Reference

Game Overview

Supernova: A New Exodus is a strategy and deduction board game for 2 players, lasting approximately 25 to 45 minutes per game.

Each player manages a deck of 30 Force cards (36 in the "Lost in Space" variant) and 12 Action cards, trying to obtain the most Victory Points. Victory Points are earned through majority Force in the 9 quadrants of the solar system and through the efficient combination of pieces and technological relics scattered across those locations.

At the end of the game, the player with the most points is the winner and will command their species in a new exodus, escaping the imminent solar explosion and securing the survival of their race.

Components

• 2 sets of 48 cards, one for each player, consisting of:

  • 6 Force 0 cards (used in the variant)
  • 10 Force 1 cards
  • 8 Force 2 cards
  • 6 Force 3 cards
  • 4 Force 2 cards (as printed in the source; the value here is probably a printing error for Force 4, since the set otherwise sums to 48 with a Force 4 group. Transcribed as printed.)
  • 2 Force 5 cards
  • 12 Special cards

• 9 hexagonal boards representing planets and spaces in the solar system

• 38 cubes representing technologies and space artifacts, consisting of:

  • 10 orange cubes
  • 10 red cubes
  • 6 purple cubes
  • 6 yellow cubes
  • 3 grey cubes
  • 3 black cubes

  (The source prints the total as 38; the colour counts above sum to 38.)

• 1 velvet pouch for randomly drawing the cubes

• 2 rocket miniatures, one for each player

• 18 space domain markers, 9 for each player

• 12 command tokens, 6 for each player

Game Cards

The game cards come in 2 types:

• Force cards: represent the military strength of each species and are used to determine control over a particular planet or space in the solar system.
• Special cards: represent each species' tactics and abilities, and allow the player to modify the general rules of the game or influence the result of Force cards. Some Special cards have a star symbol next to their name; these are called Action cards, and their effects are executed as soon as they are played. The others are executed at the end of the game, during the scoring phase.

Setup

1. Each player chooses a species (Humans or Martians) to play and takes the corresponding cards (except the Force 0 cards, which are used in the "Lost in Space" variant), 1 rocket miniature corresponding to their species (blue for Humans, green for Martians), 6 command tokens of their species, and 9 space domain markers of their species.

2. Place the space quadrants (hexagonal boards) in the following order: Mars, Ceres, Phobos, Deimos, Sun, Halley, Moon, Space Station, Earth, in the centre of the table, between the two players, forming a belt of space locations.

3. Separate and shuffle each player's cards into two different piles according to card type (Force cards or Special cards), placing them face down beside the belt of space locations.

   Force deck and Special deck (illustration).

4. Place all the cubes inside the velvet pouch and mix well. Then randomly draw and place the number of cubes for each space quadrant (hexagonal board) as indicated by the number highlighted on it: Mars: 6 / Ceres: 5 / Phobos: 4 / Deimos: 3 / Sun: 2 / Halley: 3 / Moon: 4 / Space Station: 5 / Earth: 6.

5. Place the two rocket miniatures in the Sun quadrant, determining the players' starting positions on the board.

6. Set aside the scoring board, as it is used only at the end of the game to record points.

7. Each player draws 4 Force cards and 2 Special cards from their piles, forming an initial hand of 6 cards. This is the limit of cards each player may hold in hand during the game.

8. The last player who had contact with an alien is the starting player. If no one has, the youngest player is the starting player.

How to Play

A game of Supernova: A New Exodus is divided into action turns in which the players take turns until the end of the game, when points are counted. Starting with the starting player, that player receives a number of command tokens to carry out their specific actions, trying to gain control over the space quadrants. Each turn is divided into 2 phases:

1. Planning phase
2. Command phase

1: Planning Phase

During the planning phase, the player whose turn it is checks which space quadrant their rocket is in and identifies the amount of command they will have during their turn. They take that amount in command tokens, which will be spent in the subsequent command phase.

Example: A player who starts their turn in the Moon quadrant receives 4 command tokens during the planning phase, according to the number highlighted beside the quadrant.

2: Command Phase

During this phase, the player whose turn it is spends their command tokens to carry out certain actions, according to their strategy, trying to obtain the most Victory Points. Actions may be carried out in any order, in alternation, for as long as command tokens remain available to the player. If the player whose turn it is no longer wishes to carry out any action, they may pass their turn, but will lose all their remaining command tokens in this turn; these are only recovered in their next turn, during the planning phase. That is, command tokens cannot be accumulated from one turn to another.

Command Phase Actions

The actions that players may carry out are:

Movement Action (Cost: 1 command per quadrant)

The player who uses the Movement action moves their rocket between space quadrants. To use this action, the player spends 1 command token for each move between quadrants. For example, the distance between Phobos and Halley is 3 quadrants, so the player must spend 3 command tokens to make this move.

Example: In this case, the human rocket intends to move from Phobos to the Halley quadrant. To do so, it must spend 3 command tokens, corresponding to the distance between these quadrants.

Recruitment Action (Buy Force Card – Cost: 1 command)

On their turn, the player may recruit new forces by buying new Force cards. To use this action, the player must spend 1 command token for each new Force card bought from their Force deck, provided they have not exceeded the hand limit of cards (6 cards).

Research Action (Buy Special Card – Cost: 2 commands)

On their turn, the player may carry out new research into tactics and technologies by buying new Special cards. To use this action, the player spends 2 command tokens for each new Special card bought from their Special deck, provided they have not exceeded their hand limit of cards (6 cards).

Attack Action (Cost: 1 command)

On their turn, the player may send their troops (Force cards) or tactical teams (Special cards other than Action cards) by allocating Force cards or Special cards from their hand into 1 column of the quadrant where their rocket is located. To use this action, the player spends 1 command token for each card allocated to the column. A Force or tactic card may only be allocated in the same quadrant where the player's rocket is located (for example, to place a card in the column corresponding to the Mars quadrant, the player's rocket must be in the Mars quadrant), and must follow the form of allocation: a face-up card is placed face up, and a face-down card is placed face down (see below).

Example of Attack action: The human player's rocket is in the Halley quadrant. As the 3rd card reaches the limit of this quadrant, the player places their space domain marker, indicating that they can no longer place cards in this location. At the end of the game they will earn Victory Points for the marker, 3 VP each. The player spends 1 command token and places the bomb card in the Halley column. Note that in this quadrant, the third card must be placed face up.

Order, direction and form of allocation of cards. Each quadrant has a column of card slots, read in the direction shown by the arrow (downward). The slots alternate between face-up (Aberto) and face-down (Oculto):

1. Face up
2. Face down
3. Face up
4. Face down
5. Face up
6. Face down

Legend of a quadrant (Mars example):

• Victory Points: the large number on the hex (shown twice, once for each player's reading direction).
• Quadrant name: the name of the space quadrant (Mars).
• Order and direction of card allocation: the arrow indicating the order and direction in which cards are placed in the column.
• Form of card allocation: the pattern of face-up and face-down slots.
• Quantity of command and card limit of the quadrant: the number highlighted on the hex, which gives the number of command tokens a player receives in the Planning phase for being in this quadrant, and the maximum number of cards that may be allocated to each column of this quadrant (for Mars, 6).

Intelligence Action (Play Action Card ★) (Cost: 1 command)

On their turn, the player may carry out an Intelligence action using special knowledge and certain cards that allow special actions. To use this action, the player spends 1 command token for each Action card used. Intelligence actions are carried out at the moment the card is played, and their effects are not tied to the position of the player's rocket. For example, the Spy card ("Espião") allows the player to reveal a hidden card of the opponent in any 1 space quadrant, even if their rocket is not in that quadrant.

Cards that allow Intelligence actions contain the star icon (★) next to the card name. After applying the effect of an Intelligence card, discard it.

Example: Pictured is an example of a Special card that allows an Intelligence action. When the player activates this card, they choose a hidden card of the opponent in any quadrant, and reveal it.

Conquered Quadrants

The hexagonal boards represent the nine quadrants of the solar system where Martians and Earthlings (humans) will dispute sovereignty to claim the technologies and space relics (represented by the cubes) that guarantee Victory Points at the end of the game. Each quadrant has a card limit that may be allocated by the players.

Whenever a given quadrant holds a number of cards allocated by the same player equal to its limit, that player may no longer allocate new cards there. The quadrant is then considered conquered (Conquistado) for that player, who must place a domain marker of their species on it.

• If the player is the first to conquer the quadrant, they place the domain marker with the "3 points" face up. At the end of the game, these markers grant Victory Points to the player.
• The other player may continue to allocate cards in this already conquered quadrant. However, upon reaching the quadrant's card limit, they place their domain marker with the "Conquered" face up. These markers do not give Victory Points to the player; they only show that the quadrant is already conquered and that no player may allocate further cards there.

Example: The Ceres quadrant's card limit is 5, so each player may place at most 5 cards there to dispute its control. As soon as a player reaches the limit, they must place a domain marker to show that they can no longer allocate cards in this quadrant.

End of Game and Scoring

The players take their actions in alternation until the end of the game, which occurs immediately in any of the following situations:

a) When any player obtains 5 "3 points" markers; b) When any player has 6 adjacent conquered quadrants (with or without the "3 points" marker); c) When any player has 7 conquered quadrants of any kind (with or without the "3 points" marker); d) When any player runs out of cards in hand and has no more cards to draw.

The player who causes the end of the game takes the Starting Player / Bonus card, which is worth 5 Victory Points, and the counting of Force and points begins as follows.

*** IMPORTANT *** The effects and Force counting must be carried out in an order defined by the holder of the Starting Player / Bonus card, that is, according to who caused the end of the game. If the holder is the Earthling (human) player, the effects and Force counts in each quadrant are applied following the order from Earth to the Mars quadrant. If the holder is the Martian player who has the Starting Player / Bonus card, the order goes from Mars to Earth. Any card excluded by special effects before its Force is counted in its quadrant is neither counted nor has its effects carried out. In each quadrant, the player holding the Starting Player card computes their Force and executes actions, followed by their opponent.

The players must reveal all the hidden cards allocated in all quadrants, which remain in the same order in which they were allocated. After this, they carry out any effects of Special cards and check the Force amount of the two players, according to their Force cards and Special cards, in the order defined by the holder of the Starting Player / Bonus card. The player who obtains the majority of Force in the respective quadrant receives the cubes and immediately records the Victory Points (marked on the quadrant's hex) on the scoring board, using their rocket.

Players earn points as follows:

• The Victory Points marked on the quadrants where the player has control:
  • Mars and Earth are worth 2 points;
  • Ceres and the Space Station (EEI) are worth 4 points;
  • Phobos and the Moon are worth 6 points;
  • Deimos and Halley are worth 8 points;
  • The Sun is worth 10 points;
• Each domain marker with "3 points" is worth 3 VP;
• The Starting Player card is worth 5 Victory Points;
• According to the combination of cubes obtained by the players:
  • Each set of 6 different colours is worth 11 points;
  • Each set of 5 different colours is worth 9 points;
  • Each set of 4 different colours is worth 7 points;
  • Each set of 3 different colours is worth 5 points;
  • Each set of 2 different colours is worth 3 points;
  • Each set of 1 colour is worth 1 point.

Cube scoring table (as printed):

Cubes	Points
1 orange, 1 red, 1 purple, 1 yellow, 1 grey, 1 black	11
1 orange, 1 red, 1 purple, 1 yellow, 1 grey	9
1 orange, 1 red, 1 purple, 1 yellow	7
1 orange, 1 red, 1 purple	5
1 orange, 1 red	3
1 orange	1

Example of Martian Force counts in the quadrants (page 8 illustration): Mars 7, Ceres 2, Phobos 6, Deimos 7, Sun 4, Halley 12, Moon 4, Space Station 5, Earth 4.

Determining the Winner

In the example above, if the Martian player caused the end of the game, they take the Starting Player card, securing 5 points, and count all domain markers that are face up with "3 points". They then check, starting from Mars, the Force in each quadrant to determine who claims the Victory Points. Finally, they assemble the sets of cubes obtained in the quadrants to count the Victory Points from cubes.

The player with the highest total points is the winner. In case of a tie, the player who controls the Sun quadrant is the winner. If the tie persists, play another game.

The winning player claims the Survivor card, takes a photo with it and shares it on social media as a survivor of the Supernova, with the hashtag #EUSOBREVIVIASUPERNOVA. The losing player puts on a pair of sunglasses and waits for the destruction of the Supernova, lamenting the defeat.... Or not...

We hope you enjoy the game!

Variants

Wormhole Variant

Players may use this variant by changing the initial setup of the space quadrants. Place Mars and Earth on opposite sides, and randomly fill the other spaces with the remaining quadrants. Place the rockets in the Sun quadrant. The other rules remain the same.

"Lost in Space" Variant (Perdidos no Espaço)

In this variant, players include in their Force deck all the Force 0 cards of their species. As a result, the players' decks have more cards, but with more chances of drawing Force 0 cards.

Card Reference

Force Cards

Each species has Force cards from 0 to 5. The Force cards are:

• Space (Force 0)
• Mech (Force 1)
• Fighter (Force 2)
• Cruiser (Force 3)
• Destroyer (Force 4)
• Dreadnought (Force 5)

Special Cards

The Special cards are:

• Alliance (Aliança) ★: Once played, the player may swap the places of two cards already allocated (one card takes the place of the other), face up or face down, in any quadrant, regardless of distance.
• Spy (Espião) ★: Once played, the player may reveal 1 hidden card of their opponent, in any quadrant. The card revealed by this action remains face up until the end of the game.
• Special Operations (Operações Especiais) ★: Once played, the player may move up to 2 cubes of any colour, in any quadrant, regardless of distance. With this action, the quantity of cubes in some quadrant may be altered.

The Special cards with a star (★) are Action cards, played through the Intelligence action.

Special Card Effects

The following Special cards have effects that apply during scoring or when played. Those marked with ★ are Action cards.

• Retreat (Recuar) ★: Once played, the player may take back 1 card already allocated in any quadrant, face up or face down, and return it to their hand. They must respect the hand limit of 6 cards. The space that is left empty may be occupied.
• Counter Attack (Contra Ataque) ★: This card is played without paying a command token during the opponent's turn. It serves to cancel the effects of 1 Action card played by the opponent. A Counter Attack cancels the effects of another Counter Attack.
• Bomb (Bomba): During scoring, when calculating the Force of the quadrant, destroy 1 card in the same position as the Bomb, in the opponent's column, and also destroy 1 adjacent card, to the right or to the left, depending on the direction of resolution of the quadrants.
• Central (Central): During scoring, the player may place up to 2 Force cards from their hand at the end of the same column as the Central card, even if this exceeds the quadrant's card limit. These cards reinforce the Force count.
• Epidemic (Epidemia): During scoring, the player chooses 1 Force card of their opponent, in the same column as the Epidemic card, to be eliminated. All of the opponent's cards equal to it in this quadrant are also eliminated and are not counted.
• Teamwork (Trabalho em Equipe): During scoring, the Force card immediately below the Teamwork card has its Force counted twice (doubled).
• Sabotage (Sabotagem): The quadrant holding the Sabotage card is dominated by the player with the lower Force (instead of the higher). Two Sabotage cards in the same quadrant cancel each other, and control is determined normally, that is, by the higher Force.
• Reinforcements (Reforços): During scoring, the Force value of the Reinforcements card is the sum of the Force cards adjacent to the Reinforcements card (horizontally only).

Quick Reference

The printed quick-reference sheet summarises the turn structure and the planet values:

• Planning phase: receive command tokens (according to the number on the quadrant where your rocket is).
• Command phase: carry out one of the following actions:
  • Movement action: move rockets between quadrants.
  • Recruitment action: buy Force cards.
  • Research action: buy Special cards.
  • Attack action: play cards into the quadrants.
  • Intelligence action: use Action cards.

Quadrant hex values, as printed on the quick-reference sheet: Earth 2 / 6; Mars 2 / 6; Space Station (EEI) 4 / 5; Deimos 8 / 3; Moon 6 / 4; Phobos 6 / 4; Halley 8 / 3; Ceres 4 / 5; Sun 10 / 2. The large number is the quadrant's Victory Points; the smaller number is the card limit, which is also the number of command tokens received in the Planning phase.

The sheet also shows the card allocation diagram: face up (Aberto) and face down (Oculto) slots, in the order 1 to 6 downwards.

Printed on the sheet: 2 players, ages 14 and up, 25–40 minutes.