Tiny Epic Galaxies: Beyond the Black Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Components
• Game Setup
• Gameplay
  • 1. Hiring Pilots
    • Add Pilot to Your Hangar
    • Pilot's Ability
    • Replacing Pilots
    • Additional Rules for Hiring Pilots
  • 2. Exploration
    • Exploring
    • After Exploration
    • Exploration Badges
    • Additional Rules for Exploring
• End Game and Scoring
  • In-Game Points
  • Bonus Points

Objective

With this expansion, players have new possibilities for scoring victory points (VP) by hiring pilots with unique abilities, and by collecting sets of Exploration Badges through exploring the uncharted cosmos.

Components

• 30 Pilot Cards
• 30 Exploration Cards
• 1 Exploration Mat
• 12 New Planet Cards (some planets can acquire energy or culture)
• 8 New Secret Mission Cards
• 5 Hangar Mats / Rogue Galaxy Mats
• 20 Advanced Ship Tokens (4 unique shapes in 5 player colors, 1 in each player color)
• 1 Scoring Mat and 5 Score Tokens (1 in each player color)

Game Setup

Setup is done the same as a normal game with the following additions:

1. Shuffle the Planet Cards from this expansion into the planet deck.
2. Shuffle the Secret Mission Cards from this expansion into the secret mission deck.
3. Shuffle the deck of Pilot Cards. Draw 2 more than the number of players and place each one face up in a row in the center, above the row of Planet Cards. In a 5 player game, only draw 6 Pilot Cards. These are newly available pilots, ready for hire. For example, in a 3 player game, place 5 pilots in the center.
4. Give each player a Hangar Mat and the 4 Advanced Ships in their player color. Place the ships on their matching spots on the Hangar Mat. Unused mats and ships go back in the box.
5. Place the Exploration Mat where everyone can reach it, and shuffle and place the circular deck of 30 Exploration Cards face down on the marked space on the Exploration Mat. Also designate an area next to the Mat for up to 3 Exploration Cards to be laid face up.
6. Place the Scoring Mat nearby and place each player's Score Token, blank side up, on the "0" space. You can adjust the Scoring Mat to track each player's score as the game progresses. Flip to the plus side to show 30+ points.

Gameplay

All gameplay proceeds as normal except for two additional actions:

1. Hiring Pilots and replacing ships with Advanced Ships.
2. Moving ships into Unexplored Space and Exploring.

1. Hiring Pilots

In the game, you now have the ability to upgrade your normal ships into Advanced Ships by hiring one of the available pilots in the row.

To do this, on your turn only, you may activate a certain number of dice symbols to hire a pilot and take their Pilot Card. Each pilot is trained to fly certain types of Advanced Ships, which are highlighted on the right side of their Pilot Card. The dice cost to hire a pilot depends on whether or not they are trained for that particular Advanced Ship type. For instance, "Lightspeeder" is trained to pilot ships Aurora and Intrepid, but not Ambition and Nexus.

To hire a pilot and take their Pilot Card, you must activate either:

• 2 Dice with matching symbols, listed for the ship on the Hangar Mat. For instance, a Pilot that flies the Aurora requires 2 Diplomacy or 2 Economy, but not a mix of both.

  OR

• 3 Dice of matching symbols to hire any pilot and assign them to any Advanced Ship (even one they are not trained to fly). For instance, 3 dice showing the same symbol would hire any Pilot.

Add Pilot to Your Hangar

Take the hired Pilot Card and place it on your Hangar Mat in the area designated for that pilot's ship. Draw a replacement Pilot Card and put it in the pilot row. Then, take the corresponding Advanced Ship and put it in a location currently occupied by one of your active normal ships, replacing the normal ship, which is then placed back on the Pilot Card, in the appropriate spot to mark the specific Advanced Ship that they are piloting.

Pilot's Ability

The pilot's ability listed on the card is always active and applies only for that Advanced Ship. For instance, Lightspeeder's ability only applies to the Advanced Ship that Lightspeeder is piloting. No other ship shares this ability.

Replacing Pilots

A player may hire a new pilot for an Advanced Ship for which they already have a pilot. The new Pilot Card is placed over the previous Pilot Card and the new pilot's ability is now the active ability for that Advanced Ship. The previous pilot's ability cannot be used for the rest of the game, but the Pilot Card is still worth 1 VP and its Exploration Badges.

Additional Rules for Hiring Pilots

• You may not hire a pilot, except for replacing another pilot as above, unless you have an active normal ship that the new pilot's Advanced Ship can replace. The higher your empire level and more ships you have, the more pilots you will be able to use.
• Dice activated to hire pilots are placed on the Activation Bay but are NOT used for their normal die actions; they are only for hiring pilots. Other players may spend 1 culture as normal to follow only the action of the last die. Players may NOT follow the other dice used for hiring a pilot and may NOT follow the hire pilot action.

2. Exploration

Using a "Move a Ship" action, you can place a ship onto the Exploration Mat and then explore. These ships may encounter helpful discoveries or be forced to suffer painful losses. When your ship is placed on "Unexplored Space" on the left side of the mat, you must explore. See below.

Exploring

Explore, by either:

• Taking one of the revealed Exploration Cards displayed next to the Exploration Mat (if there are any). This ends exploration. OR
• Revealing the top card from the Exploration Deck (if there are no face up cards, then you MUST draw from the deck).

If the newly drawn card is a green Discovery, you have the option of taking that card and ending exploration, OR leaving the card face up next to the Mat, then drawing and revealing a new card. There can be a maximum of 3 Exploration Cards face up at a time. If there are already 3, and if you Explore and draw a new card instead of taking an existing one, then you MUST take the newly drawn card (whether it is green or red).

This continues (sometimes making a row of 3 cards) until:

• You take the card just drawn, thus ending exploration. Any face up cards left while exploring cannot be taken in this action, OR
• A red Danger Card is drawn, in which case you MUST take that card. This ends exploration.

After Exploration

Once you take an Exploration Card, you must resolve ANY effect listed on the card, either positive or negative. Some cards cause you to acquire or lose resources, and some Danger Cards force your ship onto that Danger Card's "track". Regardless of the card type, it is then collected and kept face down near your Hangar Mat. You may look at your own Exploration Cards but should not show them to other players after you've collected them.

For example, a positive effect might read "Acquire 1 energy and 1 culture", and a negative effect might read "Lose 2 resources of your choice".

Your ship stays on the Exploration Mat after exploring, and cannot use a "Move a Ship" action to explore again. However, a ship may acquire culture while on the Exploration Mat. The ship can use a "Move a Ship" action to leave, moving to a planet or back to its Galaxy Mat.

Exploration Badges

On the bottom of the Exploration Cards, there are 4 different badges representing data collected from Unexplored Space. Players collect these and earn bonus VP for having the most of each badge at the end of the game (see End Game and Scoring).

Additional Rules for Exploring

• Players following a "Move a Ship" action may Explore. Following is always resolved clockwise after the current player's action.
• You may have multiple ships in Unexplored Space, and each may acquire culture. Also, ships from different players can occupy Unexplored Space together.
• If the card taken has a Danger Track, place the ship at the beginning of its track. To advance, you MUST use Diplomacy or Economy. You cannot use a "Move a Ship" action to leave the track and this ship does not collect resources. When a Danger Card's track is finished, move the ship back to the Exploration Mat. This does not trigger a new Explore action.

End Game and Scoring

The end game condition is triggered when either a player reaches 21 or more victory points (VP), or the exploration deck is exhausted. Play continues until all players have taken an equal number of turns.

In-Game Points

In addition to points from planets and empire level, points that can trigger the end of game can also come from Pilot Cards hired and Dwarf Planets (1 VP each) gained from exploration.

Bonus Points

Players score Secret Missions as normal, however Dwarf Planets do not count as "planets" for Secret Missions. Next, players add up their collected Exploration Badges of each symbol and compare each total:

• 2 VP to the player with the highest total of a symbol.
• 1 VP to the player with the second highest total of a symbol.
• If there is a tie for highest total, all tied players each earn 1 VP. Players with the second highest total do not earn a bonus.
• If a player earns the highest total bonus and players tie for second highest total, then each tied player earns 1 VP.
• In a 2-player game, bonus victory points are only awarded to the player with the highest total of a symbol. The second highest total DOES NOT earn a bonus. A tie still earns 1 VP each.