UFO Wave: The Tactical Card Game Of Alien Supremacy Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Aim of the Game
• Deck Overview
• Setup
• Taking Your Turn
• End of the Game
• Alternative Rules
  • Covert Agenda
  • Equal Opportunities
  • Solo Mode

Aim of the Game

Your ability in commanding your chosen species is measured in ET points. Throughout the game you can earn these in a variety of ways, and there are also ways of reducing the ET points gained by your opponents.

At the end of the game all players will add up their ET points to determine the winner.

Deck Overview

Scan – A line of cards dealt from the Scan deck that represents what you can see in the vicinity of your craft.

• Activity – A task which may be performed. Activities come in a variety of types, easily identified by their colour. Each Activity is worth a number of ET points, shown at the top right of the card.
• Human – A group of Earthlings who are out to either hinder or help you. Humans guard Activities which they are adjacent to. If you perform an Activity which has one or two Humans guarding it they will begin watching you. Take the Human card(s) from the Scan and place them in front of you face up. When a Human is watching you they will affect you in a particular way. Some Humans affect you immediately, others affect you at the end of the game. Humans can be directly led by players. The player choosing to perform this action can decide whether to lead the Human to an opponent or to themselves.
• Energy – Sometimes the air itself becomes charged with energy. If you perform an Activity or lead a Human which has one or two Energy cards adjacent to it you must also add these cards to your score pile, and follow any additional instructions on them. Some simply gain or lose you ET points. Others allow you to draw a Plan card, or force you to discard one.
• Events – One off incidents which affect all aliens in the area at the time. Whenever an Event is drawn from the deck all players should immediately follow the instructions on it (if they can), then discard it and draw another Scan card.

Additional Notes (Scan):

• Whenever you remove multiple cards from the Scan at once, always fill in the gaps from left to right.
• After the Scan deck is depleted move the remaining Scan cards together to close up any gaps.

Plan – The abilities and technology which you have at your disposal.

• Powers – Abilities which you can utilise to affect the Scan or players in a variety of ways. Powers have two levels to them – Basic (Green) and Advanced (Red). If you play a Power card on its own the Basic effect will take place. To activate a Power card's Advanced level play a Craft card with it at the same time.
• Craft – Aerial vehicles which we use to get around. Play Craft alongside Powers to activate their Advanced level. You can also play two Craft of the same type to discard a Human watching you. Shape Shifters can be whatever we want them to be, so can be combined with any other Craft.

Additional Notes (Plan):

• If you counter a Power using Missing Time, that Power does not have any effect and it is simply discarded.
• Place Protective Aura on an Activity of your choice – your opponents cannot perform, move or discard it until your next turn.
• If you've played Protective Aura at Advanced level on your previous turn you may claim the protected Activity card in addition to your usual action. Normal adjacent card rules still apply.

Species – Defines which extra-terrestrial species you are playing as. While all Species can perform all Activities, each has a favoured type of Activity. For each of these Activities that you perform during the game you will gain an additional 2 ET points at the end.

Each Species also has a particular Power which may be automatically activated to its Advanced level when played, without the need for playing a Craft alongside it (you can still play Basic level if you prefer).

Setup

• Separate the three decks of cards – Scan (Green), Plan (Blue) and Species (Red).
• Each player chooses a Species card and places it face up in front of them. Put the remainder back in the box.
• Search through the Scan deck and separate the ten Event cards, then shuffle the remaining Scan cards.
• Deal seven Scan cards face up in a line in the lower part of the play area.
• Shuffle two randomly chosen Event cards into the Scan deck. Put the remainder back in the box.
• Place the Scan deck face down in the upper part of the play area (with space alongside it for a discard pile).
• Shuffle the Plan deck and deal five cards face down to each player.
• Place the Plan deck face down in the upper part of the play area (with space alongside it for a discard pile).
• When you're done it should look something like this: Scan deck and Scan discard pile, with Plan deck and Plan discard pile beside them (the field guide shows this as a diagram).
• The player who has most recently seen a UFO goes first (or just flip a coin).
• Play continues clockwise.

Taking Your Turn

Each turn is made up of the following phases, in order.

1. Draw Phase – Draw a card from the Plan deck.
2. Preparation Phase – Play as many cards from your hand as you wish.
3. Action Phase – Check the visible Scan cards then either perform an Activity by picking it up and adding it to your score pile face down, or lead a Human on the Scan to an opponent or yourself by picking it up and placing it in front of the relevant player face up. Draw new Scan cards to fill in any gaps.
4. Discard Phase – If you have more cards in your hand than your maximum hand size, initially six, discard down to that amount.

End of the Game

The game ends when the Scan deck is depleted and the Scan has no more Activity or Human cards remaining on it. At this point players add up their scores in the following way:

• Players gain ET points equal to the sum of the points on their claimed Activity and Energy cards (some may be negative).
• They gain 2 extra ET points for each Activity which matches their Species' favoured type.
• They lose 4 ET points for each Men In Black card they have. The player(s) with the most Military cards lose 6 ET points.

Whoever has the most ET points has won the game – their skills are out of this world!

Alternative Rules

The rules above are for the standard game, however to vary things why not try out the below alternatives?

Covert Agenda

At the start of the game all players are dealt a random Species card. They check and then keep this hidden. The automatically activated Power is ignored in this game mode. Can you sneakily perform favoured Activities without your opponents working out which Species you are? Are you able to work out which Species they are based on what they are up to and then use this knowledge against them?

Equal Opportunities

Would you prefer a fairer game where every player has exactly the same chance of victory? In this mode Species cards are not drawn at the start of the game. There are no favoured Activities or automatically activated Powers.

Solo Mode

Nobody around to play UFO Wave with? No problem! Remove 2 of each Craft type, and Missing Time, Paralysis, Protective Aura and Terrorize cards from the Plan deck. Do not choose a Species card and do not add Event cards to the Scan deck. Start the game as normal but with no opponents to interfere with you.

At the end of the game calculate your score in the usual manner, then also add 1 point for each un-used Craft in your hand. Score yourself using the below chart:

• Gold = 85 ET points
• Silver = 80 ET points
• Bronze = 75 ET points