Under Falling Skies Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Setup
• Gameplay
• 1 Dice Phase
  • The Excavator
  • Enemy Ship Actions
  • Damage
• 2 Rooms Phase
  • Value of a Room
  • Costs
  • Multi-Space Rooms
  • Excavated Room Effects
  • Example – Shooting Down Ships
  • Example – Researching
  • Excavating Your Base
• 3 Mothership Phase
  • Moving the Mothership
  • Resolving the Mothership Action
  • Spawning Ships
  • White Ships
• End of Game
  • Winning
  • Losing
• Full Game
  • Threat Level
  • Cities
  • Damaged City
  • Robots
    • Installing Robots
    • Worker Dice in the Dice Phase
    • Robot Dice in the Rooms Phase
    • Special Cases
  • Standalone Games
• Campaign
  • Chapter Briefing
  • Choose Your Battle
  • Scenarios
  • Characters
  • Starting the Campaign
  • Removing or Saving Components
  • Setting Threat Level
• Spice Up Your Standalone Game
  • Difficulty
• Credits

Setup

This setup includes everything you will use in your first game. All these components are packed in the top part of your box. Leave the campaign chapters in the box until you are ready to start the campaign. A packing diagram is on the back page of this rulebook.

Set up your base with the following starting positions:

• Research marker starting space (on the research track).
• Energy marker starting space (on the energy track).
• Damage marker starting space (on the damage track).
• Excavator starting space.

Dice: Your first game uses only 2 white dice and 3 gray dice.

Components to place:

• Mothership tile – Place this tile at the top.
• 5 purple ships – Place one purple ship on each drop point.
• 4 white ships – Set the white ships off to one side. These are additional ships that may spawn during play.
• 4 sky tiles – Place sky tiles in this order, with darker tiles on top and lighter ones closer to you. This setup is for an easy game. To play on normal difficulty instead, flip over one sky tile at random. (Each sky tile has an easier side and a more threatening side.)
• Roswell city tile – Use Roswell as the city tile in your first game, blue side up.
• Base tile A – Use the side on which the A looks like this. Place the tile as shown.
• Base tile B – Use the side on which the B looks like this. Place it at the bottom. Note that these symbols match the symbols on Roswell.

The New York city tile, Washington, DC city tile, base tile C, 1 orange ship (used in campaign), and 2 blue dice are not used in your first game. They will be explained later.

Gameplay

Your goal is to get your research marker to the top of the research track before the aliens destroy your city. You lose if your damage marker reaches the bottom of its track or if the mothership descends to the row marked with a skull.

Each round of the game has three phases:

1. Dice Phase: Place dice and move ships.
2. Rooms Phase: Resolve the effects of your chosen rooms.
3. Mothership Phase: Resolve the mothership's turn.

1 Dice Phase

1. Roll all 5 dice. (You should have 3 gray and 2 white.)
2. Place each die in a different column of your base. Each time you place a die:
   • All ships in that column descend by the amount shown on the die.
   • Some effects may be triggered. (See Enemy Ship Actions.)
   • After placing a white die, reroll all dice not yet placed.

You will place two white dice, so you must reroll twice – or only once, if you save a white die for last. When you are done, you will have one die in each column. These dice will power various effects during the Rooms Phase.

The Excavator

The excavator follows a path winding down through your base, from row to row. It divides your base into two parts. All spaces on the path behind the excavator are excavated. All other spaces are not yet excavated.

Only one die can be placed on a space ahead of the excavator. All other dice must be placed on excavated spaces.

The only reason to place a die in an unexcavated space is to move the excavator there during the Rooms Phase. Before placing it, count the spaces from the excavator to that space: Your die must have this value or higher.

Example: In the illustration, the 6 is 5 spaces ahead of the excavator. This is legal. A 5 would also be legal in that space, but a 4 would not.

Note: A die used to move the excavator must still follow the rule of one die per column.

Enemy Ship Actions

Each time you place a die, all enemy ships in that column descend a number of spaces equal to the amount shown on the die …

… unless the die is placed in an AA gun room. These rooms fill the sky with anti-aircraft fire, causing enemy ships to descend more cautiously – ships in this column descend one space less than the amount shown on the die. If the die is a 1, the ships do not descend and do not trigger effects.

Immediately after all ships in the column descend, they trigger any effects on their resulting spaces. Ignore spaces they pass through. If multiple ships are in the column, move them simultaneously, then resolve their effects, starting at the top.

• Arrow effect: Move the ship into the space the arrow points to. Exception: If that space already has a ship in it, the arrow has no effect.
• Mothership descend effect: Move the mothership tile down one row. If it moves into a row with ships (of any color) return them to the mothership to respawn later. If the mothership tile descends to the row marked by the skull, you lose immediately. Otherwise, you ignore the mothership actions (the symbols along the right edge of the board).
• Explosion spaces: This is not a triggered effect. Explosions like this mark spaces where ships can be shot down by your fighters in the next phase.

Damage

If a ship descends below the sky, it hits your city and your base takes damage. Move the damage marker down one space.

After damaging your city, the ship victoriously returns to the mothership to be respawned at the end of the round.

If the damage marker moves onto the skull icon, you have lost the game. (See End of Game.)

Example: After several rounds of play, two enemy ships are in the second column, in the positions shown.

1. Let's say you place a 2 in that column.
2. Both ships descend 2 spaces.
3. The upper ship is now on an explosion space, where it can be shot down later. The lower ship triggers the effect that makes the mothership immediately descend one row.

Note that both ships move at the same time, before you resolve any effects. The purple ship ends up very close to your city. Next round, any die that moves it more than 1 space will cause it to hit your city and deal one damage. It will then return to the mothership and spawn at the end of that round.

2 Rooms Phase

In this phase, you resolve the effect of each die you placed. Remove the die to show its effect has been resolved. Dice may be resolved in any order.

Dice cannot be added together, unless they are sharing a multi-space room. If you choose to not use a particular die, you must still remove it.

Value of a Room

The value of a room is the amount shown on the die, plus or minus the room's modifier (if it has one).

Example: A room with a −1 modifier and a die showing 3 has value 3 − 1 = 2.

Note that a room's modifier does not affect the movement of enemy ships in the Dice Phase.

Costs

Many rooms have an energy cost. A room may, for example, require you to pay 2 energy to use it.

You pay the energy by moving your energy marker on the energy track. If you don't want to pay or can't pay, remove the die with no effect.

Multi-Space Rooms

If a room takes up multiple spaces, it can be used only if all of its spaces have dice. The value is the sum of the dice, plus or minus any modifiers.

Example: A room with dice 1 and 6 and a −3 modifier has value 1 + 6 − 3 = 4.

If any space of a multi-space room is left empty, remove its dice with no effect.

Excavated Room Effects

• AA gun rooms are explained in the Dice Phase. They have no effect in the Rooms Phase. Simply remove the die.
• Excavated tunnels have no effect. Simply remove the die.
• Energy rooms generate the energy you need to power other effects. Add the value of the room to your energy. If this would move your marker off the track, set your energy to the maximum value.
• Jet fighter rooms let you shoot down one or more enemy ships. Destroy all enemy ships on explosion spaces with a number less than or equal to the value of this room. Purple ships return to the mothership to respawn. White ships are removed from the board.
• Research rooms allow you to advance on the research track, which is how you win the game. Move up one or more spaces on the research track; the sum of the numbers on these spaces must be less than or equal to the value of the room. For example, to pass over a 2 and end your move on a 3, you need a room with value 5 or better.

Example – Shooting Down Ships

During the Dice Phase, you placed your dice cleverly and maneuvered 3 enemy ships onto explosion spaces. Now it's the Rooms Phase, and you have a chance to resolve a jet fighter room with value 3.

• Ship A is shot down. It's a purple ship, so it goes to the mothership to await respawn.
• Ship B is shot down. It's a white ship, so you remove it from the board.
• Ship C is not shot down. Its explosion space has the number 4, and your effect's value is only 3.

Ship C remains in the sky, as do all the other ships, because they are not on explosion spaces.

Example – Researching

You have two dice in research rooms. One room has value 2, and the other has value 3. (The die is a 4, but the room has a −1 modifier.)

Your research marker is on the space shown, with spaces that cost 1, 3, and 1 above it. Can you use your dice to advance three spaces?

The answer is no. Although the total cost of the three spaces is 1 + 3 + 1 = 5, your two rooms must be resolved separately. If you resolve the value 2 room first, it moves you only one space. Then the value 3 room can move you up to space 3, but that's where you stop. If you resolve the value 3 room first, it moves you up one space. From there, the value 2 room's effect will not be useable. You should probably try to use both rooms, if you have 3 energy to pay for them.

A room with value 5 would have been enough to move your marker up three spaces, because their total cost is 5.

Excavating Your Base

In the Dice Phase, you were allowed to place at most one die in an unexcavated space. In the Rooms Phase, that die can be used to move the excavator. If you choose to move the excavator, pay 1 energy. (This cost is depicted on the excavator.) Remove the die and move the excavator to the die's space. The spaces behind the excavator have now been excavated.

Reminder: How many spaces did you move the excavator? It should be less than or equal to the amount shown on the die. If this is not the case, then the placement in the Dice Phase was illegal.

Example – Excavating: You placed a 6 to move the excavator. This move is only 5 spaces, so a 5 would have worked, too. In the Rooms Phase, remove the die and pay 1 energy to advance the excavator to the die's space.

3 Mothership Phase

The Mothership Phase has 3 steps:

1. Move the mothership.
2. Resolve the mothership action.
3. Spawn ships.

Moving the Mothership

During this step, the mothership moves down to the next row. If there are any ships in the row, put them on the mothership (the dark half of the mothership tile). The ships will respawn in the third step of this phase.

Resolving the Mothership Action

Next, perform the action at the drop points. The possible mothership actions are:

• Move the excavator backwards the indicated number of spaces. (But stop if it tries to move behind its starting space.)
• Move your research marker down the indicated number of spaces.
• Place the indicated number of white ships on the mothership. They will spawn at the end of this phase.
• Your base takes one damage.
• Skull: If the mothership tile's drop points reach the row marked by the skull, you lose immediately. Unlike the above mothership actions, this applies even when the mothership moves in the Dice Phase.

Example: During the Dice Phase, one ship remained on a drop point because a 1 was placed in an AA gun room. During the Rooms Phase, a purple ship was shot down and placed on the mothership. Now it is time for the Mothership Phase. The mothership moves down one row. Because there is a ship in that row, it moves back to the mothership to be respawned. The mothership action adds a white ship to be spawned.

Spawning Ships

During the round, ships may have been placed on the mothership. At this time, those ships must be spawned on drop points. Spawn them all, unless the drop points get filled up first.

• Spawn purple ships before white.
• First, choose among drop points in columns with no ships.
• When every column has a ship, choose the drop point that is farthest from the highest ship in its column.

If those rules leave you with multiple options, the choice is yours. If all 5 drop points fill up, ships that have not yet spawned will stay on the mothership for another round.

Example:

1. There is one empty column. Purple ships spawn first, so a purple ship goes there.
2. Three drop points are still open. Those columns have ships, so we compare the highest ship in each column. The second purple ship must go on the middle drop point, because the other columns have higher ships.
3. The white ship must also be spawned. The remaining drop points are the same distance from their highest ship, so you can choose either drop point.

White Ships

• White ships spawn after purple ships.
• White ships return to the mothership if they hit your city.
• But white ships are removed from the board if they are shot down.
• If all white ships are on the board, ignore an effect that tries to add more.

End of Game

Winning

If your marker reaches the top of the research track, you win immediately.

Note: The only way to get to the space marked 11 is to use a multi-space research room in the lower half of your base.

Losing

If the mothership descends to the row with the skull, you lose immediately. You also lose immediately if your base takes maximum damage.

You can stop reading here and play your first game.

Full Game

Congratulations on playing your first game of Under Falling Skies! Now we'll look at some new elements. The cities will give your games variety, even before you start the campaign. You can flip over sky tiles to increase the challenge. And robots will give you a new trick for running your base efficiently.

Threat Level

Each sky tile has two sides. One side is more threatening than the other.

The threat level of your game is the number of sky tiles set to the more threatening side. The basic setup is for an easy game with threat level 0. The standard difficulty is threat level 1. As you become more experienced, you can challenge yourself with higher levels, up to level 4.

During setup, you should choose a threat level and flip that many sky tiles, at random, to their more threatening side.

Cities

Even before getting into the campaign, you can choose to defend different cities. Except for Roswell, each city has a special ability that modifies the rules for the duration of the game.

Each city is used with a specific pair of base tiles. Different bases have different damage and energy tracks. (For example, one base starts at energy level 3, and uses upper tile B and lower tile C with its city.)

Damaged City

Each city has two sides. You start with the undamaged (blue) side, but if you lose that game, you can flip the city over and try a second game on the damaged side. Because Earth's citizens are resilient, the ability on the damaged side is stronger than the original one.

Note: When setting up a second game, the flipped sky tiles for your threat level should again be chosen randomly.

Robots

A robot is a blue die that stays in your base even after all the gray and white dice have been resolved. Robots are never rolled and never placed in the Dice Phase. They just stay where they are installed and do their work in the Rooms Phase.

Installing Robots

Robot rooms make robots. Set a blue die to the value of the room. (If the value is more than 6, set the blue die to 6.) Immediately install your new robot in an empty space of an excavated room.

Newly installed robots are exhausted, which means you can't use them this round. Denote an exhausted robot by rotating the die 45 degrees.

You are limited to 2 robot dice. However, you may remove a robot from the board at any time. For example, you can remove a robot to reinstall it as a new robot.

Note that installing a robot does not cause enemy ships to move.

Worker Dice in the Dice Phase

From now on, the gray and white dice that you place in the Dice Phase will be called worker dice.

In the Dice Phase, you still must place one worker die in each column. Essentially, you ignore the robot dice. And if a robot die is in the space where you want to place a worker die, you can remove it.

Robot Dice in the Rooms Phase

During the Rooms Phase, robots from previous rounds are used to power effects. They work just like worker dice, with these exceptions:

• After resolving the robot die, you can leave it on the board.
• If you use the robot die, decrease its value by one. (If it is already a 1, you remove it from the board.) Rotate the robot to show that it is exhausted and thus cannot be used again during this phase.

At the end of the Rooms Phase, rotate all exhausted robots back to the usual, unexhausted orientation.

Special Cases

• If you use a robot die in a robot room, you are allowed to take that die to represent the robot you are installing.
• You can install a robot in an AA gun room, but it won't do anything.
• If a mothership action moves the excavator backward, a robot may be buried. Remove any robots in unexcavated rooms.
• In a multi-space room, an exhausted robot is like an empty space – you can't use the room.

Standalone Games

You now know how to play a standard game of Under Falling Skies. Choose a city, set your threat level, and try to win before the aliens blow you up! The roll of the dice will make every game different and interesting, even though the entire campaign is still sitting in the box.

Try various threat levels until you find the level that is most fun. The campaign is designed for players who know the game well enough to know which threat level they like.

Campaign

Under Falling Skies can also be played as a four-chapter campaign. It usually lasts about 10 games. The campaign is fully replayable, and you will discover new combinations every time.

The four chapters are designed to be revealed gradually, telling a story as you play through the campaign. They are packed in order, each in a separate bundle.

Start the campaign by lifting the campaign notebook and the first chapter out of the box.

Chapter Briefing

At the top of each bundle you will find a chapter briefing with a scene on one side and new information on the other. Familiarize yourself with this, then choose your first battle.

Choose Your Battle

When you open a chapter, you will find scenarios to challenge you and characters to help you, as well as several new cities.

Two of these cities are being attacked. Make two piles, each with a random scenario, city, and character from the current chapter. Return the remaining scenarios, cities, and characters to the box for now. They will return later in the chapter.

The two randomly created piles represent two simultaneous alien attacks. Choose one of the two piles. The one you choose is the battle you will fight. The other scenario is automatically lost. The city is annihilated. The character … well, let's just say the three components in that pile are removed from the campaign. (You can keep removed components together in a plastic bag. Don't throw them away! The campaign is replayable!)

If you want, you can choose your battle just by looking at the comics side. The rules of the other scenario will then remain unknown, thus saving some surprises for when you decide to replay the campaign someday.

Scenarios

Each scenario has special rules for that particular battle. The comics give you an idea of what that battle will be about.

Characters

Each character has a special ability you can use once per game. After using the ability, set the character aside to remind you that you cannot use it again in that game.

Use the blue side during the chapter when you first meet the character. The upgraded side comes into play in later chapters.

Starting the Campaign

At the beginning of the campaign, take a sheet from the score pad and fold it to make your campaign notebook. Make up a campaign name and write it at the top of the first page.

As explained above, randomly create two piles and choose one to be your first battle. Record the name of the city, scenario, and character.

Play one game. Record the result of your first game in the box. If you lose, the result is an X. If you win, record the threat level – the number of threatening sky tiles.

The damaged box is there in case you lose your first game. In that case, play a second game with the city's damaged side. Again randomly flip sky tiles based on your threat level. Use the same scenario and character. (The character's effect can be used once in each game.) Record the result of this game, win or lose.

Now randomly generate two more piles with the chapter's remaining components. Choose one pile to be your second battle. Fight it, and record the results.

Removing or Saving Components

In certain situations, some pieces are permanently removed from the campaign:

• After you choose one of two piles, remove the pieces in the other pile.
• After you finish a battle (in one or two games, win or lose), remove the scenario.
• If you lose two games in the same city, remove it.

Other pieces need to be saved for later chapters:

• If you win a game in a city, you have saved it from destruction. Keep it for later.
• After you finish a battle (in one or two games, win or lose), keep the character.

Two bags are provided to help you keep removed and saved components separate.

Setting Threat Level

You should play the campaign at a threat level you enjoy when playing standalone games. It should be winnable, but challenging. The campaign gets more difficult as you go, but you'll find help along the way, so you should be able to play the entire campaign at the same threat level. However, if you feel like adjusting it up or down during the campaign, that's okay, too.

Spice Up Your Standalone Game

The components in the campaign can also be used to spice up standalone games, allowing you to build your own battle.

Choose any city, damaged or undamaged. Choose any scenario, or play without one. You can play with any team of characters or none at all. You can play with characters upgraded, not upgraded, or a mix. Set up the sky with any combination of basic and advanced sky tiles. Then set your difficulty.

Difficulty

The difficulty is determined by the black and yellow stars.

• Each black star on a sky tile adds 1 to your difficulty.
• If you are using a scenario, that also adds 1 to your difficulty.
• Yellow stars cancel black stars. Each upgraded character subtracts 1 from your difficulty.
• Damaged cities and nonupgraded characters are each worth half a yellow star.

Add up all black stars and subtract all yellow stars. This is the game's difficulty.

If you add the number of black and yellow stars together, that tells you how epic your game is.

Credits

A game by Tomáš Uhlíř.

Art Direction: Filip Murmak. Artwork: Kwanchai Moryia, Petr Boháček. Supporting Artists: Jakub Politzer, Dávid Jablonovský. Typesetting: František Horálek. 3D Modeling: Radim Pech. Production: Vít Vodička. Rulebook Writer: Jason Holt. Project Management: Jan Zvoníček. Project Supervisor: Petr Murmak.

© Czech Games Edition, October 2020. www.CzechGames.com