This game is © 2025 David Hammerle. All Rights Reserved. You are granted permission to download and play for non-commercial, personal use only. No redistribution or commercial exploitation is permitted. For any other use, please contact davehammerlecoder@gmail.com.
This game was an attempt at trying to make a fairly simple card-based 4X space game. I especially wanted to try to have battles that included both space-based and ground-based combat in the same battle. And I included a lot of technologies to be researched that give a variety of bonuses. I think it came out reasonably well, but didn't have enough complexity to really be interesting.
This game can be played by 2-4 players. The Start Player Marker starts the game with a randomly chosen player.
First all players Build and Research. Then all players agro Enemies.
Any Units that took partial Damage in the previous Round are repaired back to full health. Pass the Start Player Marker to the next person to the left.
At the beginning of this Phase, shuffle all cards in the 3 Line-ups (Build, Research, and Rewards) into their associated decks along with any discarded cards for each deck. Then deal out enough cards from the shuffled decks into their respective Line-ups until they are full.
As soon as a card in a Line-up (Tech, Research, or Reward) is taken, another should replace it. If a deck runs out, shuffle its discard pile and use that as the new deck. See the 'Numbers' section above for how many cards to keep in each Line-up.
Each player Builds or Researches one thing from the Line-up at a time in turn order. The player must pay Research points to Research Techs (adding the Tech to that player's tableau). Similarly, the player must pay Metal points to Build Units. If a player passes while Building/Researching, that player may not Build/Research again this Round. As soon as all players have passed, proceed to the next Phase.
Each player may only have one Tech for each Unit Type except for the Battlecruiser. A player may replace the Tech for a given Unit Type from the Line-up for the cost difference plus 1. (Replacing an expensive Tech with a cheaper one can increase net Research cost accordingly.)
When Building Units, a player may take any number of Units of the same Type from the Line-up at once, with all Units beyond the first costing half price (round the final total cost up).
Each Round, the first player to Build/Research is the player with the Start Player Marker. Then play continues to the left.
Note: Battlecruisers have worse stats than other Unit Types initially, but Techs for them are cheaper to compensate.
Each player may agro one Enemy at a time from the top of the Enemy deck, placing it in front of them. Players do not need to kill all Enemies they agro to gain Reward points. Each player gets one Reward point per Enemy killed to spend on Reward/Gain cards.
Players may do this Phase simultaneously to speed up the game. When taking Enemies, first take Strikers from the deck until done, then non-Striker Space Units, then Ground Units. Assume each Enemy deck is effectively unlimited and each player accesses it independently.
If the Enemy decks are not large enough, consider creating two or three sets of Enemy cards.
Resolve each player's battle separately (possibly simultaneously for speed). See the Combat section below for details on resolving each battle.
Players take turns spending a Reward point to take a Reward card from the Line-up until each player has no more Reward points. A player must spend a Reward point each turn if possible. No player may hold more than 8 total Reward/Gain cards. If a player already has 8 Reward/Gain cards, that player must spend further Reward points on VP (1 VP per Reward point).
For both dealing Damage and absorbing Damage, any Damage intended for Strikers may hit other Space targets if no Strikers are available to be hit. You still get Reward points for destroyed Enemies even if all your Units are destroyed in battle. After you have absorbed all Damage from the battle, any Units that took partial Damage will be repaired back to full health at the beginning of the next Round.
Go through all of the following Phases once for each battle. Players may run them simultaneously to speed up the game if desired.
The player chooses which Units to deploy into the battle. Units that are neither Striker Units nor Ground Units may all be deployed. Any Striker Unit that was not purchased this Round requires one Striker Bay. Any Ground Unit that was not purchased this Round requires one Drop Bay.
All Space and Space Striker Damage is applied simultaneously. You must absorb Damage for each of those two Types separately. While absorbing Damage, you pick one of your Units at a time to absorb as much of the incoming Damage as possible until all Damage of that Type is absorbed or you run out of valid Units to take the hits.
After absorbing Damage, you may apply your Units' Damage to Enemies. Any of your Units that died during this Phase still deal their Damage as long as they were alive at the Phase start.
If you no longer have enough Drop Bays or Striker Bays to hold all the Striker and Ground Units that were not purchased this Round, you must sacrifice them one by one until you have enough Bays. If you end this Phase with no non-Striker Space Units remaining, all of your Ground Units are destroyed (even if purchased this Round).
This functions the same as applying Space Damage, but for Ground and Ground Striker Damage.
Same as Phase 3. Make sure you have enough Bays, otherwise sacrifice extra Ground/Striker Units.
Gain 1 Reward point for each Enemy destroyed. If you still have any non-Striker Ground Units alive, gain 1 extra Reward point. If there are also no non-Striker Ground Enemies remaining, gain another extra Reward point.
Players take turns spending one Reward point at a time to gain a single Reward/Gain card. If a player already has the max of 8 Reward/Gain cards, that player gains 1 VP per Reward point instead.
You'll need to print the included PDF file and use that to create the cards. If you're not sure how to do that, I have instructions here (TODO).
For resources and production, I used coins in the following way:
You will also need something as a Start Player Marker — any small token or piece will do.