---------------------------- --- Scifi Domains (2019) --- ---------------------------- ************* *** About *** 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. ******************* *** Misc. Rules *** This game can be played by 2-4 players. The Start Player Marker starts the game with a randomly chosen player. ---Numbers--- Each player starts with: Command Ship x 1, Material x 6, Material Production x 3, Research x 4, Research Production x 3 Game ends after 3 Rounds. Number of cards to maintain in each of the 3 Line-ups (for Units, Techs, and Rewards/Gains separately). 2 player: Units 10, Techs 6, Rewards/Gains 4 3 players; Units 12, Techs 7, Rewards/Gains 5 4 players: Units 14, Techs 8, Rewards/Gains 6 Each player may never have more than 8 total Reward/Gain cards. The remainder of that player's Rewards will be taken as 1 VP per Reward point. ---Game End--- The game ends at the end of the 3rd Round. The player with the most VP wins. At the end of the game, Gain VP for total Metal cost worth of Units left + Metal left + Research left divided by 5 (don't need to Round). The tie breaker is Metal remaining plus Metal cost worth of Units. ****************** *** Each Round *** ---General--- First all players Build and Research. Then all players agro Enemies. ---Phase 1: Repair and Move Start Player Marker--- 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. ---Phase 2: Refresh Line-ups--- 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 the Line-ups 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, take the discard pile for that deck and shuffle it and use that as the new deck. See the counts of cards to keep in each Line-up above in the 'Numbers' section above. ---Phase 3: Build and Research--- 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 the 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. Each player may replace the Tech for a given Unit Type from the Line-up for the cost difference plus 1. This can cause an increase in Research points if replacing an expensive Tech with a cheap Tech. 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 and then play continues to the left (as is normal in board games). Note: Battlecruisers have worse stats than other Types of Units to start out with, but Techs for them are cheaper to compensate. ---Phase 4: Agro Enemies--- Each player may agro one Enemy at a time from the top of the Enemy deck, placing it in front of the player. Players do not need to kill all Enemies agroed in order to gain Reward points. Each player gets one Reward point per Enemy killed to be spent on Reward/Gain cards. Players may do this Phase simultaneously to make the game go faster. When taking Enemies, first take Strikers one at a time from the deck until done, then non-Striker Space Units and then Ground Units. Assume each Enemy deck is effectively unlimited and each player accesses it separately. If this part of the game ends up being slow because the Enemy decks aren't large enough, it might be worth making and playing with two or three sets of Enemy cards instead of one. ---Phase 5: Combat--- Resolve each player's battle separately. Again, players may do this Phase simultaneously to make the game go faster. See the section below on combat for how to resolve each player's battle. ---Phase 6: Take Rewards--- Players take turns spending a Reward point to take a Reward card from the Line-up until each player is out of Reward points. A player must spend a Reward point to take a Reward card each turn if possible. A player may never have more than 8 total Reward/Gain cards. If a player has Reward points to spend, but already has 8 Reward/Gain cards, the player can and must spend each Reward point for 1 VP. ************** *** Combat *** ---Misc. Rules--- For both dealing Damage and absorbing Damage, Damage that hits strikers may hit other Space targets if no strikers are available to be hit. You will still get Reward points for destroyed Enemies even if all your Units are destroyed in the battle. After you have absorbed all the Damage from the battle, any Units that took partial Damage will be repaired back to full health at the beginning of the next Round. ---General--- Go through all these Phases for each battle one at a time. Only go through all of these Phases once per battle. ---Phase 1: Deploy Units--- The player picks which Units to deploy into the current battle. Units other than Striker Units and Ground Units may all be deployed. Each Striker Unit deployed must either have been purchased this Round or it will require one Striker Bay. Each Ground Unit deployed must either have been purchased this Round or it will require one Drop Bay. ---Phase 2: Apply Space Damage--- All Space and Space Striker Damage is applied simultaneously. You must absorb Damage from each of those 2 Types separately. While absorbing Damage you must pick one Unit at a time to absorb as much Damage as possible until all Damage of the current Type has been absorbed or none of your Units that are of the correct Type are left. After absorbing Damage, you may apply your Damage to Enemies. Units of yours that died during this Phase will still deal Damage during this Phase as long as they were alive at the beginning of this Phase. ---Phase 3: Check Bay Capacity--- If you no longer have enough Drop Bays or Striker Bays to hold all of the Striker and Ground Units that were not purchased this Round, you must sacrifice them one at a time until you have enough Bays for the remaining Units. If you end this Phase without any non-Striker Space Units remaining, all of your Ground Units are destroyed even if they were purchased this Round. ---Phase 4: Apply Ground Damage--- This works the same as applying Space Damage, but for Ground and Ground Striker Damage. ---Phase 5: Check Bay Capacity Again--- This works the same as Phase 3 above. Just need to check Bay capacity and such again. ---Phase 6: Gain Reward Points--- Gain 1 Reward point for each Enemy destroyed. If you still have 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. ---Phase 7: Spend Reward Points--- Players take turns spending one Reward point at a time gaining a single Reward/Gain card. If a player already has the maximum number 8 Reward/Gain cards, then that player must spend each Reward point to gain a single VP. ********************************* *** Putting the Game Together *** ********************************* 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 like this: Pennies for Metal Dimes for Research Quarters for Metal production Nickels for Research production You will also need to use something for a Start Player Marker, but that can be almost anything.