1. Introduction

The Galactic Era is the greatest cycle of time. Beings of the light incarnate to experience the material world. They create great civilizations to explore and conquer the galaxy. The greatest one will determine the destiny of the galaxy, before returning to the light.

You are a fledgling space-faring civilization exploring and expanding into the galaxy. Before meeting other civilizations you must decide upon your morals. Will you respect others and cooperate peacefully or will you only strive for your own goals?

2. Overview

The objective of the game is to score as many “destiny points” (DP) as possible. This is mainly accomplished by having a large population. Additionally, players can fulfill personal objectives and various conditions depending upon what story and goal is being played for additional points. There are both peaceful and warlike paths to victory.

The game is played over 8 rounds. Each round players first take turns moving their spaceships and fighting battles. After that players pick two actions to grow their galactic civilization. This is how they get new technologies, more stars, more population and more ships. Players can then also trade technologies and then finally score some points for the round.

3. Contents

• 96 ship miniatures (16 each in the 6 colors: blue, green, purple, orange, red, yellow)
• 6 home star miniatures (1 in each color)
• 234 city miniature discs (for population, 39 in each of the 6 colors)
• 30 cubes (for the technology tracks), 5 in each of the 6 colors
• 30 square technology counters (6 sets of 5 counter types)
• 6 technology track + fleet pads (1 in each color)
• 30 round war/peace counters (in the 6 colors)
• 36 oval “growth” counters (6 sets of 6 counters)
• 12 square turn order change counters (6x “up” and 6x “down”)
• 30 fleet counters (5 in each color)
• 6 emergency reserve tiles (1 in each color)
• 6 transparent chips (reduced population markers — 1 in each color)
• 6 player reference cards
• 6 population tracks (1 in each color)
• 6 wooden discs (DP markers — 1 in each color)
• 9 sector boards
• 51 round star counters (21x “uninhabited”, 15x “primitive neutral”, 15x “advanced neutral”)
• 30 advanced fleet tactic counters
• 10 ancient relic counters
• 13 domination cards
• 114 hidden ship chips (30x ‘0’, 36x ‘1’, 12x ‘2’, 6x ‘3’, 6x ‘4’, 18x ‘5’, 6x ‘10’)
• 4 white discs (for special effects)
• 6 wormhole counters
• 4 50+/50- DP counters
• 2 50+/100+ DP counters
• 6 octagonal turn order counters
• 8 galactic goal tiles
• 17 star people tiles
• 4 galactic story tiles
• 1 gray pawn (round counter)
• 1 round & DP track pad
• 2 combat summary/icon index cards
• 15 fleet holders
• 2 dice (for solo variant only)
• Slavers’ offboard power track (for solo variant only)
• rulebook
• solo variant book
• background book

4. Game Concepts

4.1 Board

The board consists of multiple “sector tiles” (the tiles with 5 hexagons on each side) laid out together. On each sector there are a number of hexagons (hexes), some of which contain a star symbol and a name next to it. These are the “stars”. They are color-coded according to their distance from the central star of the sector. The center star’s name is also used as the sector name. All specially marked hexes that are not stars are “space anomalies”.

These tiles have two sides. One is the “A” side and the other is the “B” side (see designation in the bottom corner hex). The “B” side has more “nebula” space anomalies than the “A” side.

Left of each “A” or “B” marking are two numbers separated by a slash. The first one indicates the number of stars and the second one the maximum possible population by normal growth for this sector tile (excluding effects of neighboring sectors).

4.2 Alignment

The Universe offers two fundamental spiritual pathways individuals and planetary populations can take. One is to recognize everything as one being and thus love others and the self alike; the other is to disregard this and only act for the self.

Every player has an “alignment” in the game. This is either “service-to-others” (STO) or “service-to-self” (STS). Players indicate this by having the appropriate side (light = STO, dark = STS) of their star people tile facing up. Players have different options in the game depending on their chosen alignment. Players may also change their alignment during the course of the game.

As an STO player in this game, you are held to high moral standards and, therefore, must play mostly peacefully. You cannot fight other STO players and can only attack STS players under very specific circumstances. Your advantage is that, if you discover any advanced civilizations, you can easily get them to join your alliance due to your great reputation. Any population you liberate from those dark empires will gladly join you, too.

As an STS player in this game, you are not limited to any of the pesky morals of the light side. You have the freedom to be as aggressive as you want. Also you can easily subjugate any primitive civilizations you encounter by awing them with your great powers.

4.3 Star People

Every player chooses a Star People at the start of the game, each of which has a unique special ability. Each Star People tile shows a name, a special effect for STO and one for STS, opportunities to declare war, and flavor text. See table 12.1 for the full list of Star Peoples and their special effects.

4.4 Population

The population of a star system is represented by the colored discs (city miniatures). They are placed in the middle of a hex where a named star is. If more than one disc needs to be placed in a hex, then stack them on top of each other. There can only be one color of discs on a star. The color of the population discs indicates who owns the star.

4.5 Home Star

Every player has a “home star” which is marked by the miniature of their color. A home star miniature counts as six population for all purposes.

4.6 Ships

The cigar shape is a commonly used form for spaceships as it minimizes the exposed area in the direction of travel.

Ships are used to explore the galaxy, mine asteroids, colonize and take over star systems, and fight space battles. They are always in a hex on the board. Ships are represented in two ways:

• By the colored miniatures (called “ship pieces”)
• As “hidden ship” chips underneath a fleet counter (see below)

Hidden Ships

The hidden ship chips (i.e., black chips with a number on them) are used to represent ships. They are always placed face down in a stack beneath a fleet counter. Players may look at their own chips but may not show them to other players. Each chip indicates that there are that number of ships of the player in that “fleet”.

At any time players may combine smaller chip denominations into larger ones or split up a chip into smaller denominations. They must reveal all the chips they are exchanging to the other players though.

Hidden ship chips with a “0” are called dummy chips and are used to mask the number of ships in a fleet. Each player has their own set of dummy chips in their own color.

Fleet

A “fleet” is all the chips in a stack below a fleet counter (including the counter itself). Whenever ship pieces join a fleet, they are converted into chips. Whenever ships leave a fleet they are converted into ship pieces. See chapter 6.1.3 for more details.

There must be at least one actual ship in every fleet being used though (i.e. a fleet may not consist entirely of dummy chips).

Every fleet also has a “tactic” which corresponds to the letter of the fleet counter. This is a special effect that only applies to the ships that are currently in that fleet. Fleet counters stay face down whenever possible.

Fleet Holders

Whenever the stacks of chips for the fleets get too large, use fleet holders to keep them together more easily while moving them across the board. You place the holder with the three legs pointing up and simply insert the stack of chips inside of them (fleet counter on top).

4.7 War/Peace

Each player must keep track of which players they are “at war” with and which they are “at peace” with. For this purpose, every player has one war/peace counter for every other player in the game. When a player is “at war” with another player, they must have the war side of their counter with that color face up and otherwise the “at peace” side when not.

Declaring War

Players must “declare war” before they can do certain things against another player. This includes taking another player’s star or combating ships. Whenever a player declares war on another player, then both players flip their corresponding war/peace counters to the “at war” side face up. See chapter 7.3 for more details.

Making Peace

If two players agree, they may flip their corresponding war/peace counters to the peace side at any time.

4.8 Technology

Every player has a level of technology in five fields (Military, Spirituality, Propulsion, Robotics, and Genetics). Players usually start with these at level 1 (some star peoples and sectors allow starting at a higher level). The maximum level that a player can get in each technology is 6. Whenever a player gains a technology level, the effects of the new level are immediately applied. See the table 12.2 for details.

4.9 Era

Every game has three “eras” as marked on the round track. A first “Era of Light”, then an “Era of Darkness”, and then a second “Era of Light”. Each era lasts a certain number of rounds and is associated with an alignment (light = STO, darkness = STS). The era determines what a player can score for according to the galactic story.

4.10 Population Track

Each player uses a population track to keep track of their amount of population on the board. At setup, players place one disc of their color on every spot of their track except the “6” (see bottom right corner of track). Every time players remove discs to put on the board, they take them from the lowest numbered spots with discs. When population discs from the board are lost, they are returned to the track, starting with the highest numbered free spot. The highest visible number is the number of points that the player will score, for population, at game end.

Players also use the highest numbered free spot on their track to see the number of ships they get whenever building ships (see the corresponding ship number interval below it).

5. Setup

Setup Component Legend (3-Player Setup Example)

Set Up Board

In the following steps, select the side for each sector tile to be used randomly. First, randomly select one sector tile and place it in the middle of the table. This is the center tile. Then randomly select a number of sector tiles equal to the number of players. Place these tiles each in a random orientation next to the center tile. Use the configuration according to the number of players (“C” is the center tile): 2 or 3 players, 4 players, 5 players, or 6 players — each with a specific ring layout around the center tile shown in the original diagram.

The red dots indicate where wormholes should be placed (see following section).

Each tile should be attached to the center tile along one whole edge. If there are less than six players, then there will be large gaps (see placing wormholes below) where the missing tiles are. There should be no gaps other than these.

Each player gets the sector tile closest to them and places their home star miniature on the star in the center hex of it.

Then every player takes two star counters of each of the three types (so a total of six). Players who have a sector with eight stars take one additional “uninhabited” counter. Players then flip all their counters face down, shuffle them and place one on each hex with a star symbol (so not the central hex) in their home star sector.

Take three star counters of each of the three types (so a total of nine). Shuffle these and place one face down on every star hex of the center sector tile, including the central hex. Some of these will be left over. Keep these face down and remove them from the game.

Shuffle the ten relic counters face down and place one on each of the stars in the center sector (on top of the star counters). Some of these will be left over. Keep these face down and remove them from the game.

Placing Wormholes (if less than 6 players)

Place a wormhole counter on the middle hex of the first open edge where there is a large gap (on the hex marked with a dot in a corner). Place the counters pairwise with the same color for the same gap.

Distribute Player Items 1

Every player gets the following:

• All pieces of a color, including: ship pieces, counters, cubes, discs, and chips. Players each place the wooden disc of their color on the zero position of the DP track and their fleet counters face down into a pile (shuffled).
• The technology track + fleet pad in the player’s color. Every player places one cube of their color on each left-most position (level 1) of each of the five technologies.
• The population track in the player’s color. Players place one disc of theirs on each spot of the track except for the “6” in the bottom right corner of the track.
• 7 technology/turn order change counters (1 counter for each technology field, an “up” and a “down” turn order change counter).
• 1 war/peace counter for every color in the game except the player’s own color (remove all war/peace counters not used from the game).
• A player reference card.
• The other (non-colored) hidden ship chips are put into one or more piles within easy reach of the players.

Prepare Round & DP Track

Place the pad with the round and DP tracks on the table off to one side. Place the gray pawn on the left-most position of the round track (where the gray arrow is).

Randomly draw a galactic story tile and place it alongside the turn track in the long rectangle labeled “Galactic Story”.

Randomly draw a galactic goal tile and place it on the spot of the same size below the turn track. The galactic goals encourage different play styles (e.g., confrontational, peaceful). See the symbol in the bottom left corner of the tile or the “play style” column in table 12.5.

Players may also agree to play with a certain combination of galactic story and goal instead of drawing them randomly.

Sector Starting Bonus

Players also get something additional as marked on their sector tile at the central star. This can be an additional technology level, ships or population. See table 12.6 for details.

If a player is getting level 2 in a technology field they already have or cannot have, then the player chooses a different technology field to start with level 2 instead.

Distribute Player Items 2

Do the following additional steps in the order as listed below.

Domination Cards

Shuffle the domination cards into a deck. Deal one domination card face down to each player. Players may look at their card but may not show it to other players.

Turn Order

Remove the turn order counters from the game that have a number higher than the number of players. Shuffle the remaining ones and give one face up to each player.

Starting Ships

Each player places 3 ship pieces of their color at their home star.

Star People

Randomly give two Star People tiles to each player. Each player chooses one of the two.

Select Alignment

All players choose their alignment by secretly choosing which side of their star people tile to place face up (e.g., below the table). After all have chosen then all reveal their choice simultaneously.

Players then check if they have any modified starting conditions for their selected star people and alignment and make those modifications now.

Individual Choices

Finally, if players need to make any other individual choices, they do this in turn order (such as selecting an advanced fleet tactic or a different technology field for their sector starting bonus).

6. Play

Use the gray pawn to mark the current round on the round track. Each round has four phases in this order:

1. Move/Combat
2. Growth
3. Trading
4. Scoring

The first two phases are where most of the action takes place. In the first phase, players will take turns moving their ships and fighting battles. In the second phase, they will select actions and then take turns growing their civilization by increasing their population, researching technologies, building ships, and more. Players will score the most points during this important “growth” phase.

6.1 Move/Combat Phase

In this phase, every player takes one turn in the order as determined by the turn order counters.

On their turn players will perform these steps in order:

1. Create/Swap fleets
2. Movement
3. Combat

6.1.1 Movement

The player may move any or all of their ships. They need not move any.

Every turn a ship can move a number of hexes up to the player’s current “range” as determined by their technology level in Propulsion (see technology track). Every hex a ship enters is counted to the range.

Wormhole

A wormhole connects (only) to the other end of the wormhole (i.e. the other counter of the same color). Treat these hexes for movement as if they were adjacent hexes. Ships may also enter or pass through a wormhole hex without actually using the wormhole.

Nebula

Interstellar clouds contain high levels of Source energy.

Ships must spend an additional 1 range (so 2 in total) to enter a nebula hex. Ships starting their movement in a nebula hex get +2 to their range for the current turn.

Scouting

Players may secretly look at the star counter and relic counter where a ship of theirs is standing anytime during the game. Players may not scout where their ship is just passing through.

A scouting player may not show inspected counters to others.

Remote Viewing

Remote Viewing is the psychic ability to tap into the Universal Mind to see any event anywhere in space and time.

A player may “remote view”, on their turn, a number of times according to their Spirituality level (starting at level 2) during the move/combat phase.

Per “remote view” a player may secretly look at one “hidden thing”, which is one of the following:

• A star counter
• A relic counter
• The top card of the domination card deck
• A “fleet” of another player (i.e. the fleet counter plus all the chips beneath it). The player must have a higher spirituality level than the owner of the fleet.

The player may not show these items to other players.

6.1.2 Combat

After the player has completed all movement, a battle occurs in every hex where the player has ships in the same hex as other players with whom the player is “at war”. The player, whose turn it is, selects the order in which each hex is resolved, one at a time, until all battles are resolved.

Retreat Before Combat

A defending player who has a higher level in Spirituality or Propulsion technology than the attacking player may “retreat before combat” before combat is resolved in a battle hex. Follow the same procedure as when retreating from a lost battle. Such a player must decide whether to use this or not before any fleets are revealed in that hex.

A player may only choose to retreat either all of their ships (or at least all that can, see Fleet “E”) or none of them.

6.1.3 Handling Fleets

Creating New Fleets

Even a small colony is useful as a base for a fleet to resupply and reorganize itself.

Players may create new fleets at their own stars on their turn, before moving any ships. They take an unused fleet counter and place it into such a hex, then they transfer (see below) at least one ship into it by putting chips under it.

Players can also swap two of their fleets that are not in the same hex, but are each at a star of theirs. To do this, just swap the fleet counters on top of the chip stacks (the ships remain where they are). Players may also feign swapping. Swapping fleets that are in the same hex is possible anytime during movement (it is the same as transferring ships).

Transferring Ships

Anytime during their turn, but before any combat has happened, players may transfer ships into or out of their fleets. Players can exchange chips between fleets that are in the same hex without revealing them. Players can also convert ship pieces to chips or vice versa accordingly in the same hex; in this case, they must show the chips used to the other players.

Players must be careful to ensure that no transferred ship moves farther than its allowed range.

Dissolving Fleets

Whenever a fleet has no more ships then that fleet immediately becomes dissolved, and the corresponding fleet counter is removed from the board without revealing it.

Resolving Combat

The player whose turn it is is the attacking side. All the other players with ships in that hex who are “at war” with the attacking player belong to the defending side (even if they are at war with each other).

Players who are in the same hex but are not “at war” with the attacking player do not participate in combat, do not reveal their fleets, and may not retreat.

Before resolving combat the defending players possibly have the option to “retreat before combat” (see above). If there are still defending players left in the hex now, then combat proceeds as follows.

The attacking player and all the remaining defending players reveal their fleets in the current hex. This means flipping all the counters and chips of these fleets face up.

Each side then adds up the combat value (CV) of all their ships there. The CV for each ship is determined by the Military technology level of the owning player plus special effects of fleets. The side with the higher CV total wins the battle. If the CV totals are equal then the side with higher Military technology level wins (use the highest level among the defenders if multiple players). If that is also equal then the defending side wins.

The winning player chooses which ships to destroy from both winners and losers. The winner may choose to destroy all, some, or none of the ships of the losing players (chosen independently for each losing player).

If the winning side had less than a 3:1 ratio in CV, then some of its ships are destroyed, too. Destroy half of the number of the ships the losing side had destroyed (rounded up) from the winning side then (but not more than the winner actually has). No ships are destroyed from the winning side, if it wins with a 3:1 ratio or higher in CV.

If the defending side wins and there are multiple players on that side, then the player who has the most ships there (resolve a tie by who is first in turn order) chooses which ships to destroy (even those of the other defenders).

Any remaining ships of the losing side must then retreat. Do this in turn order for multiple players.

Retreat

When a player retreats from a lost battle, they place all of their surviving ships from there into one of the nearest hexes of their choice that contains no “hostile” ships (i.e., of a player with whom they are at war). Ships may not retreat through a wormhole.

Fleet Tactics

Every fleet has a special effect which only applies to ships currently in that fleet. This is also described in short form on each fleet section of a player’s pad.

Advanced Fleet Tactics

Players get advanced fleet tactics when they reach certain levels in Military technology. For every advanced fleet tactic received, players place such a counter on a fleet section of theirs. They choose which side of the counter to place face up, either “x2” or “+3 DP”. These placements cannot be changed later on. Each fleet section can only have one such counter.

A fleet with a counter showing its “x2” side has its special effect doubled. For the “B” fleet, simply double the ship count versus stars. For the “E” fleet, this means a defending player can have it retreat before combat after opposing fleets are revealed without revealing the number of ships in their “E” fleet.

Each time a player wins a battle in which any of their fleets have a “+3 DP” counter, that player gets an additional 3 DP (even if that fleet becomes dissolved as the result of that battle). A player can get these additional DP only once per battle won. A battle where all opposing ships retreated before combat does not count though.

Dummy Chips

Players may add or remove their dummy chips to or from any of their fleets anytime during their turn (or when building new ships). They must reveal the dummy chips they are adding/removing to the other players (except when directly transferring them between fleets, see above).

6.2 Growth Phase

The growth phase consists of the following steps in this order:

1. Select counters
2. Switch alignments
3. Change turn order
4. Resolve other growth actions

6.2.1 Select Counters

All players secretly select two of their oval “growth action” counters and one square “technology” or “turn order change” counter. When all players have selected all their counters, these are all revealed simultaneously.

Additional Growth Actions

For every non-home star with 5+ population that a player has, they may play an additional Growth Action Counter. The player must lose 3 DP for every such additional counter selected. Players may hide how many counters they are selecting before they are revealed. Subtract the DP immediately after all counters have been revealed.

Negative Points

The score of a player can be negative. This is indicated by placing the player’s scoring marker below the “0” spot of the DP track accordingly. Players can also take a marker to note this.

6.2.2 Switch Alignment

All players who selected a Switch Alignment counter resolve that action first and simultaneously. This is an exception to the other growth actions. Every player doing this flips their star people tile over to the other side.

When players switch their alignment, they are then automatically “at peace” with all players (flip war/peace counters over accordingly).

6.2.3 Change Turn Order

If any turn order change counters were selected, then the following happens.

First, all players who selected an “up” (green arrow pointing up) turn order change counter switch to one position earlier in turn order. Do this by starting with the smallest number and then continuing in numerical order. Each such player exchanges their octagonal turn order counter with the player who has the next smaller number. For a player who already had the number 1 of the turn order at the start of the phase such a counter does nothing though.

Secondly, all players who selected a “down” (red arrow pointing down) turn order change counter switch to one position later in turn order (swapping with the next greater number). Do this as above, but starting with the greatest number and then continuing in reverse numerical order. For a player who already had the greatest turn order number at the start of the phase such a counter does nothing though.

6.2.4 Resolve Other Growth Actions

In this step every player resolves all their remaining growth actions by taking one turn in the, possibly new, turn order. A player may choose to execute the growth actions on their turn in any order.

6.2.5 Gain Star

Players doing the Gain Star action may choose to populate or take over a star of their choice where they have the required number of ships. Each method of gaining a star has a specific term as listed below, which only applies to that context.

These are the options depending on the alignment of the player and the type of star being taken:

Revealing Ships

A player must reveal the required number of ships needed to take a star, including any necessary fleet counters, but not more than that.

Involuntary Home Star Evacuation

Players who lose their home star through conquest or liberation, must immediately select a new home star. This must be one of their stars without hostile ships and with the most population among those. They remove all population discs both from their old home star and their new home star location. Then they move their home star miniature to the new location.

A rogue, interstellar planet can be a good place to escape from your enemies. If a player has no star they can evacuate to, then they select any empty hex that is not a space anomaly in the same sector for their new home star location. This hex is considered a star from now on.

Voluntary Home Star Evacuation

If there are hostile ships in the hex of a player’s home star, then that player may voluntarily evacuate their home star anytime during their turn of the growth phase. This works in the same manner as above except that the player also places one population disc where the home star previously was.

Gaining Technology

A player who conquers or liberates a star from another player may immediately gain one level in a technology field in which they have a lower level than that other player. If that star had six or more population, then they instead gain two levels (from the same or different technology fields). If there is more than one possibility for which level to get, then the player who gains the level may choose which one.

Ancient Relics

An ancient builder race that has vanished into History has left mysterious relics of great power behind in the galactic center.

Whenever players gain a star with a face down relic counter (these are in the center sector), they turn it face up and apply its effect. Some effects are immediate, in which case the relic counter is removed after applying it; other effects are permanent, in which case the relic counter is left face up at the star. See table 12.7 for the details on each relic.

End of Population Track

When players have no more discs left on their population track and want to place population discs for a growth action, they may take these from any of their stars. In this case they may also do the action partially, meaning placing less discs than they would normally for that action.

They must place at least one disc for a Gain Star action though. If they do not have any available (see “blocking”), they may not do that action at all.

6.2.6 Grow Population

The star colonies that thrive the best are remotely located ones. They can use all the resources in their vicinity for themselves.

A player doing the Grow Population action may add one population disc to every star of theirs that is below its “growth limit”. This limit is equal to its distance (in hexes) to the nearest player-owned star (both of the acting player and other players).

Bonus Population

In the second part of this action, the player may add “bonus population” discs to their stars as indicated by their level in Genetics (and other special effects). The previously mentioned growth limits do not apply then. The player may only place one bonus population per star within a single Grow Population action though.

6.2.7 Build Ships

A player doing the Build Ships action gets a number of new ships as follows:

new ships = ship number on population track + ship number for Robotics level + number of asteroid systems (with a ship of the player)

The player first gathers ship pieces and chips (including dummies) totaling the above sum and showing the chips to other players. Then the player may distribute all these in any way among their stars where they have 4+ population (these are the “shipyards”; this automatically includes the Home Star). Ship pieces are placed into the hexes of these stars. Chips are placed into any fleets that are located at these stars. The player may also create new fleets for these ships.

Asteroid System

When doing this growth action, the player gets one additional ship per asteroid system hex where they have a ship.

6.2.8 Research

With the Research action, the player advances one level in every technology field for each technology counter the player selected this round. Multiple technology counters are possible at Robotics levels 5 and 6.

Research+ Effect

When a player researches a technology field that they already have at level 6, then they get the effect shown on the technology track in the same row to the right of level 6 instead of a level. See the technology tables in 12.2 for an explanation of each effect. This also applies in the same way when getting a level through an ancient relic.

6.2.9 “Free” Growth Actions

Some special effects give “free” growth actions. These are done without a growth action counter.

Players may do their “free” growth actions in their turn of the growth phase (only) and in any order together with their other actions in that turn. They score DP for them as if they were a regular action.

6.3 Trading Technology Phase

After the growth phase, players may “trade technology”. Negotiations and executions of trades are done simultaneously. A trade may only occur between two players.

The two players must be “at peace” and “in contact” with each other in order to trade. To be “in contact”, they must each have a ship in the same hex, or one player must have a ship at a star of the other player.

Both players involved in a trade get one level in a technology field where they are lower than their trading partner. Both players must get a level, and both must agree to the entire trade (i.e., to what they are getting and what they are teaching to the other).

Every player may only participate in one trade per round. Some special effects allow additional trades in a round. A player who has this may do these in any order together with their regular trade. They may also trade a technology level received in the same phase.

6.4 Scoring Phase

In the last phase of a round, players score DP according to the current era. Mark the new score on the DP track accordingly. The galactic story tile laid out determines for what players can score as per the current era.

Some things are more practical to score right away when they occur, such as winning a battle or taking a star; everything else is scored during this phase. Some galactic goal effects are also scored immediately. See tables 12.4 and 12.5 for details.

7. Additional Details

7.1 Propulsion Special Effects

Stargate 1

Players with Propulsion level 3 or 4 have Stargate 1. This means they can move ships from a star with 3 or more of their population to any other likewise star as if they were adjacent.

Stargate 2

Players with Propulsion level 5 have Stargate 2. This means they can move ships from a star that does not belong to a player they are “at war” with to any other likewise star as if they were adjacent.

Players may not use stargates for retreating or for calculating population growth limits.

Neutron Star

Only players with Propulsion 5 or 6 may enter Neutron Star hexes. These may never be owned by players and do not count as neutral stars. However, they can be used as stars for Stargate 2 movement.

Teleport Population

Players with Propulsion levels 5 and 6 can teleport population. The players do this as a single, free action during their turn of the growth phase, in which they may relocate the indicated number of population discs between their stars. This action can be “blocked” (see below), meaning discs then cannot be removed from or added to blocked stars.

7.2 Blocking

The presence of hostile ships prevents growth actions and movement as detailed below. This is called “blocking”.

An action, action selection, or movement currently being done can also, if the conditions are met, become blocked by a player declaring war at that moment (see chapter 7.3).

7.2.1 Blocking Action Execution

Growth Phase actions cannot be done in or make use of any hexes containing a hostile ship.

When a player is doing the Build Ships action, they cannot count any population of blocked stars. The player must use a lower population count accordingly instead. A population count below six is still treated as six, however. Players can place their transparent plastic chip on their population track to calculate or mark this.

7.2.2 Blocking Additional Actions

A hostile ship at a star prevents the owner of the star from getting an additional growth action for it. This only applies during the selection step of the growth phase (i.e., before any counters are revealed).

7.2.3 Blocking Movement

Only the following types of movement can be blocked.

Blocking a Stargate

A ship trying to use Stargate 1 or Stargate 2 movement is blocked by hostile ships at the jump-off star or the target star. The ship may then not move to the target star. If this happens by a player newly declaring war, the moving player may move their ship a different way than originally intended (from the hex onwards, where it became blocked).

Blocking a Wormhole

A ship trying to use a wormhole is blocked by a hostile ship at the exit hex of a wormhole. The ship still moves through the wormhole, but ends its movement in the hex it exited from the wormhole. If this happens by a player newly declaring war, the moving player cannot decide to move their ship differently then.

7.3 When to Declare War

STS players may declare war on any other player. They may do this during their own movement (but before combat). Outside of their movement, they may also do this in order to:

• block movement of another player (as per 7.2.3)
• block a growth action of another player
• block a player from getting additional growth actions
• conquer a star
• prevent a home star evacuation to where the player declaring war has ships
• use the research+ effect of Military

When declaring war to block a player from getting additional growth actions, the player losing the actions may choose which to cancel. Revert any DP losses that may have already been applied for that.

An STO player can only declare war on STS players and only to block the subjugation or conquest of a star with “innocent” population (i.e., primitive or advanced neutral stars or those of STO players). Multiple STO players may use the same opportunity to declare war, even though one would be enough to block it.

Losing Growth Actions

Growth actions are not necessarily lost when they become blocked by a player newly declaring war. The acting player must declare their actions to allow other players the opportunity to declare war.

The acting player may then do the action at a different star instead. In the case of their home star becoming blocked, the player may then voluntarily evacuate it to get around this.

The action is only lost if the player has no other star at which they can, and want to, do the action.

7.4 Domination Cards

Players also get special game objectives in the form of “domination cards”. See table 12.3 for the details on each card.

Each domination card is divided into two sections by a long horizontal line: a large top section (A), with a title, primary condition, and primary DP; and a smaller bottom section (B), with an immediate one-time effect and secondary DP.

7.4.1 Scoring

Each player scores exactly two domination cards per game, one with the primary (A) effect and another with the secondary (B) effect, or both with the B effect.

Players may play a card they are holding anytime (also at the end of the game). They may play it for either effect as detailed below.

A-Section

To play a card for the A-section, the condition there on the card must be fulfilled, and the player may not have already played a card for the A-section. In that case, they get the DP as indicated there. They may then also apply the immediate, one-time effect as described there. If they cannot, or do not want to, use this effect immediately, then it is lost. After playing the card, place it face up next to the top left edge of the player’s technology pad to mark it having been played for the A-section.

B-Section

When playing a card for the B-section, the player simply scores the DP as indicated in the bottom section (ignoring the A-section). Any technology field indicated there means that the player uses their level in that field to score. Any fractional DP for a card total is rounded down. Many cards give the player a choice of two possibilities by which to score (separated by a slash). After playing the card, place it face up next to the bottom left edge of the player’s technology pad, or, if that spot is already filled, then the top left edge instead.

7.4.2 Drawing/Exchanging Cards

When playing their first card before the third era, players immediately draw a new card from the deck.

At the start of the second era, every player may exchange their domination card for a new one. In turn order, every player who wishes to do so places their card face down at the bottom of the deck and then draws a new one from the top.

At the start of the third era, all players must draw a second card into their hand if they have not played any yet or may exchange their card in the same way as above (players may not do both). Do this in turn order.

7.5 Stars Becoming Uninhabited

Any star that has its last disc removed becomes an “uninhabited neutral” star, without a counter. This applies to all cases in which this may happen (e.g. teleport population or the special effect of STS Rogue AI). The star can then be taken with a Gain Star action (Colonize) as normal.

7.6 Emergency Reserve

Players use their emergency reserve tile immediately after either of the following happens:

• Their home star is evacuated (either voluntarily or involuntarily).
• Another player takes one of their stars, causing them to have at least two stars less than every other player.

The player then places six ships at their (possibly new) home star. Use the same rules for placing new ships as when doing the Build Ships action. This effect cannot be blocked though. Remove the emergency reserve tile from the game then.

8. Game End

The game ends after 8 rounds.

8.1 Game End Scoring

Add the following points after the scoring phase has been done for the last round. These are the game end DP.

• Every player scores DP equal to the highest number on their population track without a disc. Note that, for every population removed from the top row of the track, the score goes up by 2 or more.
• Players possibly score DP according to the galactic goal that was selected for this game.
• For every sector, the player with the most ships there scores 4 DP (in the case of a tie all tied players score this).

8.2 Winner

The player with the most destiny points (DP) wins the game.

If players are tied then the one with the highest number of stars among the tied wins. If this is also a tie, then use the turn order. The player who is first in turn order among those tied wins.

9. Variants

9.1 Deterministic Setup

This is for players who want to take (most of) the luck out of the setup process.

Follow the normal setup process in the given order, but after placing the center sector tile, do the following instead:

Setup Turns

Select a starting player randomly. Players take turns starting with the starting player and then going clockwise. Each turn, a player has one of the following options. Every player may do each option only once though.

• Take a star people tile.
• Take a sector tile and place it next to center tile (any orientation and side). The player puts their home planet miniature on the central star of this tile. The first player to choose this option may also rotate the center sector tile. If other players have already placed their sector tile, then any new tiles must be placed so that they fit with the other tiles and the setup configuration for the number of players.
• Take a turn order counter.
• Draw five domination cards face down from the deck. Pick one and put the other four back. Then shuffle the deck.

Continue taking turns until all players have placed a sector tile, have a star people tile, a turn order counter, and a domination card. Then do all the other remaining things as normal (placing counters on sectors, starting ships and bonuses, selecting alignment, etc.).

9.2 Handicap

The following rule evens the chances of winning if there are large differences in player experience:

• Novice players (i.e., who have never played this before) start with an additional 5 DP.
• Very experienced players (i.e., at least 4 plays) start with 5 DP less than normal.

10. Clarifications

Declaring War to Prevent Additional Actions

STS players may declare war on a player to prevent them from getting an additional action only during the selection step of the growth phase (even if it is unclear whether they will take the additional action or not). Once the counters are revealed they cannot do that anymore.

Declaring War to Prevent Stargate-2 Movement

STS players can only declare war to prevent another player using Stargate-2 movement from or to a star where they have a ship (because then it counts as “blocking”). Movement to where the player has no ships cannot be prevented by declaring war.

This also applies to all other instances where being “at war” limits the options of other players but does not count as “blocking” (i.e. with a ship). For example: STS players cannot declare war on the STS Caninoids to prevent them from forcing a trade.

Does the range penalty for entering a nebula apply for each hex or for an entire nebula field as depicted on a sector?

It applies to each Nebula hex that you enter.

When a player declares war to prevent another player from taking a star, would this trigger combat (because there are now hostile ships in the same hex)?

No, because ship combat does not happen during the Growth phase. This would happen in the next movement phase (next round) if they are still together in the same hex then.

Greys (STS): If they have Spirituality level 4+ and didn’t trade in a round, could they steal a level from any other player without being in contact?

No, the STS Greys need to be in contact to do their special effect.

11. Strategy Tips

Distant Stars Are Better

When taking a star, always consider its future population growth potential. Stars that are close to a star already owned by you or another player are bad.

Take Stars from Players Ahead of You

It is a lot more effective to take a star from a player who is ahead of you either in points or technologies than one who is behind you in both.

Use “D” Fleet

On your first turn, put one of your ships into the “D” fleet so you can fly further.

Last is Tactically Best

Players who are after you in turn order have a significant tactical advantage when at war with you.

Have a Strong Defense

Even if you want to play peacefully, build up a strong defense. Even STO players can switch alignment and then suddenly take your stars. A good precaution is to have a ship at each of your stars within reach of other players.

Park Ships in Nebula

If you don’t know where to move some ships, then putting them in a nebula can be a good idea. It will give you more options in the next round because of the greater range.

12. Special Effects Tables

12.1 Star Peoples

12.2 Technologies

12.2.1 Military

12.2.2 Spirituality

You may retreat before combat when being attacked by a player with a lower Spirituality level.

You may only remote view fleets of a player who has a lower Spirituality level.

At levels 5 and 6 you automatically switch to STO (no growth action needed for that) and may not switch back to STS again. This happens only when the level is reached (so not during the “Switch Alignment” step).

12.2.3 Propulsion

You may retreat before combat when being attacked by a player with a lower Propulsion level.

12.2.4 Robotics

(*) When doing Research, you score for every technology counter you selected according to the galactic story.

12.2.5 Genetics

12.3 Domination Cards

12.4 Galactic Stories

Journeys

Migrations

Rivalry

Wars

12.5 Galactic Goals

(*) In case of a tie each player among the tied gets the DP.
(**) Solo variant: See solo variant book for some additional or different rules.

12.6 Sector Starting Bonus

(*) If you already have that or cannot have that because of your star people, start at level 2 in a different technology field of your choice instead.

12.7 Ancient Relics

(*) Leave this counter here to mark this star.     (**) One-time effect; remove this counter when done.

13. Glossary

action

means “growth action” (see below)

additional growth action

selected as counter additionally to the usual two in the growth phase (see 6.2.1)

ancient relic

one of the special effects you can get from first taking a star in the center sector (see 6.2.5 and 12.7)

advanced fleet tactic

increases or adds to a fleet’s special effect (available through Military, see 6.1.3)

ally

a Gain Star growth action by an STO player targeting an advanced neutral star (see 6.2.5)

at peace/at war

the diplomatic status with another player depending on which side of the war/peace counter is face up (see 4.7)

battle

ship vs. ship combat (see 6.1.2)

block

the preventing of growth actions or movement by a hostile player (see 7.2)

bonus population

additional population discs to place during a Grow Population action (available through Genetics, see 6.2.6)

colonize

a Gain Star growth action targeting an uninhabited neutral star (see 6.2.5)

contact

required for trading, two players are “in contact” if they both have a ship in the same hex or one player has a ship at the star of the other (see 6.3)

conquer

a Gain Star growth action by an STS player targeting a star of a player or an advanced neutral star (see 6.2.5)

CV

combat value (used for battles between ships only, determined by Military, see 6.1.2 and 12.2.1)

domination card

a personal objective card (see 7.4)

DP

destiny points (score for winning the game)

era

a certain number of rounds as shown on the round track, being either “light” or “dark” (see 4.9)

fleet

a stack consisting of a fleet counter and the chips beneath it (see 4.6)

fleet tactic

the special effect of a fleet (see 6.1.3)

free action

growth action that can be done additionally at no cost and does not need a counter (see 6.2.9)

growth action

one of the actions you can do during the Growth Phase of the game (see 6.2)

home star sector

the sector that currently contains your home star (see 4.7)

hostile

belonging to a player with whom you are “at war” (see 4.7)

innocent population

that of an advanced or primitive neutral star or of a STO player

liberate

a Gain Star growth action by an STO player targeting a STS player’s star (see 6.2.5)

neutral (star)

a star that does not belong to any player (does not include neutron stars)

range

the maximum distance a ship can move normally (determined by Propulsion, see 6.1.1 and 12.2.3)

remote view

the ability to view hidden things from any distance (available through Spirituality, see 6.1.2)

research+ effect

the special effect you get instead of a level when you research a technology already at level 6 (see 6.2.8)

retreat (before combat)

movement out of a hex due to a lost battle (or voluntarily beforehand to avoid a battle), see 6.1.2

scouting

the ability to view hidden things where your ships are located (see 6.1.2)

sector

a large tile with hexagons that is a part of the board (see 4.1)

stargate

the ability to jump from star to star (available through Propulsion levels 3-5, see 7.1)

star people

one of the factions in the game (see 4.3)

STO

service-to-others (light alignment, see 4.2)

STS

service-to-self (dark alignment, see 4.2)

space anomaly

a hex on the board that has some special effect (see player reference card)

subjugate

a Gain Star growth action by an STS player targeting a primitive neutral star (see 6.2.5)

teleport population

relocate population from one star to another (available through Propulsion, see 7.1)

trading (technology)

the ability for two players to teach each other a level in technology (see 6.3)