During a game yesterday (well, and a couple of today's hours as well), we got into a discussion about whether eliminated players get to keep their already earned victory points (and thus being able to win the game if Imperium Rex comes up).

The rulebook doesn't really mention player elimination at all, and the FAQ only states that

A player who controls no planets and has no units on the board
is eliminated from the game. He cannot play Action Cards or
choose Strategy Cards. After a player has been eliminated, the
other players continue the game normally, with no changes
to the number of Strategy Cards taken, etc. When a player is
eliminated, all his Action Cards are discarded and all of his
race's Trade Agreements are removed from the game.

I also did some quick searching, but didn't find anything about it. Some of us argued that elimination from the game should mean that you can't win (which goes for a lot of games), the rest of us clinged to the fact that the conditions of winning only was to have the most points when Imperium Rex is drawn (or get 10 VP before that), regardless of planets/fleet/etc..

After a vote, we allowed eliminated players to keep their points but it would be nice to hear from some more experienced players about this issue.

A smaller question as well, about the Transit Diode Replacement Form. I stumbled over it while searching for answers to my original question, and I don't really understand what can be replaced. "Transit Diodes" doesn't ring much bells for me (english isn't my first language, so I could just be missing something). Nothing is broken in our game yet, but it'd be nice to know if something ever happens.

Up to you what you do with the rules.

In three or four years of gaming, I've only ever seen one person wiped out, and that's because it was his own personal objective.

(He lost all his planets, then most of his ships. Then he took his remaining cruiser onto a wormhole, and redrew Political until the card that destroys all ships on wormholes came up. He was going for a 'Battlestar Galactica' loss).

As for the Transit Diodes - the expansion shipped with Orange tech cards having two copies of Sarween Tools and no Transit Diodes. If you ask nicely, the people at FFG will replace the card.

(Thanks to Thaadd Powell for my recent replacements! Woo for FFG!)

There was a ruling, don't know if it made it into the FAQ or not. But, IIRC the ruling was that an eliminated player is no longer part of the game and as such cannot win.

While the rules don't explicitly say you cannot win if you're eliminated, it's the intent that you cannot do anything, not even win. I mean, if a race is completely wiped out how can it possibly be the granted the throne?

favouredenemy said:

Yeah, we never got to the point of total elimination (he had 1 planet with left at the end) so it's probably not something that'll happen a lot. Since we didn't really agree in our group (we decided with a vote, 4 vs 2) I figured it'd be nice with some other people's views.

Thanks for the Transit Diode info, we haven't gotten the expansion yet but it's nice to know for that day.

FunkyBunch said:

I think the thing that mixed my opinion was the fact that, according to the FAQ, an eliminated player still counts as a neighbour for the purpose of (at least) one of the objective cards (under Victory Conditions in the FAQ). Well, that and us being V:tES players, where you actually can win even if you're out of the game.

But a ruling is great, even if not in the FAQ. Thanks!