Hi,

1. Did I understand correctly that attacking player and attacking ally can both bring up to 4 ships from any of their colonies
2. Is there a limit to how many allies attacker or defender can have in an encounter. i mean for example offender can have two allies helping?
3. Defending player can not bring any ships to the defence of his planet/colony meaning that he has to do with the exisitng ships on the planet that is under attack?
4. Defending ally can bring up to 4 ships from any of his colonies to defend?
5. Who can play cards (any type of cards) in an encounter - only main participants (attacker/defener) or also allies or also bystanders? I understand that encounter cards can be played by attacker/defener only but what about reinforcements, artifacts and other cards that are in the cosmic deck?

Thanks in advance

1. Yes, the offensive player and all offensive allies can bring up to 4 ships from any of their colonies.

2. The only limit is the number of players that can be allies. All players can ally against one particular player.

3. Correct. The defensive player must defend with the existing ships on the targeted planet, even if he has zero ships on the targeted planet.

4. All players that ally with the defense can send up to 4 ships from any of their other colonies.

5. In an encounter only the main players (offensive and defensive) play encounter cards (attack, negotiate, morph).
Reinforcements can be played by any player involved in the encounter (main players and allies). This is indicated in the bottom of the reinforcement cards.
In the bottom of the artifacts it’s also listed when and who can use that card. For example, the Emotion Control, can be used after cards are revealed by any player (even those not involved in the encounter); The Mobius Tubes can only by used by the offensive player at the regroup of one of his encounters.
The flares are very diverse cards; each of the effects (wild and super) contains the same information mentioned above.

**These are the general rules, however, some of the powers/effects break them. Macron, for example, can only send one ship as offensive player or ally.

Hey,

I thought I'd add some questions to this thread rather than making a new one, as I have some questions which also count as newbie.

Anyway, have played a couple of times, and some questions have come up.

- Do you have to attack someone on you're go?

- if blue is offence, and draws purple destiny card. Purple has a planet with only a red colony on, the rest of purples home planet's are occupied just by purple. Can blue attack the planet without any purples on? The rules indicate that he can, but I thought I'd check.

- With the amoeba wild flare, as the defence, can you add ships to an attack on a planet which you don't have a colony, and if you win, do you then get a colony on that planet?

- After the sorcerer has used it's power, can either player look at the card in front of them?

Cheers,

FH

fat_hampster said:

- Yes, you must make at least one encounter on your turn.

- Yes, blue can encounter a purple planet that has 0 purple ships. Did you think the rules were trying to trick you? ;-)

- Yes, Wild Amoeba can add ships where there were no ships to begin with, and yes, this is a possible way to re-establish a lost home colony.

- I would rule that players cannot look at a face-down encounter card that they otherwise would not have knowledge of. There are probably several cases where this would be important, but the one that comes to mind right now is the commonly used resolution for Gambler vs. Sorcerer in which Gambler still bluffs about the card that came from his own hand (and which is now in front of Sorcerer). Sorcerer is now deciding whether to take Gambler's word on the card that Sorcerer is about to (blindly) reveal for himself. In order to preserve the viability of both alien powers in this scenario, it is crucial that Sorcerer be prevented from looking at that card — otherwise he would trump Gambler every time.

Just_a_Bill said:

Cheers, good to clear that stuff up. regarding quoted - it wasn't that I thought the rules were trying to trick me, it's just that the rulebook, doesn't explicitly deal with the situation, as if it should be assumed that this is possible, however my assumption would, with out these implications have been that this wasn't possible, as it means that most of the time you will not be be attacking one of the defenders home colonies (though I realise not exclusively).

One more question if you don't mind answering.

If a quantum Quake occurs, and one player is Vulch, does vulch keep it's artifacts? does vulch get the artifacts from people's hands?

Cheers,

FH

Just_a_Bill said:

fat_hampster said:

Sure it does, right on page 8:

Defending with Nothing?

Even though a player may no longer have a colony
on one of his or her home planets, that player
must still defend it. This can result in some unusual
encounters.

For example, assume Filch and Parasite each have
two ships on one of Macron’s planets. Macron
has no ships on the planet – those ships have
already been sent to the warp by the other two
in a dastardly attack. So, when Clone has an
encounter with Macron in Macron’s home system,
Clone can aim the hyperspace gate at that planet
and face zero defending ships. Although Filch
and Parasite are present on the planet, it is still
Macron’s planet, and Macron is the defense. Of
course, since Macron has nothing to lose in the
encounter, it’s quite possible for Clone to gain an
easy colony. However, Filch and Parasite aren’t
defending the planet, so their colonies are safe
as well (see the “Bystanders” sidebar below for
further details).

fat_hampster said:

I'm going to say "no" to both. Vulch's power allows him to keep artifacts when he is drawing a new hand, but I would interpret that as "during a normal hand refresh". I don't think a Cosmic Quake should be interpreted as "everyone collecting a new hand" because (a) the sequence of how it works is different and (b) it could trigger all kinds of cosmic foolishness that might cause an infinite-quake-loop.

(Technically, Vulch's power would allow him to collect all the artifacts discarded by everyone else during the quake, but personally I would rule that he then has to immediately discard them himself as part of that same quake — but it's all a whole lot simpler to just rule that a Cosmic Quake trumps all powers, cards, and other effects that might want to interfere with the quake.)

PJSlavner said:

Good catch; that's an important clarification. (I should have been more careful and not implied a "yes" answer to the "attack someone" part of fat_hampster's question.)

A clarification is needed for "playijng reinforcements cards question" - I understand that only participating players can play reinforcements cards but is it possible to play a reinforcements cards for the opposing force? For example attacking main/allie player places a reinforcements card for the defending player?

Yes, you may play a reinforcement for the opposing side. This is handy in several situations. Two that come to mind immediately are when the opponent is Anti-Matter or when an upset has been declared by Loser.