Hello, few newbie questions :

1. Technology cards

I don't understand 100% effect of 2 cards.

Sarween Tools - Does it mean that if I make e.g. cruiser and then I can make 2 fighters for free on that dock? So cause I produced (as says on card) unit fighter (for free), can I produce more fighters for free to my space dock capacity in that round?

X-89 Bacterial Weapon - Can I use my dreadnought/war sun to destroy all GF on planet if I don't have ACs?

2. Objective card

I have controlled Rex the entire strategy phase and action phase of the round .

So if I landed GFs in action phase of round 2 on Rex, my objective will be executed in status phase in round 3?

3. Do I control the system if I control all planets in it and I have no ships?

4. What does happen with player who has only few ships on board (no docks, no planets, no GFs)? Does he still play till all his units are destroyed?

5. Strategy card

Warfare 1 - When I remove one CC from system with fleet in it, can I move that fleet again even if I already moved it that round ?

6. Political cards

a) If PC isn't law we execute it and then discard it ?

b) I am not sure that I understand elect system . If e.g. 1 player must be elected for something, all players say out loud whom they wish to be elected and player who has most influence wins?

c) for/against system

P1 : 6 influence for YES

P1 : 5 influence for NO

P1 : 1 influence for NO

P1 : 0 restrained

P1 : 2 influence for YES

P1 : 4 influence for NO

8 for YES and 10 for NO. We play against part of the political card?

7. Races spec abilities

a) When Jol-Nar remove 1 cc from allocation area he may remove any number of dice or just one ?

b) When some1 activates system where are Naalu's ships, Naalu may move ships from that system to adjacent empty activated system? Have I understood it correctly? What means before space battle sequence ? Before I roll a die or I must retreat before that moment?

Thx for answers, I will post more questions when I find any

garekds9 said:

Sarween Tools doesn't change the number of units you are allowed to produce, it just gives you 1 free resource for producing at THAT dock. So if you built a cruiser and 2 fighters at the dock, normally it would cost 3 resources; with sarween tools, it only costs 2. It still counts as producing 3 units, and if that was the planet's limit, you can't produce any more.

garekds9 said:

Yes, you would just discard all of your zero ACs.

garekds9 said:

Assuming you still control Mecatol Rex by that point in Round 3, yes.

garekds9 said:

No, to control a system you must control all the planets in the system AND have at least one non-Fighter ship there.

garekds9 said:

Yeah, though his chances are pretty slim at that point. A player is not eliminated until he controls no planets AND has no units on the board.

garekds9 said:

Yes; in fact, that's the main purpose of the card.

garekds9 said:

Correct, if it doesn't say "LAW" on it, the effects are a one-shot thing.

garekds9 said:

If the card says to elect a system, each player votes for one of the systemd (ie, tiles) on the board. Whichever tile gets the most total votes is the winner. Starting with the player to the LEFT of the person with the Speaker token, each player votes out loud. The Speaker gets the last vote, and breaks ties. Voting later is often a good thing.

If it says to elect a player, then yes, each player, in turn, chooses a player, and whichever player had the most votes for it is elected. Note that votes isn't equal to TOTAL influence, but UNSPENT influence. (IE, if a player has 20 influence, but all his planets are exhausted by the time Political is played, he only gets the 1 "default" vote; his exhausted influence is not counted).

Note that for most (if not all) "elect <something>" votes, something MUST be picked at the end. There is no "against", and even if everyone abstained, the Speaker would have to break the tie and pick something.

garekds9 said:

Correct. The "NO" wins, and thus whatever the text of "against" is executed, and the card is discarded (even if it was a LAW; LAW's only come into play permanently if you vote FOR them).

garekds9 said:

He may re-roll one die per CC he spends.

garekds9 said:

It happens immediately after the PDS fire step, but before any combat stuff happens, INCLUDING pre-combat effects like Assault Cannons or Anti-Fighter barrage. Thematically, their ability represents their psychic nature, and they vacate the system before the enemy ships ever arrive, as they see them coming.

garekds9 said:

Sarween Tools gives you +1 resource per space dock when building. So, if you have 1 SD in system and want to build 4 resources worth of units, you only need to pay 3 resources. It doesn't matter what units you are building. If you have a system with two SDs in it EACH SD gets +1 resource when you began producing there, although at least in theory the units built with the "free" resource need to show up at that SD. This doesn't make a difference for ships, but it would affect which planet GFs or PDSes appear on.

If all you want to build is 2FT (ie: 1 resource worth of units) then you don't need to spend any actual money. The number of plastic units you can build at a dock is not modified by sarween tools.

garekds9 said:

Yes, you can (in theory) claim objectives related to Mecatol Rex in the status phase that follows after the actionphase in which you claimed control, assuming of course you still have control when the time comes.

garekds9 said:

In order to control the system you must have at least one non-FT ship in the system (and you must control all planets in the system.) If you only control the planets but do not have a ship, then you do not control the system.

Note that FFG has clarified that you control an empty system with a lone ship (as you have control of all zero planets.) Also, I think there's a secret objective that requires you to control all systems adjacent to MR (or something like that.) FFG has clarified that you only need to control those systems which can be controlled. ie: if there's a supernova or an asteroid belt adjacent to MR, you don't need to control that system to qualify.

garekds9 said:

Yes, he continues playing until all his ships are gone. He still has one vote for himself, IIRC, but unless he happens to have a carrier with some GFs to reclaim a planet, he's probably dead in the water. If a player in that situation chose to stop playing, I wouldn't blame him. Also note that you can't claim VPs if you don't control your home system, so even if he can somehow qualify for something in this situation, it won't actually help him.

garekds9 said:

Yes. That's the main advantage of the Warfare I card. The game has no memory of what ships did in previous actions, and CCs are placed specifically to help ensure each ship acts only once per turn. If something removes a CC from the board, everything in that system is treated as fresh and new. If something places one of your CCs in a system out of turn, you lose the ability to activate that system or move ships out of it, even if you haven't done so yet.

garekds9 said:

Pretty much. The effect lasts as long as it says it does and then it's finished. Only laws stick around.

garekds9 said:

Correct. Beginning with the player to the left of the Speaker (IIRC) each player names a valid target for the election (if it's "Elect Player" he names a player, if it's "Elect Planet" he names a planet, etc.) All of his votes are considered cast for that target. After each player has cast his votes in similar fashion, the target with the most votes wins. Players are, as always, allowed to abstain and not cast his votes for any target, however, votes from a single player cannot be "split." They must all be counted towards the same target.

garekds9 said:

Correct. As above, no player may split his vote, so either all of his votes go for or against, or he abstains with all of his votes. Note that voting does NOT require you to spend influence. You don't exhaust any planets when voting. You count up the influence on unexhausted planets you control, add 1 for you personally, and add any other vote bonuses you may have (like Lazax Survivors, for example.)

garekds9 said:

Normally, in order to retreat a player must declare they are retreating at the beginning of a given round of space combat and then they play out that round of combat before they can actually leave. If one side or the other ends up getting wiped out during that round, the retreat is canceled. The Naalu declare they are retreating and then leave immediately, without fighting the last round of combat that other races are required to do.

If you're playing without the Strategic Retreats optional rule from the expansion then retreating ships must move to an adjacent system previously activated by one of your CCs (and not controlled by an enemy player) ie: empty or friendly. With the optional rule from the expansion you can retreat to ANY adjacent empty or friendly system, and then place a CC there from your reserves if there wasn't one already.

Thx for answers

How many Strategy Allocation Counters does it take to execute the secondary ability of the Strategy Cards?

My friends say it takes two, one to have the right to use the secondary ability and one to activate the ability.

I disagree I believe it only takes one.

Please explain why I am right or wrong.

Thank you!

Don

The only cost to use each of the secondary abilities is what is actually listed on the strategy card.

Leadership does not say "spend a command counter" so it is "free" to use the ability to buy command counters.

Diplomacy II says "spend a command counter and 3 influence" so that is the cost to use it.

You are not required to spend a command counter to be able to execute the secondary and THEN have to pay for the secondary again.

1. Can Naalu ships retreat to adjacent system which is not activated?

2. Does Norr/Jol Nar spec ability include PDS in +1/-1 rolls ?

3. Can Letnev use more than 2 TG to boost his ships/GFs ?

4. Can Sol remove more than 1 CC to put more GFs ?

5. Can I cancel more than one PC with XXCHA per round?

thx

1) Naalu can retreat before the battle but according to the normal retreat rules. So, no they can't retreat to an unactivated system.

2) According to the rules term "combat rolls" includes pre-combat abilities and even PDS, so yes, they get +1/-1 on every roll they make to inflict damage.

3) Nope. Letnev can only use it's ability once per combat round and get +1(+2 during invasion) on every roll for entire round. You can not spend 4 trade goods to get +2 (+4) to your dice.

4) Sol use their ability as an action. Player can use their ability as many times per round as he can and wants.

5) I don't remember the exact wording of Xxcha racial tech but I think it was "Once per round", which means that you can cancel only one activation per round.

garekds9 said:

The only thing the Naalu racial ability lets them do is run away without fighting through the round of combat one is normally obliged to fight. Under base rules you must retreat to a system that already contains one of your CCs, so no, the Naalu ability does not allow them to retreat to an unactivated system.

That said, there is an optional rule from the expansion called Strategic Retreats which allows ALL races to retreat to an adjacent (friendly or empty) system and THEN place a CC in it. This rule is quite popular at least around these parts, but it's not related to the Naalu specifically.

garekds9 said:

Yes. A combat roll is defined as any time a die is rolled and the result compared to a unit's hit value. This happens when PDS fire, so they are combat rolls.

garekds9 said:

From the FAQ:

Q: How long does the bonus the Letnev receive from spending
trade goods before combat last? Also, can they spend more to
get a larger bonus (4 for +2, etc.)?
A: The bonus lasts for one combat round. The Letnev player
cannot spend additional Trade Goods to increase this bonus.
However, the player may spend Trade Goods to receive the
bonus at the beginning of each combat round.

garekds9 said:

Sol's racial ability is performed "as an action" which means you can only spend 1 CC at a time. However, you could conceivably burn CCs over the course of several actions to gain multiple GFs in this manner.

garekds9 said:

I checked the race sheet and it doesn't asy anything about "once per round" so yes, I believe you could. A CC from Strat is no small price to pay, so i don't think it's overpowered if the Xxcha player really wants to veto multiple PCs in a row.

Steve-O said:

Well, it's actually called "Tactical Retreats", and strictly speaking, you actually place the CC in the system at the time you declare the Tactical Retreat. This mostly doesn't matter, except if you get wiped out during the round you've still burned the CC from your Strategy Allocation, and the system remains activated.

With the Naalu, though, they can use the Tactical Retreat option in conjunction with their Racial ability, allowing them to retreat before the battle starts to a previously-unactivated system (which, again, becomes active in the process).

Other than that, I agree with Steve's responses

Hello and pardon the intrusion but I tried playing this with four friends and it took us quit a while just to get around the rules, and we spent around 6 hours just getting through the starting first 3-5 turns and we still ended up unfinishing it ... got a bit too late ... so my question is how exactly does the turns start I'll just explain how we did it and then plz tell me if we did something totally wrong...

first choose a logistics card(1-8)

then the speaker starts unless the player abbility activates that makes his logistics number 0...

first move activate logistics card primary effect ...

second move your ships and activate systems ...

third building...

somewhere in there we activate the secondary ability if we find it useful ...

question in witch part can we attack and how exactly do the action cards with "As an action" work here ... I ended up with about 5 of them ...

Then status

Objectives activation, and then refresh the planets

after that restock on tokens, cards and then redistribute them.... then we end the turn .... how exactly does much of this work in short and simple terms ...

There are 3 phases of each game round:

1) Strategy Phase, where each player picks their Strategy Card (#1-#8) (I'd avoid calling them "Logistics Cards" because the #4 card is called Logistics).

2) Action Phase, where the bulk of aciton happens

3) Status Phase, where you claim objectives and do general "cleanup" for the round.

For the Strategy Phase, the Speaker picks the first card; then the other players pick in clockwise order. This is the only time that the Speaker token affects "who goes first" (other than during a vote).

For the Action Phase, the Speaker token no longer dictates the turn order; it merely represents who will be picking first NEXT round.

The person who has the LOWEST initiative number will take the first action. Then the person with the next lowest, and so on, until all players have gone. Then it goes back to the lowest initiative. This continues until all players pass. When it's a player's turn, they do one, and only one, action. When it's their turn again, they can do another action, and so on. However, there is no specified "order" that a given player must do things in.

The types of actions are:

1) Strategic Action - this is where you activate your Strategy Card's primary text. Immediately after the primary is resolved, each other player, in turn, can activate the Secondary of the card. THIS DOES NOT COUNT AS THEIR ACTION, but is just part of YOUR Strategic Action. Once you've done this action once during a round, you turn your Strategy Card over to the "Inactive" side; you cannot do another Strategic Action again this round. (NOTE: The #1 Initiative card is not activated; it's the only passive Strategy Card, and it's primary ability is that you get the Speaker token when you it, and you don't have to spend Strategy Allocation counters to activate secondaries, but you don't activate it directly).

2) Tactical Action - this is where you activate a SINGLE system, move ships into the system, fight any battles that take place, invade any planets you wish, and build any units that you are allowed to. To do this, you place a Command Pool counter in the system you wish to move to, do the stuff just mentioned (as applicable), and then you are done.

3) Transfer Action - you activate two adjacent systems that you have units in, move ships back and forth between them, land on any friendly planets you wish, and build in ONE of the two system. You take one Command Pool counter and put it in one system, and take an unused command counter from your supply in the other system. After doing the steps, your action is done.

4) Play a card that says "Play as an action" - Some action cards say to use them as an action. If so, resolve the effects on the card, and your action is done. NOTE that "Play at any time" is NOT the same thing - you can play that during your turn if you want, but it does NOT count as your action, meaning you still must do something.

5) Activate an ability (usually a racial ability) that says to do it "as an action". Similar to the Action Card thing above.

6) Pass. Basically, by passing, you are done for the round; you can take no further actions during the round. If you pass, your turn is skipped for the rest of the round, until everyone has passed, then you go to the status phase. You cannot Pass unless you have done a Strategic Action that round (unless you have the Initiative card, of course). Note, however, that if you pass, you are still allowed to activate the Secondary abilities of other people's Strategy Cards, because doing so is not an action.

During a round, there's no set order a player has to do these in. They could do several Tactical actions, then a Strategic action, then play a card, then another tacitcal action, then pass. Or they could do the strategic action first, then tactical actions, then pass. Or do the Strategic Action right before they pass, or whatever. You just keep going from low-to-high initiative order until everyone has passed. Some rounds, a player may take only 2 or 3 actions. Other rounds, they may take 6 or 7, depending on their Command Pool, action cards, etc.

I hope this helps

1. Regarding Hacan

a) Does Influence in the Merchants’ Guild action card (break one trade agreement in play) effects Hacan?
b) Does Trade Embargo political card (elect player - All trade agreements with this player are broken and no new trade agreement may be formed with this player this or the following round) effects Hacan?

2. PDS

How many times PDS can fire in one round? I am not sure that I understood it 100%. If I activate system and my PDS fire at e.g. Hacan units (in adjacent system), can I fire again in his turn when he activates that system and moves his ships into that system? Can fire at 3rd player, e.g. Letnev, who moves his ships into that system to engage space battle with Hacan? Plz explain me if I didn’t understand correctly :S

3. Bureaucracy card

I have played only 2 games till now and we played both times with original set of strategy cards. PPL haven’t been picking imperial strategy card often. We played with nerfed imperial card (1 vp) and no1 was picking it before 3-4 bonus counters on it :S. So tell me how Bureaucracy card can be more attractive for players than imperial 1 ? Counters and cards were always more attractive more than VPs…
What combination of strategy cards do u play with? What are yours XPs ?

4. Does space mine only damage or destroy Dreadnought/War Sun ?

5. Is it advisable to mix public objective cards from original and expansion ?

6. Where do I use Voice of the council special objective card ? I didn’t get it ;P

7. Who plays 1st : player with First strike AC or Naluu player ?

1. Regarding Hacan

a) Yes. Hacan is only immune to people breaking trade contracts during the status phase. This action is similar to scuttling units. All other action/political cards will effect Hacan trade contracts.
b) See above.

2. PDS

PDS units may fire at systems within range every time they are activated. If your neighbor activates a system and moves in, you may fire. You may then activate the system yourself to move in (optional) and fire or simply just to fire if you wish.

3. Bureaucracy card

Bureaucracy is basically the only way to get new objectives into play. Choosing the card yourself means you get to pick which one comes out and it also means you get to peek ahead and what is to come in the future. This lets you plan your strategy for the next round or in the near future. Also, because you can only qualify for one objective during the status phase, Bureaucracy allows you to claim an extra objective immediately. It becomes very important to maximize your objective scoring. When you take Bureaucracy, you should always try and qualify for one during the round and one at the end of the round. One of the key factors of Bureaucracy is that if you are in the lead when you take the card, you can flip Imperium Rex if you get a chance. This will end the game immediately and since you are in the lead, you win. If you were not in the lead, you would not flip it. An objective, like Imperium Rex if you are not in the lead, can be pushed down and not revealed for many turns in a row this way.

4. Space mines will inflict one hit on each ship that suffers damage. So it will only damage dreadnaughts, war suns, enhanced armor cruisers, or federation of sol carriers.

5. Definitely. The base set did not have much war like objectives, while the expansion did. Mixing the two will basically bring a brand new game each time where you have to plan your strategies and be flexible with the objectives.

6. My group has never used it, but before voting someone can call for a vote on that card and then everyone votes on that before the other voting.

7. First strike would get to go first. Naalu simply has his strategy card as number 0. First strike takes his first turn before the first player, which would be Naalu. It is worth noting that the key phrase "takes your FIRST turn" means that if you were the player with #7 Technology and you played first strike, you would get to go before anyone else. Then you would resume play. #1 would go, then #2 and so on up to #6. You would then be SKIPPED as you have already taken your first action. #8 would go and then back to #1. Once it got back to you it would be your turn again.

DavidG55311 said:

In rules says that system must be activated when PDS fire. How can I fire on in that system after enemy movement ships if its not activated ?

The activation does not have to be your own.

When anyone activates a system, you can fire if you are in range.

DavidG55311 said:

It's worth noting, though, that if another player activates a system, you can only shoot at THAT player. For instance, if there are enemy ships in a system, and another player activates it and moves in their own ships to start a battle, you can only fire PDS at the ACTIVE player, not the other player.

1. Question regarding Diplomacy 2 :

When executing prim ability of the card option b) , am I free of paying and 3 influence and CC ?

2. Is +1 on destroyers on combat rolls included for anti-fighter barrage rolls ? I mean, deos automated defense turrets TC gives +2 for destroyers when they roll anti-fighter barrage? Does Hylar laser gives it to?

3. Can build dock on planet that is under blockade?

1) Oh come on. The option b) on Diplomacy II says: "Execute the secondary ability of this card without paying a Command Counter or any influence." Do you think you have to pay a Command Counter and 3 influence?

2) Page 1 of FAQ:

"Combat Rolls
The term “combat roll” is inclusive. It covers any instance in
which you roll a die and compare the result to a unit’s combat
value to determine whether or not an enemy casualty has been
inflicted. This includes PDS fire and all pre-combat abilities
that are compared to a unit’s combat value."

So yes.

3) Rulebook, page 26:

"4) The system does not contain any enemy ships."

So no, you may not build a Space Dock on a planet under blockade.

magicoctopus said:

English isn't my mother language so I wasn't 100% sure, does it mean both of 3 influence anc CC or I have to choose one between those 2 :S

thx for answers

garekds9 said:

You get to do the secondary completely free - you spend neither influence nor a CC.

garekds9 said:

Apologies. I was having a bad day.

magicoctopus said:

NP

1. When agent captures SD, does it count as destroyed SD?

2. What happens when XXCHA player put 2 diplomats on same plant? That planet cant be invaded in theory, since diplomat can delay invasion every 2nd round?

garekds9 said:

I'm not 100% sure, but I would say no, it does not. If you have an objective to destroy enemy Space Docks, then capturing one and replacing it with your own should not count as having "destroyed" it. Keep in mind that you are not required to capture enemy space docks or PDS even if you have the extra bits, you can still choose to simply remove the enemy plastic and call it destroyed (at least with STs after invasion combat.)

garekds9 said:

The rules for diplomats state that "A planet protected by a Diplomat may not be protected again by a Diplomat for the remainder of the round, or for the next game round." The way I read this, it means multiple diplomats will not stack. If a planet has been protected by a diplomat once, it cannot be protected by ANY diplomat (same or different) until two turns from now.

Also, keep in mind that a diplomat only stops one invasion attempt per turn. If a second player attacks the same system and tries to invade (or if the first player somehow removes his CC and re-activates the system later), the same diplomat cannot stop this new invasion.

Also, per the FAQ, War Suns may still bombard a planet that has been protected from invasion by a diplomat, since they do not require units to have landed during Planetary Landings in order to bombard (like Dreadnoughts do.)