Galaxy Force Example of Play

OPTIONAL RULES ADDITIONAL WINNING CONDITION The game may also be won if 10 alien markers have been contacted and removed.

COMMNDER XAN Add +1 to any friendly combat roll in the sector in where the commander’s fleet is currently in.

RESTRICTIVE WARP POINTS A force moving onto a central warp point may only be placed on another central warp point. When moving onto a non-central warp point, the moving force may only be placed on one of the two non-central warp points to its left and right.

ADVANCED REBEL SEGMENT To make the game harder, place one rebel SP on all unoccupied trade hubs that the occupied trade hub space is directly connected to via trade routes during the Rebel segment of the Enemy phase.

OBJECTIVE BRIBERY Spend 5 credits during the Objective segment of the Senate phase to add or subtract one from the roll result on the Objective table. This may be done as many times as there are credits available.

APPENDIX I – EXAMPLE OF PLAY This example will walk you through each phase and segment WWFWof the game, starting with the Order segment. To best understand a given situation, you may want to setup up the game as instructed on the back page of this booklet and follow along.

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ORDER SEGMENT [2.3] After finishing setup the game begins with the Order segment where the player must decide which sectors will receive orders markers. Placing these will activate a sector during the following Operation phase, enabling the movement of one friendly force present there.

Surveying the starting situation, it is important to keep the enemy’s objective and movement patterns in mind; the main focus of the rebellion is to convert planets and the occasional trade hub to their side, while hostile alien forces are out for war, seeking out any nearby structures or fleets.

Taking the markers from the Orders box 1 , the player decides to swiftly deal with the rebel forces occupying the trade hubs in Sectors I and II 2 .

Not doing so would cause the rebel occupation to quickly spread to the other lower-numbered trade hubs, so each sector will receive two order markers. The markers are placed in the Activation boxes 3 at the outer edge of each sector. Assigning multiple markers to the sectors will ensure that their fleets will receive at least two shots at a successful combat resolution with the rebel forces. Ideally the fleet in Sector I will deal with the rebel force in one shot, leaving the second order marker there to activate the diplomat to deal with the starting turn’s objective of contacting one alien marker Turn 1 veoccupying the event space to the lower right of Objecti marker the starbase 4 .

(The example of play continues on the next page)

(Example of play continued)

The player decides to assign one of the remaining two orders to Sector III to rid one of the systems there of rebel forces.

With one order marker remaining, Sector IV with its lone rebel occupied planet looks rather peaceful, unlike Sector V, where a colony is under threat by an approaching alien force and unfortunately looks like a lost cause 5 . Even more concerning is the rebel occupied trade hub, but the player feels that there is little they can they about it right now so both sectors will not receive any order markers.

Since the commander of the fleet in Sector VI has a high command rating, the player is hoping for a favorable continuation roll, rushing towards the colony threatened by the hostile alien forces 6 . After this last order marker has been assigned, the player must continue with determining events for each of the six sectors.

SECTOR IV Another political event (d6=4, d10=5) is rolled for this sector and three credits are added to the credit track 8 .

SECTOR V With a bit of luck this sector receives an environment event where the movement allowance of all forces in the sector is halved. This will delay the invasion of the colony by the hostile force alien there for another turn. The player places the “Movement allowance halved” marker somewhere within the sector as a re9 minder of this event .

Movement halved environment counter

SECTOR VI A d6 result of a six is rolled so no event takes place in this sector, therefore the player moves on to the first Operation phase of the game.

Commander counter

EVENT SEGMENT [3.1] Usually this segment begins by removing any present environment counters (except wormholes), but since this is the first turn there are none present to remove. So the player grabs one of the six-faced die (d6) and the ten-faced die (d10) and begins rolling for events: SECTOR I This segment starts off with an irritating alien event (d6=2, d10=10). An alien marker must be placed on a randomly determined trade hub, potentially cutting off the whole sector from Sol. Another d10 roll is needed to determine the random trade hub, which thankfully results in an 8 and an alien marker is placed on trade hub #8 7 .

SECTOR III This sector receives a political event (d6=4, d10=9) where a colony must be replaced with a 1SP rebel force. Luckily there is no colony present so the event cannot be executed and the sector is skipped.

ACTIVATION SEGMENT [3.2] Now that the order markers have been assigned, they may be removed from their spots in any order. For the sake of clarity in this example, let’s resolve the sector activations in clockwise, ascending sector order: SECTOR I (ORDER MARKER #1) The first order marker is removed by the player and placed back in the Orders holding box.

Since Sector I is being activated for the first time during this turn First activation has to be applied. The d6 event roll is another 6 so the event is skipped and as this is the first turn, there are no reinforcements present so the game simply continues.

Alien marker

SECTOR II A punishing rebel event is rolled (d6=1, d10=8) where all rebel forces here increase their strength by 1SP.

The player decides to deal with the rebel occupied trade hub first. Leaving the diplomat behind, the player activates the fleet and moves it into the space with the rebel force where combat begins 10 .

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COMBAT EXAMPLE First the player determines the dice modifier the commander of Fleet #1 will contribute to the battle and rolls a d6 on the Command table at the left side of the board. The roll result is a 3 which the player cross-references with the D column as that is his commander’s battle letter A .

Unfortunately this means a modifier -1 must be applied to the fleet’s combat roll result, but it could have been worse.

To commence fighting, the player now rolls the blue die for the fleet and the red die for the rebel force. After rolling, the blue d6 is showing a 4, while the red d6 shows a 6 B .

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A Any applicable dice modifiers are only applied to fleet rolls.

Since a fleet took part in the battle, let’s check which modifiers will be applied to its roll. These are listed in-between the Combat table and Command table 11 . The player quickly computes that the final roll result of his fleet is a 3 (4 initial roll, -1 for the commander’s battle letter, -1 because the battle takes place in an enemy occupied trade hub and +1 as a level 1 starbase is within five spaces of the battle space 12 ).

The final modified roll results are now cross-referenced on the Combat Result table, using the applicable SP columns determined by the amount of SPs that each force is stacked with C . Even though the outcome of the battle is a tie, as both forces must remove 1SP, it is a clear victory for the player’s fleet as the skirmish resulted in freeing the trade hub and ensuring safe commerce, completely removing the occupying enemy force.

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C The fleet must now clear the trade hub space itself as friendly forces may never occupy trade hubs and so it returns to the space from which it entered D . As both movement and combat has ended the player now performs the continuation roll with a d10 result of 4, just one above the commander’s command rating and so the activation ends.

Now the player pulls the option of recalling their commander, which they can do because in the previous combat the commander’s fleet lost as many (or more) SPs as the enemy force. The player therefore places the commander counter back into the cup and draws a new one. It turns out to be a good decision as Commander Drav takes up his position at his newly assigned fleet. The player places the counter in the Fleet holding box of fleet I and with that the use of the first Order marker has expired.

SECTOR I (ORDER MARKER #2) With Sector I’s second order marker the player decides to bring his diplomat into play. As this sector has been activated before during this turn, First activation will not be applied again.

The diplomat force moves three spaces to the right entering the trade hub space with the alien marker 7 , ready to encounter an undiscovered alien species. Alien contact occurs and both the diplomat counter and the alien marker are removed from the board.

Also, this turn’s objective of contacting one alien marker has now been completed so the objective marker is flipped to its “Objective completed” side in the Objective box 13 .

Objective counter

Before the roll of a d6 on the Alien contact table the player is feeling good as a diplomat is present, nullifying all other dice modifiers that could push this encounter to a hostile altercation. Unfortunately the player rolls a six, which turns into a 5 after the diplomat’s dice modifier of -1 is applied. This means that the player has to draw a Alien contact card from the hostile deck entering a new hostile alien species into the arena.

The player draws card #22 “Synthetic Hive Ships”; a massive squadron of hull-clinging miniature ships. For now the player is instructed to place three hostile alien SPs underneath the fleet counter in the sector, stalling any of its future efforts. The card is placed nearby and with that the activation ends.

Hostile Alien contact card

SECTOR II (ORDER MARKER #3 & 4) The First activation comes with a very welcomed political event of removing 1 rebel SP, which the player uses to weaken the rebel force that was the intended target anyway 14 . Attacking the other force here 15 was unsuccessful and unfortunately the continuation roll was also, so the player decides to spend the second order marker for another attack on the pesky rebel force. This time the battle resulted in the full removal of the enemy and the trade hub space is cleared and accessible again.

SECTOR III (ORDER MARKER #5) Another favorable First activation event upgraded the starbase here by one level. The imperial fleet docked there spends its entire movement allowance to reach the rebel occupied planet of Roche 16 . The starbase upgrade compenseates the relatively weak commander and the rebel force is ousted.

SECTOR VI (ORDER MARKER #6) Here the First activation event could not be apllied and therefore was not executable, so the fleet begins its move towards defending the far away colony. Luckily, this time the continuation roll was successful so the fleet moves another five spaces closer to the colony here . The next continuation roll however was unsuccessful and the activation ends. All Order markers have been removed now and the player moves on to the Collapse segment.

COLLAPSE SEGMENT [3.3] It is very unlikely to achieve collapse in the very first turn and somewhat predictably the player avoided doing so this time.

REBEL SEGMENT [4.1] Now the rebellion will grow, spreading from planet to planet and trade hub to (lower-numbered) trade hub. Let’s look at how this segment works: (The example of play continues on the next page)

(“Rebel segment” of the example of play continued)

STEP 1 Currently two trade hubs are occupied, trade hub space #10 in sector II and trade hub space #2 in sector V. The next lower trade hub space in sector II that trade hub #10 is connected to is trade hub #7 so 1 rebel SP is placed there, rendering it inaccessible as well 17 .

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In sector V 1 rebel SP is placed on trade hub space #1 18 as it is the next lower trade hub that #2 is connected to, rendering the entire sector inaccesible as noe there is no path of accesible trade hubs that can be traced to Sol 19 .

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In sector V 2 rebel SPs must be placed on a random planet after a modified 4 was rolled. Planet space #2 is determined so 2 rebel SPs are placed there.

ALIEN SEGMENT [4.2] After applying the Rebel segment to all sectors, the hostile aliens present in Sectors III,V and VI will inch closer to their prioritized targets, though not quite as quickly in Sector V due to the “Movement halved” environment counter placed there 9 . The alien SPs underneath the fleet counter in Sector I will not move as instructed by card #22 and so turn 1 ends.

NEW TURN SEGMENT [1.1] A new turn begins by moving the marker to the next higher space on the turn track, in this case to turn 2.

SUPPORT SEGMENT [1.2] This is where the imperial senate takes review of your actions. Each faction has its own criteria on what constitutes good governance. Let’s walk through it:

19 STEP 2 This step does not apply yet as there are currently no rebel forces with 3SPs. STEP 3 One rebel SP is added to both the occupied planet spaces #1 & #5 in sector I 20 . As the forces in sector I have now grown to 3SPs, they will begin to spread and move towards the nearest unoccupied planet spaces during Step 2 of next turn’s Rebel segment if not reduced 21 .

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After rolling a modfied result of 4, Sector IV is also skipped.

Even though there are rebel forces occupying trade hubs, there are no higher numbered unoccupied trade hubs left, so the player moves on to the next sector.

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One planet space each is occupied in sectors III & IV so another 1 rebel is added to these spaces.

STEP 4 Because there are still rebel forces on the map, and there usually are, a sector specific rebel event has to be determined for each sector with rebel presence, applying the -1 per faction giving support modifier listed next to the Rebel event table. As there are three factions giving support the dice result is modified by -3.

The modified rolll result for sector I is a 2 and as all rebel forces are on planet spaces, they stay put and the player moves on to the next sector.

For sector II a modified 5 was rolled and 2 rebel SPs must be placed on a random event space. After rolling a d10, 2 rebel SPs are placed on event space #3.

Sector III is skipped as well as another modified 2 was rolled, which only concerns rebel forces in deep space.

IMPERIALISTS The strategic overall goal of the war is to rid planets of their occupation. Currently there are four planets occupied (planet #1 & #5 in sector I, planet #3 in sector III and planet #4 in sector IV,) and none destroyed so the Imperialsts marker stays in the moderate support space of the Support box.

TRADE GUILD To retain its power, the Trade Guild relies on free and open trade throughout the galaxy, heavily facilitated by the safe operation of its trade hubs. Therefore the guild’s support depends on the number of currently occupied or inaccesible trade hubs. Let’s go ahead and count them:

Imperialists faction marker

Trade Guild faction marker

In sector I, the alien marker on trade hub space #8 was removed earlier in the activation segment, as demonstrated in the combat example on the previous page, so all trade hubs are currently accesible here.

In sector II, trade hubs #7 & #10 at the outer edge of the system are rebel occupied and therefore inaccessible 17 .

In sectors III & IV all is well. No trade hubs are currently inaccessible.

In sector V, trade hub spaces #1 & #2 are each occupied by a rebel force. Unluckily because of this, the entire sector inaccessible as there is no trade route leading around inaccesible 18 #1 trade hub .

Sector VI is also clear of trouble, at least concerning the trade hubs contained in it. No trade hubs are currently inaccessible here.

After totalling, there are presently twelve trade hub spaces inaccesible, so the Trade Guild faction marker stays at no support in the Support box.

EXPANSIONISTS Habitable planets being a rare resource, this faction believes the alliance to be strongest if it is also strong in numbers, even if it means expanding out into deep space.

At this point in the game there are three colony Expansionists faction marker structure counters on the map, so the Expansionists faction counter stays in the moderate support space on the Support box.

BUREAUCRATS Most predictably, this illustrious faction only cares about a steady supply of credits it can funnel into the appropriate channels. At thirteen credits currently, the Bureaucrats faction marker also stays in the moderate support space on the Support box.

There is no academy counter on the map so the player receives no additional reinforments.

Bureaucrats faction marker

After the support for each faction was determined, the senate’s focus is on the objective that was assigned in the previous turn. Contact with an alien marker was made, and the objective was achieved. This moves the Expansionists faction counter in the Support box up into the high support space even if its condition is not yet obtained. Afterwards, the objective marker is removed from the Objective box.

VICTORY CHECK Concluding the Senate phase, a victory check has to be made, however only during turn eight or later, so the player moves on to the next segment.

OBJECTIVE SEGMENT [1.3] Now a new objective for this turn is determined. The player rolls a d10. Because one faction currently is giving high support, the roll is modified by +1, making collpase thankfully impossible.

The modified result is a 4, therefore the Imperialists “Free one enemy occupied planet” objective marker is placed into the Objective box.

Pretty straight foward, this objective can be completed by freeing one planet from enemy occupation.

REINFORCEMENT SEGMENT [2.1] The player gains two friendly SPs, because the Expansionists faction is at high support. Although there are many places where these reinforcements could be useful, aiding the fleet in sector stalled by the alien hive ships is a top priority. The player decides to place both reinforcements at the starbase there 12 . With first activation of sector I, they will move toward joining the fleet in battling the pesky hive ships.

Imperialist Objective counter

BUDGET SEGMENT [1.4] The senate’s budget for your office is comprised of two elements: the multiplied sum of the number of factions giving support by the current turn number and additopnally the total amount of all currently accessible trade hubs.

Three factions are currently giving at least moderate support, so their number is multiplied by the current turn number (3 x 2 = 6) and eight credits are added to the credit track, moving the total from currently thirteen to nineteen.

Now the player must determine the second factor; at first this part of the segment may seem daunting, but a simply trick make this process a little easier. There are a total of sixty trade hubs on the map, ten in each sector. As we earlier counted the number of occupied/inaccessible trade hub Friendly SP spaces, subtract that number (twelve) from sixcounter ty to get the total number of currently available trade hubs (forty eight). This number is then divided by ten, fractions dropped, so four additional credits are added to the credit track.

The total amount of credits is now at twenty-three. All these credits may be spend in the upcoming Construction segment.

Academy counter

CONSTRUCTION SEGMENT [2.2] Twenty three credits are waiting to be spend. Surveying the map, there are some key things to consider at this point.

First is each political faction’s task for the player. Spending too many credits will result in no support from the Bureaucrats. At the cost of retaining fifteen credits, the player will have this faction at high support.

Having one faction at high support will eliminate the possibilty of rolling a collapse result during any coming Objective segment [pg.4], so Bureaucrats faction that is importat to keep in mind.

Building colonies is the only way to gain support from the Expansionists, so the player decides to build a colony in sector IV, where it is relatively quiet.

Both the Imperialists and the Trade Guild have military objectives, so planet spaces and trade hub spaces will have to be cleared. The trade hubs have a slighlty higher priority as the Trade Guild is currently giving no control.

Ideally the player would purchase at least five SPs to build a fleet for sector V, as trading income in this sector is entirely cut off. However, spending a total of nine credits this Construction segment, four for the just placed colony and five for the fleet, would result in a remaining total of 14 credit, which would reduce the Expansionists support down to moderate support, which should be avoid as mentioned before.

Losing just one colony to hostile alien attackers however would also hurt the long term goal of gaining high support from the Expansionists. So, the player decides to build a starbase for four credits in sector V 22 , reducing the total of remaining credits to fifteen exactly.

23 22 Placing it here 22 will lure the hostile aliens away from the colony 23 , as the space is also three spaces away from them.

Also, the starbase will serve as a placement space for a future fleet to deal with the threats in this sector.

So the player has spend a total of eight credits and moves on to the second turn’s Order segment.

This concludes the example of play. If something still seems unclear, feel free to contact me [s.beckdesign@gmail.com] or on the BGG.