So, you’ve given an overview of the game.. could you explain your turn in more detail?

Sure. Each player gets 4 tiles of their color and a starting hand of 4 Battle cards. The Battle cards are (initially) chosen by the players in a similar fashion to Fairy Tale; you start with 5 cards, select one to keep, then pass the remaining cards to your left. This continues until all players have 4 cards they have chosen. Not only does this allow you to ‘build’ your own starting hand (thus ensuring it isn’t horrible), it also can give you something of an idea of what your opponents’ have, which is good information.

So on your first turn, you have your Battle cards and tiles to place. You also get 3 RUs to start the game. That’s your money. They are pretty scarce throughout the game, so you have to be cautious about how you use them. Resource management certainly plays a part here.

You get a play aid, which indicates that all of your technologies - Weapons, Shields, Engines and Comms - are at 0. This means you get no bonuses to begin with. Shucks. These techs aren’t complicated tech trees; they rise in a linear fashion, with the higher the tech, the bigger the bonus. The techs mostly do exactly what they sound like the do; Weapons gives you a bonus to your hand when you’re the attacker in Battle. Shields give you a bonus if you’re the defender. Engines let you place extra tiles on the board on your turn, Comms let you draw extra battle cards. The cost of each tech is the same as its level. So if I want to raise my Engines to level 3, not only do I have to have the preceding level, but it will cost me 3 RUs for that level. In order to keep them balanced (as Engines is really an attractive option), Weapons and Shields each give a bigger bonus that Engines or Comms. So while Comms gives you 3 extra cards for level 3, Weapons and Shields will each give you a bonus of 4 for their level 3s, respectively. Get too far behind on those and you could get blown up, but good.

Right, I was discussing your turn. Tangent… sorry. I’ll outline the turn order as it’s pretty clear about how you go about becoming Master of the Galaxy..
1. Replenish your battle hand to the maximum.
- On turns other than your first, you may have Comms higher than level zero. If this is the case, draw enough Battle cards to bring your hand up to your allowed max.
2. Take income.
- You don’t get any on your first turn (you already got 3!? whaddya want for free? ) but on all subsequent turns, you get 1 RU just for being the swell being you are. This is in addition to money you would earn for any moons you currently own. Moons give you an addition 2 RU of income, unless you have to pay 1 RU in tax to the player that owns the planet.
3.Take alloted tiles.
- Count out the amount of tiles you get to place this turn.
3a) Place fortifications.
- This is first in your placement phase by necessity. Often people would want to place fortifications later on and forget where they had initially placed tiles. Since you can only fortify tiles you owned at the beginning of the turn, this rule clears up any confusion.
3b) Place your other tiles. Resolve Battles as necessary.
- When you’re placing your tiles into unoccupied space, no problem. However, if your buddy already owns that spot, you gotta battle for it. Sweet. Talk big about how you’ll crush them, mention how many massive Battle cards you have, glare at each other some and go to it. The winner then usually gloats about how powerful they are.
3c) Replenish your Battle cards up to 4.
- If you’ve battled, and if your battle hand was reduced to less than 4 (guaranteed on your first few turns), draw some to go back up to 4. This goes for your opponents, too.
4. Purchase or play Research Cards, Purchase Battle Cards, Purchase Technologies
- Yes, it’s the shopping phase of your turn. Everyone loves shopping.
5. Exchange Battle card, if no Battle has occured.
- If you attacked someone (you space pirate, you) no tradesies for you. If not, dump off your crappy stuff and cross your fingers.

So that’s what you’re going to be doing. When you’re expanding your intergalactic empire, be sure to take advantage of the encounters that are scattered around the board. Those ones are freebies. You take the tile, you get the encounter. Not all are good though, so think hard about whether or not that’s what you want to do. You can also choose to have an encounter without being forced to take those specific tiles. You send out a scout ship (by discarding one of your alloted tiles that turn) and draw one of the encounter tiles from the side of the board. Encounters are good things to have as they do a variety of good things. Most of them are beneficial too, so keep that in mind.

Taking planets and/or moons is also highly recommended. The planets give you a permanent bonus to your techs (or other neat things like Resource Mining or fortifications) and the moons give you more money. However, the moons are always orbiting the planets (so plan ahead) and the planets… well they’re worth big points, so make sure you can keep them once you’ve grabbed ‘em.

There’s more stuff too, that I won’t go into detail about right now.. like your Special Power, Desperation!, and exactly how Battle works.

Once we’re done, how do we know who wins?

Win, win, win. That’s all you ever think about. Isn’t it about the fun of playing the game?

No. I want to kick [insert person’s name here]’s butt. Tell me how.

Okee dokee. Well I mentioned about how engines were a big deal. That’s because every tile you have showing on the board at the end is worth one point. The ones underneath stacks with someone else’s tile on top aren’t worth diddly, so tough. On top of that, your planets are worth 4, any moons you own are worth 2 (both of those are in addition to the tiles they’re sitting on), your Special Power is worth 4 (if you didn’t use it) and each RU you still have is worth 1.

On top of those points, you score at the end of the first 2 phases - there are 3 in the game, with the final phase ending in the Supernova - but only for the planets and the moons. Those points are added to your end-game total and the person with the most points gloa.. err… thanks his/her opponents for a good game.

Thanks again for reading… I have a lot of fun writing these up.

Originally posted on BoardGameGeek.