Every Action Turn#

1. 1

   Score route

   Name the point

   Before acting, name the public objective you are scoring and the secret you might score. Otherwise, create access, liquidity, initiative, or safety for one of them.

   Examples

   Examples at play

   • Spend objective: You need to spend 8 resources in status. Ring-fence the cost before deciding whether Visionaria or another build is affordable; if neither preserves the score, take a cheap positioning action.
   • Control objective: You hold two technology-specialty planets and need three. Carrina’s next placement target is the third specialty—not the friendliest player’s best offer.
   • Secret objective: Your secret needs ships in several systems. Send the mobile fleet to fill the missing system instead of adding an ocean that scores nothing this round.
2. 2

   Doctor Carrina

   Choose the planet

   Choose the planet you want before choosing the player who wants the prerequisite waiver.

   Examples

   Examples at play

   • Clean exchange: A neighbor wants Gravity Drive but lacks one prerequisite. Offer the waiver for coexistence on their technology-specialty planet; they keep its economy while you gain the scoring foothold and ocean.
   • Exact objective planet: A player can already research normally, but controls the final trait you need. Offer 1 trade good for them to use the waiver anyway and place your infantry on that named planet.
   • Two willing researchers: One offers a safe but irrelevant edge planet; another controls a planet beside Mecatol that extends the Luminous route. Negotiate with the second player even if their requested rebate is higher.
3. 3

   Visionaria

   Confirm the market

   Announce the rebate policy and requested technologies, then confirm at least one useful participant.

   Examples

   Examples at play

   • Healthy market: Two opponents have 3 trade goods and one plans a basic technology you lack. State which new technology earns their note back, confirm both players, then activate Visionaria.
   • Duplicate market: Everyone intends to choose technologies you already own. Activate only if the stall matters; otherwise keep the action and trade goods for units or scoring.
   • Dangerous market: Only the table leader can participate, and their research creates a winning line. You cannot exclude them, so delay Visionaria unless your own new technology or the timing is worth that risk.
4. 4

   Production

   Transport ships before specialty ships

   Buy ships that can carry ground forces first, then fighters and infantry, then specialty ships. Technology without transport is not board presence.

   Examples

   Examples at play

   • Thin expansion group: You have infantry waiting at home but no way to carry them. Add a carrier and loadable ground forces before buying the dreadnought you would merely leave behind.
   • Exposed home: Your mobile fleet can score, but Ikatena is open to a cheap snipe. Produce fighters, mechs and infantry at home before adding another ship to the scoring fleet.
   • Specialty with a job: A dreadnought’s bombardment is the exact answer to a protected objective planet. Buy it after confirming the fleet still has enough transport space and screening to deliver the invasion force.
5. 5

   Coexistence

   Demand concrete value

   The planet should advance an objective, create a Luminous corridor, produce an ocean you can keep, or protect you from elimination. Otherwise, decline.

   Examples

   Examples at play

   • Objective planet: Coexistence on a cultural planet gives you the final trait needed to score. Accept a modest fee or reciprocal border promise because the planet creates an immediate point.
   • Corridor planet: The planet does not score now, but its system joins two seeded systems on the path to Mecatol. Accept if you can preserve the ocean and use it as a Luminous stepping stone.
   • Bad invitation: An ally offers a remote, traitless planet beyond your useful routes in exchange for technology or a valuable note. Decline; the stranded infantry and fragile ocean do not repay the concession.
6. 6

   Pass audit

   Count the finish

   Before passing, count initiative, public and secret scoring, home defense, command tokens, and whether a late Visionaria stall matters.

   Examples

   Examples at play

   • Ready to pass: The public is funded, no secret remains available, home is safe and another action only exposes information. Pass and preserve your initiative position.
   • One point unfinished: You can score the public, but a single tactical action would also complete your secret. Do not pass merely because the engine has finished; take the point-producing action first.
   • Timing race: A late Visionaria activation gains an exact technology, but passing now scores before a rival at the same total. Choose initiative and pass unless that technology is itself required for the win.

Status Phase#

1. Confirm the ocean countCount planets containing your coexisting units. If you have more ocean cards than qualifying planets, discard excess oceans before calculating income.
2. Resolve Hydrothermal MiningIf you already own it, gain one trade good per ocean now. A Hydrothermal Mining card gained later in this same start-of-phase window will not pay until the next Status Phase.
3. Choose whether to use Radical AdvancementCompare the current ability with the next same-color tier. Replace only when the old card's job is finished; update the Technology tracker immediately.
4. Score one public objectiveResolve in initiative order. Verify every home-system planet is controlled and count coexisting planets only while checking the objective.
5. Score one Status Phase secret objectiveCheck the secret separately; the limit is one public and one Status Phase secret, not one objective total.
6. Reveal the next public objectiveImmediately identify the cheapest Round-next score and whether it changes your strategy-card priority, fleet composition, or coexistence targets.
7. Draw an action cardApply additional draws, then discard down to the hand limit if necessary. Mark any new rider, stall, defense, or scoring tool.
8. Remove command tokens from the boardReturn every one of your board tokens to reinforcements before building next round's pools.
9. Gain and redistribute command tokensGain two, then set tactic, fleet, and strategy pools for the next round. Recheck fleet capacity before reducing the fleet pool.
10. Ready exhausted cardsReady planets, oceans, technologies, leaders, relics, and the strategy card. Identify anything that remains exhausted because of a specific effect.
11. Repair damaged unitsTurn every damaged unit upright, including units that have subsequently lost Sustain Damage.
12. Return strategy cardsThis is the final standard Status Phase step. Confirm speaker order and the cards most likely to be taken next round.
13. Return Share Knowledge loansAt the end of the phase, each borrower returns the temporary technology to their deck and your single Share Knowledge note to you. Update the technology market before Agenda.

Agenda Phase#

Strategy Cards#

Use both layers: this is the reusable rules-and-timing reference. The Round Playbook still determines which card is best now because objectives, initiative, and recovery needs change the ranking each round.

Round 0 · Map & Opening#

Your map goal is not simply a rich private slice. You want a safe economic core plus a planet-dense route through which coexisting infantry can form a Luminous highway toward Mecatol Rex, objectives and an eventual retreat route.

Round 1 · Establish#

Recommended turn order

1. Turn 1: take the best adjacent system with the carrier, usually carrying two infantry and enough fighters to deter a cheap snipe. If Trade is yours, negotiate refresh terms before activating it.

2. Turn 2: take a second adjacent planet with the dreadnought carrying the third infantry. Alternatively, resolve Trade; after the strategic action ends, spend the 3 trade goods it granted to claim the trade-good expedition wedge and unlock Visionaria Select, provided that wedge is still unclaimed.

3. Turn 3: if the trade-good wedge was unavailable, claim another unclaimed expedition wedge at the end of your turn. The specialty route means exhausting one ready planet card with a printed technology-specialty symbol. Other alternatives are discarding two action cards, spending 5 influence, spending 5 resources, or discarding one unscored secret objective.

4. Turn 4: when Technology resolves, research through its primary or secondary ability. Use Doctor Carrina on the earliest willing researcher and place the infantry on the most objective-rich non-home planet offered. This creates your first ocean and unlocks Aello.

5. Turn 5: activate Visionaria only after confirming at least one player will research a basic non-unit technology you do not own. Each participant pays their own 3 trade goods and gives you a promissory note; you copy each new technology they research.

6. Final turn: produce. Default build priority is one carrier or cruiser/destroyer screen, one mech, two infantry, then fighters. Preserve enough resources to score if the public objective is a spend objective.

Round 2 · Position#

1. Select one long-term ally and one transactional border. Do not promise peace to both neighbors without receiving a scoring corridor, ceasefire, alliance or recurring payment.

2. Establish the second and third oceans on distinct objective-relevant planets. Use Carrina for remote placement; use ordinary landings for nearby mutually agreed coexistence.

3. Place the first Eanautic on a forward coexisting planet or carry it there. Its Production 1 is the beginning of a resilient forward logistics node.

4. Research one unit upgrade if movement or unit transport is still weak. Carrier II normally outranks another engine technology.

5. Score a public objective even if it costs a Visionaria activation, extra ocean or ideal build. The engine matters only when it helps you score sooner.

Round 3 · Prepare#

• Target 3-4 victory points and unlock Ta Zern by having three scored objectives. A two-point lead is less important than a credible path to 10.

• Stop paying blanket subsidies. Pay only for exact technologies, exact planets or speaker/strategy-card commitments.

• Create two fleet groups: a home/core defense and a mobile scoring fleet. The Luminous usually belongs to the scoring fleet loaded with ground forces.

• Raise effective spend to roughly 10-14 while reserving 6 influence for command counters. Three or four oceans plus Hydrothermal Mining should now fund the gap.

• Identify the hero purge target now. Typical candidates are Light/Wave Deflector, Gravity Drive, Duranium Armor, Assault Cannon, X-89 or a technology that specifically enables the leading rival's final objective.

Round 4 · Convert#

• Target 5-7 victory points, four or five oceans and two credible fleets. A credible fleet is enough to make an opponent negotiate, not necessarily enough to conquer them.

• Choose initiative for the final round. Politics is often more valuable than a marginal point this round if it secures Leadership or Imperial next round.

• Fortify Ikatena with a transport ship, 3-5 fighters, 2 mechs and 3+ infantry when the table can plausibly winslay you.

• Use Visionaria as a stall or exact technology market. If all likely participants would research duplicates, skip it unless the stall itself matters.

• Do not maintain an ocean that requires defending an irrelevant coexisting planet. Consolidate around planets that score Stage II objectives or form the Luminous route.

Round 5+ · Win#

• Target 8-10 victory points entering the round, with a public, secret and Imperial/Mecatol contingency mapped in initiative order.

• Keep at least two tactical tokens after the action that appears to be your final move. One is for recovery; one is for the actual win attempt.

• Hero timing: purge before rivals execute the technology-enabled move, but after you have taken any move the technology enables for you. Remember affected owners research replacements.

• Use Share Knowledge as a last-round sale only if the buyer cannot beat your initiative or use it to deny your point.

• Once the win path is live, promissory-note goodwill, future Hydrothermal income and technology efficiency have zero value compared with initiative and board access.

Fortified Planet#

• First ask whether Carrina can place an infantry there through a prerequisite deal; peaceful coexistence is cheaper than invasion and still counts for objective scoring.

• If force is required, attack for a point, not income. Bring the Luminous or Carrier II with 1-2 mechs, 3-4 infantry and fighter screening; add a dreadnought for bombardment.

• Acquire the exact counter-technology: L4 Disruptors for defensive space cannon, Light/Wave for approach, X-89 for mass infantry, or Duranium/Assault Cannon only when the space fight demands it.

• Use the hero strategically: purging Duranium, Light/Wave, X-89 or another enabler may remove the defender's plan, but they receive replacement research if they owned it.

Break a Blockade#

• Seed infantry through Carrina on planets beyond or inside the blocking fleet's route.

• Move the Luminous through systems containing your units; each traversed seeded system increases its move. The flagship can pass enemy ships in those systems.

• Do not assume escorts share this permission. Load the flagship with the ground package and use separate fast screens only where legal.

• Alternative: obtain Light/Wave Deflector, use wormholes, or negotiate one activation of passage in exchange for a technology lease.

Low-Economy Build#

• Prioritize the first two oceans and Hydrothermal Mining over an expensive flagship.

• Use Eanautic Production 1 to build infantry/fighters locally and avoid consuming home-dock production.

• Buy carrier + fighters/infantry before dreadnought prestige. Transport and hit absorption convert resources into scoring access.

• Use Aello income as command-token money; reserve Ikatena for the resource/influence side your slice lacks.

Fleet Recovery#

• Evacuate coexisting mechs and infantry when the hostile system is activated. Saving ground forces preserves oceans, home defense and rebuild production.

• Score through coexistence while rebuilding; do not attempt immediate revenge unless it restores a point.

• First rebuild a carrier or Luminous, then cheap fighters and infantry, then capital ships. Sling Relay and Sarween are excellent recovery technologies if already available.

• Sell Share Knowledge or a low-risk promissory service for liquidity. Offer the attacker a face-saving boundary if it prevents a second strike.

Fortify#

• Use two-layer defense: space screen plus ground stack. Enemy capture of the planet card does not automatically remove your scoring presence if coexistence remains.

• Home target by late game: transport ship, 4-6 fighters, 2 mechs and at least 3 infantry; Planetary Defense System if Construction also scores.

• Keep Eanautic production on a nearby coexisting planet so small defenders can be produced forward.

• Protect command tokens and initiative. A fortress that consumes every token cannot contest the winning objective.

Expand#

• Use Carrina to expand non-contiguously onto objective planets; no ship range is required for the infantry placement.

• Convert remote infantry into a route: later deliver an Eanautic, produce locally and use the planet as a Luminous stepping stone.

• Prefer planets with traits, attachments, specialties, legendary status or adjacency to Mecatol/another home. Avoid expansion for raw count alone.

• When the partner becomes hostile, evacuate the mech network and retain only infantry on the planets essential for scoring.

Survive a Winslay#

• Count public-scoring eligibility at home under your table's coexistence ruling before relying on it.

• Keep the Luminous's corridor and one ordinary retreat/reinforcement route; the flagship's special pathing does not help other ships.

• Purge the technology that makes the attack possible only after you have used it yourself if relevant. Light/Wave and Gravity Drive are common targets.

• Trade ceasefires before the win window, not during it. During the final round, offer concrete second-place/kingmaking consequences rather than vague friendship.