Creating the galaxy

1. Each player rolls a die. Choose colours and take seat positions around the table going clockwise from high to low.
2. Deal two random Secret Objective cards to each player.
3. Select races:
	1. Highest rolling player first, and then clockwise, each player announces whether they will choose or taken a random race.
	2. In the same order, players then openly choose a still-available race, or pass if waiting for a random race.
	3. The unchosen races are dealt out randomly, and secretly.
		1. Upon receiving a random race, the player may reject it and draw another.
		2. A third draw is allowed, but this race must be immediately revealed.
4. Create the Galaxy
	1. Place the Mecatol Rex system in the middle of the table.
	2. Place the Wormhole Nexus off to the side.
	3. Prepare the system deck, according to the number of players:
		1. 3 players: 3 Special, 5 empty, 16 Regular. Deal 8 each.
		2. 4 players: 4 Special, 8 empty, 20 Regular, Deal 8 each.
		3. 5 players: 4 Special, 8 empty, 20 Regular. Discard 1. Place 1 next to M.Rex. Deal 6 each.
			1. Large Galaxy: 9 Special, 12 empty, 34 Regular.  Deal 11 each.
		4. 6 players: 4 Special, 8 empty, 20 Regular. Discard 2. Deal 5 each.
			1. Large Galaxy: 9 Special, 12 empty, 34 Regular. Discard 1. Deal 9 each.
		5. 7 players: 9 Special, 12 empty, 34 Regular. Discard 2. Place 4 next to M.Rex. Deal 7 each.
		6. 8 players: 9 Special, 12 empty, 34 Regular. Discard 3. Place 4 next to M.Rex. Deal 6 each.
	4. The remaining systems are placed in the box, unseen.  Players may look at their dealt systems but should not show them to the other players.
	5. Prepare the artefacts.
		1. Discard blank artefact tokens as necessary, until the number of artefact tokens is equal to the number of players plus 2.
		2. Shuffle the artefacts face down.
		3. With 6 or fewer players, place an artefact on Metacol Rex.
		4. With 7 or fewer players, place an artefact on the Wormhole Nexus.
		5. Deal one artefact to each player.
	6. Shuffle the Distant Suns and Final Frontiers counters into "red" (bad) and "green" (good, or at least not bad) piles, face down.
		1. Each player may take a single token from either "green" pile, and a single token from either "red" pile.  Two tokens in all.
	7. In clockwise order, starting with the highest rolling player, you may take a single action (1) place a single system adjacent to an existing system, or (2) place an artefact (face down) either on a planet or in an empty Regular System, or (3) place a Distant Suns token (face down) on a planet, or (4) place a Final Frontiers token (face down) in an empty Regular System.  NB: Systems are not considered adjacent because they have connecting Wormholes, only if they are literally adjacenta as placed on the table.
		1. If your race is still unrevealed, and you are placing your Home System you may place it either face up or face down. All other Systems are placed face up.
		2. You may not place a Special System (with an inner red border) adjacent to another Special System, unless you have no other option.
		3. You may not place a Home System (with an inner yellow border) adjacent to another Home System, unless you have no other option.
		4. You may not place your artefact on a planet that already has one, nor in a Home System.
		5. You may not place your Distant Suns token on a planet that already has one, a Home System, or Mecatol Rex.  You may not place a "red" token adjacent to a Home System other than your own.
		6. You may not place your Final Frontiers token in a system that already has one.  You may not place a "red" token adjacent to a Home System other than your own.
		7. The order of placement flips direction after every round of placement. Example of turn order: P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6, P6, P5, P4, P3, P2, P1, P1, P2...
		8. Players placing two systems in a row may not place them adjacent to each other.
		9. Systems form rings around Mecatol Rex, the number of rings depending on the number of players.
			1. 3 players: 2 rings
			2. 4-6 players: 3 rings
			3. 5-6 players (Large Galaxy) or 7-8 players: 4 rings
		10. Muaat may only be placed in the rim (outermost ring)
5. Place the Mecatol Custodians on Mecatol Rex.
6. Distribute the remaining Distant Suns and Final Frontiers tokens.
	1. Remaining Distant Suns tokens in the "green" pile are placed randomly face down on all planets in systems adjacent to Home Systems. that do not already have a token (excluding Mecatol Rex).  Remaining Final Frontiers tokens in the "green" pile are placed randomly face down in all Regular Systems adjacent to Home Systems, that contain no planets and do not already have a token.
	2. The "red" and "green" tokens are shuffled together, so that there remains a single pool of Distant Suns tokens and a single pool of Final Frontiers tokens.
	3. Distribute Distant Suns tokens to all planets that do not already have one, excluding Home Systems and Mecatol Rex.
	4. Distribute Final Frontiers tokens to all Regular Systems that do not already have one, and contain no planets.
7. Bid for Speaker Token:
	1. The lowest rolling player may now place a bid on the Speaker Token (this bid may be 0 TG).
	2. Going counter-clockwise, players may either pass or bid over.
	3. The winning bidder is assigned the Speaker Token and receives 1 TG, and all other players then receive a number of TG equal to the winning bid plus 1 TG.
		1. Purely for your information and guidance, the "market value" of the Speaker Token is usually around 2 TG, though this clearly depends on which races are in play, the relative skills of the various players, the galaxy's configuration etc.
8. The Speaker may now set the orientation of the Rotation Cycler (clockwise or anti-clockwise).
9. Reveal the first 3 Stage I Objectives and 3 Preliminary Objectives.
10. Reveal hidden races.
11. All players take a Technology Sheet and secretly mark their choice of starting technologies on it. Each player then announces which starting technology choices they have made.
12. Keep 1 of the 2 Secret Objectives and discard the other.
13. Setup the rest of the play area.
	1. Shuffle and place Action Card and Political Card decks.  Reserve space for Active Laws.
	2. Place Ground Force and Fighter supplement counters, Trade Good tokens, neutral Planet Cards
	3. Place 8 Strategy Cards in a suitable area (9 Cards, if there are 4, 7, or 8 players)
	4. Shuffle Stage I and Stage II Public Objective decks.  Reserve space for revealed objectives and special objectives.
14. Deal 2 Political Cards to each player.  (Players starting with Xeno-Technology are dealt 3, but must discard 1.)
15. All players take a set of plastic miniatures according to their colour, and take their races’ Command Counters and Control Markers, and place them in their “Reinforcements”.
16. Set out the Victory Point Track.  Each player places one of their Control Markers on the Victory Point Track at “1”.
17. All players place their "setup units" (as indicated by their Race Sheets) and any 1 Leader on their Home Systems.  (The Yin place all 3 Leaders.)
	1. If a Home System contains several planets, any Space Dock, Ground Forces, PDS and Mechanized Units may be placed among them according to the player’s wishes.
	2. Leaders may be placed on ships or planets.
18. All players now take their starting Command Counters from their reinforcements, placing them on their Race Sheets as follows: 2 in the Strategy Allocation area, 3 in the Command Pool area, and 3 in the Fleet Supply area (with the "Fleet" side up).  Some races vary this slightly.
19. Assign roles to players to help with game management.
20. Players now begin playing the game by starting with the Strategy Phase of the first game round!
	1. No Home System may be activated by an enemy (attacked) during the first round.