Phases of an Encounter

Each encounter is comprised of seven phases, which are described in the following sections.

## Starting the Turn

The player whose turn it is (**the offense**) first checks his or her hand to make sure it contains at least one encounter card. If it does not, the player reveals any cards remaining in hand, discards them, then draws a new hand of eight cards.

This is the only time during the offense’s turn that he or she may get a new hand of cards in this fashion. Should the offense run out of encounter cards later on, his or her turn ends

***Start Turn*** is essentially the first part of the Regroup phase (only occuring on a player’s first encounter as offense), and any effect that happens during Start Turn must take effect before anything that is supposed to happen during Regroup (e.g., the offense draws a new hand before a Plague artifact can be played).

## Phases of an Encounter

### Regroup

Throughout the game, ships will go to the warp when encounters are lost. At the start of an encounter, one of the offense’s ships is retrieved from the warp and placed in one of his or her colonies (home or otherwise).

If a player has no colonies, the retrieved ship is placed directly in the hyperspace gate.

### Destiny

The offense then draws the top card of the destiny deck to determine which player will be the defense. The destiny deck contains colors, wilds, and specials. The offense and defense are also known as **the main players**. Barring special abilities, there is no way for the offense to attack another player’s colony when it is located in a third player’s home system.

If there is only one card left in the deck, do not draw it. Instead shuffle the final card and the destiny discard pile together to form a new destiny deck and draw from the new deck.

Note: Some of the destiny cards showing a player color are marked with a hazard warning.

#### If a Color is Drawn

If the drawn card shows a player color, it indicates the planet system where **the offense** must have an encounter. For example, if the red player draws a green destiny card, the red player must have an encounter in the green system. The green player is **the defense** for this encounter.

> When drawing his or her own color, if a player has a home planet with no ships on it at all (enemy or otherwise), then he or she may aim the hyperspace gate at that planet to ***automatically re-establish a colony*** there with up to four ships from other colonies. Doing so counts as a successful encounter and a win
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> The player may attempt to drive a foreign colony off of one of his or her home planets. In this case, the player whose colony is being driven off becomes the defense.
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> Or The player may draw again (until the player draws a card that doesn’t show his or her own Destiny card color)
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#### If a Wild is Drawn

If the drawn card is a wild, the offense may have an encounter with any player of his or her choice. For this encounter, the chosen player is the defense. The encounter must take place in the chosen player’s home system.

#### If a Special is Drawn

If the drawn card is a special, it will explain the conditions of the encounter. The player indicated by the destiny card is the defense for the encounter, and the card indicates where the encounter must take place. For purposes of game effects (such as the Shadow’s execute ability), specials are treated as though the card showed the player color of the player designated as the defense.

### Launch

The offense takes the **hyperspace gate** and points it at one planet in the system indicated by the drawn destiny card.

The offense then takes one to four ships from any of his or her colonies, stacks them, and places them on the wide end of the hyperspace gate. The offense may take ships from his or her home colonies or foreign colonies. Ships may all be taken from the same colony or from different colonies.

A player should be careful not to remove all of the ships from a colony, however, as he or she will strip a planet of ships and lose the colony by doing so.

The defense may not add or subtract ships from the targeted planet.

Even though a player may no longer have a colony on one of his or her home planets, that player must still defend it. This can result in some unusual encounters.

*Colonies on the defense’s planet which are not part of that home system (that is, they are not the color of the home system) do not count towards the defensive total and are not affected by the outcome. They are simply **bystanders**. When a player is attempting to drive a foreign colony from his or her home system, only one player’s colony can be chosen to be the defense in the encounter. All others are ignored.*

### Alliance

Next, the offense and defense ask for allies to help them. This happens as described below.

1. The offense announces which players he or she wishes to have as allies. The offense may not invite the defense as an ally. These players should not respond to the offense’s invitation yet.
2. The defense invites allies. He or she may invite any play- ers (except the offense) to be allies, even those already invited by the offense.
3. Players other than the offense and defense choose sides. Starting with the player to the left of the offense and continuing clockwise, each player accepts or declines invitations to ally. A player may only ally with either the offense or the defense – not both. A player may choose to ally with neither side.

This part of the **alliance phase** can be replaced by using the **alliance token** in which players invited have one minute to secretly select how many ships and to which side to ally. When all players are ready, they reveal their tokens and distribute their ships accordingly.
If a player allies with the offense, the allying player places one to four of his or her ships (taken from any colonies) on the hyperspace gate. A player allied with the offense is referred to as an **offensive ally**.

If a player allies with the defense, the allying player places one to four of his or her ships (taken from any colonies) next to, but not on, the targeted planet. A player allied with the defense is referred to as a **defensive ally**.

Only after a player has allied with a side (or declined all invitations) and committed ships does the next player accept or decline an invitation.

### Planning

The offense and the defense now each select an encounter card from their hand (an attack, negotiate, or morph) and place it facedown in front of themselves.

If the defense has no encounter cards in hand, he or she may reveal any remaining cards in hand, discard them, and then draw a new eight-card hand before selecting a card during this phase. If the offense has no encounter cards in hand, his or her turn ends immediately.

### Reveal

The offense and defense turn their cards faceup simultaneously and a winner is determined.

note: Only the originally revealed card is the one considered “revealed.” Some powers kick in if one reveals an Attack card (for instance Brute, Cudgel, and Deuce). e.g. Cudgel reveals a Negotiate, and then uses the Human Wild flare to turn it into an Attack 42; in such case, the revealed card is considered a negotiate.

#### If Both Players Reveal Attack Cards

Each main player adds the number on the card he or she revealed to the number of ships on his or her side. If you are the offense, you add your card value to the number of your ships on the hyperspace gate plus any allied ships on the hyperspace gate. If you are the defense, you add your card value to the number of your ships on the planet involved in the encounter plus the number of allied ships next to the planet.

The player with the higher total wins, with ties going to the defense.

#### If One Player Reveals an Attack Card and the Other Reveals a Negotiate Card

The player who played the negotiate card loses the encounter automatically. However, the losing player will get to claim **compensation** by taking cards from the belligerent opponent’s hand.

#### If Both Players Reveal Negotiate Cards

An attempt is made to reach a deal. Attacks have been put aside in favor of diplomacy. All allies on both sides return their ships to any of their colonies. They get nothing. The main players have one minute to make a deal. At this point, they can negotiate a mutually agreeable deal or play hardball and try to negotiate a sweet deal their opponent can’t refuse. The negotiating players should be careful, however, since failing to make a deal sends three of their ships to the warp each.

In a deal, a player may trade cards and/or allow his or her opponent to establish one colony on any one planet where the player already has a colony. In this way each main player may gain a new colony and/or new cards. Any of a player’s ships that are not in the warp can be used to establish this colony. Cards must come from the players’ hands, not from the deck. Any ships remaining in the hyperspace gate after the deal return to any of the offense’s colonies. Allies are never included in a deal. If no agreement is reached within one minute, the deal fails. The players cannot agree to do nothing as a deal – either a card or a base must change hands for a deal to be successful.

#### If Either Player Reveals the Morph Card

The morph card becomes an exact duplicate of the opponent’s encounter card when revealed. For instance, if the player’s opponent reveals a negotiate, the morph card becomes a negotiate. If the player’s opponent reveals an attack 20, the morph card becomes an attack 20. Resolve the encounter normally as though both sides played the duplicated card. Once the encounter is resolved, the morph card returns to normal.

Note: it is possible for two players to use one simultaneously. In such instance both players would lose the encounter, sending all ships involved to the warp.

### Resolution

Once the outcome of the encounter has been determined, it is time to resolve the encounter’s effects.

#### If the Offense Won

* All the ships on the hyperspace gate (the offense’s ships plus any allies’ ships) are placed on the planet, thus establishing (or possibly reinforcing) a colony for the offense and each offensive ally. Each player establishing a colony advances his or her player colony marker by one space around the warp.
* The defense’s ships on the planet plus any defensive allies’ ships defending the planet go to the warp.
* Other ships on the planet do not go to the warp. They were bystanders and not involved in the encounter.
* If this was the offense’s first encounter for the turn, he or she may have a second encounter and must decide before any **start encounter** or **regroup** effects or abilities

#### If the Defense Won

* The ships forming the already established colonies on the defending planet stay there.
* All the ships on the hyperspace gate (the offense’s plus any allies’ ships) go to the warp.
* Defensive allies return their allying ships to any of their colonies (even if they are different from where they came from). Defensive allies do not get to land on the planet they just helped defend.
* Defensive allies also get a special bonus called defender rewards: For each ship a defensive ally contributed to the defense, that player must draw a card from the deck or take one of his or her ships from the warp. Move ships from the warp to any of the player’s colonies of his or her choice. The player may combine the options, for example, drawing two cards and moving two ships from the warp (provided that the player had committed four ships to the successful defense that turn).
* If this was the offense’s first encounter, he or she may not have a second encounter, and play passes to the left

#### If a Deal was Made

The terms of the deal are carried out as agreed upon. If this was the offense’s first encounter, he or she may have a second encounter.

#### If a Deal Failed

The main players each lose three of their ships of their choice to the warp. If this was the offense’s first encounter, there is no second encounter, and play passes to the left.

#### After Resolving the Encounter

Once the effects of the encounter are resolved, discard the revealed encounter cards to the discard pile. If the offense won the encounter (or successfully made a deal) and this was his or her first encounter, the offense may have a second encounter. Otherwise, play passes to the left.