Forbidden Stars

## Overview

Command your armies and battle for the Herakon Cluster in*Forbidden Stars*, a *Warhammer 40,000* board game of interplanetary conquest for two to four players!

*Forbidden Stars*puts you in command of massive armies battling to claim the Herakon Cluster at any cost. In every game, you and your opponents build up your forces, expand your strategic options, and clash on the field of glorious battle. You’ll deliver orders to your troops on a strategic level and command your armies through tense tactical battles as you fight to claim your objectives. The first player to capture his objective tokens is the victor, but your opponents will undoubtedly defend them against you. You’ll need all your strategic skill to outwit and outmaneuver your opponents and claim the Herakon Cluster!

## How to Play

Forbidden Stars is a bluffing wargame for two to four players. It takes two to three hours to play.

The Herakon Cluster has been suffering from the shifting Warp Storms, but now they are gone, and this long lost sector of the Galaxy is once again open to the Universe. Now all powerful races of the Galaxy want to get to the ancient treasures and dominate the Herakon Cluster. You and your friends will be fighting for the great factions of the Eldar of Craftworld Iyanden, the World Eaters Warband of the Chaos Space Marines, the Ultramarines chapter of Space Marines, and the Evil Sunz Ork clan.

The goal of every faction is to get hold of the key objectives designed for your faction. So, you are also interested in stopping your opponents from getting to their objectives.

### Setup

#### Choose factions

In the beginning, you have to choose a faction you will be playing for and collect all the corresponding tokens, cards, units, and your faction sheet.

#### Claim starting components

Get all components from the list on the back of your faction sheet. Put the components on top of your sheet. Set your materiel dial at “6”.

#### Determine first player

Take one structure control from each player and mix them. Then draw one. It will determine which player goes first.

#### Construct the game board

Arrange the tiles of the game board looking at the diagram from the rules. Then, place all the tokens on the board as the diagram indicates. If some factions are not used in the game, do not place them.

After you have played your first game of Forbidden Stars with the introductory setup, you may try different setups, following the rules section titled “Constructing the Game Board”. You can create a unique board game every time you play.

#### Create event, combat, and upgrade decks

Shuffle your event cards and place them facedown in your play area. Then, shuffle ten of your combat cards to form your combat deck. Use the remaining combat cards and your order upgrade cards to form two upgrade decks. Place them faceup next to your faction sheet and make sure you do not mix them with your combat deck.

#### Prepare the round track

Put the round track near the game board and place the round marker on mark “1”.

#### Create supply

Sort all cache tokens, reinforcement tokens, forge tokens, plastic structures, and dice into separate piles and place them near the game board.

#### Planning phase

Players place order tokens face down on separate tiles of the game board. Each type of order tokens corresponds to one type of actions that can be taken in the second phase of the round.

#### Operations phase

Players reveal their order tokens. These may be Dominate tokens (draining friendly planets of the necessary resources), Strategize tokens (upgrading your combat abilities and orders), Deploy tokens (building new mobile units, cities, bastions, and factories), and Advance tokens (movement of your units and combat with your enemies).

#### Refresh Phase

You get profit from the planets under your control, heal the units that have suffered during the Operations phase, and reveal event cards that help you around the Warp Storms.

Your job is to build a war strategy you will be able to continuously implement throughout the game while also doing the short-term bluffing during phases in order to trick your opponents. Remember: the victory will be either yours or somebody else’s. Use your own strengths and your enemies’ weaknesses.

To win the game, you have to collect a number of your objectives equal to the number of factions in the game.

## Links and References

Official Rules

BoardGameGeek Review