Arcs

Two- to four-player setup: use the matching setup card to cover out-of-play clusters. Three or four players start with eight ships each; two players place ten each as shown. Place each initial city and starport, and give two starting resources and six action cards. Two or three players omit ones and sevens; four use all 28 cards. Reveal three Court cards with two players, otherwise four. With two players, also place six resources matching excluded planets on ambition boxes.

Card play: the initiative holder leads one card and may spend its pips on actions of its suit. Others can Surpass with the lead suit and a higher number to use all their own pips, Copy face down for one lead-card action, or Pivot with another suit for one action on their own card.

Initiative and declaration: before any actions, the leader may declare the card’s ambition, placing the highest available ambition marker and setting the lead number to zero without changing its pips. Another player can seize initiative with an extra facedown card, or by Surpassing with a seven in four-player play. Only one seizure is allowed per round; otherwise the highest Surpass gains next initiative.

Development and control: strictly more fresh ships than each Rival controls a system. Build a city or starport in an empty slot where you have a piece, or one ship at a Loyal starport, once per starport per turn. Pieces built under Rival control enter damaged. Tax a Loyal city or controlled Rival city for a resource, once per city per turn; taxing a Rival also captures one agent from their supply.

Movement and Court: move any number of Loyal ships to an adjacent system. Starting at a Loyal starport allows Catapult moves until entering a Rival-controlled gate or any planet. Influence places one agent on a Court card. Secure requires strictly more agents than each Rival, takes the card, returns Loyal agents, captures Rival agents and refills the Court. Repair restores any one damaged Loyal piece on the map.

Battle and raiding: choose a Rival in a system containing Loyal ships, collecting up to one die per attacking ship, mixing assault, skirmish and raid dice, with at most six of each. Raid dice require defending buildings in the battle system or no defender buildings anywhere on the map. Resolve self-hits and intercept, ship and building hits, then raids if attacking ships survive. Fresh pieces become damaged; another hit destroys them as Trophies. Destroying a city also Provokes Outrage and Ransacks the Court.

Resources and Prelude: after playing a card but before spending its first pip, use resource or card Prelude actions. Material builds or repairs; Fuel moves; Weapons enable card pips to Battle this turn; Relics Secure; Psionics use a lead-card action. Outraged resource types cannot use their normal resource Prelude action, and resource slots limit storage.

Chapter end and victory: end when everyone has no cards or all remaining cardholders pass initiative consecutively. Score declared ambitions only: Tycoon counts Material and Fuel icons, Tyrant Captives, Warlord Trophies, Keeper Relics and Empath Psionics. First and second place gain marker Power; zero counts cannot score. Return scored Trophies and Captives, return ambition markers and flip the lowest unflipped marker. With two players, count ambition-box resources as held by a virtual third player, with Weapons counting as Trophies. End at 27 Power with four players, 30 with three, 33 with two, or after Chapter 5. Most Power wins, ties going earliest in turn order from initiative.