Supernova Revised FAQ 1st TURN (3.4.

2)
Question:

of a planet may not be affected by cards, solar flares or the Supernova. This is meant to mean both ways - you cant take a planet away from someone else with a card, nor can you take an unoccupied planet with a card. Planets have to be acquired the old-fashioned way - through Battle.

The rulebook states: On a players first turn, they must place two (and only two) of their tiles against the supernova. A player may battle on their first turn, if they desire. Beneath this paragraph there are examples which placing is correct and which not. In these pictures there are four tiles placed by the yellow player. Why? And exactly why are the two incorrect examples incorrect? Answer: On each turn, a player can place 4 tiles, if they dont have any engines technology. On all turns but the first turn, they may place those 4 tiles either: a) adjacent to one of their own previously-placed tiles OR b) adjacent to the Supernova. On the first turn, however, if they were not restricted, they could possibly do 2 things which would be unfair to the other players. They could take a planet or place all of their tiles against the Supernova, making it impossible for the last player in the round to place any tiles at all. Thats the reasoning behind this rule; by forcing you to place only 2 of your tiles against the Supernova, you cant achieve either of those things, ensuring an even and fair start to the game.

Question:

Does capturing an uninhabited planet hex require any special action? Do you simply expand onto the tile, or do you need to discard another tile as when fortifying? Answer: No, you simply place your tile on the hex to capture the planet, exactly as you would any unoccupied space.

PLAYING BATTLE CARDS (4.3.4)

Question:

Can a player attack even with no battle cards, or are they required to play at least 1? If no battle cards are required, it seems that a player with greater weapons than an opponents shields could easily capture a large section of territory with no cards. Answer: They must always play at least one card to attack. As they always redraw a card after an attack, there should be no situation in a game where they have zero cards in their hand.

TILE PLACEMENT (4.3.3)

Question:

Does a Hex have to have a control marker on it to be occupied or do Planets/Moons/Encounters also occupy hexes? This is referring to the research card that allows you to teleport a tile to an unoccupied hex. Would I be able to teleport to a moon hex, a planet hex or an encounter hex (presuming there are no control tiles on the hex)? Answer: Yes, to everything but a planet. The Global Rule as stated in the rulebook says that a players ownership

Question:

What are the consequences for playing an invalid hand? Answer: Let people know at the beginning of the game that if they play an invalid hand, the invalid cards are lost and only the remaining valid cards in that hand count.

For instance, if I were to play a green HI (high impact) card and a blue HI card with a green 5, I would lose that blue HI card (and not draw to replace it) - only the 2 green cards would count in that situation. If another situation arises where theyve played 2 greens and 2 oranges, the opponent gets to choose which cards to discard at that time.

suit. This was also not clarified well enough in the rules. This may ONLY be done if a player only has one/more High Impact card(s) remaining in their hand and no other types of cards, thus forcing them to take this action. It may not be played in this manner otherwise.

Question:

SOLAR FLARES (4.4.2)

Question:

Can a value 1 wild battle card be played alone in combat, or must it always be played with a card of another suit (high impact or regular)? Answer: Wilds can be played alone or with other suits.

Both moons and planets are legal targets for a flare burn, correct? Assuming the burn path is 4 (phase 3 flare) or 5 (supernova), it seems that someone will always take the opportunity to completely clear a player out of a fortified planet near the end of the game. Is this the intent? Answer: Moons are legal targets, but planets are not. This is mentioned in the rules under section 4.0 - Gameplay. It says Global Rule: A players ownership of a planet cannot be affected by cards, Solar Flares, or the Supernova.
Question:

Question:

In what order are the High Impact battle cards resolved? Answer: They are resolved in this order: (think -DSP) Dual Seeker Smart Bomb Power Inverter In the case of the Smart Bomb, if an opponent plays 2 of their highest card (two 4s, for instance) only one of those cards is discarded.

Its possible that there would be no tiles adjacent to the Supernova during the part of the game when a Flare goes off. In this case, does the Flare do nothing since the Flare is not allowed to skip over empty space? Answer:

Question:

High Impact cards say Must be used with a regular card of the same suit and the rules say that it can be played with a wild. Do those contradict each other? If I can play it with a wild, it seems that the power inverter would always get played with a 1 wild. Answer: This isnt quite accurate. The High Impact cards MAY be played with a wild as long as a regular card of the same suit is played as well. The Power Inverter would be best played with a 2 of the same suit. There is a rule that says that a High Impact card may be played on its own, without a card of the same

This doesnt happen very often. However, if it were to happen, the player in control of the current flare may skip over the empty hexes, but they would still only be allowed the distance of the current flare. For example, on a 3-tile flare, if there were tiles on the board 2 hexes from the Supernova, they may remove only 2 hexes worth of tiles in that circumstance (1 hex would be omitted as it consists of empty space).

Question:

Are mandatory solar flares at the end of each phase in addition to or instead of flipping the coin? e.g. in

phase 1, round 4 do you have an automatic solar flares? Answer: Yes, these Supernova mandatory flares are instead of a coin flip.

Question:

Are Research Cards played face up? Do they turn face up when they become available for use? On page 11 the rules say they are initially played face down when purchased, but the example shows them being played face up. Answer: No, they are played face-down. The example was meant to illustrate the timing of when the Research cards are available for use.

SPECIAL POWER CARDS (5.1.1)

Question: How does the Resource Hijacking special power card work? Answer: Resource Hijacking: You have hired mercenaries to intercept revenue from around the solar system. Until your next turn, take one Resource Unit from every shipment of your opponents resources, including from any taxes paid. This should have said: ...take one Resource Unit from every moon shipment of your opponents resources Everyone gets 1 RU per turn as regular income. If youre not receiving income from a moon that turn, you dont have to pay your 1 RU to the player with Resource Hijacking. However, for every moon that you receive 2 RU from that turn, youd have to pay that player 1 RU. If you have a moon that you only receive 1 RU from, and are paying 1 RU in tax to an opponent, the player with Resource Hijacking would receive both RU.

Question:

The Plasma Shield research card says Only 1 of your tiles may be burned from the current flare. Is this supposed to say tile, or should it be hex? If it is tile, this seems to imply that any hex with a stack of 2 or higher is immune from the flare. Answer: This should be hexes, yes. It says hexes in the rules, but it was apparently omitted on this card. This card may not be used to prevent tiles being burned from the Supernova, only Solar Flares.

Question:

SPECIAL RESEARCH CARDS (5.1.2)

Question:

For the Retreat! research card , when can this card be played? Is this supposed to be played outside of combat to make the opponent discard form their hand, or during combat to make them discard their played set of combat cards? If it is discarded from hand, does the To a maximum of 4 mean that even if the player had more they only draw back to 4? Answer: This card can be played at any time on their turn. The intent of this card is for it to be used against an opponent who either has many cards in their hand (eg 6) or who has a hand that you suspect is very strong; ie: they had the capable to exchange cards on their last turn, but did not, inferring theyve got a good hand. You may use this card to force them to discard their hand and redraw a new hand composed of only 4 cards. As these new draws are random, they

Research cards: are these cards discarded after use, or can they be used as many times as desired per turn? Answer: Only one Research card can only be used by a player during their turn. They are discarded to a discard pile upon use.

have a reasonably good chance of NOT redrawing as powerful a hand as the one they just discarded. If they have less than 4 cards in their hand when you play it, they only draw back up to the amount that they had. This card could be used during battle to make that player discard the cards they attacked with. They would then have to choose a new battle hand to use to counter their opponents hand immediately after drawing a new hand.

Colonization cards say increase your Z technology by X levels. Im assuming then that its not a +2 to the value of the current location, but moving the chit as if you had bought them. The difference being in the cost to increase technologies. I might be a zero, get a card that increases 2 levels. Pay for one more at 3 and then lose the card. Now Im at level one, but Ive paid the cost for 3 for it. Answer: It is the former! e.g. So if I was at level 0 of my shield, and I take a planet with the Civilization that gives me a shield bonus (the Binary, 101010), I could raise my Shields level to 2 as it gives a 2 level increase. During the buying phase of my turn, if I chose to increase my shields, it would cost me 3 RU to do so - the same amount of RU as the level I am purchasing. If I later lost the planet with the 101010 Colonization, I would have to reduce my shields to level 1, so yes, it would have cost you 3 RU for that one level, which normally would have cost you 1 RU.

Question:

If a player were to increase their shields technology to level 5 without using Colonization cards, then acquire the 101010 Colonization card (which increases a players Shields technology). This player would normally receive a 2 shield bonus and would lose that bonus if/when the card is lost. What would you do in this case, where their Shield technologies are already maxed out? Answer: In this case, the player in this circumstance would not increase their tech level beyond the chart; it would stay at 5. However, they should turn their Shields marker sideways to indicate this; they would not lose any levels if they were to lose this planet, but they would not gain any additional bonuses either, beyond the points that the planet gives them.

Question:

The research card Industrial Espionage, must both research cards be discarded by a single target opponent, or can they be split between two? If a target opponent has more than 2 research cards, who selects which to discard? Random choice? Answer: Either! Force a single opponent discard 2 research cards or 2 opponents to discard 1 research card each, their choice.

Question:

Eorthal colonization card: Fortify any one of your tiles once per turn Are planets allowed to be fortified in this way? That also goes for the Call for backup research card. Also, does it let me break the rule for fortifying a tile more than once? Answer: You may not fortify planets with these fortifications, only regular tiles or moons. Planets may only ever be fortified at a cost of 2 tiles per fortification. And no, you may not break the rule that allows you to fortify a tile more than once per turn.

DESPERATION CARDS (5.1.3)

Question: The Desperation card says It can be used by a player who owns no planets at any time on their turn. So then it can be read as: If a player owns no planets, then this can be used at any time on their turn OR If a player owns no planets at any time on their turn, then this card can be used. The difference happens when the player wants to use the card in the middle of a battle to draw back up to their hand limit. Answer:

Question:

Desperation card: It may be used once per turn by a player who owns no planets. More of the former ie if you do not own a planet, then on your turn, you may use this card whenever youd like, once only. Once used, it is turned over and may not be used until your next turn. If at any point on your turn, you take an opponents planet & you have NOT used this card that turn, too bad because you must give up this card at that time.

Desperation card or not) you acquire a planet, the Desperation card goes back into the deck. It may be taken again by you or any other players, any number of times. This would occur if, later in the game, one of the players once again had no planets.

PHASE SCORING 4.5.1

Question:

Phase scoring: The rules states: The tiles on which planets and moons sit are not counted at this time, only the markers themselves
Question:

Regarding Desperation cards: The card lets you draw up to your hand size and says at any time, but the rules say that you can only use the desperation cards at times when you would be doing an action of that type. Correct? Answer: This is correct. You can use the Desperation card at the beginning of your turn to take one extra RU, or use it when you take tiles to take one extra tile or use it in the middle of battle to fully replenish your hand to maximum. Just choose ONE of these actions. (Variant: If players find that replenishing their hand size to the maximum in the middle of battle is too strong, the player could replenish their hand at any time, less the amount of cards they have in their hand when refilling. For instance, if they have Comms 2 and one card remaining, they could refill up to 6-1: 5 cards. If they have Comms 2 and 2 cards remaining, theyd just go back up to 4. )

What about the other tiles in occupied hexes, do they count to scoring in this phase, or only in the final scoring. Answer: During the end-of-phase scoring, you only tally points for the moons and planets that you own; 3 points for a moon, 5 points for a planet. Only at the end of the game do you count points for the hexes that you occupy, in addition to the points you receive for planets and moons.

Question:

There are only 3 Desperation cards in the game and the rules says that if the player acquire a planet on their turn, their desperation card is immediately discarded. Does this means that that card cannot be used again in future, and only 3 players can use it? Answer: Once a Desperation card is used on your turn, it is turned over. It may be used again on a subsequent turn. If, at any time on your turn, ( if youve used the