Pax Expanse

This game follows the same rules as its progenitor - Pax Pamir (Second Edition), by Cole
Wehrle - with the exception of the rules below. For the full rules, you’ll need to read the Pax
Pamir rulebook, which can be found on its own BGG page.

Translation of Terms
A game of Pax Expanse uses different terms for each of its components and mechanisms.
See the table below for the terms that are used. This ruleset will use the new terms rather
than the old.

Pax Pamir Pax Expanse

Court Network
Court card Asset
Tribe Supporter
Army Fleet
Spy Agent
Rupees Influence
Economic suit Economic
Military suit Military
Political suit Political
Intelligence suit Subterfuge
Economic political climate Prosperity
Military political climate War
Political political climate Peace
Intelligence political climate Cold War
Ruler Controller
Gift Favour
Influence Reputation
Road Transport
Leverage Leverage
Region Region
Tax Extort
Build Rally
Hold Hostage Intimidate
Betray Eliminate
Move Mobilise
Battle Combat
Cylinder Control marker
Radicalise Recruit
Patriot Loyalist
Rank Power
Prize Reward
Bribe Bribe
Suit Type
Overthrow Destabilise
Favoured suit spaces Political climate track

Setup
Separate the four Rocinante asset cards, the events and the four Dominance Check cards
from the rest of the asset cards.

Shuffle the four Rocinante cards and event cards separately, then create ten piles of cards
using the following compositions. The Rocinante cards should be added to their piles
randomly. The Dominance Check cards should be added to their piles in ascending number
order (so the lowest-numbered Dominance Check card is in the lowest-numbered pile that
requires one). N = number of players.

Pile # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Assets 12 6 N 6 N 6 N 6 N 6

Events 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1

Rocinante 2 2

Dom. 1 1 1 1
Check

Then place each pile on top of the next to form a single deck, with the lowest-numbered pile
on the top and the highest-numbered pile on the bottom.

Determine a first player randomly. Place the Rocinante reference cards to the right of the
first player (meaning that the crew of the Rocinante will take their turn after all other players
have had a turn). Shuffle the Rocinante AI deck and place it facedown near the Rocinante
reference cards, then flip the top card of the Rocinante AI deck faceup, leaving it on top of
the deck.
Place the Eros objective token in the Belt region. Place the Rocinante token in the Outer
Planets region. Place 1 Dominance token in each region showing the white “uncontrolled”
side faceup.

Instead of 4 influence each, give players starting influence according to the following table:

Num of 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Players

3 2 3 4 N/A

4 1 2 3 4
.

Political Climate
The political climate is now a linear track, with Prosperity (corresponding to the Economic
cards) at one end and War (corresponding to the Military cards at the other end). The
political climate marker moves up and down this track due to various effects on asset cards -
it no longer “jumps” directly to a particular status.

Additionally, each political climate status has its own special ability associated with it, as
detailed below.

Prosperity
While the political climate is at Prosperity, players do not have to pay bribes to a region’s
controller when playing cards (they still need to pay bribes when performing actions due to
agents, however).

Peace
While the political climate is at Peace, supporters are not lost when assets are eliminated,
and assets are not exhausted when a player’s supporters in a region are killed.

Cold War
While the political climate is at Cold War, players may treat asset cards in play that share the
same region as adjacent for the purposes of agent movement.

War
While the political climate is at War, players may split their Combat actions between any
number of regions.
Actions

Mobilise
Fleets may now move without the need for transports. However, each fleet may only move
once per Move action.

Additionally, players may now move supporters between regions using Mobilise actions and
transports. An arrow on a Mobilise action allows a player to move 1 supporter to an adjacent
region via a loyal transport. Each transport can only be used to move a supporter once per
Mobilise action. A supporter can cross multiple regions in a single Mobilise action, providing
there are the movement arrows and transports to do so.

Combat
When performing a combat action, the player chooses a region and may conduct combat
with any of their valid pieces in that region, regardless of whether they are on the main board
or on assets that match that region.

After a player performs a Combat action, for each supporter that was killed, that player may
choose an asset controlled by the same player as the supporter that matches the killed
supporter’s region and exhaust that asset.

Extort
The Extort action now allows players to take influence from:

● Other players who have supporters in the region matching the extorting asset’s
region, or
● Assets in the market whose region matches the extorting asset’s region.

Eliminate
When a player’s asset is eliminated, that player also loses 1 supporter from the region
matching the eliminated asset’s region, if able.

Rally
Players may always build fleets and/or transports in the rallying asset’s region, in addition to
any region they control.

Favour
The Favour action may now be used for one of three effects:
 ● Gain Favour: Pay 2/4/6 influence to gain a favour with the faction you are loyal to.
● Move Rocinante: If the Rocinante is in a region adjacent to this asset’s region, move
it to this asset’s region. If the Rocinante is in this asset’s region, move it to any
adjacent region. This may only be done if the Rocinante is undamaged.
● Place Supporter: Choose either the asset’s region or another region controlled by the
faction you are loyal to. Pay 2 influence per supporter you have in that region to
place a supporter in that region.

Destabilisation
There is no longer any mechanical link between Political assets and supporters; supporters
may exist in a region without a corresponding political asset and vice versa. Instead, the
Destabilisation rule works like so:

● After a player performs a Combat action, for each supporter that was killed, that
player may choose an asset controlled by the same player as the supporter that
matches the killed supporter’s region and exhaust that asset.

This effect is also triggered by Rocinante actions.

Agents
Agents are only removed from assets in two situations:

● They perform an Eliminate action, or

● They are killed as part of a Combat action.

If an Asset card that an agent is placed on is removed from play - or if an agent would
normally be returned to its owner’s player board for some other reason (as per the original
rules of Pax Pamir) - then the agent’s controller may instead move the agent to an adjacent
asset for free (if the political climate is at Cold War, then this may be to an asset that shares
the same region). If multiple players have agents on the discarded asset, then the players
move the agents in player order, starting with the current player.

Changing Loyalty
When changing loyalty, players may keep a number of their loyalists and/or rewards equal to
the number of blue stars in their network. In this way, it is possible for a player to have
loyalists from different factions in their network at the same time.

Favours are always lost when changing faction. Blue stars no longer protect from the Extort
action.
Gain Influence Effect
Players are no longer required to return any influence they gained from an asset due to the
Gain Influence effect when they lose that asset - the gain is permanent.

Exhausting
When using an asset for its action, exhaust the card by turning it sideways to show that it
has been used. This is mechanically identical to how actions were performed in Pax Pamir,
but just acts as a visual reminder of which assets have been used for an action. Some
special abilities now also refer to this. All assets are refreshed at the end of a player’s turn.

The Rocinante
The Rocinante serves a similar role to Wakhan in Pax Pamir. However, the Rocinante will
be present in every game of Pax Expanse regardless of player count. The Rocinante will
typically hurt leading players or aid trailing players.

The Rocinante is represented on the board by the Rocinante token, which starts in the Outer
Planets region but will move around the board as the game progresses. Actions performed
by the Rocinante will only ever affect components present in the Rocinante’s current region.

After every player has taken a turn, the Rocinante will take a turn. To do this, resolve the top
card of the Rocinante AI deck (which should always be faceup). Each AI card features two
actions, and then a location that the Rocinante will move to. For all AI cards except for
James Holden’s, perform the top action; only if you cannot resolve the top action (usually
because no pieces of the required type exist in the Rocinante’s current region) then perform
the bottom action instead. For James Holden’s cards, perform both actions, top to bottom.
Full details of how to carry out each crew member’s actions are explained on their respective
reference cards.

Once the actions have been performed, the Rocinante moves directly to the location stated
at the bottom of the card. Then discard the card and flip the new top card of the deck
faceup.

If the Rocinante AI deck ever runs out of cards, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck.

Attacking the Rocinante

The Rocinante can be attacked by fleets in its region, as if it were a fleet itself. However, the
Rocinante is never destroyed; instead, the player flips the Rocinante token to its damaged
side; the Rocinante will not move during its upcoming turn (but the actions will still be
performed).
The Rocinante crew are always considered to be located in the region containing the
Rocinante token, so any abilities that affect how agents move between assets should take
this into account (it is as if the Rocinante reference cards have the Rocinante token’s current
region printed in the upper-right corner). There is one exception to this: Rocinante asset
cards do not count when targeted by Rocinante AI cards (for example, Amos will never try to
eliminate Alex).

At the end of the Rocinante turn, the Rocinante flips back to its undamaged side.

Rocinante Assets
Four of the assets in the asset deck correspond to the four crew members of the Rocinante.
These act like normal assets in every way, and usually give the players some control over
the Rocinante or what is happening in its region.

The region for the four Rocinante cards is always “Rocinante”, which simply means that the
card’s region is always considered to be the region that currently contains the Rocinante
token. This region can change as the Rocinante token moves around the board.

Scoring
Scoring is now based on the number of regions that are controlled by various factions or
players, rather than just total number of pieces on the board. Conduct scoring as follows:

First, determine if any of the factions has dominance. A faction has dominance if it controls
more regions than each other faction. A faction determines control of a region by counting
the number of its fleets in the region and the number of transports on the border of that
region (transports count for *both* regions that they touch). If the total number is higher than
each other faction, then it controls that region. If the highest numbers are tied, then no
faction controls the region.

If one faction controls more regions than each other faction, then resolve scoring as per a
successful Dominance Check, as normal, with one exception: Military stars are counted as
the tiebreaker for reputation for *all* Dominance Checks, not just the final one. In the case
of a tie on Military stars, split the points for the tied positions as normal. Otherwise, scoring
for an unsuccessful Dominance Check is amended as below.

The player who controls the most regions (rather than just with the highest total number of
control tokens on the board) scores the first place points, and the player who controls the
second-most number of regions scores the second-place points. In the case of a tie, use
Military stars to break the tie, and if still tied, split the points evenly.

Note that the points for each Dominance Check now increase as the game goes on, rather
than only being doubled in the final round.
Additionally, each Dominance Check now also features a different region that contains an
Objective Token. At the start of the game, this will be placed in the Belt region but will move
around the board as instructed by the Dominance Check cards. There can only be one
Objective Token on the board at a time, so remove the previous Objective Token when a
new one is placed.

During a Dominance Check, the player (not faction) that controls the region with the
Objective Token will score some bonus points, regardless of any other scoring they achieve.

If ever there is more than one Dominance Check card in the market, resolve the
lower-numbered card immediately, place the objective token as stated on the
higher-numbered card and then discard both cards.

The rule that the game ends if ever any player is at least 4 VPs ahead of all other players is
no longer used - the game will always continue to the end of the final round.

Dominance Tokens
Use the 12 included Dominance tokens (the 2” tokens showing the different faction icons on
each side) to indicate which faction and which player controls each region at any one time.
When a new faction gains control of a region, flip or change the Dominance token to show
the new faction that controls the region. Whenever a player controls a region, place all of
their supporters that are in that region on top of the Dominance token.

When no faction controls a region, set the Dominance token to its white “uncontrolled” side
faceup. When no player controls a region, remove all supporters from the region’s
Dominance token.