Basic Starcraft Rules Teaching Outline

To Win: Either

A) Get 15 Victory Points

B) Accomplish your team’s special victory condition (printed on the card) or
C) Kill all the other players

Setup:

1. Pick a faction, make sure the technology decks and combat decks are separated, and then
shuffle the combat deck and draw 6 cards from the combat deck.
2. Take two planets at random.
3. Place planets: The first player puts one on the table; following players place their planets
adjacent to the existing planets and connect them with normal navigation route connectors. You
must place a base on one of your two planets after connecting it to any adjacent planets. The
planets are placed in the following order in a 4 player game: Player 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 3, 2, 1.
4. Each player places 1 Z-axis navigation route (two connectors that attach to non-adjacent
planets, representing the 3D nature of space). These connect the two planets just like a normal
navigation route.
5. Receive resource cards for each of the areas on your planet and place them face-up next to your
faction sheet.
6. Place your starting forces on your planet. Do not exceed the unit limit printed on each area.
Here’s how the board might look after setup is complete:
And here is what your play area might look like:
And here’s a look at a faction sheet.
There are three phases in every round: 1. Planning, 2. Execution, and 3. Regrouping.

Planning:
Players take turns putting down order tokens face-down on the different planets (a la A Game of
Thrones). There are three tokens: Mobilize, Build, and Research. You stack these on top of each other,
so more than one player will place his order token on the order area of a given planet.

Remember that the first token placed in the stack is the last one to be executed.

Once you have placed the order, you are not allowed to look at it until you execute it.

Note that there are three gold-colored “Special Order” tokens. You don’t get to use these enhanced
order tokens until you’ve built at least one Special Order module on your faction sheet.

You can only place an order on a planet where you have a unit/base or a planet adjacent to one where
you have a unit/base.

Execution:
Player 1 sees if any of his order tokens are visible. If they are, he must pick one, reveal it, and execute
the order.

If you prefer, you may choose not to execute this order and instead draw an event card. You may not
look at your event cards until the Regrouping phase.

If you don’t have any order tokens visible, you must draw an event card instead.

Build Order
You may do the following in this order:

1. If you have a base on the planet, you may build an unlimited number of workers
and transports, as well as a number of units equal to the build limit (which
normally starts at 2 units and may be improved by add modules to your base)
a. To build a new worker, pay the resource cost and place a new worker in
the Unavailable Workers section of the sheet
b. To build a new transport, pay the resource cost and place the transport
on a navigation route adjacent to the planet.
c. To build a unit, you must have the necessary building on your faction
sheet. Pay the resource cost and place the unit on any friendly or empty
area on the planet. Remember A) that you may not exceed the unit limit
in a particular area and B) that you may self-destruct any units at any
time except during battle (e.g. if you need to make room for new units)
NOTE: The Protoss and Zerg factions each have a “tech-required” unit
that requires that player to purchase a given technology before building
 it. These cards (e.g. “Summon Archon”) require you to sacrifice certain
other units on the active planet as a cost of purchasing the unit.
However, these units do not have to be built at a friendly base.
2. If you have at least one friendly base OR unit on the planet, you may upgrade
the base by building one building and/or one module and placing them on your
faction sheet. (These improvements apply to ALL your bases)
a. To buy an upgrade, simply pay the resource cost and add the upgrade to
your faction sheet.
Note: if you are buying a building, you must first buy the first-level
building. In a future build order, you may upgrade it.
Modules: There are 3 types of modules:
i. Supply Modules: Increase your build limit by one
ii. R&D Modules: Allow you to place one special order each
iii. Air Support Module: Gives all units the “detector” ability, gives
all units +1 attack against aircraft, and opponents may not move
from an adjacent planet to the area containing the base. (Your
base is shooting down transports, essentially.)
3. If you have at least one friendly unit on the planet and no bases on the planet,
you may build a new base on the planet.
a. To build a base, pay the resource costs and place the base in an area
containing at least one friendly unit.
4. If you are playing a special build order, your build unit is increased by one.
5. If you are playing a special build order, you receive a one-resource discount on
one of the things you build.

Mobilize Order
Place this order on the planet you want to move TO, not the one you want to move
FROM. In any order:

1. Move any units from one or more areas of an adjacent planet to one or more
areas of the active planet
2. Move the units from one or more areas of the active planet to one or more
other areas on the active planet.
3. If you have moved units into an area with enemy units, you must resolve a
battle.

NOTE: You can only move into ONE enemy area. (One battle per mobilize order.0
ALSO: When moving into enemy territory, you may exceed the unit limit by up to two.
(So, if the unit limit is 3, you can move 5 units into the territory.)

If you play a special mobilize order, you may draw an additional two combat cards
during battle resolution. You also add 1 to your attack value in each skirmish of the
battle.
 Research Order
1. Draw an event card (required)
2. Draw 3 combat cards (optional)
3. Purchase a technology (optional): Look through your technology deck and select
one technology from it. Pay the resource cost and take all of the cards with that
technology name on it. Shuffle these new cards into your combat deck along
with any cards in the discard pile.
4. If you played a special research order, you may EITHER draw an additional event
card OR place one of the technology cards you have purchased into your hand
instead of shuffling it into your deck.

How to “Pay the Resource Cost”

Almost everything costs resources: The resource costs for various units and upgrades
are listed on the faction sheets, technology cards, and the backs of modules/buildings.

You pay the resource cost of an item by moving workers from the worker pool and
putting them on resource cards/permanent resource areas of the kind you need (gas or
minerals). So, to build something that costs two minerals, move two workers to a
mineral resource.

Note that you may put these workers on ANY resource card, not just ones associated
with the active planet.

You may only place workers on a resource up to the number listed on the resource card.

You have permanent resources on the faction sheet that can never be taken away from
you and can never be force-mined. But there are also resource cards from the planets
you occupy that can be force mined and taken away from you.

Force-mining gives you the ability to take one more resource from an area than, at the
cost of partially depleting the area. If you force mine, you flip the card over to the
yellow-side and place a yellow X marker on the area on the planet. If it is force-mined
again, then that resource is permanently destroyed. You may force-mine twice in one
turn (say, if you’re about to lose a resource to an enemy and you want to prevent him
from using it.) (Note that some event cards deplete resources, so be careful when force-
mining.

Regroup:
In this order:

1. Destroy bases where a player from another faction is in the base of another faction.
2. Destroy transports that are not adjacent to a base.
3. Lose resource cards: If your base has been destroyed, you lose the cards for all of the resources
on that planet. If an enemy is occupying an area on a planet where you have a base, you lose the
 card for that area. If you have workers working on the card you’ve just lost, those workers are
destroyed as well.
4. Gain resource cards: If you have a base on a planet, you get the resource card for all the friendly
areas on that planet. If you are the only faction on a planet, you have access to all the resources
on the planet.
5. Retrieve Workers: All the workers in the Unavailable Workers area and the resource areas are
moved into the Worker Pool area on the faction sheet.
6. Gain Conquest Points: If you have a base in a conquest point area, you those conquest points.
7. Check for Normal Victory: If any player has 15 points, they win.
8. Check for Special Victory: If any player has achieved their faction’s special victory objective, they
win.
9. Play event cards: Look at the event cards you’ve drawn and pick ONE to play (if you want to). If
you receive the “The End Draws Near” card, you must choose to play that card; if you receive
both of these cards, you must play them both. Once both The End Draws Near cards are played,
the game ends, and the player with the most points wins.
10. Discard combat cards: You can normally only hold a maximum of six combat cards in your hand
at the end of the turn. Discard cards (your choice) until you get to this number.
11. Pass the first player token to the left.
Combat
When you move into a territory containing enemy units, you must fight.

1. Place the Mobilize token in the contested area to mark where the battle is taking place.
2. Each player (attacker, then defender) may use ONE start of battle ability.
3. The attacker draws 3 combat cards, and the defender draws 1.
4. The attacker pairs each attacking unit with a defending unit into a “skirmish.” No unit may be
part of more than one skirmish.
5. Any left-over units on the larger side are assigned as supporting units. The player who controls
those units moves them behind front-line units. (They can be spread out or placed behind one
unit.) These supporting units add their Support Value to the front line unit’s strength. If both
players have supporting units, the attacker assigns his first, then the defender.
6. The attacker assigns 1 standard Combat Cards to each skirmish.
7. If he has any, the attacker may assign 1 reinforcement combat card to each skirmish.
8. The defender assigns 1 standard Combat Cards to each skirmish.
9. If he has any, the defender may assign 1 reinforcement combat card to each skirmish.
NOTE: Instead of placing a card from your hand, you may draw one combat card and, without
looking at it, place it behind any skirmishes. You may want to do this if you are saving a card for
a different battle or if you are out of cards in your hand.
10. Resolve skirmishes:
a. Reveal cards: Flip all of the cards for one skirmish over (attacker and defender)
b. Compare attack and health values: Calculate the final attack and health values by adding
1) either the major or minor attack and health values, 2) any bonuses from special
abilities on the combat card, 3) bonuses from the reinforcement card, and 4) supporting
units
c. Destroy units and discard cards: If your final attack value equals or exceeds the
opponent’s final health value, the opposing unit is destroyed, and vice versa. Discard
any used combat and reinforcement cards.
11. Resolve Splash Damage: see Splash Damage below.
12. Resolve retreats:
a. If all of the defending units have been destroyed, the attacker moves in units equal to
the unit limit and retreats the rest.
b. If all of the attacking units were destroyed, then there are no further effects
c. If every unit was destroyed (attacking and defending), then the defender retains control
over the area’s resources.
d. If both attacking and defending units survived, the attacking units must retreat unless all
of the defending units are “assist” units, in which case the attacker wins and the
defender must retreat.

If you are forced to retreat, you must move all of your units to a single friendly or empty
area on the active (or adjacent, if you have a transport) planet. You may not exceed the
unit limit; excess units are destroyed.
Other Rules:

Ground Units & Flying Units

Each unit is either a ground unit or a flying unit. Flying units have elevated clear bases, while ground
units do not. Flying units have star-field backgrounds on the faction sheet icons, while ground units have
a rock texture instead.

Additionally, all units have combat capability icons: If they can destroy ground units, it will have a tank
icon. If it can destroy flying units, it will have a rocket blast icon.

In the “destroy units and discard cards” phase of combat, if your unit has sufficient strength to destroy
the enemy unit but your unit may not target that unit, you may destroy any support units that you can
target. If you cannot target the front-line unit or any of the supporting units, you don’t destroy any of
the units.

If your support unit cannot target the opposing front-line unit, its support strength is ignored.

Special Abilities

Cloaking: Instead of being destroyed in the Destroy Units and Discard Cards phase of combat, the unit
retreats instead. If he cannot retreat, the unit is destroyed.

Detector: Cancels the cloaking ability of an opposing unit in the skirmish.

Cancel: The opposing player discard the indicated card. If both players have cancel abilities, the attacker
goes first.

VS.: The indicated special ability only applies if the front-line unit matches this description (e.g. “+1
attack vs. a flying unit”)

Assist: This unit may not be a front line unit; it is always a supporting unit (unless there are only assist
units in the area).

“Return to the technology deck”: After playing this card, it must be returned to the technology deck
instead of discarded. If you want to play it again, you must research it again.

Splash Damage: If a unit destroys an opposing unit with a combat card marked Splash Damage during
the Destroy Units phase of combat, Splash Damage is triggered. Instead of discarding these cards, save
them to find out how much splash damage was inflicted. Note that cloaked units that withdraw instead
of being destroyed still trigger splash damage.

For each splash damage that was triggered, the opponent must choose and destroy one unit. (If “ground
splash damage,” then he must destroy one ground unit, etc.). The player who is losing units chooses
which one dies. After splash damage is resolved, discard the splash damage cards.