10. Turn Structure

10.1 Phases#

The beginning of a player's turn is a discrete timing point BEFORE their Ready Phase, ahead of all five phases (Ready, Admin, Draw, Action, End).

Any effect worded "at the beginning of your turn" resolves here. At this moment:

\- Cards Activated during the previous turn cycle are STILL ACTIVATED<br>

• Income has NOT yet been added; Treasury is exactly what it was last turn

EMPTY TREASURY CHECK: this is no longer a start-of-turn check. A player's Treasury reaching 0 Currency awards 1 Story Point the moment it happens, in any phase and on any player's turn (§16). Income arriving later does not undo an award already made.

• Ready Phase: Ready all activated cards.
• Admin Phase: Add Currency to the Treasury based on Income. Resolve start-of-turn effects. Players may use Sell on their own cards during this phase.
• Draw Phase: Draw one card.
• Action Phase: Four sub-phases in fixed order (see §10.2).
• End Phase: Discard down to 7 cards. Check Act transitions. No Maneuvers may be played during the End Phase.

10.2 Action Phase Sub-Phases#

The Action Phase resolves in the following order:

• Deployment: Play cards from hand (Locations, Spacecraft, Characters, Ground Units, Devices, Storylines). Players can also vote to move Galactic Factors during this phase.
• Movement: Move Characters, Ground Units, and Non-Capital Spacecraft.
• Combat/Liberation: Resolve attacks (see §11) or resolve Rank-based liberation contests (see §12). A player may either go to Combat or Liberation but they may not do both in the same turn.
• Deployment: Players may have a second Deployment phase after Combat/Liberation.

10.3 Maneuver Timing Summary#

Fast Maneuvers are playable during Admin, Draw, and Action phases on any player's turn — including during any sub-phase of the Action Phase. They are not playable during Ready Phase or End Phase.

Slow Maneuvers are playable only during the controller's own Deployment Phase of the Action Phase.

10.4 Mobilize#

A card Mobilizes during the turn it enters the Map. A Mobilizing card may move, intercept, perform actions, commit Votes, and use abilities. A Mobilizing card may not attack or be declared as a liberator.

A card stops Mobilizing at the start of its controller's next turn. A card that flips does not Mobilize; the card was already on the Map.

Move-and-act. Movement does not activate a card. A card that moves during the Movement sub-phase may still attack, act, commit Votes, and use abilities in a later sub-phase of the same turn (§14.5).

10.5 Deployment#

Deploying is the act of taking a card from hand, paying its deployment cost, and placing it onto the Map.

A Device may enter attached. When you deploy a Device, you may pay its Attach cost and attach it on entry to a legal host you control at that Position — a Character or Ground Unit for a KIT, the card it is deployed to for a TECH mount (§18.28). Otherwise it enters unattached and uncontrolled, and any player who can attach it may take it.

A card may explicitly permit Characters, Ground Units, or Non-Capital Spacecraft to be deployed to it, overriding the restrictions above.

Surface Locations are not a deployment destination for Characters, Ground Units, or Non-Capital Spacecraft. They are reached by movement (§14).

A Character, Ground Unit, or Non-Capital Spacecraft deployed to a permanent occupies that permanent, and any Occupation effects on that permanent apply.

You may not deploy a card to a Location or Spacecraft you do not control. The Unlisted keyword is the exception and permits deployment to permanents you do not control. Diplomatic Immunity does not permit deployment; it permits movement only.

You may deploy cards to a Contested or Fallen permanent you control. Contested and Fallen are faces, not changes of control.

Any number of Characters, Ground Units, and Non-Capital Spacecraft may occupy the same permanent, unless that permanent specifies otherwise — but they must all be controlled by the same player (§14.6). You may not deploy onto a permanent that another player's units occupy, unless you control that permanent — a controller may always deploy onto their own card (§14.6).

Cards enter the Map ready, except that a card deployed to a Capital Ship enters the Map activated. A Character or Ground Unit deployed to a Capital Ship readies normally in its controller's next Ready Phase; a Non-Capital Spacecraft deployed to a Capital Ship does not ready while it remains aboard (§14.8).

All cards Mobilize when they enter the Map. See §10.4.

10.6 Surface Capacity#

Surface Locations are not associated with individual Planetary Locations. Surface Capacity is a single global pool.

Your Surface Capacity is the total of the Surface values printed on the current faces of all Planetary Locations and Homeworlds you control. A Contested Planetary Location contributes Surface Capacity if its Contested face prints a Surface value.

Homeworld counts by type line, not by card type. A face carrying Homeworld on its type line supplies its printed Surface value whatever card type it is. A Homeworld whose Contested face is a Capital Ship (§4.1, §18.47) therefore keeps supplying Capacity across the flip, so long as that face keeps the Homeworld type line and prints a Surface value of its own. Without both, the §10.6 check below fires on the flip.

Only Surface Locations you own count against your Surface Capacity. You may deploy a Surface Location only if your Surface Capacity exceeds the number of Surface Locations you own. Your own Contested Surface Locations still count against it, including any an opponent currently controls (§14.11).

Surface Capacity is supplied by what you control and consumed only by what you own. Capturing an opponent's Surface Location therefore costs you no Capacity. Capturing their Planetary Location adds its Surface value to yours and removes it from theirs — and if that leaves them over Capacity, they must destroy Surface Locations immediately under the check below. One capture can knock down several Surface Locations. That cascade is a deliberate playtest item.

If at any time you own more Surface Locations than your Surface Capacity, you must immediately destroy Surface Locations you own, of your choice, until you are within Capacity. This is a state-based check and resolves before any other action. Surface Locations destroyed this way go directly to the Depleted pile and do not flip to their Contested face.

10.7 Starting the Game#

The game begins by the players determining a method for who goes first (ex. Rolling a die, highest roll goes first).

• Homeworlds begin the game on the Map in the Planetary Band.
• Every Galactic Factor starts at 0. The values printed on a Homeworld are its sovereignty's preferred values (§2.1), which it scores for reaching (§15.1); they are not where the Factors begin.
• Each player starts with their designated starting Treasury number, printed on their Homeworld as Treasury N (§18.9). The 20C Treasury cap (§3.1) applies from the first turn.
• The player who won the die roll chooses who goes first, the player that goes first does not draw on their first turn.