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: a player with zero Currency in Treasury at the beginning of their turn awards their opponent a Story Point. Because this precedes Admin, Income does not rescue a player drained the previous turn.

• 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 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.

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.

You may deploy a Surface Location only if your Surface Capacity exceeds the number of Surface Locations you control. Contested Surface Locations count against Capacity; you still control them.

If at any time you control more Surface Locations than your Surface Capacity, you must immediately destroy Surface Locations 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.
• Each player starts with their designated starting Treasury number. At no time can a Treasury have more than 20C.
• The player who won the die roll chooses who goes first, the player that goes first does not draw on their first turn.