14. Movement and Spatial Rules

14.1 Where Cards Live#

The play zone in which all permanents exist is the Map (§18). Permanents currently in play are "on the Map." Cards in hand, deck, Depleted pile, or Burned pile are not on the Map.

The Map is divided into playable Bands – a Band represents where cards are deployed to. The Bands are defined as:

For easiest play, keep all cards in a single Band in the same horizontal line on the play surface. Note each player has a Planetary Band and Surface Band while all players share the Space Band.

Planetary Band: a player's Homeworld and Planetary Locations.<br> Surface Band: a player's Surface Locations.<br> Space Band: all Capital Ships, and all Non-Capital Spacecraft not deployed to another card.

A Character or Ground Unit is in the Band of the permanent it occupies. A Non-Capital Spacecraft occupying a Planetary or Surface Location is in that Location's Band; one occupying a Spacecraft, or occupying no card, is in the Space Band.

Devices attached to a permanent are in that permanent's Band. An unattached Device occupies a Position and is in that Position's Band. Storylines are not in any Band and cannot be targeted by effects that require a Band.

14.2 Band Adjacency#

Two Bands are adjacent if they are connected below:

A player's Planetary Band is adjacent to that same player's Surface Band.<br> Every player's Surface Band is adjacent to the Space Band.

A Band is always within range of itself.

A player's Planetary Band is never directly adjacent to another player's Bands. To reach an opposing Planetary Band, a card must first reach that player's Surface Band by way of the Space Band.

Empty Bands: a Band containing no permanents is skipped for adjacency. Two Bands separated only by empty Bands are adjacent to each other. This is a state-based condition and is rechecked continuously. Attacks and Liberations already declared remain legal.

The Space Band always exists and is never skipped, even when it contains no permanents. An empty Space Band cannot be moved into by Characters or Ground Units, as movement requires a destination permanent to occupy. A Non-Capital Spacecraft may move into an empty Space Band.

14.3 Occupation and Bands#

Occupation and Band are separate concepts. A Character, Ground Unit, or Non-Capital Spacecraft occupies a specific permanent, and that permanent determines which Band the card is in.

Abilities that reference occupying a Location check the specific permanent occupied. Range checks use the Band only.

14.4 Movement Allowance#

By default a player may perform 0 move actions per turn. Move actions are granted by Transit Gates and other cards and abilities.

Move actions may be spent on Characters, Ground Units, and Non-Capital Spacecraft. Capital Ships never move and remain in the Space Band for as long as they are on the Map.

Multiple move actions may be spent on the same card in a single turn. There is no per-card limit on movement: a card may move as many times in a turn as its controller has move actions to spend on it. Movement is metered by the controller's pool of move actions, never by a once-per-turn restriction on the moving card.

Movement occurs only during the Movement sub-phase of the controller's Action Phase.

14.5 Move Actions#

One move action moves one card to any permanent in its own Band or in an adjacent Band, subject to §14.6. A Non-Capital Spacecraft may also move into the Space Band occupying no card.

Moving does not activate the moved card. A card that moves may still act, commit Votes, and use abilities in the same turn.

14.6 Movement Restrictions#

A card may not move to a Location or Spacecraft its controller does not control, except as follows:

• Locations. A card may move to a Location its controller does not control only if that Location is Contested.
• Spacecraft. A Character or Ground Unit may move to a Spacecraft its controller does not control only if that Spacecraft is Contested. Capital Spacecraft follow the Location rule in every respect: a ship must be broken before it can be boarded. A Non-Capital Spacecraft is Contested only where it is printed as the reverse face of another card (§11.7), since one never acquires a Contested face by being shot (§11.6) — but where it is, it is boardable on the same terms, subject to any capacity its face prints (One-Seater, §18.86, admits one Character).
• Infiltration. The three infiltration keywords — Diplomatic Immunity, Infiltrate and Work Visa — let a card occupy a Position its controller does not control, and Unlisted lets one be deployed there (§18.30). Most importantly they reach a Prime Location, which nothing else does. Entry is not capture (§14.11).

One player's units at a time. A card may occupy a Location or Spacecraft only if every card already occupying it is controlled by the same player. A card occupied by one player's units is closed to every other player until those units leave or are destroyed. This applies to deployment as much as to movement (§10.5).

Devices and occupancy. An unattached Device has no controller, so it never closes a card to anyone: any player's units may share its Position. An attached Device takes no seat and does not count toward capacity limits such as One-Seater or Transport. An unattached Device may not occupy a One-Seater.

The controller's exception. A card's controller may always move or deploy onto a card they control, even while another player's units are on it. No one can be shut out of their own ground: an infiltrator standing on your Prime Location or Prime Capital Spacecraft does not stop you reinforcing it or putting a garrison on it (§11.5).

The exception is narrow and runs one way. It belongs to the controller, so once another player has captured a card its original owner is no longer the controller and cannot simply walk back on — retaking still means clearing (§14.11). And an intruder joined by the controller's units is not expelled by their arrival: both players now have units on the card, and combat settles it (§14.10).

It also limits infiltration, which overrides the control restriction and not this one: an infiltrator may enter a Prime Location or a Prime Capital Spacecraft only while it is empty.

Two things follow by omission. An opponent's Non-Capital Spacecraft cannot be occupied while it is on a Prime face, and so never changes control unless it is Contested. And only Characters and Ground Units may board: a Non-Capital Spacecraft cannot carry out a boarding action.

If a card leaves a Location controlled by another player, it may not return to that Location unless an effect explicitly permits it.

14.7 Carried Cards#

When a Non-Capital Spacecraft moves, all Characters and Ground Units occupying it move with it as part of the same move action. No additional move action is required for the carried cards.

If the destination is one the carried cards could not legally occupy, the move is illegal.

14.8 Cards Aboard a Capital Ship#

Any card deployed to a Capital Ship enters the Map activated (§10.5). Characters and Ground Units deployed to a Capital Ship ready normally in their controller's next Ready Phase.

A Non-Capital Spacecraft that occupies a Capital Ship enters the Map activated and does not ready during the Ready Phase while it remains aboard. Moving it off the Capital Ship readies it.

A card aboard a Spacecraft is in the Space Band. It is reachable only by cards in the Space Band (§11.3), and it may attack its own ship from within (§11.4). A Non-Capital Spacecraft aboard a Capital Ship does not ready, and so can neither intercept nor garrison while it remains there.

A Capital Ship flipping to its Contested face is not destroyed, and the cards aboard it stay aboard (§11.7). Only its destruction from the Contested face empties it.

If the Spacecraft is destroyed, all Non-Capital Spacecraft occupying it are destroyed. Non-Capital Spacecraft do not have Escape Pod. Characters occupying a destroyed Non-Capital Spacecraft use Escape Pod as normal. Any Ground Units occupying that do not have the Escape Pod ability are also destroyed.

14.9 Occupation Effects#

Some Locations print an Occupy keyword. Occupy appears on both the Prime and the Contested face of a Location, and the two faces do not pay out to the same player. See §18.2.

14.10 Units on a Card They Do Not Control#

There is exactly one way to be on a card you do not control: an infiltrator on a Prime Location or a Prime Capital Spacecraft it entered while empty (Diplomatic Immunity, Infiltrate, Work Visa, Unlisted, or a specific card or ability). Both are captured once Contested (§14.11), so a Contested card is never occupied by a player who does not control it.

Occupancy is otherwise closed (§14.6), with one way in: the card's controller may move or deploy onto their own card at any time. So the only mixed occupancy the rules allow is an intruder sharing a card with its controller's units — never two players contesting a card neither controls, unless a card's own text opens it (below).

Card text can place an intruder where the keywords can't. The infiltration keywords enter only an empty card (§18.29). A card or ability that deploys or moves a unit onto a card another player controls may do so while that player's units occupy it, if its text says so — The Peacekeeper's Mandate deploys Petitioners to a Location "even if your units occupy it". The unit is then an intruder sharing the card with the owner's units, and every rule below applies to it, including capture if the card becomes Contested with intruders as its only occupants (rule 6).

Card text can also open a card that has no controller. A card whose text says it has no controller, and that units of any number of players may occupy it, is shared ground. The Sevrin Accords' Drone Sevrin, NG is the example: "Treat this card as a Capital Spacecraft. This card has no controller. Units controlled by any player may occupy this card. Units on this card lose ATK." With no controller there is no owner and no intruder, so rules 1–7 below don't apply to it, and nobody captures it (§14.11). Its own text governs who may be there and what they may do.

Units aboard lose ATK, so they can't attack anything — each other, the card from within (§11.4), or targets outside it — and they can't return fire (§19.7). Breaking the card takes an attack from outside, such as a High Power Space attack, or a Liberation. Anything its text doesn't forbid works as usual. Liberation isn't an attack, so units aboard may still Liberate each other and the card itself. Intercepting needs no attack, so units aboard may still intercept, including as its garrison (§11.5).

While such a unit ("the intruder") is present on a card controlled by another player ("the owner"), the following rules apply. They read the same for a Location and for a Capital Spacecraft.

1. Vote and Income suppressed. A Location loses all Vote abilities and Income abilities while at least one intruder is present. The suppression is binary, not cumulative — additional intruders do not stack further suppression.

2. Other abilities retained by the owner. The owner may continue to use any abilities not suppressed above.

3. Combat permitted. The owner's units and the intruders may attack each other under the Power and Range checks (§11.1). Co-location is not required: any unit in the same Band may fire on them. The owner may also move their own units onto the card and fight the intruders from inside it (§14.6), which is what a garrison is for.

4. No return without enabling effect. If an intruder leaves the occupied card voluntarily, is destroyed, or is forced to leave by an effect, that unit may not return to the same card unless an ability or effect explicitly permits the return.

5. Occupied is not Contested. The presence of an intruder does not by itself make a card Contested. A Location or Capital Spacecraft becomes Contested only via Liberation (§12), being broken in combat, or a card effect that destroys it or flips it to its Reverse face.

6. Present, not in possession. While the owner controls the card, the intruder's controller collects none of its Vote, Income or other printed benefits. If the card becomes Contested with the intruders as its only occupants, it is captured under §14.11.

7. Departure destination. An intruder leaving voluntarily moves under the normal movement rules (§14). One forced off by an effect is displaced (§14.12): it goes to a legal Position in the nearest Band, rather than straight home.

14.11 Control of Occupied Cards#

A card is controlled by its owner, except:

• Locations and Spacecraft. You control a Location or a Spacecraft you do not own while it is Contested and your units are the only units occupying it.

There is one capture rule, and it covers both. A Capital Spacecraft is taken the way a Location is: break it to its Contested face, then put units on it and be the only player with units there.

The controller of a card makes all decisions for it, and any ability or effect the card generates is treated as that player's.

Control carries what the card grants, including Faction permissions (§18.10): a player who takes control of a card gains the permissions it prints.

A player never loses their own Faction permission. Having a card of yours occupied, or controlled by another player, does not take your faction away from you. Faction permission is gained and never lost this way, so control of a Homeworld can add to what its captor may play without subtracting anything from its owner.

Controlling a card of another faction is legal. It is not a breach of the Faction Restriction (§17.5) to control a card you could not have put in your own deck.

Occupancy is shared only where the controller has exercised their exception and moved onto a card an intruder is standing on (§14.6). While occupancy is mixed, no one is "the only units occupying it", so control does not move: it stays with the controller. An intruder cannot take a card the controller has reinforced — they must clear it first. Reinforcing is therefore a real defence, not merely a nuisance.

Control returns to the owner the moment your units leave or are destroyed, or the moment the owner puts units of their own on the card. Ownership never changes. A card leaving the Map goes to its owner's Depleted Pile.

It costs personnel to hold ground. Your own cards need no garrison. A card you have taken needs your units on it for as long as you want to keep it.

Retaking means clearing. An owner cannot simply walk a unit back onto a card another player holds — occupancy is closed to them (§14.6). They must destroy or displace every one of the occupying units, and only then may they move back on. Ground once taken is genuinely taken.

Entry is not capture. An infiltrator on a Prime Location or a Prime Capital Spacecraft is present, not in possession (§14.10). But the moment that card becomes Contested, an infiltrator standing on it alone is its sole occupant and captures it on the spot. Infiltrators are the setup for a Liberation campaign: they sit on the Location choking its economy, and the flip does the rest.

The controller's answer is to reinforce. Units of their own on the card deny the infiltrator sole occupancy, so the flip hands over nothing (§14.6). An infiltration left unanswered captures; an infiltration answered has to win a fight first.

A captured card does not move. It stays in its owner's Band; control changes, position does not. Capturing an opponent's Surface Locations does not empty their Surface Band. Only destroying them does (§11.4).

Homeworlds and Capital Spacecraft are not special-cased. Both follow the Location rule, so taking either means making it Contested first.

Two routes to Contested. A card is made Contested by Liberation, or by breaking its Prime face with a High Power attack (§11.6). Liberation needs no ships but must be positioned within two Bands, and it may declare a Capital Spacecraft in the Space Band from an adjacent Band (§12.3a). From orbit, a High Power Long attack reaches an opponent's Surface Locations; once a unit stands in their Surface Band, a High Power Long attack there reaches their Planetary Band. A Capital Spacecraft is broken by a High Power Space attack — a fleet action, or orbital artillery from the ground (§11.8). Either way, any readied garrison on the card may intercept (§11.5).

A broken ship is a prize, not a wreck. Fleet combat has the same shape as a ground campaign: the first exchange does not sink a Capital Ship, it cripples it, and the player who then gets units aboard owns it. Destroying it outright takes a second engagement, or Boarding it from within (§11.4).

14.12 Displacement#

If an effect causes a card to no longer be able to occupy its Position, the controller of that card must move it to a legal Position in the nearest Band. If there are no legal Positions, destroy the card.

This is the one displacement rule. Every effect that leaves a card with nowhere to stand resolves through it — a Location leaving the Map, a Spacecraft flipping to a face that holds fewer cards, a Statute or other effect making a Position illegal, an intruder forced off a card.

Nearest Band. Distance is counted in Band adjacency steps (§14.2): empty Bands are skipped and the Space Band is never skipped. The search starts with the card's current Band and works outward one step at a time, and the card goes to the first Band that contains a legal Position for it. If more than one Band at that distance, or more than one Position in the Band, is legal, the controller chooses.

The search runs all the way home. A card displaced deep in an opponent's territory works back Band by Band toward its own. Its controller's own Locations are legal Positions for it, so in practice a card is destroyed only when nowhere on the Map will take it.

A legal Position is one the card could occupy under the ordinary rules: the movement restrictions of §14.6 (including infiltration keywords such as Diplomatic Immunity), occupancy limits such as One-Seater and Transport, and the one-player-per-card rule with its controller's exception. A Non-Capital Spacecraft may be displaced into the empty Space Band (§14.2).

Displacement is not a move action. It ignores movement allowance (§14.4) and does not activate the card. Cards occupying a displaced card go with it, as they would on a move (§14.7).

It is a state-based check (§10.6) and resolves immediately.

Simultaneous displacement: active player first. When cards controlled by more than one player are displaced at the same moment — an intruder and the owner's garrison on a destroyed Prime Location, for example — the active player moves all of their displaced cards first, then each other player in turn order. Each card's legal Positions are judged at the moment it moves, so a card placed earlier can close a Position to a later one under the one-player-per-card rule (§14.6). (Ruled 2026-10-18.)

A card destroyed this way is destroyed in the ordinary sense. Destruction triggers fire, a Drone is burned (§18.26), and a Bound Character's Storyline is destroyed with it (§8.11).