Storms & scoring

Commander’s manual · Rules v3

13 Storm scoring

There are three Storms: Storm I, Storm II, and the Final Storm.

Let T be the number of modules in the game after any two-player removal, counting the market. Storm I is triggered by the purchase that raises the purchase counter to one third of T, rounded down. Storm II is triggered by the purchase that raises it to two thirds of T, rounded down. With 60 modules the thresholds are 20 and 40; with 48 they are 16 and 32.

Complete the triggering turn, including the market refill, then resolve the Storm before the next turn begins. The Final Storm is resolved at the end of the game (section 14).

At every Storm, score Department Readiness and then the Storm Shield for every commander.

Department Readiness

For each department, every commander calculates Readiness from their installed modules. Dry Dock modules do not count.

Let M be the number of installed modules in the department.
Let R be the number of different rings holding at least one of them.
A commander with M equal to zero does not place.
Otherwise Readiness is M + 2 × (R − 1).

Rank commanders by Readiness in each department and award:

Readiness awards, every department
Storm	First	Second	Third
Storm I	4	none	none
Storm II	7	3	none
Final Storm	10	6	3

Worked example · Readiness

Seat one has four Laboratory modules installed, all on the inner ring: M = 4, R = 1, Readiness = 4 + 2 × 0 = 4. Seat two has three Laboratory modules, two on the inner ring and one on the middle ring: M = 3, R = 2, Readiness = 3 + 2 × 1 = 5. Seat two ranks above seat one in Laboratory despite holding fewer modules.

Ranking and ties

For each department:

Commanders who do not place are excluded.
Rank the remaining commanders by Readiness, highest first.
A group of k commanders tied at rank r occupies ranks r through r + k − 1. Add together the awards for those ranks, counting ranks without an award as zero, divide by k, and round down. Each tied commander receives that amount.
The next commander after the group holds rank r + k.

Equal Readiness is a tie. Module count is not used as a tiebreaker.

Worked example · Ranking and ties

Final Storm, Laboratory department. The Final Storm awards 10 / 6 / 3. Four commanders have the following Laboratory Readiness:

Commander	Readiness	Rank	Award
Seat one	5	Tied at rank 1 (k = 2)	8
Seat two	5	Tied at rank 1 (k = 2)	8
Seat three	3	Rank 3	3
Seat four	0 (no module)	Does not place	0

Seats one and two are a group of k = 2 tied at rank r = 1, so they occupy ranks 1 and 2. (10 + 6) ÷ 2 = 8, and each receives 8. Seat three holds rank r + k = 3 and receives 3. Seat four has no Laboratory module and does not place. Seat one's tie is not broken by module count: a commander with Readiness 5 from five modules in one ring and a commander with Readiness 5 from three modules in two rings are tied.

Had three commanders tied for second at the Final Storm, the group would occupy ranks 2, 3, and 4: (6 + 3 + 0) ÷ 3 = 3 each. At Storm II, two commanders tied for first receive (7 + 3) ÷ 2 = 5 each, and the next commander holds rank 3, which pays nothing at Storm II. At Storm I, where only first place is rewarded, two commanders tied for first receive (4 + 0) ÷ 2 = 2 each.

Storm Shield

Inspect each of the five sunward lanes separately. The frontier module of a lane is the installed module in that sector's outermost occupied ring. A lane with no module has no frontier.

A lane is screened when its frontier module's outward socket is a sealed bulkhead. It is open when that socket is a docking port or when the lane has no frontier.

Score 1 Renown for every screened lane.
Score 1 additional Renown for every screened lane that holds modules in at least two different rings.

Only the frontier module's outward socket matters. Empty nodes behind the frontier do not open the lane. Leeward sectors never score Shield points.

Figure 6 · Storm Shield

The sun sits straight above the board and the sunward axis runs down through the centre of sector 0. The shaded sectors 8, 9, 0, 1, and 2, centred on that axis, are the sunward lanes; the badge in each lane's outer ring shows what the lane scores.

Sector 9. One Habitation module on the inner ring; it is the frontier and its outward socket is a bulkhead. Screened: 1 point.
Sector 0. Reactors on the inner and middle rings. The middle-ring Reactor is the frontier and turns a bulkhead outward. Screened, and the lane holds modules in two rings: 2 points.
Sector 1. A Laboratory on the inner ring and an Observatory on the middle ring. The Observatory is the frontier and its outward socket is a docking port. Open: 0, even though the lane is two rings deep.
Sectors 8 and 2. Empty, so no frontier. Open.

The Dock module with an outward bulkhead in sector 5 is leeward and scores nothing.

Worked example · Lane screening

Using Figure 6, the commander scores 1 + 2 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 3 Storm Shield Renown at this Storm, and scores it again at each later Storm as long as the lanes stay as they are. If the commander later installed a module with an outward bulkhead on the outer ring of sector 1, that module would become the lane's frontier; the lane would be screened and, holding modules in three rings, would score 2. If the commander instead moved the sector 0 middle-ring Reactor to the Dry Dock, the inner-ring Reactor would become the frontier: its outward socket is a docking port, so the lane would open and score 0.