Turns & actions

Commander’s manual · Rules v3Print page

6 Rounds and turns

Turns proceed in seat order for the whole match, beginning with the starting commander. A round gives every commander exactly one turn; it begins with the starting commander's seat and ends after the seat before it has acted. The order never rotates.

At the beginning of a round, modules already in the market become eligible for a Drift discount (section 12) at the end of that round. Modules entering during the round are not yet eligible.

On a turn, perform exactly one action:

1. Acquire credits (section 7).
2. Purchase a module (section 8).
3. Reconfigure the station (section 9).

Pass

A commander who has no legal acquire, purchase, or reconfigure action must pass. Passing is not permitted while any other action is legal, with one exception: once the end of the game has been triggered (section 14), a commander may pass even when another action is legal. A pass uses the turn and counts toward completing the round.

7 Acquire credits

Take either:

• One face-up credit card of any value.
• Up to three face-up credit cards, each from a different guild, whose combined value is no more than 7.

Acquiring is only legal while the display holds at least one card.

Then refill the display (section 7.1).

7.1Refilling the display

Draw from the top of the deck until the display holds six credit cards. If the deck is empty, shuffle the spent-credit discard pile to form a new deck and continue. If the deck and discard pile are both empty, stop; a display with fewer than six cards, or no cards, is legal and the game continues.

8 Purchase a module

Choose one module from the five market berths.

1. Determine its effective cost after Drift discounts (section 12).
2. Pay using only credits of the module's guild.
3. The payment total must equal or exceed the effective cost.
4. Excess value is lost; no change is returned.
5. Paid cards leave the hand and join the spent-credit discard pile.
6. Install the module legally (section 10) or put it in the Dry Dock. The Dry Dock holds at most four modules; if it is full, the module must be installed.
7. Advance the purchase counter by one.
8. Refill the empty market berth from the top of the salvage supply at the end of the turn.

A purchase is legal only if at least one of the two destinations is legal.

Exact payment

When the payment total equals the effective cost exactly:

1. Install or dock the purchased module.
2. Take any one face-up credit card with a value of 3 or less. If none is displayed, no card is taken.
3. Refill the credit display.
4. End the turn.

The reward never grants another purchase or another complete action.

9 Reconfigure the station

Choose one operation:

• Install one Dry Dock module into the station.
• Move one station module into the Dry Dock, if the Dry Dock has room.
• Exchange one station module with one Dry Dock module. The incoming module occupies the exact vacated node.

The resulting station must satisfy every placement rule. The Command Core cannot be removed or exchanged.

Docked modules do not count during scoring. Renown already scored by a module is kept when the module is docked.