marksim/s8-e2

Space Truckin'

Basics

(a game for 3 players)

You are an intergalactic trader who aims to maximize profit by optimizing trade routes and providing goods to other planets demanding supply.

There are a number of planets within the galaxy, each with cargo items available at the start.

The resource are Food, Ships, Mines, Fuel

The stages are 'Demand', 'Control', 'Ship', 'Attack' and 'Protect'

To control a trade route, you must have (length/2) Food, (length/3)+1 Ships

To protect a trade route, you must have the (length/4)+2 Mines.

To deliver cargo along a trade route, you must have (length/2)+1 Fuel

Setup

• Place 6 cargo markers at random on each planet, these indicate the cargo available for trade

• Place the 5 stage cards face up

• Shuffle the resource cards and deal 4 to each player. Put the remainder in a draw pile

• Each player is randomly assigned a home planet. They take the cargo from that planet and place their main freighter ship on it.

Gameplay

• Select a starting player in any agreeable manner. Give them the 'First fleet' marker

• Player 1 takes one of the 5 stage cards and the rest of the round goes through the stage

• Demand

  • The drawing player may place one demand chip on a planet. This increases the demand for goods of that color for that planet. After that, all players may take 1 resource card from the resource deck

• Control

  • Each player has an opportunity to deploy ships to attempt to control a trade route, starting with the player who drew the card. The drawing player gains 1 ship for this turn automatically
  • If you have length/2 food + length/3+1 ships for a shipping route you have access to (a continuous route from your home planet), you may trade in the resources and place a marker on that route indicating control
  • When you control a shipping route, you get (length) victory points

• Ship

  • Each player has an opportunity to ship cargo along their trade routes. If you have (length/2) fuel for trade routes you control, you may move your freighter along them. The drawing player gets +1 fuel.
  • If you reach a planet that has cargo you may take up to half of the cargo remaining on that planet (rounding up).
  • If you reach a planet with demand chips, you may sell up to 3 cargo from your freighter for DEMAND x CARGO victory points.

• Protect

  • Each player may protect any shipping lane they control with (length/4)+2 mines. The drawing player gets +1 mines
  • If your shipping lane is protected during an attack, your mines explode, but your shipping lane remains open

• Attack

  • All players with more than 7 cards must discard half rounding down
  • The drawing player rolls a dice.
    • If the dice is a 5 or 6, they may attack a shipping route by moving the attack marker.
      • If that route is protected, then the mines explode and it is no longer protected.
      • If that route is not protected, then the shipping route is compromised until it is removed
    • If the dice is a 3 or 4, the player may remove the attack ship from play, but may not place it again.

After one round where every player has taken a stage card, the first fleet marker moves to the next player and play continues.

Winning

• The game is over when

  • All cargo has been shipped
  • • or -
  • All trade routes are controlled AND no demand chips are left

• Total up the victory points to determine standings!