Hello everyone!
Today we're going to talk about Lost Empires!
Fighters of the future, for 2 players, ages 14 and up, 30 minutes. It's up to you to conquer resources to win the battle!
On the distant planet 581, four factions clash for control of alien artifacts left behind by an ancient and advanced civilization. With Earth nearly in ruins, 581 promises a second chance, but who will rule? Who will be the first to build the Wormgate, transport their armies through it, and win the war for the new sun?
During the invasion of planet 581, the four factions constructed massive interstellar bases, called Hives, to house, control, and deploy their troops. As the player, you take on the role of the commander of one of these Hives and fight to control the resources needed to rebuild the ancient Wormgate technology. At the head of your Hive, you deploy and command your units to conquer three objectives. Conquering an objective allows you to recover the alien artifacts needed to rebuild the Wormgate, which will enable your faction to travel directly between Earth and the continent. As soon as a player builds their fourth and final portal token, they open the Worm Portal and win the game.
Lost Empires is played over several rounds, each divided into a series of phases. A round of Lost Empires begins with the start of the Order Phase and ends after the Conclusion Phase. Players continue playing rounds until there is a winner. If the text on a card contradicts the rules in this booklet, the card's rules prevail. Always refer to the card text whenever possible.
Starting with the First Player, players take turns issuing orders. There is no limit to the number of orders a player can issue during their turn. However, they must issue at least one "Play a Unit" OR one "Activate a Unit" order. If they cannot perform either, they must pass their turn.
The three possible orders a player can give during their turn are as follows:
• Play a Unit: Play a Unit card from their hand onto their battlefield.
• Play a Support: Play a Support card from their hand.
• Activate a Unit: Perform activation actions with a ready allied unit (limit of one per turn).
When a player decides they have finished issuing orders for their turn, they inform their opponent. It is then the other player's turn. The order phase continues, with players taking turns issuing orders until both players pass their turn.
A player may play a Unit card from their hand by paying its full cost and flipping a certain number of Command and/or Supply tokens to its lowest face (the face marked with an X), as indicated on the played card. They then place this Unit onto their battlefield, ready for use.
A player may play a Support card from their hand by paying its full cost and then flipping a certain number of Command and/or Supply tokens to its lowest face (the face marked with an X), as indicated on the played card. They then resolve the effects of its ability. Once the ability has resolved, place the card in its owner's discard pile.
A player can activate one of their ready units played in a previous turn by flipping 1 of their command or supply tokens. A player cannot activate a unit in the same turn it is played. You can only perform one unit activation action per turn. If the player uses a command token to activate their unit, it gains 2 actions.
If the player uses their supply token to activate their unit, it gains 1 action. Once a unit's activation is complete, that unit is exhausted; place a depletion token on its card. To activate a unit using a command or supply token:
Flip your command token; the active unit gains 2 actions. Flip your supply token; the active unit gains 1 action.
Once a unit's activation is complete, that unit is depleted; place a depletion token on the unit's card. There are 3 types of actions a unit can perform: movement, attack (limit: 1 per activation), and named ability (limit: 1 per activation).
A unit performing a movement action can move from its current battlefield to an adjacent battlefield. Hives are adjacent to outer objectives, and outer objectives are adjacent to the central objective. As long as a unit has actions to spend, there is no limit to the number of movement actions it can perform during its activation.
A unit can perform 1 attack action upon activation. To resolve an attack, the unit chooses 1 enemy unit on the same battlefield as the attacker. The active unit is the attacker, and the chosen unit is the defender. Both players roll their result die.
The attacker adds their unit's attack to their die roll, the defender adds their unit's defense to their die roll, and then both players compare their unit's total strength. Tie Totals: If the total strength of both units is equal, the defending unit takes 1 damage.
Attacker Wins: If the attacking unit's total strength is greater than the defending unit's, the defending unit takes 2 damage. Defender Wins: If the defending unit's total strength is greater than the attacking unit's, the attack fails and the defending unit takes no damage.
One face of the outcome die shows a critical result, indicated by a circle containing the value. The effects of a critical result vary slightly for attackers and defenders. Attacker rolls a critical result: If the attack deals at least 1 damage, deal 1 additional damage. Defender rolls a critical result: The defending unit wins regardless of the attacking unit's result, even if the attacking unit's result was a critical result.
To win a game of Lost Empires, a player must collect enough artifacts to build all of their wormholes. Artifacts are obtained by capturing objectives and through certain card effects. A battlefield can be contested, uncontested, or empty.
To determine which player controls a contested objective, both players add up the control of all their units present on that objective's battlefield. Units that have taken damage have their control reduced by 1. The player with the highest total control takes control of that objective and gains 1 artifact. In case of a tie, neither player gains control, and no artifact is gained.
During the Portal Phase, players use collected artifacts to build portals and determine victory. Each player with 4 or more artifact tokens must discard 4 and flip their lowest-value portal token to its Portal side. The player keeps any artifact tokens in excess of 4. Players may only flip one portal token per turn. Once all players have finished building their gates, check for a winner. If only one player has flipped their fourth and final gate token, they have built their worm gate and win the game. If multiple players have flipped their fourth and final gate token, to determine the winner, check the following among the tied players:
The player with the most remaining artifacts wins the game.
The player with the highest total control across all battlefields, as if it were the Control Phase, wins the game.
The game is a draw; no player wins. If a player has not won the game, proceed to the Loss Phase. During the Loss Phase, players remove damaged units from the battlefield.
All units that have taken 3 damage are immediately and simultaneously discarded. Move these units to their owner's discard pile. If game effects trigger during this phase, and it is necessary to determine the resolution order, the first player decides the order in which the effects resolve.
Starting with the first player, if a player has units on the enemy Hive battlefield, they must retreat. They must first choose an outer objective battlefield containing at least one allied unit. Then, they move all their units from the enemy Hive to the chosen battlefield.
If there are no allied units on the outer objective battlefields, they must retreat to their own Hive battlefield. A player may always choose to retreat to their own Hive battlefield if they wish. Retreating is not considered a move for triggering card abilities and effects.
All players remove exhausted tokens from their cards in play. All players flip their command and supply tokens to their unused side. Each player draws a card. There is no limit to the number of cards a player can have in their hand. If a player's draw pile is exhausted, they draw no more cards until the end of the game.
Good day and good game ;)
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