Action Phase

Category: Rules

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During the action phase, each player takes a turn in initiative order. During a player’s turn, they perform a single action. After each player has taken a turn, player turns begin again in initiative order. This process continues until all players have passed for that round.

There are three types of actions that players may perform during the action phase: Strategic, Component, and Tactical. If a player cannot perform an action, they must pass.

Strategic Action

When a player performs a strategic action, they resolve the primary ability of their strategy card. After resolving this ability, each other player may resolve the secondary ability of that strategy card. The active player cannot resolve the secondary ability of their own strategy card.

Component Action

A component action is an action that is printed on a game component. Many action cards, faction sheets, promissory notes, and even some technology cards have component actions. Each of these effects is preceded by the word “ACTION.”

Tactical Action

A tactical action allows a player to move ships, initiate combat, invade planets, produce units, and otherwise interact with the game board. A player may perform a tactical action by spending a command token from their tactic pool. They then resolve the following steps:

1. Activation: The active player must activate a system by taking a command token from their tactic pool and placing it in that system
2. Movement: The active player may move ships into a system from any number of other systems. Ships can also transport ground forces from one system to another.
3. Space Combat: If multiple players have ships in the active system, they resolve a space combat.
4. Invasion: The active player may commit ground forces to land on planets in the active system. If another player has units on those planets, the players resolve a ground combat.
5. Production: The active player may produce units in the active system if possible.

A player might not resolve all of the above steps during every tactical action. For example, a player may choose not to move units during the “Movement” step but may still produce units during the “Production” step.

Pass

A pass means that a player has no more turns and cannot perform any additional actions during that action phase.

• A player cannot pass until they have performed a strategic action (During a 3 or 4 player game a player cannot pass until they have exhausted both of their strategy cards)
• During a turn that a player passes, they may resolve transactions and "at the start of your turn" abilities
• A player that has passed can still resolve the secondary ability of other players' strategy cards
• If all other players have passed, a player may perform multiple consecutive actions
• After all players have passed, the game proceeds to the Status Phase