Eminent Domain - Rules

EMINENT DOMAIN
by Seth Jaffee
A civilization building game for 2-4 players

Overview:
Survey the galaxy to expand your civilization... Will you colonize nearby planets, or take them over by force? Harvest resources for trade, and do research to improve your technology. Build the best civilization and win the game!

Components:
114 Role cards
31 Planet cards (including 4 Starting Planet cards)
36 Technology cards
40 Resource discs (10 ea. in 4 colors)
30 Black Army discs
30 White VP discs

Setup:
Separate the Role cards into piles by type and place them in the indicated locations on the board.

Give each player 1 of the starting planets (put unused starting planets back in the box). Shuffle the Planet deck and each Technology deck and place them in the indicated locations on the board.

Each player takes 2 of each action card EXCEPT Warfare and shuffles them together to form their starting deck. To start the game, each player draws 5 cards from their deck into their hand.

Determine who will be the start player. That player begins the game by taking the first turn.

You are ready to begin!

Player Turns:
A player's turn consists of the following 3 steps, in order:

• 1. Play Action Card.
  The active player may choose a card in their hand which has an Action effect and play it. The card's action is resolved immediately.
  
  
• 2. Select Role.
  The active player MUST select a Role for the turn by taking a Role card from the board and laying it face up in front of him. The Role card indicates one of the basic actions of the game. The player may add additional cards bearing the same icon as the Role selected in order to boost the action. After the active player resolves the action, each other player in turn order (clockwise from the active player) may choose to either Follow the action, playing cards from their hand bearing the appropriate Icon as indicated by the Role card, or simply draw 1 card from their deck instead.
  
  
• 3. Cleanup.
  The active player places all cards they've played this turn (including the newly selected Role card) into his discard pile. He may discard 1 card from his hand, and then he draws cards from his deck to refill his hand. If the deck runs out of cards, the discards are shuffled to create a new deck.

Game end:
The game ends at the end of a turn in which one of the following has happened:

• Any of the Role card piles are exhausted
  
• The VP supply is exhausted

At that time players count the victory points on the Technology cards in their decks, on their face up Planets, and collected via Trade. The player with the most points is the winner! In the case of a tie, the tied player with the most armies plus resources wins.

The Actions:

Survey

ACTION: For each Survey icon played (including the Role card), take a card off the top of the Planet deck. Looking ONLY at the BACKS of the cards, choose one to place face down in front of you.

FOLLOW: Pay X Survey icons to take X-2 cards off the top of the Planet deck. Looking only at the backs of the cards,choose one to place face down in front of you.

Colonize

ACTION: Turn up a Surveyed planet in front of you which has the requisite number of Colonize icons under it, OR place any Colonize icons played (including the Role card) under a face down planet in front of you.

FOLLOW: Place any Colonize icons played under a face down planet in front of you.

Research

ACTION: For each Research icon played (including the Role card), draw 1 card from a Technology deck corresponding to one of your colonized (face up) planets. Put 1 in your discard pile and the rest on the bottom of the deck.

FOLLOW: Pay X Research icons to look at X-2 cards from a Technology deck corresponding to one of your colonized (face up) planets. Put 1 in your discard pile and the rest on the bottom of the deck.

Harvest

ACTION: For each Harvest icon played (including the Role card), produce 1 resource on one of your colonized (face up) planets.

FOLLOW: For each Harvest icon played, produce 1 resource on one of your colonized (face up) planets.

Trade

ACTION: For each Trade icon played (including the Role card), discard 1 resource from your colonized (face up) planets and collect 1 VP from the supply.

FOLLOW: For each Trade icon played, discard 1 resource from your colonized (face up) planets and collect 1 VP from the supply.

Warfare

ACTION: Discard the listed number of Armies to turn up 1 Surveyed planet in front of you, OR for each Warfare icon played (including the Role card), collect 1 Army.

FOLLOW: For each Warfare icon played, collect 1 Army.