2 players. US vs. USSR. US is underdog. Bid initial influence markers if you need to balance power.

Setup

• Shuffle Early War cards.
• Deal 8 to each player.
• USSR starts with China Card in addition to 8.
• Look at cards, then deploy initial influence points
• USSR sets up influence first, deploying 15 (6 anywhere in Eastern Europe)
• US deploys 25 (7 anywhere in Western Europe)
• Place space race markers, military OP markers, turn marker, DEFCON marker (on 5), VP marker

Terms

• Currently acting player is "phasing."
• Headline Phase is first card played each turn.
• This is followed by Action Rounds.
• Cards have Operations Values in the star, which determines how many operations the card is worth.
• Operation: use OP points for influence, realignment, coups, and the Space Race.
• Event: the card's text is executed.
• Country is each board property. Purple background makes country a Battleground State.
• Six Regions, some of which contain sub-regions.
• Connections between countries are all marked with lines.
• Influence in a country with influence markers; Control a country by exceeding the Stability Number.
• Presence: at least one Controlled country in a region defines presence.
• Domination: more controlled countries AND more controlled Battleground States.
• Control: more controlled countries AND controls all Battleground States.

Basics

• Ten turns consisting of one Headline Card followed by six (turns 1-3) or seven (turns 4-10) action rounds.
• Beginning of turn 4, shuffle Mid War cards into pile; leave discards to shuffle in when pile runs out.
• Turn 4 also hand size increased to nine.
• Beginning of turn 8, shuffle in Late War cards.
• When an event with * is triggered, remove card from game.
• An underlined event stays on the board and is active until game end or canceled.

Sequence

• Increase DEFCON marker by 1.
• Deal cards to hand maximum.
• Headline Phase
  • Each player selects card. They reveal at the same time.
  • Events take place now, determined by Operations Value. Tie goes to US.
  • Scoring cards have OV of 0.
  • An Event Card that benefits opponent is played by opponent, though player is still phasing.
  • No China Card here.
  • No Operations Points unless specified by Headline Event.
• Action Rounds
  • Six cards played each (7 starting in turn 4), USSR starts.
  • Each player must play each round.
  • Phasing player chooses Operation or Event. Playing an OP card with opponent event always triggers event.
    • Phasing player decides whether opponent event occurs before or after OPs.
  • One card will be left over after rounds; this card is held for next turn. 
  • Scoring cards may never be held.
  • Operation give phasing player OP points to spend on
    • Influence markers
      • Influence points equal to OP value place on board on or adjacent to countries at start of round.
      • Markers are place one at a time, so changes occur after each placement.
      • One OP point to place a marker in friendly or uncontrolled country.
      • Two OP points to place in a country controlled by opponent.
      • Superpower countries always count as controlled with no markers.
    • Realignment rolls
      • Used to reduce opponent's influence.
      • One OP point per roll.
      • Remove markers equal to difference in player rolls; tie = nothing.
      • +1 for each adjacent controlled country
      • +1 for more influence in country
      • Superpower always considered controlled country.
    • Coup attempts
      • Against any country where opponent has influence.
      • Stability # * 2 < OP points + 1 die.
      • Remove influence equal to difference; add phasing influence if necessary.
      • Coup attempt in Battleground Country degrades DEFCON status one.
      • DEFCON level restricts where coups can be attempted.
      • Military OPs equal to OP points on card.
    • The Space Race
      • Phasing player "dumps" a card on Space Race.
      • OP points must be greater than or equal to number needed for each box.
      • A die roll determines success as per instructions on box.
      • Only once per turn unless exception exists.
      • Rewarded with VPs and/or abilities.
      • Box #s (X/Y) are VPs awarded to first/second player to reach the box.
      • Abilities go to first player only; Effect is canceled when second player arrives.
  • Events execute text on card. * removes card unless the event couldn't occur. Underline keeps card active until canceled.
    • Opponent events trigger on phasing player's OP.
    • Phasing player events trigger by choosing Event rather than Operation.
    • An event that occurs but has no effect is still considered triggered.
    • War events can be played with no influence in country. VPs and Military OPs still apply.
    • War event gives Military OPs to affected player, not necessarily phasing player.
  • If China Card is played, it's passed to opponent.
    • China Card doesn't count towards hand limit.
    • May not be played as a Headline Event.
    • Cannot be discarded.
    • Cannot prevent play of a scoring card (not sure about this).
    • Shortage of cards in hand does not require China Card to be played.
  • DEFCON status measures nuclear tension. If it reaches 1, phasing player loses.
    • Coup attempst degrade DEFCON status.
    • Consequences as indicated on DEFCON track.
• Check Military OPs
  • Penalize VPs for failing to perform enough Military OPs in turn.
  • Required number of Military OPs each turn is current DEFCON status--changes as turn unfolds.
  • Opponent gets VPs equal to penalty.
  • Coup attempts and Wars are Military OPs.
• China card activated, turn marker advanced, shuffle in new decks

End of Game Scoring

• Regional scoring
  • +1 VP per controlled country adjacent to enemy superpower.
  • +1 VP per Battleground Country controlled in region.
• Automatic Victory
  • Reach 20 VPs.
  • If 20 VPs occurs during Military OPs phase and held card is scoring card, player loses.
  • Player who controls Europe when Europe scoring card played wins.
  • Opponent triggers nuclear war.
•  If no victory, then score each region and recount. 20 VPs doesn't equal win, but control of Europe does.

2 - 5 players; 45 minutes.

Overview

• Rule the galaxy by accumulating worlds, technologies, and victory points.
• Roll dice each round to explore, develop, settle, produce, and ship.
• Explore to earn money and to add developments to your construction zone.
• Develop technologies and settle worlds from your construction zone to your tableau.
• Produce goods on your worlds and ship them, trading or consuming for money or victory points.
• To win, accumulate victory points, worlds, and technologies. The numbers in the circles and diamonds on worlds and technologies are added to your VPs at the end of the game.

Setup

• Each person gets a player mat, a credit marker, a dice cup, a faction tile (double), a home world tile (black corners and back), and five white dice. Also a player screen and a phase strip.
• Set your mat in front of you and place the faction tile above, aligned to the left; place the home world to the right of this. (You can actually place them wherever you want, but it's best to go four across from right above your mat up to help easily identify when the game is coming close to the end: at the end of any round where a player has twelve tiles (including the original three) the game ends.)
• Take two double-sided game tiles from the bag and place them in your construction zone, one as a world to settle (circle), and one as a technology to develop (diamond).
• Place three of your white dice in your cup; the other two go into your citizenry (the person icon on your mat).
• Faction and home world tiles often grant extra dice during startup.
• Set up your screen so other players can't see behind it, with your phase strip hidden.
• Create a pool of victory point chips equal to twelve per player. These get consumed during play, and if they run out, the game ends that round.

Play

• Each round proceeds with: rolling, assigning, revealing, phases, and management.
• Roll your dice (employ your citizens) behind your screen, and align them below the associated icons on your phase strip. An asterisk is a wild-card. Different colored dice have different combinations of phase icons, changing the odds of rolling each phase.
• You may move any one die onto any phase strip icon, selecting that phase. This guarantees that phase will occur this round. You may also set one die aside to reassign any one die to whichever phase you choose. There are many technologies which modify your reassignment possibilities.
• When all players are ready, you reveal your phase strip and the distribution of your workers. Any phase that was selected by anybody will occur this round for everybody; any phase that was selected by nobody will not occur, unless...
• In a two-player game, roll a white die to (possibly) add an additional phase.
• You can use the phase tiles to keep track of phases, or you can just keep track in your head. If you use the tiles, turn over any tile whose phase doesn't occur this round.
• All at once (or each in turn if you prefer) go through each phase in order, employing the citizens from your phase strip. One at a time, employ your citizens for each phase, in the sequence: explore, develop, settle, produce, and ship. It's important to understand the one at a time aspect, as sometimes one citizen's action will effect another, even if it's in the same phase. For example, a citizen in the explore phase may scout, changing the construction zone; a subsequent scout action works off the prior.
• Explore: for each citizen, you may scout or stock. Stock is easy: put the citizen back into the citizenry and advance your credit marker +$2. When scouting, you may choose one tile from the bag and place it at the bottom of your development or settlement stack. You may also choose to abandon tiles from any position in your development or settlement stacks, in which case you select a number of tiles from the bag equal to your abandoned tiles +1. At the end of the round, put all abandoned tiles back into the bag. Any citizens in your construction zone stay there, even if their pile is emptied, though they'll get moved to your cup at the end of the corresponding phase.
• Develop: add citizens to the development pile until the number matches the number on the tile. At this time, you develop the technology by placing it into your tableau and returning the citizens to the citizenry. Technologies sometime grant one-time powers, sometimes ongoing powers. Keep track of your active powers--they are mandatory unless otherwise noted. You cannot put citizens onto an empty development pile. Given additional chips on your development pile, you can continue developing, possibly completing multiple technologies.
• Settle: just like develop, but for worlds instead of developments. Unlike technologies, which can have immediate or long-term effects, settlements always have immediate effects that occur at the time of settlement. If, in the unlikely event where you fill a development or settlement in the explore phase, development doesn't get completed until the correct phase. All settlement and development dice must be used, including any modifiers added via technologies. After development, citizens return to the citizenry.
• Produce: place each producer die on a non-gray world. Match colors of the product and the world only if you plan to consume. Excess producers get returned to your cup. Worlds may only have one product die on them.
• Ship: in this phase, you trade (collect money) or consume (collect victory points). For each shipper you may go to a world with a product and remove it, returning the product and shipper to the citizenry. You may trade on colored worlds for the following income: blue - $3; brown - $4; green - $5, yellow - $6. You may also consume from any world for one victory chip. If the product matches the color of the world, you get another; if the shipper's color matches the world, you get another as well. A purple die, as shipper or product, matches any colored world. Check your technology powers--they often have effects. Excess shippers go to the cup.
• At the end of each round, you can recruit citizens from your citizenry back into your cup for $1 each. You can go to zero, then reset at $1 for the beginning of the next round.
• You can also recall any worker from your construction zone or any product on a world to your cup at the end of the round. At the end of the game (last round) you may want to recall as many as possible, as dice in your cup may break a tie.
• The game ends if either a) all the VP tokens have been taken or b) any player has twelve squares worth of tiles, not including the mat, but including the faction tile and the home world. Each player counts up the total of their VPs and the points represented by all worlds and technologies. Note that some technologies have adjustments (bonuses) in this process, granting extra points for, for example, the number of different colored dice you have.

2 - 5 players; 60 minutes.

Overview

• Here's a link to D&D's quick play guide.

Setup

• Each player chooses a color and takes a agents (2 players: 4; 3: 3; 4: 2; 5: 2). Add another agent at round 5 on the rounds track.
• All score markers go on 0.
• Fill the Builder's Hall's 3 spaces with Building tiles.
• Each player gets a mat and a Lord, 2 Quest card face up, 2 Intrigue cards face down.
• Put Quest cards in each of the 4 Cliffwatch Inn spaces.
• Put 3 VP tokens in each space in the rounds track.
• Starting player gets 4 gold; each player after gets one more gold than the player before.

1 - 5 players; 115 minutes (that's right, 115 not 2 hours)

Setup

• things