Main Rules |
Card Rules |
Intro
Space Mines is a competitive Sequence Building card game. It includes elements of deck building card games as well as a placement mechanic in which players take turns playing a card and placing it anywhere in the card sequence. In order to outplay your opponent, you will need to plan ahead and think carefully about where and when you play your cards.
Games Objectives
Reduce your opponent's shields to 0, eliminating any potential competition.
Aquire 10 research points, inventing time travel with the help of the alien technology available to research on the planet.
Aquire 10 Alliance Points, winning the support of the Alliance and ensuring their support for your operations on the planet.
Core Game Mechanics
Identify the play space and designate a direction that actions will flow. The players will alternate playing cards that will result in a sequence of actions that trigger starting from one side of the board and flowing toward the other side of the board (forward through time).
TODO -- Graphic showing this.
TODO -- Graphic showing this.
Players start each hand by drawing 5 cards from their draw pile. These are the cards they are able to play this turn. Player 1 goes first and places a card in the ACTION_ROW.
TODO -- Graphic showing this.
TODO -- Graphic showing this.
Player 2 chooses a card and plays it in the action row. They may choose to place it before or after the card their opponent played.
TODO -- Graphic showing this.
TODO -- Graphic showing this.
Player 1 now goes again, and they may choose to place a card before, after or in the middle of the two cards already in the action row.
TODO -- Graphic showing this.
TODO -- Graphic showing this.
Players alternate until 6 cards have been placed in the ACTION_ROW, 3 from each player. At this point, the actions begin to trigger starting from the starting end of the board and going in sequence.
TODO -- Graphic showing this.
TODO -- Graphic showing this.
After all effects have been triggered, the cards from the board and from the players' hands go to their respective DISCARD_PILES.
Players each have the option to do a DRAW_CYCLE at this point to add a new card to their deck. If you choose to do a DRAW_CYCLE, you must choose a new card, however you may skip the DRAW_CYCLE if you do not want to add any new cards to your deck. If you add a new card to your deck, it is added to your DISCARD_PILE. This ensures that you cannot guarantee that you draw the new card you've just chosen on the next hand.
The hand ends, and the next hand begins with players drawing 5 cards from their draw piles.
Basic Board Layout
Main Deck
Cycled Deck
Trash Pile
Initial Deck Draft
Shuffle the main deck thoroughly. Each player now takes turns drawing 3 cards from the main deck and adding 1 card to their deck. The other 2 cards go into the cycled pile face down. This is called a DRAW_CYCLE. Repeat this process until each player has 12 cards in their deck.
The cards you see in your initial draft will heavily influence your strategy as you start the game. Look for cards that work well together and put together your deck. But don't forget to diversify a bit! Sometimes your initial plans won't work out, and you may need to find a different way to win.
Player Deck
After the initial draft, each player starts with 12 cards in their deck. This deck is shuffled face down and becomes the player's DRAW_PILE. At the start of each hand, each player draws 5 cards from their DRAW_PILE into their Hand.
If there are fewer than 5 cards left in the DRAW_PILE, the player draws all remaining cards in the DRAW_PILE and shuffles the discard pile to create a new DRAW_PILE. Then the player draws the balance from this new DRAW_PILE.
Gameplay Intro
The game is played as a series of hands until any win condition has been met. As soon as a win condition is met, the game ends immediately. Each hand begins with each player draws 5 cards from their draw pile into their hand. If there are fewer than 5 cards in the draw pile, the player draws all remaining cards in the draw pile, then shuffles the discard pile and places it face down in the draw pile area and draws the balance from this new draw pile ending with 5 cards in the player's hand.
Hand Phases
Start of Hand
Placement
Action
Drift
End of Hand
Draw Cycle
Start of Hand
There are game elements that influence how many cards you draw at the start of a hand. For example, if you have at least 5 Research Points, you get to draw an extra card for a total of 6 rather then the typical 5 cards. Similarly, there can be satellites that have "Start of hand" effects. "Teleport Sat" adds an extra card draw, while "System Scrambler Sat" removes a card draw if it is in your orbit row at the start of a hand.
In the case of satellites, the "Start of hand" effect takes place as long as the satellite is in orbit when the turn starts.
Placement
Players take turns placing cards in the action row. Each player will place 3 cards, for a total of 6 cards places in the Action Row.
Action
Card effects take place one space at a time starting from the beginning of the action row and moving to the end.
In each space, there will be a card in the action row and potentially some satellite or multiple satellites in the orbit row(s) above it. The effects on each card marked "Actions" and "Orbit Action Effects" are all triggered. Satellite's Orbit Action Effects will specify whether they take place before or after the action row.
Some satellites have something called a Satellite Effect, and in certain cases it will affect the card in the action row. For example, "Nullwave Generator Satellite" negates the Actions of the card in the action row below it.
In general, the cards themselves will specify what order their effects should be triggered, and they strive to be as clear as possible.
Drift
After the Action Phase and all effects have been resolved, satellites drift 1 space forward. This ensures that satellites do not linger forever, so any positive or negative effects they may be creating will eventually go away.
There are satellites with special drift behavior, and those behaviors are noted on the cards themselves. For example, "Space Mine" does not drift by default. This makes it so that other satellites will drift into it, blowing up both cards then that happens.
Note that satellites do not drift on the turn when they are first launched.
End of Hand
Similar to start of hand effects, there are also "End of hand" effects that do a variety of things. An example is "Retain". If "Orbital Command Center" is in orbit at the end of the hand (after the drift phase), then you may choose one of the cards in your hand that you did not play this hand and keep it in your hand for the next turn.
Satellite "End of hand" effects happen as long as the satellite is in orbit after the drift phase. This means that even if a satellite was just launched on this turn, it will still trigger its "End of hand" effects this turn.
Draw Cycle
The last part of each hand, players have the option to add a new card to their deck. each player may choose whether to do a draw cycle. it is important to note that if you choose to do a draw cycle, you must choose one of the cards you draw. if you do not want to add a card to your deck, you should skip the draw cycle.
Types of Card Mechanics
Satellites
Missiles
Shields
Alien Tech Cards
Transport Ships
Energize Effects
Trash Effects
Satellite Mechanics
Launch
Orbit Action Effects
Start/End of Turn Effects
Satellite Lifetime
Launch
Satellites must be placed like any other card in the action row in order to play them. When the action gets to a space where a satellite card has been placed, the satellite will launch into orbit. If the card does not specify which orbit row the satellite launches into, it launches into the orbit row of the player who played the card by default. Some satellites have different behavior, and in those cases, it will be specified on the card. An example is "Space Mine" which always launches into your opponent's orbit row. Another example is "Gravitational Anomaly" which allows you to choose which orbit row you would like to launch it into.
Orbit Action Effects
Some satellites have an effect called the "Orbit Action Effect". This effect does not trigger on the turn when the satellite launches. This will trigger on subsequent turns when the satellite is already in orbit. The card will specify whether this effect triggers before or after the Actions of the card in the Action Row.
For example, the Orbit Action Effect of "Vacuum Satellite" triggers before the Action effect of any card before it. This allows it to scoop up and trash an Alien Tech card before it takes effect.
On the flip side, a card like "Research Station", its Orbit Action Effect happens after the Action Effect of the card below it. This allows a card to potentially shoot the satellite down before it gains a Research Point.
Start/End of Turn Effects
Start and End of Turn effects section
Satellite Lifetime
Satellites can be shot down by missile cards. In order to shoot a satellite down with a missile, you must fire the missile from the space below the satellite. For example, if the satellite is in orbit over space 3, a missile fired from space 3 will hit the satellite and shoot it down.
Satellites have 1 health, and any excess damage the missile would do will hit the player's shields. For example, if a missile does 3 damage, and it will hit a satellite, 1 damage will go to blowing up the satellite, and 2 damage will apply to the opponent's shields. If there are multiple satellites in a space, the person firing the missile gets to choose which satellite(s) gets hit first. For example if a missile does 1 damage and there are two satellites in the space above it, only one can be shot down, and the player who fired the missile gets to choose which one.
In the case of cards like "Missile Silo Infiltration" and "Bribe" when a missile is reversed, if there would be a choice of which satellite(s) to hit, the player who played the card that reversed the missile gets to choose which satellite the missile shoots down.
Satellites are also trashed when they drift beyond the sixth space in the orbit row. This ensures that satellite effects cannot last indefinitely.