TI4 core rules

Game round

1. Strategy phase. Speaker first, then clockwise: each player picks 1 strategy card (5–8 players pick 1; 3–4 players pick 2). Then put 1 trade good on each card nobody took.
2. Action phase. In initiative order (lowest card number first), each player takes one action, round and round, until everyone has passed. You can’t pass until you’ve done your strategic action.
3. Status phase.
   1. Score objectives in initiative order: up to 1 public and 1 secret.
   2. Speaker reveals the next public objective.
   3. Everyone draws 1 action card.
   4. Take your command tokens back off the board.
   5. Gain 2 command tokens; you may redistribute all your tokens between pools.
   6. Ready all exhausted cards (planets, tech, etc.).
   7. Repair damaged units.
   8. Return strategy cards.
4. Agenda phase. Only once the Custodians token has been taken off Mecatol Rex. Two agendas are voted on, then ready all planets. See Agenda phase.

Actions on your turn (pick one)

Tactical

Spend a tactic token to activate a system (not one that already has your token): move, then space combat, invasion and production, in that order (below).

Strategic

Do your strategy card’s primary ability. Every other player may then do the secondary, which usually costs a token from their strategy pool.

Component

An “ACTION:” from an action card, tech, leader, relic, promissory note, etc.

Pass

Only once your strategy card is used. After passing you take no more turns this round, but you can still do secondaries and play non-action cards.

Tactical action, step by step

1. Activate: put a tactic-pool token in the system.
2. Move: ships whose move value can reach it move in. They can’t leave a system that holds your own command token, and can’t move through a system with enemy ships. Ships with capacity carry fighters and ground forces. Then space cannon offense: PDS in or next to the system may fire at ships there.
3. Space combat if two players have ships in the system.
4. Invasion: bombardment, then land ground forces, then space cannon defense (PDS on the planet), then ground combat, then take control. Taking a planet exhausts it, and you explore it if you haven’t controlled it before (PoK).
5. Production: any of your space docks in the system may build units.

Command tokens & economy

Pools

Tactic: to activate systems. Fleet: the number of non-fighter ships you may have in each system. Strategy: to do other players’ secondaries. You start with 3 / 3 / 2 and have 16 tokens in total.

Gaining

2 each status phase. The Leadership card gives more, including 1 token per 3 influence spent.

Resources

Exhaust planets to pay for units and tech.

Influence

Exhaust planets for votes, Leadership tokens and the Custodians (6 influence).

Trade goods

Each is worth 1 resource or 1 influence, but they can’t be used as votes. You get them from unchosen strategy cards, the Trade card, and commodities that are traded.

Commodities

They’re worth nothing to you, and refill to your faction’s limit when Trade lets you. Give them to another player and they become trade goods for that player.

Transactions

During your turn you may make one transaction with each neighbour (a player whose units or planets share or border a system with yours). You can swap trade goods, commodities, promissory notes and action cards.

Production

A space dock’s production is its planet’s resources plus its dock bonus (see Units). Fighters and infantry cost 1 for 2. You can’t build ships into a system that has enemy ships.

Capacity

Fighters and ground forces need room in ships. Fighters left over beyond capacity are removed at the end of movement or production.

Hand limit

7 action cards; discard down to 7 when you go over.

Limits

Units are limited by the plastic you have, apart from fighters and infantry, which use tokens. Command tokens are limited to 16.

Combat & invasion

Hits

Roll a d10 for each combat die. Each result equal to or higher than the unit’s combat value is a hit. The defender assigns the hits.

Space combat

Before round 1, anti-fighter barrage (AFB) fires. Each round: either side may announce a retreat, then both roll, then assign hits. A retreat happens at the end of the round, to an adjacent system that has your units or planets and no enemy ships. Combat continues until only one side has ships left.

Sustain damage

Units with this ability cancel 1 hit by becoming damaged. They are repaired in the status phase.

Bombardment

Fires before ground forces land. Planetary shield (PDS) stops it; the war sun ignores the shield.

Space cannon

Offense: fires at ships moving into the active system or one next to it. Defense: fires at ground forces landing on the PDS’s planet.

Ground combat

Rounds repeat until only one side is left. Infantry and mechs roll, and mechs can sustain damage.

Mecatol Rex

To land there the first time, spend 6 influence to remove the Custodians: you gain 1 VP, and agenda phases start from then on.

Strategy cards

Strategy cards

Scoring

• Play to 10 VP. The game ends the moment a player reaches it; on a simultaneous tie, earliest in initiative order wins.
• Setup: deal 5 stage I and 5 stage II public objectives face down; reveal 2 stage I. Each player draws 2 secret objectives and keeps 1.
• Status phase, step 1: in initiative order, each player may score up to 1 public objective and up to 1 status-phase secret objective.
• Status phase, step 2: the speaker reveals the next public objective. Stage II objectives appear only after all stage I are revealed. If none are left to reveal, the game ends and the most VP wins (ties: earliest initiative).
• You can only score public objectives if you control every planet in your home system. Secret objectives have no such restriction.
• 'Spend' objectives are paid when you score them, not from earlier spending. Each objective can be scored only once per player.
• Imperial's primary lets you score 1 public objective during the action phase, plus 1 VP for holding Mecatol Rex.
• Secret objectives: at most 3 in total (scored plus unscored) in your play area; draw over that and you return an unscored one to the deck. The Obsidian relic raises the limit to 4.
• Action-phase secrets are scored the moment you meet the condition; only 1 per combat (space and ground combat of one tactical action count separately). Agenda-phase secrets can be scored any time during that phase.
• Only the player holding a secret objective may score it; once scored it stays face up in their play area and counts toward the limit.
• Thunder's Edge: space stations are not planets for objectives (e.g. Expand Borders, trait or tech-specialty counts).
• Thunder's Edge: one Thunder's Edge expedition slice costs discarding 1 unscored secret objective, and Mecatol Rex's legendary ability can swap a secret objective at end of turn.

The objective cards themselves are on Reference decks.

Other ways to get VP

Agenda phase

• There is no agenda phase until the custodians token is removed from Mecatol Rex; from then on it follows the status phase every round.
• Two agendas are resolved each agenda phase, one after the other.
• The speaker draws the top agenda and reads it aloud, with all its outcomes.
• Starting with the speaker and going clockwise, players may play 'When an agenda is revealed' effects (e.g. Veto), then 'After an agenda is revealed' effects (riders etc.). After-windows repeat until nobody wants to play more.
• Voting starts with the player to the speaker's left and goes clockwise; the speaker votes last.
• To vote, exhaust any number of your planets and cast votes equal to their total influence (each planet's full value) for one outcome. TE space stations can also be exhausted for their influence as votes.
• All of a player's votes on an agenda go to one outcome, declared aloud. Extra votes from other effects must go to that same outcome.
• Trade goods cannot be spent as votes. You may abstain; casting 0 votes counts as abstaining.
• For 'Elect' agendas, votes go to an eligible target (a player can vote for themselves); elect-planet votes must name a planet some player controls. TE space stations cannot be elected as planets.
• The outcome with the most votes resolves. On a tie, or if nobody votes, the speaker chooses the outcome (this is not a vote).
• A law that passes (For or any Elect) stays in play; directives and Against results on laws are discarded.
• Outcomes affecting several players resolve in speaker order; riders and predictions resolve after the agenda, also in speaker order.
• Each pair of players may make 1 transaction per agenda, even if they are not neighbors.
• After the second agenda, each player readies all their exhausted planets (only planets: not techs, leaders or relics). Then a new round begins with the strategy phase.

Board features