4. Advanced Game
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4. Advanced Game |
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What’s Different About the Advanced Game?
The Advanced Game of Star Trek ConQuest Online uses all the rules for the Basic Game and adds more rules and new game map features. Once you feel competent playing the Basic Game, you should have no problem learning the Advanced Game. A summary of the Advanced Game features are:
Auction Groups are used. Players build and use Auction Groups in addition to Control Groups.
Two new phases are added to each turn: the Auctions phase and the Specials phase.
Each planet in the Neutral Zone generates a random amount of Control Points. Neutral Zone planets have random Planetary Effects.
The Game Map has a new location: the Continuum.
In addition to Control Points, players now also try to gain Q Points. Players can gain Q Points to try to win the game either by being the first player to gain 10 Q Points or by having the most Q Points on Turn 20.
These features are described in detail throughout the rest of this chapter.
Phases occur in the same sequence as in the Basic Game, except that there are two new phases: the Auctions phase and the Specials phase. The sequence of phase for a turn in the Advanced Game is:
Start of Turn Phase
Deploy Phase
Auction Phase (Advanced Game addition)
Specials Phase (Advanced Game addition)
Attack Phase
Move Phase
End of Turn Phase
The rules for conducting actions in the Deploy, Move, and Attack phases remain the same as they are in the Basic Game.
You play the Advanced Game with a new type of group, the Auction Group, in addition to your Control Group. Each Auction Group contains exactly 10 pieces and, unlike Control Groups, can contain Event pieces.
When an Advanced Game begins, the game mixes together the Auction Groups of both players and also adds ten random pieces. During each Auction phase except on Turn 1, the game draws one piece from that mix and puts it up for auction. Players can bid Control Points to acquire or avoid that piece.
When the Auction phase starts, the piece being auctioned is shown in the Auction window on the lower left of the screen. If the piece is an Instant Event, it simply happens. Otherwise, both players begin bidding for the piece, using either Public Bidding or Secret Bidding. The type of bidding used for an auction is determined by the piece that has come up for bid.
Instant Events take immediate effect when they come up during the Auction phase. Players do not bid for Instant Events. The piece description of the Instant Event tells you what the effect of the Event is.
Players use Public Bidding for Events (except Instant Events and Tainted Events), ships, people, and items up for bid. Public Bidding is a back and forth process, with each player in turn bidding higher and higher until one player passes, letting the other player win the auction.
The player with the least Control Points starts the bidding. Once one player has made a bid, the other player sees the bid and can raise the bid or pass. Raising the bid sends the bid back to the other player, who can raise the bid again or pass. The bidding continues until one player passes. When a player passes, the other player wins the piece and the bid Control Points are deducted from that player’s total. The passing player spends no Control Points.
Players cannot bid more Control Points than they currently have.
A player that wins an Event piece gets the effects of that Event immediately. Some Events require that the player pick a location or a piece in play for the Event to affect. In this case the mouse cursor changes to the Event graphic, and the player right-clicks the piece or location for the Event.
When a player wins a ship, person, or item, that piece is immediately put into play at no further cost to the player. Ships appear in the player’s Home Region, and people appear on the player’s Home Planet. Items can be placed on ships or people anywhere in the game. The player chooses where the item is deployed, using the same process for deploying the item as for targeting events.
Secret Bidding
Players use Secret Bidding is used whenever a Tainted Event is auctioned. Tainted Events are Events that do bad things to the person who gets the Event. Needless to say, players don’t want to get them.
Secret Bidding is done, well, in secret. Each player secretly bids a number of Control Points to not get the piece. Both bids are revealed simultaneously, and the player that bid the least gets the Tainted Event. Regardless of who gets the Tainted Event, both players lose the Control Points that they bid. If both players bid the same amount, the game randomly chooses which player gets the Tainted Event.
In some cases the player who gets the Tainted Event must pick a target on the Game Map for the Event to affect. Do this by simply right-clicking the target you want.
How to Bid
When it is your time to make a bid during the Auction, a small box with two arrows appears in the window. This is the bidding box. For Public Bidding, you see the bid your opponent just made in the box. For Secret Bidding (and on the very first bid of Public Bidding), the box is set to zero.
Raise or lower your bid by pressing the up or down arrows.
In Public Bidding, you can pass on the bid by clicking the Pass button. Pressing Pass lets your opponent win the Auction Piece with his or her last bid amount. (You cannot pass in Secret Bidding. If you don’t want to bid on the Tainted Event, simply leave the bid box at zero.)
Once you have the bid you want, click the Submit button:
For Public Bidding this sends the bid to your opponent to raise it or pass.
For Secret Bidding this means your bid is revealed at the same time as your opponent’s.
You use the Specials phase for two types of activities:
Some pieces with special abilities must use an action to activate their ability. In the Specials phase, you can have such a piece use an action and activate its special abilities. You can view a description of a piece’s special abilities by using the Piece Viewer on the left side of the screen.
Any piece with an Influence value of one or greater can add its Influence to your Control Points. In the Specials phase, you can have such a piece use an action and add its Influence to your Control Points total.
In a Specials phase a piece can use an action either to activate its special abilities or to generate Control Points from its Influence. It cannot do both in the same phase, even if it can do more than one action.
If a piece does not have an action left during the Specials phase, it cannot either activate its special abilities or generate Control Points.
Special Abilities
If a piece has a special ability that requires an action to perform, you can have the piece perform an action and activate that special ability during the Specials phase. (If a piece does not have an action left by this phase, it cannot use a special ability.) Right-click the piece and select the special ability you want to use from the popup menu. If the ability requires you to target another piece, simply right-click the piece you wish to target after activating the ability.
During the Specials phase, you can target the same piece with no more than one special ability. This means you cannot target the piece (whether yours or your opponent’s) with two or more special abilities.
Unless the piece’s special ability states otherwise, special abilities that can target another piece can only target a piece in the same location as the piece with the special ability.
Gaining Control Points
Any of your pieces with an Influence attribute of one or greater can spend an action during the Special phase and add its Influence value to your Control Point total. (If a piece does not have an action left by this phase, it cannot add its Influence to your Control Points.) Right click the piece in the Specials phase and select Generate Control from the popup menu. Example: your can have Deanna Troi (Influence value of one) use an action during the Specials phase and add one Control Point to your Control Points total.
Control Points generated from piece’s Influence are added to the players’ totals when both players end the Specials phase.
New Neutral Zone Features
The Neutral Zone is a bit different in the Advanced Game than the Basic Game. Each planet in the Neutral Zone:
Is randomly given Control Point values.
Has special effects that you must discover by exploring the planet.
These values and effects are randomly generated at the beginning of every game, so that no two games will necessarily have the same combination of effects and values.
Control Point Values
In the Basic Game a Neutral Zone planet generates three Control Points for the person who controlled it. In the Advanced Game each planet generates a random number of Control Points from one through five. The value for each planet is determined at the beginning of the game for each planet and remains the same throughout the entire game.
Planetary Effects
In the Advanced Game planets in the Neutral Zone receive zero, one, or two Planetary Effects. These effects are generated at the beginning of the game for each planet and remain the same throughout the entire game.
Planetary Effects do various things. Some benefit those on the planet; others cause harm. Deadly Atmosphere, for example, causes one to three points of damage to every person on the planet at the beginning of each turn.
Unless otherwise noted in the rules for an effect, Planetary Effects occur at the start of each turn. This is especially important for the Victory Planet effect (which gives a player a Q Point if the player’s Q is on a victory planet).
Exploration
At the beginning of the game you (and your opponent) do not know what the Control Values and Planetary Effects are for the planets in the Neutral Zone. To discover these values and effects you must beam a person down to the planet. Once you do this, you know the planet’s value and effects. These are displayed in the Piece Viewer when you click on the planet in the Region view.
The results of exploration are known only to the player who explored the planet. The other player will not know the planet’s value or effects unless he or she also explores it.
Home Planets do not have Planetary Effects and always have Control Values of six.
Planetary Effects List
All Planetary Effects and their effects in the game are as follows:
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DEADLY ATMOSPHERE |
At the start of each turn, all people on the planet suffer one to three points of damage. |
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REST PLANET |
At the start of each turn, all people on the planet heal one to three points of damage. |
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POLITICAL CENTER |
All non-Alien people on this planet get +1 or +2 Control. |
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WAR ZONE |
All people on this planet get +1 to +3 Combat points. |
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FORTIFIED PLANET |
All people on this planet ignore the first point of damage in each combat. |
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INDUSTRIAL PLANET |
Aliens may not attack or defend on this planet. |
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IONIC ATMOSPHERE |
People with items may not beam to this planet and items may not be given to people on this planet. |
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VICTORY PLANET |
If a player has Q on this planet at the start of the turn, that player scores one Q Point. |
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PEACE ZONE |
No combat may take place on this planet. |
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TRADE CENTER |
At the start of each turn, each player gets additional control points equal to the number of different affiliations of people on this planet. |
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SOCIALIST SOCIETY |
Unique pieces may not beam to this planet. |
The Advanced Game has a new location on the game map: the Continuum. This location is the dimensional homeworld of the Q. Pieces can move to the Continuum and later leave it. You might send pieces to the Continuum to prevent your opponent from attacking and removing them from the game or to move them quickly about the board.
To view pieces in the Continuum, enter the Continuum view by clicking the Continuum graphic in the lower left of the game map. You can then see all pieces in the Continuum.
During the Move phase, any ship or person can use an action to move to the Continuum. To do this, right-click the ship or person and then right-click the Continuum graphic in the lower left of the game map. When a ship moves to the Continuum, all crew onboard that ship remain onboard. People can move to the Continuum directly from the surface of a planet; they do not have to be onboard a ship to move to the Continuum.
Q can never move to the Continuum. Ever.
During the Move phase, any ship or person in the Continuum can use an action to leave the Continuum. To do this, go to the Continuum view, right-click the ship or person, and then right-click the Galaxy graphic on the game map. When a ship leaves the Continuum, all crew onboard that ship remain onboard. A person onboard a ship can leave the Continuum without the ship having to leave the Continuum. Example: During the Move phase of Turn 6, a ship with one person onboard spends an action and moves to the Continuum. During the Move phase of Turn 7, the person onboard the ship in the Continuum spends an action and leaves the Continuum, while the ship itself remains in the Continuum.
When a piece leaves the Continuum, it is placed on the game map as follows:
A ship that leaves the Continuum is placed in the region where its Q began the phase in. Any people onboard a ship that leaves the Continuum remain onboard the ship. Example: Your Q began the Move phase on a Neutral Zone planet, so a ship of yours (and all of its crew) is placed in the Neutral Zone region when it leaves the Continuum.
A person that leaves the Continuum (other than being onboard a ship that leaves the Continuum) is placed in the location where its Q began the phase in. Example: Your Q began the Move phase on a Neutral Zone planet, so a person of yours is placed on that planet when he or she leaves the Continuum. If you Q is onboard a ship, then any of your people leaving the Continuum are placed onboard that ship as well.
Getting Stuck in the Continuum
It can be a bad idea to keep pieces too long in the Continuum. Other Q, who are not playing the game, may take it upon themselves to seize any pieces in the Continuum and temporarily take them out of the game.
At the start of each turn that a piece is in the Continuum, it has 10% chance of being removed from the game and put into the combined Auction Group used to draw pieces for the Auction phase. This chance increases by 10% at the start of each consecutive turn a piece remains in the Continuum. Example: A piece that has been in the Continuum for three turns has a 30% chance of being seized.
People onboard ships in the Continuum cannot themselves be seized directly, although their ship can be seized. If a ship with crew onboard is seized, then all people on the ship go to the Auction Group along with the ship. When the ship comes up for auction, the people are still on the ship and are part of that auction together with the ship.
If a ship or person carrying items is seized, those items stay on the ship or person when they go to the Auction Group. These items will remain with the person or ship if it comes up for auction.
When a piece that has been seized in the Continuum comes up for auction, you and your opponent bid for that piece as normal, just like any other piece up for auction. The player who originally owned the piece does not automatically win the piece.
Q Points and New Ways to Win the Game
Q Points
In the Advanced Game players can gain Q Points as well as Control Points. The game uses Q Points for certain winning conditions, as explained below.
In each turn the player who controls more planets is awarded one Q Point. If both players control the same number of planets, no Q Point is awarded.
Some Q can generate Q Points by performing an action and spending a number of Control Points. In the Specials phase you can gain these points by right-clicking your Q and selecting Buy Q Point from the popup menu. Remember that your Q expends an action to do this. Note: Some Q cannot generate Q Points in this way. Check each type of Q to see if it can!
Certain pieces in the game can also give you Q Points. The most common of these are Events. If a piece can give you Q Points, its piece description will say so.
Sometimes during the course of a game you might lose Q Points. You can never have a negative total of Q Points. If you lose Q Points when you don’t have any, you stay at zero Q Points.
As in the Basic Game you can win the Advanced Game with Cheqmate. There are also two other ways to win an Advanced Game:
The game ends when any player has at least 10 Q Points at the end of a turn. The player with the most Q Points at this time wins. If both players have the same amount of Q Points, the player who controls more planets wins. If both players control the same number of planets, the player with the most Control Points wins the game. If both players have the same amount of Control Points, then the game is a tie.
At the end of Turn 20, the player with the most Q Points wins the game. If both players have the same amount of Q Points, the player who controls the most planets wins the game. If both players control the same number of planets, the player with the most Control Points wins the game. If both players have the same amount of Control Points, the game is a tie.
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