War Cards

Equipment

• Five War cards--War cards are challenge cards added to the main deck. (If no spare blank cards are available, place an identifying mark on the faces of two Attack 6's, two Attack 8's, and one Attack 10. Once marked, these are considered War cards for all purposes. They are no longer Attack cards, nor are their numerical values relevant.)

Setup

Play

Determining the Outcome of a Challenge

• If your opponent played an Attack card, he is overwhelmed by the ferocity of your assault and quickly surrenders. You win the challenge and your opponent loses, but he collects consolation for his loss (one card from your hand per token lost).
• If your opponent played a Compromise card, he scores a diplomatic coup, demoralizing your forces and securing costly reparations. You lose the challenge and your opponent wins, and he collects consolation (one card from your hand for each token he had in the challenge, even though these tokens are not lost).
• If your opponent also played a War card, the battle escalates out of control, leading ultimately to mutual self-destruction. Both sides lose the challenge.

Effects of Kickers on War Cards

You may play a Kicker with (or against) a War card, just as with any other type of challenge card. If you do play a Kicker, it has the following effect once cards are revealed:

• If you played a War card and your opponent played an Attack or War card, the number of tokens he loses is multiplied by your Kicker value.
• If you played a War card and your opponent played a Compromise card, the number of tokens you lose is multiplied by your Kicker value (that'll teach you, you warmonger!).
• If you played an Attack or Compromise card and your opponent played a War card, the amount of consolation you collect is multiplied by your Kicker value.

When a player's token loss is multiplied, he first loses any tokens he had in the challenge, then sends additional tokens from bases to warp--or retrieves tokens from warp to bases, if the Kicker value is less than 1--until the required number of losses (or as close as possible) is achieved. Note that these additional tokens are not considered to have been "in the challenge."

Recommended Modifications

Edicts

• Emotion Control--Any War cards played are also turned into Compromise cards.
• Plague--The affected player also loses one War card.

Alien Powers

• Bully--As winning main player, you select your opponent's token losses as long as no Compromise cards were played (i.e., the cards can be Attack or War cards).
• Cavalry [Mayfair]--If your ally's card is a War card, your card has no effect. If you play a War card and your side loses the challenge, you alone proceed as though your side won, gaining a base or rewards (as appropriate).
• Chosen [Mayfair]--If you draw any challenge card, resolve the challenge using that card.
• Deuce--If neither card is a Compromise and at least one is a War card, you played a War card. Discard the War card.
• Diplomat--You may also call "negotiate" if a War card is played.
• Doppelganger [Eon]--You also ask for a War card. Draw from the deck only if the player you select has no challenge cards. Return all unused cards to their original owner.
• Judge [Eon]--Your fiat also applies if a War card is played.
• Loser--War cards may be played when an "upset" is declared. If both sides lose, the upset has no effect.
• Witch--Add "War cards" to the list.

Flares

• Cavalry Super [Mayfair]--The ally you choose may play a War card.
• Disease Wild--Add "a War card" to the list.
• Empath Super--You may exchange your opponent's Compromise for a War card from your hand.
• Pavlov Wild [Mayfair]--You may name a War card.

Moons

• Reversal [Eon]--This moon cannot be used if both sides lose the challenge.

Additional Expansion

Alien Power: Hawk (Plays Attack Cards as War Cards)

History: Belligerent and unpredictable, Hawks consider overreaction a virtue and will often respond to even the slightest provocation with excessive force, whatever the risk or cost. Their predilection toward violence is such, in fact, that many wonder if Hawks are not so much interested in conquering the Cosmos as they are in merely fighting over it.

Wild Flare: After cards are revealed in any challenge, if a War card was played, you may declare all played challenge cards (on both sides) to be War cards.

Super Flare: As an ally, if the main player you are allied with plays an Attack card higher than 10 (before any modification), you may declare it to be a War card instead.

Alien Power: Peacenik (Sends War Protesters)

A player unable or unwilling to communicate such a decision (e.g., a "silenced" player) is assumed to allow the tokens to remain. If Filth allows the tokens to remain, he must vacate the planet (tokens return to other bases).

History: Dig these far-out Star Children, man, as they frug from planet to planet in psychedelic, bell-bottomed spacesuits, spreading a message of Cosmic Grooviness. Aggressive neighbors who make war, not love, cringe as vast flocks of civilly disobedient Peaceniks descend on their worlds to party and protest. So far, however, The Establishment has yet to find a way to put down the Peacenik movement without destroying the rest of society in the process.

Wild Flare: Whenever a main player in any challenge (other than yourself) plays a War card, you may transfer some or all of your Compromise cards from your hand to his.

Super Flare: Whenever the offensive main player in any challenge (other than yourself) plays an Attack card and wins the challenge, you may immediately move three or more of your tokens to any one of his planet bases. He must then decide to either allow these tokens to remain, or else send all of your and his tokens on that planet to the warp.

Index

1. Introduction to War cards
2. Equipment needed to play
3. Setting up the game
4. Playing with War cards
   • Determining the outcome of a challenge
   • The effects of Kickers on War cards
5. Modifications to other game elements
   • Changes to Alien Powers
   • Changes to Flares
   • Changes to Moons
6. More War card-related additions
   • Alien Power: Hawk
   • Alien Power: Peacenik