Chapter 9 - Status, Agendas, Deals and Transactions

Recap of a round:

Strategy Phase

Everyone chooses 1 strategy card.

Action Phase

Players take turns performing Strategic, Tactical or Component actions, or passing once they have no further actions for the turn.

That brings us to the Status Phase, which is very simple, so I will only touch on it briefly.

Before I do, I want to discuss how you actually win this damn game.  The first player to score 10 Victory Points (VP) wins.

You score VP by completing objectives.  There are a series of objectives in the middle of the table that all players are striving to complete.  Players also have a secret objective, which they cannot reveal until achieved.

It's during the status phase when players check to see if they've completed objectives.



OBJECTIVES

Example of an Objective:

Status Phase

These steps are performed in order:

1. SCORE OBJECTIVES

In initiative order, players may complete objectives. If that results in 10VP, you win!

Note that any one objective may be scored by any number of players, but each player may only score each objective once.

Key Point:  This step is done in initiative order, meaning that the order in which players achieve objectives can be relevant if two players were both on the cusp of scoring their 10th VP.  The player to go first would win the game!

Important:  Players may only score 1 public and 1 secret objective during each status phase.

2.  REVEAL PUBLIC OBJECTIVE

The next objective is revealed.

3.  DRAW ACTION CARDS

Each player gets 1 Action Card.

4.  REMOVE COMMAND TOKENS

All Command Tokens are removed from the map.

5. GAIN AND SHIFT COMMAND TOKENS

Each player gets 2 additional Command Tokens.  Then, you get to redistribute all of your tokens among your Strategy, Fleet and Tactic pools however you wish.

6. READY CARDS

All "flipped over" cards refresh (such as spent planets, etc).

7.  REPAIR UNITS.

Any damaged units are automatically repaired.

8.  RETURN STRATEGY CARDS

All Strategy Cards are returned to the pool.

If the Agenda Phase is unlocked, the game then proceeds to the Agenda Phase.  Otherwise, start a new round by beginning a new Strategy Phase.

Agenda Phase

Once a player has successfully landed on Mecatol Rex, that unlocks the Agenda Phase.

The game starts with the "Custodian Token" on Mecatol Rex.  To land on Mecatol Rex for the first time, a player must be able to remove the Custodian Token by expending 6 influence.  That player also scores 1 VP.

From that point forward, whoever controls Mecatol Rex controls this token.

Steps of the Agenda Phase:

1) FIRST AGENDA

i. REVEAL AGENDA

ii. VOTE

iii. RESOLVE OUTCOME

2) SECOND AGENDA

i. REVEAL AGENDA

ii. VOTE

iii. RESOLVE OUTCOME

3) READY PLANETS

Players vote by exhausting planets.  They cast a number of votes for an outcome equal to the total influence value of all planets they exhaust in this manner.

Voting starts with the player to the Speaker's left, and continues clockwise, ending with the Speaker.

Examples of some Agendas:

Players are encouraged to negotiate among one another to rally favor towards their desired outcomes.  While negotiating over Agendas, players may engage in transactions with all players in the game, regardless of whether they are neighbors.

Key points:  The second agenda isn't revealed until after the first agenda has been resolved.  Do you save your resources to vote on a potentially more impactful second agenda?  

Which brings us to the concept of Deals and Transactions.  

Rules surrounding Deals and Transactions are new to 4th Edition.  TI has always been about exuberantly discussing deals w/ the other players.  TI4E tries to bring order to this chaos by formalizing a few key rules around it.

I'm simply going to paste the snippet from the rule book for this.

Alright, we're getting REALLY close to January 19!  I'm going to post one final post next week (Technology), but it's going to be a very simple one.