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This is preview of the various expansions I am considering for Galactic Era in various stages of development. All of these will still need a lot of development and testing though before I can release them!

Galactic Revolt (1-2 players)

Galactic Revolt is a small expansion for Galactic Era for 1-2 players. It has relatively few components, so I will also release this as a print-and-play version that players can make for themselves.

Components:

  • 1 black pawn (Emperor)
  • 4 white pawns (Rebel heroes)
  • 9 secret facility counters
  • cards (for solo mode only, Imperial actions)

The basic idea is that you have two players (or one player and an automa).

One player is the Empire which controls most of the stars in the Galaxy (the rest are neutral) and some ships.

The other player is the Rebels who only control 3 heroes (a fourth hero is currently being held captive by the Empire) starting anywhere in the galaxy. The Rebels will try to increase the “Unrest” level by spreading dissent, thus causing planets to come to their side or at least become neutral. They can also try to discover the secret Imperial facilities (Secret Labs, Secret Prison, Secret Spy Center, Secret Weapon Storage) which also increases the Unrest level. Every secret facility the Rebel player can take from the Empire will give him a big advantage.

Name

Effect when first taken over by Rebel player

Secret Labs

Rebel player gets 3 technology levels from the Imperial player (in addition to any other technology levels gained for taking this star).

Secret Prison

Add 3 population to that star.

Free 1 captive hero (for free) and place here.

Secret Spy Center

Rebel player gets 3 additional search sabotages.

Imperial player may not use “Trickery” anymore (apples for the rest of game).

Secret Weapon Storage

Place 6 Rebel ships at that star.

If the Rebel player manages to “flip” an entire sector to the Rebel side then he gains the additional advantage of the star people that inhabit that sector (each sector is inhabited by a star people controlled by the Imperial player at the start of the game).

The Imperial player is meanwhile searching for the secret Rebel homeworld. He has plenty of actions, ships and technology at his disposal. The Imperial player wins immediately if he discovers and conquers the Rebel homeworld. Likewise, if the Rebel players can liberate the Imperial homeworld, then he wins immediately. If neither of these two happen, then the player with the most points wins the game after 8 rounds. The Rebel player can gain some significant points for achieving certain special goals, such as capturing the Emperor, taking secret facilities or destroying the Planetary Death Ray.

The two main problems the Imperial player has to deal with are the heroes and the growing Unrest level. He can try to capture the heroes which will severely limit the Rebel player. The more aggressively the Imperial player acts the more Unrest he generates though. He can also ignore the heroes and growing Unrest and simply increase his power and points or crush any dissenting stars with his military. The Unrest level increases the military strength the Rebel player can muster at his homeworld if and when it is revealed (which he can also do militarily).

All the normal rules of Galactic Era still apply. So you can still explore, colonize new stars and develop your civilization as normal.

The solo mode will probably be limited to playing as the Rebel player only (since the Imperial player is much easier to automatize).

You play with three sector tiles directly next to each other forming a triangle (so no center sector). The ancient relics are also in the game, but instead of just being in the center sector they are spread out over these three sectors.

Galactic Council

This is a big expansion and has three parts, the Galactic Council, new star peoples and defense moons. Each part is independent of the others. You may choose to play with all or any combination of these.

Galactic Council

The Galactic Council has a system of voting by which new rules, called “Laws” are introduced in the game. Here are a few examples of “laws”:

Aid Program for Developing Civilizations Every player in last place with DP gets 1 DP. Do this immediately when the resolution passes and at end of every following scoring phase.When this resolution passes every player who voted „No“ loses 1 DP.
Denunciation of Arms Race Players lose 1 DP every time they build more than 8 and even 2 DP if they build more than 10 ships within a single growth action. You cannot voluntarily build less ships than normal.
Denunciation of Warmongering Every time a player declares war he loses DP, STS players lose 2 DP, STO players only lose 1 DP.
Economic Cooperation Agreement When doing the Build Ships action players get 1 additional ship for every 5 population they have.
Fleet Growth Limitation Treaty When doing the Build Ships action you get no more than 6 ships. STS players may choose to build more, but every time they do so they lose 1 DP.
Galactic Armistice When this resolution passes all players flip their war counters to the peace side up. If any player is “at war” at the end of a round then a Galactic Council meeting is automatically called in for that round. Nobody gets the “host marker“ in this case.
New Star Peoples

Here are some examples of the new star peoples:

Name STO STS
Blue Humanoids Seed Life: Use a Gain Star growth action to convert an uninhabited neutral star to a primitive neutral (exchange the star counter if possible, otherwise place 2 white discs on it). Get 3 DP every time you do this. Proselytize: Use a Gain Star growth action to place a religion counter (obelisk marker) on a primitive neutral star. Get 3 DP per primitive neutral star with a religion counter at the end of the Era of Darkness.Remove the religion counter once such a star is taken or is not primitive neutral anymore.You are limited to 6 religion counters.
Gaseous Beings You can “colonize” one nebula hex per sector as if it were an uninhabited neutral star. The hex may not already contain a star or a deep space station. The hex is thereafter treated like a normal star for the rest of the game unless it becomes depopulated (then it becomes a normal nebula hex again and you can colonize a nebula hex in that sector again).
You move through nebula hexes as if they were normal hexes. Get +1 CV per ship in every battle in a nebula hex. This bonus cannot be used for anything else but battles.
Ichtyids Start with 1 additional ship and population at your home star.
When you lose a battle with a CV difference of 5 or less you choose your own losses. You do not lose any ships when you win a battle.
Rockmen Get 3 population discs (instead of 1) when “colonizing” a star.
Sphere Beings Start with Propulsion level 6. You only get one (instead of two) of the standard growth action counters each round (you can get additional ones as normal).
Time Travelers You can also score points as if you were in the previous or the next round (i.e. for the era of that round).
Defense Moons

Defense moons are defensive structure you can build at your stars with at least 2 population. Each player can have a maximum of 6 defense moons. To conquer or liberate a star with a defense moon players need 6 ships more than normal. Each defense moon counts as 6 ships for the sector ship majority DP at game end.

Galactic Stations

A new game component, deep space stations, is added to the game. It offers defensive capabilities and makes it easier to increase your population. They can only be placed in hexes where there are no stars.

Galactic Anomaly (2-7 players)

This expansion can either be played as a one-vs-many or as a cooperative game.

One-vs-Many

One player plays the “Galactic Anomaly” (black pieces) who controls the center sector and is very powerful (starts with high levels and many ships). All the other players play normally and start in their home sector as normal. They must defeat the Galactic Anomaly together.

Cooperative

The Galactic Anomaly can also be played via an automa. All the players then cooperatively play against the Anomaly.

Because of their morals, STO players are somewhat restricted in how aggressive they can be against the Galactic Anomaly. STS players can be much more effective militarily, but they can also be partially “taken over” by the Anomaly and lose stars and ships to the Anomaly. The STO players are immune against being taken over by the Anomaly like this.

4 Comments

Pascal157 · 27.10.2020 at 11:32

Interesting Galactic Era Expansions: Galactic Council, Galactic Stations & Galactic Anomaly

Jonathan Challis · 01.11.2020 at 12:08

Galactic Council & Galactic Stations are of interest – not the others to me…

Florian · 16.07.2022 at 23:48

Gibts schon neue Infos zu den Erweiterungen? PnP? Retail? Speziell zu Galactic Revolt?!

    Channing · 18.07.2022 at 20:29

    Nein, wir haben noch nicht entschieden, was wir machen. Das hängt auch etwas davon ab, was die Spieler wollen.
    We have not yet decided which, if any, expansions to make. It also depends upon which expansions players would like.

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