Council Of Shadows
The game
You take on the role of four high-tech civilizations on the edge of the universe.
You will be watched around the clock by the Council of Shadows, an all-knowing council of an overpowering life form. The Council of Shadows has given you a special gift: the so-called Dark Tech. It allows you to travel to distant galaxies at times the speed of light. However, in return for this extraordinary technology, the Council expects massive amounts of energy to be harvested on your expeditions to distant solar systems.
This is just a brief summary of the rules and an instruction manual.
The complete Ravensburger rule (PDF) can be found here.Playfield
- Own hand cards and bonus cards.
- AI cards space stations and energy purchase
- Galaxy rating display
- Action fields (Parsec upgrade on the right)
- Energy and consumption as well as current action.
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- Current game phase
- Own gemstone ownership
- Own upgrades
The game
Over several game rounds you try to do so much on your journeys to foreign galaxies and by taking advantage of your actions To collect energy so that you not only cover your consumption, but even exceed it.
Decide carefully whether you use powerful actions and suffer the consequences of high energy consumption or whether you try to reach your goal with fine and economical tactics.
Gameplay
{3 }Game runs over several rounds.
Each round with 3 phases: < /p>
- Buy
- Planning/Order
- Actions (and scoring)
Phase 1: Buy
In the purchase phase you can make up to 3 purchases using the gems. Either acquire new cards from your hand or buy improvements on the tableau. There are always 8 cards available in the card display. Cards that you can purchase are outlined in green, and you buy them into your hand by dragging them down into your hand.
You can purchase other expansions and expansions (if they are green are framed) by clicking on them.
Attention: Payment is made automatically and the best choice for you is made, as it is allowed to replace less valuable gemstones with higher value gemstones replace.
Improvements
With the adaptability for planets you can Build colonies on the corresponding planets:
- Bluish (Earth-like planets)
- Brownish (desert planets)
- Reddish (volcanic planets)
- Putting it on later (even on opponents) is now allowed
You can gain additional energy from your gemstones
You can also extend your range of the action fields. At the beginning you can only be active in the lower third of space (Parsec 1). By expanding to Parsec 2/3 you can colonize the higher areas using these expanded action fields or mine there.
Phase2: Planning and Sequence
You place 1 action card on each action field (laying it on top of other cards is also allowed ). You can only complete the phase when there is at least one card on each action field.
To place a card, take it out of your hand view and drag it to the desired action field. If you are happy with your selection, select the arrow.
This phase is carried out at the same time; once each player has made their selection, they continue with phase 3. The order of the 3rd phase is determined based on the consumption of your cards in the action fields. (The highest consumption draws first)
Phase 3: Actions and Scoring
Now the selected actions are carried out from top to bottom. The current action card is outlined in white and the action to be carried out is shown below. (If in rare cases you don't want to or can't carry out your action, you can press the arrow and advance to the next action.)
Basically, there are different basic actions that you can carry out (pay attention to the range of the active action field):
Settle / found a colony
Place cubes on planets. Please note the range of the action field and your ability to adapt to the planet type.
Probing
{8 }Take income according to your own colonies. For each colony (= each of your cubes in this solar system) you can take 1 x the yield of the solar system.
Discover
Bring a new solar system into play, then either colonize or mine. You discover a solar system by revealing (clicking on) two cards from one of the stacks in the corresponding range and then moving a selected solar system to a valid space in a galaxy.
Receive gemstones
Here you receive the specified amount of gemstones in your supply.
< div class="clear">Upgrade gemstones
Upgrade gemstone by 1 level. Upgrading is done by simply clicking on the gemstone to be upgraded.
At the end of the phase, your cards are moved one action space down. The cards that were at the bottom are then available to you again as hand cards.
Ratings
You can score each galaxy in which there is at least 1 colony of your own a maximum of 1 x.
- You have it there the majority (>), you will receive the higher number as energy.
- If you are equal or in the minority (=): you will still receive the lower number as energy.
Some galaxies randomly give you a bonus card that still gives energy at the end of the game.
The cube that was used for scoring is removed.
Dark Tech
Whoever reaches their consumption value with their energy or overtaken, increases by 1 Dark Tech level and its energy is reduced by the consumption value.
When you advance to Dark Tech levels 1 and 2, you receive a Dark Tech bonus . You choose the bonus by taking it and dragging it to the bottom area.
If a player reaches the 3rd Dark Tech- At the level it signals the end of the game. The current round is played to the end and the final scoring takes place.
End of game and final scoring
Now each player receives energy for:
- Remaining gemstones (1/2/3 energy for black/golden/white gemstones )
- 2 energy for each additional AI hand card acquired.
- Energy corresponding to the bonus cards collected.
You can get additional Dark Tech levels by reaching your supply value.
Who has the highest Dark Tech level wins. In the event of a tie, whoever has more energy counts. If there is a tie here too, the player with the most cubes on the game board wins.
< p> And now have fun colonizing space.