Revision 2: August 1, 2016
Created by Matt Watkins
Based on the High Frontier Alive and Complete 3rd Edition Rules Updated November 20,
2015 Copyright © 2015, Sierra Madre Games, Contact: phileklund@aol.com
There are colorcoded labels before items that apply only to the advanced game or specific
modules:
Advanced, Support, Freighter, Bernal, Colonist, GW-Thruster, Combat, Endgame,
Solo
I. Setup
1) Choose a faction and retrieve the appropriate crew card and playmat
a) Choose legacy or radical factions (opposite sides of crew card) as long as no two
players have the same privilege.
b) Bernal Retrieve the faction Bernal card. Crew and Bernal cards start in the
Bernal stack on the playmat.
2) Reserves anywhere on playmat
a) 1 big cube (freighter), 6 small cubes (factories), 7 domes (colonies) and 9 discs
of faction color
b) Bernal 2 cylinders (Bernal and ersatzBernal space stations), one on its home
orbit on the solar system map (denoted by a starburst in the faction’s color
around the location.)
3) Thrust and mass indicators above the fuel strip
a) 1 clear blue disc each for dry mass and net thrust
b) 3 rocket wet mass markers (blue, yellow and black)
4) Starting water 4 clear blue discs ( = 4WT) in the water depot on the playmat
5) Patent decks shuffle by type
a) Thruster, Robonaut, Refinery
b) Support Generator, Reactor, Radiator
c) Freighter Freighter
d) Colonist Colonist
e) GW-Thruster GW Thruster
6) Resource exploitation One clear blue disc on each of the starting positions on the
resource exploitation tracks (5 total)
7) 5 Glory and 4 venture card yellow side up near the game board
a) Endgame Place the cards orange side up instead
8) Advanced Moon Treaty clear blue ‘busted’ discs at both Luna sites
9) Advanced Politics one clear blue disc on the “Start” dot of the Space Government
tracker
10) Advanced Sunspot one clear blue disc on the “Start” dot in the Sunspot Cycle
11) Determine starting player using any method.
II. Play Sequence
1) Each turn a player may move each of her spacecraft, perform one operation, and
perform any number of free actions, in any order. Play proceeds clockwise from the
starting player.
a) Colonist Each boosted colonist may perform an additional operation matching
the specialization on its card.
i) Pay 1WT more for each operation in that specialization. For example a
player with two scientists and an engineer could perform one free crew
operation, pay 1WT for an additional science operation, 2WT for a second
additional science operation, and 1WT for an additional engineering
operation for a total of 4WT.
b) Combat If politics is in war, a player can declare one or more attacks after all
their spacecraft movement is complete, and/or intercepts during another player’s
movement.
2) Advanced After the final player has played their turn, then advance the Sunspot Cycle
one spot.
a) If the Sunspot Cycle crosses an event threshold make a 1d6 event roll. Results of
the die roll are as printed on the Solar System Chart.
i) Solo If the Election special event occurs, hold a World Science
Symposium instead; choose three decks and place the top card of each
on the bottom.
Free Actions
1) Commission a rocket
a) Place a stack of colocated cards into your empty rocket stack
b) Add the total mass in the white squares (Advanced use the mass in the red
squares instead) for all the cards in the stack. Place a blue disc on that number
on the fuel strip to indicate the rocket’s dry mass.
c) Place a fuel figure on top of the dry mass disc to indicate that the rocket is
unfueled.
2) Cargo transfer transfer cards between colocated stacks
a) Advanced Transfer of FFTs between colocated stacks
3) Home orbit refueling Spend WTs from the depot to fuel spacecraft in the home orbit.
a) Advanced Away from home orbit, convert FFTs to fuel steps. If the FFTs are
lower grade than the fuel figure, swap the fuel figure out for the lower grade one.
b) Move the fuel figure rightward along the red line for every fuel tank added.
4) Liquidate fuel Spend fuel steps from a spacecraft in home orbit to gain WTs in the
depot
a) Advanced Away from home orbit, convert fuel steps to FFTs of the same
grade.
b) Move the fuel figure leftward along the red line for every fuel tank removed.
Terminology: Fuel grades are isotope, water, and dirt, from highest to lowest grade.
5) Jettison fuel
6) Jettison cargo to either an output or to your hand (decommissioned)
a) Only affects net thrust if done before movement starts
b) Dry mass adjustment
Terminology: A dry mass adjustment requires moving the dry mass indicator and fuel figure to
the right or left a number of steps equal to the mass added or removed.
7) Decommission
a) Cards from rocket or Bernal must be jettisoned first
b) Cards return to your hand
c) Freighters form an outpost from the cargo and the cube is returned to the
playmat
d) Humans (crews or human colonists) can only be voluntarily decommissioned in
LEO (return home), to form colonies, or as a felony.
e) Support Heavy radiators decommissioned by an event or epic event, rotate to
their light orientation.
8) Discard cards from your hand to the bottom of the appropriate patent deck
9) Build a space colony
a) Can only be performed at a factory
b) Decommission the colocated crew or colonist card and place a dome at the
factory location
10) Disband a space colony
a) Crew card must be in your hand
b) Remove the dome and form an outpost at the location with the crew card
11) Claim Glory or Ventures cards once the conditions on the card have been met
12) Withdraw pieces from the map
a) Rockets and outputs must have no cards in the stack and have jettisoned or
liquidated their fuel
b) Claims must be reprospected if withdrawn
c) Freighters’ cargo must be jettisoned or decommissioned
d) Freighter Mobile factories can be withdrawn when decommissioned, either
voluntarily or involuntarily.
13) Freighter Freighter swap Swap a freighter cube with no cards with any mobile factory
that has not already moved
Operations
The letters after each operation indicate the colonist specialization required to perform them: e =
engineering, s = science, f = finance.
1) Income (e, s, f) Take 2WT from the pool and place them in the depot
2) Research (s) Select one patent card from the top of any deck for auction
a) Cannot be performed by a player with more than 3 cards in their hand
b) Support The auction winner, for free, takes the top card from each deck listed
as a support requirement for the auctioned patent.
c) Solo Pay 2WT plus 2WT for each support, or 1WT to take the bottom card from
a deck unseen. Hand limits are ignored.
3) Free market (f)
a) Sell a card from your hand to the bottom of its patent deck for 5WT
i) Advanced Cards are sold from your hand for the value indicated on the
System Government chart
b) Decommission a black card in LEO for the VP value of its product letter on the
exploitation track
i) Bernal A black card can also be sold to a promoted Bernal, provided it
does not have the same product letter as any of the Bernal’s dirtsides.
Terminology: A dirtside is your factory colocated or adjacent to your Bernal. (A Bernal must be
landed on a synodic comet to use it as a dirtside.)
(1) If the Bernal is owned by the selling player, the card is returned to
the bottom of the patent deck.
(2) If it is owned by another player, the other player must agree (and
could charge a commission), then the card is decommissioned to
your hand.
4) Boost (e) Move one or more white cards from your hand to the LEO stack. The total
cost is water equal to the combined mass of cards boosted.
5) Site refuel (e)
a) Factory Add 20 dirt tanks, 8 water tanks, or 1 isotope tank (of factory type) to
the rocket
b) ISRU
i) Add (1 + site hydration ISRU rating) water or isotope tanks to the rocket.
OR
ii) Add 10 dirt tanks to an operational rocket or Bernal, even if no ISRU unit
is present.
OR
iii) Add 10 dirt tanks to any spacecraft with an ISRU unit.
c) Support Atmospheric scooping
i) Can only be done with certain Colonist and (operational) Refinery cards
ii) Performed after any fullmove aerobrake except Earth
iii) Yields 8 tanks of water
d) Bernal Dirtside
i) Works like a factory refuel except that isotope fuel is loaded at a rate of
one tank per dirtside of the appropriate type.
6) Prospect (s)
a) Card at the site with ISRU rating less than or equal to site hydration
i) Cards capable of raygun prospecting can prospect adjacent
nonatmospheric sites. Advanced Synodic sites can only be prospected
from adjacent sites when they’re available.
Terminology: synodic sites have a colored border around them. They are only available when
the sunspot cycle is in a zone that matches the color of the border.
ii) Cards capable of buggy prospecting can prospect all sites along dashed
yellow lines on the map
b) Roll 1d6 The roll succeeds if it is less than or equal to the site’s size
i) Success place a claim disc on the site
ii) Failure place a clear blue ‘busted’ disc on the site
iii) Buggies can reroll failures once.
7) Industrialize (e)
a) Decommission a robonaut and refinery at a successfully prospected site to place
a factory cube on the claim disc
b) Move the exploitation track for the site’s spectral type down by one step
8) ET Production (e)
a) Move a card that matches a factory site’s spectral type, black side up, from your
hand to any stack (including a new freighter stack) at the factory site.
b) Freighter stacks can be moved on the same turn that they are created.
c) Freighter Freighters must be researched and ET produced before they can be
loaded with cargo.
9) Freighter Digital swap (e) Decommission cards from your stack and replace them
with black cards from your hand
a) Cards swapped must be colocated with your freighter or a mobile factory.
b) They must have the same product letter as your freighter card.
c) The stack cannot increase mass during the swap.
d) Neither humans nor emancipated robots can be swapped.
e) If mass changes, make a dry mass adjustment.
10) Advanced Promote flip a card from its black side to its purple side
a) Bernal Bernals can be promoted if they have an operational generator and are
in their home orbit or have a dirtside.
b) All other cards (Freighters, Colonists, GW Thrusters) must be at a lab.
Terminology: A lab is either a factory at a TNO science site OR a promoted Bernal with at least
one dirtside at a science site.
c) Freighter Once a freighter is promoted, all of the player’s factories become
mobile factories.
11) Colonist Suffrage (s) Become the Robot Emancipator
a) The player must be in power
b) There must be at least one robot colonist in play
c) Solo For solo play, instead of the ‘in power’ requirement, the player must have
one promoted robot colonist and pay 10WT each time they attempt the die roll.
d) Roll 1d6 The roll succeeds if the result is less than the total number of purple
cards in play.
i) Emancipated robots have peacetime loyalty to the Emancipator
ii) Human colonists employed by the Emancipator, but without loyalty to the
Emancipator can be hostile recruited by anyone
12) Colonist Recruit (f) If hand size is not more than three, select the top three cards
from the Colonist deck, choose one and auction it, returning the other two to the bottom
of the deck
13) Colonist Hostile recruit (f) Recruit colonists already owned and boosted by other
players.
a) The target must be colocated with the player’s stack.
b) The targeted colonist must be loyal to the player (or be a human colonist owned
by but not loyal to the Robot Emancipator.)
c) Hostile recruiting cannot be performed during war.
14) Advanced Activism & elections (f) Initiate an election auction
a) The sunspot cycle must be in the blue sector
b) The auction is blind. Each player may bid up to 10WT. All bids are paid to the
pool regardless of outcome.
c) During war, voting colonists (human and emancipated robots) make one vote per
ballot box icon for their employer.
d) During peace, voting colonists make one vote per ballot box icon for the faction
they’re loyal to.
e) Ties are broken by the player in power. If no player is in power, politics is
unchanged.
f) The winning player can move the Politics marker by one spot.
g) Endgame There is an election auction at the end of the game, prior to final
scoring.
15) Advanced Antitrust (f) Choose another player with two or more of the same
category of card in their hand. That player must choose one of those cards and
surrender it to your hand.
Movement
1) Activate a thruster. The thruster’s fuel type must be the same or lower grade than your
fuel figure.
2) Calculate net thrust. The net thrust is the total of:
a) Base thrust from the left side of the fuel triangle on the active thruster
b) Wet mass modifier from the column of the fuel strip the fuel figure is on
c) If the thruster or one of its supports can utilize solar power, the modifier marked
on the map location for the rocket’s heliocentric zone.
d) If the thruster is beam power pushable, it can receive +1 thrust from a faction
privilege OR +2 thrust from a push factory (either your own or another player’s
through a deal).
Terminology: A push factory is a factory on Mercury, Venus or Io (marked on the map with the
push icon.)
e) If the fuel triangle on the active thruster has an afterburner icon, you can choose
to burn the number of fuel steps in the icon to add +1 thrust.
3) Expending TMPs: The rocket has a number of thrust movement points (TMP) equal to
its net thrust. To enter a burn (including ½ lander burns), the rocket must expend one
TMP. Changing directions (pivoting) at a Hohmann requires expending two TMPs.
a) A rocket with a net thrust of less than 1 and/or a nonoperational thruster can
coast but cannot begin movement, land (except by aerobrake), or enter
burns/pass through pivots (Advanced except by using free flyby burns.)
Terminology: Support An operational component is one that is in a stack with all of its
required operational supports.
4) Expending fuel: each TMP expended requires moving a number of fuel steps left along
the black line on the fuel strip equal to the fuel consumption number on the right side of
the fuel triangle for the active thruster. (Exception: Entering a ½ lander burn uses half of
the fuel consumption, rounded up.)
5) A rocket must have the required TMPs and fuel to enter a burn or perform a pivot.
a) Fuel consumption for freighters is not tracked. They can perform any maneuver
that they have the TMPs for.
6) Coasting:
a) A rocket may move through any number of Hohmann intersections without
expending TMPs, provided it does not change direction.
b) A rocket may change direction at a Lagrange point without expending TMPs.
c) Advanced Passing through a flyby location provides a number of free burns
that can be coasted through, as shown at the location.
7) Stopping: a rocket may stop on any space or intersection except a lander burn.
a) When beginning movement at a Hohmann intersection, it may move in any
direction without expending extra fuel.
b) A rocket must stop when it reaches a site.
c) When a rocket stops, move its fuel figure to the next lowest whole number on the
fuel strip.
8) Landing/liftoff does not require fuel. (Any fuel consumption is taken into account with
lander burns.)
a) Powered: to land on or take off from a site, a rocket must have net thrust strictly
greater than the site’s size. A rocket cannot enter a lander burn if it doesn’t have
enough thrust to land/liftoff.
b) Aerobrake landing: landing on a site through an aerobrake path does not require
an operational thruster, but does require rolling for an aerobrake hazard.
c) Aerostat takeoff: taking off from a site with an aerostat requires an operational
thruster, but can be done regardless of net thrust.
d) Factory assist: Landing/liftoff from an industrialized site (Freighter or with a
mobile freighter) does not require an operational thruster (with the site factory’s
owner’s permission), but does require rolling for a crash hazard. Factory assist
cannot be used to enter lander burns.
e) Advanced Synodic sites cannot be landed on unless they’re available.
9) Crash/aerobrake hazards: a spacecraft that undergoes a crash or aerobrake hazard
must roll a 1d6. On a roll of 1, the entire stack is decommissioned.
a) You can spend 4WT from your pool prior to rolling to avoid the hazard roll.
10) Advanced Radiation hazards: a spacecraft that passes through a radiation hazard
must roll 1d6, subtract its net thrust, and decommission any spacecraft cards with a rad
hardness less than the result.
a) If the solar cycle is in the red zone, add 2 to the dice roll.
III. Game End
Once the following total number of factories is built, the game ends at the end of the following
year (i.e. the current year is played through to the end, then one more year is played.)
2 players 4 factories
3 players 6 factories
4+ players 7 factories
Endgame If the Endgame module is used, instead of the ending condition above, the game
ends two solar threshold events after a number of Futures Stars has been claimed that is one
less than the number of players.
1) Futures Stars can be claimed by promoting certain Freighter, Colonist or GW Thruster
cards and meeting the conditions listed on their purple side.
2) The Futures card must be operational and under the control of the player claiming the
Futures Star.
3) Each player can only claim one each of Freighter, Colonist and GW Thrusters Futures.
Endgame Carry out an election auction prior to final scoring.
Scoring
Each claim, factory, Bernal, or freighter 1VP
Endgame Only Ersatz and promoted Bernals at dirtsides count for points
Each colony 2VP
Each factory VP as listed on the exploitation track for that factory’s spectral type
Each factory at a science site 2VP
Each factory at a TNO science site 4VP
Glory and Venture cards as listed on the card
Advanced In power 5VP
1) Solo No faction can be in power, nor earn endgame points for exoglobal politics.
Endgame Futures Stars as indicated for each claim disc on a Futures Star
Update Log
Revision 2:
Added the Movement section
Added “Commission a rocket” as a free action
Added terminology breakouts for some obscure terms: dirtside, lab, etc
Added raygun and buggy prospecting
Cleaned up grammar a litle bit