Overview
Zenith is tug-of-war style game, where you and your opponent fight for control the 5 planets and compete to be first to achieve one of the three victory conditions:
3= Absolute Victory: Gain 3 influence tokens from the same planet.- 4≠ Democratic Victory: Gain 4 influence tokens from different planets.
- 5 Popular Victory: Gain 5 influence tokens from any combination of planets.
Influence
- +1 influence on a planet = move that planet's influence token 1 space towards you.
- When an influence token reaches your edge of the board, you keep it and a new token is placed on the planet.
- Excess influence when arriving at the edge of the board is lost.
Planet colours
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| Mercury
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Venus
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Terra
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Mars
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Jupiter
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Setup
- 1st player is decided randomly.
- 2nd player gains 1 Terra influence (moving 1🡇 space towards their control zone).
- Both players start with 4 cards.
Turn Structure
Select 1 from your hand to use for one of three actions:
1. Diplomacy Action
- Discard 1 to gain the Leader Badge (silver side), plus the diplomacy bonus for the faction of the card you are discarding.
- Robot : Take the Leader badge and gain 1 Zenithium.
- Human : Take the Leader badge and gain 3 Credits.
- Animod : Take the Leader badge and mobilize 2 cards.
- If you already have , turn it to the gold side .
- Each side of the Leader Badge increases your hand size by one 56.
- If you already have , your hand size remains at 6.
2. Influence Action 🡇
- Spend the credits cost of a card to play that card on your stack and carry out the card's effects (left to right).
- All cards provide 1🡇 for its planet plus other effects shown on the card.
- Effects range from gaining more influence in the same or other planets, gaining new cards on your stacks, removing cards from your opponent's stacks or even stealing cards from your opponent's stacks onto your stacks.
Credit Discount -#
- For each card previously placed in your stack for that planet, -1 from the card cost.
- e.g. if your Mercury stack has 5, an 8 cost would cost 8 − 5 = 3.
- If you have more cards than the cost, it is free (but do not gain ).
3. Technology Action /
- Discard the card to progress your Tech marker ( / ) on the technology track for the faction of the card (Animod, Human or Robot).
- To carry out this action you have to spend the required Zenithium () to pay for the next level on the respective technology track.
- When your Tech marker progresses to the next level, gain the effect of that level plus all previous levels on that faction's track.
- Markers can only move one level per turn.
Technology track row bonus
- When you develop all three technology tracks to the same level, you gain influence on a planet of your choice:
Tech level bonus
| Level 1
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Level 2
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Level 3
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| 1🡇
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2🡇
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3🡇
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- One-time bonus.
- Not levels 4 and 5.
Bonus tokens
- There are 16 bonus tokens in the game; 8 face up and 8 face down in a draw pile.
- Each planet has a face up bonus.
- 1st player to gain for a planet gains it.
- Each technology track level 2 space has a face up bonus.
- 1st player to arrive at level 2 on a technology track gains it.
- Face down bonuses can also be achieved in other ways.
- Used bonuses are not replaced.
Bonus tokens
| Token
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Effect
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#
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Gain 1 influence
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4
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Gain 1 Zenithium
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3
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Gain 3 credits
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2
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Gain 4 credits
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2
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Take the leader badge
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2
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Mobilize 2 cards
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1
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Exile 2 cards
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1
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Transfer 1 card
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1
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Turn End
- Draw new cards back up to your current hand size; 4 / 5 / 6.
- If you have more than your limit, do not draw new cards but keep all cards in excess.
- Play then passes to your opponent.
Game End
Play ends immediately when a player achieves one of the three winning conditions.