Gamehelptwilightimperium

ACTION PHASE

The action phase is the main phase of the game, during which players produce units, move ships, enact strategies, and interact with other players. During the action phase, players take turns in initiative order. While a player is taking a turn, he is the active player, and he can perform one action. After each player has taken a turn, player turns begin again in initiative order. Initiative order may repeat in this manner several times within a single action phase. The action phase does not end until each player has passed (see below). There are three types of actions: tactical actions, strategic actions, and component actions. They are described in detail later. If a player does not wish to perform an action during his turn, he may pass. After a player passes, his turn is skipped for the remainder of the action phase. A player cannot pass until he has performed his strategic action, which is explained later. After each player has passed, the game round continues to the status phase.

TACTICAL ACTION

A tactical action allows a player to move ships, initiate combat, invade planets, produce units, and otherwise interact with the game board. To understand a tactical action, players need to understand many other game concepts, such as movement and combat. For this reason, the steps of a tactical action are summarized below, but are not described in detail until later.

1. ACTIVATION: The active player must activate a system by taking a command token from his tactic pool and placing it in that system.

2. MOVEMENT: The active player may move ships into a system from any number of other systems. Ships can also transport ground forces from one system to another.

3. SPACE COMBAT: If multiple players have ships in the active system, they resolve a space combat.

4. INVASION: The active player may commit ground forces to land on planets in the active system. If another player has units on those planets, the players resolve a ground combat.

5. PRODUCTION: If the active player has a space dock in the active system, he can produce units by spending resources. A player might not resolve all of the above steps during every tactical action. For example, a player may choose not to move units during the “Movement” step but may still produce units during the “Production” step.

STRATEGIC ACTION

Each strategy card has both a primary ability and a secondary ability. When a player performs a strategic action, he resolves the primary ability of his strategy card. After resolving this ability, each other player may resolve the secondary ability of that strategy card. The active player cannot resolve the secondary ability of his own strategy card. After each player has had an opportunity to resolve a strategy card’s secondary ability, the active player exhausts that strategy card by flipping it facedown. Players cannot resolve abilities on exhausted strategy cards, but the exhausted cards’ numbers are still used to determine initiative order. A player cannot pass during the action phase unless his strategy card is exhausted. This means that each player must perform a strategic action at some point during the action phase, which guarantees that each other player has an opportunity to resolve the secondary ability of that strategy card. A player who has passed during the action phase can still resolve the secondary ability of other players’ strategy cards.

COMPONENT ACTIONS

A component action is an action that is printed on a game component. Many action cards, faction sheets, and even some technology cards have component actions. Each of these effects is preceded by the word “Action.”