SOLO MISSION FLIGHT PLAN

SOLO MISSION FLIGHT PLAN

8/6417/000/0365PREPARED BY YURI ZHURAVLEV

DESIGN DIVISION

ATLANTA, GEORGIA, USA

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INTRODUCTIONSolo Mode allows you to play Space Explorers by yourself, using the same components from the base game. Once you have mastered the standard solo mode, you can use harder variants to increase the challenge.

THE GOALJust as in the base game, you are competing with another Hub to launch as many Projects as possible. Your opponent is single-minded in their desire for space exploration, and they play by

their own rules.

You are playing against a game-controlled Opponent, taking turns just like in the base game. Gameplay is generally the same — with a few twists.

The game ends when all available Projects are completed or when you recruit 12 Specialists to your Hub. After that, final scoring takes place, and either you or your Opponent is proclaimed the winner.

ADDITIONAL COMPONENTS REQUIRED:Achievement Track

INITIAL SETUPDifferences from the base game setup are highlighted.

1. SPACE RESEARCH CENTERShuffle the Specialist cards and place them face-down in the center of the table to form the Specialist Deck. Reveal the top 6 cards and place them in a single row face-up beside the deck to form the Space Research Center.

Put the First Player token below the first Specialist card. The First Player token isn’t used in Solo Mode, so you will re-use it as the Development Marker to show where your Opponent is looking.

2. ACHIEVEMENT TRACK AND PROJECTSTake 5 Project tiles at random. Return unused tiles to the game box.

Note: Project tiles are double-sided. The recommended way to choose which side to use is to toss each tile into the air and use the side that lands face-up. However, you may use any other method you wish. Place all 5 Project tiles at the start of the Achievement Track.

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3. PLAYER SETUPTake for yourself:

�� A Research & Development Hub, with the two pieces connected as shown in the picture.

�� 5 Research tokens, one of each color.

�� A Player Reference sheet.

Place a Hub on the table for your Opponent.

Give your Opponent 5 Research tokens, one of each color. Shuffle them and place them as a stack beside their Hub.

Your Opponent does not require a Player Reference Sheet.

Place all unused Hubs, Research tokens and Player Reference sheets back in the game box.

4. STARTING HANDDraw one card from the Specialist deck to form your starting hand. Your Opponent does not get a card.

5. DEVELOPMENT MARKERIn Solo Mode, you are always the First Player. The First Player token is used as the Development marker instead.

COMPLETED SETUP FOR SOLO MODE

5 random projects with Achievement track Your starting hand

Development Marker

Reference card

5 Research tokens

Your Research Hub

Opponent's Research tokens in a stackOpponent's Research Hub

Specialists' Deck

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4

7

5

98

31

1 4 7

2 5 8

93 6

2

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THE ACHIEVEMENT TRACKAt the start of the game, there are five Project tiles placed at the first position on the Achievement track. Each time your Opponent recruits a Specialist, all Projects that match the Division of the new Specialist advance one position along the track. If a Project reaches the end of the track before you can complete it yourself, it is considered completed by your Opponent.

YOUR TURNYou take your turn the same way as in the base version of Space Explorers, with a few changes.

RESEARCH TOKENS1. When you need to pass Research tokens to your Opponent (after adding a Specialist to your Hub or by using a Specialist’s ability), put those tokens aside instead.

2. At the end of your turn, first take the top Research token from your Opponent’s Research token stack (which starts with 5 tokens at the beginning of the game) and keep it for yourself. If the stack is empty when you need to take a token from it, you miss out. Then take any tokens you put aside during your turn and place them underneath the stack in any order. If the stack is empty, those tokens become the new stack.

OTHER PLAYERIf any game rule refers to another player, your Opponent is always that other player.

THE CENTERThe Development marker is always placed below one of the 6 Specialist cards in the Center. As the game goes on, it slides from left to right, one card at a time.

When the Specialist card above the Development marker is taken from the Center by you or your Opponent for any reason, move the Development marker to the next card in the row. If the Development marker is at the last card, move it to the first card to start again.

EXAMPLE OF YOUR TURNYou are going to recruit the Astronaut using the card in your hand (a Tester). The Development marker is located below the Astronaut card in the Center.

By passing the required Research tokens to your Opponent (i.e. setting them aside) and moving the Tester card to the Center to pay the other required Research tokens, you add the Astronaut to your Hub. The Development marker slides to the next Specialist card in the row.

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Note: the Development marker moves only if the Specialist card above it was taken. If you take some other Specialist card from the Center, the Development marker stays where it is.

�� If you need to place a 7th Specialist card in the Center, place it above the row of 6 Specialist cards to create a temporary row of Specialist cards. The Development marker never moves to a card in the temporary row — its movement is limited to the 6 cards in the main row. If you need to add an 8th Specialist card (or more), continue the temporary row by placing the cards to the right.

�� When a Specialist card is taken from the main row of the Center and there are cards in the temporary row, fill the vacant place using the leftmost Specialist card from the temporary row. If Center has fewer than 5 cards and there are no cards in the temporary row, reveal a card from the Specialist deck to fill the vacant place, just as in the base game.

YOUR OPPONENT’S TURNAt the beginning of their turn, your Opponent recruits the Specialist card from above the Development marker in the Center to their Hub. The Specialist is recruited to the Division matching their skill. If the Specialist has 2 different skills, the topmost of the 2 skills determines which Division they join.

Immediately move the Development marker to the next card in the row and fill the vacant place. Use the leftmost card from the temporary row if possible, otherwise reveal a new card from the deck.

Recruiting is free for your Opponent. They do not pass you any Research tokens to recruit a Specialist, but the abilities of their Specialists have no effect and are not used in the game.

* Next, advance all Project tiles that share a skill color with the Division of the newly-recruited Specialist one position forward along Achievement Track.

If a Project reaches the end of the Achievement track, it is considered completed by your Opponent. Place the Project tile beside your Opponent’s Hub for scoring at game end.

This ends your Opponent’s turn, and your next turn begins.

EXAMPLE OF YOUR OPPONENT’S TURN

Your Opponent starts by recruiting a Specialist, taking the Scientist card above the Development marker and placing it into their Hub. Then they advance the Development marker and, since the temporary row is empty, they reveal a card from the deck to fill the vacant space.

Next, all Projects that share a Skill icon color with the Division of the newly recruited Scientist, in this case Science (yellow), are moved 1 position forward. There are 3 such Projects out of the 5 available.

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Note: the newly-recruited Scientist has 2 Science (yellow) skills, but all that matters is the Division color, so the Projects with yellow Skill icons are advanced only one position, not two.

This ends your Opponent’s turn, and your next turn begins.

GAME ENDThe game is over as soon as you (not your Opponent) recruit 12 Specialists to your Hub OR when all the available Projects are completed by you and/or your Opponent. Since you are always the First Player, the game continues until the end of your Opponent’s next turn to ensure that you both have an equal number of turns.

SCORINGThe player who made the most Progress wins. In case of a tie, the player with the most points from completed Projects wins. If there is still a tie, you share victory with your Opponent.

CALCULATING YOUR SCORECount your Progress points as normal.

CALCULATING YOUR OPPONENT'S SCOREYour Opponent scores 2 Progress points for each Specialist cards in their Hub. Projects completed by your Opponent score the points marked on the tile, as normal.

Example: At the end of the game, your Opponent has 14 Specialist cards (14*2=28 Progress points) and 2 completed Projects (3 and 4 Progress points), for a total of 35 Progress points.

GAME VARIANTSAfter playing a game or two, you may decide to increase the difficulty. You may use any of the variants below in any combination, or even all at once.

VARIANT #1After setup, advance all Projects one position forward on the Achievement Track. We do not recommend starting with Project tiles any further ahead (2 positions or more).

VARIANT #2Your Opponent scores +2 Progress points for each of their completed Projects at game end.

� For a more balanced game, if playing Variants #1 and #2, you may want to choose Projects according to the number of skills shown on the tokens, instead of choosing at random. We recommend to choose 1 Project with 2 skills, 3 Projects with 3 skills, and 1 Project with 4 skills.

VARIANT #3After setup, randomly choose a Division in your Opponent’s Hub. Your Opponent scores +2 Progress points for each Specialist in the chosen Division of their Hub at game end (scoring 4 Progress points for those Specialists instead of 2). You can choose the Division by drawing a spare Research token from the box and matching the color.

VARIANT #4Your Opponent scores extra points in Divisions with many Specialists. In each Division, Specialist number 3 scores +1 Progress point, and each Specialist from number 4 onward

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scores +2 Progress points (so a Division with 5 Specialists would score +1, +2, and +2).

Looking at the sample illustration in the Game End section, we see that your Opponent would have scored 33 Progress points from the Specialist cards using this Variant (instead of 28).

Good luck in your explorations!

PROJECT FACTSSPUTNIK 1 OCTOBER 4, 1957 (USSR) TELSTAR 1 JULY 10, 1962 (USA)First artificial satellite launched into orbit. About the size of a beachball, it orbited Earth for 3 months traveling approximately 43 million miles.

This satellite allowed for the first live broadcast television signal to be sent between the United States and Europe.

EXPLORER 1 JANUARY 31, 1958 (USA) MARINER 2 AUGUST 27, 1962 (USA)First satellite launch by the US. It was the third satellite to achieve orbit, Sputnik 1 and 2 preceding it.

It was the first robotic space probe that made a successful encounter with a planet. After 110 days of flight, it reached and transmitted data back from Venus.

SPUTNIK 3 MAY 15, 1958 (USSR) VOSKHOD 2 MARCH 28, 1965 (USSR)The purpose of the satellite was to provide data on the upper atmosphere, study cosmic rays, and both magnetic and electrostatic fields.

The capsule carried two Cosmonauts on board: Pavel Belyayev and Alexey Leonov. Alexey Leonov became the first person to space walk when he left the capsule for 12 minutes.

TIROS 1 APRIL 1, 1960 (USA) GEMINI 4 JUNE 3, 1965 (USA)A low earth orbit weather satellite and was a joint effort between NASA, RCA, US Weather Bureau, US Army, and the US Navy. It provided the first TV image of the Earth from space.

Astronauts James McDivitt and Ed White were on board. This marked the first extravehicular activity (EVA), aka space walk, for the Americans when White exited the vehicle for 20 minutes.

VOSTOK 1 APRIL 12, 1961 (USSR) PROTON 1 JULY 16, 1965 (USSR)The capsule carried 27 year old Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space. The mission lasted a total of 89 minutes.

The purpose of the mission was to monitor cosmic high-energy rays in the gamma spectrum. It remained in orbit until October 11, 1965.

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LUNA 9 JANUARY 31, 1966 (USSR) MARS 3 MAY 28, 1971 (USSR)The Luna 9 was the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon. The lander transmitted 8 hours of footage from the surface giving scientists their first look at the lunar surface up close.

The descent module did make a successful soft landing (first for mankind) and within 90 seconds of landing it began transmitting data, the first image of Mars taken from the surface.

LUNAR ORBITER 3 FEBRUARY 5, 1967 (USA) SKYLAB MAY 14, 1973 (USA)The purpose of the Lunar Orbiter Program was to photograph the entire surface of the moon. Lunar Orbiters 1, 2, and 3, assisted NASA with selecting possible landing locations for the Apollo missions.

First space station operated by NASA. It would orbit the Earth 35,000 times over a period of 2,249 days. Of those days, 171 of them were occupied by a manned crew.

APOLLO 11 JULY 16, 1969 (USA) SOYUZ 19 JULY 15, 1975 (USSR)Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. launched on a Saturn V rocket. Four days later on July 20, 1962, the lunar module Eagle touched down in the Sea of Tranquility on the surface of the moon. Armstrong became the first human to step foot on the moon.

The Soviets launched Soyuz 19 and the US launched Apollo CSM-111 seven hours later, each from their respective countries. The two spacecrafts would connect three hours later and the 3 Astronauts and 2 Cosmonauts would spend 44 hours together in orbit.

VENERA 7 AUGUST 17, 1970 (USSR) VOYAGER 1 SEPTEMBER 5, 1977 (USA)The entire Venera project series was focused on Venus. Venera 7 made the first soft landing on the planet's surface and transmitted data back to Earth for approximately 20 minutes.

It is the longest lived and furthest reaching spacecraft in the history of mankind. In August 2012, the probe became the first manmade object to leave our solar system and enter interstellar space.

LUNOKHOD 1 NOVEMBER 10, 1970 (USSR) PIONEER VENUS 2 AUGUST 8, 1978 (USA)It was the first remote controlled robot to freely operate and move across a non-Earth astronomical object when it landed in the Sea of Rains on the surface of the moon.

The mission confirmed much of what the Soviet's Venera program was able to discover, along with much greater details into the three atmospheric cloud layers of the planet Venus.

SOLO MISSION CREDITSDevelopment: Denis Davydov ~ Illustration: Aleksei Kot

English Language Publisher: 25th Century Games ~ English Edition Development: Chad Elkins Rulebook Design and Editing: Kate Finch and Joel Finch

21StartPlace 5 projects here

at game start.

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76 FinishOther player takes project.