Now that you are more familiar with how to Influence and act with Characters, we will go a bit deeper into some details in the game. This Minute we will see an example of how to use Bribes and Kompromats to take more than 2 actions in a turn and cover how to Escape from the station in Pods.
To arm the Antimatter you have to move it out of the Magnetic containment. As mentioned previously, other players’ Actions may (and probably will) interfere with your Actions. If you want something specific to take place, making it happen in one turn before the others predict it is a good idea. Kompromats and Bribes can give you such possibilities. Kompromats add 1 Action for a specific Character and Bribes 1 Action for any Character.
LINDSEY’S STRATEGY
Lindsey will not be able to get the Antimatter out in 2 Actions (step into Magnetic Containment, Pick Up Antimatter and Step back to Reactor). It requires 3 Actions in this case. And Station Chief does not have a Helmet and has to spend her Free Pick Up on getting that instead of potentially using it for a Free Pick Up of the Antimatter. But she has Astrochimp’s Kompromat and the Bribe token left so she will use these.
Lindsey’s turn in cinematic interpretation:
Astrochimp, floating in zero Gravity in Aft Airlocks, heaves his Helmet in a hail mary pass through the corridor to the Reactor. Station Chief floats towards the incoming Helmet, receiving it (using her Free Pick Up). She floats onwards to Magnetic containment and when reaching the locked door she unlocks the door mid air with her Officer credentials. Station Chief floats into Magnetic containment (taking her first Action “Step”, being protected by the helmet in this Hazardous Section). In Magnetic Containment, Station Chief takes the Antimatter (using “Pick Up” as her second action, moving the Antimatter token to Station Chief’s Item slots). Then Station Chief makes an extra effort, and manages to direct herself out of Magnetic Containment, back to Reactor, (Lindsey spends her precious Bribe token, placing it on Station Chief , symbolizing a Bribe paid earlier, to have Station Chief do an Action, which Lindsey chooses to be “Step”). The Antimatter container has exited the Magnetic containment, it starts blinking red and a warning signal from it tells us it is now armed and unstable and will inevitably detonate in 4 minutes.
LINDSEY’S ACTIONS
Don’t add any Influence cubes.
- Activate Station Chief (move the Activation disc to Station Chief).
- Use Astrochimp’s Kompromat (place it on left side of Astrochimp’s card) to take the Throw action to move the Helmet from Astrochimp to Reactor.
- Free Pick Up Helmet with Station Chief, Step into Magnetic Containment (removing the Lock to the supply because of her Officer ability) and Pick Up Antimatter.
- Use Bribe on Station Chief to Step to Reactor and arm Antimatter, flip it and place one of Lindsey’s Time markers on the Minute track, 4 turns into the future (Minute 6).
Lindsey did 5 things in 1 turn (including the Free Pick Up). Planning such grand moves can help prevent others from interfering with your plans, but are costly. You only have 1 Bribe and if it is unused it is worth 1 point to you during Scoring, so use it with care and only when it really makes a difference. Furthermore the Bribe is placed on the left side of the Character card of the Character it is used on (Station Chief in this case). If this Character is another player’s Secret Identity, that player will get 1 point for that Bribe during scoring.
ANTIMATTER
Arming the Antimatter means a few things:
- The Antimatter token is flipped to its armed side.
- Abandon Ship is triggered, mark this at the top right of the board by flipping the Abandon ship marker . This also removes all locks from the board.
- Place one of the acting player’s time markers (as you just did for Lindsey). When the Minute marker reaches the time marker, at the end of that player’s turn, the Antimatter will detonate.
If the Antimatter is still on the Station when it detonates, the game ends triggering Stationfall (the game end sequence, described later).
If the Antimatter is elsewhere when it detonates, other things may happen, check the Reference manual in these cases.
So, right now there are only 4 turns left. If you need more turns for your agenda, you should try to get the Antimatter off the station when it detonates, in which case the game continues after the Antimatter detonates.
Time markers are placed on the Minute track or on Sections. They indicates that something will occur at the end of a player’s turn; during a specific Minute if it is placed on the Minute track, or at the the end of the next Minute if it is placed on a Section. Several different effects involve Time markers, Pod launch is one of them, described below.
ESCAPE AND PODS
Many Character’s Agendas involve Escaping the station. It is also important for BC Friend points . To Escape means that a Character has been moved to the Mesosphere. Characters in the Mesosphere are marked with the Escaped marker , which is placed on the Character card. They cannot be Influenced or Activated any more.
The most common way to do so is to use a Pod. The Pod finds its way to the Mesosphere by itself but setting it up for launch may be a challenge.
Each Pod has requirements written in their information text. These needs to be met before the Launch action may be performed. For most of them this includes Abandon Ship having been triggered.
Because the Antimatter got armed, this has now been taken care of. A Pod needs at least 1 occupant (Human and Robot) and can have no more than its maximum number of occupants. The maximum is indicated by silhouettes Some Characters are not Humans or Robots (they may instead be Data or an Item). These do not count as occupants. In this tutorial however all included Characters are Humans or Robots.
A Pod is launched by using a Section Action. There are three Section Actions that do this:
- Timed Launch, performed by a Character inside a Pod. The player doing this places one of their Time markers on the Pod. The Pod launches at the end of their next turn.
- Section Launch, performed by a Character in the Section a specific Occupied Pod is attached to. This Character is left behind, but the Pod launches immediately, no time marker needed.
- Bridge Launch, performed by a Character at Bridge. This is similar to Section Launch but simultaneously launches all Occupied Pods that have met their Launch requirements.
NOTE: Abandon Ship is automatically triggered at Minute 1, but it is not certain that there is a Minute 0. Two times out of three, there is no Minute 0, this is determined by the Reentry marker (the marker placed on the 0 spot on the Minute track during setup). To be certain to be able to launch a Pod from inside it, using the Timed Launch Section Action, you should make sure to trigger Abandon Ship somehow before Minute 1. Causing Blackout from Damaging two Power Sections or taking the Actions Abandon Ship or Self-Destruct from Bridge are examples of ways of doing so. These have other effects too, see Reference Manual for complete information.
