This document provides an overview of the rules for the card game Star Colonies. The objective is to control colonies on worlds by exploring star systems, building outposts, and using warships to capture systems from other players. Players start with scouts and transports and can buy different types of ships each turn using credits from transported goods. Players take turns exploring, deploying ships to systems, trading to buy new cards, and refreshing their hand. Combat involves attacking other players' systems with differently-factioned warships and resolving damage simultaneously. The first player to control colonies on two worlds or outposts on four worlds wins.

1. 1
Explore new worlds, Build your space fleet, found Outposts and Colonies or conquer them
Tactical Deckbuilding card game for 2-4 players. Time: 40-60 mins.
Story: The overpopulated Earth is slowly dying. Three human Factions: The Confederation of Sol, the
Outer-Worlds Alliance and the Praetoran Republic of Mars have been fighting for domination of the solar
system with space fleets from their bases orbiting Earth, Mars and Titan.
Now with the perfection of the FTL hyper drive, Scout-ships are finally able to explore distant stars. Earth,
Mars and Titan have agreed a truce in order to settle colonists in new star systems far from our solar
system.
Starting with a small fleet of ships, your objective is to seek out and settle habitable worlds, but you will
also need to buy warships from the three military factions to protect your Outposts, for the fate of these
new worlds will be beyond the control of Earth.
Send out your Scouts to explore new stars, send out your Transports to bring back rare minerals and gasses
to gain the credits to buy and refit Confederation, Alliance and Praetorian warships for your fleet. You can
also buy upgraded transports and the Outpost ships you need to settle worlds.
The game: Star Colonies is an “expanding area-control” “Deck-building” card game. In the game you will
be able to upgrade your starting deck of Scouts and Basic Transports with a fleet of warship cards from the
three space faring factions. You can buy Outpost ships to build outposts and later upgrade these to
colonies on suitable worlds you have explored or deploy your warships to capture them from other
players. You may control 4 systems at any time by deploying warships there.
The winner is the first player to control a Colony on 2 worlds, or an Outpost/Colony combination of 4 stars.
Objective: Control a Colony on 2 worlds, or an Outpost on 4 worlds.
ie: Control 4 Victory stars *. (Each Outpost *Each Colony **)

2. 2
Who can play?
You can play Star Colonies with 2, 3 or 4 Players. The same victory conditions apply with 3 or 4 players,
though the competition/ interaction will be different. You can add advanced game cards such as
Infiltrators, Shipyards and Star bases once you have played the basic game a few times.
Secondary victory condition: World Denial: You win instantly if you control the only habitable star
systems in play, either because players have chosen not to explore or buy Outpost ships for these worlds.
If you control 5 system cards you must discard one of your choice at end of your turn.
With 4 players you may play all vs all or 2vs2 team game, where only one of the allies needs to achieve the
Primary or Secondary objective. The other player may focus on fleet-building or trade. Allies may deploy
ships to each other’s systems in their turn, and play cards from hand to reinforce an allied fleet in a
coordinated attack, but never in defence.
In team play, only the player whose system is attacked may reinforce with cards from hand (space fleet). All tactical
discussion should be open, and a player only pass cards in his/her turn. They may not demand cards from their ally,
though their ally may choose to donate ships from hand to reinforce an attack.
Contents: Starter game (90 cards)
The Star Colonies 2-4 player starter set consists of 90 cards in 5 decks +16 Jumbo cards.
STARTING DECKS: 36 cards (x4 decks with 9 cards each: 8x Transport ships and 1x Scouts).
TRANSPORT deck: 9 cards (5 Heavy transports, 4 Advanced transports), to upgrade your Trade fleet. -45
OUTPOST deck: 9 cards (6 outpost ships and 3 colony ships) to deploy on worlds you control -54
FLEET deck: 36 cards (12 Praetorian, 12 Confederation, 12 Alliance warships) total 90 cards
EXPLORE deck: 12 JUMBO STAR SYSTEM cards (6 habitable worlds and 6 uninhabitable systems)
2 Jumbo turn sequence cards and 2 combat sequence cards
In addition you get a fold out Central play mat, 4x A5 home system play mats + Rulebook
FLEET deck
EXPLORE deck
STARTING decks
OUTPOST deck
Home system play mats
RULEBOOK

3. 3
The Factions
The Confederation is the global government of Earth. Their vast but aging battleships have protected Earth
and its many satellites from rebels, Praetoran pirates and raids from the Outworlds Alliance long before the
invention of the FTL drive.
The Praetorans of Mars rebelled against Confederation control, their orbital shipyards producing some of
the fastest and most deadly attack ships in the Solar system. While some have become pirates, Praetorians
respect honour and courage, and will fly into battle against more powerful targets.
The Alliance of Outer Worlds beyond the asteroid belt, led by Titan are the masters of deep space. More
defensive than the inner world humans, their frigates and battlecruisers are well shielded.
Not all starship crews belong to these factions; there are mercenary rebels from all factions, and particularly
Praetoran Pirates that can make your task so much harder when they lurk in asteroid fields appear suddenly to
blockade worlds. See: Rebels expansion deck.
Each faction despises the others but is loyal to their own. For example an Alliance warship will never
engage in combat with another alliance warship. Neither would it support a Confederation or Praetoran
warship in an attack or defence of a system.
It is important to consider when buying ships from the trade row that you are building a fleet or fleets.
If you have bought a fleet of confederation ships, an opponent’s system with one confederation ship
defending is considered a friendly system. It cannot be target of an attack while that player defends with a
confederation ship. Likewise if that player sends a Confederation ship to take control of an unclaimed
system, you may not send another confederation ship to intercept it, they see the intruder as an ally.

4. 4
Game Setup:
2-4 player game: Place the Game board, (thematically SOL SYSTEM) in the centre of the table, ideally oriented for
any new players. Place the TRANSPORT deck (5 Heavy stacked over 4 Advanced) and OUTPOST deck (6 outpost
stacked over 3 colony) in their spaces face up. Shuffle and Place the EXPLORE (STARSYSTEMS) deck facedown in the
large space bottom right, and the FLEET deck face down, left of the red-bordered slots.
Reveal the top 4 cards of the FLEET deck to form the Trade row. These ships can be hired in the first player’s turn.
First turn: discard to bottom of the FLEET deck any cards over 3©cost and redraw till all cards are 1-3©
The top card of any face-up deck can be bought in your turn.
Your starting cards:
In a 2 player game, each player has a starting deck of 2 Scouts and 8 Transports. In a 3-4 player game, each player
has a starting deck with just 1 Scout. Shuffle your starting deck and place it face down on your HOME SYSTEM
(below). Draw the top 4 cards. To allow for starting advantage, the First player draws only 2 cards.
Put your starting deck on HOME SYSTEM (above). Next to this place any Explored System cards on the right.

5. 5
Buying Cards.
The Economy of Star Colonies is simulated by your transports returning to your home system (discards) with trade
goods. To Trade: Sum the Credit symbols +© on the transports you discard. You get an additional +1© bonus per
transport in your next turn if you deploy it in the gold Trade slot in Asteroid or Gas Giant systems.
Discard just enough © to pay the trade cost of any face-up ship card in the Trade row, or the top card from the
Transport, Outpost deck. You can also buy any card in the scrapyard deck.
-Place the new card in your discards on top of the transports you have discarded to pay for it. If you have
transports left, continue to discard them to collect © to buy another card till you have no more credits.
-If you can’t afford a card or just want to save transports for next turn you may keep one in your hand (and
draw up to four cards) or better yet; to draw a full hand, you can deploy the spare transport for on any
system you control with a gold Trade slot. You only get a bonus in Asteroid or Gas Giant systems.
This purchasing ends your actions. You may NOT Explore or Attack once you have started to buy cards.
The central board represents Sol
(our solar system) which is
building Outpost ships or Heavy
Transports at the Earth’s orbital
shipyards. The Trade row
represents the Solar system’s
human military factions competing
to sell you their warships for your
Fleet from their shipyards around
Earth, Mars and Titan.
When you buy these ships, they are sent to the discards of your HOME
SYSTEM card (also somewhere in Sol) where they are refitted with your
hyperdrives and prepared for your home fleet (draw deck) in a build
queue. In just a few turns, depending on their size (smaller ships come
out quicker) they will be launched via hyperspace to your SPACE FLEET
(your hand of 4 cards) ready for action in your next turn, or to react to
actions against your systems.
Right: Transports can be upgraded. Buy heavy and later advanced
transports from Sol to add to your future buying power (economy).
Transports cannot be destroyed. Transports deployed on a system
which gets captured, automatically flee back to your home fleet
(discards). Once you build an Outpost, you can scrap one of your
starting transports (or scouts) in your Trade phase, for 1 © (credit),
once a turn, per Outpost.

6. 6
How to play.
In your turn you play all cards in your hand*. Openly play all cards face up into your discard pile in the
order you play them, all your actions are common knowledge.
In each of your first two turns, You may have a Scout to explore systems and 3 or 4 Transports which each give you 1
© trade credit to buy face-up ships from the board: Outpost Ship, Heavy Transport or any of the 4 Fleet cards in the
card purchase row.
When your HOMESYSTEM /draw deck is exhausted, just flip the DISCARDS into the new draw deck and draw up to 4.
*You may keep cards in your hand for tactical reasons, but you will only draw up to four cards in the Refresh phase.
On a rare occasion you may take a card back to your hand in your turn, and draw less.
If you play a card in reaction to another player’s action against you, you will have less to play in your turn. You only
draw cards at the end of your turn.
1) Scout Play Scouts to Explore distant stars. Always play Scouts First
For each Scout discarded: draw a Star
System card from the Explore deck (you
will find uninhabitable systems such as
asteroids, or systems with habitable
planets). Place the System card face up in
front of you and place the scout in the
support slot on the system to CLAIM it,
unless it is asteroids which cannot be
claimed, though once in front of you
(under your control) you can place transports on these.
If a Star System has a green border, it contains a habitable world*, where you can send an Outpost.
All star-systems have some useful ability, some tactical, some economic.
Each player may have up to 4 systems in play before them. You may (must if you have 5) discard an
unwanted system to the bottom of the system deck at end of your turn.
In the exploration phase you may also send deployed Scout home (discards) or attempt to claim an unclaimed
system. The Scout can be intercepted by any warship. Transports always retreat from an enemy-claimed system.
2) Trade Discard or bank Transports to buy a ship card from Earth (Outpost ships or Heavy
Transports) or the Trade row (warships for your Fleet) Sum the Credit symbols +© on the transports
to pay the trade cost of any face-up card in the Trade row, or top card from the Transport, Outpost
deck.
-Place the new card in your discard on top of the transports you have used to pay it. If you have ©
left, you may buy another till you have no more credits. This purchasing ends your actions.
If you discover any system with Resources (gold outlined Transport icons) you can deploy transports
to trade © next turn instead of banking. If a transport is deployed to harvest an Asteroid or Gas
Giant system, you get bonus +© per transport you discard from that system next turn.

7. 7
3) Refresh – Draw immediately up to 4 cards. You generally play all four cards. You may if you wish
keep 1 card in your hand till your next turn but it is generally better to use all your cards unless, say
you want to keep a warship in your hand to defend a world from other players, and draw only 3.
Also refresh the Trade row (card purchase) to 4 face-up cards from the FLEET deck, for the next
player. If you did not buy one, you still draw one card and shift the row along, the third card
covering the fourth. This covered ship can only be bought if the card above it is bought.
From turn 3 other DEPLOY options may be open to you..
Right: 2 player game in progress, after about 3 turns of Exploration:
Later DEPLOY options: always before Trade phase.
If you draw a Warship Fleet card, you may deploy it to control
any explored system or Attack: take an opponent’s system (that
is not defended by the same faction as your ship/s), or keep it in
hand for reinforcements.
You may also discard warships from your hand to defend a
system or reinforce it but at the end of your turn discard any
warships down to the max support icons of the system. You
may assemble a fleet with other ship of the same faction (in
hand or in play) to attack a defended system.
You may redeploy deployed ships around your systems as
you wish in your turn.
Summary of turn order sequence after a few turns: see reference card.
1: Explore: draw an explore card. Flip and place the revealed star-system
under your control and deploy scout on it (except on asteroids)
2: Deploy warships, Outpost ships. etc to systems where the icons allow.
Attack: any system in play with a warship in play or from hand (see
combat) Move each ship once / turn. Can be called the CONTROL phase.
3: Trade: Sum credits of all transports recalled home (discards) to build a
new ship from trade row.
Place ship on top of discards. Deploy remaining transports to your
systems (including to harvest gas or minerals) these stay in play till you
recall them home for credits.
4: Refresh: Draw top fleet card to make 4 ships in trade row, then Draw
up to 4 cards in hand.
When there are no cards to draw: FLIP the discards facedown to create
new draw deck.

8. 8
Combat
Combat happens in the DEPLOY phase, after scouts have been sent out and before your Transports return home
with Trade resources. It may result in your victory. Do not buy or discard ships for it will be then too late to attack.
Attacking is simple, but when and where to attack is critical.
When can I attack? If you have warship(s) either in your hand or deployed on any of your systems.
Where should I attack? Any system under another player’s control (including an ally)
When you attack a system, and destroy any enemy ships and your ship survives; you win the battle and take control
of the system and any Outpost or Colony there!
If any defending ships remain or all your ships are destroyed; the defending player keeps the system.
How to attack.
1) Declare which system you are attacking and place a warship in front of that system card – It must be a
different faction of the opponent’s ship there. A base or undefended system has no faction.
Only different factions fight: You cannot send Confederation ships to attack an opponent’s system defended by
Confederation ships, no matter what size they are. They consider each other allies.
2) Defending player decides whether to defend the system.
Withdraw: If they have a warship there he/she can or attempt to withdraw (discard the deployed ship and
any transport). If attacked with a fleet (2 or more allied ships) the enemy ship cannot withdraw and must
fight to the end.
Fight: If the defender chooses to fight he/she may play reinforcements of that same faction from their hand
(including support ships –in the expanded game).
Base only: A ship of any faction can be played where there is only a base, as bases are neutral to all factions,
but you can never play two ships of different factions together.
3) Reinforce the attack with ships from your hand (including support ships –in the expanded game). This is an
important move in case the enemy has decided to stay and fight, as your reinforcements join the battle. The
attacker cannot now disengage (withdraw).
4) Resolve damage simultaneously: Add up firepower of all your ships.
Allocate to enemy ships as you wish; removing 1 shield (O) for each . Destroy any ships with zero shields:
put them at the bottom of the Fleet deck.
Scouts cannot be sent to reinforce a defence but if one was deployed at a system, and not withdrawn, it
must be also destroyed to capture the system.
Defender does the same: Add up firepower of all their ships including their destroyed ships, allocating
damage as they wish. Remove 1 shield (O) from your ships for each
If all your attacking ships are destroyed, or any defending ships survive, the defender keeps control of the
system. If NO warships survive, no faction has control, active player may attack with another faction (repeat
from 1).
If attacker has destroyed all defending ships and their ship survives, he/she takes control of the system and any
Outpost or Colony (or base) on it, placing the stack among the 4 systems under their control. If the player now has 2
Colonies (or 4 Victory stars) he/she wins the game! If they now have more than 4 systems, they must discard a
system.
Note: if a ship has taken ANY combat damage but is not destroyed, return it to players discards for repairs. A ship
may repair and remain deployed to that system only if there is an Outpost, a Colony, a Shipyard or a Starbase there.

9. 9
Important terms:
Home fleet: (your draw deck). Stacked facedown. You draw
at the end of your turn, up to 4 cards in your hand.
Space fleet: (your 4 cards in Hand). These are your ready
ships in hyperspace, the [only] cards you can use out of turn,
eg. to intercept an attack or support an ally’s attack.
Build queue: (Discards): unloading, resupplying, and
repairing at your Home system. You get credits whenever a
transport with © is discarded here. These are the last ships in
a build queue to return to your home fleet. Flip discards as
soon as draw deck is empty and draw. Never shuffle it.
Explore (Scout) with a Scout-ship. Draw top explore card and flip it to reveal the system and place it among the four
systems under your control. Place Scout on it to this system to claim it for your empire to prevent another Scout
from claiming it. You may discard the scout in Explore phase and replace it with a warship in the deploy phase. You
must discard the Scout if you discover asteroids.
Advanced game: you may wish to reduce the random element of exploring by drawing 2 Explore cards and placing
one under your control then placing the other, without showing it, to the bottom of the EXPLORE deck.
Deploy warship card to a system to control or defend it from other
players, or just keep it there for later use.
Attack: Send warship cards from hand and/or deployed on your
systems to a system under the control of other player to take control
of it and any base (victory stars) there.
Withdraw (Retreat): a warship or scout to your discards rather than
let it be destroyed by a single enemy ship. You cannot withdraw if the
enemy attacks with a fleet of 2 allied ships or more, unless they
specifically allow you to when they declare the attack.
You should always let Transports escape. Besides being of little
strategic advantage, it is dishonourable to target unshielded civilian
ships. Only pirates do that. Transports will always withdraw anyway
even if a Scout claims the system (see Asteroids)
Reinforce: play ships from hand (space fleet) to defend a system you
control in reaction to a player attacking it. You may not reinforce from
another system when it’s not your turn. By the time reinforcements
have left orbit and jumped via hyperspace to the system under attack,
the battle would be over.
Transport phase (Trade, buy, bank) Discard Transport cards with just enough credits to buy a ship in trade row and
place it on discards on top of the transport ships. You should reveal and openly discard each transport so that other
players can count the credits before selecting the ship you wish to buy. Do not pick up a ship from trade row until
you have discarded (banked) sufficient credits. First discard Transports harvesting gas, mining asteroids, or you will
not gain the bonus credits. Place any remaining Transport cards to any system with the transport icon eg. to harvest
gas, mine asteroids. This is the last action before you refresh and end your turn.
Refresh: when you have no cards, draw and reveal the top card of the fleet deck to replace any ships you have just
bought. Then draw cards up to maximum of 4 cards in your hand. This signals the end of your turn.

10. 10
System card bonuses
Habitable system: Vital to victory. You may deploy a Scout and/or
warships and most importantly an Outpost here.
[-1] advanced game only. Earth gives you a 1 credit discount for
buying an Outpost or Colony ship.
Support (warships): Icons depict how many warships can be
deployed or stationed at that system. Any more must be discarded
by the end of your turn. The more fertile a world, the more there
are organics to resupply ships in orbit and support a warship’s crew.
Unrelated to repair.
Resources (Transports): each transport icon means that one transport can be stationed or deployed to harvest at
that system in the Transport phase. These can be stored and banked for credits for next turn.
Uninhabitable system: Asteroids, Gas Giants, Proto-systems, can
support no life but they have useful bonuses.
Asteroids: You must discard the Scout when you discover asteroids.
You must also discard any warship immediately after an attack, even
if you keep or gain control of it. Shields are of no use, staying in an
asteroid field is dangerous. Up to Two Transport ships can be placed
to harvest valuable minerals at the edge of the field or belt. You can
control an asteroid field system but you cannot defend it. If Asteroids
is claimed by another player, even a Scout, your Transport(s) flee
home to your resupply (discards).
Gas Giants: Place a Transport card here to harvest gas. In the next Transport phase, you may recall the Transport
home and gain +1© for discarding that transport. In addition a gas giant system may support one warship.
Proto-systems (can be left out of basic game): They have strategic importance as explained on the card.
Card abilities:
Transport: (TRADE phase) A) Discard to gain credit © to buy ship: Place ship on top of
discarded Transports or, B) deploy to a claimed system for credits next turn.
Scout: (EXPLORE phase) Reveal Scout, Draw a star system from EXPLORE deck. Place explored
system by your home system and place Scout on it to claim the system. Else discard the Scout.
This card remains unclaimed until another starship is placed there (CONTROL phase). Asteroids
cannot be claimed. Scout retreats to owners discard if a warship is sent to claim the system.
Outpost Ship: deploy Outpost ship to a system, the ship lands and
becomes a permanent base. Gain one victory star.
Scrap: any one ship here for 1© towards buying a new ship.
Repair: If this system is attacked in an opponent’s turn, and a ship here
is damaged but not destroyed. It does not return to discards, it is
immediately repaired to its face value before any other attack.
Colony Ships: (CONTROL phase) deploy Colony ship to a Colony-suitable world already with an
Outpost, the ship lands and becomes a permanent base. Replace the Outpost with a Colony (Return Outpost card to
the Scrapyard) TWO victory stars.
Colony Group: (CONTROL phase): deploy Colony Group to a Colony-suitable world with or without an Outpost, the
ship lands and becomes a permanent base. TWO victory stars.

11. 11
Colony: Repair, Scrap ©, +1 warship. In addition to the repair and scrap abilities of the Outpost, the Colony
population supports +1 extra warship of whatever class deployed there, as if that system had an extra slot.
Advanced cards/ abilities
Infiltrator (EXPLORE phase -adv.game): deploy infiltrator in the same way as a Scout to claim an unclaimed system,
or discard Infiltrator to resupply to use the spy/ infiltrate ability.
Spy: Look at an opponent’s entire hand. This can only be blocked by opponent discarding another infiltrator.
Infiltrate: Look at top four cards of any deck then replace them in any order or discard to bottom of that deck. You
can reorder and optimise your own deck by infiltrating and discarding weaker cards. You can even infiltrate an
opponent’s draw deck to discard useful cards. Can be blocked by opponent discarding another infiltrator.
Bases: When drawn to hand, you may deploy Starbase or Shipyard to any claimed system even uninhabitable
systems. A base does not require a Support slot. Once deployed a base cannot be moved to another system. If a
system with a base is attacked, any defending ships must be destroyed before a base takes any damage. If firepower
is sufficient to destroy the base, ie: If the base is reduced to 0 shields (O): the attacker can choose to capture it with
the system or destroy it (scrapyard).
Star base: a star base is simply an orbital defence platform with repair ability. It requires no Support so it can be
deployed to a system supporting the maximum number of warships. A base is under your direct control, not aligned
to a faction so you may deploy ships of any faction there. If starbase alone is attacked, you may reinforce it with any
faction ships or support ships (expansion).
Shipyard: (TRADE phase -adv.game): Owner of system may SCRAP any ship at this system to recover the full ©value
of the scrapped ship towards buying another ship. This can be in addition to ships scrapped at an Outpost or Colony.
Ie. If you control a Shipyard and Outpost you may scrap one ship at each system. Eg. You have a Shipyard, a scout
and a frigate at Alpha Centauri system. You deploy a cruiser with the same combined defence (3) as the scout and
frigate. There are only 2 Support slots so either way you would have to discard or move one ship. Instead, in the trade
phase you scrap the Scout for 1© at the Outpost and the Frigate for 3© and add 3© discarding transports for 7©
required to buy the Dreadnought in the trade row.
BOARD locations

12. 12
Scrapyard (trade phase): When you deploy your first Outpost, you gain the SCRAP ability. Instead of deploying or
discarding a card you may send any single ship card to the scrapyard to gain +1© in the trade phase. It is a useful
ability on two counts: 1) By scrapping basic transports for the same 1© you get for sending them home you are
removing excess cards from your deck which means ships you buy will be drawn to your hand sooner. Be careful not
to scrap all your scouts however or you will have no credits to buy further ships.
2) You can scrap any ship eg. a Scout you no longer need to gain an extra credit to buy a ship you otherwise could
not afford. Whatever the value of the ship you only get 1© from scrapping it at an outpost.
A colony or shipyard allows you to recover the full value of the scrapped ship. For example you may scrap a cruiser
orbiting a Colony for its value 3©in the trade phase to add 3 to buy ships this turn. If you also discard two heavy
transports 2+2©you will be able to afford that dreadnought in the trade row.
In the deploy phase you can redistribute your ships among your 4 claimed systems. Every ship can jump once, to any
system in play. You can send a scout or Transport ship to a system with outpost or colony to scrap it. Note: You don’t
get the credit for the transport twice, because you either scrap it or send it home. You could even scrap a heavy
transport for its value of 3 instead of sending it home for 2 trade. You could scrap an Outpost ship you have not
deployed. Once you deploy it to a planet, it is attached to that system for the game. It is no longer a ship, you cannot
move or scrap it.
In summary, you can scrap any ship but not a base: Shipyard, Outpost or Colony.
Hard box - deluxe edition:
All the above in a deluxe hard box, plus: Advanced game expansion:
Advanced FLEET cards: 3xInfiltrators, 3xDreadnoughts, 3xStar bases, 3xShipyards.
Heavyweight Centre board with bases, & home system play mats + Custom scenario Ruleset.
Limited edition cards: Battlestation, Capital shipyard, 3 Flagship cards, one of each faction.
Future Expansions include 1: Escorts & fighters, 2: Rebels, 3: Wreakers (space pirates).