../ info

In Supernova, you play one of 5 races. At the beginning of the game, all races are coexisting more or less peacefully in the same solar system. However, it has been discovered that their Sun is approaching Supernova, and they must leave their current system and explore the galaxy in order to settle farther away from the devastating effects of the Supernova.

.. / general info

Supernova can be played by 3-5 players and takes between 1 and 3 hours. Typically, the game will take about 2 hours for new players, but a shorter variant can be played, reducing the overall game time by about 45 minutes, depending on the number of players involved.

.. / board & setup

The board is modular; there are large and small board pieces. This allows for a slightly different setup every time you play the game. The large board pieces have planets on them, with continuously orbiting moons. Both the moons and planets are valuable in their own ways - moons confer resources while colonizing planets gives a player a unique bonuse to gameplay. The small board pieces have encounters that offer mostly beneficial bonuses; players can use these encounters to supplement their play over the course of the game.

.. / gameplay

Over the course of the game, players place tiles which represent their control of a sector of space. They may place a tile adjacent to their previously placed tiles freely, or try to take over an opponent’s area of space. The objective of the game is to gain the most points through the occupation of hexes on the board. Regular hexes are worth 1 point at the end of the game, but owning a hex with a planet or a moon on it nets a player 4 or 2 points, respectively. Players use resources as a means to increase helpful technologies, such as weapons and engines. These resources can be gained through mining moons or by attacking opponents and harvesting the debris. In addition, colonizing planets offers a player a bonus for as long as they hold that planet, possibly giving them a unique advantage. Over the course of the game, the sun becomes more and more unstable. Solar flares occur which can be utilized by players to destroy their opponents tiles and possibly attack a different side of the board.

.. / battle

When a hex on the board is contested, Battle commences. Players battle for the space by using combinations of Battle cards. Battle cards can be used in two main ways: Cards may be played that are all of the same suit, or of different suits. This type of play forces a player to choose how to utilize their cards to their best advantage, as their combinations will not always be ideal. Bluffing then becomes important, to hopefully force your opponent to use better cards than they’d prefer on a space that you don’t necessarily want.

In combination with their regular Battle Cards, players have the opportunity to use High Impact Battle Cards, seen to the left. These 3 cards supplement your regular Battle Cards played. One is worth the same as your opponent’s highest card played that round, one is worth one less than the highest card you play, and one forces your opponent to discard their highest card played.

.. / tile height

The interesting thing about Battle that differs from many other conquest games is that a defeated player’s tile remains on the board. The winning player then places their tile on top of the contested tile. From this point forward, that hex’s defense value is worth +1 as it has a height difference of 1, compared to adjacent tiles. This works the same way for other tiles in the game, with the maximum allowed defense value of +2. Players may also fortify their own tiles throughout the game, but this limits that player’s potential expansion, as they are using tiles to increase height, and are not taking over new areas of the board.

 .. / ending the game

The game ends  when the sun goes Supernova at the end of the 9th round. The Supernova takes out 5 tiles on the board, at the discretion of the winning bidder. After its effects are resolved, players count up their points for their individual tiles, owned planets and moons, their Special Power card (if unused), and any resource units they may have. That total is added to their end of phase totals and the winner is decided!