Robot Empire — Rulebook

01 · The story

A galactic civil war

Robots rule the galaxy, and every world, mine and moon answers to the Robot Empire. But the Empire has split. Its Robot factions have turned their rockets on one another, and a civil war now burns from one end of the stars to the other.

You are a Master Machine, commander of a Robot army. Winning battles is only half of it: every fighter, weapon and Force Field runs on Power Coins, so you must manage your power as carefully as you command your troops.

Be the last Master Machine standing, and the whole Robot Empire is yours.

Who fights

Robots

The masters of the galaxy and your strongest fighters. Some are so vast they are built from two cards.

Monster Mercenaries

Cheap, numerous and loyal to whoever powers them. Enough of them can overrun a Robot.

Human Agents

They serve their Robot masters as spies, saboteurs and thieves. Each one acts once, then is gone.

02 · How to win

Drain their Life Battery to zero

Each Master Machine starts with 20 Life Coins on their Battery. The Battery is you: when it empties, you are out.

Attacks that nobody blocks come straight off the Battery, one coin for every point of Attack. A few weapons and Agents can hit it directly too. Protect yours, and break through to theirs.

You20

Your rival3

One more unblocked 3-Attack Robot and the war is yours.

03 · Power Coins

One pool of power, shared by both sides

Power Coins pay for everything. Spend them from your Vault, and they flow into the War Chest in the middle of the table. At the end of every turn, the player whose turn it was collects 3 back. The same chest pays both of you, so every coin you spend is one your rival can collect.

6

Your Vault

Starts with 6 coins to spend.

Spend → chest +3 each turn

The War Chest

Holds every coin not yet in play. If it runs dry, nobody gets paid.

6

Their Vault

Draws from the very same chest.

56

Power Coins in the whole game

20

on each Battery: your life, not your money

6

in each Vault to start

+3

collected each turn. Mints and Miners add more

04 · The table

Base behind, front line ahead

Each side of the table has two rows. The War Chest and the Mining Moons sit between you.

1

Your Base is the back row: your Battery, your Vault, and any Equipment you build. Half-built Mega Robots wait here too.

2

Your front line is where Robots and Monsters stand. They attack from here and block from here.

3

Mining Moons appear in the middle. Any flying fighter can travel to one to bring back coins.

4

The War Chest holds every coin not in play.

To start, each player draws 7 cards and rolls a die. The highest roll goes first, and the other player takes 2 extra coins from the War Chest into their Vault to make up for it.

Their base

Battery

Vault

Equipment

Their line

Robot

Monster

Robot

Shared

4

War Chest

3

Mining Moon

Your line

Robot

Monster

2

Your base

Battery

Vault

Equipment

1

05 · The cards

Eight kinds of card

Every card's colour tells you what it is. Fighters stay on the table; Agents and Super Weapons act once and are discarded.

Fighter

Robot

Your strongest fighters. Upgrade them with coins or Components.

Fighter

Mega Robot

A torso card and a legs card, joined into one huge Robot.

Fighter

Monster

Cheap mercenaries. Some chain together into one unit.

Single use

Agent

Sabotage, theft and rescue. Can be played on your rival's turn.

Single use

Super Weapon

One devastating shot, then into the discard pile.

Base

Equipment

Force Fields, Mints and launchers that sit in your Base.

Upgrade

Component

Jump Jets, Rockets and Force Fields bolted into a Robot.

Shared

Mining Moon

Kept in a shared pile. A new one appears when the last is mined out.

06 · Reading a card

Everything you need is on the face

R

Lantern Vane

Robot

110

Lantern Vane's mag-sails carry it without jets. It flies.

3

FF

2

1

2

3

4

5

6

1

Name and type

The badge letter and colour tell you the card type at a glance.

2

Card number

Its number in the set. Decks may hold up to 4 of any one number.

3

Rules text

What the card does. Coloured tags mark abilities you pay for: Permanent lasts all game, Instant lasts until your next turn, and Long Range is a shot you fire in combat.

4

Power-Up cost

The gold coin: what you pay from your Vault to bring the card out.

5

Upgrade Ports

Which Components this Robot accepts: FF Force Fields, JJ Jump Jets, RT Rockets. No port, no fitting.

6

Attack and Defense

The red star is damage dealt. The blue shield is damage it can take: once a fighter's damage reaches its Defense, it is destroyed.

07 · A turn

Seven phases, in order

Players take turns. On your turn you move through every phase below; the ones in teal are where you make decisions.

1

Clear Upgrades

2

Reactivate

3

Play Cards (Activation)

4

Moon Mining

5

Combat

6

Collect

7

Draw

1 · Clear Upgrades

Instant upgrades on your cards expire. Pay for them again if you want them back.

2 · Reactivate

Your tapped cards straighten up, ready to use again. Wounded fighters are repaired as they reactivate.

3 · Play Cards (Activation)

Pay coins from your Vault to bring out Robots, Monsters, Equipment and Components, buy upgrades, and use Agents or Super Weapons. New fighters can block straight away, but cannot attack until your next turn.

4 · Moon Mining

Send a flying fighter towards a Moon, or bring one home with its harvest. See Moons below.

5 · Combat

First fire Long Range weapons. Then declare attackers; your rival declares blockers; damage resolves all at once.

6 · Collect

Take 3 coins from the War Chest into your Vault, plus 1 or 2 more for each Mint or Miner in your Base.

7 · Draw

Discard 1 card for free if you like; each further discard costs 1 coin. Then draw back up to 7 cards. If your deck runs out, your discard pile is shuffled to make a new one.

08 · Combat

Attack, block, resolve

All attacks resolve at the same time.

1

You choose attackers. Any untapped fighter that was on the table when your turn began may attack. Attacking taps it, so it cannot block on your rival's turn.

2

They choose blockers. Each untapped fighter can block one attacker, and several can gang up on the same one. Blocking does not tap.

3

Flyers are only blocked by flyers. A ground fighter cannot stop anything with wings or Jump Jets, unless it has Searchlight.

4

Damage lands. Blocked fighters trade blows; any fighter whose damage reaches its Defense is destroyed. Unblocked attackers hit the Battery for their full Attack.

In the picture, Klax kills its 3-Defense blocker and survives. Brax walks in for 2, and RoBat flies over the blocker for 2 more: 4 off the Battery.

Wounds that don't kill stay on a tapped fighter through your rival's turn, and are repaired when it reactivates. Equipment never repairs.

09 · Long Range

Shots over the front line

Long Range weapons fire at the very start of combat, before anyone attacks. They reach past the front line, so they can knock out Equipment hidden in a Base.

1

Firing taps the weapon, or the Robot carrying it.

2

A weapon that deals 1 damage costs only the tap. Bigger shots also cost the coins shown on the card.

3

Nothing fires on the turn it arrives, unless its card says it can.

4

Combat comes after the Play Cards phase (Activation), so keep coins back if you mean to fire a paid shot.

Some cards cannot be hit by Long Range at all, and a Smoke Screen can cover a fighter until your next turn.

10 · Upgrades

Make a Robot stronger

Permanent

Paid once, kept all game

Pay when the card comes out, or on any later turn during the Play Cards phase (Activation). The card stays marked as paid for the rest of the game.

Instant

Paid now, gone next turn

Buy it on your turn. It lasts through your rival's turn and ends at the start of your next one; pay again to renew it.

FF JJ RT

Components need a port

A Force Field, Jump Jet or Rocket can only be installed into a Robot showing the matching port. Monsters have no ports at all.

11 · Mining Moons

Fly out, dig, fly home rich

Any flying fighter can mine a Moon for Power Coins. The trip is slow, and the fighter is out of the fight for all of it.

1

Fly out

During Moon Mining, pay the Moon's landing cost. Your fighter is crossing space until your next turn, and your rival's Long Range can shoot it on the way.

2

Land and mine

Once landed it is out of reach, and loads up the Moon's current harvest. Each harvest leaves the Moon poorer, until it is mined out and a new Moon takes its place.

3

Fly home

Set off for home on a later turn. It is exposed again while crossing, and on your next turn it lands and its coins go into your Vault.

Grounded

On a turn when any of your Robots lands home, none of your other flyers may set off until your next turn.

12 · On your rival's turn

You can strike back mid-turn

When your rival does something you could answer, the game pauses and offers you a response window. You may play one of these, or simply pass:

Agents Super Weapons Power Coin cards

Cashing a Power Coin card doesn't close the window, so you can raise the coins for an answer you couldn't otherwise afford.

When a window opens

A card is played

Or an ability is used, so you can counter it.

Attackers are declared

You know who is coming before you choose blockers.

Blockers are declared

Every match-up is set and visible.

Just before damage

The last chance to change how the fight ends.

13 · Good to know

A few more rules

Mega Robots

Pay for a torso card and a legs card. A lone half waits in your Base and cannot fight. Join any torso to any legs and the finished Mega Robot steps onto the front line.

Chaining

Up to 3 Monsters with the Chaining ability can join into one unit, adding their Attack and Defense together. To destroy the chain, you must deal its combined Defense.

In the game: during your Play Cards phase (Activation), click a Chaining Monster and then the Monster to chain it with; click a third to grow the chain. A chain attacks and blocks as one unit, taps together, and is destroyed together. Click a chained Monster in the Play Cards phase (Activation) to break the chain up.

Tapped cards

A card turned sideways has been used this turn. It cannot attack, block or use its abilities until it reactivates at the start of its owner's turn.

Building a deck

A deck holds 50 to 70 cards, with no more than 4 copies of any one card. Build around a plan: a Robot rush, a Monster swarm, a Long Range siege, or a coin engine.

Rolling a die

A card showing 1d6 rolls one six-sided die. A rolled cost is fixed when the card comes out. A rolled Attack or Defense is rolled again every time the card attacks or blocks.

Destroyed cards

A destroyed card goes to its owner's discard pile, even if your rival had taken control of it. A few cards can bring it back.