Object of the Game
Your goal is to build a new State in this post-apocalyptic world. Whether you command merciless Mutants or brave New Yorkers, your aim is always simple and clear - conquer new lands, incorporate new regions, and destroy everyone who is of no value. How will you achieve this? It's pretty simple.
Many cards in the game will let you gain Victory Points. Use them as often as you can because when any player reaches 25 Victory Points, they will trigger the End Game Sequence. You finish the round, and then gain 1 Victory Point for each card you have in your State, and you add it to your score.
And now the most important thing - the highest score wins the game.
Components
- 1 Victory point board
- 4 Victory point markers
- 88 51st State Base cards
- 12 Connection cards
- 50 New Era cards
- 50 Winter cards
- 1 First player token
- 4 Faction boards
- 30 brick pieces
- 30 gun pieces
- 30 fuel pieces
- 30 iron pieces
- 38 worker pieces
- 10 shield tokens
- 13 Bullet tokens
- 9 development tokens
- 20 Red contact tokens
- 20 Blue contact tokens
- 30 Grey contact tokens
- 7 Universal contact tokens
- 4 multiplier tokens
Cards Overview
Icons
Fuel.
Iron.
Gun.
Brick.
Ammo is universally valuable and may be used in place of any of the four basic Resources. When paying for actions, you may spend Ammo instead of a Resource, but not the other way around.
Worker.
Contact Tokens.
Universal contact token. When needing a Contact token, you can use an Universal one as any of the three basic Contact tokens.
Development token.
Defense Token.
Victory Point.
Managing Your Locations
As you can see from the picture here, you are going to be building a lot of Locations!
To make it easier for you to manage - and no, I am not telling you that you don't look smart or something - we divided them into three Categories: Production, Feature, and Action.
Keep your Locations in different rows according to their Category and you will be just fine. Put Production Locations in the top row, Features in the middle, and Actions in the bottom. Easy peasy.
For the dim-witted Mutant, when you make a Deal, flip the card upside down when placing the card under your Faction board so you can read the word Deal.
Game Concept
Interact With Location Cards In 3 Different Ways
Each card in the game represents a Location from the world of Neuroshima. Your goal is to build a new State by controlling a bigger and better region. You want to control it all! You do this by interacting with Locations.
You can Build a Location. Put the card in front of you and use the Ability in every round of the game. The more Locations you Build, the more Abilities you gain and your power will grow. Sounds good?
You can Raze a Location. Discard the card from your hand and get the Goods shown in the Spoils field. The Location is burnt to the ground, and you took their stuff. Pity, huh?
You can make a Deal with a Location. Put the card under your Faction board showing only the blue Deal field. This Location is not part of your State and does not provide you with an Ability.
Instead, The card provides you only with the Good shown on the Deal field of the card. I don't want to complain, but that's exactly what happens when you try to be a nice scout and you don't Raze people. You should Raze them. Raze them all!
Use Contact Tokens To Interact
If you want to Build, Raze, or make a Deal with a Location you will need Contact tokens. They represent your means of interacting with the Locations. There are Blue tokens that represent your merchants and are used for making Deals.
The Grey tokens represent your building skills and are used to Build Locations. There are also Red Contact tokens - all your gangers, mutants, and mercenaries that you use to Raze Locations. All kinds of cool tokens. Remember, Red is for Raaaaazing them all!
Burn Them To The Ground!
In the game, you will also be able to Raze the other player's Locations. It's 51st State bro, either you burn them, or they burn you. There is no middle ground. Each Location has a Defense value.
All Production Locations have a Defense value of 3, all Feature Locations have a Defense value of 4 and all Action Locations have a Defense value of 5.
If you have a number of Red Contact tokens equal to the Defense value of another player's Location that pisses you off, you can spend them to Raze this Location. We will talk about this again later, I'm just giving you a heads up, because it looks like you kinda like this whole Razing concept. Am I right?
Game Play
Each round is divided into 4 Phases so people don't get lost (no offense).
- Draft
- Production
- Action
- Cleanup
1. Draft Phase
Reveal the top card of each Connection pile. Place it on top of the pile, or beside it, whatever works best for you.
Draw a number of cards from the Deck equal to the number of players, plus 1 (e.g. 4 cards in a 3-player game) and place them face-up in the center of the playing area. Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, each player selects one card from those revealed and adds it to their hand. After everyone has chosen a card, discard the remaining card face-up to the discard pile.
Again, draw a number of cards from the Deck equal to the number of players, plus 1 and place them face-up in the center of the playing area. This time, starting with the last player and proceeding counter-clockwise, everyone again chooses one card and adds it to their hand. Once again, discard the remaining card.
Note: There is no limit to the number of cards you may have in your hand.
2. Production Phase
Now it's time to get some free stuff! I guess I've got your attention, huh? You now get Goods from three different sources.
Faction board - your board shows your Faction's basic Production. Mutants do Guns, Merchants do Fuel. It's really pretty simple, it's not rocket science.
Deals - each Deal you signed in a previous round now provides you with the Good depicted on the Deal. This is additional income, take it!
Production Locations - each Production Location produces Goods. Have an Oil Station? You'll get Fuel. Simple as that.
If you like order, perform the Production phase starting with the First player and continuing clockwise. If you value your time, do it simultaneously. It's really simple, check your Faction board, check your Deals, check your Production Locations, gather your Goods and you are done!
The Goods are collected in the following way:
- Cards are drawn from the Deck and added to your hand.
- Victory Points are marked by adjusting your score marker on the Victory Point track.
- All other Goods are taken from the general supply and placed in your own supply.
3. Action Phase
Starting with the First Player, and continuing clockwise, each player performs one Action at a time. You can perform any of the following Actions.
Available Actions:
- Build a Location
- Make a Deal
- Raze a Location
- Use an Action from a card
- Use an Action from your faction board
- Use another player's Open Production Location
- Take or play a Connection card
- Pass
Once a player passes in the Action phase, they may not perform any other Actions in the current round.
Also, their Locations are immune from other players attempting to Raze them, or otherwise interact with them. For example, no one can Raze your Location or use your Open Production Locations with you when you pass.
There is no other limit to the number, type, or order of Actions that you can take during the entire Action phase, as long as you take them one at a time and have any required Goods. The Action phase continues until all players have passed.
Build A Location
There are two ways you can place a Location into your State.
Construct
Choose a card from your hand and discard a number of tokens equal to its Distance value. Put the card in front of you. Then, smile and say something nice to your opponents.
New Location cards are placed next to your Faction board according to its Category:
- Production Locations are built in the top row,
- Feature Locations are built in the middle row,
- Action Locations are built in the bottom row.
Develop
Choose one card from your hand and one Location you already have in your State that shares a Type with it. Spend 1 Brick (*) and then remove this Location from your State and place it on the discard pile.
Then, put the card from your hand in front of you in the appropriate row. As a reward you get 1 Victory Point. Voila! You did it, you are awesome. You developed your old Location into something new and magnificent.
(*) Instead of 1 Brick you can discard 1 Development token If you do this, the cards don't need to share a common Type. Development tokens are cool.
Notes: Most cards have 2 Types. You only need to match 1 Type to Develop a Location. The new card does not have to be the same Category as the one you are replacing and may therefore be placed into a different row.
Ruins are treated as if they have any Type. You build them over with whatever Type you want.
Remember: Each time you Develop a Location, you gain 1 Victory Point!
Production Locations immediately produce when built. You build it, you get the stuff. Take the appropriate Goods from the supply. Simple.
Some Locations have a Building Bonus. This provides you with the Goods depicted when the Location is built. This is a one-time bonus only. You build, you get it, and it's done. Like a first kiss. You can't have it every freaking Tuesday, right?
Notes: If a Production Location also has a Building Bonus, you gain both benefits when you build it. If a card gives you a bonus for building a certain type or Category of Location, it counts itself.
I am tired. We are done with building.
Make a Deal
You can make a Deal with a Location from your hand by discarding tokens equal to its Distance. Put the card under your Faction board so that only the blue Deal field is visible and immediately take the depicted Goods. You made a Deal, you get the goods. I hope you are happy.
Raze Location
You can Raze Locations from your hand or you can Raze your opponent's Locations. No pressure, but if I were you, I'd focus on razing your opponent's... Either way, you get the Goods shown in the Spoils field.
Razing From Your Hand - discard the card and a number of tokens equal to the Distance on the card. Take the Goods shown in Spoils field.
Razing Your Opponent's Locations - discard tokens equal to the Defense value of the Location you want to Raze (based on its Category). Take the Goods shown in the Spoils field. As compensation, the opponent whose card you Razed takes the Good depicted in the Deal field. Then, he turns the Location face- down, it is now considered to be Ruins. Good job! You ruined their place. Now you can laugh at them.
Notes: Once a player has passed, their Locations may not be Razed by the other players for the rest of that round.
Any tokens on the Location that was razed (from activations) are returned to the general supply. If there were tokens stored on the card, the owner gets to keep them.
tokens increase the Defense of a Location by 1. Don't forget this when you go Raze your opponents. You'll have to spend 1 extra token to Raze a Location with a Shield on it. There can only be 1 Q on the Location.
Use an action from a location or your faction board
Some Locations provide you with the ability to perform an Action. They give you Victory Points or Contact tokens or other weird stuff the designer came up with. To use this Action, you must spend the Goods indicated and place them on the card. That way you won't forget you already used the Location this round. Smart, huh?
Note: You can only use an Action on a card once per round unless text says otherwise. If it can be used more than once, you can choose to activate it all at once or on different turns. If any decisions are involved in the Action you can choose differently each time, even if you did them all at once.
Your Faction board also provides some Actions. This is stuff you can do even if you don't have any Locations. As with Actions on cards - you can only do this stuff once per round unless text says otherwise.
Send a worker to another player's open production location
Open Production Location
Your Workers can be sent to your opponent's Locations to work as long as that Location has the Open Production keyword. Place your Worker on their card and take the Production Goods indicated. Then, your opponent gets 1 from the general supply.
Wait, what? Yes, we know that you could just give them your Worker but we didn't write this rule just to confuse you; there is a good reason for it. Listen, you place the Worker on their card because each Open Production Location can only be used once each round. This way, you don't forget if it was already used. Now it makes sense, huh?
Notes: You cannot send a Worker to use your own Open Production Locations. Once a player has passed, their Open Production Locations cannot be used for the rest of that round.
Open Production card is a Production card therefore it produces Goods during the Production phase for its owner.
Take or play a connection card
You can discard 2 to take one of the face-up Connection cards. If there aren't any face-up, you can't do this. And no taking from the discard pile either. Man, why would you even try?
Connection cards provide Goods when played. It takes an Action to play a Connection card - you just play the card from your hand, place it on the Connection discard pile and take the appropriate Goods. Simple as that.
Note: If there is a cost to use this card you must discard the Goods when using it, not when taking it.
Other Options
At any point during your turn, you can place 1 on one of your Locations. Obviously, you have to have a first. Placing a does not count as your Action and once placed, it cannot be moved.
A on a Location increases the Defense of the Location by 1. If you forgot why this is important already, you can go back to the Raze a Location section and start over. You obviously have a memory problem. Also remember that Locations may only have maximum 1 at any time.
Passing
If you can't or don't want to take any Actions on your turn, you pass. After you pass, you may not take any other Actions for the round.
Once you pass, you are safe from the other players, they cannot interact with your Locations in any way. This includes Razing Locations, using Open Productions, targeting Locations with Actions etc. You are holed up in your little base like a bunch of chickens.
Yes, I am serious. You can't be Razed. You are out for the round. Your opponents must find themselves another target and stop whining.
Once everyone has passed, the Action phase is over, and you proceed to the Cleanup phase.
4. Cleanup Phase
During this phase, if your Locations have any storage abilities you can use them to save the Goods described on the card. All other Goods are discarded back into the supply.This includes resources, workers, contact tokens, and shields, everything. The only thing you can keep between rounds apart from Goods in storage are the cards in your hand.
Discard all face-up Connection cards that were not taken in the round and place them on the Connection discard pile. You missed your chance bub.
Pass the first player token to the left and start a new round.
End of the Game
The game end is triggered when any player reaches 25 Victory Points. When this happens, finish the current Action phase but skip Cleanup.
If a player reaches 25 points during the Production phase, proceed to the Action phase as normal. After the Action phase is completed, skip the Cleanup phase and calculate the final score of each player.
Score 1VP for each Location in your State and add the total to your score.
The player with the highest score is the winner.
In the case of a tie, the player with the most total Goods is the winner. If the tie persists, the player among those ties with the most Locations wins. If there is still a tie, all tied players share the victory. Now kiss. Isn't that just adorable?
Clarifications And Reminders
Golden rule: If a specific rule on a card or Faction board is in conflict with the rulebook, always follow the specific rule and ignore the rulebook.
For example, most Actions can be used once per round but the SHIPWRECK states that it can be used twice. The action on the SHIPWRECK overrules the rulebook and is considered correct. You may use it twice.
When a Feature or Production Location provides Goods for building specific types of Locations, include that card as well, even if it was just built.
Resources are not intended to be limited. Enough pieces have been provided for most games. However, should you run out, use any suitable substitute or note them down on paper.
The number of cards, resources, tokens etc. in a player's possession is open information available to all other players.
If you need to draw a card from the Deck and there none remaining, shuffle the discard pile to create a new Deck.
Open Production Locations can be used once per round. Keep the opponent's Workers on your Locations until the end of the round to track this.
There is no penalty if you put your Locations in the wrong position. It is, however, strongly recommended to follow the outline described in this rulebook as it will help you and your opponents to keep track of what's happening in the game.
You can only Raze Locations from your hand or Locations built in opponent's States. You cannot Raze Locations built in your own State.
There is no limit to the number of Locations you may build or Deals you may have.
You may have multiple Locations with the same name in your State.
There is no hand limit.
When stealing an opponent's production (e.g. SUPPLIERS), if that Location provides Goods according to the number of Locations of a certain type, count the Locations of the Location's owner.
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