Drone's Agenda

Your consortium has sent you on your mission to colonize Europa with two automated administration drones. You must outperform their rigid and unforgiving agenda to establish a productive colony in the harsh environs of Europa, or suffer a career-ending demotion and reassignment!

Setup

Set up as if for a 2-player game, taking five dice for yourself as usual (for example 5 yellow dice).

To represent the Drones, take two sets of four dice in two different colors (for example 4 blue dice for the first Drone and 4 green dice for the second Drone).

Take one die of an unused color to act as the Agenda die (for example 1 purple die).

Game Play

To start each round, roll the Agenda die and the first Drone's four dice. The Agenda die will show a number from 1 to 6; this indicates one of the six regions of the board.

Place the first Drone's dice in ascending value from lowest to highest, one per region as if it were a player, starting in the area indicated by the Agenda die and going clockwise.

• If either Drone goes in the Academy, it doesn't place a colonist with it.

  
  
  

  For example, the Agenda die shows a 4. Start in the Gantry 4 and place the lowest blue die on a building. The next-lowest goes in the Doorstep 3, the next in the one space in the Academy 6, and the last one on the expedition in Basecamp 1.

  Then, roll and place all your dice, using the placement rules as normal as if the Drone dice were other players.

  After you've placed your five dice, roll the Agenda die with the second Drone's four dice. The Agenda die will give you a region to start in again, but this time place the dice in ascending value from lowest to highest going counterclockwise (ignoring the Outfitter).

• The second Drone skips over the Academy if it is already filled. (Remember, only 1 Academy space is available).

• Place the second Drone's dice among the existing dice, following normal placement rules as if it were a player.

  
  
  

  For example the Agenda die shows a 3. You begin by placing the lowest die in the Quarry ( 3 ), then the next-lowest in the Vents ( 2 ), then the next on the Expedition in Basecamp ( I ). Since the single location in the Academy ( s ) is full, it is skipped and the last one goes into the Doorstep ( s ).

Special Drone placement rules for the Gantry: when Drones go here they follow these rules:

1. If the first Drone places in the Gantry, it goes on the building closest to the stack.

2. If the second Drone places in the Gantry, it will place on the empty building closest to the stack.

   1. If there is no empty building, it outbids an existing lower-valued die, preferring to outbid your dice over a Drone die if it is able to.
   2. If the Drone could outbid more than one of your bids, you choose which one gets outbid.
   3. If the Drone can't outbid the highest bid on any building, set that die aside; it does nothing this round.

Resolve the dice using the normal rules (including applying Relief Track effects for yourself; never for Drones), with the following changes:

1 Basecamp - Determine Expedition success as normal, treating the Drones as two distinct players. Drones do not claim Badges or rewards.

If you are entitled to a single reward, you may claim either one (regardless of whether you technically achieved first or second place).

2 Vents - Energy taken by Drones returns to the supply.

3 Quarry - Minerals taken by Drones return to the supply.

4 Gantry - When a Drone claims a building, pretend that it can afford the Mineral cost; the building is discarded from the game.

5 Doorstep- When a Drone hires colonists, it takes the maximum number that its die value permits; pretend that it can afford the Energy cost.

Drones always hire colonists in this order: Steward > Marine > Engineer > Pioneer. Colonists hired by Drones are removed from the game.

6 Academy - A Drone in this spot does nothing.

Play the full 6 rounds as usual, following this same process of Drone 1 / You / Drone 2 for placement each round. Remember when you are refreshing the game board each round to treat it as a 2-player game.

Drones are unaffected by Events that would cause them to gain or lose something if they were a player. Drone dice are taken into account when calculating whether an Event's effect might affect you or not.

For example an Event causing a penalty to the player with the most dice in a region would count your dice and the Drone dice to see who qualifies; if a Drone qualifies it ignores the penalty but if you qualify you'd suffer the penalty.

Scoring

At the end of the game, score points as normal. (The only difference to scoring is for Toolkits; instead of awards for most or penalties for fewest, you simply earn 2 points if you have at least 7 Toolkits, and lose 1 point if you have fewer than 2).

Your total score earns you the rank as follows:

• 20 or Less: Tentacle Cleanup Crew

• 21 - 24: Mediocronaut

• 25 - 28: Macro Manager

• 29 - 32: Colonial Commandant

• 33 or More: Artemis Prime!

Continue Reading