Mastered Entanglion and looking for more of a challenge? You've come to the right place!
Entanglion: Space Pirates introduces a number of new game elements to make Entanglion more challenging and more rewarding.
⚠️ Entanglion: Space Pirates is a work in progress and we are looking for feedback on mechanics, game length, balance, and anything else that could make this expansion more enjoyable. Please open an issue and leave us your feedback!
You are the captain of an intergalactic mining business, but you have always dreamed of what life would be like as a space pirate, wandering the universe in search of the best loot. The good news is that the Space Pirates of Entanglion (SPOE) are seeking a new captain to join their ranks! The bad news is that membership into this elite pirate group requires achieving a certain level of technological sophistication -- one might say, quantum sophistication -- and they're going to take the first qualified applicant.
Do you have what it takes to outsmart, outmaneuver, and outwit your competition in order to become the biggest, baddest, most quantumly-ruthless Space Pirate of Entanglion?
🚀 Download Entanglion: Space Pirates game assets
🤔 Want to buy a boxed copy? We will publish a copy of Entanglion: Space Pirates at The Game Crafter, once we are satisfied that the rules are balanced. It will require a copy of the base Entanglion game.
The new Entanglion: Space Pirates gameboard builds on top of the existing Entanglion game board, but adds a few new features:
- New ships! The Yearling and the Grenada are competitors to the Rubicon and Mercurial. The game board adds a new engine control section for this new fleet.
- Pirates! Pirates can help you on your journey, for a price.
- New instructions on turn order and actions
- New Quantum Depot structure for forging quantum components
The spaceship boards are used to manage your fleet of ships: Rubicon/Mercurial and Yearling/Grenada. They contain slots for cargo and quantum compnents, and a quantum power tracking meter. These boards are used in place of the stock spaceship boards from Entanglion.
Planets in Entanglion may have resource mines, pirate outposts, or nothing at all! There are three kinds of resources that can be mined -- Copper, Helium-3 (He3), and Niodium (Nb) -- and are they used to purchase quantum components.
The Quantum Depot is where quantum components are created from raw materials. It is located in the Superious galaxy.
Quantum components are re-used from the base Entanglion game. They increase the Quantum Power (QP) of your fleet.
| Component | Quantum Power | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Physical Qubits | +1 QP | 2 Copper |
| Qubit Interconnect | +1 QP | 2 He3 |
| Dilution Refrigerator | +3 QP | 2 Copper + 2 He3 |
| Magnetic Shielding | +3 QP | 3 He3 + 1 Niudium |
| Control Infrastructure | +3 QP | 2 Copper + 2 Niodium |
| Quantum Gates | +4 QP | 2 Copper + 1 He3 + 2 Niodium |
| Quantum Programming | +4 QP | 2 Copper + 2 He3 + 1 Niodium |
| Quantum Error Correction | +5 QP | 1 Copper + 1 He3 + 4 Niodium |
Pirates are obtained from pirate outposts and provide effects during the course of play. Pirates cost any 3 resources to hire.
| Pirate | Effect |
|---|---|
| Uppity the Mercinary | +4 QP |
| Strangiatto the Scientist | +1 QP, Quantum components may be purchased with one fewer resource (your choice) |
| Charming the Engineer | +1 QP, You may re-roll the Entanglion die one additional time during an encounter |
| Tiptop the Thief | +2 QP, Steal 1 additional resource of your choice when you win an encounter |
| Squarebottom the Sapper | +1 QP, Return 1 quantum component of your choice from your opponent's ship to the Quantum Depot when you win an encounter |
| Downdown the Miner | +2 QP, Receive one extra resource from the current planet whenever discovering or mining |
💣 Quantum components removed by Squarebottom the Sapper are placed back in the Quantum Depot and can be re-purchased.
Quantum event cards are drawn when a quantum event is triggered by playing 6 engine cards in engine control. Entanglion: Space Pirates introduces a new set of quantum events. These cards are held in your hand and played at any point during the game, unless otherwise specified. Players may hold a maximum of 3 quantum event cards in their hand.
| Event | Effect |
|---|---|
| Wormhole | Teleport to a random planet in Centarious. Roll the Centarious die and move your ships to the indicated planet. |
| Quantum Noise | Teleport to a random planet in Entanglion. Roll the Entanglion die, and proceeding in clockwise order from OMEGA ZERO, count the indicated number of planets. Move your ships to the selected planet. |
| Quantum Interference | Change one engine card to another of your choosing. Play immediately after the engine card is revealed. Cannot be played on a PROBE. |
| Prosperity | Receive +2 resources from the current planet or Hire one pirate at the current outpost for 1 resource. |
| Defection! | Steal one of your opponent's pirates (your choice). Your fleet must have space to accommodate the new pirate. |
| Color Blindness | On this turn, your opponent can only navigate with one color spaceship (your choice). Play at the beginning of the first player’s Navigate phase. |
| The Mechanic | Draw 3 engine cards and immediately use up to two (outside of engine control). Discard the engine cards when finished. Play at the beginning of your Navigate phase. |
| Quantum Teleporter | Steal one quantum event card from your opponent at random. |
| Hard Bargain | Buy a quantum component at one fewer resource of your choice. |
| Black Hole | Discard your hand and draw three new engine cards. |
| Spy | On this turn, your opponent must play their engine cards face up. Play at the beginning of the first player’s Navigate phase. |
| Quantum Boost | Add 3 to your die roll during an encounter. |
| Shuttlecraft | Move one pirate from one pirate base to another. The destination base must have space to accommodate the pirate. |
| Alchemist | Convert up to two of your resources of one type to another resource type. The resources must be of the same type. |
| Tractor Beam | Gain two extra cargo slots. Play next to your spaceship card. |
🏠 House rule: for a more lively game, quantum event cards may also be drawn when exiting Entanglion, as in the base rule set.
This token is used to determine which player takes the first action during each round. Players alternate taking the first action after each round.
Two additional PROBE cards are used in Entanglion: Space Pirates, one for each fleet. These cards enable players to take an action in the middle of their turn.
Preparation of Entanglion: Space Pirates is as follows.
- Spaceship cards. Each player receives one spaceship card for their fleet. Rubicon/Mercurial form one fleet and Yearling/Grenada form the other.
- Planet tokens. Shuffle the planet tokens and place one face down on each planet in the Entanglion system.
- Quantum Depot. Roll the Centarious die and place the Quantum Depot on the indicated planet in Superious (0 -> Minus, 1 -> Plus).
- Engine cards. Distribute the colored PROBE cards to each player and place the remaining (black) PROBE card with the rest of the engine cards. Shuffle and place the engine cards face down on the engine card stack. Deal three engine cards to each player.
- Pirate cards. Shuffle the pirate cards and place them face down in the two pirate outposts.
- Quantum event cards. Shuffle the quantum event cards and place them face down on the quantum event stack.
- Determine first player. Determine the first player by rolling the Entanglion die. The player with the highest roll goes first and takes possession of the first player token. Re-roll in case of a tie.
- Spaceship placement. The first player may choose which planet their fleet begins on in Centarious. The other player's fleet begins on the other planet in Centarious. Both spaceships in a fleet begin on the same planet.
A round consists of four phases: navigate, resolve, action, and cleanup.
Beginning with the first player, players alternate taking turns placing engine cards in their own engine control section on the board. Each turn, a player may play a card face down or pass their turn. Players can place up to six engine cards. Players immediately draw a replacement card after placing a card. Once a player passes their turn, they may not place any additional engine cards during this round.
🔀 Remember to shuffle the engine card discard pile when the engine card stack is empty!
If a player places six engine cards in their engine control, they have triggered a quantum event. Draw a quantum event card and keep it in your hand immediately after placing the sixth engine card.
🚀 For purposes of navigation, the Yearling (yellow ship) follows blue paths on the game board and the Grenada (green ship) follows red paths on the board.
🃏 Your fleet's PROBE card must be played face up.
After both players have passed during the navigate phase, players begin resolving their navigation actions. Beginning with the first player, players alternatively reveal the next hidden engine card and perform the appropriate navigation action with their spaceships.
During the resolve phase, one or both of a player's spaceships may occupy the same planet as the spaceships of their opponent. This event is called a spaceship encounter. Resolve the spaceship encounter as described in the next section.
If a player reveals a PROBE card, they may immediately make an action as described below.
Immediately after a player resolves their last navigation action, they proceed to the action phrase. Players may perform any of the following actions, depending on the planet(s) at which their fleet is located:
- Discover planet. Undiscovered planets in the Entanglion system are those with their planet tokens face down. Flip the planet token to discover what lies on the planet.
- ☠️ Pirate outpost: Recruit one pirate of your choice from the outpost into your fleet.
- ⛏️ Mine: Receive two of the discovered resource.
- Mine. At a planet with resources, mine those resources by moving some or all of any resource tokens present on the planet to the cargo holds of your fleet.
- Hire pirate. At a pirate outpost, hire a pirate at a cost of any three resources.
- Buy component. At the Quantum Depot, discard the specified resources to purchase a quantum component. Players may purchase as many components as they are able in one action.
- Jettison cargo. Discard any amount of cargo of any type on the current planet.
🚀 Due to the effects of quantum teleportation, players do not need to worry which of their ships travels to the Quantum Depot. All cargo is instantly transferred to the ship docked at the Depot.
After both players have concluded their action phase, prepare for the next round by performing the following actions:
- Add one resource token to each discovered planet containing a resource, up to a maximum of three resources.
- Discard all engine cards in engine control.
- Retrieve any played PROBE cards.
Centarious and Superious are lawful, peaceful galaxies. Spaceships from opposing fleets may encounter each other in these galaxies with no effect.
Entanglion, on the other hand, is a lawless galaxy: a perfect home for the space pirates and their outposts. But beware, spaceships of the opposing fleet may also attack when you least expect it!
When spaceships of opposing fleets encounter each other in Entanglion, each player rolls the Entanglion (8-sided) die. The player with the higher number wins the attack. In case of a tie, the encounter results in a stalemate with no effect The winner of the encounter loots one resource of their choice from the loser.
📦 If the winner of an encounter is unable to store the resource looted from the other ship, it is jettisoned on the planet at which the encounter occurred.
🤷♂️ If the loser of the encounter doesn't have any resources, the winner does not receive any loot.
Quantum event cards may be played at any point in the game. Resolve the quantum event immediately when it is played. Players may hold a maximum of 3 quantum event cards in their hand.
🃏 Quantum event cards should be kept private from your opponent.
There is a limit of 3 engine cards in your hand.
🃏 Engine cards should be kept private from your opponent.
Ships have finite cargo capacities. If your cargo holds are full, you cannot bring new cargo on board. You may jettison cargo at any time during your action phase. Jettisoned cargo orbits the planet at which it was jettisoned, enabling other players to travel there and pick it up. Cargo may be jettisoned on any planet in the quantum universe, not just in Entanglion. There is no limit to how much cargo can be placed on a single planet, although a planet containing three (or more) of the resource it produces will not be replenished.
A maximum of four pirates may be recruited to your fleet.
☠️ While you may jettison cargo, pirates cannot be flushed out of airlocks.
The game ends immediately when any of the following conditions occur.
- One player achieves a quantum power of 12 (or more)
- All quantum components have been purchased
- All pirates have been hired
- The quantum event stack is depleated
When the game ends, the player whose fleet has the higher quantum power is the winner. In case players' fleets have the same quantum power, the game ends in a draw.
Entanglion: Space Pirates was designed by Justin D Weisz, Maryam Ashoori, Kent Fung, Patrick Watson, Prabhat M Reddy, and Rachel Ostrand.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
