# High Frontier Colonization ## General Info - **Year Published**: 2013 - **BGG Rating**: 8.2 - **BGG Rank**: — - **Players**: 2-5 (Best with: 3) - **Duration**: 180 min - **Weight**: 4.36 / 5 - **Designers**: Phil Eklund - **Artists**: Phil Eklund - **Publishers**: Sierra Madre Games - **Categories**: Civilization, Economic, Expansion for Base-game, Industry / Manufacturing, Science Fiction, Space Exploration - **Mechanics**: Auction / Bidding, Network and Route Building, Point to Point Movement, Simulation, Variable Player Powers ## Verdict If you're already lost in the complexity of High Frontier and want more, Colonization is a worthwhile upgrade! More options, more paths to victory, and that space simulation we adore.Expands the High Frontier universeNew paths to victoryDeep space simulationExtra components and mapsRequires High Frontier base gameFamiliar complexityTranslation dependencyFOR GENRE FANS ## Description Hey space cadets! Ready to expand the High Frontier universe? High Frontier Colonization drops in as a souped-up expansion, bringing back all the goodies from the first edition (which is now out of print) and adding a ton of new maps, cards, and pieces to make the game even richer. Imagine a bustling space infrastructure teeming with specialists working in colonies orbiting Earth, powering up stuff like antimatter manufacture, beamed solar energy, cycler satellites, giant space telescopes, the iconic space elevator, and of course, the local tax office! With new Bernal, Colonist, Freighter, and GW Thruster modules, you can push your operations much further into the High Frontier. And the best part? These new cards introduce "Futures," which are fresh paths to victory. This is for those who love true space simulation with that economic and network-building vibe we all dig. Get ready for a deep experience, packed with strategic decisions and a full dive into the dream of colonizing space. If you're already a fan of the series, this expansion is a must-have to supercharge your games and discover new ways to conquer the frontier! ## How to Play Objective of the Game In High Frontier Colonization, players are establishing a thriving space infrastructure with hundreds of specialists working in space colonies orbiting Earth. These colonies provide services like antimatter manufacture, beamed solar energy, and space pharming. The expansion introduces new Bernal, Colonist, Freighter, and GW Thruster modules, allowing players to move their base of operations further afield. The promoted side of many of these cards includes new paths to victory called Futures. The ultimate goal is to achieve these Futures and accumulate Victory Points (VP). Preparation (Setup) Components 1 rulebook 1 Cover Page (with List of Operations) 1 End Page (Tracks and Tables, cut out or copy from this rulebook) 1 Expanded Map, from Jupiter to the trans-neptunian objects {TNOs} 10 Hemispheres (two of each of five colors) for Bernal Tokens 5 10mm Cubes (one of each of five colors) for Freighters 15 Disks (three of each of five colors) for Claim Disks 10 Yellow Disks for Outposts and 3 Black Disks for Busted Sites 32 New Cards for the four Card Modules 28 Support Cards (24 legacy and 4 new cards) General Setup Perform the setup as described in section 3.0 of the High Frontier Living Rules. If 1st edition support cards are available, you may add them to the three support decks. Module-Specific Setup Bernal-Colonist Module: Your hand starts empty. Your Crew and Bernal cards start in a Bernal Stack. You also start with the hemispherical token of your color in its start orbit. GW-Thruster, Freighter, and Colonist Modules: Decks for the GW-Thruster, Freighter, and Colonist Cards are added in addition to the six legacy research decks. Stack them purple-side down. Freighter Module: The big cube of your color starts in your reserves. First Player Randomly determine the first player at the start of the game. Play then proceeds clockwise. After all players have taken their turn, advance the Sunspot Cycle. Quick-Start Set-Up (Variant) This variant allows for a quicker start to Colonization and uses all four new card modules. Players begin with 10 WT, located at their Bernal Stack. Idea Turns The first few turns are called Idea Turns and are used to build up a player's hand. Starting with the first player, each player, on their turn, may pay 1 WT and take the top card off one of the patent decks (including the colonist deck). The first player pays 2 WT for their first card to offset their advantage. Cards drawn during Idea Turns do not come with supports. There is no hand limit during Idea Turns, and the Sunspot Cycle is not active. Ending Idea Turns If, on your turn, you decide to perform a standard operation instead of an Idea Turn, you become the new first player for the rest of the game. No further Idea Turns can be played. Fluxo do Jogo Turn Sequence (Year) The game progresses in rounds called a year. During a year, each player takes their operations/move phase, starting with the first player and going clockwise. After all players have taken their turn, the Sunspot Cycle is advanced. Sunspot Cycle and Events The Sunspot Disk acts as the year-marker. If the Sunspot Disk passes an event threshold (labeled "event") on the Sunspot Cycle, it triggers an Event Roll. This occurs every other year. An Event Roll is not made when entering a triangle burn. Order of Decision-Making If an event or combat initiation requires simultaneous order-significant decisions from multiple players, the first player makes their decisions first, and then play proceeds clockwise. Sol Event Table Results Unlike legacy rules, each event potentially impacts all players; there is no phasing player. Extropy: Put the topmost card of each patent deck (including the colonist deck) on the bottom. Glitch: This decommissions the heaviest card in each Rocket Stack, or an Outpost Stack if you have no rocket. Ignore a glitch if the stack is collocated with a promoted Bernal, cube (big or small), or human crews or colonists. If multiple cards are equally heavy, choose one. Election Auction: This event generates an election auction. Note: All cards collocated to a promoted Bernal except its support radiators are immune to events (glitches, pad explosions, & solar flares). Ações e Como Jogar During your turn, you are allowed to perform one operation for each crew or colonist you possess. You can choose from the list of operations listed on the cover page and in sections 5.1 to 5.7 of the legacy rules. Operations can be performed in any order before or after your move. You may perform the same operation multiple times using different crew or colonists. The only exception is that you are allowed only one card auction per turn. The Space Tourism Space Venture allows your legacy crew to perform two operations instead of one. Colonist Operations An operation performed by a colonist differs from one performed by your legacy crew in three ways: Location: Unlike your legacy crew (who can perform operations either in your hand or in space), a colonist must be in space to perform an operation. It cannot perform the operation the same turn it is boosted or built. However, it can be in any stack and does not need to be located at the site where the operation is taking place, unless it uses its ISRU ability. Cost: Each operation performed by a colonist costs 1 WT. Specialty: A colonist can only perform the operations corresponding to its specialization icon. Some robotic colonists do not have a specialization and allow no extra operations. Some colonists have more than one specialization, and you may choose which one to use each turn. Epic Hazard Op Certain Futures call for an operation marked with a skull icon, called an epic hazard op. Either the colonist containing the Future must perform it, or a colonist collocated with the card containing the Future. Epic Hazard Roll: Make a 1d6 roll, which cannot be modified by Failure is Not An Option. Failure Effects: If a 1 is rolled, all cards in the stack containing the performing colonist are decommissioned (except Bernals and promoted Freighters). If on a site, the site itself is destroyed (place two black disks to indicate this). Bust the Futures Star with a black disk stacked on your disk, indicating that although the Future was not met, the game is one step closer to ending, and you still get 3 VP for the notoriety. Digital Swap Operation (Engineer) This operation allows you to decommission one or more cards from a stack and then replace the card(s) with one black side card from your hand (which can also be any one of the cards just decommissioned). 3D Printers: The cards being swapped out must be collocated with your big cube, so this operation may only be used with the Freighter Module. If your freighter card has been promoted, all of your cubes, big and small, can be used for digital swapping. Product Letter: The cards being swapped must have the same product letter C, M, S, V or D, as the spectral type of your Freighter Card. Limits: You cannot digital swap using the HIIPER Beam-Rider Freighter. You cannot digital swap your Freighter Card itself. Conservation of Mass: The stack must not end up with more mass than before (i.e., the combined mass of the decommissioned stack card(s) must be greater than or equal to the mass of the black-side card replacing it). Dry Mass: If your rocket stack ends up with less mass, adjust the dry mass. Promote Operation (Science) Some cards have a purple side in addition to a white (boosted from Earth) or black (built in space) side. A card is turned to its advanced purple side only by promotion. Promotion has no effect on a card without a purple side. To promote a Bernal Card to its purple side, see section 19.5. To promote a Freighter, Colonist, or GW Thruster Card to its purple side, you must bring it to a Lab and perform a Promote Operation. This flips the card over. The spectral type of the Lab does not matter. You can promote at an opponent's Lab with their permission, or as a felony if it is undefended by humans. If a promoted card is decommissioned, its promoted status is lost. Suffrage Operation (Science) To perform this operation, you must be in power, and at least one robot colonist must be boosted (by any player). If so, roll 1d6. If the result is less than the number of cards in play on their purple side (including Freighters, Bernals, Colonists and GW Thrusters), you become the Robot Emancipator. No other player can become the Emancipator for the rest of the game. Emancipation Effects If emancipated, robots are treated exactly as humans except they still do not count against your Maximum Human Colonists In Space. They prevent glitches and in peacetime have loyalty to the Emancipator. Because consciousness is not fungible, neither humans nor emancipated robots can be digitally swapped. Recruit Operation (Finance) If your hand size is less than four cards, this operation allows you to remove the top three cards from the Colonist Deck (revealing the fourth), select one of the three and return the other two to the bottom of the deck. The chosen card is then auctioned. The Player Orange Privilege (Shimizu Research) allows him to perform the Recruit Op regardless of hand size. Hostile Recruit Operation (Finance) This operation allows you to woo colonists owned by other players during peacetime. The targeted colonist is moved to your stack in the same location. Max Colonists: You must have enough dirtside hydration to support the targeted colonist. Collocation: The target is an opponent's boosted colonist that is collocated with one of your stacks. Peace Loyalty: The targeted colonist must have loyalty to you. No hostile recruiting is allowed during War. Activism (Finance) If the Sunspot Cycle is in the blue sector, use this operation to initiate an Election Auction. This is held per 8.5B, except the auction is blind and ties are decided by the faction in power. Election Auction Colonization uses a Blind Auction for elections. All players make an outstretched fist containing their secret bid and simultaneously reveal their bid. Each WT = 1 vote. Your secret bid cannot be greater than 10 WT. Votes (War): During war, each of your colonists you own in space gives you one vote per ballot box icon. Robots cannot vote unless emancipated. Votes (Peace): Except during war, colonists in space with an election button of your faction color add to your election bid, regardless of ownership of the Colonist Card. Robots vote for their emancipator, if any. Ties: If two or more winning bids are tied, the player in power decides. If nobody is in power during an election tie, then all election bids are paid to the pool, and the polity remains unchanged. The player with the most votes moves the political disk by one spot. Anti-Trust Operation (Finance) To perform this operation, you must be in power, and must have a victim with two or more hand cards of the same category (thruster, GW thruster, robonaut, refinery, generator, radiator, reactor, freighter, colonist). If so, your victim must choose one of the excess hand cards to surrender to your hand. It does not matter how many cards are in your hand. Spacecraft Move In any order, move any or all of your spacecraft on the Map, including your rocket figure, your big cube, your promoted Bernal, and (if you have promoted your Freighter Card) all your small cubes. Each of these figures may take their movement once per turn only. You may move each spacecraft or take each operation in any order. You cannot move a spacecraft that was carried as cargo by another spacecraft earlier in the turn, except to land on sites defined as adjacent. During its move, a figure can decrease (i.e., jettison) but not increase its dry mass. You cannot move one spacecraft to another, combine their stacks, and move with the combined stack. Combat Your units can attack after all your units have moved. All non-outpost units (including cubes and Bernal Tokens) defend as factories if on a site and as rockets when off-site. For purposes of buggy combat, all humans are treated as Crew, all robot colonists are treated as Robonauts, and all purple cards are treated as black cards. Increased Maximum Dry Mass To move, your Rocket Stack using a GW thruster and your dirt-propelled Bernal Stack are limited to a maximum dry mass of 20. Their performance at a dry mass of 14 to 20 is as indicated on the lowermost dry mass row on the Rocket Diagram (i.e., treat the 14-15 row as if it stated 14-20 instead). To move, a freighter's cargo is mass-limited by its load-limit. Stack Capacity If not moving, all your stacks can contain any number of cards, including colonists. Spacecraft Move Procedure Choose Thruster & Make Afterburn Decision: In your Bernal, Rocket, or Freighter Stack, activate one card with a thruster triangle and all necessary supports to be the thruster. If you decide to afterburn, reduce fuel. Afterburn fuel is expended before reckoning modified thrust. Lift-off (if on a site hex): Rockets and dirt-propelled Bernals adjust fuel figure. If landing or lifting off of a factory, spacecraft may use factory-assist. If a site is bigger than size one, freighters cannot land or lift-off unless they use factory-assist, and Bernals cannot land or lift-off at all. Compute modified thrust: For Bernals or Rockets, it must be at least one. Freighters must have a cargo mass not exceeding their load limit, and they can move one burn. Move spacecraft: For Bernals and rockets, adjust fuel figure for burns. As you move, roll for hazards. After you have moved over the desired number of burns, you may coast (not entering any burns or making any pivots) until you wish to stop or land. If landing on a site with a modified thrust less than or equal to the site size, your spacecraft must either ## FAQ ### Which edition of High Frontier does this expansion work with? High Frontier Colonization is an expansion for both the first and second editions of the High Frontier base game. ### Do I need the base game to play? Yes, absolutely! This is an expansion, so you need to own the High Frontier base game (first or second edition) to play with the additional components and rules. ### What new things does this expansion add? It brings back all the elements from the first edition expansion (which was out of print), plus new maps, cards, and pieces. It also introduces new modules and paths to victory called "Futures". ### Does the game's complexity increase significantly? High Frontier is already known for its depth and complexity. This expansion adds more layers and options, maintaining the simulation level, so expect an equally dense and strategic experience. ### Is it hard to learn the new rules? If you're already familiar with the base High Frontier, getting the hang of the new mechanics and cards should be smoother. For newcomers, the learning curve is already steep, and the expansion adds more content to master. ### Do I need translated materials to play? Yes, the source material mentions a moderate language dependency, recommending a translated spreadsheet or translated cards to facilitate gameplay. ## Price Comparison ### Best International Offers - **BoardGamePrices.com**: $ 28.10 (https://boardgameprices.com/item/go?source=A&storeitemid=1660500&utm_source=boardgamesbot.com) - See all on BoardGamePrices: https://boardgameprices.com/item/show/7218/high-frontier-colonization?utm_source=boardgamesbot.com