How to Play Star Trek: Captain's Chair

1. Objective of the Game

In Star Trek: Captain’s Chair, you take on the role of a famous captain and their crew in a simulation of the Alpha Quadrant's history. You will recruit allies, analyze strange lifeforms, survey or conquer neutral planets, and manage resources to build your deck. The game is an asymmetric, thematic deck-building experience. The player with the most Victory Points (VP) at the end of the game wins.

2. Preparation (Setup)

Follow these steps to prepare the game:

1. Market Setup: Place the Market strip in the center. Separate all Common Cards into seven decks (Person, Cargo, Ship, Ally, Discovery, Encounter, Incident, and Location). Place the four Market decks (Person, Cargo, Ship, Ally) facedown above the strip. Place the Encounter deck sideways above them. Place the Incident deck to the side.
2. Neutral Zone: Separate Location cards into Starting Locations and Advanced Locations. Shuffle the Advanced Locations and place them facedown. Place one Starting Location on top. Reveal three more Starting Locations to form the Neutral Zone.
3. Stardate Cards: Select the Stardate cards for a 2-player game, sort them by sequence number, and place them faceup near the Market. Place the indicated number of Glory tokens on the top card.
4. Player Setup: Each player chooses a Crew deck, taking the Crew board and all associated cards. Place your Captain card to the right of your board. Shuffle your Available cards to create your Draw deck. Place Development cards in a faceup pile above your board and Reserve cards facedown on top of them.
5. Resources: Each player starts with 1 Dilithium, 1 Latinum, and 1 Glory. Take your Away Team tokens and place the indicated amount on your Captain card.
6. Starting Hand: Draw 5 cards from your Draw deck. The player with the Starting Player token goes first.

3. Fluxo do Jogo (Game Flow)

Play alternates between players. A player must fully resolve all four steps of their turn before passing play to the opponent. The turn structure is:

• Resupply Step: Trigger every Resupply operation you have in play. Effects are mandatory unless stated otherwise.
• Control Step: If you have at least 3 tokens (Ship tokens or Away Teams) at a neutral Location, and at least 2 more than your opponent, you may take control of it.
• Action Step: Resolve card operations. You are limited to 3 actions per turn.
• Clean-Up Step: Trigger Clean-up operations, resolve Stardate cards, place Glory, discard cards, draw back to your hand size, and refresh exhausted cards.

4. Ações e Como Jogar

The Action Step is where you resolve card operations. You have 3 actions per turn; if an operation has an [action] icon, you must spend one of your 3 action tokens to resolve it.

• Play Operations: Play cards from your hand into your Staging Area and resolve one Play operation.
• Table Operations: These are used on cards already in play (Fleet Area, Location Area, or Duty Officer slot).
  • Activation: Exhaust the card to resolve the operation.
  • Passive: Always in effect.
  • Reaction: Triggered by specific conditions, even on your opponent's turn.
• Completing Goals: If your mission's Goal is met, you may complete it to resolve its Reward and mark it with a Mission Completion token.
• Beaming: Tuck a card under a Ship or Location. It remains in play but its operations are unavailable.

5. Fim de Jogo e Pontuação

The game ends via two triggers:

• Resolution: Triggered when the last Stardate card empties. Players finish the current round, then play one final turn each.
• The Burn: Triggered immediately if the Incident deck empties. The player with fewer Incident cards wins.

Final Scoring: Sum the following:

• 1 VP per Glory token.
• 1 VP per token on neutral Locations.
• Endgame operations on in-play cards.
• Printed VP values on all owned cards.
• Specialty track multipliers multiplied by the number of cards with matching Focus icons (only if at least one mission is completed).
• If playing on the Advanced side, score VP for completed missions.

6. Dicas para Vencer

• Manage your deck: Use Development cards and Reserve cards to strengthen your deck. Enlisting these cards when your Draw deck is empty is crucial for long-term strategy.
• Focus on Missions: Completing at least one mission is vital, as it unlocks the ability to score points from your Focus icons based on your Specialty track multipliers.
• Resource Efficiency: Remember that Glory tokens can be spent as Latinum (1:1) or Dilithium (1:2). Use this flexibility to pay for costs when you are short on specific resources.