Rotary vortex

• 22 October 2008
• Category: Space Race

Turn structure

The base idea is a set of rounds, each round consisting of distinct phases executed in order by each player before moving onto the next phase or round:

• Construction
• Operation
• Resolution

Turn order is rotational. Start player moves back one space each round.

Construction

Players have 2 action points. Available actions:

• Purchase a colony (2AP)
  • Cost dependent on level
• Place colony (1AP)
  • Placement limitations:
    • 3 edges from nearest colony for level-1
    • 3 edges from nearest level-1 colony and 5 edges from nearest level-2 for level-2 colonies
    • 3 edges from nearest level1 colony, 5 edges from nearest level-2 and 7 edges from nearest level-3 for level-3 colonies
  • Colony may upgrade previously placed colony by same or other player
    • New placement
      • Connected routes for new colony must pay docking fees of $2 per route in promissory notes to colony owner
    • Upgrade placement and new owner:
      • Previous owner gives promissory notes to new owner equal to half-cost of current docks
  • All exploration bonuses leading to colony are claimed
  • Spaceships present on node are docked (returned to player)
• Purchase and place factory (1AP)
  • Cost is a function of level
  • May be placed on other player’s colonies
  • Factories come in three levels (1/2/3) and size (1/2/4) and produce goods of their ssize
    • Level-1 factories come in 3 primary colours
    • Level-2 factories come in 3 different secondary colours and accept their constituent primaries as inputs
    • Level-3 factories are black and accept any two different secondary colours as inputs
  • Sale price for a good is market price*size
  • Large(r) size goods can be delivered to small(er) factories where they count as a single input
  • Placed factory may not be same colour as the input or output of a factory already on colony
  • Sum of factory sizes on colony limited by level of colony (1/3/7)
  • May upgrade previously placed factory for delta cost
  • Placement of size-3 factory causes all connected size-1 factories to rust (removed from board)
• Advance travelling spaceship one edge (1AP)
  • Double speed if on already explored edge
• Move docked spaceship to connected colony and advance one edge (1 AP)

Player’s travelling spaceships which are not advanced during turn are removed from the board along with the paths they explored.

Operation

The Operation phase is split into three steps:

1. For each player in turn order:
   1. Produce products on all level-1 (input-less) factories
   2. Move products across network to consumers
      • Pay for network transit per colour
      • Owner of product pays market price (forced) for product
      • May not delivery to factory if an input of that colour is already present
2. For each player in turn order:
   1. Produce products on all level-2 factories that have both inputs
   2. Move products across network to consumers
      • Pay for network transit per colour
      • Owner of product pays market price (forced) for product
3. For each player in turn order:
   1. Produce products on all level-3 factories that have both inputs
   2. Move products across network to consumers
      • Pay for network transit per colour
      • Owner of factory received market price from bank

Resolution

The Resolution phase is split into three steps:

1. For each colour of level-1 factories adjust the market price for that colour:
   • down if there are unshipped goods of that colour
   • up if all products of that colour were consumed to produce level-2 products
   • no-change if all products of that colour were shipped but not all were consumed
2. Each player now exchanges promissory notes with their owners to reduce the number of notes in the game to a minimum (trade a player’s promissory notes with that player for notes they hold of other players, repeat until no further exchanges are possible).
3. Each player pays all promissory notes other players hold of their’s.

Other

Preferably game ends when bank breaks.

I’m concerned that Operations and Resolution are horribly fiddly. Transaction density is a problem.

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