FLAGSHIPS
OF THE IMPERIUM
By Thomas Hall
How to Win
Players will attempt to reduce their opponent’s health to 0.
This is known as a military victory.
OR
Players will score their cards to total 5 ★ points. The score of a
card is the number on the top left. This is known as an economic
victory.
Beginning the Game
1. Players each select a deck
and place their Flagship faceup
next to it. (The Flagship is the
backside of the information
card)
2. Use any game tokens to
represent health. Place these
tokens to match the number on
the top right of your Flagship
with the outline.
3. Each player draws 5 cards from their deck.
4. Assign the Initiative card to a player arbitrarily (or the player
with the most FLAGSHIPS experience).
If you ever have no cards to draw from, simply shuffle your
discard pile to form a new draw deck.
(!) For your first game, It’s recommended you play as a low complexity
faction. This can be seen on the back of a faction’s flagship.
Flagships of the Imperium ©2024 Thomas Hall
Card Attributes
Each card in a player’s deck will have three important
attributes:
1.Strength value (top left corner)
(!) Having the higher strength value in
combat will help you win the round.
2.Ability trigger (icon next to the
name)
(!) Cards must fulfill criteria to activate
their effects
3.Ability text (written under the
name)
(!) While learning, read the effects out
loud so all players know what your
cards do.
Start of Round
At the start of the round, players will follow these steps.
1.DISCARD & DRAW
Each player may discard their hand, then must draw cards from
their deck until they have 5 cards from their hand, shuffling their
deck if necessary.
2.FIRST STRIKE
The player with initiative may discard a played facedown card
(on the board).
(!) Player’s turns continue clockwise around the table.
3.TIEBREAKER
The player with initiative arbitrates all ties; choosing which
player breaks the tie.
(!) This can determine who wins at the end of the round!
On Your Turn
Each player must take only 1 action on their turn, then it’s your
opponent’s turn. The actions are:
1. PLAY
Play a card from your hand faceup or facedown onto the
board.
🗲 Instant effects happen when a card is played faceup on the
board
∞ Passive effects will modify the game if they are faceup on the
board
(!) Facedown cards will stay on the board next round, but faceup cards get
discarded!
Each player has a maximum of 6 played cards on the board in front of them.
Facedown cards have a default strength of 2.
(Shown on the back of the card).
2. DISCARD & FLIP
Flip one of your cards on the board by discarding a card from
your hand.
↺ Reveal effects happen when a card is flipped by any player,
but do not work when played faceup
3. SURRENDER
Sacrifice 1 (discarding it) to surrender. If you have
surrendered, you may not take any more actions.
If there is only 1 player left who has not surrendered, pass
initiative to the next player, then the round ends.
× Discard effects happen when the card is discarded from the
board. They do not happen when discarded from your hand
(!) Surrendering can be a useful tool if your opponent has played lots of
faceup cards or used a lot of high cards!
Skirmish
As soon as a player must take a turn and they have no cards in
hand, the round ends and remaining players will skirmish.
1. Skirmishing players will flip
up all facedown cards on the
board faceup, ignoring all
reveal effects.
2. These players will total their
played strength values. If a
card is still facedown, they
have a strength of 2.
3. The player(s) with the lower
total must sacrifice 2
(discarding them).
4. The player with initiative passes it to the next player
clockwise.
(!) A skirmish only happens between players who do not surrender!
End of the Round
Starting with the player with the highest combined strength
value, and continuing clockwise, each player discards all
faceup cards (activating discard effects and keeping all
facedown cards).
Players may discard their remaining hand, then draw back up
to 5 cards, and a new round starts beginning with the next
player who has the initiative card.
Ending the Game
Economic Victory
Military Victory
The game immediately
The game immediately ends in
ends in victory for a player
defeat for a player that has 0
that has at least 5 strength
remaining health .
worth of ★ scored cards.
(!) In a 3 – 4 player game, rank players from 1st-4th based on when they
win/lose. If there is a tie, the player with a higher ★ score wins. When
necessary, a military victory comes before an economic victory.
Example Game in Progress
Key Mechanics
Forced Effects
These abilities act as separate smaller abilities on cards. They are typically
reactions, which will specify that when a specific action occurs, the card will
trigger its secondary ability.
Optional Effects
Unless the card includes the words “you may,” card effects are mandatory.
This can be circumvented by not fulfilling the activation criteria.
Ignoring Effects
Unless otherwise specified with “ignoring all card effects”, flipping or
otherwise playing an opponent's card for them does trigger any effects.
Attached
Cards which are attached have a few unique properties. The “attached”
card is dependent on the base card. If the base card is discarded, the
attached card must also be discarded. When the base card is flipped, the
attached card must also flip.
Control
Some effects may take control of an opponent’s card. While this card is in
another player’s control, it moves to their play area and acts as if it were one
of their own cards but does not have any effects. When discarded, the card
returns to its original owner.
Cached
Cards which are cached do not contribute to your strength total and
cannot be flipped, stolen, or discarded.
Discarding
You may discard cards in any order you wish at the end of the round.
Exile
When prompted to exile a card, the effect has the player permanently
remove several cards from the game. Those cards are removed and cannot
be added back.
Credits
Designed by Thomas Hall
Art generated by DALL-E
Flagships of the Imperium ©2024 Thomas Hall
