Voidfall

Players: 1–4 players
Play time: 90–240 min
BGG rating: 8.5

For centuries, the Novarchs, descendants of the royal House of Novarchon, have ruled with an iron fist over the feudalistic galactic empire of humankind, the Domineum. During this time, they brought stunning technological innovation and scientific advancements to their domain. This accelerated progression helped the Domineum reach — and eventually inhabit — even the farthest segments of the known galaxy, where new Houses emerged to govern the outer sectors of the empire. As the House of Novarchon grew in power, so grew the religious cult that surrounded them, proclaiming grim prophecies about an ancient cosmic being from another dimension: the Voidborn. Many thought it to be only a myth, but in truth, it was the Voidborn's dark influence that granted the Novarchs the sheer knowledge to achieve rapid expansion for the empire. While the cult of the Novarchs envisaged eternal life through the otherworldly entity, the Voidborn's only intention was satiating its eternal hunger. And so, when the Domineum had achieved a vastness fitting the Voidborn's craving, interdimensional rifts opened at the heart of the Domineum to unleash cosmic corruption. As the House of Novarchon and its followers welcomed the Voidborn and sought their false salvation, the entity infected and spread and seized control over the inner worlds. Now, it is time for the remaining Great Houses to purge the galactic corruption, prevent the Voidborn from fully manifesting in our dimension, and to ultimately overcome the chaos as the new rulers of the Domineum. Voidfall is a space 4X game that brings the genre to Euro enthusiasts' tables. It combines the tension, player interaction, and deep empire customization of the 4X genre with the resource management, tight decisions, and minimum-luck gameplay of an economic Euro. Win by pushing back the Voidborn in the solo/coop mode, or by overcoming your rivals' influence in restoring the Domineum in the competitive mode — both using the same rule set and game system. Variability is ensured not only by multiple playable houses with their own strengths and weaknesses, but also by many different map set-ups for all game modes. As the leader of a defiant Great House, you play through three cycles, each with a game-altering galactic event, a new scoring condition, and a set number of focus cards that can be played. Focus card decisions and sequencing is the centerpiece of the gameplay. By selecting two of their three impactful actions as you play them, you develop and improve techs; advance on your three house-specific civilization tracks; manage your sectors' infrastructure, population, and production; and conquer new sectors with up to five different types of space fleets. Space battles are fought either against the Voidborn's infected forces (which are present as neutral opponents even in the competitive mode) or against other players. Instead of relying on the luck of a die roll, battles in Voidfall are fully deterministic and reward careful preparation and outsmarting your opponents. —description from the publisher

How to play

Setup, how a turn works and how the game ends, summarised from the rulebook by Eko, Meepzy's rules assistant.

Here is a general overview of how to play Voidfall based on the provided rules.

Setup

To set up your first game, you should use the tutorial scenario and its map for your player count (p. 6).

Open the Compendium to page 10 for the Setup chapter and follow its instructions, while ignoring the blue cooperative and solo sections (p. 6).
Look out for additional tutorial instructions and examples printed in italics with a white background for crucial guidance (p. 6).
After finishing setup, proceed to the Tutorial chapter on page 22 of the Compendium to begin your first game (p. 6).

How a Turn Works

Each game is composed of three Cycles, and each Cycle has three phases: the Preparation Phase, the Focus Phase, and the Evaluation Phase (p. 22). During the Focus Phase, players take turns, and each turn consists of the following steps:

Selection step: You must select and play exactly one available Focus card from your hand (p. 8). Additionally, you may flip a Trade token or play an Agenda card from your hand that matches an icon on your chosen Focus (p. 8).
Actions step: You resolve the actions granted by your played Focus card (p. 10). If you played a matching Agenda card during the selection step, you may also take its action (p. 18).
Clean-up step: You recall excess fleet power if any sector exceeds the maximum capacity of two fleet tokens, manage glory tokens, and place or replace your played Agenda card into an empty non-starting agenda slot on your House mat (p. 20).
The Void Advances step: If applicable, you resolve ongoing crises or handle threat levels on the crisis board (p. 9, 14).

How the Game Ends

The game ends after the Evaluation Phase of Cycle 3 (p. 13).

The player with the most Influence wins the game (p. 21).
In case of a tie, the tied player with fewer total Corruption tokens on their House mat or controlled sectors wins; if still tied, players share the victory (p. 21).

This summary was written by Eko from the game's own rulebook. It covers the essentials, not every edge case. For a specific rule, ask Eko and get the page it came from, or open the manual in the Archive.