The Tigris Gate is not connected to the other gates and the other gates do not connect to the Tigris. Enforcer (Diligent):Please ensure you follow all the solo-specific rules related to Bounty, as described in the Bounty section of the solo rulebook. Assuming the player’s bounty is less than 2,000cR, then a Diligent Enforcer will target the Scoundrel (which spawns with 2,000cR). If the Diligent Enforcer destroys the Scoundrel, then the NPCs will get +4 to their roll (due to the collected 2,000cR bounty), but won’t gain extra FP for destroying a ship (which only awards them FP for destroying the player’s ship).

While this is a typical setup for an intergalactic conquest game, Ascendancy uses its licence to stand out from the crowd. It’s very asymmetric, with each civilisation trying to win the way you’d expect; the Federation spreads culture, the Klingons war and the Romulans research. The way exploration leaves aspects of the galaxy fluid until late in the game helps you feel like you really are going where no-one has gone before. The result is a rich tapestry of space-based storytelling, shaped around a solid strategic core of managing your ship’s systems and energy. Doing so is a satisfying mini-game in its own right, customising your pre-painted miniature ship with cool new options and combos. Xia has so many fun toys to play with, it’s an easy system to drift in. On their turn, players run through three phases; action, business and status. During the action phase, players must use “armed” tokens to utilise the different outfits they have. Spend an energy, move an armed token to an engine activation point on the outfit and you have effectively fired it up! Roll the dice, establish moves and begin your journey.Martial Law, in hard mode:Roll an extra d8 for the Enforcer, not d20, so it will roll d20 + 2d8, and take its whole turn twice. Q:If there are no NPC’s on the board after my first turn, do I still roll for NPC fame at the end of the round?

Merchant (Investor):Money earned does not contribute to the NPC’s end of round FP roll (only credits gained from bounty collected and events). Of course, the Merchant will be earning FPs directly… If you destroy the Investor, you get all money on the card. Other than player pieces, there are the ship modules that are attached to each player's ship card. All of these clearly explain which dice they're associated to, how many uses they'll have and are shaped to prevent you from over-boarding on specific types of module. On top of this, they fit neatly together on your ship card and can be clearly seen by other players, allowing for collective knowledge of who sits where in terms of fire power. Seeing a player with three missile modules lets you know you've got no hope or a death wish!! Ice damage, shown as blue crystals, can come from several sources including ice asteroids, dead worlds, and exploration tokens. It works like normal damage, but at the end of your turn it spreads into all adjacent spaces. But it is at least free to repair when you reach a port… New Missions If you’re outside of a planetary shield, you are not considered to be adjacent to spaces inside the shield (pg.13 > Adjacency). In this section I only included being adjacent to ships, but I should have included spaces. So this situation isn’t possible. No matter how much free choice you have, you’ll always end up following a system and filling a role. Xia allows for a lot of independence from your competitors but also allows you to hunt them down should you require to (or if you just fancy it!). Gameplay

System Requirements

Space can be a lonely place, drifting amongst the endless void... and then it gets worse as someone decides to blow you up! Xia has a big emphasis on player interaction. The game is competitive but allows players to choose how they'll strive to win the game.. and many of those options link heavily to the slaughtering of your fellow explorers. On top of that, there is the rush and race between you all to get stuff done the fastest, discover stuff first and generally be top dog! The most adaptive, risk taking, and creative players will excel will rise above the others, surpassing mortality by becoming a Legend of the drift system!

Business Phase: If you end your turn on a planet, you can conduct business. If not, this phase is skipped. On a planet, you can recharge your ships energy, buy and sell outfits for your ship, repair your ship, buy a new ship, rearrange your ship’s outfits, or buy fame points. Embers of a Forsaken Star by Ira Fay and Cody Miller expands Miller’s Xia: Legends of a Drift System, adding a solo mode. Games will still last 1-3 hours.

Additional Ships

The most noticeable thing about this game is its visuals. They are beautiful. There is no denying the care, attention to detail and time taken to develop the game, but the actual look of Xia gives it so, so much more! This is undeniably one of the most themed and pre-polished games available. The ships are beautiful and look exactly like you'd expect them to from their description. From the plain and simple, to the weird and wonderful, by just looking at the ships you know their intended purpose; a freighter ship is easy to spot amongst the delivery ships, as are the pirating ships amongst the adventurers. And the paint jobs? Someone definitely took a long time choosing what each ship would look like and clearly considered the actual palette for each! Final Score: 4 Stars – A great open world experience from a publisher that has also embraced the modding community. Some house rules could help this one to shine even more.