Module:Master of Orion: The Board Game

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This Vassal module of Master of Orion: the Boardgame allows for up to 7 players/factions (but keep in mind that the card mix won’t change). It is not possible to play more than one Human faction.

To determine the initial player order after each player has chosen their faction, click on the ‘Initial Player Order‘ button of the toolbar, and then click on ‘Draw Initial Player Order‘ to see the 7 faction icons displayed from left to right in random order. Right-click and ‘Delete‘ the markers of the unused factions (Undo in case of mistake). Each VP marker has a right-click menu option to add a text label (e.g., 1st) to identify the 1st player for the round (and then play proceeds to the right and loops back).

Speaking of the round number, keep track of it on the ‘Track Board‘ by moving the round marker, which starts positioned in Round 1. Keep track of victory points (VP) on the same board by moving each faction‘s VP markers; they all start stacked in the 0 location. Feel free to delete to right-click and ‘Delete‘ those of the unused factions (after selecting each marker individually). Each VP marker has a right-click menu option to add a text label (e.g., +50) if the marker laps around the track.

Each player‘s board and systems are in a window named Empire and accessible to all through the submenu opened by clicking on ‘Empires‘ in the toolbar. The players can only move their faction pieces. These pieces are usually dragged and dropped around, but there is a right-click menu option to send them the corresponding faction’s Action Reserve.

The boards are preset with markers looking like the faction‘s symbol (cubes in the boardgame). Morale, Food, Fleet and Production levels are all recorded as they should be, and every faction has four Action markers in their ‘Available Action Cubes‘ area (which the rules refer to as ‘Pool’), plus another 6 in their Action Reserve, stacked at the top right of their board. In addition, on the board, there is a round green “pearl”; this marks where a player‘s Advisor card should be dragged and dropped from the Advisor Row window unless, of course, it is Fulcrum Sandbar, in which case he (?) must be dragged and dropped in the corresponding system location.

There are 5 locations right of the board; 4 regular systems marked with green pearls and 1 marked with a miniature version of the Fulcrum Sandbar card. The latter is used to start a system with Fulcrum Sandbar or simply to place the card of an Adviser other than Fulcrum Sandbar (but in that case, it is not a system!). When you drag and drop a card on one of these locations it will lock in place and if you drag and drop another one on top of one already in place, it will cover it. To save space the older cards are hidden from sight since they’re no longer active (except for resource production!). One can always check the composition of a system stack just by having their mouse marker hover on top of it.

Each player has a private window for their hand, accessible by clicking on ‘Hands’ in the toolbar. Hands can be filled up by clicking on the ‘Draw 1 card‘ button at the top of the window as many times as needed. Use ‘Undo‘ if you click one (or more) too many times! Cards automatically line up to the right. If a card is dragged-and-dropped to your hand window, make sure that it is dragged-and-dropped right on top of the leftmost card (or where it would be), so that the automated card display works properly.

Some game effects allow a player to look at another player’s hand and take a card from it and replace it with a card of their own. To do so, the former player should switch to -Solo-.

It is recommended that you only keep your Empire and Hand windows open at all times and only open other players‘ Empire windows when you want to check on them, but feel free to keep them all open if you have the screen real estate to do so comfortably (I recommended a 43” 4K TV!).

The deck of cards and the discard piles are in their own window. It does not need to be opened unless the discard pile needs to be reshuffled since cards are drawn through button action.

The ‘Advisor Row‘ window contains the 5 Advisor cards available at all times (until contracted). Click on the ‘Deal Advisors‘ button at the top of the window at the beginning of the game to randomly draw the 5 Advisors. As indicated above, drag and drop an Advisor card that you bought onto your Empire window in the rightmost location (identified with a mini Fulcrum Sandbar card). Right-click ‘Return to Advisor Row‘ when you are replacing one Advisor with another.

If you need to place an Action Marker on one of your Working Structure cards, or on your Advisor card, drag-and-drop it in the middle of the card and it will automatically reset at the lower left corner of the card. If you need to cover the card with another, return the Action marker first by dragging-and-dropping it back to your reserve.

Players

 * r_verlaque@hotmail.com.com@rjvonline