Andromeda's Edge

To set up Andromeda's Edge, first place the main board in the center of the table, with the event board and scrapyard next to it. Place the event marker on the event board at the spot matching your player count. For your first game, use the Galactic Dawn event deck, shuffling it and placing it on the event board. Separate the 15 planet tiles from the 6 alliance bases. For a two-player game, draw 4 planets and shuffle them with the 6 alliance bases to create your starting tiles. Place these tiles face-up on the main board, starting from the top left and moving left to right, top to bottom. Shuffle the 6 orphaned nebulae moons and place one on each nebulae space above the planets. Shuffle each of the five colors of planetary moon tokens, then stack three face-down on each planet and flip them face-up. Set up the epic raiders by picking an S-class raider (Vorticon Strikers are recommended for the first game), rolling two raider dice, and placing one S-class raider on each matching die space in the nebulae. Pick one A-class, one B-class, one C-class, and one D-class raider, building their standees or miniatures. Choose your game length (50 points is recommended for a shorter game) and place the terminus marker on the corresponding space on the victory point track. Shuffle each of the four module decks and place them on top of the main board, revealing three modules from each deck and filling the spaces below. For the progress tracks, shuffle all green discovery tokens, stack five face-down on each of the two marked spaces on the science track, and stack another five face-down on the observatory discovery space at the top of the science track. Finally, shuffle the supremacy tokens and place one face-up on each marked space on the supremacy track.

In Andromeda's Edge, you lead a desperate faction with only a space station, some resources, and a couple of ships. Your primary goal is to send out your ships to gather resources, claim moons, upgrade your station modules, build developments, battle opponents, and advance in science, industry, commerce, civilization, and supremacy. The player who accumulates the most victory points by the end of the game will be declared the winner.

Each turn, players have two main actions: Launch or Return to Station. When you Launch, you take a ship from your player station's launch bay and place it on a region on the main board. For your first launch, you must place your ship on an unoccupied region (no raiders or other players' ships). Subsequent launches must be within range of your existing ships. Once a ship is placed, you activate the region's action or collect a moon. If you launch to a planet, you take a moon token. If you launch to an alliance base, you perform the action listed at the bottom of the tile. If you launch to a nebulae with a ship that has the 'Voyage' ability, you can look at the top two event cards, place one back on top, and the other at the bottom of the event deck. The second main action, Return to Station, is taken when you run out of ships to place on the board. You take all your ships back from the map or repair barge, one by one. As each ship returns, you can place it on any of your station modules (that doesn't already have a ship or energy) to activate that module's ability or spend one energy to activate it. You cannot activate damaged modules. After activating modules, you can bring all your ships to the launch bay, remove damage markers from ships with shields, and discard any energy used from modules. You can also rearrange modules on your station at any time, but if this breaks a moon slot, you must discard that moon.

Victory points are scored at the end of the game. You gain points for the victory point value printed next to your marker on each of the five progress tracks (science, industry, commerce, civilization, supremacy). You also score points for each of your developments, based on the highest level you advanced up on that progress track. You lose two points for each damaged module on your station (but not for damaged ships). If you reached the vault bonus space on the commerce track, you gain one or two points per unspent resource, depending on the level achieved. Undamaged civilization modules may also provide end-game points. Remaining leaders in your supply give one point each. Some faction abilities can also score points. In case of a tie, the player with the most modules wins. If there's still a tie, the player with the most resources wins. A triple tie results in a shared victory.

The game ends immediately when any player's victory point marker passes the terminus on the victory point track. After this, all players proceed to the final scoring phase to determine the winner.