GAME VARIATIONS

Full Metal Planète à la carte

1. PEACEFUL GAME

Leave the tanks and high-speed motorboats out of the game and see who collects the most ore. No combat and no capturing of Freighters is allowed!

2. TOTAL WAR

To practice combat, play an all-out war without placing any ore on the playing field. In that case, each player takes his/her share of the units in the reserve when landing.

3. HECTIC

Reduce the time limit - one minute per turn. And remember, the next player's timer starts immediately when the previous player has finished his turn (either by using up all his/her Action Points or by running out of time).

4. DIFFERENTLY SIZED SECTOR

For a quicker game, fold one or the other of the playing field's side flaps to play on a smaller area. Alternatively, if you have more than one board, place them side by side for a bigger planet.

5. PENALTY

If at the end of the turn two tanks are on adjacent mountain hexes, on the next turn the player loses five Action Points. The computer versions of Full Metal Planète use this rule.

6. BLAST RADIUS

If a Freighter takes off on the 21st turn, all the pieces on its landing area are buried (and removed from the game), the same way as ore is buried when landing.

7. HIGH ACTIVITY

Experienced players can decide to use more than 15 Action Points for the base credit. Try using 20 or 25 Action Points for a really lively game.

8. REINFORCEMENTS

PRINCIPLE:

Turns are played in a normal way, but on turn 15 each player lands a new Freighter with a complete set of units. The second Freighters stay on the planet until turn 21 or 25 as usual.

UNITS AND ITEMS:

• Each Freighter will land with a complete army (1 barge, 1 crab, 1 Weather Hen, 1 pontoon, 1 Heap, 2 high-speed motorboats and 4 tanks)
• The reserve pieces storage is not filled
• No need to hide it from you any longer: the use of two Freighters per player requires TWO sets of Full Metal Planète games
• It is preferable to use two game boards, or additional modular pieces (the expansion set)

HOW TO USE THE SECOND FREIGHTER:

When the last player has played his/her 14th turn, the tide card for the 15th turn will be revealed. The players then draw lots for the order in which they land their second Freighters (three minutes at most per player).

Some restrictions apply:

• There must be at least five hexes between any two (own or enemy) Freighters (measured from pod to pod)
• It is impossible to land a Freighter on a unit or inside an unfriendly fire zone
• All ore pieces three hexes from the Freighter are removed

DEPLOYMENT:

• When all Freighters have landed, some or all units may be unloaded. All units must be unloaded on hexes adjacent to the Freighter (only the second hex occupied by a barge is exempt from this rule).
• No units may be deployed inside unfriendly fire zones.

MOVEMENT:

• When the landing and unloading is done, the 15th turn begins. Lots are drawn again to decide the first player for this turn and the following ones. The other players follow in clockwise order.
• Only 5 action points are available on this turn.

16TH TURN:

• Only 10 action points are available on this turn.

17TH AND SUCCEEDING TURNS:

• Each player who has two Freighters has a base credit of 20 points on each turn (5 additional points per extra Freighter)
• If a player's original Freighter was captured before the 15th turn, he/she now has only 15 action points per turn.

NOTE:

• As with a captured Freighter, the newly landed Freighter holds and controls units of its own, separate from those of the first Freighter, so mark them with a different color.
• A player can move all of his/her units together, but the capture of one of the Freighters at once gives the captor control of every unit marked in that Freighter's color.
• As in the basic rules, the color of a unit changes when it moves from one Freighter into the other, or when it is captured.

COURTESY

In his/her first game, a beginner should be given four minutes per turn instead of three.