Nexus Syndicate

Players are aspiring galactic overlords vying for dominance by building a shadow empire. Thereby, they rely on a mysterious entity known as the Nexus Syndicate – a secretive pan-galactic network with a hold on infrastructure, intelligence, and political influence. Players operate within the Syndicate’s framework, rising in favour among its different factions and leveraging their resources in order to gain political power. In this game of mutual dependencies, expand your influence and gain the highest scores across 9 sectors to come out on top! A quick overview of the three factions: Voidshapers possess advanced technology and knowledge, supporting Nexus' endeavours with fundamental infrastructure such as interplanetary trade routes, communication channels, and hidden space bases. Benefit from their ability to link and expand! Although part of the Syndicate, Shadowblades often pursue their own interests without the other factions’ knowledge. If necessary, these secretive assassins will not even shy away from silencing actors within the Syndicate. Use their actions to eliminate unwanted actors. Soulbinders are responsible for the recruitment of new Syndicate members. In addition, and most importantly, the higher ranks of the faction specialise in manipulation, storage, and transfer of consciousness, thereby steering political processes in favour of the Syndicate. Support them in their efforts and, in turn, you will be rewarded with influence in the individual sectors. Nexus Syndicate uses Looney Pyramids (from Looney Labs). Furthermore, 3 d6 dice per colour (blue/red/green), 9 tiles (beer mats will do) and 20 custom setup cards are needed to play the game. During a turn, players first move pyramids before carrying out a specific action tied to the abilities of the three factions in play. For your movement, choose a sector tile that still has at least one pyramid on it. Pick up all the pyramids from that tile and place them onto contiguous sector tiles, one by one (orthogonal movement, no diagonals!). The last pyramid must be placed onto a sector that already contains a pyramid (or a stack) of that same colour AND size or a die (representing council members) of that same colour. There are different actions to carry out depending on the colour (blue/red/green) and size (small/medium) of the last pyramid of your move. Basic actions can be carried out with small and medium pyramids, advanced actions are restricted to medium pyramids. The last placed pyramid initiates the action. If a small pyramid is placed last, it immediately goes into the active player’s personal stock (aka "popularity pool"), along with ALL other pyramids of same colour and size that were already on that tile. If a medium pyramid is placed last, it simply remains on the tile, forming a stack with all other pyramids of same colour and size that were already on that tile. Blue actions immediately let you gain victory points based on the number of orthogonally adjacent sectors containing at least one blue pyramid or blue die. Red actions let you take away pyramids or dice pips of your choice from sectors that are orthogonally adjacent to the final tile of your move. The basic green action lets you respawn pyramids to orthogonally adjacent tiles. The advanced green action (“Steering”) is arguably the most important action in the game, as it lets you place influence markers and add/alter dice on sectors which already contain influence markers. The game ends a) when all 6 influence markers have been placed next to sector tiles and remain on the board after player 2 has taken their turn or b) if there are no possible moves. In other words, player 2 always takes the last turn of the game unless b) occurs. If, during this last turn, player 2 removes an influence marker (through the advanced red action “Silencing II”), the game continues until either a) or b) occurs. For each player, tally the points they gain on sector tiles: - Score all sectors that contain the player’s influence markers. The following applies: Most influence markers on a sector: 5 VP; second most: 3 VP; tie: 4 VP. - For each sector that is tied or dominated by the player, multiply the number of blue/red/green pyramids in their popularity pool with the sum of same-coloured pyramids and die pips in the respective sector. Score all colours in this sector respectively, then continue with the next sector). Add the total VP of the tile scoring to the VP earned through blue actions throughout the game – the sum is the final score. In the unlikely event of a tie, the player who has placed more influence markers wins the game. If this also results in a tie, the player with the higher total number of pyramids in their popularity pool wins the game.