EMINENT DOMAIN

OBJECTIVE OF EMINENT DOMAIN: The objective of Eminent Domain is to be the player with the most points by the end of the game. 

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 to 4 Players 

MATERIALS: 1 Rulebook, 32 Influence Tokens, 4 Player Aid Tiles, 24 Resource Tokens, 5 Fighter Tokens, 39 Technology Cards, 6 Start Planets, 27 Planet Cards, 96 Role Cards, and 1 Central Card Display 

TYPE OF GAME: Drafting Card Game 

AUDIENCE: Ages 10 and Up 

OVERVIEW OF EMINENT DOMAIN 

Players will expand their civilizations across the galaxy by colonizing planets or taking them by force. They will gather resources, allowing them to improve their technology. The player with the best civilization will win the game. The more they do, the better they get.  

SETUP 

To begin the setup, one Politic card will be dealt to each player from the shuffled deck. Any remaining Politic cards are removed. The Role cards are then divided by type and placed into five different piles on their assigned space of the display, creating the role stacks. Each player will then collect one Politics card, one Warfare card, 2 Colonize cards, 2 Research cards, 2 Survey cards, and 2 Trade cards. They will shuffle them together to make their starting deck. 

Each player is then dealt a start planet, which is placed in their empire face down. The planet cards are placed in a face down deck beside the card display. Randomly, a player aid is dealt to each player, and the player who earns the start player aid will be the first player. The different influence tokens are set to the side.  

Technology cards are then divided by type into three different piles, facing up. They should be easy assessable by all players. Five cards are then drawn from each players deck, and they are ready to begin.  

GAMEPLAY 

The game consists of three phases, with player turns rotating clockwise around the group. During the first phase, or the action phase, the players have the choice to play a card from their hand and resolve it. After an action card has been resolved, the card is discarded.  

During phase two, all players must participate. Players choose a role and place it in their play area. They have the ability to boost and resolve the role. Opponents are able to dissent or follow a role.  

The cleanup phase also requires participation from all players as well. All cards that were played in the previous round are discarded. Players are able to discard however many cards that they would like. Then, they can draw cards until the hand limit is reached. Players are only allowed to reconcile their hand during their own turn.  

END OF GAME 

The game comes to an end when the influence supply or a specific number of stacks are depleted. In a two and three player game, one depleted stack ends the game. In a four-player game, the game comes to an end when two stacks are depleted. When this occurs, each player will get one more turn before scoring occurs.  

Players will tally their scores of their Influence tokens, Technology cards, and Planets that are face up. The player with the highest total score wins the game! 

Ellie Phillips
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