PLAYER EMULATING SHIP AI V2.

6
My aim with these rules is to have ships that emulate the effect of other players
on the game environment. Players normally do this, directly and indirectly, by:-
 Navigation and Misbehave deck draining.
 Supply and Contact deck draining (and discard pile filling).
 Cruiser, Corvette and Reaver movement.
 Piracy and Trading.
 Bounty Jumping and Crew stealing (not really emulated yet)
I wanted to have the AI stick as close to core rules as possible while removing
anything that didn’t have a meaningful impact on real players.

PE SHIP SET-UP
After standard set-up (i.e.
A good idea is to use the inverse of the
following Priming the Pumps),
amount of players (3 Players = 1 PE Ship, 2
decide how many PE Ship you
Player = 2 PE Ships, 1 Player = 3 PE Ships).
want. (They play quickly, but take
Effectively this makes every game a quasi-
up a little table space)
4 player game. Change as desired though.
For Each PE Ship:-

1. Choose a random Leader from those not selected by the other players.
Place this Leader Card in a free area.
2. Pick an unused ship model and place its matching Haven token with the
leader card. This model is just a token. Picking the S. S. Walden, for e.g., won’t
change the rules the P.E. Ships follows.
3. Place the ship model in any Contact Sector. Preferably choose a contact that
fills an empty area of the board.
4. Draw 2 Job cards from that Contact’s deck. Reveal one of those drawn jobs
and then place both of those Jobs with the Leader Card. Discard one
further Job card from that Contact’s deck. I.e. it considered three & took two
5. Place 2 Cargo, 2 Parts and 2 Fuel with the Leader card. This is just a standard
goods load out, available for other players to pirate.
PLAYING PE SHIPS
After all players have taken their turn, the PE Ships The PE ships can
take their turns as if they are part of the clockwise be put into the
player rotation. clockwise rotation
They move first then perform an action relevant to their in any order you
destination sector. wish really.

MOVING PE SHIPS
Move the PE Ship up to 3 sectors as directly as possible towards its destination.
Multiple destinations may be possible, so in descending order a PE Ship will
head towards one of the following locations:-
1. If a Supply Sector is one space from the PE Ship’s current position, it will
head there.
1. If it has no current job it will head to the nearest reachable contact.
2. If a PE Ship doesn’t have the items to finish the job it’s currently on, it will
head towards the nearest Supply Sector.
3. If none of the above then it will head towards the destination listed on their
current job.
PE Ships will finish their move action upon reaching their destination, even if it
has movement left. If the P.E. Ship doesn’t reach its destination, but a supply
sector is one space away, forwards or backwards, then finish its move there
instead.

ENCOUNTERS
The PE Ships become outlaw ships for the same reasons as real players
(Contraband, Fugitives and Wanted Crew) so must resolve the Alliance Cruiser and
Corvette encounters as any real outlaw player would. The Alliance Cruiser
removes all Contraband and Fugitives, while the Corvette will take any fugitives
and the cheapest random wanted crew. Non-Outlaw PE Ships can just fly by
unmolested.
The PE Ship may not enter the same Sector as the Reaver Cutter unless it is a one
sector move to a destination that can’t be found somewhere else. If at the start
of their movement they are in the same sector as a Reaver Cutter, then they lose
all passengers and fugitives plus randomly kill the cheapest crew card. Then they
just move as normal towards their destination. I.e. they take the ‘Fight’ option for the
encounter and pass the test.
NAV CARDS AND ALERT TOKENS
Roll for passed alert tokens as normal, and then
I only do this to draw
draw one appropriate Nav card for the PE Ship’s
through the Nav decks, so
ending sector. Play Reaver Cutter, Alliance
time shouldn’t be wasted
Cruiser and Corvette move cards as normal.
trying to figure out
Customs Inspection Cards will seize the Fugitives
nuances. Drawing for the
and Contraband. For simple Salvage Cards put
ending sector only, avoids
the smallest result salvage into the ships goods
full stop decisions.
pile. Treat any cards that that would be overly
complicated to sort out as “All Black” cards.

END SECTOR ACTION

After moving, the PE Ship will perform all the tasks relevant to its current sector.
This can exceed a standard player’s actions, but this keeps them moving around stirring the
decks, which is the main point.
1. If a PE Ship is at its Job destination then it WORKS the Job. Draw for any
misbehaves shown, but treat them as Proceed. Place any job goods onto the
job card, showing that the job is started. If completing a job, remove it from
the game and reveal the next job if they have one.
2. If a PE Ship is at a Contact sector then it DEALS with that Contact. Draw
three Job cards and then discard those jobs until the P.E. Ship would only
have three job cards left in its work pile. Add them to the bottom.
3. If a PE Ship is at a Supply Sector then it SHOPS. Draw the top 2 Supply cards
from that location’s Supply deck, and places them face up with the Leader
card. Then discard one further Supply Card from that location. P.E. Ships
will also reset at Supply Sectors, regaining any stolen goods and their
starting 2 cargo, 2 fuel and 2 parts.

PE SHIP’S SKILLS
A PE Ship’s skills are the sum of their drawn supply cards and Leader card skill
icons, ignoring any text. Each ship can collect 5 crew, 6 gear and 3 ship
upgrades (Discard any Engines). Randomly discard the cheapest cards to keep
these quantities.
Crew cards are disgruntled, so other players can use “Better Offer” to hire them
away if desired.
PIRACY
A real player can use a Pirate Job against a PE ship just like they would a real
player.
PE Ship will target and move towards the closest ship
that it can rightfully pirate from that turn. Assume For Ammon Duul’s
success over another PE Ship, but against real Piracy Jobs, count
players it still performs a standard piracy action (Roll the PE Ship’s
for boarding and perform a Showdown) . If it fails, remove revealed job as an “in
the piracy job (and randomly kill the cheapest crew if hand” job if it hasn’t
required). If it succeeds it takes what it says on the been worked yet.
piracy card in the worse way possible.
Add any stolen goods to the PE Ship’s standard goods loadout, and any stolen
jobs to the bottom of its job pile. Place a disgruntled token on PE Ship job cards
that have their goods stolen.

OPTIONAL RULES
 In order for a PE Ship to move 3 sectors it needs Fuel and Parts on board .If it
has no fuel or no Parts it will mosey one sector at a time until its next Supply
sector reset. It doesn’t spend Fuel to move, but can have them stolen or lost
to Nav cards. Same goes for Parts. I haven’t tested this much, so some common
sense rulings on the situations that come up may be required.
 When in the same sector as a PE ship, you may use a Buy action to consider 3
and buy up to 2 supply cards from the PE Ship’s Supply Deck. Shuffle the
deck each time and draw from the bottom. Do not bother with a discard pile.
This represents Crew and gear just shuffling around the verse.
 Move the ship 4 (or 2) sectors for more (or less) effect on the supply decks. Or
roll dice each turn for move distance.
 Combine the supply cards drawn into one deck to be shared by all PE ships.
This still has the limit of 5 crew, 6 gear and 3 ship upgrades. This makes
managing PE Ships easier and leaves more supplies in the discard piles.
 Osiris is pretty central and frequently stopped at. Leave this one out of the
“have to stop” rule if needed.
 “Magistrate Higgins” will get you stuck in a loop. I recommend drawing only
one job from him and redrawing any of his jobs that end at Harvest
 Instead of traveling to a supply sector to reset stolen goods, reset at a
contact who sell that item instead.
 A single player idea, use the jobs completed by the PE Ship as counters.
Complete your solo mission before the PE Ships has done X number of jobs?
The solo player can delay the counter by interrupting the PE ships. Lots of
play testing is required to figure out how much this should be.
 Bounty Rules?
 Action then move?
 By all means read card text and play special abilities, but if the result doesn’t
affect real players then you should skip them to save time. Odd ball
situations should be roll played for the best solutions.