All Tactics now only show up twice in the Tactic Deck. The variety of Skills in the original Quantum was a huge selling point for the game, so we tried to design more Tactics to have the same effect. This will also reduce repeats and locked face-up cards for selection.
Brand new cards or original cards that have been re-worked. Note that some cards are marked as still in playtesting.
Ambitious: Once per turn you may take an additional action, then put a token on this card. If this card has three tokens on it, discard it.
status: new
One of my favourite cards in the game is Resourceful, so I tried to design this card to be a Skill I would want to take instead of Resourceful.
Brutal: For Combat rolls, roll twice and use the lower number.
status: new
Cruel and relentless were both mechnically the same, so we wanted to reduce it to just one card. The wording was also trickier then it needed to be.
Calculating: When a ship is placed in your scrapyard, choose it's ship number.
status: new
The other half of Clever. The original Clever let you control ship numbers both when you reconfigure and when a ship is destroyed. We split that across two cards. It also feels very thematic, having to plan in advance which ship number we'll want when you deploy next.
Clever: After reconfiguring, you may increase or decrease the ship number by 1.
status: changed
[original: Whenever you would roll a ship die, choose the ship number instead.]
Clever was a must-pick card, it was far too powerful, I've rarely seen a clever player not win. This rework went through several iterations, each time reducing it's power-level. We finally split it's ability across two cards (the other being Calculating). We now feel it's still a very useful card without being overbearing.
Curious: At the end of your turn, if you did not Attack or Conquer, gain 1 action.
status: changed
[original: Each turn, get 1 extra move action for free (you cannot use it to attack).]
Devious: You may move your ships through enemy ships. These spaces do not count towards your movement.
status: playtesting
The original game already had a good number of movement abilities, so this one was hard to come up with. I wanted a skill that let you do more 'surprise' manevuers like Stealthy does. Originally it just let you pass through other ships, but was still too weak compared to other cards.
Industrious: Gain an additional Deploy action each turn.
status: new
Successor to Eager. Most cards that award additional actions, usually give a single action with a restriction or penalty. However Eager could reward up to 3 free actions quite regularly. Industrious keeps the same flavour but brings the power level in line.
Patient: Whenever you take a Tactic, you may instead store it. At the end of each of your turns, you may play a stored Tactic. When you take this Skill, you may take and store a Tactic.
status: playtesting
This card was designed more to explore the design space of setting up larger turns than to serve a specific gameplay purpose.
Pioneering: You may use your Research number in place of one of your ship numbers when Conquering.
status: new
A symmetrical card to the new Tyrannical. Haven't played with it too much yet to see if it's too powerful, as it's a lot easier to manipulate your research than it is your dominance.
Prideful: Conquer when your Dominance is 4. If a player destroys one of your ships, they may take this skill from you.
status: playtesting
We had a card called Fervent that reduced the amount of dominance you need to 4, and then to 5, but it still proved too good. I still really enjoyed the ability, so I want to try it with the mechanics of a Skill passing from player to player. My worry is that it might dramatically cahnge the flow of the game if it pops up.
Profiteering: When you take a card for Conquering, may instead gain 1 Missile.
status: playtesting
More ways to get missiles
Ravenous: The first time you destroy an enemy ship each turn, gain 1 additional Dominance.
status: changed
[original: When you destroy an enemy ship, dominance +2; when one of your ships is destroyed, dominance -2.]
Abilities in Quantum almost never have downsides, so this card stood out. Many players would take this card once, and see how fickle the downside can be, and rarely ever take it again. We balanced the power level to only let it proc once a turn.
Righteous: You can not lose Dominance. You can not gain Research.
status: changed
[original: Your dominance is not reduced when one of your ships is destroyed.]
Righteous was too good, but the flavour of the card and the impact on the game was too good to remove, so we added on the no research penalty. The card still might be too good, but at least it is more of a situational pick-up.
Ruthless: The first time you destroy an enemy ship each turn, you may disable one of the emeny's Skills until the start of your next turn.
status: playtesting
The spiritual sucessor to the original Sabotage card. Losing a card turns out to be quite a powerful effect, so to balance this Sabotage let the affected player choose which card they lose, however in practice this rarely does what you want. Ruthless solves by giving the ability to slow a player down without crippling them, while also providing them counter-play (by avoiding the Ruthless player's ships).
Talented: You can have up to 5 Skills.
status: new
So far this hasn't broken the game. It doesn't seem like any skill was designed around only having 3 of them.
Tyrannical: You may use your Dominance number in place of one of your ship numbers when Conquering.
status: changed
[original: Once per turn as a free action, you may reduce your research by 1 and gain 1 dominance.]
The original tyrannical was a weird card. It enabled a strategy our group dubbed 'Ghost Fleet', where you would try to get all your ships destroyed, not redeploy them, and use Tyrannical each turn to gain Dominance. While slow, the strategy is unstoppable and not that fun to play against. This new version still promotes the idea of having high dominance, but now it can be used as a tool opening up interesting decisions to the player. Do I want to tick it over this turn? Or wait so I can use that 5 to easily Conquer a different planet?
These cards have been removed or the wording has been improved
Agile: All of your ships have +1 movement.
status: unchanged
Brilliant: At the start of your turn, you may gain 2 Research.
status: revised
[original: Add 2 to your research automatically at the start of your turn.]
Composed: Once per turn, you may lose 1 Dominance and gain 3 Research
status: revised
[original: Once per turn as a free action, you may reduce your dominance by 1 and gain 3 research.]
Renamed from 'Cereberal'
Cunning: Once per turn, you may use one ship ability a second time.
status: revised
[original: Once per turn, you may use one of your ship’s abilities a second time as a free action.]
Dangerous: When you defend, before players roll combat dice, you can decide to destroy both ships (there is no dominance effect).
status: unchanged
Steadfast: Your ships can move or move/attack more than once per turn (each move counts as an action).
status: unchanged
Renamed from 'Energetic'
Ferocious: -1 to your Combat rolls
status: revised
[original: Subtract 1 from every weapons or defenses combat roll.]
Flexible: Once per turn, you may increase or decrease one of your ship numbers by 1
status: revised
[original: Once per turn, you may change one of your ship dice up or down by 1 as a free action.]
Ingenious: You may use spaces diagonal to a planet when Conquering
status: revised
[original: Each of your ships diagonally adjacent to a planet may be counted toward the construct action.]
Intelligent: When Conquering, you may add or subtract 1 from the planet number
status: revised
[original: You can construct on a planet when you have an orbital total 1 higher or 1 lower than the planet’s number.]
Plundering: The first time you destroy an enemy ship each turn, you may gain 3 Research
status: unchanged
[original: If you destroy one or more enemy ships on your turn, increase your research by 3.]
Precocious: Your Research resets at 4, 5, or 6
status: revised
[original: Gain an advance card when research = 4 or higher (instead of 6).]
Rational: Your Combat rolls are 3
status: revised
[original: Instead of rolling for weapons and defenses, all of your combat die rolls are considered to be 3.]
Resourceful: Once per turn, you may destroy one of your ships and gain 1 Action.
status: revised
[original: Once per turn, take one of your ships from the map to your scrapyard, reroll it, and gain 1 action for that turn.]
Stealthy: You may deploy to any space that is not adjacent to a ship.
status: revised
[original: You have the option of deploying to any space that is not next to another ship.]
Strategic: During combat if your ship is adjacent to one or more friendly ships, -2 to your Combat roll.
status: revised
[original: Any of your ships next to another one of your ships gets a -2 to every weapons or defenses combat roll (you can consider an attacker to be in either square).]
Stubborn: When you are attacked, ties go in your favor and you destroy your attacker if you win (and gain dominance).
status: unchanged
Tactical: Once per turn, you may move/attack 1 space with a ship even if it's already moved.
status: revised
[original: Once per turn as a free action, move a ship a total of 1 space (you can attack with the move).]
Hostile: The first time you destroy an enemy ship each turn, gain 1 action.
status: revised
[original: When you destroy 1 or more enemy ships on your turn, you gain 1 extra action for that turn.]
Reanmed from 'Warlike'
Arrogant: If at the start of your turn you have more ships on the map than any other player, take 1 extra action.
status: removed
Conformist: If at the start of your turn 2 or more of your ships on the map have the same number, take 1 extra action.
status: removed
Cruel: When you attack or defend, you can choose to have your opponent re-roll once.
status: removed
Replaced by 'Brutal'
Eager: Deploy does not use up one of your actions.
status: removed
Another card that was just too powerful. Replaced by 'Industrious'
Nomadic: Once per turn, spend an action to relocate one of your ships in orbital position – put it in orbital position around a planet that is next to its current planet.
status: removed
This card rarely saw play and always required a further explanation of exactly how it worked. In addition, it's ability isn't that flashy, so it ended up being a dead card.
Relentless: When you attack or defend, you can roll again once after your opponent rolls.
status: removed
Replaced by 'Brutal'
Scrappy: On your turn only, you may reroll all of your die rolls a second time (ship and weapons die rolls).
status: removed
This card had too much overlap with other cards, and is often strictly better. Also theme on the card was rather weak.
Either brand new cards over heavily overhauled
Black Market Cache: Gain 2 Missiles
status: new
Change of Heart: Search the Skill deck and take a card of your choosing, then shuffle the deck.
status: new
The original game gave you very few tools to deal with a run-away player. Change of Heart can now help players search for the exact card they need to counter a problem player. Also, one of the most fun parts of this game is creating fun combos, this card helps players achieve this.
Hypernet Gate: Place the Hypernet Gate tokens on two different spaces on the board. Any player who has played Hypernet Gate may consider those spaces adjacent.
status: new
One of the first cards I designed. I really wanted to capture the feeling of warp gates in space. Mechanically this has done really well. Players have used it in interesting ways, such as sparking conflicts between two opposite players by linking their planets together.
Plan Ahead: Until the end of your next turn, all your combat rolls are 1.
status: new
Can be used defensively or to set up a big offense turn
Sabotage: Every opponent's next turn has 1 fewer actions.
status: changed
[original: All other players must immediately choose and discard one of their command cards.]
The original Sabotage lead to a lot of bad-feeling moments while also not providing much upside to the person selecting it. If there was a specific ability you wanted to remove from a player, this card did not help you get rid of it; The affected players would just select their worse card to remove. This card was also a 'win-more' card where it hurt players who were behind more than it hurt players that were ahead. This new version can help you get 'one turn ahead' of everyone else without crippling them, it can also be used to delay someone's winning turn.
Unveil The Fleet: Destroy all your ships. You may reroll any ships in your scrapyard once. Deploy any number of ships.
status: new
A flashier version of 'Reorganization'
These cards are either removed or slightly changed
Aggression: Gain 2 Dominance
status: revised
[original: Immediately add 2 to dominance]
Momentum: Immediately take another turn, but with 2 actions instead of 3 (treat it as a brand-new turn).
status: unchanged
Great card. So many fun moments, especially with players that focus on research.
Expansion: Immediately roll an expansion ship and put it in orbital position on a planet with one of your quantum cubes or in your scrapyard.
status: removed
The fleet expansion ability as a Tactic is odd. This ability should scale with the number of players, but it has a fixed number in the deck. In low player counts you can get flooded with Expansion cards you can't use, and in high player counts, it's difficult to expand when you want to. Expansion is just one path to victory, but it is over-represented in the Tactic deck. We feel moving it to it's own separate deck fixes these issues. See Rules for Expansion Deck.
Reorganization: Place each rerolled ship either in orbital position on a planet that has one of your quantum cubes, or in your scrapyard.
status: removed
Replaced by 'Unveil the Fleet'
Relocation: Move another player’s quantum cube to a planet without one of their cubes (the new planet cannot have a higher planet number).
status: removed
I've rarely seen a group use this card. Also, the benefit it provides to the game is not in line with the mechanically theme of the game, so it usefullness tends to be very opqaue to players, especially new ones. When it has been used, it usually immediately wins the game; A defending player heavily fortifies one of the last places the winning player needs to take to win, this card pops up and just shifts the state of the board suddenly. There's not really any counter-play to this card, you just have to hope it doesn't come up. Winning with it doesn't feel very good, you don't feel clever, just lucky.