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Pre-Game Setup: Separate the cards into battlegroups, territories, and combat cards. (Combat cards include battle actions, terrains, technologies, and tactics.) Deal out all territory cards. Go around the table with each player placing one territory in turn. Once at least one territory has been placed, each additional territory must be linked to an existing territory in a legal position. Legal positions are on the top, bottom, lower left and right, and upper left and right of the card so that they form a hex pattern. New territories must touch a territory with the same border unless there are no such territories on the board yet. There are three exceptions: Green territories and rifts cannot touch each other, and clear-bordered territories can go anywhere. After all territories are laid, each player chooses a faction headquarters and places it on the map. Each headquarters must be at least 3 territories away from all others if possible. Each player starts with a number of fleets determined by the number of players: With 2-3 players, each player gets 3 fleets. With 4-5 players, each player gets 2 fleets. With 6 or more players, each player gets 1 fleet. Each fleet starts with a flagship. You now have 60 points to purchase additional battlegroups of ships by using the points value listed in the lower right hand of the battlegroups cards. (You do not draw battlegroups; you simply choose which ones you wish to buy.) Each card is considered a "Battlegroup." The first ship in the battlegroup is represented by the card itself. Additional ships can be added to the same battlegroup by adding tokens to the Ready side of the card. These extra ships have the same cost as the first ship. A single battlegroup cannot have more ships than the "Max Ships" listed in the lower left hand side of the card. Battlegroups must always link to control arrows on existing battlegroups. If they have no place to link, they are destroyed. (Note: Once you have created a faction-specific deck, you should also have a pre-selected fleet for that deck.)

Once battlegroups are purchased, choose a fleet marker color for each of your fleets. Place one copy of that fleet marker under or next to the fleet and place the other on your headquarters. The fleet marker represents where the fleet currently is on the map. The second copy is to help you you remember which fleet is which.

Lastly, have each player draw 5 cards from their battle decks (or the main battle deck). You are now ready to play.

Campaign Turns

Begin the game by having each player roll a D6. The highest roller wins initiative. For the rest of the game, that player goes first during all campaign rounds and play proceeds to that player's left.

1. Free Build Phase
Each player may purchase new ships with a cost up to their faction's production (The upper-right number on their faction card). If they control every single territory of any given border color, they can also use one of the territories of that color. Each player may also play a single technology card from their hand onto one of their fleets for free by placing it next to the fleet. Technologies only affect the fleet they are attached to. Each fleet may have any number of technology cards, but you can only play one technology card per free build phase.

2. Campaign Rounds (3)
There are three separate campaign rounds. The player who won initiative goes first during each round and takes a single campaign action, followed by the player to his left etc, until all players have taken three campaign actions total. The most common campaign action is the Fleet Maneuver. This is what allows you to move and attack with your fleets.

When you choose Fleet Maneuver, each fleet you control may take one of the following two actions:

 

Move and Reload: Move the fleet to an adjacent map territory. You may also choose to reload, in which case all ships in the fleet are un-USED and all action effects and bonuses are lost. All fighters are discarded.
Battle: Take 2 full battle actions (this is the only time a fleet may take battle actions. These are explained under "Battle Actions" below)

These are the alternate campaign actions a player may take if they do not maneuver their fleets:

 

Build: Choose one territory you own. You may purchase ships using it's production. You can never build with the same territory more than once in a campaign turn, including those you used during the free build.
Redeploy: You may move any number of ships or battlegroups between your different fleets, regardless of their locations.
Draw: Discard any number of cards, then draw a number of cards equal to the number you discarded plus 2. (You may simply draw two cards if you don't discard any)
Play a Technology: Attach a technology card to one of your fleets from your hand
Seal a Rift: If you have a fleet in a territory marked as a "Bleeding Rift," you may destroy that fleet to "Seal" that rift. If you do so, turn the territory card over and destroy all ships in that fleet. For each ship that was destroyed, you gain 1 Rift Token. That rift no longer has any effect on the game.
Conserve: Immediately gain 1 psi.

3. Psi Phase
Each player starts the game with 5 psi. During each psi phase, each player loses psi equal to the current turn number. (So 1 on the first turn, 2 on the second turn, etc.) You may reduce this psi loss by spending Rift Tokens. Each Rift Token will reduce your psi loss by 1, to a minimum of 0. If any player runs out of psi, they immediately lose the game.

4. End of Turn
Each player draws three cards from their combat decks. A new campaign turn begins.

Battle Actions

Each fleet that chooses to battle can take 2 consecutive "full" battle actions and any number of "free" battle actions. The battle actions you may take are as follows:

Full Battle Actions:

Attack: Target one of your battlegroups and an enemy battlegroup in a bordering territory. Add up the military of all ships in each battlegroup and roll a D6. If the attacker's total military is higher, the attacker "Hits" on a 3+. If the attacker's military is lower, he hits on a 5+, whereas if they are tied, he hits on a 4+. If the attack hits, one ship of the defender's choice is destroyed from the defending battlegroup. If the attack misses, the attacker must choose a ship to destroy from the attacking battlegroup. Ships which are USED contribute their USED military instead of their full military. If you destroy the last ship in an enemy battlegroup, you gain 1 psi point.
Launch Fighters: USE one ship to launch a number of fighters equal to it's "Fighters" rating. Fighters are not considered part of any battlegroup and are considered as one unit. Fighters are on "Standby" orders and have no effect until they are given other orders.
Full Battle Action Card: Play any card in your hand that is marked as a "Full Battle Action." The effects of this action are printed on the card. Card effects remain until the fleet reloads and do not automatically end at the end of the turn.
Play a Tactics Card: Attach a "Tactics" card from your hand to a fleet you control. Each fleet can only have one tactics card at a time. Tactics cards remain until the fleet reloads.
Play a Terrain Card: Attach a "Terrain" card from your hand to a territory one of your fleets currently occupies. Terrain cards are permanent and each fleet can only have one terrain card at a time. Terrain cards affect the fleet in that territory and any fleet that targets or is targeted by that fleet.

Free Battle Actions:

Battle Action Card: Play any card in your hand that is marked as a "Battle Action." Battle actions are free actions unless otherwise noted. The effects of this action are printed on the card. Card effects remain until the fleet reloads and do not automatically end at the end of the turn.
Heavy Weapons: When you are attacking an enemy battlegroup, you may USE one of the ships in your battlegroup to raise it's military to the battlegroup's Heavy Weapons rating for the duration of the attack.
Full Attack: When you are attacking an enemy battlegroup, you may USE one of the ships in your battlegroup before the attack takes place to roll an additional die for the attack. That ship contributes it's USED military instead of it's full military. (This may be combined with heavy weapons)
Fighter Orders: Change the orders for the fighters attached to this fleet. Though changing orders is a free action, you may only change orders once per turn per fleet. The fighter orders are:

 

Assault: When one of your ships makes an attack, you may declare it an assault. If this is the case, your military is raised by the number of fighters you have and you roll an additional die for the attack. Losses may be absorbed by the attacking battlegroup or with the assaulting fighters.
Screen: Target one of your battlegroups when you change to screen orders. That battlegroup's military is raised by an amount equal to the number of fighters you have whenever it is attacked and losses to that battlegroup may be absorbed by the fighters.
Strike: When your fighters are on strike orders, you may use the following full action: Target a single enemy ship (not it's battlegroup). Make a direct attack on it as if the fighters were a battlegroup with a military equal to the number of fighters you have. (This is not truly a battlegroup attack, so you cannot use heavy weapons, full attacks or other attack-specific actions) Other ships in the same battlegroup have no effect on this attack.
Intercept: When an enemy targets you with a strike or assault, roll a D6. If you roll a 1-3, you lose a number of fighters equal to the number you rolled on the dice. If you roll a 4-6, the enemy loses a number of fighters equal to the number rolled before the attack takes place. If this reduces the number of fighters to 0, the assault bonuses are lost or the strike is cancelled.

Whenever fighters take losses from a die roll, they lose a number of fighters equal to the actual number rolled on the die. (So if you wish to absorb a missed attack roll of 3, you would have to destroy 3 fighters.) In the case of assaults, you may choose which miss dice to allocate to the battlegroup and which ones to absorb with fighters.

 

READY vs. USED

You mark a ship as USED by moving it's token to the bottom half of the card. If the ship represented by the battlegroup card itself becomes USED, turn it sideways. Ships which are USED are considered to have a military equal to the USED military listed on their card. You cannot take actions that require USING if the ship is already USED, but you can still target enemy ships that are USED with actions that would USE them. Ships only become USED when a rule states that they do; they do not automatically become USED by attacking or by taking other actions. Ships remain USED until the fleet reloads. They do not un-USE at the end of the turn.

Winning the Game

You win the game in one of three ways. If you are the last player alive, you win. If you ever have 12 or more psi points, you win. Lastly, if all five Bleeding Rifts are ever sealed, the player who sealed the most rifts wins the game. (In the case of a tie, the victory goes to whichever tied player has the most psi)