Strategic Action

A player must, at some point during The Action Phase, execute a Strategic Action. When a player chooses to take his Strategic Action, he first reads and then resolves the Primary Ability as printed on his Strategy Card.

After the active player has finished resolving the Primary Ability, the other players, in Rotation order from the active player, may each spend one Command Counter (CC) from their Strategy Allocation area on their Race sheet to execute the Secondary Ability of the current Strategy Card. Special Exception: Players do not have to spend a Command Counter from their Strategy Allocation area when executing the Secondary Ability of the Leadership Strategy Card. The active player may not execute the Secondary Ability of his own Strategy Card.

After all players have completed (or passed on) the Secondary Ability, the active player's Strategy Card is flipped over onto its "Inactive" side and the player action is over. Thus, a player may only take one Strategic Action per round (two in 3- or 4- player games). Likewise, a player may only execute any given Secondary Ability once (but a player may, if he has a sufficient number of Command Counters in his Strategy Allocation area, participate in the Secondary Ability of several Strategy Cards during the game round).

The initiative number on each Strategy Card only determines the order of play. Players may execute their Strategic Action at a time of their choosing, regardless of its initiative number. It is likely, for example, that the player holding the Trade Strategy will take his Strategic Action before the player holding the Leadership Strategy, even if the Leadership Strategy has a lower initiative number.