The real battle for progress awaits you! Corporations are frantically patenting various technologies. On the one hand this gives the whole market access to the patented technologies, but on the other hand it costs a lot more to research them.
Which brings industrial espionage onto the scene. The receptionist who smiled at you so nicely this morning may be a competitor’s spy. Will you try to defend yourself, or will you play dirty?
Note: The ‘Data Protection & Corporate Espionage’ Scenario can be used with the Artificial Intelligence ‘Steve’. See the end of the rules.
Scenario Contents
For this scenario, you’ll need markers from the Scenario pack. The markers have different fronts and backs, namely:
Tokens with a number on the back and with ‘+1’ on the front - 6 pcs
Preparing for the Scenario
1.
Do not use the CEO Technologies when playing this Scenario.
2.
Each player takes a CEO figure. We will refer to these as “Spies” for this scenario.
3.
Place 6 
tokens near the game board. You’ll need them to increase the price of researching a Technology.
Gameplay
The game is played with the usual rules, except for the changes to Phases 5, 6, and 7 described below.
Phase 5. Research Technology
In Phase 5, the first player to complete the research of a Technology does not claim the Patent. Instead, they place their 
on the 
space and a token on the Patent.
The cost of that Technology is increased by 1 ( ) for other players (e.g., after researching 4G Technology, its cost will increase to 7).
Phase 6. Logistics
In this Phase, each player may make one additional action from this list during their turn (before or after their basic action):
- Place their Spy; or
- Take their Spy back.
A player may skip this additional action and play Phase 6 as usual.
Placing of the Spy. You must spend 1 ( ) to place your Spy (CEO figure), which can be placed on a Technology that an opponent has already completely researched. Each Technology can have no more than one Spy at a time. If a player before you in turn order removes their Spy from a Technology, you may place your Spy on it.
Taking the Spy back. If your Spy is already on a Technology at the beginning of your turn, you may spend 1 ( ) to immediately research that Technology for free and take your Spy back (to use again in a later round).
Phase 7. Selling Goods
In Phase 7, any player can put Goods on purple Buyers during their turn, even if they don’t have the necessary Technology, as long as it was already researched by someone else. To do this, the player must pay VP to any one player who has researched that Technology.
The VP cost for selling each Good using another player’s Technology is equal to half the cost of that Technology (rounding down). To record this, reduce your VP on the VP Scoreboard and increase the opponent’s VPs by the same amount. The player who has researched the Technology can’t refuse the VP.
Example
A player doesn’t have 4G Technology, but they want to place a 
on a purple Buyer with 4G. They pay 3 VPs (7 divided in half and rounded down = 3) to the player with on the space of the 4G Technology and places their on that purple Buyer.
IMPORTANT!
VP payments are made separately for each Good the player wishes to sell. A player may pay for different Technologies and regions on their turn during Phase 7.
At the end of the game, players don’t receive VP for collected Patents.
The ‘Data Protection & Corporate Espionage’ Scenario can be used with the Artificial Intelligence ‘Steve.’ The game is played with the usual rules, except for the changes to Phases 5 and 6 described below.
Phase 5. Research Technology
Steve researches Technologies by the usual rules, but ignores the Technology his Spy is on.
Phase 6. Logistics
On his turn, before the other players, Steve places his Spy:
on the most expensive Technology researched by the players;
If there are multiple researched Technologies with the highest cost:
on the left-most Technology researched by any player;
If there is no such Technology, Steve does not place his Spy.
If, at the beginning of Phase 6, Steve’s Spy is located on a Technology, during his turn Steve spends 1 ( ) to remove his Spy and immediately research that Technology: Put Steve’s on the space for that Technology.
After that, Steve follows the basic rules for Phase 6.
The rest of Steve’s rules do not change.
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Cosmodrome Games is one of the biggest board game publishers in Russia & CIS. A team of passionate gamers and good friends who have invented, selected, and produced high-quality tabletop games with beautiful visuals since 2011.
We’re real fans of our games and are crazy about what we do. So we’re sure you will love Smartphone Inc as much as we do.
Thanks all of you for your support and for helping us to bring our lovely game to life.
