2. As a default, heat games will use ALL THREE EXPANSIONS, including The Gathering Storm, Rebel Vs Imperium, and The Brink of War. Likewise, all expansion-specific rules will be used in heat play, including goal tiles, takeovers, prestige, and the prestige/search action cards. If and only if all players at a heat table agree, any expansions or expansion-specific rules may be omitted, but if any one player at a table objects, all expansions and rules must be utilized. Some allowances may be made if not enough fully-expanded sets are available.

3. Semifinal and final round play will include all expansions and all expansion-specific rules.

4. Starting hands will be chosen from a random deal of 6 cards; neither preset hands nor the drafting variant will be used. Likewise, players will select one start world from a choice of two, one with a blue number and one with a red number. Start worlds should be revealed simultaneously.

5. As per 'Timing' issues in rules most play can and should be performed simultaneously to expedite the game. However, actions will be performed in order of starting home planets when the remaining card supply will require a reshuffle, when VP chips could potentially run out in a 'Consume' phase (trigger game end), or when a settle/develop could trigger game end.

6. Per the rules, if two or more players tie, the player among them with the highest total number of cards in hand (after discarding) and goods on worlds wins. Further ties shall be broken by lowest number starting world.

7. Semifinals will be held if (a) there are more than four players with two qualifying wins in the heats and/or (b) there are eight or more players with at least one qualifying win in the heats. There will be four semifinal tables accommodating a maximum of 16 players. Players will be ranked based on two best results, number of wins then closest seconds as % of winners' score. The winners of each of the semifinal tables will advance to the finals.