presentation

Alien Artifacts

4X in unexplored space

4X - eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate, employed in a SciFi topic: Interplanetary factions venture into unexplored space to gain more knowledge and power.

Basis of the game is resources management; each half of a resources card shows one to three resources symbols - blue / explore, green / discover, red / military and gold / assets; the number in the middle is used in combat.

In a round, you have three such cards in hand and decide on using one of the two resources, limited to two cards per turn. Resources are used to acquire ship, technology or planet cards or currency; of the acquired cards, you either use the Logistics side as a permanent bonus in relation to the symbols for the 4X parameters, or the Operational side to generate victory points, either via acquisition of new cards or abilities in attacks.

Ships enable you to attack aliens and to take over their artifacts for bonuses; new technologies provide additional actions, bonuses and points in scoring; new planets give resources for future actions.

A turn comprises Action and then drawing cards. Basis action options are buy card, build ship, develop technology, discover planet, trade resources, remove blockade, prepare resources; then there are operational options like start an offensive, receive revenues, mine planet plus faction actions and card actions. At the end, you score cards in your empire and operational technologies.

Compact and intense for every player, but with little interaction. Options work well together, but a lot depends on the luck of the draw for cards - all in all a solid game for experienced players.

Players: 2-4

Age: 10+

Time: 60+

Designer: Marcin Ropka, Viola Kijowska

Art: Lee Evan, Szyma Rafal and Team

Price: ca. 40 Euro

Publisher: Portal Games 2017

Web: www.portalgames.pl

Genre: SciFi 4X, cards

Users: For experts

Version: en

Rules: de en fr pl

In-game text: yes

Comments:

Excellent 4C game

Not a lot of interaction

Plays very fast

Compares to:

4X and resource engine games

Other editions:

Pegasus (de), Matagot (fr), Portal Games (pl)

Chance (pink):

Tactic (turquoise): 3

Strategy (blue): 02

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 1

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0