AD ASTRA

OBJECTIVE OF AD ASTRA: The objective of Ad Astra is to be the first player to score 50 Victory points.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 3 to 5 Players

MATERIALS: 1 Rulebook, 5 Player Rule Sheets, 1 First Player Meeple, 5 Scoring Tokens, 9 Stars, 43 Planets, 11 Alien Cards, 25 Terraformer Meeples, 25 Factory Meeples, 25 Colony Meeples, 25 Starship Meeples, 55 Action Cards, 150 Resource Cards, and a Planning Board

TYPE OF GAME: Party Card Game

AUDIENCE: Ages 13 and Up

OVERVIEW OF AD ASTRA

Each player uses their faction attempts to establish colonies while exploring new planets. When you gain control of planets, you collect resources that you can use to explore more planets, expand colonies, and terraform new worlds. Actions are completed through the use of action cards. Players take turns playing their cards to the planning table. The game is played until the last planet is explored. Are you up for the challenge?

SETUP

Each player will choose a color to represent them. They will then gather 11 action cards, 4 starship meeples, 4 colony meeples, 4 factory meeples, 4 terraformer meeples, 1 scoring token, and a rule sheet that are in their chosen color. The nine stars are then placed on the table facing up. Eight of the stars are yellow or red, and the other star is white. The white star is where the players will begin the game.

There should be planets face down equal to the number of players. This begins the first system. Each player will randomly choose a planet to reveal, placing a factory on it. If any of the players get an alien planet, then they are to replace it with another. All of the planets are placed around the other suns, each having three to seven suns.

Sort all of the resource cards, separating them by type, and place them into separate decks to the side of the gaming area, facing down. Create an alien artifact card deck, shuffling all of them and place them face down to the side of the gaming area. Each player should take one resource card. Place the planning board in the middle of the playing area. The players should place their meeple on the victory point track on the planning board, and the game is ready to begin.

GAMEPLAY

The game is played throughout a series of rounds, which consist of a planning phase and an action phase. The beginning player is randomly chosen by the group. The first player will then be determined by whoever last played a scoring card. Going clockwise around the group, each player will play an action card from their hand. They will place it face down on an empty space on the planning board.

Players will continue to play action cards until all the spaces have been filled. In a four or five player game, players should play three cards during the planning phase. In a three-player game, each player should play four cards during the planning phase. Cards can be placed anywhere on the planning board, as long as they are in an empty space.

After all of the spaces are filled, the cards are flipped, revealing the actions. Beginning with the first space, the card is revealed and resolved before flipping the next card on the table. The actions found on the cards must be completed by all players that want to, beginning with the player who chose the card and continuing clockwise around the group.

When the last card is resolved, none of the players are allowed to have more than ten cards in their hand. Players must discard cards until they only have ten cards remaining. Players will then gather their action cards back and begin the next round. Gameplay continues in this manner until a player accumulates 50 points.

Scoring

If a scoring card is flipped, then the player who chose the card can choose which of the elements on the card will be used for scoring. Players will then tally their points.

END OF GAME

The game comes to an end either when a player scores 50 points or the last planet is revealed. If the game ends when a player reaches 50 points, then that player becomes the winner If the game ends when the last planet is revealed, then the player with the highest score wins.

Nakoa Davis
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