Martians!!! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Object of the Game (A.K.A. "How Do I Win?")
• Game Setup for Noncooperative Game
• Game Setup For Cooperative Game
• Turn Sequence Overview
• Placing Map Tiles
• Player Movement Rules
• Combat Rules
• Martians Deck Rules
• Event Card Rules
• Martian Movement Rules
• Martian Ship Tokens
• Additional Rules and Clarifications

Contents

• 30 Map Tiles
• 40 Event Card Deck
• 30 Martian Card Deck
• 6 Plastic Pawns
• 30 Life Tokens
• 60 Bullet Tokens
• 4 Crop Circle Tokens
• 18 Item Tokens
• 2 Dice
• Instructions
• 100 Plastic Martians (3 different poses)

Object of the Game (A.K.A. "How Do I Win?")

Noncooperative: The goal of Martians!!! is to be the first player to reach the Mother Ship with a fuel, fertilizer and dynamite token or alternately kill and collect 30 Martians.

Cooperative: The players must collect a fuel, fertilizer and dynamite token and make it to the Mother Ship before the last Martian is placed on the board.

Game Setup for Noncooperative Game

• Randomly choose a player to be the dealer. The dealer removes the "House" tile from the map deck and places it in the middle of the table. Each player chooses and places their pawn on the house square on that tile. (See "X" illustration on the next page.) The dealer then shuffles the rest of the Map deck and places to the side but within easy reach of the players.
• The dealer then shuffles the event deck and the Martians deck together, dealing three cards to each player. Again, the Event/Martians deck should be placed on the table within easy reach of all players.
• Each player receives three life and three bullet tokens.
• Place all item tokens face down and mix. Place to the side.
• Place the Crop Circle tokens face down and mix. Place to the side.

Game Setup For Cooperative Game

• Randomly choose a player to be the dealer. The dealer removes the "House" tile from the map deck and places it in the middle of the table. Each player chooses and places their pawn on the house square on that tile. (See "X" illustration on the next page.) The dealer then shuffles the rest of the Map deck and places to the side but within easy reach of the players.
• The dealer then shuffles the event deck and deals three cards to each player. Again, the Event deck should be placed on the table within easy reach of all players.
• Each player receives three life and three bullet tokens.
• The dealer then shuffles the Martians deck and places it in front of them, so they can turn up the Martians cards as needed.
• Place 3 each of the fuel, fertilizer and dynamite tokens face down and mix. Place to the side. Place the remaining tokens back in the box.
• Place the Crop Circle tokens face down and mix. Place them to the side.

Component key (printed on the rules sheet): Crop Circle Disks (face-down and face-up); Mother Ship disk; Item Disks: Fertilizer (Green), Fuel Oil (Red), Dynamite (Blue).

Turn Sequence Overview

During a turn, players must perform the following steps in order.

1. Draw a tile from the map deck and place it on the table.
2. Combat any Martians on your current space. (See the Combat Rules section.)
3. Draw back up to three event cards, if you have less than three.
4. Make a movement roll. (See the Movement Rules section.)
5. Move up to the number of spaces indicated by the movement roll plus the number of life tokens you currently posses. This number will not change as you move (picking up or losing life tokens). You must stop for combat on any space occupied by a Martian. You may continue your movement after defeating a Martian up to your movement total.
6. After moving, roll a six-sided die. You must move that number of Martians, one space each, if able.
7. Place a Martian on any Crop Circle tokens that do not currently have a figures on them. Additionally, when the Mother Ship is revealed place one Martian on the tile occupied by the token. This is done each turn until all legal spaces on that tile are filled and continues whenever a space is open. Normal placement rules also apply.
8. At the end of the turn, you may discard one event card from your hand. Play then proceeds clockwise around the table.

Placing Map Tiles

There are several rules the players must follow when placing map tiles.

• Tiles may be rotated in any direction but must be placed so that all roads are connected. You may not block any road with the side of a building.
• When played, map cards with "named" buildings immediately get the number of Bullet(B) and Life(L) tokens indicated along with one item token (fuel, dynamite or fertilizer). All tokens must be placed face-down inside the building and may not be placed on any street space. Only one token per square. (See "T" illustration below.)
• Item tokens are placed face-down in named buildings until they run out.
• Place one Martian on each street square of the tile just placed. No Martians are placed inside the buildings.
• It is possible to place map tiles in such a manner that no further tiles can be played. If this occurs, the player who plays the last tile immediately loses the rest of their turn. Play continues until one player collects 30 Martians. In the cooperative game, the players would lose if the Mother Ship is not played and no further tiles can be placed.
• When a map tile with an "unnamed" building is played, it comes into play with a number of Martians on it based on the number of road spaces it has. One Martian per road space. (See "M" on the illustration.)
• It is also possible to draw a map tile that can not be played. If this happens discard the tile and continue your turn as normal.
• Farm tiles should be placed as if they are four-way tiles. These tiles are also accessed as if they are four-way tiles. Although they come into play with only one Martian on them, it is possible to place Martians on all nine spaces.

(Illustration on the rules sheet: a sample map layout marked with "M" (Martians), "T" (tokens) and "X" (the House square).)

Player Movement Rules

• Movement amount is determined by rolling a six-sided die and add it to the number of life tokens you have at the time of rolling the die: 1 move = 1 square.
• No diagonal movement is allowed, but players may occupy the same space.
• Players may choose not to use the entire movement amount and may stop at any time. Players may only move on to road or named building spaces.
• Any Martians encountered while moving must be fought before movement continues. Please see the Combat section for more details.
• If a player moves onto a space containing an item, life or bullet token and no Martian, the token is immediately added to that player's collection. If a player draws an item token and it is a duplicate of an item they already possess, the item is placed face-down back on the square from which it was taken.
• Martians and players may move on to another square by crossing over a white line. If, when moving, a player does not cross a white line, the move is illegal except when moving to a new tile using a road space.

Combat Rules

• Any time you begin your turn on the same space as a Martian or you land on a space occupied by a Martian during movement, combat ensues.
• Combat is resolved by rolling a six-sided die. If you roll a four, five or six, you win and the Martian is added to your collection; if you roll a one, two or three, you lose and must either, forfeit a life token or spend enough bullet tokens to raise the roll enough to make it successful. For example, if you rolled a two, you could discard a life token and roll again or spend two bullet tokens to raise the total from two to four.
• Combat continues until the player wins or runs out of life tokens. A player can never voluntarily leave combat.
• Player death: When a player runs out of life tokens, movement stops and his pawn is moved back to the House. Additionally he forfeits the rest of his movement, loses half (rounded up) of the Martians he has collected, any item tokens and any weapon cards he has in play. The rest of the turn continues as normal (I.e. move Martians and discard a card). The item tokens are re-placed in the buildings closest to where the players death occured that do not have tokens on them. Only one token per building can be placed this way, as normal.
• Whenever a player dies and is forced to start again, he begins his next turn with three life and three bullet tokens.

Martians Deck Rules

The following rules only apply to the cooperative game. For the noncooperative game, the Martian cards are considered event cards.

• When a player moves on to a space with a Martian icon (See "I" on the illustration on the next page.), a card is drawn from the Martians deck and the effect takes place immediately. Discard after the effect is complete.
• If the effect of the card lasts for more than the current player's turn, leave the card in front of the current player to remind others of the effect and when it will no longer be in effect.
• When playing cooperatively, the Martians cards are never placed into a player's hand.
• When a Martians card is revealed, it is considered "played" by the active player.

Event Card Rules

• Event/Martians cards may be played at any time unless the card says otherwise.
• You may only play one event card during a round. (That is, you may play only one card from the beginning of your turn to the beginning of your next turn.)
• You may never have more than three event cards at the end of your turn.
• A player may discard one event card at the end of his turn. Discarding signals the end of the turn and no further turn actions may be taken once a card has been discarded.
• Reshuffle the discard pile when the event deck is exhausted.
• Cards played in front of you such as items, are considered "in play," and do not count against your hand limit. Using an item does not count as playing a card.

Martian Movement Rules

• At the end of a turn, a six-sided die is rolled and that number of Martians is moved one space each, if possible.
• Martians may not be moved diagonally, but may be moved into and out of buildings.
• Each space may have only one Martian on it at a time, ever.
• Spaces containing a Martian may also contain an item, life or bullet token but, if the Martian moves, the token does not.

Martian Ship Tokens

• When a Farm tile is added to the board, place one face-down crop circle token to the middle square and place one Martian on it.
• When a player lands on a crop circle token, they must kill any Martian there and then may turn over the token. Once turned over, they remain face-up.
• At the end of each player's turn, if there is no Martian on a crop circle token, place a Martian on that token. This applies to all crop circle disks whether they are face-up or face-down.
• When the Mother Ship is revealed place one Martian on the space occupied by the Mother ship token. This is done at the end each turn until all legal spaces on that tile are filled and continues whenever a space is open. Normal placement rules also apply.

(Illustration: an "I" marker on a card showing a Martian icon.)

Additional Rules and Clarifications

• No player may have more than five life or bullet tokens at one time.
• If a tile is drawn that cannot be legally played, it is discarded and the rest of the turn continues.
• Each player may have only one copy of each weapon in play and may only use one weapon during combat.
• You may not attack other players without a card effect.
• You may not conceal the number of Martians you have killed or which items you possess.
• In the cooperative game, Martians removed from the game are not added back to the Martians pool.
• The "Searchlight" card may not be used if it will give a player duplicate disks.