On Mars: Alien Invasion
On Mars: Alien Invasion Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Invasion
3-5 players (1 vs. 2-4); difficulty level: moderate
Components
Alien Components
- 1 Alien board
- 5 Alien Tech tiles
- 5 Alien Mine Building tiles
- 5 Alien Shelter Building tiles
- 4 Level-1 Alien Blueprint cards
- 4 Alien Advanced Building markers
- 20 Alien Troopers
- 1 Alien Scientist
- 5 Red Reusable Action tokens
- 10 Green Expendable Action tokens
- 10 R&D Corruption tokens
- 4 Sentry Bots
- 1 Defense Exosuit
- 3 Tech tiles
- 1 Alien Troop Tracker
Human Components
- 4 Level-1 Defensive Blueprint cards
- 2 Sabotage tokens
- 10 Shield tokens
Chapter Setup
In this chapter, one player plays as the Alien Commander overseeing the invasion. Thus, you can play with up to 5 players. Either agree who will be the Alien Commander, or randomly select a player to act in that role. Set up per the On Mars rules for the number of human players you have, with the following changes:
- Skip Step 3 of the base game's Player Setup: You will not track individuals' OP.
- Choose any color player OP marker and place it on the 0 on the OP track. This will be the humans' Collective Scoring marker.
- Place the Alien Troop Tracker on Space 20 of the score track.
- Assign one Human player the task of being the scorekeeper. This player tracks all OP scored by the Human team, and constantly adjusts the Alien Troop Tracker to match the number of Alien Troopers left off the board (the Alien player wins if this hits 0).
- At random, deal the Defensive Blueprint cards evenly to the Human players. If there are 3 Human players, place the 4th card face up to the left of the Blueprint card display. As if you had used the Obtain Blueprint action to get these, also gain the item depicted in the lower-right corner of the card, and place an Advanced Building marker on the card.
- a. The player with the Defense Exosuit Blueprint also takes the Defense Exosuit and the Defense Exosuit Tech tile.
- b. The player with the Sentry Bot Blueprint also takes the 4 Sentry Bots and the Sentry Bot Tech tile.
- c. The player with the Shield Blueprint also takes the 10 Shield tokens and the Shield Tech tile.
- d. The player with the Sabotage Blueprint also takes the 2 Sabotage tokens.
Alien Setup
(See the setup illustration in the Scenario Book, page 4.)
I. Place the Alien board in front of you.
- a. Cover each of the 4 dark red Extra Action spaces with a matching Reusable Action token, red side down, acting as an Extra Action Space Cover token.
- b. Place the 5th Reusable Action token on the Reusable Action Supply space.
- c. Place the Alien Scientist in the upper-right corner.
- d. Place 4 of the Alien Troopers in the upper-left corner of the board; set the other 16 aside for now.
II. Lay out the Alien Blueprint cards in a private display, to the left of your board.
- a. Stack the 10 R&D Corruption tokens on the left portion of the R&D Corruption card.
- b. Place an Alien Advanced Building marker on each card.
III. Take 3 Crystals; set these near your board.
IV. Place 1 Alien Shelter tile in the middle rightmost hex of the main board; stack the others near your board, as shown below.
V. Place the 5 Alien Tech tiles, 10 Expendable Action tokens, and 5 Alien Mine hexes near your board as your reserve.
Goals and Victory/Loss Conditions
The Human players are a team, working together to succeed despite the Alien Commander's meddling, and before all of the Alien Troopers are deployed. The end of the game is not triggered by the Remaining Missions marker reaching the end of its track.
Humans: The Human team wins immediately (don't even finish the turn) if they collectively earn 100 OP.
Aliens: The Alien Commander wins immediately (don't even finish the turn) if all 20 Alien Troopers are deployed to the main board.
Gameplay
Each round is still divided into two phases: Colonization and Shuttle. However, the Colonization phase flows differently. After each Human player's turn, the Alien Commander gets a turn. So, in a 5-player game (4-Human game), the turns of the Colonization phase would be as follows:
- Human Player 1
- Alien Commander
- Human Player 2
- Alien Commander
- Human Player 3
- Alien Commander
- Human Player 4
- Alien Commander
Human Player's Turn
You use only Human components. Actions and effects that allow you to use other players' components (such as using another player's Tech tile) do not allow you to use Alien components.
Important rule: In addition, each time you use a Tech tile from a teammate (other player), the Alien Commander may advance an Alien Tech tile.
Orbital Station Action Changes and Scoring
Obtain Blueprint
4-player game (3-Human game): The first Human player to Obtain a Blueprint must take the Defensive Blueprint card added to the left of the Blueprint card display, rather than one of the others. Do not replace this card from the deck; this brings the display down to the usual 6 Blueprint cards. Gain the item depicted in the lower-right corner of the card, and place an Advanced Building marker on the card.
If you obtain a normal Blueprint card, immediately lose its OP value. You can go negative, so always keep track of how far below 0 OP you are. If you obtain a Defensive Blueprint card, do not lose any OP.
Learn New Technology
Immediately score 1 OP when you learn a new technology.
Research and Development (R&D)
Immediately score 1 OP each time you move a Tech tile to the right. When you move a Tech tile to the final column, score an additional 3 OP (i.e., 1 + 3 = 4 OP total).
Colony Main Action Changes and Scoring
New Human Technologies
- Sentry Movement: Increases number of activations the Sentry Bot Advanced Building provides.
- Exosuit Movement: Increases number of activations the Defense Exosuit Advanced Building provides.
- Shield: Increases the number of shields deployed when using the Shields Advanced Building.
Construct a Building
You cannot construct a Building in a hex with an active (upright) Alien Trooper in it.
Sentry Bots and the Defense Exosuit get displaced by new Buildings just like Rovers and Bots do. Any stunned (prone) Alien Troopers in the hex also get displaced by the new Building.
If you build a Shelter, immediately gain 3 OP, instead of scoring Colonists at the end of the game.
Upgrade a Building
You cannot upgrade a Building in a hex with an active (upright) Alien Trooper in it. If there is a stunned Alien Trooper, you may upgrade the Building hex and the Alien player chooses where the Trooper is displaced.
If the Building hex had a Shield token on it, return the Shield token to the player with the Shield Defensive Blueprint card.
If the Blueprint card used to upgrade the Building is a Defensive Blueprint card with a Tech tile on it, place the Tech tile in an empty space in the leftmost column of your Laboratory. If both of these spaces already have a tile on them, you cannot use this Blueprint card to upgrade a Building at this time.
Sentry Bots and the Defense Exosuit get displaced by the upgraded Building just like Rovers and Bots do. Stunned (prone) Alien Troopers are displaced by an upgraded Building as well.
If you upgrade a Building using a normal Blueprint card, immediately gain double its OP value.
If you upgrade a Building using a Defensive Blueprint card, immediately gain 3 OP.
If anyone has the Scientist matching the Advanced Building, immediately gain 3 OP.
Example: Blue has a +1 bonus from her Shield Tech level, and thus takes 2 Shield tokens to deploy. The Alien Commander wisely blocked further development of this tech by placing an R&D Corruption token on it, so Blue first removes this, returning it to the Alien Commander, and returning the Shield token to her own supply. Blue places the 2nd Shield token on her Shield Tech tile to afford it some protection.
Welcoming a Ship and Shuttle Travel
If you welcome a Ship, immediately gain 3 OP. If you remove a Ship from a hangar, immediately lose 3 OP.
Hire a Scientist or Take an Earth Contract
If you hire a Scientist, immediately gain 3 OP for each matching Advanced Building already on the Martian surface.
If you take an Earth Contract card, immediately lose its negative OP value. When you complete a Contract card, immediately gain back the negative OP value and add the positive OP value.
Executive Actions
If you choose to perform an Executive action, the Alien Commander takes an Expendable Action token and places it on the Expendable Action Supply space of the Alien board.
Use Advanced Building
The new Blueprint cards' actions are as follows:
Shield
Deploy 1 Shield token (+ Tech level); you cannot deploy more Shields than you have tokens. Each deployment does one of the following:
- Neutralize an R&D Corruption token that is on any Human player's Tech tile. Return the R&D Corruption token to the Alien Commander. Return the Shield token to your supply.
- Place the Shield token on any Human player's Tech tile to protect it from R&D Corruption.
- Place the Shield token on any Human player's Building hex to keep Alien Troopers from moving into it.
Sabotage
Use an available Sabotage token to cover an available Action space on the Alien board, blocking it from being used. The token stays there until the Alien Commander resets their board.
Example: Purple uses his Sabotage Advanced Building. The humans all agree that the Alien Commander is planning to construct a Building, and they want to prevent this. Purple covers Construct a Building on the Alien board with a Sabotage token. That should buy the colony a little time!
Sentry Bots
Activate Sentry Bots up to 2 times (+ Tech level). Each activation does one of the following:
- Place a Sentry Bot (that is not already on the Martian surface) on a Shelter hex. If all Shelters already have wooden pieces on them, place the bot adjacent to one of them instead.
- Move a Sentry Bot 1 hex. Any Alien Troopers in the new hex get displaced.
- Stun all Alien Troopers (lay them down) adjacent to 1 Sentry Bot.
Example: Yellow's Sentry Bot Tech level grants a +1 bonus. Yellow uses her Sentry Bot Advanced Building for 3 activations (2 + 1) of Sentry Bots. Yellow moves the one adjacent to an Alien Trooper into its hex to "bulldoze" it closer to the other Alien Troopers. Yellow uses another activation to send another Sentry Bot 1 hex into the fray, so it is adjacent to the "bulldozed" Alien Trooper and 2 others. For the last activation, all 3 Alien Troopers adjacent to the Sentry Bot are stunned.
Defense Exosuit
Activate the Defense Exosuit up to 2 times (+ Tech level). Each activation does one of the following:
- Place the Defense Exosuit on a Shelter hex. If all Shelters already have wooden pieces on them, place it adjacent to one of them.
- Move the Defense Exosuit 1 hex. If there is a stunned Alien Trooper in the new hex, it is immediately returned to the Alien board. If there is an active (standing) Alien Trooper in the new hex, the Defense Exosuit can only enter the hex if it still has at least 1 activation remaining to return that Alien Trooper to the Alien board (see next option).
- Return 1 active Alien Trooper in the same hex as the Exosuit to the Alien board.
Example: Yellow used her Sentry Bots to stun a few Alien Troopers. Now Blue wants to get rid of as many of them as possible, using 3 activations of his Defense Exosuit Advanced Building (2 + 1 for his Tech level). Blue uses the 1st activation to move the Defense Exosuit 1 hex onto a stunned Alien Trooper, who returns home immediately (Blue doesn't have to spend any activation points to send it home because it is already stunned). Blue then uses his 2nd activation to move the Defense Exosuit to the active Alien Trooper's hex. Finally, he uses his 3rd activation to return that Trooper back to the Alien board (if he did not have a 3rd activation, he could not have moved into this hex).
Defensive Blueprint Actions and Alien Troopers
Remember to increase the Alien Troop Tracker whenever an Alien Trooper is removed from the main board, and decrease it any time Alien Troopers are added to the main board.
Both the Exosuit and Sentry Bots behave similarly to the standard Bots and Rovers. All four can pass through occupied hexes but generally cannot end their movement in one, except for the special cases mentioned above.
All Alien Troopers moved to the Alien board by a human player can be redeployed on the next Alien Commander turn. Whenever an Alien Trooper is displaced, the Alien player decides where to displace it per the base game rules.
If you use another player's Defensive Blueprint with a matching Tech tile, the owner of the Blueprint and Tech tile receives 1 Oxygen from the supply, as usual.
End of the Game
There is no endgame scoring. All scoring occurs during the game.
Alien Commander's Turn
You use only your own components; because you're the only Alien player, you cannot use other players' components.
On your turn, you must choose one and only one of the following three options:
- Unlock an Action space
- Perform actions
- Reset your board
By far, the most common option you will choose is to perform actions.
Unlock an Action Space
Spend 2 Crystals to permanently unlock an Extra Action space on your board: Remove the Extra Action Space Cover token, flip it over to permanently become a Reusable Action token, and stack it on the Reusable Action Supply space on your board.
Perform Actions
In any order you like, do the following:
- You must use at least one Action token.
- You may use your Alien Scientist.
Use Action Tokens
Use 1 Expendable Action token and/or 1 Reusable Action token.
To use an Expendable Action token, it must be on the Expendable Action Supply space of your board.
- Spend 1 Crystal, as indicated on the board.
- Place the Expendable Action token on any open Action space on your board. This can be one of the Action spaces initially available, or an Extra Action space that you've unlocked (they are red only to remind you to cover them in setup; they are not limited to being used by Reusable Action tokens).
- Perform the action indicated by the covered Action space.
Important: If you have only Expendable Action tokens remaining, but do not have the Crystal to pay to play one, you must instead place the Expendable Action token on an Action space and pass your turn.
To use a Reusable Action token, it must be on the Reusable Action Supply space of your board.
- Place the Reusable Action token on any exposed Action space on your board. This can be one of the Action spaces initially available, or an Extra Action space that you've unlocked.
- Perform the action indicated by the Action space.
Remember, you can use an Expendable and/or a Reusable Action token, but you must do at least one. If you do both and also choose to use your Alien Scientist (see Use Your Alien Scientist, below), you can perform these 3 actions in any order you like, as long as you complete each action before starting the next one.
Alien Board Actions
Actions available from the beginning of the game (Action spaces):
1. Construct a Building: This works the same way as the normal action, except that you can build in any empty hex, with no restriction of building 2 hexes away from an existing Building. Alien Buildings work similarly to their Human counterparts:
- Alien Shelter: Add a number of Alien Troopers to the Alien board equal to the new size of your Shelter Complex (modified by the current level of the Reinforcement technology).
- Alien Mine: Gain a number of Crystals equal to the new size of your Mine Complex.
Example: You place a Reusable Action token on your Construct a Building action. You build an Alien Shelter on the far side of the human colony from your other Alien Shelter, and receive 1 Alien Trooper to add to your board. Now the Aliens have 2 separate Shelter Complexes of size 1. If the Complexes were size 2 or 3, then you would receive 2 or 3 Troopers.
2. Obtain Blueprint: This works the same way as the normal action, except that you must choose an Alien Blueprint card. Move it from the private display on the left side of the Alien board to the right side of the Alien board. As usual, gain the item depicted in the lower-right corner of the card, and keep the Alien Advanced Building marker on it.
3. Learn New Technology: This works in a similar way as the normal action. You may take any of the five Alien Tech tiles that are available and place it on the empty space in the leftmost column of your Laboratory. If it is occupied, you may not take this action. There is no resource cost.
Alien Tech tiles:
- Shelter: This increases the maximum size of your Shelter Complex.
- Reinforcement: This increases the number of Alien Troopers you add to your board when you build Shelter hexes.
- Deployment: This increases the number of Alien Troopers you can deploy to the main board when you take a Deploy action.
- Mobilization: This increases the number of hexes you can move Alien Troopers. You can split the movement between multiple Alien Troopers.
- Mining: This increases the maximum size of your Mining Complex.
Alien board reward symbols: Add 1 Alien Trooper to your Alien board. Gain 1 Crystal.
4. Research and Development (R&D): This works the same way as the normal action, except that you only advance a Tech tile once, rather than twice.
In addition, each time a Human player uses a Tech tile from a teammate, the Alien Commander may advance one of theirs.
Example: You pay 1 Crystal to place an Expendable Action token on your R&D action. You advance your Reinforcement technology 1 space to the right, and add 1 more Alien Trooper to your board.
5. Upgrade Building: This works in a similar way to the normal action, but the Blueprints can be applied to an Alien Mine or Alien Shelter. There is no resource cost. Alien Blueprint cards upgrade Buildings to work as follows:
- Alien Infection: For each Human player, move 1 of their Colonists from their Living Quarters to their Working Area.
- Abduction: Return a Human Scientist to its Scientist card.
- Vigilant: Move the shuttle 1 space in either direction; however, you cannot switch which path it is following. In other words, you can speed it up or delay it, but you cannot switch its destination.
- R&D Corruption: Place an R&D Corruption token on a Tech tile on a Human player's board. This Tech tile cannot be developed until a Human player (any of them) uses a Shield token to remove the R&D Corruption token; however, the Tech tile can still be used to improve the applicable action as usual. If you target a tech that is shielded, return the Shield token to the Human player with the Shield Defensive Blueprint card, and return the R&D Corruption token to your supply; in this case, the Tech tile is not corrupted.
Example: You place a Reusable Action token on your Activate Advanced Building action. You see that Blue plans to maximize her ability to defend against you corrupting the humans' R&D. So you place an R&D Corruption token on her Shield Tech tile. She cannot advance that technology until she undoes your meddling!
6. Activate Advanced Building: You must choose a face up Alien Blueprint card on the right side of your board that does not have a Scientist on it. Perform the Advanced Building Action and then flip the card face down. You cannot use the Building again until you Reset your board.
Use Your Alien Scientist: You can only do this if your Alien Scientist is on your board. Move the Alien Scientist from your board to the Action space of a face up Alien Blueprint card on the right of your board to activate that Advanced Building.
Note: You cannot use your Alien Scientist again until you Reset Your Board.
7. Steal Crystals: Take up to 2 Crystals from the main board (from the Martian surface and/or the Warehouse) and add them to your supply. Remember, Crystals cannot be used in the same turn they were gained.
Actions you must unlock before you can use them for the first time (Extra Action spaces):
8. Deploy Troopers in Empty Hexes Beside Your Buildings: Place a number of Alien Troopers equal to 1 + your Deployment Tech level. They must all come from your board and go into empty hexes (a hex with nothing in it at all) adjacent to your Buildings. You can distribute the Alien Troopers however you like around your Buildings, one Trooper per hex.
Example: You pay 1 Crystal to place an Expendable Action token on your Deploy Troopers in Empty Hexes Beside Your Buildings action. Your Deployment Tech level grants you +1. You get to deploy 2 Alien Troopers (1 + 1). You decide to spread them out, placing 1 beside each of 2 of your Buildings.
9. Deploy Troopers in Your Buildings: Place a number of Alien Troopers equal to 1 + your Deployment Tech level. They must all come from your board and go onto your Buildings. You can distribute the Alien Troopers however you like among your Buildings, one Trooper per hex. You cannot deploy troopers onto hexes with an Advanced Building marker (the hexes also cannot have any other wooden pieces in them).
10. Move Troopers: Move a number of Alien Troopers equal to 1 + your Mobilization Tech level. You can distribute the "movement points" however you like among your Alien Troopers on the main board. Alien Troopers cannot move into any Building hex with a Shield token on it, and cannot move into any Advanced Building. They can move through hexes with other wooden pieces, but cannot end their movement in hexes with other wooden pieces. If an Alien Trooper stops on a hex with a Discovery Tile, Research Tile, or Crystal, the item is destroyed (remove it from the board). You can also use movement points to revive stunned Alien Troopers: 1 movement point stands 1 Alien Trooper back up.
Example: You place a Reusable Action token on your Move Troopers action. Your Mobilization Tech grants you a total of 3 movement points. You use 1 movement point to stand a stunned trooper up, and then 1 movement point to move that same trooper 1 hex. You use the final 1 movement point to move another trooper 1 hex.
Reset Your Board
You can only choose this option if you have 2 or fewer Action spaces uncovered on your board, or have 0 Action tokens remaining. Or to put it another way, you cannot choose this option if you have 3 or more Action spaces uncovered and either of the following is true:
- You have Expendable Action tokens remaining on your Expendable Action Supply space.
- You have Reusable Action tokens remaining on your Reusable Action Supply space.
To reset your board, do all of the following (in any order):
- Collect the used Expendable Action tokens that are on Action spaces from your board, and return them to your reserve (beside your board). They are spent, and you cannot use them again until you regain them. The Expendable Action tokens on your supply space remain on your board.
- Collect all of the Reusable Action tokens from your board, and stack them on your Reusable Action Supply space. They are available to use again on your next turn. The Extra Action Space Covers you haven't unlocked yet remain in place.
- Collect all of the Sabotage tokens from your board, and return them to the Human player with the Sabotage Defensive Blueprint card.
- Return the Alien Scientist to your board.
- If any of your Alien Blueprint cards are face down, flip them face up again.
Example: You only have 1 Action space uncovered on the board, so you decide to reset your Alien board. You remove all your used Expendable Action tokens, keeping the one you haven't used yet. You return the Reusable Action tokens to their supply space, and remove the Sabotage token that was on the Activate Advanced Building space. You also get your Alien Scientist back.
Chapter 2: Outbreak
2-4 players (cooperative); difficulty level: hard
Components
- 1 Time Track overlay
- 1 Time Tracker token
- 16 Infection cards
- 1 Microbiologist Scientist card
- 1 Microbiologist Scientist
- 2 Level-1 Blueprint cards
- 2 Level-3 Blueprint cards
- 10 Discovery tiles
- 4 LSS Reward tiles
- 15 Medicine Resource tokens
- 4 Vaccine tokens
- 6 Chapter-2 Mission cards
- 1 Double-sided 12/14 card
- 1 Medicine Tech tile
- 7 Hospital Building tiles
Chapter 2 Setup
Unlike Chapter 1, everyone is on the same team this time. Set up per the On Mars rules with the following changes:
- Leave the following base-game components in the box (use the equivalents from the Chapter 2 component list during setup, except as noted in the subsequent steps below):
- Discovery tiles
- Players' Progress cubes and OP markers
- Scientist and Earth Contracts board
- Scientist cards
- Scientists
- Contract cards
- LSS Reward tiles
- Mission cards
- Private Goal cards 13 and 15
- When you set up the Warehouse in Step 2 of the base game's Setup, do not place any Crystals in the Warehouse. Instead, place 2 Medicine Resource tokens in the Crystal spaces, leaving the 3rd Crystal space empty.
- When you set up the Blueprint display in Step 4 of the base game's Setup:
- a. After you shuffle the Level-1 deck, add the 2 new Level-1 Blueprint cards to the top of the deck (in either order).
- b. After you shuffle the Level-3 deck, add the 2 new Level-3 Blueprint cards to the top of the Level-3 portion of the deck (in either order).
- c. Each row of the display will be 7 cards throughout Chapter 2, rather than 6 cards.
- d. After you reveal the 7 cards of the display, place the Medicine Tech tile on the Disease Control Clinic Blueprint card.
- When you are supposed to set up the Scientist display in Step 5 of the base game's Setup, instead set the Microbiologist Scientist card and Scientist beside the Building display. Note that the cost for this Scientist (2 Medicine) is on the card itself.
- When you set up the Building display in Step 9 of the base game's Setup, also stack the Hospital hexes face down beside the Building display.
Chapter 2 Goals and Victory/Loss Conditions
In a limited number of rounds, collectively achieve the goals on both Mission cards, and keep the outbreak from infecting 12/14 Colonists.
The group loses if any of the following are true:
- 12/14 Colonists, or all currently active Colonists, are infected at the end of any player's turn.
- The Time Tracker token decreases from 1 (needs to move to 0) on the Time Track overlay.
The group wins immediately if all of the following are true:
- You have collectively achieved both goals on the Mission cards.
- Fewer than 12/14 Colonists are infected.
Chapter 2 Mission Cards
- Develop the Medicine Tech tile to the end of your Lab.
- Have 5 Medicine.
- Build 5 Hospital Building tiles.
- Have 2 Vaccines.
- Upgrade 3 Hospital Advanced Buildings.
- Have all 4 Hospital Blueprints, built or not.
Chapter 2 Gameplay
Ignore all OP scoring in this chapter: Do not track OP at all.
Colonization Phase
Except in Round 1, at the beginning of each player's turn, reveal a card from the Infection deck.
- If the card depicts two location options, choose any one Colonist (belonging to any player, but standing and not vaccinated) in one of those locations, and lay that Colonist down (Colonists that are lying down are infected, and do nothing but spread disease). If there are none in those areas to lay down, select a Colonist in any player's Living Quarters. If none are available in any Living Quarters either, nothing happens.
- If the card shows the No Infection icon, no Colonists become infected; keep this card visible. If both No Infection cards are now visible, reshuffle all of the Infection cards (revealed and remaining in the deck) to form the deck anew.
Example: Green draws this card from the Infection deck. A Colonist in a Mine or a Living Quarters area falls ill. She discusses it with the others, and ultimately decides to lay down one of Blue's Colonists in a Mine.
Example: Yellow drew a No Infection card on her turn. Now, on Purple's turn, he draws the other No Infection card. Again, luckily no further Colonists are infected; however, this time all of the Infection cards get shuffled to create a new deck. You have no idea what the next draw will throw at you!
Now you can perform a quick quarantine if you like, rearranging the Colonists in your Living Quarters (including the 4 initial slots) to try to separate the healthy from the infected. This is the only time you can do this; you cannot rearrange your Colonists on another player's turn!
Example: It is Purple's turn, and he wants to upgrade a Mine that is currently occupied by Yellow's infected Colonist. This sends Yellow's infected Colonist back to Yellow's Living Quarters. At the end of Purple's turn, all infected Colonists infect those sharing spaces with them, so unfortunately this Colonist spread the infection to their roommate before Yellow had a chance to rearrange them. The Colonists on the other Living Quarters are unaffected.
Medicine
At any time during your turn, and as often as you like, you can spend Medicine. Each Medicine Resource token stands any 1 Colonist back up (it doesn't have to be yours); return spent tokens to the supply. Keep Medicine tokens next to your player board. The usual Resource storage limit applies to Medicine: 1 + the number of Shelters you have built.
Orbital Station and Colony Main Actions
Infected Colonists still count toward the cost of a Colony main action, and are still infected even if they get sent back to their Working Areas due to the Action space being full.
Construct a Building: Hospitals
If you are building the first Hospital hex of the game, you must place it adjacent to one of your Shelter hexes. If you are building any subsequent Hospital hex, follow the normal rules. The Hospital hexes cost 1 Mineral to build.
Hospitals produce Medicine.
Example: Green upgrades a Hospital to a Disease Control Clinic Advanced Building. She places the Medicine Tech tile that came with the Blueprint in the empty space of her leftmost Laboratory column. If both spaces had been full, she wouldn't have been able to take this action! The next time she uses this Building, the Tech tile will advance one step.
Colony Status Update
When adding Blueprint cards to the display in Step 2, remember that throughout Chapter 2 each row of the Blueprint display has 7 cards, rather than 6.
Refill the leftmost column of the Warehouse until there are 2 Medicine (rather than 3 Crystals).
End of Your Turn
At the end of your turn, all Colonists sharing a Working Area, Action space, Living Quarters, or the 4 initial slots for Colonists, with an infected Colonist also become infected, and lie down. Infected Colonists do not infect Colonists in different areas.
Shuttle Phase
At the beginning of the Shuttle phase, decrease the Time Tracker token by 1.
Executive Action: Use Advanced Building
Note that all the new Advanced Buildings provide 1 Medicine when obtained. The new Blueprint card actions are as follows:
- Microbiology Lab: Pay 2 Crystals to produce 1 Medicine, taken from the general supply. This cost is in addition to the usual cost to perform an Executive Action.
- Pharmacy: Produce 1 Medicine taken from the general supply.
- Disease Control Clinic: Advance the Medicine Tech tile 1 space. The only way to develop this Tech tile is through this Building or another player using the Tech. When you upgrade this Building, place the Medicine Tech tile in an empty space in the leftmost column in your Laboratory. If both of these spaces already have a tile on them, you cannot take this action.
- Vaccination Center: Produce 1 Vaccine. Administer it to any Colonist (it doesn't have to be yours). Whether infected or not, stand the Colonist atop the Vaccine token for the rest of the game. This Colonist is now safe from all future infections. You are limited to the 4 Vaccine tokens provided, you cannot create more once they are all used.
Example: Yellow uses her Vaccination Center to produce 1 Vaccine token. She uses it to help Blue's ill miner recover. She stands the Colonist up on top of the token to show that this Colonist is immune to further infections.
Chapter 3: Blackout
2-4 players (cooperative); difficulty level: moderate
Components
- 10 Discovery tiles
- 6 Vandalism cards
- 10 Blackout tokens
Components Needed from Chapter 2
- 1 Time Tracker overlay
- 1 Time Tracker token
- 4 LSS Reward tiles
Chapter 3 Setup
Although Aliens are on the scene again, all players are on the same team. Set up per the On Mars rules with the following changes:
- Return the following base-game components to the box (use the equivalents from the component list above during setup, except as noted in the subsequent steps below):
- Discovery tiles
- Players' Progress cubes
- LSS Reward tiles
- Private Goal cards 13 and 15
- Mission card 4
- Skip Step 3 of the base game's Player Setup altogether: You will not track OP at all.
- Skip Step 13 of the base game's Player Setup: You will not use Progress cubes.
- Place the Time Track overlay covering the spaces of the Progress area in the lower-right corner of the main board, with the 12-space side face up.
- Place the Time Tracker token, Alien side up, on the space of the Time Track overlay according to you player count: 2-player game: 6; 3-player game: 7; 4-player game: 8.
Chapter 3 Goals and Victory/Loss Conditions
Work together to find the Alien saboteur.
The group loses if any of the following are true:
- Concurrently, 5 Building hexes have Blackout tokens with Colonists lying atop them.
- Nobody has any Colonists available to assign to a Blackout token when this is required.
- The game ends by the usual end game conditions before you win.
The group wins if all of the following are true:
- You have caught the alien: You have moved the Time Tracker token from 1 (needs to move to 0) on the Time Track overlay. This requires you to achieve a certain number of goals according to the player count:
- 2-player game: 6 Mission and/or Private Goal cards.
- 3-player game: 7 Mission and/or Private Goal cards.
- 4-player game: 8 Mission and/or Private Goal cards.
Unlike in the base game, each player is allowed to complete all 3 of their Private Goals.
Chapter 3 Gameplay
Colonization Phase
At the end of each player's turn, reveal a card from the Vandalism deck. It will either depict a type of Building, or it will depict an alien.
Alien: If the revealed Vandalism card depicts an alien (see the card), you startled the vandal before any damage could be done: Reshuffle all 6 of the Vandalism cards to form a new deck. There is no other effect.
Building: If the revealed Vandalism card depicts a Building, then the aliens vandalize that type of Building. (Advanced Building hexes are immune to vandalism and blackout.) In the base game, there are two states for each Building:
- Normal (just the Building tile, perhaps with a meeple on it)
- Advanced (with an Advanced Building token on it)
In this chapter, there are four possible states for each Building:
- Normal (just the Building tile, perhaps with a meeple on it)
- Vandalized (with a Blackout token)
- Blackout (with a Colonist lying on the Blackout token)
- Advanced (with an Advanced Building token on it)
The revealed Vandalism card indicates the type of Building the aliens will try to put in blackout; however, as depicted on the card, this is a 2-step process for any Building: First they have to vandalize the Building, then they can cause a blackout. Because the goal is blackout, use the following procedure to apply the aliens' destruction:
- If there is a Building hex of this type that is merely vandalized, the aliens finish the job to cause a blackout: Place a Colonist from any player's Living Quarters (it doesn't have to be yours) so it is lying down on the Blackout token (Note: If it is a Mine hex, you must use the Colonist already on it, instead). This renders this Building hex inoperative: It no longer counts as part of a complex, it cannot produce, and it cannot be upgraded. If 5 Building hexes are now in blackout, you lose the game.
- Otherwise, if there are any Building hexes of this type that are normal (neither vandalized, blackout, nor advanced), the aliens vandalize a Building: place a Blackout token on a Building hex of the type shown on the Vandalism card (your choice). This causes no immediate effect, and anyone can remove this Blackout token by upgrading this Building hex.
- Otherwise, all of the Building hexes of that type are in blackout or advanced. The aliens will work to cause a blackout in a Shelter hex, instead:
- a. If there is a Shelter hex that is merely vandalized, the aliens finish the job to cause a blackout, just as in Step 1 above.
- b. Otherwise, the aliens find the player with the fewest Shelter hexes in blackout (if tied, they choose the player earliest in turn order) who still has any normal Shelter hexes, and the aliens vandalize a Shelter hex belonging to this player, just as in Step 2 above.
- c. Otherwise, all of the Shelter hexes are in blackout or advanced. The Vandalism card simply has no effect.
Example: You draw the Generator Vandalism card. It's the first time this has come up, so you place a Blackout token on any normal Generator hex to mark it as vandalized.
Example: It's several turns later and you've since drawn the alien card and had to shuffle the Vandalism deck. Then, you draw a Generator Vandalism card again. Because there is already a vandalized Generator hex, you must select any Colonist in play to lay atop the Blackout token on the Generator hex. This Generator is now in blackout.
Repairing Blackout and Vandalism
Each time you complete a Mission card or Private Goal card, the Time Tracker token decreases by 1 on the Time Track overlay, and you can also do one of the following to any Building hex:
- Remove a Colonist lying atop a Blackout token and return the Colonist to the matching Working Area. (Note: If it is a Mine hex, the Colonist stands up on it, instead.)
- Remove a Blackout token that has no Colonist lying atop it; return it to the supply.
Completing a goal is the only way to move the Time Tracker in this Chapter, it does not move at the end of every round. Players are not allowed to complete more than one private goal per turn.
Remember: When a Building is vandalized, it can be repaired by either upgrading it to an Advanced Building, or completing a Mission or Private Goal card. When a Building is in blackout, the only way to remove the Colonist and return it to a vandalized state is to complete a Mission or Private Goal card.
Chapter 4: Monolith
1 player (solitaire); difficulty level: configurable
Components
- 12 Upgrade Goal cards
- 12 Earth Contract Goal cards
- 8 Tech Goal cards
- 6 Scientist Goal cards
- 4 Discovery Goal cards
- 16 Sabotage cards
Components Needed from Chapter 2
- 1 Time Track overlay (Alien side up)
- 1 Time Tracker marker
Chapter 4 Setup
This chapter is solitaire: Achieve the goals you set for yourself. Do not use the Solo Game Rules from On Mars. Set up per the standard On Mars rules with the following exceptions:
- When you set up the Warehouse in Step 2 of the base game's Setup, set it up for a 2-player game.
- During Step 12 of the base game Setup, when setting up the Mission tracker cubes, place them on the number equal to half of the 2-Player goal numbers, rounded up.
- Place the Time Track overlay below the main board, with the 15-space side face up.
- Place the Time Tracker token, hourglass side up, on space 0 of the Time Track overlay.
- Use the Progress cubes from an unused player color as a supply of Sabotage cubes.
- Shuffle the Sabotage deck, then lay out the first 2 cards of it face up to form a continuous Sabotage row. If both cards have the same letter at the bottom, place a Sabotage cube on the leftmost space at the bottom of the leftmost card.
- Separate the Chapter-4 Goal cards into their 5 decks.
- Take a random card from each of 2 of the Chapter-4 Goal decks; then choose a card from each of the other 3 Chapter-4 Goal decks (you can make this chapter harder by making more of the selections random; easier, by making fewer random). Lay out these cards face up in front of you.
Chapter 4 Goals and Victory/Loss Conditions
In 15 rounds, achieve at least 4 of the 5 goals. The end of the game is not triggered by the Remaining Missions marker reaching the end of its track.
- You lose if the Time Tracker token increases from 14 to 15 on the Time Track overlay, and you have not completed 4 goals.
- You win if you have completed at least 4 of the 5 goals.
Each of the 5 Goal decks contains a different type of goal:
- Deck 1: Use a specific Blueprint card to upgrade a Building to Level 3.
- Deck 2: Fulfill a specific Earth Contract card.
- Deck 3: Develop a specific technology to the maximum.
- Deck 4: Score at least 9 OP with a specific Scientist.
- Deck 5: Acquire at least the indicated quantity of Discovery and/or Research tiles.
Chapter 4 Gameplay
Sabotage Phase
In this chapter, after the Colonization phase and before the Shuttle phase, there is a Sabotage phase. This phase proceeds as follows:
- Increase the Time Tracker token by 1.
- If the Time Tracker token advanced to a space with an alien icon, resolve each Sabotage card with 2 cubes on it (resolve the cards left to right) as follows:
- a. Apply the effects described on the card.
- b. Discard the card, and return the cubes to the supply.
- Add another card from the Sabotage deck to the right end of Sabotage row. If there are any other cards in the Sabotage row with the same letter at the bottom as this new card, add 1 Sabotage cube to the leftmost empty space on a card of the matching letter in Sabotage row.
Chapter 4 Endgame
Regardless of whether you won, add the following to your endgame score, marked on the OP scoring track.
Score OP for how many of your 5 Goal cards you achieved:
- Achieved 0: -50 OP
- Achieved 1: -25 OP
- Achieved 2: -15 OP
- Achieved 3: 0 OP
- Achieved 4: 25 OP
- Achieved 5: 50 OP
Each Mission card you achieve is worth 10 OP.
Check your score against the following list to see how you did:
- ≥ 150 OP: Star Child
- ≥ 125 OP: Planet Tamer
- ≥ 100 OP: Pioneer
- ≥ 75 OP: Explorer
- ≥ 50 OP: Passenger
- ≤ 49 OP: Lost in Space
Promo Card for Base Game: Beacon
This promo Blueprint card for the base On Mars game is printed in this Scenario Book. Its text is reproduced below.
This Blueprint upgrades a Building within a Complex of at least size 3. It earns/loses you 5 OP at the end of the game depending on whether it is built or not.
- When obtained: Gain 1 Battery
- Upgrades a Generator
- Matching Scientist — R&D Engineer
Advanced Building Action: Perform one of the following actions:
- Upgrade 1 Building following the usual rules. May use Tech.
- Construct any Building following the usual rules. Tech required if creating or increasing the size of a Complex.
Note: This action cannot be boosted by sending Colonists to your Working Area.