SPACE INVADERS: THE BOARD GAME Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Playing
  • Action Cards
  • Energy Cards
  • PHASE I. The player draws five hand cards from the draw pile
  • PHASE II. Initial Scan (Turn One only)
  • PHASE III. Research
  • PHASE IV. Hand Actions
  • PHASE V. Move / Use or Transform Energy
  • PHASE VI. Turn Cleanup
• "GAME OVER"
• CALCULATING THE SCORE
• ADDITIONAL RULES FOR SOLO MODE
• Rule Variants
  • 1. Survival Difficulty
  • 2. Play with Fixed Starting Positions
• Researchable Cards
  • Energy Cost 2
  • Energy Cost 3
  • Energy Cost 4
  • Energy Cost 5
• Non-Researchable Cards
• Used like an Energy Card

Components

• 59 Invader Cards
• 60 Technology Cards
• 115 Energy and Initial Resource Cards (50 Dilithium, 30 Thorium, 20 Antimatter and 15 Time Warp Cards)
• 12 Tractor Thrust Cards for the players' starting hands
• Game Board
• min. 40 Bunker Elements
• 4 Cannons (1 per Player Color)
• min. 32 Extra Life Tokens and 32 Alien Intel Tokens
• UFO
• 1 Die

Setup

1. Place the game board or play mat onto a flat surface with sufficient space.

2. Now the invader cards need to be prepared. Invader cards can be identified by the blue horizontal bar on the front of the card. Sort the 59 Invader cards face down into five stacks based on the Invader motives / colors on the back of the cards. Each of the 5 different stacks of Invader cards are shuffled individually and 11 cards per row are put onto the "B" section of game board according to the artwork on the back of the cards. The 4 remaining cards are set aside for the remainder of the game - without looking at the fronts of the cards!

3. Place bunker elements onto the "C" section of the game board. The number of bunker elements depends on the number of players:

   • Two Players: 8 bunker elements per bunker
   • Three Players: 9 bunker elements per bunker
   • One or four Players: 10 bunker elements per bunker

4. Now the players determine the starting player by rolling the included die. The player with the highest roll begins, picks a laser cannon with a color of her or his choice and places it onto a cannon position marker in the "D" section on the game board. The remaining players follow suit in clockwise order.

5. Each player receives a number of blue "Extra Life" tokens depending on the total number of players:

   • One or Two Players: 4 Extra Life tokens
   • Three Players: 5 Extra Life tokens
   • Four Players: 6 Extra Life tokens

   The remaining Extra Life tokens are set aside for the duration of the game. 32 Alien Intel tokens are placed next to the game board.

6. All three types of Energy cards are placed onto their designated locations on the game board.

Playing

The game is played in turns. The initiative moves from player to player clockwise around the board. Each following turn repeats the same steps listed below (with the exception of step II., which is added only during each players initial turn).

During the course of the game, the players expand their deck, to increase their abilities and their score. Additional action cards are acquired by research, or by using Energy to shoot at Invaders. Additional Energy cards can be acquired with energy!

Action Cards

Figure labels on the card diagrams: Card Type, Icon, Research Bar, Card Effects, Energy Cost, Score, Counterattack, Rank.

Event Cards are Action Cards collected from Invaders that describe a special effect in red text. This effect is unconditionally activated when the card is shot, even when the card was scanned before. Event cards are scrapped after their effect was activated.

An overview of all cards in the game is ist at the end of these rules.

All card types show an energy cost (even if it may be zero) and a score (that can also be zero).

Action cards additionally have specific effects when played, depending on the technology or event they represent.

At the end of the game, the score value of all of your cards and tokens is summed up and the player with the highest score wins - it is your job during the game to try to acquire as many high "score value" cards as possible!

Energy Cards

The resulting hand consists of two basic card types: Energy cards, such as the Dilithium cards that are part of the initial deck, and action cards, such as the Tractor Thrust cards that are part of the initial deck. Energy cards provide a certain amount of energy that can be used during the turn, indicated by a number next to a green lightning bolt symbol.

Figure labels on the energy card diagram: Energy Value, Score, Energy Cost.

PHASE I. The player draws five hand cards from the draw pile

Five cards are drawn from the draw pile. During the game, whenever the player needs to draw more cards than are available in his or her draw pile, the player picks up the number of cards still available from the draw pile. Then the player's discard pile (see below) gets shuffled, on request cut by the right hand neighbor, and placed face down in front of the player as the new draw pile. The remaining cards are then drawn from the new draw pile.

PHASE II. Initial Scan (Turn One only)

During the first round of the game, each player has an optional initial scan before he/she starts his/her turn! After this initial scan, players gain additional scan opportunities later during their turn, by moving their cannons.

Every scan has an energy cost of 1 (more about energy cost follows).

Its effect is that the player can flip the Invader card directly above his Laser Cannon to see which abilities shooting and collecting that Invader would grant. This also reveals any traps or adverse effects the Invader may hide.

Secondly, it has the effect that the player that used the scan - and only that player - is protected from most adverse effects, for example counterattacks. The scanning player also gathers intelligence about the scanned Invader and gains one Alien Intel token, as long as there are remaining tokens in reserve. Additional scans become available with every Move Action a player plays during the Hand Actions phase. Each additional scan during the same turn also has an energy cost of one.

PHASE III. Research

Using the Alien intelligence gathered so far (before the following Hand Actions phase), the player can immediately unlock any of the technologies available for research, only limited by the number of Alien Intel tokens collected so far and by the available slots in the research area of the game board. These are the cards described under SETUP, section "I".

The number of Alien Intel tokens required to unlock one of those technologies is equal to the energy cost of that technology. Four of the five cards belonging to an unlocked technology are placed into the research area and one of these technology cards is added to the current players hand. This card can be used immediately, during the current turn!

PHASE IV. Hand Actions

When starting a turn, each player has only one Hand Action by default. That means the player can initially play and use one Action card. The actions possible with an Action Card could be moving a Laser cannon or the UFO, drawing more cards, adding energy and more.

These are the available standard effects of Action Cards: +ACTIONS, +CARDS, +ENERGY, +MOVES and +TRANSFORMS.

There are also special effects that are described directly on the cards.

+ACTIONS:

As described above, at the beginning of their turns, a player only has one Hand Action available to them. That means they can initially only play and use one Action card during their turn. If the card a player plays contains +ACTIONS, that player gains the right to play the given amount of additional Action cards during their turn. Using actions, even the default one, is entirely optional.

+CARDS:

If a played action card contains +CARDS, the player has to draw the given amount of cards from their draw pile. Card draws are not optional and must be executed!

+MOVES:

+MOVES on a played action card awards a player move action rights to either move the player's own Laser Cannon, or the UFO, by an amount equivalent to the total number of move actions accumulated during one turn. If a player has more than one move action, they can be split to move the player's cannon and the UFO. If a move action is applied to the UFO, the UFO can be moved in any direction.

Cannon moves are executed one by one, at the end of phase IV, and every move of a cannon by one position grants the player the option to scan once more as described for Phase II above as well as the option to use one transform to shoot the cannon at the new position.

All moves and scans are entirely optional.

Wrap-around rule: Movement does wrap around the game board! A cannon or the UFO that is placed in the leftmost position will be placed in the rightmost column if the player decides to move one to the left.

Multiple cannons are allowed to occupy the same cannon position!

+TRANSFORMS:

+TRANSFORMS on a played action card give a player additional transform actions during phase V of their turn (described next). Initially, each player is allowed only one transform action after the Hand Actions phase. Each transform action gives the player an extra opportunity to either transform the energy they have on into a shot at the Invaders, or use the energy for the acquisition of additional cards. Transform actions are optional.

PHASE V. Move / Use or Transform Energy

Once a transform action has been used, no new action cards can be played, unless explicitly stated in the rules or on the card itself. Remaining move actions can be consumed during this phase.

The energy the player has on hand can be transformed into shooting at an Invader or into the acquisition of an available card in the lower board section (Cards from the RESOURCES or RESEARCH section of the game board). The total number of possible transform actions depends on the action cards that have been played during phase IV.

Calculating the available energy:

The available energy after the hand actions phase is the sum of all energy card values on hand before Phase V begins, increased by + Green Lightning Bolt symbol Energy values on action cards that have been played. "Enriched Dilitihium" and "Enriched Thorium" cards are treated as regular energy cards.

Shooting:

Shooting at an Invader has an energy cost of (distance+1). That means the bottom row of Invaders can be shot for 2 energy, the second row for 3 and so on – as indicated next to the Invader rows of the game board.

The UFO can be shot for 7 energy, if it is positioned unobstructedly above the current players cannon.

An Invader that is shot at will always be destroyed, no matter if it was scanned or not.

Every attack will cause the Invaders in the columns left and right of the Laser Base position to fire in immediate retaliation.

If a bunker is hit, a slice of that bunker is removed from the game board. A player who is hit loses one EXTRA LIFE token. Losing the last EXTRA LIFE token ends the game for that player!

The player can fire through a bunker, this also removes one slice from that bunker.

From row 2 (Rank 3) onwards, when the first alien in a new row is shot and destroyed (not if it is acquired by any other means), all bunkers lose one element.

Card Acquisitions during Energy Transform Phase:

Cards such as Alien Technologies and Resources can be acquired for energy if they are placed face up in the bottom part of the game board. Scanned Invaders in the upper part of the game board can generally not be acquired during the Transform phase – but there are card effects that give access to any open card during the hand action phase.

An Invader with Counter Attack, has a hidden attack that is triggered when the Invader is shot, unless it was scanned by the attacking player in the same turn.

The remains of a shot and destroyed Invader will be added to the current players discard pile.

If a destroyed Invader that has been scanned before being destroyed, meaning it was face up when being shot, is marked as RESEARCHABLE, its technology will be made publicly available. That means the equivalent "RESEARCHED" technology cards are moved to the RESEARCH slot area at the bottom of the game board.

Should the RESEARCH area already be full, the technology is scrapped.

Finally, the UFO is pushed one to the right - this ends the turn and the initiative is moved to the next player. The wrap-around rule also applies to the UFO: If the UFO is on the rightmost spot of the game board, it is moved back to the leftmost position.

PHASE VI. Turn Cleanup

All cards the player has in play (still on hand and played) are transferred to a second pile of cards in front of the player, the players discard pile. Whenever a player is asked to discard a card, it goes onto this pile. Unless something else is explicitly mentioned, all cards that a player acquires also initially go into the discard pile. As explained, only when the players draw pile is exhausted, the discard pile will get shuffled and becomes the new draw pile - this means there is always a certain delay before cards that have been added during a turn become useable!

"GAME OVER"

The steps described above are repeated, until one of the following events happens:

• All bunkers elements have been lost
• A player manages to destroy the UFO
• All players except one have lost all of their EXTRA LIFE tokens

When that happens, the total score for all players is calculated.

The player with the highest score wins!

CALCULATING THE SCORE

An individual players score is calculated as follows:

The score values from the cards in the players deck + the number of Alien Intel tokens in the players possession + 2 * the number of the players remaining Extra Lives tokens + if the UFO was shot, the successful player receives 10 extra points.

ADDITIONAL RULES FOR SOLO MODE

The goal in Solo mode is to shoot the UFO. The secondary goal is to maximize your score.

Solo Mode plays exactly like the multiplayer mode, with the following modification: After a shot is fired by you, you have to roll the die. A value of 1, 2, 3 or 4 indicates the SPACE INVADERS column above Bunker 1,2,3 or 4 firing at you.

That means one bunker element is removed from this bunker. A value of 5 means all Invaders are firing. All bunkers lose one element, and if you are not protected by a bunker you will be hit as well. A value of 6 means nothing happens.

The game ends when you either manage to shoot the UFO or have lost all your Extra Life tokens. Scoring works as in the multiplayer game.

Rule Variants

Try the following rule modifications if you like:

1. Survival Difficulty

If you want to emphasize the survival element more, reduce the number of Extra Life tokens awarded to the players at game start. If you want to take player death completely off the table, you can instead increase the Extra Life tokens awarded at game start.

2. Play with Fixed Starting Positions

The printed diagrams show the fixed starting positions for 2, 3 and 4 players.

For Solo play, we recommend to start at the center of the moon base (Position 1 in the three player setup).

Researchable Cards

The technologies that can be researched during the game. Each card is marked "RESEARCHED" and is grouped by its Energy Cost. Each card shows its energy cost and score.

Energy Cost 2

• Reboot (Score 1): Discard any number of cards from hand and redraw the same number. +1 Action.
• Gravity Thrust (Score 0): +1 Action, +1 Move, +1 Transform.
• Absorption Shield (Score 1): Neutralizes EMP attack when in hand. +2 Cards.

Energy Cost 3

• Dilithium Boost (Score 2): +2 Actions, +1 Card, +1 Transform.
• Research Breakthrough (Score 2): Acquire any open card up to 4 energy.
• Energy Boost (Score 2): +2 energy.

Energy Cost 4

• EMP (Score 3): All other players reduce hand cards to 3. +2 energy.
• Quantum Replicator (Score 3): Scrap one hand card, replace with any open card with up to 2 energy higher.
• Time Dilation (Score 3): +3 Cards.

Energy Cost 5

• Resource Refinery (Score 4): Scrap an energy card from your hand, replace with next higher value. +1 Move.
• Powerup (Score 4): +1 Action, +1 Card, +1 Transform, +1 energy.
• Research Lab (Score 4): +1 Action, +2 Cards, +1 Move.

Non-Researchable Cards

These cards are not technologies and cannot be researched.

• Bonus Shield (Energy Cost 3, Score 3): When in hand, this card absorbs one hit. Discard after use.
• Deep Space Probe (Energy Cost 4, Score 0, Counter Attack): The outer two Invader columns fire. +2 Alien Intel. Scrap after use.
• Space Mine (Energy Cost 5, Score 0, Counter Attack): Scrap 2 cards you have on hand, in play, or in your discard pile. Scrap after use.
• Antimatter Boost (Energy Cost 6, Score 6): +2 Actions, +2 Cards, +2 Moves.
• Resource Magnet (Energy Cost 6, Score 6, Counter Attack): Draw and reveal cards until you find 2 energy cards. Discard the others.

Used like an Energy Card

• Enriched Dilithium (Energy value 1)
• Enriched Thorium (Energy value 2)