Alien Artifacts

About this board game

Alien Artifacts is a 4X-style card game for 2–5 players that lets you lead an interplanetary faction in a game lasting about 60 minutes. Send research vessels into uncharted space, expand your knowledge and power, and seek out anything—or anyone—you can exploit.

At the heart of the game is a flexible resource engine. Each turn, you have three Resource cards in hand, but you may use only two cards and only one side of each. Every card offers two different resource types, making each turn a compact decision about how best to develop your empire.

• Build Ships to attack aliens and claim valuable artifacts with powerful bonuses.
• Develop Technology to unlock additional actions, bonuses, and scoring opportunities.
• Discover Planets that provide resources for future actions.
• Trade resources for currency to support your plans.

Ships, Technologies, and Planets each have two possible sides, so you must decide how to put them into your empire. The Logistics side provides ongoing bonuses that can strengthen your faction and help you build faster. The Operational side introduces a new way to score victory points, and well-planned operations can be activated more than once.

With more than 200 cards, Alien Artifacts supports varied scoring strategies and strong replayability. Manage your limited resources, choose the right cards, and make wise decisions as you explore distant planets, develop new technologies, build powerful ships, and pursue the path to victory.