Aldebaran Duel

About this board game

Aldebaran Duel is a strategic space game for 1–2 players, with sessions lasting about 90 minutes. Across three epochs, rival empires compete to control as much of a newly available planetary system as possible.

As the leader of a space fleet, you will discover new planets, populate them, and draw on their mineral wealth to build spaceships. Cards represent planets, shuttles, mining stations, and colonized parts of planets, making planet building one of the game’s central mechanisms.

Fleet construction expands your influence throughout the explored universe. Merchant, diplomatic, and battle ships each contribute to your growing empire, while laboratories give your scientists the opportunity to discover technologies that may shift the duel in your favor at a crucial moment.

Every card also has another possible use: raw material for building your empire. This creates a constant series of difficult decisions. Should you play a card for its effect, or spend it to pay for construction? Carefully arranging combinations of cards can give you stronger and more varied options in later turns.

• Explore and develop a newly available planetary system.
• Build planets, shuttles, mining stations, and colonized areas.
• Construct merchant, diplomatic, and battle ships.
• Discover technologies in laboratories.
• Use cards either as developments or as raw materials.

After three epochs, the player who has created the best-functioning new civilization wins. Aldebaran Duel also includes a solo-play variant, offering a way to experience its planetary development and card-management challenges alone.