Antares

In the 14th solar month of the year 2235, the merchant vessel Antares encountered an unknown alien life form.

During their return journey, the crew deviated from their course to investigate an archaeological find on a distant moon orbiting a small binary star system outside the Alpha Centauri cluster. The excavation site contained artifacts of an ancient race that had long vanished from this system. Among the ruins, the crew discovered an alien cocoon shell. Believing it to be one of the artifacts, they unknowingly brought it aboard.

Six days after leaving the moon, the alien hatched from the cocoon shell and roamed freely through the ship. The crew made preparations to abandon ship, assuming the alien was hostile. This assumption would prove correct.

Based on the collected audio and video surveillance data onboard the ship, the subsequent events could be reconstructed.

This is the report of the events on the Antares as the crew desperately tried to abandon ship.

Relive the crew's last hour as they attempt to abandon ship. Antares is designed specifically for easy solo play but can be expanded to up to 7 players.

Antares is a thematic space horror game. The crew's actions are entirely up to you, and your decisions can certainly determine who survives and escapes the fateful ship Antares and who falls victim to the alien life form.

Antares is the first game in the Antares series, telling the first chapter of the story of the fateful ship Antares and its alien cargo.

Antares can be played solo or cooperatively.

Gameplay

Build the Antares using the cabin and corridor tiles. All corridor ends must be connected to cabins. Different Antares layouts offer different levels of difficulty.

Choose your crew by selecting a side for each of the seven crew member cards. Each crew member has their own unique ability and a choice of two starting positions.

Fulfill the navigation, reactor, and mainframe access objectives. If you spend an action in the bridge, reactor room, or mainframe access cabin, the corresponding counter advances one space. The ventilation shafts can speed up movement through the ship, but the alien life form has also found them useful.

Collect enough oxygen canisters and spacesuits for all surviving crew members before heading to the escape pod. Flamethrowers can be found in the cargo bay and can be used to repel an alien attack. Every encounter with the alien life form can trigger fear, terror, or paranoia in the crew.

Evade the alien life form. While the crew fulfills their objectives and collects valuable items, they are constantly exposed to the danger of an alien attack. After each action performed, a scan card must be drawn, indicating whether the alien attacks or the crew is safe for another round.

Escape: If the crew manages to fulfill all objectives, they can gather in the escape pod and execute the Delta launch code to escape the fateful merchant vessel Antares.

Game Flow

Each crew member can perform one of the following actions:

Move to an adjacent cabin, corridor, or ventilation shaft (unless the alien life form is in that location)

Advance an objective, if located in a suitable cabin

Pick up an oxygen canister or flamethrower from the cargo bay or another location, if placed there (maximum 2 items)

Pick up a spacesuit from an airlock or another location, if placed there (maximum 2 items)

Trade items with another crew member in the same room or corridor

Drop any or all items

Turn over the appropriate meeple of the crew member to indicate that they have already performed their action for the round

After a crew member has performed an action, draw the top card of the scan deck. If the scan card shows 4 cabins or corridors (or the ventilation shafts), the crew is safe.

If it shows an image of the alien life form, draw additional scan cards until a card with 4 visible cabins appears. Check the locations in ascending order for present crew members. The first location with a crew member is the location of the encounter with the life form. Place the alien meeple at this location.

Shuffle the deck once the draw pile is depleted.

If multiple crew members are in the same location, the crew member with the lowest number is the target of the attack and is eliminated, unless they possess a first aid kit or a crew member at the location has a flamethrower. If only a single crew member is there, they are automatically the target.

First aid kits keep the crew member alive, but the alien life form remains at the location, and all remaining crew members there must use their next action to leave the location.

Flamethrowers push the alien life form away from the location to the "Alien Location Unknown" card. They have 3 charges and are discarded after use.

After an attack, draw a Crew Status card and apply the result to the surviving crew member – or, if killed, to the crew member with the next highest number. (If crew member no. 7 is eliminated, the result is applied to crew member no. 1.)

If an eliminated crew member has items in their inventory, lay their meeple on its side to mark the location of these items.

Once all crew members have performed an action, reset the meeples and begin the next round.

Continue performing actions with the crew members and drawing scan cards until either a crew has fulfilled all objectives and escaped, or the alien life form has wiped out the entire crew.

Antares comes with a small black velvet bag for easy storage and transport.

Note: Cards and components are not shipped pre-packaged in the bag, and the label will not be attached due to shipping restrictions.