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Ad Astra box art
2009 Ranked #1,681

Ad Astra

Space exploration strategy game where five human factions terraform worlds, exploit resources, and expand across the galaxy. Card-driven actions reward planning sequences, so every discovery must strengthen a civilization's path among competing races.

Strategy Games Civilization Science Fiction Action Queue Simultaneous Action Selection

Players

3-5

Play time

Not listed

Age

13+

Complexity

2.68/5

Rating

6.86

Harder to teach Highly interactive Deep strategy

Overview

At a glance

Is this game right for my group?

ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 2.3/5

Harder to teach

Replay value 3.9/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.7/5

Highly interactive

Player scaling 4.0/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 4.5/5

Deep strategy

See all 5 specifications

How it plays

How does it play?

Humans have evolved into five different races, each of them adapted to life in different planetary conditions. Guide one of the five human factions in its exploration of the galaxy, while exploiting resources, terraforming planets and creating advanced space colonies.

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Read the full game description

Humans have evolved into five different races, each of them adapted to life in different planetary conditions. Guide one of the five human factions in its exploration of the galaxy, while exploiting resources, terraforming planets and creating advanced space colonies. You may even find artifacts of a long-lost alien civilization and use them to your advantage. A game round consists of three phases: planning phase, action phase and end of round. During the planning phase, action cards are placed face-down on any empty space of a shared planning board. When all spaces on the board have been filled, the action phase begins. In sequence, each card is revealed and all players may carry out the corresponding action. At the end of round, the action cards are returned to the players' hands and a new round begins. The available actions are: Production: one of the resources depicted on the card is generated on every matching planet. Movement: starships may be moved to other planets by spending energy. Build: colonies, factories, starships and terraformers may be built on the planets by using resource cards. Trade: resource cards may be traded among the players and the bank. Scoring: the players are scored based on one of the game elements depicted on the card. The owner of each card has an advantage when resolving it, such as deciding which resource is generated or on which game element the players score. The game ends when one player reaches at least 50 victory points or when all planets have been discovered. At that point, the player with the most victory points is the winner.

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Editions

Language and publisher variants currently recorded in the catalog.

Edition Year Language Publisher / Region
No editions imported yet.

Player resources

Rulebooks, player aids, FAQs, and solo resources.

No files imported yet.

Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
3–5
Best with
3–5
Play time
60 min
Age
13+
Complexity
2.7/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

2
Bruno Faidutti Serge Laget

Artists

4
Justin Albers Bruno Faidutti Serge Laget Kieran Yanner

Publishers

1
Nexus Editrice

Linked items

No published linked games yet.