# Alien Frontiers: Factions ## General Info - **Year Published**: 2012 - **BGG Rating**: 7.6 - **BGG Rank**: — - **Players**: 2-5 (Best with: 4) - **Duration**: 60 min - **Weight**: 2.48 / 5 - **Designers**: Tory Niemann - **Artists**: Alex Garrett, Karim Chakroun, Mark Maxwell - **Publishers**: Clever Mojo Games, Game Salute - **Categories**: Dice, Expansion for Base-game, Science Fiction, Space Exploration - **Mechanics**: Area Majority / Influence, Dice Rolling, Open Drafting, Variable Player Powers, Worker Placement, Worker Placement with Dice Workers ## Verdict Loved Alien Frontiers and want more? This expansion brings factions with unique powers and secret objectives to make the game even more strategic and unpredictable!More strategic optionsUnique faction powersSecret objectives add tensionComponents for 5th playerRequires base gameModerate language dependencySlightly increases complexityRECOMMENDED ## Description If you're a fan of Alien Frontiers and always felt it needed a bit more intergalactic spice, get ready! 'Alien Frontiers: Factions' arrives to give the base game a significant boost. It not only adds components for a fifth player to expand the colony (and the chaos), but also introduces the much-anticipated Factions. Each faction brings a unique ability, adding an extra layer of strategy when planning your moves and controlling new orbital facilities. Furthermore, Agendas enter the scene, offering secret objectives that can turn the game around at the end or be strategically revealed during play, granting bonus points to the cleverest player. To top it off, there are new Alien Tech Cards, like the 'Lunar Tunneler,' which provides an extra boost in resource gathering or can be used tactically to disrupt opponents' plans. This expansion doesn't reinvent the wheel but enhances the experience with more strategic options and a touch of unpredictability, while retaining the core essence that has already won many over. It's the kind of content that makes you want to return for another round, exploring new tactics and seeing how the factions interact. Perfect for those seeking more depth without sacrificing the original game's agility. ## How to Play Objective of the Game The Factions expansion doesn't change the main goal of Alien Frontiers: you're still trying to get more influence over Planet Maxwell than your opponents. This influence is measured in Victory Points (VPs). However, the new Agenda cards introduce fresh ways to earn that influence, including some hidden influence that only gets revealed at the end of the game. Preparation (Setup) The Factions expansion modifies the standard setup procedures as follows: Deal two Agenda cards face down to each player. Place the remaining Agenda cards in a draw deck near the Orbital Market. Players can look at their own Agenda cards. Shuffle the eight new Alien Tech cards into the Alien Tech deck. Deal one Alien Tech card face-up to each player. Display three Alien Tech cards face-up near the Alien Artifact and place the Alien Tech draw deck nearby, as usual. Randomly select a number of Faction boards equal to the number of players plus one. Return the remaining Faction boards to the game box. Determine player order. Give all of the selected Faction boards to the last player. The last player chooses one Faction board, places it face-up on the table near the game board, and passes the remaining Faction boards counter-clockwise. This continues until all players have chosen a Faction board. The remaining Faction board is returned to the box. 5 Player Variant: Each player takes six colony tokens. The fifth player receives two fuel and one ore at the start of the game. Fluxo do Jogo Consulte o manual para detalhes sobre esta seção. Ações e Como Jogar Agenda Cards Agenda cards add a hidden scoring element. Each card has two conditional situations: The agenda on the left is an in-game situation. If you achieve this condition, you may reveal the card immediately to score 1 VP. The agenda on the right is an end-game situation. If you achieve this condition, you may reveal the card at the end of the game to score 1 VP. Only 1 VP (either in-game or end-game) can be awarded per Agenda card. You start with two face-down Agenda cards. You may have a maximum of three Agenda cards in total, unless you possess the Multiverse Window Alien Tech card, which extends this limit to four. If drawing new Agenda cards puts you over your limit, you must discard unrevealed Agendas until you are at your limit. Revealed Agenda cards cannot be discarded. Orbital Market Action for Agenda Cards: You may dock a pair of equal-valued ships at the Orbital Market to draw two new Agenda cards. You can keep or discard any of your new or face-down Agenda cards. This action does not allow you to trade fuel for ore. Agenda cards cannot be stolen via the Raiders’ Outpost or discarded by the Oscillation Capacitor. Orbital Facilities Colonist Hub (with five players): The docking ports are "freeform," similar to the Solar Converter. Ships can use any docking port, and each docked ship earns one colony track advancement. You are still limited to three ships docked at the Colonist Hub and only one colony working toward launch. If all docking ports are occupied, no new ships can dock. Colonies are also "freeform" and not limited to one track. If advancing your colony would place it on an occupied circle, slide it to an unoccupied circle on a different track in the appropriate position. If all launch circles are occupied and your ship is on the sixth circle, you may launch by docking one ship and immediately paying one fuel and one ore. The three-ship limit still applies. Orbital Market: You may dock a pair of equal-valued ships to draw two new Agenda cards. You cannot have more than three Agenda cards total (unless you have the Multiverse Window). If drawing new cards exceeds this limit, you must discard unrevealed Agendas. Revealed Agenda cards cannot be discarded. Docking for Agenda cards does not allow trading fuel for ore. Faction Facilities Each Faction board provides a unique ability to its owner that other players cannot use. Using this owner benefit is often free, but any fuel or ore cost is paid to the stocks. Each Faction board also has an orbital facility with one docking port. If unoccupied, any player can use it by docking one ship of any value and paying a one-fuel access fee to the faction owner. If the faction owner uses their own orbital facility, they do not pay the access fee. Any additional cost for the facility is paid to the stocks. COREX CONGLOMERATED Owner Bonus (Deep Pockets): At the beginning of their turn, the faction owner receives one fuel plus one fuel for each territory they control. Docking Bonus: A player docked here pays two fuel to the stock to receive one ore for each territory they control at the time of docking. DARK SPACE EXPLORERS Owner Bonus (Back From The Unknown): On their turn, the faction owner may discard up to two Alien Tech cards instead of just one. Docking Bonus: A player docked here pays one fuel to take the top card from the Alien Tech deck. If it's a duplicate of one they already have, the new card is discarded without effect. HOMESTEADER’S UNION Owner Bonus (For The People, With The People): The faction owner may launch their colonies from the sixth circle of the Colonist Hub instead of the seventh. Docking Bonus: A player docked here advances their colony token one circle at the Colonist Hub. NEW GAIA ENGINEERS Owner Bonus (Creating A New Mother Earth): When any other player uses the Terraforming Station, their one fuel and one ore payment is given to the faction owner instead of the stocks. If the faction owner uses the Terraforming Station, their payment goes to the stocks as usual. Docking Bonus: To dock here, a player must already be docked at the Terraforming Station. The player immediately re-rolls the terraformed ship and places it back on the Terraforming Station. The result determines where the ship goes when it leaves the Terraforming Station: 1, 2, or 3 sends it to the Maintenance Bay; 4, 5, or 6 sends it to the stocks. PROXIMA CENTAURI SCHOLARS Owner Bonus (Concentrated Study): The faction owner may pay two fuel to place one field generator token on the planet or remove one field generator token from the planet. They cannot use this to move a field generator from one territory to another, nor place or remove more than one field generator per turn with this benefit. Docking Bonus: A player docked here pays one fuel to move a field generator token from one territory to another territory. SCAVENGER FLEET Owner Bonus (Not Pretty, But It Flies): When the faction owner builds a new ship at the Shipyard or acquires the Relic Ship from Burroughs Desert, they immediately roll it and use it along with their other unplaced ships. Docking Bonus: A player docked here may dock two unequal ships at the Shipyard and pay the usual costs to build a new ship. SMUGGLER’S ALLIANCE Owner Bonus (No Honor Among Thieves): The faction owner may use any sequence of three ships to bump ships already docked on the Raiders’ Outpost. A higher value is not required for this faction owner. Docking Bonus: To dock here, a player must simultaneously dock at the Raiders’ Outpost. Once docked, the player may raid four resources AND one Alien Tech card from any combination of opponents. URANIAN SYNDICATE Owner Bonus (Control In Chaos): A "contested" territory is a colonized territory not controlled by any player. The faction owner may use the territory bonus of one contested territory for the duration of their turn, whether or not they have colonies there. The only territory bonus they cannot access this way is the Burroughs Desert bonus. Docking Bonus: A player docked here pays one ore to move one of their own colony tokens from one territory to another, or pays two ore to move one opponent’s colony token from one territory to another. New Alien Tech Cards There is one copy of each of the eight new Alien Tech cards. Shuffle them into the main Alien Tech deck and apply the same general rules as with the original Alien Tech cards. Astrogation Servo Use: You may pay two fuel to the stock to take any one ship from the Maintenance Bay, roll it, and use it as if it were your own ship. The borrowed ship cannot be docked at the Terraforming Station. That ship’s owner gathers the ship with the rest of their fleet at the start of their turn. Discard: You may discard an Astrogation Servo to send all ships docked at one orbital facility to the Maintenance Bay. Chameleon Cloak Use: You may pay two fuel to the stock to replace an opponent’s ship or ships at one orbital facility with equal valued ships of your own. Pay the usual cost, if any, and gain the usual facility benefit for docking. Send the replaced ships to the Maintenance Bay. The Chameleon Cloak cannot be used on a ship docked at the Terraforming Station. Discard: You may discard the Chameleon Cloak to swap all of the colonies on two territories. The Repulsor Field blocks this action. Electrofabricator Use: You may pay two fuel to receive one ore. This can only be done once on your turn. Discard: You may discard the Electrofabricator to receive three ore. Experimental FTL Drive Use: You may pay one fuel to the stock and place one fuel token on this card to change one of your unplaced ships to any value. If you control the Pohl Foothills territory, the one fuel discount comes off the fuel you pay to the stock. Discard Condition: At the end of the turn in which the Experimental FTL Drive receives its third fuel token, return all three fuel tokens to the stock and discard the Experimental FTL Drive card. Note: If the Experimental FTL Drive card is stolen via the Raiders’ Outpost, the fuel currently on the card stays with the card. This card has no discard ability. Lunar Tunneler Use: Once per turn, you may pay 1 fuel when you dock at the Lunar Mine to receive an extra ore. Discard: You may discard the Lunar Tunneler to send all of the ships currently docked at the Lunar Mine to the Maintenance Bay. Multiverse Window Use: You may have a total of four Agenda Cards while you possess the Multiverse Window. If you have any face-down Agendas when you lose or discard this card, you must discard down to a total of three Agendas. Revealed Agenda cards may not be discarded. Discard: You may discard the Multiverse Window to reveal a face-down Agenda and score the in-game VP, even if you have not met the Agenda’s condition. Oscillation Capacitor Use: Once per turn, you may reuse an Alien Tech card with a fuel cost by paying its fuel cost again. If appropriate, the Pohl Foothills bonus may also be applied to the second use of the card. Discard: You may discard the Oscillation Capacitor to discard an Alien Tech card of your choice in possession of another player without invoking that card's discard power. Solar Harvester Use: You may receive one fuel for each opponent ship docked at the Solar Converter. Discard: You may discard the Solar Harvester to return all fuel in possession of all other players to the stock. Your fuel is not affected. Fim de Jogo e Pontuação The Factions expansion changes end-game scoring and tie-breaker rules as follows: In addition to the usual VP scoring sources, players receive 1 VP for each revealed Agenda card. Tie-breaker rules: The tied player with the most revealed Agenda cards is the winner. If still tied, compare the number of Alien Tech cards held by the tied players. If tied again, compare the number of ore tokens held by the tied players. If still tied, compare the number of fuel tokens held by the tied players. If still tied after all of that, play again! Dicas para Vencer Don’t be afraid to get new Agendas and discard ones you don’t like. There may be more than one way to achieve some of the In-Game Agendas. Be creative! ## FAQ ### Do I need the base game Alien Frontiers to play? Yes, absolutely! 'Alien Frontiers: Factions' is an expansion and requires the base game to be played. ### How many players does this expansion support? It adds the necessary components so that Alien Frontiers can be played by up to 5 players. ### Does the game complexity increase significantly with this expansion? Slightly. The addition of factions and agendas introduces more options and strategies, which might make the game a bit denser for newcomers, but it's nothing too daunting for veterans. ### Do I need to translate the cards? The language dependency is moderate. It's recommended to have a translated reference sheet or translated cards to easily understand the faction abilities and alien technologies. ### What do the 'Factions' do differently? Each faction grants its owner a unique special ability and control over new orbital facilities, allowing for different tactical approaches during the game. ### Are the 'Agendas' important? Yes! They are secret objectives that can grant bonus points at the end of the game or be revealed during play for immediate scoring, adding an element of surprise and long-term planning. ## Price Comparison ### Best International Offers - **BoardGamePrices.com**: $ 40.75 (https://boardgameprices.com/item/go?source=A&storeitemid=5056822&utm_source=boardgamesbot.com) - See all on BoardGamePrices: https://boardgameprices.com/item/show/3586/alien-frontiers-factions?utm_source=boardgamesbot.com