How to Play Anachrony: Infinity Box

Objective of the Game

In Anachrony, players take on the role of Leaders of one of New Earth’s ideological Paths: Harmony, Dominance, Progress, or Salvation. Your ultimate goal is to prepare for an upcoming asteroid impact, secure the future of your people, and overcome the other three Paths to become the dominant ideology shaping humanity’s future.

The game is played over up to seven rounds, called Eras. After the fourth Era, the asteroid impact occurs, changing how the remaining Eras play out and triggering the countdown to the game end. Anachrony centers around three core concepts: powering up and using Exosuits, taking Actions with Workers, and using Time Travel.

The game ends with a Victory Point scoring after the collapse of the World Capital due to the asteroid impact. Players score Victory Points by constructing Buildings and Superprojects, making scientific Breakthroughs, using Time Travel, achieving high Morale, and evacuating the collapsing World Capital. The Path Capital with the most Victory Points becomes the new seat of the World Council and wins the game.

Preparation (Setup)

Here's how to set up your game of Anachrony:

1. Place the Main board in the middle of the table. For 2 or 3 players, use the side with only two Hexagonal slots for the Research, Recruit, and Construct spots. For a tougher 2-player game, place a "Hex Unavailable" tile over the right World Council space.
2. Place the two Research dice on their indicated spots on the Main board.
3. Place the Evacuation Action tile on its respective space on the Main board, with its A (intact) side up.
4. Shuffle the 11 Recruit pool cards and 11 Mine pool cards into two face-down decks. Place them next to the Main board.
5. Separate the buildings into four stacks by type (Power Plants, Factories, Life Supports, and Labs) and shuffle each stack separately. These are the primary stacks. Place them face up next to the Main board. The top building of each primary stack is available to Construct.
6. Place the Anomalies in a face-up stack. Place the Paradox die and Paradox tokens next to the Anomalies.
7. Place all Resources on the top-right side of the board, and all Water on the top left. Place all Workers, Energy Cores, and Breakthroughs next to the Main board, opposite the buildings. Workers can be sorted by type and Breakthroughs by shape for easier access. Place the Victory Point tokens within reach.
8. Arrange the Timeline tiles as depicted in a straight line from left to right below the Main board. This forms the Timeline. Place the Impact tile between the fourth and fifth Timeline tiles.
9. Shuffle all Superprojects and randomly place one above each of the seven Timeline tiles. The first (leftmost) Superproject should be face up; the rest face down. Do not place a Superproject above the Impact tile. Return remaining Superprojects to the box.
10. Place one of each player’s Path markers below the leftmost Timeline tile. These will be their Focus markers.
11. Randomly choose 5 Endgame Condition cards and place them face up above the Main board.
12. Player Setup:
    • Each player picks a Path and receives its respective Player board. Players choose whether to use side A or B (all players must use the same side). Give players the colored components matching their Path color (6 Exosuits, 9 Warp tiles, 8 Path markers, and the Morale and Time Travel markers).
    • Place the Path board belonging to their chosen Path in front of each player, with a randomly chosen side up. Each side has a different Evacuation condition for scoring.
    • Give all players their starting Resources, Water, Energy Cores, and anything else indicated on their chosen Path board. The Path of Progress receives its starting Breakthrough at random. Place starting Workers in the Active and Tired columns (as indicated) and set the Morale and Time Travel markers to their indicated starting positions.
    • Each player must pick one of the two Leader cards available to their Path. Place the chosen Leader on the designated spot on the Path board.
    • Give each player their Player banners (in their plastic standees) and place them in front of them. The player who most recently had a "déjà vu" becomes First Player: place their Banner on the designated space next to the World Council Action spaces.
    • Finally, players in clockwise order starting from the First Player receive 0/1/1/2 Water.

Fluxo do Jogo

The game is played through up to seven rounds, called Eras. Each Era is comprised of the following phases, in this order:

1. Preparation phase:
   • Reveal Superproject: Flip the Superproject above the next Timeline tile face up (the tile to the right of the current one).
   • Shift building offers: Place the top building of each primary stack face up next to it to form a secondary stack (one for each of the four building types). If there are buildings in the secondary stack already, place the newly shifted one on top, covering the previous top one. The top buildings of each primary and secondary stack are available to Construct.
   • Determine available Workers: Remove any remaining Workers from the Recruit pool. Draw the top card of the Recruit pool deck and place the four Workers depicted on the card on the respective Recruit pool slots next to the Recruit Action. Workers of the same type are stacked.
   • Determine available Resources: Remove any remaining Resources from the Mine pool. Draw the top card of the Mine pool deck and place the five Resources depicted on the card on the Mine pool slots to the left of the Mine Action. Finally, place a Uranium, a Gold, and a Titanium on the respective slot next to each Mine Hex space. IMPORTANT: After the Impact, ignore the topmost Resource on the drawn card, and always place a Neutronium on the topmost slot instead.
2. Paradox phase: (Skipped in the first Era)
   • Paradox rolls: Starting from the left, check every Timeline tile with at least one Warp tile on it. For each tile, the player(s) with the most Warp tiles on it must roll the Paradox die once and receive the rolled number of Paradox tokens (0, 1, or 2). If there is a tie for the highest number of Warp tiles, all tied players roll.
   • Anomalies: A player receiving a third Paradox token (by any means) is immediately affected by an Anomaly. When this happens, they:
     • Stop rolling for Paradoxes (if they had remaining rolls).
     • Return all their Paradox tokens to the supply.
     • May choose to retrieve one of their Warp tiles from any Timeline tile back to their personal supply (only after all players’ Paradox rolls have been resolved).
     • Take an Anomaly tile from the stack and place it on the leftmost free building spot of their Player board (the player may choose on which row if several are tied). If there are no free building spots, the player must place the Anomaly on top of any of their buildings, making that building unavailable until the Anomaly is removed.
3. Power up phase: In clockwise order starting with the First Player, each player:
   1. Places up to 6 of their Exosuits on the Hex slots of their Player board (one Exosuit per slot), paying 1 Energy Core for each one placed on the three bottom slots.
   2. Then receives 1 Water for each remaining empty Hex slot.
4. Warp phase: Each player secretly hides 0-2 Warp tiles in their hand. Reveal them simultaneously and place them on the present Timeline tile. In player order, each player immediately receives any asset shown on the selected Warp tile(s).
   1. Warped assets are taken from the common supply.
   2. Each Worker requires paying 1 Water to be warped in, or that Warp tile cannot be chosen. Paying with Water warped in together with the Worker is possible. Warped Workers are put in the player’s Active column.
   3. Warped Exosuits are placed on one of the Hex slots of the Player board, even on an Exosuit Hex Unavailable tile.
5. Action rounds phase: Play goes in rounds in clockwise order starting from the First Player. On their turn, a player may perform any number of Free Actions, then do one of the following:
   1. Place one Worker on any empty Worker space on the player’s own Player board (typically on buildings, Superprojects, or Anomalies) and perform its Action.
   2. Place one Worker with an Exosuit on a Hex space or Hex pool space on the Main board and perform its Action.
   3. Pass, not placing any more Workers during the Era.
   Once all players have passed, proceed to the Clean up phase.
6. Clean up phase:
   • A) Retrieve Workers: Retrieve every Worker from every Exosuit on the Main board and all Workers placed on the Player boards’ Worker spaces. If the Action was marked Motivated, place the Worker in its owner’s Active column; otherwise place it in the Tired column. Retrieve every empty Exosuit from the Main board and place them into each player’s personal supply. All players retrieve all Path markers from their Free Action slots.
   • B) Check for Impact: The Impact occurs during the Clean up phase of the fourth Era. Resolve the Impact rules.
   • C) Check for Game End: If any of the game end conditions are met, the game ends immediately.
   • D) Next Era: If there are unused Exosuits left on the Player boards’ Hexes, return them to their personal supply. Move each player’s Focus marker to the Timeline tile corresponding to the next Era. Proceed with the next Era. The First Player remains the same unless another player took the respective World Council Action.

Ações e Como Jogar

There are four different types of Workers: Engineers, Scientists, Administrators, and Geniuses. Workers are placed on Action spaces to take Actions, either on the Main board (with Exosuits) or on players’ own boards. The Genius is a special Worker that may be used as any Worker type when placed, but cannot be used to pay non-Genius Worker costs or retrieve Worker Warp tiles via Time Travel.

Active Workers (in the Active column) can be used for performing Actions or returning Warp tiles. Both Active and Tired Workers can be used to pay Worker costs (e.g., on Superprojects), but busy Workers (on an Action space) cannot.

There are three distinct kinds of Action spaces:

• Hex spaces: On the Main board, Workers must be placed in a powered-up Exosuit. A Hex space becomes unavailable for the rest of the Era once occupied.
• Hex Pool spaces: Similar to Hex spaces, but always available, and any number of Workers may be placed on them (in an Exosuit).
• Worker spaces: On Player boards (including buildings, Superprojects, and Anomalies), these can only be used once per Era. Exosuits are not needed.

Some Action spaces have Worker restrictions, offer additional benefits for specific Worker types, have associated costs (Water or Resource), or keep Workers Motivated (placing them in the Active column during the Retrieve Workers phase).

Main Board Actions

Capital Actions: Construct, Recruit, Research

These have 3 available Hex spaces: Upper (no modifiers), Middle (pay 1 Water), Lower (pay 2 Water, 4-player games only). After the Impact, Capital Action spaces are covered by Collapsing Capital tiles, providing improved space-related features and bonuses, while retaining usual Worker restrictions and benefits.

• Construct: Choose one of two options:
  1. Select a face-up building from any of the 8 building stacks (primary and secondary) and place it on the leftmost empty spot of its respective row on your Player board, paying the indicated costs. If a building was selected from a primary stack, the building underneath becomes immediately available.
  2. Build the Superproject in Focus (above the Timeline tile where your Focus marker is). Pay the costs indicated on the Superproject itself (including Breakthroughs). Workers in construction costs can be paid from Active or Tired columns.
     • Worker specifics: Cannot be activated by an Administrator. If activated by an Engineer, subtract 1 Titanium from the total cost.
• Recruit: Select a Worker from the Recruit pool and add it to the Active column of your Player board. Receive a bonus based on the Worker type: Scientist (2 Water), Engineer (1 Energy Core), Administrator (1 Victory Point), Genius (any one of the three bonuses).
  • Worker specifics: Cannot be activated by a Scientist. If activated by an Engineer, you may not select a Genius.
• Research: Set one Research die (shape or icon) to the face of your choice, and roll the other. Take a Breakthrough tile with the shape and icon shown by the dice. The "?" on the icon die stands for any icon of your choice. You may not set the icon die to its "?" face. If the rolled Breakthrough is unavailable, reroll one die of your choice.
  • Worker specifics: May only be activated by a Scientist.
• World Council: You may choose a Capital Action (Construct, Recruit, Research) with no more available spaces and perform it. Worker restrictions and benefits of the copied Capital Action apply, but space-related features (e.g., Water costs on Hexes and Collapsing Capital tile bonuses) do not.
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