Antares: Planetfall

In the 3rd solar month of the year 2319, the abandoned merchant vessel Antares drifted inside Earth’s orbit, and impacted with the planet.

During the ship’s entry into the atmosphere the United Military Force tracked the incoming vessel’s trajectory to a location in the planet’s northern hemisphere.

A U.M.F. Marine tactical squad was dispatched under strict engagement protocols. There was very little information regarding the condition of the ship, or if anyone, or anything, had survived the entry, and impact with the surface. The ship had come down in a medium density habitat sector, and it was assumed there would be massive casualties.

Three fireteams were assembled and dropped into the Theatre of Operations. Their orders were to establish a sensor array perimeter around the impact site, recon all structures (including the Antares wreckage), rescue any survivors, and to eliminate any “hostiles”.

All official reports have been marked “black ops”, and there is limited intel regarding the events of the operation. This is the available event record of the fireteams’ mission to lock down the Antares crash site.

Antares: Planetfall is the third game in the series. Telling the final(?) chapter of the story of the doomed ship Antares, and its alien cargo.

Game experience

Define the Theatre of Operations. Lay out the Terrain cards in a grid to create the play area. A 5x5 grid works well for your first play through. A 5x5 grid will leave you with a few extra blank Terrain Cards. Suggestions for your first game are:

• Place the Antares Wreck in the center of your grid
• Place the 4 Sensor Array cards orthogonally around the wreck
• Place the 3 Staging Area cards along the perimeter of the grid

Choose your Fireteams by selecting one side from each of the 9 Marine cards. Each Marine is either a Rifleman, Medic, or Demolitions Expert, and their inventory slots will reflect this. Assign three Marines in a collumn (lowest number at the top, highest at the bottom) to each Fireteam, represented by their Insignia Card. Each Fireteam will have a Max Ammo Count basd on their inventory. You may assign Maines with Med-Kit, Burn Box, or open slots Inventory Items.

Explore the Theatre of Operations. Move your Fireteams across the Theatre grid to:

• Place the 4 Sensor Arrays
• Recon all structures
• Burn 9 Egg Pod Caches with Burn Box inventory items
• Rescue 9 Survivors

Engage the alien enemy. Each action requires you to draw a card from the Engagemnet Deck. The deck contains Alien Attack cards, Alien Surge cards, Fall Back cards, Egg Pod cards, Survivor cards, and extra Ammo cards. If engaging with aliens the Fireteams must spend Ammo in the amount indicated on the card. In the event a Fireteam runs out of Ammo, they lose Marines starting with the lowest numbere Marine in their collumn.

Game Play

Antares: Planetfall uses push-your-luck, and pick up and deliver mechanisms. Your fireteams have limited resources, so make your decisions carefully. If a fireteam runs out of Ammo and Medkits, they will begin taking casualties. A few rough turns can devastate your forces.

If a team runs out of Ammo, flip the Ammo card over to the RED side.

Each turn choose one of your three fireteams to:

move to an adjacent section of the map. Movement is orthogonal across the side of the grid squares, not across the points.

Recon a Structure or the Antares Wreck, and flip the map card to the Reconned Side.

Place a Sensor Array, and flip the map card to the Placed side.

After a fireteam's action, draw a card from the Engagement Deck.

Engagement Card Types

"...all clear..." there is no encounter.

Alien Attack the fireteam must spend Ammo equal to the strength of the alien attack.

Alien Surge ALL fireteams not in a Staging Area must spend Ammo equal to the strength of the alien surge.

Ammo the firetem may choose to take the Ammo Card to replenish their ammo, or discard it, to leave it in the Engagement Deck. Used Ammo Cards are removed from the game. Keeping these in the deck, can make later rounds easier, as other cards become hostile.

Egg Cache there are alien eggs here, and the fireteam must use a Burn Box from their inventory to destroy them. If they have no Burnbox or have destroyed 8 Cahes they must spend Ammo in the amount equal to the alien's strength indicated in the corner of the Engagement card.

Fall back! the fireteam must reverse its movement and spend Ammo equal to the alien strength indicated in the corner of the Engagement Card.

"...incoming ship debris, take cover... reveal the top card of the Engagement Deck and remove it from the game.

shuffle shuffle the discard and draw piles of the Engaggement Deck to form a new draw pile.

Survivor assign the survivor card to a Marine in the fireteam. They must escorting the survivor to a staging area to count them as 1 resucue. If the marine is elimnated, the survivor is as well. If there have been 8 rescues, the fireteam must spend Ammo equal to the alien's strength indicated in the corner of the Engagement card. Once a Survivor is escorted to a Staging Area place the survivor card in the discard pile of the Engagement Deck.

Supplies

Ammo fireteams are made up of three mariens each. Each marine will have a number of slots between 2 and 4 for Ammo. Ammo may be reloaded at a Staging Area or from an Ammo Card in the Engagement Deck. If a fireteam exhausts its Ammo, Maries are eliminated equal to the remaining alien strength. Lowest numbered Marines are eliminated first.

Burnboxes are used to destroy Egg Caches. Burnboxes must be equiped in any matching inventory slots, and may be equipped in any open slots.

Medkits keep one marine in that fireteam safe from the alien attack or surge. Medkits must be equiped in any matching inventory slots, and may be equipped in any open slots.

Sensor Arrays may be equipped in any open inventory slots. These must be placed around the Antares Wreck to form a safe perimeter.

If the fireteams place all 4 Sensor Arrays, Recon all structures, Eliminate 8 Egg Caches, and escort 8 Survivors to the staging areas, they have won the game.

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Antares: Planetfall ships with a small, black, velvet bag for easy storage and portability.

Note: Cards and components will not come shipped inside the bag, and the tag will not be attached due to fulfillment restrictions.

Antares: Plantetfall is playable solo or co-op.

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Look for the prequel games, Antares, and Antares: Breach here on The Game Crafter.