Antennai

Antennai is set in a distant future where the dominant life forms are ants and robots. Two ant alliances are at war, fighting in mysterious battlefields for sweet, sweet treats. You play as an artificial lifeform, pulling the strings in this war. You seek victory for your ants, but above all else, you wish to be celebrated, admired, and (dare say) loved by the ants. You must win the ants’ love by leading them into battles and gaining control of the sweetest treats. But it won’t be easy. It’s every robot for themselves out here, so don’t underestimate your opponents’ cunningness and trickery. You’ll need a battle plan, but still, chaos will ensue…

Note: All of the art in this game was generated using DALL-E: an AI art tool that generates artistic images from natural language. So some of the imagery is up for interpretation. Have fun and let your imagination run wild.

Link to "How to Play Antennai" Video

Download the rules

Game Play

The game will consist of 10 "battles" or rounds in which two players will separate from the pack (the strongest of each alliance) and receive victory points. In each round, there will be four phases: positioning, engagement, payout, and clean-up. You want to be in it at the end (most of the time...).

Battles are isolated Game Theory games like the Prisonner's Dilemma where the payouts you receive depend on your opponents' choices. Some choices are mutually beneficial, and some are not... You'll find that cooperation is temporary and tentative at best.

In the positioning phase, players will secretly play one ant from their hand. Everyone will reveal their choice simultaneously and the player with the strongest ant will choose the battle.

In the engagement phase, players will continue to play ants to try to have the strongest stack of ants for their alliance and earn victory points according to the payout matrix on the battle.

In the payout phase, victory points are awarded (or taken away).

And in the clean-up phase, the play-area is cleared and players draw new cards.

The big wrinkle... At the end of the game, there is a winning alliance and the victory points for that alliance count double.

Last, but not least, you will be able to influence the game further by using "Power Plays". These can be played anytime and can have a significant impact on the outcome of the battle. Use them wisely.