Shields Up!

Your space ship is locked in battle with a dangerous enemy! Take charge of your ship and launch your attack. But most importantly keep the shields up or face certain destruction!

In Shields Up players race to destroy the opponents shields and ship. Captains take 2 actions each turn, choosing to either draw or play cards. Assemble sets of cards in order to activate weapons and other equipment.

As captain of your ship you can place any card face down as a shield. A ship can have up to 3 shield cards. Destroy your opponent’s shield and do at least 1 additional damage to destroy their ship and win the battle!

Review by Boardgames Bourbon

Review by Unfiltered Gamer

Shields up contains 18 cards. This includes equipment that you assemble into sets and cards which take immediate effect.

Cards are UV coated.

The printable rules contains the same rules as printed on the box. The card appendix provides some clarification regarding several of the cards. The card appendix does not appear on the rules printed on the hook box.

Players take turns using 2 actions. Players can use any combinations of these actions in any order they choose. Actions include:

• Draw 1 card from draw pile
• Play 1 card face down as a shield (limit 3 shields total)
• Play 1 card face up as an equipment to assemble
• Play 1 card face up and immediately resolve it
• Use 1 action to acquire the oldest card in the market
• Use 2 actions to acquire the newest card in the market

Assembled equipment

When playing cards for a set, you keep played cards in front of you until you have the full set. You can play 1 or 2 cards of the set each turn until you assemble the equipment and activate its power.

Resolve a set

Once the required cards are in play to complete a set their effect is immediately resolved (one time for the set) and the cards are immediately discarded.

For weapons, the attacking player selects and destroys a number of shield cards equal to the amount of damage. If a player destroys all of the opponents shields and does at least one additional damage the opponent is destroyed.

Reveal each destroyed shield card, for each Space Mine revealed the defending player selects and destroys one of the attacking players shields. This continues if any Space Mine cards are revealed by the resulting counter attack. In this way, an attacking player might actually be destroyed during the attack, or both players might be destroyed.

The market consists of two cards. The oldest cad in the market costs 1 action to purchase. The newest costs 2 actions. When a player purchases the oldest card for 1 action the other card still costs 2 actions to buy.

After a player has completed their turn refill the cards available in the market. Move the oldest card forward and reveal a new card from the draw pile to place in the market as the newest card costing 2 actions to acquire.

When it is necessary to draw a card from the draw pile and there are no cards remaining, shuffle the discard pile and replace the draw pile. Draw the needed card(s) as normal.

Note, all cards are immediately placed in the discard pile upon resolving their effect.

"One of the best 18-card games I've played yet. So fun!" - Boardgames and Bourbon

"It’s fast, small, and still manages to cultivate a competitive spirit among the players." - Everything Board Games

"There is a lot to this game, I like that aspect... it's very fun." - Unfiltered Gamer

How to play