How to Play Lunar Invaders
Designed by Andy Looney
Introduction: The problem with teleportation is that it's a one-way trip. You've transported a ship to an enemy moon – now what? The answer: take control of their teleporter and use it to beam home!
Number of Players: 2-5
Equipment: 3 Rainbow (or 3 Xeno) stashes and one round gameboard (”moon”) for each player, a standard D6.
Setup: Each player chooses a color and places all 9 of their pieces on their moon as shown:
Space Names: Each moon has 3 kinds of spaces:
Goal: Be the fi rst to transport one of your ships back home from an opponent's Teleport Pad. Also, you win if you are the only surviving player.
Turn Options: On your turn, you will choose one of these actions: Grow, Teleport, Build, or Move.
Grow: Replace any of your smalls with a medium, or any medium with a large. You cannot grow if you have no destroyed pieces of the right size.
Teleport: If you are the only player occupying two or more Control Points anywhere around a Teleport Pad, you may transport the ship on that pad to ANY spot on another gameboard. (If it's an enemy's ship you may also just beam it into deep space, which destroys it, removing it from play.) Any ship occupying the space you arrive in is destroyed, regardless of size diff erences.
Build: If you occupy the two Control Points flanking any empty Factory (on anyone’s moon), you may build a new ship on that space. You must build the smallest of the pieces you have available. You can’t build if you have no destroyed pieces.
Move: You can move a ship into any space it is connected to. If the space is already occupied, combat begins, unless the moving piece is smaller than the occupying piece, in which case the move is not allowed.
Combat: If the moving piece is larger than the piece it is moving against, it wins automatically. But if they are the same size, a battle occurs. Roll the D6 to determine the outcome & results:
- Win: Defender removed, you move into space.
- Tie: Defender removed, but you don’t move in.
- Lose: Your attack fails. No one moves.
Removal: When a defender is removed, it goes into a connected empty space of the defender’s choice. But if no connected space is vacant, the defending piece is destroyed.
Elimination: When a player has only 1 piece left of their color on their home gameboard, they are out of the game. If more than two are playing, the eliminated player's fi nal home piece is destroyed, along with all pieces they have on other moons, and the game continues without them. (In a game with more than 2 players, you win by teleporting home from ANY other gameboard.)
Roshambo-Style: Battle results can be determined by playing a single round of Rock-Paper-Scissors, if you have no dice or simply prefer using RPS.
Author’s Note: This game is based on Cosmic Coasters, which uses regular coins on actual beverage coasters.
