Main Rules

The turn structure is straightforward, divided into 3 phases, each of which has two steps:

-Strategic Phase

Initiative: Place initiative cards with ship numbers in random order.

Use Captain Cards: Each side plays a captain card to modify the initiative order.

-Tactical Phase

Energy Generation: All ships generate the energy indicated on their panels (plus extra energy from the crew).

Management: Players secretly distribute energy throughout the ship and place crew members where they want.

-Combat Phase

Projectiles: If there are projectiles or other objects with movement, they move at this point.

Ship Activation: Ships activate one by one in the order of initiative.

As you can see, it's simple and intuitive. The more complex phases that can cause some Analysis Paralysis are played by all the players simultaneously, reducing this effect to a minimum.

Shared Turn:

All phases, except the combat phase, are shared. There's no attacking and defending side, so you won't get bored at any time. The only moment played in order is the combat phase, and even then, you can react to some attacks or movements of opponents, like a form of ARO. Sounds familiar, right?

Ship Panel:

Each ship has its own unique panel. These panels contain all the necessary information and are where you place your crew, prepare propulsion, move energy to your preferred locations, and monitor ship damage. This management is straightforward and has some similarities to classic eurogames, action programming, worker placement, resource management, but simplified. The crew is on the bridge, and the location where you place them allows you to gain benefits or perform certain actions.

Energy Management:

The energy is generated every turn as indicated on the panel. Once generated, you can move it as you wish and even reserve it for future turns. Part of the energy can go to the propulsion area, where you prepare the movements that will determine your ship's trajectory.

Vectorial Movement:

In space, ships continue to move unless you change their course. To represent this, ships gain inertia and can keep moving until they leave the play area. This is represented using the I.M.E. (Inertial Mass Effect) panel, showing the ship's inertia (the vector) and where it will move. Using the propulsion prepared in the previous turn, you change the ship's orientation and the vector's position on the IME panel. You can do this in the order you prefer. Once per turn, you need to move the ship. If you don't modify the vector, the ship will keep moving each turn until it leaves the play area.

Projectiles and Armament:

In this game, you can fire your weapons directly at other ships. However, hitting a target at a great distance in space is difficult, so these weapons are mainly defensive. The ships use very powerful weapons or large projectiles, which cover long distances and seek to inflict maximum damage with each hit. To represent this, when one of these weapons is fired, you place a token on the table. This token moves in each projectile phase for the indicated distance and can even change course to seek its target.

Damage:

Damage is simple. When a ship receives hits, it must make a defense roll. If it passes the roll (all rolls are equal to or less than the target number), it takes the damage indicated on the card, represented by red cubes. These cubes occupy spaces on the ship, rendering certain parts useless until the ship is entirely destroyed.

Ships can be destroyed in two ways: they are abandoned by their crew, or their generator is destroyed, causing them to explode.

With this, you have a quick explanation of the game's core mechanics, but there's much more to it: you can deploy mines, squads, hack ships, use multiple types of weapons, captain cards that can be used to surprise opponents with secret abilities, ship collisions, and boarding actions between ships. Everything a space combat enthusiast could want is represented in Acheron's Fall.

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