Onward to Venus Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview of Onward to Venus
• Components
  • 8 Planets
    • A Note on Nomenclature
  • Player Pieces
  • Game Tiles
  • Game Cards
  • Odds and Ends
• Setting Up the Game
  • Step One - Laying Out the Planets
  • Step Two - Select an Empire
  • Step Three - Initial Unit Placements
  • Step Four - Starting Money
  • Step Five - Starting Cards
  • Step Six - The 'Pass Card'
  • Step Seven - The Game Tiles
  • Step Eight - Determining the First Player
  • Step Nine - Ready to Blast Off!!!
• Playing the Game
  • Phase One - Place Pass Cubes
  • Phase Two - Draw and Place Game Tiles
  • Phase Three - Player Actions
    • Action: Move Military Units
    • Action: Claim One Tile
    • Action: Buy Military Units
    • Action: Card Action
    • Action: Take One Pass Cube
  • Phase Four - Crisis Resolution
  • Phase Five - Collect Income
  • Phase Six - Re-set Military Units
• Ending the Game
  • Victory Points
• Crisis Effects
  • Mercury - Bazagthoth the Blinded
  • Venus - Venusian Uprising
  • Earth - Robot Rebellion
  • The Moon - Attack of the Moon Men
  • Mars - Martian Invasion
  • Ganymede
  • Titan - Space Pirates!
  • Kuiper Belt - Alien Invasion
• Detailed Explanation of the Cards
• Credits
• Player Reference
  • Number of Tiles per Planet
  • Period Sequence
  • Player Actions
  • Claiming Game Tiles
  • Building Military Units

Overview of Onward to Venus

'Onward to Venus' is set in the retro sci-fi world created by Greg Broadmore. In this alternative reality space travel is common-place, in an end-of-the-nineteenth century setting. There are planets and moons all waiting to be settled and exploited, although the local inhabitants might kick up a fuss. Fortunately for the Earthling civilisers there is a range of highly useful ray-guns, created by Doctor Grordbort, to convince the natives to behave themselves. Foremost exponent of the benefits of the good Doctor's weaponry would be Lord Cockswain, recognised by all as the Earth's best human.

Each player takes on the role of one of the major Earth-based empires, which are Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia and the United States of America. The aim of the game is to gain control over the planets of the Solar System.

Rather than having a single board to play on you have eight planets, which you lay out in a line.

The game is played over three periods. At the start of each period a number of Game tiles are drawn randomly and placed on the various planets. Players then take it in turn to perform actions.

The most common action involves claiming a Game tile, which will allow you to build factories, dig mines, draw more cards, shoot interesting creatures, take money and attack other players.

There are three types of military units in the game, which are infantry, spaceships and tanks. Infantry are cheap, making them expendable. Spaceships are costly but can fly around the Solar System, taking infantry with them if required. Tanks are powerful in combat but are stuck on the planet that they have been built on.

Military units are placed in orbit around the planet they have been constructed on. While in orbit they can be moved. If a unit is used to claim a tile or committed to battle then it is moved down to the surface of the planet. Once on the surface a unit cannot be involved in any more actions in this period. Thus, the more units you have the more actions you can perform. All units are moved back into orbit at the end of each period.

Note that players can only directly attack each other when Tension tiles are in play, and even then they are limited in where they can attack.

Cards play a big part in the game. There are various ways of gaining them, mostly through taking Game tiles that allow you to draw cards. Cards are drawn randomly from the deck, so you have no idea what you are going to get. The majority of cards grant you Combat Points. Others will aid you in some shape or form. In all cases cards are 'one-use' only, so you discard the card after playing it.

At the end of each period a check is made to see if any crises occur. At the start of the period one or more Crisis tiles may have been drawn and placed, thus giving you notice of impending trouble.

The nature of a crisis depends on which planet it occurs. A crisis on Earth will result in a robot revolution, while one on Venus it will make the natives restless and struggle for independence.

After three periods the game draws to a close and players score victory points. These are mostly gained from having factories and mines on planets.

Victory points can also be gained for shooting big game and defeating Crisis tiles.

The game can be played by two, three, four or five players and should take around ninety minutes to complete.

Components

8 Planets

The image in the square tells you what form of crisis may occur on the planet. The numbers in hexagons are victory points.

A Note on Nomenclature

The author of these rules fully recognises that some of these planets are actually moons. However, using the phrase 'planet and/or moon' constantly is rather clumsy. Please assume from now on that the term 'planet' also refers to 'moons'.

Player Pieces

There are five sets of the following counters, in red, blue, green, yellow and purple.

• Infantry unit counter (9x) — Infantry, spaceships and tanks are also referred to as military units. The counters have their Combat Point strengths marked on them.
• Spaceship counter (7x)
• Tank counter (5x)
• Mine counter (12x) — The value marked on each counter is how much you earn each period, not the cost of the tile.
• Factory counter (8x)

Game Tiles

• Factory tile (17x)
• 'Draw two cards' tile (31x)
• 'Big Game' tile (2x)
• 'Windfall' tile (6x)

The four tiles above can be claimed by moving a military unit down to the surface of the planet.

• Mine tile (28x)
• Crisis tile (13x)
• Tension tile (6x)

The three tiles here have a Defence Value, indicated in the steel square to the bottom right. The Defence Value of a Tension tile is variable.

Game Cards

• Pass card (1x)
• Five sets of four Player cards, one for each empire (5x)
• Game cards (111x)

IF THE CARD IS MARKED:

• 'ACTION' then you must expend your one action to use the effect on the card,
• 'FREE ACTION' then this does not count as your action to play,
• 'BENEFIT' then it is played in conjunction with your action.

Combat Points are represented by a fist symbol. Each such symbol represents one Combat Point. The symbol relates to the one marked on the special dice.

The Pass card should be kept separate from the other Game cards.

Odds and Ends

• Pass cubes (7x)
• Special dice (3x)
• First Player marker (1x)
• £1 coins (45x)
• £5 coin (25x)
• Alien tile (3x)
• Cloth bag (1x)
• Player Aid Card (1x)

Setting Up the Game

Step One - Laying Out the Planets

Take the eight Planets and lay them out on the table as shown here:

Earth is in the middle of the line. To one side: Mercury, Venus, then Earth. To the other side: Mars, Ganymede, Titan, Kuiper Belt. The Moon sits alongside Earth.

Make sure there is a reasonable gap between each planet.

Step Two - Select an Empire

Each player selects a set of counters and cards of the same colour. The colours relate to empires, which are:

• The British Empire — Red (of course)
• The French Empire — Blue
• The Russian Empire — Purple
• The German Empire — Yellow
• The United States of America — Green

Step Three - Initial Unit Placements

Each player places four of their Infantry counters and two of their Spaceship counters in orbit around Earth. In orbit means close to the edge of the planet but not actually on it.

Players also start with one of their Factory counters on Earth.

During the course of the game you should be careful to place your military units so that it is clear which planet they are in orbit around.

Step Four - Starting Money

Place the money to one side to form a bank. Each player takes £12 from the bank.

Step Five - Starting Cards

Shuffle the Game cards. Deal out two to each player, which are added to the four Player cards already held by them. These six cards will your starting hand. Place the remaining Game cards face-down to form a draw deck.

NOTE: From now on the Player cards that each player starts with will be regarded as Game cards, so are treated in exactly the same way.

Step Six - The 'Pass Card'

Place the Pass card on the table, so it can be clearly seen. Place the Pass cubes close to it.

Step Seven - The Game Tiles

Place all of the Game tiles in the cloth bag.

Place the Alien tiles to one side. These are only used if a crisis occurs in the Kuiper Belt.

Step Eight - Determining the First Player

Each player should roll all three dice. The player who rolls the highest total takes the First Player marker (ties between players should be re-rolled).

Step Nine - Ready to Blast Off!!!

You are now ready to start playing 'Onward to Venus'.

Playing the Game

The game is played over three periods. Each period consists of the following phases:

1. Place Pass Cubes
2. Draw and Place Game Tiles
3. Player Actions
4. Crisis Resolution
5. Collect Income
6. Re-set Military Units

Each phase should be completed before moving on to the next phase. These phases will now be described in more detail.

Phase One - Place Pass Cubes

Place a number of Pass cubes on to the Pass card equal to the number of players plus two, e.g. if there are three players then place five cubes on this card.

Pass cubes are used to determine when the Player Action phase ends, which will be when all of the cubes are claimed from the card.

Phase Two - Draw and Place Game Tiles

Take the bag of Game tiles. Randomly draw an appropriate number of tiles face-up on each planet. The number to be placed on each planet is indicated on the 'Number of Game Tiles per Planet' chart (see the back of these rules and the Player Aid Card).

The number of tiles to be drawn for each planet depends on the number of players, e.g. in a three-player game only two tiles would be drawn for Mercury while in a four-player game this would be three tiles.

The tiles should be turned face-up, so that they can be seen by the players. Game tiles already on a planet from the previous period remain there.

Any Crisis tiles placed on Ganymede should be removed and placed in the discard pile.

As the game progresses many tiles will be removed from planets and placed to one side. The place these are placed in will be referred to as the 'tile discard pile.'

Phase Three - Player Actions

This phase is the main one in each period, as this is where players get to do stuff.

From the First Player, in clockwise order, each player performs one action. This procedure is repeated, only ending when a player takes the last Pass cube from the Pass card. Thus players have the opportunity to perform numerous actions, but not an unlimited number.

When it is your turn to perform an action you MUST choose one from the following list:

• Move military units (with the possibility of claiming a tile).
• Claim one tile.
• Build military units.
• Perform action on one card.
• Take one Pass cube.

Action: Move Military Units

This action allows you to move one group of your military units up to two planets from where they started. If you do not use your full movement allowance you can also claim a tile from the planet the units moved to.

The only military unit that can move between planets is the spaceship. However, a spaceship can carry an unlimited number of infantry units with it.

Tanks cannot move between planets unless you play a card that states otherwise. This means that tanks are generally restricted to the planet they have been built on.

You select a number of spaceship and infantry units to form a group for movement, with at least one of these being a spaceship. All of the units in this group must be in orbit around the same planet.

After movement the group must all end up in orbit around the same destination planet. You cannot drop off units en-route to your final destination, nor can you pick units up on the way. The group starts together and finishes together.

You must work your way along the line of planets. Earth and the Moon are next to each other for the purposes of movement, so moving from one to the other counts as one movement.

If you do not use your full movement allowance then you may perform a 'Claim one tile' action on the planet that you have just moved to.

This 'secondary' action does not necessarily have to involve one of the units that you moved, it could be a unit that was already in orbit around that planet.

EXAMPLE: The military counters in orbit around Earth can reach Mercury in one direction and Ganymede in the other direction. If the red player wanted to take a tile as well then he would be limited to moving to Venus, the Moon, or Mars.

If you play a card that increases your movement allowance then that may allow you to claim a tile, e.g. if you played a card that allowed you to move one extra connection and you only moved two connections then you could perform a 'Claim one tile' action on the planet that you just moved to.

Action: Claim One Tile

There are two general types of tiles you can claim, ones without a Defence Value and ones with a Defence Value. If a tile has a Defence Value then this will be indicated in a steel box in the bottom right-hand corner of the tile.

To be able to claim a factory or mine tile you must have the corresponding counter available to you that you can replace the tile with, otherwise you cannot attempt to claim the tile. This rule also covers an attempt to take a tile from another player through the claiming of a Tension tile.

Undefended tiles

To claim an undefended tile from a planet all you need to do is move one of your military units from orbit down to the surface of that planet.

The unit you can move can be infantry, spaceship or tank - this movement is not regarded as the same as moving between planets.

EXAMPLE: The red player wants to take the 'Draw Two Cards' tile. He decides to use his tank to claim the tile, moving it down to the surface of Mars. He draws two cards from the deck. The tank is now unable to move or contribute to offensive combat (it can still defend if necessary).

You take the tile from the planet and follow the rules associated with it, as described here.

• FACTORY TILE - If you claim a Factory tile then you place one of your Factory counters on the surface of the planet that you took the tile from. You then discard this tile.
• DRAW TWO CARDS - If you take a tile marked with two cards on it then you immediately draw two Game cards from the deck and add them to your hand of cards. You then discard the tile. You can play cards in the same turn that you have drawn them.

The maximum number of cards you can hold in your hand is nine. If you go over this limit then you discard down to nine cards. Place the discarded cards on the card discard pile.

If the draw deck is exhausted then shuffle the card discard pile to make a new draw deck.

• WINDFALL - If you claim a tile marked 'Windfall' then you take £3 from the bank. You then discard this tile.
• BIG GAME - If you claim a tile marked 'Big Game' then you retain it until the end of the game.

Each such tile will add one victory point to your total at the end of the game.

Defended tiles

Defended tiles have a Defence Value, which will be indicated in the steel square to the bottom right-hand corner of the tile.

All combat is carried out in the same manner, irrelevant of what type of tile is being claimed.

You must first determine the Combat Point cost of the tile you are attempting to claim, which is done as follows:

• Roll the three dice.
• Retain the two dice with the highest and lowest values (the middle value die is discarded). A skull result has a value of zero, not one.
• Calculate the difference between the two retained dice.
• Add this value to the Defence Value of the tile.

You have now calculated the Combat Point cost of the tile. To be able to claim the tile you must expend a number of Combat Points equal to or in excess of this cost.

There are a number of ways in which you can expend Combat Points, as follows:

• Each infantry or spaceship unit that you move from orbit to the surface of the planet is worth one Combat Point.
• Each tank that you move from orbit to the surface gives is worth two Combat Points.
• You can play as many Game cards as you wish which have Combat Points indicated on them.
• You may also play cards that modify the Combat Point values of your military units, as indicated on the card.

You decide exactly which military units and cards you wish to use to meet this Combat Point cost. However, at least one military unit must move down to the surface of the planet, you cannot pay the cost with cards alone.

If you are unable to meet the Combat Point cost, or you decide that it is too high, then the attempt fails and your turn ends. You are still subject to casualties (which will be explained in good time).

If you are able to expend sufficient Combat Points then you claim the tile. The type of tile determines what you do next, as below:

• MINE - If you claimed a Mine tile then you take one of your Mine counters and place it on the surface of the planet you just took the tile from. You then discard the Mine tile.
• CRISIS TILE - If you claimed a Crisis tile then you take the tile and retain it until the end of the game, where it will gain you one victory point.
• TENSION TILE - The initial Defence Value of a Tension tile depends on what you wish to do once you have claimed it.

Claiming a Tension tile allows you to take control of a factory or mine belonging to another player on that planet. You must indicate which mine/factory you wish to take control of. The Defence Value of the tile is then calculated according to the military units that the defender has in orbit AND on the surface of the planet.

The Defence Value of a military unit is the same as its Combat Point value, thus infantry and spaceships have a Defensive Value of one each, while tanks are worth two points. Dice are then rolled as normal, and the difference added to the Defence Value calculated above. You have now arrived at the Combat Point cost of the tile.

If you are able to pay this cost then you claim the Tension tile. You also remove the counter that you decided to target (return it to the owning player) and replace it with one of your own, of the same type.

The Tension tile is then discarded.

Casualties of combat

Only the active player can suffers casualties as a result of claiming a tile. For each die you rolled that ends up on the side marked with the skull symbol then you must select one of your military units to lose, which must be where the combat is taking place.

You lose any casualties AFTER meeting the cost of combat, so you are able to count the Combat Point strengths of all units committed before having to remove any. If you decided not to claim the tile you still must lose counters according to the results of your die roll.

EXAMPLE: The yellow player decides to attack the Mine tile on Mars. He rolls three dice, resulting in a skull, a zero, and a three. The lowest value is zero (the skull). The highest value is '3'. The difference between them is three. The mine has a Defence Value of three. Thus, the final cost of combat for the yellow player is six. He moves two of his infantry units down to the surface and plays two cards, whose Combat Points come to four in all.

Having met the cost of six Combat Points he takes the Mine tile and replaces it with one of his Mine counters. He must now eliminate one military unit, due to the roll of one skull. He removes one of the infantry units he moved down to the surface.

In the example above the red player wishes to take the Tension tile. He declares that the yellow mine will be the target of his attack. The red player rolls three dice.

The difference is three. Yellow has a Defence Value of three (one for the infantry and two for the tank on the surface). Red has to pay a total of six Combat Points, which he does with two infantry units and four Combat Points from cards. He replaces the yellow mine with one of his own. The Tension tile is then discarded.

Action: Buy Military Units

As an action you can buy one or two military units.

THE COSTS FOR EACH UNIT ARE:

• Infantry — £2
• Tanks — £3
• Spaceships — £4

Any infantry units you build must be placed in orbit around Earth.

Spaceships and tanks can be built in orbit around any planet where you have at least one factory.

You can always build spaceships and tanks in orbit around Earth, even if you no longer have a factory there.

You can build your units around different planets, they do not have to be placed in the same place.

The number of pieces you have is a limit on what you can build. You cannot remove units from play to build them elsewhere.

Action: Card Action

Some cards are marked 'Action', along with text describing the effect of that action. Playing such a card counts as your action. The card should be placed on the discard pile after resolving its effect.

Action: Take One Pass Cube

You take one cube from the Pass card. You then draw one Game card from the deck and add it to your hand. Remember that you have a hand limit of nine cards, so if you go over this you will need to discard down to nine cards.

If you take the last Pass cube from the card then you also take the First Player marker, making you the first player in the next period. The Player Action phase now ends and play proceeds to the next phase.

Phase Four - Crisis Resolution

You now need to check the Crisis Levels on each planet.

If any of the Crisis tiles in play is marked with a skull then you must follow the procedure below to see if the Crisis Level on each such planet escalates.

Roll three dice and retain any showing a skull.

Working from Mercury to Kuiper Belt place one of the retained dice on each Crisis tile that is marked with a skull symbol.

If you still have dice left to assign then repeat the process, starting again from Mercury. Thus it is possible for a Crisis Level to escalate by more than one level. The Crisis Level on a planet is equal to the number of Crisis tiles and dice on it, e.g. a planet with two Crisis tiles and one die would have a Crisis Level of three.

The order of crisis resolution is the same as the one for assigning dice, from Mercury to Kuiper Belt.

Look up each planet in the Crisis Effects section of these rules (which you will come across later on). Resolve the effect on the planet according to its Crisis Level.

Unless stated otherwise, Crisis tiles remain on a planet after resolving effects. Any dice assigned to planets are removed and placed to one side.

EXAMPLE: One of the three dice end up showing a skull. This results in the Crisis Level on Mars increasing from two to three. Titan's and Kuiper Belt's Crisis Levels remain at one each.

Phase Five - Collect Income

All players now collect income for every mine and factory they have in play:

• MINE - Collect £3.
• FACTORY - Collect £2.

Phase Six - Re-set Military Units

Any military units on the surface of a planet are now moved into orbit around that planet.

You are now ready to start a new period.

Ending the Game

The game ends after you have completed three periods. There is no mechanism for tracking the number of periods, please feel free to invent one of your own.

Victory Points

Players now calculate how many victory points they have scored. Each planet will award victory points, as indicated in the hexagons.

Who scores these victory points depends on how much income each player earns from the planet. The player with the highest income will score the victory points for first position, the player with the next highest income for second position, and so on.

In the case of a tie the tied players score the same victory points. Thus, if two players were tied for the most income on a planet they would both score the first position victory points. The second highest income would then score the second position victory points.

EXAMPLE: On the Moon yellow has the highest income, which is £5, so scores nine victory points. Red and blue are tied for second highest income, so score five points each. Green scores three points for being in third place.

Score one victory point for each Big Game tile and Crisis tile gained during the game.

Score two victory points for each Alien tile gained during the game.

The player with the most victory points is the winner.

Players do not score any victory points for military units or money.

If there is a tie and one of the tied players has the First Player marker then they take precedence. If there is still a tie then the player with the most mines and factories on the board is the winner. If there is still a tie after that then the player who gained the most victory points from Big Game, Crisis and Alien tiles is the winner. If that does not settle matters then the players remain tied, and rejoice in their shared victory.

Crisis Effects

During phase four of the game you check the Crisis Level on each planet to see if there is a Crisis Event. A planet's Crisis Level is equal to the number of Crisis tiles on it plus any assigned dice (see earlier in rules for a full explanation).

Check each planet working inwards from Mercury to the Kuiper Belt (resolve Earth before the Moon).

Mercury - Bazagthoth the Blinded

After being foiled, yet again, by Lord Cockswain, Bazagthoth the Blinded has fled to Mercury. From his new lair he hatches dastardly plans of retribution and revenge.

However, to pay the rent he undertakes secret missions on behalf of any empire that will pay the asking price.

The player with the single highest income on Mercury will gain control of Bazagthoth. In the case of a tie no player benefits from his powers.

• LEVEL 1 - Pay £1 to randomly take one card from a player of your choice.
• LEVEL 2 - Pay £1 to destroy one military unit of your choice on any planet.
• 3 OR MORE - Pay £3 to destroy one mine or factory on a planet of your choice.

Venus - Venusian Uprising

Many Venusians have turned to guerilla warfare to express their views on the settlement of their planet by the Earthlings.

• LEVEL 1 - No effect.
• LEVEL 2 & 3 - All players must remove two military units from Venus. For each unit they cannot lose they must lose a mine or factory (their choice) from Venus, if they have some there.
• 4 OR MORE - Independence! All military units (both in orbit and on the surface), mines and factories are removed from Venus and returned to their respective owners. All Game tiles on the planet are removed and discarded. Flip the planet to its other side. No more activity is allowed on this planet. No more Game tiles are placed on the planet. Military units can still enter orbit around Venus but cannot move to its surface.

Earth - Robot Rebellion

The recent development of artificially intelligent robots has led some to worry about a robot revolution, a completely unfounded concern we should add.

• LEVEL 1 - No effect.
• LEVEL 2 - Minor robot rebellion. The player with the highest income derived from Earth loses one mine or factory (their choice). In the case of a tie all of the tied players suffer the same penalty.
• LEVEL 3 - Major rebellion. The player with the highest income derived from Earth must lose two mine/factory pieces of their choice. In the case of a tie all of the tied players suffer the same penalty.
• 4 OR MORE - The robots rise up and destroy humanity. The game ends immediately and all players are declared the losers for allowing this to happen.

The Moon - Attack of the Moon Men

The ancient race of Moon Men toil below the surface building their rockets, working towards the day when they can destroy the Earth.

• LEVEL 1, 2 AND 3 - No effect.
• 4 OR MORE - Invasion of Earth. All military units (both in orbit and on the surface), mines and factories on the Moon are eliminated. All Game tiles on the planet are removed and discarded. Roll three dice to see how much damage is inflicted on Earth. Total the amount on the three dice. In player order players take it in turn to remove one military unit. If they cannot remove a military unit they must remove a mine or factory of their choice instead. Counters are removed in this manner until the total removed equals the total on the three dice. The Moon is then flipped to its other side. No more activity can occur on the Moon. No more game tiles are placed on the Moon from now on. Military pieces can still enter orbit around it but none can be moved to its surface.

Mars - Martian Invasion

The Martians are almost the equal of the Human Race in their technological development and rather resent the way their planet has been treated by the Earthlings.

• LEVEL 1 - No effect.
• LEVEL 2 & 3 - The player with the highest income must lose one mine or factory of their choice. In the case of a tie all of the tied players suffer the same penalty.
• 4 OR MORE - Invasion of Earth! All military units (including those in orbit), mines and factories on the planet are removed from the planet and returned to their respective owners. All Game tiles on the planet are removed and discarded. Roll three dice to see how much damage is inflicted on Earth. Total the amount on the three dice. In player order players take it in turn to remove one of their military units. If a player cannot remove a military unit then they must remove one of their mines or factories instead of their choice. Counters are removed in this manner until the total removed equals the total on the three dice. Mars is then flipped to its other side. No more activity can occur on Mars. No more Game tiles are placed on Mars from now on. Military pieces can still enter orbit around it but none can be moved to its surface.

Ganymede

Nothing interesting happens on Ganymede, ever.

Any Crisis tiles placed on Ganymede are removed from play. As a consequence, no crisis events can occur here.

Titan - Space Pirates!

Titan is home to the Space Pirates of Titan, the scourge of the outer Solar System.

• LEVEL 1 - No effect.
• LEVEL 2 - Space pirates attack. All players who have mines and/or factories on Titan must pay £1 per mine/factory to the bank. If a player is unable to pay for a mine/factory then he must remove the counter and return it to his own stock.
• 3 OR MORE - More space pirates attack. All players who have mines/factories on Titan, Kuiper Belt and Ganymede must pay £1 per mine/factory to the bank. If a player cannot pay this amount for a mine/factory then he removes it and returns it to his own stock. A player can choose which mines and factories he cannot/does not want to pay for.

Kuiper Belt - Alien Invasion

The Kuiper Belt is at the edge of the Solar System, beyond which Mankind is not entirely sure what other 'intelligences' may lurk.

• LEVEL 1 AND 2 - No effect.
• 3 OR MORE - An alien invasion occurs. The invasion starts at the Kuiper Belt and works inwards (hitting the Moon before Earth). Take the three Alien tiles. Place the first one on Kuiper Belt, the next one on Titan and the third one on Ganymede. All military pieces, mines and factories should be removed from these planets (including those in orbit).

No Game tiles are placed on a planet with an Alien tile on it.

During the Crisis Phase of the next turn the surviving Alien tiles will continue their invasion. The number of surviving aliens determines how many more planets will be invaded.

Aliens will not re-invade a planet that has been retaken by a player. Thus, if there are two Aliens left then one of these will invade Mars while the last one will invade the Moon. If all three were still in play then they would invade Mars, the Moon and Earth.

If the aliens reach Earth then the game ends immediately and all players are declared the losers. Players may attack Alien tiles in the same way as they would attack a Game tile with a defensive value. The Defence Value of an alien is seven. If a player succeeds in destroying an alien then he removes the tile from the planet and retains it. It will earn him two victory points at the end of the game. The aliens will never re-invade a planet that they have been removed from in this manner.

Detailed Explanation of the Cards

Cards will either have an action, a free action or a benefit on them.

If it is marked 'Action' then playing it counts as your action for the turn.

If the card is marked 'Free action' then you can play it at any point in your turn and it does not count as your one action. You could play multiple such cards during your turn.

If the card is marked 'Benefit' then you can play it in conjunction with the action you are performing to augment it in the manner stated on the card. You can play as many 'Benefit' cards as you wish during your turn.

Many of the cards have matching effects, so rather than list every card what follows is an explanation of each action/benefit type. The list is arranged in alphabetical order keyed on the first letters in the main body of text.

+1/+2 movement. This card allows you to increase the movement allowance by the value indicated on the card. You can play more than one such card to move further. As long as you do not use your full movement allowance (including that on cards you play) you have the option to claim a Game tile from the planet you move to.

All tanks you commit to combat are worth an extra Combat Point. Any of your tank counters that you use to meet the cost of combat have a value of three Combat Points rather than two. You cannot use multiple copies of this card to further boost the value of your tanks.

All infantry units you commit to combat are worth an extra Combat Point. Any of your infantry counters that you use to meet the cost of combat have a value of two Combat Points rather than one. You cannot use multiple copies of this card to further boost the value of your infantry units.

All spaceships you commit to combat are worth an extra Combat Point. Any of your spaceship counters that you use to meet the cost of combat have a value of two Combat Points rather than one. You cannot use multiple copies of this card to further boost the value of your spaceships.

Can move tanks with spaceships in one Move action. You can treat tanks as if they were infantry for the purposes of movement. You can only apply this card to the movement of one group of military units.

Discard one Combat die of your choice. After rolling the dice when carrying out combat you can select one to discard, which means you will use the difference between the remaining two dice to add to the Defence Strength of the tile you are attempting to claim. You also ignore any skull result on the die you have discarded.

Discard this card instead of the card you have just played, thus retaining the other card. After playing a card you can discard this one and place the card you just played back in your hand. Essentially, this card allows you to use the effect on another card more than once.

Discard up to three cards and draw replacements, including one for this card. Select up to three cards from your hand to discard. You draw the same number of cards from the draw deck and an additional card for this one, e.g. if you discarded three cards you would pick up four in all.

Draw four cards, retain two and discard the other two. Does this really need further explanation?

Eliminate one infantry unit of your choice. Choose one infantry unit belonging to any player to eliminate and remove from play. The unit you choose can be in orbit or on the surface.

Eliminate one military unit of your choice. Same as above, except you can choose any type of military unit to eliminate.

Eliminate one spaceship of your choice. Same as above, except you can only choose a spaceship to eliminate.

Eliminate one of your tanks on the surface to gain three Combat Points. You can remove one of your tanks from the surface of the planet you are attempting to claim a tile from and return it to your Available stock to gain three Combat Points. Note that you can do this after gaining the two Combat Points for moving the unit down to the planet's surface, i.e. you gain five Combat Points in all.

Eliminate one of your military units to gain Combat Points. Same as above except you can remove any military unit.

Gunrunner. Place this card on planet with Crisis tile. Then take £3. Increase the defence of Crisis tile by two. You place this card on one planet that has one or more Crisis tiles on it. You then takes £3 from the bank. The next time a player attacks a Crisis tile on this planet the Defence Value will be increased by two. If the Crisis tile is defeated then this card is also removed and placed on the discard pile.

Ignore one skull result. You can choose not to apply the skull on one die when attempting to claim a tile. You can also play this card as an interrupt to stop another player from eliminating one of your units.

Move one of your tanks from surface to orbit. Self-explanatory, I think. The tank is now available to use.

Move one of your infantry units from surface to orbit. Same as above, but involving an infantry unit.

Pay £3 to be able to draw three cards. Pay three of your good British Pounds and draw three cards from the draw deck. You cannot choose to pay less to draw fewer cards.

Perform another action. You get to have another go. Please note you could play more than one of these cards during your turn, allowing you to perform multiple actions.

Perform Build Military Units action. You must still pay for the units. Treat in exactly the same way as the standard action. Please note that although this is a free action you must still pay for the military units you build.

Perform 'Take one Pass cube' action. Take one Pass cube from the Pass card. You also draw a card from the deck.

Place one Tension tile from the discard pile on a planet of your choice. Search through the pile of discarded Game tiles to find a Tension tile. You can then place this on a planet of your choice. If no such tile is available then you cannot perform this action.

Remove and discard one Tension tile from a planet of your choice. No further explanation required, hopefully.

Re-roll one or more dice. After rolling the dice when attempting to claim a Game tile you can choose to re-roll one, two or all of them. You ignore any skull results on the dice that you re-rolled. You can play multiples of this card if you wish. You are only affected by the final dice that are rolled.

Return one eliminated military unit to Earth orbit. If one of your military units is eliminated for any reason, either due to rolling the dice or the play of a card, then instead of returning the unit to your Available stock you place it in orbit around Earth.

Select one other player. Force player to discard two cards randomly. A player of your choice must randomly discard two of their cards.

Select one player and look at his cards. Swap one card if you wish. You look at the hand of cards held by one player of your choice. After doing so you can select one of their cards to take into your hand. You must give them a card in return, unless your hand is empty, in which case they get nothing.

Take £1 for each mine you have. Take £1 from the bank for every mine you have in play.

Take £3. Take £3 from the bank.

Take one Big Game tile from any planet. Take one Big Game tile from any planet. You retain the tile, just as if you had claimed it normally.

Worth an extra Combat Point and draw one card after playing. Add one to your Combat Points total when attempting to claim a tile. You immediately draw another card from the deck, which you can play if you wish.

Worth two Combat Points on Venus. You gain two Combat Points if you are attempting to claim a Game tile on Venus.

Worth three Combat Points on the Moon. You gain three Combat Points if you are attempting to claim a Game tile on the Moon.

Worth three Combat Points when attacking Crisis tile on Earth. You gain three Combat Points if you are attempting to claim a Crisis Game tile on Earth.

You may perform one more action if the Pass card is empty. As soon as one player takes the last Pass cube from the Pass card you can play this card to perform one more action. Note that you could now perform further actions if you had cards that allowed you to do so.

Credits

Based on the world of Dr. Grordbort's created by Greg Broadmore

Game designed by Martin Wallace

Artwork by Greg Broadmore, Peter Dennis and Warren Mahy.

Graphic design by Hans Kleinenberg and Solidcolour.

Rules edited by Louise McCully.

Thanks to Richard Taylor, Ri Streeter, Julia Wallace, Anton Ducrot, Shaun Pimlott, and Greg Broadmore, of course.

Playtested by David Taylor, Sean Hanson, Kirstin Donaldson, Brad Thompson, Glenn Patel, Antonia Brown, Nathan Grange, Katherine Boag, Jerry Elsmore, Toby Falconer, John Malecek, Louise McCully, Max Allen, Jamie Hunt and various folks at Boardgames by the Bay and Beyond Monopoly!

'Onward to Venus' is copyrighted by Treefrog Games 2014. 268 Lindemann Road, RD3 Katikati, 3170 NEW ZEALAND. www.treefroggames.com.

Licensed by Stardog LP, 2014. Dr. Grordbort's is a registered trademark of Stardog LP, and all characters, designs and images are copyrighted by Stardog LP.

Player Reference

Number of Tiles per Planet

Players	Mercury	Venus	Earth	Moon	Mars	Ganymede	Titan	Kuiper Belt
2	2	3	3	3	3	2	2	2
3	2	3	3	3	3	2	2	2
4	3	3	4	3	4	2	2	3
5	3	4	5	4	4	2	2	3

The number in each box tells you how many Game tiles to place on each planet. Note the number varies depending on how many players there are.

Period Sequence

1. Place Pass Cubes
2. Draw and Place Game Tiles
3. Player Actions - one action at a time. Repeat until all cubes from the Pass card have been claimed.
4. Crisis Events - roll three dice then resolve Crisis levels.
5. Collect Income - £3 per mine, £2 per factory.
6. Re-set Military Pieces - return to orbit.

Player Actions

• MOVE - Up to two planets. (If you do not use full movement allowance then you can perform 'Claim tile' action.) Only spaceships can move, although they can carry infantry with them. Tanks cannot move through space.
• CLAIM ONE TILE - See the Claim One Tile action above.
• BUY ONE/TWO MILITARY UNITS - Costs shown below.
• CARD ACTION
• PASS - Take cube from Pass card and draw one card.

Claiming Game Tiles

You may take the following tiles by moving a military unit from orbit to the surface of the planet:

• FACTORY - Place factory piece on planet.
• TWO CARDS - Draw two cards from deck.
• BIG GAME - Retain until end of game.
• WINDFALL - Take money on tile.

To take the following tiles you roll three dice, calculate the difference between the highest and lowest, add this to the Defence Value of the tile. You must expend Combat Points equal to this total.

• MINE TILE - Defence Value shown on tile.
• CRISIS TILE - Defence Value shown on tile.
• ALIEN TILE - Defence of 7.
• TENSION TILE - Defence = Combat Point value of military units in orbit and on surface belonging to the defender.

Building Military Units

	Combat	Build Cost	Must Be Built
Infantry	1	£2	On Earth
Tanks	2	£3	Factory
Spaceships	1	£4	Factory

Military units can always be built on Earth, even if you do not have a factory there. Units are placed in orbit when built.