Invasion of the Saucer People

Introduction: Invasion of the Saucer People is a card game for 2-4 players working together to fend off a 1950's-style alien invasion. Each turn, a wave of saucers attacks, and the players must band together to defend against them. To fail is to lose one of the inner planets—Mercury, Venus, Earth, or Mars—to the invaders. Lose them all, and humankind faces extinction.

Fortunately, your crew cards provide special abilities that can be used in a pinch to help hold off overwhelming attacks. Also, the game is self-leveling, so that 2 players face a lesser threat than 3 players or 4 do. Each game lasts 30 to 60 minutes.

Game Play: (1) Each player is dealt one random Captain card, Navigator card, and Engineer card. These cards each have a special ability usable once per game to help against overwhelming odds. (2) Half the play deck is dealt to the players as defense cards; the other half becomes a draw pile of offense cards for the Saucer People. (3) Each round, three Saucer People cards are turned up to attack. (The actual attack value is calculated differently for 2, 3, or 4 players.) (4) In defense, the players each lay one card from their hand and add them. (5) If the total defense equals or exceeds the attack, the Saucer People are defeated at the asteroid belt. (6) If not, the Saucer People cards now attack individual worlds--indicated by the card suits. And each player's card defends the world of its suit. (7) If the total value of Saucer People cards at a world exceed the total value of defender cards at the world, the world falls to the invaders.

Victory Conditions: Game play continues until the deck is depleted, then victory conditions are calculated, ranging from Total Human Victory, to one or more worlds lost, to Total Human Extinction.

Expansion: There's now an official booster pack for the game. The Invasion of the Saucer People! Booster Pack adds new options to your defense of the inner planets. Included in this pack are full crews for both Luna and Ceres, in addition to Dr. Sato from the Pluto research station, a Captain from Hollywood, a young psychic Captain, a Robot Sidekick, and the ever-popular Space Monkey. Also included are color-coded rocket ships from each world, and new rules for rescuing planets the saucer people have captured!