Starfarm Ceres

It is the distant future, the year 2000. Mankind has colonised all of the rocky planets of the inner solar system. However Ceres, deep in the heart of the Asteroid Belt, remains a distant and desolate outpost even after the industrial process used to create fertile soils and an oxygen-rich atmosphere.

You are one of a few hardy (some would say fool-hardy) galactic pioneers who have sunk everything they own into a patch of Cerean land and a handful of 'bots to tend and defend it. For the rapidly growing crops of Ceres fetch premium prices back on flooded, overpopulated Earth. Meanwhile the warlike colonies of Mars, intent on their independence from Earth, continue to blockade and harass Cerean shuttles. Will you make your fortune and retire to the balmy resorts of Venus? Or will the challenges of Starfarm Ceres overwhelm and ruin you?

Starfarm Ceres is a worker placement solitaire game divided across three game boards. On the first, you deploy your 'bots to sow crops and harvest them once they mature using a unique time delay mechanism. On the second you must shoot down Martian saucers that multiply and descend to raze your crops. Finally you must send shuttles back to Earth, through the Martian blockade, to the third board where you sell your produce and buy upgrades. The language-independent game boards are double-sided with slightly different scenarios on each, giving eight different game setup possibilities.

—description from the designer