Asteroid Field X

In Asteroid Field X, you play as one of four factions mining an inhospitable asteroid belt. The object of the game is to build and upgrade mining infrastructure to both keep your colony alive and protected and to mine and sell as much precious ore as possible. The faction that accumulates the most Creschins (money) from their sales will win the game. However, there is an “X-factor” in play: buried somewhere in the uncharted regions of this asteroid field is a mysterious alien artifact that emits terrifying forms of energy. It is of great value in this hyper-capitalist world, and of equally great danger. If you unearth it and manage to transport it back to your base dome, you can sell it to the ore transport ships for an enormous profit. But given the difficulty of handling it, someone else might steal it before you can accomplish this!

Asteroid Field X is a limited edition game by Zach Horton. It is based upon a prototype he designed in 1992. It functions as a prequel to Supernova, an origin story about a civilization’s extractavist excesses, when mining colonies supplied the raw materials to fuel a powerful but fragile empire—before Object X caused their home star to become unstable, leading to the desperate conditions of Supernova.

Players build and upgrade mining infrastructure in order to extract base metals (not very valuable, but needed to manufacture equipment), premium metals (the chief export of the mining colony, but also used to manufacture some items), and volatile compounds (substances needed to maintain your colony such as water and minerals). Beyond strategizing between the payoffs of these substances, you need to maintain transportation networks to return your ore safely to your base dome. You may build various other units to be used for sabotage, protection, or direct attacks. Asteroid Field X makes extensive use of hidden movement, and ships can be equipped with cloaking devices to render their locations invisible to other players. Many cargo cards offer special capabilities to players who develop and play them. Some of these are played covertly and revealed anonymously, to often unpredictable results. Combined, these mechanisms allow players to pursue secret campaigns of sabotage, openly hostile actions, and peaceful diplomacy, often all at once!

After all players have taken their turn, each round ends with a “diplomatic phase” in which players simultaneously manufacture new units, deploy covert cards that will be revealed in the next round, and decide how much ore to sell to the waiting merchant ships. The base prices of metal ore fluctuate during the game, as they are tied to a semi-randomized timeline of market cards. The final price that each player receives for their ore, however, is determined by how much total ore is dumped on the market that round by all players. Thus betting and bluffing play a significant role, as players attempt to manipulate the market to favor their own interests. After 12 rounds (each represented by a Market card), the game ends, with the player who has received the most money declared the winner.