Fight for humanity's last resources!
Set in the future, four factions of the human race are at war over mankind’s crowning technological achievement; its space colonies.
Take command of a squadron of armoured suits belonging to either the remnants of Earth’s military, proud Martian settlers, space pirates or colonists fighting to defend their home, seize control of the colony’s vital resources and bolster your own forces with skilled pilots and powerful upgrades to destroy those who challenge you in a ferocious and unpredictable war zone.
Battle it out across 10 rounds to lead your faction to victory!
Factions
Colony Defence Force
United Earth Conoalition
Imperial order of Mars
The Outlaws
“It’s all ours, friend, we just don’t have hands on it yet.”
Pirates, brigands, desperados. Whatever you call them, when mankind tries to create law and order there will be those that live outside its confines. Thanks to the boundless opportunities of space these free spirits could escape to the stars, living life as free as they desired. Of course, freedom has its price and life in space is by no means easy. It was actually these outlaws who first thought to use armoured suits as weapons in space, taking advantage of their maneuverability and dexterity to take what they needed from unsuspecting spacecraft.
Thanks to their cutting edge armoured suits, the Keelhaulers, these outlaws found themselves an even match for anything else in space. Seizing on the chaos of the war they turned their attentions to the greatest treasures of all; the space colonies. The outlaws strike hard and without mercy, their only ambitions glory and plunder.
Gameplay
Stratos Stratagem is played across 10 rounds with 5 phases per turn. It uses an action point based system which allows players to move their mecha units, fight their enemies, take over territories, build up their resources and create new units to replace those that are lost in battle. Cards add an extra element to the game as players gain special pilots, upgrades for their units, and tactical support. However, event cards can also be drawn which can have dramatic consequences, both good and bad!
The game has been heavily play-tested at 2-player, 3-player and 4-player versions. Each version has a different recommended layout to keep the game balanced.
2 - Player
Two factions face off in this version of the game where the best rewards are to be found at the centre of the board but will striving to get there leave your army spread too thinly?
Victory conditions in the 2-player game are: base takeover by successfully invading and taking over the enemy stronghold, total annihilation of all of enemy units on the board or victory points at the end of 10 rounds when the winner is the player with the most held territory and the biggest remaining army.
In the three and four player versions the victory conditions remain the same with the addition of a king of the hill objective; central system takeover. If you can hold the 3 or 4 player exclusive central systems tile for 3 rounds your faction is victorious! This tile is easy to defend when first captured but becomes increasingly weaker as you try to hold it and the other players find themselves temporarily united in attempts to take your position for their own.
What's in the box?
- 38 game tiles to make up the board/battleground
- 4 command tiles for each player to organise their troops
- 98 cards to provide pilots, upgrades, support and events
- 4 card holders to place cards with zone effects.
- 48 entrenchment tokens to secure your territories
- 1 track and marker to count-down to the end of the war
- 4 action point markers
- 12 bond tokens for marking units with a special connection
- 4 dice to attack and defend
- 32 mecha tokens and stands to fight the battles raging across the board