SPONSORED POST: The Defence of Procyon III heads to Kickstarter 21 April

In The Defence of Procyon III players take control of unique factions as part of a team-based conflict. The card-driven battle wages over two boards using 120 amazing miniatures, with humans defending against invading aliens on the surface and orbital space of Procyon III.

“I set out to design a big asymmetric game, a miniatures-heavy game, and a wargame that my eurogamer friends would actually want to play,” says designer Dávid Turczi. “The result is The Defence of Procyon III -- a game with meaningful player interaction, a wealth of strategic choice with low randomness, and focused enough so that you don’t need to know all the details of your opponent's rules.”

A sci-fi battle for survival

The backstory of The Defence of Procyon III will delight fans of sci-fi settings like Starship Troopers and StarCraft, as it sets the stage for the conflict to come between humans and the alien Aethyn.

Procyon III was colonized in 2104 by humans who wanted to harness its rich elements for industrialization. Three years into the project, they unearthed an ancient - yet still active - alien artefact. Almost immediately, an alien race known as the Aethyn appeared and moved on the planet -- recognizing the ancient terror that the humans may have unwittingly awakened. As the Aethyn Empress and her hordes invade the planet’s surface in an attempt to disable the artefact, the UN sends its entire Armada to relieve the settlement’s defences, while their scientists work to decipher the alien communications and understand their newfound enemy.

The wargame for the eurogamer.

Played primarily as a two-vs-two team game, The Defence of Procyon III has one player from each team in charge of the ground battle and one in charge of the space battle. The ground battle is a push-and-pull of threat and defence, while the space battle is an exercise in tactical combat and multi-prong positioning.

Gameplay is highly asymmetric and involves four different card-based combat games interacting with each other.

Players score victory points for achieving certain feats, and the end of the battle for this previously insignificant corner of the galaxy comes after a threshold of victory points is reached. The humans can also lose the game if their morale breaks down.

In addition to team play, the game can be played cooperatively.

Asymmetric Factions

The Aethyn team consists of:

• The Principal - They lead the ground forces in the invasion. Their primary objective is to get to the city where the humans discovered the artefact.
  Gameplay mechanisms: resource allocation, bag building, multi-use cards.
• The Meld - The alien space force of organic ships, they deploy spore clouds of their nano-machinery to try to blockade the Armada from providing relief to their ground troops.
  Gameplay mechanisms: dice pool management, card selection, hand construction.

The human team consists of:

• The Expedition - They lead the ground forces, including four brave heroes, defending the colony. Their primary objectives are defensive – hold the invaders at bay, keep them from advancing on the city, and try to evac Scientists.
  Gameplay mechanisms: deck destruction, action point allowance.
• The Armada - They are trying to win the space-naval battle in the Procyon system against the Meld. Their ships also carry Marines which can be sent to the planet’s surface to help with the evacuation.
  Gameplay mechanisms: hand construction/hand management, randomness mitigation, resource management.

Kickstarter campaign

The Kickstarter campaign promises exciting stretch goals and additional content to keep backers busy from launch on 21 April until the campaign’s end on 11 May. All backers will receive a free Aethyn mothership miniature just for participating, in addition to the unlocked stretch goals.

Visit the website to be notified of the campaign's launch.

https://www.defenceofprocyon3.com/

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/267244/defence-procyon-iii