One game when it popped up on crowdfunding a couple years ago, or so, that I knew I was going to back was Astro Knights from Indie Boards & Cards. This is a sci-fi version of Aeon’s End. I love Aeon’s End so do I need another game based off of the same system. Besides Astro Knights being sci-fi versus fantasy, which I don’t have a preference really either way, there were a few other changes. Let’s talk about the game and how to play it.

How To Play Astro Knights

Astro Knights is a deck building and boss battling game. Your end goal is to defeat the boss. You need to do that before the boss runs out of level cards, we’ll talk about those, knocks out both characters, or destroys the home world that you are defending.

Player Turns

Turns consist of players firing weapons that they have in play. Playing out weapons and spending the currency to buy more cards. The weapons you fire go into your discard pile. Then any cards you buy go into your discard. Finally, you set the order of the cards going into your discard pile that you play out. While most of them are just currency, there are tech cards as well that might be in the mix.

When you spend your currency there are three things that you spend it on. The first is buying more cards. These are weapons, more currency, or tech cards. You also can unlock more slots to hold more weapons. And finally, you can power up your character. Each character has their own special ability that needs varying number of power-ups charged to make it work. Each power up costs two currency, and each slot coats three. Cards depend on that card.

Then you draw up to your hand size of five cards. If you run out of cards to draw, you flip the discard pile. You don’t shuffle the discard pile, you just flip it, and you draw from there. So if you plan things out, you can set-up combos for yourself or keep a good distribution of purchase power and weapons.

Boss Turns

The boss also gets a turn. Each boss is going to play differently and have some unique rules. But there are some elements that are always the same. First, you activate anything, either on the boss or minions, that says activate. Then you draw a new card. It is either going to be a minion, which goes into play, or an action card. If it is an action card, do what it says and discard it.

If the boss is out of cards you shuffle up the boss cards. And you play out the next level of card for that boss. Generally bosses have a few levels that you play through. The levels generally add a new condition, like the boss powering up, and additional health to the minions. And as I said, if the boss needs to shuffle to draw a card and there are no level cards, you lose the game.

The final thing here, with one thing for the differences between Astro Knight and Aeon’s End coming later, is that turn order is random. In a two player game there are two cards for player one, two for player two and two for the boss. You shuffle those up and randomly flip them out. It is possible to get the boss going four turns in a row. Or it’s possible for the players to go eight turns in a row.

What’s Different from Aeon’s End

The Boss Cards

There are are a few differences between Aeon’s End and Astro Knights. The first being what I talked about with the boss. In Aeon’s End, the boss never reshuffles their cards. I like this element of the game because it gives the boss an interesting timing mechanism and a chance to beef up in power as they level up. Now it isn’t the cards that level up but the boss and that makes it easier to table.

In Aeon’s End, you would need to pull out boss cards and other cards to mix together to make the boss deck. Here, each boss has their own deck. And you only need to sort the cards in there a little bit to create the starting deck. Because the starting deck is determined by the player count. So fewer players, the faster the boss is going to shuffle up their cards.

The Card Market

One element that I glossed over in the how to play is purchasing cards. I think if you are familiar with a deck builder you know how that works. But the market is a bit different. In Aeon’s End you have nine cards. There are three piles of currency, two of artifacts (or tech in Astro Knights terms) and four for your spells (weapons in Astro Knights). All the cards in each pile are going to be the same.

In Astro Knights the market is a bit different. You still have piles of cards that are specific types of things. Two are going to be piles for currency, cheap and more expensive, one for tech, and then three for weapons. The big thing is that the piles are not all the same card. Instead, they are cards in a range. The first weapon pile, for example, is weapons that cost two or three. Then the next one is four through six. And the last one is even or higher.

So, you won’t know what is going to be flipped. But if one weapon or tech doesn’t synergize well with a character, you don’t have a whole stack of only that weapon like you do in Aeon’s End with spells.

But these are the two big differences for the game. Now back to the normal review. I just wanted to call these out so if you’re like me and love Aeon’s End, you’ll know if the differences are enough for you.

What Doesn’t Work

I think the one thing that I’d say here is that the market can sometimes not be great. If you end up with cards either that don’t work with your character that well, or are on the upper price of their pile, you might have a turn where there isn’t much to buy. Now, that is when you power up or buy a new slot. But you can’t assume or plan that a card is going to be there to buy.

The game is also like Aeon’s End where I think that it is probably better as a solo or two player game. The reason for that is that at higher player counts the turn order deck is going to change. You always have four player cards and two boss cards. So at a four player game it is possible that someone could be first one shuffle and last the next shuffle. That means that they have ten turns between their turns.

What Works

Now as a two player game, I want to say, or solo, this is great. Because it is an even number of turns you never way too long. Plus, there is an element of excitement that can come going back to back. Or even having three or four player turns in a row. Because it means you can do a lot of damage to the boss.

I really like how the bosses work. This is one area where I definitely see it as a step above from Aeon’s End. But I think this is one area where it is nicer. I like how each boss has it’s own deck of cards. That means it is easier to play any given boss. But it’s also fun with the level up. You feel like the game is escalating in difficulty. And while I get that feeling in Aeon’s End as well, Astro Knights is a bit smoother.

I like the ease of set-up of the game as well. I just said that the boss is easier to get out and play, it is very true. But it is also easier for the market as well. For me the changes to the market are kind of “meh”. I like having the fixed market in Aeon’s End because you can create some interesting strategies around it. But at the same time, this is faster to set-up. I don’t need to look for specific piles or cards, are just shuffle up and go with them.

Who Is Astro Knights For?

I think this is a game for people who like Aeon’s End but want a game to get to the table easier. Or people who like Sci-Fi and deck building and maybe don’t like fantasy as well. It isn’t enough of a change from Aeon’s End that Astro Knights would be a game you like if you don’t like Aeon’s End. But if you like deck building, I think that you’ll enjoy it. And it is probably great, like I said, for that ease of getting it to the table compared to Aeon’s End.

Final Thoughts on Astro Knights

I enjoy this game a lot. I’m not sure that I like it better than Aeons’ End though. Some of that is that Aeon’s End has had a legacy version, and I enjoy a good legacy game. Plus I own so much for Aeon’s End that I have an insane amount of variety.

But I do think there is a difference between the two that are going to keep both in my collection. Mainly, Aeon’s End is a game that I need to plan out when I’m going to play it. For that reason, it is more likely that I will play it solo. But Astro Knights, on the other hand, with the ease of set-up and ease of getting the boss ready, that is going to be a game where I can see playing it randomly and just pulling it off the shelf. Both, though, still have the limitation that I would probably only play them as solo or at two.

My Grade: A
Casual Grade: B
Gamer Grade: B+
Strategy (out of 10): 7
Luck (out of 10): 5

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