Board Game Aeon’s End

An unusual cooperative deck-building game in which players never shuffle their decks.

This is a simple but quite deep card strategy game with interesting card planning and action programming. In addition to not having to reshuffle the discard pile when the deck runs out, players are also offered an original portal mechanic. Spells are not used immediately, but are placed in one of the open or fortified portals. The player plays the prepared spell card from the portal only at the beginning of his next turn.

Deck-building battles with monsters

The goal of the game is to defeat the monster before it captures the city of Gravegold or deprives the players-mages of their powers. Each round, the players and the monster take turns in random order. During their turn, the player can activate spells, purchase additional gems, artifacts, and spells from the market, strengthen portals, and use their abilities. Each of the four monsters performs unique actions during their turn, so players will have to come up with new strategies each time to win.

At the beginning of the game, players choose mages with special abilities, unique characteristics, and portal configurations, as well as different starting cards in their hands and decks. They place 30 life points on the Gravehold track. They shuffle their own turn order cards and 2 monster cards into the turn order deck. Next, players choose a monster, prepare its deck, and follow other instructions on its board. Finally, they form a resource market by choosing 3 gem stacks, 2 artifact stacks, and 4 spell stacks. Each pile contains multiple copies of the same card.

Gameplay

The order of turns in the game is constantly changing. It is determined by the turn order deck. At the beginning of the game and after the end of each player`s or monster`s turn, a card must be drawn from the turn order deck to determine who will take the next turn. This card is then placed on top of the discard pile of turn order cards. If the turn order deck runs out, the discard pile must be shuffled and a new deck formed.

Player`s Turn

A player`s turn consists of the following phases:

1. Activation Phase

A player may activate any of the prepared spells in open portals. A player must activate all prepared spells in closed portals. When a spell is activated, it is placed on top of its discard pile. Most activated spells deal damage to minions and the monster.

2. Main Phase

A player may perform these actions in any order, as many times as they wish:

• Play a gem or artifact card. Most often, the player receives ether after this.
• Get a card. The player takes a card from the resource market, spending the amount of ether indicated in the upper right corner of the card. He puts the received card in his discard pile.
• Get energy. For 2 ether, you can get 1 energy token.
• Strengthen the portal. After spending the specified amount of ether, the player turns the selected portal 90 degrees clockwise.
• Open the portal. After spending the specified amount of ether, the player immediately opens the portal by turning its token  open side up.
• Prepare a spell in the portal. The player places a card from his hand into a portal that has been opened or strengthened during this turn.
• Apply the “While Prepared” effect. This is the effect of a prepared spell card that is above the portal.
• Apply the “TO DISPOSE” effect. The player may discard a monster card by fulfilling the “TO DISPOSE” condition specified on it.

3. Draw Phase

The player places all gem and artifact cards played this turn on top of his discard pile in any order. He keeps any unplayed cards in his hand. He then draws cards from the top of his deck until he has 5 cards. If the deck is empty, the player simply FLIPS their discard pile, creating a new deck. Shuffling their discard pile is not allowed in this game.

Monster`s Turn

1. Main Phase

Players apply the effects of all the cards and power cards in the game in the order they appear (oldest to newest). They apply all effects "CONSTANTLY". They must remove 1 power token from each power card. If the last power token is removed from a card, apply its effect described after the words «POWER X», and then discard the card.

2. Draw Phase

Players draw 1 card from the monster deck.

• If it is an attack card, apply its effect immediately and discard it.
• If it is a follower card or power card, place the appropriate number of life or power tokens on it. Players apply all effects described after the words «IMMEDIATELY» on the card.

Game End

The game ends when the victory or defeat condition is met. 

Players win if:

• at the end of any turn, the monster has no cards in the deck, no buff cards, and no power cards in play.
• the monster`s life value is 0.

Players lose if:

• all players are exhausted (all have 0 life).
• Gravehold`s life value is 0.

In addition, the monster may have special victory conditions, as indicated on its board.