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Alien Artifacts

#181293BGG ↗

2017 · 2-5 players · 60min · weight 2.89 · 2,958 ratings

v2 v3

BGG raw

ID
181293
Name
Alien Artifacts
Year
2017
Rank
1459
Min players
2
Max players
5
Playing time
60
Min playtime
60
Max playtime
60
Avg weight
2.8904
Num weights
73
Bayes avg
6.05514
Average
6.52643
Users rated
2958
Num owned
5463
Wanting
51
Wishing
729
Num comments
761
Fetched at
Sat Apr 25 2026 16:17:11 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Mechanisms (4)
Hand ManagementOpen DraftingSet CollectionVariable Phase Order
Categories (3)
Card GameScience FictionSpace Exploration
Description (1635 chars)

Game description from the publisher: Alien Artifacts is a 4X-style card game in which you play as an interplanetary faction, sending your research vessels into uncharted space to expand your knowledge and power. Build powerful ships, develop new technologies, and explore distant planets for anything — or anyone — you can exploit. Alien Artifacts is built on a Resource engine - each turn you will have 3 Resource cards in your hand and you will decide how best to spend them. Each resource card has two different resource types for you to use. You can only use one side and only two cards per turn! Using these resources, you will build Ships, develop Technology, discover Planets, or Trade for currency! New Ships allow you to attack the aliens and gain their valuable artifacts which provide huge bonuses. With each new Technology card in your Empire, you will have access to more actions, bonuses, and scoring opportunities. Each Planet you explore provides valuable resources for future actions. There are two sides to each of these cards, and as you build them you will decide: Logistics - play cards on this side to gain ongoing bonuses that will make your Empire stronger and help you build faster. Operational - play this side to gain a new way to score victory points (and yes, you will be able to activate your operations more than once, if you play well). Manage your Resources, build the right cards, make wise choices. Win! Alien Artifacts provides a true 4X experience in under an hour. With over two hundred cards, Alien Artifacts offers players many scoring strategies and great replay-ability.

LLM v2 (wide)

Not yet enriched at v2 (wide pass).

LLM v3 (deep)

Not yet enriched at v3 (deep pass).