Aether Captains: Capek Golems (2011)

Capek Golems is a card game for two players who take on the roles of competing engineer-alchemists trying to create Capek Golems, creatures who are an amalgam of steampunk technology and biological raw materials. Players will be using cards to buy scientific inquiry and field research resources racing to activate their golems before the tide of public outrage turns against them. A Public Outrage Track is used for this. If this track reaches (25) both players will lose, so they must work cooperatively to keep the public at ease about their experiments while still competing against each other.

Requirements:
For this game you’ll need the deck of 54 cards consisting of:

• 12 Capek Golem body part cards, 6 per player
• 39 game cards showing areas of scientific inquiry, gold coins and field research journal entries
• 3 cards which make up the Auction House and Public Outrage Track
• 40 markers for the Capek Golem cards (eurocubes work well) [Alternately you can use 6d6 per player, placing one die on each Golem card and rotating the die up each time a resource is gained towards the specified total.] and one additional marker for the Public Outrage Track

To win a player must activate all six parts of their Capek Golem. Activating a single card includes having all Field Research resources as well as playing one set of Scientific Inquiry cards matching the number total on one of the two colored circular icons. If the Public Outrage Track ever reaches (25) both players lose the game.

Play:
A player may do any of the following actions but may do each action only once during that turn:
1. Buy cards from the Auction Area and play them immediately or place it in your hand.
Purchase a single card at its Auction value by discarding cards with an equal or greater number of gold coins. Then discard it immediately and take Field Research resources as indicated, and move the token up or down the Public Outrage Track, or place the card in your hand and use it later on for its gold value or to complete a Scientific Inquiry set. Repeat buying a card as desired.

2. Discard a set of Scientific Inquiry cards and mark gained resources on your Capek Golem Cards.
Discarding a completed set, matching both a color and number as indicated on a Capek Golem card, allows you to place a marker in that resource area, helping to activate that card. You can choose either of the two color types to collect for a set, but you cannot make a set with a mix of both colors. There are 3 special wild cards in the game which may be used in any set and can take the place of one or two cards (as marked). If you use one of these cards in a Scientific Inquiry set, you must move the token on the Public Outrage Track as indicated.

3. Discard one card to draw two new cards from the Draw Pile.
A player may discard any one card from his hand to draw two new cards from the Draw Pile.

Additional Rules of Play:
If at the start of a player’s turn the player has fewer than two cards in hand, they should draw two cards from the Draw Pile before completing any of the three actions.

If the Draw Pile is ever exhausted, shuffle the Discard Pile and create a new Draw Pile.

If at any time the marker is moved to the (25) space on the Public Outrage Track the game ends immediately and both players lose.

Winner of the BGG Quick Print and Play Design Challenge