Components
- 36 Element Cards
- 12 Book Cards
- 6 Ship Tokens
- 3 Pixie Tokens
- 6 Dice
- Instructions
Expansions
- 1 Hellkite Pawn
- 1 Flagship Token
- 6 Factory Cards
- 85 Expansion Cards
Object of the Game
You are an air-shipwright: builder of flying machines used by the dreams to traverse the skies of the Oniverse! You have no equal when it comes to drafting the best blueprints, locating the finest construction materials, and recruiting the most experienced crews.
The Archonts have given you a weighty charge: to build a new fleet, more beautiful than any that has ever sailed the skies. You must complete this prestigious task before your resources are exhausted!
Aerion is a solo/cooperative game for one to two players. Your goal is to build six airships, each represented by a ship token. Each ship must be built using blueprints, materials, and crew that you must acquire each turn by rolling dice. To get the die results you need, you can reroll one or more of your dice. However, each reroll has a cost that brings you closer to losing the game!
You win the game by building the six ships before all the cards are discarded.
Six expansions are also included. Each expansion is independent from the others, and they can be freely combined. The base game and the expansion have identifying patterns at the bottom of the corresponding cards.
Base Game: Setup
These rules describe setup and gameplay for the solo game, without expansions.
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Place the six Ship tokens on the table, with the Project side faceup. Take the six dice.
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Place the three Pixie tokens next to the Ships.
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Gather the 48 Resource cards with the base game indicator at the bottom of the cards and separate them into six different decks based on the letter combinations on the back of each card.
Shuffle each deck separately. Place the six decks on the table, leaving room behind each for a discard pile. Reveal the top card of each deck and place those cards faceup in front of the decks.
The six faceup cards form the Display. Leave room under the Display for four separate areas: two Workshops, one Pulpit and one Reserve.
Key Concepts
In Aerion, you roll specific combinations of die results to take cards from the Display and combine them to build Ships. On your turn, you roll the dice and take Resource cards from the Display.
There are two types of Resource cards: Element cards are used to build Ships, while Book cards provide beneficial effects to help you accomplish your goal.
Elements: Blueprints, Materials, and Crew
There are three Elements needed to build each Ship: one Blueprint, one Material, and one Crew, shown on the Project side of each Ship token. Each of these Element cards shows its own icon in each of the top corners.
The bottom corners of each card show the icons of the other Element cards you can combine it with to build a Ship.
Workshops
You place the Element cards you acquire in your Workshops as you work towards completing the Ships. Each Workshop can store up to three cards: one Blueprint, one Material, and one Crew.
Each Workshop can be used to build only one specific Ship at a time. When placing Element cards, the Blueprint and Material cards must be placed before the Crew card can be placed.
The Crew must be placed last. The Blueprint and Material cards can be placed in any order.
Books
You place the Book cards you acquire in your Pulpit. Your Pulpit can store only one Book card at a time. Book cards in your Pulpit can be discarded for different effects during your turn:
During the Roll phase of your turn, you can discard a Book card to reroll any number of dice up to three times. You can reroll different dice each time.
During the Acquire phase of your turn, you can discard a Book card to
add an acquired Element card (not a Book card) to your Reserve if you cannot, or do not want to, place it in one of your Workshops.
During any phase, you can discard a Book card to take up to two discarded Element cards (not Book cards) from the same discard pile and place them on top of their original deck in any order.
Reserve
The Reserve stores Element cards through the use of Book cards. The Reserve can store any number of Element cards. You can move Element cards from your Reserve to your Workshops at any time.
Pixies
Pixies can be used to modify your rolls. After rolling dice, you can spend a Pixie to change one die to the number of your choice. You can spend any number of Pixies during a single Phase 1: Roll. Return spent Pixies to the box.
Game Play
Aerion is played over a series of turns, each consisting of three phases:
- Roll
- Acquire
- Replenish
1. Roll
Roll the six dice. The top of each Resource card shows the roll needed to acquire it, such as two pair or four of a kind.
The object during Phase 1: Roll is to roll the result necessary to take a Resource card you need from the Display.
If there is a card in the Display that you can acquire with your roll, you can proceed to Phase 2: Acquire.
Rerolling
If your roll does not allow you to acquire one of the cards in the Display, or if you want to try to acquire a card that your current roll does not allow you to acquire, discard one card from the Display to reroll any number of dice.
Each deck has its own discard pile above to it; place the discarded card faceup in the corresponding discard pile. You can look through the discard piles at any time.
You can repeat this multiple times, as long as there are cards left in the Display. You can reroll any combination of dice each time you reroll. You must continue to discard cards until you can acquire a card, or until there is only one card remaining in the Display.
If there is only one card remaining in the Display, and you cannot or do not want to acquire it, discard that card and proceed directly to Phase 3: Replenish, skipping Phase 2: Acquire.
You have the Glider blueprint card and Helix material card in one of your Workshops and want to acquire the Incubi crew card to complete the Glider. There is an Incubi crew card available in the Display, which requires AA+BB to acquire (two pairs).
You roll the six dice and get 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, which will not allow you to acquire that crew card. You discard a card from the Display to reroll the 2, 3, 4, and 5, and two of these dice roll 2's.
You now have two 2's and two 5's, so you continue to Phase 2: Acquire to acquire the Incubi crew card.
Do not reveal new cards to replace discarded ones. Cards in the Display are replaced only during Phase 3: Replenish.
Keep in mind that every time you discard a card to reroll, the number of cards available this turn decreases, and you move closer to defeat.
2. Acquire
Choose and take one Resource card in the Display that you can acquire with your roll. Place that card based on the card type:
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Element
Place an Element card in one of your Workshops. If you cannot or do not want to place that Element card in one of your Workshops, you can discard a Book card from your Pulpit to place it in your Reserve. Otherwise, immediately discard the acquired Element card.
When you have acquired the three Elements needed to complete an unbuilt ship in one of your Workshops (Blueprint, Material and, lastly, Crew), flip that Ship to its Flying side and discard the three Element cards from that Workshop.
Place discarded cards in the discard pile of their original deck.
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Book
Place the Book card in your Pulpit, if possible. If there is already a Book card in your Pulpit, you can discard it to retrieve two discarded Element cards from one discard pile, then place the newly acquired Book card in the Pulpit.
Some rolls allow you to choose between multiple cards in the Display. You can acquire only one card during a single Phase 2: Acquire.
Note that sets of results do not need do be different (for example, AA+BB could be two pairs of the same number), but the A+B+C+D+E result is a set of dice in numerical order, either from 1 to 5 or from 2 to 6.
3. Replenish
For every deck without a card in the Display, reveal the top card of that deck and place it faceup in front of the deck to add that card to the Display. If there are no cards remaining in a deck, that deck remains empty for the rest of the game.
Any cards remaining in the Display are not replaced. Cards stay in the Display until they are discarded or acquired.
If you discard a Book card to retrieve cards from a discard pile, and that deck has no cards remaining, the retrieved cards form the corresponding deck.
End of the Game
If all six Ships are completed by flipping them to their Flying sides, you win the game! If all six Resource decks and the Display are empty, you lose the game.
Increasing the Difficulty
For a more difficult game, return one, two, or three Pixies to the box during setup.
Rules for Two Players
The two-player game follows the normal rules, with the following exceptions:
Setup
Each player randomly takes three Ship tokens. The most experienced player takes the first turn.
Players alternate taking turns and going through the three phases, as in the solo game.
Each player has one Pulpit, one Reserve and one Workshop. Both players also share a third common Workshop that they can both place cards in.
Game Play
You cannot place cards into the other player's Workshop, Pulpit, or Reserve. Both players can place Element cards in the common Workshop, including cards from their Reserves.
In order to build a Ship in the common Workshop, the player who has the Ship token must add the Crew card to complete the Ship.
Each player must build their own three Ships. If a player would build a Ship and does not have the corresponding token, nothing happens: the Element cards are discarded but no Ship token is flipped.
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