Voidfall

Voidfall

Long ago, the Voidborn settled in the minds of the leaders and scholars of a young human civilisation. With the knowledge they whispered, that civilisation grew into the Domineum, a vast star empire ruled by House Novarchon. But the Voidborn bided their time. Once the empire was large enough, they tore reality open. That disaster has been known ever since as the Voidfall. An organic plague spread through people, machines and ships, and the heart of the empire turned against the rest of humanity.

You lead one of the Great Houses that remain. Reclaim what is left of the Domineum, drive back the Voidborn and make sure your house shapes the new empire.

Voidfall: a solid Euro

Voidfall is a space 4X game with the heart of a Euro: you explore, expand, exploit and fight, but luck hardly plays a part. It was designed by Dávid Turczi and Nigel Buckle and is published by Mindclash Games.

A game consists of three cycles. Each cycle brings a galactic event that shakes things up, a new way to score points and a fixed number of focus cards. Everything revolves around those cards. Each card shows three actions, and you choose two of them. That is how you develop technologies, advance on your own house's three tracks, manage the population and production of your sectors and conquer new territory with up to five types of fleet.

Do you grow wide by taking lots of sectors, or build a small but highly specialised empire? Both work. Combat uses no dice, so you know in advance what an attack will cost, and nobody is knocked out of the game halfway through.

You play with 1 to 4 players aged 15 and up. Alone or together you take on the Voidborn; in the competitive game you vie for influence in the Domineum, while the Voidborn stay on the board as a neutral enemy. Expect a long, well-filled evening of play.

How to play Voidfall

You can find the Voidfall rules here (Dropbox, English)