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Afterlight Station

Rebuild the refuge before the final storm.

A strategic board game for two to four commanders. Buy salvaged modules from a shared market, dock them pod by pod around your Command Core, and place sealed bulkheads to face the sun before the supply runs out.

Learn to playRead the rules
Station dial, sample matchA white station dial seen from above. Sector numbers 0 to 9 run clockwise around the rim; a red-hatched window marks the five sunward lanes, sectors 8, 9, 0, 1 and 2. The sample station has 11 pods on three rings around the pentagonal Command Core, which is the dial's rivet. A clear acetate cursor pivots on the rivet and reads one sector at a time; the board and the sun stay fixed.HABLABOBSREADCKGRNGRNHABLABREADCK

Sector1Sunward lane

Frontier
Greenhouse, outer ring
Shield
Screened. 2 Renown at every storm; the lane spans 3 rings
Modules
LAB innerDCK middleGRN outer

Sample match · this station screens 3 of 5 sunward lanes for 5 Renown at every storm.

One action per turn.

Acquire credits, purchase a module, or reconfigure your station. Then play passes. There are no reactions, no attacks and no surprise effects, so the same rules run live around a table or asynchronously over days.

Read one action

Acquire credits

Take one face-up credit of any value, or up to three from different guilds whose values total 7 or less. The display then refills to six.

  • Fabrication 3Taken
  • Energy 1Taken
  • Research 5
  • Energy 4
  • Fabrication 2
  • Research 2Taken

Sample matchFabrication 3, Energy 1 and Research 2: three guilds, 6 of the 7 allowed. Or Research 5 on its own.

Purchase a module

  1. Berth 1: Observatory. Sold by the Energy guild, printed cost 6, one Drift discount. Effective cost 5.
  2. Pay Energy 2 + Energy 3 = 5. That is exact, so take one displayed credit valued 3 or less.
  3. Install at sector 2, inner ring. Its ports open corridors to the Laboratory and the Greenhouse: +2 Synergy. Its outward bulkhead screens lane 2.
Loupe over sectors 1 to 3 of the sample station. The new Observatory sits at sector 2, inner ring, joined by red-traced corridors to the Laboratory in sector 1 and the Greenhouse in sector 3.SUNWARDLEEWARD0123456789HABLABOBSREADCKGRNGRNHABLABREADCKOBS+2
Sample match · the purchase, read through a loupe

Reconfigure the station

Install one module from your Dry Dock, move one station module into it, or exchange the two. The incoming module takes the exact vacated node, and the whole station must still pass every placement rule. Docked modules do not score.

  1. Observatory Fabrication · cost 5
  2. Empty slot
  3. Empty slot
  4. Empty slot

Six departments share the rings.

Sixty modules, ten in each department. Every pod shows its department, its guild, its salvage cost and four fixed sockets. Spread a department across the rings and it counts for more at every storm.

OBS Observatory

Find a way through the aftermath.

Ten modules, printed costs

  1. 4
  2. 5
  3. 5
  4. 6
  5. 6
  6. 7
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10

Sample match1 installed across 1 ring: Readiness 1 + 2 × 0 = 1.

REA Reactor

Keep the refuge alive.

Ten modules, printed costs

  1. 4
  2. 5
  3. 5
  4. 6
  5. 6
  6. 7
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10

Sample match2 installed across 2 rings: Readiness 2 + 2 × 1 = 4.

LAB Laboratory

Turn salvage into knowledge.

Ten modules, printed costs

  1. 4
  2. 5
  3. 5
  4. 6
  5. 6
  6. 7
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10

Sample match2 installed across 2 rings: Readiness 2 + 2 × 1 = 4.

GRN Greenhouse

Make a future worth protecting.

Ten modules, printed costs

  1. 4
  2. 5
  3. 5
  4. 6
  5. 6
  6. 7
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10

Sample match2 installed across 2 rings: Readiness 2 + 2 × 1 = 4.

HAB Habitation

Give the survivors a place to stay.

Ten modules, printed costs

  1. 4
  2. 5
  3. 5
  4. 6
  5. 6
  6. 7
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10

Sample match2 installed across 2 rings: Readiness 2 + 2 × 1 = 4.

DCK Dock

Keep the salvage moving.

Ten modules, printed costs

  1. 4
  2. 5
  3. 5
  4. 6
  5. 6
  6. 7
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10

Sample match2 installed across 2 rings: Readiness 2 + 2 × 1 = 4.

Choose a department

Three storms, on a schedule everyone can see.

Storms are timed by purchases, not rounds. Every module bought turns the counter one tick. At each storm, the six departments are ranked by Readiness, then every commander's sunward lanes are inspected.

  1. Storm I

    After the 20th purchase

    Readiness awards: 4 first

  2. Storm II

    After the 40th purchase

    Readiness awards: 7 first3 second

  3. The Final Storm

    When the supply runs out

    Readiness awards: 10 first6 second3 third

Two players remove twelve modules, so their storms strike at 16 and 32.

Scroll to turn the dial.

Purchase31of 60

Storm dial: sixty purchase ticks. Storm I at 20 purchases awards first place 4. Storm II at 40 awards 7 and 3. The Final Storm, when the supply runs out, awards 10, 6 and 3.60510152025303540455055STORM I4STORM II7 · 3THE FINAL STORM10 · 6 · 3ONE TICK PER MODULE BOUGHT

Sample match, purchase 31: Storm I has resolved. Storm II strikes after the 40th purchase.

Renown, three ways. Never lost.

Readiness and the Storm Shield score at every storm. Synergy scores the moment a module is installed. Once scored, Renown stays.

The sunward half of the sample station. Lane 8 is empty and open, 0. Lane 9 is screened by an Observatory, 1. Lanes 0 and 1 are screened and span two and three rings, 2 each. Lane 2 is empty and open, 0. Total 5.0+1+2+20HABLABOBSREADCKGRNGRNHABLABREADCK

Storm Shield

Inspect the five sunward lanes. A lane is screened when its outermost pod presents a sealed bulkhead to the sun: 1 Renown, plus 1 if the lane holds modules in at least two rings.

Sample match 0 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 0 = 5 at every storm.

Two stations compared, split by a red hairline. Left: four Laboratory modules, all in the inner ring, Readiness 4. Right: three Laboratory modules across the inner and middle rings, Readiness 5.LABLABLABLABLABLABLAB454 + 2 × 03 + 2 × 1

Department Readiness

M + 2 × (R − 1)

M counts your installed modules in a department, R the rings they occupy. Three Laboratories across two rings outrank four in one ring.

Synergy scale with three detents: 0 for fewer than two qualifying neighbours, 2 for two or more, 3 when they span three departments. The cursor rests on 2, the sample purchase.0+2+3QUALIFYING NEIGHBOURSLAB + GRN

Synergy

When a module is installed, count the modules its corridors reach from other departments. Fewer than two score nothing; two or more score 2 Renown; three departments score 3. Each module scores it once.

Sample match The berth 1 Observatory reaches a Laboratory and a Greenhouse: +2.

Sample match · the market, read at berth 1

  1. Berth 1Observatory · EnergyPrinted 6 · Drift −1Pay 5
  2. Berth 2Reactor · FabricationPrinted 9Pay 9
  3. Berth 3Greenhouse · ResearchPrinted 4 · Drift −2Pay 2
  4. Berth 4Dock · ResearchPrinted 7Pay 7
  5. Berth 5Habitation · FabricationPrinted 5Pay 5

Five berths. Pay exactly, take a credit.

Salvage guilds bring modules to a shared market of five berths. A module can only be bought with its own guild's credits, so the card another commander takes can matter as much as the module they leave behind.

Energy 2Energy 35

Exact payment for the berth 1 Observatory, effective cost 5. Take one displayed credit valued 3 or less, then the turn ends.

Overpay and the excess is lost. A module nobody buys gains a Drift discount at the end of each full round, down to two off; after that it rotates out to the bottom of the supply.

Learn the dial before the first storm.

Start with turns and actions, then read every rule, timing detail and score. Rules version 3.

Learn to playRead the full rules
  • 2–4 commanders
  • 45–60 minutes, about
  • 3 storms
  • 0 attacks
  • Live or asynchronous, identical rules