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GCT Studios: The Pioneers Program Kickstarter is Live

3 Minute Read
Oct 8 2016

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You have been chosen by the Arc to lead a new town and rebuild humanity. Plan, build, venture into the wastes or complete research on your harsh new world. Actions are limited and you need to choose wisely how to spend them. Each round players recruit a new survivor to support them, each brings their own strengths and selecting carefully is important. As is gaining turn order to allow you to choose your survivor first and make actions sooner rather than later.

Grow too quickly and you may face unwanted attention from the wastes. Balancing the size of your town with food production and defensive capabilities is essential and made all the more difficult by hordes of Viralz, the newly evolved race of Ascendants or even a raid from a fellow Pioneer.

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pioneer program gct game

The Basics:

  • 3-6 Players
  • Ages 13+
  • 45-90 Minute Playtime

The Base Box Contains: 

  • Game Board
  • 6 Player Boards
  • 54 Market Cards
  • 58 Wastes Cards
  • 12 HQ Cards
  • 6 Research Cards
  • 108 Resource Tokens
  • 42 Research Tokens
  • 6 Player and Victory Tokens
  • Round, Turn, and Alarm Tokens
  • 2 D6s

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The gameplay is simple – but don’t let that fool you, you have to think ahead and use tactics to survive in this game. Turn order is very important. The survivor players choose will give them asymmetric strengths and leadership scores that allow them to do things opponents can’t, and determines who gets to strike first.

The turn structure:

Each game round has three steps:

  • Step 1 sees players make actions and play cards. 
  • Step 2 the towns generate their production and pay any maintenance costs, discarding what they can’t afford the upkeep of. 
  • Step 3 players resolve turn order and choose a new survivor for the next round. 

Players have four possible actions:

  • Market: Buy cards from the market, the longer they stay in play the cheaper they get, but wait and someone may get in there before you! 
  • Wastes: Send a team to scavenge in the wastes, find a range of useful items or encounter stragglers and convince them to join your cause. You may even trigger events that can have wide ranging and disruptive effects. 
  • Plan: Whilst not as glamorous as other actions, taking the time to plan allows you to respond to the challenges the world can throw at you. 
  • Research: You can undertake the Arc’s research projects, allowing you to gain favour with the Arc and reap the benefits as well. 

The aim is to gain victory points. Players can earn points by performing special actions, completing research projects, and upgrading their HQ.

Preview the Rules Here

pioneer program gct

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Author: Mars Garrett
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