Designer: Mauro Chiabotto (Samhain)

Artists: Skeleton Crew, Davide Corsi (Kingsburg 2nd Edition, Way of the Panda, Xi’an)

Publisher: Pendragon Game Studio (Captain Sonar, Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, Dogs of War, Evolution, Imperial Settlers, This War of Mine: The Board Game, Tokaido)

Genre/Mechanisms: card selection, hand management, resource management, worker placement

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Last Aurora is already fully-funded.  In fact, pledges currently total more than 3.5x the initial funding goal.

Player Count: 2-4

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: high

What It’s About: A post-apocalyptic game of exploration, combat, and escape, set in a frozen wasteland and featuring resource management and worker placement.

How It Works: Over a series of rounds, players try to catch up to the Aurora before it sails off without them. Each round, the ship sails a little further down the coast, until it leaves completely after the last round. A round is comprised of the following phases: Exploration, Rest, Movement, Fire Weapons, and End of Round. Exploring happens in reverse turn order, and has players choosing cards in the Exploration Zone using Survivor Cards from their Active Zone. Typically this involves Gathering Resources, Improving the Colony, Recruiting a Survivor, Resolving an Encounter, Performing a Bonus Action, or Passing. Resting allows Survivors to be fed. Movement is probably self-explanatory, although it does require fuel to move a vehicle. In Fire Weapons, players resolve combat and the attacks of all revealed Enemies. In End of Round, the Aurora advances and the Exploration Zone is reset. At the end of the game, players gain Fame Points for the following: 1 Fame Point for each space the player’s Convoy is ahead of the last-place player, Fame Points from the Fame Track (which tracks Fame points gained and lost over the course of the game), 1 Fame Point for each unused object, Fame Points shown in undamaged Cargo boxes, 1 Fame Point for each uncontaminated Survivor card (assuming at least 1 player has reached the Aurora, and if not, 1 Fame Point for each undamaged Convoy card). The player with the most Fame Points wins!

Comparisons:  This seems to bear many comparisons, at least in theme, to Waste Knights, which ran a Kickstarter for its Second Edition back in the spring. Although where that game is a mostly a narrative adventure, Last Aurora is more of an engine-builder and efficiency race. In that sense, it’s not dissimilar to Scythe, but Last Aurora focuses more on worker placement and card-play, whereas Scythe is all about action selection. Lastly, Last Aurora gets a lot of mileage from it’s player board and vehicle layout and associated vehicle combat. The tableau-building has a few comparisons with Imperial Settlers and 51st State, but the combat element transforms it into something wholly unique.

What Should I Pledge?:
$44 Last Aurora Core Pledge

Add-Ons:
$21 Neoprene Playmat
$28 Project Athena Expansion
$6 Mutant Set, 12-card mini-expansion
$50 All-In Set: bundle including all of the above 3 Add-Ons

KS Exclusives:
Many of the stretch goals component upgrades are KS exclusive, including: the 8 plastic trucks, the 14 plastic fuel tokens, the 10 plastic food tokens, the 10 plastic ammo tokens, the 32 plastic survivor tokens, the 5 plastic object tokens, and the plastic Aurora. Also Kickstarter-exclusive are: the Spot UV on the box, Solo Mode with the Bot Board and Bot Deck, the 8 Role Cards and asymmetrical gameplay, two extra Event Cards, two extra Character Cards, an extra Truck Card, and an extra Device Card.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S. you’re looking at $44 for the Core Pledge, $50 for the All-In Add-On Set Bundle, and $14 in shipping for a grand total of $108.

Last Aurora completes its Kickstarter on Wednesday, July 3rd and tentatively ships in February 2020.