Mint Tin Aliens
rules |
variants |
translations
other pages: BGG |
past Kickstarter |
print-n-play
Fearless
Alien
Recruits in
Training!
Earn merit awards on Earth!
Awarded Pair of Dice Paradise Wings
Go head-to-head in merit projects to see who’s the best.
Zip through the skies leaving humans to wonder if you’re real or just a weather balloon. Leave no doubt by making crop circles.
Move up the food chain and practice abductions on cows and then master human-mind control!
Your merit projects place you in a great position for eventual Earth Domination!
Game rules - setup & play
Roll dice. Higher roll goes first. Each player takes a die with 9 facing up.
Sort merit award cards into 5 piles, certificate side down.
Shuffle playing cards and deal, face-down, 4 to the first player and 5 to the second.
Place 5 playing cards face-up in a row and place remaining cards face-down in a pile.
- First player starts with up to 2 card draws. Players have 3 choices for drawing cards:
- 2 face-down cards
- 2 face-up cards*
- 1 face-up* and 1 face-down card, in that order
* - Face-down moolti-pass cards count as one draw, BUT a face-up moolti-pass counts as BOTH draws. Moolti-passes are wild and can be used as any card(s).
Immediately replace drawn face-up card with a card from the face-down pile. - Complete an award, if possible, using cards in hand.
- Only 1 award per turn:
- 2 UFO cards for sightings
- 2 crop circle cards for we’re here
- 3 cows for abduction
- 4 brains for mind control
- Any matching pair for extra credit
- Next player’s turn.
Discard played cards into a face-up pile.
If completed, take and flip the merit award card and place on your side. If you can’t complete a merit award, turn your dice down one number (9 to 8 to 7 … ).
First to complete one each of sightings, we’re here, abduction, and mind control gets two meeples. Second to complete gets one meeple. If the set of four is not completed, you don’t get a meeple.
If needed, reshuffle discarded face-up playing cards to continue until all merit awards and extra credit are completed.
If ALL face-up cards relate to awards that have all been claimed, discard ALL face-up cards and replace from face-down cards.
Scoring
Total your award points. Add to that the total number of award cards you have*, plus 1 point per meeple, plus the number showing on your die.
Most points win!
Interrupted early? End after the second player’s turn and add up your points.
* Say we have a game that uses dollar bills for game points. You have ten $1 dollar bills and I have two $5 bills. We both have 10 points. But if each bill is also worth a point—you have 20 points [(10×$1)+10=20] and I have 12 points [(2×$5)+2=12] . This rewards you for collecting smaller value merit awards. So you can win even though it looks like your card points are less.
For example,
| your cards | their cards | |
 |
 |
|
| card values | 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4 | 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5 |
| combined card points | 29 | 31 |
| number of cards | 12 | 8 |
| total points | 41 | 39 |
Mint Tin Aliens has scoring similar to the bonus points for longer routes in Ticket to Ride.
Collecting more small merit awards yields more points at the end of the game—also a little like scoring in Carcassonne.
Mint Tin Aliens is a fun gateway game to Eurogames by introducing Eurostyle scoring to friends who are new to the wonderful world of tabletop gaming.
Gameplay is quick and tense, as you race against your opponent to be the first to grab the two meeples. I played this with my mom, and we were surprised at the level of player interaction for a set-collection game. For example, you know the other player really needs that UFO card, but you scoop it up first. Moments like that turn what could be a bland game into a ton of fun!
The Geeky Gimp
Pair of Dice Paradise’s video review
by Chaz Marler (written review here)
Mint Tin Aliens contains:
- 2 extra credit cards
- 6 sightings merit awards
- 5 we’re here merit awards
- 4 abduction merit awards
- 3 mind control merit awards
- 10 UFO cards (sightings)
- 10 crop circle cards (we’re here)
- 8 cow cards (abduction)
- 8 brain cards (mind control)
- 4 moolti-passes (wild cards)
- 2 Chessex saucer dice
- 3 meeples (grays!)
- 4 instruction cards
Variants
Mint Tin Aliens solo variant - Alien Boot Camp by Nick Shaw
Excellent and entertaining single-player version. Awesome PocketMod version by Nate Johnson. PocketMod folding instructions.
Semi-cooperative variant - Pirates vs. Aliens by Nick Shaw
Combines Mint Tin Pirates with Mint Tin Aliens.
Translations
Rules in French by Francois
Excellent French translation of the base rules in a PDF.
Rules in German by Erik
Outstanding German translation of the base rules in a PDF.
Mint Tin Aliens gameplay
by Kate & me
United States Copyright Registration
