Easy How to Play Guide on Black Angel Board game rules
In this hopefully easy to read how to play online guide of the Black Angel Board Game rules, I will cover the essential multiplayer rules. The solo variant will be available at a later stage.
Black Angel is a science-fiction board game based on the following:
- Earth is now inhabitable, and humans need to find a new planet
- Different nations have worked together to build intergalactic frigate, The Black Angel
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Robots developed by various countries control The Black Angel
- Players take on the role of each AI and compete to make the best optimal decisions to:
- Help the Black Angel reach the Planet Spes (planet identified to be suitable for humans)
- Conduct missions to uncover new technology from Alien species living in the galaxy
- Defend against the Ravagers who seek to destroy The Black Angel
- VP is rewarded for various decisions and actions. Player with the highest VP wins.
Game Summary, Video How to Plays, Reviews
Find out about Black Angel
Players: 1 to 4 | Game duration from: 60 mins | Game Complexity: HIGH
What is the goal?
Each of you will take on the role of the AI and compete to earn the most VP.
The Black Angel is approaching Spes, a planet that meets all the requirements for the future development of the human race. As you make this approach, you need to make decisions to:
- engage the alien species in the galaxy and discover new tech,
- defend against the dreaded Ravagers, who seek to destroy you and the Black Angel
- ensure the Black Angel reaches Spes safely
These decisions will determine the amount of VP you earn.
Game components
In this section, I will give an overview of the 3 key areas where the game action takes place.
Black Angel Board
All the action that happens on your intergalactic frigate.
- Break room (robots are stored here)
- Player Compartments (standard area)
- Player Compartments (high-security area)
- Workstations (orange, grey and green)
- Die Supply areas (orange grey and green)
- The 6 actions
- Location for Ravager Cards
- Space for damage cubes
- Space for Advanced Technology tiles
- Technology Tile display
- VP track
- The coloured dice determine the number and type of actions you can take. Throughout the game, dice become available when you move them from the supply to your compartments (see 2 and 3)
- Technology tile display (see 10) lists the available technologies you can uncover upon completing missions
- During course of the game, you will face attacks from Ravagers. The damage you get will be reflected by the damage cubes and Ravager cards (see 7 and 8)
Space Board
Space board covers the action and movement of the Black Angel and its ships in space.
- Hex with Melurien planet
- Hex with Tsoth ships
- Hex with Xhavit station
- Hex with asteroid field
- Hex with comet (used for the solo game)
- Hex with Ravager ship
Outside the Black Angel,
- you will contact with the different Alien races to discover Alien technology (Melurien, Tsoth, Xhavit) You will make contact by launching and moving ships across the galaxy.
- there will be Asteroid fields that get in the way and Ravagers that seek to attack you.
- you will also be steering the Black Angel to its destination, the planet Spes.
Player Board
Your player board stores your resources, debris (used to activate technology) and ships (you launch them into space to explore the space board)
During the game, you will manage your technology advancement through your player board
- Storage area (resources, debris, ships)
- Technology grid (3 X 3 grid)
- Colour arrows (technology)
- Black arrows (Advanced technology)
- Spaces for Starting Technology Tiles
- Spaces for ejected Advanced Technology Tiles
- Spaces to play a card
- Spaces for ejected Mission cards
Game setup
Now, here’s an overview of the setup.
- Place Black Angel Main Board in middle of the table
- Sort dice by their colours and place on supply area on the Black Angel game board
Note:
- For 3 player game, use only 5 dice per colour
- For 2 player game, use 4 dice per colour
- Tile the Space strips in a chevron-shaped line pointed toward the Black Angel board
- Neither the order of the strips, nor the numbers on them, nor which side of any given strip is face-up matters.
Setup the Black Angel Figurine
Place the Black Angel Frigate figurine on the middle hex of the center strip
- Place the Planet Spes Tile on the number of the strip furthest from the Black Angel game board
- It can be placed on either side (left or right) of the strip
- Sort Technology tiles according to colour, standard side up (face-up icon in upper left corner)
- Shuffle each colour and place them in 3 face-up stacks beside Black Angel game board
- Draw 1 Technology tile of each colour and place randomly on 1st 3 spaces of the display
Advanced Technology Tiles
- Shuffle Advanced Technology tiles and place face-down beside game board
- Place 1 face-up tile on each of the Advanced Tech slots on the game board
- Sort the Mission cards according to their colour (orange, gray, green), then shuffle each colour and place each deck near the Black Angel game board
- Shuffle the Ravager cards face-down to form a deck near Black Angel game board
- Draw 1st card from the Ravager deck, place it face-up on the slot beside the Black Angel’s action indicated on the card (actions numbered 1-6).
- Place a damage cube on the 1st damage space of that action.
- Repeat this for a 2nd Ravager card. If same location is targeted as the 1st card, place atop the 1st card. Offset a little, and place Damage cube on action’s 2nd damage space.
Note: Remove 6 Ravager cards from this deck for a 3 player game; remove 12 Ravager cards for a 2 player game.
- Take your choice of player board and place before you.
- Take the 2 discs of your colour. Place one on the 5 VP space on the score track.
- Claim the player compartment closest to where you sit and place a 2nd disc on it. You are now the owner of this compartment.
Player with Pink disc places it in his compartment - Take 8 robots of your colour. Place 5 of them in the Black Angel’s break room.
All 3 players have placed their robots in the break room - Place 1 in each of the 3 workstations. Place your other 8 robots in supply.
Player with Pink disc places it in his compartment 
All 3 players have placed their robots in the break room- Randomly place the 3 Starting Tech tiles of your colour face-up on the player board’s highlighted slots.
- Take 1 Mission card of each colour and 1 Ravager Card into your hand.
- Take 1 resource, 1 Damage/Debris cube, and 1 ship and place them in corresponding player board’s storage areas.
- Finish setup by choosing a 1st player who takes 1st player token
- Give each player the player aid with the number corresponding to their position in turn order (first player, then clockwise)
- In turn order, each player rolls a die of each colour from the supply areas; place your 3 dice in the standard area of your compartment
Reserved die: Your compartment comprises two areas: a standard area and a high-security area. A die placed in your high-security area is “reserved”, which means that no one else can buy it to use it.
During setup, the 3rd and 4th player can slide a die of their choice from their standard area to their high-security area for free. Over the course of the game, you also will have opportunities to reserve a die. - Each of you (except the 1st player) then receives and advantage indicated in the upper right hand corner of your player aid, which depends on your position in turn order.
- For 2 player game, see the adjustments section.
Gameplay
- A Black Angel game is played over a series of rounds.
- Each player in clockwise order gets one turn.
- On your turn, choose one of two sequences and resolve its steps
(note: if you are unable to perform sequence A, you must perform sequence B)
Sequence A:
Sequence A is where the action occurs. You will decide on actions to take such as launching ships from the Black Angel to explore the galaxy, engaging in missions to discover new technology, repairing damage to the Black Angel and attacking the Ravagers. However, the type of actions you can take will be determined by the value and colour of dice available for you to choose.
- Play a card around your player board (optional)
- Perform an action with 1 chosen die either on:
- the Black Angel board
- 6 actions available, 2 of each colour. Chosen die\’s colour must match the action\’s colour
- the Space board
- the Black Angel board
- Draw a card matching chosen die\’s colour, and put the die in its supply
Sequence B:
Sequence B involves replenishing the dice available for your future actions. You will also move the Black Angel towards Spes.
- Reroll your dice
- Reset your player board
- Advance the Black Angel towards Spes
How do you win?
When either of the following situations occurs, finish the round in progress, and then play one final round:
• The Black Angel figurine arrives on Spes (during Sequence B).
• The Ravager card deck becomes empty (during Sequence A).
After the final round is complete, tally your scores as follows:
- add the VP earned from Advanced Technology tiles.
- Maximum of 4 VP for:
- Each Advanced Technology tile that was not ejected from your grid, and
- each one that was ejected after your slots were all three full
- Each of the three ejected Advanced Technology tiles in your three spaces has a maximum of 4 VP plus 2 VP per recovered card of the colour corresponding to its space.
- Maximum of 4 VP for:
- If the Black Angel has reached planet Spes, you can each exchange robots (from the Black Angel’s break room) / resources/ ships (from your storage area) you still have for VP
- Each \”set\” of 2 things of any type(s) is worth 1 VP (add them all together before converting them 2:1 into VP, rounded down).
- If the Black Angel has not reached planet Spes, then robots, resources, and ships are not worth any VP.
The player with the most VP wins. In a tie, the tied players share the victory.
2 Player Game
During setup:
- place 1 robot of an unused colour in each workstation.
- The first player rolls the neutral player’s dice and places them in a compartment not used by either of the 2 players.
Over the course of the game, you can buy a die from the neutral player:
- pay the resources to the supply
- the neutral player’s dice cannot be flipped over.
Each time a player performs Sequence B, that player must also manage the neutral player’s dice. The neutral player’s dice with a value of 1, 2, or 3 stay in the neutral player’s compartment; those of value 0 (star) return to their respective supplies.
Then, for each robot the neutral player has in a workstation, if there is no die of this colour in the neutral’s player compartment, roll a die of that colour from the supply.
Whenever a player adds a robot to a workstation, remove the neutral player’s robot there (if any) from the game. As a result, over the course of the game, it is possible that the neutral player ends up with no more robots in workstations, and thus there will be no more need to roll dice for the neutral player.
