Description

Description from the publisher:

In the world after the six-second war, with the Earth decimated and resources scarce, vast, mobile, 'Traction Cities' prowl the Hunting Grounds for smaller prey in a system of 'Municipal Darwinism'.

These colossal city-states scour the barren landscape for scraps that can be used to maintain their lives aboard the hulking metallic behemoth, thinking nothing of devouring another and enslaving its people in its 'Gut'.

Meanwhile shady merchants and traders flit between traction cities and the floating city, Airhaven, providing information, 'Old Tech' and goods to feed the ever hungrier Traction Cities.

In Mortal Engines: The Board Game, players each take control of one of the monstrous Traction Cities, attempting to scrabble together sufficient resources to maintain their population and survive another year in this bleak world, while also fending off attacks by piratical scavengers, ensuring rival cities don't eat up all the hamlets, and managing the vast systems that fuel the city's movement across the Hunting Grounds.

Players must beware that once the dwindling resources of the Hunting Grounds are depleted, they'll have to turn on each other to feed, or risk breaking against the walls of the 'Anti Traction League'.

Players begin with one of the great cities of the Hunting Grounds, starting out with a set of basic resources, scrap metal, fuel, workers, and a basic city-engine that produces the things a Traction City needs to survive, more food, movement, and research into mysterious 'old tech' that may produce a way to bring back the Traction Cities from the brink of extinction.

Through the game players simultaneously set the course of their cities, restricted by the amount of fuel they have and the quality of their traction engine, with a view to consuming smaller non-player hamlets or towns for more resources. They may also deploy airships to trade via Airhaven, or explore remote regions to scavenge for Old Tech that may be their salvation.

The game reaches a grand finale as players race to survive the bleak, drawn out catastrophies of the world after the six-second war.