Gamehelpasterion

Goal

Asterion is a tile-laying game for 2 to 4 players by Néstor Romeral Andrés (nestorgames). Players lay labyrinth cards around Asterion the Minotaur, seeking to impale opponents' prisoners while guiding their own prisoners to escape with treasure chests (coins) or fly away with mythical wings.

Components

Component	Description
Labyrinth Cards	68 cards (17 per player: Blue, Green, Red, Yellow). Each card has labyrinth corridors and 1 prisoner of the card's color. Some cards also feature Wings or Treasure Chests (coins).
Asterion Tile	The starting central card at (0, 0) where the Minotaur awaits.
Minotaur Figure	Sits on the central card.
Black Tombs	Placed on prisoners who are impaled by Asterion.
Diamond Board	Used in the Crete Island edition (25 spaces for 2 players, 41 for 3 players, 61 for 4 players).

Setup

• Each player takes the 17 labyrinth cards of their color.
• In the Crete Island upgrade (with board), players decide which tiles to remove before the game begins:
  • 2 players: choose 5 cards to discard (12 cards in deck, 25 board spaces).
  • 3 players: choose 4 cards to discard (13 cards in deck, 41 board spaces).
  • 4 players: choose 2 cards to discard (15 cards in deck, 61 board spaces).
• Players choose their discards simultaneously from their set of 17 tiles. The remaining tiles are shuffled into their face-down draw deck.
• In the Basic Rules (without board), no tiles are discarded; all 17 cards are shuffled into the draw deck.
• Each player draws 1 card from their deck into hand.
• Asterion is placed on the center space (0, 0).

Your Turn

Players take turns placing their tile on the table:

1. Place your tile: Choose an empty space orthogonally adjacent to at least one already placed tile (and inside the board boundaries in Crete mode). You may rotate your tile in any of the 4 orthogonal directions (0°, 90°, 180°, 270°).
2. Trapping rule: It is strictly forbidden to trap Asterion. There must always remain at least one continuous path connecting Asterion to the outside of the labyrinth. Placements that would trap Asterion are illegal.
3. Impale prisoners: If any prisoners (your own or opponents') become connected to Asterion by a continuous path, they are immediately impaled by the Minotaur and receive a black tomb.
   • With standard scoring enabled, the active player scores +1 point per opponent prisoner impaled minus 1 point per own prisoner impaled.
4. Draw: At the end of your turn, draw a new tile from your draw deck into your hand.

Game End and Scoring

The game ends when all cards from all players have been placed.

Final Escape Scoring

Each living (non-impaled) prisoner of your color checks whether they can escape:

• A prisoner escapes if connected by corridors to either the outside of the labyrinth OR to at least 2 wings anywhere in the connected maze.
• Each escaping prisoner scores 1 point for each treasure coin connected to them.
• Escaping prisoners with 0 coins score 0 points, but count towards the tie-breaker.

Winner

The player with the highest total score (points from Asterion's victims + points from escaped treasure coins) wins.

Tie-breaker: The player with more prisoners escaping the labyrinth without coins wins. If the tie persists, victory is shared.