AEG will premier its new science fiction board game Scorpius Freighter at the Spiel fair in Essen, Germany next month before releasing it into the trade in Q4.

Scorpius Freighter is set in a distant star system that is dominated by an oppressive authoritarian government.  A few intrepid pilots resist those oppressors by smuggling goods and information on the side as they use their “sanctioned” freighters for their more-legal operations.  During the game, players must recruit their crews and customize their ships, delivering legal and extra-legal goods to the three worlds of the Scorpius system, while avoiding the eye of the government.  Completing illicit jobs earns the player “reputation points,” with the player who has the most points winning the game.

The game includes 1 game board, 3 plastic motherships, 4 player boards, 38 crew cards, 132 tiles, and 100 wooden cubes.  Scorpius Freighter was designed by David Short (Automobiles) and Matthew Dunstan (Relic Runners), and is intended for 2 to 4 players, ages 14 and up.  It takes a little less than an hour to play.  MSRP is $59.99.

Click on the gallery below to see two sample cards from the game.

The company is releasing a trio of new games as well as a new Smash Up expansion this month (see “‘Trainmaker,’ ‘Greedy Kingdoms,’ ‘Magic Treehouse’”).