Alien Artifacts

A space-empire game squeezed into a deck of cards. You lead an interplanetary faction and every turn you hold three resource cards. Each card shows two resource types, you can use only one side, and only two cards may be spent per turn, so there is always a tension about what to skip. With those resources you build ships, develop technologies, discover planets and trade for what you lack. It is a card engine with a 4X flavor: explore, expand, exploit, minus the board and the four-hour commitment. A play lasts about an hour and works best with two or three players.