Ants

What is Ants

ANTS is a deep strategy game that focuses on worker management and territorial expansion. Each player begins with one of multiple unique Queen tiles, which will heavily influence your strategy and interaction with the game's interconnected systems. Throughout the game, you will guide your ant colony through cycles of growth, exploration, and conquest to establish dominance over the garden ecosystem.

On your turn, you perform one of six main actions (Dig, Explore, Gather, Incubate, Play Cards, or Defeat Enemies), and you can take free actions to optimize your colony's efficiency.

When you perform a main action, you spend specialized ants from your colony to determine the action's strength. The number of ants you commit (1 to 4) directly influences the power and impact of your chosen action: expand your nest by placing room tiles strategically, explore hexagonal territories to reveal resources and enemies, or position gatherer ants to form continuous supply networks across the garden.

The heart of the game revolves around your colony's life cycle management. Your incubation board tracks three vital phases (eggs, larvae, and ants) each containing three specializations: diggers, explorers, and gatherers. Wild ants serve as valuable wildcards that can fulfill any specialization need. When you incubate, you complete enterprises, trigger production effects, feed your larvae with food cubes, and advance the life cycle.

Game details

Players

2–4

Age

+13

Duration

90 min

Difficulty

Heavy

Type

Board game

Year

2025

Mechanics

End Game Bonuses · Worker Placement, Different Worker Types · Variable Set-up

Categories

Abstract Strategy · Animals · Exploration

Designer

Andrea Robbiani · Renato Ciervo

Publisher

Maldito Games · Cranio Creations · DSV Games · Intrafin Games