Ashen Nexus: Print & Play Sci-Fi Strategy Board Game

2–4 Players | 70–120 Minutes | Ages 12+ | Print & Play

About Ashen Nexus

Ashen Nexus is a streamlined 4X style experience where every action draws from a limited resource pool, creating constant tension between expansion, combat and defense. A fixed round structure prevents passive play and forces meaningful strategic decisions throughout the game, delivering epic space conflict without excessive playtime or complexity.

The Solar System Battlefield

Players begin from one of four starting worlds: Earth, Mars, Callisto, or Titan, before expanding outward across the Solar System.

Build Trade Ports to secure resources. Construct ships to expand your territory. Fortify important positions with Defense Cannons. Use Warp Gates to cross enormous distances, and attack when your opponents leave themselves exposed. Launch deadly cobalt nukes to destroy entire fleets or make planets uninhabitable, turning the tides in your favor!

Every turn forces a choice between actions; what decisions will you make?

Victory Conditions

Ashen Nexus can be played as a shorter 15-round game or a longer 30-round game.

Capture every enemy Nexus to claim an automatic victory, or survive until the final round and score points through captured Nexuses and number of Trade Ports.

Features

• 2–4 player strategy gameplay
• 70–120 minute playtime
• Hex-based Solar System game board
• 4X-inspired exploration, expansion and conquest
• Resource-driven action economy
• Area control and territory management
• Fleet building and tactical dice combat
• Trade Ports and planetary defenses
• Warp Gates for long-distance movement
• Nuclear Annihilation of your enemies 
• 15-round and 30-round game options
• FFA, 2v2 or Deathmatch modes
• Print-and-play format

What's Included

Your Ashen Nexus PnP download contains the materials needed to assemble the game, including:

Game Board
A multi-page or single page printable hex-grid map of the Solar System.

4x Player Action Cards
Individual faction-colored player boards for managing actions and resources.

Printable Game Tokens

• Ship Units
• Trade Ports
• Defense Cannons
• Nexuses
• Cobalt Nukes
• Resource Tokens
• Dice Colors

Rulebook
Rules covering everything from set-up to tear down.

NOTE: All files are in PDF and PNG formats.

What You'll Need

You'll need access to a printer and basic supplies for assembling the PnP components.

Combat requires 9 standard six-sided dice. Ashen Nexus uses colors instead of numbers, so the download includes printable 14 mm red, blue, and white dice stickers that can be applied to standard 16 mm dice.

Development

Ashen Nexus was a passion project between four friends who played board games together. The common consensus was that modern board games took too long to finish and they decided to make a game that valued the players time and could be opened and played in little over an hour. 

After the game was created it was play tested by Portal Games in Poland.  While Portal Games ultimately chose not to publish the game, their feedback highlighted its interesting concepts, clean design, and simple rules. 

That simplicity remains intentional: Ashen Nexus is designed to deliver the expansion, resource management, territorial conflict, and fleet warfare of a larger 4X game without requiring hundreds of cards or an all-day session.

In the end it was decided not to turn Ashen Nexus into a different game just to make it bigger. Instead, it's releasing as a PnP to be played by anyone interested in lightweight and accessible Space Strategy.

We hope this game gives hours and hours of enjoyment to others, like it did for us!

Ashen Nexus is always looking to improve gameplay and mechanics, feel free to report game breaking situations in the comments below and it will get fixed.

ASHEN NEXUS © 2026 Croatz. All rights reserved.

This game and its original artwork, written content, graphic design, and downloadable files are protected by copyright.

Downloading Ashen Nexus grants you permission to print the included materials for personal, non-commercial use.

You may not redistribute, re-upload, reproduce for distribution, or sell the Ashen Nexus files or printed components without permission from Croatz.