To set up Project Aleutian, each player selects one of the six playable nations (Navaire, Seulana, Scivatan, Waviscia, Pohuan, and Henshina) to play and collects that nation’s deck of cards and crystals (currently represented as colored cubes). After each nation shuffles their respective deck, each player creates two stacks of 10 cards and returns the remaining cards to the box. Each player then keeps one stack and passes the other to the player on their left who then shuffles the mix of cards. 

Each player then lays out the mixed deck of cards in a display of face up and face down cards between themselves and the player on their right. As you can see in the image of a four-player setup, this results in a display between each pair of seated players that is a mix of their two decks.  

The mixed makeup of each display represents the mixed technology and resources resulting from a shared border during the chase of the stone cloud. Each display has one of the stone cloud’s core crystals at the top that indicates reaching the stone cloud and will trigger the next phase of the game.