I initially played this game at the first ever d20 Radio Gamer Nation Con oh so many years ago. I remember it as a fun game, that I didn’t understand but involved building a spaceship. It got added to my to purchase list and stayed there for several years until I finally got it as a gift. It seems like the longer something is on a wishlist, the less likely people are to buy to for you. But we have it now and have given it several play-throughs. How does it stack up to memory?
Gameplay- B+
You play the roll of a space trucker who needs to assemble a ship and then brave dangerous areas of space to deliver your cargo. The first step, building your spaceship, is the main draw of the game. Each player has a template with a set of squares that form the outline of a spaceship. You have a starting central tile and then will draw tiles to build and expand. You’ll be able to add guns, engines, crew compartments, cargo compartments, power sources and shields. The trick, is that you have a limited time to do it and everyone is competing for the same set of tiles.
This is the part that is overwhelming for a newbie who only gets a half explanation. Reading through the rules first helps a little but you don’t really get what makes for a good spaceship until you’ve run through the game a few times. There are a few main tricks. First, you need guns. Lots of guns. The more space protected by guns, the more successful your run will be. You will face many obstacles, from pirates to slavers to meteor swarms. For the enemy ships, you need to beat a certain threshold of weaponry to beat the encounter, otherwise you will lose something; crew or cargo mostly.
Second, you want to be careful to avoid having exposed connectors. When you encounter meteor swarms, a very common hazard, if the rock hits an exposed connector, part of your ship will be destroyed. You pay a penalty at the end for every tile that is destroyed. In addition, if you didn’t plan things well, if you lose a crucial junction piece you can lose a good chunk of your ship because you also lose any tiles connected to destroyed pieces that are no longer connected to the core of the ship by some other tile.
Third, powered engines and weapons are a trap but sometimes your only choice. There are some guns and engines that provide double the benefit but require power to activate. You can take battery tiles that provide the energy for these pieces, as well as power shields. If you don’t have the power, you can’t activate the part. This leads you needing to build in more battery tiles to ensure you have the power for your powered pieces. If you lean on this too heavily, you’ll run out of power and all those tiles become a bunch of wasted space. Though, sometimes, especially when playing with multiple people, you don’t really have a choice and the only gun that will fit is powered.
Fourth, don’t neglect your crew. The more crew you have, the more challenges you can face and the more opportunities for making some money on the journey. You can also take some alien crew if you add in special environmental tiles next to crew quarters. These aliens provide bonus engine speed (brown aliens) or extra weapon power (purple aliens). It’s important to remember these environmental tiles enhance crew quarter tiles, they don’t provide space on their own. I made that mistake my first play through and had some worthless tiles.
Finally, you need to learn to build your ship quickly. The first one to finish starts the race in front of the pack. And the first player has first dibs on the encounter cards that are drawn. And that’s where all the money is made.
The game is played in three stages with each stage getting longer and requiring a bigger ship. For each stage, you assemble an Encounter deck. Once everyone has their ship built, these cards will be played. Some events affect everyone (meteor swarms, open space). Some offer the first player a choice or a challenge. It could be an abandoned ship they could send some crew to board. Or a planet to visit to load up cargo. They also could be pirates or slavers. The first player has to fight them first. If they fail, the pirate moves on to the next player. But if the first player wins, they can get some money or cargo and no one else gets anything. Being first provides the most opportunities for profit but, if your ship isn’t up to snuff it’s also the most dangerous position.
As you draw encounter cards, your relative position among the players is tracked and will change. Whoever is in the lead after all the encounter cards are resolved, will be the first to arrive and get a bonus. Then the next few players will get in and get lesser bonuses. The overall winner of the game is whomever has the most credits after playing through the three encounter stages.
Once you’ve played the game a few times, the replayability drops some. You find a ship build strategy that works and try to build it. This is mitigated somewhat by the time limit. The more players who play, all competing for the same pool of tiles, means you can never build the same ship each time. But, as my wife didn’t much care for the game, it’s usually just me and my son playing so that limits it somewhat.
Production- B+
The game’s ship tiles and ship boards are all sturdy components. The cargo are small wood cubes. And the crew are stylized plastic figures. Everything is solid and doesn’t feel cheap. The box itself is the biggest disappointment. It’s got several dividers to help in storage but it’s rather flimsy. The tiles are quite numerous so don’t work well to be dumped in a bag like everything else though.
Theme- A
You take on the role of a space captain who is one of the few people brave, or stupid, enough to traverse a dangerous area of space in the name of profit. The box art portrays a satirical sense that suggests Lonestar and his Winnebago spaceship. You hastily assemble a spaceship made of flimsy trusses and risk it all. The theme works.
Expansions- TBD
There are four expansions available for the base game. The first one adds components for a fifth player along with adding more encounters and tiles. I have not used any of them but they look interesting.
Conclusion- B
Overall, the puzzle of building the spaceship is the most interesting part. The time limit helps ensure you never do the same thing twice but there are always one set of goals you’re working towards. Expansions with new encounters might help break some of the multiplay monotony because, as with all puzzles, once you’ve solved it the appeal fades. But if timers don’t stress you out, it’s still a fun, competitive experience. The more players the better though.
Wayne Basta
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