It's such a weird game that combines brain-draining tactics with flicking spaceships around, but - if you don't object to the theme, which is kind of high on the geeky scale - it seems to work.
Certainly it worked for Hannah and Joe, anyway, who tied for the win on victory points (Hannah taking it on points won during gameplay). And Adam might well have been up there too, but for an early period were all of us took chances to attack as he left his planets ill-equipped to see off incoming discs of brightly-coloured plastic propelled by the spectral hands of cosmological deities.
I found the 4-player version a headier proposition than three, and after a decent start, faded dramatically as both Adam then Hannah blocked my routes to developing research centres - and hence scoring points. Again I was reminded of Agricola and how when your best-laid-plans are scrunched into an unforgiving ball you have to adapt and overcome, to borrow an unlikely bit of terminology from the marines.
Anyway, after much laughter at Joe's stage-fright when it came to flicking, he - unintentionally we assume - lulled us into thinking he must be doing very badly, but he very nearly took first place from Hannah, who seems to adapt to games frighteningly quickly. Adam (4th) and I (3rd) were some way behind them:
Hannah 26 (wins on gameplay points)
Joe 26
Sam 20
Adam 16
For me at least, this is a winner. I don't know yet if it'll remain so or go the way of fleeting favourites Dominion and Medici, but certainly it's worth a few more games, if only to watch Joe warming up his whole body before he flicks his tiny spaceships... either 2cm into nowhere or straight off the board.
Without playing it it sounds like they have done a Galaxy Trucker and added a unique mechanic to add the random factor usually taken up by shuffled cards or dice. I think it's to be applauded as a lot of games feel the same because of that.
ReplyDeleteThat is possibly the geekiest thing I've every written. If you can believe that.
That rings true - though it's definitely a weightier game than GT in terms of tactics and strategy.
ReplyDeleteIt has that magic thing going for it — FUN! In that respect it's very Galaxy Truckers-like, but it takes itself more seriously, as Sam says, and rewards strategic thinking.
ReplyDeleteThere's room for audacious feats of dexterity (or not), which is something you see very rarely in These Games We Play.
Those things combined with the speedy flow of play make it a bit of a winner, I think.
In both games I've sworn and cursed the game when I've messed up flicks; but given that I very nearly pipped the win last night reassured me that even if you can't flick for toffee, you're still in with a chance.