Post by Gilvan Blight on May 14, 2006 17:36:03 GMT -5
Played this multiple times, but it has been over two years. Looking for something to play that we knew instead of something new we broke this out last night, and I presonllay loved it. Moreso then I remember.
Quickly: excellent use of the Catan mechanics, cool bits and unique gameplay elements, but the plastic ships are made like crap.
Summary: Another Catan game from Klaus Teuber. The basic Catan system is the same, roll dice and produce resources from areas with numbered chits on the. Then trade and build, and be the first to X victory points. This is Catan in space though, so the resources are different and what you do for victory points is completely changed from the original Setllers. Each player starts with two colonies and a spaceport spread over the 4 starting systems (systems each have 3 plannets, each planet produces a different resource, each planet has a chit for producing resources). The board is a large hex grid filled with multiple 3 planet systems with chits that are face down, these must be explored before knowing what numbers they have. Players also start with one colony ship. On a turn you roll resources (7 is still bad), then get a tribute from earth if not doing that well (less then 9 victory points), trade and build (more ships, ship expansions, spaceports, etc), then move your ships. Generally players move out from the starting systems and colonize systems futher and further away from the start as well as set up trading posts with any of the 4 alien races (first trading post gets a special card that does things like let you hold 12 cards, or develop 2 ore instead of one and 2 victory points). Along the way the ships will have various adventures, earning them fame and rewards or imfamy and damage. The space travel system is the most unique part of the game involving taking the plastic mothership turrning it upside down and back and looking at the 2 coloured beads that drop to a clear container at the bottom. This determines your ships speed and whether or not you have an encounter. The encounters are well written choose your own adventure style cards, where the player on the left reads the card and gives the active player options "You see a ship hurtling towards a sun, do you help?" Gameplay continues in this fashion until someone hits 15 victory points, these are awarded for multiple things, like colony building, spaceport building, fame, defeating pirate lairs, teraforming planets, and more.
The Good: reading the above the game sounds mega complex, but it isn't. It doesn't take much longer then Settlers to learn and the gameplay is simple once you get into it (usually by your second turn you have most things down). The components are rather cool (except for the motherships, see The Ugly), and there are lots of them. The Gameplay is quick between turns and flows well. There are a ton of strategical options available and we haven't found a 'right' way to Win every time. The ship movement system is totally unique and really cool. I love the 'Roll your mothership" system, and the mission system supports this perfectly. The missions are varied enough you can never be sure what the 'right answer is'. There are a lot more variables in this then Settlers which appealed to me. It is also very hard to block another player completely, which I thought was an advantage over Settlers (anyone see my game at the last gathering?).
The Bad: The random factor is pretty high, this will not appeal to hardcore strategy gamers. It's higher then it is in Settlers, as not only do you roll resources, your tribute from earth is random, the morthership rolling is random and the encounters are random. Rolling a 7 is even more frustrating in this then Settlers, it seemed that most of the time we had well over 7 cards and had to discard often. Game length: as with settlers, it states on the box 45mins to an hour, I have never seen a game that short, 2-3 is more likely, not a bad thing if you are expecting it, but it should state that on the box.
The Ugly: the stupid plastic motherships! The first time we played our first game, trying to put a booster on a ship the clip broke. Now two years later I think I only have one ship with maybe 3 clips left. They are way to brittle. They work perfect for everything else, but I suggest never putting those boosters actually on your ship. On a good note, I contacted Mayfare and they were more then willing to replace them (stating sometimes they get a 'hard' batch) for only the cost of shipping. I didn't take them up on it though.
Overall: After my last play, I was pleasantly supprised to find that I liked this one more then I remembered. I actually will be going to Boardgame geek to up my rating after this. It's a great game with the famous and good Catan resource system, with some really cool unique gameplay that really shines. If you hate Catan games you won't like this one, and if you don't like randomness in your games, you should stick to Settlers (or another game), but for any fan of Euro games, I suggest trying this one out. There is also a 5-6 player expansion out there that I do not own, but I hear it adds another alien race and more systems to the board.
Quickly: excellent use of the Catan mechanics, cool bits and unique gameplay elements, but the plastic ships are made like crap.
Summary: Another Catan game from Klaus Teuber. The basic Catan system is the same, roll dice and produce resources from areas with numbered chits on the. Then trade and build, and be the first to X victory points. This is Catan in space though, so the resources are different and what you do for victory points is completely changed from the original Setllers. Each player starts with two colonies and a spaceport spread over the 4 starting systems (systems each have 3 plannets, each planet produces a different resource, each planet has a chit for producing resources). The board is a large hex grid filled with multiple 3 planet systems with chits that are face down, these must be explored before knowing what numbers they have. Players also start with one colony ship. On a turn you roll resources (7 is still bad), then get a tribute from earth if not doing that well (less then 9 victory points), trade and build (more ships, ship expansions, spaceports, etc), then move your ships. Generally players move out from the starting systems and colonize systems futher and further away from the start as well as set up trading posts with any of the 4 alien races (first trading post gets a special card that does things like let you hold 12 cards, or develop 2 ore instead of one and 2 victory points). Along the way the ships will have various adventures, earning them fame and rewards or imfamy and damage. The space travel system is the most unique part of the game involving taking the plastic mothership turrning it upside down and back and looking at the 2 coloured beads that drop to a clear container at the bottom. This determines your ships speed and whether or not you have an encounter. The encounters are well written choose your own adventure style cards, where the player on the left reads the card and gives the active player options "You see a ship hurtling towards a sun, do you help?" Gameplay continues in this fashion until someone hits 15 victory points, these are awarded for multiple things, like colony building, spaceport building, fame, defeating pirate lairs, teraforming planets, and more.
The Good: reading the above the game sounds mega complex, but it isn't. It doesn't take much longer then Settlers to learn and the gameplay is simple once you get into it (usually by your second turn you have most things down). The components are rather cool (except for the motherships, see The Ugly), and there are lots of them. The Gameplay is quick between turns and flows well. There are a ton of strategical options available and we haven't found a 'right' way to Win every time. The ship movement system is totally unique and really cool. I love the 'Roll your mothership" system, and the mission system supports this perfectly. The missions are varied enough you can never be sure what the 'right answer is'. There are a lot more variables in this then Settlers which appealed to me. It is also very hard to block another player completely, which I thought was an advantage over Settlers (anyone see my game at the last gathering?).
The Bad: The random factor is pretty high, this will not appeal to hardcore strategy gamers. It's higher then it is in Settlers, as not only do you roll resources, your tribute from earth is random, the morthership rolling is random and the encounters are random. Rolling a 7 is even more frustrating in this then Settlers, it seemed that most of the time we had well over 7 cards and had to discard often. Game length: as with settlers, it states on the box 45mins to an hour, I have never seen a game that short, 2-3 is more likely, not a bad thing if you are expecting it, but it should state that on the box.
The Ugly: the stupid plastic motherships! The first time we played our first game, trying to put a booster on a ship the clip broke. Now two years later I think I only have one ship with maybe 3 clips left. They are way to brittle. They work perfect for everything else, but I suggest never putting those boosters actually on your ship. On a good note, I contacted Mayfare and they were more then willing to replace them (stating sometimes they get a 'hard' batch) for only the cost of shipping. I didn't take them up on it though.
Overall: After my last play, I was pleasantly supprised to find that I liked this one more then I remembered. I actually will be going to Boardgame geek to up my rating after this. It's a great game with the famous and good Catan resource system, with some really cool unique gameplay that really shines. If you hate Catan games you won't like this one, and if you don't like randomness in your games, you should stick to Settlers (or another game), but for any fan of Euro games, I suggest trying this one out. There is also a 5-6 player expansion out there that I do not own, but I hear it adds another alien race and more systems to the board.