Post by Gilvan Blight on Jul 13, 2006 16:35:17 GMT -5
Quickly: a two player Catan game loosely based of Starfarers of Catan. One of the better two player games out there, but it can be long.
Summary: each player plays a starship exploring Catanian space. A resource management game that shares alot with its bigger brothers. Each turn a die is rolled and resources are generated. This die is then added to you number of thrusters and you pick one of 4 random piles of cards. The other player draws these one at a time and simulates your space journy. Cards include planets to colonise, trade contracts, worlds to visit, pirates to attack or flee from and many others. Once flight is done you then spend resources to improve your ship or build ships (colony or trade). Victory points are awarded for various things including ship improvements, completing missions at plannets, having the most trading posts or colonies and more. The first player to 10 points wins.
The Good: this game has a lot in common with other Catan games and because of it has the same apeal. The components are very nice and made of very thick card (like your usual board game board). Ship expansions slot onto your main board like a jigsaw puzzel and fit well together and look pretty cool. The ship expansions add a good level of strategy to the game as all of them are highly beneficial and it's hard to decide which to buy. Also the 2nd level expansions can only be built by one player, so a good race for technology exists. Probably the best aspect of this game is the space exploration. Trying to remember which of teh 4 decks had the food for 1 money, which had the ore for 5 and which had the most pirates adds an interesting memory element and quite a bit of strategy.
The Bad: like every Catan game sometime the dice are just not with you. This means you will probably have a few turns where you roll the dice, get nothing, fly for a bit and can't build anything. This can get frustrating, but does usually seem balanced between both players. The box does not hold the components very well, which means every time you open it you will need to stort through everything.
The Ugly: the game length. This can be a long game. Which is great if you and the other player want to play a long game, but this one looks like it's a quick fix type of game and it's not. For example last night while playing we were quite a few turns in when another group showed up and set up Settles. They were done their game for about 20minutes before my wife and I finished ours. It just seems like more things should give victory points in this one, or play to a lesser total. No trading. What is a Catan game without trading resources? This just seemed like an odd miss. Of course it would be simple enough to add that as a house rule.
Overall: one of the better 2 player only games out there. Also one of the only 2 player euro-style games. There is just enough strategy in this to keep you coming back. Some player may not liek the randomness of resource generation, and if you don't like Catan style resource management, you may want skip this one. Lastly this one takes longer then you would expect, not necessarily a bad thing, but make sure you are prepared for it.
Summary: each player plays a starship exploring Catanian space. A resource management game that shares alot with its bigger brothers. Each turn a die is rolled and resources are generated. This die is then added to you number of thrusters and you pick one of 4 random piles of cards. The other player draws these one at a time and simulates your space journy. Cards include planets to colonise, trade contracts, worlds to visit, pirates to attack or flee from and many others. Once flight is done you then spend resources to improve your ship or build ships (colony or trade). Victory points are awarded for various things including ship improvements, completing missions at plannets, having the most trading posts or colonies and more. The first player to 10 points wins.
The Good: this game has a lot in common with other Catan games and because of it has the same apeal. The components are very nice and made of very thick card (like your usual board game board). Ship expansions slot onto your main board like a jigsaw puzzel and fit well together and look pretty cool. The ship expansions add a good level of strategy to the game as all of them are highly beneficial and it's hard to decide which to buy. Also the 2nd level expansions can only be built by one player, so a good race for technology exists. Probably the best aspect of this game is the space exploration. Trying to remember which of teh 4 decks had the food for 1 money, which had the ore for 5 and which had the most pirates adds an interesting memory element and quite a bit of strategy.
The Bad: like every Catan game sometime the dice are just not with you. This means you will probably have a few turns where you roll the dice, get nothing, fly for a bit and can't build anything. This can get frustrating, but does usually seem balanced between both players. The box does not hold the components very well, which means every time you open it you will need to stort through everything.
The Ugly: the game length. This can be a long game. Which is great if you and the other player want to play a long game, but this one looks like it's a quick fix type of game and it's not. For example last night while playing we were quite a few turns in when another group showed up and set up Settles. They were done their game for about 20minutes before my wife and I finished ours. It just seems like more things should give victory points in this one, or play to a lesser total. No trading. What is a Catan game without trading resources? This just seemed like an odd miss. Of course it would be simple enough to add that as a house rule.
Overall: one of the better 2 player only games out there. Also one of the only 2 player euro-style games. There is just enough strategy in this to keep you coming back. Some player may not liek the randomness of resource generation, and if you don't like Catan style resource management, you may want skip this one. Lastly this one takes longer then you would expect, not necessarily a bad thing, but make sure you are prepared for it.