Written by Bryony Stibbons on 28 Mar 2018
Distributor Vlaada Chvatil • Price RRP £38
Theme
You are working for ‘Corporation Incorporated’ (not the most imaginative title, I must say), which is an inter-planetary construction company. They need their building components transporting to the far reaches of the galaxy, but profits will suffer if they pay for shipping. A visionary on the board of the company has come up with a plan to maximise profits though:
You are charged with building a space ship with the components that need transporting and manning the ship for your journey. As you make your way across the galaxy you will face challenges that may affect your ship, but you also have the opportunity to make money by picking up other cargo as you go. There is also a bonus in it for you if you make it to your destination in a timely fashion, but there are penalties for component’s that don’t make the trip.
Set Up
This is a review, so won’t contain full instructions on how to set up the game or rules for play, but here are the basics:
Each player gets game boards showing grids for you to build your space ships on. You will use one side at a time as your space ship grows in size for each of three rounds. In-between the players (equal distance from all for fairness) you will have a pile of face-down component tiles along with a timer and placement tokens.
Off to one side you have the ‘Flight Board’ and face down ‘Adventure cards’ that will dictate what challenges, obstacles and potential rewards you will come across on you journey. These have to be set up before the ship building process because players are allowed, within the rules, to look at the cards and see what lies ahead, during the build process.
Game Play
The game consists of three rounds of two parts. Each round your ship gets bigger, and here is a good time to give you a top tip: Don’t forget to turn/swop your board for the next size up at the start of each round. I have found it happens quite often that someone ends up with a ship too small at the end of the build process, meaning you all have to start over. Here is how the two parts of the round pan out:
Part 1: Build your ship.
Part 2: Journey across the galaxy!
At the end of the three rounds, it is the person that has earned the most money through their exploits that is declared the winner, however if you’ve made it through journeys with all your ships in tact you should consider it a win regardless!
Tactics
Here are a few tactical points to think about:
Longevity
This game has loads of scope for playing over and over, as every time your ships come out differently and your adventure provides different challenges. I have had many hours of fun out of it already and haven’t even delved into the vast array of expansions on offer yet.
The Verdict
Although the games set up and rules are fairly complex, the game is easy to get to grips with, especially if you are playing with an already experienced player who can lead the way, and if not the rules are well laid out and give you everything you need to know. I love this game as an adult and experienced gamer, but kids from age about 10 upwards would be able to get to grips with it too, given a little support on the card set up and rules making this a great game for families too.
The pieces and boards are all of good quality, however the shape and size of the battery pieces is a little frustrating.
There is only one negative to this game and that is the fact that it is weighted strongly in the favour of experienced players. This is because the more you play, the more used you get to the ship building phase and what components make the most stable ships – and more importantly you learn what you definitely shouldn’t do whilst building. So, my advice is to get this game to play with a particular group and all learn it together!
For the same reason, I would advise against getting the ‘app’ version on the game. I found that getting hooked on this made me so much of an expert that I had a huge advantage against anyone I played with and took the fun out of it somewhat. However, apparently some components of the expansion packs can be used to help level the playing field between experienced and new players, so that’s definitely something for me to look into next!
Prices vary hugely on this item, but I found it on a site called Zatu games for £26.27 which is a great price (we have no affiliations with said site, so research the company and shipping price thoroughly before making a purchase).
This is a brilliant game and I would highly recommend it! Good luck on your journeys!
A life-long board game addict, but anime newbie, Bryony is gradually getting hooked!
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