Awesome Space Themed Board Games

[late for dinner]

Hi Playground, So, because I have Mass Effect Fever right now and like board games as much, if not more, than video games, I was wondering what some of your favorite space themed board games are and why. I only have one: Race for the Galaxy and I like it, but havent played a full game through yet. What say you? (40k is not a board game to me)

[The Glyphstone]

Well, there's 40K Space Hulk, but it's out of print.:smallbiggrin:


Twilight Imperium is space-themed, and hideously expensive. The Starcraft Board Game is apparently decent enough.

[Diskhotep]

Cosmic Encounter. Fantasy Flight Games is the current publisher, and it is great for a wacky, fun game. The only downside is that the game thrives on randomness, so players who like to plan ahead can get frustrated at times.

Merchant of Venus is another great game. It is out of print, but FFG is republishing it. Fans of trading merchant games will enjoy it.

My personal favorite is Battlestations! by Gorilla Games. It is a board game that plays like an RPG. One player is the Referee who sets up the mission, and the others are crew members on a spaceship. It is obviously inspired by Star Trek in many ways, but does not succumb to "pointy ear/head ridge" aliens" syndrome (in addition to humans you can play a mass of tentacles, an ergovoric tumbleweed, or a 3-foot cockroach with trilateral symmetry).

I've heard Space Alert is an excellent game as well, though I've never played it.

I highly recommend looking all of these games up at boardgamegeek for more information.

[houlio]

There's Battlestar Galactica, but that can be pricey and is mostly fun for accusing other people of being cylons.

[dsmiles]

This. (http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/games/e7ff/)

My work here is done.

[factotum]

The Starcraft Board Game is apparently decent enough.

We tried playing that at the last UK meetup and got nowhere...the rulebook seems to be missing some fairly important details about placing of workers and gathering of resources which left us completely stumped!

[Driderman]

The old Space Crusade game was pretty fun, if basic. Based on 40K though.

Twilight Imperium, 3rd edition, is a massive empire-building space strategy game can easily take 10-15 hours to play through but it's a great game.

[iyaerP]

Race is always fun.

Galaxy truckers is better by far than it sounds, I fully recommend it.

And Star Fleet Federation Commander is very good, but more of a tactical wargame... IN SPACE

[dsmiles]

What, no love for The Doctor?

[late for dinner]

K question, It's a Race for the Galaxy rules question...I know it's off topic of what this forum is about, but...It's mine and I will do what I want :) Anyways...Last night I was playing. I had 4 worlds that could produce and consume novelty goods....the consume was for 1 vp apiece.

a) If I consume 4 novelty goods, and use the 4 powers that let me consume for 1 vp apiece and I used Consume 2x VP, does that mean I get 8 vp?


b) I had a development that let me consume up to 3 novelty goods for 1 vp a piece. Does that mean if I consumed 3 would get 6 vp with the 2x vp?

c) Sorry I cant think of the name of the card but, it is a development that you can trash and put out a planet from your hand as long as it isnt alien: Does that count as settling or is it just a special ability and you can still pay for and set out another planet...Example: I choose settle, trash the card, put out a planet. then I Pay for and put out another planet, thus settling 2 planets in one phase?


Thanks.

[Balain]

Battlestar Galactica is a fine game. I've played Starcraft once. It seemed fun. My favorite has to be Twilght Imperium. In fact now I'll have to bring it with me tonight for games night and hope we play it.

[iyaerP]

K question, It's a Race for the Galaxy rules question...I know it's off topic of what this forum is about, but...It's mine and I will do what I want :) Anyways...Last night I was playing. I had 4 worlds that could produce and consume novelty goods....the consume was for 1 vp apiece.

a) If I consume 4 novelty goods, and use the 4 powers that let me consume for 1 vp apiece and I used Consume 2x VP, does that mean I get 8 vp? YES



b) I had a development that let me consume up to 3 novelty goods for 1 vp a piece. Does that mean if I consumed 3 would get 6 vp with the 2x vp?
Yes



c) Sorry I cant think of the name of the card but, it is a development that you can trash and put out a planet from your hand as long as it isnt alien: Does that count as settling or is it just a special ability and you can still pay for and set out another planet...Example: I choose settle, trash the card, put out a planet. then I Pay for and put out another planet, thus settling 2 planets in one phase? No. Colony ships is only one planet, and that one is for free. It is good enough as is, don't go trying to cheat with it. :smalltongue:

[Castaras]

Solar Trader is an awesome game. You're trading resources you get from planets in the solar system to get enough supplies, and gold, silver diamonds to go trade with blobby aliens on a place called Zastra that need the gold, silver diamond to repair their shields to prevent them from falling into a wormhole - in return they give you an energy crystal that'll solve the world's energy crisis. So your aim in the game is to be the first person to get the energy crystal back to Earth. :smallbiggrin:

Cosmic Encounters is awesome. Blobby alien races attacking each other's solar systems, first blobby alien race that gets a presence on 5 planets in other solar systems wins. Made more interesting by each blobby alien having a different special power and there being zillions of blobby aliens for you to choose from.

Unfortunately I believe both are out of print since many ages ago.

[MLai]

Strange that Starcraft BG gets so little love in this thread. I don't even play Starcraft the PC game, and I really really want the BG.
I don't have the BG, but I read up on it in extensive detail. The game rules are fantastic. Everything is strategic; there's no dice chance involved. The game is also playable in 1 sitting, and has no complex calculations to make requiring pen/paper.
I recommend you buy the Starcraft base game + Broodwar expansion BG.

[GloatingSwine]

Well, there's 40K Space Hulk, but it's out of print.:smallbiggrin:


Fortunately, this gap in the market is soon to be remedied by Mantic Games' Project Pandora: Grim Cargo.

If you want a preview of it that is less space based and has more dorfs, the core rules are the same as Dwarf King's Hold, also from Mantic.

[Artanis]

Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel is my favorite board game, period. It's probably long since out of print* though.



*Or whatever the board game equivalent is called.

[Castaras]

Strange that Starcraft BG gets so little love in this thread. I don't even play Starcraft the PC game, and I really really want the BG.
I don't have the BG, but I read up on it in extensive detail. The game rules are fantastic. Everything is strategic; there's no dice chance involved. The game is also playable in 1 sitting, and has no complex calculations to make requiring pen/paper.
I recommend you buy the Starcraft base game + Broodwar expansion BG.

It's theoretically great, but everyone I know who's played it got pissed off at it. It's not that great in reality. :smalltongue:

[Kerrin]

I recently got my hands on a reasonably priced copy of StarCraft The Board Game. I'm playing my way though a solo game of it right now to learn the rules. I'm not sure what to think of it yet, but I'll be happy to post my opinion once I'm done. Note, this game is out of print.

Twilight Imperium is a great game. It is very broad and deep in its game play. It can also take a long time to play - experienced players are usually 45-60min per player and inexperienced players anywhere from 90-120min per player. There are things you can do to shorten the play time, and I'll be happy to discuss them if anyone wants. It's definitely epic in theme and play. The two expansions add quite a lot of newness to the base game and have many optional and variant things to explore. I'm not sure I'll ever experience everything the game has to offer since there is so much. The most difficult thing is getting folks together who want to play a complex game that takes several hours - there are some really good player aids available that I can point folks to if interested.

Eclipse is a space themed board game the is getting a lot of hotness lately, but I haven't yet played myself so I can't comment on it. It might be worth checking out some reviews on the boardgamegeek website.

[late for dinner]

Twilight Imperium is on my wish list. But yeah, Getting people to commit to it is what is making me hesitate purchasing it. I asked my friend if he would be down to play it and he said that, because he is my friend, he will come play it but if he gets bored he will leave half way through. I told him not to bother...he would ruin the game for everyone.

Eminent domaine is another one thats peaked my interest, but if I dont want to get another game that is pretty much just like race for the galaxy.

[late for dinner]

What is an ideal number of people to play Twilight Imperium with?

[Kerrin]

It can be played without any problems with 3-8 players.

In a 3 player game just avoid having two players gang up on the third for the entire game, otherwise like any other game it's no fun for the third player. Taking turns ganging up on each other throughout the game is okay, besides most alliances in the game come and go so it's kinda natural to switch around "who's yer buddy".

A 5 player board is a little funky so I try to avoid that, but it does work.

A 7 player game requires a bit of an asymmetric board layout but it works fine.

Overall, I'd say the game is most natural with 4, 6, or 8 players.

There's an unofficial variant that someone put together for a 2 player game, but I've never looked at it or used it.

[MickJay]

Eminent Domain, for the most part, is sufficiently different from RftG to be worth getting, I think. Mechanically, the greatest similarity comes with produce/trade actions, but on the whole it's more of a cross between Dominion and RftG, with some interesting twists, than just a clone of RftG. The game can sometimes end 'too quickly', if players focus on the same areas of development, but this can, generally, be avoided.