RogerBW's Blog

Boxing Day Boardgames 2015 11 March 2016

As the snow rolled in towards Wycombe, we had another session at home. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.

Leaving Earth to start with, and the standard hard game, this time with:

  • Lunar Survey
  • Man in Orbit
  • Mars Survey
  • Lunar Lander
  • Lunar Sample Return
  • Venus Lander
  • Lunar Station
  • Extraterrestrial Life

Although I hired an astronaut quite early on, it soon became apparent that I could do better with a totally unmanned programme, and so I didn't bother with re-entry or life support tech, instead working entirely with probes. I just missed the lunar survey points (by being sneaky about what I'd found, not thinking anyone else was close to getting there), but got Lunar Lander and Lunar Sample Return, then set off for Mars and Venus.

Although my points put me at the end of the play order, I was able to shave off a year to Mars by going for a fly-by and scoring the survey.

I couldn't manage the same to Venus, but it turned out to be non-survivable anyway.

After the rest of the solar system was explored, it turned out to be lifeless, and I scraped a win by two points.

After late lunch, Steampunk Rally (the kickstarter edition with metal cogs). I had Lise Meitner with the naphtha engine (in the library?), and thought I was getting off to a decent start…

…but ended up at the back of the pack, getting across the line only because I got a card with bonus movement from all the parts I'd lost.

This is one that works a lot better once you make sense of the iconography, which is not as clearly explained as it might be. (There are teaching videos which may help.) That hurdle overcome, it's a nice liight card game with the race mostly being a way of keeping score. I think with a couple more plays I might even make some sense of it.

[Buy Steampunk Rally at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

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