Space Base is a dice rolling fleet management game that is ridiculously easy to learn and play, not only that but it is also a whole lot of fun and could just be a little hidden gem. Space Base is a dice rolling fleet management game that is ridiculously easy to learn and play, not only that but it is also a whole lot of fun and could just be a little hidden gem.
Let us quickly talk about the basics
Players: 2 - 5
Age: 14+
Time: 60 minutes
Now it is time for the famous (well not that famous, not famous at all) what you get inside the
What is in this blackhole of a box?
In this box you get the following;
5 command boards
5 sets of identical starter ships (5 colours)
48 level 1 ships
48 level 2 ships
36 level 3 ships
12 colony cards
30 charge cubes (clear)
2 dice (the ship symbol is a 1 not a 6)
5 credit cubes (yellow)
5 income cubes (green)
5 VP cubes (blue)
1 starting player card
That is everything oh and of course the rulebook or how else are you meant to learn and play, well you could read this blog but I do not cover everything here! Just the basics.
What is the point?
Good question! What is the point? If you mean about life I can not help you there my friend but if you mean the game I can tell you that!
In space base, the first player to reach 40 VP wins the game (Victory Points). It is a simple goal that you can get sidetracked on completing!
Setting up the game
I wish all games were this easy to set up! I know a lot are easy really when you think about it but this one just took no time at all to start playing.
Each player takes a space command board and a set of 12 starting ships.
Then put the 12 colony cards all face up in order at the side of the play area.
Now separate the ship decks 1, 2, and 3 and then shuffle them individually. Once they are shuffled place them in the middle of the play area and flip over the top 6 of each row, this creates what I call the shipyard.
Collect 1 credit, income, and VP cube per player and put the income and VP cube on the 0 locations on your gameboard, then credit cube starts on 5. There are matching symbols and colours on the board to show you which is which;
Gold coin = credit
Planet = income
Rocket = VP
Lastly, we need to put the charge cubes in an easy to reach location and we have set the game up. Must have taken us less than 5 minutes to set the game up, pick a starting player and then start playing, that is a great feature in a game. I mean I love games like Arkham horror but you spend all your time setting the game up!
How to play?
First, we need to decide who is going first and it also starts with each of us getting our first ship upgrade!
All players draw a random card from the ship 1 deck, you then pay the cost of the ship (top left-hand corner (gold coin symbol with a number)) and lower your credit cube by that amount. You then find its location in the top right-hand corner and place that ship there and put the other ship into deep space (it goes under the board with the red side poking out)
and finally, the player with the highest numbered starting location goes first! If there is a tie then you have a roll-off! This is simple.
2nd player gets +1 credit
3rd player gets +2 credit
4th player gets +1 income
5th player gets +1 income Now we have our starting player they take the starting card and they roll the two dice, they can now activate ships in their space base to gain either credit, income or VP depending on what they roll and what ships they have!
In this example let us say they roll a 4 and a 3 this can be used to activate the 4 and the 3 ships or the number 7 ship. When you activate the ship you gain its bonus in the activation text, on the starting ships taking the 4 and the 3 will allow you to gain 2 credits. If you activated the 7 ship you would gain 3 credits, of course, this is the better choice.
Now the other players get to use those numbers to activate and score on any ships they have in deep space, on the first few rounds it is unlikely they will get to use this bonus, but say they did have a 4 in deep space they could use that one and score 1 credit also.
There are many different types of bonuses on the ships, some require you to charge them up then use them, some give you credit, some will increase your income, some will just give you VP, some tell you to use the bonus to the left and right, some will give you a bonus and tell you to use the ship to either the left or the right. There are so many variations to these bonuses and the rulebook explains them all, you will need to read these to fully understand the game and what tactics you could go for playing the game. Okay so now you have the option of spending your credit on a new ship or a colony card. Now on your turn, you can only buy one ship or one colony card and to make it worse if you spend say 12 on a ship and have 19 credits you have to spend them all! That is right you get no change in this game! It can be brutal to have 19 credits and want to buy a card that costs 11 (those poor wasted 8 credits! Now that is a huge tip to the ship merchant).
If you buy a ship you then lower your credit down to 0 (or if you have income put it on the same number as that). Put the ship in the location spot that it should be on, put the other ship into deep space and that is that. Also, you might as well flip over a new ship now as it is not like you can buy another one and what's the point of waiting till after any other steps?
If you buy a colony card you score its bonus once, it takes that place on the board and then it can never be replaced! These are good for scoring quick VP but they soon clog up your board.
Now that is basically all you do per turn until some on reaches 40VP the game is really easy to play and learn but it is brilliant.
Final thoughts?
I actually had a blast playing this game, and yes you can expect a lot of these bad puns in this last section.
The artwork is basic and quirky and I think for the game it is out of this world, it suits it down to the T. I love the little stories in the rulebook to give you information about the gaming world you are playing in. It is also a little touch that sent me to the moon and back. Yes, that one was a little forced but not star wars force......
The game took next to no time to set up and learning the rules was simple and before we knew it we all were playing the game like experienced star pilots.
I found myself invested in upgrading my ships, tracking what dice numbers other players seemed to be rolling and making sure I was sending them ships out to deep space by upgrading that slot so on their turns I was gaining VP or more credit. I was 100% invested in my space base and I was thriving. However I was not really watching what the other players were doing and before I knew it I was low on VP and they were flying, change of tactics and I was back in the game!
I spent 65 minutes playing this game and it flew by, it really did, we were all gutted that it was over and we really look forward to this game. This game is amazing and a really enjoyable experience. I highly recommend this game.
9/10 A game that is out of this world and will send you to the moon and back.
