As a fan of the Firefly tv series, Han Solo in his various movie and book incarnations and the Privateer video game for the old Wing Commander games, I am an affirmed space smuggler-phile. The copy on the game read like it fit any and all of these settings and I anxiously awaited its release. I was surprised to find a copy of the game (it’s from a relatively small press outfit) sitting on my LGS shelf when I went in to look for some other stuff.
The box echoed the website's claims and looked very professional (it’s about the size of the RISK box for comparison), but I’d been burned by cool copy on the box before. Throwing caution to the wind, I blew off any other purchases and picked up this Millennium Falcon construction kit and went homeward to seek my fortune.
Opening the box, I found: one 27-page rulebook; a thin cardboard game board made of two sections; 12 character cards; 30 planet cards; 67 destiny cards; 6 plastic spaceships;7 planet markers;spaceship log pad; game money (ala Monopoly but called credits); and 2 six-sided dice. My daughter and I sat down to a two-player game to learn how the game works.
The rules are fairly well written and logically organized with a working table of contents. There are a couple of typos and one or two spots where we had to re-read things to make sure we had the logic down, but overall the rules are pretty well conveyed. There are a few rules examples scattered throughout to help you understand some of the finer points and there are diagrams to explain board components, game effects, etc.
Each player gets 500 credits to start with and gets to pick one character from the deck. Each character has qualities/disadvantages that make the game more interesting. My daughter picked an alien who already had a large bounty on his head (a bad thing) but who could pull two destiny cards per turn and choose which one was best. I picked a fella who had ship upgrades, a bounty, and the ability to roll an extra die during the customs checks (more on that later).
Each player also has a spaceship, represented by a plastic ship token for the map board and a ship roster that the player keeps records on. A ship has the following systems: engines, light speed, shields, lasers, cargo pods and hull. Ratings for each of these range from 0 to 10. Each player starts with identical ship ratings plus or minus any notations on the character card (my guy could apparently get more performance out of engines and could count them as 2 higher than the basic starting configuration).
Engines are used during combat to help you maneuver (muy helpful). Lightspeed is how many spaces you can move on a turn. Shields protect you against extra damage in combat. Lasers let you damage other ships, space monsters, etc. Cargo is how much stuff you can haul on a single trip (you can‘t carry more than your cargo pods‘ capacity. Last is hull, which is perhaps the most important rating. Your hull can’t be repaired or even upgraded at star ports like other systems (certain destiny cards can allow it to improve by a limited amount). If you lose your hull, your ship explodes---but you‘re not out of the game. You can survive in an escape pod and keep playing. At any rate, your ship log lets you keep up with upgrades, damage, and any cargo you might be carrying.
Okay, so we got little ship tokens, money, character cards, and ship logs. Now we set up the board. The board is the biggest disappointment for me. It is made of two thin cardboard halves (think cereal box durability) that you place next to each other to form the galactic map. I bought a Chinese checkers set at the dollar store a few weeks back that contained a board made of similar quality card. I’m going to get guff for this but for $40, I expected a board like RISK or even the durability you find from even a cheap cardboard checkerboard.
The good things about the board are the art and the reminders. The map is very nicely done art-wise and I was happy to find little reference charts for turn sequence and commonly consulted rules on the map. Only two planets are permanently depicted: Koroth and Brix. In order to win the full version of the game, you have to build up enough resources and ship upgrades to get a full load of Brixian weapons all the way across the galaxy to Koroth (aka The Koroth Run).
Along the bottom of the board are 7 spaces numbered 1-7 (how handy). We drew 7 planet cards and laid them out to correspond with these spaces. Looking at the cards, we then placed a planet marker (numbered 1-7) to correspond with the location noted on the map. Confused? It’s easier than it sounds. Here’s an example.
The planet card in for space 1 is, say, Vega. The Vega card tells you which space on the map (identified by little numbers) where Vega is located. Since the Vega card is in space 1, we find the #1 planet marker. We then find the space where Vega is supposed to be on the map and place that #1 planet marker there. Rinse, wash, repeat with the remaining six planet cards and their matching markers. With that done, you’re ready to rock and roll.
A turn is basically this: Draw a destiny card and resolve any immediate effects. If that effect is a combat that results in anything other than you moving your happy butt out of the area, then your turn is over. Destiny cards are neat since you have the potential to draw a friend who can help you (maybe a gunner to make your lasers more effective or a mechanic to help fix your ship). At the same time, you might run into a hungry space bacterium or a pirate looking to steal your cargo. You might even run into a tempting, lightly armed space freighter that you could attack and steal their cargo (piracy)--beware, bounties are issued for players who do this sort of thing.
If you had a non-combat destiny card or one where you managed to avoid combat, you can move. You can move across the board from planet to planets, moving as many spaces as you have light speed rating. There are some astronomical landmarks on the map that can help/hinder your quest. If you move on to a nebula space, your movement ends. Your shields also won’t function within a nebula. Black holes can be ignored (you can move through their space unharmed) OR exploited to increase movement; if you want to risk your ship, you can try to skim a black hole and roll a dice. If you roll a ‘1’ your ship is destroyed. Any other result lets you double any remaining movement. Last, there are wormholes marked with numbers (1-5). Like black holes, these can be ignored during movement (you can move through the space without encountering it). If you choose to use the wormhole, roll a dice. Your ship will surface on the hole marked with the number you rolled (you might just sit there---if you roll the same number you are on). If you roll a ‘6’, you are lost in hyperspace and lose your turn. Next turn, roll a dice to come out on a wormhole (a ‘6’ again means you lose another turn; rinse, wash, repeat).
If you move into a space with another player(s) ship OR a planet, you can have an encounter with one of them. You may interact with another player whose space you are on OR interact with a planet whose space you are one (you have to choose which one you will interact with for your turn). Interaction with other players or other destiny card-induced characters (space monsters, pirates, helpless merchants ripe for the plunder, etc.) can involve combat or fleeing. Encounters with other players could involve trading and/or duking it out. It is legal to threaten other players but you could just as easily work beneficial trades between yourselves.
If you choose to have an encounter with a planet, you open yourself to trade opportunities, smuggling, and possible imprisonment. Landing on a planet exposes you to customs risks if you are carrying illegal goods or if you have a bounty on your head. Penalties for offenders range from nearly being caught and getting your bounty raise to getting imprisoned for awhile (think Monopoly jail).
Planetside you can buy or sell (not both) OR if your character has no bounty on his/her head, you can place/add to a bounty for another player. Goods are limited in their availability depending on the size and type of the planet (small backwater world to a military complex). Trade goods are classed into just a few categories like Food, Medical, Luxuries, Weapons, and Robots.
Rolling for availability lets you know how much of a particular cargo is available for purchase---if you’re buying. This roll doesn’t affect the game much when you begin since you can only buy one pod’s worth of cargo until you upgrade. However, later when you’ve increased your ship’s cargo pods you might not be able to fill them if you roll poorly on the availability table.
The price of goods you are buying or selling is dictated by what kind of world you are visiting. Some worlds outlaw alien foods so it’s illegal for you to carry food into their borders. Of course, since illegal stuff puts you at greater customs risk---it sells for a heck of a lot more--hence the game’s title.
The key here is standard economics. You look at the planet you are on and try to see what you can buy at a low price and then sell the next turn on another planet that needs those items and will be willing to pay you more for them (either due to higher demand or because it is illegal).
Selling on a planet causes an interesting effect, to keep the map changing. Any player who sells on a planet causes that planet to be immediately removed from the map and the bottom of the board. Let’s say a player sells cargo on Vega (remember Planet #1). Vega is discarded and its map counter is removed. You immediately place a new planet card in space #1 and read the card to find out this new planet’s new location. You then put the Planet #1 counter on that space. This is supposed to reflect a player making the final trading run for the season for a planet, which effectively removes that planet from further trading this game. This only occurs when a player SELLS goods. You can buy from the same planet as many times as you like and it will stay on the map until someone sells.
If you’re feeling vindictive, have no bounty yourself, and have some credits to burn, you can forego buying/selling in favor of placing a bounty on another player. You can’t trade and place a bounty during a turn, it’s one or the other. To place or add to a player’s bounty, simply pay the bank the amount you want (500 credit minimum) and that amount is added to the other player’s bounty (or becomes the bounty if she didn’t have one).
Bounties make life interesting. They force you to sweat customs (and possible imprisonment, loss of cargo, etc.). They also make certain destiny cards that contain bounty hunters more challenging. Also, if another player destroys your ship and you have a bounty---they get the cash. Boba Fett and Jubal Early (Firefly tv series) fans will definitely get a kick out of this aspect of the game.
Following any planetary buying/selling or placing bounties, you can upgrade your ship. If you have the credits, you can upgrade any/all of your systems up to their maximum (10). Remember that Hull can’t be upgraded this way but the other systems can. Upgrades make your ship faster, more durable in a fight and better able to carry larger cargoes, which will earn you more money more quickly.
That’s basically a turn. I will cover combat really quickly here for those who wanna know more. The first thing that happens in combat is somebody declares an attack. This can be either from a card (e.g. a space monster attacks your ship) or from another player. If another player and you are fighting, you each roll for your own ships. If a destiny card effect is the attacker---like our monster example---another player rolls and will either continue an attack or flee as specified by the rules.
Once the attack is declared, both players roll a dice and add their ship’s Engines rating to it (the value of good engines is apparent now). Whoever got the higher roll (re-rolling ties) can choose to flee or to press the attack. If the winner flees, then that ends the combat. If not, then it’s time for the next dice roll: Lasers.
Each combatant rolls a dice and adds their ship’s Lasers rating. The loser of this roll loses one hull point. If the combat is between players, the winner can declare he is pirating instead of damaging his opponent’s hull. If this option is taken, the losing player’s hull is not damaged but he may lose either 1 Equipment card (a Destiny card that helps your ship’s performance) OR up to 3 trade goods.
Once hull damage or piracy losses from another player have been applied, the last step of combat is additional damage. If the losing player’s shields were less than or equal to the winner’s ship lasers (not the roll total just the lasers rating) then there is no additional damage. If the hit ship’s shields were less than the attacker’s lasers ratting, the hit ships automatically loses 2 levels in one of its non-hull ratings (i.e. engines, lasers, shields, etc.). A die roll on an additional damage chart determines which system is affected.
Okay, now you know how a turn goes and how combat runs. The game revolves around players trying to upgrade their ships and to make enough credits to buy a hold full (ten units) of Brixian weapons. Once you have upgraded to 10 cargo pods and they are all filled with Brixian weapons, you make your run across the board to Koroth.
The catch is that you only have two turns to do it. After that, the Koroth empire will have figured out how to counter your weapons and your hold will hold nothing but weapons. These weapons are still able to be sold but their value is much less. You can try multiple times to fill your cargo pods with Brixian weapons (each attempt is expensive but is assumed to be a new generation of weapons)--but the two turn time limit is imposed each time you try.
Assuming you make it to Koroth in those two turns, you’re still in a pickle. Regardless of your bounty status, you will have to smuggle your Brixian weapons past customs (these weapons are illegal on Koroth, after all). Fortunately, you were smart enough to save your credits up because bribery is alive and well in Korothian customs. For every 1000 credits, you can get another die to roll for the customs roll. Koroth, unfortunately, is the only planet where bribery is this rife (i.e. you can’t bribe customs anywhere else in the game).
It became evident during our trial run that this game could run long very easily--and not just because we were learning the rules. The authors have thrown out some good game options to speed things along. You could, for example, begin everyone with better equipped ships, more money or a number of other bonuses to help give folks a leg up. Other suggestions include playing a last man standing alternative where the last player with a ship wins or altering the price of Brixian weapons.
What could have devolved into Monopoly/Risk in space has enough role-playing-esque elements to keep you thinking like Han Solo. The biggest gripe I have is the flimsy game board. It simply does not live up the game's price or the professionalism displayed in the rest of the game---my style rating reflects this one flaw. Otherwise, the excellent art and layout of the board, and especially the card art are outstanding.
Overall, this is an excellent game. I congratulate Playus Maximus on coming up with a fun, playable game that captures the spirit of space smugglers we have come to love in movies, tv shows and video games like Privateer.
