Once you get past those two hurdles and actually get into it, Nexus Ops is an excellent, light wargame that plays well with two, three or four players – partially because the board’s configured slightly differently depending on the number of opponents.
The first part of the game’s all about exploring the randomised board, flipping over exploration tiles to see what riches lie beneath. Sometimes this will be a rubium mine, sometimes it’ll be a native beastie that’s newly recruited into your army, and sometimes it’ll be a combination of the two.
After this initial claim-staking period, Nexus Ops becomes a tooth-and-nail fight to keep the other players’ filthy paws off your precious, precious rubium.
Each turn you buy new soldiers – human and alien – to wrest the richest rubium veins from your opponents and attempt to seize control of the Monolith, a mysterious structure in the middle of the board that only certain units can climb and guard.
The Monolith’s a valuable asset – ownership grants two Energize cards per turn, which you can only otherwise pick up by losing battles on an opponent’s turn. These cards grant benefits in combat, allowing players to add pluses to dice rolls, teleport units around the board and grant other units the ability to attack twice in one round.
The object of the game’s to collect 12 victory points. You earn them by either winning battles on your go, or completing the terms of Secret Mission cards (which might order you to win a battle in the Rock Plains or kill a Fungoid Warrior), which you pick up at the end of your turn.
There’s no limit to how many cards of either type you can hold in your hand, and with the other full of dice, combat’s fast, furious and brutal.
There’s an interesting initiative order, where the most powerful units attack first, beginning with the almighty Plasma Dragon and ending with the puny human soldiers.
Casualties are determined by the victim, which makes for some interesting tactical decisions – should you lose a combatant who’s already had an attack, or take off a weaker unit and sacrifice a future die roll?
There are a few extra conflict rules, but nothing too earth-shattering or complicated – crystal guys fight better in crystal terrain, but suck in Liquifungus Forests, for example. The only other thing to keep in mind is that Plasma Dragons have the option of breathing their lung filth on adjacent units instead of taking part in a stand-up fight.
Nexus Ops is easy to pick up, fun to play and satisfies both the urge to fulfill hidden victory conditions and to kick your mates’ arses in a quantifiable way.
Best of all, the translucent neon-glowy figures themselves are fantastic. You won’t even mind playing pink because even crimson Lava Leapers and Rock Striders look tough.
