Review of Muk-Bok!

When looking at Muk-Bok overall, you get the feeling that that author has been too inspired by bad Star Trek episodes. The premise: A planet of feline creatures needs to invade the earth, but the Muk-Bok senate cannot agree on an invasion plan. Well, this invariably leads to civil war as various factions vie for supremecy. And that war is where the game starts.

The visuals are good enough, a nice color painting of a cat on a grav tank is the box cover, although the rulebook is black and white throughout. Counters and map are full color, and the quality of the counter cutting is quite good. At $19.95 it's not bad for a board game, so it is worth taking a look.

Unit variety is one of the big attractions of this game, from "Hairball" projecting cannons, to the tracked "Shredder" (Tank with a bunch of spinning cat claws attatched to the front), there is enough unit variety to give various tactical options to the players, and make for a quick and interesting game. Infantry look rather cool, with various factions having specialized units such as "Tortoiseshell's", "Tabby's", "Persian's" & "Siamese". Various units have different attack and defense bonuses. My only gripe is that with the subject matter of the game, plastic pieces should have been considered, as the theme does not lend itself to a serious "Counter" wargame.

The map is nicely done, and comes as two paper foldouts that together create a 24" x 36" gameboard. The map artwork is "interesting", and we'll keep it at that, although suffice it to say battling for the Kitty Litter Desert and the Milk Oceans give well, unusual strategic options.

All in all, Muk-Bok has an interesting premise that lends itself well to the genre. I will post a full playtest review when I get a game or two in. But from looking at it, I can only hope tha expansion deals with a canine invasion of the planet.

Cale