A quick look at Galaxy Trucker
I bought this game a couple weeks back on a whim. I had heard that it was pretty damn fun, original, and fast. Though I was surprised by the price, I wasn’t disappointed.
The fluff behind the game states that each player is an interstellar delivery guy - carting sewer pipes to the furthest reaches of the galaxy (I guess everyone needs to take the occasional shit). In an effort to save money, Corporation Incorporated (the manufacturer of said pipes, and your employer) has developed a way to frame out space ships using the pipes themselves. Just attach some engines, lasers, crew compartments, and various other components and yer all set to blast off into the cold, dark void of space.
The game consists of 3 rounds, each round busted into 2 parts. In the first half, players scramble under pressure of a timer to sort though ship parts, trying to build a sturdy ship with enough lasers, engines, shields, etc. to make it through anything the universe can throw at yah.
Next, players take their crap-cans into the void. The journey is represented by a deck of cards. The cards contain everything from planets that can be landed on and mined for resources, to space pirates and meteor showers that can blow large chunks of your ship off. At the end of the deck players arrive at their destination, and gain cosmic coin when they cash in their ships and resources they have collected.
Each round gets progressively tougher, as the ships get bigger, and the trips longer. After 3 rounds, players count up their cash, and whoever has the most wins.
The game is simple to learn, and really fun - BUT it’s not for the gamer who demands something really deep in their games. It’s not unthinking, but there’s plenty of situations you simply cannot control, and cannot plan for. In order to enjoy this game, you need to be able to laugh as a meteor tears you ship in half, sending crew and resources tumbling into the darkness. Trust me - this kind of thing will happen in this game - to all of the players. In fact, if you arrive at the destination with half your ass intact, you’ve done pretty good!
There’s plenty of games out there that play better with beer and good friends, but there are few games that I consider to require them. This is one of them. So if you’re looking for an awesome party game that just gets better as the empty bottles pile up, this is for you. If you’re looking for the next Caylus - don’t bother. And don’t play it with people who don’t like light, fun games - they’ll just fuck it up for everyone.
DEACON
Defiant Russia is a wargame put out by Avalanche Press and is part of the “Games you can play series” which focues on the Eastern Front at the beginning of WWII and the initial German attack into Russia. The “GYCP” series is a set of inexpensive ($20US) wargames with simpler rules and removes some of the realism often found in wargames in favor of speed and ease of play.
I want to take the time to share some impressions on a game which I recently played called Tannhauser. Tannhauser is a two-player skirmsih board game. The story behind the game is interesting by having a “what-if” scenario involving: WWI never ending, The Reich (Germans) mastering dark arts and the Union (Americans) mastering alien technology.
