Assembly Review

Personal log: “I don’t know for certain what happened. there was a meteor shower; fiercer than we anticipated. It was carrying some kind of virus that somehow breached the station and killed the crew. Well, almost. There’s just two of us left. We have to get off, the computer is shutting everything down, including life support, we don’t have much time to do what this station was designed for; build a ship and then get back to Earth.”

Game: Assembly

Designers: Janice & Stu Turner

Publisher: Wren Games

Artist: Mike Jessup

Player count: 1 - 2

Runtime: 10 -20 minutes

Part of me is tempted to write this entire review in the style of the game, mainly because the setting for this little 2 player game is both wonderfully simple and rich. But, I fear that would get old very fast, so I shall just wax lyrical in my typical rambling fashion.

[caption id="attachment_2766" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The final version will look very different, but I find the small bow and cards to be very functional.[/caption]

You’re the last two crew members alive on a space station that just about survived a meteor shower, the computer is essentially trying to kill you, but not in a Hal type of way, more like an “I’m sorry, but it’s you or the entire population of planet Earth.” But, you’ve got a little time before all the oxygen runs out to realign all the systems, build a space-faring vessel and set a course for home. I know what you’re thinking: “Smoke me a kipper. I’ll be back for breakfast.”

But, you have only limited access to commands and each command needs to be verified by the only other survivor.

Who is stuck on the other side of the airlock.

And, because of the damage done to the station (or because the station has gone Hal crazy), the communication network is glitchy as hell.

And the station is starting to malfunction. A lot.

This compelling sci-fi backdrop sits behind a puzzling abstract micro-game which is, quite simply, pretty damn great. I especially enjoy playing this game solo, due largely to the fact that I repeatedly Ace Rimmer the smeg out of it. Whereas playing it two player “someone” keeps letting the side down.

[caption id="attachment_2768" align="alignnone" width="1920"] I got very lucky on the first module, but do we lock doen just the one bay?[/caption]

The goal of the game is to realign each of the 12 Bay cards with their connected Room Modules tokens which players will draw and place randomly throughout the game. To do this you have your Command cards, a deck 16 cards, but with only 6 different commands, allowing you to add new tokens, rotate, switch and most importantly, lock them in. You’ll need to lock down all 12 before the deck circles through twice to beat the game. Mechanically that's it, but the mechanics of the game are only part of it.

[caption id="attachment_2764" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Each command is useful at the right time, but you need to not only plan ahead but anticipate what the support player will do[/caption]

The crux of the game in the two-player mode comes down to communication, each player must work autonomously - despite this being a co-operative game, where the cooperation comes from a shared goal and an intersection of individual actions. The game centres around the idea that players don’t discuss their plans, or share what their cards are, all that information is and remains secret. The active player chooses a command from their hand of three cards, the support player then must verify that command with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’, in other words; do they have the same card - in essence; can that crew member also enter that command into their terminal.

If it’s a “yes”, everything is peachy, the command is executed and, all being well you’re now one step closer to getting back to Earth. But a “no” doesn’t necessarily halt the progress, it means that if the active player wants to commit that action, the support player must discard a card to “override’ the system. This can be heart-breaking, plan-destroying and really, REALLY annoying. The active player switches but now, now, because of that smeghead on the other side of the airlock, you’ve got fewer choices. And fewer choices is bad.

[caption id="attachment_2765" align="alignnone" width="1920"] These are all half size prototypes, where the final version will have bridge sized cards[/caption]

Co-op games can suffer from quarterbacking; where one player takes charge, essentially taking everyone's turn for them. Assembly not only makes that tricky but it actually punishes the quarterback if they rear their head. It challenges players to become telepathic, which is no bad thing if gaining superpowers was that easy, or perhaps more realistically, it challenges players to synchronize their thinking and plans. You’ll very quickly realise how alike you are in your pattern of thinking to your support player in how you deal with your train of thought, how your problem solves and how good your memory is.

It’s quite an unusual sensation mentally screaming at the other player to perform a switch command, because you can verify it, and then in your turn lock that bay down. Normally, when you see a perfect solution to your problem in a game, your screaming “Don’t do it, anything but that one.” You do that thing where you try not to look at the card you want. That is flipped on its head here which makes for quite a unique feeling. Obviously, they never do what you want them to do, invariably, they have their own plan. Smegheads.

[caption id="attachment_2772" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Every problem has multiple solutions in this game, it's just a case of know which one you are both working towards[/caption]

If, however, you are sick of being let down by your support player you can very quickly and easily play this game alone - by just removing a few cards. To be honest, I prefer Assembly as a solo game, having to tease out the puzzle solo presents enough of an engaging, puzzling challenge, and with such a short play time I can bash a game out while there's a pizza in the oven. Also, no-one lets you down.

Once you’ve mastered the simple version of this game you can throw in the malfunction cards - where the station starts to break down and fights you back. These will only affect 4 bays (those at 12,3,6, and 9) and ramp up the difficulty and frustration nicely. After that there are more ways to make the game more of a challenging...but I haven’t go there yet, but it’s a comfort to know they are there...sort of.

[caption id="attachment_2770" align="alignnone" width="1920"] These add an extra twist, an extra consideration and ramp the difficulty up quite nicely.[/caption]

One issue that can creep into games though is players “bending” the rules. Now I take my rules and gaming very, very seriously (look, I’m a nice guy but once those cards have been dealt and the dice rolled I don’t give a monkey’s about your dog/kids/wife/husband/job/parents/garden/car - just shut the hell up and play). There are three modes of play that relate to communication ranging from a general discussion on what players should focus on - to absolutely no verbal communication at all - the rulebook comes with a sign language section that covers all the command words you’ll need to play it. How you choose to play is in your remit, but one slip, one moment of frustration can reveal important information that can steal some of the fun of this game, but, it is all in how strictly you choose to follow the rules.

What you’ll get with Assembly is a neat puzzle game, but more than that, this strikes a great co-op chord. Not only does a victory feel especially shared and equally achieved, but in playing this game you’ll create a muster point of thought, where there is a degree of pleasure and alarm (in almost equal measure) when both players are on the same page. I find myself often impressed by microgames, the austere and economic design is something I can really appreciate, it also means that you can get a great game without too much damage to the wallet.

Assembly is on Kickstarter now for £16 and for that, you’d be a smeghead for missing out.

Disclaimer:

This review was based on a prototype version of the game provided by the publisher, as such the final version may differ from what is seen here.

Pocket Mars Review

This review originally appeared on the Polyhedron Collider website, but if you didn't read it there, you can now enjoy it here too!

Game: Pocket Mars

Designer: Michał Jagodziński

Artist: Jarosław Wajs

Publisher: Board & Dice

Player Count: 1 - 4

Runtime: 15 - 30 minutes

“Mars is there, waiting to be reached.” - Buzz Aldrin



Mars. The Red Planet. The Roman God of War has hung in the night sky capturing the imagination of man, and drawing the creative mind to it like gravity since it was first gazed upon. In the last few years, the fiction was left behind as science began to catch up, and we now know more about this baron and hostile planet than ever before. Yet, the more we know, it seems the more our imagination runs rampant and so the notion of the colonisation of Mars seeps into our consciousness, filling our screens, bookshelves and of course, our boardgames. It is in this vein that we explore Pocket Mars.

 

[caption id="attachment_2653" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Getting an even spread of your colonists is one of the methods of winning[/caption]

 

This is a fairly simple, quick, micro hand management game from those multi-use-card-aficionados at Board & Dice who have brought us SUPERHOT, Multiversum, and InBetween. Pocket Mars sits very comfortably in the mix with those games, which although all have very different themes and even mechanics, they all, to echo Mr Tudor (Mr Tudor Mr Tudor Mr Tudor), share a tonality that’s hard not to notice. So, if you like those previous games, just stop reading and go buy Pocket Mars, you’ll probably like it too. If, on the other hand, you want to know more about a game whose marketing campaign was based on growing potatoes in shit* then read on.

Pocket Mars pits up to four rival companies vying to be the first to establish a safe, successful, and secure colony on Mars. To do this you’ll need to transport your scientists from earth, via your shuttle to the Red Planet, and to one of the four pre-established buildings. Through the use of a series of project cards, you’ll upgrade the buildings to become more efficient and thus setting up the necessary infrastructure to support a mass colonisation. You’ll do this with a bunch of cards, some cubes and all within about 30 minutes. Which is pretty flippin’ impressive.

[caption id="attachment_2659" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Enter / Prize classic....[/caption]

Each player begins the game with a joke-poking named shuttle with one colonist aboard and six further colonists back on Earth. The five main buildings needed to conquer the barren red landscape are in situ, so all you need to do is get them working properly. Queue the Project Cards that will do just that. These cards can be used in one of two ways, from the two cards in your hand, or from the two face-down cards in front of you known as the Prep Module.

In short, this is a game of hand management and set collecting, you’ll want to shift cards from your hand - where they have a weaker, but more immediate action - I like to think of this as maintenance your colonists are making - to your Prep Module. From here you’ll play them against one of the buildings on Mars. This is the chunkier, multi-faceted action that you’ll need to do to shift colonists from your shuttle and into a building - I like to think of this as “Installing” you are putting new equipment into the building that it needs, thus one of your colonists needs to be there.

Now, this action makes up the bulk of the game, as the game ends when one player gets all of their colonists on to Mars, but it is also the most interesting process in the game. The Project cards are numbered (or ranked if you want to follow my analogy) from one to seven. You’ll install your card against the existing one (or the building itself), and, if your Project card has a higher score - thus a better upgrade you put your colonist in that building.

[caption id="attachment_2658" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Stark, austere graphic art with vibrant colours[/caption]

You’ll then get to trigger the card’s actual ability - the thing that your Project actually does, then; because, you used the building, the building’s ability also triggers. This happens even if the Project you installed is not as good as the previous version, like Windows 10, but these buildings don't use a Microsoft operating system, so it’s all good. The other, interesting, little used, action you can do that is very similar to this, is play a card from another player’s Prep Module. This doesn’t allow you to shift any colonists, and they get the card ability, but you get the building ability AND you get to stop them placing a colonist. It is very sneaky, and feels a little off theme, but is a very worthwhile action and adds a devious hint of player interaction.

So, what makes Pocket Mars interesting, different and worthy of your time, and/or money. Well, it’s because of what this game is really about, and that is area control. It just doesn’t really look like it, or rather, the bit that looks like area control - the cubes - isn’t the interesting area control bit of this game. Still with me?

[caption id="attachment_2652" align="alignnone" width="4032"] The Water Building allows you to easily recycle the project cards you don't want[/caption]

Pocket Mars is more about controlling the cost associated with the buildings, about planning and playing ahead. By inflating, or artificially lowering the cost against a building in one turn, and with the knowledge of what type of cards the other players have in their Prep Modules you can take advantage of this supply of information. What the card can do is only one small part of the information you need to be able to counter or block other players. What type of card and more importantly where that card is, is actually more important. And you can see all of this at a glance.

It is the almost perfect information that makes this game so quick, but not at the expense of strategy. To score well, you need to have an even spread of colonists across Mars, you’ll want to get some of them into the “office” of each building too. So, control the costs and you’ll control a piece of Mars, but really you need to control lots of different pieces at different times.

[caption id="attachment_2655" align="alignnone" width="4032"] I'd love to see little astronaut meeples, I understand why they are cubes, but I'd still like to see them...[/caption]

That’s not to say that this game isn’t without its flaws, and despite being a self-confessed Board & Dice fan, this game does fall particularly foul of a recurring ‘issue’ I have with their games, namely; abstraction. Theme and the implementation of the mechanics are abstracted from what they’re “meant to be”, this does make this game a little less accessible I find, and when introducing this game to people, as I have done so in this review, I feel I have to add the character and descriptions/context to actions. This is amplified by the condensed rulebook which is almost completely bereft of flavour, reducing this game of celestial colonisation down to little more than its bare bones. The austere un-named cards with their stark graphic ‘art’, the buildings are only named on the last page of the rulebook and Matt Damon is indistinguishable from his fellow scientists. All of this leads to a fairly abstract game of layering cards and shifting cubes. But...

[caption id="attachment_2656" align="alignnone" width="4032"] A mini space adventure[/caption]

But, all of that is okay when you step away from the telescope and look at what you have with a little bit of distance. You’ve got a very small, cheap, four-player game which has some interesting mechanics, choices and interactions. It even has a solo mode. It is a perfect little thinker of a game for lunch breaks, to travel with and for the damage, it’ll do to your wallet and game shelf this game provides a mini exploration to mars in half an hour. Pocket Mars may not be the slice of Mars game you’ve been waiting to try, but it is still a short, worthwhile game.

Disclaimer:  This review was based on a full priced retail edition paid for out of my own money from my own pocket.

*Just go watch the brilliant Martian and it will all make sense.

 

Pre-Preview: Defection

Pre-Pre-Preview: Defection

Game:	Defection	Release Date:	2018/19
Designer & Artist:	James Tomblin	Player Count:	2 - 4
Publisher	Thunder Vaults LTD	Play Time:	90 - 150 mins

 Defection “should” hopefully be coming to Kickstarter in the first quarter of 2018, this review and the opinions expressed within are based on two full demos and a long conversation with the designer at EGX in September of 2017. Needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway) the version I played was still in development - albeit late development, so between writing this and the final article, the game and art will change somewhat. Now, disclaimer over with, this is Defection:

War has ravaged the galaxy, with factions vying for dominance where the only guaranteed losers are the innocents trapped in the middle. Enter the Defectors, the “heroic” captains who will try and save as many of these innocent souls as they can - and yes, maybe they’ll transport some cargo and earn a few credits in the process. And yes, maybe they’ll pick up some contracts too. OK, yeah, they may just transport goods around to the highest bidder, or maybe even just become a Space Pirate (let’s face it Pirates are cool - fictional ones at least). This is the world of Defection, an almost-4X sandbox-esque game where you really can choose your game.

Mission Briefing:

The principal mechanic in Defection is that of Pick-Up and Deliver - which is the easiest way to accumulate victory points is by transporting civilians from the central planet Keleressa to one of the other inhabitable planets on the edge of the system. Doing so will put your Faction in governance of that planet, which you’ll ideally want to equip with all the cool tech and equipment too. But that means another trip.

We have the technology. We have the capability

Upgrading your ship and crew is a super important consideration, but also increasingly costly. Tailoring your ship, your crew to fit the way and manner of your individual play style and the tone of your gaming group. Buying a brand new ship is another option, one with a different specification altogether. Between crew, weapons, armour, and cargo capacity there are plenty of possible ship configurations to choose from to best suit each game.



3 - 3.5 X

Defection isn’t quite a 4X game, it comes pretty darn close, but it’s not trying to be one either, some of those elements of the well known and much loved Eclipse and Twilight Imperium are there, hinted at even, but this is a very different game. Exterminating being the main aspect which isn’t there, though that isn’t to say you can’t or shouldn’t go on a warpath. You’ll be exploring space each time you move around, flipping the large array hex tiles and thus having to deal with whatever you reveal - only to have that tile replaced by a new one, so each time you make the trip, the journey is different. There are but a few resources in the game for you to exploit/manage, but how you control the ebb and flow of these few directly impact your options - especially when you begin stealing cargo from an opponent’s planet for one of your own.

Make it so

So, what does Defection have which, I think makes it different and unique? Scope. Lots and lots of scope. With a side of scope and sweetened mini-scope for dessert. As the captain of your ship, you will literally decide how you to play this game - of course, there are rules, and there is a suggestion that delivering the most civilians will win you the game - but it is only a suggestion. You don’t have to do that at all. There is no card drawn to tell you your motives for the game, not secret winning conditions etc. The first half of the game you could play as a humanitarian, and then at the drop of a hat become more of a Privateer - collecting contracts and shipping goods to the farthest reaches of the system. How you interact with the other players is also completely in your remit, attack them, don’t attack them, you could even buddy - one as a caravan and one as a guard. The choice really is yours.



Oh, and then there’s the War, acting as both a narrative backdrop to your game, but will also impact it, creating keynotes of your individual “story”. This is masterfully and simply orchestrated via a deck of news cards, drawn at various times throughout the game.

And I mustn’t forget to tell you about the aliens. All of those aliens you will certainly encountered in the deepest, darkest parts of space (all of it) that are just there because aliens just love to f*ck everything up. True story, watch any movie with aliens in. You’ll see!

Ah, I nearly forgot the really simple, really quick combat system with custom dice!



There is more, so much more to this game, but for me to tell you, I first need more of it - and that is something I simply can’t wait to do. I played this on the Friday of EGX, on the train home I was strategizing for my next game. On the dog walk of Saturday morning, I had it all worked out. I tried it out on Saturday, again at EGX, and lost horribly. Now I, like you, have to wait for the Kickstarter to end, for the game to be produced and shipped for my next fix - and that can’t come soon enough!

Keep up to date with this game by following along on all the social media places: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

James has also been keeping a development diary on Board Game Geek which is well worth a read.