Review: Farlight

 

Game Name:	Farlight	Published Year:	2017
Game Publisher:	Gamesalute	Player Scale:	2 - 5
Game Designer:	Nick Sibicky	Run Time:	45 mins

In the not too distant future, you’ll be able to pop off on your jollies to visit the Sea of Tranquility instead of Lanzarote if what Mr Branson is selling comes about, in the meantime, you can conquer that pesky atmosphere and go boldly into that void with Farlight. Much like Branson, Musk and Bezos, you’ll be running your high tech aerospace company in a tight, and faced paced race, attempting to outmanoeuvre, outwit and outclass your competitors.

 

[gallery ids="2430,2429" type="rectangular"]

 

Farlight is an auction and tile placement game in which each round players will bid on parts for their ship, to then connect those parts before attempting one of the all-important missions. This is as simple as it sounds, in turn, each player will place two of their 5 bidding tokens - ranked from zero to four - on any ship upgrade or facility at Farlight Station, with the option of adding one of their scarce and valuable crew to the bid to increase it by one. Once all bids are placed, the winner of each is revealed, losers who bid more than zero gain one additional crew for their trouble and then parts are added to the ship.

 

[caption id="attachment_2432" align="alignnone" width="3963"] My super-cool spaceship with big meaty engines![/caption]

 

 

This is a victory point game, with only one real way to gain points (there are also bonus points and as the name suggests, the bonuses are just that, they’ll make the difference between finishing second or third, they won’t win you the game). At the top of the board, there will be a selection of Mission Cards, arranged into three columns, and missions ranked from lowest value to highest and then the game ending Climatic Mission.

 

[caption id="attachment_2417" align="alignnone" width="3233"] Bonus Tiles - three of which are used each game[/caption]

 

These missions form the focus of each game, and there is a nice assortment of them, as missions can vary with their requirements as a mixture of, or a sole requisite of Science, BioTech and/or engines. And it is here that we encounter the most interesting, and most frustrating aspect of this game: getting the right parts at the right time. At the beginning of the game the board is filled with parts, and then at the end of each round, anything that was 'sold' is replaced.  However, since there is no seeding of the deck, nor a separate deck for each part "type", the draft is very random.  So, important, game-necessary cards, like, I don't know, engines, for example, don't appear quite as frequently as one would hope

 

[caption id="attachment_2421" align="alignnone" width="2539"] Engine dice - these dictate how powerful your engine is.[/caption]

Now kids, remember getting into space is really difficult because you have to break away from the Earth’s gravitational pull. Which is really, really hard. In order to do that you need really powerful engines. So when only one appears in Farlight Station, it becomes very highly sought after. Even Two engines mean that most players are going to be bidding on both of them, and probably bidding high, this essentially creates a bottleneck of bids, since only empty slots are replaced, you can end up with only two or three cards being drafted. So the “issue” is not only exacerbated but is self-serving.

 

 

[caption id="attachment_2427" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Not every Mision requires engines, these few are easy pickings for Science & Biotech ships[/caption]

 

 

Is it really a problem? For me, it’s not a deal breaker, it is frustrating, and I think there are some easy ways around it, or even a little House Ruling to make it flow a little better. But, for others, this could be too much. It does create an individual economy per game, in the same way that a scarcity of one resource in say, Splendor does alter how everyone plays, but unlike Splendor, there is no way to get around not having an engine on your spaceship (although you can get around Science and BioTech, which is odd). And if you ever hope to achieve one of the Climatic Missions then you need engines. At least two, but more likely three.

 



So let’s do the maths. In a five player game, each player is going to really want/need three engines, so that will be fifteen engines in all. Of a possible sixteen, and to me that seems pretty tight, and in the games I've played, it has been.

 

[caption id="attachment_2428" align="alignnone" width="4032"] Missions aplenty for your would be tech companies to attempt[/caption]

 

The Climatic Missions themselves also present their own quirk, and that is a linear narrative. These missions almost force the game to move in a specified direction - which really does feel like your choices are being stricken off as you advance through the game.  Normal missions are stacked in front of these, so the Climatic Missions can’t be attempted until the stack is clear, meaning that as soon as two of the normal missions are resolved, all players now focus on that column, making the others more or less redundant, since winning a climatic mission will pretty much bag that player the win.

 

[caption id="attachment_2433" align="alignnone" width="3026"] Winning the game comes with a little winner card - which is nice[/caption]

 

Since these missions are so high scoring that in some cases it can be the only mission a player accomplishes and they still end up winning.  Obviously, this does sour the milk a little for everyone else playing.  That being said, you can stop a player running away with the lead,  you can outbid them as rarely will an opponent just need one part.  It is within every player's power to stop and hinder that winning bid, but again, by doing so, this limits your choices.

 

[caption id="attachment_2424" align="alignnone" width="4032"] He really wants that piece...or are all of those low bids, it could be 4, or 11[/caption]

 

You could argue that the game is broken, or that it isn’t balanced, etc. and I could argue with you, but I wouldn’t argue particularly hard or for very long. However, and it’s a big HOWEVER, the game is really good fun. I’ve really enjoyed playing it, each and every time. Unlike Steampunk Rally (which has a similar feel, and tile placement mechanic), where all the players are building at the same time, in Farlight you have time to take stock and see what everyone else is doing. You can bluff and inflate the cost of a valuable piece for your opponents that you know they really, really want while you pick up that other thing. And there is a great sense of satisfaction when you win a tile on a low bid because you’ve misdirected everyone. Or when you bid here, and then there, to do that, so that next turn you can do the other thing. It’s a game that wants you to plan and more importantly to it wants you to scheme. It creates a wonderful market conflict and for a game with only indirect player interaction, there is usually a lot of trash talk too.

 

[caption id="attachment_2423" align="alignnone" width="3320"] Enter a caption[/caption]

 

Farlight makes for a very enjoyable experience, perhaps a little too random and linear for some gamers, but I've found it to be just the right amount of fun to counterbalance those failings.

The Good

A thought-provoking economics game

Really good fun to play

With the right crowd, it will have some great player interaction

The Bad:

Doesn’t feel very balanced,

Can suffer from a runaway leader

Has a linear and predictable conclusion

This game was purchased/ backed on Kickstarter so some of the contents may vary from retail editions of the game

Review: Leaving Earth

Game Name:	Leaving Earth	Published Year:	2015
Game Publisher:	The Lumenaris Group, Inc.	Player Scale:	1-5
Game Designer:	Joseph Fatula	Run Time:	60-180 min

"It [the rocket] will free man from his remaining chains, the chains of gravity which still tie him to this planet. It will open to him the gates of heaven."

(Wernher von Braun)

Welcome to Leaving Earth, a game about the space race. In this review, I will cover both the base game and the expansion Leaving Earth: Outer Planets. In Leaving Earth, you’ll take control of one of the world’s space agencies and will try to accomplish missions in space. If you want to be the first and grab the glory, you’ll need to plan and assess the risk of doing the mission before other players grab the points.

[caption id="attachment_926" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Full game setup (using only 1 of the 5 agencies) with the Outer Planets expansion.[/caption]

How it plays

[caption id="attachment_927" align="alignleft" width="300"] Base game map.[/caption]

You are presented with a map of the solar system detailing different zones and how they’re interconnected. The base game is only composed of Planet Earth, the Moon, Venus and Mars. If you get the second edition of the game it will come with a mini expansion integrating Mercury.

 

The Outer planet expansion will add Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and a number of their satellites for you to explore. The locations that can be explored have multiple copies so the exploration results will be randomized in every game, as you only use on of them per game.

[caption id="attachment_929" align="alignright" width="300"] Multiple copies of an exploration place with different results in the reverse.[/caption]

The game will play in a limited number of rounds representing each a year, starting at 1956 and going all the way up to 1976 on the base game or 1986 with the Outer Planet expansion. Every year all the agencies get the same amount of funding and they need to spend it on developing technologies, building spacecrafts, training astronauts, … In your turn you can also build spacecrafts with the pieces you already have and launch missions into space.

Each round, all players get a turn and they can perform as many actions as they can or are able and then the next player goes. If you don’t spend your funding it is lost, and in the next year you’ll start with the same amount as every year. Once everybody has done their actions you resolve all the end of year actions like feeding your astronauts in space or resolving any perils.

[caption id="attachment_919" align="alignleft" width="300"] Technologies and manoeuvers.[/caption]

There is a large selection of technologies you can develop, and these will be prerequisites for most of the rockets you can build or certain manoeuvres you can perform in your missions later on. When you develop a technology, you always get a certain amount of outcome cards that go along with it. Every time you fire a rocket or perform a manoeuvre involving one of the technologies you have to flip one of those cards.



You can have 3 different results, a success, so everything goes as planned. A minor fail, which usually result in something not working but able to be repaired. A major fail, which usually result in everything getting lost in a big ball of fire. Independently of the result, you can get rid of the card once revealed by paying the amount indicated, if not it will get shuffled back with the other cards. This mechanic will include a bit of luck and uncertainty to every action you do in your missions. You can perform tests as many times as you want, paying to get rid of the cards, once you have no more cards is always an automatic success, however; this requires money and time that you might not have, remember, this is a race after all.

[caption id="attachment_923" align="alignleft" width="300"] Mission cards[/caption]

 

Missions will be assigned in the game’s set up, depending on the chosen difficulty for the game you will draw a certain number of cards from the easy, medium and hard missions decks.  Including the Outer Planets expansion this changes a bit, apart from the missions you draw from these decks, there will be a certain number of non-explorable missions from the outer planets, and while exploring the locations it will add extra missions. As you don't use all missions in a game this will add to the replayability of the game. All missions are available for everybody and they are worth a number of points. The first person to accomplish a mission gets the corresponding card with its points. When this happens, all other agencies receive a bonus in their funding for the year. There is a wide range of missions, from a simple survey, to find life or bring samples back to Earth.

[caption id="attachment_920" align="alignright" width="300"] Example from the rulebook of planning a mission.[/caption]

 

Planning a mission is an essential part of the game, and unfortunately, might involve too much math for some people. Based on the difficulty of the manoeuvres and the mass you’re trying to move you’ll need to calculate the amount of thrust you’ll need for the different manoeuvres. Fortunately for you, if using basic mathematical formulae and calculator seems out of place for a game, each agency card has a table saying how many rockets of each type you’ll need to use depending on the difficulty of the manoeuvre and the mass you want to move. You’ll still need to plan using pen and paper for the hardest missions.

[caption id="attachment_925" align="alignleft" width="300"] The Outer Planets calendar track shows the windows of opportunity for the slingshot manoeuvres.[/caption]

With the Outer Planets expansion the slingshot manoeuvres were incorporated, as these depend on the alignment of the planets, you’ll need to look for windows of opportunity based on the calendar year planning your missions, adding, even more, depth to the game system.

 

 

 

Solo Game

[caption id="attachment_918" align="alignright" width="300"] Components for one of the agencies.[/caption]

The solo game is a bit different, you still run the space program for an agency, but as you are not competing with anyone you can perfectly plan your movements. There is a win condition though, you need to have more than half of the points of the total missions by the end of the game. To keep the game challenging is recommended to play in difficulty high or very high. With the addition of the Outer Planets expansions, some of the missions are unknown until you explore the planets or satellites, which will add further difficulty. The agreed convention on how to play this is you need to accomplish all the non-explorable missions of the outer planets and then with all available, you have to score half of the points. This is one of my favourite games in my collection to play solo, I highly recommend it if you like the theme and don’t mind doing some basic math.

Opinion

[caption id="attachment_922" align="alignleft" width="300"] The 5 space agencies of the game[/caption]

The game is all about planning, there is a bit of luck involved with the outcome cards as you can get delays due to fails, but the game is very strategic. The different agencies add to the theme, but they are all the same, so there is no asymmetry in the game. There are different approaches to each mission, there will be an optimal solution, but it will take you a few games to gain enough experience with all the technologies and there is the race aspect of the game, your mission might be the optimal one, but if someone tries their luck and achieves the mission before you all that planning might be for nothing. This is where you need to assess if taking the risk is worth it.

There is definitely a learning curve in the game, but with the different difficulty levels, you can approach the harder missions at your own pace while exploring the game. The fact that the exploration places are random and that there are so many missions in the pool is going to be rare to play the same game twice in a row, the replayability is very high. The fact that the game is so mathy might put some people off, but for me is one of the reasons I like this game so much. In big groups, the downtime might be too long if a couple of players suffer from analysis paralysis frequently, and for me, this is a brilliant game as solitaire.

The artwork is just magnificent, it’s got this retro vibe of the space race and the map looks gorgeous displayed on the table. The components are good quality but being a game produced by demand you can see that is not from a big production company. One of the problems of this is that is not widely available though now is easily ordered in different online shops in EU. As a fan fact, if you happen to visit NASA you can actually grab a copy there. The rulebook is very well displayed and I didn’t find it difficult to get into the game, and Joseph is always willing to answer anyone in BGG forums if you have any questions regarding the game.

The good: Highly thematic, gorgeous artwork, brilliant gameplay. Multiplayer is quite tense and solo is a great puzzle.

The bad: If you play in a big group the down-time between turns might be quite big if the players like to take their time planning. Some people might not like the mathy aspect of the game.

You might also like: High Frontier (3^rd Edition)

That’s all for the review folks!

If the idea of cruising into space making the next great discoveries of humankind appeals to you, this is a piece of art to have in your collection. Try to replicate the Voyager program or the Cassini mission which will end in September ‘17 with the spacecraft crashing into Saturn. I leave you now with one of the latest photographs of this great mission (thanks to the NASA image gallery)