Monday, July 11, 2011

D-5 - You Dropped My Battleship's Shields!

Yes really, Hasbro!
I've been looking forward to a new board game from Hasbro for some time now.  Growing up I played games with great components such as Chopper Strike and Carrier Strike.  The idea of a new space combat game from the designer of Heroscape along with the pictures of the ships made Battleship Galaxies a must buy for me.

So picked it up on Saturday and drooled all over it, then posted a bunch of pictures on the D6G feed:


Then my wife and I played Sunday night... what a fun game.    Here are my quick thoughts...


Battleship Galaxies Pro's
  • Great Models
  • All components well done
  • Comic book is actually worth reading
  • Easy to teach
  • Energy system keeps game balance, reminiscent of Monsterpocalypse (m-poc) power dice 
    •  You get 10 energy per turn
    • It costs energy to bring ships onto the table (like M-poc)
    • It costs energy to activate a ship
    • It costs energy to use a tactics card (varies by card)
    • Some super weapons require additional energy to use
  • A lot of fleet building options from different ship variants and weapon assignments.
  • Slick missions including 3 and 4 player variants
  • Tactics cards add great depth
    • Handle all kinds of complex situations: Boarding actions, sabotage, etc.
    • Allow attaching extra weapons/heroes/systems to ships
    • In addition to picking ships for a mission you also build your tactics deck, balance preserved because awesome abilities cost more energy
    • Nukes are insane... just say'n
  • Terrain is more than terrain
    • two types of terrain: Obstacles and Discoveries
    • Obstacles are what you'd expect: Astroids, wreckage, etc.  Can use as cover.
    • Discoveries start face down, and flip when a ship is on them.
    • Holding discovery locations give you in game bonuses: +2 energy per turn, increased range, etc.  (Again, reminds me of M-poc)

Con's
  • No firing arcs
  • Facing doesn't matter
  • Ship size is relative but scale is abstracted
  • While comic fluff is great, the names of both forces are un-inspired.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the impressions. Sounds like a great game I will need to pick up soon!

    Do you mind if I post those pics on BoardGameGeek? Lots of fans there that would love to see those.

    Regards, Abyad

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  2. I bought this last week but hope to play today. I read the rules and was surprised how much the cards and scenarios increase the amount of times I would replay. Doesn't seem like it will get old too soon. Also seems to have an open door for expansions.

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  3. I love Battleship! The online version of this is sadly disappointing. I guess 2-player games are less fun to play on gadgets. Saying this because I just love playing backgammon online as much as the real board game.

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