6/27 Featured Games!

Greetings FNDers!

First, I apologize that I am posting the featured games at the 11th hour!  Last week I was finishing my last week at school and this week I've had family in town, so I fell a bit behind.  Which is too bad because this week's theme is one of my absolute favorites - Space!

There are a wide variety of games that involve space combat, space ship construction, and space voyages.  Most importantly we have some light ones and some heavy ones that'll appeal to a wide variety of gamers. 

We aren't going to have a 'featured' party game this week because 1) we've already featured a lot that we own and 2) we don't really have a space themed one, so if you really want to play a party game and make it involve space, we'll do Telestrations and make all the cards involve space in some capacity.

Anyways, on to the featured SPACE games!

Cosmic Encounter:

Cosmic is one of the first games we owned not named Settlers of Catan and it is a delightfully fun game.  It is very simple and involves everyone taking control of one of 90 unique alien races.  You're trying to take over other peoples worlds with very simple combat (basically just flipping a card).  The fun comes from all of the different unique alien powers.  This can play up to six and is a really enjoyable experience with the right crowd.

Galaxy Trucker:

This game is in a league of its own as far as uniqueness.  Each player is a space trucker trying to deliver goods and earn a big pay day.  The company you work for, however, is really cheap, and makes you build your ship out of the parts your delivering - sewer parts.  The first part of the game is a free-for-all of timed building.  You quickly assemble your ship from a common pool of parts.   After that you see how your ship fairs the rigors of space!  Different event cards are drawn and you make decisions on how to respond with fingers crossed that your ragtag ship survives the trip.  This game is much more about the experience than about winning and it is one of my favorites.

Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game

Okay so this is embarrassing but I own the X-Wings miniatures game as well as a few expansions (A-Wing, Millenium Falcon, and Tie Bomber) but have never played them.  We had a influx of new games and I haven't read the rules yet.  I'll try to by tomorrow to properly teach people but it may not happen :-)  Its very popular, however, so if you know it, feel free to teach it or play it!

Alien Frontiers

We actually featured this just about a month ago but it fits the theme so well we might as well feature it again.  Alien Frontiers is the first game to get real success from Kickstarter and is a very excellent area-of-control game.  Each player is trying to colonize a new planet and you use your ships (dice) to take various actions and manipulate the rules to make yours the kings of the new planet.

Eclipse

This game was one of the biggest hits of 2011 and is still one of my favorite games.  Back then you couldn't find it anywhere and while its popularity has toned down a bit, its still an amazing game.  Each player takes control of a alien race and is trying to end the game with the most points.  These are gained through military conquest, building of infrastructure, technology, and other means.  Each player has a 'blueprint' on his board for his different ships and these can be uniquely modified to fit any strategic plan you may have.  Its really fun and not as complicated as the it would seem at first glance.  I have the Rise of the Ancients Expansion and would love to get a 6ish player game of this going. 

Battlestar Galactica

Even though we just featured this last week, we couldn't have a space-game and not feature BSG.  Especially with how much fun everybody had playing it last time.  As mentioned in a previous post, it is a cooperative game with a couple players playing as secret traitors.  It plays a maximum of six and that would be the ideal number.  Unlike last time I fully intend on playing and not just teaching :-)

I'm pretty stoked about these games tonight as are some other regulars I've talked to.  If you've never been out to FND before then this is a great night for your first time.  If you have been, try to get back out as we'd love to see you again!