The month of May is inevitably dominated by the power of Disney The Dark Side (actually, maybe I crossed out the wrong one there); if it’s not May the 4th, it’s Marvel May. But we thought we’d take a look at some other franchises with great games out there, particularly with it being the run-up to Father’s Day.

We’re featuring some of the excellent franchise games from the mighty Gale Force Nine, and yes, of course there is an epic giveaway, because that’s what you’re really here for, after all…  So this month, we’re giving away a great big Star Trek Away Missions bundle, thanks to good ol’ Asmodee UK.

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Star Trek Away Missions: Original Series
Kirk’s Away Team / Scotty’s Away Team

(RRP: £19.99 each)

Now you can check out our GLOWING review of Star Trek Away Missions HERE (tl;dr it’s the best thing since sliced Beatles) but what if you’re a bit more retro and you want to go back to the start? Well, now you can with the TOS Away Team sets. Set phasers to stun as you get sucked through time and space to imagine your own adventures of the crew of the 1701 exploring a mysterious vessel from the future, teaming up with TNG crew… or even encountering the cybernetic menace that is the Borg!

Kirk is, inevitably, a man of action, and in play style is not dissimilar to Riker from the core set, backed up by Spock (very Data), McCoy (Beverly) and Chekov (Shelby). As well as being very good on the attack with his Starfleet Judo (judo chop!), Kirk can always roll an extra die, and then remove one from his dice pool, which is incredibly potent. His Seduction even allows him to stun an opponent for free! He’s THAT hot. McCoy heals (funny that), Chekov is a typical Specialist with the ability to discard Support tokens for rerolls (which is pretty neat) and Spock, as well as being loaded on Skill and skills, can Nerve Pinch, again fairly easily Stunning opponents. Iconic, and surprisingly combat-y for a Fed team. Whilst Riker’s crew needs to Set Phasers to Kill to really get moving, this is a potent team designed to lockdown combative opponents or out-run less skilled ones.

Whilst some may not like the idea of Scotty and Kirk not being able to be on Away Missions together (they’re both leaders), let’s remember that Scotty is the ship’s second officer and in command when Kirk and Spock inevitably beam off together [/mansplaining]. Scotty, as a Miracle worker, can generate extra actions with his Engineering x3; Sulu is a good skill mix with higher than average stats and a bit of combat (although a bit dependent on drawing his Rapier); and Uhura can generate rerolls at Communication terminals, which is very useful and especially good when playing against Romulans. Rounding out the team is Leslie, the iconic redshirt… and he’s not great. I’d have love this to be a 5-person Away team because his stats are very weak – I really wanted another dedicated mission specialist in the mix, such as Chapel as a limited Medical specialist (a bit like Bev and Wes). Ah well.

Still, Scotty is designed to work around one of just those rare moments when he’s off ship in the show… yup, Tribbles. It’s the only mission he comes with, but the Tribbles are so much fun you really don’t care. Tribbles score immediately (10 points)… but, of course, the trouble with tribbles (ahem) is that they breed: if you’re not careful, you’re overrun with the fluffballs, and can’t score points at all. It’s a gloriously silly mechanic, and reminds us of the fact that the game is, above all, about enjoyment.

Coming full circle on this, some may baulk at the idea of mixing timelines and messing with canon – but this is Trek, after all, and time-travel is baked into its Progenitor-designed DNA. Just because you’ve never seen these events on screen doesn’t mean they never happened (or will-have-happened), and the joy of Away Missions is you truly do feel as if you’re writing your own episode as you play. For the purists, though, the best way to experience a TOS vibe is either to pitch one of these Away Teams against Romulans and/or Klingons (foreheads not withstanding) or, even better, race against one another exploring the strange, sleek ship (complete with lovely carpets). Both sets are great buys, and if you read on to the end you can see we’re giving away both along with a copy of the game itself!

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Firefly: Misbehavin’

(RRP: £49.99)

We love a deckbuilding game in our house, and the recent trend many of our favourite games (such as Lost Ruins of Arnak or Dune: Imperium) incorporate deckbuilding elements – so when we got our hands on the GF9’s Firefly deckbuilder, well, ain’t no power in the ‘verse could stop us. Love the show, love the movie, love deckbuilders… Could the game possibly meet our expectations?

This game is… Shiny. No other word for it. Whether you’re a fan of the franchise or not, if you like strategic card and/or tableau builders, this is really going to make your brain itch. For 2-4 players, what makes Misbehavin’ stand apart from other deckbuilders is the way it creates asymmetry: each starting deck is different, depending on your faction, and even though the path to victory is typically the same, how you achieve this is radically different.

Take My Love, Take My Land, Take Me Where I Cannot Stand

There’s some clear conventions of deckbuilders – common pools of cards that are useful in early game but gradually sub-optimal; the SHINY and INTO THE BLACK cards are always in the common pool, but the other types (Fight, Deal and Manoeuvre and All 3) vary by Episode, though there is a default setup of Crazy Ivan, Palaver, Misbehave and Full Burn – all classic elements of the show which are pleasingly intuitive, assuming you’re a fan. Yes, you can play through the TV show, with the individual episodes each providing different game setup and victory conditions. As if the very fact it’s a deckbuilder doesn’t provide enough variety, this means there is massive replayability along with a sense of overarching narrative.

It’s very on-theme, as are the factions themselves: Niska is brutal, favouring combat allies whilst working behind the scenes (more often than not, if you draw the man himself you’ll actually be discarding him rather than playing him); Eavesdown is all about barter and making Deals (it’s Badger, and he DOES have a very fine hat); the Alliance tries to lock down the opposition through issuing warrants (they’re the gorram law, after all); and the Serenity is all about building an engine based on getting a crew and keeping flying (a boatload of terribly strange folk).

Burn The Land And Boil The Sea, You Can’t Take The Sky From Me

You purchase cards from market – from Core, Outer and Rim worlds – and aim to complete your tableau to win. The tableaus are double-sided, with an “easy” side that is the same for all factions (and with more spaces) or a regular side that’s more restrictive and faction specific. Cards are purchased based on the value of your cards in hand, discarding to pay – again, a familiar mechanic, but that’s not a negative. You do have limited but varied choices each turn, with most turns consisting of a single purchase and a single card play. However, some cards will trigger when played, or can be triggered once on tableau instead of a card play – usually, for a potent effect, but at the cost of one fewer card in hand on your next turn.

Manoeuvre cards are another twist, as they can often be triggered more than once (like a Leaf on the wind) by using your ‘Verse tokens, but require you to have a ship in play – another reason to play Serenity, as it STARTS on their tableau. ‘Verse tokens, incidentally, are bonus actions, earned by doing faction-thematic tasks and spendable for bonuses: so, for example, Niska gains a faction point token when you discard a card with a printed 3 cost on it (such as the man himself), and can spend them to make his mercenaries even more brutally aggressive.

 

Take Me Out, To the Black, Tell ‘em I ain’t comin’ Back

Now a common criticism of Deckbuilders is a lack of true interaction; often, it’s simply stemming from the common pool of cards (or interfering with it). Even co-operative deckbuilders can suffer from this, though granted Cryptozoic’s Injustice tries to offset this with a Versus beat-em-up element… but it’s not great. However, in Misbehavin’, you CANNOT win without interacting with one another in this game. There’s a couple of reasons why: sometimes, you need to cut a Deal, where you rather than using your card Influence, you’ll want to just straight out buy a card with credits… but you can interfere with another player’s Deal (especially if you’re Badger).

And of course, there’s times victory can only come at the barrel of a gun, so you’re going to get into a scrap and Fight your opponent, to discard characters out of their tableau and prevent them from winning. And then there’s the Reavers. You don’t HAVE to include a Reaver card (or more than one) in one of the Market decks, but I always think it doesn’t pay to be complacent, and it means that you’re sometimes wary of clearing the market for fear of them appearing. Reavers come in various difficulties, high Fight enemies that all players have to band together to defeat or risk losing cards off every bit of the table. Once you’ve learned the basics of the game, having the possibility of them tearing through and the necessity of setting aside your differences is a major strength of the game.

There’s No Place I Can Be, Since I Found Serenity

As mentioned, we love deckbuilders; DC deckbuilding is our reliable fallback option, and has been for many years. Now not all deckbuilders are born equal – Star Wars feels really derivative, for example – but this is something very special. Although we did find the rulebook a little clunky – there’s a quickstart playthru, but it’s for 4 players only – once we’d got the hang of it, we were absolutely smitten. And I swear by my pretty floral bonnet, you will be too.

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GIVEAWAY TIME!

Well, here we are again! This month, to win our Star Trek bundle, just tell us your favourite character from the vast range of the Trekiverse! Thanks, as always, to our chums at Asmodee UK for providing the prizes!

Remember to Like, Comment and Share across your socials (FB, Insta, Twitter/X) tagging us @bigcomicpage & @big_geekingout to bag yourself a bonus entry! UK entries only unless you’re willing to fork out the postage, alas.

Next month we actually ARE going to look at Star Wars, with a deep dive into Shatterpoint, the skirmish game of epic encounters in a galaxy far, far away!

And finally, the winner of our April Brimstone Giveaway is… @meeplesathome on Instagram!

Congratulations! Remember to get in touch with admin@bigcomicpage.com within 30 days to claim your prize!

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The Writer of this piece was: Sam Graven
Article Archive: Geeking Out
You can follow Sam on Instagram at @big_geekingout

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