After having had a wee break for our Summer Holidays, we’re getting back on track with a deep dive into Star Trek: Ascendancy from Gale Force Nine this month. We’ll also be talking about some changes to how our giveaways work, but we’ll save that to the end…

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Designed for 3 players with the core game, I will admit I had mixed feelings about this on my very first play (a 6-player game); it’s a massive multiplayer which can take up to an hour per player (and can cope with up to 10 players!). However, having now sat down to play it with my boys (14 & 16), I’m a total convert.

The younger tends to prefer co-ops and dungeon crawlers, so I was a bit wary, but he gamely took on the role of the Federation (probably the hardest of the 3 from the base game) and absolutely loved it, exploring phenomena and attempting to hegemonise cultures (in other words, cultural conquest). Eldest is a sneaky wee so-and-so, inevitably playing Romulans and essentially castling up in the Beta Quadrant for the win (it’s a legit strategy, and very Romulan) whilst I fight for the glory of the Empire! Granted, I could betray my allies but I prefer to fight with honor! Other factions add varied strategies, but even the base game has plenty of variety to keep you going.

Central to the game is building trade agreements. It’s important to expand out and encounter the rest of the galaxy, because once you encounter other player species, you can negotiate, trade, and increase your resource base.

You begin equidistant, and start to tentatively explore, randomly determining the distance between mysterious objects. As you encounter Strange New Worlds you’ll find a mix of virgin worlds ripe for colonisation, existing civilisations to persuade (one way or another) to join you, mysterious scientific discoveries or dangerous crises. As you progress you’ll also find dangerous but research rich stellar phenomena, and eventually other players.

Each player turn is split into 2 phases, Building and Command. Early turns are about engine building, with each colonised planet having up to 3 possible Nodes: Production (to build ships and other Nodes), Research (to upgrade your technology) and Culture (to develop your civilisation). You win by achieving 5 Ascendancy – you start with 2, and at any point can trade 5 Culture for an Ascendancy. This is easier said than done, however, as you can also win through Supremacy: conquering the homeworlds of your opponents. So it’s all about finding that sweet spot in your engine build.

During the Command phase, using your limited pool of command tokens (this increases as you Ascend) you send out your ships, attempt to Hegemonise (negotiate with) or Invade other cultures, Research new technologies or build Starbases – of which you can only have a maximum of 3, but these greatly extend your range as ships can be built there.

On the subject of range, Warp is handled interestingly: ships can enter warp by spending a Command, and this can then be added to; each point of warp equates to moving a full system, but only those that you control. Given that standard impulse movement is only 2, this becomes increasingly potent as the game progresses. Similarly, as your number of ships increase, you can combine them into fleets of 3 or more This has a number of advantages: they can be controlled by a single Command, and often have additional benefits such as rerolling 1s for a klingon attack fleet or adding 1 to rolls for a Federation diplomatic fleet. It all feels very thematic, and whilst there can be a bit of downtime in larger games at later stages it’s still an extremely engaging slice of Star Trek.

However, that’s at 3 (or more players) – but most of my gaming is with the elder spawn, so The Borg Invasion (sounds swedish) has also been hitting the table. This excellent expansion serves to add an AI opponent (how fitting) making the game viable at 1 or 2 players, or an existential menace at higher counts. Great fun, particularly given that I’m not really given to solo gaming, but am aware that kids do have a tendency to age and leave home (eventually).

For example, last time, despite a slow start I got lucky fairly early on when the Borg got stuck in an electromagnetic nebula… until I ran into Q and he made sure we ran into one another! I narrowly managed to achieve an Ascendancy victory with the Borg just 1 sector away from Earth. The game really captures the Star Trek vibe and whilst it can feel a wee bit swingy early on (there is certainly a luck element when it comes to what you encounter) and there can be a bit of downtime later on (though the Dominion expansion in particular counters this as you build military alliances), it’s a really superb game. Q’pla!

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GIVEAWAY TIME!

So… this is a big change, but we’re down with the cool kids and moving a lot of our giveaways (and actually content generally) to Instagram, where we can make friends and watch videos 3 weeks after they were on TikTok. But we know that you also love detailed, in-depth reviews and features too, SO…

If you head over to instagram @big_geekingout check out the pinned post (that’s the giveaway) which is Star Trek themed and follow the instructions there…

BUT!

Comment below with your favourite Star Trek race as well for (wait for it…) 5 bonus entries!

How’s that for generous? Live long and prosper indeed!

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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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