On June 8th of last year, Wizkids announced that they had procured the license to produce games using the Star Trek license and characters. I’m going to be completely honest with you, as I sit here typing this on a (incredibly sweet) Star Trek keyboard – I’ve been biting my nails (figuratively) in anticipation ever since then. I’ve been a Trekkie since birth and a ‘Clix fanboy almost since the game first started, so the marriage of the two couldn’t possibly excite me more – it also means that I had some pretty heavy expectations for this game, especially when you add to the mix Reiner Knizia, the veritable godfather of eurogames, and the inventor of the co-op style board game, of which Star Trek: Expeditions is the latest.
The Box:
The box is extremely well-made – think Fantasy Flight here, because aside from the shape of the box, that’s essentially what you’re getting. Very little risk of this seeing much visible wear unless you’re just not very careful. Same goes for most of the pieces, but more on that later. The front of the box features a snatch from the movie poster of the 2009 Star Trek film (which I loved – haters can just hate all you want) showing the four crew members (Kirk, Spock, Bones, and Uhura) that can be found in plastic form inside the box. Beneath them is the game’s logo in large, Trek-y text, as well as a pretty sweet CG shot of the Enterprise evading fire from a Klingon Battle Cruiser (both of which can also be found in plastic form within). The interior portion of the box even has a block of reminder text about turn sequence, and how to resolve challenges – as if the cards designed specifically for that purpose inside weren’t enough. Everything about it screams user-friendly, and more importantly, it screams “fun” pretty well, too. The only part of it that doesn’t is the pricetag – $50 for 6 ‘Clix figures and some cards has had several people balking already. More below on why that shouldn’t be an issue to the informed consumer.
The Components:
Again, think Fantasy Flight – or, more accurately, think better than Fantasy Flight, because that’s what this is. The board is both quite large (you’d have trouble playing this game on a standard 6′ banquet table, you’d likely need to put two together, with the players sitting around it), and extremely thick stock – it alone weighs probably just over a pound. Most of the cards – the draw deck (or ‘energize’ deck in this case), the event cards that go on the game spaces, the stardate cards, and the reminder text cards (which are actually quite helpful, and the game includes one for each player) are all of a similar stock that you’d expect from one of Fantasy Flight’s products. The character cards and mission cards, however, are much thicker and more durable – more akin to what the game board is for most games, and should have no problem standing up to numerous playthroughs.
Of course, the real draw for this game is the 6 ‘Clix figures contained within, and let me tell you, they are some of the best I’ve ever seen. For one thing, they’re the introduction of the new “Champion” (or “Oreo”) bases for the figures, which are a vast improvement over both varieties Wizkids has used in the past. These new bases will become the norm starting with the next HeroClix set, which is tying in with the Captain America film (aptly enough, the set is titled Captain America). The sculpts are absolutely great. They don’t really look like the actors from the film, but then, we’re talking about 1″ mass-produced pre-painted miniatures here. The paint applications were precise and detailed – overall there’s no mistaking who you’re looking at. And the ships are absolutely breathtaking. The Enterprise faithfully recreates the “JJ-Prise” from the most recent film, and its frankly good enough to sit on a shelf outside the game – as is the Klingon Battle Cruiser. The cruiser is especially interesting, because its essentially the D7 design from the original ’60s TV series, only its been updated to look in-line with the new film. Since this ship will no doubt show up in the rebooted film series at some point, this marks a pretty exciting first look at it for fans.
Frankly, I feel that overall, the set easily justifies its pricetag, and I think anyone else who opens the box will agree.
The Rules
This is also one of the prettiest rulebooks I’ve seen in quite some time. 24 pages, glossy, full 8 1/2×11 size, with tons and tons of photographs, mostly of the game pieces in various configurations. The rules are extremely clear and well-written (although it helps that the game itself is fairly simple). In fact, the only real complaint I had here was that the rules were concise enough that the examples they had (which were frequent, clarifying almost every aspect of play) were a bit useless, and so I found myself skipping over them.
The Game
The game itself has the crew of the Enterprise arriving at the planet Nibia. Now, Nibia was originally wanting to join the Federation, and the Federation, peace-loving communist hippies that they are, was all for that idea. However, when Kirk and Co. get there, there’s a Rebel faction threatening to overthrow the government, the planet’s ecosystem is on the verge of collapse due to an impurity in its dilithium reserves, and worst of all, there’s a Klingon Battle Cruiser in orbit ready to pummel the Enterprise into its requisite components.
Play proceeds very smoothly. Each player takes on the role of an Enterprise bridge officer (the aforementioned Kirk, Spock, Bones, or Uhura), and works together with the other three to complete the various planetary missions, all the while fending off the Klingons in a running game of orbital chicken. At the start of your turn, you flip over a stardate card, and resolve events relating to what difficulty you’re playing the game on (for instance, on easy, you’ll just advance the stardate marker once, but on medium, you won’t be allowed to beam to or from the planet for that turn, and on hard the Klingons might launch an attack on the Enterprise). Once you’ve completed the events on the card, you’ll take a number of actions also specified by the card (usually 2, 3, or 4). These actions range the gamut, from beaming up or down from the planet surface, attacking the Klingons in orbit, utilizing sickbay, attempting a challenge on the surface, etc. Once you’re finished, the next player just repeats around and around until either the players collectively beat the game, or the game beats them. Each space on the planet surface represents a mission that can (and for the most part, will) be attempted by the players. The majority of these have to do with the three primary missions (Political, Energy, and Rebels) that have to be completed in order for the players to win. What makes things interesting, and provides most of the games replay value, is the varying degrees of success you can have in these missions. Each stage of the three main missions branches in two different degrees of success, with the end result being sixteen different ending possibilities for each of the three missions. The combined result is scored after all the missions are completed, giving the player’s the ultimate result of their efforts. Of course, if the Enterprise is destroyed by the Klingons, or if the player’s fail to solve Nibia’s woes in less than 30 days, the player’s lose.
Despite having only the one mission contained in the box, the game has a lot of replay potential, with so many different possibilities for how the game can end up. In addition, there’s a lot of room here for expansion. There’s already one planned for October, which adds Sulu, Scotty, and Chekov to the mix, and I could definitely see more stuff down the line adding new missions and scenarios to an already great game.
The Verdict:
Star Trek: Expeditions is a ton of fun, especially if you’re already a Trekkie (and who isn’t?). But even if you’re not, its still just a damn good boardgame, from arguably the most respected name in the industry.
The overall quality of this product just makes me even more stoked about Star Trek: Fleet Captains, which is hitting around December. It’s going to be double the price of Expeditions, but containing 24 starship ‘Clix, each representing a different ship class from the original (pre-2009-movie) Trek universe, in a big ol’ fanboy battle royale.
Live Long and Prosper, friends. Domino out.