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Andromeda’s edge. The final destination for a group of desperate factions. The last chance to rebuild a civilisation and claim unchartered planets as your home. However, this journey is fraught with danger, as hostile raiders, determined to annihilate any who dare to venture too close, stand in your way.
[insert ‘cover’ pic]
In Andromeda’s Edge, you assume the role of one of the numerous factions vying to establish a new colony at the galaxy’s edge. Starting with a limited number of basic ships and resources, you embark on an exciting journey to explore planets and alliance bases. Through these interactions, you gradually build up a formidable engine, unlock new ships, construct settlements, and enhance your chances of defending against raiders and other players.
Andromeda’s Edge is the spiritual successor to Dwellings of Eldervale, a well-received and much-loved game by designer Luke Laurie. This time, Luke has joined forces with his son, Maximus to create a bigger and arguably better game. The theme has changed from fantasy to space and mechanisms such as dice combat, track progression and engine building have been refined, resulting in a deeper, bigger and more rewarding experience.
The game is a wonderful fusion of worker placement, area control, and engine building. There are tracks to progress along in a typical euro style as well as frantic battles with plenty of dice chucking that competes with the best Ameri trash games out there. This creates an exciting, deep, cerebral experience in a mishmash that somehow produces an amazing gaming experience.
How it plays
Your turn begins with a simple choice; deploy a ship to a region on the board or return all ships to your station. Whilst this initially makes the game accessible, it hides the true depth of this complexity of this immersive game.
You start the game with three transporters which are your basic ships. These ships have limited range and fighting power making your first deployments more about gathering resources and improving your station in preparation for their return. When placing ships, you can either visit a planet to gather moons that can be traded in for resource or you can visit one of the six bases to either trade resources, build settlements, make repairs or purchase modules for your station. This is the main crux of the worker placement part of the game.
As the game progresses, you gain additional ships with different abilities. Space vessels allow you to venture into the nebula to gain more powerful moons as well as to peek at and manipulate future events. Fighters are able to launch immediately into an opponent’s region to start a conflict and have an additional dice for combat that makes them a more formidable foe. Heavy cruisers have the space jump ability. By spending an energy, they are able to jump to any region on the board. Their shield helps to protect them from attacks from other players.
When launching your ships, you need to be mindful of the raiders lying in wait to attack your unsuspecting space vessels. The raiders are NPCs in the game and create an additional threat. If you launch a ship in their range, they will strike and initiate combat. Some of the raiders are very tough opponents and are likely to destroy isolated ships. However, winning combat against a raider will produce rewards, making battles a tempting prospect. The raiders add an extra dimension to the game. The variety of raiders available help to add to the replayability. However, it can feel that the rewards for beating the raiders are not worth the risk. This can lead to games where raiders are mostly avoided. It would have been nice if the rewards were greater to making it more tempting to engage them in combat.
On the edge… of glory
Combat is an inevitable part of Andromeda’s Edge. Thankfully, it is a fun and exciting aspect. The number of spaces available can feel few and far between and you will find your opponents are often occupying a hex you wish to visit. After your first launch, you are able to launch a ship to a hex where an enemy has presence. This will initiate combat but you still get to do the action on the hex first. This stops combat being all or nothing prospect.
In combat, dice are rolled simultaneously and compared. Whoever has the highest value die, wins. If there is a tie, then the next highest dice are compared until there is a winner. This does mean that there is potential for one ship to beat an entire fleet with a lucky roll, but this adds to the excitement and ensures battles are never a forgone conclusion. There is also the option of playing cards to help mitigate your dice.
One clever addition to combat is targeting value. The number of ships in combat determines your targeting value. For instance, three ships yield a targeting value of three. You can never roll anything below your targeting value. Any dice below your targeting value are rerolled. This process continues until all dice equal or exceed your targeting value. This strategy encourages you to deploy more ships into the active region, resulting in some epic battles.
Living on the edge.
To improve your chances in battles, players can build developments. In order to do this, players need a transporter on an undeveloped planet and to take the development action. The player then pays the cost in resources and places a development standee onto their transport. This means that their transport ship is out of action but any battles, within or next to their building, allows the player to add additional dice. Although the standees are nice, having the deluxe components adds a lot to the experience and table presence. With the deluxe components, there are beautiful miniatures that attach to the top of the transporter. Yes, this is a bit of a toy factor but they look so good. When you build your development, you immediately get points and they also provide points at the end of the game. Another incentive to get building.
Tracking through space
One of the primary ways to earn points is by progressing through the five tracks: science, industry, supremacy, commerce, and civilization. At the game’s end, your score is determined by your position on each track. In-game points are also awarded from the tracks when an event is triggered and an event card is revealed, and all players score for the designated track. Additionally, moving up the tracks provides players with bonuses such as ship upgrades, resources, and one-time use abilities. Progressing through these tracks is crucial for success and offers a clear path forward for players.
Fire up primary engines
Perhaps one of the most gratifying aspects of Andromeda’s Edge is the process of building up your engine. Initially, your space station has only one module of each type: science, industry, commerce, and civilization. By landing on specific bases, players can acquire new modules and add them to their station. This not only enables them to progress along the corresponding tracks but also enhances the effectiveness of their ship’s recall action.
When recalling your ships back to station, you can place them on the modules to activate them (except for damaged ships that return to your launch bay). Once a module in a row is activated by a ship, you can use energy to activate the rest of the row. This means that with only four ships, you can potentially activate all your modules, providing a wealth of resources and additional actions.
Recalling your workers becomes one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game. It feels powerful instead of a wasted turn, as it often is in worker placement games. In fact, you might find yourself returning your ships early to harness the benefits of your engine and create more potent future turns. With numerous modules available, your engine will vary each game. Modules can be triggered in any order, providing ample variety. This creates an intriguing puzzle of how to optimize your modules when you return to your station.
There’s one downside to all this: a return to station action can take a long time. This means you might have to wait a while for your turn. When your turn involves simply placing a ship on a planet to gain a resource, turn times can feel very uneven. However, there’s enjoyment in watching how others manipulate their engines, and you know it won’t be many turns before you get to do the same..
Factions
The base game comes with a variety of factions. More can be found in the Escalation and the Exotic Matter expansions. Each faction possesses unique abilities, ranging from acquiring resources when ships sustain damage to gaining additional modules during ship upgrades. These abilities contribute to the game’s replayability by influencing your strategies based on the faction you select. Each faction offers distinct gameplay experiences, ensuring that you never encounter the same path each time you play. Moreover, the factions are well-crafted and balanced, providing an enjoyable and engaging gaming experience..
Artwork
Andromeda’s Edge is beautifully illustrated by Sergio Chaves. The boards and tiles are adorned with vibrant, dreamlike images that perfectly encapsulate the theme of a new civilization at the end of a galaxy. The raiders’ design strikes a perfect balance between menace and beauty, while each faction appears distinct yet cohesive within the game’s universe. The artwork complements the more straightforward design of tactics cards and modules, ensuring that the game remains both visually stunning and functional. Overall, the game exudes a captivating space opera aesthetic.
Complexity
There is a lot to this game and there are many moving parts. As a result, it has more complexity than it’s predecessor, Dwellings. Having said that, it is a manageable teach and things soon start to make sense. When my friends played it for the first time, they were surprised at how quickly they picked it up. It helps greatly if one person knows the game well as there are rules that can be easily missed. For my first few games, there were times that I didn’t move on the event track when I should or I forgot to bring out a new planet when the event triggered. However, there are useful player aids to support in steps for your turn as well as different stages of combat. The appendix is also really useful to clarify meanings on cards and faction abilities.
Replayability
With all the different factions to try combined with all the different modules, there is a lot to explore in this game. There is a variety of raiders and the board set up is randomised each game, all of which adds to the replayability. On top of this, the game is so much fun and encourages you to try different strategies. It is a game that keeps calling you back for more.
Player interaction
Despite being an engine builder and having tracks to progress, this is far from multiplayer solitaire. The combat and area control elements prompt player interactions and as losing in battle never feels over punishing, triggering battles with your friends happens regularly. In one game I played, I lost every battle to other players yet still managed to win the game. The knowledge that you can recover from a loss in combat means that you don’t have to shy away from those epic battles. This is a game that you enjoy with friends rather than just alongside them.
Component quality
I am fortunate enough to have the deluxe components of the game. This adds miniatures for the raiders and the buildings instead of standees. These additions are beautiful and well designed and really add to the experience and table presence. The buildings in particular are amazing. They click on top of your transporter ships and your leader pegs slot in to help denote they belong to you. They work well and look great.
With the deluxe components, you also get upgraded resources which look and feel great. The metal credits (wild resource) are particularly nice. Cardboard tokens are replaced with high quality screen printed wooden ones which are very tactile.
However, the components of the base game are also of high quality. You still get miniatures for your ships and the cardboard components feel high quality. The hex tiles are chunky and look great. Without the addition of the deluxe components, this game still looks impressive on the table.
Negatives
Despite being my favourite game of the moment, I can see some possible negatives. Firstly, it has a big set up and tear down time. This can limit how often it gets to the table. Taking time to set up before friends arrive is a real must with this game. It is also a table hog. You will need to have a decent sized table to comfortably accommodate this game, particularly with more than two players.
This is also not a game for purists. It is a clever amalgamation of both euro mechanisms and dice-based combat. The hybrid nature may not appeal to those seeking a crunchy euro or players wanting an all-out dice chucker.
Talking of dice, there is luck in Andromeda’s Edge. You could enter a battle rolling six dice against someone rolling just one and still lose. Yes, there is some clever dice mitigation, and you can make decisions to improve your chances but all your planning can still be undone by an unlucky roll.
The imbalance in turn times may frustrate some. As mentioned, return to station can take a few minutes to work through and if all you want to do on your turn is launch to a planet to pick up a resource, it could leave you feeling a little cheated.
Final thoughts
Andromeda’s Edge is an incredible achievement. It looks stunning, feels epic, and is incredibly enjoyable to play. The hybrid nature seamlessly combines the best of both worlds, offering an unparalleled gaming experience. The satisfaction of building your engine and activating all your modules provides a genuine sense of progression as you accumulate more and more each time you return to the station. Numerous elements throughout the game feel rewarding, and even losing battles yields tangible benefits. Your efforts throughout the game keep you engaged and eager to return for more. The frequent player interaction is a positive and enjoyable aspect of the game. Andromeda’s Edge offers an immersive and captivating gaming experience, creating unforgettable moments shared with friends and family.
