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Visually appealing, engaging, competitive and immersive. These are just a few words to describe the experience of playing Andromeda’s Edge. Have you played yet? A highly recommended space themed exploration game set in an outer region of unexplored space on the edge of the Andromeda Galaxy, this is a game where every turn you will need to take chances, build up, explore and expand as you build and progress your own civilisation.
When I first played there was a lot to take in, yet it is quite straight forward to play. It’s not a difficult game to learn, although understanding what actions to take and when to carry them out does take a bit of time through gameplay to appreciate the nuances. That said, it is not a game that should leave you struggling after several attempts, it is one that you can appreciate and enjoy from game one.
Essence of gameplay
You play as one faction aiming to build and develop your own civilisation. This is done by gathering resources, claiming moons, acquiring modules for your space station (which give you benefits and additional resources), populate planets and build developments on them and battle opponents as their opposing factions attempt the same. Your success in these endeavours grant you advancement on the progress tracks which help determine the ultimate winner. Meanwhile, if fighting off other factions was bad enough, there are pesky and dangerous raiders that will get in the way and unless you combat them in force, they can prove to be too difficult to overcome. Andromeda’s Edge is asymmetrical as well so your faction will be different to others and I like this about this type of game and it’s something I look for; apart from anything else it helps promote the game’s replayability.
Turn sequence and options
On your turn, you do have a few options. You can launch ships in space. This must be to any unoccupied region if you have no other ships out or to a region within range of any existing ship. When you launch a sip to a region, you then activate it, taking the top moon token (or if none, the resources depicted on the moon space). Or you are activating the nebula or alliance base if you launched to one of these spaces, the latter being additional regions that grant additional actions.
These alliance options are important as they allow players to carry out various nice actions such as buying modules, building a development or building new ships. You can expect these spaces to be hotly contested as these options in particular are necessary to progress.
Modules
You need these. When you return to your station you can activate modules, these can grant you resources or other benefit such as build or repair ships. The more you have, the more options you have, but you will need energy.
Developments.
These are vital. When you launch a transport to an undeveloped planet, you can develop it. There are a number of options, subject to availability. You will need leaders, needing to be collected at an earlier stage, and you will need to spend the requisite resources. Once built, this will generate victory points for you now and very likely later as players, including you, develop adjacent to the system. Expansion is key. You will need to expand to advance as this is a game you really cannot afford to stand still in. Securing new planets is therefore vital, and whilst there is a little luck involved in turn order at the start and the layout of the map, the choices players especially at the start are crucial. Being able to secure a planet early on, helps you get a foothold into the region and with development you score victory points based on the number of leaders on the planet being developed as well as all adjacent developments in neighbouring systems. So, planning where to position those early development helps you score as the game progresses.
Progress tracks
These are important as they provide both in game rewards (as you progress along them) and victory points at the end of the game. You will want to advance along these tracks as often as you can for obvious reasons. Each track is different but operates under the same principles, with tracks for science, industry, supremacy, commerce and civilisation. There will also be events that get triggered during the game, through buying modules or advancing along a progress track. When events are resolved, this also means players score according to their position on the indicated progress track.
Battle
Battles take place whenever more than one faction is in a system together, or one faction and a raider. All present take part for themselves and can summon ships within range to join in and in addition even players not in the battle can opt to join in if they have ships in range. Why bother? Well, winning a battle allows you to progress on the supremacy track as well as gain rewards for defeating raiders. Battles are risky, but the risk can lead to rewards so it can be worth taking part.
Interaction
There is a lot of interaction. It isn’t quite a 4x game, but it isn’t far off and there is plenty of scope for messing up rivals’ plans, by developing or buying first or just getting in the way. Still, if you like this type of game, then I’m sure you will like the interaction because on every turn players are carrying out actions that impact on others directly or indirectly.
Replayability
The map layout, the factions, the event deck etc all mean each game is different. The principles may remain the same, but there is enough variability to ensure that what you do and how you do it will vary in its implementation. There is enough for me to enjoy new possibilities when I play and that is important is ensuring a game’s popularity and time on the table.
Summary.
Andromeda’s Edge is visually very engaging. The artwork and components are good and from a tactile perspective I do enjoy moving the pieces. There isn’t a large range of ships or development options, but then what is in the game does fit without it feeling overwhelming so the balance is probably about right. It is a game that is quite easy to get to grips with, but carrying out a play through is recommended to appreciate timing and the importance of the various facets to the game. Andromeda’s Edge can be a hostile game depending on how your opponents play, but equally, the main focus of the game is on building and development and this is the primary route to scoring victory points so it cannot be ignored. Do I recommend it? Well, yes.
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