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Core Space is styled by Battle Systems as The Sci-Fi Miniatures Game. Now I’m not sure about the “The”, there’s at least a couple of outfits in Nottingham that might take issue with that, but it certainly is “A” Sci-Fi Miniatures Game and a pretty good one at that. What sets Core Space apart from other offerings in this arena?
Core Born
Over a decade ago Battle Systems came into existence making terrain scenery in 28mm scale for the Fantasy and Sci-Fi worlds gaining a reputation for producing, double sided, full colour printed products on thick quality cardboard. Gamers could construct worlds with reduced effort and lower costs. Then, company founder, Colin Young decided to make their own Sci-Fi Game to utilise the best of their scenery and in 2017 Core Space was born.
Core Space predicates a post apocalyptic world where a thousand-year galactic accord is crumbling and you and your fellow players are invited to take on the rôle of Traders: a rag-tag group of misfits, adventurers and jackanapes scraping a living by treasure hunting and looting ruined spaceships. Doing this whilst competing with rival gangs and fending off a hostile race of robotic aliens The Purge.
Terror in Terrain
Core Space Boxed Game, as you would expect from Battle Systems, is heavy on terrain (actually physically heavy at several kilos!) there are over 90 3D terrain pieces that you can build up, anyway you want, on the thick rubber 2ft x 2ft square gaming mat. The bulk of this are the ship walls, either plain or with doors and windows, generally 4” long though some ae double length and some are half, all 2” high – doesn’t seem a lot but it makes for a really impressive layout. These are joined together by clips in a variety of angles and combinations.
Additionally there are a host of 3D furniture pieces and items: tables, chairs, computer consoles, shop counters, lockers even sick beds and the all-important
Search Crates. Finally a plethora of wall hangings and scatter items. These all sit on the fully-printed gaming mat that not only has a wallpaperesque sci-fi steel and conduit print but also a very useful 1” square gridded overlay.
I’ve not always been a fan of cardboard scenery as in some environments it doesn’t have the right solidity but as space ship walls they’re perfect and I felt like I was moving around in the Nostromo especially once the Purge started to lurk around the corner!
Many Manly Miniatures
And womanly too! Core Space is non-sexist, one of the 2 supplied crews’ Captains is Arianna, an able and ethical leader. It’s non speciest too with 3 different Alien races amongst the traders as well as Machines, Cyborgs and Augmented Humans and the semi robotic Purge of course.
The 20 supplied miniatures are well-crafted with interesting poses and many distinguishing feature that will help you match them to their character boards. They’re fairly tall at around 35mm up to 40mm for Gak the big, solid Quell and the more badass of the Purge.
Be Careful Not To Peg It!
Each Trader has their own Board showing their Character, Species and Type. They have an item tray which can hold up to 4 weapons and other items with rifles counting as 2 and a slot for an Armour item. They also have a Class board denoting which areas they might have Skills in. Finally there is the peg board with 3 lines of pegs to show: Health, Skill Points and Ammunition.
I was dreading this as my fat fingers and fiddlly pegs don’t usually mix! However, these pegs are very well made and fit snugly in their holes and do not knock out easily. This is also true on the threat board where an increasing number of pegs show the current danger level and how many Purge are about to descend on you.
Missions involve arriving at an airlock at the edge of the board, scurrying around to loot the random items out of the search crates before any other team does or the Purge get you and getting back through the airlock onto your ship.
Movement is simple. It is a basic 4” per Action of which most traders have two per turn. Now you may remember the basic wall is 4” long and the mat has 1” gridded squares so while the do give you a long measuring stick it’s very easy just to count squares. Generally the rules are what you would expect from a standard skirmish game with the proviso that the more you fire your weapons the higher the threat level rises. So time to send your heavies into close combat or use that long-range, silent, sniper rifle!
Space - Cor!
Core Space Boxed Game is a great value box of tricks that gets you playing a lot of Solo or Co-operative misions as either stand alone or as part of a longer campaign.
There’s loads of good stuff in the box and you can use these with other products in the Battle Systems world or use them with other games. I’m thinking of bringing my miniatures and character cards from Alien: Fate of the Nostromo and playing my own game in the claustrophobic corridors of Core Space!
This sort of experimentation is actively encouraged as there is constant reference to changing anything you don’t like or making your own house rules.
One thing, however, it does take a while to put the scenery together at the start of a mission. If you like Lego or Knex you can have quite some fun building the different layouts but it will take a while and if you are going to be playing with others the host may want to set it all up first.
