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From Africa to the Moon
Skymines is a reskin and tweaking of the game Mombasa by Alexander Pfister, but whereas the original has building up shares in companies trading in 18th century Africa, Skymines has us investing in companies on the moon which fortunately removes the controversy of the orginial’s setting. Skymines isn’t just an exact reskin but includes two different game boards, a solo mode and a mini campaign to offer a little more variety over the original and this time the companies are mining on the moon.
So what is Skymines? In Skymines 1-4 players will be competing to make the most money (sorry I mean crypto coin - a terrible name) by the end of the game by investing in companies and doing research over the course of 7 rounds. Gameplay consists of 3 phases, first a preparation phase which is simultaneous and performed by all players in which they will select cards from their hand to play facedown into the available slots in front of them, you start off with three but these can be expanded up to five as the game progresses.
You saw the whole of the moon
Once all players have selected their cards the next phase begins - the action phase - and in this phase players take it in turns to take 1 action each until they can or don’t want to take any more actions. These involve purchasing new cards from your hand, and to do this you choose one resource type in front of you and spend that on new cards available. Alongside this you can also use resources to advance on 1 of the tracks of the 4 companies in the game and in doing this you can unlock shares in the company which will be worth points but also ongoing bonuses if you can reach certain thresholds.
You can use your energy cards to move outposts of companies out onto the board, increasing their share value and gaining you one of bonuses. These can include things like gaining research spending points, moving up tracks or gaining crypto coins. Your total energy determines the number and type of spaces you will move with additional costs to displace other companies' outposts and also to cross certain lines.
There are two kinds of scientist cards, researchers and field scientists each with their own actions. Primarily researchers allow you to move along the bottom right track of your player board which you can move more quickly along if you meet certain conditions and the other field scientist moves your helium marker through another track enabling end game points and unlocking another action slot. I’m not entirely sure this additional track was needed but it opens up additional options when playing.
There are also bonus tile spaces, and some on certain tracks that you can also use a number of, often for cost and these will give you one off benefits either this round or the coming round.
At the end of the game you total up all the shares you have in each of the companies and multiply that by their value which is represented by how many outposts they have out on the board. On top of this you will add points gained from the tracks on your player boards and any remaining money you have left.
Do we have lift off?
This may all seem like a lot and on my first play of Skymines, and learning how to play, I immediately felt overwhelmed at the amount of options and not knowing what the best route to victory was. As the game progressed, rounds sped up and all those vague symbols and lack of certainty gave way to a really fluid experience which was only compounded by future plays. Skymines is a game where you regret your previous actions by the time your turn next comes around again and that is often the sign of a fantastic game. Included is a sort of mini-campaign which builds on previous plays, a little like a tutorial system to introduce new players although we just jumped straight in.
Skymines shines best at 4 players, and although it can play at lower numbers, I would always choose to wait to have the full number of players before playing this as it just makes the decisions and interactions more interesting.
Is it made of cheese?
Skymines looks great on the table and I really enjoy the fact that nobody owns any particular company or are limited to which shares they own which allows for some tense last couple of rounds. I would say some of the symbols and colours could be clearer as it caused some minor confusion on each of the first plays I had of this game - not something that you couldn’t learn but some of the resource cards are quite similar in their colours and the research tiles feel a little too small although maybe that is just nitpicking.
I really loved Skymines and think it’s a fantastic reskin and a chance to play a brilliant game by a designer who is more famously known for Maracaibo and Great Western Trail. This feels like a bit of an underrated gem that although may be overwhelming to begin with, is actually very smooth to play once you understand the different mechanisms that underpin it. I feel like this game doesn’t get the attention it deserves and if this all sounds like something you would enjoy, I would highly recommend investing in some companies on the moon.
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