Gale Force Nine Star Trek Ascendancy

Twilight Imperium 4th Edition got me hooked on 4X (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) games, but at ~8 hours it's difficult to get to the table and intimidating to non-gamers. Enter Star Trek Ascendancy! It takes about 1 hour per player in the game, but you can reduce this once you know what you're doing and use some variant rules. And even disregarding length, it's more fun than TI4 in my opinion. This is largely due to exploration (arguably nonexistent in TI4), which gives you the experience of exploring the galaxy for the first time. It's kind of like Betrayal, where the map generates randomly as you and your rivals explore, with random thematic events happening at the new systems (some helpful, some painful). Especially in the early game, this exploration provides a fun randomness and excitement to the game that gets people hooked, even those that don't like longer, heavier board games. And, even though this randomness can impact who gets an early lead, the other aspects of the game (like negotiation between rivals and good strategy) even things out. This also makes every game different - you can't rely on 1 strategy for each faction because the map will be different, your opponents will be different, etc, forcing you to change things up on the fly.The combat is simple but fun. The asymmetry between factions is very well thought out and balanced. The technology upgrades are not as good as in TI4 but are still a great part of the game. And if you are a Trekkie, you'll love this game even more.I'll give my two cents on what expansions to get, if any:- Base game limits you to 3 player ONLY, so if that's a good number for you there's no reason to buy an expansion, at least before trying it out for a while.- If you really want to do 1 or 2 player, then get the Borg expansion. There is an unofficial rulebook on BGG that fixes the confusing rules. They add a terrifying aspect to the game with any amount of players!- If you want 4 or more player, get either the Cardassian or Ferengi expansions (or wait until June/July 2019 for the Vulcan and Andorian expansions to come out). If your group likes combat, get the Cardassians (my favorite of the 5 factions). Ferengi are enjoyable but have a totally different mechanic - they are completely dependent on trading with rivals for most of the game, so they are not nearly as combative.- All other add-ons are not critical, but you might find yourself wanting them all sooner than later!- If you have access to a 3D-printer, I'd strongly recommend printing yourself a new insert, especially if you get any of the expansions. I designed one that is free to download on Thingiverse called "Star Trek Ascendancy Optimized Insert" - it makes it WAY easier to setup and cleanup the game.I hope you enjoy the game as much as I do!

I first learned about this game about a year ago and have had some fascination with it ever since. This fascination has recently bloomed into a full-fledged obsession after watching a lot of board game reviews on the YouTube. I wanted to play! What should I play?I know! I've been a Trekkie for the last 20 years (I won't tell you how old I am, but that's not an insignificant portion of my life) and have toyed around with a couple Trek board games. But this was a game that I really wanted to burn my free time with. This is the game I wanted to play.I watched reviews. I watched playthroughs. I don't have much experience with complicated board games. There are a lot of rules. It's a lot to wrap your brain around initially. After a short while, it just started making intuitive sense. I like the rules. I love how each of the factions (Federation, Romulan, and Klingon in the base game) each have slightly different things they can and can't do. It adds an interesting dimension. I love how little strategies start to emerge after you've played it for a while; little truths appear. "Well, I could spend my resources here, but I see that my opponent seems to be mobilizing over here." "Shoot! I can't do that! I need that for later!" "Well, I don't want to go here because he'll just swing a system in and, suddenly, he's in my backyard." I love that there are expansions out (and more coming out) that add new factions with their own new rules and more colorful teeny tiny ships.Oh, I do have my problems with the game. There are little things I keep forgetting about. Resources I forgot to replenish, faction advancements that I forget about. Also, it's at minimum a three player game (unless you buy the Borg expansion). I'm unlikely to find two other people as fascinated with this game as I am and want to play it on a regular basis. But, I think the biggest problem that I have with this game is that I haven't decided which expansion I want to get first.Wait, yes I did.Who just said that?