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GALAXY TRUCKER MISSIONS

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Designer:
Vlaada Chvatil

Publisher:
CGE 2015

No. of Players:
2 - 5

EVALUATION

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When CGE launched the Galaxy Trucker app back in 2014 gamers all around the world shared the consistent opinion that the app represented one of the best boardgame implementations ever made. The app does not only stay true to the spirit and feel of the Galaxy Trucker boardgame, but it also comes with an easy handling and an almost natural realization of the competitive parts drafting process which forms the core of the boardgame. However, the game designers also faced the task of making the app attractive for solo play, and for this reason they have created a whole campaign in which the single player can follow a trucker's career, gaining perks and unlocking new ship designs by completing missions with a sorts of special challenges.

As indicated, the app was received with high praise by all fans of the boardgame, and so it's no wonder that soon after first cries could be heard that called for the transformation of the missions and the eccentric characters to become available in the boardgame. Hearing the call, game designer Vlaada Chvatil has taken up the challenge, and as a result trucking enthusiasts all around the world will be able to enjoy the new Galaxy Trucker Missions expansion.

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The expansion sets contains a set of Mission Briefing cards plus some specific ship parts and Mission cards which will be needed in the one or other mission. The expansion game be combined quite easily with the basic game, and so the players are simply required to chose one Mission Briefing card for every flight they wish to undertake. The specifics of the chosen mission will be active for all players, so that the players cannot chose different missions, but instead all players will have to face the same parameters in order to keep the competition fair.

The main differences between the missions lie in the additional ship parts and Mission cards which may be called for on the Mission Briefing. The new ship parts take the role of cargo, and the players will have to adapt their ship construction in order to suit the type of cargo they have to take on board. So, for example, there are some heavyweight cargo tiles, and a trucker who has to take those on board will have to add additional engines in order to keep the ship moving. Explosive parts on the other hand need to be well protected, since a destruction of an explosive module will cause a major detonation, resulting in the destruction of all surrounding modules! Even other parts are radioactive, and due to the radiation no crew cabins may be located on the eight surrounding spaces. As you can see, each different type of cargo will require the players to think quite differently, and so even a seasoned veteran player will have to change his design efforts in order to find a suitable space on board for the new parts.

The new Mission cards on the other hand rightly bear the name of "Supercards", since they may considerably shake up the flight rooster. The players now may have to face a whole pirate fleet attacking all player ships, they may have to fly through a cosmic shower, attacking all slots on two sides of the ships with meteors, or they may even have to avoid a fearsome black hole, loosing parts to its gravitation if their engines are too weak. Coupled with new event cards are other kind of mischief, the players will face quite a lot of new challenges which will keep them busy for may a mission.

In comparison to the older expansion sets, Galaxy Trucker Missions is a comparatively small expansion which contains just 16 Mission Briefing cards, 70 ship parts and 26 "Supercards". However, the big plus of this expansion is the fact that each different mission confronts the players with a new setting, and in contrast to the other rather big expansion sets the players will just have to learn a few new rules before they can embark on a mission. Despite the modular nature, the entry barrier has been higher for the other expansions since the players have to learn a major rules set associated with new cards or ship parts, but all this can be experienced on a much easier level within Galaxy Trucker Missions. This makes the new expansion rather suitable especially for occasional truckers who are familiar with the basic rules but want to forego the major expansions, but in the end all kinds of players will greatly appreciate the new variants which will bring some new action into a trucker's everyday life.

On a sidenote, this does not mean that Vlaada Chvatil's special touch for complex situations and rule systems cannot be felt in Galaxy Trucker Missions. Quite the opposite, the rulebook contains everything needed to combine the new missions with all existing expansions, and so players on the brink of sanity really may try to take the whole challenge!

From my perspective this expansion is a must have for all truckers. A small box, but lots of content!


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Copyright & copy; 2016 Frank Schulte-Kulkmann, Essen, Germany