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Starship Captains puts players in control of Enterprise-like starships working together in the faction known as the Cooperative (in part because I’m guessing “Federation” was taken!). Recently promoted to the rank of Captain, each player has command of a small crew of specialists from across the universe. Settle into the captain’s chair of your very first star cruiser and get ready to embark on an exciting voyage through the depths of space in this euro-style action selection and engine building game for 1-4 players. Grey: Repair damage from your ship. This is the only room that a Cadet can use and also can be activated by any color crew member. Starship Captains is a worker placement(ish) and resource management(ish) board game that will have you trying to earn points over the game’s four rounds. This light euro game plays from 1-4 players and takes about an hour or so to play. Gameplay Overview:
Your workers are cadets (gray figurines which represent unskilled labor, only capable of taking repair actions when first recruited) and ensigns. Ensigns are specialized by color: red ensigns fly the ship, yellow ensigns coordinate weapons systems, and blue ensigns are your technical experts. I would contend that games like Starship Captains, similar to First Rat and other very approachable recent designs, are fantastic ways to introduce gamers to the hobby. The concepts in Starship Captains are easy to grasp, yet for experienced gamers there is still a lot to initially enjoy when trying to min/max each turn. The vibrant galaxy holds many peculiar mysteries to explore and uncover! Skillfully manage your team of cadets, ensigns, androids, and officers to make the most of their unique abilities—all while balancing essential ship roles, completing unique missions, and upgrading your ship with powerful engine-building alien technology. In this 2-4 player Eurostyle game, which mixes action selection and engine building, you'll manage a diverse crew of cadets, ensigns, androids, and officers — each with different special roles and capabilities. By earning medals, you can promote and train your crew for even greater effectiveness. Similarly, you can upgrade your ship with powerful engine building technology for maximum synergy.With limited actions and only 4 rounds, finding little boosts and combinations which grant you extra rewards present themselves so often. Something as simple as fighting a pirate, combining it with a tech card so you don’t take any damage and gaining another artefact. Then using 2 matching coloured artefacts on the next turn to move to a mission card then use an android you acquired to gain extra rewards is so satisfying.
Welcome aboard and congrats on the promotion! Your "new" starship is ready to embark on its first big voyage. Just scrape off some of the rust, and she'll do fine. And that crew? Might look a little green around the edges, but they're your crew now. Make us proud.Final Score: 3.5 Stars – A well-produced game with a fun theme, but it’s hard to pin down what it excels at. On a player’s turn, they can take one of three actions: Activate a room, Complete a mission, or Pass. The production is mostly a winner. The best tactile part of the game comes when you need to slide your crew members around a small, indented wheel at the top of your player board. Even better: only crew members fit in that wheel. Try to slide an android meeple around this wheel, and it doesn’t fit, a reminder that androids—a wild worker type—have to be discarded when completing missions. Love it!
Replayability is limited so manage expectations accordingly. I had much more fun with my first two plays than my last two plays.Each player in Starship Captains gets their own ship and crew to command. Each crewman will be focused in one of three areas (movement, shooting, or research) or be a lowly cadet who’s only good at repairing your ship. You can load up your ship with a variety of tech. At the bottom of your ship is a cargo hold with limited slots to hold treasures (and damage) you will receive throughout the course of the game. As the game progresses these spaces will fill up, with either defeated pirate ships or artefacts you collect. Starship Captains has clearly had a lot of love put into its production. It’s disappointing, then, that the overall experience doesn’t quite hang together. After three multiplayer plays and four solo plays (I was able to do two of those solo plays over a recent lunch hour), I’ve seen all that Starship Captains has to show me until expansion content hits in a year or two. (CGE has not confirmed this, but let’s just say I have a sneaking suspicion.) Among the other rewards for various deeds (points, androids, artifacts, influence, etc.), each captain can also accrue medals. These can be spent to promote cadets to ensigns, trading their gray, unimpressive miniature for one color-coded ensign of your choice. But medals can also be spent to promote an ensign to the rank of commander, which is awesome! Commanders can work twice as hard as ensigns (for double the effect), or can even command other ensigns of their specialty to zip out of the queue and into the ready room, giving you more flexibility and control over your available actions.
Think you can handle being the captain of your very own starship? Time to find out! In this new game from publisher CGE, players will take command of their own garden trowel-shaped starship that will have you thinking about Trekking across space. It is these issues that give me pause. I think Starship Captains will land best as a game played with casual players, and played only occasionally. Playing it once every few months is perfect, and lets players who arrive mainly for the theme take part in a medium-light gaming experience that is simple to teach. And that’s one of the interesting things about Starship Captains. There is always something to do. From moving around the board, to completing missions, to upgrading your ship, I always wanted more crew to use. I did like the upgrade system that lets you spend medals to convert your cadets into crew members. This gave you some flexibility to get the right color at the right time. And once you upgrade them to commanders, they gain you double the bonus when taking actions. Only crewmen in your ready room can be used. Finally when players have exhausted all their options, or even before if they want to save some crew, they can pass. After everyone has done this a new round begins.Starship Captains was created by Peter B Hoffgaard, with this being the designer’s debut title. Liv and Wheels chat about the board games they're most excited for in 2022. Hailing all Starship Captains! Get ready to boldly embark on a maiden voyage through the cosmos in this euro-style action selection and engine building game for 2-4 players. Starship Captains is an engaging and exciting euro game with a fun, accessible theme. It combines some of the best elements of the genre with an innovative crew management system. This is large euro game with so many paths to take, ways to gain points and a heavy emphasis on managing your actions efficiently. Players will start to question their actions and think about their turns heavily.
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