My son and I decided to play the colorful Great Space Race a few nights ago. He chose the Manta (-1 Damage) and I chose the Space Guppy (+3 Shield recharge rate). The game is technically 3-player, but we've played it twice with 2, adding a couple of mines to the cargo bay and it's worked well.
It BeginsManta started in position 1, and Guppy started in 3. Manta moved forward drew a Repulsion Cannon (move opponent within 2 hexes 1 square on a roll of 1-5, move yourself on a 6). Guppy moved forward, turned left and dropped a couple of mines.
Turn 2, Guppy pulled the Dimensional Rift Event (move opponent 3 hexes) and Wormhole. I moved Manta back three squares, 2 spaces from the wall, and popped a wormhole in front of him, and the exit 5 hexes back around the first corner. If he moves forward he jumps back, and possibly slams into the wall. If he slips right or left, it's a short trip to slam into the wall.
Wisely, he burned a "command" counter, turned right and moved forward avoiding my little trap. He did detonate a mine, doing 3-1=2 damage to his shield. Guppy continued moving, dropping mines along the way, and worked on widening his lead.
Mid-GameA Major Event was pulled, and the Acidic cloud appeared. Manta put it ahead of us in the corner of turn 2. As in the last game we played, it bounced around in the corner, and was never really a factor in the game. Perhaps it mean more with more players, but we were able to easily avoid it.
We both continued to move around turn 2 then three, and Manta continued to play equipment cards, which allowed me to extend my lead. He played Robot Co-Pilot, then picked up an Atomic Device. He burned a couple more command counters, and eventually the Robot card, trying to avoid all my mines and the wall.
Another wormhole appeared, around turn three, and Guppy received an Atomic Device as well. He hit me with a Stowaway, we both reloaded mines.
During his second lap, he finally did hit the wall at speed 5, and rolled and 11-1=10 damage, burning down his shields and his hull down to 2. Fortunately, he played a Shield Up on the turn right after or he was in real danger with mines all over the board.
As Guppy began his final lap, about 20 hexes separated the two ships. I decided to drop my atomic device right near the start area. With the first wormhole within the blast radius I hoped to catch Manta in the blast and maybe even create a black hole in the narrow neck of the first turn. There's a 50-50 chance of this happening, and avoiding the hole with slow him enough to likely insure a win.
On the same "impulse", right after I drop the mine, he plays equipment, and draws a Guided Torpedo. He had a bizarre set of Movement cards, and twisting around on the next couple of impulses, ends up right in front of my soon-to-detonate Atomic Device, and fires his Guided Torp right at it, eliminating it. Perfect timing!
FinaleThe distance stayed roughly the same as I refilled mines, Guppy had a few "difficult" Movement card pulls. Manta frantically tried to keep up, and then the big one hit:
Manta pulled the Major Event, 42 - Terrible Secret of Space (Douglas Adams tribute card). Three more Major's were pulled, Interstellar Slime (all ships go to speed 1), Asteroids (divy up all the Asteroid counters and distribute them around the board, 4 hexes away from each other and ships), and then... SPACE GOATS.
Each player must roll 2d6 for damage, and lose two speed factors. The goats then "fly away".
With only 2 hull left, and 6 shields, Manta rolls a 10-1=9 damage. Kaboom! Guppy rolls a 3, not even cracking the shields.
This ended the game mercifully, as the Guppy was well in the lead on the final lap with no hull damage.
This clever dude has put together a nice article on how to play Avalon Hill's Nexus Ops with 8-players, using a second set. Kevin has a copy, I have 2 copies, Tab has a copy... hmmm...
(poster for the European version in 2007 below) I know about SWC because my brother attended it when living in Dayton before the release of episode III.
This new game (yet unpublished) looks fascinating... Check out this description at the geek:
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