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Long before the threat of the Nemesis, before the perils of warp drive or the founding of our own Space Academy, humanity experienced a Golden Age of space exploration. The mineral riches of the thriving Moon colony inspired legions of hearty Earth citizens to seek their fortunes in space. Humble rockets probed the farthest reaches of the solar system in an eager quest for resources, and brave colonists forged homes wherever they could survive. Pioneer life was hard, but the men and women who worked and raised their families on those planets and asteroids had much to be proud of.
Then the rumors began — whispered tales of frontier abductions and sightings of mysterious creatures. By the time the secret invasion was exposed, the aliens were everywhere. Families had been stolen away by slavers from the stars, and the peace-loving survivors had no choice but to arm themselves and fight. Fight to stop the alien attacks! Fight to free the helpless abductees! Fight to throw the aggressors back into space and end forever their power to threaten humanity!
Thus was born the Rocket Patrol – an organization of brave and hearty women and men dedicated to defending humanity and taking the fight to the alien menace from the stars.
Space Cadets: Away Missions is a cooperative, scenario-based, tactical action game for 1-6 players, which is set in the Golden Age of science fiction. In this game, the third standalone title in the Space Cadets franchise of cooperative/team space-themed games from Stronghold Games, players take on the roles of adventurous human spacemen who explore UFOs, acquire Alien technology and fight hostile extraterrestrials.
Each turn, spacemen have three action points to spend on activities such as firing their atomic rifles, analyzing exotic equipment, or subduing the malicious Brain-in-a-Jar. When the spacemen are finished, the aliens take their turns by following simple movement and combat protocols; seven types of hostile aliens threaten the players, from the repulsive mind leeches to the rampaging titanic sentinels.
Space Cadets: Away Missions contains twenty scenarios linked in a campaign story. Each mission features different combinations of aliens on different spaceships, with hexagonal map tiles arranged to form flying saucers, rocket ships, space stations, etc. Cooperation, tactical planning and good dice are essential if the spacemen hope to overcome the relentless horde of little green men.
- super super fun
- great combat system
- provides a lot of variety
- over 20 different scenarios
- play one-off scenarios
- theme is cool
- really quick to play
- easy to learn
- loot and the characters are interesting
- enemies are pretty interesting
- fantastic game
- nice kind of medium-sized box
- packs so much into that box
- setup is a little long
- Ray Punk / Laser Punk / 50s Atomic Punk
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Overkill System — great combat system with what's called the overkill system where if you roll more successes than you need you get to choose how to use those successes and how to apply those critical hits and do interesting things
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Fallout with the expansions with the California expansion and the atomic bonds um Atomic bonds expansion the small expansion that basically fixes the game uh yeah out of the box wasn't a great game I liked it more than most people did but those expansions greatly Elevate the game it is a great great post-apocalyptic game that does have that unique Fallout feel
- The combat is a little fiddly and just never really feels natural I always forget uh how to solve combat in that game but uh everything else I really like the questing is super cool and just it's a neat world to be in and I think they did a really good job of capturing the uniqueness of Fallout
- But once you start adding in all of the incredible expansions for Defenders of the realm then the game really does feel like this Grand epic adventure game
- It's a cliffhanger game fortune and Glory the Cliffhanger game it has that old Cliffhanger serialized feel to it where you jump for a cliff and you fail that roll and you miss and then on your next turn you have to pick up on that Cliffhanger and you're hanging on by a thread
- This is probably the most unique game on this list and that is B in one aard game all about Brighton and that is the 2022 it's the uh 10th anniversary edition I believe it's the newest edition that he just put out and this is a game all about having a adventurous day in the city of Brighton and it's a modernday urban Adventure game and it is so Charming
- It really is it's impossible to keep up it's impossible to play all the games it's impossible to play the games I want to play enough to to satisfy me because there's just so many things coming out and so many things competing for for our hobby intention
References (from this video)
- The game looks really good after being painted.
- The tutorial mission was fun.
- Excited to play again.
- Only played the tutorial mission.
- Space missions
- Space
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- cooperative play — Mentioned as playing the tutorial mission, implying a cooperative nature.
- Real-Time — Implied by the 'Space Cadets' name, which is often associated with real-time or chaotic gameplay.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- And what a clever game.
- Really a clever clever game.
- I really think is an underrated title and it's one that's always gonna stay on my shelf.
- And that brings me to the number one game of the comp for me, and that was Theology.
- I think the powers of each of the gods are very, very powerful in that way that I love where everybody has a broken power, but since everybody's got a broken power, nobody's broken
- it has tons of situational effects, which I really like.
- It was such a wonderful first game of so many people who didn't play and I got crushed.
- But there you have it folks. That is Dundracon. my thoughts on it, what can be improved, and my top 15, really 16 games of the con.
References (from this video)
- genuine dice-chucker feel with depth
- lots of mission variety
- cohesive space-opera aesthetic
- dice-driven missions with space-adventure flair
- 50s pulp sci-fi space exploration
- Escape Curse of the Temple
- Nemesis
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Dice Rolling — Choose two dice actions and one non-die action per round.
- Dice-based action resolution — Choose two dice actions and one non-die action per round.
- overdrive / resource boost system — Excess successes from dice enable powerful bonus actions.
- predefined space missions — About 15–16 missions with varying goals and gears.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I think dogs are better than cats.
References (from this video)
- Nice try
- Not that good
- Production's not great
- Minis aren't very good
- Doesn't look that good
- Didn't think it needed this sort of dungeon crawl esque style game
- Go around and shoot 'em up
- Space Cadets
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Hens is a game I didn't like at all.
- Gobblet is a simple game in which you are to stacking pieces and trying to get four in a row, but bigger pieces cover up other pieces.
- Dice as resources to buy cards, kind of like a Dominion-style game. And it was fine. It just didn't have any kind of air of excitement to it.
- And it's a big, grandiose Euro-style game that I thought worked pretty well.
- The biggest problem with Echoes of Time is I think it's almost too short.
- It's a cool mechanism. This is the game that should have it.
- It's a very different feeling of Lost Cities. It's not as good as Lost Cities, but it's still pretty cool game.
- It's very Ameritrashy.
- It's a lot going on in this game.
- I think my favorite of those is Pixel Tactics 2.
- Thanks as always for joining me in my pile of mid games.
References (from this video)
- fast-paced, thematic space combat
- high-energy feel with NASA-core vibe
- great for families and hobbyists alike
- setup can be lengthy due to hex tiles and components
- some players may prefer deeper system complexity
- crew missions, hovercraft combat, and tactical space Engagement
- NASA-inspired science fiction space exploration
- cooperative, mission-driven encounters with cinematic flavor
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Combat: Dice — combat uses dice results with decision-based outcomes.
- dice-driven combat with tactical choices — combat uses dice results with decision-based outcomes.
- heroic crew management — manage crew actions and ship systems during missions.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- This top 10 list is a top 10 curated list and it's a little bit of a weird thing so let's talk about that for a minute.
- Hand of Fate ordeals offers up so much you so many unique qualities that I don't see in a lot of games and that's why it is on this list.
- Escape the Dark Castle is practically a party game and that's the way I like to end a long day of playing more complex and involved games.
- Popper's Ladder really is a win-win-win all around and that's why it is something that I would recommend for the family weight category.
- Eldritch Horror truly becomes a globe trotting pulp Adventure game of the highest order.
- Tales From The Red Dragon Inn is a narrative Skirmish game; it's like a Saturday morning cartoon come to life on your tabletop.
- Gloomhaven truly belongs in a collection like this.