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KYBG Kickstarter Spotlight

KYBG Kickstarter Spotlight

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Review: Star Trek Panic!

What's going on everyone!? It's been a quiet time here and I couldn't believe it's been as long as it has been since my last post!

Hopefully things will start to stabilize again so I can continue bringing you new content as the days pass.

Today we're going to take a look at what seems like a near perfect re-theme of the "Panic" series of games from Fireside Games. This one is in partnership with USAopoly and it happens to be Star Trek Panic!

So sit back, grab a a drink and try to stay out of tribbles as we take a look and boldly go to the table with Star Trek Panic!





In Star Trek Panic players get to take on the roll of the Original Series crew aboard the U.S.S. ENTERPRISE in fighting Romulans, Tholians, Romulans and more as you try to complete your five year mission.






To set up the game for the first time you will need to carefully assemble the amazing 3d model of the ENTERPRISE and place it on it's base with the plastic shields all around it and place the base of the ship onto the center of the board with the front pointing to the right side of the board.




After this is done, shuffle the crew cards and deal one out to each player or pick who you would like to be if there are no disagreements as to who will be who. Each one of the crew members have their own special abilities that they can use (usually once per turn) and they can really come in handy so be sure to choose well!






Once players each have their crew card it's time to shuffle up the Enterprise Cards and deal the appropriate amount to each player depending on the amount of players.






Now it's time to set the Quick Reference Guide near the board as well as the Mission Timer Card next to that as well. Make sure to leave room near the Mission Timer Card for the Mission Cards as well since now is also the time to shuffle those up and place them face down  near the board as well.





Now it's time to finish the setup by randomly placing one Tholian, one Romulan Battle Cruiser and one Klingon Battle Cruiser on the board in the farthest ring one the 1, 3 and 5 arcs.




Now it's time to flip the top mission card and complete any special setup it may have and you're ready to play!

With some of the missions players will be required to "commit cards" to the mission in order to complete it. This means that players use the different ranked comm badges on the bottom of the cards and instead of using them for their ability, place them on the mission card as required.

As far as which player places what down for a card commit is up to the players to decide. Remember, players are working together to keep the Enterprise going on it's five year mission!



As play goes on, it's nearly certain that players will take on damage from the various ships that come at the Enterprise. This can be a very important time in deciding which to repair and which to leave damaged. Once 3 parts of the hull are destroyed the ship cannot move until one or more of the hull areas are repaired.

To represent damage on the ship there are some awesome and cleverly designed overlays for the ship which will be used as the game goes on.





Ah yes, one last thing I need to mention... Movement! That's right, players can actually MOVE the Enterprise along throughout the game!!!

Provided there are no movement limitations players can move the Enterprise one space Clockwise, Counter-Clockwise or Forward to either progress towards a mission objective or to get better use of their cards.

Rotating is self explanatory but moving forward needs a little explanation. When a player chooses to move forward you simply move the tokens in the two arcs in front of the ship closer and leave all other tokens where they are..



On to my Opinion:

Game Art: BEAUTIFUL!

Game Quality: The quality is just as you would expect from two top companies in the industry. Everything is TOP NOTCH QUALITY and is sure to last for years to come.

Gameplay: This one is a PERFECT THEMED GAME! The movement, the cards, the missions, the crew, the tokens and other pieces I didn't mention above... EVERYTHING fits perfectly and plays smoothly. You can tell some extra thought and time were put into this to make it a great Star Trek Themed Game.



So... Should YOU buy this game??? This is a first time for me to say this without tiptoeing to both sides of the fence but I believe EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE THIS GAME IN THEIR COLLECTION!


MORE INFO HERE or HERE



As always, thank you for reading and don't forget to stop and smell the meeples!

-Tim

1 comment:

  1. This is a great review, and all the photos really add to an understanding of the game mechanics. As much as I love Star Trek, though, I can never seem to tear myself away from the ol' tabletop dungeon crawlers. But I offer my personal thanks for spending so much time covering Star Trek Panic because it's articles like yours that tempt me the most to "play outside the box" of dungeoneering.

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