We all are thrilled and waiting for another (hopefully great) space-related creation of John Butterfield – Away Team. However, there are still many players who needs introduction to the previous title from that designer which stormed hearts and minds of so many fans of our hobby (including the one writing this words) – SpaceCorp. And that is exactly what I hoped for, when recently my two regular boardgames buddies – Kuba J & Kuba G – agreed to join me in fantastic journey through the three epoch of Space exploration.

I got that game when pandemic hit and my initial plays were mainly solo and with my family – you might remember some of my reports playing this title with my sons, Natan and Kuba (yet another Kuba, yes!). This time they accompanied us in first era (as always, great distractors, spicing up the game 🙂 ). Let just briefly tell you how it went as well as what happened in second and third part of the game.

Some of my articles regarding SpaceCorp:

UNBOXING
REVIEW
SOLO MODE
SpaceCorp AARs

The Game

Before jumping into the short session report, couple of worlds about this title. SpaceCorp: 2025-2300 AD is a board game in which one to four players explore and develop outer space over three eras. We control the enterprises – located on Earth – through three epochs:

  • Mariners â€“ covers exploration and development out to Mars.
  • Planeteers â€“ focuses on the whole Solar System
  • Starfarers â€“ we send missions to nearby star systems in order to establish interstellar colonies.

There are tons of actions players can take (Move, Explore, Build, Research, invest in Genetics or Revelations) and each era is played on the different board. Everything is driven by multi-purpose cards, which allow for immediate play or improvement of your infrastructure. All this to be first in the far parts of our Galaxy!

The session report

Let me show you now the picture-rich session report from our game.

We started with Mariners Era (2025-2069 AD) – so exploration and development up to Mars. We played in four groups, Natan and Kuba forming one team, which surprisingly was doing pretty well at their own initiative. Still, one needs to remember that amount of Victory Points available in this first part of the game is usually at the level of 10-15%. And that is definitely the fastest part of the game.
The second part of the game was Planeteers Era (2070-2149 AD) – so exploration of the whole Solar System. As it was getting late, boys (Natan + Kuba) went to bed and we continued the exploration with Kuba J and Kuba G. The latter started to gain advantage, especially in the area of Genetics and Revolutions. Still, Planeteers account for 25-30% of all points so there was hope to catch up!
The Starfarers (2150-2299 AD) is by far the longest and victory-point intense (approximately 60-65% of the total) part of the game. That was a crazy ride for all of us, exploring and colonizing very remote Starr Sectors, discovering Aliens (yay! pity kids were already asleep – they love that aspect). In the end we finished with minimal differences in points between 1st and 2nd place. Kuba J was unlucky with cards which significantly impacted his score.

Summary

I had a longer break from SpaceCorp and have to honestly admit once again – that game never fails to amuse me. This feels just right, elegant and fun how the designer guides you through next three hundred years of Human exploration of the Space. The growing complexity, the various discovery tiles, possibility to stumble upon aliens, minimal but visible negative interaction – this is so fun. You can count on more reports and us bringing the game more often to the table!