12th Jan 2014 Posted by Zarniwoop
Well the plan was to get there early and set up for Firefly: The Boardgame, but as usual that did not pan out and I arrived just after 12.
Given the amount of space this game can occupy we grabbed the wargames room table with the addition of wooden table top extension.
Each player takes on the role as Captain of their own FireFly class ship, they each pick a Captain card with each one having their own abilities to assist your endeavours in the 'verse. You pick a story card which outline the goals your Captain will need to achieve to win the game and what changes (if any) are made to the initial set up rules.
You each start with some job cards which can be legal/illegal and each one tells you where you need to start the Job, any pre-requisites needed etc. It also shows you what payment will be made upon successful completion. If you complete a Job you get a Solid rep with that contact which brings additional rewards and options you can utilise as you venture through the 'verse.
There are numerous actions you can choose between each turn but can only take 2, and they have to be different. Travelling the 'verse is dangerous so when you attempt this you can either mosey along slowly or take a Full Burn but doing this means you have to draw navigation cards (Alliance or Reaver depending on the sectors you are in) some are just "Keep Flying" others require skill checks or cause events or move the Alliance Cruiser or Reaver Ships .
All in all the Atmosphere and theme of the game suits the Firefly Universe very well, though one caveat to that is the first game is hard work as the rulebook is certainly not the best. Once you get a hang of how things work the game flows quite quickly and there are plenty of hard choices to be made along the way.
This needs a huge table, the board is quite big and there are a LOT of decks of cards each needing there own discard space, each player shipboard needs space around it for drive cards, upgrades, crew, jobs and cards to show being "Solid" with contacts. You really need to find an efficient use of space to fit this on smaller tables then there is only so much you can do.
The new expansions seem to be adding more cards and options which look like they will improve the gameplay somewhat as well as adding some additional player interaction options.
There were three of us in this game me, Evilginger and Jason, after setting things up and putting out the Introductory story, available from the official Firefly: The Boardgame website we got started.
I have to confess that this 1-2 Hour scenario took us about 4-5 hours to complete, but that was due to the fact that none of us were particularly rushing to reach the Goals to win. A great time was had at the table as we just enjoyed playing in the 'verse and getting immersed into the atmosphere of the game. We also spent a lot of time gassing about Firefly and other topics on interest whilst playing. In the end Jason started to forge ahead and in the end completed the final Goal with the rest of us with the first Goal completed still trying to complete the last 2. There it could have ended but Jason and the rest of us really didn't want the game to end so we continued with Jason flying to meet us at the key locations to trade items in order to assist both of us to complete our Goals. This really worked out quite well until a last minute hitch in the form of the Reaver ship hitting our sector.
There was a lot of laughter around the table as events transpired to hinder all of our progress with the Alliance catching smuggling runs or the Reavers blockading planets. I really could not sum up all of the hilarious events that happened during that game as there was just so much going on there was no way for me to take any serious notes.
I will definitely have to play this again, though I guess this will have to be limited to conventions, monthly gaming or any time I have a large chunk of time to spare but I know it will be great fun when I do.
The only other game I got to play that day was 7 Wonders.
We played with expansions and as always this was immense fun and remains one of my favourite card games, that I do not own. I don't have a copy of the scores, as Chris was working these out, but I didn't do too bad and I think I may even be getting the hang of this one finally.
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