When you had been to take a ballot for a fan’s favourite Star Trek captain, I would guess it might be a two-horse race between Picard and Kirk. Although there are lots of unbelievable captains from Star Trek historical past, these two are those who’ve captured the glory. For me, I would go together with Captain Sisko (do not @ me). Deep Area 9 was a fantastic sequence and Sisko was somebody you did not need to mess with.
Returning to at the moment’s evaluate, we are going to see Star Trek: The Captain’s Chaira brand new sport designed by Nigel Buckle and Dávid Turczi. If these names sound acquainted, it is as a result of they’ve teamed up earlier than, most notably in Voidfall and the Imperium line of video games. It is that final line that is related as a result of Star Trek: Captain’s Chair is considerably based mostly on the Imperium mechanics. So set your phasers to have enjoyable whereas we try their newest choices.
Recreation Overview:
When you’ve ever performed an Imperium sport (Classics, Legends, Horizons), you will most likely have a good suggestion of the extent of complexity of Star Trek: Captain’s Chair. Spoiler alert: this isn’t a lightweight sport. With that in thoughts, I am going to simply provide you with a quick overview of the sport, if you would like all the main points, You may obtain a PDF of the rule e-book right here..
Star Trek: Captain’s Chair is performed over a various variety of rounds. The necessary factor is to know that this sport is just performed with 1 or 2 gamers. Every participant will management one of many 6 captains of the Star Trek Universe: Picard, Sisko, Burnham, Koloth, Sela and Thy’lek Shran. Every captain has his personal distinctive deck, together with a set of reserve and growth playing cards.
In your flip, you first examine to see in case you have management of any impartial planets. Planets are managed by sending ships and gear away from them. When you do, you add the planet to your sq., activating any management powers.
Then you definately enter the motion section. Every card has 2 methods to make use of them. The primary is due to their “play” impact if they’re in your hand. This normally means that you can transfer ships, transport crew to ships or planets, purchase new playing cards in the marketplace, or do away with incidents. Generally these actions price one motion token (you get 3 per flip) and generally they do not.
The second means a card can be utilized is for its activation energy. They’re much like sport actions, however can solely be used whereas the cardboard is displayed in your tableau. A few of them are additionally passive (corresponding to growing hand measurement). Your captain, your planets, and your ships are the best to place into play. You may also have an obligation officer in play.
Your flip ends with a cleanup section. It will refresh your playing cards, take away a token from the Stardate card, and revert to your hand measurement. This final half is necessary as a result of when it’s worthwhile to reorganize your deck, you will get the highest card out of your reserve deck. As soon as that deck is gone, you can begin buying your highly effective growth playing cards.
The sport ends when the incident deck runs out (a lot rarer) or when all Stardate playing cards run out of victory factors. Gamers will earn factors from varied sources and the participant with essentially the most factors will win.
Gaming expertise:
I got here into Star Trek: Captain’s Chair pretty new. I’ve by no means performed an Imperium sport (though I’ve heard of them) and I did not even know the mechanics right here had been based mostly on that sequence. I admit, although, I had a tough time studying the sport at first. I learn the rulebook a few occasions and bought a common concept of it. However finally I needed a web-based gameplay video as a result of the general gameplay loop simply did not match.
However I lastly understood it and issues began to movement easily. I performed a couple of video games, then a couple of extra, and some extra after that. I like the sport and for individuals who have not seen it, it even got here as my The third board sport of 2024. I actually appreciated how distinctive every of the 6 captains’ decks felt. Not solely have they got their very own playing cards, however they go together with the theme of their captains. Picard may be very taken with diplomacy, Sela and Koloth are very attacking and aggressive, and Burnham should cope with the inert dilithium.
However that is a type of video games the place, whereas the mechanics do not change, the way in which you play every character feels fairly totally different. Fortuitously, the sport features a fundamental solo mode the place you do not even face a robotic, providing you with an opportunity to be taught the ins and outs of the deck. I am glad it is there as a result of the few occasions I jumped straight into 1v1 or 1vBot I positively did not play to my full potential. However when you begin studying what playing cards are in your totally different decks and what your strengths are, there are lots of issues you are able to do to generate factors.
The deck constructing facet of the sport can also be actually fascinating. In most deck-building video games, you will need to purchase lots of playing cards firstly of the sport (as a result of your beginning deck is fairly generic). However with Star Trek: Captain’s Chair, you get a free reserve card each time you modify your deck, that are playing cards tailor-made to your captain. Nonetheless, there are 4 several types of market playing cards and lots of occasions your quests will deal with key phrases particular to them, so you do not need to ignore these both. So it is a good steadiness between what impartial playing cards to purchase and the way shortly you possibly can change your deck to get these reserve and growth playing cards.
And I have never even touched the observe specialties but. Every captain has 3 tracks to advance on: analysis, affect and military. Most playing cards you purchase will both have a hard and fast variety of victory factors or be definitely worth the a number of in one of many aforementioned tracks. In order that analysis observe, in the event you hit it at 5x on the finish of the sport, all of a sudden each analysis card you got is now price 5vps every.
And that is one of many enjoyable issues about Star Trek: Captain’s Chair: along with testing how every captain performs, there are many methods to attain factors. Do you need to deal with a particular clue and the colour of the cardboard that accompanies it? Or possibly you need to add all of them and diversify your playing cards. You may even not pay a lot consideration to them after which search for playing cards to earn VP and missions out of your captain. There’s rather a lot to unpack with Star Trek: Captain’s Chair, so you will have loads of content material to dive into.
Truthfully, my solely actual criticism with the sport (apart from the shortage of Captain Kirk) is solely the training curve. The rulebook may have used extra gameplay examples or perhaps a tutorial e-book. As a result of the sport shouldn’t be actually that troublesome, it’s only a advanced sport with lots of key phrases. And among the mechanics aren’t precisely what you are used to. However perceive the system and you can be rewarded.
Last ideas:
Star Trek: The Captain’s Chair was a shock hit for me in 2024. It is a sport that was solely passively on my radar, however as soon as I sat all the way down to play it, I used to be all in. I attempted all of the captains, each cadet mode and in addition vs bot (or one other participant). And every one has a lot depth and so many nice thematic ties that I preserve eager to play once more. I hope this line does properly, as a result of I’d like to see extra captains by means of expansions. However for followers of the Star Trek sequence, in the event you’re okay with the final guidelines, this can be a must-have!
Last rating: 4.5 stars: A Star Trek-themed sport with tons of replay worth and rewarding gameplay.
Visits:
• Tons of replay worth
• Thematic use of every captain.
• Performs nice each solo and versus
• Deep and rewarding gameplay
• Some ways to earn factors
Failures:
• Considerably steep studying curve
