DISTANT SUNS

A big bang for your bucks

The (sort of) roll and write Distant Suns presents a 1960s vision of the future, where a race to the stars is on. Players have only a hexagon-littered sheet and Ikea pencil to map their way across the universe, where there are many victory points to be won by completing as many objectives as possible. These objectives come from a shared mission board that has five randomly paired mission and exploration tiles that make for great replayability. Each tile has a shape or icon that, when used together correctly will earn points. Everyone takes turns to pick a shape, as well as an adjacent one for the other players, and goes about drawing it on their maps – ideally in the best places to score and win.

Pleasingly, there is an imaginative variety for how to score points. Combining certain shapes pushes scores up, as do ship upgrades, discovering planets, killing aliens, treasure bonuses (and more), with a nice twist of deductions for any aliens left alive at the end. It would seem we don’t come in peace,

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

◗ Mission control

board

◗ 10 Exploration zone

tiles

◗ 10 Mission tiles

◗ 5 Module tiles

◗ Pad of cosmos

sheets

◗ 4 pencils

◗ 11 Exploration

templates after all. Some missions are worth more than others, meaning there’s a satisfying degree of cognitive challenge too.

Not that you’ll really have chance to notice. The total of three rounds means play moves at lightspeed. There’s still enough time to tick off your to-do list, with perhaps only a couple of actions left unfulfilled. Out of interest, and at the request of a younger player who loved the game so much they felt it was too short, a session was trialled with an extra spin around the galaxy. The result of this fourth round was lots of missed turns and bored, “I can’t go” sighs, so three is definitely the magic number in space as well as on terra firma.

One personalisation that did work, however, was the introduction of colouring pencils. This appealed to the more-artistic types at the table, and introduced a mindful dimension. It also made it easier to spot shapes when it came to the end tot-up. Another successful house rule was devising a space-themed shorthand for describing the symbols – think ‘Jupiter’, ‘TIE fighter’ and, the somewhat lamer, ‘zigzag’.

As for the shapes, anyone lacking tessellation skills (I write, before raising my own hand) will benefit from the exploration templates that allow theories to be tested before committing pencil to paper. It may not seem much, but it enables nonmaths types to keep up with the spatially aware. Whether you need the templates or not, it’s still possible to accidentally create awkward nooks and crannies that can’t be filled on the map – or even funky shapes that block a path and point-scoring opportunities – adding a level of challenge to puzzle wannabe Brian Coxes.

For such a small quick-play, Distant Suns has megaparsecs of style. Retro illustrations pop through a vibrantly atomic palette; too often are spacetheme titles dark and stark. The die-cut mission board is a real elevator, and it’s easy to see how mission tiles may have fallen out without it. Flip it over and – oh my – there’s even artwork on the back, which there needn’t be because who would even see it? But that’s the level of care here. The pad of playing sheets is not only thick and plentiful, it’s double-sided. Such panache isn’t expected at this price point, but it’s extremely appreciated.

While the Musks and Bezos of this world compete for intergalactic dominance, there is something innocent and nostalgic about this game. Sure, it isn’t as groundbreaking as games that have boldly opened new horizons, but it does what it does very well. Putting it in NASA terms, Distant Suns confidently passes the go/no go test.

❚ WE SAY

Distant Suns is a stylishly executed space race that can be decided in under 30 mins. Its combination of classy components, strong replayability and varied ways to win soars at just £25.

Disney Sorcerer’s Arena: Epic Alliances isn’t the game I thought it would be. Based on a mobile game (in itself a concern, as previous mobile to tabletop translations have been arguably forgettable), it sees Disney and Pixar characters fight against each other in a bid for micro transactions – no sorry, I mean resources to unlock new characters and upgrade your own – in my 18 months of playing it, it never screamed “this should be on tabletop” to me. Delightfully, it turns out I simply wasn’t listening.

Epic Alliances takes all of the above core factors – creating a totally unique team using Disney and Pixar characters and fighting them against each other in unexpected mashups – and makes them into an easy to learn, quick, and frankly really fun skirmish game. As you play, you’re guided through more and more (I’ll come back to that in a second), and by the end of the game you’re considering resources, upgrades, multiple ways of using skills, attacks, movements, status conditions, turn effects, and more, confidently.

Instead of a text heavy, dense

explanation that front loads every possibility, the instructions break gameplay into chapters. You play a full game from chapter one, but when you move to chapter two, it repeats the descriptions, and highlights new things to add in. You play again, suddenly emboldened with new abilities, until you’ve played enough games to be confident, before trying the next – or not, if we enjoyed the earlier way of playing. It’s one of the rare examples of a game I’ve taught where I haven’t sought to double check my understanding with a video online, as I hit the ground running and didn’t look back. More like this, please.

The play is then standard skirmish, with good Disney flair. The starting roster of characters may seem unusual (because it is an eclectic mix – Demona and Doctor Facillier alongside the expected Mickey Mouse, supported by Aladdin, Little Mermaid, Scully, Gaston and Maleficent), but importantly, these offer a range of play styles and are balanced. Do you want to prioritise the higher health characters and potentially sacrifice picking your higher hit characters, or

do you want a team of all types? You did well pitting Ariel against Gaston last time, but would Demona’s special abilities when you upgrade have done better? The whole match is an attempt to gain victory points, which will meet the win condition for the game, and means that the knocked out characters return to battle for the game to continue. It’s a delightful tug of war of attacks (without violence), before you head back to the drawing board to try again with another team.

The biggest question of the game however, is who this is pitched at. The Disney theme tends to lower the expected age group of player, but the complexity pitches it as 13+. The likelihood a Disney fan will stumble across a £50 skirmish game and be indoctrinated into the world of gaming seems low, but conversely, as does a light Disney game having immediate shelf appeal to the average skirmish gamer. Having said that, it would be quite the shame for the game to fail as a result, given how much fun lies within.