Bidmeadman's Besties: March

This month is Alien Frontiers (Game Salute/Clever Mojo Games).

Alien Frontiers is a game of "resource management and planetary development" for 2-4 players. You start the game with three dice that represent the spaceships in your fleet. The game board consists of an uncolonised alien planet surrounded by several orbital facilities.

On a turn you roll these "ships" and assign them to the orbital facilities in order to earn resources, expand your fleet, and colonise the planet. As you use the orbital facilities you are working towards landing your colonies on the planet and gaining control of territories. You are in control of a territory when you have more colonies there than any other player. Each territory carries a particular benefit, which you are able to use if you control that territory. This is also how you gain points in Alien Frontiers and ultimately win the game. There are also alien technologies that are used to influence dice rolls among other things.

I remember when I first played Alien Frontiers. It was introduced to me by my friend Alex, who over the years has introduced many games to me (his influence is certainly one of the major factors in igniting my passion for board games). The thing about Alex is that he's good at board games. Better than me. He always beats me. Always! I have come to accept this. When he brought over Alien Frontiers I was prepared to be schooled, and no surprises, he destroyed me. But I loved the game, and felt that with enough forward planning I could beat him. So I rolled my sleeves up and challenged him to another game. And sure enough, with plenty of consideration and strategy I won!

That second game secured my love for Alien Frontiers, not just because I beat Alex, but because it felt like a game with impeccable design. It's a dice game where the level of strategy outweighs the luck of the dice. With a combination of resources, alien tech cards, and the right orbital facilities you can turn almost any dice roll into a successful move towards victory. The dice you place stay in the orbital facilities until the start of your next go when you're ready to roll them again. This means part of a strategy can be to block spaces from other players. There are also field generators that can be placed in territories to tip the balance in your favour. These can stop colonies being placed and prevent territory bonuses being used. The random nature of dice rolling means you have to be prepared to evolve your strategies with each turn,

The scoring system is great: you gain a point by placing a colony on a territory and a point if you are in control of the territory. If another player places a colony in the same territory causing you to lose control, you also lose the point previously gained. This means points increase and decrease throughout the game and it's rare that any one player's score will race ahead. Each game feels very close, with players battling to create a lead of only a few points. I find that sometimes when I'm playing a game that tracks the score as you play it can be a bit disheartening to see another player shoot ahead with no hope of catching up. Alien Frontiers' scoring system doesn't allow that, making every game feel like a close one.

It's so much fun rolling those dice and looking to see how to best use your options to get your next colony down on the planet. Placing dice to get resources, using those resources along with alien tech cards to alter your dice slightly or reuse dice or use an opponents dice (or all three), all to place one more colony and move one point closer to victory is very satisfying. I love dice games, especially when they are used in such a solid way as the main component of a good-sized board game. Alien Frontiers is a game that rewards considered play, manipulating the random dice rolls, and using all the available resources and abilities to your advantage, and with the minimal point system every game is for the taking.

Also, it's got a nice old-school aesthetic, and the territories are named after science fiction writers, which is a nice touch.

Finally, although it's not very glamorous, I am a fan of the storage for Alien Frontiers. They provide boxes for all the components. These split up resources, cards and player pieces, and look a bit neater than a bunch of baggies.

Have you played Alien Frontiers or similar games? Message me here or tweet me and lets talk about games!