There’s just something amazing about giant robots. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Megazord in Power Rangers, Gypsy Danger from Pacific Rim, or any of the iconic anime predecessors from the Voltron or Gundam series. As impractical as giant robots might be in real life, let’s face it, they are really freaking cool.
Like any nerdy genre I’m interested in, whenever there’s a board game with that theme, it immediately has my attention. Starship Samurai from Plaid Hat Games fits the bill. I don’t really have a reason why I waited so long to pick this one up. But I did finally add it to my collection, have played it a few times, and I’m here to tell you what I think. Not only as a board game fan and reviewer, but as a fan of giant robots in different forms of media.
So, let’s get right to it.
Starship Samurai
Publisher: Plaid Hat Games
Designer: Isaac Vega
Theme
The rule book does a great job at providing lore and context for the story behind the game. The emperor died. Each player takes on the role of a leader of one of the major clans, vying to become the new emperor. There’s even a brief description of each clan in the back of the rulebook. Those extra descriptions are a nice touch, and just short enough to not feel like you’re spending a lot of time reading instead of playing.
For as important as the in-game lore is, fans of the genre already know this story. The names and places might be different but we’re here because giant robots fighting each other.
The designs of the robots, or Samurai Mechs, are all fairly unique, with no two looking alike. The game comes with 8 mechs. One of them has 4 arms, another has massive wings, another has a lion-like mane of hair, another is bulky wielding a futuristic bow, etc. All mechs have a defining characteristic that makes them stand apart, which is great. Not only does that make it easier to tell them apart in the box, but it just adds to the depth of this story, making the clans and people seem that much more diverse.
The ships look good as well. Each player gets multiple Fighter Ships and a single Carrier Ship. My one complaint about the ships is that they all look identical, just molded in different player colors. It’s subtle, and doesn’t matter in the big picture, but after seeing what lengths they went to give descriptions of the clans and point out their differences, I have a hard time believe that all clans go to the same spaceship manufacturer and buy the same make and model right off the assembly line in different colors.
At the end of the day, all of these space battles between ships and mechs are political in nature. You’re rewarded with money, honor, and alliances with other clans. The loser of the battle isn’t destroyed, they just look like a fool, missing out on the rewards. On one hand, it’s disappointing that you can’t destroy the opposing mechs; defeating them just leaves them to battle next round. But for the purpose of the game, it works. Also, it illustrates the point that total annihilation of your enemy isn’t the goal. Political advantage is the goal. So once you get the resources you need, the fight is over.
This game feels very thematic to me in a Gundam Wing or Robotech kind of way, where there is a bigger story going on behind the scenes, and the mechs are just avenues to reach the end. Opposed to Pacific Rim where the mech is the hero, and when the mech wins, you win. I like it. There is a fleshed out universe that these battles are happening in, and there are other games and stories that could easily take place here.
Gameplay
So, I bought this game intending on playing it with me peers 75-80% of the time, and watering down the rules to play with my kids the rest of the time. I was a little surprised with how casual this game felt. It plays quicker than you would imagine, being a game with very detailed minis.
That isn’t to say it’s not a fun game. It is. It’s just not as “deep” or “heavy” as I originally thought it would be.
The order selection is straight forward and lets you immediately go for whichever path you think is the best at this moment. You can gain more action cards, acquire wealth tokens, strengthen an alliance with a clan, or deploy units to a planet. One nice feature is that you can increase the value of any order you take by spending additional wealth. So the more money you have, the greater effect your orders can have. (That’s not a harsh reminder of the real world… sigh.)
After all players have selected their orders for the turn, you begin resolving the battle phase. You will compare strength to the other players at the various planets. Each player gets an opportunity to play a face down action card while battling. Once revealed and effects resolved, total strength is calculated, with the winner getting that planet’s reward. The winner’s forces successfully return to the base, while losers stay out in space, searching for that sweet taste of victory.
At the end of the round, you apply bonuses gained on the alliance track and reset the planets for the next round.
That’s it. You keep playing rounds until you run out of planets.
The game does feel very different when playing with 2 players opposed to 3 or 4. There is a variant listed in the rulebook that levels the playing field between two players a bit that I would recommend. Instead of having one big deck of action cards shared between all players, you would make two identical decks of action cards choosing whatever actions you’d like. This gives you a way to weed out actions that might seem overpowered in just two player games.
Speaking of variants listed in the rule book, you HAVE to play with the trading variant. It allows for trading of wealth, cards, and favors. It opens up so many more twists and turns in the game and really leans in to the politics. After playing with the trading rules listed, I’ll be hard pressed to ever play without them again.
For Parents
The game says that it’s not recommended for kids under the age of 13. There’s no reason why younger kids couldn’t play this (outside of trying to eat the wealth tokens) but it just might not be interesting to them. My 6 year old son loves the artwork and the miniatures. We played it and having control over the available action cards described in the variant above really helped make it easier for him to play. We just took out the ones that might seem too confusing for him.
He shocked me. With his first action of the first playthrough, I expected him to send his mechs to a planet. Nope, he chose to increase his alliance with a lesser clan, going to gain honor that way. He’s not going to light the world on fire with his strategy, but he “got it”. He totally got the idea that the player with the most honor wins, and building this alliance will give me honor. He still has a habit of overcommitting units to a planet, but he’ll learn. All of that to say, even though the box says ages 13+, don’t be afraid to introduce it to your kids a little younger, maybe even in the 6-8 years old range and just see how they play with these mechanics. If kids are excited about the theme of a game, they will want to play it, even if it would appear to be over their head.
The set up time for this is one of the negatives. I think it takes just a bit too long to set up for the length of gameplay. I mean, I will still play it. It just takes a little extra motivation when I make that decision to play Starship Samurai.
I do need to see if there’s a 3rd party insert to keep all of the components separated. That may speed up set up time, and I could see it being worth the extra cost with this game. If anyone knows of one, hit me up. Leave me a comment or e-mail me at Randy@GamingWithSidekicks.com.
But yeah… keep the wealth tokens away from babies. Those things can be choking hazards.
Final Thoughts
I really like this game. It’s different than what I thought it would be, but I can’t emphasize enough that it’s not a bad thing. I like how casual this game feels. It’s a smooth, well-designed game, with a theme I love.
I do wish set up was a bit quicker. And for as much care as has been put in to crafting this world, it seems like a shortcut to make all the ships identical, but I totally get that that’s a cost saving decision. Maybe just one I wouldn’t have made. And one more tiny pet peeve. I wish there were colored caps you could put on the bases of the mech miniatures, to quickly signify which mech belongs to which player. In multi player games, it can be difficult to look at the miniature, then scan the players’ cards to see which one matches that mech. Or you could just ask out loud, but I’d prefer to have that quick visual reference.
All of my complaints with this game have NOTHING to do with the actual game play or mechanics. The game plays great, especially with the listed variants in the rule book. The samurai mech miniatures look beautiful. I haven’t really talked about how great these pieces are. This is actually the first game that I’m painting the pieces for; taking the plunge in to the world of painting miniatures. I am letting the kids help me with that, too. Letting them do the base coat, then I go back over for more detail work. Keeping your kids involved in your hobbies is so important. And yes, there’s part of me that will freak out inside when my kids don’t paint it “correctly”, but I get the feeling that this is a game that we’ll come back to often. So making it ours, painting it together, is a fun investment.
Speaking of playing this game in the future… there’s an expansion that just came out! It’s called Shattered Alliances. It comes with 2 new samurai mechs, 40 new action cards, and some rules to enhance using these new mechs. We can’t wait to pick it up and get it to the table.
If you’re a fan of giant robots, this is a game you can’t miss. It doesn’t try to get overcomplicated with customizing, or building, or upgrading. You get your mechs, and go to battle.
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