While I do prefer my entertainment choices to have a certain percentage of giant robot content, I can’t possibly watch EVERY television show or movie that comes out about giant robots. I just don’t have the time. But playing board games with giant robots? Ah, that is a dream I can realize. But what happens when I get games to review, that have giant robots, but are themed around a show I haven’t watched? Well, ladies and gentlemen, that’s sounds like the perfect excuse to dive in to a new show. I offer up Robotech: The Macross Saga.
While I wouldn’t call myself a connoisseur of anime, I am versed enough to carry a conversation. I can discuss the mainstays like Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, and Gundam Wing in some capacity. I love Trigun, Gungrave, and FLCL as I discovered those in my late teenage years. Speed Racer will always have a soft spot in my heart. The Samurai Pizza Cats is hands-down my favorite anime of all time. My children have introduced me to the world of Studio Ghibli (Howl’s Moving Castle and Ponyo are my favorites). So, it’s no real surprise that I picked up Robotech: The Macross Saga a while back on DVD. It’s considered a classic. It’s acted as inspiration for so many giant/transforming mech concepts that have come out since. But, it’s been sitting on my shelf for over a year, waiting to be watched. I recently saw a publisher looking for reviewers for some of their games. This publisher is Japanime Games and two of the games on their list were Robotech: Ace Pilot and Robotech: Attack on the SDF-1.
As I’ve started playing these games, I’ve also started watching through The Macross Saga for the first time. Playing new games with characters that I’m just starting to get to know. It’s been an experience. 
As not to spoil my final thoughts, let’s get right to it. First up, is Robotech: Ace Pilot.
Robotech: Ace Pilot
Pudlisher: Japanime Games, Strange Machine Games
Designer: Jeff Mechlinski
Illustrator: Francisco Etchart
Gameplay:
I know, I usually go over the theme first. I actually played Ace Pilot before watching a single episode of Robotech. I then went back and played it again after watching the first half of the series. So, I actually experienced the game in terms of mechanics before understanding the gravity of the theme. So that’s how I’m going to structure my review.
The gameplay utilizes one of my favorite mechanics: rolling lots of custom dice. So, right away, it gets positive marks.
Players take turns rolling the dice, trying to get the corresponding symbols to the 8 pilot cards’ purchase costs. All pilots have a unique purchase cost requiring some combination of 2 or 3 different symbols. Once you roll, then reroll any/all dice, and reroll any/all dice again, you can spend your dice on up to 2 pilots.
The pilots will attack the 3×3 grid of enemies. The pilots have specific attack patterns. One hitting all 3 enemies in a certain column or row. Another lets you damage any 3 enemies, but only deal 1 damage to each of them. Another can instantly destroy 3 enemies, but only a certain type of enemies. All attack patterns or stipulations are clearly laid out on the card, and further defined in the rulebook.
All enemies have a certain number of Hit Points and Victory Points. The purpose of the game is straight forward: Defeat the enemies and have more VP than your opponents at the end.
There are also some upgrades that give you additional actions. These upgrade tokens are mixed in with the enemy tokens, and must be damaged just like enemies. However, once you gain the upgrade, you draw the top card of the Upgrade deck and place it next to your play area.
After all players take a turn in clockwise order the round is over. One of the pilots available to purchase grants the first player marker for the next round. So if you want to go first, prioritize using that pilot.
Damage stays on enemies from turn to turn, so if you don’t completely destroy an enemy ship, the next player can swoop in for the easier victory points. Once an enemy is destroyed and its tile is removed and added to that player’s KO pile. A new tile is flipped over at the start of the next player’s turn, revealing the next enemy.
Similar to rolling custom dice a-la King of Tokyo or Dice Throne, there’s a real push your luck element to trying to obtain a specific combination of dice faces. The real strategy comes with trying to get the right dice faces for 2 different pilots, so you can chain their attacks together, getting multiple enemy tiles in a single turn. For a game based on an IP, I really had fun with this without knowing who any of the pilots were. It’s one of those “easy to play, difficult to master” type games. Knowing when to push your luck, and when to settle for a lesser pilot are huge. Given various board states, it may be more beneficial to utilize the easier to obtain pilots. Being able to recognize that is key.
The different enemy tiles have artwork of different enemy ships. Some of these got confusing, but it didn’t impact gameplay. The HP and VP for each enemy are clearly printed and easy to read on each tile.
In a given game, you will either play with 63 (2 players) or 72 (3-4 players) enemy tiles. There are 98 total enemy tiles that come with the game. So, when you are shaking them up in the bag and randomly placing them, there’s a high degree of variability with what enemies you will face.
Theme:
Alright. This game is on point with the theme.
First of all, the 8 pilots. They are really the only characters that can be represented in combat from the series.
Rick Hunter: The central character to the series. He’s our gateway to understanding the world of Robotech as he is seeing everything for the first time, just as the viewer. His ability to deal 1 damage to any 3 targets shows his past as a trick pilot for his father’s circus airshow. He can maneuver his ship to land any shot.
Roy Fokker: The “older brother” figure to Rick. He’s an experienced Veritech pilot. No other character in the game can match Roy’s max damage output of 8 damage: 2 damage each to a 2×2 square of enemy tokens. He’s awesome. Basically the Fonz, if the Fonz piloted a transforming spaceship mech.
Ben Dixon and Max Sterling: I’m only far enough in watching the series that I was introduced to these characters 2 episodes ago. Ben seems lame, and his ability is lame. He can instantly take out up to 3 enemy ships along the perimeter, but only the weakest 2 types of enemy ships. Best case scenario, he gets you 6 VP. Max, on the other hand, rocks. He can hit the most different targets among the 8 pilots. He hits all 4 corners for 1 damage each, and the center token for 2 damage. His ability is very situational, but if you just need multiple targets hit, he’s your guy. Also, in the anime he is voiced by the incredible Cam Clarke. You may recognize Cam as the voice of Leonardo in the classic 80’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series.
Miriya Parina: This is the one character I cannot give any insight on, because I have not made it far enough in to the series to see her yet. She can do a total of 6 damage to a single target, or 3 damage to 2 different targets. For those keeping track, 6 damage is the highest available damage total to a single target. She brings the hammer, and I’m excited to see her in the animated series.
Henry Gloval: Captain Gloval makes a strong case to be my favorite character in the series so far. He’s a grizzled war veteran with a Russian accent. He is absolutely fearless and unwavering. I imagine in another life he was crawling through the jungle with a machine gun in one hand, a machete in the other, and what little remains of an old cigar clenched between his teeth. Captain Gloval can do 4 damage to any square except the corners. Also, since he is the captain, whoever uses him gains the first player token for the next round.
Claudia Grant: I really like Claudia, and she’s also one of my favorite characters. She’s an officer on the bridge, but she’s got a sass and attitude that plays off of Captain Gloval and Lisa (more on her in a minute) very nicely. She doesn’t seem crucial to the greater story at play, but she is a fun character that just enhances every scene she’s in. She can do 1 damage to all 3 squares in any row or column. It’s a bit lackluster compared to some of the others, but situationally, it can be the perfect set up before using Roy or Rick.
Lisa Hayes: My favorite character in the series. For whatever reason, I always like the characters that struggle with the responsibility of being in a position of leadership. Leonardo from the Turtles and Cyclops from the X-Men are others that come to mind. It’s not that they love rules, but they see the big picture and welcome their role in accomplishing those goals. She is Captain Gloval’s First Officer, and at partway through the series, we are just starting to learn more about her backstory. In the game, she has my favorite ability. Any 3 ships that you’ve already damaged this turn can be instantly destroyed. And with only needing 2 die faces to activate, she can be combined with any other pilot. Rick, Roy, Max and Claudia are all great options to use before having Lisa blow everything up.
The artwork by Francisco Etchart is great. The characters, enemy ships, everything. You can easily see that the images are new artwork, and not lifted from the anime. But everything remains faithful to the source material as all characters and ships are easily recognizable.
The upgrade cards are a nice way of adding some flavor for fans of the show. The first time I played the game, I scoffed at the Pop Star upgrade. But now, I mean, how else were they going to put Minmay in the game?
For Parents:
Yeah, this one is for kids. The damage tokens are small, so maybe keep those set aside. But other than that, kids as young as 5 can be lightly coached on how to play. The learning curve is even less steep if they are familiar with rolling dice for effects in King of Tokyo.
I also showed my children the first few episodes of Robotech before playing, and they quickly recognized Rick and Roy. They go for those two every time… even if it isn’t the most beneficial. For them, it’s all about having these characters that they are familiar with destroying the enemies. And that’s fun.
Setting the game up and putting it away are both 5 minute activities at the most. The game is a bit clunky with how it fits in the box. There’s a small drawstring bag for the enemy tokens, but for the box to close, they can’t all be in that bag. You have to put some tokens away in the 3×3 structure used for gameplay. And then everything else kind of just sits on top. There’s isn’t much space for things to shuffle around, but there’s no real place for everything to go either. This is a minor complaint, and could be fixed with a bigger box. But honestly, erring on the side of making it fit in to a smaller box is 100% the decision I’d make every time. I prefer a smaller box with a little less organization than a larger box that takes up more space. And for a light game like this that is easy to play on the go, a compact box is perfect.
Final Thoughts:
I played the game before watching the anime, and I liked it. Then I played the game after watching the anime and I liked it even more.
I introduced the game to my regular gaming group who has not seen the anime and everyone enjoyed it. My favorite comment was, “It’s light and unique… in a good way.” And it’s true. There isn’t another game I can think of that gives you the gratifications of taking out multiple enemies on a single turn, while making it easy enough to do turn after turn. That was a big take away for me. I felt like I accomplished something worthwhile every turn, seeing my stack of KO’d enemies grow. But there was enough strategy and push-your-luck with trying to roll the specific die faces that it wasn’t too easy to do exactly what I wanted. It’s very easy to make the most out of your bad dice rolls, and still walk away with some amount of victory points.
It’s never going to be the “main event” of game night. But 4 of us played it while waiting for our 5th member of game night to arrive, and it was a great game to kick off the night.
No knowledge of the anime is needed to play the game, but there are details you notice if you’re familiar with the series. Custom dice, easy to learn rules, and short playtime are all major plusses. The fact that you can play this with an adult game group or casually with the kids is a sign of a quality game. Kudos to Jeff Mechlinski for the design. Robotech: Ace Pilot is a lighter game that provides a unique experience and can be enjoyed by players of all ages. Check out the Japanime Games website HERE if you’re interested.
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