Who doesn’t love a good negotiation game? Deals being made around the table, alliances made and broken at the drop of a hat and enemies made in the same breath. Who doesn’t love a good deck building game? Adding and trimming your deck to the right rhythm and flow to make sure that you can get exactly what you need when you need it. Now let’s try an experiment-what do these two mechanics look like smashed together and can it be done well? Today we will find out when we look at Moonrakers!
Moonrakers is published by IV Games and designed by Max Anderson and Austin Harrison. It is designed for 1-5 players and plays in 60-120 mins.
Overview
Moonrakers is a game where mercenaries take the roll of building their own private ships, creating alliance and negotiating with others as you try to achieve the most prestige. Players take turns attempting to fulfill contracting alone or with help to achieve these goals. The first to reach 10 prestige wins the game!
Gameplay
Each player begins with a command terminal board and their starting hand of 10 cards. Two coins and 2 objective cards are given to each player as well. To set up the game board you place the armory board with crew and ship parts with rows for each face-up along with the dispatch board which will store the contracts and objective for players with face-up contracts placed in front of that board. Hazard dice and coins are placed within reach of all players.
Players take turns as the mission leader and begin the planning phase. The mission leader can choose one of two options: 1-choose a contract or 2-stay at base.
In Choose a Contract the mission leader will pick one of the face-up contract cards and place it up for all allies to see. The mission leader can attempt it on their own or they may attempt it with as many allies as they would like to try it with.
If they attempt it on their own, cards are played from their hand to try and match the requirements of the contract. These requirements are at the bottom of the contract and players need to play those at a minimum to fulfill it. The number of hazard dice listed must be rolled as well, shields will help to cancel those out. The top right of the card lists the rewards for completing it, and this can include prestige, credits and cards.
Players may also attempt to complete the contract with any number of allies and will take their bids to help and negotiate the rewards and the hazard dice that must be rolled. All parties involved must be in agreement, and then they all play their hand on the current mission leader’s turn.
The contract begins by rolling the hazard dice on the card. These will result in a loss of level for each one you do not successfully block with a shield. Then players will play their action cards to the best of their ability to attempt to complete the contract. All players have one action to begin and then play them out from there. The different cards can give you more actions, additional cards to draw, shields to protect from hazards and damage to fulfill requirements on contracts. There are all miss cards that do nothing and crew cards you can add for more effects.
Once all players have played their cards it is determined if the contract was fulfilled or not. If it is rewards are given and distributed as agreed on by all players. If not there are no rewards however the damage from hazard dice will apply whether players win or lose the contract.
The current player may now use their credits to buy crew members or ship parts. Crew members are added to your deck and parts go on your main board to give you special abilities.
Your second option is to Stay on Base where you do not attempt a contract and instead draw new objective cards and keep one,. collect a credit and have the option to buy new crew or ship parts. You also discard your hand and draw a new one. This is a great way to cycle through a bad hand if you are stuck with one.
The game ends immediately when someone reaches 10 prestige. Watch out for players keeping multiple objective cards-these can be revealed at any time once a player has met the requirements on it and can often be the last push a player needs.
Impressions
What could be better:
Card choices. I would love to see some more variety in the cards that go in to your deck, the crew cards are nice but I would love to see some more to mix it up. The base choices work well but a little more would be fun.
Player count. I would really like to see this go up to six players. Five is great but I think this thing could still fire off well at six giving players a chance to really get in there and move around the negotiations and back and forth play. You would definitely need players who didn’t get mentally stuck on their turns but I think it could work well.
What I liked:
Style. This game is simple in its style but it fits perfect for the game. I love the futuristic aspects and the art on the cards. The coins are a great touch in the kickstarter edition. The ships are great and give a nice little extra touch. This game gives you a great touch of color and design without being distracting to the gameplay.
Gameplay. Speaking of gameplay, this is so awesome and one of the more unique smash ups of styles I have ever played. I love a good deckbuilder and especially love it when you add a little bit. Games like Clank and Fort are high on my list for that reason. This takes a fun aspect of deckbuilding and smashes it up with negotiation for some amazing results. It is everything I love around a table of friends who play games like this-you need to have a good group willing to really get after each other and have fun with the negotiation aspect of this to make it stand out. I have had a chance to play it with a couple of groups who really had fun with it and it makes this game sing.
Final Thoughts
Moonrakers as an experience is one that I think everyone needs to try. It takes some great mechanisms of gaming in deckbuilding and negotiation and smashes them together in a way I have never seen done. The player interaction with this game is huge-you need to be involved in every turn and be ready to jump in, cut off or otherwise power move over other players at the table if you can. I love the interactions and the ability to really keep all people at the table engaged.
With that in mind, this is probably not a great game for younger kids or players who do not like a lot of heavy player interaction. I think newer players will pick it up ok but you have to be someone willing to really get into the game and how it all moves together. This is not a game to play as “multi-player solo” where you all do your own thing and see who does it best. Younger kids might not like the take-that aspect or feel left out if others aren’t including them. But with the right group of players that like to negotiate and have some pretty involved player interaction this game will be right up your alley!
Overall Moonrakers is very high on my recommendation list if the above descriptions feel like they fit for you and the people you like to sit around the table and play games with. It has been a blast to play with my friends and this whole package is a game that would have made my 2020 top 10 if I had played it sooner. Moonrakers is the negotiation game in space this is bound to deliver some amazing fun around the table for your next game night. Give this one a chance and good luck rising to the top!
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