Space Borne: Preview of a Strategic Dexterity Game
Updated: Oct 18
As one of the four ruling planets in the systemplayers must work together to find the precious crystals to power th Black Hole Limiter. The black hole at the center of this space system threantens the whole system. In Space Borne players woill work together to prevent the colapse of their systembut its not all friendly players are also working to become the sole rule of the system. Players travel across the system on recon missions by flicking their freedom flicker fleet across the map. It takes a skilled pilot to move far but not into the blackhole or completely out of the system all together. Do you think you have the skill to take on the black hole and become the sole ruler of the galaxy in Space Borne?
Setup
The first step in getting a game of Space Borne setup is to design your galaxy. In the center of the galaxy is a black hole (Black hole tile). Around the black hole is nothingness (a ring of blank hex tiles). Then on the third and fourth tile rings around the black hole are planets, moons, satellites, and various other space hazards like pirates and comets. With the playing area setup each player gets a play mat to track their shields, pilots, weapons and fuel usage. Each player gets a pilot cards and these grant each player an asynchronous advantage.Each player gets an upgrade card right off the bat to give them another asynchronous trait.
There are space pirates in this game. I imagined the pirates from the 1984 cult classic Ice Pirates staring Robert Urich, Ron Peralman, Anjelica Huston and John Carriadine. I digress, the pirates in this game are setup in a fashion that reminded me of Pandemic. 9 pirate cars are drawn and pirate tokens are placed on the space board in the appropriate places. Then you break the deck down into 5 piles and add in an amount of black hole cards and event cards depending on how hard players want the game. Each player gets a 1 minute sand timer to act as their fuel timer. Thats right, this is partially a real time game (at least when you are traveling through the galaxy or fighting pirates).
"There are space pirates in this game. I imagined the pirates from the 1984 cult classic Ice Pirates..."
Players travel through the galaxy by flicking their spacechip across the galaxy tiles. In an effort to keep the glaxay clear for space travel there is a Space Tile Board where players will place all the pirates and pirates base tokens so they dont get in the way.
Game Play
Players should take a moment before the game starts to flick thier spaceships a few times across the galaxy tiles and on the battle board to get a feel for how they move. On a players turn they get to take 4 actions. Actions players can take on their turn are Flight or Drift, Repair or Reload, Destroy Pirates, Pirate Patrol, Raise a Flag, Trade Intel, and Find a Crystal. This seems like a lot of things to choose from on a turn but most of these involve placing or taking a marker off the playerboard or space tile board (Repair or Reload, Destroy Pirates, Pirate Patrol, Raise a Flag).
The other group of actions are Trading Intel and Finding a Crystal. These two actions involve the coordanate cards that are gained by completing recon missions. Trading intel allows players to trade their coordnante cards with eachother when they are on the same planet. Find the Crystal allows players to trade a set of 5 coordanate cards in for a crystal. These are the crystals that allow the players to activate the Black Hole Limiter. Once 4 crystals are delivered to the secret satellite on the outer ring of the galaxy the limiter is turn on and the game is over.
Flight is going to be the most used action in a players game. This is how players get around the board and gather things they need to turn on the Black Hole Limiter and become the Ruler of the Galaxy. Each player gets a 1 minute sand time to use during their flight action. The player turns the sand over at the start of their turn and starts by flicking their spaceship to their target. When the ship comes to a stop they resolve the tile. There are hazards, blank spaces and helpful spaces. The hazards all have an effect on the player that they must resolve while the timer is running. If a player lands on an empty space tile then they are preforming a recon mission but only if they traveled 4 or more tiles, then they recive a coordinate card.
This creates a giant galatic donut...mmm donuts. Also it makes the game markedly harder.
At the end of each players turn they draw the top 2 cards from the pirate attack deck and add a pirate token to the location listed. When there are 3 pirate tokens on a tile then the pirate base token is placed there insted. The pirate bases make the game more difficult, for example players will get shot at as they pass a moon with a oirate base on it. If a player draws a black hole card then the back hole counter moves to the right one space. This will increase the amount of cards drawn during this phase in future turns. The black hole expands everytime a black hole card is drawn starting with the black hole tile then the next time the six tiles around that spot are removed growing every time. This creates a giant galatic donut...mmm donuts. Also it makes the game markedly harder.
The last part of this game to go over is the battle board. The battle board is where rescues and space pirate battles happen. If a players space gets flicked and falls off the tiles then a rescue mission is in order. The player stops their timer (places it sideways) then the player take their spaceship to the battle board. The distance a players spaceship moved before it fell off determines the dificulty. If a players spaceship flew 4 or more tiles then its harder and you have to aim at the further away hole. When ready the player turns over the timer and may use the rest of their time to try and hit the target. If they dont succeed then, the player loses one of their 3 pilots and all their cards except 2 coordinate cards. Another player can atempt the rescue after the first player failed. They can only use the 30 second reseve fuel timer. The pirate attack works the same way if there are 2 or more bases then they use the further target.
Thoughts
Space Borne is a dextarity game that mixes elements of Pandemic into it and creates a wholey new game that is played in real time. I am not usually a fan of dexterity games however I did enjoy the other dexterity game from Meeple Mania Games, Tabletop Golf Association Space Borne has a lot more depth to it however. I Enjoyed the pressure from the timers epecially on the battle board. It gave me a real sense of being in the action. I also loved the pressure on the players as the board started to disapear from the inside out. The way the space pirates functioned really reminded me of Pandemic but not in a bad way. The game plays faster the more familiar you are with how each tile interacts. There might be slightly too many different tiles to keep track of but there is a player aid that helps. All in all this is probablly the first time I am saying this... this is a fun mid-weight dexterity game. There is also an expansion that is coming out that adds aliens with new tiles and cards to add into the base game.
Space Borne is a fun dextarity based strategy game. Its definatly hits the mid weight category just based on the amount of actions and things that can happen in the game. This would be a good center piece to a game night and its table presence will have people wondering over to see what you are playing if you break this out at a convention. Be sure to check out their site and get notified when Space Borne launches.
Players: 2-4
Year Published: 2025
Recommended Ages: 12+
Time to Play: 90 minutes
A preview copy of Space Borne was provided to Bert's Tabletop Games for this review by Meeple Mania Games. This is a prototype copy of the game and the final version may be different than depicted here in this preview.
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