This is a series of posts where I play 100 boardgames.
Game: Space Base
Designer: John D. Clair
Year: 2018
Country: U.S.A.
Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group
Space Base is a scifi-themed spread-building game where you start with 12 space ships in slots numbered from 1 to 12. On your turn, you roll dice to see which of the space ship bonuses you get. For example, if you roll a 1 and a 6, you can choose to take the bonus from spaceship no. 7, or no. 1 and no. 6 both.
All spaceships also have minor bonuses you get when another player hits that number. These become available only after you’ve managed buy more and better spaceships to replace your opening ones, so that in the early game you might only have a passive bonus on 4, 6 and 7, but not any of the other numbers. If another player rolls the number you have, you gain money.
This is a great mechanic because it keeps you involved in the game when it’s not your turn.
The most consequential choices you have during play involve which spaceships to buy on your turn, limited by what you can afford. As your spread improves, so does your ability to generate victory points.
The copy we played was from the library, and its two six-sided dice had been replaced by a normal die and one where the numbers went from 4 to 9. We didn’t realize the game wasn’t supposed to work like this and played it perfectly happily with this unusual dice arrangement. 11 seemed to take the place of 7 as a number that came up all the time. I can only assume that a previous user of this copy of the game had accidentally put in the wrong dice.