Kevin Wenzel
United States
Bloomington
IN
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Review for Star Borders (Victory Point Games)
Victory Point Games: For those who don’t know, Victory Point Games publishes low-cost games using only the bare-bones components, so you can forget about your fancy wood or plastic pieces here! The entire game typically fits inside a plastic envelope, and Star Borders is no exception. Don’t let the basic art and lack of flash fool you though, their games have a reputation for being simple but elegant. “Star Borders” is both.
“Star Borders” Flavor: On the edge of the galaxy, an Alliance is attempting to throw off the yoke of imperialism. One player controls the Alliance, while the other player controls the Empire. The Alliance generally starts with more ships, and throughout the game has a little more freedom in how they use them, but the Empire has better-quality ships.
Setup: At the start of the game, the players will select one of four preset scenarios that come with the game, but I could see after playing these for a while, fans would be able to write their own rewarding scenarios. The scenario prescribes the starting fleet for each side, as well as any special conditions that may apply. The flavor of these descriptions is quite engaging, and the elegance of the mechanics of the game mean that the flavor doesn’t clog up the game-flow.
Map: Each scenario has a different layout using the different maps that come with the game. Again, I could see where a fan of this game would want to draw new maps after playing out the scenarios a few times. Players move their ships along predetermined pathways between planets, asteroid systems, wormholes, and voids (where opposing ships can’t fight, a rule I forgot on at least five separate occasions!) A player’s basic strategy is to control planets and gain the income in the form of Logistics Points (LPs.)
Units: Each player will control a number of various types of ships, represented by cardboard squares. Each ship has an attack value, a defense value, and 1 or 2 engines (representing speed). Lower-end ships are “single-step” ships, meaning when they get hit, they are destroyed. Higher-end ships step down when they are hit, meaning their attack/defense values, and often their speed get reduced (the new stats will be on the back of the piece.) If the ship is hit again before being repaired it is destroyed.
Game Play: The players begin alternating turns (the first player determined by the scenario set-up). On a player’s turn, he has a certain number of “Logistics Points” (LPs), which is the basic currency of the game, and is refreshed at the end of the player’s turn based on how many planets he controls. He may purchase a development card for half of his LPs at the beginning of his turn. These cards basically allow the player to break a certain rule, or get LPs for something he/she normally wouldn’t get LPs for. Early on, obviously, they are more valuable, but I always found them to be very expensive, and decided rather than just drawing one random one, a player ought to draw three, pick one and discards the other two back into the deck. This allows the player to pick cards that complement his/her strategy. After the option to purchase a development card, the player then spends the remaining LPs on calling for reinforcements (i.e. gaining new ships), repairing ships, or moving ships around. Once all LPs have been spent, the player resolves any combat situations, then counts up LPs for his/her following turn. Play continues until the scenario-prescribed victory conditions are met.
Combat: I think of all the aspects of the game, I appreciate the combat mechanics the most. They are a little complicated at first, but after a few combats you get the hang of it. I appreciate that combat is much more than just a fight to the death each time. Once the attacker moves in, the defender has to fight one round, but then can retreat to an open space on the map. In addition, the defender gets off the first shot, so there isn’t much tendency to “turtle” (i.e. hold a very secure position without expanding). Without getting into all the details of combat, I will say that when a ship attacks it rolls a d6 and if the roll higher than its attack score, it’s a miss. If it’s even or lower, that’s a hit. The defending ship then rolls a d6 and if the roll is lower than the defense score, the hit causes. Thus a ship with an attack value of 6 will hit every time, and a ship with a defense value of 6 would never get hit (these ships don’t exist, but you can get the effect by combining ships into “combat groups”, explained in a couple of paragraphs.) Each ship, therefore, has its own very specific purpose: The scouts are fast with low attack, medium defense scores; Battleships are slower, very high combat scores; Raiders are fast with high attack, low defense scores; Cruisers are well-rounded, and so on. Players can tailor their fleets both to the chosen scenario as well as to their own strategy, and this is something I feel is missing from a lot of space combat games.
With the liberal retreat options, the ability of ships to take some damage, and the fact that ships don’t end up causing damage that often anyway, it is much more likely for a player to retreat from combat than to lose an entire fleet. The game, then, is more about constantly pushing against a front line rather than ship annihilation.
One other component of combat that I found very rewarding was the ability to combine ships into a “combat group”. Essentially two or more ships combine their attack scores (and add one for each ship in the combat group, and remember that 6 is the magic number for an automatic hit) to focus fire on a single enemy. So a player with several weaker ships can take on an unprotected battleship and win quite easily.
My thoughts: As I mentioned there are a few elements of this game (combat resolution in particular) that are very well-planned and simple, but maintain the flavor of the game without bogging down in details. In particular I love the way that ships can be combined into combat groups to create an effective fighting force out of numbers rather than quality. I admire that there are different ways of building fleets to achieve a specific goal, outlined by either the scenario or a player’s own strategic choices.
I feel, however, that unless a player begins designing new scenarios, new maps, and possibly even creating new ships and new development cards, the game gets a little stale rather quickly. All games lose their “newness” after a while, but I feel that already in the few games I played I was ready for something new.
I also found that in each game I played, I was limited severely by the maximum number of Logistics Points (LPs). You basically earn one LP for each planet you control, and I felt that in a typical set-up, each player would be controlling more planets than they could receive LPs for (The Alliance is limited to 9 LPs, and the Empire to 6.) This may be designed to keep the relative fleet sizes lower, but I found it reduced my incentive to attack since the risk/reward ratio wasn’t very good. In other words, why would I risk ships to take another planet when I couldn’t even get the income from that planet anyway?
Finally, I respect the low budget of the game, and truly admire how they make such an interesting concept using simple bits and elegant rules. The only place where I really felt the Spartan production bothered me was on the maps themselves. Because movement is limited between planets, and the maps are very small (only a few planets and asteroids on each one), there weren’t a lot of choices for expansion, flanking maneuvers, etc. Also, from a purely practical standpoint, I found it difficult to play on the thin cardboard maps because they kept folding up in the middle, and the pieces kept sliding off their positions. I feel the game would have been improved greatly with a thicker, more durable, and above all LARGER map. Perhaps ship speeds would have to increase proportionally, but the resulting choices in exploration and maneuvering would be worth it.
If you really want the fancier version with photos come check it out at 2D6.org. Not too mention getting a chance to take part in our monthly giveaway!
Reposted for Chris Stafford
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Lance McMillan
United States
Lakebay
Washington
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FrankConner wrote: ...when a ship attacks it rolls a d6 and if the roll higher than its attack score, it’s a miss. If it’s even or lower, that’s a hit. The defending ship then rolls a d6 and if the roll is lower than the defense score, the hit causes. Thus a ship with an attack value of 6 will hit every time, and a ship with a defense value of 6 would never get hit (these ships don’t exist, but you can get the effect by combining ships into "combat groups," explained in a couple of paragraphs.)
This is a bit misleading -- ships can only be combined into "combat groups" for offensive purposes, not defensively, so there's no risk of there ever being a ship which can "never get hit." In fact, the highest defensively rated ship in this game is a 4, which means that even against the toughest ship there's still a 33% chance that ship's still going to have to take the hit.
FrankConner wrote: ...in each game I played, I was limited severely by the maximum number of Logistics Points (LPs). You basically earn one LP for each planet you control, and I felt that in a typical set-up, each player would be controlling more planets than they could receive LPs for (The Alliance is limited to 9 LPs, and the Empire to 6.) This may be designed to keep the relative fleet sizes lower, but I found it reduced my incentive to attack...
It's important to note that a ship can move multiple times during a turn simply by spending more LP. Without a limit to the number of LP each player can expend in a turn, the game would have a major "he who moves first, wins" problem. Rather than reducing a player's incentive to attack, the LP limits force him to carefully consider which of his potential moves are the most vital each turn: do you launch an attack with the limited forces you currently have available, or do you wait to bring up reinforcements? The game's about difficult strategic choices and logistical constraints, not simply piling on all your ships into a location and having a huge battle.
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Steve Carey
United States
West Coast
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FrankConner wrote:
Combat:Once the attacker moves in, the defender has to fight one round, but then can retreat to an open space on the map.
Note that if the defender's ship(s) all have 2 Engines, then they can retreat to a Safe Refuge space prior to any combat (7.3.1).
This is an important rule to keep in mind when composing your fleets, and can lead to an interesting decision-tree when positioning your ships (i.e., pile on your strength or meet the need for speed?).
FrankConner wrote:
I feel, however, that unless a player begins designing new scenarios, new maps, and possibly even creating new ships and new development cards, the game gets a little stale rather quickly. All games lose their “newness” after a while, but I feel that already in the few games I played I was ready for something new.
There's lots more on the way (see the 'Coming Attractions' and 'Designer's Notes' inside the front covers)! 
SB:H was released as an introduction to the Star Borders universe, and to test the waters I presume. With only 4 pages of rules and its quick/fun game play, the initial success and popularity that the game has achieved does indeed beg for expansions.
As far as I know, at least 3 more SB modules (2 regular and 1 solitaire campaign) are in the works.
Thanks to the fine folk at 2D6 for the review. For me, SB:H is a truly fascinating game that delivers more-with-less.
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Kevin Wenzel
United States
Bloomington
IN
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Sorry Guys I didn't write this article I posted it for Chris who is a long time gamer with no BGG account(Very suspicious if you ask me!  )? I like multiple postings to get the 2D6 work out so it gets maximum exposer! He said he was very busy and couldn't get to it right away. I think you guys make fine points but I have not played the game myself. I will make Chris do his own postings from now on to avoid any confusion!
~ Kevin
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