So I decided to take some time to sit down and review the second expansion for the game Battlestations entitled Battlestations: Pax Galacticum (PAX). The setting takes place after the first expansion Battlestations: Galactic Civil War (GCW) and introduces many new things for players of the Battlestations Universe as well as building upon that expansion. Seeing as there were no current reviews available, that I love Battlestations and that GCW built so much upon Battlestations. I decided to take a plunge and write my first review. So here we go!
Components:
The quality of the components is exactly that of the core game and first expansion. You get several new double sided modules and counters for use with this expansion as well as playing pieces for the new race – the Fungaloids.
New Race:
Fungaloids – yes that’s right we get a new race, the Fungaloids. They’re basically a group of mushrooms that move slower then a Silicoid but due to their alien make up are quite capable of regeneration at the end of a round. While some may balk at this idea they are in the upper tier of aliens that can be targeted which makes me question their ability as being the new “meat shield” for boarding parties. One of the new items allows players to teleport between modules so this may help alleviate this problem for this race and other slow moving races. Listed along side the short game description of the race is a summery of all the current available races (there is a longer page of background information in the back – similar to how it was done in GCW.)
New Actions, Skills and Abilities:
Yes we have a few new set of actions for players to attempt use. Actions Enter by Force which allows you to open up a portal to a ship (friendly or otherwise) or Fireman’s Carry which allows you to carry a number of unconscious allies per hands provided you have the number of hands and movement available to do so. 299
Some of the new skills abilities with healing (Surgeon allows 3 dice while healing with a medkit with the chance of making the player go into a dying state!) There is also a new ability for Hacking and using the Hyperdrive! So players should be able to find something new and interesting to add to their characters arsenal of tricks.
New Modules and Items:
We get two new modules the Damage Control module and the Sick Bay. Damage Control is a nice module that allows a member of the crew to repair the ships hull based on the amount of success you get. However unlike other modules used markers don’t come until the end of the campaign turn. The sick bay may have crew members yelling out “Damnit <PERSON> I’m a Doctor not a duck!” or whatever <PERSON> like reference you may want to make as it allows your players go about attempting to heal members of your crew. Some of the new items include things like an autopilot which can be described as a immobile bot that has suffers no OOC and can pilot the ship (or assist) from the cargo bay, or a Rec Room that grants a luck for the campaign turn at the cost of upgrading (hey who says your players can’t enjoy a little R&R while warping through hyperspace?)
Referees rejoice for there are 36 new missions added into this book and just like GCW it setup for campaign play. However unlike GCW, PAX there isn’t an evil side, but “fate” is your enemy. Yes, like GCW, PAX has positive effects for your group as they go forward in one of their victory tracks as well as negative effects for “fate” is left unchecked in a certain area as well. From what I’ve read so far all the missions so far can be described as Trek-Like with a feeling of confronting, exploring or discovering some sort of anomaly. I feel this helps the Battlestation universe fill out so much more because where the core book and especially the GCW missions were a bit more on the confrontational side; PAX has you and your group trying new and different things. You’ll have missions where you are trying to stop a tear in the universe from destroying the universe itself or journeying into a black hole, trying to have your crew figure out what’s wrong with their Hyperdrive or trying to recover a ship that is sitting out in the middle of an asteroid field.
Overall:
It felt like there was a lot of content in this book even though it’s just as big as the first expansion at 96 pages. After reading everything I can honestly say this might be looked upon as the “Scientist” or “Cleric” expansion of the Battlestation universe. 403