Image Courtesy of otrex
This review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.
If you liked the review please thumb the top of the article so others have a better chance of seeing it and I know you stopped by. Thanks for reading.
Summary
Game Type – Deck-Building Game
Play Time: 60-90 minutes
Number of Players: 2-5 (Best 3)
Mechanics – Card Drafting, Deck Building, Hand Management, Action Point System
Difficulty – Pick-up & Play (Can be learned in 30 minutes)
Components – Good
Release – 2011
Designer – <PERSON> -(Assault of the Giants, Canterbury, Dungeon Alliance, Dungeons & Dragons: Attack Wing, Ideology: The War of Ideas, Justice League Strategy Game, Parthenon: Rise of the Aegean, Star Trek: Attack Wing, Star Trek: Frontiers)
Overview and Theme
Every now and again a game can escape my clutches but I eventually get back to them. Core Worlds is one such game. I picked this up in the year of its release, some 6-7 years ago and after one play that took almost 3 hours I was done with it. The game seemed too fiddly, the rules I found tricky to navigate and it just went to long for what it was. The easier to grasp Ascensionhad been released the year before and that was enough for me.
Take a cosmic space jump to 2017 and I am back to try this baby again. I understand deck-builders a lot better now than I did then and...well...let's see what we have here...
The galaxy is at unease. The Core Worlds have ruled with an iron fist over all systems and planets within its reach. The outer rim planets were the worst treated to be sure, considered nothing more than resource pits to sustain the life of the inner realm. The rim's people were nothing more than a resource to be used up and discarded.
But something has changed, there is a faltering within the Core Worlds and the rim has felt the loosening of the reins for some time. Now is the time to strike. They call us barbarians but we are a hardy people and we have learned to adapt. 299
Now it is our turn to take the fight to the Core Worlds and take control of what is rightfully ours!
Such is the theme of Core Worlds. The players are in control of an outer rim faction and a single planet. The aim is to travel to the Core Worlds, building your fleets and ground forces for the final assault and claiming any planets along the way that are ripe for invasion. A Deck Builder fits the theme nicely as the mechanics are largely supporting the theme of the story.
<PERSON> probably best known amongst Euro fans for Canterburyand perhaps more widely known for his work on the D&Dand Star Trek Attack Winggames. Beyond that though his designing career is quite varied
Let's see what he has for us here.
Close the gang ramp will you and strap yourself in, we blast off in 5 minutes.
The Components
Being a deck-building game, cards are pretty much what dominate the components. So I'll take a look at the different kinds of cards and then a few of the extra bits.
Player Mats – Ok I lied. Core Worlds makes use of player mats or boards that are pretty important to the play. They allow the players to track how many actions they have at any given time and the amount of Energy they have in their Empire.
The top of the mats also outlines each of the Core Worlds and their associated scoring benefits. This is not critical to know but it is useful as it allows players to plan ahead for when they reach Sector 5 (the end-game).
Down the left side are listed the possible actions that can be taken in the main phase of the game.
The only downer here is that the mats are a little thinner than they could have been and are prone to a little bit of warping over time.
Image Courtesy of vantageGT
Worlds – These cards are always green in colour and feature a planet of one type or another as the central artwork. Four key numbers feature in each of the corners and sometimes a World may have a power that is featured in text below the artwork. In the top left is a number in a yellow circle...this denotes how much Energy the World can produce when conquered and added to a player's Empire. In the top right is a number in a red circle. This reflects how many Empire Points (victory points) the World is worth.
The two numbers at the bottom reflect the defensive Fleet and defensive Ground Force strength of the planet. These numbers must be equalled or bettered in order to conquer the planet. 299