[GMT Games] Space Empires 4X

[atanakar]

When I feel the urge to play an old school counter and hexes games I take out my Space Empire 4x box by Jim Krohn. You get to explore, expand, exploit and exterminate.

What I like about this game is that you can play it solo. The Doomsday Machine and the Alien Empire scenarios are designed to be played with one player. It also an excellent game with more players. Highly playable with just two.

The hex map and the counters are of good quality. The overall graphic design of the game has an early 90s look that I like. But don't let that fool you. The game itself is well designed and rules are streamlined. While they use the classic AH format of rules (rules 1.2 and rules 7.4) they are short. Only 16 pages. Ten pages for the basic game. 4 pages of advanced rules and 2 pages of optional rules. They pack a lot of punch with so few pages. They cover space exploration, space combat, colonization, space bombardment, resource exploitation, technology advancement and all the usual stuff of a 4X.

At the beginning of the game random tokens are placed on the map. When exploring you flip them and learn what you discovered. It's space, and it is filled with wonders and black holes!

I plan to use the combat system to quickly resolve a large space battle for an RPG campaign.

If you buy it make sure you buy the 1.2 version.

You can stack ships to hide the exact composition of your fleet in multi-player games!

Space Battles take place outside the map. My fleet (bottom) is facing the Doomsday Machine (sphere not included).

 

[GreyLord]

I have the original version they came out with. I haven't touched it in years, but I believe at that time the board was actually just light cardstock folded up with pretty thin counters. The gameplay was probably very similar to what it is now, though they've had a few tweaks for balance in 1.2 probably.

 

[atanakar]

I have the original version they came out with. I haven't touched it in years, but I believe at that time the board was actually just light cardstock folded up with pretty thin counters. The gameplay was probably very similar to what it is now, though they've had a few tweaks for balance in 1.2 probably.

Yes mostly tweaks and better components. There are two expansions. Replicators and Close Encounters. I have not played the basic game often enough to justify buying them.. for now.

 

[Mezuka]

I have a copy of the game that doesn't see enough table time. I discovered last week an online version on Board Game Arena.

I'm currently playing a 2-player game to test the application. Works fine so far. I really enjoy not having to handle all the bookkeeping. After 15 turns our two civilizations are 1 parsec away from each other. I'm the blue player.

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[kronovan]

I owned the version from GMT (believe it was 1.2) and the Close Encounters expansion, but I couldn't get my kids or friends to replay it - most didn't like the math involved. I found myself only bringing it out to play the solo campaign, so I figured I might as well get some $ for it and traded it away at a CON. Now when I get an itch to play it, I just use the module for the Vassal Engine, which works well enough.

I think the idea of using it for large space battles in a RPG campaign is definitely doable. I've done something similar for the Fantasy genre with a board game called Battlelore. I've also used the much simpler Alpha Strike rules for the Battletech series, when running large battles in a Mech heavy SciFi campaign. Both of those have worked and delivered a fun, much less abstract experience for the players. In both cases though, I had parties comprised of players who enjoyed tabletop miniature gaming. So I had an audience that could appreciate such sessions once in a while.