Venus Needs Men

I finally got a chance to try this game. It was sitting amongst the detrius of the prize table in Gulf Games and people wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. One look at the cover art and I knew we were fated to be together.

The premise of the game is that you are an alien race stealing human population (or destroying/protecting-but mechanically its the same.) As soon as you collect a plurality of population you win.


(advanced game)
Each player starts with two ships and handful of zap cards. Zap cards can be played any time and help or hinder you or other players. They can also be cashed in to augment your actions. You also begin with a few race specific technology upgrades and a special power.

Gameplay is straigtforward. Each turn you take one action: Bulid ships, move all your ships, attack, collect population, or do research for technology upgrades. Discarding zap cards lets you buff your action by one.

Bulid one ship
move one space
Attack once per ship in an adjacent area
collect one population per ship in a populated area
Make one roll to research a technology upgrade (out of 3 showing- you may cycle one)

Thats the game.

In our game there was Venus (collect 2 population per ship), jupiter (infect two people per population action or take one infected populaiton per zone), and pluto (teleport to a random space, roll three dice per ship in combat.) No one was quite sure how to progress and we dithered a bit at the beginning. As soon as I started collecting population though the rush was on. Being Venus, I had collected a significant amount before the other two planets arrived. Jupiter started mass infecting the whole planet and pluto destroyed all my ships. Then Pluto destroyed jupiter's ships but it only slowed jupiter down a bit because he could just TP up infected population. the game really bogged at this point because we had many questions about how the infection power worked and whether infected population counted as victory points for other players. I recovered and again went back to collect more population and made a big comeback by using zap cards to avoid being destroyed.

Ultimately I think the scores were:
Pluto 10
Venus 33
Jupiter 34

In retrospect, I think the game would play much differently with experienced players. Most likey everyone would load up on the build action by discarding zap cards and rush to the planet. there would be a lot of bloodshed then the game might slow down as people began to run low on zap cards. I'm not positive the player powers are wel balanced though the players themselves may balance that out by taking down clear leaders. Also there may be a better combination for three players. Also there seems to be little reason to spend time researching unless something *really* useful is available.

I still have questions about the the mechanics of the game, and despite looking up the FAQ I'm not clear on some things. I expect more things may pop up with more plays.

-Does Jupiter need ships (or even any ships at all) on the planet to TP away population?
-Jupiters ships spread 1+1 infected population. Existing infected population also spread +1?
-Infected population still count as victory points for other players?

Despite some of these ambiguities, I look forward to trying this game again. I hope that through repeated plays I develop a better understanding of the game. I'm also rooting for the small press designer. It doesn't seem that the game has been well recieved but I think there may be a fun game here. A few more plays will see.

Steve"Mars needs Women"Avery

In the early days of Dragon magazine, they had ads for some silly wargame called Bug-Eyed Monsters. "They Want Our Women!" Peering closely at the components in the picture, I saw that there was a lust-crazed counter on the map, which soon became a running gag in our D&D group.

Here's a picture of the ad:

images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic280385.jpg

If you squint, you can see the red lust-crazed token just to the left of the word "They" from "They Want Our Women!"

Stephen Avery wrote:

Why are all the men running away in that pic? I don't get it.

Rocket packs and short skirts just do not seem like a good plan to me.

-Does Jupiter need ships (or even any ships at all) on the planet to TP away population?
-Jupiters ships spread 1+1 infected population. Existing infected population also spread +1?
-Infected population still count as victory points for other players?

No
Yes
Yes

Keep in mind that when you extend your action to TP pop., it's ONE chip PER card.

Thaadd wrote:

Rocket packs and short skirts just do not seem like a good plan to me.

The surface temperature on Venus is around 860 degrees fahrenheit, so the natives are very resistant to extreme heat, even burning rocket fuel. My wife is from there.

Thaadd wrote:

Rocket packs and short skirts just do not seem like a good plan to me.

See, that kinda of funny-- it seems like a perfectly viable idea to me. You know, keeping clothes out of the jet wash and all that.

Shellhead wrote:

In the early days of Dragon magazine, they had ads for some silly wargame called Bug-Eyed Monsters.

Silly wargame? BEM rocked! At least, at the time I thought it did. One of Greg "Creature That Ate Sheboygan" Costikyan's designs. The "Earth Woman" counters had "Pulchritude" ratings of 1 to 6. Costikyan is one of the godfathers of Ameritrash, and one of the key figures responsible for broadening the scope of boardgame subject matter in the late 70s and early 80s.

billyz wrote:

Thaadd wrote:

Rocket packs and short skirts just do not seem like a good plan to me.

See, that kinda of funny-- it seems like a perfectly viable idea to me. You know, keeping clothes out of the jet wash and all that.

Gives a whole new meaning to "hot legs"

I have it and have played it a few times. I think it's really in need of some house rules, but that it's got some great potential. Every time we play it just feels like there is so little impetus to do a lot of the really cool flavorful sorts of things you can do. I feel like there need to be additional actions that can only be spent on certain things, since otherwise it's not very smart to do anything but pick up population until close to the end and then it's just a game of bash the leader until someone gets through to a win.

I'd really like the tech especially to be something more worthwhile and for combat to not feel like a total waste of time early on.

After having time to actually read your post, I tought I'd throw my two cents in.

In retrospect, I think the game would play much differently with experienced players. Most likey everyone would load up on the build action by discarding zap cards and rush to the planet. there would be a lot of bloodshed then the game might slow down as people began to run low on zap cards.

That depends on the both number of players in the game, and what you have in your hand. Play with four or five players, and your total deck size is going to be smaller. It's also tougher to decide between discarding to extend your turn and using the cards as "take that" simply because there are more people to keep your eye on. If you were to build all your ships and bum rush Earth as say, Venus or Mars (who can start collecting on turn 2 if they want), you're going to end up being a popular target for attacks and "Zaps" right from the get.

Incidentally, I haven't tried the game with three players, and I'm not so sure it would work very well as a three-player game.

I'm not positive the player powers are wel balanced though the players themselves may balance that out by taking down clear leaders. Also there may be a better combination for three players.

I haven't played it enough to make that call. So far, the balance seems pretty good. Pluto is pretty tough, Earth seems pretty weak, other than that, I think you'll just have to play to your planet's strengths. Ganymede, for example, is practically invulnerable in water areas and they can collect from there, but it takes longer for them to get back to Earth when you do nail their ships. Venus, on the other hand, starts close to Earth, collects quickly, and has good weapons. They have lousy defense, though, and have the burden of being both an obvious and easy target. Titan's infection ability is very cool, and potentially very powerful, but you have to play it right or the other players will just snatch up your yellow chips before you get to TP them.

Also there seems to be little reason to spend time researching unless something *really* useful is available.

Earth will be doing it quite a bit (it's their special), and a combo like Venus with "Pheremone Lures" can be a game winner. Sometimes you'll just do it because you're otherwise restricted from doing anything else by someone's Zap card. Ultimately, no, it's not a big part of the game, but it's some cool extra chrome and something to keep your eye on during play.

Despite some of these ambiguities, I look forward to trying this game again. I hope that through repeated plays I develop a better understanding of the game. I'm also rooting for the small press designer. It doesn't seem that the game has been well recieved but I think there may be a fun game here. A few more plays will see.

I think there definitely is a fun game here, and I'm glad to see someone besides me talking about it. No, it's not CE or anything, and it is a little rough around the edges, but that's part of what I like about it. I think it does a really good job with it's theme. It's cheap, and because it's so short and simple, you can pretty much yank it out to play with anyone, anytime. At any rate, it's one I'll be tossing into the car before I go to game night more often.