Star Trek: Expeditions game by Knizia/Wizkids

I'd heard something a while ago about Wizkids acquiring the Star Trek license and making some kind of a board game. I wasn't too optimistic, but I just saw this picture of a prototype and thought it looked very promising... Turns out it's a co-op by Knizia, and will use Heroclix figures/ships to track damage or resources or other various stats.

Others here will certainly disagree, but I thought Knizia did a good job turning the classic property of the Lord of the Rings into a memorable game, so hopefully he can pull this off as well. And though I haven't really heard good things about the Heroclix game system (this is not compatible with that), I always thought it was a clever idea to have the stats tracked like that on the figure itself, so this could be a good game to feature that. You can catch quite a few details by zooming into the picture... looks like there's a decent amount going on.



So did anybody that went to Gencon get to check this out at all? I can't find too much more info about it, but there is this brief description from someone at TOS : I didn't play this one - but I wanted to add the highlight of the con for me. I stood and heard all about a new game from Reiner Knizia for WizKids using the rebooted Star Trek license coming out (I think) next year. It looks completely fantastic! Think Lord of the Rings meets Star Trek. It's called (I think?) Star Trek: Expeditions. It's a co-op where you are called to a sector and have to beam down to planets. It has a forking story line (awesome) and complete team play. There's a time limit marching down, the Enterprise gets to blast away (or be blasted) by an orbiting Klingon ship all the while you're solving this crazy stack of cards that connect together.

I've got my eye on this, too, though I'm no fan of Knizia. Even more interesting is the rumoured Star Trek starship battle game that's coming after this. Even if the latter simply gives me a chance to rob some figures for my copy of Star Trek: Tactical Combat Simulator I'll be happy. The latter is excellent, and I don't play it enough.

Wow, I had known about the click game, but not this. Very interesting, though I'm hesitant more due to the WizKids name rather than Knizia. Knizia may re-use the same 4-5 mechanics over and over, but then again, he has stuff like T&E and LOTR: The Confrontation, which really are masterpieces.

I'll have a leery eye on this.

I looked at it but wasn't impressed. As soon as he said Knizia I glazed over. I can't remember that last Knizia game that I liked. Mechanically they all work but that is all there is - mechanics.

Actually there is one knizia game I like. Frank has a pirate children's game which is kind of charming.

The Clix game was next to it and looked fun though. Modular Hex board (large tiles) where youy explore or fight. You can attempt to convert nuetral planets join your federation/emprire. There are event cards and hazards(and missions I think). First to score 10 points of planets/missions wins. It looked fast fun and definately Avery-freindly.

Steve"Knizia?! Knizia?! We don't need no steeking Knizia!!"Avery

Oh no...if this is a preproduction copy...it looks like total shit. Pawns with click bases? WTF?

HOPEFULLY this is an advance, prototype thing.

I dunno, when I see a string of "add +2" items to a die roll, it doesn't sound very good.

It's also disappointing that they're not using the new Trek material. The cardbacks have the poster art, but everything else is TOS. I like TOS fine, love it even, but its' a missed opportunity if they're not using the new material/images.

From what (little) I understand, that is definitely just a prototype and there will be minis of ships and Heroclix figures and such.

Apparently it's for 2-4 players and you can play as Kirk, Spock, Uhuru or McCoy. I don't know if they're using TOS images or stuff from the new movie, but I think it's kind of a toss-up as far as which would be better from a selling standpoint. Certainly, the newer images would appeal more to a younger audience and people who got into (or back into) ST through the recent film, and they would look better in general, of course. But by and large, I'd say that most people (including the vast amount of older game geeks who have the money to buy this) still picture the imagery of TOS when they think of ST, and Shatner/Nimoy will probably always remain the more iconic Kirk/Spock.

Anyway, I think it looks promising, at least, and yeah, there is also a ST minis battle game coming out, too, which looks great.

Yeah, I looked at it more closely, it's definitely placeholder artwork. But man, those click base pawns...I just about lost my damn mind!

We'll see. Knizia's not exactly a shitty designer and when he's properly marshalled he can do great work. You are right that Shatner and Nimoy are likely still more recognizable than that guy and the dude from HEROES.

As far as the +2, +1 cards... yeah, those are probably for simple combat or skill adjustments, and there might be some Euro-y color set that they need to be played in... but look at the combat and action details in the lower left corner, and the event card with what looks like a skill test challenge. Heck, from what I see this is already about twice as involved as most Knizia games. He's nothing if not efficient, but it seems like this will have at least a little bit of meat to it. With LOTR, he took an AT type property and made more of a Eurogame out of it, but here we have an AT property that might have a little bit more of an AT feel to it with combat and skill checks and such. I'm sure it will still lean Euro in some respects, but in any case, I'm hopeful that this could be something decent.

Michael Barnes wrote:

You are right that Shatner and Nimoy are likely still more recognizable than that guy and the dude from HEROES.

On the other hand, new Uhura is even hotter than the original, and the new Bones is Karl freaking Urban!

As for this game, no way in hell am I getting this. Knizia's Cthulhu Rising was a complete waste of a perfectly decent theme, and Wiz Kids have been fucking up good properties for years now. In fact, I could have sworn that Wiz Kids went out of business a few years back. Or did the original Wiz Kids just get bought out by somebody else?

The WizKids brand is a big problem here- they don't exactly have a great reputation either with gamers or with retailers. I got to the point where I seriously considered not carrying ANY of their products because of their release strategies. Toward the end, I was only bringing in enough to keep my Heroclix gang happy. I hope that doesn't hurt this game's prospects. It looks like they're trying some different stuff though, so we'll see.

Totally agree on Uhura...I'm usually not all that impressed by the pulchritude of today's actresses...but dang, she's a good looking girl.

The game seemed to consist of some standies on plastic bases that had an...

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...configuration of "location cards" that you moved your ships to. The guy said the USS Reliant, Enterprise and other ships were there. Sounded like an exploration game. Lame.

Didn't see the Clix nearby, so I passed. Saw some cool Heroclix stuff, but that's about it.

Yet another Avery/Ruth missed connection! Were you following me, Steve?

A Knizia-designed Star Trek co-op? I'll at least give it a look. Makes me wonder why, given how the typical Star Trek movie/episode goes, why we haven't seen a Star Trek co-op sooner.

All the other collectible games were naff, competitive, mirror-match...things (Look! Picard vs. Picard! Kirk vs. Shirtless Kirk!)

Some more details from a Gencon interview with Wizkids: www.thed6generation.com/d6g_gen_con_2010..._kids_star_trek_more

Starts around 32-33 minutes, and covers both the co-op game and the minis game. Among other details, the co-op game will use the film's imagery.

Knizia has sworn he'll never design another "Gamer's Game" (E&T, Amun Re), because they are hard to make, hard to sell, and the end result isn't worth it.

Thus expect a string of lightweight euros from him forever.

Lord of the Rings (co-op and confrontation) were commissioned games, and perhaps this Star Trek was as well. Those tend to turn out much better. The awesome Die Insel and King Arthur are both worthy Dark Tower-ish games that wouldn't look out of place in the Milton Bradley catalog. Same goes for Pirates! which was published by Parker Brothers Austria.

Even then, he's not big on card text and a lot of chrome rules. So personally, for Star Trek, go for something like the old Disc Wars game or Starfleet Battle Manual.

Shellhead wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote:

You are right that Shatner and Nimoy are likely still more recognizable than that guy and the dude from HEROES.

On the other hand, new Uhura is even hotter than the original, and the new Bones is Karl freaking Urban!

As for this game, no way in hell am I getting this. Knizia's Cthulhu Rising was a complete waste of a perfectly decent theme, and Wiz Kids have been fucking up good properties for years now. In fact, I could have sworn that Wiz Kids went out of business a few years back. Or did the original Wiz Kids just get bought out by somebody else?

They were bought by NECA.
Zev