Let's Talk About: Alien Frontiers

In the interest of giving a conversation some room to breathe, I want to jump off of repoman's assessment of Alien Frontiers from the "What are you playing" thread.

When it came out, Alien Frontiers was a big deal. It's pretty much the game that sold Kickstarter as a viable option. It was really well reviewed here too. I think Barnes put it on his end-of-year list.

I'm mostly with Repo though. It's a decent game, but a couple of elements have always bothered me.

- First off, the combination of the cards, the die rolls, and everything else makes for a game that feels like its won on accident. I don't think I've ever seen anyone win by more than one point, and it always has this quality of "oh, I guess I won." I had similar issues with Cyclades actually. It's like it's actually about putting yourself in a position to win, but you can't really do it on purpose. I don't really have an issue with that in a vacuum. I mean, that's totally how it works in Kremlin. But Alien Frontiers isn't nearly as amusing as that game, and is obviously meant to be a little more serious, so I think it's an issue.

- Secondly, in my half-dozen games it always feels about 15-20 minutes too long. That doesn't sound like much, but if it's a ton of jockeying around for position that just sort of ends in a winner at some point, and if it goes just a little too long, then it feels like the arc of the game is kind of misshapen. It comes dangerously close to just a bunch of stuff happening, and then it's over about 15 minutes after you want it to be.

What do all of you think? Do the Alien Frontiers fans out there still love this one? Where am I off-base?

The action on the planet lets players haul others back from the lead, which on the surface is a good thing but it seems to be a heavy hand late in Alien Frontiers. I like the game, I like the way it uses worker placement and I like the way you can build and debuild ships to progress your position, giving you that balance of growth and score action that gives the game life.

I'll tell you what I think could make the game a bit more interesting -- make ties on the planet generous, sharing the benefit of the region when two or more sides have the same number of dots in it. That would put a diplomatic element into the game, and could shorten it a bit to your advantage.

S.

Yeah, I feel like the action on the planet is too knock-down-drag-out. There's such a thing as too much competition, and I think this one actually has that. It slows down the game and is mostly just irritating I think.

I remember my first game of Catan, and how I appreciated that when a settlement was there, it stayed there. There was some stability to the game. I wouldn't mind a bit more of that here.

Given the remainder of the game's nature I think additional permanence on the planet would make more sense. Not a deal-breaker for me personally, but a better match to the overall spirit of the play.

S.

I've always been interested in getting this game because I enjoy Yahtzee and would like a slightly heavier Yahtzee. Is that strange?

With regard to Cyclades...you're playing it wrong if you think that there's an "oh. I won" factor. That game rewards the long lens strategy way better than almost any game I've ever played.

Alien Frontiers is definitely as you describe, though. I've won by more than one point on many occasions, but never by more than two or perhaps once or twice three. Its randomness is what makes those wins happen, generally, and there's most assuredly a "path to victory" that always includes taking the space with the extra ship first etc.

If I really enjoy Troyes, is there even a reason to seek out Alien Frontiers?

You mean aside from the obvious downside of playing Troyes?

I'd say that the closest game to Alien Frontiers is Kingsburg, and while I really like Alien Frontiers as a good beer-and-pretzels game, I'd have to say that I think Kingsburg is probably a far better design from a variety of perspectives, the least of which is complexity of strategy.

I've never seen or played Troyes, though.

Alright, for a non-obnoxious answer: I've only played Troyes once, but it is far more gamer-y than Alien Frontiers. Alien Frontiers is much more casual, maybe around the same weight as something like Lords of Waterdeep. Troyes, as you know, is a lot closer to one of the Alea games.

I hadn't actually noticed the mechanical similarities until you mentioned them, but they are definitely there.

I consider Troyes, Kingsburg, and Alien Frontiers all in the same neighborhood, although I've never played Alien Frontiers.

Troyes is an absolutely great game. It's really the only straight Euro I would probably say that about. The decisions are more meaty and it feels more replayable than Kingsburg. I've played Troyes 30+ times over the past few years and would always be willing to play it again.

I'm kind of interested in Alien Frontiers but not enough to want another dice game which probably won't be as good as Troyes.

I think I've played this twice, and neither time was impressed by it. It's too long, once a player has 3+ cards their turns take too long to compute, and the area majority aspect feels rigid and tacked on.

I played Alien Frontiers just once. I get it's a good design, it seems balanced, there's lots of choices to make and multiple paths to victory... but I didn't like it. I played a five player game, and it took too long. Maybe it's better with four. Still, after playing, I felt didn't need to play it ever again. Typical of many worker placement games, the best choice is obvious, even with all the ways you can manipulate the dice. There's not enough direct confrontation for me, but it is a euro. It's a good game for sure, but it's not for me.

For the record, I came in a very close second in the game I played.

Applejack wrote: Typical of many worker placement games, the best choice is obvious, even with all the ways you can manipulate the dice. There's not enough direct confrontation for me, but it is a euro.

See, I think the thing about AF is that the direct confrontation is essential. It's not like other WP games in that you're each trying to build your little efficiency engine and using the selections to insert little inefficiencies into the other players' plans. In AF, it's easy for one player to get a killer combo of techs/planets/factions (and/or a lock on the Terraforming space), and it's up to the others to start doing things to break that combo (steal techs, displace them from Terraforming, etc). I think it needs to be played more like a multi-player conquest, king-of-the-hill style game. In practice, I see folks focusing on their own engine, worried about the AP actions, and then eventually coming to a quick loss by whoever gets steamrolling. This is both a fraility and a strength of the design, IMO.

I love Alien Frontiers and definitely see real solid strategies in the game. I've seen victories by more than two points on several occasions and even seen people run away with it.

People don't dispose of their cards often enough, there are some crazy powers that can totally fuck the game up in there and they need to be used. Especially the one that lets you switch any two colonies. Cards in general are powerful, people constantly shuffle through the deck looking for the holographic decoy in our games, that is an awesome card. The expansion that gives everyone their own location (with a slightly modified location for others) is really incredible in opening up the game and I haven't played without it in awhile, that does effect my opinion.

It's way better than Troyes in my mind... if that's any help charlest... but I wasn't a big Troyes fan and I played it after... so who knows. It may not work for you. If you have an iPad don't judge it off the app, while a fun time it does not come anywhere close to showing you what the game can be with a table of cutthroats out there. The more you're willing to make enemies, the better the game is. Troyes does not have that side to it.

Alien Frontiers has a bunch of things going for it. I find the locations where you put your colonies are under valued as well. Everyone likes the extra ship, moving a third space for every two, the cheap moon units, and build ships for cheap... but man that play a card for a cost of one less is way more powerful than most people seem to notice, especially once you lock into a card heavy strategy, same with the location that lets you use two moon units instead of three to place triples for insta-colony, that and a gravity manipulator can be really fucking mean. You can accomplish a fuck of a lot with just a few ships and really fly under the radar.

As a last move try to time it so you play two ships at once (your last two) and dispose of a card or two to move things around. You'll see lots of 3-4 point leads at games end.