unpublished

Tradewars: Homeworld is a finished design from Quest Adventure Cards. Designed by Kristopher R. Kycia, it’s a Sci-Fi Deckbuilding game that’s a bit more indepth than any other I’ve seen out there so far. The game will soon be hitting Kickstarter so they can fund artwork and get it released to the public. With over 16 revisions of the game, it feels polished and ready to go.

A couple of notes before I start:

  1. As I stated before, the game isn’t completely finished. It feels great, but is missing artwork and will probably be tweaked a bit more.
  2. I received 2 one player boxes. There’s no guarantee this is how the final game will be released

So what is Tradewars: Homeworld about? There’s actually four ways to play: Tradewars, Spacewars, Days of Glory, and The Derelict. You’ll need 2 copies (if the game is released in the single player boxed format) to play everything except for the solitaire scenario, The Derelict.  Each scenario follows the same core rules, but has different conditions for winning.

  • Tradewars – Be the first player to collect 200 qS (the game’s currency)
  • Spacewars – Be the last player standing in an all out battle for survival
  • Days of Glory – Be the first player to build all five (5) Galactic Achievements
  • The Derelict – A one-player scenario: survive the attack of The Derelict ship and ultimately destroy the enemy starship

Tradewars

The rulebook covers a lot of information before the core mechanics are even explained, as there’s a lot of cards and moving parts here. During the game you’ll be building starships, upgrading cards, attacking other ships, and defending your homeworld. Like I said earlier, it’s the most complicated deckbuilder I’ve ever played. That’s not to say it isn’t enjoyable, but it’s not as simple to jump into as Star Realms or the like.

So there’s formulas to how to build your ships, resolve attacks, etc… There’s also roles that can be chosen each turn that give you an added bonus to play. As you progress through the game, you can even unlock more starships to boost your fleet.

It’s involved, but the rulebook does a good job of laying everything out there. The game takes about 30 minutes to play, but figure 45min  to 1 hour for your first go. Does that mean it’s a bad game? By no means! It’s a bit more indepth than I expected, but my oldest son and I still enjoyed the game.

Tradewars: Homeworld is a game that I’m going to keep my eye on. I’d like to see how it’s Kickstarted, and how it looks in its final form. I’m sure I’ll continue to enjoy the early prototype I have until then.

Unpublished is a series about unpublished games. Games in this series are in various states of completion. Game mechanics, art, name, etc… are subject to change as development progresses.