Fleet Commander is a lightweight, tactical space combat game that recently hit Kickstarter. It had a previous release as Fleet Commander: Ignition and an expansion, Beyond the Gate. Capsicum Games sent me a copy of both to take a look at the game and give my thoughts for the Kickstarter campaign.
First impressions? Wow, the ships are REALLY nice, as are the dials and stands they rest on. The rules? Very clean, well writtern, and easy to understand. Gameplay? At first I thought the game between my son and I would end too soon. It really seemed that I, going first, had a clear advantage over him. That changed about 20 minutes in, and we both really started utilizing the dice and battlefield to its full potential.
There’s 3 pools of dice you can choose from on your turn. Attack, defense, and movement. You can only take a few each round, and each dictate how you can attack, move, and from what direction you can defend from. You can also roll a “special” face on the die which you store on your command bridge to save up and use for a special attack. You can even save a limited amount of regular die rolls on your command bridge to use on future turns.
As for the board, it’s modular. Ignition came with enough for a 5×5 grid, and the tiles can be arranged in any order to shape the battlefield. The set being Kickstarted right now comes with MUCH more, 50 to be exact.
The game is excellent, and I’ve really enjoyed playing it with my kids. The only part that really bums me out is that the newest set on Kickstarter contains tons more stuff than the base game and expansion that I currently have.
Fleet Commander is a winner, and is already funded with 20 days left to go. Make your $97 pledge to make sure you get a copy. You won’t be sorry.
A copy of Fleet Commander: Ignition and Beyond the Gate were provided for preview purposes by Capsicum Games.