Mission : Red Planet

For Starters fantastic art work really set the strange theme,
Victorian Space Race

This is a light Area control game,

Each turn your going be sending your men to mars at the same time as your friends,
With the aim oh having the most men in each sector of mars on the scoring rounds to be the sole player to score them points! As well as the majority points there are also hidden missions that give bonuses you get 1 mission to start with and can rsearch more with one of the characters,

Travel to mars is limited by space craft space, there is a space ship launch for each player and each ship can hold randomly 2-5 men.

To decide who goes to mars each player must choose 1 of 9 characters to play this round each character has a special power and a number of men they take with them(1 to 3)

A shuttle won’t launch unless full men or set of to early by a secret agent,

And you won’t want to pull all your men in 1 ship just in case one of your friends tries to sabotage and blow up the ship before launch!

The shuttles travel mostly to random destinations on mars, and further character choices can manipulate your men while on the moon.

Recruiter gets all your used characters back for future turns
Explorer you get to move you men on mars a must to gain majority control of areas
Scientist try to get bonus or apply negative conditions to your friends mining areas
Secret agent launch ships earlier to save your self or scupper an opponent.
Saboteur Blow up a ship still loading with men!
Femme Fatale change an opponents men to your side.
Travel agent get as more men to mars quickly if you can!
Soldier war on mars pick of your opponents
Pilot seems weak but actually very sneaky and useful redirect shuttles to new destinations ( I’m bitter I lost the game because my friend re directed my men to another area! I could cope with the more direct killing techniques! For the fem, sab and soldiers! )

The game only last 10 rounds and my few games have lasted approx 60 mins as the box states
The game is scored on 3 round round 5 round 8 and round 10

Round 5 the whole of mars may not be explored and you only get a few point tokens
Round 8 you get twice as many score tokens and round 10 you apply the hidden factors the scientist may have uncovered which is either a bonus or a bane the play in control of that area.

There seems like multiple routes to victory, and a healthy dose of random luck as in will your opponent choose something to ruin your or will your plan get of the ground littler this turn,

At this point I’m not entirely sure on tactic’s or long term play ability, each character seems useful but is also counter able, do you get more men on mars fast and risk being killed or do you take the role of trying to kill your opponents, or to you go all sciences and go for bonuses. As there is only a limited number of turns to play with its tricky to decide who to go for, which makes for the interesting game

If you’ve played may other games, Its similar in character selection to Citadels but with more of game behind it and a similar scouring method to the one used in china(web of power)

Over all it’s a great fun game that should be very accessible especially to any one who you likes sci-fi in any form, it’s great to look, it may look difficult from the pictures buts its an incredibly small rule book and very easy to grasp.

The box its self doesn’t hold the components very well when they have been punched out and my copy came with 2 cards printed with missing letters but this is a minor issue, that should not detract from the game in any way and hopefully will be correct or maybe a bad batch I’ve sent mail to the makers for replacement parts.

I for one want this game to hit the table more times,



Out of 10
Fun 8
Simplicity of rules 7
Depth of play 7
Replay ability 7
Components 5 (poor box and card mistake)

I hope this review answer any of your questions if no ask me more!