• One such forthcoming title is GMT Games' SpaceCorp: Ventures, the first expansion for John H. Butterfield's 2018 space exploration hit, SpaceCorp.
In SpaceCorp: 2025-2300 AD, 1-4 players explore and develop outer space over three eras, with each era being played on a different board. Each player controls an Earth-based enterprise seeking profit by driving the expansion of humanity into the Solar System and beyond. Here's how the Ventures expansion further elevates SpaceCorp, as described by the publisher:
In addition, at the start of each era, one player selects an eighth contract to be fulfilled, adding an additional way to gain profit and complete the era.
Ten of the fourteen HQ mats can be flipped over to play Solitaire SpaceCorp: Ventures with an enhanced HQ against the competition AI, but the competition will have advanced attributes, tuned to each player HQ. Updates to the AI include some general enhancements making the AI more difficult to beat. These general updates can also be applied to solitaire play in the base game.
• Just a few days before Gen Con Online 2020, Grey Fox Games shared a teaser video for Last Light, a fast-paced 4X game for 1-4 players, with 3-D planets, a rotating board, and simultaneous actions, designed by The Dice Tower's very own Roy Cannaday.
Last Light plays in 60-90 minutes and is targeted to launch on Kickstarter in Q1 2021. Here's the gist of how it works:
Each turn players select an action card and all players take their action simultaneously, exploring planets, mining for resources, gaining new technologies, and commanding fleets all while racing to the center of a rotating board to the last known white dwarf star to gather light for their civilization to survive. The first player to gather 20 light has overcome their rivals, claimed the last light of a dying universe, and won the game!
• Eric mentioned the first major Anachrony expansion, Fractures of Time, from Mindclash Games in a March 2019 post. While I'm excited to receive my Kickstarter copy of Fractures of Time, I'm also looking forward to checking out the new Future Imperfect modular expansion, designed by Dávid Turczi.
Anachrony is a heavy, unique, time-travel worker-placement game in which 1-4 players can power up time rifts and reach back to earlier turns to supply their past "self" with resources. Here's an overview of what the Future Imperfect expansion adds:
The Hypersync module allows you to perform a Capital action without actually placing an Exosuit, then in the future use the new Hypersync Action to make your placement affect the past. This puts serious strain on the space-time continuum, increasing the risk of Paradoxes, but often the risk is worth the reward and the flexibility. This module is for 1-4 players (with the Fractures of Time expansion required for solo play).
With the Quantum Loops module, you are no longer limited to warping from your own timeline: the module opens up parallel universes where resources are more plentiful, the locals are eager to join your cause, or their technology allows you to shortcut your own travels through time. The possibilities multiply through a new Warp tile that grants access to the powerful Quantum Effect cards, but to close a loop to a parallel universe, you will need a real breakthrough... This module is also for 1-4 players (again with the Fractures of Time expansion required for solo play).
The Intrigues of the Council module simulates the World Council's political machinations, bringing two new aspects to the game: another layer of player interaction and customizable endgame scoring objectives, influenced by the players. By sending Exosuits to the right place at the right time, players can receive bonus resources and compete to build a tableau of Agenda tiles, which replaces the base game's endgame condition scoring. This module is recommended for 3 or 4 players.
In more detail:
To strategically move your alien creatures, you should bear in mind that they will automatically move forward once at the end of all turns, so it is essential to plan how you will use your cards that provide movement actions, creature transformation, evolution, and even the spawning of new alien tokens. A card market is available, and achieving different evolutions and improvements can continue to help your strategy — although you will also be affected by the aggressive or passive actions of the different players and by the defense mechanisms that each planet has in particular.