This year, Luke and Maximus Laurie will turn fans interested in space board games into commanders of a spaceship fleet: Andromeda's Edge takes you through the unexplored regions on the edge of the Andromed galaxy. The title will be published in German by Frosted Games.
Admittedly, bringing a board game about spaceships onto the market doesn't sound like the latest thing at first. After all, there are numerous representatives in the genre of strategic space games, including extremely complex board games such as Twilight Imperium or Eclipse, but also more experimental representatives of the genre such as Snap Ships Tactics. The 2024 novelty Andromeda's Edge is somewhere in between; it is not an expansively long strategy and conquest game, but rather an alternative for two to four players who would like to finish a game of a space board game in one evening without getting tired.
Spaceship Tactics at the Board Game Table
Many weeks ago, the publisher Frosted Games announced the good news that they would be releasing a German version of Andromeda's Edge - including the expansions Escalation and Exotic Matter and the Deluxe Upgrade Kit: Supernova. Pre-orders have long been possible, and the board game is due to be released this year.
Luke and Maximus Laurie came up with the idea and are using a mix of mechanics in Andromeda's Edge that worked brilliantly in Dwellings of Eldervale. The space board game mixes dice mechanics with some worker placement, but also engine building. Another exciting element is the different orientation of the factions. A good portion of asymmetry is also part of the recipe for a potential hit.
Players use spaceships instead of workers to explore sectors in space, collect resources, and expand their own station. The ships are the focus of this title, not just a means to an end. Two to four players (with expansion: 1 to 5) use them to plunge into sometimes epic battles - against each other, against other threats in space, and sometimes together against greater dangers. Something that is all too often used in modern board games keeps creating twists: events. In Andromeda's Edge, too, threats appear that can completely change a game. Ultimately, this is not only exciting, but also increases the variety and thus the replay value of the board game.
The range of the spaceships is always the focus of the moves, because it is the limiting element. It is the mix that makes Andromeda's Edge a hotly anticipated new release in 2024. Only a few board games in space rely so boldly on strategic elements of resource gathering and tactical battles between different parties driven by dice and cards. Here and there, unpleasant decisions have to be incorporated into the moves, for example when spaceships can be sacrificed to trigger bonuses.
The modular game board and two different event decks offer fans good added value in theory for a very reasonable price.
The board game Andromeda's Edge can be pre-ordered. The title is expected to be released at the end of December.
Pre-order/buy Andromeda's Edge*
Release: December 2024
Andromeda's Edge
