Imperial Stars II: Legacy

Astra Titanus and the original print-and-play version had sat on my radar for ages, one of those games you inspect between two emails and tell yourself you will get round to. The deluxe final edition of Imperial Stars II: Legacy finally did the job; the list price is a little bracing, but it has the satisfyingly solid table presence I want from a space wargame. And let us settle this early: Legacy in the title means neither a campaign nor envelopes, stickers, and permanent consequences.

This is two empires on a hex map, plainly trying to erase one another. Their orders of battle are lightly asymmetric: one leans towards carriers, the other towards battleships, giving the conflict a pleasant Pacific naval-war flavour in a starfield. Players move and set their fleets against each other, deciding where to mass strength and where to leave a gap; dice are part of the arrangement, not a timid guest standing in the corner.

The rules are notably streamlined, which is an uncommon kindness when a Tuesday after work has already claimed half your brain. Eight different maps alter the conditions and, with them, the strategy; the two expansions add ships, technologies, and events for anyone wanting a broader battlefield. It makes no attempt to be anything else: an old-school game of position, fleets, and clashes, in a running time that does not require cancelling the rest of your life.

Imperial Stars II: Legacy is a very good roughly hour-long wargame for two, and it will see plenty of our table. I recommend it without much qualification to hex-and-counter fans who do not hold a personal grudge against dice; quietly excellent in precisely the right way.