Space Station Phoenix

I had been watching Space Station Phoenix with the sort of caution one reserves for a hefty design from an unknown designer and a publisher not normally associated with such weighty boxes. Its premise is hardly unprecedented: medieval worthies build cathedrals; space entrepreneurs build stations to rescue aliens from exploding planets. Still, it sidesteps the expected hazards rather neatly. The theme does its job, while the design beneath it is much more assured than its credentials initially suggest.

The structure is a respectable compound of worker placement, resource management, engine building and area-majority scoring. Its distinguishing feature is that your action spaces are also resources: eventually, to keep operating, you must scrap the very slots that gave you options. The interesting decision is the exchange of future flexibility for present survival; it looks potentially awkward in the rules, then works with remarkable precision once play begins.

Once the cadence is clear, turns move swiftly and downtime all but drains away. The asymmetric station hubs and their powers need to be valued properly, and the full game adds spaceship drafting; the recommended initial set-up is therefore less a restriction than a necessary tutorial. Our apparently lopsided game ended with two players on 151, one on 150 and one on 146, which obliged me to revise my opinion of the hub I had been dismissing. There is one slightly austere piece of interaction: other players may use your things and you receive nothing for the privilege. Communal infrastructure, minus the dividend.

That first complete learning game may be a hurdle for a mixed group eager to unleash every asymmetry immediately; for a regular table, it is simply the price of admission. Beyond it, Space Station Phoenix is a notably well-tuned euro with a genuinely fresh mechanism that earns its place.