SpaceCorp: 2025-2300AD

By popular demand, we opened with SpaceCorp + Ventures, in honour of the game I had missed over the holidays with Fotis and Michalis. It was a convenient choice too, since the fourth member of the group was absent on the first day—and the game is noticeably better with three. More importantly, it was a welcome reminder of how sturdy the full SpaceCorp package remains.

The game unfolds across three phases, and it felt tight from the outset. Choices were not simply left sitting in front of you to admire: you had to watch what everyone else was building, which complexes were appearing, and where you could get in before access was shut off.

Interaction came mainly through cutting one another off and competing for space and opportunities. There was enough blocking to keep me alert without draining the table’s energy, while the scores stayed very close right to the end. I also deployed a little kiu kiu jitsu in the first two phases—strategic whining, in other words—because I had not realised how broken my company would prove to be in the final, and most important, phase.

In the end, though, the complaining was more noise than an actual problem: the opening was warm and full of energy in practice. It felt a little like the feeling carried by the notes of plainsong when the Cure start playing. A very strong start to the session, and one more confirmation that SpaceCorp, with Ventures, knows how to keep a table awake.