Star Trek: Ascendancy – Vulcan High Command

Star Trek: Ascendancy has never entirely won me over, yet with the expansions it has become my favourite 4X without much competition. At four, it sprawls across the table like an episode that refused to fit its runtime: it takes a while, particularly with newcomers, but the Trek feeling is properly there and it keeps you engaged.

At heart, it is a genuine 4X: you explore, spread out, develop, and eventually start hitting people. This is not a game of starships politely admiring one another from adjacent systems; conflict matters, and the other players’ presence forces you to account for them.

The new factions are not just a change of paint. The Vulcans have markedly different play and victory conditions from the rest, the game’s silk underwear: they take an unusual route and pull you away from the standard lines. The Andorians, meanwhile, are here to spoil the Romulans’ comfort, acting as a hard counter to the Science/Military combination that so often made them the favourite.

You need to give it time, and you need to bring new players along with you, but Ascendancy with these additions pays that back in freshness, interaction, and spacefaring fights. It still does not completely thrill me; it simply delivers the goods as a 4X now.