Space Base, or the brutal beating of Machi Koro – Review

space base aeg board game review mid game

This review is as much of a review of Space Base as it is a hit piece on Machi Koro. The simplicity of Machi Koro’s engine building made for a quick, clever, replayable game on top of a cute city-building theme. Until two weeks ago, I thought it was the best game of its type.

It’s not.

Space Base blows it out of the atmosphere. These two games aren’t just similar, Space Base has been designed by someone who dissected and systematically addressed all the shortcomings of Machi Koro.

That may or may not be true, but it certainly plays like it.

Starting with the biggest and best difference between the two games; the dice roll. While in Machi Koro, you have a choice of rolling one or two dice and taking the sum. Space Base always has you rolling two dice, and lets you decide between taking the sum of the two dice, or two individual values.

Back to Machi Koro. It has three types of cards: green cards activate on your turn, blue cards activate on everyone’s turn, and red cards activate only on another player’s turn.

Space Base streamlines this by only having blue cards. These cards are used to fill out your 1-12 slots on your player board. So that when you roll that number you can activate the card in the same position. Only in Space Base when you buy a second card for the same slot. Its blue power is no longer available, and instead, it becomes a red power that activates on everyone else’s dice roll.

These new mechanics are not only simpler to understand but also better at keeping you engaged. Even when it’s not your turn.

The market place, four rows of six cards each. Each row more powerful than the last.
We need cards… lots of cards

Machi Koro vs Space Base

Continuing to talk about the cards, Space Base’s red-blue switcheroo is the lightspeed at which your engine comes online. Every time you buy a card, which you do almost once per turn, you’re essentially buying two cards.

This adds a layer of strategy not found in Machi Koro. As in Space Base, you must sacrifice a blue power to get another blue power for your engine. This can be heartbreaking, as in general, the strength of the blue powers far outweighs their red counterpart.

While talking strategy, there’s not a lot you can do in Machi Koro, outside of luck and stockpiling red cards, to get ahead. Space Base focuses more on playful and crazy combinations of cards instead. It’s a more joyful and creative experience to play.

It also has a larger market to make consistently putting together these combos a lot easier. I say consistently because, despite Machi Koro’s 4-4-2 variant, I found it difficult to plan multi-card combos.

An additional benefit of Space Base players always rolling two dice is the market is no longer a potluck of random cards. Instead, market cards are separated into three power levels. This smooths out the levelling up of your engine, yet also adds another strategic dimension to the game.

An example of a combo from Space Base. Sectors 9 and 11 pointing to Sector 10 which gives 3 points. Meaning on a roll of 9/10/11 I will get 3 points. Pretty sweet!
Cheeky 3 point combo

Twinning!

There’s a lot more to Space Base that I’ve yet to cover. But at this point, I can’t keep comparing it to Machi Koro, as it goes beyond what’s offered in this earlier game.

For example, they’ve added currency in fuel – which acts as the minimum amount of money you can have. Adding another avenue for strategy within the game.

They’ve also added colony cards that give you a lot of victory points, but when bought they cover your blue powers. With only one colony card per number (1-12) timing when to buy these cards is another strategic decision that could win you the game.

However, with all this added goodness comes an increased learning curve and time to play.

This is where Machi Koro still stands strong.

Regardless though, 11 out of 10 times I’d rather play Space Base. Which comes as a bit of a shock, I didn’t think Machi Koro would be displaced so easily.

But like those stories where one twin absorbs the other in the womb, and becomes more powerful than you can ever imagine. So too has Space Base absorbed Machi Koro to become an incredible board game.

Designer: John D. Clair

Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group

See how Space Base compares to all of the other board games I’ve reviewed.

Space Base Cover
  • Roll dice and create your dream armada
  • Employ sci-fi strategy and win the game
  • Have fun with Space Base’s fast and friendly gameplay

space base corgi 1
Chester trying to sleep again

11 thoughts on “Space Base, or the brutal beating of Machi Koro – Review

  1. LOL Valeria may be just as bad as far as box size. I don’t remember. We played a convention library copy and I wasn’t the one who set up the game.

  2. I’ve played Valeria Card Kingdoms once and it’s pretty good. I can see the comparisons between it and Space Base, and I think I like Space Base a bit more.

    However, i do like that when you are applying dice rolls for your resources/card effects, you apply *both* each individual dice as well as the total. So you are in effect checking three numbers.

    That’s pretty cool.

      1. Personally, I could see both in the collection. They are different themes and there are some differences that make them both interesting.

        If you must have only one, though, I’d say Space Base. 🙂

        Caveat: I’ve only played Valeria once while I’ve played Space Base 8 times, so my opinion may be skewed…

      2. Hmmmm…. I do like these kind of fun games. And space base box is just big enough to be annoying taking it to work. I’m going to do more research. Thanks for the tip!

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