Nexus Ops

[prog]

I played Nexus Ops with folks last night and enjoyed it, though opinions around the table were mixed. It is a wargame, and looks like one - I love all the colorful translucent figures - but doesn't always feel like one. My main beef with is it that, at least in a four-player game, it's very difficult to get out of your corner and its surrounding hexes; you basically establish your territory in the first couple of turns and then spend the rest of the game in border skirmishes.

It ended up working anyway for me because of the "secret mission" cards that you collect as you play. Normally you get 1 victory point (of the 12 you need to win) for winning a battle, but you can get several at once by fighting in a way that satisfies the conditions on one or more of your cards - destroying a certain kind of enemy unit, for example, or winning a battle on a certain terrain type. This encourages players to stick their necks out and engage in battles that aren't tactically astute otherwise. I had one really good turn where I scored 5 VPs by thinning up my front line to dive into two melees at once, fulfilling two different mission cards. I ended up losing some ground, but it was worth it. The game is full of that.

Not rushing to buy the game, but I want to play it again, and see what it plays like with two or three players. The modular board reconfigures in each case so that starting positions are always symmetrical.

(Image by Deborah Estes via BoardGameGeek.)

Comments

[aspartaimee.livejournal.com]

those pieces look like delicious candy.