Gaming in Pearland

Melissa and I sat down to play a two player game of Nexus Ops the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Nexus Ops is one of the new games in the Hasbro/Avalon Hill/Wizards of the Coast line that has been recently released. Along with Monsters Menace America, Sword & Skull, and Vegas Showdown these medium box games have been quite enjoyable for us…Nexus Ops was not an exception.

In Nexus Ops the players each represent a galactic mining company who has recently uncovered the whereabouts of a new planet rich in resources. Specifically, the companies are looking for Rubium. Between 2 - 4 mining companies arrive on this planet, bringing an army of soldiers/workers, and some pretty talented recruiters as well. The object of the game is to fight off the other mining companies, mine Rubium, and collect the most victory points for fighting battles. Nexus Ops is a light war game, utilizing some interesting clear plastic colored miniatures as pieces.

Setting up the game takes almost no time. Start with the monolith in the center, surround it be randomly placing some single tiles (hexagons), surround those tiles with some double hex tiles, and finally tack on a starting area (triple hexes) for each player. The board construction adds a tiny bit of randomness, as certain unit types do better in certain types of terrain. Each of the non-starting and non-monolith spaces gets an upside down token placed on it, these exploration tokens tell you what is in that space (maybe a mine or perhaps some new recruits). The remaining counters and cards are placed off to the side to be used during the game.

Starting players are assigned and starting monies are given out. Playing the game consists of a turn order, which player completes before play passes to the next player. Play starts with the purchase and deployment of new units. Each player has the same 6 units they can purchase. Units are purchased with the money, mined rubium, the player has collected.:

• Human - Standard worker/soldier.
• Fungoid - Recruited Alien worker/soldier - fights well in liquifungus forest terrain and poorly in crystal spires terrain.
• Crystalline - Recruited alien worker/soldier - fights well in crystal spires terrain and poorly in the fungus forest.
• Rock Strider - Alien soldier - can move two spaces when moving to or through rock plains terrain.
• Lava Leaper - Alien soldier - can move two spaces when in a magma pool.
• Rubium Dragon - Alien soldier - can breath fire and, if on the monolith, move to any space on the board.

Each players starting tile has three mines, on on each hex, which must be mined by one of the three workers in order to get rubium, meaning the workers must be there at the end of the turn. In the first play phase the purchase of humans and maybe another unit is pretty popular. After the purchase and placement of new units players take the movement phase. Each unit moves one hex, unless they have one of the special moves mentioned above. If a player has moved onto a space containing an upside down exploration tile those tiles are revealed in phase three of the turn. Exploration tiles are either new mines or new units for your army. Units and mines are placed immediately and for free when revealed.

If your units move into a hex with units of another player you must stop moving, and fight a battle in phase four. Battles are straight forward dice rolling affairs. Each unit has a particular strength, a number on a d6 they must roll equal or higher than to score a hit. Battles are always fought such that dragons fight first, the lava leapers, then rock striders and so on backwards down the list of units. Humans always attack last, and need 6’s to hit. Units of the same type fight simultaneous, otherwise if you die before it is your time to attack you lose that attack. Battles are very fast. You only fight a single round of combat however. If one side is not victorious the remaining units stay on that space until the next players turn. If one side is victorious they can play a mission card, which is how you get victory points, from their hand. Mission cards can be as simple as a 1 point win a battle card, or more complex cards such as the 2 point win a battle vs. a Rock Strider. The loser of a battle gets to draw an energize card which allows them special actions on their turn.

After battles have been fought players move to phase 5 and collect rubium from the mines which they control, they have only their pieces on, and which have one of the three worker units. Mines give between 1 and 3 rubium per mine. Finally the sixth phase has players drawing a single secret mission card and, if you control the monolith in the center, drawing 2 energize cards. Play then moves to the next player who completes the same 6 phases.

Overall I really liked Nexus Ops. Melissa and I were close in the first couple of rounds, but some bad battles for her put her on the run, and in the end I won with the required 12 VP to her 8. I think the game plays ok with 2 players, but would be more fun with 4. The board does not really increase in size with 4 as opposed to 2 players, and the extra units on the board will increase interaction and combat. The game played quickly with setup and rules only taking about 1- 15 minutes and the game was played in about 90 minutes…including some small breaks to check on and care for the baby. All in all, Nexus Ops is a fine very light war game with a lot of resource collection/management thrown in. It is sort of like a RTS video game in that you have to mine to get the resources needed to raise an army, which you then fight with…but only a little bit. I think the game deserves a 6 or 7 out of ten. I would definitely play again anytime, and look froward to playing with more than 2 players.