Designed by: Jackson Pope,Paul Willcox
Like the original FlickFleet, new edition Xeno Wars stands alone as a two-player game of space battle. Here, tweaks have been made to create two new factions: replacing the Imperium and Uprising of the original we now have the Storm and the Hive. With the new names come not only new ships, but also new angles of attack – and you can combine both editions to create a game for up to four players.
Flickfleet doesn’t come with a board – you can just use a tabletop – so players agree a play area (ideally about 90x90cm, though you can go bigger or smaller) and set up according to one of the scenarios in the book, free-play (basically a fight to the death!) or invent scenarios of your own. Everyone will have a set of acrylic spaceships and – for the larger ships – a blueprint card showing the operational possibilities, where discs are placed to show what actions the ship is capable of.
On your turn you activate one of your ships and take a maximum of two distinct actions. As the name suggests, flicking is a central part of the experience: ships move and attack by flicking: the ship itself for movement, and a die for combat. Combat is simple: as long as the die hits a target and doesn’t leave the play area afterwards, there’s a simple process to follow assigning damage, where you match the number on the die with the number on the blueprint. Shields are damaged first; removing a shield cube. If shields are already down, then the ship is damaged: shown by removing discs from the blueprint (and damaging the ship’s operations). If the disc area is already empty (or there were no discs to start with) then the ship loses a hull cube, if it has any. If you’re unable to assign damage by removing any of these things, the ship is destroyed and removed from play.
Larger ships can also take other actions such as launching small ships, recharging shields or repairing damaged parts of your ship by returning removed discs. All of this is the same as the original Flickfleet, but the Storm and Hive are distinct in that the Storm have a solid defence and explosive weapons (some dice cause x2 hits) whereas the Hive don’t have any shields but can relentlessly launch more ships and will board opposing ships; not only doing damage now but potentially later as well – boarders can be kicked off, but at the cost of a precious action…
After all ships are activated, a new round begins, and play continues either until one side is destroyed in free-play, or the conditions of a scenario have been met. For a three or four-player game, using both Xeno Wars and original FlickFleet, there is a turn-order system based on who was most under-attack in the previous round: very simple to implement, and prevents any one faction being ground into space dust too quickly!
A lot. Every game is a battle, and players need to be okay with the occasional bludgeoning, as well as the sight of their seemingly-brilliantly-aimed die-missile veering off in the wrong direction.
Very low. When it's not your turn you're engaged in what's occurring anyway, and either planning revenge or crying out in horror/glee.
Low - FlickFleet is a tactical game, and it's not just about being the best shot (although that helps). But it's not so tactical as to lump the experience with any prolonged, stodgy moments: generally it moves very fast.
Asymmetric factions, lots of different ships, variable set-ups and playtimes you can adjust to ten-minute battles or hour-long minute epics. There is tonnes here.
2-4
Players
8+
Years
30-60
Mins
Sam says
For me FlickFleet was already a favourite. The capacity to now combine the original with Xeno Wars and push the number of participants up to three, four (or even five with the Box of Flicks expansion) makes it an all-time top-ten game. Why exactly is a little trickier to articulate: although I like how the game is presented, it's not that. I like a space theme - a lot - but it's not that either. It's not even that I tend to prefer swingy, tactical combat over slow-burn strategy. I think it's because it manages to combine an epic narrative sweep with so much laughter: there are plenty of games with one or the other, but precious few that meld them into a coherent, hilarious whole in the way FlickFleet does - and that's just the basic game, with its hair-wringing, fist-clenching highs and lows of the dice-based combat. If you like variety, Eurydice have lavished the FlickFleet universe with it: ships that can lay mines; ships that can turn invisible. Comets that pass through the cosmos; stars that exert gravitational pull. Cosmic kraken that sweep their tentacles around the battlefield like a slimy arm reaching down the back of the celestial sofa for loose change. Like my possibly best-game-ever (Xia) this is something that feels like it was made with love - a game the designers dreamed up because they wanted to play it. And it shows.