Has there ever been a better time than now to be both a Star Trek fan and a board game fan? Hard to imagine, given there are so many great options these days, including a new offering from Gale Force Nine called Star Trek: Away Missions! In this game, two players direct their landing parties “to complete missions, conduct espionage, fight in glorious battle, or assimilate distinctiveness.”
 
The base game includes mission boards, dice, character cards, mission and support cards, a variety of tokens, and a set of miniatures to represent your group — you’ll play as Riker’s away team, or Locutus’ Borg Unimatrix — which is exploring a derelict ship in the aftermath of the Battle of Wolf 359. There are also a number of Away Missions expansions, including teams led by Sela, Gowron, Captain Picard, and the Duras Sisters.
 
We were fortunately given an opportunity to get a look at each of these expansions.
 

The core mechanics of this skirmish game aren’t overly complicated, as some other simulationist peers in the space can be. It’s a good balance between feeling empowered to do something interesting every time you activate a character, and the challenge of managing your Support and Mission card supplies. With your two decks there is a constant tension between holding on to future scoring opportunities and potent events or equipment, versus the immediate payoff of discarding to allow re-rolling dice or powering up skills.

Finding the right composition for your decks will be a long-term source of entertainment, as the variables to consider are numerous. How aggressive can you be in pursuing skill-based or combat-based missions? Do you go for quantity, or burn cards on re-rolls trying to score fewer high-value goals?

How many actions can you afford to spend harrying your opponents, reducing their ability to earn their own points by weakening a character’s rolls — or even removing them from the board entirely? The latest two expansions will also open up a new area in the deckbuilding space, as you’ll have two sets of Federation and Klingon cards you can mix and match to find the right combination for your team.

And speaking of the team, you’ll also be able to swap out Specialist characters of matching affiliations as well!

Storage for the expansions is one minus — as with the core set, the display window does a great job of showcasing the miniatures, but tucking the loose character cards into the box feels inelegant. There are more expansions on the horizon currently, though, so plan to budget plenty of shelf space as new teams join your collection.

The packaging is built to showcase the oversized miniatures for good reason, of course. My wife has enjoyed painting some of the commander characters already, and every character features a unique pose. That, plus the exaggerated, cartoony style they are sculpted with, makes it easy to differentiate every character at a glance when they might otherwise become lost in a visually busy play area.

The minis headline a set of solidly-built components, from character boards to point tokens, which will all hold up against regular wear. The only weak spot in this area are the health pips, which are small enough to be hard to manipulate and do not snap securely into the character cards.

While my playthroughs did find the rules for acting, moving, and scoring very intelligible from the get-go (and quite accessible with a handy quick start guide), it’s clear that this is a game that benefits from completing several sessions to really get comfortable with it. Each away team has a unique cadence to their gameplay, and brings a different balance to how you might deploy your cards and characters.

You only have three rounds to accomplish your goals, so choosing which missions to pursue is a crucial decision — often limited by variable card draw that can set you off on the wrong foot, searching for more achievable options. I found it can feel frustrating as you cast about for just the right move to make, with a bevy of actions available but not all equally productive in acquiring final victory.

You may not know how to modify your decks until you’ve gotten a few games under your belt. Happily, the included extra cards for each away team present a wide range of customization once you have dialed in what your iteration of an away team is best geared toward.

Whether you find the learning curve steep or gentle, there’s no question that Trekkies will find something to smile at in the course of every game. The folks at Gale Force Nine have shown time and again that they truly understand Star Trek, and Away Missions uses its cards to display that loving familiarity.

You can deploy a Support card to have Chief O’Brien beam your officers to new locations. The House of Duras gets up to no good with more than one nefarious deed committed in Crew Quarters, an otherwise under-utilized room. Picard can use some Earl Grey Tea (with the ‘Hot’ keyword, naturally) to rejuvenate a damaged character.

Can’t decide which commander you should send out to Wolf 359? Here is a breakdown of the affiliations from the base game and expansions – including the upcoming House of Duras and Picard sets, due to be released in December!

Commander Riker’s Federation away team is a well-balanced crew, with solid stats and particularly well-equipped to counter the Borg – their default opponent in the core set. You can’t go wrong with the basic hero party – and the upcoming Picard expansion presents the chance to swap LaForge in for Shelby (along with several compatible Mission & Support cards), which should make for an interesting new development.

The Borg are… everywhere. After a slower start, you’ll find them beaming in all over the ship and impeding your progress, adapting to learn how to corrupt Federation technology and assimilate your team members more rapidly to add to their already-impressive six-drone team. Locutus can also cause Borg characters to emit a menacing aura with the right cards, further eroding your chances at mission success.

The combat ability of drones is weak at first, but their ability to upgrade themselves and donate actions to other characters can quickly snowball with the right strategy.

This fall, two more groups joined the potential roster for your away missions. (They lacked a suggested starter deck, but those lists are available on Gale Force Nine’s website for Gowron and Sela if you don’t want to puzzle out your own set right away.) Gowron’s honor guard will not leave anyone wondering who is playing offense.

The Klingons are here to neutralize their opposition early and often, gaining Honor (and points, of course) from glorious battle to take out the competition before they have the opportunity to build up their own score. In a skirmish game that can easily (and uncommonly for the genre) avoid combat in many sessions, a new team ready to get its d’k tahgs dirty is an exciting addition.

Sela’s infiltrators feature Tal Shiar intelligence specialists who attempt to steal Federation secrets and Borg technology from the derelict ship. The Romulan squad has many cards that allow the player to interrupt their opponent’s actions and reposition their characters quickly, meddling in your momentum and disappearing before you can react. They also offer the opportunity to score big missions – with the caveat that the other player may be able to oppose certain attempts, so it behooves the Romulan player to sequence their attempts very strategically.

Rounding out the currently-detailed expansions are two groups due to be released in time for the holiday season! The Duras sisters, Lursa and B’Etor, lead another new faction that provides a new twist on the Klingon ethos. These scheming siblings mix Treachery skills, assassins who cannot gain Honor, and Arms Deals (sacrificing equipment cards for points) in addition to traditional Klingon incentives for straightforward combat.

Finally, a new Federation team led by Picard brings the rest of the beloved Enterprise-D crew into the mix, using diplomacy and empathy to slow enemies’ progress. This can come from forcing your opponent to make hard choices – granting you benefits if they want to claim a bonus for themselves, or discarding cards they might otherwise wish to keep in hand.

One of the core missions for Picard is to empty the Support decks for both teams through these machinations, spending the Federation’s resources to exhaust all of the other player’s options. This team also presents the opportunity for Picard to somehow face off against Locutus – perhaps this is all part of a holodeck therapy program, battling one’s inner demons?

You can pick up Star Trek: Away Missions at your local game store now, as well as parties led by Gowron and Sela. Picard and the Duras sisters will be hitting the shelves very soon to boldly go in new directions with your board game exploration.

Future expansions promise even more away teams led by Kirk and Scotty from the Original Series, and organized play kits which can  see none other than Q joining your crew.

You never know who is going to turn up when you beam down!

Star Trek: Away Missions is available online and in local game stores now.