Stats:
No. of players: 2-4
Amount of time to play: 45-90 min
Age requirements: 13+
Set-up time: 10 minutes if using predetermined armies

Battleship Galaxies Rules Description:

Battleship Galaxies is a scenario-based, miniatures wargame set in space. This game is tied to the Battleship franchise so does it float or sink?

Battleship Galaxies is not your daddy’s (or your) Battleship. It is designed by the same people that created Heroscape and holds little resemblance to the original Battleship game.

You will need to manage your energy, deploy your ships and decide where to move and when and who to attack.

Each turn you’ll get ten energy and draw a tactic card. You use energy to launch ships, fire weapons and play tactic cards.

Your ships have different movement, range and damage stats. They also cost different amount of energy to deploy and make attacks. All this information is presented on the ship’s card.

Then you decide which (if any) ships you’ll deploy and pay the energy cost. Deployed ships must start on your edge of the board or adjacent to the ship that was transporting them. Larger ships can carry smaller ones and help you get your ships deployed further out into the map. All your ships are destroyed if the transporting ship is eliminated.

You may also deploy pilots and additional weapons onto your ships. The come from your tactics deck and again cost energy to deploy.

After you are finished deploying ships and cards, you may move as many of your units as your have energy to activate. You must finish moving all units for the turn and then those units may attack.

Targeting just requires the defender to be in range and to check for a hit you roll two dice. One d8 and a d10 lettered A-J. On each ship’s card is a grid with 1-8 on the y axis and A-J on the x axis. There is a drawing of the ship in the grid and if the coordinates you roll lands on part of your opponent’s ship it will take damage based on the weapon you fired.

When you are hit damage is taken from your ship’s shields first then your hull. If your hull reaches zero the ship is destroyed.

In addition one quadrant of the grid has a red star. If you hit that quadrant and the ship has no shields left it will destroy the ship outright.

After you have attacked with all your activated ships your turn is over. It you opponent start their turn.

The game will end based on the scenario you play. The game ships with five scenarios one of which is for a four-player, two-team game and one for a three player battle. Each scenario may have debris or other elements that are added to the hex-based map that will change small things in the scenario.

Scenarios can be played with predetermined ships and tactic decks or there is a point based systems you can use to create your own mix of cards and ships. Ships even come in three different experience levels: standard, seasoned or veteran. Each experience level is increasingly tougher but costs more to include in your force.

A Quick Battleship Galaxies Review:

Battleship Galaxies is an excellent space-themed war game with many strategic and tactical decisions that matter. Quite honestly the only things this game has in common with the original Battleship are the pegs used to mark damage and the coordinates that are used to determine a hit or miss.

The included scenarios are fun and the fact they can be customized by creating your own force gives them greater replayability.

The rules, components and artwork for Battleship Galaxies are great. It even comes with a 48-page comic to introduce you to the universe and setting of the game.

Having played Heroscape I can tell this game was developed by the same people and that is a good thing. I am hoping it will mean expansions with more ships, more scenarios and more tactics cards.

I enjoy the way the coordinates from the original have turned into a to-hit ratio. It harkens back to the days of calling out I-7 and you sank my battleship, but does it in an interesting and innovative way.

If you enjoy sci-fi themes, skirmish wargames, played Heroscape or just want to add to a fun game to your collection, you should pick up Battleship Galaxies.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 3 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 5 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 3 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6