Space Base

Today's review is of the 2018 release, Space Base.  For 2-5 players, it takes 30-75 minutes.

Overview
You are a fleet commander, charged with managing your ships efficiently to reap the greatest benefits.  You have room for 12 'active' ships (in slots numbered 1-12), and start the game with one ship in each slot.

On your turn,
- Roll two dice.  Choose whether to use each die individually or together to reap the benefit of the ship(s) in those slot(s).  Example: if you roll a 3 and 5, you can get the benefits of two ships (in slots 3 and 5) or one ship (in slot 8).  Most ships grant gold, influence, or victory points (increasing your values on the three tracks on the bottom of your game board).  Ships have 'active' and 'deployed' values.  The active values (in blue) are larger, but the deployed values (in red) are more likely (see below).
- Purchase a ship.  You can purchase only one ship, and unused gold is wasted (as your gold is reset to your influence value after your turn), so choose wisely!  Purchased ships go in the slot corresponding to their slot value. The ship kicked out of the active slot gets flipped and put above that slot ('deploying' it).

On everyone else's turn,
- Pay attention to the die roll.  Why?  Because your deployed ships can get you stuff no matter who's playing!  For example, let's say you've had three turns, and purchased ships in the 4, 6, and 10 slots.  That means you have three ships deployed above the 4, 6, and 10 slots.  Your opponent rolls a 6 and a 4.  You choose to gain the deployed benefit of either two ships (slots 4 and 6) or one (slot 10).

Play proceeds until one person reaches 40 points.

game in progress; image from here

Review
This is a nice game.  It reminds me of Machi Koro and (a little) bit like Catan, but I prefer this one to both.  The best feature (in my opinion) is the "get stuff every turn" mechanic, which keeps you engaged even when it's not your turn.  My only ding is an apparent snowball effect- it may be difficult to catch the early leader.  That aside, check this out.

Rating: A-