Star Trek Expeditions is a board game that has many appealing elements. It is based on the revamped Star Trek movie universe, and was created by Reiner Knizia, one of the most successful board game designers of all time. Expeditions includes detailed miniatures for the crew of the Enterprise, as well as the ship itself, and even a Klingon vessel. These minis use the “Clix” system for tracking damage and changing stats. Best of all, it is a fully cooperative game!
Reiner Knizia is a prolific game designer, having had a hand in dozens if not hundreds of board games. Among his best are Ra, Tigris & Euphrates, and Ingenious. Though successful by any measure, Knizia is often derided for creating mechanically heavy games with a pasted-on theme. He would seem an odd choice for a game based on Star Trek, then, particularly one produced by a company famous for highly thematic games like HeroClix, Mage Knight, and Quarriors. But for the most part, Expeditions does a good job of marrying mechanics with theme and thus immersing players in the Star Trek setting.
One major reason for this immersion is the graphic design of the game. The components are high in quality, more than adequately depicting the characters and technology of the new Star Trek movie. The character miniatures are highly detailed and well-painted, but don’t look much like their on-screen counterparts. Both starships miniatures are very slick, and fun to use in the game. The board represents a planet with the Enterprise in orbit, and looks like it could be a shot from the movie itself. Cards and other components in the game use the classic Star Trek font, with photographs from the film as illustrations. The design of Expeditions’ components is pure eye candy for fans of the franchise.
The main premise of Star Trek Expeditions is that the Enterprise has been sent to the planet Nibia to assist the planet in joining the Federation. However, the Nibians are dealing with several issues: the threat of civil war, an energy crisis, and a political debate that seems to be tied to Klingon involvement in the Nibian government. Kirk, Spock, Uhura, and McCoy are to manage these three types of missions, all the while defending the Enterprise from attack by a Klingon Battlecruiser. Mission cards of three types (political, energy, and rebels) as well as other side missions are all shuffled up and placed on the planet, where they can be explored and (hopefully) overcome in order to successfully complete the game.
Each of the four characters has a ranking for three different attributes: command, science, and operations. The values for these, as well as battle damage, are tracked by the “Clix”-style rotating base for each miniature. Attempting a mission seems easy enough: simply roll two dice, add in the appropriate attribute value, and any modifiers. But there are many, many modifiers that affect your chances, including crew cards, skill types, and the presence of other players. Keeping track of all these factors can be a bit confusing, and the game feels a bit “mathy” as a result.
Of course, as with any good co-op, the game itself is working against you. Star Trek Expeditions is constantly threatening your odds of success. Each turn, a Stardate card must be drawn, and these keep track of time as well as detail bad things that happen. You might lose crew member cards in play, take clicks of damage, or have to discard from your hand. One particularly nasty element is the branching progression of missions. If you fail a mission, or barely meet the minimum requirements, this affects which mission comes next, making it slightly harder. To top it all off, the Enterprise crew must complete all the missions within thirty days before the Klingon starfleet arrives and the game is over. It can be very tough, but thankfully there are three levels of difficulty available if you are struggling too much to win.
There are a few downsides to the experience in Star Trek Expeditions. Perhaps the biggest issue is replayability. There are no new planets to visit, and no new foes to overcome. The crew must assists the Nibians on each new game. The replayability of the branching mission paths helps, but still, it gets repetitive and certainly doesn’t emulate the explorative elements the franchise is famous for. Another issue is the blandness of the Stardate cards. You might be instructed to take two damage, but there’s no flavorful or thematic explanation as to why. These reservations aren’t game breaking, by any means, but they certainly deserve mention.
If I were writing a Captain’s Log report about Star Trek Expeditions, it would be generally positive. The components are nice, and the theme is mostly right on target. The mechanics are solid, if a bit ponderous, and the cooperative aspects are fairly strong, with two or three players required to work together in order to overcome the most difficult missions. If you are a fan of the new movie, and don’t mind a bit of calculation to go along with your phasers and tricorders, Star Trek Expeditions is worth a try.