We’re studying the stars this month as part of our Well Educated Heart history rotation and this week we are focusing on Space!
I’ve gathered a handful of excellent outer space themed games that I’m excited to share with you, starting with One Small Step, a simulation style game that recreates the space race between the USA and the USSR that can currently be purchased on Kickstarter.
Academy Games is the creator, a company that specializes in history-themed board games for families, students, and enthusiasts. They make games about the Underground Railroad, American and European history, Exploration, Wars, and more. The company is amazing and if their other games are as good as One Small Step, we are all in for a treat!
One Small Step is played by 2 teams: USA and USSR. Each team has 2 Administrators and 2 Engineers, which can be divided up and played by individual team members.
The board is the launch path from Earth to the Moon, and the game is played until one team reaches the moon. Points are then tallied and the game goes to the team with the most points.
The main objective of the game is to launch missions, like the Lunar Landing mission on the card above. This is a Satellite Mission, there are also Team Mission cards, individual to the USA or USSR.
Missions cards advance along the launch track until the final phase, where players attempt a Minor Launch (the top line of resources pictured). If the Minor Launch is successful (all resources can be paid), the team can attempt a Major Launch to earn even more points and resources.
The game is played in rounds of 7 phases, one of which (#4) is to place Workers (Administrators and Engineers) in different places on the board to earn resources and actions.
This is the Earth Space board, where workers can be placed for resources. (There is a cheat sheet to help beginners know what each icon means.)
Players can also place workers on Development or Personnel Cards, another way to earn resources and points.
Blue Personnel Cards are earned during the worker placement phase but can be kept and used every round in the Personnel Phase (Phase #5). The Personnel Cards memorialize some of the greatest space explorers of all time, which is an excellent Gameschool aspect to this game!
The green cards are Development Cards, which are also earned during the #4 Worker Placement Phase and used in Phase #6 by paying resources to earn other resources, points, etc.
The final phase is to LAUNCH! Players spend the resources they’ve earned through all the other phases to pay the resources of the Minor and/or Major Attempts and launch their missions!
As you get through the stack of mission cards, successfully launching moves players along the Moon Path until one team reaches the moon and the game ends.
Phases are repeated until that point in the game and players continue to work with their teams to build their cache of resources, prepare to launch missions, and be the first team to reach the moon!
This is one of the BEST educational games we’ve played. It has turned something (the Space Race) we didn’t know much about into a fascinating and curiosity-inducing subject of study! We’ve become familiar with actual missions, astronauts, and space exploration details we knew nothing about before. It’s full of information and history, and is also challenging and fun to play. When learning = fun, magic happens!
Thanks to Academy Games for sharing this game with us!
