WBG Score: 8/10
Player Count: 1-4
You’ll like this if you like: Worker placement games and tech trees.
Published by: Hobby World
Designed by: Andrey Kolupaev
This is a free review copy. See our review policy here.
It's a space theme. Any other questions?
In truth, I did not know a lot about this game when I saw it. But it was one of those covers that drew me in. It just looks good to me. I then started reading up on the rules and got a little bit excited about the simplicity of play, but complexity of choices. Six tech-trees to build up on your own player board using cute little aliens on a space ship. I was in! But is it any good? Well, lets get it to the table to find out.
How To Set Up Space Bureau
First, place the four starting hexes (identified by the chequered flag style symbol on the back) in a line of three as below, with the fourth tile at the top, leaving one space between. You add a fair few more tiles around this as the game plays on so be sure to do this in an area of the table you have space to grow around it! Remove at tiles not suitable for your player count, and then mix the remaining ones and place a face down pile next to this. This is your Universe.
Next, place the bureau board next to these tiles along with one of the double-sided credit tokens for each player in the game. These are used if you circle the points board once or twice. Now, place the three different sample tokens into three separate piles, sorted by colour.
Separate the 12 starting trade agent tiles for player setup as shown by the chequered flag symbol on the front. Give one of each type to each player. Then create a general reserve of the remaining trade agents with 28 random tiles added to the bag for a two-player game; for three players, add 38 tiles; and for four players, add all 50 tiles. Place any extra tiles in the game box. Then put the bag with the tiles you are using next to the bureau board and shuffle the tiles inside. Then take three out at random and add them to the right on this bureau track.
Each player assembles their spaceship board by connecting the cabin and board. The cabin's colour indicates the player's colour and determines the colour of their components. You can use the reverse side in later games, but for your first game, the side with the OO on the front at the bottom is recommended.
Each player places a fuel marker on the Two space of the fuel track on their spaceship board and two storage limiter tiles over the 10 to 15 spaces. Then each player now places their coloured spaceship figure on the central space hex of the Universe you created with the space ship symbol on the bottom, this is the starting hex.
Each player takes and places their five office tokens of their colour in the space for them in the top section of their ship, below the cockpit. Along with the Captain ability just above this, if you want to add some minor asymmetry to the game. This part is optional, but well worth including. Each player also places their credit marker on the starting square at the top of the credit track and their bureau track markers on the Space Bureau’s starting office on the left on the bureau board.
Give the starting player (decided either at random, or the last person to read something about Space) the Active player token symbol. You are now ready to play.
Players will now take turns placing one of their agents and taking the corresponding action until the bag of agents runs dry. This is done by each player taking one of their three available agents and placing it onto the player ship board. At the end of their turn, when they have carried out their action, they will then take one of the agents on the main board and add it to their player area, taking one agent from the bag to replace the one they just took. This way, all players always have three agents to choose from in their hand and three agents to replenish from on the main board, until they run out. When there are no agents left in the bag, each player has one final turn, and then they move on to final scoring.
When you place an agent onto your ship board, you must do so by joining the connectors on the side of the agent tile to either one of the ship connectors, as shown on the board by the white arrows, or an open connector of a previously placed agent. The space (cell) in which you place your agent dictates which action you perform. You can never move agents or go to the same spot again. So each action can only be done once per game. Some spots will have actions you cannot make full use of at the start of the game, and if you cannot do or pay for any part of an action, you simply miss that part. So pick wisely! Here are the main actions of the game.
Gain Fuel: Take the shown amount of fuel and add it to your shipboard up to your maximum capacity.
Gain Sample: Take a sample of the shown colour and add it to the rightmost available space of your fuel tanks. You must have your player ship on a planet or megamall to do this. Megamalls let you take a sample of any colour. Some action spaces let you take any sample. Others link to the colour of the planet you are on. You can also use samples to gain five fuel, and on some actions, you will need to use samples as payment to perform the action.
Increase Storage Capacity: Remove the leftmost storage limiter, increasing your maximum capacity for fuel and samples.
Move Bureau Marker: Move your marker the shown number of rooms within the bureau track. If you stop or pass by any bonuses, you may take these. If you enter a room with a level number and have a grey bureau inspector agent on your ship, you can flip that agent over to show more connectors for later turns.
Place an Office: If your ship is on a planet and you have a matching office token of the same colour remaining, and that planet does not yet have an office on it from you or another player, you can add one of your matching offices to this planet hex. This will score you instant points based on the value shown on the office.
Start A Flight: This allows you to make one flight of your ship on the Universe hexes. You can fly as far as you like, as long as you have the fuel needed. Each space costs one fuel to move. Or you can use two fuel to place a new unexplored hex down adjacent to a hex you are on. This will gain you the bonus shown on the bottom of the new hex and open up new places to explore. When you land on a planet matching the colour of any of the agents on your ship, you can drop them off by flipping over that tile, being sure to keep the orientation of the connectors the same. This gains you two points as shown on the tile. At this point, you will also gain one additional point for each sample you have that matches the colour of the agent and planet you just interacted with.
At the end of the game, you will add six points for any set of three different coloured samples remaining in your storage. The player with the most points wins. Most fuel acts as the tie breaker.
Is It Fun? Space Bureau Board Game Review
This is a fantastic game. It plays a lot quicker and simpler than it looks and you may first think. But it offers a depth and balance that brings a tense, interesting, and exciting game to the table that plays in around 45 minutes, 30 for a two-player game. On your turn, all you are ever doing is placing one of three agents onto a space on the board. Where you place it makes a huge difference, and the orientation is significant too. But it won't take long to decide, and you can think about it during other people's turns. There is some element of things being ruined by what other people do, such as other players placing an office on a planet you wanted to place one of your own offices on, as this can only ever be done once per planet. But most of the time, you can plan ahead without too much fear of having your plans disrupted. And then the actual actions are mostly very quick. Some instant, such as removing a storage blocker, or adding fuel. It's only the take a flight action that takes a little longer, especially when you explore a new tile, but this still is very quick. And then, when you are choosing which of the three agents to pick to add to your supply and then refilling these three from the bag, the next player can start taking their turn if you want. It flows very quickly.
And throughout this quick experience, you will feel like you are making meaningful decisions. The points will ramp up quickly as you play the game. Eight points for placing an Office. Five points for dropping off an agent with three matching Samples. It escalates very quickly. And you will feel under a constant pressure to keep up with the other players and score points regularly. But thankfully, this is relatively simple to do. All my games of this have been tight affairs, and most players have scored over the 80 mark, as in, they have circled the score board at least twice.
The game does not bring anything new to the table. The mechanics have been seen before. The theme is a very well-explored one. But the production is very slick. The rules are very tight. And the gameplay is incredibly smooth. It certainly does deliver things you have seen before, but in a very appealing way. There are some intricate puzzles around the placement of the agent on your ship, and the orientation of them so you can access later action spaces easier due to the connectors rule. The higher up the position on the ship, the more powerful the action. This is a tech-tree game. You want to climb up the spaces on the ship as quickly as possible to reach the higher, more powerful action spots. But you don't want to waste turns doing things that either you cannot do or cannot fully utilize. So you need to plot a path through the action spaces on your ship, with the right agents, based on the state of the board. So, as much as this is all been-there-done-that in terms of mechanics, how it is presented to you will feel fresh. And full of interesting decisions.
I would recommend this game to anyone looking for a filler plus style game. A fast but fun game that offers a crunchy and meaningful experience, but one that can be played in well under an hour. It is easy to set up and put away, easy to teach to new players, or pick up after a few weeks away from it. It delivers a game that satisfies your gaming urges for playing something of significance.
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