Krazy Kosmonauts Krush Kompetition

I like Kosmonauts. I liked it more the first time I played it but I still liked it the second time and am sure I’ll like it next time whenever that will be.

I especially like it because it’s Russian and it has a strong K in the title. Fantastic

Kosmonauts is a fairly simple robo rally type game but purely based on movement. There’s no messing about with shooting and bumping, this solar system is more than big enough for the two (to four) of us

Each turn the current player (moves on each turn) moves all the planets around their track and the rather zippy Haley’s comet then picks a Global effect from a display of three cards. These take the form of solar winds that give a boost in one direction (usual not the one you want), restricts certain actions or removes or rewards fuel. Each of these global effects can be cancelled for you by burning one of your three non regenerating shield which also come in handy when you scream through the asteroid belt near solar central.

The whole game is a bit like skipping where knowing when to jump on and out of the rotating planets will pay dividends.  I surprises me how little time you need to think about your move, granted you do need to move your lips while you’re figuring it out but it’s fairly straightforward.

Now here’s where it takes a bit of a twist and the game becomes a bit hard to figure. At the start of the game you secretly get a choice of three missions from a possible six drawn ones. These missions are to get to a certain planet but the rub is you have to choose in advance if you reckon (a scientific measure)  you will be first or second to land on that Planet.

This makes the game almost modern art hard to Strategise. I’m sure given a few games it would become more obvious but I struggled a bit with it.  As look would have it my standard strategy or no strategy worked fine.

The game ends when someone has reached all their planets and gotten back to earth but you can see this happening easily enough and it leads to more risky burns from everyone else to make your missions before your opponent does

I like this game. It’s pretty simple. It’s different (I understand high frontier is a little similar but a lot more complex). It’s fast. It’s fun. I’d definitely play it again and keep and eye out for it.

So should you komrade

Huzzah!

Vic