Yves Tourigny

Ascending Empire is an empire-building game with interesting tech-tree and dexterity components. The basic premise is simple: start with a few troops and a home planet, and expand from there. What makes the game innovative is the movement and combat mechanism for the ships.

Flicking the little discs across interplanetary space, with some degree of precision, is necessary for success. Ramming an enemy ship (colliding with it’s disc) is easy but wasteful, since it both destroys your unit and his. A better option is to position two ships within the appropriate range (the radius of which increases as you research the appropriate technology) – done well, it leads to the destruction of the enemy ship (possibly more than one, with the right technology developed).

The other key to success in the game is choosing the right technologies to develop given your circumstances. The colour-coded, linear, technology trees correspond to the colours of the planets you can colonize. Building a research station is the first step to development, and you are limited in your advancement by their number and placement (only one per planet, with exception a single planet of the player’s choice). Some technologies afford you increased mobility, others give you better combat options, and others still make colonization easier.

Unlike other conquest games, the winner in Ascending Empires is determined by victory point count rather than territorial domination. VPs are earned for destroying your enemies, but also for building cities, developing technologies, exploiting planets, and for your territorial acquisitions. There are numerous paths to victory, it feels, and the unexplored parts of your tech tree always seem pregnant with possibility.

The components are top-notch, with the exception of the board. The puzzle assembly, while smart and perhaps unavoidable, is not seamless. In a flicking game, this can pose some minor problems. This obstacle is not insurmountable, though, and hardly detracts from a unique game which accommodates from 2-4 players smoothly.