Game Tips for Space Alert

4

Mar 19th, 2013| Tip

206 of 212 gamers found this helpful

“Download the soundtracks”

Space Alert ships with a CD for the soundtracks used during gameplay. With the popularity of personal media devices like the iPod and most smart phones these days, it actually makes sense to download the audio files for play on your media device of choice.

The designer have spared us the effort of importing the CD tracks and made the soundtracks available in several languages on their web site. Feel free to help yourself here: http://czechgames.com/en/space-alert/downloads/

Good luck in saving the Sitting Duck!

6

WooSH {Avid Gamer}

Apr 22nd, 2014| Tip

118 of 122 gamers found this helpful

“Don't let new players drown on excessive rules.”

My first experience with Space Alert was a bit frustrating.
Vladaa Chvatil’s games are know for having too many rules, so learning the game can be a problematic experience for new players.

In my case, any of the players knew the game very well, so we spent 70% of our time reading the manual and thinking “* THERE’S ANOTHER RULE? WHEN THE **** ARE WE GOING TO PLAY?”.

This made Space Alert very exhausting for everyone, which is completely unfair, since is a very unique game.

With that been said, PLEASE, PLEASE…. make sure at least one of you are experienced with the manual and the game, there are so many rules, so many details, so many unique mechanics and there is absolutely no time to explain those during the course of the game because, well, IT IS A REAL TIME GAME!

Don’t let this game frustrate you. It is awesome after all!

8

Rocslayer {Avid Gamer}

Mar 9th, 2013| Tip

88 of 91 gamers found this helpful

“One Step at a Time”

Once you learn this game it can be deceptively easy on “white” difficulty threat cards and punishingly hard on “yellow” difficulty threat cards. When you find that white cards are no longer much of a challenge first play a few games with a mix of yellow and white cards before you do all yellow cards and realize that you may be in for a much more difficult game if mostly/all yellow threat cards come up.

6

orions {Avid Gamer}

Aug 6th, 2012| Strategy

64 of 67 gamers found this helpful

“Get the battlebots ASAP”

There are several smart opening moves in Space Alert, which should work regardless of what threats you get. One of such moves is to get at least one and preferably both battlebot squads as soon as you can – you can even run for them since round 1.

Yes, you might face a mission without a single intruder, in which case the bots are wasted, but when the intruder does show up, you usually have little time to do the job – intruders tend to be quite fast and move around.

Examples of threats that are way easier to cope with if you have the bots prepared beforehand include the Alien (most of the time you won’t be able to get to him before he grows up, so attacking with both squads is key) or the Fissure (not an intruder, but you need interceptors to repair it – and if you take too much time with it, you will get pounded brutally by external threats).

…and besides, even if no intruders show up, you can always launch the interceptors and do some supplementary damage to external threats.

At the least try to position yourselves in the battlebot stations ready to pick them up when the need arises. Believe me, it will save your… ship 🙂

6

orions {Avid Gamer}

Jul 25th, 2012| Strategy

45 of 47 gamers found this helpful

“Assign duties beforehand, but do it smartly”

It’s best if every member of the crew stays in one place during the Action round and only when they absolutely have to. From the efficiency standpoint movement is a waste of precious actions. Of course it is not always possible, but that should be the goal.

So, theoretically it is best to divide duties and agree on who goes where – and do it before the game to save time. However, you can run into a problem when for example you agreed to go to lower decks to do reactor duty and you draw your first hand of cards… without any “B” actions.

What we usually do is to divide duties as the absolutely first thing in the game. We pick up the stage 1 cards, look at them for several seconds and declare possible duties – if I have 3 “A” cards for example, I will volunteer for cannon duty on the upper decks. This way we achieve the goal of assigning stations to people and do it in an time-efficient manner.

10

Andy {Avid Gamer}

Dec 15th, 2011| Strategy

41 of 43 gamers found this helpful

“Pair Up Team Members for Better Performance”

Space Alert is a cooperative game that truly requires teamwork and coordination. Trying to keep track of 4 or 5 people independently can cause headaches, stress, and likely a ship blown into multiple pieces.

To limit these dangers, try pairing up team members. Have teams of two primarily work with each other to take on threats, or prepare the station.

Especially with four or five players, you’ll be much more efficient with two teams of two working in concert, rather than trying to line up 12 actions player by player.

You still need to discuss with the other 2 or 3 players what’s going on, but this may be in 3-4 round chunks, instead of every round. Having one team go to the blue section (one above, one below) and coordinate energy and firing with each other, as opposed to with every other player, makes for a smoother game.

Knowing a team is responsible for destroying the T+3 threat, while another team is dealing with the T+1 threat gives specific goals to work toward, reducing the options a team member has to factor in. Teams can “report in” with each other when they’ve dealt with their objects, and new teams can be decided upon for the upcoming threats.

Smaller teams generally lead to better overall teamwork!

10

Andy {Avid Gamer}

Aug 6th, 2012| Tip

89 of 94 gamers found this helpful

“Avoid playing ONLY the training scenario with new players”

Space Alert can be a lot of fun, and allow players to be immersed in the game play and enjoy a unique gaming experience. As Space Alert is so different from the games most people have played before, it’s hard to know exactly what they’re getting themselves into, even if they have a general idea of the game.

I’ve been lucky to play and teach the game to roughly half-a-dozen different groups, and one thing happened every time, we would play the training scenario and a few people would be underwhelmed with the game, and not be very enthusiastic. Then, we’d add in more rules and play a second game, and they’d immediately have a positive reaction and really get into the game. After 4-5 games, people are anxious to play again in the future.

In talking with people after games, I hear the same refrain – there was so little to do in the training scenario and it was so easy, they thought that was all there would be to the game. The moment the challenge is bumped up; they feel immersed in the game and really enjoy it.

I strongly recommend playing the training scenario as suggested in the walkthrough, but make sure when doing so you have an expectation that it is just training, and that everyone is prepared for multiple games. Space Alert is a game where it’s just as quick to play a round to learn the rules as it is to try and describe them, but the tension and excitement appear in later games.

When teaching Space Alert, get a commitment from the players to try multiple missions – don’t let the training mission be the only thing a player sees, leaving an incomplete impression of the game

6

orions {Avid Gamer}

Sep 9th, 2012| Rule

45 of 48 gamers found this helpful

“Extra repairs during campaign play”

We play with a house rule that if you finish a mission in a campaign (and it is not the last mission in that campaign) and if you have spare repairs after repairing all the damage / bots, you may use each spare repair to add one energy cube to the starting setup of the ship’s shields or reactors.

The extra cube must come from the main reactor (it is not “free”) and it cannot overload the shields or reactor above its normal capacity.

This rule means that if you are for example playing a 4p mission and you only have 1 damage after finishing it, one player repairs the damage and the rest may move 3 cubes from the main reactor to other locations on the ship.

7

kodama9 {Casual Gamer}

Nov 19th, 2012| Strategy

74 of 80 gamers found this helpful

“Color Coordination”

Not much to this one. Set specific colored players or androids to one or two sections of the ship and have them concentrate their effort there. Now of course there will be times when players won’t be needed in some areas of the ship but then again that’s a piece of the strategy in Space Alert. With sections coordinated it limits the amount that players run around like chickens with their heads cut off. This game can be mighty chaotic enough but doing little things to eliminate the craziness will ensure your crew survives.

10

Andy {Avid Gamer}

Dec 15th, 2011| Tip

39 of 43 gamers found this helpful

“Follow Rules Advice - Teach/Learn the Game in Stages”

I’m generally not a fan of introducing rules a few at a time when teaching/learning a game, I like to jump in to the full game experience from the beginning.

I’ve found I have a different opinion for Space Alert. Teaching and being taught this game with different groups, I find Space Alert benefits from working your way up through the training missions.

This is not as much due to the complexity of the game, instead it’s because of the quick play time, and straightforward progression for new rules. I find it takes as long to describe the rules/scenarios as it does to get through the sample mission CD. If you’re going to spend the same amount of time, why not try your hand at the game.

First Game

Play the 7 minutes training scenario with 7 actions. I suggest allowing people to discard any “C” and “Battlebot” action cards before the scenario starts. This way, you avoid someone not being able to do anything.

The only rules to worry about are the “A” and “B” actions, moving around, and the three threats the show up. Don’t worry about delays from gravolifts in this game, just play the basics (also ignore station damage markers).

Second Game

Unless the first game went really poorly, add in two of the “C” actions (rockets, computer maintenance). Describe delays, including the “one person per gravolift per turn” rule. You may consider letting people discard battlebot cards. Play a 10 minute training scenario.

Third Game

If your players are getting the hang of it, I’ll at this point jump to the full rules. Add in battlebots, internal threats, as well as interceptors and “looking out the window” from the bottom middle station. The rules suggest not adding interceptors or the window action until another game, but I think at this point people are ready to go. I’ll also throw in the yellow “hero cards” here. The first internal threats may well cause problems, but you’ve given them the basics and everyone should be set to go.

Along the way, start adding in Advanced threats and yellow difficulty cards depending on how handily (or not) you’re beating the scenario. Following this progression, by your fourth or fifth game you can have every card (all difficulties) available to wreak havoc on your poor crew!

Final Thought

As reference, two other Chvatil games (Through the Ages and Dungeon Lords) I typically encourage going for the full game (with experienced gamers) from the beginning, skipping over the training games. There may be stumbles, but I find people’s enjoyment of the games are higher if starting with the full game, not building to it over multiple games.

10

Andy {Avid Gamer}

Dec 19th, 2011| Tip

36 of 40 gamers found this helpful

“Beware of mislabled CDs”

In my copy of the game (and I believe most Rio Grande copies) the labels on the two CDs that come with the game are switched.

The two CDs are:

Tutorial

Missions

There is a quick way to check which CD is which by checking the length of the first track.

If the first track is around 7 minutes in length, it is the Tutorial CD.

If the first track is around 10 minutes in length, it is the Mission CD.

(If for some reason you can’t see how long the track is, you can pull out the cards that are included if you don’t have a CD player. If the first command from the CD audio does not match the 1st training tutorial card, you have the Mission CD).

6

Andrew L {Avid Gamer}

Jan 25th, 2012| Strategy

54 of 61 gamers found this helpful

“Assign Basic Ships Systems Crews”

This strategy goes hand in hand with other strategies presented here, And was obvious only after a few games.

Think Starship Enterprise: every bridge member belongs to a department. Sulu raises the shields, Scotty allocated power, etc. Using this basic idea for Space Alert…

Choose one or two players to be primarily in charge of the power reactors (or man the lower deck’s systems) and the others to man the Shields, Lasers and upper deck systems.

This has some basic effects:

1. Players manning the weapons and shields etc. can simplify their planning by simply waiting for the reactors to charge, (which doesn’t require a specific card) and utilizing the A,B, or C button cards they have. They won’t need turbo lift cards.

2, Players in charge of the reactors and lower decks, after moving down, will use mainly the B and movement cards. A few A and C cards thrown in but they are not he priority.

Nothing works without power…

So, besides having the basic ships functions assigned, which simplifies the action rounds, the Captain will know which players need what cards so when it is time to exchange cards, (Data Transfer) players will know who needs B and specific movement cards (the reactor folks) and who needs primarily A and B cards ( the upper deck folks. This can be a big help, because the action cards are still dealt randomly, and during later actions when payers are running out of useable cards, Data Transfer will be easier and more intuitive.

In latter simulations and missions, when the going gets violently tough, you wont know where threats are coming from, this allows players to start from a basic strategy and be ready when multiple threats appear.

6

Andrew L {Avid Gamer}

Jan 25th, 2012| Strategy

45 of 51 gamers found this helpful

“We Need more Power!”

A strategy that we have used that seems to work is based on the idea that all systems on the ship need power from the reactors to function before they are used a second time. So in the heat of the moment, when planning actions, whether you let the Captain move you about or “advise” you or you work in teams as Andy has suggested…

Plan moves that allows the reactors to be powered up (or main reactor replenished) every 2 or 3 actions.

Sounds obvious, but if a player moves and/or fires the Heavy Laser or powers Shields for example on phase 1 or 2, then the players assigned to feed the reactors can position themselves to replenish on turn 3. On the average, this allows the reactors to be replenished around twice for an 8 action game, and around 4 times for a 12 action game.

This maximizes power output opportunity and allows players who are manning the heavy lasers/shields on the top deck to always have power when the need it and if reactors are fed as above, weapons and shields will be able to take an A, B or C action up to 4 times in an 8 action game and up to 6 times in a 12 action game.

Also, players on the lower deck fueling the reactors can fire a pulse cannon or two to help with the threats.

Try it. It may not work in every situation, but it does give players a basic foundation strategy to start from and lessens the chaos.

10

Andy {Avid Gamer}

Dec 19th, 2011| Tip

40 of 46 gamers found this helpful

“iDevice Mission Generator for 1, 4, or 5 players”

If you don’t want to carry around a CD player / laptop for playing the game, there is a very useful (free!) app for iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad*. Not only does the app play the audio for the scenario, it can also help with walking you through the resolution phase.

The Mission Generator will allow you to change different settings and will then randomly generate a scenario and play the audio for you.

The level of items you can change to suit your difficulty level is pretty large.

-Threat Level (1-16)
-Duration (7-14 minutes)
-Incoming Data (0-5)
-Data Transfers (0-10)
-Communications Down (0-100 seconds)

You can also tell it the number of players (1, 4, or 5), and choose from two different (english) voices (Original, and Simone). There’s also currently a French voice.

Once the mission is done, you can use the generator to help you walk through the resolution. While this is put together well, I don’t end up using it. If you miss one button, or forget to tell it about an event (for instance, you forget to hit the button saying you took care of computer maintenance, or that a threat was destroyed) the future resolution stages will take this into account. I like the resolution board that comes with the game and prefer it, but am still impressed by the functionality the app provides for resolution!

Training Sound Files

One other item I really liked for introducing the game to new players – under the “About” button there are samples of the sounds for Sample Threat, Phase Ends, Incoming Data, Data Transfer, and Communications Down. I’ve found it helps when describing one of these to someone to let them here what it will sound like, to re-enforce the rule in their head.

*I believe you currently need iOS 5.0 or newer to run the app (though I’ve seen a statement from the designer that he’ll be looking into making it available for older devices in the future). To find, search iTunes for Space Alert Mission Generator.

8

Rocslayer {Avid Gamer}

Feb 23rd, 2013| Rule

47 of 56 gamers found this helpful

“Two Player Cards Face Up”

I play this game with my wife and seeing as we each have to run an android we have a very difficult time keeping things straight. Our house rule is to play all cards face up to make it easier to keep track of what our players are doing. As for the purpose of the face down rule, you don’t really have time to look at the other players boards anyway if you are running two of your own so it doesn’t really matter if you can see their cards much.

7

kodama9 {Casual Gamer}

Jan 5th, 2013| Rule

45 of 70 gamers found this helpful

“Come on, these are turbolifts!!!!”

A rule I have never player with since day one is that actions are delayed by players trying use a turbolift after another player on the same turn. I feel like this is a needless rule only added to make the game that much harder. It seems to reason that if I can fire all the weapons on the ship all on the same turn without some sort of overload that a turbolift can go up and down all in the same turn, especially since the ship only has two decks. I completely and purposefully leave this consequence out of every game of Space Alert I play.

Space Alert - Tips & Strategies

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