kickstarter Game Preview: Septikon

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Septikon game page on BoardGaming.com >
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Overview

In Septikon you and your opponent each control space stations for mining uranium. Luckily, they’re also well equipped with offensive and defensive capabilities because the goal of this game is to battle it out, station vs. station, until one player must surrender because they no longer have the ability to attack and/or defend. Use your crew of clones to take actions, but make sure you choose wisely whether to focus on attacking, defending or producing valuable resources.

Note: We played the Russian version of the game, hence the Russian text on the game board in our photos.

Gameplay

Don’t let all the icons on the game board scare you, the gameplay itself is quite simple. The beauty of Septikon is the depth available due to the variety of strategies you can use to win. Rather than going over all of Septikon‘s gameplay, we’d like to focus on two things: the die roll and the various strategies to win.

Rolling the die
On the start of your turn you will roll a die. Then you can move one of your clones that exact number of spaces(modules) inside your station. The final module your clone lands on determines the action that will then take place. Actions can involve spending your resources to attack or defend your base, giving your clones and BioDrones attacking capabilities, or producing resources (in most cases you have to spend resources to gain other types).

Rolling dice to determine actions can make or brake a game, and for Septikon it makes it. Here’s why:

• Plenty of options: You choose one clone to move, and it can move multiple ways. So between the duplicate action spaces spread across your station and the multiple clones you have to choose from you’ll have plenty of options.
• Emphasizes the unpredictable nature of battle: As a commander of a space station in battle, it wouldn’t make sense to have every possible action available to you at all times. Your station has a crew and they must act for you, but they can’t be everywhere at once!
• Adds a challenge to your strategy: It’s easy to make an overall plan of attack, but how well can you choose from the actions made available to you each turn through your die roll? How will you adjust based on your opponent’s actions? This unpredictability also adds a lot of replay value since you can’t always play the same way every time.

It is true that the fewer clones you have and the more damage your station takes the less options you’ll have at hand, but so it is with a “real” battle. If you’re able to turn things back in your favor it makes victory even more sweet.

The many strategies
Without spoiling the fun of discovering your own strategies to win, let me just briefly show you what actions your clones and station can take:

• Shoot lasers at your opponent’s station turn after turn to cause damage deeper and deeper into their station.
• Launch rockets and even install nuclear warheads on them to cause massive destruction.
• Use thermite mines to damage your opponent’s resources and production capabilities.
• Send BioDrones over to their base to hinder their movement and destroy resources.
• Turn one of their clones into a spy that you control.
• Protect your station with energy shields.
• Attack oncoming rockets and BioDrones with defensive satellites.
• Arm your clones and BioDrones so they can attack.
• And much more!

You can focus your strategy, or spread it out across multiple methods of attacking and defending. It’s up to you, and that’s a big part of what makes Septikon so much fun.

Art and Components

The design and art of the board and iconography is very high quality and makes it easy to understand what each space can do. As damage markers are placed deeper and deeper into the space stations it not only gives a sense of how the battle is going but is also easy to see how the damage effects the productivity of the base.

The components we played with were from the Russian version of the game, so there were a variety of colorful wooden cubes. The great thing about the kickstarter is that it will turn many of these cubes into figures (see below) allowing players to immerse themselves more fully into the game! But even with the wooden cubes we never felt like the game was incomplete. When you saw that extra-large red cube coming your way (rocket with nuclear warhead) you knew you were in trouble!

Learning Curve

The board with all its icons can look very complex at first glance, but they’re easy to understand once you learn the basics. Because you only take one action on your turn, the gameplay is fast and easy to get into.

Who should Kickstart this?

Family Gamer {kickstart}
What’s great about Septikon is that the icons on the spaces are constant reminders of what happens when you land on them which is great for younger gamers. There is no graphic violence, and if you really wanted to tame it down you could say that the clones were robots. There are a lot of options to choose from on your turn, so younger children will need some help and guidance.

Social Gamer {Pass}
Since it’s a two-player game you probably wouldn’t pull this out for a party.

Strategy Gamer {kickstart}
If you appreciate the challenge behind adapting your strategy each turn, then this is definitely a great game with strategic depth that can be explored game after game.

Casual Gamer {kickstart}
The game can appear overwhelming at first, but there are plenty of player aids beyond the rulebook to help you out. Septikon comes with a sample game you can read through as well as player aid sheets for quick reference. If you enjoy sci-fi and space battles this is definitely for you.

Avid Gamer {kickstart}
With so many strategies for each player to choose from there is plenty of replay value. At the same time it’s easy for new players to get into. The unique gameplay will also be a welcome addition to your collection.

Power Gamer {consider}
It’s one thing for dice to determine the outcome of your actions, it’s another for the dice to determine what actions you can take. If the challenge sounds fun, definitely consider Septikon. If the challenge sounds frustrating, you may want to pass.

Final Thoughts

We really enjoyed our time with Septikon, and it is definitely a game we’ll continue to play. The cool figures that will replace the wooden cubes in the English version will only make the game even more fun. What stood out to us was how unique and different this game felt from any other board game we’ve played. We’re also big fans of great production value, and it’s obvious that Hobby World cares a lot about that.

Hobby World is a very reputable company with a huge collection of games that they’ve produced. They are one of the biggest Russian board game companies and recently opened a U.S. subsidiary, Hobby World USA, LLC. If you want more proof simply look at the publishers that they work with (Fantasy Flight Games, AEG, Wizards of the Coast, etc.)

Would we back this game? Yes! Should you back this game? Hopefully this preview helps.

Support this game on kickstarter.com!

{Backing ends Sep 25, 10am MDT}
Go now >

Quick Links:

Who should kickstart this game? >
Septikon game page on BoardGaming.com >
Septikon kickstarter page >

We want to thank Hobby World for providing us with a copy of Septikon so we could preview the game!