Designers:  Joosep Simm, Kaido Koort, Silver Türk

Artist: Ladislava Bohacova

Publisher:  Plepic Games

Genre/Mechanisms: card drafting, card game, catch the leader, chaining, command cards, city building, space exploration, take that, tile placement, variable player powers

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Lunar Base is already fully-funded. In fact, pledges currently total almost 32x the initial funding goal, with 5 days left to go on the campaign!

Player Count: 2-6

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: HIGH

What It’s About: “Establish your lunar station and construct powerful modules to win the space race.”

How It Works: “Your goal is to build a base on the Moon. Growing your base will provide more resources and opportunities. With luck – and with aid from terran shipments, you are able to employ more influential agents or build more and more powerful modules to your base.”

During a player’s turn, they can perform 2 actions: Play any number of Agent Cards they can afford, and then choose one Main Action from among those available. Main Actions consist of various combinations of the following as depicted on card iconography: Building a Module (paying the costs and placing a card in the player’s tableau), Drafting a Card (from the Supply), Drawing a Card (from the Deck), Reselling 1-2 Cards, Choosing an Opponent to Resell a Card, Gaining a Credit, Flipping your Station, Choosing an Opponent to Flip their Station, Discarding a Card, Choosing an Opponent to Discard a Card, and Stealing Credits from another Player.

“You win the game by gaining lunar dominance over the other players.” There are 4 different ways to do this, and the completion of any of these goals results in the active player taking the action immediately winning the game: Collect 20 Lunar Credits, House 10 Colonists in your Base, Complete 5 different Scientific Achievements in your Base, and Reveal 4 different Influence Cards from your hand.

Comparisons: A rather diverse group of some other science fiction-themed card games includes: The 7th Continent, 51st State: Master Set, Abyss, Aeon’s End, Among the Stars, Android: Netrunner, Baseball Highlights: 2045, Core Worlds, The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine, Duelosaur Island, Eminent Domain, Gizmos, It’s a Wonderful World, Jump Drive, Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck-Building Game, Legendary Encounters: A Predator Deck-Building Game, Not Alone, Race for the Galaxy, Smash Up, Space Hulk: Death Angel – The Card Game, Star Realms, Star Wars: The Card Game, and Star Wars: Destiny.

What Should I Pledge?:
$26 Lunar Base Card Deck: includes the base deck and all unlocked stretch goals. Also the print-your-own edition.

Add-Ons:
None.

KS Exclusives
Most of the stretch goals, including 4 exclusive Station cards and 8 Influence cards.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S. you’re looking at $26 for the Lunar Base Card Deck and $9 in shipping for a total of $35.

Lunar Base completes its Kickstarter on Thursday, September 3rd and tentatively ships in December 2020.