Game Like a Mother

Quick Take: This is an amazing deck building game. I complained a lot about how nerdy this game seemed before I tried it out for the first time. I have been playing it semi-compulsively for about five months now. My husband has mentioned staging an intervention and there are some signs of addiction but you know, there are worse things. You're trying to defeat your opponent by collecting cards and taking out all of your opponent's authority (hit) points before they take out yours. You can get bonuses for combinging cards of the same faction. There is a free app to try out and you can pay for the option to do pass and play with a friend via the app or in order to play the many campaigns, which are my favorite part of this game. A game only takes 10-20 minutes in the app, in a real life game even with reasonably rapid play it takes closer to 30 minutes. 

How to Play: Your goal is to reduce your opponent's authority (hit) points to zero before they do the same to you. You both start with 50 points and 10 cards - 8 of these cards are Scout ship cards and 2 are Viper ship cards. Scout cards each have 1 purchasing power and the Viper cards have 1 attack power. In the center between the two players you deal out 5 cards from the rest of the rather large deck. They each have a purchase price. Basically, on each turn your deal out five of your own cards. You use these cards to attack your enemy and purchase new cards which are placed in your personal deck. Then you discard all of the cards you have played unless you have a fancy card like a base, which stays in play even when it's your opponent's turn and they have to attack and remove the base before they can touch your official points. There are bonuses for collecting multiple cards with the same insignia in the corner - you can be the Blob faction, Trade Federation, Star Empire, or Machine cult. For instance, if you have two Blob faction cards out at the same time on your turn, you get to use an ally ability which is a huge advantage. Certain cards can heal you (give you points back), and some have scrap abilities which give you additional attack or spending points. This is a quick and general description, I highly recommend checking out the free app if you want to learn the rules quickly and easily.  

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Variations: It's a 2 player game but you can add additional players if you purchase another copy of the game. Please note - this will add a bit to your playing time. There are loads of official variations within the game rules for ways to play with 3-6 players. The fundamental rules stay the same but there are varying ways to play with teams which sound quite fun. 

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Similar Games To Check Out: Bang! The Dice Game, Coup, Fuse, Eight-Minute Empire, Love Letter, Patchwork, Splendor

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