The other week I popped into Toyworld in Nelson with the kids and saw a game that caught my attention, called Under Falling Skies. I didn't buy it at the time (why would I need ANOTHER boardgame?), but a couple of weeks later I went back and it was 20% off. How could I resist?
It turns out it is quite an interesting design. It is a solitaire game based on the old space invaders type video games (Galaga, for example).
There is a mother ship; there are fighters; there is a city for you to protect. As you can imagine, it is a race against time, time being represented in this case by a descending mother ship.
The basic game has a dice mechanism - role five dice and place them one at a time in your base. Where you place them of course has effects. Do you want to shoot down enemy ships? If yes, put a die in a fighter zone. Oh, you need energy for the fighter. In that case, you better first put a die into a power plant to generate said energy.
How do you win? You advance your research track. How do you do that? You put a die in the laboratory, but you need energy for this too.
But I don't have many good options for fighters, power plants and laboratories. Well, in that case, you best escavate deeper into the earth so that you DO have better options.
How do I do that? You place a die that allows you to excavate.
What happens with the enemy ships?
Each time you place a die, the enemy ships in the same column as the die descend towards your base to the value of the die.
The higher the number the faster they descend?
Yes.
What happens if an enemy ship hits my base?
You lose a defence point.
How many columns are there?
Five. One for each die.
How many levels are there?
Sixteen.
How do I win again?
You generate power to allow yourself to launch attacks to hold off the enemy fighters. You work your labs to ascend the research track. You excavate to give better choices for die actions. You take calculated risks.
Hmm. Tell me more about the dice.
You roll five of them. Three are gray and two are white. If you place a white die, you have to re-roll all the dice you haven't yet placed.
So if you don't like your dice rolls you get another chance?
Yes.
How do you target enemy ships?
As they descend, they land on spaces. If the space contains a fighter marker, your fighters can attack them.
Automatically?
Yes, but they will only succeed if the die in your fighter zone is equal to or higher than the number on the fighter space.
So if the fighter space says three but I only have a two die on my fighter zone it won't hit them?
Correct.
How do you lose?
The mother ship descends at least one space per turn. If it reaches a certain level, it's game over, baby. You also take damage to your base. If you take enough, it's also game over.
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It's a fun game, coming also with a campaign mode which adds extra options and gives different cities to defend.
For under $50 you can't really go wrong.
