PLAYED FOR YOU

The Battle at Kemble’s Cascade

Battles among the stars

The Battle at Kemble’s Cascade is the adaptation of a video / arcade game into a board game. Space pilots fly their ships through space, complete missions, destroy aliens, space ships and bosses and acquire alien technology.

The scrolling screen of the arcade game is simulated by constantly changing rows of cards, there are always five rows on display with three or four cards each. In the rounds of the game you decide if you Fight or Power Down, always with the aim to own most Glory at the end from completed missions, achievements and destroyed ships. At first you determine turn order with sensor cards, then you can – if you choose the Fight option - move one step in any direction and resolve the target card or fire orthogonally and damage the first obstacle in the line of fire. Targets not completely destroyed get their full energy back. Ships start with Energy 5, if it drops to 0 the ship is destroyed and can be re-entered into the game. If you choose the Power Down option, you recharge energy, buy upgrades and resolve Threats. When all had their turn, the bottom row of cards is removed and a new row is added on top. Glory is acquired by completing missions, achievements and destroying ships.

All in all, this game offers a well-made simulation with a clever mix of mechanisms, albeit without the hectic of the arcade game, but with an attractive adaptation of flight maneuvers and screen scrolling. Despite the shooter theme many Glory points come from so-called Achievements, which you master for Glory. And sometimes it can be a clever move to “Die” for lots of Glory and re-enter the ship again.

Players: 2-5

Age: 14+

Time: 90+

Designer: Anders and Ollie Tyland

Artist: Chris Quilliams, Philippe Guérin

Price: ca. 23 Euro

Publisher: Z-Man Games 2015

Web: www.zmangames.com

Genre: SciFi, conflict

Users: With friends

Version: de

Rules: de en

In-game text: yes

Comments:

Adaptation of a video game

Flair of the arcade nicely transported

Clever mechanism details

Good for seasoned players

Compares to:

SciFi conflicts with a shooter topic

Other editions:

English edition a Z-Man Games

Chance (pink): 1

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 02

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 1

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0