Stellar Ventures

I was surprised last week to get a shipping notice for Stellar Ventures, and tonight played the first game. This is mostly in the Cube Rails genre, but with 18xx train rusting and some variable powers (that are mostly grabbed in the auction). I bought it figuring I’d get 10-ish plays out of it, and hopefully a few more converts into the 18xx genre. This definitely looks friendlier than the other games, but I think that look is rank deception. This is a brutal game. Like most cube rails, you might triple (or quadruple) your money if you win. There are only five corporate rounds, and in the first round pretty much every company runs for …. $2. The cube rails games aren’t like modern pinball where you get a million points for putting in a quarter, it’s like old school Factorio where your score is zero … and if you launch a rocket to win the game it’s now one. There are rough breakpoints and sharp elbows. I like that sort of thing, we’ll see if it hold up. (Initial) Rating — Suggest.