Ascending Empires

Ascending Empires is a dexterity game for 2-4 players. It's a nice little twist on dexterity games as you can also do different types of actions to take each turn instead of always just flicking a game piece (like Pitchcar or Micro Mutants).

I guess the biggest complaint about this game is the board. The board consists of 9 sections that fit together like a puzzle. Because of this, the pieces are not flush and causes your ships that you flick to stop or get misdirected when it hits a higher spot in the game board. If you think about it before you flick your ships, you can push down on the pieces to help make the board flush. This seems to work just fine.

Ascending Empires plays 2-4. I liked it better with 4 but Michael had no problem with just 2.

Here's what the board looks like set up:

Here's what you can do on your turn - choose 1 of the following:

1. Recruit troops - you can recruit troops onto any planet without having to reveal it (they all start face-down).
2. Use 2 movements - Launch a starship, Land on a planet, & Navigate a ship each count as 1 movement.
3. Create a colony. These count as +1 to the planet's defense.
4. Create a city. These count as +2 to the planet's defense.
5. Create a research station. These help develop technology but count as +0 to a planet's defense.
6. Develop technology. These help get you added bonuses.

Navigating your ships is the dexterity part of this game. It's pretty fun to do and not too difficult (except for the board issue). Ascending Empires plays pretty quickly so you don't get too bored in between turns.

Another part of the game I like is destroying other starships! You have to have 2 of your starships within range of 1 opponent's starship in order to destroy it, which is a little more difficult. Or you can just ram one of your ships into someone else's ship, which also destroys your ship. This seemed to be easier to do.

Happy gaming!