Race for the Galaxy studio is releasing another space board game

The studio behind Race for the Galaxy, Rio Grande Games, is releasing another board game themed around space exploration.

The upcoming board game – called Space Station Phoenix – has two to four players serving as representatives for a Galactic Council who has travelled to Earth in order to observe the human species. (Thanks BoardGameGeek.) Taking place in an alternative future, Space Station Phoenix sees the players competing to build space stations designed to observe humanity, or even interact with them if the players choose to. Throughout the game, players will use their spaceships in order to perform various actions that will enable them to expand their galactic outreach and win the game.

At the start of the game, players have access to nine ships and a single station hub, as well as some resources. Each hub comes with its own set of bonuses and penalties that players will be able to use to their advantage. There are several different levels of spaceship available in the game, each one corresponding to a level on the players’ space stations. Throughout the game, players will have opportunities to acquire additional sectors for their space stations – thereby adding more potential actions for them to perform.

As a worker-placement game, Space Station Phoenix will see players choosing to use their spaceships to carry out various actions. The possible ship actions players can perform include dismantling a ship to acquire metal – also removing it from the game – adding new sectors to their space station; exchanging their resources and currency for other resources; visiting Earth to collect resources and observe the humans; advancing on the diplomacy track and collecting food or water via a ship. If players have recruited any additional aliens, or even humans, onto their ships then they will be able to use them to gain bonus actions.

Alternatively, players can decide to use an income action if they have low income or at least one of their ships has been used, thereby allowing them to acquire more currency to use. Performing an income action also enables players to pay to move any aliens or humans available into their space station living quarters. The game ends whenever a player has gathered 40 or more points, has built all nine potential sectors of their space station or there are less than five aliens in the game’s stock. Whichever player has the most points is then named the winner of Space Station Phoenix.

Gabriel J. Cohn – the creator of another space board game about building intergalactic constructions called Exodus Fleet – is the designer behind Space Station Phoenix. As well as Race for the Galaxy and Space Station Phoenix, Rio Grande has released the popular deckbuilding game Dominion and Underwater Cities.

Space Station Phoenix is set to be released in April at a retail release price of $80 (£60).