We’re diving back into ISS Vanguard with a more complex planet. I say more complex, but it’s the second planet and one that you always go to, so it’s still not too complex. Which is decent for ramping up, but I was hoping for a little more as I was learning, but let’s dive into the game and the game play.

ISS Vanguard Game Play

Let’s talk about the new things on this planet. The biggest things added were discoveries with leads and supplies. There are some more things, like charges and the lander, but let’s talk about them and see which ones add the most interesting element to the game.

Leads and Discoveries

This one I like quite well. It isn’t the best when it comes to the rules, but it is interesting. And I say the rules aren’t the best, they aren’t bad, but they could be better. It is interesting to see how leads and discoveries work.

What I like about it is how you push for leads. And then when you get it, you get something that you might use right away. So the discoveries can give you immediate benefit, or it it might be something that you add later in for the ship. It’s interesting to see what you can get and I like that aspect because it means you can get more than need or can take with you. This is how the lander influences you.

Supplies

The other big thing is the supplies. You saw h ow I played where I actually was working on the premise that I would need to get back. So I was exerting myself versus resting. That was to make sure I had enough supplies to get back.

Now, this is one of those things where I wish I held my hand less. If I try only to go out and not worry about coming back, I play it differently. Instead I could really have spent a whole lot more to get dice back faster, I could have kept my other character around. But it is a good show how it will affect the game in the future.

Charges

This is the last one we’re going to talk about. The lander influences more in other areas like supplies and discoveries with how much you have. But with charges that comes down to your character. I like that it is determined that way. And I like it as a system to activate powers. The more generic the power is, it had more charges. I didn’t even use the one with three. I could have drawn cards, which I should have done to start.

But then it was an odd situation with the other one where I wanted to spread around discovery tokens. I did like being able to get a mineral discovery, I believe. And that was because I forgot the activate that one location, but also because I needed to spread tokens around. It make for an interesting experience with those, but I can see how some would be really strong or useful.

Upcoming Streams

What I will talk about every time is that for a little while longer at least I’ll be playing ISS Vanguard on Wednesdays. That is at 8 PM Central time. You can always subscribe to know when I go live. But I do have the next video up that you can join and watch. You can find the video link here.

Then on Monday, I plan to stream a solo game. What is that game going to be, probably Planet Unknown. I want to try that one again. But the link will go up when I officially decide the game. So keep an eye out for that on Monday. On Monday I stream at 8:30 PM Central time.

Thank you so much for watching. The easiest way to know if I am streaming is to subscribe and click that notification bell. And you can do that here.

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