My Nexus Ops order arrived today and Noah and I tore it open and started reading through the rules, punching out the bits, and setting up for our first game. I’ve read that if you placed Risk at one end of a continuum and Twilight Imperium III at the other end, you could place Nexus Ops somewhere in the middle. I’m unclear on the relationship to Risk but I certainly see the parallels with TI-III. So far, Nexus Ops feels like super-lite TI-III. Here are a smattering of comparisons:
- You gather special abilities by battling or having battled successfully against an opponent
- You buy forces using Rubium received from holding sole possession of mines and having Humans, Fungoids, or Crystalline’s working them.
- There are no Role cards to choose from like in TI-III
- The order of battle is stricter in Nexus Ops but similar in feel when assigning hits based on dice rolls.
- Tile movement during the movement phase is similar with certain force types having certain abilities based on terrain type.
- Action points are won by fulfilling mission cards
- Special cards grant special abilities
- Some cards can be played at the beginning of your turn and some during a battle.
- First player to 12 action points is the winner
- etc.
Nexus Ops really is all about battling to gain control of your opponents mines (to get more Rubium so you can buy more forces) and so that you can get more Secret Mission cards (and Energize cards if you posses control of the monolith). The more missions you fulfill the more action points you get. And the first player to 12 action points is the winner.
We ended up having to stop for the night just when the battling started so we haven’t really gotten in the fun part yet. We left the game set up so we’ll get back to it tomorrow night. Most of the Rock Strider exploration tiles ended up on my side of the board and most of the higher valued mines ended up on his side. As a result, I’m compelled to move swiftly to overpower his mine’s protective forces and grant myself more Rubium on each turn.
I’ve managed to secure a couple Lava Leapers, I have a Rubium Dragon advancing from my home base, and I’ve taken initial control of the monolith but my position is tenuous. Noah has a bunch of cash and he’s posed to buy a couple dragons and come out fighting.
My puny human count is fairly low so I’ll need to beef that up to get some cannon fodder during the upcoming battles. My Fungoid and Crystalline counts are of average strength but I fear that I’ll need some more of those to fill out the mid-section of each battle.
So far, both of us are having a great time with this game. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard more sound effects come out of Noah’s mouth during a game before. Great stuff.