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Space Base
Everyone's in every roll, so nobody zones out waiting for their turn.
Designed by John D. Clair · 2018
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A friendly, fast-building dice game that fixes the biggest sin of the genre: dead downtime. Some component fiddliness, but the engine itself just sings.
Best for: Mixed groups who want light strategy without anyone checking out between turns.
What it is
Space Base is a dice engine-builder from John D. Clair, and the hook is simple. You start with a full board of twelve ships, one per sector, and on every roll (yours or anyone else's) you collect income from whatever number comes up. Buy better ships, push the old ones up into your charge row, and watch the payouts climb. It's the rare game where you're doing something on every single turn.
The catch
That constant engagement is the whole appeal, and players say it consistently. The board game arrives pre-loaded, so you're never sitting on a dead tableau waiting for it to spark. The twin dice add a clever wrinkle: play them apart or as a sum, which bends your odds toward six. Stack the right ships and one roll cascades into a chain. Compared to Machi Koro, it's far friendlier, with almost no take-that nonsense.
Who it's for
The gripes are real but mostly physical. The half-size cards slide around, the three little cubes wander if someone nudges the table, and the big boards eat a lot of room. The charge cube system also lands less cleanly than everything else and trips new players up. None of that breaks the game. If you want a quick, friendly builder where nobody checks out, this is an easy yes. A lot of folks shelved Machi Koro for it.
What other players say
This write-up is grounded in real reviews and player discussion, not just one opinion. A few worth reading:
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