Rocketmen first play

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I enjoy space and space-themed games quite a bit, and will play a number of these outside my usual wargame interests. Martin Wallace's recent game "Rocketmen" looked interesting so I picked it up.

I now have enough Wallace-designed games to understand his particular slant on deck building, and Rocketman is a deckbuilder in a similar vein as A Study in Emerald. Each card has various uses, the starting hand cands range from "ok" to "not very good," and better cards acquired via a market mechanism.

Since I didn't have anyone at hand, and wanted to get somewhat familiar the rules, I set up a solo game and played through about a third of it points-wise, which would be somewhere between halfway to 2/3 thirds of a game. Point acquisition accelerates through the game.

As a game, it's ok. It's not super great, but neither is it super heavy, so it should play pretty fast with experienced players, probably around an hour+ with 2-3 people. It feels just a little bit more complex than Wingspan, but that may be just difference rather than difficulty. Not sure I'd take this one to the folks.

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What to play next?

Deciding what to play next is always a tough call when faced with a closet full of games, all of which were purchased with intent to play. Here's one I'm dealing with the decision.

  • Something New: this means both something new to me and a game which has been published recently, within the last two or three years.
  • Something Classic: I've acquired a number of games properly considered "classic" which haven't yet been played. The current example would be PanzerGruppe Guderian.
  • Something Again: mastery requires constant practice, which means playing games many, many times to allow nuance to appear.
  • Something Vietnam: as I'm on a Vietnam binge. I don't have all the Vietnam games ever published, but I can say that I have a lot of them, and probably more than most people.
  • Something Obscure: as it's fun to poke around in the dustier corners of game design.
  • Something Different: break away from the same old publishers and try a game from one of the new kids on the block. Or, conversely, dip into legacy with a classic tried and true.
  • Something Light: once in a while it's nice to actually finish a game all the way through in one sitting, in an hour or two.
  • Something Heavy: if possible, it's nice to set up something big and complicated which can be left out for days or weeks or even months, for a leisurely stroll through a very large or long game.

There are surely many more ways to choose, but the above method keeps me busy enough, helps me get both breadth and depth into my play, and provides me with a sense of progress.

The odd man out

When there is an odd man out:

  • Have a solo game ready to play.
  • Keep score or advise on a game in progress.
  • Referee a game in progress.