ISS-Vanguard Should You Back It?
“ISS Vanguard is an upcoming major board game from Awaken Realms. It will feature a 1–4 player co-operative gameplay that will immerse you in an amazing adventure among the stars, as you lead the first human galactic exploration effort.”
by Awaken Realms $4,912,097 raised 28,962 backers
I thought I’d do this write-up of ISS Vanguard while there is (presumably) still a fair amount of time before late pledges are closed. ISS Vanguard is getting closer and closer to completion and gamers are now carefully deciding if this is the right project for them to back.
As someone who is planning to back this game (75% likely) but is waiting until the last minute to get as much information about the final product as I can, I thought I’d take the opportunity to go over ISS Vanguard the game (the basics) and ISS Vanguard the campaign (links provided below) with you together. Let’s dive in!
1–4 players 90–120 minutes ages 14+
The much-heralded Sci-Fi narrative game ISS Vanguard is one of Awaken Realms' biggest crowdfunding successes to date and as we move closer and closer to a production date all of the details of this massive gaming experience are being tested, polished, and finalized.
Provided by the publisher, “Representing a new step for our games, ISS Vanguard blends the vast experience of AR designers, gathered in projects such as Nemesis, Tainted Grail, Etherfields, Lords of Hellas, and This War of Mine: TBG. The story crafted by one of the best Polish authors Krzysztof Piskorski (the lead writer of Tainted Grail) will bring you right into the middle of an epic space opera with hard choices, unimaginable discoveries, and unlikely allies. And to give this game a unique look, we brought in a new lead artist, Dominik Meyer, who created an inspiring vision, based on a golden age of space exploration stories.
ISS Vanguard is 1–4 players co-op campaign Board Game experience. Players are controlling 4 different, asymmetric sections (security, recon, science, engineering) onboard ship ISS Vanguard. The base gameplay is divided into landing on planets and discovering its secrets and managing the ship in between missions, where you can recruit new crew members, research materials, produce new equipment, landers, and ship modules. You can expect a lot of epic stories, hard gameplay decisions, some real sacrifices, and consequences of your decisions!”
My previous experiences with Awaken Realms include many plays of Nemesis and Nemesis: Aftermath and Voidseers with my local gaming group as well as my all-in pledge for Etherfields. Etherfields is my most anticipated game for 2022 and I covered it in a recent article HERE if you care to read more about Awaken Realms games.
This game first captured my attention with its stunning and detailed miniatures which Awaken Realms is well known for. Even knowing these alien minis might only play a very minor role in the gameplay of ISS Vanguard I found it hard to deny that my playgroup would find a much more immersive experience when they finally got to encounter such magnificent and terrifying creatures on the board!
Let’s take a closer look at the prototypes for some of those stunning miniatures.
For those not interested in minis they have you covered as well. The game comes with cardboard standees of the necessary figures as well that work just as well as minis, perhaps even more convenient, if less attractive.
In ISS Vanguard, play alternates between 2 connected but vastly different modes of play. The Planetary Phase and the Ship Phase. Among the backer community, there are a number of proponents for both phases, and I was at first surprised to see how invested many commenters were in the details of the Ship Phase — most without ever playing or seeing it played.
I had wrongly assumed ISS Vanguard was a “dungeon crawler in space”. Luckily, ISS-V appears to be much more than that!
For the Planetary Phase, players must use the skills of their chosen crewmembers to explore the many strange worlds of ISS-V. Players work together across Planetary Boards and are presented with thematic choices through the many types of beautifully illustrated cards-including Points of Interest Cards, Mission & Events Cards, Planetary Information Cards, and many more.
The story is told through excerpts from a logbook full of detailed journal entries to provide the narrative immersion of mission advancement and discovery. The game will also feature the use of an optional Companion App with professional voice-overs, special effects, and music. If players prefer foregoing the use of an app they may read the narrative entries themselves.
During explorations, players may split up or stick together as they face interesting decision points with the story unfolding around them and through their actions. To be clear, the crewmembers will face deadly peril and exotic threats, but character deaths don’t mean a restart to the mission as many narrative games would. The crew members can succeed or fail in the Planetary Phase. Live or die…the mission goes on!
The second big part of ISS-V is the Ship Phase. In the Ship Phase, players will use the Ship Book to assign crewmembers to the different sections of the ship including the Situation Room, Barracks, Bridge, Production Complex, and Research Lab.
There are many research projects and manufacturing tasks for players to choose from during this phase. Deal with board-based situations, collect your discoveries, heal wounded crewmembers, and memorialize the fallen. There’s even a Hangar for landers and mods, as well as Star Charts for flying the ISS-V through the vastness of space.
In the latest iteration of the Ship Book, as introduced in Update #26 of the Gamefound campaign, designers explain that players will use a pool of Command Tokens they can spend to use various the various section abilities aboard the ship. Players will put their “…Secton’s crewmembers to work and [make] use of their specializations.”
Let’s go over the various sections and their “mottos”.
Engineering — Do the undoable
Recon — Beyond new horizons
Security — Always first in line
Science — Searching for questions
For a more in-depth look at the specifics of each phase and gameplay in general I suggest checking out the videos and articles on Len Lindsay’s blog MYISSVANGUARD . He had access to a prototype of the game and has shared many details and opinions about his experience with the prototype.
This game uses various dice with unique faces and variable utility. Red, green, and blue dice are rolled/used to resolve situations throughout the game, and dice are allocated, as best as I can tell, between the Planetary Phase and the Ship Phase respectively, depending on how the players decide to divvy them up. The yellow dice you see above are used to resolve injuries during the game.
Seeing so many dice might set off alarm bells in the heads of Euro gamers reading this article, but the designers have assured us that sufficient luck mitigation has been built into the dice mechanics so as to maintain a high level of player agency throughout the game.
In my opinion, one of the more interesting variables in the game involves the use of the many asymmetric crewmembers who must go on missions, undergo training, gain work assignments aboard the ship, rest/heal, and sometimes even need to be laid to rest.
Let’s now talk about the Gamefound campaign. Why back ISS-V now as opposed to later? Awaken Realms promises a core box almost 2x as big as the version which will eventually be available at retail for starters, you can save a minimum of $150 on the Commander’s Pledge which is a reasonably big batch of content, you will get it faster than you could by waiting for retail, and there are a host of Gamefound stretch goals which backers receive for free including a beautiful stretch goal box, multiple free scenarios with all of the components needed to play them, a crewmember variety pack, and best of all The Lost Fleet campaign!
Pledge Levels
Below is a simple listing of the pledge levels and pricing. Please refer to the Gamefound Campaign page for ISS Vanguard for more details.
Core Box $99 Sundrop $110
Commander’s Pledge $179 Sundrop $238
Dreadnaught Pledge (Gameplay All-in) $249 Sundrop $324
Ultimate All-in (Sundrop only) $535
Various add-ons include Personnel Files expansion, Deadly Frontier campaign, Galactic Almanac, Section boxes, Section pets, sleeves, and more.
Why Should You Back ISS Vanguard?
If you enjoy long cooperative campaigns with a deep narrative element in which your decisions matter if you want more than a dungeon crawler in space if you want to dive into the unique Ship Phase if you love chucking dice if you are intrigued by the open galaxy exploration ISS Vanguard offers if you are a Sci-Fi junkie if you are a fan of premium components and top-notch minis.
Why Shouldn’t You Back ISS-Vanguard?
The price. I’ve said this before about games like Etherfields and HEL: The Last Saga and it always bears repeating. This game is by no means cheap. The value is there, but consider if it makes sense for you as a consumer to back this project. You don’t have the time or the playgroup to undertake a campaign of this depth and length. You don’t care for the theme or the mechanics.
Are you in?
-the BoardGameNerd
