Moonrakers Review: Negotiating Contracts!
Intent: Inspire you to try playing Moonrakers!
It’s time to make your mark, build up your prestige and credits by completing contracts and making a name for yourself! Moonrakers is designed by Austin Harrison and Max Anderson and published by IV Games. In this 1-5 player game you will be building up your ship through deck-building and negotiating to complete contracts so you can be the first to score ten prestige! Will you support your opponents and work together or sabotage their missions in order to come up on top?
Overview
Your goal is to move your ship up the prestige track as once you reach ten, you win! This is done through fulfilling contracts and objectives. However, the game is quite dynamic so you’ll find yourself moving up and down before you reach that end goal.
Each player will get a board, a starting Action Deck of ten cards, a couple of Objectives and some credits to kick things off you’ll draw five cards. On each turn a player will choose if they want to Fulfill a Contract or Stay at Base.
Fulfilling contracts includes selecting the contract out of the eight available, potentially inviting allies to help, which is where negotiating takes place as you can split the rewards and hazards as you best as you see fit until everyone agrees. You’ll roll the hazard dice (which have the potential of decreasing your prestige if you don’t have defense), then attempt the contract, if you’re successful you will get the rewards, which include prestige points and/or credits!
Staying at base is a tad simpler, you get one credit, draw two objectives and keep one, and optionally discard a contract to replace it. You typically do this when you don’t have a good hand of cards, or if you’re trying to build up some objectives to sneak in a win!
Each turn ends with an option for you to purchase Ship Parts or Crew. As you purchase ship parts, new cards will be added to your action deck and your ship will now have new abilities to assist you in making contracts.
Now the neat aspect of this game is unlike a traditional deck builder where you play your whole hand, this game you only really have one card to play, however, Reactor Cards give players two more actions, so you’ll have to keep playing reactor cards in order to play more cards, which certainly makes fulfilling contracts a unique experience.
Will you be the most prestigious and claim victory?
First Game Impression
Opening the box and getting ready to play, I was blown away by the production of this game, the boards, cards, everything just felt futuristic and rightfully so considering the game is Moonrakers.
Reading the rules I was slightly worried, negotiating in a heavier game isn’t my favorite mechanism as with the wrong people it can sour the experience. However, the rest seemed great, I was excited to teach and showcase the game to Tylor.
We had a ton of fun playing the first game, the way the deck-building works is absolutely out of this world as you have to balance getting actions, cards and still being able to do damage and defend to succeed in contracts. We negotiated early on in the game to get us started but then were reluctant to as the game progressed as we didn’t want to give the victory to each other.
I ended up snagging the victory with some objectives and a clever contract, and we were eager to dive right back in to play again!
Thoughts After Five Games
We did get to play this once at three players but primarily have played this at two players and although I think the game would shine even brighter at higher player counts, it does a wonderful job shining at two as well.
The games were close, we discovered the various synergies between crew members and ship parts the tug and pull between doing contracts together and trying to do them on our own and potentially even sabotaging each other. Overall, what sold me is the really solid deck building in this game, it feels fresh, unique and it’s something I want to keep playing because it’s simply satisfying.
There are a few objectives I didn’t like, one in particular is being invited to a mission and it failing. You can negotiate the rewards and say what you can bring to the table, but when time comes you can just play a card and not live up to your commitment, which I’m definitely not a fan of as it having one experience like that can lose trust in future games and create dynamics I personally wouldn’t want at the table.
MERIT Report Card
Overall Letter Grade: B+
Strengths: Solid, unique, and thematic deck building. The negotiating aspect is smooth in this game as there’s limits to what’s on the table and the production quality in this game is simply interstellar. Solid at two players but certainly shines at higher player count with more contracts being completed as a group.
Areas of Improvement: I would love to see negotiating and alliances be in good faith rather than someone agreeing to support then completely sabotaging a contract, having objectives encouraging sabotage didn’t sit well with me.
Memorability: B+
Did this experience stick with me after playing this game? Being a game with negotiation, which I typically don’t enjoy this one does a great job at balancing this mechanic with everything else to create a memorable and fulfilling experience. The deck building really stuck with me too!
How does this game resonate with the folks we introduce it to? We were only able to introduce this game to one friend, but she really enjoyed it and being a person who also isn’t a fan of direct conflict and betrayal, quite enjoyed the game. We will definitely be playing it again and eager to introduce it to new folks.
How many memories can be built from this game? Well there are certainly grand moments that exist in this game, you can save up and draw the right objectives and climb your way to victory, you can betray your allies and make them lose the game because you decided to bail on their contract or you can have nail biting finishing games. It’s all a joy.
Education: B+
This game has elements of planning ahead, basic math and awareness of other player’s positions and goals. It’s not overwhelming and just the right amount of information to process. Today I wanted to specifically chat about negotiation, the pathing to victory and risk assessment.
When it comes to negotiation, this game sets you up to have great conversations. Not everything is on the table, just the rewards and risks from the contract, so you aren’t paying anyone from your own pocket to support you, which is a really smart choice in a game like this. This game does a splendid job at educating how to negotiate and what to do when betrayals occur, as you’ll agree and then your ally will not meet their end of the deal causing you to lose the contract, do you trust them next time? or do you cut them off from then on? I’m the type of person that if you betray my trust I rarely give second chances, which is why games like this are great for me because it teaches me to give folks more opportunities and chances for redemption.
You can score points from contracts or objectives, and objectives can be claimed when they’re met. Some are easier to delay while others aren’t, as one can read win a rescue contract and another can read have eight credits. You can have eight credits and score that contract at any time while you can only score the win a rescue when you’ve done so. You also lose prestige if you gain hazard, so you’ll have to find the right pathway to the top as a dangerous contract by yourself could mean you losing prestige rather than gaining it. Thinking critically and trialing strategies is part of the joy of this game!
Risk assessment is so evident in this game. Each time you do a contract not only are you risking hazard dice, but if you’re doing it with someone else you’re risking betrayal. This game does a splendid job at educating you how to handle risk and how to proceed if your risk didn’t pay off. You’re essentially learning as you’re building your ship, which I find quite admirable.
Replayability: A-
There’s a variety of ship parts, crew members that synergize differently with each other. As you draw cards you’re able to create paths and reflect on which contracts you can contribute to and even succeed on your own. Each game is a puzzle that even if there was limited variability in cards would be fun simply because of how clever the deck-building turned out to be.
With many contracts, rewards and because everybody will play this game differently I can see us bringing this to the table on multiple occasions trying to become the most legendary moonraker.
Imagination: A-
As you build your ship with various parts your “engine” really comes alive as certain parts help you in contracts, while others support your deck building and objectives. You really do feel like you’re building up your ship and becoming stronger by the minute especially with how many cards you’re able to play as the game progresses.
The negotiation aspect and picking up contracts with your friends and splitting risks and rewards certainly adds to the great thematic experience, coupled with high quality production, this game is an absolute treat that you can certainly build worlds, stories and many memories around.
Target: A-
Does the game hit it’s mark? It sure does, it’s a competitive deck building game with negotiation, hand-management a bit of dice rolling and temporary alliances. The production is absolutely stunning and it’s quite a remarkable game.
The back of the box presents the game as a whole and really explains if the game might be for you. Being a fairly complex game it’s hard to convey the experience from the box though. I struggle with this because it’s such a clean design and cover but it doesn’t really tell me what I’m walking into.
Tylor’s Stars ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Deck building and a race in one game - immediately I found this game intriguing! The only unfortunate thing was that I found the negotiating piece a little too intimidating as other players can mess up your plans when completing a contract. I am not the biggest fan of player interaction when it comes to making deals and I assumed this game would be super dependent on that.
With that said, I found that there was a varying amount of contracts and objectives that made it possible to avoid teaming up with folks and going through the negotiating process. However, I found that this method made it more difficult to make money and build your deck which ultimately took away from the game. Overall, it is a solid game that has a lot of elements going for it so I look forward to pushing myself outside my comfort zone and trying my hand at the negotiation tactics.
Final Thoughts: If you love competitive, deck-building, negotiation and strategic thinking games this one is definitely worthwhile to check out. You’ll certainly fulfill many many contracts before you move on and embrace the combinations of mechanics for what they are. The design is smooth and the production is high value and the experience will surely stick with you. If you don’t enjoy “take-that” mechanics, they are present here, which can certainly sour the experience. Overall though, great game we would bring to the table multiple times.
MERIT Report Card Letter Grade: B+