A really fantastic expansion!
Clank! in Space is probably the #1 game in my collection in terms of how often it is played. We have the Apocalypse expansion and enjoy the additional elements it brings to the game. Cyber Station 11 just showed up yesterday afternoon and we were excited to get it to the table last night after dinner. We were not disappointed at all. This expansion brings one new mechanic to the table: Cyberware. These are cards that function just like other cards (purchase and add to deck), though they appear to be high cost for what they bring. That is because you can spend a power crystal to permanently install them in your play area. So in my case, I was able to get a cyberware that gave me -1 clank in my 3rd turn. I did this by purchasing that cyberware with my spending points (whatever they are called), which put it in my discard pile, then I used a couple swords to defeat an enemy that had the bonus "On defeat: install a cyberware in your play area or discard pile". Then, for the rest of the game I was able to activate "-1 clank" every single turn. I later got a 2nd which gave the bonus "if you play a purple card, trash one program in your play area or discard". That one become super useful and I had trashed all of my starting cards before the end of the game. We both found the new cyberware mechanic fun and useful. It really encourages you to work the acquisition of power crystals into your strategy. But the other big thing this expansion does is change the shape of the board, and that is super exciting! The hyperlift now travels in a U=shaped bath between the center tile (which is the starting tile) and the 3 modular sectors. That means it can't be used as a shortcut to get back to the escape pods, and that means the rage-track hyperlift block isn't needed anymore. So they replaced that piece with 2 additional escape pods that are only worth 10 points each and they come online near the artifacts. I find that a very interesting twist, which is also very easy to house-rule out if we decide we want everybody to work their way back to the beginning like in the original game. This new board shape also feels like you are really winding around more than the original map, that might not actually be the case, but the main thing to say here is that the new map FEELS refreshingly different. I am excited to sit down and play it again. I would only mention two very-tiny negative points: 1) no space for clank? We sat there at the start of our game trying to figure out where we should put our clank and even after reading the instruction pamphlet a 2nd time we were still stumped, so we simply used the little areas that look like "outer space" on each side of the board. It seems like a little bit of an oversight to not include a space for clank, since it is such a fundamental mechanic in the game, but not really that bit of a deal since we can just declare a space for it at our table. 2) Why isn't the board double sided? It seemed like a PERFECT opportunity to make the non-module portions of the board double-sided. Have a totally different (possibly much harder) set of rooms on the flip side. The single-side is great, but having a B-side would have made this expansion even MORE epic. Oh well, missed opportunity. Read more
