I played this post-apocalyptic card game for the first time over 10 years ago, but at that time, titles in which the mechanics consisted in building your engine were not yet in the circle of my interests. I was curious if after such a long time and a slight change in board game taste, I would like 51st Stan more than I did over a decade ago.
The box is the size of a standard square but thicker. This version includes all the add-ons released so far, but it is not the richest option that players can put on the shelf. Those who bought the game during the campaign on the Gamefound platform can also enjoy e.g. improved tags, promotional cards or a mat.
I like the execution very much. The cover immediately informs about the base and additions inside, the components and graphics refer to the climate of a destroyed world, and the sprues allow for separate storage of individual decks to make it easier to prepare components for the next games. I only have a problem with the compartments for tokens and markers. This part can be pulled out and instead of putting everything on the table, immediately download the already sorted resources. However, the number of recesses does not match the number of components that should be in them, and I have not yet come up with an optimal division.
Thanks to the aforementioned insert, preparation for the game is very quick. All markers and tokens should be within our reach. Next to them, we also place the scoring track with tokens in the colors of all players. We shuffle the deck and deal each player 6 cards, of which 4 can be kept. We also make a blue and red connection stack nearby. We get our faction board, the selected person gets the first player marker and we can start.
The game consists of four phases. In the first we choose new cards for hand, and in the second we take resources from the faction board, concluded contracts and built locations. The third stage is the most extensive. Players take turns taking one action at a time until everyone has passed. The last phase is to discard unused resources, reveal new connection cards and pass the first player token to the next player.
The action phase is of course the most important and the longest. During it, we can build locations of three types (production, feature, action), conclude a contract, plunder a card from the opponent’s hand or laid out, perform an action from a location on the table or our own board, use another player’s open production, as well as download or use connection card. The last action in this phase will be to pass.
The game ends when someone scores 25 points. We add points for built locations to the results and select the winner.
Optimization, optimization and more optimization
I have to admit that I remember this game as more difficult. This confirms something that I have already come to with several other titles – you have to grow up with board games. And I don’t mean the distinction between children and adults, but rather the experience of absorbing the rules and arranging the course of the game in your head. A dozen or so years ago I had too few modern games behind me and I was not able to get the pleasure I felt from the game this time.
51. Stan is a solid card game where I like and annoy the same principle, which is to discard all resources after each round (unless you have a magazine). This makes it necessary to make the best use of each marker and token, because in most games we will not be able to keep them. This is especially annoying at the beginning, when we have little of everything and it would be useful to accumulate our resources to build something expensive but useful. However, then there would be no feeling that we have to exploit our goods to the maximum, and this is what forces us to think intensively.
There is also some player interaction in the game, which doesn’t seem like much until it spoils our plan. The only thing we can do to the opponent is to plunder his played card. We collect the indicated loot, and our victim receives the compensation indicated at the bottom of the location. This may not seem like such a bad thing, but if a destroyed card had a few markers on it that are gone, or the card was giving you victory points that you haven’t earned yet this round, things get nasty. We immediately start thinking about revenge. And that rivalry is what the race to create a new state is all about.
There is no limit to the cards in hand, and sometimes there will be cards with skills that are not useful to us or requiring resources that we get little. Fortunately, cards can be built with gray arrows, plundered with red arrows, and signed with blue arrows, so there’s always an option to put them to good use. How we play the card depends on our needs, payment options, but also the plan. Building will give us a permanent production, trait or action, but it is subject to potential destruction. Plundering will give us more resources, but only once. However, the contract is quite safe, but also the least profitable option, because we will definitely get the indicated token/marker/point, but only one per round. The advantage of this solution is that it is not possible to remove this card. Now try to figure out which of the three ways to use the card,
The early rounds are fast as we don’t have many production cards yet. But as the game progresses, they will get longer. So be prepared to start quickly but finish slowly. This will be especially visible at the end, when we already know that these are the last actions and we want to score as many points as possible to move as far as possible on the track before the summary.
If you master the basic version and you start to get bored with the 88 cards of the common deck, it’s time for expansions that should be included in the game one at a time. Each of them introduces 50 new cards, mostly added to the main deck, and sometimes additional components as well. Playing with each expansion gives you a different feel, some will appeal to you more than others, so ultimately everyone will create the card sets that suit them best.
Ashes
New here are players’ personal discard piles and a third, yellow, connection deck. Mechanical changes are cosmetic. All plundered cards from your hand, built-up locations, and an unselected card from phase two go to the players’ piles, and not – as before – to one common pile. The yellow connections, on the other hand, work exactly the same as the blue and red ones. The changes mainly consist of the new abilities of the 44 cards attached to the main draw pile. Thanks to them, we will be able to browse unused cards and take them into hand, as well as rebuild the ruins in our play area. In other words – elements that are no longer useful in the base game, i.e. the discard pile and ruins, can now be used, and in a quite useful way.
Allies
In this expansion, in addition to cards, we also get three types of influence markers – Iron Gang, Sharrash and Uranopolis. Those who know Neuroshima Hex should immediately realize that these are also the names of three additions, i.e. subsequent armies to this strategic board game. These tokens are used to build, pillage, and deal with allies in the three groups, and can be used in any configuration with the previous ones: blue deals, red pillage, and gray build.
Moloch
This expansion adds 27 cards to the main deck. The next 23 make up a separate pile of machines. The number of phases in a round increases from 4 to 6. After drawing cards and production, the machines laid out on the table are attacked, and then new ones are deployed in a number depending on the selected difficulty level. Then we return to the already familiar Action Phase, where we have two new possibilities. We can hack the machine by spending the appropriate resources and put it in our hand to build, plunder or make a deal as if it were a normal card, or we can destroy it by spending a number of red tokens equal to the number on the dial in the upper right corner. However, when adding a new type of cards to our stock, we must remember that we will have to subtract as much as 2 for each of them during the final scoring.
Noones land
Normally, we add cards to the main deck, but we also get 9 others, which should be laid out as a 3×3 area during setup. Each player receives a set of Outpost markers. We get new opportunities again – we can build an Outpost by placing our token on the map, improve it or plunder it occupied by the enemy. New cards in the common pile allow you to activate the Outpost.
Cold and New Era
Both add-ons do not introduce revolutionary changes, but after playing the basic deck, you will definitely want to reach for new cards. They are known from the previous edition, i.e. the 51st State: Master Set , and already then gave players the opportunity to increase the replayability of the title.
So many possibilities in one box
Portal Publishing gave fans of the post-apocalyptic world a nice surprise and decided to throw everything into one package. For people who have not had their copy before, this is a great opportunity to buy the whole set at once, although you have to take into account the high price for all the accessories it contains.
The card game has a lot of combination options, and although the instructions clearly state that you should only play with one expansion, nothing prevents you from combining the decks as you like. This can get messy with too many aspects to keep an eye on and plan for, but it’s sure to be a challenge for advanced players as well.
If you like engine building, negative interaction and optimizing the use of available resources, then 51st State is definitely something you should try. And the edition containing six add-ons is a very good proposition for those who like to have a lot of possibilities and different variants in one box.
