The most adaptive, risk taking, and creative players will excel will rise above the others, surpassing mortality by becoming a Legend of the drift system!

Scenario: If you’re on a planet and on the edge, can you scan through the shields to reveal the next sector?You don’t repeat Step 3. You do Steps 1-2 twice. It’s possible that the Merchant will earn +4 to the roll as follows: Move (arrive), +2 to roll, Move (arrive), +2 to roll. There’s also Nyr, a star orbited by its space station The Kiln: this is a neutral port for repairs and upgrades, but also the place where you trade in relics and sell Ember. Nyr is now placed as the first step of setup, before players add their own first tiles, so it’ll always be in play. Ice Isle of Man, Isle of Wight, Northern Ireland and the Scottish Highlands) may take longer to reach you. Generally speaking, the higher the tier, the more useful and more activation spaces it will have. As example, the tier one engine allows for use of the D6 to determine movement, tier two allows for the D8 and tier three the D12. Naturally, this makes having higher tier stuff more desirable, however the higher tiers have more complex and larger shapes which must fit within your cargo hold. Nothing wrong with some intergalactic feng-shui!

Other than player pieces, there are the ship modules that are attached to each player's ship card. All of these clearly explain which dice they're associated to, how many uses they'll have and are shaped to prevent you from over-boarding on specific types of module. On top of this, they fit neatly together on your ship card and can be clearly seen by other players, allowing for collective knowledge of who sits where in terms of fire power. Seeing a player with three missile modules lets you know you've got no hope or a death wish!! Enforcer (Big Game Hunter):Note that the Scoundrel is Tier 1, so this Enforcer will never target the Scoundrel. If the player is outlaw but Tier 1, this Enforcer will also ignore the player. Cinder-Beard (an event-specific NPC) is Tier 3, so this Enforcer will target Cinder-Beard. If the player is an outlaw with a Tier 2 or higher ship and Cinder-Beard is in play, this Enforcer will target the player (per card text). Scenario: Over-Surge is used in combination with normal uses of the same outfit for a single Action or Defense. Does the damage penalty from Over-Surge get applied to each roll or to only the overcharge roll? Martial Law + Socialist Merchants + NPCs losing: Each time the Enforcer takes a turn, the Enforcer gets the Socialist Merchants reward. Xia has a variable game length – you choose how many points to play to at the beginning of each game. The typical game length by points is:The goal is to become the most famous space captain. Completing missions, besting ships in combat, purchasing higher tier ships, selling Cargo Cubes and claiming Titles are all ways that players can earn Fame Points. The moment the game loses its replay-ability is when a player is not willing to, or simply can’t, adapt. Reliving the same experience and play style time after time will kill the experience for you and will make your actions predictable. For the best experience; adapt, overcome, and if needs be, become a pirate! Engagement Buy extra dice! Having each player own their own D6, D8, D12 and D20 will help massively, especially if you’re wise enough to buy colours to associate to player colours. It sounds silly, but we found that, at some point every round, someone asked where one of the dice had gone! Adapt: The goal of Xia is to become the most famous captain. Completing missions, besting ships in combat, purchasing higher tier ships, selling Cargo Cubes and claiming Titles are all ways that players can earn Fame Points. The best pilots will adapt to their surroundings, making snap judgments and changing plans on-the-fly.

I loved everything about the way that Xia was produced. While its price tag isn’t cheap, the game does give you the feeling that you are absolutely getting your money’s worth. How to Play: Each player begins the game by choosing and customizing a star ship. You can invest all your money in engines to create a rapid, yet fragile, exploration vessel. Or you could put all your credits into an uber missile and watch other players flee in terror. Or play the long game and get a small engine and save space and credits to invest in buying and selling cargo. In Xia, the choice is always yours. The most noticeable thing about this game is its visuals. They are beautiful. There is no denying the care, attention to detail and time taken to develop the game, but the actual look of Xia gives it so, so much more! This is undeniably one of the most themed and pre-polished games available. The ships are beautiful and look exactly like you’d expect them to from their description. From the plain and simple, to the weird and wonderful, by just looking at the ships you know their intended purpose; a freighter ship is easy to spot amongst the delivery ships, as are the pirating ships amongst the adventurers. And the paint jobs? Someone definitely took a long time choosing what each ship would look like and clearly considered the actual palette for each! Free choice is a strange thing to have in a board game. It is incredibly rare to be told you can do whatever you want and still work towards a winning goal; some people despise it and crave structure, others love it and bask in the wide selection of choice! Xia: Legends of a Drift System by Far Off Games is a game of both sides. You can do what you want, choose any play style, and still work towards a win… But you will inevitably fall into a role within the system, be it a pirate, an adventurer, a ship for hire, or a delivery boy!Final Score: 4 Stars – A great open world experience from a publisher that has also embraced the modding community. Some house rules could help this one to shine even more. Yes – pg.16 of the rulebook > Non-Player Ships: “To take an NPC turn, the player simply reads the NPC card from top to bottom, following the directions.” No one wants to be last and it can become cutthroat to be number one, but at the same time no one wants the highest bounty because they’ve been too ruthless. Though the fastest way to get to number one may be through questionable missions, and the moment that bounty looks too big, everyone’s eyes will be on you and you’ll be forced to interact with them down the barrel of a missile launcher. Tips For Before The First Game So far, we’ve held the spotlight on games of adventure and conquest. But space is big, and there’s room for games of economy and tableau-building as well. Not that Race for the Galaxy feels all that more sedate. The secret action-selection adds a vital layer of tension: will you be able to do what you need this round? Worse, will you accidentally enable another player to do what they need?