This is a game about pigs colonizing space in order to find acorns from which they are able to produce a sacred brew according to their traditions. Every clan of pigs tries to be the first the colonize the proper planets and thus to be able to force their recipe for the sacred brew upon the other clans, and thus a race for the stars with fierce battles between the different clans occur.

Although the game bears strong similarities with Twilight Empires and also Junta, it comes with a totally new mixture of elements ensuring interesting and entertaining gameplay. Basically each round starts with the arrival of reinforcements which will be distributed between the players by the Kingpig which has been elected during the first turn. After all reinforcements have arrived and new action-cards have been drawn, the players now are allowed to move their pigs and if - after movement - there are pigs of different clans on the same planet battle occurs. This is solved by rolling a dice and adding the number of pigs present, and the battle continues until one player totally loses or withdraws. After all battles the players gain one acorn from each planet (yellow, red or blue), and if anybody has gained the proper acorns for his secret recipe in that round he has won the game. If nobody wins, all acorns are returned and the players elect a new Kingpig, with each player having as many votes as he has planets.

Sounding so far like one of the usual space-exploration games, Die Space Schweine offers a lot more rules which serve to sophsticate gameplay enough to get a good mixture of strategy and entertainment. Aliens move on the board, strategies for skilled retreats and especially the use of event and battle cards ensures ongoing variation in gameplay which prevents a round from becoming dull because a player might become overmighty. From my point of view, the game is well belanced with 3 to 5 players. So far the game is available in french and german, but I was told by a representative from Tilsit that an english version is also possible in the future.

Once again it has been proved true that a publisher does not need to be one of the big players in the market to produce an outstanding game. Die Space Schweine not only offers a good composition of rules, but it also comes with hillarious graphics, rules and cards which make the game absolutely worthwhile. Especially the small jokes and twists inserted into the game by the authors make the game really worthwhile, and I recommend the game to anybody who wants to try a short, fast-paced space-opera.

Copyright © 2006 Frank Schulte-Kulkmann, Essen, Germany