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- Verified Buyer
Wow! Shocking to see that this game seems to have flopped! What a shame! Because "New Dawn" is a really good 4x game set in the same universe as "Among The Stars." If you've played, "Among The Stars," you will recognize many of the basic concepts. But instead of just building a space station, you are rebuilding a galactic civilization after a long "dark age."Players take the roles of the various alien species (the races from Among The Stars) who compete to pick of the pieces (or ashes) of a fallen shattered galactic civilization. Each race has a 'special power' that makes it stand out from the others. Furthermore, through technology cards, players can further customize their race. And then, each race has a tableau of three resources resources that are unlocked as you expand your empire, allowing you to specialize even further!Obstensively, the races are suppose to be working together, but in reality it's every civilization for itself! Over a mere five rounds (yes, ONLY 5 rounds!) players will explore (place cards with locations-called facilities- that give you resources and/or special powers that can be chained together), conquer (using space stations and mobile military units), and, if necessary, crush their rivals and steal their space facilities! The combat system if very innovative and original, using different colored dice with different number spreads to represent ever more powerful attacks.What dice you roll depends upon your technologies, racial abilities, what location you are attacking, and with what units you are attacking with. It sounds complicated, but it's really simple. Your Mobile Military units attack a square directly (by moving into the square), where as your Space Stations exert an ability to attack adjacent squares! The more military units you use add dice, plus the number of adjacent space stations add even more dice! But, beware, you opponents space stations can influence adjacent squares, and he/she can move his own military units into the facilities to defend! It's almost like chess.It sounds weird, but it works and adds an 'area control' element to the game.There's also a very clever mechanic called "Orientating." At the start of the game, there will be 4 randomly determined bonus cards (called "bases') placed at each side of the board. Whenever you explore, or conquer, a facility you can orient or 'spin' the card (the cards have arrows pointing in various directions) and align the card with one or more of the base cards at the edges of the board and take the bonuses (extra dice, resources, VPs, etc.). This happens EVERY time a facility is placed or changes hands! It's really interesting.New Dawn also uses "The Ambassadors" from, you guessed it, "Among The Stars." The ambassadors can be 'bought' and placed on the board to give a player even more special powers-based on where you place them! It's really cool.The Goal of New Dawn is to score victory points by controlling facilities (yours and your opponents!),advancing your civilization, and/or fulfilling goals (called "Aiding The Alliance,"). At the end of five rounds, the player with the most VPs wins.The board, artwork and game components are all terrific! The MFSR price of $74.99 was pretty justified. The fact that you can find the game for UNDER $30 is a STEAL! Get this game!
