Star Trek Away Missions: Captain Kirk & Commander Scotty Expansions Board Game Review

Star Trek Away Missions: Captain Kirk & Commander Scotty Expansions Review

WBG Score: 8

Player Count: 2-4

You’ll like this if you like: Star Trek: Away Missions, Warhammer Underworlds

Published by: Gale Force Nine, LLC

Designed by: Andrew Haught, Mike Haught, Phil Yates

This is a review copy. See our review policy here

By Steve Godfrey

I heard they originally tried to make some of the Federation miniatures in red plastic and sent them out, but they never got to their destination, weird, I bet no one saw that coming!

Just as a note, the minis come in the blue that all the federation characters come in for this game. I got excited to paint them so I primed mine ready, hence the grey colouring of mine. In true miniature painter style, I’ve still not painted them.

What you’ll get beamed to you

In each box you’ll get a team of four miniatures. In one you’ll get Captain Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Chekhov and in the other you’ll get Commander Scotty, Uhura, Sulu and Lt. Leslie. Both come with player boards for each character, a double sided core mission card, a pre-built deck of missions and support cards and then extras of each so you can build decks later and some tokens. These include Beam Away tokens in both and in the Commander Scotty box you’ll also get Tribble tokens, which I’ll say now, they missed a trick by not making them furry.

If you want to know how to play Away Missions and my thoughts on it then check out my review here

Captain Kirk Expansion

The core mission card has a mission called “we come in peace” which focuses on Contact missions to score and, in stark contrast on the other side you’ve got “shoot to kill” which to no one’s surprise focuses on conflict missions.

As I said in my review of the main game, I’ve only seen a relatively small portion of all the Star Trek that’s out there. When it comes to the original series however, I don’t think I’ve seen a single full episode. But, there are cards in this set that even I can look at and excitedly say “I understood that reference” and I think that sort of recognition is needed if the games want to keep non Trek fans engaged (pun not intended, yet I’m not sure why). If Gale Force Nine's previous track record is anything to go by I’m sure there will be some more obscure references in there for the bigger fans out there to enjoy but I love the fact that regardless of how big or small of a fan of Star Trek you are, any of these nods wont take away from the experience of the game.

There are some fun cards here. You’ve got Mind meld which lets you and another character share specialisations and Kirk’s drop kick which will let you move one space and roll one extra attack die, essentially launching yourself at someone. Don’t The ‘mudd’s women’ mission card makes all characters on a mission board, friendly or hostile, roll a skill check and any who fail are stunned. You score the card if more hostiles fail their skill checks. 

The main new mechanic across both boxes is called “Beam Away” when you play a beam away card, place a beam away token in that space and any other characters (depending on the card) and place them on the mission card itself. The active character's turn is now over. Before your next character activates the beam away card triggers and plays out. If a character succeeds they get put back on their token. A character that fails is neutralised. The majority of cards with beam away get you to make different skill tests. However some are combat focused. My favourite from this box is by far “Arena” You and another commander beam away and essentially take attack actions against each other until one character is neutralised. The fact that all the beam away cards could end with someone being neutralised makes them really risky, but that added risk could be worth the punt if maybe, you find yourself trapped in an area or unable to get to certain terminals to score cards. These could be especially useful in the last round. 

Commander Scotty

The core mission card for this set is “Humanitarian Aid on one side and will score for Aid missions played. The other side is called “Red Shirts” which scores for non neutralised friendly characters at the end. I mean, it had to happen at some point didn’t it.

This expansion incorporates the beam away trait just like the Captain Kirk box but it also comes with its own little twist. Tribbles! These balls of fluff will get everywhere and will spawn like rabbits across the board and could be a help or a hindrance depending on the cards you play. They also make you reroll a skill, attack or defence dice (opponents choice and two for Klingons) if your on a board with them at the time. Regardless there will be a lot of the furry blighters across the board and it's great. 

If you make them, they will come

If you love Star Trek Away missions and the original series then regardless of what I say you’re gonna be getting this. If you’re on the fence for whatever reason I can say that these are another fun addition to the game and the beam away missions and the tribbles make a great new, thematic addition to the mechanisms of the game and those alone make these two expansions worth checking out.