Stellaris: Infinite Legacy is a 4x board game that plays within two hours

The thing that people like about a good computer strategy game is that you can play it for decades (if not hundreds) of hours. But the kind of complexity and variety that games like Crusader Kings 3 and Civilization 5 can feel so attractive endlessly in a tabletop environment. Classics like Dune or Skemer Empire players can easily capture six or more hours at the table.

Designer Gunter Eickert thinks he may have solved the problem by combining the latest innovation in board games with a niche genre of computer strategy games. His next project for publisher Academy Games is called Stellaris: Infinite Legacy, and it’s one of the most ambitious new table games announced this year. Polygon got the exclusive first details on how the game will work.

Stellaris is a computer strategy game released in 2016 by Paradox Interactive. It is part of a niche genre of strategy games known as 4x games, which stand for explore, expand, exploit and eradicate. Players take on the role of an alien civilization and embark on a journey to colonize the stars. Along the way, players harvest resources, build up their armies and infrastructure, and eventually come into contact with other civilizations. This is the kind of game that takes 20 or more hours to figure out. Once you are under your feet, it is possible to play a single campaign annually.

Image: Academy Games

There were similar types of 4x board games, but it takes extraordinary time to play. Add to that the fact that you need four to six experienced players to have a good time, and you can understand how rare it is to get into a decent game with your friends. I’m happy to be able to play a 4x board game once a year.

But, oddly enough, Eickert says that 4x board games are not just too long. They are also too short.

“I spent all this time, had all the fun developing this amazing empire, and then it just ends,” Eickert said in an interview with Polygon on Friday. “I want to see what happens. I want to keep playing with this amazing empire I have built up. ”

The solution, Eickert said, is to apply the latest evolution in table games: the heritage system. Pioneered by designer Rob Daviau with Risk: legacy in 2011 legacy games change over time. From game to game, player characters or factions develop new abilities or are permanently damaged. New game components are revealed from inside sealed packets, while others are destroyed, never to be used again. Over the course of 10-15 games, an individual copy of a heritage game is completely transformed into something unique, ideally something you can play and enjoy for years to come. Some people will even hang their plates on the wall as proof of the dramatic narratives that have emerged over tens of hours of play.

Eickert’s new board game wants to do the same, but for an entire galaxy.

Image: Academy Games

In Stellaris: Infinite Legacy, each player at the table is given a customizable player screen and a box of cards. In the box is everything they need to build their own unique civilization, including special abilities, government styles, preferred planetary biomes, and even a set of morals and ethics. Everything – maps for technological and infrastructure improvements, exotic spaceship weapon systems, everything that could possibly be created or destroyed in the game – is inside the box.

When the two-hour session is over, players just lock it. Everything unique to civilization is still inside the box, right where it should be, ready for the next two-hour game. The next time you sit down at a table, you can take out the same civilization you played before, give your box to the right and mix things up, or even start over with something new.

Eickert says the game will be balanced throughout – even when a new, inexperienced player sits down with a few old hands to play for the first time – thanks to random objective cards drawn at the beginning of each game. The older and more advanced your civilization is, the more of the goals you must achieve in order to win.

But Stellaris: Infinite Legacy also boasts a complex tactical wargaming system. Players will not get beaten every round, but if they do, he says it will be just as epic and consequent as in the video game. The secret, he says, is the unique modular game board. Every civilization will retain its home worlds from game to game, but the shape of the galaxy itself will always be different. This will force players to adapt to new tactical situations every time they sit down.

This is an ambitious project, full of unproven concepts. To complicate matters, it is Stellaris: Infinite Legacy is a crowdfunding campaign hosted on Kickstarter and later Backerkit. Fans of the tabletop strategy won’t really know if Eickert pulled it off until the game is sometime next year. For now, they’ll just have to take his word for it … and pay at least $ 100 for the privilege.

But anyone who has played Eickert’s games before, or one of the titles of Academy Games, knows that they have the skill to pick it up. The boutique tabletop publisher is known for its historical games. It contains the group World War II simulations in the series Conflict of Heroes; the popular war game 1775 Rebellion: The American Revolution; and Freedom the Underground Railroad. All of these titles are considered because of their complexity, their ease and balance.

Recently, Academy Games has entered the world of licensed intellectual property. I demonstrated the publisher Agents of Chaos: Pride of Babylon A few years ago with Eickert at Gen Con and was impressed with how he used maps to expand a simple tactical miniature game and grow it into something more lasting and satisfying. I hope he will make exquisite design choices here as well.

Also, don’t expect to find the game on store shelves next year. As Vampire: The Masquerade – Chapters and other offers offered directly to the consumer, there are no plans for a retail product. Academy hopes to sell the game online for about $ 150 if the campaign goes well. The crowdfunding campaign begins on March 11th.