Gameplay spotlight: Playing the Astro-Rangers

Hey Planeteers!

The Kickstarter for Rayguns and Rocketships is LIVE! (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/idwgames/rayguns-and-rocketships) Thank you to everyone who has pledged so far! As the campaign charges forward, I wanted to highlight the some of content and game play you'll find in the final game.

 

 Let's first take a look at the GALACTIC ASTRO-RANGERS!

In Rayguns and Rocketships, rocketships are moved using a deck of command cards. Each Planeteer faction's deck of command cards is designed to encourage their specific behavior. Astro-Rangers are fast! They are skilled pilots; whether at the helm of their rocketship or when flying with their jetpacks. Their cards were designed to take advantage of their speedy nature.

A command deck consists of two types of cards: regular ones that turn or move the rocketship around - forward, turn starboard or turn port - and star cards that are used for more spectacular and daring maneuvers and actions. Star cards are pre-programmed by the player and require some strategy to use correctly. Remember once star cards are used they are discarded. But a discarded star card is worth 1 victory point, so it's worthwhile to use them. Let's take a look at three command star cards exclusive to the Astro-Rangers' deck.

NOTE: The following card art and designs are from the game's prototype. Examples of the final card art can be seen at IDW Games.com

EVASIVE MANEUVERS
This star card allows the Astro-Rangers do what they do best - fly around obstacles like asteroids and move quickly out of shooting range of other rocketships. You remember that scene in The Empire Strikes Back when the Millennium Falcon dives down and away from pursuing TIE fighters? This card is like that. It leaves the opponents saying "I didn't think something that big could be that maneuverable!"

BARREL ROLL
"I'll try spinning - that's a good trick!" Sometimes a desperate situation requires a desperate move. But while the Astro-Ranger player doesn't gain any crew action points for this move (the crew are all hanging on inside the ship for their lives) they become ridiculously hard to hit for the duration of the turn. It's the perfect move when you are surrounded on all sides.

 

RANGERS ATTACK!
Rangers Attack! is my favorite Astro-Rangers card in the game. On the crew movement/action phase, the Astro-Rangers blast out into outer-space with plenty of action points to mount a boarding action or race across the stars to retrieve an atomic core! It even works great as a last minute escape plan if another player's captain boards your ship with murder on its mind!

Keep in mind, these are just some of the Planeteer specific cards you'll find in the game. Keep tuned as we spotlight more content from Rayguns and Rocketships!