Moon Colony Bloodbath Review
Advert: this game was gifted by Rio Grande Games, this has not affected our opinion.
The name Moon Colony Bloodbath suggested to me a game that might be found in Games Workshop, where soldiers on a luna board battle it out in a slobber-knocker until the death utilising tape measures and dice.
Needless to say, I was wrong, that isn’t this game at all, so read on and find out what this game is all about and my thoughts on it!
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Setup
Moon Colony Bloodbath is a doddle to set up. Give each player their own character board, as well as thirty population tokens, four apples, four money and four action chits.
Then there are some piles of components to place in easy reach of all players and some decks of cards to organise, some need to be ordered, some shuffled. Then, all players get four starting building cards. That’s it, you can launch into the game!
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Gameplay
The game is played over a varied amount of rounds until someone kills their entire population. If that takes you by surprise, I will refer you back to the ‘Bloodbath’ part of the title! At that point the player with the largest population wins.
There is an alternative and seemingly unlikely victory whereby every player survives until the final event card, the player with the most population still wins though.
Each round you will play through a shared deck of cards. This starts off as six starter cards and two random ‘Twist’ cards but soon gets expanded.
Throughout the deck there will be four ‘Work’ cards. These allow players to carry out one of five actions, most gather resources, but one option allows you to build a card from your hand to your tableau. These building cards often grant the player one off and/or ongoing bonuses. They also add to your population total and can be abandoned if required to free up some more people for the slaughter. Just to reiterate, that will happen a lot!
Some building cards allow you to add a Perk card to the deck, this will give the owner a one-off bonus that only they get the benefit of.
That’s it really, you keep playing through the shared deck, adding to it at a surprising rate and witnessing a massacre unfold before you!
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What it’s like
Moon Colony Bloodbath has a feel of a co-operative game. Just to be clear, it isn’t, but it does feel like all the players are against the game. Shared groans will go round the table as a robot rampages your population, again. This is enhanced by simultaneous play.
There is very little player interaction, which I assumed would be maxed out with a name like Moon Colony Bloodbath. Sure, you will be aware of your fellow colonists, but there isn’t much you can do to muck up their plans. You can add a card to the deck, however, that is often self-sabotaging too. Yet there feels like you are all in it together which adds an unusual interaction of competitive comradery.
The game has a clever arc to it. At the start, the game lulls you into a false sense of security. You can carry out some work actions and the events that get added in the first round are okay. After a couple of rounds, you get your tableau building and the engine just starts to purr, and then the game ramps up its onslaught and the bloodbath really does begin.
At its most relentless, Moon Colony Bloodbath is just about biting your nails and hoping you get a Work or a Perk card that might just keep you alive that little bit longer than your opponents. Rarely are you confident of a win and neither have I ever felt truly in control.
I like this board game at all player counts and I have played it with my entire family. Everyone has been capable of playing and enjoyed it. Well, enjoyed it as much as you can enjoy a game where the majority of the population you have attracted to the moon gets wiped out by marauding robots and clumsiness!
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Table Presence
The game has a retro feel to it. Moon Colony Bloodbath looks like it belongs in the late 1980s or early 1990s. The artwork is jolly, some of the vignettes are fun in their slightly retro way. The subtext on the cards adds some fun flavour to the proceedings too. The character choices could’ve been improved upon, specifically the implied drug reference on the space Rastafarian was probably unnecessary.
I must say the iconography is intuitive and that adds to the ease of playing. The rulebook is good, but I will also say I was taught this game expertly by Tom (@buryboardgames on Instagram) so didn’t get the full experience of reading every page.
Moon Colony Bloodbath and its decks of cards and player boards won’t turn the heads of anyone walking past it. But then, with the gameplay, it probably doesn’t need to.
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What the kids thought
Max (10): I absolutely love it. I like all of it – particularly the game play!
George (14): I really enjoy Moon Colony Bloodbath. It’s a difficult but fun game. There gets to a point where you think you’ve won mid-game and then it goes downhill which I really like.
Harrison (17): Moon Colony Bloodbath is brutal vicious and cruel. You spend the game getting torn to shreds, whether it be by evil robots, infrastructure malfunctions or hunger, the game is relentlessly punishing. The game encourages you to expect the worst and hope for something slightly better, despite this, it is still really fun and I do enjoy playing it.
Watching Tom’s demise. Photo courtesy of @boardgamingwithmyfamily
Final thoughts on Moon Colony Bloodbath
More often than not, board games nowadays meld familiar mechanics and it is how they integrate with one another that gives a game its uniqueness. However, I can safely say I haven’t played anything quite like Moon Colony Bloodbath. It really does feel fresh and different. It’s closest similarities are co-operative games, and yet it is competitive. I think that is really clever.
I do think the name is misleading at first, it isn’t the game you were probably expecting. Yet, once you’ve played it the name makes perfect sense. Afterall, you are colonising the moon and then facing the impending bloodbath.
I know I am guilty of schadenfreude. Perhaps I am a little sadistic too, as I only have positive things to say about this board game! It really is worth checking out.
3d Printed Blood Drip Card Holders from 3DamnGood
Key Facts
Number of players: 1 to 5
Board Game Review Recommended Age: 12+
Publisher’s Recommended Age: 14+
Playing Time: 75 minutes
Setting Up and Take Down Time: 3 minutes
Designers: Donald X. Vaccarino
Publisher: Rio Grande Games
RRP: £49.99
Summary
I have never been so entertained by a slow, painful and miserable death ever. Moon Colony Bloodbath is an interesting and very good game!
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Artwork and Components
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Complexity
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Instructions
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Interaction
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Value for Money
Overall
Pros
- Simultaneous play
- Feels fresh and different
- Entertaining seeing others lose population
- Plays up to five
Cons
- Minor drug reference
- Your tableau falls apart
- Might not be what you expect from the name
Need more games?
If you already own Moon Colony Bloodbath and enjoy it, or are looking for other inspiration, you might also like these similar games:
- Pandemic
- Dominion
- For A Crown
- The A.R.T. Project
Buy Moon Colony Bloodbath
If you want to buy this board game after reading our review click on one of our affiliate links below (note there has been no affiliate links until this point)
Reviewer’s Note
For clarity: we don’t get paid for our reviews. However, we were kindly gifted this game by Rio Grande Games. We have tried not to let this affect our review in any way.
We may however earn a tincy wincy commission if you buy a game having clicked one of our affiliate links like the one above… this hopefully gives us a bit of pocket money towards hosting costs and new games to review!
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