Flick Fleet Review

Sometimes we beat around the bush when it comes to talking about games; I’m not going to do that here; Flick Fleet is brilliant.

Let me give you an example. Two nights ago, I had some friends coming round to play board games – it will not surprise you to hear that this is a fairly common experience for me. One friend arrived, and with an hour before our third player was due, I pulled out Flick Fleet, and we played out a little scenario. We were visibly having so much fun, that when our third player arrived, and we began get out the evening’s planned ‘proper’ game, our new player said, “I mean, we could just play this, if you want”. Flick Fleets stole our entire evening. We had not one but two vast, table sized games, tiny flicky armadas crashing against each other.

The reason for this is obvious; we all want to conquer the known galaxy, right? Whether in a vast Dune-style space opera, or cheeky back-planet adventures filled with skywalkers, most of us would like to play-enact a galactic war. The problem is usually twofold; miniatures games are often really expensive and commonly feature a daunting combination of complexity and play length.

I’ve really enjoyed time with X-Wing and Star Wars Armada, but neither is cheap, neither fits into a tiny box and both involve turning my brain on. Flick Fleet? Flick Fleet is fun, fast, thematic, and flies perfectly between silly and serious.

In the box are two full fleets, with 11 ships and 11 wings of bomber and fighters, with ship cards and tokens for all the ships. It comes in a enjoyably compact size, and requires a 3 foot by 3 foot table.

The game design is elegant in its simplicity. Players take turns to activate one ship or wing. They can take two different actions, the commonest being ‘move’ and ‘shoot’. You move by flicking the acrylic model across the table; ship agility is represented by where on the model you are allowed to flick. Fighters can be flicked on any edge, whilst bombers can only be move from the rear, making turning very tricky.

Shooting is simple; pop a dice on top of your model, and flick it at any opponent. If you got something (friend or foe) without the dice falling off the table, it’s a hit. Normal weapons use a ten sided d10 - hard to accurately send fwo feet - and high powered ones use a d6.

Damage is assigned with a neat degrading mechanic. Hits first take out shields, then ship systems which are labelled 1-6. So rolling a “1” might hit the “defence grid”; the guns. Rolls higher than 6 still remove shields but do no internal damage; so a d6 will always cause damage if it hits, whereas a d10 will only do so 60% of the time.

Hitting an internal system such as “engines” removes that system’s token, meaning it no longer works unless you spend an action repairing it. Another hit to the same number blows up the ship. Thus your ship both becomes less functional and more likely to die, in one neat process.

In play, this leads to a fluid, surprisingly strategic game. Will your ship flick exactly where you planned, or are you unexpectedly nearer, granting easier shots both for you and your enemy. Is it worth that risk, in the hope you destroy them first?

Many dexterity games such as Men At Work suffer from being quite superficial, where the agility in your fingers is entirely where the game is won and lost. Flick Fleet may have the perfect balance between “oh, that dice roll bounced off the table again!” and “your decision to manoeuvre behind that asteroid and attack ISS Nova was masterful”.

There are many other aspects worth commenting on; fighter wings that get smaller and less powerful as they take damage, but also much harder to hit; the always difficult choice between repairing systems and shields or using your actions to attack; waiting to launch wings nearer the action, but risking your launch bays being destroyed too early.

Both deluxe and standard versions are available, with or without names and designs etched onto the ships. I’m sure standard would be fine for play, but you would want to label the ships manually so you didn’t get them mixed up. Seeing names like “Liberty” and “ISS Annihilator” printed on your flagship is, admittedly, pretty cool, so go for deluxe if you can afford it.

CHRIS LOWRY

PLAY IT? MUST-PLAY 

Flick Fleet provides easy and accessible galaxy conquering fun, but with enough tactical crunch to keep thinkers interested.

TRY THIS IF YOU liked Catacombs…

…One for fans of Catacombs, although setup and play in that dexterity dungeon crawler can be a little too fiddly. Flick Fleet is probably a little less punishing to those with less accurate fingers.

Designer: Jackson Pope & Paul Willcox

Publisher: Eurydice Games

Time: 10-40 minutes

Players: 2

Age: 10+

Price: £55

What’s in the box?

Imperium Fleet:

• Dreadnought
• Carrier
• 4 Destroyers
• 4 Fighter wings
• 1 Bomber wing

Uprising Fleet

• Carrier 
• Carrier)
• 3 Destroyers
• 4 Fighter wings
• 2 Bomber wings

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