MLEM: Space Agency Review

Written by Emma Garrett

Roll out the universe on the table in front of you. Line up your eight intrepid cat astronauts. Things are about to get epic. It has a presence, this game. The cosmic mat is a feast for your eyes, full of colours and quirky cat references. Even the points tokens are delightfully designed fish, birds and balls of wool. Just like its feline inspiration, this game looks, feels and sounds irresistible. But just what does the universe have in store for our catstronauts?

Play MLEM: Space Agency Board Game

Players take turns commanding expeditions along the track from Earth to outer space. Your aim is to score the most points by visiting moons, planets and outer space. How far you get depends on the dice, but what you score depends on your good judgment in choosing when to disembark. Locations further out score more points, but as you progress you lose dice. The temptation is to keep pushing your luck right to the end, chasing that elusive trip to outer space. But if the remaining dice don’t fall in your favour, the rocket crashes causing one cosmic failure and all astronauts still inside return to base, without scoring. Fortunately, cat astronauts have spare lives they can use to continue on another mission. They pick themselves up, lick their wounds and get back in the ship.

It’s a sweet game of friendly competition, with a surprising amount of strategy if you are able to overcome the fear of missing out and make clever decisions regarding where to leave the rocket. What’s great is that each astronaut has a different specialisation giving it a power, or doubling its score if it jumps off in a certain place. So you can score as much as you would by reaching outer space only about halfway up the track, with the right astronaut. The game ends in two ways, when you’ve amounted a total of eleven cosmic failures, or brilliantly, as soon as any one player has disembarked their eighth cat. This means you aren’t just pushing your luck, you’re pushing against your opponents’ logic.

What happens in MLEM?

At first, as you move one or two spaces up the track at a time, and start losing dice it feels impossible to reach outer space. You have to see it to believe it. The commander of the mission is rolling the dice. You find the other players are at one moment cheering them on and in the next making unfounded assertions about their unfitness to command. It’s all superstition, of course, but everyone very quickly makes their call on who’s lucky and whose expedition they’ll be disembarking at the first reasonable opportunity.

As well as the base game you get a UFO variant, a secret mission variant and an exploration variant. This variety gives it a great amount of replayability, and the option to tailor the game to the group. The fabric cosmic mat is delightful, and the UFO and rocket are lovely wooden pieces. I think I would have preferred my cat astronauts to be 3D meeples rather than cardboard pieces, but the quality overall is so good it’s hard to hold that against it.

MLEM Space Agency Review

This is a game that will fly off shelves. It’s easy to teach, quick to play, and looks stunning. Thanks to the joint expeditions it doesn’t feel overly competitive. The game rewards good luck and good judgment in equal measure, making it a fun experience for all the family. Rolling dice and having the whole table holding their breath on the result is a great thrill. It really does remind you of those scenes of scientists at mission control waiting for news on their spacecraft before bursting into tears or applause.

Should you play it? Yes. 

It's easy to learn, with quick entertaining gameplay, this dice rolling extravaganza is a cosmic success!

You should try this game if you liked Can't Stop. It's the same addictive dice rolling. The same agonising decision of when to quit. Now including cute space cats and the constant threat of cosmic failure.

Buy MLEM Space Agency on Amazon

What's on the box?

Designer: Reiner Knizia

Artist: Joanna Rzepecka

Publisher: Rebel Studio

Time: 30-60 minutes

Players: 2-5 players

Age: 8+

Price: £29

What's in the box?

• Cosmic Mat
• Rocket Board
• 5 Player Boards
• 40 Astronaut Tokens (in 5 colours)
• 6 Dice
• Cosmic Failure Token
• Rocket Marker
• 4 Goal Tokens
• 64 Scoring Tokens
• UFO Marker
• 5 UFO Tokens
• 14 Expedition Tokens
• 20 Exploration Tokens
• 20 Secret Mission Tokens

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