The Un-United States
51ST STATE: ULTIMATE EDITION
Designer: Ignacy Trzewiczek | Publisher: Portal Games
WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
◗ 400 Cards
◗ 160+ Wooden Tokens
◗ 150+ Cardboard Tokens
◗
4 Faction Boards
◗ Victory Point Track
◗ Custom Plastic First Player Token
51st State is a game from the past, set in the future, within a somewhat contemporarily relevant world ravaged by sentient AIinduced civil war. In this crowdfunded Ultimate Edition, thirteen years of expansions have been compiled within a tidy insert, giving fans and newcomers an exhaustive toy-box of content. But does Ignacy Trzewiczek’s expansive card game still feel as fresh as it once did?
Set in Portal Games’ Neuroshima universe, 51st State is a strategic handmanagement game pitting up to four rival factions vying for power amidst the ruins of a fallen United States. With multi-use cards facilitating drafting, resource management and worker placement, players will build the country anew; constructing locations, establishing trade deals and scavenging areas for valuable resources. The game ends as soon as one player reaches twenty-five points, with every built location generating one point and earning multiple points through specific actions and special abilities. Whoever has amassed the most points will have succeeded at creating the 51st State and take their role as leader/chief/bandit king.
A level of asymmetry is baked into the game thanks to players’ unique faction boards. In the early game, ‘New York’ will excel at establishing new locations, whilst the more aggressive tactics of razing are more swiftly executed by the ‘Mutants Union.’ Such asymmetry gives a useful sense of direction - especially for new players - but, with a bit of planning, any strategy can become viable. It feels liberating to have the agency needed to cater to personal play-styles and it’s these differences that bring the game to life. Indeed, as games conclude, it’s satisfying to ask yourself ‘what world did you build, and what did you resort to in order to get there?’
Even with this Ultimate Edition’s plethora of content, 51st State is still one of the slickest card games around. The game somehow avoids the gluttonous bloat of similar ‘all-in’ re-releases, or indeed pretty much any of the monolithic Kickstarter releases seemingly setting a new baseline for how large games should be. Partly this is down to 51st State’s modular (rather than accumulative) approach to expansions. Whilst either one of the Winter or New Era expansions can be added to bolster variety in any given game, the four ‘state pack’ modules are designed as isolated additions. Thanks to this design choice, individual games never become weighed down to a point where the sheer number of strategic options begin to dilute a theme best served brusquely. In fact, whether it’s through the hacking and destroying of machines in the Moloch expansion, or No Man’s Lands’ fascinating introduction of area-control mechanics, each ‘state pack’ enhances both the strategic and thematic focus.
With or without the expansions, the varied cards do well at evoking a strong sense of place. The thematic abilities of dilapidated districts and crazed characters largely maintain verisimilitude, whether it’s through a quarry’s logical production of bricks, or swapping guns for points with the Weapon Trader. Furthermore, the rate at which locations can be erected, razed and upgraded also gives 51st State an organic dynamism, a quality which also serves to dictate the game’s swift pace. There may be a level of depth to this grim vision of the future, but it’s dished out in snippets, like the flashy recaps of episodic dystopian television, with games rarely dragging too far past the hour/hour and a half mark.
The enthusiastic funding of 51st State: Ultimate Edition is heartening; Good design shouldn’t fall out of fashion, yet with so many shiny new distractions, it’s not unusual for reprints to fall off the radar. Thankfully, 51st State looks set to buck this trend, and deservedly so.
CHAD WILKINSON
WE SAY
A succinct and expansive card game, as relevant and enjoyable today as it ever was.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED IMPERIAL SETTLERS...
This game feels like a darker alternative to Trzewiczek’s other classic card game.