Boldy journey into the known

Designer: Nigel Buckle and Dávid Turczi | Publisher: Mindclash Games

After the fall of a powerful space empire, fringe survivors are left to reconquer it from the eldritch corruption that consumed its core. Following an extremely successful crowdfunding campaign back in 2021, Voidfall has released for retail. A hefty and complex box, promising a new take on the space 4X genre.

If you’re not familiar, 4X refers to eXplore, eXpand eXploit and eXterminate. For more than a decade, Twilight Imperium and Eclipse: A New Dawn for the Galaxy have dominated the Space 4X genre. The maximalist ‘ameri-trash’ design of Twilight Imperium against the more euro-style Eclipse. Both have their fans and I have enjoyed both, though Twilight Imperium has a hold on my heart like few other games. I state this because Voidfall may as well be the anti-Twilight Imperium, outflanking Eclipse for euro-style crunch and complexity.

Let’s break Voidfall down into the 4 Xs of the genre beginning with ‘explore’. Voidfall largely avoids this element. Both thematically and mechanically this is not a game about dealing with unknowns. Setting up each game involves choosing a scenario and laying out the customary space hexagons. The rest of the map is then occupied by the Voidborn. For the most part tiles are identical save for their understated swirling purple artwork. Unlike Twilight Imperium or Eclipse, no tile is better or worse than any other and each one added to your territory is simply a blank foundation for you to build on. There’s no risk of starting position disadvantages as in Twilight Imperium or bad luck when it comes to revealing new tiles as in Eclipse. Save for certain points of interest added in more advanced scenarios, there is no thematic texture or geography to the Galaxy. Instead, the variation between tiles comes from the strength of the Voidborn occupying them. The only hidden elements are a few tokens placed face down that reward you for capturing the space with a small handful of resources. The map is a foundation for the player to build on not something to be navigated or uncovered. All of its variables are known from the start so you’d better plan to deal with them.