Moonrakers Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Moonrakers, a deck building game published by IV Games. Moonrakers takes the traditional deck building mechanics and combines it with some negotiation for a really unique experience. 193

We are now deep into Autumn (at the time of this writing) where I live. Leaves have fallen, and they need to be raked up before the HOAs start deploying their secret police. Fun times. But what if you had to complete that chore on the Moon? Raking moon leaves with no gravity. Now there’s a game idea. Sadly, Moonrakers is decidedly NOT about raking leaves on the moon. Moonrakers is actually about a band of space mercenaries jockeying to become the leader of their misfit group.

Moonrakers is a deckbuilding and negotiation game for 1 to 5 players which takes about one to two hours to play, depending on player count.

Moonrakers is a race to 10 points. Players gain points by completing contracts and objectives. Each player starts with the same deck of 10 basic action cards. Most notably, a couple of Reactors to get more actions, a couple of Thrusters to draw more cards, and some Shields to block damage from hazard dice.

All players will have a hand of at least five cards drawn at any given time, which can be used during a contract attempt. During their turn, the active player may choose a contract from the market to complete or stay at base and get a few small rewards. All contracts include the following: symbols that must be played to succeed, a number of hazard dice that must be rolled, and the rewards that get split amongst the players who successfully complete the contract. The active player can then ask any player(s) they want to assist them. After negotiations are complete, assuming the active player got the assistance they