Moon Colony Bloodbath: Review
Information:
Player Age: 14+
Player Count: 1 - 5 Players
Time to Play: 45 - 90 Minutes
Game Designer: Donald X. Vaccarino
Game Artist: Franz Vohwinkel
Publisher: Rio Grande Games
Year Published: 2025
BGG Weight: 2.11
Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.
Introduction:
Moon Colony Bloodbath is a very thematically fun game with an interesting concept that feels unique. This is an engine building game in the traditional sense of developing a tableu but it is also a communal deck-building game which will have players and the game adding good and bad cards to the deck. The fun is brought by the silly aesthetic of every players moon base slowly being destroyed as their population runs low, and in response each player's engine is limited in how long it will last. Essentially this is a game where players aim to outlast the other players colony. If a player loses all their people they lose, the player with the most people in their colony at that stage wins. Each building has a people capacity that if players need more people they will have to destroy their building to gain cannon fodder to try and survive and build a stronger colony. This is a wacky game that feels part engine/deck builder, part auto battler and a whole lot of fun.
Game Anatomy:
Deck Cards:
There are numerous different types of cards that are added to the deck. This is a communal deck-building game after all, whenever cards are added to the deck they are always added to the top for the deck.
Starting Cards:
The starting deck consists of two trouble cards,
these cards add event into the deck that keep the momentum of the game going and four work cards. Work cards will allow the players each to choose one out of the five actions on their player mat.
Event Cards:
There are 13 event cards, each complete play of the deck will add two events to the game. The first three events really progress the game by adding more robots, costing the players cards and requires players to have food to feed their people based on the number of buildings they have in play.
The next 9 events are different quantities the colonies population being lost.
The last card is special it won't happen for new players since this card will appear in the seventh run through of the deck. If the 13th event is revealed the game will actually end immediately and whichever player has the largest population becomes the winner.
Twist Cards:
Twists are positive and negative effects that can be added to the deck via one robot but mostly will be added at the start of the game by two twists being shuffled into the deck at the start of the game. Twist cards with "twist" in white text are the easiest to understand for the first few games.
Robot Cards:
The robot cards are negative cards that remove large amounts of the players population at a time. There are two in the deck at the start of the game but more will be added as the game continues through the glitch card.
Perk Cards:
Perk cards are great for the player that adds them. Each perk card will only affect the player that adds them. When added the player also will be able to choose which perk is added to the deck.
Development Cards:
Development cards are added through different building cards. These cards have both negative and positive effects.
It is a key decision point on which building to play based on what development cards they add, do they help you and are negative to the opponents or actually negative to the players strategy and it is time to reconsider developing that building.
Tokens:
There are four token types.
Food are used to feed each player's people, there are also various cards that require high levels of food to be in the players colony or ways to trade food for other resources. Money is used to play buildings. Boxes don't mean anything at the start of the game but different cards in the deck or buildings will give these boxes values. When a box is placed it is placed on a building.
Lastly but most important are the people, remember that players need people to survive the various disasters that occur in this colony.
Building Cards:
Building cards have a cost in money on the left side and a population amount that will be added when the building is destroyed. Buildings will be destroyed when there is a cost in population players need to pay but can't, in that case buildings need to be destroyed until the cost is paid.
Buildings will often have two effects. Engine building effects, if this is linked to a work action, they will be colour coded to that action. The other effects will either be an effect activated when aged or when the building is destroyed.
Playmat:
The Playmat is where players will store their resources. It will also explain the five actions a player can choose when the work card is drawn. Build; play a card, Restock; add two boxes to buildings, Mine; gain four money, Research; draw two cards and Farm; gain four food. These work cards can be monitored by placing this green each time one of the four work cards are revealed.
All of these actions can be enhanced and players begin to develop a small engine through buildings adding more effects to the action type.
Setup:
- Shuffle the twist and robot deck sperately and place the representative token on top.
- Keep each unique development cards displayed.
- Keep all tokens within reach of each player.
How to Play:
This is a very easy game to explain. In fact most of the rules have been explained in the game anatomy of the review above. Essentially on a turn the top card of the shared deck is revealed. Players will follow the robot, twist, starting card, development, perk or event card that is revealed. This may seem like there isn't much space for decisions. But, as players become more familiar with the cards in the deck. There is a lot of decisions as players try to prepare for the onslaught of the upcoming cards.
When one of the four work cards are revealed each player will choose out of the five actions, which will draw cards, gain food, gain money, gain boxes or play a building card. The building card will often enhance these actions creating further engines attached to these actions.
When a player loses their entire population, including losing all of their building and the population gained through that. Then the game ends and the player with the most population wins. The game may also end of the 13th event is revealed.
Final Thoughts:
- Rules are really light but there is a surprising good level of decisions.
- Tension filled as players hope the card they need appears, instead of the dreaded cards.
- Fun theme.
Moon Colony Bloodbath is easily getting a silver seal of approval. This is a unique game that creates a fun but tense atmosphere as players are trying to keep their engine afloat just to survive another run through of the deck. Better yet survive the other players demise. This is an automatic sort of game where a card is revealed from a communal deck than players respond to that card based on what the card allows. It doesn't sound like too much agency, but players have plenty of control. This is a communal deck-building game both the game and the players will be adding positive, negative and neutral cards to the deck in hope of enhancing their engine and keep the population growing. There is also a wide array of building cards that will enhance work actions, add certain cards to the main deck or just give a good destroyed benefit or large chunk of population when destroyed. Players have to adjust to the fact that their engines are getting destroyed, but surviving through the Moon Colony Bloodbath is truly a blast.
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