The Game Ranch: Starship Catan Mission in Undefeated Issue 6

June 1, 2004

Starship Catan Mission in Undefeated Issue 6

by Susan Rozmiarek

The new June/July issue of Undefeated includes another Starship Catan mission. This time it is Mission 2: The Asteroid. While you can download and print the expansion from Klaus Teuber's website, it is nice to have it printed on the heavy stock insert that comes in Undefeated.

I'm still undecided as to whether or not it is worth subscribing to Undefeated. It suffers from trying to be "everything to everybody." A large portion of it is devoted to CCGs, collectible "click" games and miniatures, as well as board games. It usually has lots of short reviews of games typically found in an American game store. What's kind of nice is that it also includes many strategy articles each month, including at least one board game strategy article. This month the feature game is Eagle's Civilization: The Boardgame. I'm not too interested in that one, but past articles have included Empire Builder, A Game of Thrones, and Puerto Rico.

Most of this kind of thing is readily found on the internet, but it's nice to have hard print to carry around and read at my leisure anywhere. I can't exactly lug my computer to the doctor's office or the swimming pool. Plus, I'd like to encourage more magazines of this type. I only wish it would focus MORE on board games. Who needs all that other stuff!

Posted by Susan Rozmiarek at June 1, 2004 8:49 PM

Comments

Hi Susan,

I agree with your assessment of Undefeated. I subscribed as soon as I heard about the magazine but, like you, feel it is far too focused on CCG and Click-Mini games to be worth a second year's sub. I did enjoy the Puerto Rico article too and while not everything suggested worked well for me it was worth the read, giving me a few ideas regarding strategies at a time when I was beginning to grow a little tired of the game.

As for the boardgame reviews, the 'german' game reviews seem too bitty while games like Sid's Civilisation get large spreads. I suppose these sorts of games are more in line with the general readership but not of so much interest to me personally.

I also cut the Starship scenario 1 out and it is nice to get that sort of printed quality. I am looking forward to getting my hands on issue 6 but here in the UK it'll be a while :(.

Thanks for this news.

Ivan Hanley,
Board Gamers Anonymous.

PS I enjoy reading your reports, keep up the good work.

Posted by: Ivan on June 2, 2004 8:52 AM

One of the other Starship Catan expansion missions was professionally printed in a previous game magazine, right? Do you know which one?

Posted by: Mark Johnson on June 2, 2004 1:58 PM

The other Starship Catan Mission, The Space Amoeba, was also published in Undefeated. It was in Issue 3, which was the Dec/Jan issue.

Posted by: Susan on June 2, 2004 3:19 PM