Expanding my Options - Alien Frontiers Factions Review

One of my favorite games that I've played this year was Alien Frontiers. I know the game came out in 2011, but it was hard to get a hold of for awhile, so I was excited when I finally received a copy back in April. I was even more excited when I heard of the upcoming expansion, Alien Frontiers: Factions. A beautiful thing, new mechanics and a 5th player. At first, I wasn't sure how it was going to work, adding to an already brilliant game, but as I sat down with Factions I learned that something that is good can get better.

Overview
Alien Frontiers: Factions adds a couple of new mechanics to the base game. It adds variable player abilities and secret agendas. The variable player abilities are selected by the players in reverse turn order. On each faction card, there are two player abilities. The first one can only be used by the player who selected said faction card. The second ability can be used by anyone. They simply must pay one energy to the player who's faction card they are using and then dock a ship (one die) at the faction location. These abilities range from allowing you to advance an extra space at the colonist hub to being able to immediately use a ship that you just bought. The second major addition to the game is the use of agenda cards. Each player starts with two cards and players have an opportunity to gain more throughout the game, but no one can have more than 3 agenda cards at any one time unless an ability allows them to do so. These agenda cards each have two agendas listed. The first is an in-game agenda. Anytime that a player completes the agenda throughout the game they can reveal the card. The second agenda on the card is an end-game agenda. These are revealed at the end of the game. Players can complete either agenda on their card in return for a victory point, however, they can only complete one agenda on each card. The final addition to Alien Frontiers is the ability to play with 5 players. A complete set of faction pieces is added to allow for 5 people to play Alien Frontiers, or you have another color that you can chose to play with, that color being purple.

Review
Components
The components for the Factions expansion are stellar. Each faction comes on a nice card board tile. It is heavier than a standard punch-out tile. I would say they could even second as a coaster. The artwork is great and inline with the base game. The cards are nice as well. They are pretty much the same stock as the Alien Tech cards. The pieces for the 5th player line up with the rest of the pieces in the base game. All the bits are great, and the rule book is very well done, with a nice appendix for all the factions.

Game Play
I think that the factions expansion adds a lot to the game play of the game. There is a lot more variety and options to keep the game fresh. The faction and agenda cards allow you to try some different strategies that you normally would not use. I also believe there is enough of them that it will be awhile before you have the same combination, so your strategy must constantly be changing. As for the 5th player, this feels a little forced. I know that I love games that can support more players, but with Alien Frontiers it really plays best with 3 or 4 works, but 5 just slows the game down too much and causes too much downtime in between turns. Other than that, if you are looking to refresh a great game, Factions is an excellent choice--especially since you can mix and match the additional options that are available.

How is it with two?
After multiple plays of Alien Frontiers and Factions the game just does not work well with two. It's really too easy for one player to lock up space stations, and make it difficult for the other player to gain access to them. This can cause one player to fall behind early and never have a chance to catch up. This is especially true when gaining ships and building colonies. Now, the Factions expansion attempts to fix some of these problems, but it still doesn't work. It can be played with 2, but be prepared for one player to get destroyed 2/3 of the time.

Final Thoughts
Overall, this is solid expansion. Another solid offering from Clever Mojo Games. The components and game play are great and offer a plethora of options, which is one of the things that I love to see in expansions. The addition of a 5th player is great for those who find themselves with not enough seats, but I don't think it's the best option. In the end, I would recommend picking this one up, especially if you are a fan of the base game.