AEG Smash Up Base Game | Shufflebuilding Card Game | Aliens, Dinosaurs, Ninjas, Pirates, Robots, Tricksters, Wizards, Zombies | 2-4 Players | Ages 10+

Smash Up is a fun game for 2-4 players. There are 8 different 20-card decks in the core game, each deck* containing 10 "minion" cards and 10 "action" cards. Each player picks 2 decks and shuffles them together to make one 40-card deck they will use to play that game. At the end of the game, you separate the decks back out. During the game, you play your minions on special "base" cards, trying to build up enough minion power to claim the base and hopefully overpower any other players on the same base. Claiming a base earns you points, with smaller point awards going to the 2nd and 3rd-place players who had minions there. The rules are fairly simple, but each deck usually has some unique ability that gives it an edge. Wizards are great at letting you play more actions, Zombies can retrieve minions from the discard pile, etc..Games are short (about an hour for 3 people, longer if you have 4 or some are new players). No one is eliminated before the end of the game, it's rare for one player to totally dominate the game, and you don't need a huge table to play (2 card tables pushed together would be perfect).AEG has also released 3 expansions so far, with new 4 decks each. I'd advise getting at least the 'Awesome Level 9000' expansion if you are new, since that has some of the best decks in it, plus point tokens to keep track of everyone's victory points.That said, here are some of the downsides to the original box set:- There's room in the box for 18 decks, however with all expansions there are now 20 decks + the base deck + the madness card deck + victory tokens. If you plan to buy all 3 expansions, you can search Ebay for 'Smash Up Box Organizer'. Some guy makes a wooden organizer that fits inside the original box and holds 30 decks with adjustable dividers for the madness/base/victory cards.- The base smash up game does not include any way of keeping score. So use a scratch pad and a pen, or pennies and nickles.- 2 of the 8 factions (robots & zombies) in the base game are way more powerful than the others. Wizards are also pretty decent. The other 5 are a bit underwhelming, though some combo well with expansion decks.Considering each deck and how they stack up with the expansions;Zombies - possibly the strongest deck in the game. Can easily retrieve and play discarded minionsRobots - can build up their power very rapidly, also one of the top 3 factions. Puts a strain on everyone's math skills.Wizards - can play lots of actions, but doesn't have many great actions to playTricksters - other players discard randomly if they mess with them, but this easily is avoided and actually helps some other playersAliens - great at returning cards back to their players hands, not so great at playing them againNinjas - can make last-minute changes to their power as a base is scoring, but not usually enough to helpDinosaurs - some super high-power minions, but no way to get them into play.Pirates - great at moving around, but this isn't very helpful.Pirates become more useful with Plants (Awesome Level 9000) and Monkeys (Science Fiction Double Feature).Aliens can help out with the Cthulhu expansion and can be a good counter to Monkeys (SFDF) and Bears (9000).We rarely play Tricksters, Dinosaurs and Ninjas. In Science Fiction Double Feature, the Cyborg Monkeys seem like what Dinosaurs was trying to be, but more flexible. Secret Agents are a better version of Ninjas. Instead of allowing you to kill weak minions (there's not that many weak-but-useful minions to kill) and replace your own minions with better ones (why not just play the better minion to start with?), Secret Agents let you mess with other people's decks and peek at what's coming up.The trickster's power of making other people discard if they affect your minions with their actions is more of a liability than a help. Ghosts and Zombies benefit heavily from discarding things, so they'll actually want to target your tricksters. Everyone else can just avoid targeting them, or take the chance that the 1 or 2 cards they have to discard won't be anything they were planning to use.

Smash Up is an epic card game that puts sci-fi staples (called factions) like pirates, robots, and wizards at odds with one another as players battle, deceive, and back-stab for control of various bases. The big twist is: each player gets to mix two factions to create interesting combinations of their favorite themes. This means you end up with robot-pirates duking it out with ninja-aliens and zombie-dinosaurs. What's not to love about that?The artwork is stunning, and gives this game the look and feel of a Michael Bay style epic fight movie. When I play my indestructible Warbot, the card's detailed depiction of a thickly armored death machine, standing stoically in the remains of a decimated battleground, can really drive the point home that he's a force to be reckoned with. One of the things that sets the artwork in this game apart from almost everything else is that every single card has the same high level of quality and detail. Even the more mundane cards are dripping with faction-specific theme so that you never really feel like you're playing a card that any other player has.The basic mechanics of Smash Up are simple: on your turn, you may play one action and one minion card, then draw two cards from your deck; but this simplicity is deceptive. Practically every card in this game does something extra. Some cards let you play extra minions, while others let you switch out a base for one of your choosing. The different effects these cards can have are as varied as the cards themselves, because no two factions possess the same cards. This brings me to the true excellence of this game. Smash Up was designed in such a way that every faction is overpowered, to the point where almost every card you play will elicit a "that's not fair!" from the other players.Here's a typical exchange: you draw and play a King Rex (a T-Rex with a missile launcher strapped to his back, and the most powerful minion in the game), and laugh maniacally. Then the player to your left announces that his aliens have decided to terraform the base your King Rex is on, so that now you get no points for playing your awesome card, and then he laughs maniacally. The person to his left plays a trickster card that prevents anyone but himself from playing minions on the newly terraformed base, and thus becomes the only player to score points on that base. The player then laughs maniacally.The overpowered nature of every faction plays into the epic theme completely, as it creates a game where any card played can be a game-changer. Of course, since each faction is overpowered, the game is remarkably well balanced, and rarely will a player end a game thinking they didn't stand a chance.This is simply one of the most fun games out there, and it is especially welcome during my board game nights because it offers a bit of a break from the sterile European style games. So if you enjoy epic sci-fi themes, well-designed games with quality components, and laughing maniacally, Smash Up is a must-have game.