Black Angel Review
Image: Pearl Games
INTRODUCTION
Expectation is truly a fickle mistress; capable of lifting you to the highest peaks of exuberance and sinking you to the bottom of the abyss of desolation, all with a snap of a finger. Thus, I find myself dragging my feet with this particular review of Black Angel, a spiritual successor to Troyes which happens to be a personal favourite of mine. Ever since publisher Pearl Games announced that authors Sébastien Dujardin, Xavier Georges and Alain Orban would collaborate with artist extraordinaire Ian O’Toole in bringing a science-fiction themed reimplementation I have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of Black Angel, the question though is will it exceed my rather high expectations?
COMPONENTS
On his web site artist Ian O’Toole shares his creative process regarding the game in question: “Pearl Games, the publishers of Black Angel, were looking for a unique look for their space themed game. In order to give the game its own distinctive visual style, I moved away from the typical blacks and blues that are often used in science fiction games, and instead utilised bright, vibrant streaks of colour to suggest the Black Angel ship moving through space at high speeds.” The result is a board game that is striking to behold to say the least; with its palette of bright pink, cobalt blue and turquoise Black Angel certainly stands out from the rest of the crowd. This unique look also includes the individual player components, gone are the more traditional colours in favour for burgundy red, sweet pink or baby blue. As for the rest of the components they are of high quality throughout, I am especially fond of the tiny robot miniatures and their little flying saucer shaped pods that they use to traverse the space board. Instead of wooden cubes we are treated to diamond shaped acrylic tokens symbolizing resources. Are they necessary? Not at all, however they do provide a nice tactile experience that also happens to look pretty on the player board.
Black Angel is definitely a visual treat with its bold colours and bright icons. Photo: Fredrik Schulz
OVERVIEW
It is the future and humanity is on the brink of extinction. We have exhausted the natural resources as a direct consequence of our selfish and irresponsible behaviour and now our once lush planet is dying. We look up at the stars in the night sky in search of answers and a sense of hope. Forced by the prospect of impending doom, the leading nations decide to pool their remaining resources and knowledge in order to construct the first ever intergalactic frigate: Black Angel. This vessel will carry the human genetic code throughout a journey that will last several thousand years as we search for a new planet to call home. The Black Angel will be fully automated, piloted and maintained by a collection of artificial intelligence systems which share the directive of guiding the vessel to the planet Spes where humankind can create a new Utopia for herself. In order to safely and efficiently reach this new home world the artificial systems on board the Black Angel will be under scrutiny from the Validation Process, earning them VP.
Looking at the main board and the vast number of different symbols and icons that it presents through the graphical interface, it is easy to get the impression that Black Angel is a heavy game in terms of rules complexity. There is certainly a lot to digest and mull over so let us start from the beginning. At its core Black Angel is a dice placement game. Players will use their own and sometimes their opponents dice in order to activate locations on either the main alternatively the space board and perform their corresponding action. The game is divided into two main phases. Sequence A, where players will activate technology tiles on their individual board and then proceed to place a die and perform the corresponding action. And Sequence B, which acts as a “reset and refresh” phase where players acquire new dice and move the Black Angel miniature one step closer to the final destination.
Each colour represents a category of actions associated with one of the three alien races. Photo: Fredrik Schulz
There are three main areas of interest: the titular spaceship, the space board and finally the individual player board. Each of these parts share associated mechanisms that interlink with one another. The spaceship board acts as a central “hub” from which the various action locations affect the overall gameplay. These areas of interest are colour-coded and correspond to one of the three alien races that the ships AI’s can interact with during Black Angel’s voyage through distant galaxies. The orange locations are for acquiring new technology tiles which players add to their individual board and also for carrying out missions for the ingenious Meluriens. The grey locations are for repairing the Black Angel and missions associated with the technically advanced Xhavits. Finally, the green action locations are for destroying the aggressive species the Ravages in addition to carrying out mission for the nomadic tribe Tsoths.
If you have played Troyes, then a lot of the underlying mechanisms in Black Angel will seem familiar. Take for example the Ravager cards. Much like the threat cards in Troyes, players will need to take into account the fact that the Ravager cards will start to pile up on the Black Angel board if left unchecked. These cards penalise the current action location with a negative effect that needs to be resolved before taking the actual action, for example players having do discard a card from hand or add a damage cube to a dice. In addition, these aforementioned damage cubes may also have a negative impact on the location, potentially weakening the selected die by a value of minus one and therefore making the action less effective. In order to counteract the onslaught of these threats’ players will use the green or grey action locations to remove the Ravager cards and/or damage cubes from the spaceship board. This creates an almost symbiotic, “semi-cooperative” relationship between the players. You are not obliged to act upon these threats to the Black Angel, but then again if you do not well then eventually all participants will suffer the consequences.
Once removed these cards and cubes are then converted into positive resources for the player, especially in regard to the Individual player board. Each board is divided into a 3 x 3 grid where players will place technology tiles. These tiles are the main source of income: providing you with resources, additional robots i.e. worker meeples or the ability to move said robots on the space board (more on that in just a little while). Every player starts with a trio of basic technology tiles; over the course of the game you will be able to acquire new tiles by utilizing the orange location on the Black Angel board. Much like every other aspect of the game, the technology tiles are color-coded in the same manner as the cards and locations. The reason for this is that in order to activate your technology tiles you need to play down a card of corresponding colour. Let us say for example that one of my three rows contain two orange and one green card. If I play a yellow card, then I am able to activate the orange and only the orange tiles. The same principle is applied for the other colors. However, if I was to play a Ravager card then I could activate all the technology tiles on the chosen row or column regardless of their colour. This mechanism is interesting for several reasons. First, it creates an incentive to actually get rid of those pesky Ravager cards that are clogging up the action locations on the Black Angel board. Secondly, it presents you with the agonizing decision of how to best make use of your cards you hold in hand. Do you play your currently only orange card in order to activate a set of technology tiles, or do you hold on to it for later use as a mission card on the space board? Another key aspect regarding the technology tiles are those who will score additional VP nut only at the end of the game. This so-called Advanced Technology generates points for having a certain number of X colour tiles on your grid, remaining Ravager cards in hand etcetera. The advanced technology tiles are inserted onto the 3 x 3 grid much like their basic counterpart, however if a player manages to “eject” said advanced tile as a result of acquiring additional tiles then they are eligible for even greater numbers of VP at the end of the game.
By placing “debris cubes” and/or cards, players are able to activate the technology tiles on their player board. Photo: Fredrik Schulz
The third and final area of operations is the space board. Here, players can carry out missions for one of the three alien races represented in the game. This entails players sending out their robots to the various planets currently surrounding the Black Angel figurine. Assume for a moment that you chose the orange action of deploying a drone, if said drone manages to end its movement on a hex containing an orange planet then you get the opportunity to play a Mission card of the same colour. These mission cards are the same ones you use for activating your technology tiles on the player board, which leads to the agonizing decision of whether or not to hold on to cards or use them for prior activation sequences. On the Space board, these mission cards serve one of two functions. They either provide you with an “action location”, allowing you to place a die and perform the associated action much in the same way as how the Black Angel board functions. But there are also the types of Mission cards that reward bonuses when they are ejected from the Space board. You see, in addition to acting as a second area for activating actions the Space board also fills the role of game timer. Remember the Sequence B I mentioned earlier? Every time a player would chooses to activate this aforementioned sequence, usually as a result of running out of dice to place, in addition to resetting their player board they also advance the Black Angel figurine one space forward towards the planet Spes. The Space board is constructed by 7 double-sided strips. As soon as the Black Angel advances forward the last strip of the conveyer belt is ejected and flipped over and finally placed at the very front of the line. As the last strip is ejected from the board so too are any mission cards that have previously been placed, potentially providing bonuses to both the owner of the card and any other player that has a drone on the card.
Playing various mission cards allows the player to perform additional actions with their dice. Photo: Fredrik Schulz
THE SOLO MODE
When solo playing Black Angel you will compete against the synthetic opponent known as HAL, who will stop at nothing in order to become the most efficient artificial system on board the interstellar vessel. Much like the multiplayer game, in the solo mode HAL will be allocating its dice on the various game boards in order to perform the associated action and reap the benefits. As to which particular action HAL chooses to activate on its turn is governed by a deck of solo cards. These cards are divided into two rows, each one depicting a colour that corresponds to the three different alien races and actions as previously described. Depending on which action you performed on your last turn and the current available dice pool HAL will try to execute one out of the two actions stipulated by the solo card. If neither of the suggested actions is applicable, then the artificial opponent simply scores three victory points before the turn passes back to you.
The artificial opponent known as HAL performs its actions based on a deck of cards. Photo: Fredrik Schulz
By allocating its dice HAL will end up earning assets during the course of the game. However, unlike a human opponent HAL never actually collect any resources when performing the various available actions. Instead, HAL will receive a set number of victory points according to a point conversation chart. For example, when taking the “repair Black Angel” action HAL scores two victory points per removed damage cube from the main board. The way the solo mode in Black Angel is designed creates a situation where the artificial opponent undoubtedly will rush ahead of you on the score track right out of the gate. It is easy to feel discouraged watching HAL accumulate massive amounts of points early in the game. However, much the story of the hare and the tortoise the slow and steady approach will reward you with victory points at the end of the game. The solo game ends in the same way as the multiplayer equivalent, when either the deck of Ravager cards runs out during a Sequence A alternatively the Black Angel reaching the planet Spes during Sequence B.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Earlier in this review I mentioned that expectation can be something of a fickle mistress, the risk of disappointment ever so present as we keep our fingers crossed hoping that the latest board game purchase will live up to our anticipation. Rarely has a saying been more appropriate then in the case of Black Angel. There is no denying the fact that my expectations were sky high prior to playing my first solo session, seeing as Troyes is a personal favourite of mine. But in the back of my head a mischievous voice was whispering words of despair; painting a mental picture of Black Angel not being up to snuff and me plummeting down the darkness known as disappointment. Thankfully, this nightmarish scenario turned out to be nothing more than a fever-dream. In my book, Black Angel is a board game well worth your time and precious shelf space.
