Maybe it's a sign of the times but there seems to have been a spate of games of late where the theme is predicated on the extinction of humanity and its replacement by another species. After Us (Catch Up Games) was themed around simian civilisation, Apiary (Stonemaier Games) gave us bees in space, and now, in MLEM Space Agency from Rebel Studio and Asmodee, it's cats that have replaced man, with players fielding teams of space-faring felines.
MLEM Space Agency is a push-your-luck game designed by Reiner Knizia. Starting with the 'commander' (current first player), each of the 2-5 players places one of their cat astronauts on a rocket ship that progresses provided at least one of the custom six-sided dice rolled match the requirements of the position the rocket ship is on. The die faces are 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 'afterburner'. The commander moves the rocket the number of places along the track corresponding to the dice used; they don't have to use all the dice that would allow them to move but if a number is used, the commander must use all the dice that show that number. When numbered dice are used for movement they are lost to that journey, but 'afterburner' rolls that are used are not lost (ie: you get to roll the dice again for the rocket's next move). You can see tho' that the dice pool is likely to disappear quite quickly, making the 25-space track on the game's metre-long neoprene mat seem impossible to achieve. However, the dice pool available to the commander is never reduced below one, and even with just one die you've usually got a 33-50% chance of success. Fail tho' to match any of the numbers at your location and your ship crashes... Those cats still on board won't usually score any points for the voyage but any that have abandoned the ship before it crashed will earn points depending on the moon or planet to which they disembarked.
If this sounds similar to Celestia (BLAM) that's because it is. On the downside, the point differences between locations in MLEM Space Agency are much smaller than in Celestia so on the face of it there doesn't seem to be such a strong risk/reward payoff for pushing your luck. On the plus side tho' each of the players' eight cat astronauts has a different special effect, so players may choose to deploy astronauts that better incentivise certain actions. For example, players all have an astronaut that scores double the points value of any moon on which they disembark... You'll have an astronaut that lets you disembark one space higher or lower than the position at which you abandon ship and you'll even have an astronaut with a parachute (tho' thematically that really ought to be an escape pod) that means you don't crash with the rocket.
Cat astronauts that disembark (or 'parachute' to safety) remain on the moon or planet on which they've landed; those who crash get returned to their owner so can be redeployed on a subsequent voyage. The game ends when a player has all eight of their cat astronauts out on locations on the board or when the rocket has crashed 11 times; the win then going to the player with the most points. And with the relatively narrow distinction between the points values of the various locations, it's often the most effective tactical deployment of your astronaut powers that separates the winner from the runners up.
MLEM Space Agency is at its most enjoyable with four or five players; it's playable with two but it can feel like a bit of a damp squib with such an empty rocket. If you're playing with just two, you might want to try the house rule we experimented with at Board's Eye View: each loading two cat astronauts on the rocket. That has the additional effect of shortening the playing time which you may find advantageous as the basic game of MLEM Space Agency can otherwise run rather long for a push-your-luck game.
There are components included for several variants. These are described in the rules as 'advanced' but in truth none of them add hugely to the game's complexity and we found they generally made the game play more quickly. The UFO variant adds tokens that can give extra points, tho' sometimes at the cost of rolling fewer dice. Explorations adds tokens to the rocket track which can incentivise the commander to push on, as when reached they typically award points or some other bonus to the commander. Secret Missions gives each player secret objectives to have an astronaut at a location within the narrow range shown on their tokens. These supplement the public objectives that are ordinarily available to the first player who, for example, has four astronauts on four moons.
MLEM Space Agency is a very accessible game that all the family can play. The otherwise peripheral cat theme makes good use of Joanna Rzepecka's art and the metre-long neoprene playing mat is a joy to use. Oh, and if you assumed MLEM was an acronym and have been struggling to work out what it stands for, we can save you the bother: mlem is apparently the word for a cat (or dog) sticking their tongue out. It also sums up the push-your-luck dilemma at the heart of this game because mlem also means 'that indescribable feeling of wanting to do something but not wanting to do it'!
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