Star Saga Mission B

I finally got round to playing Star Saga last night.  We had a couple of the Monday night D&D group absent, so three of us decided to give it a go.
Mission B - The Main Team in the missions book is for 3 Mercenaries, and the rules contain an A.I. system, so that seemed to be our best bet.

As you can see, despite receiving this some time ago, I haven't painted anything yet, partly as I always have a huge pile of 'urgent' things to paint, and partly as I wanted to see if the game was any good.

If you don't know Star Saga, it's Mantic's SF board game set in their Warpath universe.  The mechanics are similar to their fantasy game Dungeon Saga, and like that game and Dwarf King's Hold, it had a forerunner in Project Pandora.

Players control Mercenaries exploring a lab complex and fighting the various lab technicians, security guards and marines.  The whole series of missions tell a story, one of corporate greed and corruption, and black budget experimentation.

Some of the characters have been introduced in earlier Mantic products, such as Blaine and Wrath, the only violent Judwaan.  Others will make interesting additions to the Warpath universe, and I will paint up some of the Mercenaries as additions to my Rebs force.

So was it any good?  Well yes, we really enjoyed it!  The game ran smoothly, and the rules were pretty easy to follow (although I misread the hit points of the lab technicians, so they were an easier kill).  Mantic's decision to include training missions (as the did in Dungeon Saga) and an A.I. make it very easy to access the game.  Using the A.I. is pretty intuitive, much better than the one in Dungeon Saga, which I found overly picky and seemed a bit 'tacked on', though the game is easier for the Mercenaries than it would be with a human (or other sentient species) as Nexus player.

Components wise the game is well done.  The minis are some of Mantic's best one piece plastics, in my opinion.  One of the scenery pieces (the table with benches) is a beast to try and straighten out though.  Several goes with the hot water treatment didn't help much.  The rest of the pieces are pretty good.

I'm sure we will be playing again.  It won't replace D&D or other role playing, but it it s good game to have in the stable for the right situation, and it would be fun to play through the campaign.