Andromeda's Edge

The comparison I see most, and the one that clicked for me too once I’d played it, is that this is Dwellings of Eldervale reskinned into space, engine building and worker-adjacent mechanics wrapped around a sci-fi faction theme. That’s not a knock, Dwellings is a good template to borrow from, but it does mean the theme sits a little loosely on top of the mechanics for me. You’re flying to any planet freely unless you’ve already got a ship deployed nearby, which makes sense as a rule and not much sense as a story about space travel, and I noticed that seam more than once mid-game.

Where the game genuinely earns its price tag is the production. This is a toy-factor game in the best sense, building miniatures that actually do something rather than just sitting there, a packing guide inside the lid that every big box game should be copying at this point. I spent most of an evening just sleeving cards and organizing the insert and enjoyed doing it, which tells you something about how much care went into the components.

The engine takes a while to spin up though, and I’ve had games where my meaningful turns only came around every fourth round or so, with the turns in between feeling more like maintenance than decisions. Setup ran long a couple of times too, long enough that it ate into how much actual play we got out of a weeknight session. It’s a game that rewards a slower, more deliberate table, and if your group wants a faster clip you’ll feel that drag. Solo mode against the Unity faction is solid though, better balanced than I expected from a box this component heavy.

Gorgeous, a little theme-thin, worth the table time if you’ve got a full evening to give it.