What does a designer have to do to come up with a mad bastard of a game like Moon Colony Bloodbath?
I imagine Donny V. sat cross legged in the corner of some dark, windowless room for untold days, rocking, agitated, scrabbling through scraps of crushed paper, trying to make sense of feverish scribblings, broken fingernails catching unkempt hair and matted beard, and incoherent mutterings echoing off damp stone walls. “They’re coming”. “Deck building, of course, of course”. “We’re not in Kansas anymore”. “What about….what about a little 6 Nimmt? Yes. Yes. And Galaxy Trucker? I like Galaxy Trucker.” “Oh, and mad killer psycho robots…ha, what will they say now?... ”.
“Hands up, who wants to play a game of Moon Colony Bloodbath?”
“Me, me, pick me, pick me!”
I recently bought this game on the promise of the title, and the reputation of the designer, father of DomInion, Donald X. Vaccarino. And this 2025 title is no.1 in BGGs ‘hotness’ chart as I write. Does it live up to my expectations? Well, not entirely. Allow me to explain.
The aim of the game is to have the most survivors left picking through the twisted wreckage of a once thriving moon colony after rampaging robots and shoddy lunar workmanship have wiped out one player’s colony (or the Event deck runs out). Good stuff. Amusing theme and no player elimination.
What takes place during the course of a round is largely determined by the Progress Deck, the beating heart of the game, which players build together as the game progresses. On your turn, draw a card from the deck and everyone (in most cases) simply follows its instructions. Once the game is set up you are playing in minutes. So, the ‘teach’ is straightforward. See. I’ve just done it.
Among the event, development, robot, perk and twist cards that make up the Progress Deck are the four work cards, which allow players to take actions to build their colonies and prepare for the catastrophes to come. You can’t prevent the shit from hitting the fan, but you know what’s coming down the line and can mitigate against the worst effects. However, every action counts and time is not on your side. The player who manages best wins! For me, the luck to skill balance is about right and the better players will win more of the time.
There is more to admire about this design. The card draw from the Progress Deck becomes an event, inspiring exclamations and sometimes cheers, very much in keeping with the design intent. There is a sense of urgency in all that you do because you know the trajectory that the game is going to take and the blood letting starts early. If you take your eye off the ball you will find yourself in all sorts of trouble by the mid game. Moon Colony Bloodbath presents you with an exercise in planning and resilience that I find engaging. And nothing says ‘engine building goodness’ better than pulling off satisfying card combos to make your chums sit up.
Let’s be clear. Moon Colony Bloodbath is fun. From about halfway through ‘till the bloody carnage of the end game I feel like a one armed man hanging from a cliff who’s bum’s itchy. And yet, it might not be a game that I want to play regularly. I imagined that I’d be initiating the bloodbaths while trying to avoid being the victim of my opponents’ deceits in an interactive, take that, banterfest. However, in Moon Colony Bloodbath you are largely planning for and responding to the vagaries of the progress deck. And after a few games I feel I’ve seen most of what it has to offer.
Although good play involves keeping an eye on what your opponents are up to, there is no direct player interaction. Now, Nathalie likes this. She hates it when she spends the best part of a game building something beautiful only for some obnoxious git (me) to come stomping in and smash it all up for the win!!!! And the benefit of this for Moon Colony Bloodbath is that you can’t ’bash the leader’, so it doesn’t outstay its welcome like, say, Munchkin does.
But I’d rather play Kemet- the greatest engine building, dudes on a map, bash the leader with monster minis in existence- or similar titles.
In saying all of this, I wouldn’t turn down a game of Moon Colony Bloodbath. It’s fun. And everyone I’ve played this with thinks so too.
What you may like:
Watching your opponents sweat as the psycho killer robots dismantle their colonies.
The challenge of building an engine which can survive the inevitable onslaught.
Games usually take around 90 mins.
What you may not like:
Building a moon colony and then watching it being torn apart.
The lack of direct player interaction.
The story arc, while amusing, is largely fixed, which detracts somewhat from the desire to play repeatedly.
- Artwork and components 3/5
- Complexity 2/5
- Replayability 3/5
- Player interaction 2/5
- Fun 3/5
- Thematic 4/5
Overall score 70%
