For those who don’t know Battle Systems, they were first born out of founder Colin Young’s love of making 3D model terrain for 28mm wargame systems. Fully coloured and printed on thick, wipeable cardboard they complemented leading games in both the sci-fi and fantasy worlds. From there it was but a small step to developing their own games and thus the genesis of the Core Space Universe. First Core Space itself and now (ironically?) First Born.
Terroir and terror
Like a fine wine Battle Systems games are all about the terrain. Throw in a dash of Alienesque like horror and you’ve got everything you need to know about Core Space and First Born. If we consider Ridley Scott’s genre setting masterpiece, Core Space leans heavily on Chris Foss’s artwork of the Nostromo space tug while First Born is more of the H.R.Giger inspired Alien planet. As it should be. The scenery is stunning and the quality is (literally?) out of this world.
The production values are top-notch with heavy duty cardboard, laminated so it can take dry-wipe pens for marking stats on the character dashboards. The 150+ walls, doorways, entrances, arches and terrain pieces all punch out really neatly. This is crucial as when they slot together or are linked with their clips they hold together firmly and don’t fall apart in use. All based on a standard 4” for a wall.
The pre-set scenarios are all well designed so the scenery builds to a good rigid structure which makes building the sets a pleasure. I must mention here that you need to find pleasure in this aspect: like Lego or K’nex, because you will spend time doing it. Colin in an introduction says to allow 15 minutes to set up. Well he is the master but it took me an hour – a very enjoyable hour may I add but more than 15 minutes!
Pillars, goody-holding Pods and Arks, Exhaust Vents, Dyson Reactor, Alien Console and True Born stasis chamber all require some pre-assembly before use. Mostly just push together firmly (very) and there are video guides available to aid you if needed. A spot of glue can be added to items that will remain assembled. Lids for vessels that will hold collectible items are easily on-and-offable and stay in place nicely.
The 18 well-sculpted miniatures are a delight, from the brave Traders and Game Hunters through the dozen First Born up to the terrifying 8cm high Rock Worms. All bar the 5 Drones have individual detailed poses and the Drones themselves are on clear plastic stalks to simulate their hovering. In coloured resin: grey for the Traders, green for First Born and Orange for Neutral NPCs to distinguish them on the battlefield but I will paint them up (eventually!) as their characterisation sets them apart.
If that wasn’t enough, to round it all off, there is a 2ft square luxury neoprene mat. This is not only printed with a fantastic detailed depiction of the alien catacombs but also a really useful 1” gridded square overlay. This means movement is as easy as on a chess board and also enables recto-linear alignment of your terrain.
Tell me a Story
First Born is an immersive solo skirmish adventure game. It is at its best when you invest in the characters and their developing careers; whereas its worst aspect is being in the hands of Lady Luck’s die rolls! Developers who are not operating in a pre-defined SF world: Star Wars; Star Trek: Alien etc. have to build their own and create a comprehensive cosmos for their adventurers to exist in. Colin Young and Wayne Abela have achieved this admirably, starting with Core Space with its various competing Traders and their ships dicing (!) with the perils of the robotic Purge and moving on through the various expansions and add-ons to arrive at First Born.
Yes First Born is a somewhat different system but it shares a lot of its DNA with the original. Indeed a fair amount of the rulebook is cut and paste from Core Space. The differences lie in the new protagonists being a sentient species rather than robots and the game being geared to a Solo Crew. It is also, in my view, harder. Colin and co are keen to stress how the two systems can interact together and new crews and/or equipment can be brought in although the new advanced Alien gear is only available from First Born. As ever they are keen to stress that you can write your own rules or scenarios and play about with the system.
There is a lot of narrative interwoven throughout: Character backgrounds, settings for the scenarios, including the introductory ones, and even the between combat steps of development and trading. You, of course, can tell your own stories of daring dashes to a stasis chamber or close encounters with a writhing giant space worm.
What We Do in the Shadows
Core Space games have a relentless timer in the form of the Hostility Tracker bringing ever increasing numbers of foes. In addition, First Born brings the dreaded purple Knowledge Die. This arrives along with any enemy above the 1st level, semi-sentient drones and introduces all sorts of mischief alongside the first attack of a Liege or above in a round. This makes an already tight game even harder as it upsets your carefully mapped out plans.
In fairness, this counteracts, somewhat, the player’s unnatural ability to see the whole layout of the battle space before opening doors or peering round corners. Whilst there is some randomness to the entry of the creatures all the Pods, Arks and equipment positions are known from the start. I’ve considered changing the set up so these items are placed randomly when a Trader can “see” into a room but doing so takes the joy of meticulously maximising your moves. So, I guess, the old purple people eater is a useful balance.
One footnote: as well as having detailed graphics on its faces the purple die also acts as a D6 with tiny numbers on for random selection. Very hard to read so do yourself a favour and use an ordinary D6. I know you’ve got one!
Tips & Tactics
These are my ideas, use or ignore as you will.
Efficiency is the key. You will always be pushed for time so aim to keep the Hostility Tracker (HT) down as much as possible. First in the Patrol phase keep out of sight of the Drones by creeping around. Once they are alerted the HT will jump forward a number of pegs. Use silent weapons and Close Combat to avoid adding ammunition pegs. The Regulate Skill can be used to take a peg from the HT, use this to avoid crossing a boundary line if possible.
The use of Skill Points (SP) is crucial, try to keep some in hand for emergency situations but don’t forget to use them. You’re not going to get any plaudits for bringing back a full rank of SP. When allocating Skills remember Passive Skills can be used multiple times and don’t use up your scarce SP. Make sure each Trader has at least one Passive Skill. I also lean towards Skills like level 2 Slippery which mean you can avoid or mitigate Attacks of Opportunity and glide past enemies to get to your target destination.
I also like Hack and Grab which gives you a very useful 2 extra Actions for 1 SP. But, hey, make your own choices, that’s the fun of First Born and Core Space. Choosing the right skills and equipment and upgrading as you go along is what it is all about.
So STAS – Salvage/Trade/Adapt/Survive and have fun, Colin would want you to!
