Crash & Grab
- Board's Eye View
- 21 minutes ago
- 3 min read
You're a space-hopping alien whose flying saucer has crash landed on Earth. Your crew left the saucer in escape pods but they are scattered on the Earth's surface. That's the premise of Pull the Pin's Crash & Grab. We've explained the Crash but the Grab comes in assembling your crew: ideally you want to man your saucer with your own pilot, scientist, doctor and engineer but as long as you have all these specialists on board, it doesn't matter if they were your original crew members or if they are crew from other ships - just Grab who you can.
The game is played on a modular board that forms an 8 x 8 grid for a 2-4 player game, 9 x 9 with five players, and 10 x 10 with a full complement of six players. There's an indicator placed out on each edge to distinguish directions - maybe if the aliens had actual compasses they wouldn't have crashed in the first place :-) Players' flying saucers start off on the board at randomised spaces, and on your turn you select which of your three movement cards you want to use and place it face down so that the direction you want to move tucks into the corner of your individual saucer board. A custom six-sided direction die determines the order in which players' moves are activated; important because players are racing each other to pick up crew members and because tho' Crash & Grab is light-hearted game, it's most definitely a 'take that' game where you can sabotage another player by crashing into their saucer and sending it flying off the board.
There's some compensation for players whose turn is after all or most of the others: if you have an override token you can react to other players' choices by re-selecting your direction instead of being stuck with the direction you chose.
There's quite a lot more. The movement cards which offer less flexibility can earn you a booster or energy token. Booster tokens can be traded in to take an additional move in any orthogonal direction: handy for manoeuvring into position to grab a crew member. You can trade in two energy cubes to claim an upgrade card that gives your saucer a permanent ability. Accelerator icons on the board give you extra movement, but if you get bumped onto an accelerator by another saucer your momentum may well send you careering off the board. Crew members of your own colour can never be stolen from you but any crew from other saucers are vulnerable to being grabbed from you if your saucer crashes off the board.
With Crash & Grab, Brian Henk and Clayton Skancke have designed a joyfully chaotic game that combines set collection with a strong element of deduction, bluffing and sheer push-your-luck bravado. As it's from Pull the Pin Games, it comes in a magnetically sealed box that you pull out of its slip case with a grenade-type pin. Each of the six alien races have their own distinct illustrations from Loïc Billiau and each comes with its own 'matchbox' for storing its saucer and cardboard components. The game is due to launch tomorrow on Kickstarter. Click here to check it out.