Matthew BaileyThe boys fancied something a bit more grown-up today so we decided to play a game we haven’t played for a while, so, therefore, game 11 of the “Bailey Family Sorta Summer Board Game Bonanza” is “Space Marine Adventures: Rise of the Orks” played by myself Jack(7) and Toby (4).
My usual post like this disclaimer: My kids have grown up playing board games and therefore are very capable. Your mileage may vary and this is largely to document my experience playing this with a 4 and 7-year-old. The Box states 10+.
I have also decided to start posting prices and current availability following on from previous questions in previous posts. (tomorrow I will go back and add to the last few posts for this Summer).
“Space Marine Adventures: Rise of the Orks” is an “up to 5-player cooperative tower defence game set in the Warhammer 40k universe.
Regardless of how many players there are you always play as 5 space marines defending fuel cells from invading waves of orks. I controlled 2 marines as did Jack, with Toby controlling 1.
The amount of orks that come varies depending on the difficulty selected but essentially each round you draw a set number of orks out of a bag and place them in one of 6 locations on the table depending on a dice roll.
You then have a turn for each of your marines where you can move and attack. Each marine plays differently and has different abilities. There are also a number of extra abilities you can pick up from supply drops along the way.
Once your turn is over the orks then march towards the generators intent on destroying them and attacking you if you are in their way.
It’s actually a fairly simple game to play and Toby(4) completely understood it but found prioritizing certain enemies over others tricky and Jack(7) was 100% there.
It’s a fun little game and something I am not sure has an equal in the pure kid game genre.
Component quality is good with decent cardboard and the insert is fantastic if you store your games horizontal but bad if you store them vertically. The miniatures are as always for Games Workshop of extremely high quality but note they need to be assembled (push fit so pretty easy). I have painted mine as can be seen so please don’t think they look like this out of the box. It would have been nice to have miniatures instead of cardboard discs for the orks but this would have upped the price considerably.
Overall this is a strong game and a good intro to the world of Warhammer. It’s pretty easy rulewise and the challenge can be adjusted.
This has been part of our semi-regular played collection for a few years now and it’s good fun. My only comment would be I wish there was more variety in the orks in terms of their abilities.
A def recommendation (obviously under my usual “not child” game disclaimer).
