Ok, with that intro, it’s only appropriate that you play the opening scene with Tank!. If not, here’s a link. Go on I’ll wait.
Alright, now that we’re all grooving, let’s talk about the board game. Jasco, along with Sunshine and Funimation, has delivered us Cowboy Bebop Boardgame Boogie, a 1-4 player fully cooperative strategy game. This is another game where the theme is the game. All the art and components are directly from the Anime. You feel immersed in the Bebop universe when playing.
Each player is one of the crew of the Bebop, and in addition to catching bounties, each player has a character-specific session to complete. For example, for Jet, it could be dealing with the criminal who took his arm, or for Faye, the debts she owes. Players need to keep the Bebop flying, not starve and complete their personal session objectives to win.
To start, take the Bebop console board and place the woolong (money), food, and gas markers in the 5 slot. Take the three zip craft standees and put them in the hanger. Separate the leads into, sector, location, and environment placing them in their designated spaces below the main board. Layout the 5 sector boards, and place the Bebop along Mars and the standee for each character in the game on the Bebop. Shuffle the event cards into a face-down pile and do the same with the contacts. Finally, shuffle and take 9 bounties and form the bounty deck. Take three and place them in their starting position as indicated on their card. You are ready to go.
There are two phases on a players turn. The first is the Event phase. The current player draws and resolves the event. Other players cannot assist in resolving the current player’s event.
Once the event is completed, the player moves to the action phase. Each player can perform three actions on their turn. They are move, move the Bebop, enter/exit zip craft, interact, chase bounties, use a special action, or complete session.
A move action allows a player to move to/from the bebop when it is orbiting the same sector as the player. A player can also move to one of the four locations in a sector (bar, shop, spaceport or contact).
A player can move the Bebop to another sector by spending 1 fuel.
Enter/Exit zip craft allows a player to enter their specific craft, (moving the craft is not an action, but also costs 1 fuel.
Interact allows a player to use one of the sector’s locations. The bar allows players to refresh all their exhausted action cards back in their hands. The spaceport and shop are where players can buy food(shop) or fuel (spaceport). Contact allows a player to draw and resolve a contact card. This is the main way players earn leads. Leads are how to track bounties.
Each character has a special action they can perform on their character cards.
Chasing bounties allows a player to track and capture one of the three bounty cards in play. To perform a chase, a player takes a combination of location cards that are in play. Each bounty has a last seen location and the combination must include it. If a player is at a location the bounty was last seen and can match all three cards in play, (sector, location, and terrain) the player takes the three location cards and collects the bounty.
Next using action cards, the player or players complete the required actions by discarding them into their tableau. Each action card has 1 or more action symbols, and a player discards them to match the bounties required pattern.
Finally, they draw the required number of jams by playing an action card that meets the required symbol found on an event card. For jams, only the jam symbol is used, the cards other effects are ignored. If successful, the bounty is captured and the team gains the reward. A new bounty is drawn and placed in its starting location.
The last action, completing a session is similar to chasing bounties. Each session has two parts, and the player must complete the first part before moving on to the second. To complete a part, like a bounty, there is a combination of actions and jams to overcome. Also, other players in the same sector can contribute action cards to help. If all players complete both parts of their session, the players win!
I really like this game! I put into the same kind of game as Firefly, but easier to set up. Mechanics wise, I really like the use of action cards. It is a nice change from the roll for successes. This puts it more into a Euro-style game. Players mitigate luck and complete tasks by decision making. I enjoy the cooperative elements as well. Players helping each other as a crew works great for this theme. Like the anime, the game is slick and stylish. The layout and set up time is simple, less time than most games of its type. With multiple combinations, the game has good replayability, even if the sessions are the same. As I said, the theme is the game.
For fans of the anime, I am sure it will be a great choice. As it is so new, the only video out is from the demo at Gencon 2018 with Boardgame Geek.
Written by Ed Carter
