MLEM: Space Agency

• Designer: Reiner Knizia
• Artist: Joanna Rzepecka
• Graphic Designers: Joanna Rzepecka and Bartłomiej Kordowski
• Publisher: Rebel Studio
• Players: 2-5
• Playing Time 30-60 minutes
• Played three times, with three players each, on Board Game Arena

Do you like cats? Do you like space? Do you like Can’t Stop? Well, Reiner Knizia has put them all together in his new game, MLEM: Space Agency.

First off, let’s address the elephant in the room – what the heck is MLEM? I had no idea and had to Google it. Apparently, and sources differ on this, it’s the action or sound an animal makes when it sticks out its tongue. Yeah, really. Apparently it’s something that’s often associated with cats and since the game is about cats, well, there ya go.

But before we even get to the review, is MLEM: Space Agency even a good name? No, it’s not. Are there much better names? Yes, there is. Why wasn’t it called “Cats in Space”? Or “Space Cats”? Either one of those would have been awesome. But I digress.

Let’s get to the important stuff, shall we? Like what’s the game like?

In Cats in Sp… uh, MLEM: Space Agency (henceforth known as MSA), each player has a set of 8 catstronauts with the idea of landing them on various moons and planets to get points.

The game is played as a series of expeditions. During each expedition, each player loads a cat onto a shared spaceship. A marker representing the ship is then placed on the board at the beginning of a long track that winds between a number of moons and planets.

Once the ship is loaded, one player, dubbed the “commander”, takes the dice and rolls them. The commander then chooses which dice to use and moves the ship along the track. I’ll save you from an explanation of the whole dice selection mechanic but suffice it to say it’s pretty straightforward and includes a touch of strategy.

Once the ship has moved, each player can decide whether to disembark their cat onto an adjacent moon or planet. If there are cats that want to stay on the ship, the dice are rolled again and the ship is moved further along the track.

So why would you want to stay on the ship? Simple – the points on the moons and planets get better as you go further along the track. There is a downside, though (and you knew this was coming), if you roll the wrong dice, the ship crashes and any cats still on the ship are returned to the owner’s stock (they don’t die, of course, they have nine lives). An expedition can also end if all the cats on the ship have disembarked.

After the expedition is over, a new one starts. Another set of cats are loaded and the process begins anew.

There are two game end conditions. First, if someone has disembarked all their cats, the game is over. Also, each time the ship crashes, a token is moved along another track – the wonderfully named “cosmic failure track” – and if you reach its terminus, the game ends. Players then tally up their moon points, which are straight victory points, and planet points, where there is an area majority thing. Whoever has the most points wins.

Two additional things: There are four goal tokens, five points each, which are awarded during the game to the first player that reaches the goal (say, having four cats on moons). Also, each catstronaut has a special power that may be used when it’s on an expedition, adding a little spice to the mix.

Some additional variants are also available in the rules if you want some additional spice. I haven’t tried them, as I like the game enough with just the base rules, but it’s nice to know they are available.

As for the components, I did play the game online so I can’t speak firsthand about them. However, pictures indicate a high quality production, with a nice neoprene-ish play mat for the board. The art is quite well done and quite whimsical – one planet is a ball of yarn – greatly adding to the theme of the game.

So enough yakking, what’s my conclusion? I liked the game a lot. I thought the design was well done and it was a lot of fun – most of the fun comes from the ribbing and cajoling that goes along with push-your-luck type games.

It’s not super strategic – it’s a light to medium weight game – and there’s a ton of dice rolling so there’s going to be a lot of luck. However, there is enough strategy that I found it not only fun but engaging.

It wasn’t just me – all of the other players I played it with enjoyed it as well. After our game was done and we all signed off, one player actually went straight to a retailer’s website and ordered a copy. If that’s not an endorsement, I don’t know what is.

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers:

Alan H: I enjoyed the game enough to buy it as I think it’s a great end of evening game. It’s more complicated than Can’t Stop, but there is some player gossip as you consider whether to press forward or jump off. The choice of catstronaut is an extra element but adds rather than detracts from the game. It’s about the right length of time for this type of game and it’s fun. 

(The physical copy of the game has a mat for the shop track as well as player boards to store your astronauts – surely not necessary (?) and the rest of the components are all punched out cardboard pieces with a couple of wooden markers. All is completely functional.)

Matt C: I’m a fan of the quick-playing Cloud 9, which sounds like it has many similarities. Roll dice, move upward, hop off just in time, etc… I wouldn’t mind it with a cat theme and it looks like there’s a few extra flavors for scoring. In Cloud 9, one just wanted to get as high as possible in a set number of runs. Having set goals (and whatever the additional spice-rules are) would be an interesting addition.

Patrick Brennan: A dice-rolling push-your-luck game that seems more mechanically social than the norm because, rather than each player playing their own thing on their turn, everyone’s in the group mission and each may have different aims, urging the leader in different ways. Your first decision is seeing what cat power the leader takes, which generally gives an indication of how much risk they might take this mission, and then choosing your cat power accordingly (aiming to bail out early or late, and be sabotage-y or helpful appropriately). There’s quite some banter along the way then, with the next major decision being when to bail out and take the points on offer for progress so far. In the end, the dice will rule but there’s just the right number of missions to feel you’ve made meaningful choices towards your score. It’s nicely replayable, especially with a bigger group of 5 players (even if a little long maybe at the bigger player counts). 

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers:

• I Love It: Alan H
• I Like It: Rick Thornquist, Patrick Brennan
• Neutral: 
• Not for Me: