Space Lab

• Designers: Corentin Lebrat, Johannes Goupy
• Publisher: Studio H 
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 10+
• Time: 20 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link: 
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Interest in space research is at an all-time high. Across the world, dozens of space labs launch, hoping to uncover the universe’s secrets!  Launch your very own international space station! Recruit members from the world’s four largest space agencies to create the ideal team and complete the most prestigious projects outer space has to offer!

Space Lab is an exciting and accessible tableau-building game full of interesting decisions.
On your turn, collect all the cards from the same agency from the top of the deck or the recruitment center. Manage your hand and place your Lab cards around your Capsules intelligently to optimize their powers and your objectives. Watch the pace of the game to anticipate the end and maximize your score!

Shuffle the decks of 60 lab cards and 23 project cards and place them on the table.  The three stacks of boost tiles are also placed on the table, in descending value in each stack.  Each player constructs their Space Station with 3 capsule pieces, leaving space between each for a card – there will be ten possible card spaces.  Players also draw 3 objective tiles and place one inside each capsule.  

On a turn, there are 3 possible choices: 1) Draw 3 lab cards, 2) Take cards from the Recruitment Agency, 3) Place lab cards from your hand to your Space Lab.

1] Draw 3 Lab Cards – reveal 3 Lab Cards from the deck, choose one Space Agency, and add all the cards which show the icon of that agency to your hand.  The unchosen cards go to the table into the Recruitment Center area (try to group them by agency)

2] Take cards from the Recruitment Center – Choose any one space agency and take all the cards of that Agency from the Recruitment Center into your hand

3] Play cards from your hand to your Space Lab – play one or more cards from your hand, paying the cost for each by discarding other cards. You must take this action if you have 5 or more cards in your hand.  As you place the card, resolve any immediate bonuses on the card (such as drawing a project card) or from the slot you placed in as well as checking to see if you have completed an objective – by having 3 lab cards adjacent to the capsule with icons matching those on the objective tile.  When you meet the goal, take the topmost boost tile from the corresponding stack in the supply.

The game continues around the table until either a player places their 10th lab card or completes their 3rd objective.  When this happens, all other players get a chance to play any cards they can from their hands (following the regular rules).  Now, use the scorepad to score each player’s lab:

• Points from each of their lab cards (see bottom left corner – may be a fixed amount or based on cards played)
• Points from Boost Tiles 
• Points for Project cards

The player with the most points wins. Ties broken in favor of the player with the most project cards.

My thoughts on the game

So, the game genre of the year in France must be the tableau builder, and Johannes Goupy is one of the most prolific designers in this area in recent years.  I had not heard about Space Lab prior to Spiel 2025, but it definitely caught my eye in my Studio H meeting.  Though there is a bit of fatigue with the genre, I still find myself suggesting games like Faraway and Castle Combo at game night, so I’m obviously not yet tired of them!

Here, players are placing (up to) ten cards around their three space station modules.  Each player will have slightly different positional needs based on the goal tiles placed in the center of each module.   Once you have placed a few cards, the scoring criteria on previously played cards will then also direct your strategy.

The distribution of cards here has a bit more luck than usual; when you draw 3 cards, you take all the cards of a single color, leaving the rest on the table.  If you’re good at drawing, you’ll often draw pairs or trips of a color, and this can be good for building up your hand size – that will then allow you to play your more expensive cards.  Of course, the hand limit of 5 cards does mean that you can’t simply take higher volumes of cards because you’ll still want to pick and choose the specific cards that will benefit your space lab the most when placed around one of your modules. 

As you would expect, in general, the better cards have a higher cost – so this still ends up benefitting the player who draws the best OR the player who goes right after the sucky drawer – because then the most cards are placed in the center to be taken.

That being said, there is also some value in playing cards quickly, as the bonuses on the boost tiles (which are granted when you complete a module) are better for doing it earlier in the game – of course, this is still easier to do when you have more cards in your hand to spend.

To continue on the luck theme, the game is also fairly reliant on project cards – you draw these at random and they can have hugely differing point valuations at the end of the game.  I.e. if you are lucky enough to collect enough of the set collection project, you can run away with the final score.

As there are only a maximum of ten slots to play around your modules, this game will never take too long.  Because of this, the luck issues don’t really bother me – it’s just part of the game and it sets it apart from some of the other tableau builders.  I’m sure that we’ll keep playing this as an opener or a filler this winter, but it doesn’t seem like this one will supplant Castle Combo or Faraway in the permanent stable of tableau builders for me.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it.
• Neutral. Dale
• Not for me…