One Small Step is a game that I pre-ordered about 11 months ago. Its a worker placement and resource game about the space race between the USSR and the USA to go to the moon. I like many of the Academy Games products for their ease of play and ability to learn about events their games are about. Even Board Game Geek has rated many of their products highly.
I started with the beginner setup, which includes a simpler Earth board and does not include the technology deck. BTW, When I purchased the game I went all in and got the plastic satellite, crew and astronaut miniatures as well as plastic tokens and two expansions (Hidden Heroes and Mission Control).
Here is a better overview of the beginners setup. The satellite tokens give bonuses for completing satellite missions or specific actions. Each turn four events are available to choose for each players 2 engineers and 2 administrators. The Earth section has options for engineers and administrators but each box can only be chosen by one model, therefore once selected another model cannot choose the other option in the box. There is a media track in the upper right that determines initiative as well as gives bonus media tokens that can be spent anytime for benefits. As some satellite and most crew missions are completed you place a token on your side's moon track and if it was unselected before, receive the crew token. Once a player/side places gets tokens leading up to the moon, it indicates game end at the completion of the launch phase of the turn. The game can be played with two to four players and if more than two, they divide up their space agency workers (engineer/administrator). The game is won not by who placed their token on the moon space first, but by highest victory points at the end.
As the game progresses you receive temporary tokens (white) for Agency, satellite, and crew resources. These can be upgraded to be permanent ones (black) that refresh during phase 2 of a turn. Cards cost resources to buy or are used to complete satellite/crew missions which then grant benefits. Personalities once procured remain and can be activated with resources for benefits. However players can only have three personalities.
In my first playthrough game, the USSR won. As you can see in the image below, the USA caught up by some risky completed missions.
However the USA failed to get enough victory points to beat the USSR, missing it by nine points.
In my second playthrough, I went with the regular setup.
There are a lot more options in the Earth section and more bonuses are opened up after upgrades are activated by events and mission completion.
In this game I went with two different strategies for both sides. For the USSR, I decided on a slow and steady approach: turn temporary resources into permanent ones and focus on the satellite missions until later in the game. Here is the USSR area at the end of the game.
The USA approach was one of risk, going for more crew missions earlier. This meant that at the beginning they were further ahead but in the end they could not sustain the pace. Once era two and then three events were revealed, they could not afford the technological breakthroughs as quickly as the USSR. This led to being surpassed in victory points by a very wide margin. The USA redeemed themselves somewhat after dealing with many hazard cards being placed upon them by the USSR with the "Heroic Effort" card which gives two victory points per hazard card, but the jump in points was not nearly enough.
After the two playthroughs I want to play this game more. It is one of the most detailed games from Academy Games and the rulebook could be better organized and written, so I am expecting one to be done soon from them with a robust FAQ. It is also educational with facts written below each card as well as the progression of this era of history.
