Tabletop Thursday Review - Smash Up

What happens when a team of deadly ninja assassins partners up with a ravenous hoard of dinosaurs? Or a mindless pack of zombies with calculating, mystical wizards?

World domination.

In Smash Up, players are given two factions at random from a selection that includes things like ninjas, werewolves, robots, dinosaurs and ghosts, to extreme, out-there factions like the bear cavalry or eldritch abominations.

By combining the two decks, players form their team and set to smash, or break apart, bases and take over the world.

The factions are shuffled together, and placed face down in a pile. Each player draws five cards (and two more at the end of each turn).

After joining the two factions together to make a team, base cards are played in the middle of the table. Usually the number of bases is number of players+1. Like the factions, the bases tend to have a type of card they are most tied to the playstyle of, and are often based on movies, books, games or other pop culture. The zombie's base, Rhodes Plaza Mall, is based off the movie, Dawn of the Dead, while the wizard's School of Wizarding is a nod to Harry Potter.

(If you are also interested in movies and movie trivia, be sure to check out Flictionary.)

Each turn, a player can play up to ONE minion and ONE action card (though various card effect allow players to do more!). The goal is to have the power of the minions surpass the number in the top left of the base card. When that point is reached, a based is SMASHED and victory points are awarded.

Each base has different SMASH conditions, and award different victory point amounts. Once a player has collected 15 Victory Points, they are the world conqueror!

The initial version of Smash Up allows for 2-4 players, but with many different expansions added to the original game, the number of factions added has allowed for even more players the smash up the world.

A more comprehensive book of rules can be found here!

With the set up out of the way...

Smash Up is a game that is light on rules. It has a basic premise, and most of the situational rules are printed directly on the cards themselves. This makes it accessible to a wide range of players while still allowing for strategy to flow.

But is it fun? Hell yeah! Each game takes around an hour to play (with 4 players) so it is good for short-game sessions but can also be played multiple times in a game-filled afternoon or evening.

Since its release in September 2012, Smash Up has followed up with five expansions, each adding new factions and new bases. Figuring out the best combinations and coming up with strategies on the fly with your assigned factions is a blast enough on its own, but combine that with the hilarity the game brings out and you're in for a smashing time.

The game isn't without its flaws, however. The base game, while totally playable on its own, does get stale without expansions after a few plays. So the cost of entry can be anywhere from $30 for the base alone to base plus however many $25 expansions you wish to add.

That alone isn't enough to bring the game down. The variety of play, and multiple factions leads to a lot of replay value.

Smash Up gets a Board of Dice rating of: 4/5 - Smashing! 
Not a perfect game, but a wonderful addition to any tabletop collection.

Smash Up can be found at your local game store (like The Toy Trove on St. Paul St. in St. Catharines, and on Amazon.

If you would like to see a game of Smash Up in action, check out Wil Wheaton's TableTop channel, where he plays the game in season 2.

Join Board of Dice next Tabletop Thursday where I will be reviewing Bang!