J.U.M.P. After Action Wrap-Up

Well, as promised, here is the post game review of the new Evil Polish 
Brothers game J.U.M.P.:Into the Unknown.

We started the game at about 4:30pm.  We had a full house, 4 players.  
Overall, we were pleased with the mechanics.  It took a few turns to get
a 
handle on the routine.

The diplomacy rules result in some interesting situations.  Red player
had a 
run of bad luck and found nothing but hostiles to fight with.  The four 
players basically paired off Silver(me) vs. Blue on one side and Red vs.

Green on the other.  When a player explores a new planet, the player to
his 
right rolls dice to generate that planets political leanings
(lawful,savage 
or selfish), production and tech level.  The political part determines
how 
easy it will be for an empire to convince it to ally up (if the planet's

alignment matches the empires, its easier) or get lost.  The production 
level determines how many build points the planet will generate if it 
becomes part of an empire.  The tech level determines the quality of the

units it will be able to produce.  When a planet joins your empire, you
get 
its military added to your own.  If it decides that it doesn't like you,
you 
might end up fighting its forces.

The combat mechanic is by all accounts pretty cool.  First, players fire
any 
units they have that can do long-range bombardment.  They only get one
shot. 
  Then, both sides have the option of launching fighters.  The fighters
duke 
it out by themselves until one or both sides is destroyed.  Then the
REAL 
combat begins with the remaining fleet units.  The surviving fighters
can 
choose their targets, but any other hits are decided by the defending 
player.

By turn 5, most of the planets on the board had been allied or
subjegated.  
I had three fleets on blue's border and he seemed to be tied up in
polishing 
off the last of a neutral's military.  I jumped at the chance to
"liberate" 
one of his border worlds.  The resulting combat was disastrous.  His 
fighters killed off 5 of mine for every 1 of his I shot down.  Then, I 
realized that I had failed to recall that he had built several orbital
forts 
and had moved 2 rather large fleets in to counter mine.  I lost 2 fleets
and 
was forced to go on the defensive.  The next turn, I withrew my
remaining 
forces to my most valuable border world and dug in.  He grabbed one of
my 
lesser border worlds, and prepared for an assault on my homeworld by 
blocking my fleet from reinforcing it.	The following turn, I built 10 
surface forts on the homeworld and I took a big chance and sent 3 fleets

through a black hole in the hopes that they would make it home in time
to 
mount a last-ditch defence.  It would have worked but I rolled two sixes
and 
a five-- resulting in the loss of two large fleets and the decimation of
the 
third.	Blue player wasted no time in polishing off the remaining fleet
and 
landing several star grunts and armored assault vehicles and cruching my

homeworld.  Oh well, another thousand years of tyranny and oppression.

I must admit, the game was a great deal more fun than I expected.  The 
diplomacy rules and the fog of war provided by the fleet counters gave
the 
game a real tension that is missing in many games of this genre.  The 
"king-maker" problem and the "gang-up on the leader" issue (the downfall
of 
many games of this type-IMHO) never really surfaced.  I believe that the

secrecy in the system make it difficult to determine who IS the leader
and 
it makes it hard for players to ally with one another because the 
disposition of fleets is not readily apparent by looking at the board. 
The 
playing time on the box is listed at 30mins to 2 hours.  Our game
wrapped up 
at 9:30pm making it a total playing time of 5 hours.  And we really
didn't 
technically FINISH the game.  The red player and I were basicaly out of
it 
and the other two decided that the galaxy was big enough for the two of 
them.  However, this was our FIRST game and an allowance must be made
for 
that.

I fully expect to play J.U.M.P. again soon.  Overall a very enjoyable
night 
of gaming.

K.P.R.
Galen

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