Core Space: First Thoughts

29 Jul, 2026

On Monday I played my first game of Core Space. Three of us took our crews of traders out into the wreckage to salvage what we could find, whilst managing the actions of finicky civilians and avoiding the impending doom of the Purge.

Core Space is a skirmish game, in which 1 to 4 (maybe more?) players control crews of traders, who are out to make some money in a harsh galaxy. They explore broken up space stations¹ to complete missions and get loot. This is made complicated by the presence of various NPCs. These include civilians who react randomly tat the end of each turn, sometimes running away, sometimes shooting. They can even join your crew, or reveal themselves to actually be one of the Purge. The Purge are a bunch of killer robots hell-bent on killing all life in the vicinity. This includes traders but also other NPCs. All NPCs are automated, following a flow chart of possible actions or the result of a dice roll. It was quite a smooth system that we ran through quickly at the end of each round once we knew what we were doing.

The traders themselves all have skills and abilities, which let them break the game in various ways. My captain could restore a life, make himself impervious to two bits of damage, and sweep the legs out from under someone engaged with him, letting him run away. These traders progress as you play more missions, learning new skills and getting new equipment.

Core Space plays like a big, sci-fi game of chicken. Who wants to be last one on the ship, looting that crate that no-one else dared to get to. And it might be worth it. Inside the crates are random items, weapons, or just cold hard cash. My character picked up a big ol’ Wolverine style claw, ran over to a robot, and tried to punch it, only for the claw to malfunction and break, leaving him defenceless. Great success. The vibes are very Firefly.

This is a skirmish game that was part of (what I understand to be) a massive Kickstarter campaign. You can tell. This box is crammed full of ideas, from crew management, ship upgrades, various NPC types, pre-written campaigns, build-your-own weapon algorithms, plastic pegs, boards, minis, stacks and stacks of terrain. There is a lot. When reading through the rulebook before playing, I would argue there was too much, but now I have played a couple of games, the various cogs are beginning to fit into place.

So yeah, it is a lot, but I can’t wait to get stuck in. I fear this game is a bit of a rabbit hole, so I might not get to play any other games for a few months!

Quack

#skirmish games