Smash Up is a game I played a lot when I got into the hobby but I didn’t give it the blogging attention it needed.

Now is the time…

The “shuffle-building” game Smash Up begins with a simple premise: take the 20-card decks of two factions, shuffle them into a deck of forty cards, then compete to crush more Bases than your opponents! 

Smash Up Game Play

Players will each take two 20-card decks, each themed around something cool and interesting. These contain a mix of Minion and Action cards and once shuffled together will become the player’s 40 cards deck. Each player starts with a hand of 5 cards.

There is another type of card, Bases. These are shuffled up and one plus the number of players is laid out on the table. Bases have a BreakPoint in the top left, this is important.

On a player’s turn, they can play up to two cards: 1 Minion and 1 Action.

Action cards are resolved and discarded, that’s it.

Minions are played to one of the available Bases in play, resolving any effects on the Minion. Minions have a power level in their top left, this is important.

At the end of a player’s turn, they draw 2 cards and the next player takes their turn.

Also at the end of a player’s turn if the total power level of ALL Minions at a Base meets or exceeds that Base’s breaking point, that base will score.

The player with the most Power at the Base will score the number of points on the left, Second in the Middle, and Third on the right.

At this point, if a player has 15 points they win! Otherwise, the Base and all cards assigned to it are discarded and replaced then the active player will draw 2 cards and the play continues clockwise.

Theme

So this is where this game lives. Each of those 20 card decks plays to its theme. Zombies come back from the discard pile, Ninjas appear out of nowhere, etc

I’ll look at these in more detail in the summary.

Setup

The setup is simple. Each group will have its own way of distributing the Decks. I believe the official rule is to snake draft but I prefer getting two at random and working with it.

Although this can lead to nonbos where the two factions oppose each other and don’t work together. For example, Zombies bring back cards to your hand but Ghosts get a bonus if your hand is almost empty…

If you have both of these you (generally) won’t be able to get the most out of both Factions.

Components & Artwork

The cards and tokens are standard.

The art on the cards is really nice. It’s a cartoony style but the creepy factions are creepy and the cute factions are cute.

Ease of Teaching & Accessibility

This is easy to teach… You play up to 1 Minion and up to 1 Action then resolve. Any player can be involved in scoring a Base, even if they don’t play well.

It would be VERY difficult to come away with 0 points.

Due to this, it is an accessible game. As with any game where a player has a secret hand of cards new players may need a bit of help.

Smash Up Summary

While I do enjoy this game, it’s similar in gameplay to Blood Bowl: Team Manager which I like a lot more. For this reason, Smash Up never really got that high in my books, it was always second fiddle.

Although, with Smash Up: Marvel on the way I could be tempted. This makes it an easier buy-in as currently there are 74 factions which would cost quite a bit just to catch up. A couple of Marvel-themed boxes, that’s not so bad.

While I haven’t played in-game where all of these factions have been included, I have played with a few so let’s look at those:

Smash Up Core Box Review

Aliens – One of my favourites… Minions that gain a VP when they come into play that you can bounce back to your hand with other Minions or Actions. I enjoy that!

Dinosaurs – Big and Beefy, they’re OK. Good as a backup for a weaker, trickier deck.

Ninjas – Destroy Minions, Move Minions, Sneak Minions onto Bases as they score… VERY fun 🙂

Pirates – Moving Minions around Bases is good fun, nice, and tricky.

Robots – 5 types of Microbot minions that all affect each other make for some interesting decisions.

Tricksters – As the name suggests, you can mess around with opponents which is always good in this game.

Wizards – Can draw cards and play extra cards which in any hand management game is VERY useful.

Zombies – Can add cards to your discard pile and bring them back to life… thematic AND fun.

Awesome Level 9000 Review

Bear Cavalry – Like the Dinosaurs, big and beefy, and a good partner to a weaker faction with more tricks up their sleeve.

Ghosts – Gain advantage from having fewer cards in hand. This takes the pressure off trying to draw cards or not play too many. Another one of my faves.

Killer Plants – Minions that get better over time is thematic, Sprouts that you can turn into more powerful cards on your next turn. Nice theming of plants.

Steampunks – This faction has a load of Actions you play on a Base which can really mess up your opponents. Nice and a different style to most other factions.

The Obligatory Cthulhu Set Review

Elder Things – Can give you Madness cards which cost an action to get rid of and can be worth negative end-game points… baaad… if you’re not giving them out that is!

Innsmouth – 10 copies of The Locals which let you filter The Locals out of your deck meaning you start to draw only better cards. There are also actions that work on Minions you have with the same name.

Minions of Cthulhu – Bonuses for giving yourself Madness cards… Good, but not for me! (See the next Faction)

Miskatonic University – Works by gaining a bonus from drawing Madness cards, but also a bonus from discarding them, that’s better.

Monster Smash Review

Giant Ants – These add and distribute +1 power counters on minions, making them flexible.

Mad Scientists – These add +1 tokens then use those tokens to take bonus actions.

Vampires – Had high hopes for my favourite monster tropes and they’re just OK. They gain power tokens but they’re not as fun as the rest of the factions in this expansion.

Werewolves – Has a lot of ‘until end of turn’ effects to show the rise and fall of the full moon. If you time them right they’re powerful.

Jesta ThaRogue