In Shackleton Base: A Journey to the Moon, you lead your own space agency in building a base inside the Shackleton crater at the Moon’s south pole. Together with three corporations, chosen from seven, you construct infrastructure, fund projects, and explore the lunar terrain.
Before the game begins, you select three unique corporations – each brings special projects, increasing the game’s variability. Players choose spacecraft or “astro-buses,” which provide a mix of astronauts (red, blue, yellow) and resources, and determine turn order for the next phase. Each astronaut color enables specific actions – yellow gathers resources and builds, red generates money, and blue powers corporate projects.
Three-phase structure:
- Shuttle phase – choose shuttles and astronauts.
- Action phase – place workers, collect resources, build, and fund projects.
- Maintenance phase – activate structures, collect income, pay costs, and trigger corporate effects.
Corporate projects offer permanent abilities and new ways to score points; the game ends after three rounds with a final tally.
Shackleton Base impresses with strategic depth, modularity, and its worker placement mechanics, which, combined with diverse astronauts and corporations, create a unique and immersive experience every time.
