Buck Rogers - Battle for the 25th cent. is similar in many ways to Risk and many of its variants. However, it is far superior.

THE BITS: The bits of this game are great. The board is large and very cool. The game is chuck-full of detailed plastic minis which represent 3 types or starships, 2 types of "human" units, factories, specific leaders, and (my favorite) Killer Satelites! Also included are chits that display ownership of "countries, dice, and other swill.

THE GAMEPLAY, MECHANICS: This war game has some very original and wonderful things going on. First of all, and most noteably, is the pictoral representation of the solar system. This is simply ingenious. The planets revolve around the sun at differing speeds. This brings certain planets (and asteroids) closer and further apart, which makes attacks more or less likely. Very cool, this adds a new level of strategy (or is it tactics, hmmm). Anyway, it's cool. But wait, there's more, you can use the sun's gravitational pull to "slingshot" around and gain extra movements.

Unlike many Risk games, the pieces not only look different, but that act differently, too. Each unit rolls attack dice, pretty standard, but the number required to hit differs according to what they are trying to hit. So, you don't just buy more and more units, like Risk, but you must agonize over which units you want to buy. The way you acquire units, through building them in your factories, is another interesting aspect of this game.

The Leaders, characters from the beloved BR series, are present and add to the game. The advanced rules which give them specific powers do need tweaking, however. They seem a bit unbalanced. Their presence gives way to a multitude of ways to win, which is nice and can make for very short or long games.

Bottom line, this game is right up their with Shogun and is much, much better than Risk and A&A. It has a lot to offer for fans of the BR series and/or fans of war games. The scifi theme is great and does not feel "tacked on." A great game.