Buck Rogers is a great game that was released during the boom in "lotsa plastic bits" games in the late 80's, a boom which largely started with the release of Axis and Allies. While it never reached the height of popularity that A&A achieved, BR is still a terrific game in its own right, being both complex enough to satsify experienced gamers and light enough not to feel like a rules-slog.

The basic premise of the game is to win control of the inner planets of the solar system -- Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and the asteroid belt. You have at your disposal several types of units: two ground-based units (Troopers and Genies), three space-based units (Fighters, Battlers, and Transports), and special units (Killer Satellites, Factories, Control Markers, and Leaders).

The territories on the board represent the surfaces of the celestial bodies (four planets and nine asteroids) mentioned above as well as orbital zones, space stations, a space elevator, and moons around Earth and Mars. There is a very creative solar system map on the gameboard as well, which simulates the movement of the planets through their various and differing orbits; Mercury (and any units stationed there) whips around the sun in a complete revolution every other turn, while Mars takes fully sixteen turns to complete one revolution. Each turn, the planet markers are advanced in their orbit by one space, and the combination of the various orbital velocities, limited flight paths between planets and orbits, and varying spacecraft speeds can make timing an attack very tricky and very important.

The strategy involved in BR is multifaceted. First, there is the relative strengths and weaknesses of the playing pieces. Second comes the production abilities of the players' factories. Third is the timing of interplanetary travel. And finally, fourth is the control of the various planetary zones.

First, the playing pieces. Your soldiers are not all created equal, and have really four attributes: their movement allowance, attack strength, defensive strength, and cost to build. Each unit has its strengths and weaknesses, including their relative combat ability against different enemy unit types. Some highlights include:

+ Regular Troopers are the grunts of the game -- they are cheap to build and can be transported anywhere in the solar system, but they are weaker than other units both in attack and defense.

+ "Gennies" are genetically-modified soldiers who are optimized for their environment; while they are tougher than Troopers, they are unable to leave their home planet (and cannot be purchased at all in certain places).

+ Fighters are jacks-of-all-trades; they are fast (having a higher movement than all other space-borne units) and reasonably good in combat, but can be slaughtered by Battlers and Gennies, so they have to be carefully employed.

+ Battlers are the heavy ships of the game; they are expensive to build and move more slowly than Fighters, but can mop up other ships and bomb surface targets from the safety of space.

+ Transports are built to transport your Troopers or Factories, but are slow and vulnerable.

+ Killer Satellites are expensive to build, but make attacking a system armed with them a risky proposition, as they get a free shot at every attacking ship passing through the zone they occupy.

Having to balance fighting capability with cost and speed gives the game a good deal of depth even without addressing the other facets of BR. Even deciding which units to leave in a zone can be a weighty decision, as you have to weigh your ability to attack against your need to effectively defend your territory.

The next facet adding to the complexity of the game is your production capability. There is no money in the game; instead, you must produce everything you need from one of your factories. Some units are cheap to build -- you can crank out two Troopers or Gennies per turn, for example -- while others are more expensive; a Factory can turn out one Fighter per turn, but takes two full turns to christen a new Battler, Killer Satellite, or Factory. Those two turns can seem like an eternity while the enemy is bearing down on you or slaughtering your troops on distant worlds.

Third is timing your interplanetary travel. It's not uncommon to see a BR player mumbling to themselves while tracing a path across the gameboard. With the planets moving at different rates and paths from one place to another limited, a player must be careful about when they send a fleet into space. There are even times when a fleet will turn around and head back where it came from, if the situation at their original destination changes dramatically while the ships are in transit. Savvy players will use the movement of the planets to their advantage, leaving their current port and moving clockwise around the solar system map so that their destination's movement works to help close the gap faster. Another tactic is to wait until two planets are nearly at their closest point, then take flight and bridge the gap while it's at its smallest.

The fourth strategic aspect I mentioned is the control of various planetary zones. You have to control an entire planet or celestial body before you can build a Killer Satellite in orbit, but which planets to conquer first is an important question. For instance, you can easily conquer a single asteroid and build a KilSat there, but the asteroid belt is so remote that it will take forever for anything you produce there to get into the fight. By contrast, Earth and Venus are difficult to control because they are comprised of many zones and are centrally located, making them likely crossroads for interplanetary warfare.

Each turn starts with the movement of the planets around the solar system map, which will instantly change the strategic picture as some forces are pulled apart and others pushed closer together. Each player then moves, fights, and builds new units (in that order), so the gameplay is straightforward and flows quite well. As territory changes hands, players mark their holdings with Control Markers, which represent the local puppet governments put in place to control the populace. Control Markers even fight in defense of an invasion under the advanced rules.

The game includes a book of advanced, optional rules that can really change the flavor of the game, such as special abilities for Leaders, commando operations, pass-through attacks for Fighters, and so forth. All in all, it's a game I've really enjoyed and that I would readily recommend to anyone looking for a good A&A-type game that's not too heavy to be enjoyable.