U.S.S. Freedom is a fun, cooperative, open world, free-roaming, space-themed board game.

Explore unknown worlds, discover alien civilizations, and decide who will be your ally or your enemy. Perform missions to increase your reputation with your allies while planning for and surviving attacks from numerous other alien races. Upgrading your ship and enhancing your heroes is the key to survival.

Will you become a space merchant, trading legal—or even illegal—commodities? Are you more of a scientist, unraveling the mysteries of strange space phenomena, or maybe a hunter of dangerous monsters living on exotic planets? Will the wealth lure you into becoming a space pirate, ambushing frigates? Or will the irresistible fame from saving entire worlds lead you to engage enemy space monsters? Probably all of the above.

Sail into the vastness of space aboard the starship Freedom in its three-year quest: A fully replayable campaign that consists of 36 standalone sessions lasting 60 minutes each. In every session, you get to pilot your ship in any direction, so you choose the challenges you will engage and write your own story. No two campaigns are ever the same.

—description from the publisher

Gameplay

In a game session of U.S.S. Freedom, you continue your journey from where you left off the session before—think of it like watching a single episode of a sci-fi TV series. A game session consists of five phases.

Interstellar Phase
Set up the Interstellar Board with all the miniatures in their positions from your previous game session. Then, the various Spaceships and Titans move. If they did not move onto the same hex as your ship, then it is time for you to move.

Navigate Phase
Your ship may move toward any adjacent hex. Your ship scanners warn you of what lies in all directions. Create the Encounter Deck by shuffling all cards of your level that belong to your adjacent sectors. Then you randomly place one card in each direction. Look at the different Encounters you have and select one to move toward.

Encounter Phase
After selecting the Encounter you will face, roll the Encounter Roll. If the Encounter is an Alien Colony or Alien Starship, add your Reputation to the result. You then flip the Encounter Card and see how it plays according to the Encounter Result and the nature of your Encounter. Some Aliens may simply attack you while others may offer you Missions.

Combat Phase
A lot of Encounters will lead to combat, whether through Missions or direct conflict. Some battles will be carried out by the U.S.S. Freedom, while in other cases your heroes will have to fight on the planet surface, in enemy bases, or even inside the U.S.S. Freedom. Sometimes battles may be carried out simultaneously with the U.S.S. Freedom fighting in space while an away team fights a ground battle.

Each kind of enemy has different abilities that they use during the battle, revealed by flipping the top chip from the stack of Enemy Ability Chips.

Luckily, your heroes also have abilities. They are used for everything from attacks on the enemies to using skills such as Engineering or Willpower. Heroes use their Aether to activate their abilities. Each player has an Aether Pouch and draws different colored Crystals representing the Aether that empowers the heroes’ Abilities.

In space combat, heroes use the Engine to produce Power and distribute it to all decks of the ship. Heroes across the ship use this Power to fly the Starship, attacking with Weapons or raising Shields.

Conclude Phase
Succeeding enables you to continue your mission. You get rewards according to the Encounter, you may trade commodities, or you may even get to upgrade your ship.

This will conclude one game session. You may pack everything into your Campaign pouch and continue another day from where you left. Or…if you have another hour, you could play just one more game session!

Aetherium