oonBase Commander is not SimCity set on the moon, although it contains elements of an environmental simulation game. It is not Warcraft with a science-fiction background, although it contains real-time strategy elements. What it resembles most is the early PC game Scorched Earth, where each player commanded a stationary gun platform and the object was to combine the right power, angle and ammunition type to blow the other player to bits. MBC is a much more complex and aesthetically pleasing game, but its essential elements are the same.
Each player starts with a hub. The hub spends points of its energy reserve to create new units, launching them into place on the map while remaining connected to them by an energy cord. There are 18 units divided by cost into three groups of six: Another hub, for instance, costs 7 points, while a guided missile costs 3 and a simple bomb costs only 1. Players launch the units by indicating the direction for them to go and then setting the power/distance of the ride. Terrain and optional wind affect where a unit can land, but the largest consideration is the fact that the power cords are not allowed to cross.
Play proceeds in rounds, with up to four players building a unit at a time. When a player is out of energy, his turn is over. Players can quit their turns early; any leftover energy is saved for the next turn. The object is to destroy the other players' units while defending the player's own. When a hub is destroyed, all the units that hub created are killed as well. Thus, killing the central, original hub can lead to a very pretty, very gratifying chain reaction that removes the victim from the game.
Finding strength—and fun—in simplicity
The simplicity of MBC is its greatest strength. There are only 18 types of units, but each has a unique ability. There is no overlap, and units can work in concert to create a wide variety of strategies. It is also great that all the units are ready to go right out of the box. There is no "tech tree": Players don't have to research and gather material and set up production queues. They avoid all the make-work that dominates other strategy games, and at the same time never have to face an opponent who is technologically superior to them. There is no "design phase," so the game can't be lost there.
Part of the attraction of real-time strategy games is the "whack-a-mole" focus it takes to control so many elements at once. Part of the attraction of turn-based strategy games is the time to consider the options before acting. MBC's alternate-creating-one-item turn structure is an excellent compromise between the two. It is made even more effective by all the units in the game being "fire and forget." Players must place their units carefully and expand into enemy territory, but there is very little time wasted waiting for the other player to complete their turn. There is an option to set a clock to force players to take their turns more quickly, an option that can give the game a championship-chess feel.
The computer opponents in MBC are very good, but players can also go online to confront other humans. Sadly, there is no built-in server browser, so games have to be found using third-party utilities. Players can setup team matches, but to chat privately with a teammate, MBC has to be run in a widow and a different program used for the chat. The good news is that MBC is so resource-light that it runs easily inside a window.
The only problem I had with Moonbase Commander was learning to control the launch power. I kept simply clicking on the launch button without realizing the longer I held it down, the farther units would go. Once I figured out how the computer was sending units so much farther than I was, the game was all good.
— Eric
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