Make a great game even better with the Satellites and Commanders expansion for the sci-fi, dice based, worker placement game The Artemis Project
This expansion adds new events, expeditions, and buildings, as well as new player options. These include placing your dice into satellites that dock at new spots on the corners of the board and commanders, a powerful new colonist type that acts as a wildcard and more.
Disclosure: Thanks to Grand Gamers Guild for providing us a review copy of this expansion, and for being a sponsor of The Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast (though they actually weren’t when yet we got this expansion). Use code BELLHOP to save 10% when shopping at their webstore. Links in this post may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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- What do you get with Satellites and Commanders for The Artemis Project? (Theme & Components Overview)
- Adding Satellites and Commanders to The Artemis Project (Rules & Gameplay Overview)
- Everyone who enjoys The Artemis Project should pick up this expansion (Review & Overall Thoughts)
What you get with Satellites and Commanders for The Artemis Project
The Artemis Project Satellites and Commanders is an expansion for The Artemis Project. It comes from designer Daniel Rocchi that features artwork from Christian Romero. You will need a copy of the base game to use this expansion.
If you don’t know the base game, it is one of the best dice based worker placement games we’ve played, so be sure to check my The Artemis Project Review and then come back here and read about this excellent expansion.
Satellites & Commanders keeps the original player count of one to five, but is considered best with four. This is mainly due to the fact that it ups the playtime by about ten to fifteen minutes per player. It also increase the game weight as it adds a number of new options for every player on each turn.
The Artemis Project Satellites & Commanders adds two new things to your games. The first thing it adds is Satellites, which dock with off board locations called Chariots, and which can influence the main board actions. The second thing it adds is Commanders, a new type of colonist that you can promote your existing folk into at the cost of an expedition badge. Commanders count as wildcards and can be used to bump the value of your dice without affecting their rank.
Marc from Grand Gamers Guild was cool enough to provide us with the Deluxe Edition of Satellites and Commanders. This originally came from from Kickstarter, but can be purchased direct from Grand Gamers Guild (be sure to use BELLHOP to save 10%). The only thing that that sets the deluxe version apart from the retail version are the big plastic satellite die holders.
Get a look at these nifty satellites, and the rest of the components in this expansion, in our The Artemis Project Satellites & Commanders Unboxing Video on YouTube.
I do have to admit, at first, I thought the chonky plastic satellites were a bit over the top. This changed once I actually used one. Holding them in your hand and slotting dice into them just feels good. And they are actually quite practical. The angle that the dice sit at makes them very easy to read across the table.
The rest of the component quality is also great, with the new chariot tiles for the corners of the board, new buildings, new expedition and event cards, and new custom dice. Similar to the base game, the iconography on these new components is excellent, though I do wish the text on the chariot tiles was a bit bigger.
The rulebook is clear and introduces the new options and components in a logical manner. It also contains rules clarifications for some of the new tiles and cards, which was good to see.
Adding the Satellites & Commanders Expansion to The Artemis Project
To use Satellites & Commanders, you start by randomly drawing chariot tiles until you have one for each corner of the board. You also need to place a number of satellites equal to the player count minus one next to the board. You then place the new academy tile on top of the original academy spot on the board. The new buildings, events and expedition cards just get mixed in with the originals and rest of the game setup stays the same.
When using this expansion you must play on Harsh Mode. This means that you do not add two extra resources to the Vents and Quarry during board setup.
The rulebook includes one optional rule that I really like. If you want to be sure to experience the new stuff from this expansion, for each new building, event, and expedition you add, remove an equal amount of the existing cards. Do this randomly so you don’t know what will be missing.
When playing with Satellites & Commanders, all of the standard rules from The Artemis Project apply. During the placement phase players now have the option to claim a satellite. To do this they place one of their dice into an unclaimed satellite, and then place it on an open chariot spot. They can also steal a satellite already at a chariot by playing a lower die than the one that is currently there.
If this replaces an opponent’s base die they go up the exposure track. If it replaces a satellite die the bumped player gets nothing. You can only control one satellite at a time.
Each of the chariots affects a different part of the main board. When going through the resolution phase you now start with the chariot in the top right section of the board. This chariot affects the Expedition phase. If a player has a satellite there they get to use the effect on that chariot. If the satellite is empty, it’s skipped. You continue going around the board resolving things as normal but stopping at each chariot space before resolving the actions on the next side of the board.
Satellites & Commanders comes with a total of four different chariots for each of the four corners of the board each with its own ability (for a total of sixteen different chariots). The value of the die in the satellite affects how powerful the ability will be.
The top right chariot affects expeditions and includes abilities like letting you move a die or getting bonus victory points if you are first in an expedition.
The bottom right chariot affects the Vents and the Quarry and includes things like getting to take resources that are left over after these spots resolve or getting to exchange resources.
The bottom left chariot affects the Gantry and includes abilities like getting to buy buildings from the top of the deck or getting resources back if you build more than one building.
The top left chariot affects either the Doorstep or the Academy, with abilities like getting to train your existing colonists for free or getting free colonists.
During the upkeep phase, players have to decide if they want to keep their satellites or not. Keeping a satellite costs two minerals. When you choose to keep a satellite you replace the die you used to take the satellite with one of the new satellite dice which is rolled up to the next highest number.
If a satellite already has your satellite die in it, you just roll the die up by one. If the die is already at six, you have to give up the satellite as it can’t be rolled up any further. You get your die back to use in a later turn and the satellite goes back to the supply.
After everyone has decided whether or not to keep their satellites, the still manned satellites orbit the board, moving to the next chariot clockwise around the board.
Commanders are a bit simpler than Satellites. During set up you’ll have replaced the Academy space on the board. The new version of the Academy only has one spot to train your colonists, which works the same as the old rules. Alongside that though, there is a new spot for upgrading a colonist to a commander.
When you want to create a commander you place a die in this new spot with an existing colonist. Each colonist type has a value listed on the board which is added to the value of your die. When resolving this spot only the player with the highest total actually gets to promote their colonist to a commander, everyone else suffers from exposure.
Commanders, once acquired, are very powerful and versatile. They can occupy any spot in any building and count as the colonists shown. They also count as all colonist types for any ability that is based on the number you have of a specific type.
That’s not all. You can also include a commander with a die you are about to place. They increase the value of that die by two and don’t affect the relative position of the die which is still based on it’s pips. So if you place a three in the vents along with a commander you will potentially get five energy but still get to draft before anyone who plays a later three, a four, or higher.
If that’s not enough, each commander also gets their own free swap during the upkeep phase. And finally, they count as whatever colonist is worth the most points during end game scoring. This is true for when you score surface building and then again for when you are counting up sets of colonists for points.
One last thing to note, this expansion is meant to be used in full. You are expected to add both satellites and commanders to your game along, with the other new cards and tiles. Rules as written there’s no way to use just part of this expansion.
If you enjoy The Artemis Project you should pick up Satellites & Commanders
Satellites & Commanders is a welcome addition to The Artemis Project. It takes a game we like and adds both breadth and depth to it, making it even better.
The new options add a bit more randomness mitigation to this dice game, and the addition of new buildings and events make things a bit less predictable, in a good way. With Satellites and Commanders you get more options and low rolls are more valuable than ever with the satellites in play.
I also found that the game felt more forgiving. There was more room for mistakes, and when you did mess up there were more ways to recover.
I particularly like the mechanics for the satellites and the hard decision at the end of each round of whether or not to keep one going. That was particularly interesting once we started to see buildings that rewarded you for having an active satellite as that encourages you to keep them going longer than you might have (which also encourages your opponents to steal them out from under you).
Competition for chariots can be very fierce, which impacts the first player mechanics in a significant way. In our games it did feel like some chariots were more useful than others, though they all seemed to serve a use at some point during the game.
What’s nice is that you get a wide variety of different chariots. You get two double sided tiles for each corner. That’s four different possibilities for each section of the map. Plus they are determined randomly, you never have to play the same game with the same set twice (unless you play A LOT of games of The Artemis Project with this expansion).
As for the commanders, I dig them. I like having them and I like the way they give you more options. They make building requirements easier to fill and also can bump up your lower die rolls. Plus, I just dig those chonky yellow meeples.
Something else I like in this expansion is an effect that mainly comes from the commanders, but also from some of the new events and buildings, that that is a reason to spend expedition badges.
In the past badges always felt like something you went all in on, trying to do as many expeditions as you could, or something you barely touched, just making sure to get the bare minimum so you don’t lose points. I love that this expansion gives you more reasons to go on expeditions to earn badges and provides worthwhile ways to spend them.
If you enjoy The Artemis Project at all, just go pick up this expansion. The Artemis Project Satellites & Commanders makes a great game even better. The only real downfall I can find with this expansion is that it does make the game a bit longer, but that extra time is worth it.
If you’ve played The Artemis Project and thought it was good, a solid game, but not one you are going to go seeking out to play on your own, I recommend giving it another shot with Satelites and Commanders. It may just be enough to change it from a game you like well enough to one you really enjoy.
If you don’t own The Artemis Project but are intrigued by it, if this review and our review of the original game sounds good to you, I recommend picking up both the base game and this expansion together. You can do this through the Artemis All In Bundle which includes The Artemis Project, Satellites & Commanders and The Artemis Odyssey (The Artemis Odyssey is a re-implementation of the game Ad-Astra and is a completely stand alone game set in The Artemis Universe).
As an added incentive, remember that you can use our code BELLHOP to get 10% off.
That’s all I have to say about The Artemis Project Satellites & Commanders. So far this is the only expansion for The Artemis Project and it’s a very solid one that we strongly recommend fans pick up.
I wouldn’t quite say that this is a “must have” expansion, as it doesn’t fix anything in the base game, but it does make the base game better in a number of ways. At this point I can’t see playing the game again without it.
What’s an expansion you picked up for a game that took a game you loved and made it better Not something that fixes the base game, just something that takes what a game offers and improves on it enough to make the expansion worth it. I would love to hear about your favourites in the comments.
- The expansion to The Artemis Project
- An interactive euro where you play the players as much as you play the game
- Claim satellites for maximum advantage
- Use versatile Commanders to enhance your dice
