Kalidasa Rim Space Expansion for Firefly: The Game Adds More Than Just More Board

by Drew Kaplan · Published October 29, 2015 · Updated October 30, 2015

Kalidasa expands the game board

Recently, a new expansion for Firefly: The Game came out, expanding the game board. The first thing one notices about Kalidasa, the second rim space expansion for Firefly: The Game, is that it provides more space on the game board. While the original game board measured 30″ by 20″, this adds another 10″ x 20″. If one were to combine this with the Blue Sun rim space expansion, the total game board space now yields 50″ wide by 20″ tall, which makes it a lot of fun.

New rim space navigation cards include nested tests

With more space, one gets curious about a new supply planet, of which Beaumonde is it. The best crew member to pick up in Beaumonde is Roberta, a companion with not only two negotiation skills and a firearm, but she also has a Fake ID. This is similar to Sheydra in Meridian in the Blue Sun expansion, another companion who has two diplomacy, one tech, and fancy duds. Another good crew member is Fess, who has not only two tech skills, but also a hacking rig. There are also four other crew in Beaumonde who possess two skills, as well as a pilot and a mechanic.

25 supply cards come in Beaumonde

There are a few ship upgrade cards in Beaumonde, including the really useful Emissions Recycler, which is +1 to full burn range as well as the really neat condition “If you draw 2 ‘Big Black’ Nav Cards in a row while Full Burning, you may take 1 Fuel. Limit once per Fly Action.” The two best gear in Beaumonde are Inara’s Bow, which has two firearm skills, and Inara’s Guild Papers, which has not only two negotiation skills, but it also counts as a companion. Not to be forgotten is also Mal’s Sniper Rifle, which has a firearm skill as well as both Sniper Rifle and Firearm keywords. Four interesting gear cards are Labor Contract cards. There is one each for Persephone, Regina, Silverhold, and Space Bazaar, allowing the possessor to “From any location, you may use a Buy Action to Hire 1 Crew from the Silverhold Discard Pile for free.”

5 new supply cards for the original five supply planets

For the five original supply planets, amongst the new cards inserted into the mix, the best crew member is Barkeep, located in Silverhold, with a firearm skill and a negotiation skill. There’s not much exciting gear added, although some have one skill, although Yolanda’s Pistol in Osiris has both a firearm skill, as well as the firearm keyword. As to ship upgrades, there is the Emissions Recycler, mentioned above in Beaumonde, which can be found also in Space Bazaar and Regina.

There are two new contacts

There are two new contacts in the Kalidasa rim space expansion, Fanty & Mingo and Magistrate Higgins. Fanty & Mingo are located in Kalidasa and all of their jobs are illegal, with only four of them also being immoral. Most of them are transportation and/or smuggling jobs, while many of them are also crime jobs. All of the jobs require misbehaving. When one is solid with Fanty & Mingo, one gets to take $500 every time one completes a transport job. Also, when one is solid, one can buy contraband from them for $400. For Magistrate Higgins, who is located in Red Sun, eight of his jobs are legal shipping jobs, four are legal, yet immoral shipping jobs, eight illegal smuggling jobs, and five immoral and illegal transport/crime jobs, which require misbehaves. When one is solid with him, one gets to have an extra active job. However, there is a condition with his jobs: “You may not Deal with or Work a Job for Higgins with Jayne in your Crew.”

There are five new jobs for each of the five original contacts

There are also five new jobs for each of the original five contacts, all of which take place in the new expansion space. Harken’s new ones are all legal transport jobs. Badger’s are all illegal, involving misbehaves, three of which are smuggling and two are crime. Amnon Duul’s are four legal jobs, two of which are transport and two are shipping, while the fifth is an illegal smuggling job. Patience’s jobs are three legal shipping jobs, one illegal smuggling job, and one illegal and immoral crime job. And, finally, Niska’s jobs are – no surprise – all illegal crime jobs; however, one of them is also a transport job, while two others are also immoral.

Corvette is introduced

Just as the Blue Sun rim space expansion added in a greater element of danger with two additional Reaver Ships, the Kalidasa rim space expansion adds the Operative’s Corvette. The Operative’s Corvette forces one to remove one wanted crew from play, forces one to discard all Fugitive Tokens, and a full stop when either it ends its move in an outlaw ship’s sector and when an outlaw ship moves into the corvette’s sector.

A new leader card

A new leader, Wright, who is a grifter, and possesses one skill of each. He also has the following interesting aspect: “Whenever you deliver Fugitives, you may take an extra $100 per Fugitive. This counts as Immoral.”

There are two new set-up cards, one that attempts to speed up the game, allowing for only twenty turns, while the other one encourages one to explore both of the rim space expansions by only using Kalidasa and Blue Sun jobs.

New Story Cards and New Set-Up Cards

There are also three new story cards, one that ends the game when a certain amount of jobs have been completed, another that has a limited amount of cash in the game, and a third story card that is left up to the players to agree to certain conditions having been met.

New alliance space and border space navigation cards

There are also new navigation cards – not only for the rim space, which is also in Blue Sun – but also for alliance space and border space. There are some interesting elements that these cards add, although the most interesting aspect that these navigation cards add in are nested skills tests. For instance, one needs not only to have a certain amount of one skill, but then needs a certain amount of yet another skill to advance or not lose crew, etc.

Overall, it’s exciting to have all of these new facets added to the game and helps keep it fresh.