The Cardboard Kid - 226: Smash Up: Cease and Desist - YouTube

Smash Up: Cease and Desist adds four new factions to Smash Up.

It works as a standalone box, as well as an expansion.

AEG provided this in exchange for an honest review.

I reviewed the base set in 2019, and I've added a link to that video at the end of this one.

Because of that, I'll just focus on the new content.

Astroknights’ use of the 'fours' allows them to strengthen or weaken minions, and manipulate actions.

Hive of Scum and Villainy lets you draw a card if one of your actions powered up a minion.

Before it scores, No-Moon™ destroys a random base and all cards on it.

Changerbots are all about manipulating their power and using talents.

They're also good at moving around.

Changing Room temporarily boosts a minion after they use a talent.

Unicrave is very unique:

before scoring, replace it with the top card from the base deck, then score regardless of the new breakpoint.

The Ignobles allow you to take or give control of minions, as well as manipulate them.

Spikey Chair Room lets you destroy an owned minion to draw a card if any player has played a minion there.

Wintersquashed lets you give control of a minion to an opponent.

Star Roamers are skilled at many things:

returning minions to your hand, and protecting and moving minions.

Neutral Space protects minions from other minions' actions and talents.

USS Undertaking lets you move a player to or from here at the start of your turn.

Four new factions, either to add to your Smash Up game, or as your introduction to it.

That's Smash Up: Cease and Desist!

Smash Up: Cease and Desist, including set-up and take-down, usually takes around an hour.

Two- and three-player games might work on an average coffee table.

Save four-player games for the dining table.

There is a lot of reading on the cards,

and you'll need to calculate the points on a base every time a card is played there.

Honestly, though, it's a fun way to practice math.

Kids eight and up might benefit from playing this, but might need help tracking everything.

Maybe use poker chips or dry-erase boards to keep the totals visible.

If you can get actions out that boost Astroknights, say from the Dinosaurs faction, their minions can be deadly.

The way No-Moon™ works is not only thematic, but it can be devastating to opponents if you time it well.

The Unicrave base is reason alone to like the Changerbots.

That push-your-luck element adds something new to Smash Up.

Add their minion manipulation, knowing that timing is everything -- there's that push-your-luck again --

and you have one of my favourite factions.

A fun pairing could be Shapeshifters.

Move Huffie to a base where you're winning to trigger it, then play "… Really?" to destroy her,

then put Mimic out on another base with Leader Two or another strong minion.

Ignobles are really tricky to play.

I know you can benefit from giving control of your minions away only to take it back later,

but if (opponents) do something to block an action or retrieve a card?

Yeah.

I don't think they work well with Star Roamers, but how about the Kitty Cats?

Play Sneaky Squire, give control to an opponent,

then play Queen Fluffy or Muffin to take control back of the squire and trigger scoring.

Then, to really tick everyone off,

play Red Birthday Party to destroy your Sneaky Squire plus all minions weaker than Queen Fluffy.

Wow.

Like I said, though: tricky.

You need to be clever with Star Roamers, but not as clever as if you were using the Ignobles.

Having minions returned to your hand instead of the discard pile?

Yes, please.

Moving and protecting minions is also handy.

The Aliens allow you to return minions to hands as well -- yours and your opponents'.

You can protect Invaders that generate VP, plus other cool combos.

I'd rank them in this order: Changerbots, Astroknights, Star Roamers, then Ignobles.

I've enjoyed pretty much every Smash Up expansion, and this is no different.

It's not one of my favourites mostly because two of the factions don't play nice with many others,

but it's very fun.

Keep watching for more Smash Up reviews each month as I go through our entire collection.