Orbit
Designed by: Reiner Knizia
Orbit is a 2-4 player race game where each player must land on each of the six planets – and first to return to their own planet again wins!
Each player starts with their spaceship on their own planet with a hand of three movement cards and a ‘dashboard’ in front of you that tracks three things: number of cards and energy cubes you’re allowed, and the number of energy cubes you currently have (none at the start!). It also tracks which planets you’ve visited.
On your turn you play just one card and take the actions on it in the order you choose. There’s always a number for movement, and moving is simple: travel your spaceship along intersections of the grid on the board, hopefully landing on planets you need to visit! Special abilities allow you to pick up energy cubes, which can be used to pay for extra movement. Most cards will also move one or more planets along their orbital paths, and if anyone is on a planet, they move with it.
Dotted around the board are the space stations, which can be visited to aid your progress: getting more energy cubes or triggering long-distance movement through Hyper Jump Portals and Hyper Accelerator Cannons! Some space stations you can actually remove from the board if you’re first to arrive: they’ll improve your hand size or energy capacity. Once you’ve visited all the planets, it’s a race to return home before anyone else does.
Sam says
A game probably best with four, it’s also at its most chaotic with four as well – but it’s the kind of game for players who enjoy the madcap chicanery at play here. Undoubtedly someone will move the planet you’re just about to jump on. Undoubtedly you’ll have the odd fallow turn where it feels like you’re in a vacuum – but the game moves along so fast that you can forgive it the occasional hampering of progress. The rules are simple but, despite the theme of a race, the vibe is combative enough that the thin-skinned need not be reaching for their spacesuit.
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Take That!
Plenty. Nobody else can control your spaceship or steal your energy cubes. But the movement of planets is more than enough to give the game a spicy, survival-of-the-sneakiest feel.
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Fidget Factor!
There’ll be the odd turn where you or somebody need to react to schemes-gone-wrong and come up with some kind of Plan B. Or Plan C or D. But many turns are rapid.
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Brain Burn!
There’s precious little long-term planning here, it’s about reacting in the moment and maximising the opportunities – often, the opportunities to screw someone else ove
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Again Again!
Ninety minutes of Orbit would break almost anyone, but the game breezes along and wraps up in under an hour.
