Designed by: Eric Zimmerman
If you have a collection of players who enjoy a bunfight, Quantum is a winner; a continuous battle, laced with a puzzle dynamic that can spring surprises at any time.
Your goal – to place all of your quantum cubes before anyone else does. To do that, the value of your spaceships (represented by dice) must equal the number value of a given planet they’re adjacent to – but while you’re trying to manoever your ships into place, your opponents will be doing all they can to stop you.
The ships’ movement ability is defined by the face-up number on the die – and high is good as you get more movement. But the face-up value also defines the combat value, where low is better, and this pivotal disconnect is part of what makes the game special.
The other elements are the ships special powers – each numbered ship has a special ability it can use once per turn – and two decks of technology cards which can be used to ‘power up’ and give you extra abilities – either as a one-off action, or once per turn. These aspects to the game can make it really hard to predict what players will do at times, and combat serves a double purpose – as well as disrupting your opponents plans, winning enough battles can also allow you to place a quantum cube on the board without having your ships adjacent to it – a potentially game-winning move.
In summary, lots of fun for those who like their games feisty and fast-moving.
Yep, Quantum is fantastic. The individual elements are simple enough for new players to grasp, but the combined permutations are huge, and this allows for some really inventive plays. The use of dice for ships, with the trade-off of movement vs firepower, is very clever. It's a very tactical game - during other players turns you'll hatch a plan for your go, but often the landscape and priorities will have changed and you'll have to think again.
The game really rewards aggression, so players who dislike being targeted should perhaps pass.
Not much – Quantum generally moves fast and plays in under an hour.
There is some thinking to do, but it won't involve excessive calculation. What you will be doing is working out how to combine your three action points with your space ships special abilities.
Quantum's board is made up of tiles so you can use various set-ups supplied with the game or devise your own. And it'll take many games to see all the clever combinations of special ability cards - there's a lot of replayability here.
2-4
Players
12+
Years
30-60
Mins
Sam says
If you don't mind being continually blown to pieces, this is an utterly brilliant game. And you probably won't mind, as the game allows you to recover so quickly. The balance between movement and combat is neat, and the special moves for each ship are absolutely crucial to winning - despite the grand theme of space combat, it also plays pretty fast. Fantastic.