Blue Orange | Planet | Board Game | Ages 8+ | 2-4 Players | 30 Minutes Playing Time

Product Information

Planet is a 2-4 player game, designed by Urtis Sulinskas. In Planet players are trying to attract as many animals as possible to their planet. This is done by creating a planet with terrain which meets the animal’s requirements. Animals either require players to have the most of either one type of terrain touching another, one type of terrain which does not touch another or simply the most segments of one type of terrain. I think Planet is going to be a nice hit for Blue Orange Games’ core audience. As a family weight game, it not only has a cool 3D element that’s sure to be a crowd pleaser, but the rules are light enough that you can get it to the table with just about anyone. The only downside is that the magnets aren’t as strong as they should be. The main draw in Planet has to be the 3D model players will be building on. It is definitely fun to hold and rotate, will be sure to turn the heads of people walking by. However, in practice, it ended up being a bit of a mixed bag. First, the magnets weren’t as strong as I would have liked. In one of our games, someone dropped their planet on the table accidentally and half of their magnets fell off. This pretty much ended the game right there as there was no way to remember where all the magnets were. Much stronger magnets would have helped alleviate situations like this. Each round cards will be awarded based on majorities. In Mission: Red Planet, two to six players compete to occupy Mars and mine its celerium, sylvanite, and ice. You earn points from not only harvesting ores and ice, but also from completing a secret mission, which may involve controlling specific zones of the planet or amassing a certain type of ore. Whoever has the most points at the end of ten rounds wins. Like many of Blue Orange’s family games, the gameplay in Planet is easy to learn. The game plays out over 12 rounds, with each player drafting a terrain tile each round. Tiles are made up of a variety of terrain types (snow, ocean, forest, etc…) and after being selected, a tile is magnetically attached to a player’s globe.

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Blue Orange Games seems to be carving out quite a name for themselves with their accessible line of family games. Kingdomino was a fantastic take on dominoes, and Photosynthesis was a mean little game with some pretty 3d trees. Both have made their way to my tabletop quite often.

The 5 player count also ensures that more competitive games remain fierce and balanced, with no clear decisive sides forming due to the odd number of players. With so many games to choose from, here are some board games that shine for 5 players. If an animal card cannot be won due to a tie, or because no players have the correct habitat, it is placed in the column for the NEXT round. Terraforming Mars marries a delightful science fiction setting with sophisticated strategy. It puts players at the head of the various corporations intent on terraforming the red planet, raising the oxygen and temperature to foster growth and ultimately create a second home for humanity. It’s a visually compelling space as the barren planet slowly begins to adapt to your will before capitulating entirely in the endgame. The final result is a surface teeming with life, not altogether foreign to the environment of Earth. Part of the appeal is that Crokinole has a presence much larger than the physical space it occupies. It feels like a full-fledged parlor game, akin to billiards. This is all due to that central majestic piece of hardware, which can be hung on the wall as a piece of folk art.

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In later rounds you will each compete over end of round cards which reward you with animals based on whether your planet is most well suited to their needs. Some animals want the largest zone of a single terrain next to another terrain type or not next to a specific terrain type. Others will go to the player with the most of a specific terrain. At the end of the game, points will be award for the different animals and the player with the most points wins. The set contains: Resources organizer, 2 card trays, Players' component organizer and Scorepad container. What if you could hold the whole world in your hands? Build your own world of rich and varied habitats to make a home for your favourite species? Carefully balance the oceans, forests and deserts to build a thriving animal kingdom? In Planet, each player begins the game with an empty planet and ever the course of the game you’ll at 12 magnets to the 12 faces to build you own world. Even though the gameplay in Planet is very light, there is a lot of forward thinking that is required to win the game. As players can see all the cards laid out at the start of the game, you really have to start planning ahead for which ones you want to grab. The obvious choice is to go for animals matching your terrain type. The whole two birds with one stone thing. Yet the nice thing about the card mechanics is that it rewards you for collecting animals NOT matching your secret terrain type. This helps create some interesting situations where you clearly want to grab those snow cards to hit the bonus, but also want the other terrain for the extra VPs they grant. Overall the card art was pretty well done.

Seize the Riches of Mars

In the last (12th) round, if an animal card cannot be won by having the most of one kind of region, it is returned to the box. With both the other card scenarios if there is a tie, the players look at their second-biggest suitable habitat area and the winner takes the card. In the unlikely event of another tie, they look for a 3rd suitable habitat area. Game End Every stage of a mining expedition to Mars boasts its challenges. Each ship can only hold a few passengers, and with so many astronauts headed towards Mars, you may need to resort to subterfuge and sabotage to launch your astronauts into space. Once landed, you could be forced to fight against other mining corporations for control of a zone. Your astronauts could be ruthlessly killed by another corporation, or you might need to eliminate a few astronauts yourself. You may find that a zone's deposits are rich beyond your expectations, or that they contain less ore than you hoped. No matter what, you’ll need to be wily to win the race for Mars’s resources. The Planet board game ends after the 12th round; when the player’s planets are fully covered and the last animal cards have been won. For your gamer group, you can consider Planet to be a “super filler”. It’s got too big of a footprint to work as a pub/travel game, but the gameplay is light enough that you can play it in about 20 minutes. And at the end of the game, you really get a nice feeling of creating something when you look at your planet in all its 3D glory.