Dad's Gaming Addiction

I’ve played a lot of economically themed tabletop games.  There’s a certain thrill to maneuvering and biding your time so that three turns later, you can cash in with a huge play (often at the disgust / surprise of your opponents).  Star Tycoon, a tabletop game that’s seeking funding through Kickstarter, has a little bit of that along with some engine building and card / company  management mechanics.  It supports 1-6 players / ages 13+ with an average play time of 20 minutes per player.

Standard disclaimers: I received a prototype and they are not often reflective of the finished product.  Anything you read about here (including the rules) are subject to change.  I am also required under FTC regulations to disclose that I was paid to cover this game, but any and all opinions remain my own.

The Game

My prototype copy came with a variety of components.  For viewing ease, I included a quick screengrab from the developer’s official website.  I typically leave opinions to the end of my articles, but I just want to quickly gush over how sharp everything looks.  Few games have grabbed my attention like this one does.  The colors…*chef’s kiss*.  Bonus points for a double layered Galactic Exchange board and game trays that double as an insert.

The game itself is played over 6 rounds.  Players start with a company card and homeworld card which will help refine their strategies along the way.  Players earn points by claiming sets of planets (3 of a system or 3 of a type) as outlined on a player’s company card, building the target combination of developments on claimed planets, building developments with bonus points, and via end-game bonuses.  The player with the most points at the end of 6 rounds wins.

Each round, players take a single turn starting with the player with the first player token going clockwise.  A player starts by replenishing cards in the supply and collecting production from their planets.  Then, a player may perform five different actions as many times as possible in any order of their choosing:

Purchase – Purchase up to 1 card from each row (planet, development, partnerships) per turn.  You can also purchase cards from your reserve.  This usually involves paying resources found in the target card’s upper corner.  Developments are slotted under planets, depending on planet capacity.

Exchange – Purchase or sell resource tokens from the galactic exchange.  Buying and selling resources causes the marker to move the marker left or right and flip it to the X side, signifying that it can’t be traded again this turn.  Some trade development cards affect the default rate.  Bank loans are also possible during this action.

Barter – Exchange immediate or future benefits with other players.

Refresh – Pay energy credits (lightning bolt tokens) to choose a row that hasn’t been taken from yet this turn, then refresh the entire row.

Reserve – Choose a planet or development from a row that hasn’t been taken from this turn.  Reserve cards go into a player’s hand and a player may only have 1 reserved card at a time.

On another player’s turn, a player may initiate an auction and declare a card they want to reserve.  At any time, the active player can cancel the auction and buy it outright or reserve it for themselves.

At the end of a player’s turn, they’ll discard left over resources and credits down to a total of 7.  Discarding resources lowers its value on the exchange (for each resource discarded, move the marker on the exchange once to the left).  Illegal goods can’t be discarded, so you may have to discard other, more valuable resources instead to maintain the 7 limit.

At the end of a round, an event card is flipped if the round marker lands on a ! space.  These events can reset card rows, forgive loans, give players free stuff, and so on.  At the end of the 6th round, as mentioned above, the player with the most points will win the game.

There’s also a solo variant that works, for the most part, just like the core game.  To win, the solo player needs to reach so many points and have certain conditions fulfilled based on the homeworld card drawn.  The solo game is also played over three games with a new homeworld drawn each game.

In addition to all of the above, players can opt to play up to 8 rounds if they so desire as well as split up into teams of 2 or 3.  I’ll leave you to discover the rest of the specifics on your own.

The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the rulebook, but should give you an idea as to how to play the game.  Keep in mind, the rules (as of this date) are not final.

Impressions

“Stockpile” is one of my favorite economic themed games because it doesn’t overwhelm the player with overly complex rules and mechanics.  I’m pleased to say that “Star Tycoon” ticks that box too while maintaining almost everything a typical, good tabletop game has…variants, solo mode, unique player powers, etc.  In addition, engine building is one of my favorite game mechanics.  At the beginning of each player turn, that player will collect bonus resources from their starting homeworld card and from some of the developments they pick up along the way.

Speaking of developments, I love that each planets has a set of icons that task the players with matching the developments they slot to said planets.  It’s not a requirement, but getting the icons from the planet and developments to pair up completely will earn you more points.  What’s challenging is that you may not be producing the resources you want, as developments offer produce resources as part of the engine building.  If you’re lucky, you can get the points from pairing the icons AND get the resources you’re looking for.

While planets and developments make up the bulk of your array, I kind of glossed over partnership cards a bit.  Partnership cards are cool in that you typically get developments of the matching color for free (green partnership card = green developments free) and provides some kind of benefit when rivals purchase a development of that color (rival buys green development = free energy credit for you).  While expensive, you can potentially corner the market on certain colors that are fairly popular.  Have a bunch of planets needing pink icon developments?  The pink “Heart Institute” partnership card may be right for you.

This game has a lot of mechanics I recognize from other games, and that’s not a bad thing.  Seasoned vets will recognize the typical card purchase rows from games like “Splendor”, the simplistic market tracker from games like “Stockpile”, and unique starter companies and homeworlds from games like “Race for the Galaxy” and “Terraforming Mars”.  The sharp colors / art reminds me of “Constellations”, which my significant other and I truly adore.  I can’t wait to get my paws on the finished product.

There’s also a solo mode, should you fancy that.  There’s no AI that you’re playing against…rather, you’re playing a series of games to complete certain objectives.  It would have been cool to see some AI cards that simulate an AI turn a la “Wingspan” or “Star Wars: Outer Rim”.  I did create a home-brewed one-off solo vs. AI that works rather well, if anyone is interested.  The game also supports up to six players which is pretty insane, though I can imagine games taking a very long time especially if a few of the players are prone to decision paralysis.  We enjoyed our two player sessions and felt that particular game length (about an hour) to be just right.

I’m really excited for “Star Tycoon”.  It takes everything I love about “Splendor”, “Stockpile”, and other popular gateway games and combines them into a brilliant, easy-to-digest but meaty package.  While deceptively simple, this game offers some incredible depth with regards to the market and economic strategies.  “Star Tycoon” is easily one of my favorite titles of 2023 thus far and I suspect will be for some time to come.

Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/warpcoregames/star-tycoon

Developer Website: https://warpcoregames.com/

—

The developer was kind enough to sit down with me on Tabletop Simulator to give me a rundown / overview of the game.  You can check it out here:

We also played a FULL game with the developers:

Unboxing Video:

First Playthrough: