Review of the board game master of orion. About the life of space builders - a review of the board game “Master of Orion. Multiplayer mode and duel option

Humanity, having received new technologies from a more advanced race, goes beyond the solar system and leaves the depleted Earth. People need a new home. Wandering through space, they understand that there is a constant struggle for these expanses, sometimes hidden, sometimes not. People meet and get acquainted with other intelligent civilizations, become witnesses of conflicts on a galactic scale. Many races are fighting for control of the galaxy, and humanity decides to take part in this struggle.

Becoming the ruler of the galaxy is not easy. First you need to choose the most suitable way for you, with which you will go to victory. Moreover, this choice will fall on your shoulders, there are no strict restrictions. It's just worth remembering that, for example, peace-loving psilons like research and science, which grants technological superiority. The Mrrshan, Bulrathi, and Alkari prefer to use force to solve problems. Darloks and Meklars explore the dark corners of the galaxy, while humans try to prove the power of the pen and diplomacy.

It is up to you to decide the history of the galaxy!

About the game

Master of Orion is space strategy, created based on the computer game of the same name, developed back in 1993, which, however, immediately became a hit and received the status cult game. In it, you led one of the civilizations on the path to complete dominance in the galaxy. This could be achieved in completely different ways, and the game itself was turn based game with powerful and interesting economic, scientific and military components.

Desktop version Master games of Orion will let you plunge into the atmosphere of this legendary computer hit. In the competition for supremacy in the galaxy, you have to lead one of the canonical races, each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses.

You will be able to explore space, populate planets, build and develop colonies, send fleets to rival empires, trade resources - all in order to bring your people to prosperity. But we must not forget about the loyalty of their subjects, because one day they may elect another ruler...

Fast-paced, well-balanced card strategy offers many interesting paths to victory and, ultimately, to the throne of the ruler of the galaxy!

Game process

The game lasts a maximum of 8 rounds. A round consists of three phases, played in order:

1. Start of the round

Gaining Resources - Each player receives the resources shown at the top of their cards. These receipts are marked by moving dice on the resource counters. You cannot have more resource than divisions on the counter
Determining the level of mobilization and receiving actions - this level indicates how many actions your civilization will perform this round, and also gives some additional bonuses or penalties. The level of mobilization can be high, medium or low. When high, you get the most actions, but lose loyalty, when low, on the contrary, you gain. Which level you get depends on your maximum amount of any of the resources. For example, if you have 7 units of at least one of any resource, then the level of mobilization will be high
Early Round Effects - Players take turns applying all Early Round effects from all of their cards

2. Actions - In this phase, all players take turns performing their actions as long as they have action dice. First, the first player takes one action, then the player to their left takes one action, and so on, until all players have spent all their action dice. You can not pass or leave the cubes "in reserve". The same action can be repeated as many times as you like, if there are no restrictions. The list of available actions is as follows:

Construction - allows you to build a map of the construction of the hand. The cost of the card is paid, and the card is laid out either in one of the old systems, or a new one is founded
Exploit - allows you to discard one card from your hand and get resources or cards for it. Depending on the color of the discarded card, you can get: 3 food for blue, 2 fleets for red, 1 production for gold, and for gray you can take 4 cards and keep 3 of them
Exploration - allows you to draw two cards from the top of the deck
Activation - allows you to activate a work card with a special activation sign and apply its effect. Some effects can be activated without using an action, and some even cost resources.
Attack - allows you to attack another player, first declaring an attack with a die. Depending on the number of players, you can attack your opponent from one to three times (when playing one on one). You can only attack if your fleet is equal to or greater than the enemy fleet. In addition, you must have enough resources (fleets) to pay for the attack. After attacking, the attacked enemy's loyalty drops by one, and the attacking player gains two victory points.
Trade - allows you to make one exchange of resources at the market rate in any direction. One exchange means only one operation for a given amount of resources. It is also important to remember that resources over 9 are wasted
Propaganda - allows you to increase the loyalty of your civilization, and only once per round. You can increase loyalty above 10
Deal - allows you to hire an advisor. It will be necessary to discard any three cards and take one of the advisers from the middle of the table. It is important to remember that you can only have one adviser, and if you take the second one, then the first one will have to be discarded. Advisors provide unique properties and bonuses

3. End of round

Game end check - game ends if round 8 ends, one player's loyalty drops to zero, or at least one player has five cards in each system
Reset cards to five
Resetting dice
First Player Token Transfer - The first turn marker is transferred and all actions are now calculated relative to the new first player

Who has won?

The goal of the game, as usual, is simple - to score the most points by the end of the game.

The end of the game occurs in one of three cases:

Round 8 is over
At the end of the round, the loyalty of any civilization is 0 or lower.
At the end of the round, at least one of the players has 5 cards in each system

It's time for scoring. Victory points can be obtained for:

Successful enemy attacks
Effects of many cards
Points are earned by current loyalty at the end of the game, moreover, a negative loyalty indicator will take away points from you
Points bring structures in your systems

The player with the most victory points is declared the ruler of the galaxy. In case of a tie, first the level of loyalty is compared, and then the amount of remaining resources.

Game features

A beautiful sci-fi setting that even inspired some well-known literary works
Elaborated and interesting world- many different races with their own characteristics and stories add atmosphere to the game
Excellent game design, as well as maps and mechanics that refer us to the beloved "MoO" ... This game is a real balm for the soul of old fans of the legendary game series
Many options for winning strategies, it depends only on you what exactly you will bet on - economy, diplomacy, war or science
Balance - great balance for 2, 3 and 4 players
Old hit - the game is based on computer masterpiece 1993, which will please many fans original game, quality wargames and space strategies
Dynamics - the game is dynamic enough, the moves are made quickly and conveniently for the players, some actions must be performed in turn, which does not let the players get bored
Simple, albeit somewhat voluminous rules. The game has a clear turn structure and visual mechanics, so getting used to it will not be difficult.
Only cards is a completely card game, it does not have such an element of randomness as in games with dice. In addition to maps, the game contains only wooden markers, which makes the game compact enough for such a large-scale strategy.

Valar morghulis, played.

Today I will tell you about a Russian board game that made me a little happier - Master of Orion. She's done Igor Sklyuev and Ekaterina Horn under the influence of the eponymous cult turn-based strategy on PC from Microprose. More precisely, I believe, the second part of it -. This toy was so cool that it inspired not only the developers to create a wonderful board game, but also the science fiction writer Sergey Lukyanenko to create a wonderful trilogy "Line of Dreams"("Line of Dreams", "Shadows of Dreams", "Emperors of Illusions"). There was also a third part - Master of Orion 3 (2003) and a sequel to Master of Orion (2016), but I won’t talk about them better. And I do not advise you.

I played for hours Master of Orion 2, and when the best Russian publishing house of board games Hobby World (World Hobby) sent me this game for testing, I froze in anticipation. It could be either a complete failure, pulling to the bottom of a stone because of the third part computer game, or - hellish wine, continuing the legacy Master of Orion (1993) and Master of Orion 2: Battle at Antares (1996). Of course, there are already near-themed board games "Twilight of the Empire" and "Eclipse". But their fate excites me much less than the Master of Orion title close to me. Moreover, this year, dear Wargaming(current rights holder) released the game Master of Orion (2016)). I have not played it yet, but the players say that it turned out rather weakly. Maybe later, as part of the Starpur Gaming video project, I will make a review on YouTube.

But the Master of Orion board game was excellent. The authors of the game (Igor Sklyuev and Ekaterina Gorn) did an excellent job of conveying the spirit and feeling of space expansion. It takes only 20 minutes to fully learn the rules, although to start you can play within 10 minutes after opening the box, especially the basic rules and the course of the game are duplicated on the tablet of each player. The game captures only somewhere in the third round (these are the first 10-15 minutes of the game), when you understand the essence and begin to build a strategy. The game takes up to an hour, and it becomes very sad when you realize that the game is coming to an end. I would like to extend this feeling of magic a little. I often try new board games, but it's rare that I immediately want to "retake" after finishing a game.

What is the game about?
Adventurous Board Game A Master Of Orion board game that takes you into the world of legendary strategy. You have to lead one of the nations that will come together in a space confrontation. The fate of secretive Darloks, genius psilons, universal people and many others will depend on your actions. Skillfully manage resources and direct development in the right direction. You can go military or choose the path of creation: control the weather, build a space fleet, develop production, attack alien planets, train spies.

The desktop Master of Orion is elegantly seasoned balance between races. Each has its own characteristics, but this does not mean that it "pulls" the balance in some direction. The chances of winning are equal for any race, and it is equally interesting to play for any of them. Even for people. This is important to me as I'm not a hardcore player and usually pick a race based on the art in the picture. And they are very cool here.

Now the rules of good manners require you to find cons. AT these your internets they write about cardboard - the cards are thin. I do not understand this claim - the thickness is quite acceptable and the printing is excellent. But the tokens look boring. They are just colored wooden cubes. There are not enough figures of characters here - the leaders of the race (player avatars). They, of course, do not carry a gaming load and would affect the price of the box. But how cool they could look (for example, as in) and add a little “cosmic atmosphere” - there is a slight shortage here.

2-4 players
12+
40–60 minutes

Game Ingredients:
90 building cards
8 advisor cards
6 civilization boards
60 wooden cubes
16 tokens
Scoring field
Rules of the game

Box size: 255x255x62 mm;
Card size: 63x89 mm.

It was nice to find in the credits the names of people infinitely respected by me and former colleagues - Kolya Pegasov(creative director of the game) and Petya Tyuleneva(game development). I hope that the sales of the game will be good - it's worth it. If you have a friend who loves the theme of space - in games, in science, in space opera novels - give him a New Year this game. And in general - a board game is a universal gift. The most versatile game in this regard is Alexander Ushan's Find for a Spy, but this is a different atmosphere, and about it next time.

In February 2016, a significant event took place - the restart of the cult strategic series Master of Orion, which has been continuously cultivating the room rulers of the galaxy since 1993. Along with the digital remake, a desktop version was also released, which is in no way inferior in quality.

"Master of Orion: Board Game" was created by the efforts of two authors, Igor Sklyuev and Ekaterina Gorn, and is made in the spirit of the latter Master of Orion, a review of which can be found nearby.

The game offers companies from 2 to 4 people to compete in the management of their own space power. In order to take a dominant position in the galaxy, you will have to use all means - production, trade, science, diplomacy and, of course, military armadas!

Game Composition

Contents of delivery board game Master of Orion is about average when compared to similarly sized games. An impressive weight of more than 700 grams immediately indicates that this is not a ten-minute "party game", but a serious game.

Everything that is inside is even difficult to fit in one photo, so a separate list with a complete set will not hurt:

90 building cards;
8 advisor cards;
6 civilization boards;
60 wooden cubes (woah-woah-woah!);
16 tokens;
Scoring field;
Rules of the game.

The box itself is made of thick plastic with colorful illustrations and a stylish description on reverse side. Inside, everything is also very, very “tasty”: the cards are made of plastic that is very pleasant to the touch, the cubes are well made and carefully painted, and the rules are made on high-quality glossy paper.

You can only find fault with the rest of the cardboard components, but in other board games this cheap material is also used everywhere, and the price of Master of Orion (1490 rubles) hardly allows you to demand a complete absence of cardboard.

The desktop gives the impression of a premium product, and this is very cool, because this can not always be said about domestic games.

How to play the Master of Orion board game

Having admired the package, you can immediately begin to study the rules. They take up 15 pages, but if you don't count the colorful illustrations and inserts describing the game factions, then it will come out about half as much.

It makes no sense to fully describe the entire course of the game, so we will limit ourselves to only the main points. The main task of the player is to get victory points, the calculation of which determines the winner based on the results of 8 rounds played.

Each round consists of three phases. In the initial phase, players accrue resources to themselves in accordance with the available buildings, determine the number of available actions, and play the properties of some cards.

Then the action phase begins, during which all party members take turns performing various operations, spending action dice. It is in this phase that the most interesting happens: players play building cards from their hand, placing them in their systems, activating existing buildings, attacking each other, trading, drawing new cards from the deck, hiring useful advisors, and much more.

At the same time, the game has a fairly well-developed resource system, around which the whole choice of actions revolves. There are three main resources in the Master of Orion board game - food, fleets, and production. They can be spent by playing cards from your hand and exchanged at a certain rate, while the initial resources of the races are slightly different, so already on initial stage parties, participants have different "initial" data, which often affect the situation during the first couple of rounds.

In addition to the three resources, there is also a loyalty scale, the indicator of which must be monitored no less carefully. The more resources the player has, the higher the mobilization, which is why the population begins to rebel a little. If loyalty drops to 0, then the party ends.

Due to the abundance of mechanics and sub-mechanics, the game in Master of Orion turns into a kind of kaleidoscope: the game takes place, as it were, on several levels. Firstly, the player is engaged in banal resource management, putting all new cards on the field.

Second, he uses action dice to activate cards and some abilities. As a rule, there are a lot of options, and there are always not enough dice, so you have to choose what is most useful.

Thirdly, you need to remember that there are other participants in the game. They also draw cards, play them, spend and receive resources. There is only one deck for everyone, and therefore you need to try to remember which cards are already in the game, and which are still waiting in the wings in the deck (or in the hands of opponents).

But you can still trade and fight with other players! .. The first game will go very chaotically and there will often be “misunderstandings”, especially if there is no experience in such board games.

But after a few hours, the constant choice that the game requires literally at every turn will turn from something intangible into a completely solid structure that you can lean on and finally get real pleasure, because Master of Orion is actually just very a heavily twisted optimization problem.

Advantages and disadvantages

The desktop adaptation of Master of Orion very well captures the essence of the entire franchise, and the authors have definitely succeeded in this. Variability is the most important trump card of the game. Of course, there are other benefits as well.

For example, the game is perfectly balanced. There are no cards in the game that are objectively stronger than others. Of course, you can pull out a super-starship from the deck, which will be very useful during raids on the enemy, but without the availability of resources it cannot be built, which means that before you arrange a victorious tour to the neighboring arm of the galaxy, you need to brainstorm and set up production. Well, or reset the "wunderwaffle", exchanging it for something more useful in the current conditions.

There are quite strong combinations in the game, the search for which is also quite entertaining. But even here everything turns out to be very well adjusted. Not a single “combo” guarantees victory, but only increases the chances of achieving it. It is especially great that the number of players does not affect the balance. Master of Orion can be comfortably played with two, three or four people. Unless the duration grows, but this is quite normal.

There is essentially only one drawback of the game - the lack of depth when drawing up tactics for each of the races. And the Psilons, sophisticated in science, and the space conquerors Bulrathi, and even the secretive Darloks who can change their appearance - all these and other races have special abilities, but victory is achieved in approximately the same way: the constant optimization of resources in order to maximize speed dial points.

Because of this, even the presence of 6 factions with a maximum of 4 players does not seem to be an abundance, because there are no serious differences in tactics, because of this, the expectation of the opening of the “second bottom” turns out to be unjustified, since, alas, there is no bottom.

This problem is solved only by increasing the volume, that is, by releasing add-ons with new cards and races. Thanks to a very flexible resource system, there are a lot of options for new maps, even if no new mechanics are introduced.

However, regardless of how the developers will develop their project, it is already worth its money and can drag on for a long time. The "paper" version of Master of Orion is no less interesting than the digital version, and this is very good news for those who care about domestic board games.

It's pretty exciting for me to write about a board game. Master of Orion (hereinafter MoO). Maybe two months ago I would have felt a little different emotions before I started typing in WordPress, which I use. In a short period of time, this game was so badly "zashkvari" that the smoke from Tesera was such that it seemed as if the entire runet was on fire. From time to time I receive questions from readers and acquaintances - what can I say about MoE? And if earlier I just shrugged and kept silent, today I have something to tell. In this review, you will find the whole truth about the new Russian space game.

Are you human, psilon or mrrshanin?

Perhaps someone does not know: Master of Orion is a computer game (turn-based space strategy) released in 1993. The game quickly gained cult status among strategy fans. In 2016, a continuation of this game was released (the developer is an Argentine studio, and the publisher is well-known Wargaming , which gave everyone the opportunity to ride tanks).

The board game MoO uses terms and basic elements from this newest computer game. At the beginning of the game, you choose a race for yourself (Psilons, Mrrshans, Darloks, Bulrathi or Alkari) and try to bring it to prosperity. This is achieved by building cards, and for this action you need to spend resources. We build cards, we get resources, we spend them on building new cards, at the end of the game we get victory points for our deeds - this is how we can roughly describe what we do in MoE.

It is worth noting that the board game was originally conceived as a post-apocalyptic game. The players had to do about the same thing - rebuild their city, develop technologies and successfully fight off the raiders, but when the publishing house hobby world took the game under its wing, the theme had to be changed to space.

Composition

The box with the game has an average size, which tells the buyer that this is not a filler, but not hardcore either. Inside you will find a scoring board, cardboard round tokens, wooden dice in four colors, double-sided race boards and a deck of cards.

Race boards are a little thin, but I don't see this as a problem because they don't need to be flipped or moved during play, so sheet thickness doesn't affect anything. Wooden cubes are quite large, easy to take. The cards seemed to me of normal quality - not thick, but not thin either, the paint did not peel off after the first batch, which is good. The famous tokens, which made a lot of noise on the Internet, turned out to be of perfect quality. Therefore, I have no complaints about the quality of the game.

Golden rule: no more than four systems!

Over the course of eight rounds (or less if another end-of-game condition is triggered), players will perform various actions (most often building cards from their hand) in order to score victory points.

Each player receives a race board and a set of dice of the same color. The tablet carries a lot of information, which is why it is so large in size. It marks the amount of resources that are available to the player, and determines the loyalty of the civilization for which the player plays. Also on the tablet are all possible actions, which you can use on your turn. After everyone has received 5 cards, the first round begins.

Conventionally, the round can be divided into 3 phases:

phase of obtaining resources (they are brought by the cards you built; at the very beginning of the game, no one gets anything, because no one has cards) + determination of mobilization (it is determined how many actions will be available to each player in the current round) + triggering of the effects "in the beginning of the round";
action execution phase;
end-of-game check phase + discarding extra cards in hand + discarding dice to reserve + transferring active player token.

It turns out that in the first phase we are preparing for the drawing of actions, in the second phase we are playing actions, and in the third we are preparing for the next round.

At the beginning of the round, players receive resources that the built cards bring to them (these resources are drawn in the upper right corner on the card). The level of mobilization depends on the amount of resource that the player has the most. The more resource, the more actions the player will receive, but there is a risk that the loyalty of the civilization will fall. The dice that each player receives at the beginning of the game symbolize actions. Those. when a player gains or spends actions, he gains or spends dice.

The most interesting phase is, of course, the action phase. During this phase, players try to spend their action dice as efficiently as possible. And you can spend them on:

building- lay out the card from your hand on the table, having previously paid its cost. The change in the amount of resources is fixed by moving the die on the player board. A player can have from 0 to 9 resources of each of the three types. The constructed cards are not just randomly placed on the table - they must form systems. By systems, we mean stacks of cards shifted down a little (so that the resources that the cards bring are visible). A player can have no more than 4 such systems, each of which can contain no more than 5 cards. When a player puts a new card on top of the old one in the system, he loses access to the property of the old card, but gains access to the new property;
exploitation- you can discard the card and apply the effect of the card, which is located in the lower left corner. Typically, the effect is to gain resources or draw new cards into your hand;
study- allows you to draw 2 cards from the top of the deck into your hand;
activation- if the work card (the top card in the system) has an ability that requires spending an action die, then it can be played by placing the die in a special cell on the card;
attack— yes, yes, in this game you can attack other players! To make an attack, you need to spend 2 fleets (this is one of the resources) and choose a player who will have the same number of fleets as you have or less. For this you will receive 2 victory points, and the attacked player will lose 1 loyalty point. With a different number of players, you can attack a different number of times per round;
trade- each player has access to the market, where you can exchange a resource for any other, but in different proportions;
propaganda— increases loyalty by 3 units;
deal- by discarding three cards from your hand, you can hire one of the five advisors, which gives the player a useful property.

The game ends either at the end of the 8th round, or if one of the players has loyalty dropped to zero or below, or one of the players has collected 5 cards in each system. When one of these conditions has been triggered, the players proceed to the calculation of victory points. To the points they have accumulated during the game, the current loyalty points are added and the points that the built cards bring are summed up. Whoever scores the most points wins.

Build-get-attack

Sometimes it happens that after reading the rules, you perfectly understand what this game is about. After reading the rules, they can either disappoint or, on the contrary, inflame interest in the first game. MoO for me was the second option. Before the game fell into my hands, I could not unambiguously say whether it was interesting to me or not. I guess I was a little embarrassed by the hype that was created around the game. Fortunately, I read the rules and realized that I would definitely be interested in this board game. The only question was, what are the properties of the cards capable of? Will they be able to interest me so much that I won't be able to stop playing?

The essence of the game is simple, and it revolves around cards. We build cards that we have enough resources for and that bring a useful bonus, we discard the excess from our hand to get additional resources or hire an advisor.

Immediately after reading the rules, I got the impression that the game has too many options for the players. There is also construction, exploitation, trade, and so on. etc. And then I was convinced that there were exactly as many actions as needed. They are all understandable and perfectly used at the right time. There is no such thing in MoO that the player always chooses only a part of the actions on which he focuses his attention. For example, going strictly for war, trade or construction - this does not happen. Each action brings the same benefit and the player periodically uses all options. The only exception is hiring an advisor, which makes no sense to change every round by discarding 3 cards. Hired once and that's it.

Of course, the most important thing is to focus on building, because the purchased cards in each round will bring resources that are very necessary in the game. It is worth noting that not all cards bring resources, but the vast majority do. The player's task in the early stages is to quickly build an engine for obtaining resources. They don't get much for discarding a card, and it also costs one action die. It is much more profitable to get resources for free at the beginning of the round, and for this you need to build.

Do not forget that we are dealing with a card game and the mechanics of the game are sharpened by the fact that we will constantly manipulate cards - discard them, recruit and build. What will come into your hand - no one knows. Cards have different value both in property and value. It may well happen that you have 5 cards in your hand, but you cannot build any of them, because you do not have enough resources. Probably, at this stage, some boarders will give up on MoO as the game does not allow players to freely perform any actions. Someone may say that the game is too random - who is lucky to draw cool card, he will win. But this is a standard mistake for those who have little experience in card games. There are great ways to recruit new cards in MoO and choose the ones you need from them. In the first game, I practically did not use cards in operation that allow you to take 4 cards from the top of the deck and keep 3 of them for yourself. I was just afraid that at the end of the round I would have to fold a lot of cards, but in fact I was afraid in vain, since this should be done.

In the second game, I learned another truth - you need to dig cards not only in order to have plenty to choose from, but also in order to choose cards that are really useful for yourself. In that second game, one of the players managed to build a lot of cards. He had 4 systems, each of which had 4-5 cards. But when we started counting points, it turned out that he scored only 16 points, while other players had more than 30. How did this happen? And all because the player did not pay attention to what he was building. All cards on the bottom right have a number indicating how many points the player will receive at the end of the game. And quite often there are zeros. These are the zeros that the poor player built.

When you play MoO, you should never forget why you are playing this game. The very first task of the player is to do everything that brings points, namely to build and attack. With the attack, everything is more or less clear - any attack gives 2 VP. But with the construction you need to be more careful. There are great cards that give VP at the end of the game for a certain type of card in one system or in any of the player's systems. I consider these cards the most important. It is they who at the end of the game give a significant increase in points. There are some other crazy cards that bring as much as 12 VP, but in order to build them, you need to discard 7 resources of each type at once, and this can only happen towards the end of the game. Almost all other cards please only 1 VP. Cards with 0 points are not bad. They tend to instantly grant resources or allow the player to take an extra action. But you should always remember that cards that do not bring points are only useful at the time they are built, and at the end of the game they will be of little use. Therefore, you need to try to find those cards in the deck that will allow you to score in large numbers.

The game has three conditions under which the game ends. But all my games ended after the 8th round, because:

a) players are a little afraid to assemble systems to the end;

b) loyalty is closely monitored by everyone.

In terms of time, 8 rounds can last in different ways, depending on the number of players and their level of training. A game for two can be laid out in 40-45 minutes, but a game for four usually takes us a good 1-1.5 hours. In principle, in this game it is easy to get stuck on the choice of action, so players prone to analysis paralysis will easily increase the playing time.

If we talk about gaming sensations with a different number of players, then I can say that I didn’t feel much difference. That you play with four, that with two - in fact, everything is one. There are no cards in MoO that are good for four and bad for two (or vice versa). If, for example, you have protection from attacks, then it plays equally well in any scenario. In addition, there are not many cards in the game that affect opponents. Most often, everyone quietly digs into their sandboxes and sometimes attacks each other.

And here we got to the very question that I asked myself after reading the rules - are the properties of the cards good? In this regard, MoO is a rather calm game. I did not find any super unrealistic combinations in the game. Basically, the effects of cards are tied to the manipulation of resources, to bonuses / penalties from attacks, to the loss or gain of loyalty, to special effects like hiring an adviser for free or gaining an additional action die. So far, I have not noticed any long chains of effects in the game. It happens that the card allows you to build one additional card, and then another if certain conditions are met. But I did not notice a strong synergy. Almost all cards are individual and work by themselves. In this regard, MoO is inferior to such games as Race for the Galaxy or Imperial Settlers . Something else remotely similar can be called Bruges and new era . Moo, IMHO, more casual game, although some card effects will make the player sweat before they understand how the card works. It was only after the third game that I got more or less used to the cards and spent less time thinking about the optimal application. Unfortunately, I don't see depth in MoO.

Perhaps this is facilitated by the limitation of four systems. In fact, this is a rather interesting decision of the developers, because with this they limited the player in the fouling of opportunities. Remember Bruges , when at the end of the game you have a bunch of characters on the table and each one needs to be checked for effects. The player is always afraid of missing out on an opportunity to play a character ability inadvertently, as it could cost them the win. It is easier to keep track of cards in MoO - a player cannot have more than 4 working cards (except for the advisor property that allows you to create a fifth system). Agree that it is easier to control 4 cards than 10 or 15. And sometimes it is so painful to close a useful card with another card due to the fact that there are more free places no. Now you no longer get the attack bonus, but you can spend an action die to get the right resources. The player's abilities change almost every turn. Note - they are not supplemented (if you have already started 4 systems), but they change. You will not be able to access one, and the second, and the third, and the fifth, sixth, seventh. MoO is designed not for amplification, but for change. We strengthen in the game only the resources that we take at the beginning of the round. Everything else is changed and modified.

Advisors. This is such a cute touch that fits well into the overall picture. Theoretically, the properties of advisors could be on the race boards to make them even more different from each other. But hiring advisors also works interestingly. I would not say that all players need to immediately rush to buy an adviser, besides, sometimes it can be done without spending cards, but the sooner the adviser helps you, the more useful it is.

I really, really, really liked that all the races in the game are different and there are more than four of them. This is just super cool. I'm already somehow used to the fact that publishers often make truncated games, in which everything is back to back - heroes, cards, tokens. For example, if the game is designed for four players, then here are four races and no more. Faction boards are double-sided - on one side are people (whose starting resources are different), and on the other side is some other faction with interesting improved properties. For example, Alcari may spend 1 VP at the start of a round to gain 1 Action Die. Mrrshans gain an additional fleet for using the Exploit action. Psilons take 3 cards instead of 2 during exploration. In general, playing for different factions is interesting, because. their abilities can slightly change your strategy.

I also like game actions, as they are all unique, useful and interesting in their own way. Not enough resources - discard cards and get them. There are extra resources - use trade. If possible, always build maps. A lot of fleet - attack your opponents. Not enough cards or bad cards in hand - discard everything and start digging the deck. Low loyalty - urgently raise it. Everything is quite harmonious.

If you play carefully, wisely, then at the end of the game there will not be a big difference in points. We usually managed to score between 30 and 40 points on average (the leader may have a bit more). Perhaps with experience we will start taking 50;)

I also like MoO because it does not take up much space on the table (each player only has a tablet and 4 rows of cards), and also it quickly unfolds and assembles in a box. I handed out the tablets, dismantled the cubes, shuffled the deck of cards, distributed 5 cards each, prepared advisers - you can play. All this is done in just a few minutes. Collect the game even faster.

Art is good. The images of the races are most likely taken from a computer game (I'm not familiar with it yet) and they are quite nice (except that the people seem to be made of wax). The art on the cards is also nice - boats and scientific stations are just pleasing to the eye. But I don't really like the design of the tablets and the chosen font. They turned out to be too simple. It seems to me that the designer could sit a little longer to make everything prettier.

The game also has its downsides, of course. The very first drawback for me is the difficulty of accessing information on maps. When cards overlap, we close card properties and scores bottom cards. Sometimes a player forgets in which system and which card specifically gives points at the end of the game. This is important to know, because when building new cards, you need to take all this into account in order to put a new card in the right system. In several systems, you may have several of these cards with bonuses. Unfortunately, there is no information about this on top of the card, so you have to take the entire row in your hand and look at them, or move the rows to the side. The same goes for other players - you don't see which cards bring them bonuses and which don't. For example, there is a card that allows you to rearrange the opponent's row according to your desire. Such an action immediately slows down the overall flow of the game, because you will want to explore each row. I'm missing auxiliary symbols on top of the map.

More about cubes. Each action involves spending a die. You announce what you are going to do, then you take a die and put it either on your own or on someone else's board, or in the reserve, or on a card, and then you apply the effect. Sometimes players forget to move the die. In principle, this is not a problem of the game, but a problem of the players - you need to make sure that everyone does not forget to spend the die, otherwise it may turn out that someone will perform an extra action. Already in the third game, my friends and I forgot to do this less often. Those. it's just a matter of habit. But you need to follow!

Another disadvantage that beginners can feel on themselves, and I already wrote about it - you can build all 20 cards, but lose completely on points. But this, of course, is not a bug, but a feature. But the one who loses will blame the game for everything, of course, and not himself.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work out to replace all the text with symbols - there is a lot of text on many maps and you have to dig into it. When you first see a card with some kind of long effect, you fall into a stupor, digesting the information received. In my experience, it's always easier to play a simple card, which gives a specific resource, and all the action of the card is displayed in understandable symbols. It's harder with cards that have long text, because sometimes you read and think - why would I even do this? Having played several games, understanding of the cards comes faster.

Not all cards are equally useful. Some effect is better, some worse. Fortunately, you can discard a card and get a resource or new cards in return. But there are also cards in the game that you almost always don’t want to use.

To play successfully, you need to know the entire deck. You need to know what to look for in the deck, what works best in combinations, how not to be left without resources and with useless cards. For this reason, it will be difficult for beginners to play with experienced players. I liked my third played game much more than the first, because I already knew approximately which cards in which situation it is better to play on the table, and which ones are better to fold.

And finally

So, now I will try to summarize everything that I have analyzed (or tried to do) above. Moo is good game but no wow factor. There are no analogues in the Russian gaming industry, and this is very valuable for the development of the board games market in Russia. In my opinion, Sklyuev and Gorn (these are the authors of the game) turned out to be an interesting board game. The theme of space is probably even more suitable for the mechanics of the game than the post-apocalypse. I like card games, I like to sort through cards, look for interesting combinations, use their effects, and MoO seems to have no problems with this. But I still lack depth. Moo turned out to be a little easier than I expected. I get a similar feeling when I play some kind of first-person shooter game on the computer (although I rarely do it), and there you can only have two types of weapons with you, because there are no more. And I want to have grenades, and machine guns, and machine guns, and pistols. In MoO, it's about the same - you can't have more than four active cards, and you can't expand your abilities much.

I like the fact that the game supports different development strategies. You can collect resources for construction for a long time expensive cards, or you can upgrade your fleet and get points by attacking your opponents. If you are attacked, then you have to be distracted by gaining loyalty, otherwise the game will end quickly. Therefore, you can’t just close yourself off from everyone and play your own game.

MoO can not be called a worldwide hit, but it's still a good game from the young Russian developers. In fact, it may not be to everyone's liking. The game is more suitable for those who are fond of board games not so long ago, because experienced players in 2-4 games they will easily understand all the possibilities of the game and, most likely, will continue to play their favorite card games of a similar plan (I wrote about them above). It’s hard for me to talk about replayability, because I personally haven’t played the game yet (I played 4 games and before posting the review, I’ll play it for the fifth time in order to have time to correct something in the review if my opinion changes). I have a desire to continue to explore the possibilities of the game, I want to play for those factions that I have not yet played. But, as I said. I don’t feel the depth of the game, so I understand that after 5-6 games I can cool down to MoO. And maybe I won't get cold.

My rating for Teser is 7.5. I am sure that after a few games the score will not decrease, maybe even on the contrary it will get 0.5 points. I believe that MoO is a definite step forward in the Russian board game industry. Not a masterpiece, but good enough. I will not recommend anything - try it yourself. I'm really looking forward to an expansion that has more options for hardcore players.

Game page on the publisher's website hobby world

When one wise head invented a computer technique capable of performing unthinkable calculations, another, no less bright personality, figured out how to play this technique ... In the dawn of digital entertainment, every idea was new, and it was easy to impress the public. In those days, programmers could implement their wildest ideas without regard to publishers, graphics were not so important, games had a well-thought-out storyline and brain-bending gameplay (which is rare these days). We will consider the desktop embodiment of one of these masterpieces. Today on the Pink sofa is the galaxy-conquering board game Master of Orion.

In 1993, Microprose released Stephen Barcia's Master of Orion game, which was destined to become a cult game and outshine the famous "Civilization". Players had to travel in space, explore planets, build bases, trade, engage in politics, make alliances and upgrade spaceships. Nothing like this has ever existed, so millions of gamers clung to monitors, and to this day they make forays into space. By the way, the fourth reissue of Master of Orion was recently released, which caused another intergalactic war between fans of this genre.

Such a remarkable event (re-release), as well as an interesting plot and a big name, prompted the developers to create desktop version the electronic version of Master of Orion.

Inside the space box, you'll find a stack of cards, a bag of alien dice, a handful of tokens, a few tablets, and beautifully designed game rules that are very cleverly written as well. The boundless expanses of space that we have to surf are hidden under an impressive organizer ...

Four civilizations will come together in battle for dominance over the planets of the galaxy. Each of the applicants will receive 15 dice of their color to mark achievements and determine the number of available actions.

The "+50" and "+100" markers will be given to successful rulers who have managed to circumnavigate the victory points track multiple times. A modest round ball (don't accidentally throw it away when you remove the cartons from the base) will mark the number of rounds, the large token will go to the first player. The decrease in loyalty will be an unpleasant surprise for the conquerors of space in the final count.

A compact space rectangle will inform about the achievements of the players and the number of rounds played.

Rivals can choose any race they want to play for during intergalactic battles. The illustrations are taken from the modern version of Master of Orion, the characteristics and properties of cardboard characters are close to electronic counterparts. In total, 6 tablets are available: people are depicted on one side, alien creatures are depicted on the back.

One of the points that caused controversy among fans of the re-release of Master of Orion is the "human likeness" inherent in all races. Alas, the fantasy of modern designers is not as original as we would like ...

Eight advisers will help with wise parting words, as well as allow you to use the properties indicated on the cards. As you can see, the council also fell victim to "standardization", resembling people in exotic costumes...

The game deck consists of four types of cards that differ in background color. Despite the variety, there is nothing complicated in their use: the top block contains the name of the building and the resources that it brings to its owner.

In the center is an illustration and indicates the cost that must be paid for the construction of this structure. The bottom block informs about victory points, special properties of the card and the time of their activation.

To unknown worlds

Before the start of an intergalactic conflict, select the race you will represent, mark with cubes on the tablet the starting indicators of food, the size of the fleet, production efficiency, and the maximum indicator of the loyalty of the population. Also, opponents receive 5 random cards buildings. The player who arrived on Earth from another galaxy will start the party.

Place five random advisors in the center of the table (put the rest in the box), the dice take the starting position on the victory points track. The round marker is located on the first space of the track - everything is ready, you can take off!

Before you develop your empire, attack, trade and colonize planets, pay attention to the loyalty scale located on the left side of the tablet, and the table of civilization achievements located at the bottom.

The more you involve your subjects in production, recruit into the fleet, or send them to household work, the less you are loved. And the smaller the location of the population, the less your opportunities, as indicated by the explanatory text on some cards. Of course, you can return love, but this will require certain sacrifices. So don't get carried away...

But high indicators on the scales make it possible to perform more actions during the current round.

This is determined by the rightmost marker on any of the tracks. The table is divided into three sectors, the extreme ones indicate additional terms followed by the acquisition of action dice. If your subjects walk around the planet carelessly, leaving their picks and shovels, you will receive a loyalty point, one card from the common deck and only three actions. A strict dictator, squeezing out all the juices of their people, is supposed to take five actions, but his popularity is steadily declining.

The round begins with obtaining resources from the systems that you have mastered (more on this later). Each card brings as many resources as indicated in the upper right corner of the picture - move the markers along the scales. Then take the appropriate number of action dice and you are good to go.

Although, no. There are special maps, as well as locations on the tablet, allowing you to get additional bonuses - do not forget about them. Starting with the first player, the opponents take one action each, spending the dice they receive from their personal pool.

The simplest thing is to take two cards from a common deck (you need to replenish your hand somehow). This action is called the beautiful word "research", although, in my opinion, it is not such in meaning. Rather, it is “the development of construction technology”… Many cards?! In this case, discard one and get the resources indicated in the lower left corner of the picture.

You are allowed to colonize up to four systems, each of which can contain up to five buildings. In simple terms, you can have 4 piles in front of you, each of which can consist of 5 cards. Objects are arranged in a ladder, with only the top (last) played card in each system considered active. The cost of placement on the table is shown on the left - move the cubes on the appropriate scales.

Some cards can be activated using dice and receive bonuses indicated in the lower block. A useful feature that sometimes allows you to carry out a kind of "combo".

There are also special locations on the tablet that will help the prosperity of your empire: with the help of trade, you can exchange resources, increase the loyalty of subjects by actively promoting the colonial lifestyle, hire an adviser for consultations and receive privileges for three cards from your hand.

And, of course, it is allowed to attack peaceful neighbors, reducing their loyalty level and getting victory points. But aggression is only feasible if your fleet outnumbers the enemy armada.

At the end of the round, remove all dice from activated locations, discard your hand to five cards, pass the first player token around, and move the round marker.

The game will end either after the end of the eighth round, or when one of the players collects 5 cards in all four systems, or when the subjects of one of the rulers revolt (loyalty drops below zero). After the onset of any of these events, space colonization ends, and the time comes for summing up: the cost of all built objects, as well as the loyalty of the population, are added to the previously scored points.

The final result determines the winner, who is sent to the constellation of Orion for further service for the benefit of the galaxy.

Somewhere on the edge of the galaxy

To begin with, Master of Orion is based on the author's development of Ekaterina Gorn and Igor Sklyuev (Kepler board game). Well, year by year "our" games are becoming more serious, and at this rate we will catch up with the "west" in the very near future. Well done! I am sincerely happy for the domestic authors who are rushing forward with leaps and bounds, ahead of the rest. Good luck to them, and creative success!

The game itself, as you might guess, comes down to pumping tracks, making sets and turning cards. At the same time, the number of actions and rounds is limited, which does not allow you to unnecessarily delay game process, and makes you think about strategy, especially at the very beginning of the game. As it turned out after several sorties, Master of Orion is played comfortably by any squad, since, frankly, there are not as many interactions as we would like...

I would also like to see special cards that would allow you to change buildings in systems in order to subsequently receive for collected sets the maximum amount of resources. But this can be easily fixed with an addition, which, in my opinion, will only benefit the game.

Otherwise, this is a very good board game for players of all skill levels. Beginners will find it easy to navigate the variety of maps and tablet functions, while experienced space explorers will be able to develop several winning strategies. We are waiting for additions, although in this form the game deserves your closest attention.