From the Publisher:
Disclaimer: The publisher provided the prototype copy of the game and the opinions expressed in the review are completely my own.
Review: Overview:
Rising Storm: The Starborne is a 2 to 4 player card based sci-fi game, where you will be vying to win ‘tricks / challenges’ be it Military or Civilian, and thereby build up the most points at the end of the third ‘challenge’.
Rules & Setup:
Set up is relatively quick, and easy. Depending on your player count, i.e. 2, 3 or 4 you take the Storm cards and shuffle them, setting them out on the playing area.
After determining who is the starting player, and selecting their faction, each player in turn will take;-
· Faction starting card
· Credit tacking marker / cube
· The 6 staring cards of your faction
· Faction player board
Each player places their faction card in turn order from left to right at the top of the playing area.
You are now ready to begin play, and the rules are as follows:-
At the start of each of the three ‘challenges’ you shuffle the Storm deck, and deal out two rows of face up cards, with 1 card per row for each player, so for a 3 player game there would be two rows of 3 face up cards.
Below the bottom row you put out a third row, but this time all cards are laid face down.
In turn order, each player will select one card, which can be any of the face up cards, or one of the face down ones, and these can be selected even if there are still face up cards left in the selection area.
This is done until all cards have been selected, and have been added to players hands.
Now you will begin playing cards from your hand, and this goes as follows:-
Again, in turn order, each player will place a card on the table into the main area, directly below their player faction card to form a column.
You will play 4 cards in this way, with the cards in the bottom row all being played face down.
Once all have been played, these face down cards are turned face up, and are resolved in turn order. Any cards under Secret Agents are again resolved in order, but AFTER the bottom row cards have been resolved.
If a card has a number in it’s ‘credit’ area, it means the player must pay that amount of credits to play the card, and you can go to -3 in credits maximum at any point. This is tracked on your faction board.
Unless another card has a power that prevents it, the card with the highest number value wins the challenge, unless again two military cards combine their power to have the highest value.
After a winner is determined, then any spies and sapper cards take their action, in the order in which they were placed.
Spies can / will capture any one card, and sappers will steal credits from the winning player. All remaining cards are discarded.
The winning player will collect a 5 point victory challenge marker, and in a 3 or 4 player game the second placed player will take the 2 point marker.
Faction cards are then rearranged at the top of the play area to show that the winning player is the first player for the next challenge (unless of course you were playing challenge 3).
CAPTURED cards are placed in front of the player that captured them, and players capture ENEMY cards in play. Only spies can capture a card played by it’s own faction after the challenge is over. Only cards that have been played can be captured, and you may choose to capture all, some or none of them as you wish.
CREDITS are used to perform actions or to pay for the cost of playing certain cards, whilst some cards will generate credits. To keep tally of your credits, simply move your marker on the credit track each time you either gain, or spend them.
After the third challenge you determine the winner, and this is done as follows:-
- Points for each challenge you win 5pts for Military, and 3 for Civilian.
- 1pt for each card you capture
- Points equal to the value to the right of their end credit score track, i.e. if you finish with 10, 11 or 12 credits you get 12 victory points. However, for each minus credit you have you lose 2pts, i.e. if you finish on -3 credits, you will lose 6 victory points.
If there is a tie on points then the following tie breaker(s) are used in descending order
- Player that won most challenges
- Player with the most credits
- Most captured cards
Theme and Mechanics:
The game is based on the stories of the 142nd Starborne by Patrick Thomas, and is in my opinion very thematic.
The game mechanics are solid enough, and should hold the interest of core gamers and those new to card based games of this ilk.
Gameplay:
Again, gameplay is solid, and the rules have been well thought out to give a nice balanced game, which can be played as both your main game of an evening, or a fill in whilst waiting to start a much bigger game, or one to round off the night.
It’s rules are easy enough to be picked up by new / novice gamers, as well as having just the right depth to give seasoned gamers a nice experience.
Artwork and Components:
In the protype I received, the faction boards had been printed and stuck onto card, and the markers were wooden cubes, but I’m sure the production will be far higher
in the Kickstarter, The playing cards had been nicely done, and all came sleeved for added durability. The artwork was fantastic and added to the experience.
The Good:
This game if it has the right entry point cost, will I’m sure appeal to many gamers, and not just those who love card games. It is coming to Kickstarter in January 2023, so keep an eye out for it.
The Other:
The theme may put some people off, i.e. if they think it’s based on something they know nothing about, i.e. the Patrick Thomas stories (I must admit I personally had not heard of them / him), but if you can get past that it should prove to be a nice game to add to your collection.
Final Thoughts:
I think this is the kind of game that will pop up in lots of board game cafes / libraries, and once played will sit well in peoples collections, and for me is well worth a punt on.
