Ever fancied yourself as the conductor of an intergalactic orchestra? Have you always wanted to put on performances like Diva Plavalaguna from The Fifth Element or even play some timeless jatz music like Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes from Star Wars? I think Philharmonix might just be for you!
Introduction
I bought this game with almost no prior research. I checked BoardGameGeek to see how well it was rated, and how complex/heavy it was and the scores there had me interested (7.4/10 rating and 3.6/5 complexity – very much my sweet spot). I also took the time to check what on Earth it was about – conducting a space orchestra, recruiting musicians and playing concerts – and that was pretty much me sold.
I usually do a bit more due diligence than that – watching half a dozen reviews or playthroughs – but it just spoke to me as something unusual and so I went for it. And I am so, so glad I did. I’m feeling pretty confident at this being my surprise sleeper hit of the year by some margin. Let me tell you why.
What’s going on?
A lot is going on. There are five different tracks to keep your eye on, a galactic map, a variable-cost action selection system, two sets of dice, patrons to impress and a wonderful personal 3D orchestra stage for you to showcase your musicians.
It sounds bloated and I would say it’s just on the right side of that line. What it does is blend all these things together incredibly well and means every choice counts.
I won’t go over the detail of the setup because it’ll feel dry and tedious (and you could just read the very good, very clear rulebook if you were so inclined) but as a bit of an overview we have the following:
The main board houses the map (split into six segments each with space for a soloist and three-star musician, as well as information about what kind of music that part of the galaxy wants to hear) the six action selection spaces (along with their accompanying tables) and the piano track that reflects the overall strength of your orchestra and provides you with some bonuses as you grow. There’s also a prestige (victory point) tracker as you might expect and space along one edge of the board to lay out seven patron cards then you can try and impress for immediate points and bonuses you can trigger each round. Finally, the main board houses space for the two sets of dice – four representing different musicians you can hire and another four representing different symphonies you can learn.
Your player board holds your action point track, your experience track, pace for the die-hard fans of your music as well as spaces for up to five symphonies that your orchestra is going to become increasingly proficient at. As I’ve mentioned already, you also have a separate 3D set of stages for your musicians which all looks superb when put together with your player board.
There is a lot going on. But the rulebook does an excellent job of guiding you through all the setup. In fact the rulebook deserves its own special mention full stop. While it might look a little intimidating, it’s well structured and includes a couple of examples for each action you can take, all of which are labelled and properly described. As someone who recently spent hours trying to decode the rulebook for Molly House (to a point where it felt like maybe it didn’t want me to actually play the game at all) this is an excellent example of how things should be done.
Let’s make some noise!!
Well, not noise per se – music, beautiful music… with our saxophones and keytars! It is, you’ll not be shocked to learn, not quite as simple as that. I’ll talk through the six actions as briefly as I can and then we’ll come back together to talk about how it all slots together. But just before I do that, I’ll explain the action point system as that really drives how all this works.
Your player board tracks the action points you’ve spent each round, and you start with a maximum of nine, though you can always exceed this once per round by losing points equal to the amount you’ve over-spent. There are six action spaces on the board and their cost is randomised using tokens each round, meaning you’ll spend between one and six action points to do something. How good the action is depends on its cost. Spending six action points to promote musicians costs more, but allows you do promote more people. The action benefits tend to be ‘paired’ so a cost of one or two action points will get you pretty much the same benefit (some small differences aside) but having spent two action points will be a bit cheaper than spending one.
This feels counterintuitive, but while you can always choose to execute the action at a lower level than you’ve paid for, you have to spend your fans to move up a single level of strength, and the game ‘penalises’ you for that. If I wanted to carry out a Promote action and the native cost was two action points, I could spend fans to do that at the three action point level, but sneaking the benefit would cost me more. And you can only ever bump up a single level, so there’s a depth of strategy there.
OK, with that summary done, let’s talk about what you can actually do…
Action stations!
I’ll cover these almost in order they’re shown on the board, though I’ll leave the most complex until last (again, as the excellent rulebook itself suggests you do).
First up is the Patron action which, at its core, allows you to impress one of the seven randomly selected musical patrons. You can always impress them (which is nice and self-affirming) but if you impress them with their exact requirements, you’ll score some bonus prestige at the same time. Each patron has an ability that you can also activate with this action, gaining a smaller benefit such as a single prestige or a fan
Next up is Invest which is the simplest action of the game. Here you can either gain experience (which is useful for later actions) or spend it to be able to permanently increase the number of action points you have each round. This is good. You’ll remember above that we have this soft limit of nine, though we can exceed it by forfeiting prestige. Increasing that limit through investing means greater flexibility and if you’re able to do it early, can make a big difference.
The Promote action allows you to spend a combination of credits and experience to promote a number of musicians in your orchestra (from zero to one star, one to two or two to three). You can also promote your conductor, which in practical terms means you’re able to master symphonies and potentially score more end-game points.
Taking the Compose action allows you to spend experience and gain new symphonies for your orchestra to perform. Here you’ll choose one of the available symphonies showing on the dice, add it to your board, re-roll and replace the die. If you’re taking more than one piece (due to a higher action point cost) you can also spend a fan to re-roll the unchosen three dice first. This action also allows you to advance a symphony – moving it from the top of your board to the silver row (or from silver to gold if your conductor is well versed in it). You can also advance it to the silver (or gold) slot effectively taking it out of your repertoire and scoring some points at the end. This might seem counterintuitive, but you can only have five pieces at a time, and as we’ll see shortly, performing means you must advance a symphony so they will come out of your songbook eventually. You may also want to make room for a different piece.
Choosing to Audition is mechanically similar to the compose action, though instead you’re spending credits to hire new musicians, again based on the available dice in that section of the board, and following the same principles with the dice. You can also hire either a soloist or a three-star musician from the segment of the galaxy you’re in, but these will each cost an additional five credits on top of what you’re already paying for the action. This is the only way to get soloists so it’s important to keep that in mind. Note that any time you hire or promote a musician, you move up on the piano track (your position should always reflect the total number of stars your orchestra has).
Performance ready!
Let’s cover the final action – Perform – which is the most complex but also the most lucrative. The player aid is excellent here, walking you through a simple visual check of what to do (which is also summarised with icons on the board).
Firstly, you add one of your player discs (which are limited so make good choices) to the planet you’re on and, if you’re the first person to perform to this audience this round, add one to their demand tile (which shows exactly what they want to hear) – this scores you three prestige!
Next we score points for our symphonies and orchestra. Each demand tile shows two symphonies and three musicians that people want to hear. You’ll score 0, 1 or 4 points depending on whether you have 0, 1 or 2 matching pieces they want to hear. You’ll score 1, 3 or 6 prestige for 1, 2 or 3 musicians. These must match exactly, so if the demand tile shows a desire to hear from a one-star percussionist and you have a two-star drummer then no match and no points. Typically these tiles want a one-star, two-star and either a soloist or a three-star person, and it’s all obviously visible before you choose to perform. If you’ve managed to meet all five requirements, you get a bonus two prestige for 12 in total (plus the three if you were first to perform that round). It’s lucrative.
Next we’ll advance the symphonies we played as outlined above for the Compose action before getting a credit bonus depending on how far we’ve progressed on the piano track. Depending on the strength of the action we can also potentially score soloist bonuses. Performing at a three action point level would allow you to activate up to two different soloists, each of whom have different bonuses.
We’ll gain admiration in that segment of the galaxy – performing in outer planets scores three admiration (moving along the track for that segment) while performing close to the centre scores only one. The logic is pretty tight here – being close to the centre means you can move around much quicker so you’re incentivised to get out into the fringes a little more. Finally, depending on the strength of the perform action, you may get some bonus experience
Bravo! Brava!
That’s a lot right? Many, many words and I suspect it feels like a lot to think about. Well it is and it isn’t. You’ve got five rounds to play, so you could be incredibly clinical about it and say it’s an optimisation game for 45 (ish) action points and then have at it.
But it’s far from that. The action point costs are randomised each round, so while performing in round 1 might be a lovely and manageable two action points, it could skyrocket to six next round. Do you go for a relatively lacklustre performance early to get something on the board or do you shop around for new music and new musicians to get a big performance in later on?
You can loosely plan for what you want to do, and there’s a certain “upgrade people, get symphonies, bag a soloist, try and impress someone” pattern to it, but each round will have you evaluating exactly what you’re prepared to pay for (or not) and just how many prestige you might want to sacrifice in the short-term.
Final thoughts
There’s a lot of plates to spin here, and a good few ways to approach what you’re ultimately trying to do. You could fly around the galaxy putting in a lot of less favourable shows to get some admiration – there’s end-game points for being the most admired across each of the six sections – or you could focus on performing two or three bring-the-house-down pieces, hoping they come at a higher action point cost to let your five soloists you’ve lovingly recruited shine at their brightest.
It sounds like a lot, but mechanically it feels very robust, gives you lots of options and strategies to explore too.
There’s also a solo mode which is how I first learned the game (before immediately teaching it the very next day I was so impressed) and this box also includes a Record variant where you can get your unique sound down on vinyl and sell it for some short-term credits, and hopefully having the symphonies in your silver or gold slots for points at the end.
I’ve been really so impressed by this, so if mid/heavier-weight games are your thing then I’d honestly urge you to give it some attention!
