Master of Orion is a turn-based space strategy board game from Hobby World and WG Labs based on the computer game of the same name. The player will lead one of the 7 races (Alkari, Melkar, Psilon, Darlok, Bulrati, Mrrshan, Humans) and by developing it, lead to victory over the others.

For those who are completely far from the topic: Master of Orion is something like "", only in a space setting. Players need to manage certain resources, build useful structures and choose a development path (for example, military or scientific). In the tabletop Master of Orion, the winner is the one who, at the end of 8 rounds, has scored the most points. There are two more options for ending the game: if one of the players has loyalty equal to 0 or less; at least one player has all systems filled (5 building cards in 4 systems).

The package includes:

• 90 building cards (63x89)
• 8 advisor cards (63x89)
• 6 civilization boards
• 60 wooden cubes
• 16 tokens
• Scoring field
• Rules of the game

Due to the massive rules (15 pages) you can get confused, especially at the start of the game. It is worth noting that on each race board in the upper right corner is the order of the round. It all starts with obtaining resources: if this is the start of the game, then the cubes are placed on the resources circled (each race has its own initial indicators); if these are subsequent rounds, then you need to pay attention to the upper right corner of the erected buildings, where the increase in certain resources is indicated.

After the distribution of food counters, fleets and production, the phase of determining the level of mobilization follows. The counters are divided into three zones: left (all resource cubes are on values ​​from 0 to 3), middle (from 4 to 6) and right (from 7 to 9). Under these zones are mobilization effects: if the mobilization level is low (left zone), the player takes 3 dice of his color, 1 card from the deck and increases the loyalty of his civilization by 1. Bonuses for other mobilization levels are different for each race.

Then comes the action phase. The resulting dice can be spent on building (build a structure card; at the beginning of the round, the player must have no more than 5 cards in hand), exploitation (discard a card and get resources or another card), research (take a certain number of cards from the top of the deck), activation (activate the effect of the card), attack (attack another player), trade (exchange resources), propaganda (increase loyalty) or deal (hire an adviser). Players take turns performing actions until they have spent all the dice gained after the mobilization level determination phase.

At the end of the round, the players return the dice from their player boards to the reserve and discard the extra cards (if there are more than 5 in their hand). Also, the round marker moves to the next space, and the first player token (actions are played starting from the one who has the token) is transferred clockwise.

You can play Master of Orion in a company of 2 to 4 players, the duration of the game takes about an hour. Card effects are mainly based on interaction with resources and other properties. There were no super-combinations, the game is quite calm. There are also very few cards that affect the opponent, all players are slowly engaged in the manipulation of resources and other things in their sandboxes.

At first, it is quite difficult to join the gameplay. To understand what's what, you have to re-read the rules several times. And also constantly look into them because of not the most intuitive symbols on tablets and maps. But over time, you realize that in general the interface is clear and minimalistic. There is no room for further simplification.

On the table, the game does not take up much space, but there is a small problem: if you lay out buildings on top of each other in each system, leaving visible the top indicators of the map (type, name and growth of resources), then the central and lower data are not visible. And there we have enough important details: the game effect, the duration of the card effect (on activation, after construction, at the beginning of the round, etc.), the cell for the die, the effect of using the card, victory points. In this case, you must either constantly remember to slightly open and look at the rest of the cards, or lay them out next to each other without putting them on top, but then the size of the playing field will decently increase.

In addition to small subjective problems with the start and interfaces, everything in Master of Orion is at a fairly high level. High-quality materials and design of tablets and cards. Everything is harmoniously packed in a solid box measuring 255x255x62.

The Master of Orion board game is perfect for couples, friends or a small group who want to have fun and have a good time. Despite the calm pace of the game, you certainly will not be bored. In Master of Orion, you constantly need to think through your development path and manage your resources wisely. This board game is sure to give a lot of impressions. You can buy Master of Orion on the Hobby World website or in Hobby World stores.

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Valar morghulis, played.

Today I will tell you about a Russian board game that made me a little happier - Master of Orion. She's made Igor Sklyuev And Ekaterina Horn influenced by the cult turn-based strategy game of the same name on PC by 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 a stone to the bottom due to the third part of a computer game, or - hellish wine that continues 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. IN 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 this game for the new year. 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.

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.

Compound

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 the possible actions that can be applied on your turn. After everyone has received 5 cards, the first round begins.

Conventionally, the round can be divided into 3 phases:

• the 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 effects "at 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:

• construction- 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. and so on. 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 - whoever is lucky to draw a cool card 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 zeros were built by the poor player.

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 is, IMHO, more of a 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 no more free places. Now you no longer get the attack bonus, but you can spend an action die to get the resources you need. 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. The faction boards are two-sided - on one side are people (whose starting resources are different), and on the other side there 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 the properties of the cards and the scores of the 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 that gives you a specific resource, and the entire action of the card is shown in clear 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 a good game, but without the 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 the construction of expensive maps for a long time, or you can upgrade the fleet and get points by attacking 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 young Russian developers. In fact, it may not be to everyone's liking. The game is more suitable for those who have been fond of board games not so long ago, because experienced players will easily understand all the possibilities of the game in 2-4 games 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

Thanks to the Board Game Developers Guild (GRANI), dozens of game developers have gone from a set of ideas to a full-fledged game. Finally, the most promising prototype called "Kepler" has reached publication - a diverse economic strategy inspired by the unreleased Glory to Rome. Through the efforts of Hobby World and Wargaming.net, Kepler has acquired a new name - the name of the famous computer space strategy.

Genre: economic strategy, race for points
Authors: Igor Sklyuev, Ekaterina Gorn
Artists People: Alexander Shaldin, Sergey Dulin
Publisher: Hobby World
Number of players: 2–4
Age of players: from 12 years old
Party duration: 60-90 minutes
Similar to:
The New Era (2011)
Race for the Galaxy (2007)

It seems that the time has passed when a game from a "domestic manufacturer" meant another card filler. I would like to compare Master of Orion not with Potions or Zavriks, but with serious, time-tested foreign games like Race for the Galaxy, Settlers and Eminent Domain. Moreover, the comparison with the last "Orion" wins in all respects. The rules do not offer original mechanics, but use the already familiar ones in a very elegant way. Yes, the entry threshold here is much lower than that of ideological inspirers.

Over eight rounds (more than enough to develop a galactic empire) you have to build, fight and confuse the cards of your opponents. Each player has a board on which the available resources are marked with wooden cubes: food, fleet and production level. The more resources a player gets at the start of the round, the more action dice they get. Reaching 7 on any of the three tracks will allow you to make as many as five turns per round, but your people's morale will drop. The fourth resource is responsible for it, loyalty, which is marked on the scale on the left. The mood of the subjects also drops after enemy attacks, and too low values ​​\u200b\u200bturn off the most powerful cards. This is where the participation of your population in the game ends, there are no worker chips and character selection in the game.

After receiving action dice, players can develop their empires. For one die, you can draw cards into your hand from a common deck, build (pay for and put on the table) one of them, cheer up your subjects, collect some resources or change them at a constant rate. Some buildings open up new actions (activating such abilities also require a turn and spending a die), but the space for cards is limited - they all must fit into four system piles, and only the abilities of newly built buildings will work. The rest continue to bring food and other resources, but that's all. It is already in the third or fourth round that you have to decide which advantages to sacrifice.

Player tablet

Not all buildings need to be activated - some benefit immediately or increase the effectiveness of other actions. Most in the deck of upgrades for attacks: additional cards, victory points with each raid, double morale damage, resource influx. But the balance between peaceful and military strategy has been maintained. Or rather, there are no such strategies here - an experienced player will simply start from the cards that come to hand. To declare an attack, you need to catch up with the opponent on the fleet track, and during this time the enemy will surely raise his economy. For example, he will build a long chain with the "Planetary Supercomputer" in the system and will receive 5 victory points for each activation.

In general, the interaction in Master of Orion is much greater than that of its neighbors in the genre. It’s not enough to dig into your tablet and keep an eye on the enemy fleet. There are many ways to influence a foreign empire. "Landing Ship" will send the best card of the system to the bottom of the pile, "Camp of Spies" will separate it from a useful adviser, and "Battleship" will temporarily block some of the game's actions. At the same time, players can only inflict indirect damage on each other - resources and victory points cannot be encroached upon. Although such aggression no longer allows unambiguously classifying the game as a European school.

Outcome: Master of Orion is a Russian board game to be proud of. Deep enough and at the same time accessible to beginners. Focused on the development of the economy, but moderately conflict. Not only exploits a well-known brand, but continues its ideas. If Steel Arena does not have time to appear on the shelves by December, we already know the best domestic game of the year.

Board game

Number of players
2 to 4

Party time
40 to 60 minutes

Game difficulty
Medium

A strategic space board game based on the computer game of the same name in 1993. You have to lead one of the civilizations and become the ruler of the galaxy, as humanity needs a new home. You can explore space, build and develop colonies, engage in trade and all this in order to lead your people to victory. The board game Master of Orion is very dynamic, bright and balanced.

Purpose of the Board Game Board Game Master of Orion:

You need to score the most points at the end of the game. And congratulations to the ruler of the galaxy!

Players receive points for:

• card effects
• successful attacks of opponents
• structures in your systems
• loyalty to civilization
  IMPORTANT! If you have negative loyalty, but points are taken away.

The game ends when one of three conditions is met:

• ended the eighth round
• at the end of the round, one of the players in each system has five cards
• at the end of the round, civilization loyalty is 0 or lower

Board game Master of Orion: game rules

The Master of Orion board game lasts a maximum of eight rounds. One round consists of 3 phases, which go in order:

1. Phase: Preparation.

• Getting resources. Each of the players receives resources, which are depicted at the top of his card. When you receive a resource, you move a die on your resource track. IMPORTANT! It is forbidden to have more resources than there are divisions on your counter.
• Determining the level of mobilization and getting action. This determines the number of actions your civilization can perform in a given round. The level of mobilization can be: low, medium and high. When low, you get the least number of actions, but gains loyalty, when high, vice versa.
• Effects. Players take turns using all their effects indicated on the cards.

2. Phase: Actions.

In this phase, all players take turns performing their actions. The first player performs one action, the second player performs one action, and so the turn of actions is passed around the circle until all players have spent their action dice.

• Construction - you can build a structure. The cost of the building is paid, and the card itself is laid out on the table in one of your systems, or a new one is based at your discretion.
• Exploit - You can discard one of your cards from your hand and get a new card or resources for it. It all depends on the color of the discarded card:
  • 1. gray card - take 4 cards and keep 3 of them
  • 2. blue card - take 3 food
  • 3. red card - take 2 fleets
  • 4. gold card - take 1 production
  • 3. Research - you can take 2 cards from the deck
• Activation - you can trigger the effect of a special card with the "Activation" symbol. Some effects will need to be paid, some will be activated without payment.
• Attack. To attack another player, you must first declare war by rolling a die. You can attack an opponent from 1 to 3 times, depending on the number of opponents. You can only attack if you and your opponent have the same number of fleets or your fleet is superior. Do not forget also that it will be necessary to pay for the attack with resources. After the attack, loyalty drops by one point, and the attacker receives 2 points.
• Trade - you can exchange your resources at market value. Resources above 9 are lost.
• Propaganda - increases the loyalty of your civilization, only once per round. Loyalty can be higher than 10.
• Deal - you can hire an advisor. You discard any three cards and take one of the advisors. IMPORTANT! You can only have one advisor. If you want to take another, then discard the first. All advisors provide unique bonuses and properties.

3. Phase: End of the round.

• Checked at the end of the game. The Master of Orion board game ends in three of the above conditions.
• Dropping dice into reserve
• Up to five cards are discarded
• The turn passes to the next player in a circle.