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Stellar Horizons is a "build your own space program" game in which you lead one of seven Earth factions to explore and develop our solar system. Designed by a real-life space engineer with a PhD in long-duration spaceflight from MIT, Stellar Horizons is intended to be a plausible representation of the first steps of humanity towards the stars between 2030 and 2169, with each turn representing a year of time. You control your faction’s space program, outposts, and fleets spanning across the solar system, although you also have some influence over your faction’s politics back home on Earth as space development becomes more important.
Movement is based on real physics. You move from orbit to orbit, or conduct long range transfers to move between planetary systems like Earth, Mars, or Jupiter. As you send out robotic explorers and crewed vehicles to explore the solar system, they bring back valuable data to further your scientific research. Technologies are intended to represent plausible extrapolations of existing development during the next 150 years: there are no transporters or warp drive, but you will be able to develop rockets powered by fusion and even anti-matter. In the engineering and biology domains, you’ll eventually be able to construct space elevators and put your crews into safe hibernation for long journeys.
You’ll have access to a wide variety of robot explorers and crewed ships. These range from tiny probes intended to merely take photographs as you fly past Jupiter, to giant destroyers, cruisers, and battleships which ply the space lanes with peaceful or hostile intentions. New ship types become available as you gain access to better technology over the course of the game.
You’ll be given a budget to spend on Earth and can also build bases to harvest minerals, organics, and fuel to expands your economy. You can also forge diplomatic relationships with players and non-player factions alike, and trade resources at their bases to earn extra cash. Each of the seven factions has different strengths, weaknesses, abilities, and available ships based on their unique geopolitical situation. Military conflict is certainly possible but not always encouraged. Stellar Horizons features more diplomatic, technological, and economic competition than outright combat, although neglecting warships entirely leaves you vulnerable to pirates, trade embargoes, and sneak attacks by rogue players and factions.
Stellar Horizons includes short co-operative and competitive scenarios lasting an hour or more, and campaigns lasting a day up to about a full weekend for experienced players. Up to seven players can play at a time and the game is most fun with at least two, but there are also one-player scenarios, and the campaigns are highly suited for solo play. There are three ways to win the campaign: be the first to develop an Interstellar Colonizer, terraform a world, or achieve dominance in space over your rivals.
Ages | |
---|---|
Players | Solo, 2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players, 5 Players, 6 Players |
Play Time | 60m – 1200m |
Designer | Andrew Rader |
Mechanics | Dice Rolling |
Theme | Civilization, Science Fiction, Space Exploration |
Publisher | Compass Games |
cfarrell
I’ll write a more thorough takedown of this garbage fire of a game at some point, but here is the one thing you need to know: the timing estimates on the scenarios are outright lies. We played the Race to Mars game with 4 players (playing time estimate: 2 hours) and we got maybe one third of the way through in 6 hours. Now part of this is the rulebook (which is also a dumpster fire), and another part is that there is far less game here than anyone thought so we were trying to do interesting things instead of just grinding through rolling for launch failures; but an estimate of 2 hours is an utter fabrication. —- It is almost unbelievable how bad this game is. I mean, I’m sure there are people who will like it; people inexplicably like Duck Dealer. If you are offered a game of this, you should politely decline. How the fuck did this make it to a 2nd printing?
Javier GP
Temática espacial con fundamento científico REAL. hay que seguirlo. Reseñas estupendisimas, en inglés, fuera de presupuesto. es un LOVE. --ULTIMAS 149 €--
EHEM
One of my best game purchases in 2020. Currently playing through the campaign and it is long! But I just love the setting, no Star Wars tropes here. Learned a lot about astronomy just by setting the game up. How cool is that? Yes, the rulebook has some issues. Youtube play through videos are key to learning this game.