Celestia

Product Information

but if you don't jump ship and bank what you've already found, you could lose it all when the captain leads the ship into insurmountable challenges! And over the course of a few plays, I’ve come to admire the clever gameplay in addition to the beautiful components. As passengers have already made their mind up, they can’t change it even after the dice have been re-rolled!

If there is no player with 50 points, the aircraft is placed back at the first city, all passengers get aboard, and each player draws an equipment card. The best word I can find to describe Celestia is ‘delightful’; maybe even 'whimsical', how about delightfully whimsical.Their values are random and at least matching the value of the island they’re from, but the stack also includes a few cards valued one island higher and one valued two islands higher than the current island. If the captain can’t overcome the challenge, though, everyone comes crashing down empty-handed and you’ll need to begin a new trip with all passengers on board! If a player thinks the Captain will fail, they declare they are leaving and they disembark from the Aircraft, moving their pawn and drawing a card from that city deck.

If the captain doesn’t have the cards, the airship crashes, and everyone who is still in the ship gets nothing.Enemies are watched closely, their own face down hoard of loot cards a looming threat to your own victory, while alliances are formed, each party using the other to push forward towards higher value booty, all the while patiently waiting for the opportune time to forcefully leave the other behind, once their threat overshadows their use. Once all players have chosen, the captain plays the cards required to continue , or if they cannot, all remaining passengers go down with the ship. It has charm, beautiful components, and an interesting conceit that’s quite unlike anything else I’ve played. There are some special power cards included in the deck that let you reroll dice, kick other players off the ship, or make it more difficult for the captain to succeed. That said, anyone looking for a substantial challenge or more than a superficial dash of strategy should look elsewhere.