Orbit Board Game Review

Steve Godfrey
8 hours ago
6 min read

Orbit

WBG Score: 7.5

Player Count: 2-4

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An orbit is defined as a spacecraft or celestial object going round and round and round and round and round and round and round (checks minimum allowed word count) and round a star, planet, or moon. So with that in mind, let’s orbit my thoughts on this game as we go round and round and round and round and round and round.

How to Orbit

First, pick a side of the board, but for your first game, stick to the recommended side. Give each player a board and a planet token in each color except the same color as their ship. Place the planets on one of the spaces on each of their colored tracks. Then place the space station tokens randomly on the board in the assigned spaces. Shuffle the deck of cards and give three to each player.

On a player's turn, they play a card and then enact the actions on it in any order. The number on the card is the number of spaces you move your ship, and you can move up to that many spaces. Ships will move along the intersections on the triangles on the board.

If you end your move on a planet, then you collect that planet and remove it from your player board. Some planets will give you a special boost like upgrading your energy limit or hand size, and two will give you a special one-off movement ability. If a planet is moved and there are players' ships on it, then they move along with the planet. If you end your move on a space station, depending on what it is, you either take the token for its upgrade ability or use its one-off ability. The one-off abilities are either Hyper Jump, in which you can travel to another hyperjump portal on the board, or the Hyper Accelerator Cannon. This allows you to travel as far as you want across the board in a straight line.

The planets on the card will tell you which planets to move. Planets will move from space to space on their track in the direction they’re facing. You may also find special abilities on the card. Some will give you a certain amount of energy, and some will give you energy up to your maximum. Some will reverse the direction of the planets. All the actions on the card are optional except moving the planets. You can spend energy cubes on your turn to add an extra movement for each one you spend. At the end of your turn, draw back up to your maximum hand size. This will carry on until one player has collected all of the unique planets and got back to their home planet.

Racing. In. Spaaaaaace.

You know, I think there’s a reason that Reiner Knizia is the most prevalent designer in board games at the moment. It’s because he doesn’t always like to overcomplicate a lot of his games. Well, not the ones I’ve played. Take Orbit, for example. Play a card, it shows how you move, how a planet moves, and maybe a small bonus. Chuck in some special movement rules and done, print, onto the next one. It’s not a bad way to make a living, but more importantly, it works.

The first time we played Orbit, my mate turned to me and said, ‘it’s nice to play something a bit old school,’ and that’s exactly how Orbit feels, old school. Everything about it screams classic game. The way movement works, the simplicity of the gameplay, heck, even the board has a classic look to it. If it wasn’t for Ian O'Toole's artwork all over the box and the rulebook, you’d think you were playing something from the 80s. All of this is quite ironic (don’t you think) when you realize that out of the three games in this recent space trilogy from Bitewing Games, this is the only original design. The other two are remakes of his previous designs.

With so many racing games on the market these days, it must be all too easy to fall into that rabbit hole of trying to think of something new and complex and dynamic in its ruleset, something new that no one has seen before. I reckon Reiner Knizia saw that and simply said ‘nah,’ but probably not in an Essex accent. He probably just wrote two words on his notepad: Simple, Fun. And do you know what? He kinda nailed it. Just the simple act of playing a card, moving your ship, and a number of planets makes room for so much strategy that you probably don’t need anything else. (There obviously is, I’ll get to that later). I’ll say now that although this game is strategic, trying to forward plan that strategy is probably fruitless to a point. So much of this board state can shift so drastically by your next turn that any plans you did have probably aren’t going to be feasible when you get to go again unless by some miracle no one has interfered with your plan. This becomes even more miraculous as the player count goes up.

Half of the fun of this game is adapting to what’s laid out in front of you. Now, I know that won’t appeal to a lot of the planners out there, but being able to pull something out of the bag regardless of what state everyone else has left the board in is really satisfying. That said, the game gives you enough things to do even if you're not able to reach any planets on your turn. There are enough space stations scattered around the board that you’ve generally got something to go for that will help your game. At the very least, you’ll be able to power up your ship for when you get energy or give yourself more cards in hand. Both of these go a long way to help mitigate the ever-changing board state.

It’s the hyper jump and the hyperspace accelerator cannons that are gonna be your biggest jump (literally) to victory. I love the fact that you have these extra ways to bounce around the board, which is a much-needed boost when you realize how much movement that would take normally. It's a clever way to keep people in the game on those occasions when things are bunched up on the other side of the board.

The planets align.

On the face of it, this doesn't seem like a mean game, and it kinda isn't. However, there are ways you can mess with your opponents simply by doing the one thing that the game requires you to do: move planets. For the most part, you’ll want to move planets nearer to you, but the cards in your hand won't always help you with that. So if you can't help yourself in one way, then why not help in the other way and cheekily move planets away from other players. I’d be lying if I said that I didn't find it fun to watch someone be on the cusp of a planet only to shift it away from them at the last minute and add in an “oh sorry, I had to play that card to get where I needed.” The hardest part of all is trying to hide the evil grin when you do it.

Does space need expanding?

As I mentioned earlier, there are ways to change up the game in the box. First, there's an extra planet to go for. This replaces one of the space stations on the board and really just adds one more planet to make the game a bit longer and is especially recommended for two players. There is also a four-player team variant, which I haven’t personally felt the need to try, and finally, you have the variant side of the board. This side has diverging paths for the planets rather than the one set path on the regular side and is my preferred way to play the game. It adds that extra layer of strategy without overcomplicating the game, and yes, I do think you could even teach the game using this side of the board. Plus, seeing someone set themselves up on a course to reach a planet and then you slam it off course will never get old for me.

Be aware that the spaces for player movement won’t be all that clear. From the close-ups in the photos, it looks fine, but on a table at a distance, they’re not as clear as I would have liked. Although I appreciate that there's a balancing act of looks and form at play here.

Orbit feels like a classic-style board game. It doesn’t do anything to reinvent the wheel, but the simple, fun gameplay goes to prove that you don’t necessarily need to. Games don’t need to go out of their way to do something different to stand out. They just need to be fun, and this game is absolutely that.

Right, I’m getting dizzy now, so I’m off to circle the planet in the other direction to see if that helps. I’ll go round and round and round… you see where this is going.