Last night on Malts and Meeples YouTube channel I dove into a new terraforming space game, Planet Unknown. I’ve played it multiplayer a few times but how does it play solo? And since I play games solo on Malts and Meeples it was the perfect chance to dive in and see how well it worked.

Planet Unknown

Sometimes I pass on a board game and then realize that I really want it. Planet Unknown was on Kickstarter a little while ago and it looked like fun. But the main gimmick of the game was some polyomino pieces that were in a lazy susan. And how all of that worked, it was a bit confusing on the page.

Then Planet Unknown came out and people started talking about. And really enjoying this game that is fairly light and fairly thinky all at the same time. It falls into that camp, like I’ve talked about before and Tom Vasel talks about, of quick, snappy turns. Basically that the game does one thing or a clear thing on your turn, it’s a good decision, but it isn’t bogged down. Planet Unknown kind of does that, but definitely gives you a lot to think about.

How the game mainly works by going up on tracks. To do that, you need to put down terraforming tiles on the planet. And then the area that you terraform will push you up on tracks for civilization, biomass, water, recon, or technology. In multiplayer people pick what piece they get to place, or the person whose turn it is. In solo that lazy susan just rotates and determines for you.

It’s a big change that removes some choice. But it’s a big change that then speeds up the game because I don’t have a choice of 12 tiles to pick from. I pick from two. So Planet Unknown is probably a 45-60 minute game multiplayer, less maybe once people know the rules. I got it easily done in half an hour while I was chatting.

Upcoming Streams

So on Wednesday at 8 PM Central, I’ll be playing more ISS Vanguard from Awaken Realms. We’re onto the ship phase and will be setting up the next planet. Join me to walk through and see how the ship phase works for the first time. I’m excited to see what it adds to the game. You can find that stream here.

Then next Monday at 8:30 PM Central, I will be streaming another game. My plan right now is to pull out a new game, Roll to the Top and see how that goes. It’s a roll and write game about filling in numbers, not too complex, but based around how well you can maximize that and get it all the way to the top.

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