As Earth’s political powers are collapsing and the global economy is on the brink of meltdown, humanity once again looks towards the stars.
You have been given the task to oversee the daring project to establish your organization as the dominant force of the Earth’s orbit. Unimaginable market potential is now within arm’s reach, just waiting to be exploited. In the dawn of a new aggressive space race, conflict is inevitable!
Orbital Conflict is a card game where each player during several turns build and modify a space station and manage its resources. Each turn is divided into three phases. Draw, Main and Combat phase.
In the draw phase each player takes turn drawing two station cards and two investor cards. When all have done the draw phase the Main phase begins.
In the main phase each player takes turn playing station cards from the hand to the player's station. They can either be played as a standalone module or extend existing once into more advanced modules. Cards can have production, requirements, attack, defense and victory points. The player will try to build a station that meets the demands of the two investor cards draw in previous phase. Investor are worth different amount of victory points, some are easy to claim while others require a big station. Some cards even has special abilities that apply when part of a station. When all have done the main phase the combat phase begins. Unclaimed investor cards are discarded (new once are draw in the draw phase).
In the combat phase a player may choose to attack another player's station using modules with attack values or discard cards from the hand that gives additional attacks.
When the last card in the draw pile has been drawn a last turn is played. Afterwards each player counts victory points from claimed investors and from the station. The player with the highest amount wins the game.
Noteworthy mechanics are no hand limit, that station cards can extend by being placed on top or below existing once. Claimed investor cards have a mini-game like mechanic where they are pushed from the right or left.
Orbital conflict balance station building, light resource management with aggressive combat and point gathering. There is no player elimination and stations can be destroyed and rebuilt several times during a game.
—description from the designer
- Offers a lot of tactics and strategy, making it feel like a full-blown sci-fi space game.
- Card module building and hand management provide good replay value.
- Satisfying feeling from completing objectives and interacting with opponents.
- Abilities on cards increase choices and tactics.
- Small and travel-friendly.
- Good production quality and well-written rulebook.
- Artwork is just 'okay' and could have had nicer logos for investors.
- space battle
- space
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — Players build modules on their station, which are connected and share resources.
- Card Drafting — Players draw station cards and reveal investor cards.
- Combat — Players can use modules to attack opponent modules if the attack value is equal to or higher than the defense total.
- Deck Building — The game has two decks of cards: investor cards and station cards.
- Hand Management — Players manage their hand of cards to play station cards and use abilities.
- Set Collection — Completing investor cards by meeting their requirements grants victory points.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Orbital conflict is a 2-4 player space battle card game.
- The game has two decks of cards: investor cards and station cards.
- The game is played in rounds of three phases: draw phase, main phase, and combat phase.
- The card module building and hand management aspect of the game gives you a nice replay value as every turn can put you on a new strategy track depending on how the round is unfolding.
- The artwork is okay and works with the theme but that would have been cool to have some nicer logos for each investor.
- Production quality is good and the rulebook is Well written with lots of examples.
- If you're looking for a small game with lots of strategy and decision making set in space look no further than orbital conflict.