Orbitstar: Expedition To Darwin IV | Solo Playthrough

0:00 Hi everyone, I'm Tom and today I'm going to be playing Orbit Star: Expedition to Darwin IV. It's the year 2358 and humanity is finally going to visit a distant exoplanet called Darwin IV with the help of our alien patrons, the Eema. We are here to scout everything out. We're here to discover species, some of which aren't too happy with us being here. We're just here to be friends though. There's also hazardous weather, alien hunters, some hostile things going on. We're here to discover and get the best reputation while we are discovering things. This is designed by Bobby Hill, who you may recognize from things like the Anarchy and Hadrian's Wall. This is a very different kind of game, which you may have noticed already. We're going to be using bag building.

0:46 There are all these segments in our bags. We're going to be using these to take actions, whether that's moving around on the board, whether that's discovering these species, or combining them in lovely circles to try and find out more about them. Before I get started, this is on Kickstarter. It is a prototype, not a final copy of the game. You can get more information on the Kickstarter page, which is linked in the corner of the screen and in the description. And there you can also see how you can get hold of the game and make it happen. Before I get started, I would recommend you turn on the Klingon subtitle channel. If I make any mistakes, they'll be corrected there. Thanks, Steve. So, looking out onto the main board, it has a few things out already. Out in the Amoebic Sea and Littoral Zone, we always have this Amoebic Sea card. And then we drew one of the planet setup cards and it told me to put a species in the Northern Grasslands. See, the symbols match up and this is the northern one.

1:41 Just drawing from the top of the Grasslands deck. And then in the Forests and Periphery, we've just got the top card of each of those decks. These are species that we know to be there. We can discover more species in each place by spending action tokens, which represent our various skills, whether that's basic observation, piloting, scanning, evasion, or purple, the wild card. We're trying to find out more about these things. Looking over at my player board, now this would plug in down here all nicely. For zoom purposes, I'm just going to have it overlapping a little bit cuz we're already zoomed quite far out. We were given pairs of these special action tiles and setup cards. These will give you a couple of advanced study actions. So, for creatures that are nervous or aggressive, I have the option to study them a bit more intensely and get some more progress on them.

2:35 And it was paired with a tile which gave me some special actions if I spend the right colored segment. So, I'm good at scouting creatures who are nervous and aggressive. I start with an extra red segment in my bag. We then drew seven of them out. I'm playing the solo game today. Everything I'm doing is what you would do in a multiplayer game. The solo opponent has a simple deck which they take their instructions from and we'll see that's in a minute cuz they go second. So, in a turn, first of all, we need to progress the planet events, resolving exit and entry effects. What this means is we look at the event cards here. If there is one already in the fourth spot, it's going to get discarded and we resolve the bottom of its card. Then we slide everything else along and we draw a new card. First turn of the game, all we need to do is draw that new card. So, they've got something that happens on the top of the card when it arrives and something that happens on the bottom of the card when it leaves.

3:33 This is an alien hunter event. An alien hunter has arrived on the planet very early and is going to be in the southern tundra. As you can see the icon in the middle, it matches up with the tundra's icon and this is the southern one. They are in the southern tundra. Now, all this is going to mean for the bot is is they will avoid areas with threats, which they consider to be alien hunters and bad weather. For me, if I take any action in a place with an alien hunter that isn't leaving that place, I have to roll two of these damage dice, which could potentially do damage to my hull. I only have three hull strength, so very risky to do things down there. They are going to be on here until the event card leaves, at which point they will go, potentially taking a species from here with them or killing a species.

4:24 Didn't get to hunt us, so they'll take someone out instead. So, we've had our events. Next up, take up to three actions. Here are your options of actions, and you're not going to have these options necessarily all the time. For example, the first one is pilot from orbit star. Orbit star is where our ships are here at the start of the game. These are our hover cones, which we'll be descending to the planet on. You can go from the orbit star to any location, and it doesn't cost you any action tokens, it just costs you one of your three actions. And we're going to have to do that, really. Now, I would quite like to go down to the northern grasslands and plains. When you arrive in a place, you go on to the arrive side of the location. Cuz I'm good at studying nervous creatures. This is a nervous creature, the prismalope.

5:11 I will leave the aggressive finsnapper for now. Well, they are worth more points at the end. Every aggressive creature that you've got is worth extra point. So, next option, you could pilot between biomes. I'm not going to do that right away, of course, but there is a cost for moving between the biomes. Whenever you see this rainbow, that means any color you like, otherwise it's specifically white or red. There are bigger cost paths from here to here, but they allow you to skip the mountains. So, just in one action, you can go from the northern grasslands to the forests. Now, if you pay to move between the biomes, in the biome you end up in, you can take a detect echolocation action as a bonus without having to spend an extra action. Otherwise, you've got to pay an action to do it. Detect echolocation is pay the cheapest cost in the location that you are in, draw a card from the species deck for that type of location, and you get to place your marker in this space. There's no marker on here because the setup brought these out.

6:13 But in future, you'll get a discount here, which will potentially be very helpful when the species card is completed. Next, you can study a creature, which I can show you cuz that's what I want to do now. To study a creature, you need to choose one of its attributes that isn't already fully studied. So, the prismalope has either general or nervous. So, I potentially want to study hey, general. I've got the right things for that. I can spend a white, a blue, and anything. I've got two reds, I'll spend one of those. They go in these study circles, so you can only do the study action a maximum of two times on your turn. Hey, I've studied the general, so I get to take one of my markers and put it on a general space here. I also spent the exact colors I needed without having to substitute. So, I would get a bonus one that I can place in any of its attributes, always in the leftmost space of that attribute though.

7:03 I say no substitutions because you can spend any two colors as a color of your choice. So, if I didn't have the blue that I needed, I could spend, you know, a red and an orange. But because I didn't spend the exact colors I needed, I wouldn't get a bonus placement. Now, there's something even better that you can do if you have the advanced study action for one of its attributes, which I do. So, you can go for nervous here. I need a white and a red and an orange, and we can substitute here and it would be fine. If you substituted, you would get to put two markers down in that attribute. But if you use the exact ones without any substitutions, you get to put three down, which is what I want to do. So, I take three from my supply, and I'm going to put them all in nervous.

7:51 You can put your bonus one in any attribute, but I want to put it in nervous because of this symbol here, which means I can take a free action. So, I'm back to having two actions left. The prism loop is not complete yet, but we'll keep it here because I am now going to do one of my special actions. Here, you are not allowed to substitute if you don't have the right color. But, I do have a blue, and blue in my special actions is fill any study node. I just get to put one of my markers on a card, and we can see card completion straight away. So, it does still cost a whole action, but it doesn't cost three action tokens to do. I just have to specifically have a blue to be able to do that in my particular case. So, the card is now complete, which means we can evaluate it. Every player with a disc on this card gets a reputation point per disc. So, that gives me four reputation.

8:44 And the end of the game is triggered by someone reaching the target score. For a four-player game, it's 25. Three-player, 28. Two-player, 31, which is what the solo game is simulating. We finish the current round, and everyone gets one more turn when the end of the game is triggered. The player with the most discs on the card gets both of the rewards, and then everyone else chooses one of the rewards. The player with the most discs on the card then gets to keep the card, which could end game scoring at the end. So, this symbol means we get to upgrade our ship. We have four upgrade tracks. This is my power track. Now, when I move up here, I get to immediately move something from exhausted to available. I don't have it in in exhausted, so you could argue maybe I should waited for a future turn, done something else with my spare actions, but I want to show you completing a card. Because for moving on here, we get to recover one action token.

9:37 In the future, whenever I rest, you evaluate all of these things here. I will get to bring one token from exhausted back to available every time I rest. Also, if I use a fuel pod at any point in the future, which will potentially be landing on the planet, I'll get to recover four exhausted tokens to available instead of three if I choose that option. But, we'll see those later. So, I got to move up on my upgrade track. Then, I can change any one of my action tokens to blue. I think it's going to be one of the white ones from my draw bag. I swap that to a blue one and it goes back where it came from. Huddle my rewards. I have the most, so I get to keep the card. And that's my study action. So, which options haven't we seen? So, rest. I don't need to do rest yet, so I don't think I'm going to do it. But, you would get to draw this many tokens from your bag, recover this many from exhausted to available, and heal this many whole strength. So, at the start, none.

10:32 You can rescue a hover cone, we'll see that when one lands on the planet. Use a fuel pod, we'll see when one lands on the planet. We can go back to the orbit store, and you kind of get to cycle all of your tokens. So, tokens are going to build up in exhausted and not go back to the back. They don't automatically shuffle back. You have to go back to the orbit store to get exhausted tokens back into the back. We do a rest, and then we can claim an acquisition, which are end game scoring opportunities basically for having certain symbols on cards you've kept, certain attributes, unique biomes you've been to, certain upgrades you've got, or colors of action tokens you have. You get to put one disk out on claim a requisition up to a maximum of three. Beyond three, and if you ever get knocked out, you'll be putting disks in excess markers, which are minus three points each at the end of the game.

11:21 And we've seen special actions. So, that's all of the opportunities that you've got. I've still got an action left. So, I'm wondering if I just stay here, I could just spend any two colors to do some echolocation here and draw a card. I have a red which is ignore threats and repair a shield. So, if I was down here for example, I could repair one shield and it wouldn't trigger here's roll two threat dice. But, I do have a wild. Now, wild are very useful. You could use them as the thing that you need and it still counts as if you used that thing. So, I'd still get the bonuses for studying. But, I could detect echolocation here, draw three cards and add two of them. I think that would be a good turn and we could potentially do some good studying next time. Let's have a look in the northern grasslands and plains. There is a table in the rulebook that tells you, you know, the the percentage of a creature having those traits in that place.

12:12 So, if we draw up, I have the option of the psimet, general, nervous, fast. I'm good at studying nervous. Butcher tree, aggressive, underground, general. And the veltwing, fast, concealed, flying. Well, I think I'm going to go for the butcher tree and the psimet. You can also look at what they're going to give you as well. But, yeah, I'd be happy with these two out of the three. I'll put them in an order of my choice. I'm going to go that way around, I think. And I get to pop a disc out on each because I discovered them with echolocation. So, that's my four actions. Remember, I got a bonus one because of a symbol on one of the research cards. Usually, you'd just have three. So, we've had the actions. Then, exhaust all your utilized action tokens. So, anything on here, anything you spent to move and echolocate would be in this middle section here.

13:03 And anything you used to study. All of that now goes to exhausted. And this is just a reminder of what we started in the bag with. Next, if you're in an explore zone, so the right-hand side of a location, you now draw and resolve a biome event. These are bad. You don't want to draw one of those. You want to keep moving so you don't end up in explore zones. If you're in an arrival zone, though, move to an explore zone. So, I do want to stay here and do stuff, but I might have to move on before I'm finished next time. Oh, there is a wild one here as well. Wild never goes to your exhausted, it is gone. So, that's why it was a bit of a big spend doing that, but hopefully I've benefited cuz that's a point each when they get completed, no matter what, and hopefully I'm going to be on them somehow.

13:51 Now we can go over to the bot's turn. First of all, they resolve an event just like we do. So, we slide along and a fuel pod has appeared in the northern tundra. So, a fuel pod comes down. You can spend an action in a location with a fuel pod to either heal all of your whole strength or bring a certain number of tokens back from exhausted to available based on your stats. So, I could go up there, get all four of these back. Avoid resting a little bit. We'll see how it goes. And when this would leave, we roll a die to see if the fuel pod gets blown up or stays out there. Next, we go to the bot's cards. So, it has a marker here telling us what cycle it's in. It's going to spend three turns in cycle one, four turns in cycle two, and then it'll be in cycle three until the end. This can affect some of the things on the cards.

14:44 And what it does on a turn, if it's the final turn of a cycle, it's not though, so it's going to either move from orbit star or move to a new biome. It's on orbit star, so it's going to move from it. And the first section of the card is going to tell us where it would like to move. It wants to avoid places with threats. So, its priority is any location without threats, so it will never go to the southern tundra. Then, places where it's got the most disks. It hasn't got any disks out right now. So, it's going to try and go here. If this location wasn't viable, cuz for example, there was a threat here, it would go clockwise or anticlockwise based on what the next line says until it finds an appropriate place. As it is, there's nothing wrong with the Southern Grasslands, so he's going to land there. And then he's going to perform two actions. Here are the priorities for his actions. Rescue a Hovercone. He can only do that if there is a Hovercone out here, either one that's been placed by an event or maybe I have been damaged and he can rescue me.

15:43 Nothing there, so can he study the innermost species? No, there's nothing out here, so he is going to detect echolocation. He draws the top card of the deck and he places his disc in the corner because he's discovered it. So, that's his first action. And then we know he still can't rescue anyone. Now he can study a species. He just fills the cards from left to right and based on whether you're playing easy or normal difficulty, we're going to go normal. Sometimes the cards will ask you what cycle you're in, but this card for all cycles, he's going to place two discs. If they go over bonuses, this is get an extra reputation. They get that as well. The one I got for an extra action, they get two. The lightning bolt means nothing to them. For me, it means I can get something back from exhausted to available.

16:28 And that's it. That's the bot's turn. So, it goes back to us and so we slide along, nothing leaving just yet. Reveal a new event. Remove this card and reveal a new event. Place the Ebony Blisterwing into the new events region. So, let's see a new event first. So, this is going to be in the Amoebic Sea. There is a storm which means any action you take here other than leaving is going to make you roll one of the threat dice. And then it also told us that the Ebony Blisterwing is coming in. General and flying to research this. So, I think I'm going to start out resting, which means I can draw seven tokens from my bag. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7.

17:15 Bring one back from exhausted. I think it's going to be an orange. And then heal nothing. So that's my rest action. Then we're going to study. So the signet, I want to study nervous again. Which is why I wanted this orange back so I can go red, orange, white. And I get to put two, plus I've spent the right things, so a third disc on here. So the two will go on nervous, and then one can go on anything. I'm going to go for, let's say fast. It doesn't really matter to me. So I will definitely get the majority on that cord, but it's not completed yet. Now I don't want to stay here and get a bio event. So I either pay anything and an orange to get out. That's a bit wasteful because I've got to spend my purple to do that. My lovely wild. Or we could just spend two whites to come down to the mountains, and then it's two anything pretty much to get back up next time.

18:15 Could do stuff in the mountains. Just the northern tundra was attractive cuz I would get to get this fuel pod which would let me get four tokens back to potentially do more. Yeah, I think let's go let's go down to the mountains. So just spend two whites to do that. So we have rested, studied, moved. I can do a free echo location here. I do need to spend the tokens. I'm going to. I'm going to spend two whites cuz it can be two of anything. And let's see what's waiting for us at the mountains. It's going to be a peat bladder, small underground general. Not good at any of those things yet, but who knows. This bonus is unlock a new advanced research ability. So that's how we can get more out. So that's my three actions. Rested, studied, moved. So exhaust everything we utilized. I'm in an arrival zone, so we move to an explore zone. And that's it for my turn.

19:05 But let's slide everything along and see what the event's going to be. Uh-oh. A hover cone in distress in the southern tundra. Well, I'm not surprised there's alien hunters down there. So, you can come down here and rescue the hovercone. The advantage of doing this is you get three points and you get to unlock one of your advanced study actions. And there is a bonus here, a point for every advanced study action that you've unlocked. Can be quite lucrative. Let's see what the bot's going to do though. They are going to move to a new biome. Which one? They're going to try and move down if possible. Down would take them to where there's a threat though. So, instead they look clockwise or anti-clockwise. Clockwise in this card's case. From their current biome to one without threats. They ignore these expensive paths. So, they're going to go to the mountains where I am.

19:55 And then if there's an empty bay where he moves to, he gets to echolocate. So, a spring wing has come into play with his disc on it. And then his two actions. There's no one to rescue here, so he's going to study the innermost card twice. Two discs for each study. Two discs on there. Two more discs is going to give him a reputation points. So, he's on one and then he's completed the card. So, a point per disc on it. He gets four. One, two, three, four and I get one, which is going to move me onto this bonus. He doesn't care about these. This is move up any upgrade track. I think I'm going to keep going with this. I'm going to get two more tokens back. I definitely want the blue. I'd really like a yellow, but I haven't got that. So, I'm going to say an orange, I think.

20:41 And then he gets both upgrades, but ignores that. I can either unlock a new bonus action. Ooh, would that change my view of what I want to unlock? General leaping flying. No, I would stick with it, but I would unlock general. I'm going to take that bonus. He doesn't care about the bonuses. But, he has definitely got the majority of tokens on here, so he takes the card. But, I still got an upgrade and a point out of that, so I'm quite happy. This slides in. That was all of his actions. So, we move on to my turn again. So, the alien hunter is going to go away and we don't need to roll the die to see if it takes species card away. None are here. So, a bit of an uneventful trip for that hunter. And then we slide everything along and let's see what is up now. A new fuel pod this time in the southern grasslands is available. So, I could sneak down there.

21:31 It's taking me further away from where I want to complete these cards. Okay, actions. I want to study general on this spring wing. So, general is going to be a white and then two blues. This wild's going to act like a blue for me. Cuz I'm doing the advanced one, I get to place two on general and then a bonus. So, that's going to be general, general and then the bonus is obviously going to go on to leaping, which is going to let me recover an action token from exhausted. And that's going to be, I think, just a white. Cuz I want to leave. With this orange, I can detect echo location in the first or second slot. Let's echo locate something in the mountains. The crag springer who is general and leaping. Oh, I'm going to general with my disc on it and then we are going to move up up back here where I want to keep studying.

22:28 Down here where there's a fuel pod and I could do something with the jet darter. He might take it away. I want to come down here. So, it's anything in a white. So, I've spent practically everything I had available right now. That's my three actions, isn't it? Studied, echo located, moved. So, we exhaust everything. We move to explore of my new location and then we're on to Oh, the northern fuel pod. Is it going to blow up? If it's a hit, it blows up. No, it stays there. And then we slide along. And an alien threat is appearing in the forests and periphery. An alien hunter is there. And we go to the bot who's taking his third turn of this cycle. So, for his final cycle which means he's going to do two actions and then return to the orbit store.

23:20 So, actions here is going to study the innermost. If he can't place two discs, he just doesn't get to place two discs. It's tough luck. He wastes, you know, the the rest of it. So, the spring wing is completed. So, it's three points to me, two points to the bot. And then I have the majority, so I get to get both upgrades. So, I draw more from my bag when I rest. And I can swap any token to blue. I'm going to do a white from my bag, I think. Bot ignores all of that. Bot does not get the card because I have the majority. So, thanks for completing that for me. He has another study action though, so he is going to do it again. I get the general part of the crack springer. And then he's going to return to the orbit store. So, he goes up here and he claims two of these requisitions based on what's highlighted on his card. So, he's going to put a disc here.

24:14 This would normally give you a point for every two general attributes on creature cards you've collected. And then a point per orange action token he has. He will score these at the end. Sometimes, like one for every orange action token is for on upgrades he has cuz he doesn't actually have a bag with action tokens in it. Uh he'll play six discs by the end of the game as opposed to my three. He will just score the best three though. So, we then remove this card that he's just had the requisitions for from the game. And we shuffle up all of his bot cards and move him on to cycle two. So, those places are not available for me. Okay, so it's back to me. We need to remove the storm from the amoebic sea. It's now safe to go there again.

25:00 And ooh, the Eema are helping us out, our alien patrons. They're going to discover a new species in the northern grasslands. If there's space for one. And they put a disc on the first space. And then actions. So, what I want to do is rest. I was thinking of just taking this, but I need my yellow for what I want to do, I think. So, resting lets me take eight things from my bag. I don't have eight, so you just stop at the five that I have. And then I can get a token back. Oh, this purple spent, isn't it? Not in my exhausted. Subtitle. Maybe an orange. And then we can't heal anything. So, resting was one action. Study I want to be another one. I'm going to study fast, which needs a yellow. That's why I wanted one so much.

25:55 I think we'll just spend white as anything. So, I've used the right thing, so I get to put two down for fast. One plus a bonus. I'm going to just put them both here, cuz this one gets me a point. We're at nine points. And then I'm going to risk staying here. I'm going to use a blue special action to place a disc on general. Because we are tied on this card. If you're tied, current player breaks the tie. If they're involved in the card. If they're not, it's whoever placed earliest. So, we'll get the same number of points for this. 1 2 3, 1 2 3. This is I get to put anything except purple in my bag. I'm going to go for yellow. So, we've had the points, then I upgrade this again. I get to bring three back from exhausted. 1 2 3.

26:40 And then I can turn anything yellow. I want two white, actually. Let's turn one of these yellow. And then I take the card from him. Beautiful. But, I'm already in the explore section, so we need to draw and resolve a biome event and look at where we are. We're in the grasslands and plains. Vast plains. Exhaust all of your available action tokens. It's a shame. And then roll a damage die per shortage below three. It just means I'm going to have to go to the orbit star first action, which I probably was going to Well, actually, I was going to hang around and use this fuel pod and stuff, but Yeah. I I risked it to steal that card away. Was it worth it? You kind of want to go there and get your requisitions and stuff before someone else takes them. So, not too mad that that happened. And having everything exhausted isn't so bad for when you go to the orbit star cuz you kind of cycle everything. So, everything exhausted goes to your bag.

27:32 Everything available goes to exhausted. So, it's a good time to go to the orbit star to get everything into the bag. Okay, then. But, it's not the final turn of the cycle, so he is going to move from the orbit star. He wants to go to the mountains. There's no threats there. Oh, but he does anyway. No threats then where he's got the most discs. That's in the mountains. So, he's going to come here. And then he's going to study completing this card. I get one point to his four. And then I can choose one of the bonuses cuz I'm on the card. This is get two purple in your bag. And then with echo locating is at a discount of one in the future. Yeah, I want that. Two purples in the bag is always a lovely thing, too. And later on you get to reroll one or two threat dice per turn if you move four or five up it.

28:21 And then he takes the card. Second action. He has not got anything here, so he is going to echo locate. There he goes. Oh, but he didn't do an event first. Sorry, we didn't rescue this pod, so it is gone. And then there is a new pod. In the northern tundra. Maybe he just flew through the planet to the northern one. Okay, so now my turn. The fuel pod here, is it exploding? Yes. So, that's gone anyway. Um and then slide along and see what the threats are. So, it is going to be a new fuel pod in the mountains. Okay, I have just realized that going back to the orbit star ends your turn.

29:07 So, that has actually really messed me up. We're going to have to take a rest action just to get something done on this turn, I think. So, I can only draw three things from my bag and then one thing goes from exhausted to available. Okay, one there. So, we rest and then I guess the only thing I can really do I could move and then echolocate for free if I really wanted to. But, I think I'm just going to echolocate here, spend the Y and the yellow. It's something. I don't really need a grasslands card. We're probably not going to stay out here. So, I don't have the tokens. I'm not spending the wilds to go down here. Yeah, we'll we'll discover something here just get a disc out. The thornback. General fast. Not amazing at that. Although, you'd get three from putting general down and then two from fast. You could research that pretty easily.

29:56 And then third action is going to be go back to the orbit star. So, cycle all your tokens. All the stuff you've used, they should be on um utilize, shouldn't they? Everything on utilize goes to exhausted at this point. Everything in exhausted goes to your bag. Everything in available should go to exhausted apart from your wilds, which go to your bag. Then you perform a rest action. So, we get to draw eight tokens. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. Two from exhausted to available. Now, me heal, no. Whole strength, I haven't lost any yet. So, it's not the worst thing. Then you get to claim a requisition. So, these bonuses I've got one of each, so I've not really built up a lot. Unique biomes, I've got two different biomes on my cards for two points at the end. But, there's only one space available. Like if I go here, he can still go in this three-player plus space. If he goes here first, I can't.

30:49 So, that's something to be said for going here. But, this one here, two points per upgrade on the control. I've got three upgrades so far, so it's worth six already. I'm going to go there. And we'll concentrate on something else. End your turn. Done. So, it's now the bot's turn. And he is going to try and move down. Is that viable? We're going down. There's a threat here. Oh, he needs to do the event first. The threat is going from here, so it's probably going to go end up there, actually. Uh it does take the species card with it. The fin snapper is discarded. Okay, he wants to go down in a clockwise formation, so he is going to go to forests. And he gets to echo locate for free. And then his action is going to be studying this twice. The fin like So, he's going to have four discs on it. 1 2 3 4.

31:37 Takes the card. That's his turn. Oh, he didn't do a new You're so excited about that coming out. There were storms in the mountains. Didn't affect what he was going to do. Okay, for me, the aliens are leaving the northern grasslands, which lets them put a disc out on each of these species. 1 2 3. And they do compete for majorities on these cards. They don't get anything from them, but they can stop you getting a majority if they research too much. Uh which completes this card. So, I get four points. 1 2 3 4. Upgrade anything. I think I'm going to go along here for two more wilds in the bag. Am I? No, I'm going to I'm going to draw more tokens from the bag now. I'm going to do more wilds in the bag, please. And to reroll a threat die.

32:23 We start dealing with aggressive creatures. And then I take the card. Thank you very much. Which gives me an upgrade on drawing from the bag and turn one thing red. It's going to be one from my available section. Okay, and the new event coming out is going to be Oh, a hover cone descending in the forest and periphery. And it's my turn, so the first action is going to have to be piloting from the orbit store. I'd love to be able to general and get one of these done. I think first we're going to we're going to descend to the northern grasslands and plains. I'm going to study this bolt tongue for its aggressive tendencies. And we're going to look at red red white, which gives me two to place in aggressive and one bonus to place anywhere. I'll put it in fast.

33:18 That's three points to me. One, two, three. Get any token into my bag. We're going to go for another yellow, I think. And get the discs back and I can upgrade Oh, on this track another two wilds into the bag. I get to turn anything red, and it's going to be another white from the bag. But, this was an aggressive creature. After we finish the study action, we need to roll a die and see if it's going to hit me. I do have one reroll, so I'm going to use my reroll cuz it's just hit me. And it still hits me, so we lose a whole strength. Still got two left. It's not the worst thing. I don't heal any, though. And I get the bolt tongue card. So, I've come down. I've studied.

34:05 Underground wants an orange. So, I can't do that. Another aggressive would require at least a red to get a bonus. General I could do with the butcher tree. It's another aggressive thing. It's chance to get another couple of tokens on the card. Yeah, let's do general. So, it's blue and white and anything. Let's say yellow. I get to do the standard one, which is place one disc in general, and then a bonus anywhere. I'm putting an aggressive. I don't really mind cuz I have to put it in the left one of underground and wouldn't get the bonus points. So, I came down, study, study. So, exhaust all of the tokens and we're in the arrive zone, so we move to explore. Bot.

34:50 Event happening. Slide them along. And there are storms in the northern grasslands. Oh, dear. Oh, that's an aggressive creature. You need to roll the die. You've already had your reroll. Uh-oh. It did hit me. So, studying again. I roll a die for this and a die for this. So, I'm probably clearing off and someone else can discover the rest of the butcher tree. Which, if he does two of it, then that's not my problem, is it? Okay, what is the bot doing? He wants to move to the left or right. There's no threat in here, so he can move to the left, no problem. And he gets to echolocate for free. And then he is going to study twice the leftmost card. So, I could swoop in to study the thornback, but it's a couple of things away and I'm on it once. So, I'm fine with that. That was turn three, so the last one is going to be the last of the second cycle for him at the the fuel pod arrive Oh, no, the fuel pod might leave. Is it going to leave?

35:55 Yes. In the mountains, yeah, that's the right one. Okay, that one we've rolled for it, it stayed. And a new species is coming out in the amoebic sea because there is space. And a disc goes here. So, we know that in like four turns time, there's going to be an extra disc placed on all of these. Plitviral oak, you just do a general action and I'm right next to that. I do need a red. Let's see what we can get. We can get a red. Okay, so my turn, I'm going to rest. So, that's nine tokens. Okay, that's a nice chunk. Two back from exhausted. We're going to go for the two red, I think. And then heal no strength, which we could prefer. We could heal it all by going up to the northern tundra. Oh wait, a storm is here. This could be very risky since I've got one whole strength. So, we need to roll the threat die.

36:44 And phew. Cuz that would have knocked me out. Should have thought about the storm before I rested. I'm going to do anything and a red. Let's just say Let's say a yellow and a red to move, which would let me echo locate, but it's full. And then I'm going to do two blue and a white to do a a special general, which is three things, and they're all going to be on the ebony blister wing. Yeah, put one on flying. Yeah, cuz I don't want to spend one. Yeah, yeah. I'm happy with that. So, I rested, I moved, and I studied once. So, you all get exhausted. We move on to the bot's last turn, so there is no more bad weather in the mountains. New event is going to be Oh, studying in the southern tundra.

37:33 The mummy nest flyer is out there. And the bot. So, two actions, then it goes back. First action is going to be to Whoa, finish this off. So, aggressive with your studying. Uh so, that is going to be five to him, one to me. And I'm going to go for Oh, I could have thought about this. It's always a good idea, isn't it? An unlocked flying. What's that? Fast flying general. I'm going to go on on flying rather than turn something into blue. And he gets that card. And then his second action is going to be to study the skewer a little bit. Oh, and he gets an extra action cuz of that icon on flying. So, he gets to do it again. Then his third thing, well, fourth with the bonus, is to come back to the orbit star.

38:25 He puts his discs on a point per blue. I'm doing pretty good for me. And for flying and leaping, this card goes away. Oh, no, that wasn't the card. We haven't drawn a new card. He's actually putting his discs on there. And oh, where I am. So, instead he puts it in the highest available one. Which is for the top one where I already have two upgrades, which is a bit of a shame. This card goes out of the game. We shuffle the rest and he's on cycle three till the end of the game. Okay, so we can't rescue the hovercraft now. We've done no rescuing. Uh-oh, there is an alien hunter in the northern tundra, which is where I was going to be heading. Might rethink that. Going to be so good, the fuel pod. Oh, and I should be in the explore section, shouldn't I? So, I definitely want to do Ebony Blisterwing research again. Is it going to cost me my wilds? Probably, cuz I want to do general.

39:18 Yeah, two blues and a white. I'm just going to use the wilds. So, I can do it while I'm here. So, I get to do three discs. I'm going to put them all in general because the third general is bonus action. I'm not going to do the fill any study note to complete this because in a couple of turns time, it's going to be completed for me anyway. I want to do general again. I'm going to use another wild for it. How are you going to get out? It's a good point. We can get out. We can get out, I just realized. So, it's going to be white, blue, and anything. And I'll just take the one with a bonus one to complete this while I'm here. Cuz then I get the card. I get two points. I'm going to 23, so we're each eight away.

40:03 But, I've got these points waiting in the wing. Ah, he's got these points, but you know. I can unlock uh upgrade here. We'll go for fast. I can turn anything orange. Let's go for one of these whites. And then I get the card. So, that's second action. I've studied twice. Third action, we're going to do the yellow, pilot to any adjacent biome. So, when he comes down from here, he's going to come down to the skewer and finish it off. I don't have the discs to echo locate anywhere. I don't necessarily want to go with the storm or where there's anything aggressive. He'll complete this and then discover something. So, maybe being in the southern grasslands isn't the worst thing. Yeah, we'll come down here. I can't can't discover You can't anyway with the bonus action. Yeah, we'll leave it there. So, all of this gets exhausted.

40:53 Then I move to explore. You got to keep moving. And then event, it's not stormy anymore in the northern Oh, maybe I should have gone there. Well, the butcher tree I'm scared of. Yeah, I'll stick with my decision. Cuz you knew that was going away. Stick with the decision. New event, it's stormy in the southern grasslands. Okay, shouldn't have stuck with the decision. And then Bot is going to come down to Oh, there's threat here now, so he doesn't want to come here anymore. So, that could work in my favor. It's not going to. So, most discs Oh, he's actually got a disc here, isn't he? In the mountains. So, we'll go there. And then he will just study twice. Actually, he'll study three times cuz his first study gets him an extra action. So, he's going to complete this.

41:38 He's got six discs on it. Oh, no. That's not so good for me. And then he takes the card. An aggressive card, too. That's his turn. Event, a disc on each of these. So, this is completed, which is six for me. Oh, I've caught up. But, he's on this and I'm not on anything. So, I can't I don't want that to be completed, do I? Uh I get to do any research thing and any disc into my bag. Say another blue in the bag. And a research, concealed, why not? I get the Ebony Blisterwing, which is a different biome if I was going for that. So, that's just the old event being cleared out, new event coming in. There is a Hovercone in the Amoebic Sea, which all means I need to rest before anything. Nine things out of the bag.

42:31 There are exactly nine in there. Two from my exhausted Oh, why am I putting these in here? These should go away. Oh, well, at least they haven't ended up back in the bag. Let's go for yellow orange, I think. I don't get to heal anything, which is sad for me. No, I don't want these. I want two blues. Okay, I've changed my mind on what I'm doing. Have I? I think so. I can't do it this turn anyway, I don't think. You should maybe be going back to the Orbit Store. Should maybe have done that last turn. To get these requisitions. Sure I'm not going to have three. I want to go red, anything, anything to move up to the Amoebic Sea. And I want to do a specialized general study, which is three discs on there.

43:19 I'm going to put two in general. He might come up here and have three as well, and he'd break the tie. There's not a lot I can do about that. So, do we stay here and complete this card and maybe don't get another acquisition done? Cuz if I complete the card, I've triggered the end of the game, we get one more turn. You can see the discs that I've got, so I have two each of these, so four points. Four points of any action token. I get six points on this upgrade. I think we stay here. I know you've had your three actions. You've rested, you've moved, you've studied. So, that's it. I was wondering whether to go down here instead and study this, cuz it's probably not going to be worth it now. Yeah, that's that's my turn. So, you have to stay out here.

44:05 If he triggers the end of the game, I still only get one more turn. See what happens. So, another disc out on everything here. And then a new one something gets revealed in the forests. The trunk sucker. With a disc on it. And then the bot, this is not the final turn of the game. So, the bot is going to try and go up. There is a threat here, so he's only going to go here. This is kind of what I was worried about happening. And then he studies twice, which means he's going to complete this. The lightning bolt means nothing to him. We each get three points. But, he gets the I only get one upgrade and he gets the card. Should that matter to him, which I think it will for unique biomes.

44:51 Um I know he doesn't study twice. He doesn't study twice. Undo that. He's studying once. Cuz the first thing that he'll do is still going to trigger the end of the game. He rescues this. It's his priority. 1 2 3. Only would have studied something as well. Echo located something. So, he rescues that and then studies this once. Now, this is the last turn of the game. You're going away. And do you take a species if that species there? They would have taken it with them. And then what's coming out? A new species in the northern tundra. Now the other threats gone away, we don't mind to research a bit up here. An aggressive carver wing. So, do I complete Yeah, I do want to complete it.

45:38 I'm just going to use So, you you should be exhausted. A blue to fill any study node. Which can be you and I get to return something from exhausted, but I don't think that really matters. Uh so, it's four for me and two for him. I get both upgrades, which I don't know that really matters. The main thing I just want to get a disc off here, cuz this is where I'm going to go for points. 3 5 7 points for every revealed thing there. I could really have done with him not coming here cuz I could have rescued that thing as well. Could have got three discs from our study, rescued it, and then gone back to orbit store. I should be in explore section, shouldn't I? And I get this. Stops him getting that, I guess. And oh, I can I can get any disc. You get a red. I'm not going to get the points for it anyway. So, fill any study node is one action.

46:26 Next action, we might as well study this beach looper. So, we'll get some discs out. So, it's going to be blue, blue, anything for general using a wild, which will put three discs out. So, I think it's a point for every two discs at the end of the game. And then last turn, it's going to be back to the orbit store, which cycles the tokens. But, it doesn't massively matter cuz this is my last turn cuz he triggered the end of the game. And that goes to exhausted, and then we do a rest. But, yeah, I don't think it matters. Claiming the requisition is what I think matters the most. It's going to be a point for every research thing I've unlocked, which is seven. Which I think is the most points out of anything that I can do. It'll be six points for this. Actually, take back, take back, take back. Let me think about something here. What was it? Small I just unlocked.

47:13 And I got an extra red in the bag. Wouldn't the better thing to do be the beach looper having the one extra from the fill any study node cuz that would move me up here. Two wilds in the bag doesn't matter. But, then when we came here, we could get two per upgrade on here, which would be eight instead of seven. That's only one point. I should have come here for three requisitions, but

47:37 [snorts]

47:38 I didn't. So, I'd upgrade and then turn something blue instead. And then I get four points, and he only gets one instead of three and two. I get this card I take cuz I don't care what cards I get. I haven't got any points for any nodes. Oh, yeah. I should only have two on there. So, I haven't come enough times. So, his the turn is two actions. So, this is still going to happen. And he'll get the cord. And then he comes back up for his requisitions. But, it's a bit wasted cuz his action is we get three points each year. 1 2 3. He does get the cord, which is bad for different biomes. So, maybe I should have taken it for that. He didn't have one from the sea anyway. And then I can have an upgrade. It doesn't really matter to me. And then his second action is going to be to discover a new species, which is an extra disc that could be the difference of a point. And then his final action is to come up here and he is going to get this one. And this one isn't available, so he goes to the next one higher. Okay.

48:36 End of the game. So, first of all, a point for every two research discs you have left. 2 4 5 6 for him is three points. 1 2 3 puts him up to 39. I have three out there. It is rounded up, so that's two points to me. We're even. A point for every aggressive species you've collected. I think that's just one for me. Not so aggressive the ones that we actually looked at here. And for him, did he only do one? He didn't do as many species, I think. Yep, one, so we are still all tied up on 40 there. Minus three for excess marker spots, not in there. And then it's the requisitions, which I think is where it's all going to fall down for me. So, I get basically two points per upgrade on these two, so it's six and eight for 14.

49:27 Putting me on 54. I would have made I couldn't have known then. But, a point for each node of aggressive and nervous. 1 2 3 4. 5 6 7. Would have been one extra point. You couldn't know that, though. Now, the bot. The bot has six requisitions and it's going to pick its best three. But, it's going to destroy me on these, I think. So, unique biomes he's got 1 2 3 4 which would give him five points. Study types, every two general. He's done so many. Maybe it was bad luck in the after the amoebic sea. So, 2 4 6 9 11 14 16 17 rounded up is nine points. Every small and fast three four And for upgrades, cuz he doesn't actually have upgrades, we look at what the cards would have given him.

50:29 So, would cards have given him any of those types of upgrades? The whole would have just given him two points and that would have given him nothing. So, I think we can discount both of those. Now, the action tokens, he also doesn't have them. So, we look at the upgrades this would have given him and then add one. So, 1 2 he can use these add anything into your bag as one type. You know, what was scoring in the most and then you add one to it. So, 1 2 3 4 he'd get for that. So, it's really you want that or that. They're both four points. So, it is it five and four for nine, but then it's the general which was another nine, wasn't it? Giving him 18. Not too far off. I'm not too sad about that. 54 to 58, I'll still call it a photo finish. Definitely dawdled in places.

51:14 Maybe shouldn't have stuck around and had the biome event that kind of made my next turn a bit of a waste. Definitely should have worked out how to get to the orbit star one extra time to get a third requisition cuz that would surely have gotten me four points. But, that's the way it goes sometimes, doesn't it? Thank you so much for watching this. I hope it's given you a good idea of how orbit star plays. Remember, everything I'm doing is the same as in the multiplayer game. The Kickstarter is linked in the description. You can see all the final stuff there. How to make it happen. How to get a copy for yourself. If you'd like to see more from me, there are over a thousand play throughs on this channel. Maybe more from designer Bobby Hill. I've done loads for Hadrian's Wall and the Anarchy. And plenty of other games besides. I hope you find something else that you are intrigued by. Thank you so much for watching this one though and I'll see you in the next game. Bye everyone.