What kind of Planet will you create?

Planet board game — Ready to create your own planet?

You’ve got the whole world in your hands.

So, what are you going to do with it?

It’s time to find out in Planet!

Planet, by Blue Orange Games, has players crafting their own 3D planet to attract a variety of animals to them. It’s a unique tile-laying game where the tiles are magnetic continents consisting of various habitats.

Different animals are attracted to different types of habitats so players have to choose wisely in which animals they want to inhabit their planets.

How to play Planet

The main goal in Planet is position continent tiles on your Planet’s core to form inviting environments for animal life to flourish. In doing so, you’ll gain points for the animals you attract to your planet.

To begin, every player gets a planet core and a random Natural Habitat objective card (which they’ll keep secret).

The continent tiles are mixed face down and stacked into 10 piles of 5 tiles each and placed in a row. The Animal cards are shuffled and randomly placed next to the piles. They’re placed a little off-set as shown in the rulebook so the first animal card is next to the pile for round 3.

The game is played over 12 rounds. In each round, the stack of 5 continent tiles are revealed and players each take one of their choosing (in turn order) and place it anywhere they’d like on their planet’s core.

Each continent tile is made up of 5 triangle “Areas”. And similar terrain areas connected together form “Regions”.

From the 3rd round on, players check to see if their planet meets the requirements to attract the animals on the cards for that round — starting with the card closest to the tile stacks.

There are 3 types of requirements that attract animals to planets:

Having the most of one king of Region.
Having the biggest Region of one kind touching a specified Habitat.
Having the biggest Region of one kind not touching a specified Habitat.

The player that meets the requirement indicated on the animal card, claims that animal card. If there is a tie, that animal card is moved to the end of the next round’s line of animal cards.

After all animal cards for that round have been evaluated, the next round begins. The start player token moves to the player to the left and a new round begins.

After the 12th round, the game ends. Players reveal their Natural Habitat and total up their scores.

They receive 1 point for each animal card they’ve claimed that matches their Natural Habitat card and 2 points for each animal card that doesn’t match. Each objective card also shows how many points a player can receive depending on the total number of Areas of that Natural Habitat on their planet.

The player with the most points wins!

Can the whole family enjoy Planet?

Planet is a terrific board game for families of all ages.

For starters, it’s an eye-catcher for sure. The 3D planets just look and feel awesome. Seeing this colorful game on the table, everyone will want to join in to create their own planet.

It’s also technically a tile-laying game. It just so happens that instead of laying tiles flat on the table, you get to place the magnetic tiles onto a 3D structure!

There’s also a great balance between luck and strategy.

We love it when a game with simple rules packs multiple layers of strategy. And Planet does just that.

On the luck side, the tiles available for players to choose from each round is completely random. Yet, this also plays into the strategy side. That’s because the tiles are drafted. Players take turns choosing which tile they want.

The player that goes first in a round will have the best choice of which tile to take. They can consider which tile will help them the most. And they may also consider which tiles other players will want for their own planets.

Since players can inspect the other planets at any time, players can easily keep an eye on the progress of their opponents and choose tiles accordingly.

Players also know which animals are coming up in future rounds, so they can plan ahead for how they want to build out their planets.

If that weren’t enough, each player gets their own Natural Habitat card which they can score points from. Players looking to score points in this way will want to snag tiles that have plenty of areas that match that habitat. As they add more of those areas to their planet, they’re also more likely to claim animals that prefer that habitat.

Yet on the flip side, animal cards that match the Natural Habitat are only worth 1 point at the end of the game. Whereas, the animals that prefer other habitats are worth 2 points. So players will have to choose and place continent tiles wisely to get the right balance for the most points.

All that makes for a game that keeps you thinking and planning.

The game also plays rather quickly because in each round players just add 1 tile and then see who gets the animal cards. Then you’re on to the next round. Before you know it, your planet is full and you’re adding up points.

The rule book also includes a couple variations on how to play to either may the game a bit easier or more challenging. So depending on who you’re playing with, you can choose how to mix it up.

All in all,Planet is a fun, family board game with awesome components, spacial reasoning, and strategic thinking.

How does Planet score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

Planet scores high on our “let’s play again” game meter. It’s easy to teach to new players and fun to play multiple times in a row.

The game also plays out differently every time because of the various animal cards. Not every animal card with be used in a game. So players need to adjust how they build their planets each game based on what the animal card requirements dictate.

Yet, no matter how it plays out, and no matter whether you win or lose, it’s cool to see how your personal planet comes to life by the end of the game.

We definitely recommend Planet as a fun board game for your family.