Planet B Review

They say you should always learn from your mistakes… but clearly someone hasn’t told humanity. Planet B propels us into a future where Earth is long gone and it’s time to colonise a new planet. You would think that destroying one planet would stick in the memory, but things quickly deteriorate and the dodgy rulers of humanity’s new home are more concerned with greasing the wheels, than preserving our future.

Luckily, you’re one of these corrupt governors and through dubious deals or rigged elections you’ll (literally) attempt to pocket the most money (aka ‘billies’). We say literally because you score VPs by shoving the paper money into your pocket throughout the course of the game. It’s a fun touch that mirrors the overall tongue-in-cheek nature, which is complimented by references to popular culture, like Terminator, Mars Attacks, Tron, etc., on the various cards. A few of the jokes may raise eyebrows though, so perhaps not one for the kids!

On your turn you start by making a deal with one of the available conglomerates, which will trigger different events, e.g. generating resources, placing a building, popping down your meeples, drawing a News card (which in turn triggers yet more actions), adding votes… which becomes important in a moment. For new players it can be rather confusing as you get to grips with all the options available, but you do eventually get into a groove and start to realise the best order to trigger the available actions. Even with a few games under your belt though, there can still be considerable downtime, particularly with three or four players, due to the amount of combos that can be triggered by selecting a particular option.

Another key element of Planet B is the elections, which decide who becomes the president and earns the most cash, or becomes the DODO and earns the least. When an election is triggered you all draw three votes randomly from a bag. However, you can’t possibly have a futuristic election without some vote rigging! In the run-up to an election you can attempt to skew the vote in your favour by paying for votes - but the more you buy, the more expensive they’ll be.

There’s still a chunk of luck involved though because in order to win the election, you need to draw most chips of your colour and place them in front of you. So, even if you spend some serious wonga to buy those votes, there’s still a chance you could come up short, which will no doubt cause some frustration for those desperate to win. If you do manage to sway the election in your favour, then you’ll be showered with benefits that can affect the final outcome, which seems a little unfair when Lady Luck can still have such an influence.

Rob Burman

PLAY IT? MAYBE

Planet B is a solid engine building Euro game that, unfortunately, overstays its welcome. There’s a lot of downtime as players consider their options each turn and certain actions can lead to more actions, which leads to yet more downtime. Meanwhile, the voting mechanic is neat but still relies a little too much on luck.

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED FURNACE

Capitalism is running rampant again but in Furnace you’re swapping spaceships and robots for cotton mills and top hats.

Read a review on Furnace here!

Designer: Johannes Natterer

Publisher: Hans im Glück

Time: 60-180 minutes

Players: 2-4

Ages: 14+

Price: £60

What’s in the box?

• Game board
• Faction track
• 4 player boards
• 7 conglomerate tiles (3xA, 4xB)
• 40 production tiles (10 per player)
• 16 swindle tiles (4 per player)
• 244 wooden pieces
• 120 cards
• 160 banknotes

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