Kickstarter Tabletop Alert: 'Galactic Cruise'

The Founder and C.E.O. of Galactic Cruise is retiring in a few years, and looking for his successor. His company offers travelers extended space vacations, but with the comfort of a luxury cruise. As a supervisor, you will build shuttles, satisfy Galactic Cruise guests, and also help the company thrive by enhancing the company network, inventing new technologies, and growing the workforce. Can you impress the board of directors, and become the new C.E.O. of Galactic Cruise?

What Is Galactic Cruise?

Galactic Cruise is a variable setup, worker placement game for 1-4 players, ages 14 and up, and takes about 90-150 minutes to play. It’s currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, with pledge levels starting at $89 for a copy of the base game. The campaign started on March 4th, and as of this writing has over 6000 backers. The campaign for Galactic Cruise will run through April 3rd at 7am PDT.

Galactic Cruise was designed by T.K. King, Dennis Northcott, and Koltin Thompson, and published by Kinson Key Games, with illustrations by Ian O’Toole.

New to Kickstarter? Check out our crowdfunding primer.

Everything that comes in the box (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

Galactic Cruise Components

Note: My review is based on a prototype copy, so it is subject to change and may not reflect final component quality.

All of the components came in baggies with the prototype copy, but the final version of Galactic Cruise will have customized Game Trayz for ease of storage. You can look at designs for those on the Galactic Cruise Kickstarter page.

The game comes with the following:

Rulebook
Main Board
Marketing Board
36 Agenda Cards
9 Progress Track Tiles
3 Neutral Cubes
12 Action Tiles
6 Expert Worker Tiles
6 Company Goal Tiles
3 Company Goal Trackers
8 Technology Tiles
3 Neutral Developments
82 Money Tokens
60 Ad Tokens
48 Blueprint Tiles
3 Small Resource Trackers
16 Cockpit Tiles
16 Engine Tiles
5 Guest Bonus Tokens
2 Marketing Board Overlays
18 Cruise Tiles
36 Guest Meeples
First Player Marker
Reference Book
4 Player Aids
12 Large Resource Trackers
32 Upgrade Tokens
4 Starting Cockpit Tiles
4 Starting Engine Tiles
4 Player Boards
8 Worker Meeples
8 Expert Worker Meeples
36 Developments
48 Progress Cubes
4 Reputation Tracker Tokens
4 VP Tracker Tokens
4 Cruise Consultant Meeples
13 Solo Cards
3 Solo Tokens

The Main Board for the game (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

The Main Board is divided up into 3 main areas, as if these were buildings on a company campus. They are, from left to right: Planning and Strategy, Headquarters, and Manufacturing. Additionally, there are tracks on the board for Victory Points and Reputation.

The Marketing Board (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

A secondary board is set up directly adjacent to the Main Board. This is the Marketing board, where players advertise and sell cruises to guests.

Some of the 12 Action Tiles (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

The Headquarters section of the Main Board is where you’ll be taking the majority of your actions. There are 12 Action Tiles, which are randomly set up in the designated spaces on the board. When you send your workers to one of the tiles, they’ll take 2 actions, many of which will be fulfilled on various spots on both the Main and Marketing boards.

The starting Workers (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

The Workers come in the four different player colors, and are screen printed wood. There are also larger Expert Workers, which can be unlocked during gameplay.

The Expert Workers, which are noticeably larger than the regular Worker meeples (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

Expert Workers get an additional ability, which is determined during setup by randomly placing one of the Expert Worker Tiles.

The 6 different Expert Worker Tiles (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

Players each have their own Player Board. This board tracks personal resources and upgrades, and stores developments until they are placed on the Main Board. There is also a Launch Elevator on the side of the board, which guides the player through the steps taken during the 5-second countdown to launching a shuttle. These boards are double layer, with recesses for placing tokens and meeples.

One of the Player Boards (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

Players will have access to four different technology upgrades throughout the game by taking the action of building a Development on a Technology Tile. These provide various ongoing advantages once available. The four upgrades are chosen randomly at the start of a game from a pool of eight tiles. Additional Technology Tiles are available in the two optional expansions in the Kickstarter campaign.

The eight different included technology tiles (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

One of the main paths towards Victory Points during a game of Galactic Cruise is through building a shuttle and launching a cruise. Players each start with identical Cockpit and Engine tiles, but other tiles are available to purchase during the course of a game.

A sampling of Cockpit and Engine Tiles (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

You can’t just launch a shuttle with a cockpit and engine, though. You must first purchase blueprints for various segments of a shuttle, and then use another action to build these segments into your shuttles. These segments will give bonuses if you have the matching Guest type onboard your shuttle.

Just a few of the 48 Blueprint Tiles available to purchase (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

As this is a galactic cruise company you’re running, you can’t take off without having tourists on your shuttle. There are three different types of Guests that you can recruit for your shuttle: Relaxing, Family, and Adventurous.

Relaxing, Family, and Adventurous Guest meeples (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

You must schedule a Cruise before you can launch a shuttle. When you match the Guest type to a destination on a cruise, you will increase your Reputation.

A few of the cruises you have to select from throughout the game (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

Despite this being a prototype, the majority of the components already are of very high quality. The Ian O’Toole artwork shines, giving a nice retro feeling to this futuristic game. The wooden meeples and tokens are all satisfying to work with, and have nice screen printing to help differentiate the pieces, especially the two different types of worker meeples.

How to Play Galactic Cruise

You can download a copy of the rulebook here. You can also try out an intro game of Galactic Cruise on either Tabletop Simulator or Tabletopia.

The Goal

The goal of the game is to earn Victory Points by taking guests on cruises and accomplishing other company goals.

Setup

Main and Marketing Board Standard Setup

Place the Main Board in the center of the playing area, with the Marketing Board directly to the right of it. Shuffle the Agenda Cards and place them facedown beside the Main Board, then reveal 4 cards from the top of the deck and place them faceup on the indicated spaces of the Main Board.

A sampling of Agenda Cards (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

Place the Progress Track Tiles that match the player count on the indicated spaces on the Main Board, returning unused tiles to the box.

Shuffle the 12 Action Tiles and randomly place 2 at each indicated location on the Main Board. Shuffle the Expert Worker Tiles and place 1 randomly on the indicated space. Shuffle the Company Goal Tiles and place 1 at random on the indicated space, returning the rest to the box. Place a Company Goal Tracker into each of the 3 bottom spaces of the Company Goal Tile.

Two of the Company Goal Tiles, with Trackers (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

Shuffle the Technology Tiles and randomly place 4 of them into the Technology Tiles spaces on the Main Board. Return the rest to the box after using the back of one of the leftover tiles to determine and place the Neutral Developments on the board, covering the Reputation Icons for the indicated spaces.

Create a supply of Money and Ads for the players.

Ad and Money tokens (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

Shuffle the Blueprint Tiles and place them faceup in a stack beside the Main Board. Take the top 5 tiles from the stack and place them on the indicated spaces on the Main Board.

Place a Small Resource Tracker of each type into the Storage Silo at the “2” level.

The food, oxygen, and fuel Small Resource Tracker tokens (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

Setting aside the starting Cockpit and Engine Tiles, shuffle the remaining Cockpit Tiles and place a stack next to the Main Board. Take the top 4 Tiles and place them faceup on the indicated spaces. Do the same for the Engine Tiles.

Shuffle the Guest Bonus Tokens, and place one on each of the indicated spaces on the Marketing Board, sending the remaining tiles to the box. If playing with fewer than 4 players, use the Marketing Board Overlay to cover the top 1 or 2 spaces of the Marketing Board, depending on player count.

A Marketing Board Overlay (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

Shuffle the Cruise Tiles and randomly place 1 on each of the open spaces for player count. Place the remaining tiles in a facedown stack nearby.

Place all the Guests beside the Marketing Board, creating a supply. From that supply, take a matching Guest for each Destination listed on the faceup Cruise tiles and set them aside. Randomly place each of these, one at a time, in the Queue next to the Marketing Board, placing them in each of the 3 sections bottom to top, repeating until all of the Guests are placed.

Individual player setup (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

Player Board Setup

Each player chooses a player color and then takes a Player Board, all components of their color, and a Resource Tracker of each type, and places them as shown in the above picture.

Place 4 brown Upgrade Tokens on the top 4 spaces of the Launch Tower, and the 4 grey Upgrade Tokens on the bottom 4 spaces.

Take 1 Starting Cockpit Tile and 1 Starting Engine Tile, and place them to the left of the Player Board.

Starting Cockpit and Engine Tiles, as indicated by the stars in the corners of the tiles (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

Take 10 Money and 2 Ads from the supply, and 1 Agenda Card from the top of the Agenda Deck. Place 3 of your Progress Cubes above the Company Goal tile in the spaces matching your player color on the Main Board. Place the rest of your cubes near your Player Board.

Place your VP Tracker at “5” and your Reputation Marker at “0” on their respective tracks on the Main Board. Place your Cruise Consultant onto the Marketing Board.

The Cruise Consultant meeples, in the 4 different player colors (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

The player who most recently went on a cruise or vacation will be first player and take the First Player Token. In clockwise order starting with the first player, set your starting Reputation: 0/1/2/3.

In reverse order, place 1 Development for free from the left column of Development on your Player Board onto the Main Board in an area where no Developments are currently present, gaining a Reputation.

Developments, in the 4 player colors (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

Also in reverse order, take a Blueprint Tile from the Main Board, and place it beside your Player Board in one of the indicated spaces. After all players have taken their tiles, slide all remaining Blueprints to the bottommost available spaces, then refill the empty spaces from the Blueprint stack.

Gameplay

Starting with the First Player, each player will take a turn, going clockwise in order. On average, a player will usually get 20 turns.

On a turn, a player will first Advance Shuttles, and then do one of the following: Assign a Worker, Launch a Shuttle, or Call a Meeting. Finally, you will check if you Accomplish a Company Goal.

1. Advance Shuttles

If, at the start of your turn, you have shuttles in space, you will advance them to different stops until they return to Earth. Move your Pilot 1 space forward on the Cruise Tile. There are 3 different types of stops: Destinations, Days in Space, and Returning to Earth.

Destinations

If you have an Upgrade Token on your Engine, you may place into onto one of the Upgrades on the Destination that you’re currently on, unlocking that Upgrade. You may not have more than 3 Upgrades on any Destination.

You may also score each Guest on your shuttle once per Destination by paying their Ad cost: 1 Ad if the Destination matches the Guest type, 2 Ads if not. Guests scores are equal to 3 VP, +1 VP per Upgrade Token at that Destination.

Day in Space

For each Guest, gain one matching bonus as listed on the Marketing Board for each matching icon in the shuttle.

Returning to Earth

Your worker, which was acting as the shuttle pilot, returns to the Break Room on the Player Board. Gain 1 Funding Bonus out of the 4 different options listed in the top area of the Launch Tower on the Player Board. The Cruise Tile is then returned to the bottom of the Cruise stack, and the Guests are returned to the supply. The Shuttle that has returned may now have segments built into it, or be launched again.

2A. Assign a Worker

Place a Worker on a location. You may Bump another player’s Worker, in which case that player returns their Worker to their Break Room and immediately gains a Funding Bonus.

After placing your Worker, you may take up to 2 actions with that Worker. You may take actions from the two at the space where it is placed. If you have a Development connecting to an adjacent location, you may take either or both of the actions at that adjacent space. If an opponent has a development at an adjacent location, you may use the actions from that space, but you pay that opponent a sum based on your current Reputation. The higher your Reputation, the less you will have to pay.

Workers placed at Headquarters (Tabletopia shown). Image by Paul Benson.

Here are the 12 different actions you can take:

Build a Development. Choose one of the leftmost Developments on your Player Board, and pay the cost listed at the bottom of the column from which it was taken. Then place that Development either on an open space in between the buildings in the Headquarters, or under one of the Technology Tiles. You may never place a Development in an area where you already have one. Placing a Development on a Technology makes it free for you to use, but other players who don’t have Developments there must pay you if they want to use it.
Hire an Expert Worker. Pay the cost associated with the Expert you are hiring from your Player Board, and move them to the Break Room. Expert Workers function as regular Workers, but gain the ability of the Expert Worker Tile.
Gain Supplies. Purchase Resources and/or Ads with money.
Acquire Blueprints. Take up to 2 Blueprint Tiles from the display on the Main Board. Players may hold a maximum of 5 Blueprints.
Build Shuttle Segments. You can build segments from Blueprints previously acquired, or directly from the Main Board. Building from the Main Board requires additional Reputation and Money, in addition to the cost listed in the top left of the Blueprint. Players are restricted to building a maximum of 3 segments per shuttle, and 3 shuttles total. Once a segment is built into a Shuttle, it may not be removed or replaced. Segments show a half a Cabin on the tops and bottoms of their tiles, and must combine with other tiles to make whole cabins, which are required for guests.

The built side of a Shuttle Segment (prototype shown). Image by Paul Benson.

Acquire New Shuttle. Choose a paired Cockpit and Engine Tile set from the Display on the Main Board. Then refill the board from the stack. If the end of the game is reached and a shuttle has not been launched, you will lose 5 Victory Points.
Gain Resources. Take up to 3 resources of any combination from the Storage Silo. Reduce the level of the chosen Resource Trackers in the Silo, and then increase the respective Resource Trackers on your Player Board.
Refill Silo. Discard an Agenda Card from your hand to increase 1 chosen Resource in the Storage Silo to its maximum. Gain 1 Money for each step the particular Resource was raised, along with exactly 1 Reputation.
Schedule a Cruise. Take your Cruise Consultant and place it next to a Cruise that has not already been scheduled. Then choose 1 Upgrade Token in the Launch Tower on your Player Board, and immediately gain the bonus printed on it. Then flip it over.
Advertise for a Cruise. Choose any 1 Cruise with 1 or 2 empty Guest Spaces on it. Choose Guests from the Queue, paying the Ad costs associated from the area of the Queue you take the Guests from, and place them on the selected Cruise. Then, for each Guest placed, gain 1 Money per Destination on the Cruise, and 1 Reputation if the Cruise includes a Guest’s preferred Destination.
Draw Agenda Cards. Draw 2 Agenda Cards into your hand. Draw from the faceup cards, or spend 1 Reputation to draw from the top of the Discard pile. The text of an Agenda card will explain when it may be played. Agenda Cards may alternatively be used as the Resource shown on the bottom left corner of the card.
Refill Agenda Cards. Gain any bonuses shown on the empty Agenda Card spaces, and then discard any remaining Agenda Cards. Refill all 4 Agenda Card spaces.

Just before launching my shuttle (Tabletopia shown). Image by Paul Benson.

A quick note regarding resources: once per turn at any time, you may also reduce your Reputation Tracker as far as you would like, gaining all the bonuses of one type of resource that you cross over.

2B. Launch a Shuttle

One of your options during a player turn is to place one of your Workers to launch a Shuttle. In order to launch a Shuttle you must have:

A Cruise scheduled
An available Shuttle with 1 or more Cabins
Access to enough Resources to launch
Guest(s) pre-sold or Last Minute Sale

The leftmost space on your Player Board is the Launch Elevator. Place a Worker on the lowest space of the Launch Elevator. There are 5 steps to launching your Shuttle, representing a 5 second countdown. As you move your Worker up the Launch Elevator, there are icons representing the actions you take on each step of the countdown:

5: Assign and Board. Take your scheduled Cruise and place it above the shuttle you would like to launch. Return your Cruise Consultant to the office on the Marketing Board. Then, place guests into Cabins. Each Cabin can hold a maximum of 1 Guest. Guests can be pre-sold, bought from the queue at normal price, or taken from the supply at the cost of 4 Ads each. If you don’t have enough room for a pre-sold Guest, you lose 2 Reputation.
4: Place Progress Cube. Take a Progress Cube from your supply and place it onto the next available space on the Progress Track. The Progress Track is the timer for the game.
3: Pay Resources. You must pay: 1 Food per Guest in the Shuttle, as well as 1 Food for your Pilot. 1 Oxygen per Shuttle Segment in the Shuttle. 1 Fuel per Fuel Icon listed on the Cruise Tile. These resources can come from any combination of your Player Board, Agenda Cards, and paying Reputation.
2: Score Cockpit. Score VP based on the criteria listed on the Cockpit of the Shuttle. If it is the first time launching the Shuttle, flip over the tile so that the “-5” is no longer showing.
1: Load Up. Remove the Upgrade Token that was flipped when the Cruise was scheduled, and place it on the Engine Tile of the Shuttle being launched.
0: Lift Off. Place your Worker, who is now the Pilot, into the Cockpit of the Shuttle.

After launching, you will add a new Cruise Tile to replace the one you used during launch. Then, Guests move down in queue, and new Guests are added from the supply.

2C. Call a Meeting

Recall all your Workers from the Main Board and place them into your Break Room. Gain a Funding Bonus for each “open hand” symbol covered. You may then take just one action from a location that has at least one of your Developments connected to it.

If you have no Workers in your Break Room when it’s your turn, you must Call a Meeting on your turn.

3. Accomplish Company Goal

Each game, there are 3 different Company Goals, as shown on the Company Goal Tile. If you meet or exceed the current goal as indicated by the Company Goal Tracker, you have accomplished that goal. Then do the following:

Remove your Progress Cube from above the goal that was accomplished, and place it on the Progress Track. A Wing in the player’s color is revealed.
Advance the Company Goal Tracker for that goal one notch higher, increasing the goal’s threshold for other players.

You may only accomplish each goal once per game.

Progress Track Scoring

When the final cube is placed into sections 1 or 2 of the Progress Track, the track is filled, and an Annual General Meeting is held. At this time, players score VP equal to the number of Progress Cubes they have in that section, times the number of Wings in their player color revealed on the Main Board.

The player currently with the most Reputation is considered to have one extra cube for scoring purposes.

The look of our board at the end of a 3-player game (Tabletopia shown). Image by Paul Benson.

Game End

The end of Galactic Cruise is triggered when the final cube is placed into section 3 of the Progress Track. Play continues with players finishing out the current round, and then a Final Round is played.

For the Final Round, everyone retrieves all their Workers from the Main Board and gains Funding Bonuses. Then, in turn order, everyone takes 1 final turn.

Finally, in turn order, any shuttles that are on Cruises get advanced one final time to any remaining stop on the Cruise, with all steps of that stop being taken.

Final Scoring

Players score the following:

1 VP per leftover supplies: any combination of Resources, Money, Ads, Agenda Cards, and Blueprint Tiles.
Progress scoring for Section 3 of the Progress Track.
VP based on the highest VP threshold gained on the Reputation Track.
VP pictured on each Shuttle Segment in your shuttles.
VP shown on the rightmost empty column in the Development area of the Player Board.
VP based on the criteria pictured on each Cockpit of your shuttles.

The winner is the person with the most Victory Points.

Why You Should Play Galactic Cruise

If you read through the “how to play” section of this review for Galactic Cruise, then you’ll know that there’s a lot going on in this game. Kinson Key Games classifies it as a mid to heavy-weight Euro, and that’s pretty accurate. At a casual glance, the various boards can appear overwhelming, with all of the different game spaces and iconography.

However, once you start reading the easy to follow rules, you soon see the intelligence and elegance behind T.K. King, Dennis Northcott, and Koltin Thompson’s design. Even at its prototype stage, the rules are explained clearly, with multiple illustrations and examples to make sure that you can follow the flow of the game.

A page from the work-in-progress rulebook, explaining the areas of the main board. Image by Kinson Key Games.

The basics of gameplay in Galactic Cruise are remarkably easy to pick up. On my initial game, all three of us were playing for the very first time, but we soon found ourselves right in the swing of things, and only rarely had to refer to the rulebook. All that iconography that seemed so scary at first is very clear and identifiable, thanks to the excellent graphic design.

As you can see from the rulebook above, the boards are laid out in a fashion that is easy to make sense of thematically. The lovely Ian O’Toole artwork is charmingly retro, while still reinforcing the theme of galactic tourism throughout. Little details, like having the launch elevator for the shuttles walk you through each of the steps of the shuttle launch, are one of the best examples of how well the theme works to reinforce the gameplay.

While easy to learn, Galactic Cruise is still a challenging efficiency puzzle. As with many worker placement games, you’re planning your moves several turns in advance. If you want to launch a Shuttle, you’ll have multiple steps to take before that can happen. Just go back and look at all the prerequisites to initiate a launch: there are 4 steps listed, and that’s just for a single shuttle. Ideally, you’ll manage to build and launch the maximum of 3 shuttles.

Speaking of shuttles, my friends and I didn’t fully understand the importance of getting as many cruises launched as you can. You would think that with the game’s title being Galactic Cruise, we might have gotten the hint! But cruises are a huge source for both Victory Points and Upgrades. And even though you spend a lot of resources to get a launch going, you will get some back during your stops in space. In that first game, I decided to try and get a small shuttle launched as soon as I possibly could, and that turned out to be the key to my winning the game. Rather than try to max out a shuttle on the first go-round, I got a simple 2-segment shuttle off the ground, and soon was reaping the rewards.

Even though this is just a prototype and not the finished product, Galactic Cruise is very refined. The overall game design is polished, and the artwork and components already feel very deluxe. Having enjoyed custom Game Trayz for other Kickstarter-funded games, their addition in Galactic Cruise will be welcome, especially as they speed up the setup at the table. There are also dedicated components and rules for a solo mode, the inclusion of which is often a must for many players.

If you’re looking for an involved worker placement game that just oozes theme, then you should definitely check out Galactic Cruise. The campaign runs through April 3rd, so you still have plenty of time to jump on board. And if you want to try out the gameplay yourself before committing, Kinson Key Games provides links to playable introductory games on both Tabletop Simulator and Tabletopia.

For more information or to make a pledge, visit the Galactic Cruise Kickstarter page!

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