Astra first impressions
Yesterday we felt like playing something quick and fairly simple. So why not bring a Mindclash game to the table? 😁
Sounds like an oxymoron? 😅 Well we chose ✨ Astra, the newest SPIEL highlight of MC. And it is really quick and easy to learn, but nearly not as easy to master!
In Astra you step into the shoes of aspiring astronomers and try to write your name in the book of history by discovering new constellations in the night sky. You set up the constellation deck according to player number, then reveal a few constellation cards around the sphere board that can be discovered.
On your turn you can either:
🔭 Observe - which involves coloring in stars with your marker, spending stardust for each one;
or
😴 Rest - which replenishes your stardust (according to your pouch capacity) and possibly refresh your used constellation cards if their icon matches the icon on the sphere board.
Marking stars has its rules of course. 🧐 You have to mark the “starting star” of a constellation first or go adjacent to already marked ones, and you have to draw them in a continuous line. So if you go into a dead-end your Observe action ends. You can only Observe once each turn, unless you can pay a telescope token to go again. This means you usually won’t be able to instantly finish constellation cards, even if you have a ton of stardust.
If you do finish a constellation card, you get to claim it. From then on you can use the card’s ability.
The others who have marked stars on the card can choose a boon from it - this could be fame points, stardust, pouch upgrade, telescope tokens etc. It can be worth joining in just to claim a boon.
At first we didn't like the gameplay at 2p, we thought it was too zero-sum. We kept setting up the other to reap the benefits. 🤨 Then as we played we started discovering strategies on how to play more cunningly. This makes the game quite cutthroat. You have to draw in stars so the other can't easily take constellations, combo your own cards in a way to surprise your rival and time your rest phases very well. 👍
At 2p you have the “dreamer” too - which just involves using a neutral colored marker to draw in stars whenever you rest.
