SETI impressions from the CGE Castle Event

We were invited to an event where we managed to play 2 full games of SETI - we immensely enjoyed the game, and regret we couldn’t play it even more. From these plays we got a lot of information, so I thought it would be nice to describe our impressions and how the game plays.

TL;DR

In an endless sea of upcoming euro games, I think SETI is an exceptional mid-heavy entry. Some features to mention are a huge deck of actions cards that are multi-use (can be used in 4 different ways), upgrades that let you focus on certain strategies, and alien species you find that have unique cards and mechanics to them (of which you randomly use 2 out of 5 each game).
In summary, fun meaningful actions, satisfying combotastic gameplay and immense replayability.

Theme

This isn’t a science-fiction game, as it is based in reality. SETI is a real-life organization that searches for signs of extraterrestrial life. (Well, the fiction for the most part is that you will always find some alien species when you play - but I guess it might happen eventually in real life too).

Players are members of this organization, doing their part to explore space for any traces of life. To do this you launch probes from Earth, send them into orbit around planets or land with them on the surfaces of these planets; Send out signals to distant stars and process the data you collect; And develop technologies so you can do all of this more effectively. All in an effort to make the biggest scientific contribution in this endeavor.

Game structure

The general structure of the game is quite simple, and I believe the rules explanation is relatively easy for such a mid-heavy euro game. Much of the game and complexity is hidden in cards, which you actually start seeing when you start playing.

A game of SETI consists of five rounds, each with a variable number of turns. You basically keep taking turns as long as you have stuff to do and resources to spend. On your turn you pick a main action to perform, and as many free actions as you want (and can afford).

I think it is best to just jump into the available actions, so you can see what the game has to offer. Actions are all things you thematically might expect.

Actions

- Launch a probe
Launch a probe from Earth. To actually move the probe you will need to use free actions and spend power. This is also where the rotating solar system comes into the picture: certain effects will rotate the rings of the solar system, shifting planets and asteroid fields around.

- Send probe into orbit
Whenever your probe is on a planet of the solar system, you can use this action to add it to the orbit of that planet. Different planets have different bonuses but it always involves tucking an action card to gain its income bonus.

- Land probe on a planet
Same as the orbit action, but you land on the planet itself (and pay different costs). Again planets all give something different, but you always get a yellow Trace of alien life. (With an upgrade you can land on the moons of planets, which offer very powerful bonuses).

- Send out signals
You can send out signals to far away stars. One will always go in the same sector where Earth is, a second one in a star sharing the color of the card that you discard from the display. When you unlock techs you can improve this action or send out more signals.

Whenever you send a signal to a star, you put a player marker there and claim a data token. Signals are used in an area-majority manner - whenever a star’s track is filled up, the player with the most will get a pink Trace of alien life.

- Process data
Data that you collect with signals can be placed on your data track with free actions, claiming bonuses you cover up. With upgrades this track can be customized and made more useful. Whenever the track is completely filled you can use this action to discard every data from it and claim a blue Trace of alien life.

- Upgrade tech
Upgrading techs is a huge feature of the game. There are 3 kinds of techs:
Orange is all about probes. You can unlock things like the ability to have 2 probes in space at the same time, land on moons or land for less energy.
Blue is about making your data track better, so there are more bonuses to cover up with data tokens.
Pink is for signals. You can unlock more ways to send out more signals.

- Play a card
I saved the best for last. Playing an action card is the most interesting of them all. These have all kinds of effects in unique combinations, that do many of the actions I just described, but in more “rule bending” ways. Cards however can not only be used for their actions. You could also discard them to get their depicted bonus, use them for their color when sending out signals, or tuck them in for their income. Additionally, some cards will have a silver box with an objective you can complete to gain more bonuses, or a golden box that has an end-game scoring condition.

Finding alien life

I mentioned yellow, blue and pink Traces of alien life. Whenever you gain one, you can put it to one of 2 alien species boards, which are facedown at first. As soon as a board gets one of each color of trace, you will turn it face up. There are 5 alien species, but you only use 2 in each game. These will have additional slots for Traces that you get in the future, and each species has some special rules and a unique deck of cards. This aids replayability in a big way.

Resource management

I didn’t want to go too much into detail with rules, but most of the actions I listed need you to pay some resources. Mostly these are Credits and Power, which you will never have enough of. Usually when you run out of these, is when you start running out of actions, which will lead to passing and waiting for income from the next round. However you can often combo some things together and eke out many more actions than you first thought.

Publicity is a resource tracked on the board. You gain this from multiple effects, like when your probe goes through celestial objects. It is used to develop techs or buy cards with a free action.

Finally, even though cards are not really resources, having cards and card draw is very beneficial as they have so many uses.

Player interaction

Compared to many solitary euros we enjoy, I think player interaction in SETI is quite prominent. You fight for majority with the signals, which can be pretty cutthroat as whoever got there last breaks ties. You can also take valuable slots of planets or alien traces, take or discard cards from the display, and trigger the movement of the solar system. You won’t actively target players, but you will get in each other's ways.

Most notable are the end game objectives. There are 4 of these chosen randomly each game, and you can claim one when you reach 25, 50 and 75 points. You can only ever claim 3 of 4, and the sooner you go the more points they’ll be worth. So you can personalize the goals you are working towards.

Closing thoughts

There are of course many different nuances that I didn’t explain, as it would be too much like reading a rulebook. It is enough to know that there are many other costs, gains and things that happen through actions, that make them even more interesting and worthwhile.

Selecting an action on your turn from a list of things seems simple, but it remains very engaging throughout the game, because all of the actions are important. I think free actions help in a huge way to spice up your turns, and lead to some fun combos. Some turns you will just launch a probe for 2 credits and let the next player go; On other turns you might use your data to get a power to move your probe, getting a publicity when arriving to a planet, which you use to buy a card, which then you use to get a landing action to land with a probe, that lets you send out a signal, which triggers a majority scoring, that gives you a pink trace that you place down and discover a species, and with the victory points you get you also claim a public objective.

There are many of these turns, which will have you coming back for more. It’s fun to plan what to do, and it’s even more fun finding a way to do something that you thought you had no way of doing. Due to this, I strongly believe SETI is much more than just the next seasonal euro, and I cannot wait to hold the final copy in my hands.