Orbital
Orbital Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Components
- 1 Main Board
- 8 Station Boards
- 120 Construction Tiles
- 8 Objective Tiles
- 20 Coins
- 1 Scoring Pad
Set-Up of the Game
- Place the Main Board in the center of the table.
- Sort the tiles by size (the number of triangles). Stack each of the five types besides the Main Board next to their size mark. Maybe it will be easier to do more than one stack of the small tiles as long as is clear the order in which the tiles are going to enter play.
- Fill all the board spaces with tiles from the stacks. Every time an space is emptied, you must slide the tiles of that type to fill it again, so a new piece from the pile will enter the board.
- Mix the Objective Tiles, randomly draw 2 and place them besides the board, face up, where all players can see them.
- Give 5 coins to each player, return the remaining pieces to the game box.
- Choose which model of station do you want to use in this game and give a copy of this board to each player to put in front of him and set the tiles bought during the game. For a first game, use the board labelled A.
Buildings
Construction tiles are composed of 1 to 5 buildings in a triangular form. Every building produce some special benefits on your station depending on its type and disposition on the station board:
- House: it gives you victory points, but needs farms and power plants to function.
- Farm: provides resources for houses and restaurants. There are some farms that provide as 2.
- Power plant: provides resources for houses. There are some plants that provide as 2.
- Garden: gives you victory points.
- Restaurant: gives you victory points depending on the number of adjacent farms.
- Supermarket: gives you victory points depending on the number of adjacent houses.
- Theatres: gives you victory points depending on the number of adjacent gardens.
- Recycling plants: You will need one for each 4 houses or you will lose victory points.
Game Development
Orbital is played in turns, in clockwise order starting from the initial player, which should be last one to have been in a space station. In case of a draw, the youngest player starts.
Every player's turn is composed by two simples phases:
- Buy one construction tile
- Place the tile on the station board
1. Buy a construction tile
All tiles on the Main Board are available, but not the ones still on the piles. There's an initial box indicated on the board. Acquire the tile on it is free, just take the piece. If you want any other piece on the board, you must reach to it, starting on this initial box and following the paths indicated on the board. Every time to pass over a box with a tile on it (including the one on the initial box), you must put a coin on it. If you don't have enough coins to reach the tile you want, you cannot get it and should aim for a closer one. Obviously, the tiles with more buildings are better, but they are also farther and you will spend more coins to reach them.
As the game progresses, some tiles will have coins over them, left by players trying to reach tiles beyond those ones. This is important because, when you acquire a tile, you also get all the coins over it.
If you run out of coins, you will be forced next round to acquire the tile on the initial box and hope it will also come with some coins on it to expand your possibilities on the next round.
If, during the game, you run out of tiles of one type (except for the 1-building type), just ignore this level to reach the pieces beyond. In other words, you should put coins on the tiles you skip. If there is no tile, you aren't forced to leave a coin.
IMPORTANT: You cannot acquire a tile you cannot place.
Example: The player wants to buy the 2-gardens' tile. He has to leave 1 coin on every tile he passes over.
2. Place the tile on your station board
Place the tile you have just acquired following these rules:
- You must place the tile adjacent to another tile already on your station, if there is one.
- The tile must be place on empty spaces, not jutting out the station nor overlapping other tile.
Keep in mind the tiles are printed on both sides, so you have many combinations for placement.
Once you place a tile, you cannot move it anymore!
End of the Game and Scoring
The game ends immediately when a player either fills his station completely or acquires the last 1-building tile from the main board (and place it). Score the points made by every player to determine the winner. Use the score pad to keep track of the points (vp) made as per the following parameters:
-
Check the habitability of all the houses on every player's stations: a house is habitable if there is a farm and a power plant anywhere in the station to provide for it. There must be 1 farm and 1 power plant for every house. Those houses that are not provided with the necessary resources are considered empty (mark them by placing a coin on them as a remainder) and provides no vp in any way. IMPORTANT: remember that some farms and power plants are doubles and provide for two houses.
Once done that, each player score 2 vp for each habitable house.
Example: Paul counts his buildings and has 9 houses, 11 power plants and 8 farms. He has more than enough power plants, but he is 1 farm short, so must mark one of his houses as empty. Subsequently, he scores 16 vp for his 8 remaining houses.
-
Every player counts the number of buildings in his bigger cluster of houses. To be considered part of a cluster, a building has to be in side-to-side contact with another building of the same cluster. Give 5 vp to the player or players with the bigger cluster.
-
Give to each player 1 vp for each garden building in his station.
-
Every player counts the number of buildings in his bigger cluster of gardens. This works the same way as with the houses. Give 5 vp to the player or players with the bigger cluster.
-
Each supermarket gives 1 vp for every house adjacent to it. The player or players with most supermarkets scores 5 vp.
-
Each restaurant gives 1 vp for every farm adjacent to it (remember to score 2 vp for the double farms). The player or players with most restaurants scores 5 vp.
Losetas de puntuación (Objective Tiles)
- Balanced Station: Get 3 vp for every theatre + supermarket + restaurant combination, no matter their positions in the station.
- Gardened Station: Get 1 vp for every garden with a side on the border of the station.
- Good view Station: Get 1 vp for every house with a side on the border of the station.
- Powered Station: Get 1 vp per power plant (2 vp for the double ones).
- Quiet Station: Get 1 vp per house adjacent to 1 or more gardens.
- Populated Station: The player with the most non-empty houses gets 5 vp.
- Diversified Station: The player with the most number of clusters of houses gets 5 vp.
- Efficient Station: Get 1 vp for every house adjacent to one or more power plants.
Scoring Example
Marc (M.) has just finished his station, so it's time to calculate de vp:
- M. has 14 houses and farms, but only 13 power plants, so he scores 26 vp (13x2). Theresa (T.) has 12 houses but only 10 farms, so she scores 20 vp (10x2) plus 5 vp for the biggest cluster of houses.
- Marc gets 11 vp for his gardens and T. get 12 vp, plus 5 vp for having the biggest cluster.
- Both have 4 houses adjacent to supermarkets and the same number of supermarkets, so both get 9 vp (4x1 + 5).
- Marc has 9 farms adjacent to restaurants and more restaurants, so he gets 14 vp (9x1 + 5). T. gets 6 vp.
- Marc has 3 gardens adjacent to theatres, so he gets 3 vp (3x1). T. has 5 gardens and more Theatres, so she gets 10 vp (5x1 + 5).
- Regarding the Diversified Station Tile, Marc has the most clusters of houses (5 against 2), so he gets 5 vp.
- Thanks to the Efficient Station Tile, Marc gets 5 vp and T. 3 vp.
- Marc has 14 houses but just 3 recycling plants, which means he has 2 houses unattended and gets a 2x -1 vp. T. has all his houses covered.
- T. has 3 empty spaces on her station, so she loses 3x -1 vp.