“Collectively develop a tech tree to fuel new discoveries and colonize space.”
Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/317985/beyond-the-sun
Playing Time: 60-120 mins
Weight: Midweight
Genre: Worker Placement and Territorial Control
Designer: Dennis K Chan
Players: 2-4
If you’re the sort of person who spent more time on WoW patch day messing around in a talent calculator than you did actually playing the game, then you need to check out Beyond the Sun. Ignore it’s somewhat dry presentation, it is the game of climbing skill trees.
Beyond the Sun has two components – a small galactic map with a minor territorial control game is definitely a factor but the main entree is the central board, which is a huge skill tree. Players will take turns unlocking tech on the skill tree, acquiring the resources to climb higher, and giving them the ability to craft and move ships around the galactic map. At first, the game feels oddly off-balance, but once you embrace that figuring out your tech path IS the best part of the game, it just rolls.
An expansion came out called Beyond the Horizon, which focuses on the antiquities era. And while it has a couple of nice ideas in it, I can’t recommend it. They tried to make the territorial control game bigger and more important and, IMHO, it just doesn’t work. In this case, original flavor is superior.
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