HIGHLIGHTS AMONG GAMES

ORBIT

Circling a black hole!

Dear readers! Three puzzle in one box: This is the way in this form the deluxe Edition „Die Spiele-Galerie“ by Franckh-Kosmos presents „Orbit“, a game mechanism by Alex Randolph, which he has used several times in this long career as a game designer. Randolph himself did characterize the basic topic of the game as follows: “In these three games everything seems to be determined by so called “randomness”, but “luck” does not have any influence at all. In each round dice (that is, fate) determine a starting situation, and then it is up to each player himself to make something of this starting situation - or leave it be.” I would like to comment this: “Orbit”, the title-giving game, is without doubt the easiest one to enjoy in a family group, “Harun” already presents a much bigger hurdle for your mental activity and “Corona” can be absolutely classified as brain acrobatics, pure and simple, meant for players with a surplus of adrenaline.

The idea behind Corona, at the time of publication of this collection, already existed for twenty years, and the mechanics of a simultaneous search of all players for an optimum path has been rather successfully re-implemented in Randolph games like “Die verbotene Stadt” or “Rasende Roboter” (Ricochet Robots”) in the 1990’s.

Should you want to be lured into quick and hart thinking, maybe even in the shape of a solitary therapy, you may set about it, as usual, in the Österreichisches Spielemuseum at Leopoldsdorf. www.spielen.at

Depending on your choice of planetary orbit the usual light of my lamp shows room (spots) for seven or twelve carrier pieces. These carrier pieces need to be equipped in the course of the game with six symbol pieces, according to the random result of rolling some colored and black dice. Fate in the guise of dice roll results must set the initial position, according to the wish of Randolph, the ingenious designer of this mechanism. Now to the differences in the implementations of this basic idea: In “Orbit” you distribute all carrier pieces on the smaller orbit board, in order to be moved later according to the colored dice either in clockwise or counter-clockwise direction (this is decided by the black die), in a given color sequence. This sequence also decides on the number of points (represented by chips) which you can score. The emphasis is on “can”, because the main purpose is to capture the correct carrier piece of high value with your own symbol dice. As all players strive simultaneously for this optimization move everything depends on speed and survey. „Harun“, with an additional four fixed stars, offers an additional challenge on the twelve-spot board, which anticipates quite a lot of the Randolph classic „Rasende Roboter“. In “Harun” aim for as high a score as possible by occupying so called fixed stars (special pieces), named within a minute timed by a sand-timer. The highest offer may - when time is over, show the optimum path - or pay penalty points to the other players.

The crowning highlight of this small collection of games is the complex and incredibly challenging “Corona”, where the score is determined according to the concentration of carrier pieces in a spot. When you end on an empty spot you score only one point for a reward, if you reach another carrier piece you score two points and when two carriers are assembled on a spot you score three points, and so on. Again you must find the optimum path within the one minute allocated by the sand timer and to announce the intended score to your fellow thinkers, yes, intended, because rather often this will end in failure. As your fellow players also want the optimum, you must activate your grey cells within seconds or you will be always too late, because no-one circles a Black Hole without a purpose, not even in only a game.

Comments to: hugo.kastner@chello.at

Homepage: www.hugo-kastner.at

RECOMMENDATION # 80

Players: 2-6

Alter: 10+

Designer: Alex Randolph

Time: 15+

Price: out of print

Year: 1993

Publisher: Franckh-Kosmos

Tactic: 7 von 9

Info±: 0 von 0

Chance: 2 von 9

In reality the element of chance is negligibly small, according to Randolph not present at all - and yet I had to decide on two markers for it. My explanation: Contrary to to other combinatory games, which couple in-depth analysis with a minimum of time, in Orbit & Co everything happens in a flash. One wrong thought, born rather from the intuition of the moment, and a fellow player might be first to find the path around the Black Hole “by chance”, without being able to state a rational reason. Some consolation: A weak performance can be explained with bad luck.

Hugos EXPERT TIP

Start with „Orbit“ and approach malicious orbits of „Harun“ and „Corona“ with caution and slowly. It is also very helpful you thing through the 20 Corona puzzles that are included in the small brochure as a solitary puzzles and have a go at optimizing the scores for them. As each mental activity, this special “Randolph” orbiting of carrier pieces demands a hefty amount of training. Have fun!

Hugos FLASHLIGHT

All three game ideas thrive on the lightning-fast thinking of all players. What did the magazine Pöppel-Revue have to say about this elegant mechanism? „Ludophiles love the game mechanics and all treasure the game like a gem, but it has not been played for some time now“. The reason for this is easily found: Orbiting the Black Hole is a huge lot of fun and a challenge, too, but you must be able to stand being shown the limitations of your thoughts. Orbit & Co is everything but a given.

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