Quantum
CARVE YOUR MARK IN THE VERY FABRIC OF SPACE!
In Quantum, each player is a fleet commander from one of the four factions of humanity, struggling to conquer a sector of space. Every die is a starship, with the value of the die determining the movement of the ship, but also its combat power - with low numbers more powerful. So a [ 6 ] is a quick but fragile Scout and a [ 1 ] is a slow but mighty Battlestation.
Each type of ship also has a special power that can be used once per turn: Destroyers can warp space to swap places with other dice and Flagships can transport other ships. These powers can be used in combination for devastating effects. You're not stuck with your starting ships, however: using Quantum technology, you can spend actions to transform (re-roll) your ships. Randomness plays a role in the game, but only when you want: Quantum is very much a strategy game.
You win by constructing Quantum Cubes - massive planetary energy extractors. Each time you build a new one, you can expand your fleet, earn a new permanent ability, or take a one-time special move. The board itself is made out of modular tiles, and you can play on one of the 30 layouts that come with the game or design your own. The ship powers, player abilities, and board designs combine to create a limitless set of possibilities for how to play and strategies for how to win.
With elegant mechanics, an infinity of scenarios, and easy-to-learn rules that lead to deep gameplay, Quantum is a one-of-a-kind game of space combat, strategy and colonization that will satisfy both hard-core and casual players.
User Reviews (8)
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We were introduced to this game at our FLGS on Tabletop Day, and what a fantastic game! It surprised me how easy it was to pick up the rules of the game, but the puzzle of what to do next is compelling. The story is fun, too, with you battling against your friends to conquer planets.
How to play
In this game you are conquering planets with your dice-ships. This is a very cool mechanic, where the number on your dice represents what kind of ships you have. This number works in two ways: how far a ship can move on a turn, and its attack value. This means that Ones are Battleships, which can’t move far on a turn, but where lowest number wins in a fight they are very sturdy. Sixes are Scouts which can move six spaces but may be more susceptible in a fight.
Each Ship type also has a special power. Threes can exchange places with another one of your ships. Fives can move on a diagonal. Fortunately, there is a player mat for each faction to tell you what happens on a turn as well as what each ship can do.
The point of the game is to drop off your energy cubes on planets, which is done by getting your ships around a planet, and matching the pips on your dice to the number on the planet. Each time you manage this you get to pick up a card, which will either be a permanent adjustment to your faction, for example getting to re-roll attack dice, or by getting an immediate action card such as expanding your fleet (getting another die).
There are some other rules relating to your Research and your Dominance that help you either get more cards or drop off energy cubes, but this is something you can easily get a handle on once you play 🙂
Components
The dice are great, although they have a strange sticky texture when they are new. The colours are nice and bright, and they are good chunky dice. The energy cubes are a little small so if you have small children in the house you’ll want to keep an eye on these. The board is modular, and each of the pieces are nice thick cardboard that feel durable.
Play with 2
My partner and I often play games together, and this is a great one for us. Since the board is modular you can make sure that the difficulty is still high. One of our pet peeves is “dummy players” and fortunately this game doesn’t need one. You can also arrange the board in many different ways, with a lot of options included in the box, so the game has great replayability.
Thoughts
Randomness may be an issue for some players. Rolling your dice-ships means that you have a surprise fleet every time you play. You are also rolling your attacks and defenses meaning that your strategies can occasionally get stopped up by bad rolls. Fortunately you can take a turn to re-roll your ships and if you get the same number you must roll again, so you have some control over what kind of ships you have.
This is a nice little game with intuitive rules and great replayability. The board is modular, so you have a lot of options for setup, and it is still a great game for just 2.
Are you looking for an exciting space adventure? Then look no further. Quantum will give you everything you need to satisfy the hunger of exploring vast regions of space. Offering a rich theme of exploring space and colonizing planets, Quantum is a fantastic addition to any game collection. Each of the four factions have a thematic back story that helps to build the world while you are racing your dice ships through space.
What’s in the box?
The Quantum box is full of quality pieces. Each faction comes with a thick, sturdy cardboard reference sheet, 7 solid dice (5 for ships, 1 for research and 1 for dominance) and a number of small Quantum cubes. The area of play is constructed by arranging a number of thick cardboard squares, which range from a value of 7 to 10. Battles are decided using the additional black and white dice included. Lastly, upgrades and advantages are supplied through cards that are obtained throughout the game.
How’s it play?
The dice you control are your fleet and the core of the game. An initial roll of the dice sets up your fleet for play. Each player only has access to a total of 5 ships (3 initially and 2 through an upgrade card). The value of the die has two key roles; 1) how far you can move that die and 2) the type of ship that it represents in your fleet, which indicates the special move that it can take. On your turn you can take 3 actions plus each ship can take a special free action. The actions available are: reconfigure (reroll a ship), deploy (relocate a ship from your scrapyard to an orbital position you control), move/attack, research (add 1 to your research die) and most importantly construct cube (place a cube on a planet where the pips on your ships, in orbital positions, equals the value of the planet). Being first to construct all of your cubes wins the game but plan accordingly because constructing a cube takes 2 actions! Even so, every time you construct a cube you get an upgrade card for free. Attacking and defending occur when a ship moves into a square already occupied by another player’s ship. The outcome of the battle is decided by adding the pips on the ship die to those rolled on either the defence die or the offence die (the black and white dice). The other 2 player dice are used as the dominance die (increased/decreased through battles) and the research die (increased by an action). When the dominance die reaches 6 you immediately construct a cube for free, whereas when the research die reaches 6 you can choose an upgrade card for free.
Overall Impression
I was first introduced to this game at my FLGS’s tabletop day celebration. At first I wasn’t sure what to think, but as we played I realized there is a great theme wrapped around a highly strategic game, and it is fantastic. I really like the tactical feeling as you deploy your ships across the game area. The modular board adds replay value, as any combination of planets you can think of works. As for the optimal number of players this game works really well with 2 or 4 players. As long as you can get over the confrontation of battling ships it works great as a two player game, with no need for a dummy player. I have two complaints though. First, even though the dice are awesome neon colours they have a sticky feeling to them. I’m sure there is a way to get rid of this but it feels like they are dirty from the time you open the box. Second, I really enjoy a box that is built for the components and on first glance the Quantum box is just that; however, don’t be fooled!! The slot for the cards is slightly too shallow for them. We store our games on their side and every time we open the box the cards are everywhere. These are complaints that I can definitely live with to have such an awesome, simple but highly strategic game in our collection. Happy Gaming!!
Quantum is a space game, if you hadn’t already figured that out.
I’ve heard some people call it an abstract game with a sci fi theme, but I guess I just get too sucked into the theme to notice it’s just an abstract game.
The theme is fantastic. The colors are eye catching and the artwork is gorgeous. The whole game has a dedicated backstory about how these different factions are competing to put these giant planet sucking machines (Quantum Cubes) on planets.
The story is neat if you care to read it. If you don’t that won’t matter.
The heart of the game is your ships, or your dice; same thing. You dice are your ships.
Depending on what die face is showing that shows what ship it is.
A ONE is a slow battlestation all the way to a SIX which is a nimble scout.
These numbers represent how far a ship can move as well as its combat strength (lower is better).
Each game is different in a big way. The game comes with a chart of different ways you can lay out the planet tiles. These different tile layouts make for drastically different games, some that lead to more exploration and others that force you into more combat.
The game even includes tips on making your own map layouts that will be balanced and fun.
To win you need to get rid of all of your quantum cubes. To do that you can either kill enough people until your ‘dominance’ gets up to six, which lets you place a cube, or you can construct cubes on planets.
Each planet has a number (7,8,9,or 10). To construct a cube on that planet your ships orbiting that planet must add up to exactly the number of the planet.
It’s really fun and makes for a lot of maneuvering to try to get your ships in the right spots.
There’s much more to the game than what I’ve mentioned here.
There’s cards that give you special traits, each with an adjective that describes how your people are developing. “I’m a righteous warlike clever people!”
Each ship has its own special action that can be used to great advantage. For example the THREE can swap places with another friendly ship and a FIVE can move diagonally.
Using your ships special abilities in tandem can really put the momentum your way.
Quantum is fantastic, fun, and gorgeous.
When I first played Quantum, I found the game laid out in front of me quite daunting.
I’m no master of strategy, and this seemed like a game which required a lot of it.
In Quantum players roll dice and place them in various galaxies in a bid to colonise planets, winning by reaching a certain number first.
The numbers on each players dice represent the type of ship they have deployed, each ship has a different set of movements and behaves differently in battle.
I compare the game to chess, mainly because of the way in which players move ships and how placement is so important.
The game adds variety by factoring in ‘buff’ cards earned through research which can change how players deploy ships or engage in battle.
Some may find it difficult to initially get their head around the movement rules, but once understood, this is a fun and rewarding play.
Cards and location tiles are high quality however I expected a little more from the player boards, and the edition I played suffered from ‘sticky dice’ which after some research appears to be quite common in this game.
However don’t be put off by minor component issues and give this game a go.
Our group has had a lot of fun with this game for the past several days. It is a great casual game that doesn’t take a long time to complete, but is still a relatively deep strategic game. We found ourselves having a good understanding of play after the first game or two, but after five or six games, still discovering new ways to gain the advantage over an opponent. The fact that the play space is so fluid dramatically adds to the replay value of the game. The galaxy is essentially completely different each time you play.
The quality of the game is a little bit lacking. I really wish that the game tiles and player boards had rounded corners and were of a bit higher quality stamp/punch. I noticed that some of the cardboard corners were bent/frayed right out of the box before we ever played once (an example of high quality cardboard pieces being Tokaido or Takenoko).
Hey everyone,
We are the Misery Farm. 3 Ladies, an assortment of generic gaming buddies, and a*uva lot of games. Here you’ll find humourous, sarcastic, or just plain drunk reviews of board games and board game-related stuff.
Here is our brand new review of Quantum http://themiseryfarm.com/2015/03/08/quantum/
Ultimately we live in hope of less dice. Please give us a read, we hope you like us but if you don’t then that’s fine too.
Do you like strategy? Do you like gratuitous space battle? This is the game for you! Each dice roll represents a ship, each ship has an ability, each die results has its own limitation and advantage. Face off against your opponents by mixing random die rolls with strategic movements while weighing possible results of your attack… with addition? Intriguing? All questions aside, YES! this is a fantastic game collaborating strategy, die rolls and special powers that lend themselves to your style of game play. You can earn special abilities by “pooping” (I know, you’ll understand if you watch the SU&SD video review *highly recommended*) quantum cubes onto planets by organizing your ship values into orbit to match the value of the planet. First to place their last quantum cube wins, but wait… There is more to it, you will be competing for the limited quantum space on each planet so you may need to blow up a ship, or two, which is a strategy all to itself. Earn dominance by blowing up enemy ships to place a cube ANYWHERE. Engage your opponents in battle by trying to overthrow their space to rob them of the sum they need to claim precious space on a planet. Each die roll during battle is added to your ship value and lowest total wins! This game is GREAT for any level of gamer, I have played with fellow avid, casual and social gamers and all have been left wanting more. You can even customize your own playing field with the tiles available to you to pander to a lust of gratuitous space battle or a languid civil game of who can explore the most space first. F.Y.I. NEVER! never, never, under estimate the player in last place, the moment you let them slide because they haven’t come nearly as far as you is just when they pull ahead and slide a cube in for the win.
I love this game – it has everything I want superficially = space theme, dice, fighting, and easy! It definitely doesn’t disappoint either – after 3 different times playing, I have not experienced a single similarity. Absolutely brilliant. The dice are big and beautiful, the mechanics used in the game are extremely elegant and simple. The setup is relatively quick, and the insert is functional. I feel proud to own this game.