Celestia
You get aboard an aircraft with an adventurers team to perform many trips through the cities of Celestia and recover their wonderful treasures. Your journey will not be safe, but you will attempt to be the most rich adventurer by collecting the most precious treasures!
At the beginning of a journey, all players place their pawns within the aircraft; the players start the game with 6 cards in the hand (or 8 depending on the number of players). At the beginning of each round, one player is chosen to be the captain of the trip and he throws from 2 to 4 dice so as to determine the weather that he should face (fog, lightning bolts, killer birds or pirates). He must then play the appropriate cards to go on the journey and reach the next city (a compass, a lightning arrester, a foghorn or even canons).
Before that the captain plays the appropriate cards, each player has to decide whether or not he will stay within the aircraft:
– to get off is to ensure the victory points by exploring the city;
– to stay is to try a trip upto the next city in order to catch more precious treasures.
But beware: if the captain is unable to discard the appropriate cards, it is the crash down! All remaining passengers get back empty-handed and a whole new journey beginswith all players on board.
During his journeys, each explorer can try to pull out of the game with fabulous objects ( a jetpack, astronomy glasses… ) or by changing the trip ( modifying the travel or abandoning an explorer in the city ).
As soon as a player earns treasures valuable for at least 50 points, the game is over.
AWARDS & HONORS
2016 Tric Trac Nominee
2015 Jocul Anului în România Beginners Finalist
User Reviews (1)
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I haven’t played Cloud 9, but some people say Celestia’s game play is based on that. Celestia is a game where you literally push your luck trusting your Captain to safely fly the ship over the clouds to farthest place you can be. But beware, your captain is not exactly the best on flying them. He could be a sinister guy, who just love to see you all crash, or he’s a drunkard who cannot ride straight but towards lightning and thick clouds, or maybe he made a shady deal with the sky pirate. Honestly you wouldn’t know this, but hey, let’s just pray that the ship isn’t crashing, or you get out before it’s too late.
In Celestia, players will take turns to be the ship’s captain and commandeering the ship with all you’ve got. Other players, must decide whether they trust the captain ability to fly it out safely for bigger loot, or do not believe the captain and just be contented with lower loot instead bigger ones. The game comes with a card board ship that will start in the starting island and to take journey to other islands in front of it. Farther island provides bigger treasure.
In their turn, the captain will roll a number of dice to determine the challenge for the ship in the journey. After the dice are rolled, each player starting from the left of the Captain, must determine if they want in or out of the ship. If they want out, they must remove their marker off the ship into the current island, and get one treasure card from that island. If they decide to be still onboard, they cannot change this decision later on. Once everyone decide, players may play special card (if the condition is met). After that the captain will play cards to overcome the challenge presented by the dice. If the captain have the card required, they must play it. If they don’t have, the ship is crashed and it’s returned back to starting island. All players (including the ones who have left off the ship) will be back on the ship and draw one card from the deck. The next captain will start to fly the ship again.
Remember, players only get treasure if they get off the ship.
The game ends when a player declare that he already owns at least 50 points worth of treasure at the start of a journey. Players reveal all their treasure and player with the highest point wins the game.
Celestia is a push your luck game, where it is riskier to get big treasure. It also a bluffing game for the captain and wagering for the others. Players should guess correctly whether the captain is capable to overcome the challenge or not, if not they better off the ship and get the treasure, better than nothing.
But, getting left behind is not really a satisfying thing to feel, so you might want to push your luck and perhaps the ship fly safely to bring you one island closer. It’s a very fun game for all ages, you can have hilarious and crazy moments worth shout at with friends and families. The special cards really give the unforeseeable aspect that could change the tide of things.
It’s a very simple game for all ages, plays relatively quick (30-45 mins) and provides lots of fun. Though of course its simplicity means there are not many replay value stored inside this game, every game would feel the same with random dice roll will steer the way.