Atlantic Star
Atlantic Star is a set collection game by Dirk Henn originally published under the title Showmanager.
Players pay to buy ship cards from the 4 available to them, with the goal being to get sets of a given colour
with the correct letters and highest numbers possible. When a player has a full set, they declare that they
are "taking a voyage", lay out the cards, and tally the numbers with bonuses being paid out if one has all of
the legs supplied with the appropriate letter (for example, the easiest cruise needs 3 specific ships, lettered
A - B - C). You can fill any missing legs of the viyage with other ships, but these do not score, and they will
prevent the larger bonus from being paid. At the end of the game all the completed cruises are compared, and 1st
through 6th place in each of the 5 different sets is paid out an appropriate number of victory points.
The tension in the game comes from the limited money players have and the hand size restriction.
At the start, players are given a limited amount of money to buy the ships for the voyagers. To gain more money,
players can take points from their completed voayages as cash, but this then reduces their placing on that voyage
and thus their victory points at game end.
The other issue is the hand size restriction in that when you complete a voyage you can only have at most 2 cards left
in your hand. This means, beyond a certain point, you have to commit to a voyage and its all to easy to be forced to
fill a voyage with ships that won't give you a big score for the trip.
This is a good solid medium weight game that is easy to play in about an hour or so.
Review by Brian
