Description
In The Crew: Iskanje devetega planeta you are astronauts searching for the mysterious ninth planet. The journey takes you through 50 missions, which you complete only if every crew member fulfils their tasks. You play together, but without a word about the cards in your hand. It's not how many tricks you win that counts, but who wins the right trick at the right time.
How to play The Crew
Deal the cards out among all players. Before the mission you share out the tasks: each task is a card that one specific player must win. Then you play tricks: you must play a card of the same colour as the first card played, and the highest card of that colour wins the trick. Rockets are trumps.
You may not talk about your cards. Once per mission, each player can use the radio communication token to show one card and say whether it is their highest, only or lowest card in that colour. The mission succeeds when all tasks are fulfilled. If someone else wins a task card, you start the mission again.
Why you'll love it
- Trick-taking as you know it, but this time you all play together, so you have to work out what your fellow players are planning.
- Talking is forbidden, so every card played and every signal with a token carries a message.
- The missions build on each other and bring in new rules, so the game keeps changing.
- After each mission you can stop and carry on next time where you left off – you record your progress in the logbook.
Who is The Crew for
The game is for 2 to 5 players aged 10 and up, and a mission takes about 20 minutes. It is moderately easy; players like it best with four, and the rules include a special variant for two. It suits families and friends who like playing together, and anyone who already knows trick-taking games with trumps. There is no text on the components. In 2020 the game won the Kennerspiel des Jahres award. The same idea is developed further in the standalone games The Crew: Mission Deep Sea and The Crew: Journey to the Ends of the Earth.
What you might not like
Because you may not talk about your cards, the table is often silent, so the game may not suit those who prefer lively games with lots of conversation. The way the cards are dealt can make a mission unexpectedly hard, so you will sometimes have to attempt it several times.
What's in the box
- 40 large cards: 36 coloured cards and 4 rocket cards
- 5 reminder cards
- 36 small task cards
- 16 tokens (tasks, radio communication, distress signal, commander)
- rulebook with a logbook of 50 missions
