Fractured Sky review – A game of falling stars

Fractured Sky is a game where a star has broken apart and rains down into the ocean, raising floating islands from the seas. An all-powerful being referred to only as a Numen, would like to cast these star pieces, or starfall, back into the heavens. They have issued a challenge to the peoples of the lands. Collect these starfall, and whoever brings back the most shall have their wish granted. Having received this message, five clans have taken up the challenge. Their leaders board the airships and set forth for the magical lands where they may collect these starfall.

Gameplay

Fractured Sky is played over the course of five rounds. You can reasonably expect the game to last up to 90 minutes.  At the beginning of each round, a single starfall card is flipped and a starfall is placed onto the board at that location. In addition to this publicly known starfall, “hidden” starfall cards will be drawn from a separate, yet identical, deck and set aside. These cards will be flipped at the end of the round and new starfall will be generated at each of those locations. The number of hidden starfall coincides with the round you are on. Third round, three hidden starfall, etc. The identical deck of hidden starfall cards also means a second starfall may end up in the same location as the public one.
This game, at its core, is a resource generation game that relies on blind bidding. Over the course of a round, each player is allowed to deploy three airships to three separate areas. Once a player has played all three of their airships, they are out of the round and can then choose which place they want to be in for the next rounds turn order. Turn order is very important as it determines any tiebreakers. The troop strength tokens are hidden behind player shields and are magnetic. They attach to the base of an airship and the value of the token will be hidden by that ship. Each player has 12 troop tokens that range from 1-10 and two zero tokens. “Wait, two zero tokens?” some may ask. That is because each player is limited to having a total of 10 troop strength deployed each round. If a player accidentally exceeds this limit, a hefty penalty is applied to each token that player owns. Go over the limit by three and each token is reduced by three, instead. Whoever happens to have the highest troop strength in a location will win the starfall, if any. If no starfall is present, resources will be rewarded accordingly.

Resources can be considered the lifeblood for each of the players. Three basic types of resources are available from each of the islands you send your troops to. They are wood, iron, and gold. Each island has a combination of resources you can gather that will be pivotal to increasing your presence across the islands as well as your odds of gaining starfall. Floating platforms that are suspended between the various types of islands enable players to place buildings. A market attached to an island will increase the number of resources gained by one, and the fortress will increase your troop strength by one. Some platforms are connected to more islands than others. Skimmers may also be built and deployed; however, these are temporary and will go away after each round ends.

Buildings and skimmers are not the only thing you use your resources for. There are five objective cards that will be drawn from a deck and placed face down. This is in addition to the hidden starfall cards referenced earlier. Each round, the corresponding objective card will flip, and an extra starfall will be awarded to the player who meets the conditions on the card. You may spend any two types of resources to peek at any objective card from any round, thus gaining insight on what you may want to focus on. Or you may spend two gold resources to scout a hidden starfall card and can even gain a resource the island depicted generates. Keep in mind that the resource you gained is public knowledge and can help the others narrow down where the hidden starfall may fall. Multiple players may peek at the same objective cards or scout the same hidden starfall cards and gain any of the two resources. All in all, a total of 25 starfall will be collected by the various players. Whoever can collect the most starfall after five rounds of play wins.

Game Design

Fractured Sky can be played by one to five players. If you find yourself lacking in player count, don’t worry. There is an AI mechanic built into the game. For each missing player under three, an AI deck will be used to dictate what actions it takes and is designed to maximize its ability to gain starfall for itself. In addition, for three or fewer players, you will use one side of the board that has eight floating islands to deploy and compete in. With four or five players, flip the board and now you have 10 islands to choose from.

The blind bidding game mechanic provides players a sense of anticipation, and the means for bluffing. The 1 and 10 strength tokens are identifiable for each player. It not only allows you to possibly confuse your opponents, but, if used properly, can make your opponents overthink on whether you played the one or 10 and cause them to over or under-commit troop strength to that location. Once troop strengths are revealed, a sense of accomplishment can be felt by those who got what they wanted, whether it be the starfall or the resources you need to build more markets or fortresses, or to peek or scout. The more players in the game, the more competition you experience on each of the islands.

I think IV Studios did a great job developing this game. The magnetization of the airships and troop strength tokens was well executed. The magnets aren’t so weak that the strength chip falls away easily. The airships used by the players are of different designs, showcasing the thought put behind the differences of each of the clans in the game. I feel a bit conflicted regarding the artwork. On the one hand, the artwork on the board and cards is beautifully designed. It’s very colorful and pleasing to the eye. On the other, the player shields have CGI artwork that I wish was less… artificial. I still consider this a pro since I’m more focused on the board and don’t look at the other players’ shields. Though I am not a huge fan of AI game mechanics, I feel this belongs in the pro category as the design for the AI game mechanic was well thought out and (once I got the hang of it) provides a challenge for the solo player or the two players to overcome.

The tray that holds the hidden starfall and objective cards feels too flimsy and utilizes a cardboard piece to hold the cards in place. The problem is that the cardboard piece sits on top of the tray and is easy to knock out of place. This doesn’t cause the cards to fly everywhere, but it’s annoying to have to set it back into place several times throughout the game. The player shields are flimsy pieces of cardstock that wrap around the (also flimsy) plastic player tray to hide your troop strength tokens. Had they used bonded cardboard pieces, this would have been a great improvement. Lastly, unless the owner of the game demonstrates how to attach the shield to the tray (which I have done several times now), there is a risk that someone may cause damage to the shield.