Wormholes, move around planets in your little spaceship.
Can you build profitable routes as well as profitable deliveries?
In a peaceful galaxy, a new technology has been invented: wormholes. They allow ships to warp from one point to another, which opens up countless possibilities for commerce and travel. As the captain of a passenger spaceship newly equipped with a wormhole fabricator, you can make some serious space bucks by building a robust network of wormholes. Link the farthest reaches of space while delivering passengers to become the most successful captain in this golden age of spacefaring. It’s time to bend space and go fast.
Wormholes Game Overview
Quick Rules Summary
Players have 3 actions and can use them to move in a straight line, place wormholes, travel through wormholes, pick up cards from one place and deliver cards to the matching planet.
There are some other elements on the board that allow for special movement, but most block oaths across the board.
When building a wormhole, you place point 1 somewhere and point 2 somewhere else, connecting those two spaces on the board. All players can use any player’s wormhole.
How do you win?
You get points for creating both ends of a wormhole and points if an opponent travels through one you made.
You also get points for delivering goods and diversifying the planets you deliver to.
Most points win.
Main Mechanisms
Pick up and deliver is the main one. Technically, as you have 3 actions you have an action point allowance too.
There is a bit of a set collection element as you want cards in your hand for the same planet to be as efficient as possible.
USP
I’m sure ‘creating paths that other players can use but you benefit from it when they do’ is not new. They’ll be a few train games with this. But creating wormholes make it seem unique and fun.
Theme
Not really… Just space.
Setup
Tiles out, cards out, tokens out.
Just as I said about Road Kill Rally, I was distracted by homemade cakes at the board game meet I was at. I sorted and shuffled what I was asked to in between mouthfuls but didn’t really pay attention.
Components & Artwork
Everything is nice and colourful and looks like space. The graphic design is really clear, however a couple of the planets look quite similar, especially on the smaller board space.
The wormhole tokens are quite nice.
Ease of Teaching
There isn’t too much going against this game in terms of teaching.
A few little movement rules here, and point attribution there…
Similar Games
This reminded me of 2 games, and neither is similar in the way Merchants of Venus, the OG Space PU&D.
First 504, the first game you set up is a simple pick-up and deliver a game like this.
The other game is Gravwell which is nothing like this but the aesthetic made me think of it.
Wormholes Review
Positives
It looks really nice.
45-60 minutes is the perfect length for this weight of game.
The restricted number of actions makes for a fun challenge without feeling like a pair of handcuffs.
Looking for locations to build high-traffic wormholes is an interesting problem to have, assuming you see them and get to them first.
Getting a good chain of profitable deliveries on a turn is very satisfying.
The simple gameplay keeps the game fun but…
Negatives
…it’s so quick, I felt pressured to take turns quickly which is something I don’t like. I also don’t like so little downtime in a game, it’s stressful.
Some planets look a little similar.
Wormholes Summary
A very fun quick and light pick-up & deliver game.
Jesta ThaRogue