Review: Celestia

Introducción

During his travels, Gulliver searched in vain for the wonderful world of Celestia. Following in the footsteps of this legendary adventurer, embark on your journey to celestial cities as mysterious as the treasures they hide. During your adventures, you will face dangerous storms, Lockhars pirates, and damok birds. Will you be the best pilot of the aircraft? Will you see your bravery rewarded?

This is how we are introduced to Celestia, designed by Aaron Weissblum (San Marco, Oasis). First published in 2015 by BLAM! in an English version as a reimplementation of the 1999 Cloud 9. Gaetan Noir (Starlink, Farm Club) is in charge of the illustrations.

It is published in Spanish by Devir (the game is completely language-independent, except for the rulebook). It allows games for 2 to 6 players, with a suggested minimum age of 8 years and an approximate duration of 30 minutes. The retail price is 30€. For this review, a copy of the Spanish version by Devir has been used, which the publisher itself kindly provided to us.

Importante: si ya conoces el juego y/o sólo te interesa mi opinión sobre el mismo, puedes pasar directamente al apartado de Opinión. Los apartados Contenido y Mecánica están destinados especialmente a aquellos que no conocen el juego y prefieren hacerse una idea general de cómo funciona.

Ir a la Opinión Personal

Contenido

Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom), measuring 20×20×6 cm. (a medium square box similar to Lost Seas), we find the following elements:

• Aircraft (cardboard)
• 6 Adventurer Pawns (1 of each color) (wooden)
• 6 Adventurer Tiles (cardboard)
• 9 City Tiles (cardboard)
• 4 Event Dice (resin)
• 78 Treasure Cards (44×68 mm.)
• 68 Equipment Cards (57.5×88 mm.)
• Rulebook

Mecánica

Celestia is a game set in a world of floating islands and mysterious cities, where players travel aboard an aircraft captained in turns to discover incredible treasures. At the beginning of each round of a journey, the acting captain rolls a series of dice that determine the dangers lying ahead at the next stop, such as storms, clouds, or pirate attacks. After this, the passengers, in turn order, must decide whether to trust the captain and stay on board, or if they disembark at the current city to secure a treasure and retire from the journey. Next, the captain reveals their equipment cards: if they manage to overcome all threats by discarding the corresponding symbols, the aircraft advances to the next city and control of the helm passes to the next player; if they fail, the ship crashes, ending the current journey without rewards for those who remained on board. During the trip, power cards can be played to activate special effects such as expelling passengers, rerolling dice, or saving yourself at the last moment with a jetpack. Journeys follow one another by resetting the aircraft on the starting space and replenishing the hand of cards. The game continues until, at the start of a new journey, a player reaches 50 accumulated points in their treasure cards, proclaiming the player with the highest score as the winner.

Conceptos Básicos

Let’s start with the central component that transports players on their journey, the Aircraft. It is a three-dimensional cardboard structure that represents the expedition’s common vehicle and is initially placed on the first of the locations. Its main function is to physically house inside it the pawns of the players who decide to continue the route, serving as a collective visual indicator of progress and the group’s current location along the path.

To represent the presence of the participants we have the Adventurer Pawns. These wooden figures come in different colors, one for each player in the game. They serve to indicate the position of each adventurer, being placed inside the cardboard aircraft as long as they remain on board the expedition or removed from it and placed on their personal tile the moment the player decides to disembark in a city to secure their earnings. As an individual reference we have the Adventurer Tiles. Each player receives at the beginning of the game one of these cardboard tiles that matches the color of their respective figure. It serves to mark the personal play area in front of each participant, acting as the place where one’s own pawn is deposited when it disembarks from the aircraft, as well as helping to remember the identity and color assigned to each player.

The journey’s path is composed of the City Tiles. These show an ascending order number from 1 to 25 (a value indicating the minimum points that can be obtained in that city) and are deployed in a row on the table to trace the game map. They represent the different stops on the trip, indicate the number of dice the current captain must roll when attempting to advance towards them, and serve as a base to place the reward decks corresponding to each stop face down.

The dangers of the road are determined by the Event Dice. This set consists of four dice that show on their faces various symbols associated with weather adversities or dangers, such as storms, fog, birds, or pirates, as well as completely blank faces. Their role in the game is to randomly establish the specific challenges that the aircraft’s captain must mandatorily counter in each stretch of the journey to prevent the vehicle from crashing.

The great incentive of the expedition is found in the Treasure Cards. These cards are organized into different decks placed next to their respective locations on the route and show a numerical point value on their front. They are the reward passengers obtain upon deciding to voluntarily get off the vehicle in a city, accumulating hidden in each player’s area to make up the final score that will determine the winner.

Finally, to face adversities we have the Equipment Cards. This main deck includes cards of different colors and symbols that correspond directly to the dice’s dangers, such as compasses, lightning rods, horns, and cannons, in addition to housing special cards with varied effects. These cards allow the captain to overcome challenges by discarding the cards equivalent to the obtained dice, or they allow players to activate special abilities at specific moments of the round to alter the usual rules.

With this we have enough.

Preparación de la Partida

1. The 9 city tiles are placed in ascending order on the table, from the lowest with the number 1 to the highest with the number 25.
2. The treasure cards corresponding to the number of each city tile are shuffled separately and placed in a face-down deck next to their respective city.
3. The ship is placed on the first city tile, which corresponds to the city of wind.
4. Each player chooses an adventurer tile to keep in front of them and places the adventurer pawn of their same color inside the ship.
5. All equipment, power, and turbo cards are shuffled together to form a single central deck.
6. Each player is dealt their initial hand of face-down cards from this deck: 8 cards if the game is for 2 or 3 players, or 6 cards if 4 or more people are playing.
7. The rest of the deck is left face down within reach of all players to serve as the draw deck.
8. Using the method the players prefer, the first captain of the ship is chosen to start the journey.

We are ready to begin!

Desarrollo de la Partida

A game of Celestia unfolds over several journeys, in which players travel aboard an aircraft from city to city towards Meiji, the City of Lights. Each journey consists of a series of routes or stages.

During the game, players will take on different roles: the Captain, who leads the aircraft during the current turn and must overcome the events to reach the next city; and the Passengers, who are the rest of the players remaining on board. The role of captain is rotational and passes clockwise.

Each stage or route of the journey is made up of the following five steps that must be resolved in order:

1. The captain rolls the dice to determine the challenges. The captain checks the next City tile to see how many dice they must roll. The result of these dice will indicate the events and dangers they must overcome to advance. The captain plays no cards at this time.
2. Each passenger chooses whether to stay on board or disembark. Starting with the player to the captain’s left, each passenger declares their intent:
   • If they trust the captain will overcome the danger, they announce “I stay” and keep their pawn in the aircraft.
   • If they believe the captain will fail, they declare “I’m getting off”. In this case, they remove their pawn, place it on their adventurer tile, draw the top Treasure card from the current city for their collection, and no longer participate in the remainder of this journey. The captain cannot disembark at this time.
3. Following the passengers’ declarations, any player (including the captain) may play “Power” cards (such as the Ejection).
4. The captain faces the challenges. The captain must mandatorily play an Equipment card from their hand matching each of the symbols shown on the dice (compasses for clouds, lightning rods for lightning, horns for birds, or cannons for pirates). Blank faces require no card. The captain can use “Turbo” cards to substitute any equipment, but is never obliged to play them. If they do not have the necessary cards, they declare themselves unable to overcome the events (at which point “Power” cards such as the Alternative Route, Wind Blow, Jetpack, or Magic Telescope can be played).
5. The captain moves the aircraft. If the captain has overcome all challenges, they discard the used cards and advance the aircraft to the next City tile. If the captain was unable to face the events, they play no cards and the aircraft crashes with all remaining passengers on board; no one receives treasures and the current journey ends immediately.
6. The captain passes control of the aircraft to the next player. The player sitting to the captain’s left becomes the new captain for the next stage (players who had already disembarked cannot be captains).

Anytime the aircraft crashes, or if the captain is left alone on board and decides to voluntarily land to collect the current city’s treasure instead of rolling the dice, the current journey ends and a New Journey is initiated as follows:

• The aircraft is placed back on the first City tile.
• All adventurer pawns return inside the aircraft.
• Each player draws one card from the Equipment deck.
• Control of the aircraft passes to the next player according to the usual rules.

Fin de la Partida

The game ends immediately at the start of a new journey if any player has reached or exceeded 50 victory points, adding up the values of all their collected treasure cards. The player with the highest score is proclaimed the winner.

Variantes

Variant for Beginner Adventurers. The conditions for the end of the game and scoring change as follows:

• Five Types of Treasure. The game ends at the start of a new journey the moment a player has 5 different types of treasure cards in their collection.
• Point Tally. Once the end of the game is triggered by this method, the player with the highest total amount of points on their treasure cards will be the winner, regardless of who collected the 5 different types.

Opinión Personal

While it is true that regarding medium-weight eurogames my favorite mechanics are worker placement and action programming, in the world of fillers and light games I have a certain predilection for the push-your-luck mechanic. I really enjoy that tension generated when you risk something in search of a greater benefit.

The problem with this mechanic is that it works best in isolation, in very elegant designs. We have examples there like Cheeky Monkey (here is its tocho-review) or Can’t Stop (here is its tocho-review), which couldn’t be simpler in terms of conceptual load, but manage to generate almost obsessive behaviors in players.

But this does not mean there aren’t proposals that work very well by surrounding this push-your-luck mechanic with other elements. And that is why today we are going to analyze Celestia. But first, it’s time to thank Devir for providing the copy that makes this incoming wall of text possible.

In Celestia we are part of a ship’s crew soaring through the skies in search of incredible treasures. The problem is that players will face numerous dangers that will put the aircraft’s transit at risk and, with it, the possibility of accumulating these treasures.

The game will be structured into a series of journeys, understanding a journey as the process by which the aircraft begins to transit along a row of locations, stopping when there are no more players on board or because the captain at that moment is unable to overcome the adversities they have to face.

In each journey, players will alternate turns as captain. The captain will be in charge of overcoming dangers that will depend on a roll of a number of dice determined by the stage the aircraft is in. In the initial stages, few dice will be rolled, but as the flying ship advances, the number of them will increase.

Each of these dice shows one of four possible dangers, and the active captain must reveal a card for each danger to dodge it. If they do not have enough cards to match all the symbols of the roll, the aircraft will crash, and all players who still remained on board will leave empty-handed.

That is why, after the roll, and before the captain plays (or not) the cards to overcome the dangers, the rest of the players still remaining in the aircraft must decide whether they trust the captain will manage to play all the necessary cards, or if they get off the ship fearing they won’t be able to achieve it.

Each player who abandons the ship will claim a treasure card from the location where the ship is currently located. Once all players have decided, now yes, the captain will indicate whether they can face the dangers or not. If successful, the role of captain passes to the next player still in the aircraft.

Obviously, the captain cannot dodge their responsibility, and one of the most important details a player must consider when assessing risks is whether on the next turn, in case they stay on the flying ship, it will be their turn to be captain. If the player has a good hand of cards, they will surely be interested in holding on because they have faith in being able to complete their turn as captain.

But if they believe they couldn’t face a complicated roll, the optimal thing is to get off the ship before it’s their turn to be captain, because, being captain, they won’t have the option to get off once the dice have been rolled. Celestia is a graphic definition of the saying “Discretion is the better part of valor”.

As you can see, the hand management mechanic is important. And not only by being proactive in avoiding taking on the captain role when the going gets tough, but also regarding the use of the special cards we will be finding. Cards that allow everything from helping the captain to be able to advance once players have already decided whether to stay or not, to cards that force a player to abandon the ship. These cards add the spice to the game, since, deep down, what players must seek is to generate differentials regarding the rest of the players and, above all, try to score in every round.

Obviously, Celestia works best at high player counts. From four upwards I think it behaves quite acceptably, while at two or three players there is little margin and the impact of randomness, which in this case is double (dice and cards), skyrockets. Best at five or six.

It’s not exactly overflowing with replayability. It’s true that the order in which cards appear can generate diverse situations, but in the end, it’s a game where turns and plays develop very similarly. And, like it or not, it’s a game with more bells and whistles than a Can’t Stop.

This leads me to confirm, once again, that games implementing the push-your-luck mechanic are better the simpler they are. Because here, in the end, the game’s progress is somewhat slow-paced and doesn’t quite generate the tension one would like. Furthermore, it’s one of those games where making a comeback can be difficult if a player manages to accumulate a certain advantage.

Card hand management is an interesting idea, but ultimately, it adds an additional layer of randomness that can generate a lot of frustration if a player finds themselves in the situation of having to take on the captain role and not having cards to bypass the situation, having no option to get even a consolation prize.

Let’s move on to production. The most striking element is the three-dimensional aircraft which, for photos, is very eye-catching, but when it comes to managing the game, it turns out to be slightly cumbersome. In the end, a Lifeboat-style boat would have been more practical, with spaces where the pawns are slotted in. The cards are of a good weight, smooth texture, and adequate elastic response (if the game hits the table often, it’s advisable to sleeve because the cards suffer a lot of wear and tear). The wooden pawns are standard. The rulebook is well structured and leaves no room for doubt.

Visually, the game is also quite pleasant. It stands out for its fantastic and dreamlike steampunk aesthetic, immersing the player in an aerial journey of exploration. The illustrations use soft, digital line drawing with a pictorial finish reminiscent of the animation world. The color palette is rich and vibrant, dominated by pastel tones, luminous skies, and wispy clouds that contrast effectively with the intense, electric tones of the challenge cards (like lightning bolts or dark birds). Visually, it strikes a perfect balance between Victorian technology represented in floating ships with propellers, astronomical compasses, and characters with top hats or jetpacks, and the magic of a world of floating cities that evokes a deep sense of wonder and light adventure. That being said, in terms of graphic design, some symbology to explain the card effects wouldn’t have hurt.

And let’s wrap this up. Celestia is a design that attempts to complement the push-your-luck mechanic with hand management that introduces subtle dynamics and constant risk assessment. That psychological tension of deciding to abandon ship or keep faith in the captain generates fun group situations, especially in moments where special cards come into play to blow up others’ plans. However, this extra conceptual framework takes its toll on the game’s pace, diluting the adrenaline rush one seeks in these types of designs due to somewhat slow-paced development. The double impact of randomness can be excessively punishing, blocking players with no room to maneuver and punishing the captain somewhat unfairly if the cards don’t cooperate. For all this I give it a…