Stats:
No. of players: 2-4
Amount of time to play: 60-90 min
Age requirements: 14+
Set-up time: 5 min

Pulsar 2849 is a dice-drafting, action selection board game. There are several actions and paths to take that earn you victory points (VPs) and the player with the most wins.

Pulsar 2849 Rules Description:

In Pulsar 2849 you play rival corporations trying to cash in on an interstellar energy boom. Over eight rounds you must build generators to harness the energy, transmitters to send energy, and discover new planets. Each round is split into three phases, the dice phase, action phase, and production phase.

To start the dice phase you roll the dice and then sort and place them on the dice board. Next you determine the median and mark that space. You must determine if there are more dice to the right or left of the median space and move the median marker to that side.

Players then take turns drawing two dice, one at a time in player order. If you take a die to the left of the median marker you must move your token on the initiative or engineering space left. If the die you select is to the right of the median marker you must move one of those tokens to the right. Higher dice tend to get you better actions but you won\t be in as good as a position on the initiative and engineering tracks.

The action phase takes place in initiative order. You use one die at a time to take an action that matches its value. You may fly around the board, develop a pulsar, build a transmitter, or patent a new technology. All these actions help you gain VPs either immediately, at the end of every round, or at the end of the game.

You gain engineering cubes based on your position on the engineering track or possibly by taking other actions in the game. You may gain one bonus action die each round by spending four engineering cubes. There are a couple other ways to gain an action die, but you may never use the extra action die more than once per round.

After the eight rounds are over you gain additional VPs for reaching goals, end-game patents, extra cubes and tiles, your position on the initiative track and the number of systems you discovered. The player with the most VPs is the winner.

A Quick Review of Pulsar 2849:

Pulsar 2849 is a fun point salad that uses dice to take actions. The theme is not very strong but the mechanics are well designed and enjoyable. And though it seems overwhelming at first the game is pretty simple once you gat the flow of it.

This game’s components are excellent. The game just looks really cool on the table. The rules are well written and though they seem overwhelming watching this video and skimming the rules again really helped.

The dice drafting and how it affects the initiative order and your ability to gain engineering cubes is really well done. It can create some tough decisions and you have to weigh your options carefully.

There are many ways to score VPs and many paths to victory In Pulsar 2849. These change from game to game based on what other players do and what patents and goals you play with. There is a good bit of replay value and you will need to switch your strategy every game.

If you are looking for a fun dice-drafting, Euro-game, look no further. Pulsar 2849 is full of meaningful decisions and ways to score VPs. This board game is a keeper.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 5 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 4 out of 6
Replay Value 5 out of 6
Complexity 4 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6