Stats:
No. of players: 2-4
Amount of time to play: 90 min
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 5 min

In Steam Time you work for the organization T.I.M.E. and are trying to earn their esteem in order to win the game. See if you can best your friends in this worker placement board game.

Steam Time Rules Description:

Steam Time is a worker placement game. When you take actions you gain bonuses based on how many crystals you have added to your aircraft. The game takes place over five rounds and each round is broken into three phases, Income, Action and Supply.

In the Income phase you gain any resources or VPs from upgrades you have added to your ship. This phase doesn’t take place in the first round of the game.

The main part of the game occurs in the Actions phase. You take turns placing one of your air ships on an action space then take the corresponding action and gain its bonus. When placing an air ship you may not go on an occupied space. You also must go up the time stream. The boards with action spaces are randomly arranged at the start of the game and you must place your air ships from a lower board upward on each consecutive turn. The actions you may take are:

Mission – Mission cards provide a way for you to score end of game VPs by meeting their requirements. This space’s bonus is instant VPs.

Encounter – Encounter cards get you resources. Some are free, others cost you things and there are those that let you opponents spend to gain resources after you take yours. As a bonus, you gain steam when you take this action.

Crystal Deposit – Here you can buy crystals for 2 gold each and you gain one or two time crystals as a bonus. These crystals go on your aircraft board according to their color and make your bonuses better. Time crystals are wild and may be placed anywhere on your board.

Upgrade – This is where you buy upgrades for your ship. The upgrades cost you crystals from your airship. You collect the bonus an upgrade provides as soon as you build it and once a round during the Income phase. Your bonus here is moving along a time track. Once you reach a certain point you gain a free action to instantly take. This can be any action and even one that has already been taken.

Gold – This gets you more gold. The bonus is even more gold.

Expedition – Going on an Expedition costs you crystals from your aircraft. Then gets you resources and VPs based on the number of crystals you have in this area on your aircraft. And that is basically the bonus too.

First Player – You may also take the first player tile. It lets you go first the next round and either exchange one steam for one VP (up to ten times) or exchange one steam for one time crystal. This also counts as your placement for the turn. But you do not lose an air ship you just delay placing it until all other players have gone. One last caveat the current first player cannot take the first player tile until their second turn. This ensures all players get a chance to take it.

When buying upgrades or going on expeditions you must match an exact colored set of crystals. Time crystals are considered to be the same color as the area of the board they are in. You may use steam to change the color of any crystal for these purposes.

Each round ends with the Supply phase. It clears the board of any crystals, mission cards, upgrades or expeditions that were not taken. Then you take the top action board and place it at the bottom shifting everything up and refilling the board.

After the five rounds is over you add any VPs gained from mission cards and the player with the most VPs wins.

Quick Review of Steam Time:

Steam Time is a fun, medium-weight, worker placement game. The theme is not super strong but the mechanics and game play are enjoyable.

The components for this game are great. It looks fantastic on the table. The art is good and the rules are easy to read too. You might want to read them through and then read over the bonuses and placement rules one more time before playing. My only nitpick here is the box. It has no insert and things are just tossed in there. It is not too bad; you get baggies for all the chits and cards.

I like the variety of ways you can win this game. It doesn’t seem like one strategy will consistently win among evenly skilled players. You might have to adapt your strategy based on other players’ actions or the cards that come out. It is a nice bland of planning and adjusting to the state of the game.

You also have lots of choices each turn and the game is not too punitive if your choice is taken. Like I mentioned above you might need to adjust but not getting a specific action should not doom your chances of winning.

There are usually good options for you to take and like most worker placement games this adds some good tension and makes your decisions matter. Just be aware that folks that suffer from analysis paralysis might slow Steam Time down.
Steam Time is a fun game that has meaningful choices and a variety of ways to win. You need to stay agile in your strategy as the board and cards change throughout the game. It is a great game for newer board gamers looking for something a bit meatier than typical gateway games. If you like worker placement games, Eurogames or point salads you will probably enjoy this one. If it sounds interesting give it a try or just buy it.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 3 out of 6
Replay Value 5 out of 6
Complexity 4 out of 6
Fun 4 out of 6
Overall 4 out of 6