Cysmic

Players lead rival factions on a dying, terraformed world and scramble to escape before the planet collapses. Gameplay mixes area control and engine-building with tactical skirmishes: recruit and move units, capture enemy forces to extract ship blueprints, gather resources, and develop the economy needed to construct a colony ship. Play proceeds in rounds of five turns where each turn consists of playing a Unit or Tactic card and taking a bonus action; the first-player token rotates between rounds. The game ends when a player finishes building their colony ship, evacuates their units, and launches—whoever completes that objective first wins.

Players: 1–6 best 4
Playing time: 60–180 min
Age: 14+
Complexity: 3.4 / 5