Zenith

The Game

Zenith is a two-player (or two-teams-of-two) card game about exerting influence across the solar system. It will be released mid 2025, and it is already available on www.BoardGameArena.com. In addition to Earth, four other planets in the solar system are now colonised and populated. Your goal is to exert enough influence to form an interplanetary government. 

The main board shows five tracks representing the players’ influence. These are tugs of war.  You want to pull the tokens to your side of the board and your opponent tries to do the same to his side. When a token reaches your edge of the board, you claim that token. A new token is then placed at the middle of the track, and you start competing again for this new one. To win the game, you need to collect three tokens of the same colour, or four of different colours, or any five tokens.

On your turn, you just play a card and then refill your hand. A card can be used in three different ways. The basic usage is to pull a token towards you. Most cards have secondary effects, so you can gain something else in addition to pulling the token. Some effects are conditional so you want to play the card only when the condition is met, so that you gain more. The second way to use a card is to play it to advance yourself on a tech track. You gain some benefit, and this benefit is cumulative. When you advance further, you also claim benefits of all previous steps. The third way of using a card is to just exchange it for some resources, depending on the card type. 

Cards come in five different colours, one each for the five planets. The colour determines which planet you can influence. Cards also come in three types - humans, robots and animods. The type determines which tech track you can advance on and also what resource you can exchange the card for.

Cards you play to your side of the board stay there. This is an important part of the game. The cards you have in play give you a discount for the next card you play to the same planet. There are card powers which manipulate these played cards, e.g. discarding your opponent's cards, getting some free cards, and even stealing your opponent's cards. 

The Play

Zenith plays smoothly. There are many cards with many different powers and it is fun to see what you can do with your cards. You have two currencies to manage. Money is needed to pay for card plays to exert influence. Another premium currency zenithium is needed to advance on the tech tracks. Both currencies are tight and need to be managed carefully. There are five different colours and three card types, so you don’t always get what you need. That is an interesting challenge to manage.

One interesting mechanism is the leadership token. Some actions allow you to claim the leadership token, and when you control it, you can take take an action to upgrade it. The leadership token increases your hand size to five or six, depending on whether it is upgraded. This gives you more flexibility. There is only one leadership token in the game so you are fighting with your opponent over it.

There is some engine building in the tech track aspect of the game. If you invest effort in it, in the late game, the tech actions are very powerful. The tech tracks are not static. They can vary from game to game, so there is variability.

This is a resource management game. There is some luck in what cards you draw, and you do your best with what you get. It is an everchanging puzzle to figure out. At the same time you must watch your opponent and which planets he is aiming for. Although this is a game about maximising efficiency, sometimes you must sacrifice efficiency to prevent your opponent from sneaking in a early win. 

Hand size is 6 when you control an upgraded leadership token, but once your opponent steals it away, you go back to 4. 

The Thoughts

Zenith is a well polished mid-weight strategy game. Don't let the cartoonish box cover fool you. This is not a simplistic or light game. It has plenty of tactics to keep the gamer in you engaged.