Stretch your shuffling fingers and get ready to flex your card playing mind muscles as you prepare to embark on 50 challenging missions in The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine!
This award winning card game has been an addicting and oh so satisfying addition to our date nights this month and we are pretty much raving about it to everyone we meet!
How Do You Play?
The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine is a clever, cooperative trick taking game that you can play with 2 to 5 players.
In the game, you are all Crew members on a space adventure to find Planet Nine. The game plays out over the course of 50 missions which you must defeat together by fulfilling specific tasks.
The log book holds the set up for each of these missions and will tell you what conditions you need to fulfill to win. For each mission there is a Captain which rotates from player to player. The Captain leads the mission and is sometimes in charge of giving each player their tasks.
Missions can look like anything from each player taking a trick with a specific card in it, or players working together to make sure a specific crew member doesn’t take any tricks, taking tricks in a specific order, and on and on over the course of 50 unique missions that gradually increase in difficulty.
The catch is is that players can’t communicate with each other. It’s space after all! Can’t get too chatty out there!
So to help, players each have a single card they can use to help signal to their teammate important information that they might need to know in order to successfully complete a mission. To communicate (when able, some rounds prohibit communication) you take a single card from your hand and place it in front of you, then use the astronaut token to either place it on the top, bottom, or middle of the card. If it’s on the top, it means that it is the highest card you have in that suit, bottom means lowest in that suit, and middle means it is the only card you have in that suit. This is the only form of limited communication allowed. One card per player per mission, so you’ll need to use it wisely.
Each mission is over when the conditions are fulfilled, rather than when all of the cards are played. You can play any number of missions in a row, working your way through all 50, repeating failed missions when necessary.
What Do We Think?
I grew up playing trick taking games and there was just something about The Crew that immediately hit me in the nostalgic zone. It feels so familiar yet so unique in how now you must work together as teammates rather than adversaries. It’s like playing pairs pitch with all your friends rather than just a single partner and it really works!
As an experienced trick taking card player, I found the challenges presented in the crew to be incredibly satisfying. I love that it isn’t about the amount of tricks you take, but making sure you take the right tricks at the right time. It brings a whole new level to your ability to manage your hand and adeptly anticipate what your teammates have in their hand so you can throw what they need at the right time.
I absolutely love the ability to communicate in the limited way that is allowed. It seems like it may be too small to be helpful, but letting the team know that you have a specific card can be highly important to the mission succeeding. Even more interesting, when you choose to communicate this can be of even greater importance. Sometimes it’s good to know things right away, but other times it can be more helpful to learn it later on. This is another fun element in The Crew that has been a treat to play with.
While the game encourages you to play all 50 missions in order, there is nothing stopping you from be-bopping around in the log book and trying out different missions if your heart fancies.
Also, you shouldn’t expect to be able to beat every mission on your first or second go. Sometimes it just won’t be possible based on how the cards were dealt and you’ll have to shuffle them up and try again. That’s okay! Sometimes missions go South — just keep trying! There are some truly difficult missions in the logbook that took us multiple attempts to beat. For me that made The Crew even more fun! I love a good challenge!
Two Man Crew
For us, The Crew is an excellent date night game. Adam and I have had so much fun playing the two player version of the game which brings another layer of puzzle-y fun.
Here, you simulate a third player by laying out 7 face down cards and then one card face up on each for a total of 14 cards.
Just like in the 3-5 player game, one person is the Captain, when you are the Captain, you are in charge of managing the hand laid out on the table. For each top card you place, you then reveal the face down card below it. This means that sometimes the card you need to take in a trick is buried underneath the cards on the table and you have to smartly uncover it by taking tricks without messing up the mission.
The Crew has been a perfect late night game to play after we get the kids to bed. We have had such a blast playing through all 50 of the missions. I’m still not sick of it! If anything, I can’t wait to share this with my family when we get together over the holidays!
Summary
For any lovers of card games out there, The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine is an absolute no brainer for me! You need it. Go get it!
We have had such a great time playing through the campaign and testing our card management skills along the way. Even better, you don’t need to worry about stopping or starting over. If you get a new group together that wants to give it a try, simply start at the beginning with them, then pick up your previous game where you left off the next time you can! This makes The Crew a great game to bring to gatherings with family and friends.
If you still need some convincing, The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine is sweeping up all the awards this year, including the crém de la crém Kennerspiel des Jahres making it the official Expert Game of the Year! (Don’t let “expert” scare you — this is great for families!)
Find The Crew and all our favorite board game recommendations on our Amazon Storefront!
A special thank you to our friends at KOSMOS for sending us a copy of The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine for review. As always, our thoughts and opinions are our own.
Game Info:
Title: The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine
2-5 Players Ages 10+
Designer: Thomas Sing
Artist: Marco Armbruster
Publisher: KOSMOS
