Fantasy Flight Games has announced the June release of a new affordable version of Heinz-Georg Thiemann’s Planet Steam, which was originally released here in 2009 by FFG in a giant rectangular box at a premium price of $124.95 (see "Fantasy Flight's November Releases").  The new edition that is due this summer comes in a standard FFG square box format with a more affordable price tag of $59.95.

 

Planet Steam is an exciting, cutthroat game of production and commerce for 2-5 players set in a steam-powered future.  Players take on the roles of entrepreneurs in a steampunk boomtown racing to assemble equipment, claim land, extract resources and accumulate wealth.  Players harvest resources using tanks and converters, but then they have to sell their wares in a volatile and shifting marketplace.  The winner of the game is the player who accumulates the most money, but that requires a shrewd management of resources and quite often clever manipulation of supply and demand.

 

Planet Steam is a challenging economic board game set in a richly illustrated steampunk setting-and it appears that FFG’s new version of the game is every bit as visually lush as the initial version.  During each turn a player hires (via a bidding process) a specialist (with differing special abilities) to help accomplish whatever immediate task that the player has planned.

 

In addition to a deluxe game board, the new Planet Steam game includes 35 plastic tanks, with 55 converter and upgrade attachments, plus 350 tokens and markers, a rulebook and five reference sheets, plus 1 Support Airship marker and plastic stand, 67 cards, and one 6-sided die.