Gravwell

Today's review is of the 2013 release, Gravwell*. For 1-4 players, it takes 30 minutes.

Overview

Escape the singularity before it's too late! Your spaceship- along with other players' and two 'generic' ships- are trying to escape a gravity well. Starting in the center, you must play your fuel cards wisely to be the first to get to the warp gate. But beware- though you choose the card, the direction you move is dictated by the location of the other ships! The nearest ship to you- in front or behind- dictates the direction you will go. Position yourself wisely and you just might prevail.

Gravwell is played over a series of rounds. Each round starts with a card draft phase- the dealer creates 3[x] piles of fuel cards, where [x] = the number of players. The piles have two cards each: the bottom one face-down and top one face-up, and players choose piles (in order from last to first place as rounds progress) until all piles are taken. Once each player has their hand of six cards, proceed to the next phase.

The components; image from here

In the movement phase, players simultaneously and secretly choose one of their fuel cards. These cards have:

- a number, which dictates the number of spaces moved (of your ship, or in some cases your opponents')

- an element, which dictates order (cards are resolved alphabetically)

- a color/symbol, which dictates whether it is a 'standard' fuel card or has a special ability:

-- yellow/green cards are standard. you move [x] squares towards the nearest ship, wherever that may be.

-- purple cards are 'repulsors.' You move [x] squares away from the nearest ship.

-- teal cards are tractor beams. You move everyone else's ship (to include the generic ships) [x] squares towards you.

In all cases, if a ship would land on the same square as another, they continue in the same direction and move one (or more) squares past the ship(s) until they land on an empty space.

After all choices are made, all are flipped up and the cards are played in alphabetical order. Then you choose another card in your hand and repeat the process. The phase continues until all cards have been played. If there is no winner, the cards are shuffled, and a new draft/round begins.

game in progress; image from here. In this snapshot of time, playing a standard fuel card would see black move backward, blue forward, yellow backward, and red forward. All based on the nearest ship. 

Once during each the movement round, you have an 'emergency stop' card you can play to prevent catastrophe. But only once per round, so use it wisely.

Review

This is a fun game! It's a race where relative positioning matters . . . a lot. As you approach the finish, you want to be right behind the leader and 'slingshot' by them. But of course they can have tricks up their sleeve, so don't hang too far behind . . . if you even have a choice. The card you choose could be perfect based on your positioning at the start of a round, but depending on when your card it resolved, it could be catastrophe.

The generic ships (placed at intervals during setup and don't move unless acted upon by tractor beams) help (literally) drive things forward at the start, but then can have the opposite effect towards the end. 

The only ding I'll give this is finishing. That first place ship, unless it has a repulsor card, will always be drawn backwards. That creates suspense and fun, but can also make the game drag on forever. The ending reminded me of Sorry!, whose rules made ending games the matter of drawing the perfect card at the perfect time. To that end, my friend made some house rules to speed the ending along. And I wonder if they addressed that in the second edition. That aside, this is solid.

Rating: A-

*A second edition, for 2-6 players, was released in 2021.