Beyond the Sun is a civilisation-building, tech-tree game set in space.

That tracks.

Beyond the Sun is a space civilization game in which players collectively decide the technological progress of humankind at the dawn of the Spacefaring Era, while competing against each other to be the leading faction in economic development, science, and galactic influence.

Beyond the Sun Quick Overview

Players take turns placing workers to research new technologies, build up their economy, and colonise planets. The game has two main areas — the shared technology board and the star map.

The technology board shows the global tech tree that all players can contribute to and use. As new technologies are unlocked, they open up stronger actions for everyone. The star map is where players move ships, establish control of systems, and colonise planets for points and bonuses.

Your personal player board tracks your food, ore, population, and ships, along with your advancements in automation and production.

How Do You Win?

The game ends when a set number of achievements have been claimed, such as colonising planets or reaching advanced technologies.

Players score points from achievements, colonised planets, technologies, and leftover resources. The highest total wins.

Main Mechanisms

Each turn, you do two things:

1. Place a Worker and Take an Action. You move one of your population discs (used as workers) to a space on the tech board. These spaces represent actions unlocked by technologies. Early on, these are simple such as producing food, ore, or researching basic techs. As the tech tree expands, new and stronger actions become available.
2. Produce Resources. After taking your action, you can optionally produce food and ore, depending on your automation and population levels.

When you research a new technology, you pick one of the available tech cards branching from the one you just used. Each card fits into the tech tree, advancing one of four paths: military, science, economy, or exploration. This gives a sense of shared progression, as everyone adds to and benefits from the growing board.

The star map is where exploration happens. You use ships to move across systems, gaining control markers and eventually colonising planets. Each planet gives points and often useful bonuses like extra production, population, or resource boosts. Controlling areas of the map also helps meet achievement goals.

USP

The branching tech tree is the standout feature. The way the game evolves as players unlock new technologies means no two games are alike. The combination of worker placement with a shared evolving board makes the game feel collaborative yet competitive.

Theme

The theme comes through in the technology development and space expansion. It’s not about combat but scientific progress and discovery.

Setup

Setup involves laying out the main board, adding the starting techs, setting up the star map, and giving each player their own faction board. It takes a few minutes but is easy once you know where everything goes.

Components & Artwork

The game has a neat, functional design. It’s clean and modern, with symbols that make sense once learned. The cubes, dice, and player boards are solid and easy to read. It’s more practical than flashy, but the look suits the game’s scientific theme.

Ease of Teaching

The core gameplay of place a worker, take an action, maybe produce is simple. The difficulty comes from understanding how the tech tree and star map interact. New players can take a while to see how to get what they need, but it clicks after a game or two.

Similar Games

Tapestry is comparable for its abstract civilisation-building and tech-advancement theme. Transgalactica shares the abstract space setting and focus on progressing up tracks for efficiency and points.

Beyond the Sun Review

Positives

The gameplay is straightforward, with clear actions and logical flow.

The clean, functional look fits the theme well and the components, especially in the players own area are really nice.

The use of dice as population markers is clever. They’re not rolled but track progress neatly.

Negatives

Some rules can feel fiddly at first, especially around production and ship movement.

It can be hard to get the resources or technologies you need when you’re still learning the game.

Summary

Beyond the Sun is a smooth and thoughtful game of technological progress and expansion. It’s easy to follow once it clicks, with an excellent tech tree and clever mechanics that make every play different.