To the skies! Our fractured world hides many secrets, let us scout these lands for these mysterious star fragments and bring hope to our people.

1-5 Players 45-75 Mins Age: 14+

Designer: Max Anderson, Zac Dixon, Austin Harrison

Publisher: IV Studio (IV Games)

Are We Human Because We Gaze At The Stars…

Fractured Sky is a 1-5 player area control, bluffing and deduction game from IV Studio, the company behind popular titles like Moonrakers, Mythic Mischief and Veiled Fate. In Fractured Sky, players, throughout five rounds, lead different factions competing to secure star falls, fragments of a fallen star said to grant the wielder great power. As the leader of one such faction, you are tasked with commanding and assigning troops, deploying airships to secure the floating islands, building markets and fortresses to bolster your resources and engaging in spycraft to discover star fragments before your enemies.

The core concept here is hidden information, players take turns playing airships containing an undisclosed number of troops, represented by troop power on magnetic tokens which attach to the underside of their airships. These airships are then placed on islands of interest to secure star fragments to score points, or resources to fuel building and exploration. Each player may place up to 10 total troop power across all three of their ships, exceeding this limit has detrimental effects which will likely result in losing that round to their rivals. Bluffing is key to victory in many cases and there is limited information that may tip your hand to your opponents. For example, the troop power tokens are numbered from 0 to 10, with the numbers 1 and 10 depicted with white borders while the remaining numbers, including the two 0’s have black borders. When placing one of these white tokens at a location, the other players will need to deduce if you’ve made a strong play for a location or if you’re bluffing and misdirecting. In addition to star fragments and resources, players may also unveil hidden information in the form of secret objectives, or hidden star falls.

At the end of each turn, players reveal their troop power at each location with any star fall in an occupied location going to the strongest placer there and the second and third players taking a share of that location’s resources, with the second player getting both resources and the third acquiring just one. If there are two star falls in a location then the first and second players get one each and the third player gets both resources, with any subsequent players returning home empty-handed.

Choosing which of these elements, you’re going for each turn, star fragments, resources or information, creates a great sense of strategic depth as you won’t often be able to do everything you want every round, so you’ll need to make some tough choices. Perhaps you wanted to build a market, but you lack the resources, so instead you attempt to secure them for the next round by playing a weaker ship at a location containing those resources. There are times when you might even forgo a star fall in favour of another prize.

The bluffing and deduction elements of the game result in some great player interactions and are really at the heart of the game. There’s no real combat beyond the abstract troop power assigned to players’ airships, so it comes down to how well players can plan and execute their strategies. I see the players as generals moving their pieces around the board in a war room rather than feeling like I’m a ship captain in the heat of battle. It’s tense, engaging and, thanks to the beautiful ship minis and overall production quality, a visual treat.

Stars Fall. They Don't Go Back Up Again.

While it would be easy to become distracted by the production, and I will discuss that a bit later in this review, I’d prefer to focus on the gameplay for the moment and what it does well. As mentioned, the core gameplay revolves around bluffing and deduction, with area dominance being limited to temporary control before being reset each round. Everyone begins on even footing, having the same information as they head into each new round. Throughout the round, spending resources to peak at hidden objectives or star falls, or being the first to place an airship on a location to gain further insight into the board state results in players quickly having access to different information, some will learn the location of additional star falls, other will learn a location that doesn’t contain anything, and others still may peak a round to two into the future to see what objectives are coming up to prepare a future play.

All of these elements combine like a deductive Captain Planet into a deceptively deep, strategic puzzle which encourages above-the-table social gameplay as much as it does moving pieces about the game board. Due to the heavy social nature of the game, choosing your group will be key to your enjoyment. If your players simply don’t enjoy bluffing or hidden information games, then Fractured Sky could leave your group feeling underwhelmed. For my group, this was the first of this type of game I’d introduced to them, and they took to it with flying colours. We all have good humour and know how to read each other pretty well, but this also made for some great bluffing moments. If someone looked a little too serious when placing a ship, were they trying to lay low and avoid too much attention or were they trying to fake us out? I found myself observing my opponent’s moves, facial expressions and even their eye movement with scrutiny. It makes for a fascinating study of human behaviour.

I mentioned making the hard choices and this is an area where Fractured Sky shines for me. While the game isn’t too complicated, it does a solid job of providing a healthy range of options so that most turns, players can do something, even if they lack resources or are on their last ship. No matter what you end up committing to on your turn, everything feels useful, I rarely felt like I had wasted a turn, even if I didn’t end up with a star fall, perhaps I secured some much-needed gold, or discovered a future objective or built a fortress in a key location. Fractured Sky is what any game should aim to be, challenging, rewarding and fun, and turns can go from “I got this” to “Oh no!” quicker than a falling star. It so happened that our first game, where three of the four of us were playing for the first time, ended up being a real nail-biter, with the victor only being determined on the last turn. The game was a tense back and forth to the very end and we all had a blast!

In terms of hidden information, Fractured Sky is clever in the way it makes you feel like you have some real power by gaining information no one else has. For example, when a player first occupies an island, they get to take a card that indicates an island where there is no star fall. This card is held by that player for the remainder of the round, so no one else will get that specific nugget of knowledge. It’s then up to the player how they choose to capitalise on that information.

The use of the magnetic components isn’t just a gimmick, even if it does feel that way at first glance. The magnets serve the function of keeping your troop power hidden when placing your ships, preventing this information from being knocked and revealed accidentally during play. Of course, there are numerous ways this could have been done sans magnets, but come on, magnets are the closest thing we have to actual magic, so it works for this guy!

A session of Fractured Sky plays fast, even at higher player counts, though AP (Analysis Paralysis) can play a role in the game stretching beyond the average playtime. With two players, the game can be one easily inside of 30-40 minutes, add about 15-20 minutes per extra player and you’ll get a pretty accurate measure of how long a game will take. Once your group is comfortable with the ins and outs of the game you can expect the length to decrease further.

He Was Walking Into Faerie, In Search Of A Fallen Star

Fractured Sky does have some minor areas where its impressive production tends to get in its way. The game has a lot of components, and these can be fiddly to set up and pack away, while the inserts and player trays help facilitate this, the sheer quantity of stuff means that some lost time is unavoidable. While the magnets do a great job of holding the troop tokens in place, other elements of the game aren’t so fortunate. The tray that holds the objectives and hidden star fall cards can be prone to having the overlay slip off when handling the cards, this can result in player cubes being knocked out of position, likewise for the player trays, as these too have cardboard overlays that sit on top and again, can be bumped resulting in players losing track of their resource cubes.

Now to be fair, these issues are nothing to be overly concerned about, components in any game can get knocked around and at the end of the day, the responsibility falls to the players to proceed with care so as not to disturb the game state. I list this here only because it seemed to happen more often with Fractured Sky than with most other games I’ve played.

There Was A Skyness To The Sky And A Nowness To The World

Alright, let’s get the obvious out of the way, IV Studio has done it again! The production quality, the art, the storage and the overall presentation of Fractured Sky are representative of this publisher at the top of their game. While the artwork may be a little whimsical and cartoony for some, I find it has an under-appreciated charm which I very much enjoy seeing on the table. So many games favour an earthier colour palette so it’s a pleasant change of pace to see a game present as so unashamedly bright and colourful. It serves as a reminder that this game is first and foremost supposed to be fun.

The feature most notable here is, of course, the magnetic components. Each magnet is perfectly centred and results in a satisfying snap when it attaches the tokens to an airship. I should note here that I am reviewing the Super Deluxe edition of the game, as that’s the version I have. The Deluxe version contains most of the same components, except the ships are unpainted and there are no lenticular cards as is in the Super Deluxe. The retail version is, arguably, not so appealing as it strips the game back to bare bones with cardboard tokens in place of the magnets and minis, but may be ideal if you’re gaming on a budget or want a spare copy for gaming on the go or to keep at the beach house.

What Do Stars Do? They Shine.

Fractured Sky provides a thoughtful, strategic puzzle wrapped in a joyful, striking package. If hidden information and deduction games are your bag, then there’ll be plenty here to keep you engaged and deep in consideration of your next move. Lots of moving parts combine to provide a challenging experience that avoids becoming overwhelming thanks to its clear, concise rule set and excellent design.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review of Fractured Sky. It should be noted at the time of this writing the Kickstarter for Fractured Sky’s Rift expansion is currently underway so if you haven’t yet picked up a copy of the game, there’s an opportunity to do so. If you’ve experienced Fractured Sky yourself, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below or feel free to join us on our Above Board Facebook group or Instagram. Until next time, may all your star-born wishes come true.

Fractured Sky Review