Subatomic: An Atom Building Game

Because you can’t fit a Large Hadron Collider in the shed.

This is my first go at a game review. It’s also the first game I’ve bought on Kickstarter, so was a bit of a gamble. And, it’s also the first game I’ve bought with a “The Science Behind…” booklet - these guys are serious about trying to make games which don't stray too far from the science.

Subatomic is a deck-building game with a couple of twists where the aim is to build helium, lithium, boron and beryllium atoms from the basic building blocks of up quarks, down quarks and gamma rays/photons.

Like all deck-building games you start with a couple of hands worth of basic cards. These you can use to either build your atom, acquire more powerful proton, neutron and electron cards or exchange for energy tokens. The last playable card type is the scientist. Each scientist allows you to perform certain actions beyond the normal, such as dealing extra cards or adding to your atom at no cost.

The atoms are built on mats with tokens to track the number of electrons, protons and neutrons. A deck of cards gives you four options of atoms to build for varying costs and giving varying points.
At the end of the game, points are awarded for the atoms built and the number of each type of atom you’ve created and bid for on another bit of the game board.

This is a long way from a strict deck-builder like Ascension or Dominion, but these variations are great fun. The cute graphics disguise a tricky game with a number of possible tactical choices: Do you try to buy powerful subatomic particle cards, or scientists, or concentrate on building atoms as soon as possible? The right combination of scientists can be incredibly powerful, while not having the right balance of cards in your hand can lead to a humiliating defeat (mine).

Helium needs 2 each of electrons, protons and neutrons while beryllium requires 5 protons and 6 neutrons. The larger atom gains more points, but the end game points are weighted towards the helium, so there’s a lot to weigh up when you consider exactly which atom to build.

My wife and I are great fans of deck-building games and have played Subatomic three times this weekend. The first game took two hours as we worked through the rule book and any necessary house-rules, while the last took about 30 minutes as I was soundly beaten due to bad card luck and what seems to be a poor strategy in two-handed play.

I’d heartily recommend this as a family game – everyone finishes in the same round and it’s hard to tell who’s winning until the very end. I wouldn’t recommend it as an introduction to deck-building, as the card buying rules are eccentric. Something like Dominion or Star Realms is a better place to start. That said, if you’re buying for the science angle then the purity of the game mechanics shouldn’t matter – only the fact that it’s fun!

Being a Kickstarter purchase, the cardboard energy tokens were upgraded to metal and additional scientists were included. I don’t know if these are in the final production run, but the energy tokens are shiny, rather than essential. The varying selection of scientists in a game does make a difference, though. The kickstarter came with two other games from the same company and designer John Coveyou, so we’ll have to unbox those and get playing some more.

Music videos lovingly ripped off from around the web, so attribution with the artists. The photos above are all mine.