How To Play the Crew Card Game With Honest Review

I picked up my copy of The Crew at a board game getaway with some friends, and it quickly became one of my favorite 20-minute games to play with a small group.

The card game is simple yet involves strategy and teamwork. It’s a cooperative trick-taking game that has nearly endless replay value.

If you’re new to those terms, trick-taking is when everyone plays one card and then one player wins the pile. The pile is a trick. Cooperative means everyone is playing together as one team.

What is The Crew game about?

The theme of the card game The Crew is that scientists are looking for a mysterious ninth planet located at the edge of our solar system. Players go on an exciting space adventure to discover Planet Nine.

The book comes with about 50 different missions as players work together to successfully travel across the solar system.

Since it’s cooperative, players will either win together or lose together as a team.

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How do you play the card game Crew?

1. Setup

I think the easiest way to learn how to play a game is to dive in. First, shuffle the large playing cards and distribute them face down equally to all crew members.

One person may receive an extra card. It will be leftover at the end.

Give each person a communication token (the red and green circular tokens), green side up, and a reminder card (the tan card).

Shuffle the deck of small cards and place them face down in a pile.

2. Select a mission

If it’s your first time playing, start with the first mission in the log book. Each mission will have a specific objective.

The first mission only has one task, indicated by the blue rectangle with a number in the middle, seen on the right-hand side of each mission in the log book.

Since it has one task, you will draw one of the smaller task cards and place it face up in the middle of the table.

Then, players look at their own cards, and whoever has the black 4 rocket card takes the commander token (the little space guy).

The commander is always the first to choose a task card from the center and place it face up in front of them. In this case, it is the only task card.

When a player has a task card, it means they must win the trick containing the card represented on the task card. If there is more than one task, task cards are drafted clockwise among crew members after the commander.

3. Begin play

The commander starts the game and plays a card. Crew members follow suit, playing cards in a clockwise order until everyone has played a card.

The player who had the highest card in the pile wins the trick, as long as it is the same color suit that began the trick. This part works like any other trick-taking game.

Note that players must follow suit (play the same color as the first player) unless they do not have that color, in which case they can play another color. But cards can only be won with cards that have followed suit, In other words, even if it is higher, it will not win the trick.

That is, of course, unless a trump card is played. The black rocket cards are trump cards in this game.

The goal of the game is for each player to win the trick with the card that is represented on their task card. In other words, if a player has a task card that has a blue 4, they must win the trick containing the blue 4.

Once that is achieved, you have completed the mission and may move on to the next mission immediately. You do not have to continue playing tricks.

If the task card was won by a different crew member, the team has lost.

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How do you communicate in The Crew?

Sounds simple enough, right? The trick is, pun somewhat intended, is that you cannot communicate.

So maybe your goal is to win a blue 8 but the highest blue card you have is a 4. This is where your communication tokens come into play.

During the game, you may put one card from your hand in front of you with a communication token on it.

If the token is at the bottom of the card, you are indicating that it is the lowest card of that color in your hand.

If it is in the middle of the card, you are indicating that it is the only card of that color in your hand.

And if it’s at the top of the card, you’re communicating that it is the highest card of that color in your hand.

Effective communication is key in this game. When you are communicating, place the tan reminder card in your hand so that you remember one of your playing cards is in front of you.

The red side of your radio communication token means you have used your communication. You only get one per mission.

As a note, rocket cards may never be communicated.

What else you should know about the game

There are four sets of colors with values of 1-9. The different colors include pink, yellow, blue and green. The rocket cards have values of 1-4. A rocket may only be played if a card in the color suit cannot be played. If there are multiple rockets, the highest number wins.

Also, tasks must be distributed before communication can happen.

Remember, the tasks are not always easy and in fact get progressively harder.

When selecting a task, keep in mind that it is hard to win a card that you have in your hand, especially low cards.

When a trick is won, it is set aside face down in front of the player who won it. Players should only look at the cards from the trick won most recently. In other words, the others are hidden.

Additional tokens and symbols

As you progress in the game, you will notice additional symbol and tokens. The square tokens with purple numbers and symbols are task tokens. The numbers represent the order that the tasks must be completed.

So, the “one” means a task must be completed first. The arrows represent order. The omega symbol means a task must be completed last.

Violating the order will result in a failure.

Sometimes, you will have communication disruptions where you are not able to communicate. As you play the game, you will become more familiar with the symbols. Refer to the back of your handbook at the quick reference guide if you come across a new symbol.

You also have a distress signal token. Before any players have communicated, you can send a distress signal to Earth if you do not feel the mission is possible. Players decide together whether they want to use the assistance, then each crew member hands over one of their cards to their neighbor. Players agree on a direction.

When doing this, rocket cards cannot be passed. The distress signal field is circled in the log book and play continues as usual.

Is The Crew a good card game? A review of The Crew

Yes! I can honestly say this is a great game. I love playing and introducing it to people. Even though you can play a round in only about 20 minutes or less, I’ve played this game for hours and had a great time.

If you like cooperative puzzle-type games, it may be the perfect game for you.

The varied challenges give this game so much replayability.

I’m a big fan of trick-taking games since Rook was about the only game my family played together when I was growing up.

Maybe it’s nostalgia, but The Crew has quickly become one of my favorite games to play.

And if you like the game, I recommend investing in some card sleeves as my set began to show some wear after a few plays. I overall, I have a lot of fun playing this game and it’s pretty easy to introduce to new players.

Is The Crew card game good for 2 players?

The game is built for a 3-5 player count.

It does have a 2-player variant, which involves special rules and the help of JARVIS, an artificial intelligence system.

But honestly, I think it plays a little better if you have a higher number of players. As long as you have three, you’re solid. Five players can get a little tricky as there is more room for error.

Do you have to play with the same group of people each time?

The log book has about six slots for different groups of crew members. So, no, you don’t have to play with the same people every time. But it is built to be played with the same group more than once.

The earlier missions are much easier than the later ones.

The missions have increasing levels of difficulty. So, if you’re playing with a new crew, start easy and work your way up. You’ll likely only get into the hard missions with a more seasoned playgroup.

What’s the difference between Quest for Planet Nine and Mission Deep Sea?

The game was so successful that it came out with a sequel, Mission Deep Sea. It’s still a cooperative trick-taking card game, except you’re searching for the lost continent of Mu.

It is not necessary to have played one in order to play the other. They play very similarly, but Deep Sea has a few more “surprises” and I’ve heard some say they like it even better than the original.

I don’t think you can go wrong with either one.

The Crew retails for about $15 on Amazon. Have you played The Crew? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.