The Stars Align

About this board game

The Stars Align is a two-player grid-placement and pattern-manipulation game that plays in about 30 minutes. On a shared 7×7 Night Sky Map, players place and adjust star patterns while racing to score five shooting stars.

The game begins at dusk. On each turn, a player draws a constellation card and chooses where to place its stars on the map, following the pattern shown. More stars enter play until a player draws a constellation card that cannot be played, establishing the initial board state and beginning the Night Phase.

During the Night Phase, the placement rules change. Parts of a constellation pattern may overlap stars already on the map, causing those overlapped stars to flip to their opposite side. Players then take turns manipulating the Night Sky Map, searching for a complete line of seven stars in their color.

• Dusk Phase: Place constellation patterns on the shared grid.
• Night Phase: Overlap and flip stars while rearranging the developing sky.
• Shooting stars: Align a full row or column of seven stars in your color to score.

When an entire row or column aligns in one player’s color, those seven stars shoot across the sky and are removed from the board. That player scores a point, and the first to reach five points wins.

For an added challenge, experienced players can use a chess timer with five minutes per player. In this timed version of The Stars Align, the first player to spot five shooting stars—or the player whose timer still has time when their opponent runs out—wins the game.