In the Footsteps of Marie Curie

She was a brilliant scientist who outshone her (also brilliant) husband and won two Nobel prizes. She pioneered new ideas in the sciences and shaped our understanding of radioactivity and heavy elements. But what I knew only scratched the surface – she was also a humanitarian and a celebrity in her later life. Now there’s a game that guides us through the timeline of her life, focusing on her academics and work with radioactive substances, of course.

In the Footsteps of Marie Curie is a game for 2-4 players by Florian Fay. Surprisingly, given the subject matter, it’s appropriate for ages 10 and up and plays in 20-40 minutes. Sorry We Are French publishes the game, and it’s distributed in the USA by Hachette.

Gameplay

To begin the game, set up the main board with Activity cards, Theses, and Experiments (round flasks and beakers). Put the Timeline marker at the very beginning of the timeline (1867). Place the cube tower so that any cubes that fall out won’t disturb the board or any stacked tiles.

Each player gets a personal board and a randomly selected Objective. Don’t forget to choose a first player! The rules suggest “the last person to have conducted a scientific experiment”.

Turn Structure

Your turn follows four steps in order:

1. Workshop

From the main supply, select cubes matching the indicated set on the central Workshop. Toss those cubes into the cube tower and see what comes out the bottom.

2. Research

For this phase, either collect resource cubes from the ones available at the base of the tower, or “write a Thesis” by drawing one from the next available pile.

If you chose a Thesis, reveal it and take its award. Then, put the Thesis face down on the corresponding spot on your personal board. (You can only have one Thesis of each of the four types, and you must take them in order.)

3. Experimentation

This phase gives you the most options. Take any combination of these four actions:

Purchase an Activity card (once per turn) – Pick one of the four face up cards in the market. Pay its cost (in resources) and add it to the corresponding area below your board. Take the bonus listed on the card that corresponds to how many of that type of card you already have.

Transform Resources (unlimited) – Perform resource transformations to turn less-valuable cubes into more-valuable cubes or into points. Reverse transformations are not allowed unless a card or tile specifically allows it.

Validate Experiment tiles (once per Experiment tile) – Do the transformation shown on one of your face-up Experiment tiles, then flip the tile to its validated side. Every validated Experiment upgrades how many resources you can take or how many you can keep at the end of your turn. Every set of two validated Experiment tiles (one round-bottom, one beaker) also grants you an immediate victory point.

Validate your Objective (once per game) – If you’ve met the condition on your Objective, take the indicated victory points and flip over the Objective.

4. Rest (Cleanup)

At the end of your turn, check that you don’t have more cubes in your Erlenmeyer flask than you are allowed to have, and return any excess. Refill the Activity card market if necessary. Then move the Workshop marker to the next space clockwise for the next player’s turn. This might also advance the Timeline.

Timeline

Any time someone moves the Timeline marker, every player immediately applies the effect of the new space. Some may require spending a resource to gain the effect. If a player doesn’t have that resource, they cannot benefit from the space.

Game End

The game ends when the Timeline marker is moved to the last space. Complete the round (so all players have an equal number of turns). Count the victory points to determine the winner.

Impressions

The very first thing I noticed about In the Footsteps of Marie Curie was that it had a wide variety of actions. But the resources available at any time constrained what I could do, so the choices on any given turn were actually pretty simple.

The “cube tower” contributes to this by randomizing the amount and type of resources available – you never really know what’s going to come out when you drop more resource cubes in. Sometimes you get way more choice than what you put in… and sometimes you get nothing. But even getting nothing makes your choice easy – grab your next Thesis and find out what reward you get!

The second thing I noticed was that I could set up a combo of three or even four actions, once I had the right resources to fire off a chain of events. It may not happen often but it feels pretty amazing when it does.

I’ve been able to, in a single turn: take cubes, use some of those cubes to validate an Experiment, use that result to validate another one, use the leftovers to buy a card, then gain the reward from that, which gives another bonus.

In the Footsteps of Marie Curie feels like the kind of game where you’re constantly accumulating more. But that wasn’t reflected in our final scores, which tended to hover between 8-15. With so few points in play, you’ll quickly realize that every single point matters. But all of the combos and non-point bonuses fill the gap to keep every turn satisfying.

This range of actions, simplified choices, and satisfying combos somehow fit into less than an hour of playtime. All of this plus very clear use of symbols makes In the Footsteps of Marie Curie a surprisingly good fit for older kids. The suggested age range of 10+ feels about right: I could introduce my 10-year-old to this game with no issues, and probably even play it with a kid a little bit younger.

Like many other well-themed historical games, you won’t learn a ton about Mme. Curie’s life simply by playing In the Footsteps of Marie Curie. But if it whets your appetite, look at the Appendix to the rulebook. There’s a seven-page biography and a three-page introduction to understanding radioactivity. This would be a great jumping off point to learning more, or a good conclusion to lessons on 19th-century scientists or on radiation.

Find In the Footsteps of Marie Curie direct from Hachette Games, on Amazon, or at your local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of In the Footsteps of Marie Curie from Sorry We Are French via Hachette for this review.

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