Great review! Should be receiving tomorrow! You made me want to get Elysium on the table, i’ve kept it because i really like Elysium but i have not played it in years!
Sounds a lot like 51st State, which makes sense since you compared it to Imperial Settlers. Definitely something I'd be interested in at some point down the line, especially knowing that the AI isn't BYOS since it's something I'd likely play mostly solo.
I agree about Revive. It's my favourite game of 2022 but I was disappointed that they repeated the same 3 art assets on the entire deck of cards and that really let's down the theme.
Without 3 or 4 players, certain card actions are redundant, due to a lack of card pool in which to use their abilities. Those cards which allow you to utilise other players specialists, or resource creation. This is pointless if you have one opponent who has a strategy where their card pool might be useless, so the only option is to then burn cards for resources. At 3/4 there is more chance that there will be a range of specialists to choose from and other abilities to replicate. Yes the round end "battle" is less battle more predictable, but those insignia are not insignificant for final point scoring and shouldn't be overlooked, and for that a difference of 1 mana spent makes an impact on the game. The AP in this game i find less of an issue, I would suggest the more significant issue is this has an Everdell problem, in which that once you pass, other players continue, and could take another 20 actions purely because their cards and resources worked better in the round. If you have poor cards, or minimal resource production, 3 rounds doesn't give much opportunity to adjust and rebuild the engine and tableu.
What's the length of a game when playing 1,2,3,4 players? 51st State is in my Top10 of all time and I also like Elysium. Evenfalls sounds great while it might be a bit long for what it is?!
I tried soooooo hard to like this game. Its just a snooze. Its a tough market for tableau builders cause they reward you a ton as you build an engine. Thats hard not to like. The solo is easy upkeep....but its kind of blah. Do I wish all games had that easy upkeep, sure, but it didnt save the whole experience. Especially because its "luck of the draw" Man I tried to love this one. I had high hopes. Im glad you reviewed this. I respect your opinion
@TheBrokenMeeple I'll give it a couple more plays but tall hill to climb from a 6 right now after two solo plays. Every game needs its fair shot so I'll see how it play out with my group.
Nice review. Another phantasy themed game with witches, spirits and rituals - I am the absolute opposite from excited about these games! (At lease SI has a great theme attached to it!) The art does look beautiful, but the cards look more like Tarot or Oracle cards. This is not for me.
Yeah, the title was a bad choice. Sounds like a half a dozen other games. I guess you can be happy it doesn’t come with a useless 3-D tree. It seems like most of Essen this year is multiplayer solitaire. Even evacuation is getting this reputation. It’s disappointing. I think I already crossed five Games off my list just for this reason. And the one game I was interested in, hegemony, is not suitable for two players at all, and needs four players. I can’t win.
@@garmit420 really? I had a great time but I only went for 4-5 hours a day and instead used the remaining time to play the games I bought. Since we went with a group we were able to split up and buy the hottest games. Playing them in the evenings made for an amazing time and I'd always do it again.
@@TheBrokenMeeple in summary, here and there but not a separate topic. Anyway, the impression i got from the review is that the ai feels tacked on, and as a multi player board game it's a bid... void.
Dune Uprising is out, It will be fun to get a very honest review from that game no matter the consequences.
Ha ha if I can get a copy, will do, but UK Release is likely to not be for a while.
i love your reviews; you give honest feedback and i trust what you say; keep up this excellent work
I appreciate that!
awesome review as always!
I might have to give this another look given your rating on 2 players.
Thanks for the comparison to Imperial Settlers! This is really putting it into context for me!
🤯mind blown, didn’t think you would have rated this as high..picked this up as an impulse purchase at Essen, still not got it to the table yet.
Great review! Should be receiving tomorrow! You made me want to get Elysium on the table, i’ve kept it because i really like Elysium but i have not played it in years!
Good choice!
Sounds a lot like 51st State, which makes sense since you compared it to Imperial Settlers. Definitely something I'd be interested in at some point down the line, especially knowing that the AI isn't BYOS since it's something I'd likely play mostly solo.
Thats what i thought and then i thought its pretty damn hard to beat 51st state though, do i need this?
I agree about Revive. It's my favourite game of 2022 but I was disappointed that they repeated the same 3 art assets on the entire deck of cards and that really let's down the theme.
This one also slipped passed me too. But I like the look of it...
That was a good review.
Nevertheless, I wonder how come that the word "luck" has been mentioned only in the context of a solo playing..?
Wow! We almost agree 100% on this one. Should I get worried? 😂
Nice one Luke
Join us!!!........ 😈
Hi Luke, I don’t usually sleeve games but the cards in this game have an unusual mat feel. What brand of sleeves do you recommend for cards ?
Sleeve Kings hands down.
Without 3 or 4 players, certain card actions are redundant, due to a lack of card pool in which to use their abilities. Those cards which allow you to utilise other players specialists, or resource creation. This is pointless if you have one opponent who has a strategy where their card pool might be useless, so the only option is to then burn cards for resources. At 3/4 there is more chance that there will be a range of specialists to choose from and other abilities to replicate. Yes the round end "battle" is less battle more predictable, but those insignia are not insignificant for final point scoring and shouldn't be overlooked, and for that a difference of 1 mana spent makes an impact on the game.
The AP in this game i find less of an issue, I would suggest the more significant issue is this has an Everdell problem, in which that once you pass, other players continue, and could take another 20 actions purely because their cards and resources worked better in the round. If you have poor cards, or minimal resource production, 3 rounds doesn't give much opportunity to adjust and rebuild the engine and tableu.
Elysium is still one of the best card games around and the amount of content in the box is outstanding! In my top 20.
Must get it out again!
What's the length of a game when playing 1,2,3,4 players?
51st State is in my Top10 of all time and I also like Elysium.
Evenfalls sounds great while it might be a bit long for what it is?!
60-120 min
I tried soooooo hard to like this game. Its just a snooze. Its a tough market for tableau builders cause they reward you a ton as you build an engine. Thats hard not to like.
The solo is easy upkeep....but its kind of blah. Do I wish all games had that easy upkeep, sure, but it didnt save the whole experience. Especially because its "luck of the draw" Man I tried to love this one. I had high hopes.
Im glad you reviewed this. I respect your opinion
Saw your FB post I think on the solo mode so I figured it wasn't working for you. 😁
@TheBrokenMeeple I'll give it a couple more plays but tall hill to climb from a 6 right now after two solo plays. Every game needs its fair shot so I'll see how it play out with my group.
"...is essentially an engine builder card game /..the theme doesn't make any difference here" - Basically my Nemesis boardgame :D I'll pass. thank you
Nice review. Another phantasy themed game with witches, spirits and rituals - I am the absolute opposite from excited about these games! (At lease SI has a great theme attached to it!) The art does look beautiful, but the cards look more like Tarot or Oracle cards. This is not for me.
Fair enough!
Yeah, the title was a bad choice. Sounds like a half a dozen other games. I guess you can be happy it doesn’t come with a useless 3-D tree. It seems like most of Essen this year is multiplayer solitaire. Even evacuation is getting this reputation. It’s disappointing. I think I already crossed five Games off my list just for this reason. And the one game I was interested in, hegemony, is not suitable for two players at all, and needs four players. I can’t win.
Evacuation is also multiplayer solitaire?.........ugh. Haven't got to that one yet.
This one left me cold. Sold it quickly after Essen. Something about it felt more like work than actual enjoyment
Essen in general left me cold ❄️🥶
@@garmit420 really? I had a great time but I only went for 4-5 hours a day and instead used the remaining time to play the games I bought. Since we went with a group we were able to split up and buy the hottest games. Playing them in the evenings made for an amazing time and I'd always do it again.
How is it solo?
Decent, you get to do all the same stuff like in multiplayer but it's an easy ai to use. I thought i mentioned it in review.
@@TheBrokenMeeple in summary, here and there but not a separate topic. Anyway, the impression i got from the review is that the ai feels tacked on, and as a multi player board game it's a bid... void.
I played it twice solo and I agree with you opinion. Pretty solid solo engine builder with nice art, but nothing mindblowing here.