I’ve played it twice now. And I really like this game! I agree with Tom’s thoughts about the feel of building your engine...there’s just something satisfying about it. One of my favorite Civ building games!
You and I lineup pretty well Tom but I have to disagree here. This game was a big miss for me. The AP as you said was significant. There's a pretty clear "best opener" with influence snowballing into a pretty significant advantage. As for not being random, I have to again disagree. My gem objective was 7 orange, yet not a single orange tile out of 12 had an orange gem on it. Combined with the fact that the orange tree has the key to fast influence, it really put me on the back foot that required me to mulligan my entire selection again in age 2 just to get some orange gems. I also think the amount of frontloaded information is quite overwhelming as you said and I would consider myself a heavy gamer. (Love Anachrony/Trickerion/Odin) Take took 4 hours with 4 players, I got 2nd with 1st having over 100 more points largely due to influence snowball. Definitely a do not buy from me.
A few thoughts: AP: Yes there are a ton of cards and choices, but your end of game scoring goals REALLY help narrow down which color cards you want to get, on top of the fact that since you can buy a card every turn if you want, usually you only have resources of one or two colors and that helps narrow your choices down as well. Despite all that, it is a long game and not one that will get played on a whim some evening. Components: I was disappointed at the quality of the cardboard, specifically the monuments. It feels like they will easily break when you put them together. I played around with the leftover punchboard sheets and yes, the cardboard is quite cheap and fragile. I would have VASTLY preferred stiffer denser stock like Ravensburger uses, for example. Storage: I bought all the expansions. I HATE the idea of having each expansion stored separately. Having to sort out that bits go in which expansion at the end of the game is enough of a hassle. I opted to stuff all the expansion material into the base game box [YES it can be done somewhat neatly, but a new insert for this would be a great help. The box has plenty of room for a better insert] The Monuments, out of fear of them being broken, I keep built and in a separate box.
Tom SPOT ON! This game is amazing. Never disappoints. It has been my most played game in 2020. So glad I was able to snag a copy and all the expansions.
quite enjoyed this game. played it on superbowl sunday. gameplay was fun, for a couple of us, but one of the players wasn't quite used to heavy engine games like this. he struggled a bit, but still had fun. I was glad I had opened it up to prepunch everything the day before as putting the stickers on all the city tokens was tedious and doesn't facilitate straight open and play. i was also frustrated about the storage issues for the monuments, as well as not at least having baggies for the small components. i've got plenty extra of my own tho so i'll live. so points for concept, gameplay, and art. points off for setup. neutral for storage because the very nice card and tile holders balance out dropping the ball on the other components' storage
Sorry, as a History guy, theme is very important to me in these civ games. "Feeling like" the Romans or Chinese or Aztecs etc., is basically the whole point as far as I'm concerned. The engine-building is just a nice mechanism to make that happen. I can see how this would be amazing for other kinds of players, though.
Alcovitch this is such an ableist attitude. It’s not even that the game is impossible to make color blind friendly- it’s just that it was overlooked. And that’s a stupid reason in 2020. Approximately 1 in 5 guys are colorblind. It’s not exactly rare.
@@jendubay3782 Ableist attitude, Sure sure. I have nothing against people with disabilities, but we shouldn't ban specific colors from all games due to a minority of people either. The world just doesn't work that way. It's also 1 in 12 men are color blind (8%) and 1 in 200 women (0.5%). It's a pretty big and unreasonable ask to restrict the entire industry for 8.5% of affected people. Not to mention, this percentage drops dramatically when you factor in how many play board games and would actually be affected by this game. You're probably looking at single digits.
@@alcovitch you don’t have to “ban colors” you can include other indicators that colors are different; patterns etc. And you absolutely do have “something against disabled people” if you’re unwilling to make any change to allow them to participate at all
Hearing you talk about this game makes it seem very good but the art style and presentation is not nearly as appealing as Museum. I understand how the game works but it doesn't pull me enough to purchase.
game is a massive drag and time sink. nothing really meaningful ever happens, and you're constantly shuffling elements up and down to do things, which is not engaging. Little to no interaction, and expect it to take over 3 hours with 3 players experienced or not. HARD PASS.
Maybe its just me but I cant stand the way all these civilization games completely bungle their theme. So in the this the Incas can build the great wall of China and have cities next to and interact with the Romans!?! This is just stupid and ruins the theme for me. Simple solution just make the different cultures either generic made up cultures, instead of building the great wall of china make it a generic wall and made up names for cultures. or have it historically based so Romans and Etruscans for example, although this way you would need to make a shorter time span game historically.
Read the rulebook: loved the game already. Watched your video: love it even more. Now it is time to play!!!!!
I wish I watched your review on Tapestry before I bought the game. I like your honesty and your passion. Keep up the great work Tom.
I’ve had this set up for a week. Life got in the way. Hopefully will play it tonight
I’ve played it twice now. And I really like this game! I agree with Tom’s thoughts about the feel of building your engine...there’s just something satisfying about it. One of my favorite Civ building games!
You and I lineup pretty well Tom but I have to disagree here. This game was a big miss for me. The AP as you said was significant. There's a pretty clear "best opener" with influence snowballing into a pretty significant advantage. As for not being random, I have to again disagree. My gem objective was 7 orange, yet not a single orange tile out of 12 had an orange gem on it. Combined with the fact that the orange tree has the key to fast influence, it really put me on the back foot that required me to mulligan my entire selection again in age 2 just to get some orange gems.
I also think the amount of frontloaded information is quite overwhelming as you said and I would consider myself a heavy gamer. (Love Anachrony/Trickerion/Odin)
Take took 4 hours with 4 players, I got 2nd with 1st having over 100 more points largely due to influence snowball. Definitely a do not buy from me.
Played this 10 times 2-player with my wife now. We are both loving it so much. And that even if we normally prefer more thematic games.
You've convinced me about this game. Seems really fun. I picked up The Artemis Project on you're recommended review and was not disapointed.
A few thoughts:
AP: Yes there are a ton of cards and choices, but your end of game scoring goals REALLY help narrow down which color cards you want to get, on top of the fact that since you can buy a card every turn if you want, usually you only have resources of one or two colors and that helps narrow your choices down as well. Despite all that, it is a long game and not one that will get played on a whim some evening.
Components: I was disappointed at the quality of the cardboard, specifically the monuments. It feels like they will easily break when you put them together. I played around with the leftover punchboard sheets and yes, the cardboard is quite cheap and fragile. I would have VASTLY preferred stiffer denser stock like Ravensburger uses, for example.
Storage: I bought all the expansions. I HATE the idea of having each expansion stored separately. Having to sort out that bits go in which expansion at the end of the game is enough of a hassle. I opted to stuff all the expansion material into the base game box [YES it can be done somewhat neatly, but a new insert for this would be a great help. The box has plenty of room for a better insert] The Monuments, out of fear of them being broken, I keep built and in a separate box.
Some really neat concepts going on here. May be slightly convoluted or just a bit much going on tho.
7:09 Nut level 9 , thats some anime level excitement there
Does anyone know if u sleeve the square cards if they fit back into the holders?
Looks pretty kool!
Wow this looks convoluted...
Tom SPOT ON! This game is amazing. Never disappoints. It has been my most played game in 2020. So glad I was able to snag a copy and all the expansions.
Want to play this.
Congrats Holy grail games, this Game and it’s Expansions are awesome !!!
quite enjoyed this game. played it on superbowl sunday. gameplay was fun, for a couple of us, but one of the players wasn't quite used to heavy engine games like this. he struggled a bit, but still had fun. I was glad I had opened it up to prepunch everything the day before as putting the stickers on all the city tokens was tedious and doesn't facilitate straight open and play. i was also frustrated about the storage issues for the monuments, as well as not at least having baggies for the small components. i've got plenty extra of my own tho so i'll live. so points for concept, gameplay, and art. points off for setup. neutral for storage because the very nice card and tile holders balance out dropping the ball on the other components' storage
If you are a high involvement player then please join Gladiator Elite.
Sorry, as a History guy, theme is very important to me in these civ games. "Feeling like" the Romans or Chinese or Aztecs etc., is basically the whole point as far as I'm concerned. The engine-building is just a nice mechanism to make that happen. I can see how this would be amazing for other kinds of players, though.
Really wish there were more people that design games had friends or had color deficiency themselves. Someday maybe
Not every game is for everyone.
@@alcovitch that may be true, but graphic design shouldn't be the reason why IMO
Alcovitch this is such an ableist attitude. It’s not even that the game is impossible to make color blind friendly- it’s just that it was overlooked. And that’s a stupid reason in 2020. Approximately 1 in 5 guys are colorblind. It’s not exactly rare.
@@jendubay3782 Ableist attitude, Sure sure. I have nothing against people with disabilities, but we shouldn't ban specific colors from all games due to a minority of people either. The world just doesn't work that way.
It's also 1 in 12 men are color blind (8%) and 1 in 200 women (0.5%). It's a pretty big and unreasonable ask to restrict the entire industry for 8.5% of affected people. Not to mention, this percentage drops dramatically when you factor in how many play board games and would actually be affected by this game. You're probably looking at single digits.
@@alcovitch you don’t have to “ban colors” you can include other indicators that colors are different; patterns etc. And you absolutely do have “something against disabled people” if you’re unwilling to make any change to allow them to participate at all
Hearing you talk about this game makes it seem very good but the art style and presentation is not nearly as appealing as Museum. I understand how the game works but it doesn't pull me enough to purchase.
Not for the color blind.
game is a massive drag and time sink. nothing really meaningful ever happens, and you're constantly shuffling elements up and down to do things, which is not engaging. Little to no interaction, and expect it to take over 3 hours with 3 players experienced or not.
HARD PASS.
first commenter strikes again, thanks for your support and thanks tom
Maybe its just me but I cant stand the way all these civilization games completely bungle their theme. So in the this the Incas can build the great wall of China and have cities next to and interact with the Romans!?! This is just stupid and ruins the theme for me. Simple solution just make the different cultures either generic made up cultures, instead of building the great wall of china make it a generic wall and made up names for cultures. or have it historically based so Romans and Etruscans for example, although this way you would need to make a shorter time span game historically.