Great and accurate reivew. They hit on the pros and the cons. This is a great approachable game that's more family weight. If you like Ethnos for the card play, you'll love the flexibility and variability this offers. If you liked Ethnos for the area control, then stick with Ethnos... though its REALLY EASY to turn the tracks into area control (just score for person furthest along in age 1, first two in age 2, etc). And if you really want to go full Ethnos, create some randomized score tokens
I really enjoy Ethnos and when this was announced I was happy to see it coming back in print and then the more I heard about it the more I was like “why did they change the area control to tracks” and how that will affect the gameplay and I can see that the general consensus is that theres more interaction and nuance in gameplay with the area control over the tracks. I’ll happily stick with my copy of Ethnos but wont turn down the opportunity to play Archeos Society
Simple solution…make an expansion that brings back the area control map. I really wanted to get this to replace Ethnos, but prefer area control mechanism and player interaction it creates over the different tracks. Great review and discussion!
Archeos for 2/3, Ethnos for 4/5. I didn't expect to walk away keeping both, but the puzzle tracks of the advanced side give some meat at the lower count, while area control is much more interesting with more players. Mori put some great updates into Archeos that I will use in Ethnos.
I own and like Ethnos (the art/map never bothered me), but am debating whether to buy Archeos Society. TBH, I'm not wild about area control, so I'm thinking maybe the new game would hit better for me. What do you think?
@@brianb5145 If you prefer having more linear decisions than just area control, I think you may enjoy it using the advanced tracks slightly more. But the card play is still the main driver here. Also, feel free to use as many advanced tracks as you want, you don't have to just have 1 or 2.
Im glad 3 of them prefer ethnos. I’m really surprised how high their scores are. To me moving up those boring tracks as opposed to trying to get area majority… ethos is a 9 and this is a 6. I wish they had just used this theme and reprinted ethnos but not changed it. Just make ethnos pretty.
Archeos Society looks like a great time, but I miss the clever interaction of Ethnos that made it such a fun game and almost like a puzzle: you constantly have to evaluate what's going on the board + the resources you have to try to find out what are the best regions to invest on. I think this aspect helped a lot with the replayability of Ethnos. That said, I think the tracks may actually streamline the game a little, which may make it easier to introduce it to family. Also happy to see that the card play continues to look great and hopefully Archeos will indeed receive some expansions!
I was hoping for a more futuristic version of Ethnos. Such as use big planets instead of country borders and ufo ships like the ones in cosmic encounter, and it spreads out the table. Aliens allow for tons of new powers and mechanics. I feel Archeos Society missed the mark saying it was a replacement/enhancement for Ethnos and but then falls short of expectations. If it was its own game I think it would be better off than saying it was an implementation of Ehtnos.
We've never played Ethnos, but so we had no expectations coming into Archeos Society. And we all really liked it! Agreed with the usability issues, but otherwise it was easy and fun to play.
Ethnos may be better if you prefer area control and the conflict that brings. I personally prefer AS because of the many different options for tracks and less conflict. I do like both games but AS just works better for my family. @@KMReviews
I’m exactly with Mike here. Both Ethnos and Archeos are 8s in my book. I found Archeos to be a slightly better game but the usability issues dropped it at half a point. Ethnos has more charm and, honestly, I think it looks better but I realize I’m in the minority on that one.
Im glad i wasnt the only one who had issues with the symbology and such. I mentioned it in bgg and git pretty dismissed by several folks (the publisher was great though in their response). I first thoguht i was the inly perspn who didnt like the lack of player aids or texts on cards
This was literally uploaded while I was unboxing and playing Aecheos Society for the first time (borrowing a super simple solo variant from Ethnos)! It was just delivered today! 🤣 What a coincidence!
@@JonReid01 I can't really comment too much on the gameplay yet since the solo variant doesn't really replicate another player but the usability issues didn't bother me too much! I can see how the colors could be a little hard to differentiate and having to reference each card's ability icon every time is a bit of a nuisance early on but you get used to it after a while!
I'll be honest. I was hoping that Archaos Society would be like the expansion that Ethnos deserved. I still think Ethnos would slay of it got an expansion or 2nd edition.
I'm always amazed by how much love Ethnos gets as an area majority game. I like area majority games, but Ethnos's implementation is just the most boring imaginable: spatial relationships don't matter and there's no interesting relationship between players in the spaces. Iwari (or it's predecessors) is just so much better! The best part of Ethnos was the card system. Archeos keeps that and adds the advanced sides of the new tracks which seem far more interesting than anything Ethnos could offer. I'm looking forward to trying it.
Wow, talk about a rug-pull worthy of an M Night Shyamalan film, I was not expecting those scores after the many "issues" brought up 🙂! As someone who previously owned Ethnos and now prefers this new version, I thought I would offer my experience after a handful of plays with 7 different players (most of which are on the casual gamer spectrum). I honestly don't get the usability complaint with respect to color. No one I have played with yet has had an issue with card or board colors (the bland colors of the player tokens, on the other hand). I agree the score track is annoying, but as Mike said, it's not game-breaking. We have one person run the score track and it's fine. No one I've played with (again, mostly casual gamers) had issues with card icons. I explained each of them before the game and never had any follow-up questions. Those icons were definitely a concern I had (since Ethnos uses text) but it turned out to be unfounded. In fact, I feel like I had more questions from people on the use of 'x' on the various Ethnos cards. On the gameplay side, I agree with (I think it was Joey) that it comes down to how you feel about area control. I'm not a fan of area control but I still enjoyed Ethnos. I feel like this game is more about the strategy of how you put your card groups together and what you decide to give up (mainly because, as Wendy mentioned, you can instantly see the value of areas in Ethnos, whereas in Archeos, the tracks are more balanced). I just found this version more fun than Ethnos but I completely understand those who want the interaction of area control (except for a couple alternate board side which do offer some interaction). I also felt like the characters in this version were more thematic to their abilities (which may explain why no one had questions) and the alternate board sides were more interesting (so far, we've only played one alternate board each game) than the Ethnos map. And as Joey mentioned, the character abilities in this version felt more streamlined.
The rug pull reviews are usually my favorite 😂 thanks for the detailed write up, I was concerned about usability after the review, but hearing that casual gamers could handle it makes me feel better about it
We never played Ethnos, but this game was a hit for us. I'm sure it will see plenty of play with the quick teach and tons of variety in setup. The production issues are a shame, though. It would have been great if a more traditional score track was printed on a board rather than this twisty track on a flimsy sheet. I wish they'd went with a folded game board with the score track on one side and spaces for the 6 double-sided tracks on the other. I'm also not sure who thought Gray-Black-White-Brown-Tan-Beige was a good selection of player colors, and people have commented on how unthematic it feels to be racing up a jungle track with a submarine. They should have used the bright player colors most games use and just printed all 6 vehicle shapes in each color so each player gets 1 of every vehicle piece to use on the tracks of their choice. The card quality isn't particularly great, either. Still, it's a great game design that everyone should try in one of its 2 forms, and more great games are always welcome in the sub-$50 price range.
Good game but I definitely appreciate Ethnos quite a bit more. This is a kinder gentler version for folks who don’t like the direct conflict. I prefer the area control. And even though the theme is thin, the fantasy theme seemed to fit a bit better and was a touch more intuitive.
So Very Wrong About Games made a huge point that I think almost every review is missing (including mine), so I'm curious if Chris or whoever agrees. His point was that in Ethnos, it was almost always best to just make huge sets because of their massive scoring, and that was more important than who to fight on the board. So, really, the player interaction that's allegedly missing here was mostly artificial here anyway, if you were playing optimally. I think I agree with him.
Disagreed. Area control points are on par with the points you get from the sets. The balancing between big sets and area control is like the best thing in Ethnos. You can't just rely on building 5 card sets or whatever. The cards are random and you need to adapt to what you get. Sure, you can just keep on drawing but that's a lot of potentially dead turns for you if you don't draw correct cards. You also risk giving a lot of good cards to your opponents that way. In our last 6-player game, the winner got most of his points from area control. Also, you get control markers by building sets so one strategy doesn't simply rule out the other. I don't think very highly of that podcast.
I so wanted to love this game - purely because of the look and theming. Love, love, LOVE the artwork. For those that can remember it, it totally evokes "Tales of the Gold Monkey," a lost classic series from Donald P Bellisarrio. The game play doesn't look like it's for me however.
I own both but I prefer Archeos Society. In Ethnos, I feel that I end up getting completely blocked when competing for the high scoring locations. In Archaos Society I have more freedom with the tracks which I enjoy for a light card play game. When it comes to area control I prefer more control.
A lot of people complained about the look of Ethnos. Now that this is out, seems like they'd gladly take Ethnos now. Haha Ethnos is in my top 10 of all time, maybe even top 3! I was really excited when Archeos was announced and I love the theme, but those tracks and same usability issues y'all had are a no go for me. I'll take Ethnos all day every day. :)
I don't get it. They could choose a dozen different themes, and they chose archeology with a bunch of dudes that don't really look that differently across the table. I am not even mentioning the horrendous scoring board. Sure, if Ethnos didn't exist, that would be a good game. But it does, and they had so much time to come up with a better re-theme than this
Ethnos is considered an ulgy game. I do not think it is ugly but I do believe it's components are disconnected with each other. Really cool cover, amazing card artwork, almost fluroecent pieces and a somewhat sad map. That said... it is very easy to "read" and I think Chris hit the nail in the head with his comment. Ethnos might not look as good but the map even though uninspiring is very easy to read and gives tension to a very simple yet clever game. I guess I am still going to wait for an Ethnos 2nd Edition... this one is not for me.
Mike is still a full-time Dice Tower employee, but moved back to Indianapolis earlier this year for personal/family reasons. He recorded some videos/reviews while in the studio for the Summer Spectacular a couple of weeks ago. He calls his home studio The Dice Tower Midwest Annex.
The mechanism in Ethnos is area majority, not ameritrash area control. Area majority is an OG (original german) euro mechanic. It is not used as much in modern euros because modern euros have developed toward multiplayer solitaire, which is a shame in my opinion.
I guess I should be thankful that the publishers of "Archeos Society" did not make my copy of "Ethnos" obsolete. But it's puzzling how they could fail so hard at reprinting "Ethnos" with better theme and artwork. "Archeos Society" looks even worse than "Ethnos" and the theme doesn't make much sense and the gameplay changes are very questionable.
I prefer the fantasy theme and artwork of Ethnos. I know some people complain about it, and yes the board is boring but it's functional. I actually like the painterly card art of Ethnos. Archeos may look better from an artistic standpoint, but it's thematically rather dull (for me).
This is a fun game plain and simple. All the people saying it’s not ethnos I don’t want it. Ok don’t get it but it’s better. I’d rather pick a different game than ethnos for area control so I just don’t compare the too. To each thier own. This is a card game with tracks it’s not trying to be ethnos. 🤣😂🤣
My man the box cover literally has an Ethnos marker on it. Of course it is trying to be the replacement of an out of print game. Ethnos players are the target audience.
Ethnos had some great tension to it in the interaction between the area control and the card play. For me at least, moving up on tracks is the most boring mechanic in games. I just can't bring myself to care about having the most points in the end. Ethnos shines in all the little battles during the game, which seems to be totally absent here. The fact that they barely mention the different mechanics of the different suits seems telling to me, since they're a major part of Ethnos.
I have played Ethnos, but I don't own it (the rrp was too high for the components... although i have heard of people picking it up at a good price). I'm one of the few people that seem to like John Howe's artwork in Ethnos... but the board does not look good. From what I've seen from the comparisons, I'll keep an eye open for Ethnos going cheap.
In isolation, a great game. But with an expectation of it being Ethnos with the graphical bump it needed... it's a huge fail. I agree with all the sentiments, and am so glad Chris brought up how the generic roles make it so much more annoying to parse and request face up cards. Was so much easier to look for and call out for an orc, for example, than "that dude with the hat". I was also surprised that no one brought up the MANY SHADES OF BROWN of the player components. SO BAD! I'm selling this and wished I had just bought Ethnos when I had the chance.
If this wan't marketed as an Ethnos reïmplementation this would never get a higher rating then a 7. It's just making sets en move up the ladder. Everybody scores so it doesn't realy matter what track you go for. You score everywhere. A 9? Not in a million years.
Why did they do' this' to what was mechanically a great game, but just not pleasing to the eye. I own Ethnos and all i wanted was expansions or a 2.0, meaning name change (Ethnos really?) and new setting. Who did they talk to when the redesign was on the table?? Obviously not the people who loved the game, but not necessarily the theme. I do not wish ill to any game manufacturer or designer but, this new offering is getting what it deserved.
Ethnos Kickstarter with updated art/graphics would absolutely crush. Lots of great games I’m not going to settle for AS.
Great and accurate reivew. They hit on the pros and the cons. This is a great approachable game that's more family weight.
If you like Ethnos for the card play, you'll love the flexibility and variability this offers. If you liked Ethnos for the area control, then stick with Ethnos... though its REALLY EASY to turn the tracks into area control (just score for person furthest along in age 1, first two in age 2, etc). And if you really want to go full Ethnos, create some randomized score tokens
Happy to hear that Ethnos still holds. Sad to hear that Ethnos didn’t get the upgrade it deserved.
I really enjoy Ethnos and when this was announced I was happy to see it coming back in print and then the more I heard about it the more I was like “why did they change the area control to tracks” and how that will affect the gameplay and I can see that the general consensus is that theres more interaction and nuance in gameplay with the area control over the tracks. I’ll happily stick with my copy of Ethnos but wont turn down the opportunity to play Archeos Society
Simple solution…make an expansion that brings back the area control map. I really wanted to get this to replace Ethnos, but prefer area control mechanism and player interaction it creates over the different tracks.
Great review and discussion!
Never played Ethnos but loving my copy of Archeos Society.
Archeos for 2/3, Ethnos for 4/5. I didn't expect to walk away keeping both, but the puzzle tracks of the advanced side give some meat at the lower count, while area control is much more interesting with more players. Mori put some great updates into Archeos that I will use in Ethnos.
I own and like Ethnos (the art/map never bothered me), but am debating whether to buy Archeos Society. TBH, I'm not wild about area control, so I'm thinking maybe the new game would hit better for me. What do you think?
@@brianb5145 If you prefer having more linear decisions than just area control, I think you may enjoy it using the advanced tracks slightly more. But the card play is still the main driver here. Also, feel free to use as many advanced tracks as you want, you don't have to just have 1 or 2.
Thanks for your response.
Looks like a good jumping in point for anyone who didn't get in on Ethnos, but I don't think I'll be trading Ethnos away.
So they took a fantasy game with a map, and changed it to boring human specialists with no map?
The heck?
Im glad 3 of them prefer ethnos. I’m really surprised how high their scores are. To me moving up those boring tracks as opposed to trying to get area majority… ethos is a 9 and this is a 6. I wish they had just used this theme and reprinted ethnos but not changed it. Just make ethnos pretty.
100% this. What's sad is I wont be surprised if this gets expansions, and Ethnos doesn't
@@ramonosukeIt won’t. I adore Paolo Mori but god save him that he just doesn’t do expansions. Redesigns absolutely but not expansions.
I don't even think they needed to retheme it. A reprint with some new art and maybe a new race or two would have been awesome
"I'm glad they dislike it" lol gamers man
Archeos Society looks like a great time, but I miss the clever interaction of Ethnos that made it such a fun game and almost like a puzzle: you constantly have to evaluate what's going on the board + the resources you have to try to find out what are the best regions to invest on. I think this aspect helped a lot with the replayability of Ethnos.
That said, I think the tracks may actually streamline the game a little, which may make it easier to introduce it to family. Also happy to see that the card play continues to look great and hopefully Archeos will indeed receive some expansions!
I was hoping for a more futuristic version of Ethnos. Such as use big planets instead of country borders and ufo ships like the ones in cosmic encounter, and it spreads out the table. Aliens allow for tons of new powers and mechanics.
I feel Archeos Society missed the mark saying it was a replacement/enhancement for Ethnos and but then falls short of expectations. If it was its own game I think it would be better off than saying it was an implementation of Ehtnos.
We've never played Ethnos, but so we had no expectations coming into Archeos Society. And we all really liked it! Agreed with the usability issues, but otherwise it was easy and fun to play.
Don’t play ethnos then because you will realize how much better it is. Lol
Ethnos may be better if you prefer area control and the conflict that brings. I personally prefer AS because of the many different options for tracks and less conflict. I do like both games but AS just works better for my family. @@KMReviews
I’m exactly with Mike here. Both Ethnos and Archeos are 8s in my book. I found Archeos to be a slightly better game but the usability issues dropped it at half a point. Ethnos has more charm and, honestly, I think it looks better but I realize I’m in the minority on that one.
Im glad i wasnt the only one who had issues with the symbology and such. I mentioned it in bgg and git pretty dismissed by several folks (the publisher was great though in their response). I first thoguht i was the inly perspn who didnt like the lack of player aids or texts on cards
This was literally uploaded while I was unboxing and playing Aecheos Society for the first time (borrowing a super simple solo variant from Ethnos)! It was just delivered today! 🤣 What a coincidence!
Did you enjoy it? Did the usability issues bug you?
@@JonReid01 I can't really comment too much on the gameplay yet since the solo variant doesn't really replicate another player but the usability issues didn't bother me too much! I can see how the colors could be a little hard to differentiate and having to reference each card's ability icon every time is a bit of a nuisance early on but you get used to it after a while!
Ethnos is to Archeos Society as Dune Imperium is to Lost Ruins of Arnak?
I'll be honest. I was hoping that Archaos Society would be like the expansion that Ethnos deserved. I still think Ethnos would slay of it got an expansion or 2nd edition.
Would like to hear the opinion of Roy on this one, since Ethnos is in his top games of all time... I prefer Ethnos for sure
I'm always amazed by how much love Ethnos gets as an area majority game. I like area majority games, but Ethnos's implementation is just the most boring imaginable: spatial relationships don't matter and there's no interesting relationship between players in the spaces. Iwari (or it's predecessors) is just so much better! The best part of Ethnos was the card system. Archeos keeps that and adds the advanced sides of the new tracks which seem far more interesting than anything Ethnos could offer. I'm looking forward to trying it.
The best thing in Ethnos is balancing between area control and big sets combined with all the different abilities.
This review made me enthusiastic about Ethnos...
Wow, talk about a rug-pull worthy of an M Night Shyamalan film, I was not expecting those scores after the many "issues" brought up 🙂! As someone who previously owned Ethnos and now prefers this new version, I thought I would offer my experience after a handful of plays with 7 different players (most of which are on the casual gamer spectrum). I honestly don't get the usability complaint with respect to color. No one I have played with yet has had an issue with card or board colors (the bland colors of the player tokens, on the other hand). I agree the score track is annoying, but as Mike said, it's not game-breaking. We have one person run the score track and it's fine. No one I've played with (again, mostly casual gamers) had issues with card icons. I explained each of them before the game and never had any follow-up questions. Those icons were definitely a concern I had (since Ethnos uses text) but it turned out to be unfounded. In fact, I feel like I had more questions from people on the use of 'x' on the various Ethnos cards.
On the gameplay side, I agree with (I think it was Joey) that it comes down to how you feel about area control. I'm not a fan of area control but I still enjoyed Ethnos. I feel like this game is more about the strategy of how you put your card groups together and what you decide to give up (mainly because, as Wendy mentioned, you can instantly see the value of areas in Ethnos, whereas in Archeos, the tracks are more balanced). I just found this version more fun than Ethnos but I completely understand those who want the interaction of area control (except for a couple alternate board side which do offer some interaction).
I also felt like the characters in this version were more thematic to their abilities (which may explain why no one had questions) and the alternate board sides were more interesting (so far, we've only played one alternate board each game) than the Ethnos map. And as Joey mentioned, the character abilities in this version felt more streamlined.
The rug pull reviews are usually my favorite 😂 thanks for the detailed write up, I was concerned about usability after the review, but hearing that casual gamers could handle it makes me feel better about it
Great write upI agree with all your points
We never played Ethnos, but this game was a hit for us. I'm sure it will see plenty of play with the quick teach and tons of variety in setup.
The production issues are a shame, though. It would have been great if a more traditional score track was printed on a board rather than this twisty track on a flimsy sheet. I wish they'd went with a folded game board with the score track on one side and spaces for the 6 double-sided tracks on the other. I'm also not sure who thought Gray-Black-White-Brown-Tan-Beige was a good selection of player colors, and people have commented on how unthematic it feels to be racing up a jungle track with a submarine. They should have used the bright player colors most games use and just printed all 6 vehicle shapes in each color so each player gets 1 of every vehicle piece to use on the tracks of their choice. The card quality isn't particularly great, either.
Still, it's a great game design that everyone should try in one of its 2 forms, and more great games are always welcome in the sub-$50 price range.
Good game but I definitely appreciate Ethnos quite a bit more. This is a kinder gentler version for folks who don’t like the direct conflict. I prefer the area control. And even though the theme is thin, the fantasy theme seemed to fit a bit better and was a touch more intuitive.
So Very Wrong About Games made a huge point that I think almost every review is missing (including mine), so I'm curious if Chris or whoever agrees. His point was that in Ethnos, it was almost always best to just make huge sets because of their massive scoring, and that was more important than who to fight on the board. So, really, the player interaction that's allegedly missing here was mostly artificial here anyway, if you were playing optimally. I think I agree with him.
Disagreed. Area control points are on par with the points you get from the sets. The balancing between big sets and area control is like the best thing in Ethnos. You can't just rely on building 5 card sets or whatever. The cards are random and you need to adapt to what you get. Sure, you can just keep on drawing but that's a lot of potentially dead turns for you if you don't draw correct cards. You also risk giving a lot of good cards to your opponents that way. In our last 6-player game, the winner got most of his points from area control. Also, you get control markers by building sets so one strategy doesn't simply rule out the other.
I don't think very highly of that podcast.
I so wanted to love this game - purely because of the look and theming. Love, love, LOVE the artwork. For those that can remember it, it totally evokes "Tales of the Gold Monkey," a lost classic series from Donald P Bellisarrio. The game play doesn't look like it's for me however.
I own both but I prefer Archeos Society. In Ethnos, I feel that I end up getting completely blocked when competing for the high scoring locations. In Archaos Society I have more freedom with the tracks which I enjoy for a light card play game. When it comes to area control I prefer more control.
A lot of people complained about the look of Ethnos. Now that this is out, seems like they'd gladly take Ethnos now. Haha Ethnos is in my top 10 of all time, maybe even top 3! I was really excited when Archeos was announced and I love the theme, but those tracks and same usability issues y'all had are a no go for me. I'll take Ethnos all day every day. :)
So upgraded score trackers are coming to Etsy in a hot minute?
There is already an insert with player trays, so the tracker and bits won't be far behind.
I saw some on BGG already, little jeep meeples. Somewhere in the AS forums.
I don't get it. They could choose a dozen different themes, and they chose archeology with a bunch of dudes that don't really look that differently across the table. I am not even mentioning the horrendous scoring board. Sure, if Ethnos didn't exist, that would be a good game. But it does, and they had so much time to come up with a better re-theme than this
Ethnos is considered an ulgy game. I do not think it is ugly but I do believe it's components are disconnected with each other. Really cool cover, amazing card artwork, almost fluroecent pieces and a somewhat sad map. That said... it is very easy to "read" and I think Chris hit the nail in the head with his comment. Ethnos might not look as good but the map even though uninspiring is very easy to read and gives tension to a very simple yet clever game.
I guess I am still going to wait for an Ethnos 2nd Edition... this one is not for me.
Omg is Mike back?
Mike is still a full-time Dice Tower employee, but moved back to Indianapolis earlier this year for personal/family reasons. He recorded some videos/reviews while in the studio for the Summer Spectacular a couple of weeks ago. He calls his home studio The Dice Tower Midwest Annex.
Ethnos!
The mechanism in Ethnos is area majority, not ameritrash area control. Area majority is an OG (original german) euro mechanic. It is not used as much in modern euros because modern euros have developed toward multiplayer solitaire, which is a shame in my opinion.
I guess I should be thankful that the publishers of "Archeos Society" did not make my copy of "Ethnos" obsolete.
But it's puzzling how they could fail so hard at reprinting "Ethnos" with better theme and artwork. "Archeos Society" looks even worse than "Ethnos" and the theme doesn't make much sense and the gameplay changes are very questionable.
I prefer the fantasy theme and artwork of Ethnos. I know some people complain about it, and yes the board is boring but it's functional. I actually like the painterly card art of Ethnos. Archeos may look better from an artistic standpoint, but it's thematically rather dull (for me).
Very well stated couldn’t agree more
It is clear that this has ZERO player interaction, or al least a lot less than Ethnos. That alone ruins Archeos Society for me.
This is a fun game plain and simple. All the people saying it’s not ethnos I don’t want it. Ok don’t get it but it’s better. I’d rather pick a different game than ethnos for area control so I just don’t compare the too. To each thier own. This is a card game with tracks it’s not trying to be ethnos. 🤣😂🤣
My man the box cover literally has an Ethnos marker on it. Of course it is trying to be the replacement of an out of print game. Ethnos players are the target audience.
@@kerim8666dude you make a good point. Interesting to see people rec this over that though
I prefer ethnos by a trillion
I was really just hoping for a prettier ethnos with more factions. Bummer. Oh well.
Ethnos had some great tension to it in the interaction between the area control and the card play. For me at least, moving up on tracks is the most boring mechanic in games. I just can't bring myself to care about having the most points in the end. Ethnos shines in all the little battles during the game, which seems to be totally absent here. The fact that they barely mention the different mechanics of the different suits seems telling to me, since they're a major part of Ethnos.
This is the rare situation where the original is better in every way.
Well the designer of the game disagrees, so to each their own!😂
I totally agree. Ethnos is better. Wish they woulda just reprinted it with better art. Or even this theme. I just want the original game.
I have played Ethnos, but I don't own it (the rrp was too high for the components... although i have heard of people picking it up at a good price). I'm one of the few people that seem to like John Howe's artwork in Ethnos... but the board does not look good. From what I've seen from the comparisons, I'll keep an eye open for Ethnos going cheap.
In isolation, a great game.
But with an expectation of it being Ethnos with the graphical bump it needed... it's a huge fail.
I agree with all the sentiments, and am so glad Chris brought up how the generic roles make it so much more annoying to parse and request face up cards. Was so much easier to look for and call out for an orc, for example, than "that dude with the hat".
I was also surprised that no one brought up the MANY SHADES OF BROWN of the player components. SO BAD!
I'm selling this and wished I had just bought Ethnos when I had the chance.
Do you still want ethnos? Every game store I’ve ever lived around has had about 3 sealed new copies on the shelf.
@@billable1861 Appreciate it! But I actually swapped Archeos for a copy of Ethnos, which I was VERY happy about.
The colors are way too hard to tell apart
The fact that publishers are STILL making games unplayable/painful to play for colour blind players like meis so disappointing
Good to see some reviews going up. I am always disappointed when it's spectacular time.
I agree. I'd rather see more reviews on obscure or b list games than other types of videos.
Thjs game makes me wish for a Ethos 2.0 Deluxe with cooler bits and some new mechanisms.
I just saw that this was the "new" Ethnos from the Top 10 Designers video and man I am highly disappointed if this is the 2.0 version.
If this wan't marketed as an Ethnos reïmplementation this would never get a higher rating then a 7. It's just making sets en move up the ladder. Everybody scores so it doesn't realy matter what track you go for. You score everywhere. A 9? Not in a million years.
Honestly, after watching this, I'll keep Ethnos. I like the art and theme better anyways 🤷🏻♂️
And so the Ethnos curse lives on: atrocious graphic design chices.
Too bad.
Why did they do' this' to what was mechanically a great game, but just not pleasing to the eye. I own Ethnos and all i wanted was expansions or a 2.0, meaning name change (Ethnos really?)
and new setting. Who did they talk to when the redesign was on the table?? Obviously not the people who loved the game, but not necessarily the theme.
I do not wish ill to any game manufacturer or designer but, this new offering is getting what it deserved.
So what I'm hearing is a colorblind person such as myself should stay away from this?
no you'll be fine. there's colors but also a ribbon on each track that matches the cards. ive played with colorblind people - zero problems
A friend was having trouble too but once I pointed out the ribbons, he was golden. Just need to focus on those from the get go.
...and at the end of the game the archeologists all realize that the monkeys are fake, and they should just go see the originals in Japan.
These scores are bunked.