HOW TO PLAY THE GAME

The tension is real. Atlantis Rising is a challenging game that really ratchets up the pressure as you progress. While the rule set and mechanics aren’t necessarily difficult in their own right, the arduous task of constructing the cosmic gate before the island falls prey to the sea can genuinely get your heart pounding.

Atlantis Rising stands unique from the get-go. The player count allows for 1-7 players to face the challenge. Play it solo or in a monstrous group!

Players begin by selecting a leader from a batch of 10 councilors. Each councilor has a male and female counterpart and provides unique abilities that will help you on your task. Each player is equipped with followers to guide.

In the center of the table sits the island of Atlantis. Elf Creek Games have created a truly iconic presentation here. The island is made up of 6 distinct peninsulas, each providing players with opportunities to gather different resources or benefits. Each peninsula is broken into 5 pieces that fit together like a puzzle. Each puzzle piece of the same peninsula provides different ways to gather the same resources. As the game progresses and the island sinks, pieces of the peninsula will be turned over eliminating that gateway to certain resources. Players will find it more challenging to acquire the resources they need as the island sinks inland.

During play, players will place their workers on a specific spot on the island that provides the resources they’re seeking. Each spot has a requirement necessary for successfully gathering those particular resources. The most common challenge is rolling a die to meet or exceed a certain number. Again, as the island sinks inland, the spots become more difficult to achieve (such as requiring a higher die number).

Placing your workers is the first of 4 actions each round. From there, players will draw a specific number of misfortune cards, gather their resources and finally endure the wrath of the gods.

Misfortunes typically unleash some sort of unfortunate incident on the island (hence the name). There may be a plague or panic that affects your ability to gather resources that round. More often, you’ll draw a card forcing you to sink a tile on a specific peninsula. Misfortune card disasters may eliminate a portion of a peninsula with workers on it. These workers are forced to return to the player and fail to resolve their action that round.

After players gather resources, the final action of the round is to endure the wrath of the gods. This means players will mutually decide on a number of island tiles to sink that round. As the game progresses, the number of island tiles the wrath of the gods eliminates increases, constantly raining more havoc and building more urgency.

While you are at the mercy of the ultimate impending disaster, players aren’t necessarily helpless. While each player’s councilor has their own unique abilities, there are a number of additional ways to mitigate the oncoming doom. Players can build a mystic barrier temporarily retaining a piece of the island, play library cards that provide benefits and play cosmic energy that could even resurrect a lost island tile.

Of course, the goal is to build the cosmic gate and save the Atlantians. Made up of 9 component tiles and 1 power core tile. Each of the component tiles require a single player to fully satisfy the resources needed to build it. Once the 9 component tiles have been individually built, players come together to cooperatively build the final power core.

If the power core can be built prior to the final island tile sinking, the players save the people and win the game.

COMPONENTS

Simple stated, the components are WOW! The resources are all uniquely shaped and painted acrylic gems or resin bars. The mystic energy tokens have a transparent-blue glass like feel. All the cardboard pieces (player boards, cosmic gate tiles and island pieces) are all thick cardboard. You will not feel cheated here at all.

The unique shape and functionality of the island board is worth the price of admission alone. It is so satisfying to flip each tile and visibly see the island sinking into the ocean. It’s certainly one of those times when you hate to see them go, but love to watch them leave.

The game features wooden council and worker markers. There are 8 uniquely shaped councilors, each with their own color. It isn’t necessary for each player to have a unique player maker, but it’s a nice touch that further proves this production is a winner.

The game’s card decks are all satisfactory along with 2, chunky, oversized dice to enhance your rolling flavor.

ARTWORK

Vincent Dutrait proves once again why he’s one of the best in the business. The artwork throughout the game is nothing less than enchanting. The combination of quality components and artwork combine to create one of the best board game presentations I’ve ever played. Graphic design is equally engaging. Instruction is clear and complements everything superbly.

While all the artwork is fantastic, I’d like to highlight both the individual player boards and the central island. Each double-sided player board features a beautiful rendering of both a male and female Atlantian under that specific title. They all have a sense of danger, mystery and personality giving them each their own voice. The island board serves as both a functional space for the workers to be placed as well as a wonderful, central piece of art. Each peninsula, seamlessly segways from one source of resource to another defined by the terrain. It’s all top notch.

MY THOUGHTS

I’ve had the chance to play Atlantis Rising 8 times now with a variety of player counts. I think it’s also important to mention I’m not a huge fan of cooperative games. I can’t stand letting other players determine my success and failure… and that’s where Atlantis Rising transcends the genre. It doesn’t bother me for a minute that Atlantis Rising is cooperative. There always seems to be plenty of opportunity to contribute on your own terms. While we are in this together, in some small way, success (or failure) still rests on your own shoulders. While it’s necessary for efficiency purposes to communicate your plan of action with your fellow players, you still are responsible for your own actions.

I’ll start with the obvious: The presentation of Atlantis Rising is amazing. The artwork and components suck you right in. I love just setting the game up and letting it sit on the table. The components look and feel great, the island board has a great shape and unique mechanism and the artwork is brilliant. Irregardless of gameplay, this is a game that calls to you based on production alone.

Fortunately, the game isn’t style over substance. There is a tension in the game that builds as you move forward. While there might be small victories over the shroud of impending doom, the end is closing in and you feel it. That tension creates more emphasis with each roll of the dice. Every decision becomes more important than the last. All-in-all, this creates a thoroughly engaging experience.

So, it’s clear that I’m a fan of Atlantis Rising, but will you be? One the game’s primary mechanics can be a source of division. For the majority of the game you’re placing a worker and resolving that action with a die roll. This means there is a decent amount of luck in the game and that can weigh on some people’s enjoyment. I know some of you hate games with luck. It is what it is, but I will say Atlantis Rising does a good job of providing plenty of avenues to alleviate those bad rolls. You have the opportunity to spend tokens giving you additional points to your roll. Many of the councilors have abilities that allow you to validate a failed die roll or re-roll entirely.

One way to keep luck on your side is to play closer to the end of each peninsula. The further from the center you place a worker, the easier the goals are to achieve. Sadly, this is where nature first takes its toll. Placement on the tips of the peninsula can lead to the ground sinking right beneath your worker, leaving you empty handed. This push-your-luck element can lead to big rewards and painful failures.

DIFFERENT PLAYER COUNTS

While the heart of the game doesn’t change with different player counts. A solo game feels very similar to a game with 4 and 5 players. The only major changes are managing the personalities of the people in your game. Sure, a 2 and 3-player game gives you additional workers up front, but the game still functions the same. Since much of the game is simultaneously executed, the length of the game really rests on the people involved.

REPLAYABILITY

Replayability is high here. The rulebook provides a number of different variants to the game, allowing you to adjust the difficulty as you see fit. The game includes 2 additional AI characters that can be tacked on to your game to create a slightly different experience. There are also a number of different cosmic gate tiles, so playing with a new set will create different goals. The misfortune deck can also be adjusted for an easier or greater challenge.

VERDICT

I don’t typically love cooperative games and I’m usually not a fan of luck-based games, but I’m a big fan of Atlantis Rising. The beautiful production is one of the best I’ve ever seen. The simultaneous gameplay and the elevating tension keep everyone engaged at all times. There are a number of interesting decisions and they all feel important – I never wanted to waste an action. The game’s difficulty is highly adjustable and the player count is diverse at 1-7 players. Despite its perceived complexity, Atlantis Rising is a relatively simple game that is easy to teach and quick to learn. It is never overly complex, but still feels rich. I also appreciate that, for it’s number of components, it is pretty easy to set up and tear down. Some may not enjoy the amount of luck in the game, but I think it does a fair job to give the player plenty of opportunity to get out ahead of it. Atlantis Rising is a quality game that provides a huge value for its cost. I highly recommend it.

HOW THE GAME PLAYS

Each player receives their own private island ready to develop. Players also each receive a handful of workers represented by colored cubes, ready and able to get to work. In Anno, each worker is specialized in executing specific level tasks and can only be used for those benefits.

Spread across the center of the table is a sprawling selection of industry tiles ranging from simple, common products such as bread and liquor to more complex creations like tractors and ship turrets. While each player’s island comes equipped with the same predetermined tiles relating to farming and industries that produce basic building blocks such as steel and brick, players will use their workers to produce resources in an effort to grow their communities’ industrial abilities.

In addition to resource gathering, players will be attempting to satisfy the demands of the population represented by a series of cards corresponding to each worker’s cube. More basic workers will request things like soap and canned goods, but as your population grows and evolves, with greater abilities comes more extravagant wants.

Fulfilling these population cards is key to scoring influence points to win the game. This is an interesting dynamic to the game. The game ends when one player has no population cards remaining, but fulfilling certain population cards provides additional workers which in-turn cause you to draw new worker cards. This was a little daunting over my first play of the game. About 4 or 5 turns into the game I wondered if anyone would ever be able to rid themselves of all their population cards – they seemed to be reproducing faster than I could fulfill them. I’m happy to report in hindsight that as the population grows into a more modern community, those more modern population cards begin to limit your ability to draw additional cubes and equally allow players to strike cards from their hand.

So it’s a bit of an engine building adventure. I often found myself carefully planning my pursuits many turns in advance. In order to upgrade your population, certain resources are required, but those resources always seem to be 2 or 3 additional resources beyond your reach. I found it to be pretty satisfying every time I was able to achieve a new industry title that took me 4 or 5 turns to achieve.

The trade building aspect of the game provides players with a necessary means to expand your island as well as expanding your entire working strategy.

Docks and ships go hand-in-hand. Docks are only capable of producing ships with a limited benefit and upgrading those to a higher producing facility is necessary for efficiently managing your trades and expansion. There are 2 distinct types of ships each producing their own navel benefit.

The first ship resource is the ability to trade. These trade tokens can be used to acquire resources from opponents’ islands. Players cannot deny someone who wants to trade, but they do receive gold as payment in exchange. I quickly discovered finding a balance between your imports and exports was essential to both your efficiency and growth.

Ships also produce exploration tokens. Similar to the trade tokens, exploration tokens can be exhausted to achieve certain population card goals, but they primarily serve as a means to expand your island by exploring the old world (adding additional tile spots to your island) and the new world (giving you exclusive access to things such as tobacco, cotton and rubber).

In addition to the population cards, influence can be gained through a series of community objective cards as well as expedition cards which provide end game goals.

DIFFERENT PLAYER COUNTS

Most of the available industry cards on the gameboard come in pairs. This means in a 2-player game, you likely won’t have to wrestle over the availability of that industry tiles you so desperately need. You would think those tiles would become a more rare commodity in larger player counts… and you’d be right. But the flexibility in the game’s strategy helps mitigate this issue. With more players, more emphasis is placed on your ability to trade for those resources and creates a potentially different dynamic than in a 2 player game (not to undersell the need to trade in a 2-player game).

By my 3rd play of the game, decisions began to move pretty quickly. I found the game could be played in 90 minutes with 2 players. While the turns move fairly quickly, some of the think-y decisions are going to force the game to slow down at times and this will obviously be felt at higher player counts.

Ultimately, the heart of the game doesn’t change with the player count and I would recommend this at any of the game’s player combinations.

COMPONENTS

Anno 1800 is primarily made up of player boards, cardboard tokens and tiles, wooden cubes and deck of cards. The tiles and tokens are all solid and feel fine in your hands.

Setting up the primarily game board with the 120 industry/construction tiles is a chore though. The box doesn’t provide an insert, so I had to get a little creative in how I stored these tiles in a way that made setup easier for the next game.

The card decks are a little flimsy, but it’s not a major complaint – they got the job done. I do wish the player boards were a little sturdier – they just seemed a little too thin for my liking. Overall, the components are fine, they just didn’t wow me.

ARTWORK

While the components didn’t wow me, the artwork definitely did in spots. The box cover is beautiful and a lot of the board backs feature pretty amazing artwork. I’m not sure how much of this was taken from the video game, but it’s new to me! The population cards definitely have more of a video game vibe. That being the case, the artwork of the people do look great though. I also felt the iconography throughout the game was really clear and strong. Some of the industry tile illustrations were a little small and fuzzy, but they were ok. Each player is also provided a game aid that helps identify everything in doubt.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Anno 1800 has been a bit of a roller coaster for me. I played my first game of Martin Wallace’s Brass: Birmingham only 4-5 months ago and I still wake up with sweats, reliving some of the game’s difficult decisions. How would Anno compare in weight to Brass?

For better or for worse, Anno is not nearly as heavy a game. This certainly sits in that sweet mid-weight euro spot for fans of the genre who don’t want to exhaust their ability to function. For me, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing at all.

The first play of any new game is wrought with exploration and strategic wondering. From a visual sense, I had honestly expected a bigger game on the table. Anno is full of flat cardboard pieces and despite some nice artwork, didn’t get me that excited.

As I played through that first game, the decisions didn’t seem that interesting, and while the potential for fun was there – it seemed underwhelming. I really liked the idea of expanding your island as well as exploring the “new world”, but I didn’t take full advantage of it. Many of the industry tiles seemed out of reach and unnecessary for my short-sighted goals. As I mentioned earlier, after 4 or 5 turns, I wasn’t sure the game would ever end. I was obviously wrong, and as I wrapped up that first play, I began to see where I failed to utilize my workers and maximize more scores. I probably didn’t love it, but I was intrigued.

The second play found me quickly building my fleet of ships and boldly growing my population without the fear of a 4 or 5 hour game. I enjoyed the challenges of building larger docks and upgrading my population.

I also begin to see the fragile balance of upgrading your population too fast. Upgrading your workers too fast can leave certain industries without the necessary worker to efficiently produce the resources you still need. It was a tough lesson, but I really appreciated the challenge and looked forward to a more responsible approach. I also dabbled more in trading. Attempting to produce my own resources (primarily out of pride that first game) was just stupid. You obviously need to balance your exports or you end up spending all your gold and being left with no means to acquire those needed resources in a fair amount of time. In this sense, everyone is kind of working together, careful to only build out the absolutely necessary industries while leveraging your opponents achievements.

By the third play, I was chopping at the bit. I can’t remember a game that I initially felt so luke-warm on after 1 play and completely did a 360.

While it wasn’t initially evident to me, I really began to appreciate the game’s multiple paths to victory. I’m not sure how many games I can play before it begins to get a little tired, but right now, replayability sits pretty high. There did seem to be a hint of Feast of Odin in Anno and that is a very positive thing.

VERDICT

It took a bit to grow on me, but I really warmed up to Anno 1800. For me, the theme feels good: I love the old world construction and imagery. I also appreciate the diverse group of people and the silly things they ask for (kielbasa and fur coats, anyone?) They add a lot of fun and personality to the game.

The lack of a definitive set number of rounds was a little intimidating – especially after the initial shock of my rapidly growing workforce. It’s true – I did think the game would last forever, but now I appreciate the delicate balance between recklessly extending the game and efficiently managing your workers to optimize the game’s arch.

On the downside, Anno 1800 could be a little dry and serious for some tastes. The setup is also a bit of a bear, but for those willing to buy in – it won’t be an issue.

This is a think-y game that benefits those who relish careful planning and want just enough interaction to remind them other players are out there. In fact, effectively leveraging your opponents wealth can be hugely beneficial and central to your strategy.

There does seem to be a number of approaches you can take to the game and a lot of interesting industry paths to explore. The revolving objective cards help keep the game fresh as well. I really enjoyed the theme, mechanics and decision making in this one. This is definitely one I would endorse for someone looking for a medium-weight euro that provides an engaging theme and interesting challenges.

HOW IT PLAYED

Your goal in Florenza is to earn your family the most prestige points. Players do that by establishing workshops that produce valuable raw materials and hiring the most prominent artist.

In typical, Euro-game fashion, there are multiple scoring tracks that contribute to earning your prestige points. You’ll want to carefully plan your ascent up these tracks because each turn, the leader of each track receives valuable benefits such as earning first player, gaining and limiting opponents total workers available, and securing choice artist in exchange for their position on the track.

Players can move up the Church Influence track and Prestige track each round through a variety of different methods such as building workshops tiles, and hiring artists to complete works in both your home district and influential areas around the city.

In turn order, players will make use of their available assistants who can secure resources or establish the intention to build a workshop location. What makes Florenza standout is in its mentally compelling planning process. While placing your workers, you’re simultaneously planning for bigger and better acquisitions and accomplishments. Players won’t receive those resources, build workshops or earn those benefits until later in the round. You often find yourself lost in a mental puzzle where your brain works tirelessly to strategically plan out your attack. Executing your actions becomes an absurd, abstract game of dominoes where any action may be critical to the success of one or all your remaining actions. Failure to properly plan can be brutal. In a game where maximizing your actions is key, being able to squeeze just a little more out of your actions can be a serious difference maker.

When placing your assistants (or Kinsmen), players can do a variety of options such as operate an existing workshop, building a new one, hiring an artist, giving to charity, trading in the market, running your own family business or hiring a captain of fortune. Each option will provide slightly different ways to achieve resources, funding and additional assistants necessary to expand your turn and your opportunities.

Each action has its own rewards and costs. One of the unique actions to the game is that a player can place their worker on an opponent’s workshop, operating it and eventually earning that workshop’s production. In return that player loses a prestige point that is transferred to the opponent who unsuspectingly rented out his workshop. This can be both a positive and negative for both parties involved. While one prestige point may not make the difference in victory or defeat, it can certainly provide a benefit for finishing first on the track for that round.

The game takes place over 7 turns and at the end of each turn, players have the opportunity to receive the Captain of the People and the Bishop depending on their current position on the church and prestige tracks. This is where the slow and the traditional steady question their approach. Slowly climbing either track may never allow you to attain either of these two round bonuses as players are constantly arranging their plans in an effort to finish on top in any specific round. The Captain of the People allows you to define a resource each player receives that round and detain a priest or artist exclusively for your use. Gaining the Bishop allows you to remove one assistant from each opponent’s pool and provide yourself an additional assistant for that round. While stealing from a players pool might seem minimal early in the game, removing an assistant can leave a player at a serious disadvantage later in the game when they’re needed the most.

A few other interesting mechanics employed by the game is the revealing of the priests and artists. Priests are necessary when attempting to give to charity and an artist is hired when building a workshop through the city. Hiring a more expensive Priest or Artist will give you the opportunity to earn additional benefits and prestige points. A limited number of priests and artists are available and they cycle through over the course of the game with each round revealing an additional number of characters previously removed. In addition to the 34 historical artists and 6 priests, players can also use the game’s “el cheapo” characters to serve in their place. These characters cost little or no money and produce negative or very little bonuses.

CRUNCHY DECISIONS

Far and away, the most standout strategic piece in the game is assigning your workers. Effectively and efficiently placing your workers seems straightforward, but as the game progresses, determining what to pursue, hoping to achieve it before your opponents and securing the necessary funding and resources will definitely challenge your mental capacity. Additionally, by round 3 or 4, you’re likely doing it multiple times each planning phase. I really enjoyed attempting to maximize my turns and keep my personal round goals organized in my mind.

DIFFERENT PLAYER COUNTS

Florenza plays 1-5 players. I didn’t play the game solo, but there is a fairly robust solo system where the difficulty can be adjusted. I enjoyed my 2-player game, but higher player counts is where this gets more cut-throat. Being able to play off each other’s workshops made me question building certain valuable workshops – would I even be able to use them or would my dirty opponents sneak in there before me. Of course, they are all facing that same moral dilemma. Additionally, earning the Captain of the People and the right to play first was really elevated with more people. This is a think-y game and players will be prone to analysis paralysis, so playing with more players can exponentially increase the game’s time length.

COMPONENTS

Overall, I was fairly pleased with the game’s components. The cardboard and wooden pieces were all acceptable and the playing cards were nice enough. There are a lot of components in this game. This is a warning for players who hate long setup time. I’ve played worse, but there are stacks of prestige points and workshops and tokens that are just going to take a long time to set up. Unfortunately, this will inevitably limit how often this game gets to the table for certain gamers.

ARTWORK

The game’s artwork does a decent job of embracing the art of the renaissance and sharing it. I loved seeing the depiction of each famous artist. The board is this sprawling layout with illustrations of the city’s notable locations. While the artwork itself is fine, the overall presentation is very beige and a bit overwhelming. In my mind they would have elevated the artwork with a little more color contrast. Upon first glance, the primary board is a lot to look at. From an aesthetic standpoint, I really appreciate the more abstract approach, but I feel it may have benefited from a little more structure.

I also really struggled with the game’s iconography. It took me a while to get a real grasp on it… which is fine, it happens in a lot of games. But even after getting a good understanding, they’re really small with a lot of detail crammed in and it became a little frustrating to quickly identify. Again, I appreciate the artist’s touch here, but the gamer in me wasn’t very happy.

Finally, learning this game with the guidance of the rulebook is going to be a chore. I highly recommend finding a play through online once you’ve read through it and familiarize yourself with all the pieces. I’m not saying you can’t grasp the game through the rulebook, but it was an uphill climb for me. Now that I understand the game, going back through the rulebook makes a lot of sense, but the terminology, busy presentation and general complexity were hard to get a handle on.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Florenza is obviously a passion project for those involved in the production and this edition is proof there was enough fan-fare to justify a 10th anniversary edition. As an art director and euro-gamer I loved the theme and had a great time playing this game. For those willing to invest both in understanding the intricacies of the game and heart of the competition – there is a lot here to enjoy.

Unfortunately, there is a lot here that keeps me from fully recommending this. Learning this game is going to take some investment. Setup and teardown time could be an issue. It’s very beige (only half kidding there). The biggest question mark for me was the primary game board. Outside of a nod to historical accuracy, I can’t quite understand the separate districts on the board. There were mild distinctions (such as the overall level of benefit when you build), but for me, it all kinda seemed the same. There were a couple places you could play such as the market or giving to charity, but there seemed to be a lot of space for a little payoff. I would have enjoyed it if each district had some sort of unique requirement and payoff.

Another thing that Florenza could have seriously benefited from would have been individual round/phase resource sheets. There is one in the rulebook, but it’s tough to share amongst 4 players. Now there is a comprehensive resources sheet for the game’s workshops. This identifies the cost and benefit and everything you can build in the game. While this seems like a solid addition, it was so overwhelming (small size and tons of info) that I only glanced at it a couple of times.

Despite those hangups, I’m really happy I had the opportunity to play Florenza. I love how challenging it is and the historical theme is really interesting. For hardcore, euro-gamers… Yes, this is a lot of fun. There is a lot of satisfaction when you’re able to chain together a number of actions and ultimately conquer that elusive workshop worth 13 or 14 prestige points. That being said, replay ability is probably fairly low. The time it takes to get it to the table and the circumstances (finding the right gaming group) make this one a challenge in more ways than one. I really want to show this to my gaming group, but in the time it takes to set up and tear down, we could have played a couple more fillers and had some good laughs. Maybe the key is after you’re finished playing, you just sweep the game off the table into a big plastic bag.

VERDICT

I really enjoyed Florenza: X Anniversary Edition – it’s right up my alley, but I would be very hesitant to recommend this. It’s very niche and needs to be in the hands of the right audience who will appreciate what it brings to the table.

HOW THE GAME PLAYS

Embarcadero takes place over 3 rounds, with 5 individual actions each round.

While there are a number of strategies available to earn victory points, players will have 3 primary areas of interest and 3 end-of-round scoring goals.

Embarcadero is an engine building euro, requiring players to manage multiple avenues to achieve success. Players earn recurring resources by drawing and building Building, Landmark and Ship cards. Building and Landmark cards will allow players to physically place 3-D structures in the harbor. Players earn points and benefits by aggressively and strategically jockeying for prime real estate. Position matters, and each built structure can provide critically important needs that may change throughout the game.

Before building anything, players will be required to bring in shipping vessels to provide the foundations for these buildings. Taking too much of the wharf will cost you, but can also provide residual benefits. You may even benefit from “sinking” a ship in the port, losing that vessel’s resource benefits, but providing a more concrete foundation for building.

The Council Track serves both a thematic purpose, where players work the local politicians, and a practical purpose by providing much needed bonuses and end-round and end-game scoring benefits. Players can advance on the Council track by building away from a wharf but adjacent to an opponent’s structure.

The end-of-round bonus can lead to big points for each player. Each round has a standard scoring bonus that includes structures built adjacent to the wharf, progress on the Council Track and a combination of the two. But, to keep things interesting, random end-of-round cards are available in addition to the standard end-of-round scoring that provides points for players with a variety of goals such as the most ships built or most buildings of a certain type.

Embarcadero has an interesting turn mechanic. During a player’s turn, they have 2 separate phases: The Action Phase and the Buy Phase. The Action phase allows players to populate the harbor from their hand or scrap a card earning an immediate benefit. The Buy Phase requires players to choose from a selection of Building, Ship and potentially Landmark cards available. Players will pay the required cost to bring the card into their hand. From there players must discard 1 card onto their personal player board. This will be done 5 times each round and the discarded cards will then become that players hand the next round. This is an interesting opportunity for players to plan beyond the round and work toward future building goals.

Each player takes on the role of a real life, late 19th century, San Francisco-based business mogul. There are 2 different play modes where all players start the game on equal footing or each player may use their character’s unique, asymmetrical ability that provide once-per-round and reoccurring benefits.

The game continues for the 3 rounds, contracting ships, earning resources and growing your empire. Ultimately, the player with the highest score is declared the victor.

COMPONENTS

This component-rich game definitely fills up the box. While some of the wharf/inland extension tiles (used to extend the wharf or provide a foundation for building without a ship) and resource tokens are a little small, there is plenty to get excited about here.

Cards and individual boards are up to the standard we’ve come to expect from a Renegade Game’s produced game.

The real standouts here are the ship pieces that feature individually beveled notches perfectly sized to house the building structures. This is a great feature, providing stability in a game that simulates building a model city. The individual structure pieces are all made of plastic and bring a ton of personality and fun to the game. Each player’s wooden scoring marker is shaped as a unique tool – another nice detail in the game.

There is a plastic insert in the box, but it only goes so far in a game featuring multiple decks, game boards, tiles, tokens, coins and plastic structures. Most of the components end up in plastic bags and can make setup and tear down a bit of a chore.

Overall, the components are high-quality, original and engaging… I’m a big fan.

ARTWORK

The artwork in Embarcadero is simply charming. Artist, Janos Orban, has done a fantastic job capturing the time period. Everything from the characters, boards and cards immediately draw you in and richly immerse you in the theme. There are so many unique cards, each with their own illustrations that truly adds to the overall value of the game. Artwork gets a big, vintage thumbs up from me!

MY THOUGHTS

At first glance for me, Embarcadero gave off the impression of a serious, market-driven, euro-style game. I understood it was an engine builder, but it certainly had the vibe (at least for me) as grinder or a brain burner.

Embarcadero actually does a very good job combining it’s mechanics into a tight, smooth, thematic, light to medium-weight experience. This one took me by surprise at how down right delightful it is!

The source of the games appeal starts with its theme. The game’s production hits this one out of the park. Brimming with it’s turn of the century, San Fran empire-building personality, the detail given to the production isn’t wasted. So much attention is given to the artwork and components to ensure you’re fully emerged in this time in history. It’s a very nice looking, mature approach and it does a lot to elevate the experience. As I think about many of the game’s aspects, quality is a word that keeps coming to mind.

This carries over to the individual game cards. Each card features a uniquely illustrated ship, character or piece of property. Not only does the artwork succeed in producing a rich looking experience, the choices they provide give credence to the gameplay.

Gameplay as a whole was very straightforward and full of interesting decisions. But the decisions never bogged down the flow of the game. It’s fairly easy to get your engine up and running and really becomes an enjoyable experience versus a typical means to bigger and better things. Now Embarcadero isn’t just another engine builder. There are plenty of unique pieces at play here that boost the game’s strategy and personal investment.

I love how each turn requires you to purchase a card from the market and then play a card that will be available to you on a future round. There is so much involved in this simple mechanic. Not only are you playing for the present round, but you’re simultaneously charting a course for the future. Are the resources going to be available when the time comes to pull the trigger on that card you stashed away or will you be stuck with a brilliant scoring opportunity that never pans out?

The game plays fairly quickly, lasting only 3 rounds with 5 actions each round and it does its best to cram as much into the game without bogging it down.

The Council Track and end of round scoring objectives do give the game a euro feel, but don’t play too heavy. While they’re necessary for success in the game, they aren’t going to present choices that are too difficult or cause heavy analysis paralysis. This game isn’t trying to be super heavy – it’s happy sitting in the middle ground.

I think the only gameplay issue that really stood out to me was how the game plays at different player counts. While this is an enjoyable experience for 2 players, a lot of the potential tension (and fun) gets lost. You really need 3 or 4 to ratchet up the engagement and aggression as you race for the choice spots around the wharf. The Council Track takes on new meaning in a 3 or 4 player game as you receive additional points for players sitting in your rear view.

Setup can be a bit of a drag as well. While Renegade did their best to produce a usable insert, there are a lot of pieces in this one and opening and emptying 10 plastic baggies can be a pain. It’s not the end of the world, but it is worth mentioning. While I love the game’s components, some are pretty small and can be a problem for fat fingers. If you’re not careful, your city of 20 or 30 house structures can quickly come tumbling to the ground. The game’s producers made an admirable effort knowing this might be the case: Each ship tile is dual-layered with beveled notches to hold each house. This definitely helps the situation, but accidents can still happen.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Embarcadero is a medium/medium-light weight engine builder with a bit of area control and a small dose of euro-style track management. It all works together smoothly. Even if the theme doesn’t do it for you, I’d encourage you with this: this is a game of substance over style. If you’re enamored with the theme, the beautiful artwork and fancy components and fear it may be an empty shell of a game: this is a game of substance over style. Fans of engine builders will find plenty to enjoy here. Embarcadero is certainly stylish and this delivers if you’re in the market for a more sophisticated theme. While the game is plenty enjoyable at 2 players, there is certainly more meat on the bone at 3 or 4. This is a game that seems to be flying a bit under the radar – so if any of this seems appealing – I’d encourage you to give Embarcadero a closer look.

HOW TO PLAY THE GAME

Lions of Lydia is an economic engine-builder that keeps on giving. The base game involves each player receiving a merchant board and working to manipulate the city gates and town center. In addition, Lions of Lydia adds 8 additional expansions readily available to spice up and adjust the game to suit your preferences. We’ll discuss the base game and then break down how the expansions affect gameplay.

During the game players will take turns drawing a merchant from their bag and putting them to work on the board. You start with 4 merchants, each reflecting a unique resource color and you’ll end the game with 4 merchants – always drawing 1 and then placing 1 back in the bag. Over the course of the game, players will acquire properties and eventually develop them earning additional benefits and increasing their value. The game ends when one player reaches a certain number of developed properties contingent on the number of players.

On the typical turn, players will draw a merchant from their bag and choose to place that merchant at one of the 4 town gates or at the fountain in the town center. They will then select a merchant of their choice from the fountain and place them into their bag.

Each gate features a unique color that relates directly to one of the game’s resources (cattle, wheat, stone and pottery). When a merchant is placed at a gate, the player receives resources equal to the type of color of all that gate’s merchants and the gate’s color. If you happen to place a merchant at a gate with a merchant of the same color, the two merchants will travel together to the town fountain after the resources are gathered.

Playing a merchant at the fountain will allow that player to purchase one of the game’s available properties. The number of properties available for purchase is determined by the player count, but are never refilled… once they’re gone, they’re gone!

There are 3 different types of property cards: gold, silver and purple. Each type of card features a cost to purchase that property. In addition, each card provides the purchaser a bonus earning you additional resources when you play merchants, end game bonuses. Gold cards will integrate gold merchants into the game which can be used to gain coins when placed at the gates. End game bonuses typically revolve around multiplying sets of colored cards or certain resources still available on your player board.

Each property card also carries a value that will count towards your final score. Developing that property will be the same cost as purchasing it, but will increase the overall value as well as enhance the bonus available.

Players will gain and spend resources as the game progresses. No player may have more than 6 of any 1 resource. Maxing out a resource gives you the option to develop a property or increase your influence track.

Increasing the influence track will earn you bonuses, but more importantly increase the number of properties you can have in your possession. As you continue to progress you’ll eventually be able to translate influence into endgame wealth.

EXPANSIONS

Each expansion brings unique choices and opportunities as well as complexity to the game. While you could go wild and play with all 8 expansions, it’s only recommended to add 1-4 at a time. I’ll list the expansions and briefly describe each below:

1) King Croesus: This expansion creates a rondel mechanism within the gates. If you play at the gate housing the king you take one additional gate-colored resource and then move the king to another gate.

2) Waters of Pactolus: This expansion introduces 4 fountain property cards. These cards play like standard gold cards, but allow players to gain coins by playing at the fountain.

3) Artisian’s Guild: This expansion adds 4 artisan merchants to the game. These merchants sit on your influence track and when achieved enter the game at the fountain. They essentially act as a wild, matching a particular merchant color when played at a gate.

4) Courtyards: This expansion adds 4 courtyard tiles. Playing on your courtyard tile allows you to reserve this merchant for a future turn.

5) Alyattes’ Tomb: Tomb tiles can be purchased and effectively put to “death” a specific resource color. You can no longer receive that particular resource, but when you do, you will receive gold coins instead.

6) Royal Architects: Architect tiles attach to each gate of the main board. Playing here earns you access to property in the two adjacent sections as well as a bonus.

7) Chariot Races: Whenever two matching color merchants meet at the gate, one is placed in the fountain area while the other moves to the Chariot Race board. As additional merchants are added to the board, players may spend a certain number of resources to gain gold or influence.

8) Estates; Estates sit under gold cards and can be purchased after the gold card has been removed. Estate tiles are then placed on top of developed properties. They remove that card’s bonuses, but add a value multiplier for the end of game scoring.

COMPONENTS

Lions of Lydia has a nice mix of quality components. Each player gets a nice quality drawstring bag. The resource tokens and merchant meeples are pretty standard. The die-cut player resource boards and primary board are all really good quality along with all the expansions tiles. Property cards are the smaller size cards, but they feel great – no complaints. While the game’s coins aren’t metal, they are much nicer than your typical cardboard coins. Overall, everything has a nice presence and feel.

ARTWORK

Darryl T. Jones does a fine job with the artwork throughout. The Lydian merchant on the box cover is engaging. All the property cards and game boards have a great, consistent vibe to them. Overall the game looks really cool – it should make you want to play this.

MY THOUGHTS

As I write this I have just finished reviewing Merchants Cove which was developed by a trio of designers including Jonny Pac who just happens to be the sole designer of Lions of Lydia. I’m not entirely sure what role he played in Merchants Cove, but I really enjoyed it and was looking forward to this. Jonny has a great track record with games like Colombra, A Fistfull of Meeples and Sierra West under his belt, so it’s not that crazy to have high expectations.

The basic actions in Lions of Lydia are pretty simple. The game revolves around playing a single meeple, managing your resources and growing your collection of properties. While it doesn’t break too much ground, I did enjoy the economic process behind Lions of Lydia. The turns are smooth and clear, leaving your decision maker to do the heavy lifting. Gameplay isn’t too intense, but it does have some tension-filled moments.

For me, Lions of Lydia baby-steps it way forward for most of the game and then just before it’s over, races forward in a wild grab for the remaining goods. I found it difficult to develop a strategy since you’re often at the mercy of the other player’s actions. Despite the ever-changing options at the gates and fountain (or even after that card you had your eye on gets snatched), there isn’t too much analysis paralysis when choosing your next play.

There’s never a BIG play where you feel like everything is coming together. The game is really a series of smaller victories loosely chained together.

Despite your opponents meddling in the same pot, the game is fairly solo-based. I typically don’t mind that, but that is something to consider. The option to play defensively is out there, but I found seeking to play defensively can often hurt you more than your opponent.

Where I most enjoyed Lions of Lydia was working to balance my resources while keeping up with the property trade. Should you wait to max out a resource early and increase your property hand limit or dive directly into purchasing a property the moment you’re able? I’m very conservative with my finances in real life… which doesn’t always translate to victory in a game like Lions. There did seem to be a bit of a rush early to gain property cards providing benefits that might compliment your starting card or goals. Of course you’ll hit a wall if you’re unable to add additional property cards, so quickly seeking to upgrade your influence track soon follows. Here’s the rub: Taking too long in your resource pursuits will give your opponents the opportunity to snatch those coveted property cards right out from under you. You must walk the line carefully.

Once you’ve purchased that property card you now have the opportunity to upgrade it and earn extra bonuses. But… is that really what you want to do? Sure, upgrading your properties earn you more points (which is how you win the game) and bigger bonuses, but perhaps those resources or money might better be spent on an additional property card helping you keep the pressure on your opponents. There are only so many property cards to go around. After just a few games, I realized victory could be had by taking multiple approaches. You’ll definitely be able to pull out a win without upgrading your developed properties or even having the most properties. I appreciated this flexibility.

With only so many property cards available for purchase, you are a bit at the mercy of the cards available. Sometimes this works to your benefit… sometimes it won’t. The sooner you can identify what’s available and put some contingencies in place, the better off you’ll be. All this to say there are some interesting decisions throughout.

Integrating the expansions into the game do provide some variation. The changes to the game aren’t terribly substantial, but they do provide some interesting wrinkles that can factor into your success (or failure). While I found the expansions to be fun, they weren’t essential to my enjoyment of the game. In fact, I think I would have preferred (at the risk of making the game more unnecessarily complex) 2 or 3 of the best expansions to be tied into the base game and developed a little more. Again, not to say I didn’t appreciate the expansions… they’re nice and extend the life of the game… just not essential for me.

Coming into the game, I was pretty excited about the theme. The artwork and components tie in nicely to the theme, so I expected to be fully immersed in this period of economic change. Unfortunately, I just didn’t feel it. This is my major point of contention. While the process makes sense thematically, it never felt fully engaged. I really wanted to build my influence in society earning me more sway in purchasing properties. I wanted to feel the value of these life-altering coins… but I never really did. I just continued to play my actions, working towards my goal of having the most points.

At the end of the day, Lions of Lydia felt more like a racing game than an economic engine-builder. You’re a bit at the mercy of what’s available on your turn (at the gates or property-wise) so you’ll need to be able to think on your toes. I generally get more satisfaction out of being able to properly plan my actions, but the reactive decisions create a frenzy that any player can appreciate.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Lions of Lydia is a solid, euro-style game. I enjoyed the game’s process and a lot of the decision making. The theme didn’t quite pan out, but the production and artwork are solid and they give the game a decent amount of flare. I wanted the expansions to elevate the gameplay a bit more, but I like that there are 8 different options you can mix and match to create a slightly different experience each time. I think a seasoned euro-gamer might potentially find the game a bit tedious, so I’d recommend this more for the player looking to get into euro games (it’s a gateway euro). The gameplay is smooth, easy to learn, pretty quick to play and has a number of interesting decisions. My initial plays were fun, but because of my issues with the theme, I just don’t know how often Lions of Lydia will make it to my table.