Landscaping

When you first unfurl the neoprene playmat the game takes place on, you’d be forgiven for giving a groan. A groan of “Oh no, this is going to be really complicated, and take ages“. Despite the bright colours and sharp printing, there are things to look at all over the place, which gives it an air of something more complex than it actually is. Oath’s grand scale belies a game that is actually easier to play than you’d think.

Rather than replicate the asymmetry of a previous game like Root, Oath drops all of the players into one of two roles to start with. You’re either the Chancellor – the big character with a sign on their back saying ‘Insert knife here’, or an exile – the ones looking to partake in the stabby-stabby action. Roughly speaking, the Chancellor wants to remain the Oathkeeper (the person ruling the most sites) until the end of the game, and the exiles want to usurp them by ruling the most sites, thereby taking the little cardboard Oathkeeper away from the Chancellor.

I’ve grossly oversimplified the game there, but it gives you an impression of what the game is about, which isn’t obvious at first. Players pick from the standard actions available to them, which let them gather more of their chunky Warband meeples, draft and play cards, attack one another, or move their bigger pawn piece around. Actions cost supply points, and you gain supplies back at the end of your turn. The more warbands you have out in the world, away from your player board, the more you have to support them, so the amount of supply you get back is reduced.

It’s a wonderfully simple dynamic that underpins the game. Yes, you can get your little wooden army stomping all over the place, but it’ll cost you, and limit what you can do. As with all things in life, moderation is key. The croutons in Oath’s soup are the Vision cards. Cards which, if drawn, give the exiles new, unique win conditions. The visions change the way each game plays out, and often result in a bit of exile-on-exile fisticuffs, drawing focus away from the relieved Chancellor.

Dictatorship

In many modern Euro games, the players dictate their own paths. They choose what they want to do, and build their strategy around those choices. In contrast, Oath requires you to adapt. You might have a plan, but executing it is another matter. Your actions and reactions affect the game, and the world it exists in, in ways you don’t expect.

Oath is a game that is meant to be played by at least four people, and the same group should be playing every game of the campaign together. The way that unspoken – or blatantly spoken – alliances form and break is brilliant. The game board changes so much as cards and locations are played. It’s like huge swathes of paint being daubed on a canvas, changing what you’re looking at while you’re taking it all in.

The Chancellor acts as a huge target, and playing as it can feel like you’re playing as an AT-AT on Hoth, as Snowspeeders buzz around your legs, trying to bring you down. The Chancellor’s got a wonderful trick up their sleeve, however, whereby they can offer citizenship to an exile, bringing them onside, in exchange for a powerful relic. It’s like the AT-AT pulls one of the rebels to one side and whispers “Look, if you don’t wrap that string around my legs, I’ll buy you a pint“. So now the Chancellor has other people on their side – nice! More twists ensue however, because the citizens can snatch power – and victory – away from the very person who offered them a partnership. It’s just brilliant.

As I sit here now, typing these words and explaining what I love about the game, it makes me want to play it again. And I can do just that. I can simply reset my game to the same state as when I tore the shrinkwrap off of it, and start again with a new group. I just need to find a new group.

Any takers?

Known by the company you keep

Teaching Oath well, and with the right group, is what elevates it from a clever idea to a masterclass in how to make a legacy game. Just, y’know, without all the legacy bits.

There’s a nicely-written book in the box which teaches you how to play, with led examples. If you’ve played Root and used the walkthrough in that, you know the sort of thing. It’s a nice way to do things, and Oath’s is a better teaching aid than Root’s. Understanding the motivation and planning behind why you’re doing, what you’re doing, is the most important part.

Now, while you can learn ahead of time and then teach your group, I believe the better option is to gather the group who’ll be playing through the campaign, and do the teach-and-learn together. The decks are pre-constructed in such a way that every example in the book ensures the cards are where it expects them to be, and I for one don’t much fancy trying to reconstruct them.

The other advantage of learning together is in levelling the battlefield. If nobody has prior experience of the game, then nobody has an advantage during the first session, when you should all be finding your feet. I really want to emphasise the importance of regular group for Oath, because it’s the one factor that will make or break the game. Forming alliances between the Chancellor and Exiles between games is personal and intimate. It weaves the players themselves into the world they’ve made.

The tendrils spawned by your decisions in one game reach far into the following games, tugging at their roots, influencing how they grow.

Final thoughts

Trying to sum up Oath in ~1500 words is a very difficult job. There’s so much I want to tell you. So many small touches that make it special. Every card you draw can cause you headaches, trying to choose where to play it. Trying to keep an eye on what everyone else is doing, while guessing what they might have planned, is something I adore in a game when it’s done well. And Oath does it so well. For such a simple action set to choose from, and with only three roles available in the entire game, Oath has no right to tickle your brain in the way it does.

Kyle Ferrin’s artwork and design choices aren’t just cosmetic. They’re practical. They open the game up. This game could easily have been set in a barren, dystopian future, full of muted browns and greys, as a wargame. It would have worked. It would have been a good game. Instead, it’s a child’s pencil case full of colour and fun. The bright, chunky pieces make the game friendly and less intimidating. The bizarre setting, the way you’re just dropped into an alien world, even the Chancellor’s mask – so much of it has you wondering “What?”. There’s no lore to read. You make it all up. It all helps to elevate the game above a standard theme or setting, which in turn increases its potential cohort of players.

But look, I’m not about to tell you Oath is for everyone. It’s a very thinky game, on the heavier end of medium-weight, which might put you off. It’s a game which takes you by the collar, pushes one arm up behind your back, and demands you find a regular group of people, in order to enjoy it properly. If I didn’t have access to that regular group, I don’t think I’d have enjoyed it as much. Sharing the experience of continuously reshaping the world in which you’re playing is an intrinsic part of the game’s joy. If you’ve got three or four people in your pocket though, and if you want a game that’ll land on your table week after week after week, Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile is borderline essential.

Review copy kindly provided by Leder Games. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

Oath is available from our sponsor – Kienda. Sign-up using this link to get 5% off your first order over £60.

If you enjoyed this review, please consider my Ko-fi membership. It’s cheap, and you’ll make me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile (2021)

Designer: Cole Wehrle
Publisher: Leder Games
Art: Kyle Ferrin
Players: 1-6
Playing time: 60-120 mins

The post Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile Review appeared first on Punchboard.

Cogito Ergo Meeple are the brains behind the Philosophia titles Dare To Be Wise and Floating World, and the upcoming Sci-fi epic, Solar 175. I had the chance to grab some time with them to ask a few questions about the team, their games, and their taste in biscuits.

Interview

Let’s start at the beginning, would you like to introduce yourself, tell us what you do, and let us know a bit more about Cogito Ergo Meeple?

We’re Maddie and Joe, co-owners of tabletop game publishing company Cogito Ergo Meeple. We’ve published two games so far, both of which are big box board games that incorporate sandbox style play. When designing our games, player experience is the highest priority so we work very hard to ensure high quality gameplay through extensive playtesting. We have a new euro style legacy game called Solar 175 which is coming to Kickstarter on the 1st March!

You mentioned your first two games. Those two, the Philosophia titles Dare To Be Wise and Floating World, had classical, historical settings. What was the inspiration behind them?

We are both teachers and the first game started as a fun way to teach our students about ancient Greek Philosophy, hence the ancient Greek setting. For the second game we were inspired by the amazing ukiyo-e artwork of Japan. We have been living and working in Tokyo for the last 6 years and so this city and its rich history was a huge influence on the game.

Morality and ethics are clearly at the heart of what you do, challenging players to think and feel. Is it something you always had in mind for your games?

Yes, engaging with difficult and interesting ideas has always been a key part of what we want our games to be. We love the medium of tabletop games as a method to get people together to interact with complex and difficult ideas in a fun and engaging way. First and foremost our games are designed to be fun but if players also leave the table with a little more knowledge or an improved skill that can only be a good thing!

So looking forward now, to Solar 175. The first thing that strikes me is that it’s a dramatic change in setting. What made you go from designs set in the past, to something based in space?

We’ve always been interested in the concept of exploration within a game and we have been working on the worldbuilding of Solar 175 for many years so we felt this was the next game we had to make! There are actually quite a few similarities between our past games and Solar 175, even though they may sound very different at first glance. Solar 175 could really be seen as a spiritual successor to our last game, Philosophia: Floating World. Both are fast paced games with a deckbuilding/bagbuilding element and a high level of player interaction. Actually the biggest city in the Solar 175 universe is Yurushi which is located where Tokyo is today so many of the same themes come through in both games despite seeming so different at first glance. 

It’s more about the theme of exploration then, rather than any particular setting? That’s really interesting. With Solar 175, how long has it taken you to go from initial concept to what’s about to be launched on Kickstarter? Were there any major changes to the game you can share with us?

Many years! We started off by developing the world and, as time has gone on, the Solar 175 universe has slowly become more vivid in our minds. It has been a long process but it has meant that the gameplay development has been great fun as we had this vast rich universe to create and playtest our game within. The legacy elements came in early in order to allow players to explore the universe we had created and to feel its huge scope and scale. Once the world had developed to a point where we were happy with it, we spent the last 2 years perfecting the gameplay to make sure the player experience was as fun and engaging as we had envisioned. 

One major change to the game along the design process was the core mechanics. We settled on an interaction of bag building, area control and worker placement mechanics, all of which we feel match the theme really well and provide engaging and interesting gameplay experiences. However, early on we set our sights on the card drafting mechanic but it just didn’t hit the mark. It worked well for the first few games but it just didn’t have the level of replayability we were looking for. 

Thanks for the insight, I find it fascinating to know what ends up on the Cutting Room floor. Solar 175 has the addition of a legacy-style campaign. It sounds like a legacy game with a difference to many though, as nothing is destroyed, only improved. Can you give us an example of how that might happen in the game?

Yes, great question! This is our key design philosophy behind using the legacy mechanic. We found that many players see their board games as permanent collectable items and that the destructive nature of legacy campaigns can end up making these games feel cheap and disposable. Our aim is to keep the excitement and permanence of the genre but remove the disposability. The solar system of Solar 175 will continue to expand and evolve endlessly. Throughout the campaign you will be unlocking material and building the story of the world and this will not stop. An example of this is shown in the miniatures we have used. Like all our previous games we have put a big focus on creating a high quality production so players feel that they are gaining new permanent items rather than feeling like they are replacing disposable ones.

I’m positive that feeling of the game not being disposable is one which will resonate with readers, me included! I saw you mention that both Orleans and El Grandé are inspirations for Solar 175. Are there other classics – new or old – which you’d like to draw inspiration from for future games?

We try to learn something from every game we play, tabletop is so full of new and innovative ideas right now that there is no shortage of places to go. Although the medium is literally ancient it seems like there has been a seismic shift of possibilities in the last 20 years and we are still only scratching the surface of that! In terms of specifics I’m not sure as we tend to look for the mechanics that fit best with the game rather than starting the other way around but there are many classic games which have influenced us!

Given those influences, what sort of person do you think will enjoy playing Solar 175?

Solar 175 is a big heavy game with a rich theme. Gameplay wise it is a bag builder so if you enjoy deck building games you will find the core feel of this familiar. If you enjoy the rich narrative of games like Gloomhaven you will also find a lot to like in Solar 175. It is for players who would enjoy the deep strategy of a complex euro game mixed in with a rich narrative and quality components. It is certainly aimed at people who are heavily into this hobby as it is not a light gateway game!

Finally, and maybe most importantly, what’s your favourite biscuit?

Chocolate digestives for sure, you just can’t beat them! 

Thanks for your time folks, and a fine choice of biscuit.

Now head to Page Two to read the preview of Solar 175.

The post Interview with Cogito Ergo Meeple & Solar 175 Preview appeared first on Punchboard.

Spoiler-Free Section

Introduction

Designer Kevin Riley gave us the original Aeon’s End game back in 2016. It’s a cooperative fantasy deckbuilding game, in which players combine spells, relics and gems to build a powerful deck, in order to fight legions of evil creatures, and to save your home, Gravehold.

There have been several expansions since, thanks to the game’s popularity and success, and today we’re going to take a look at one of them – Aeon’s End Legacy. The biggest difference between this version and the others in the series is that word on the end of the title, “legacy”.

Legacy games, if you’re not familiar with them, tend to have things happen which permanently change the game as you play. It can be things like stickers or marks on the game board, stickers or writing on cards, changes to the rule book, or even tearing things up and never using them again. Aeon’s End Legacy takes this format and applies it to deckbuilding, so let’s have a look at the game.

What’s In The Box?

Aeon’s End Legacy comes in a pretty huge box. It’s not going to fit comfortably in your Kallax. I can’t tell you exactly what’s in the box without spoiling some things, suffice to say there are a lot of cards in there, along with cardboard tokens for things like tracking your hit points, and two of the spinner disc devices used for tracking the life of the nemesis you’re fighting, and the home you’re defending.

Along with those sealed decks of cards are a bunch of envelopes, one for each chapter of the game, and a series of Insight boards. The artwork throughout is beautiful, the illustrations are top-notch fantasy fare.

The Insight packs contain the stickers which you’ll be using throughout the game, and the envelopes contain various bits and pieces you’ll need to advance the story and introduce new features and mechanisms,

The cards are really nicely produced, as you’d expect for a game that revolves around playing cards, and the cardboard chits are solid and well-printed. The box also has a great insert, designed for storing everything you need to play, including dividers for the various sets of cards, and some foam blocks to bolster it before it’s full, to keep things in place.

Finally, there are four boxes labeled A, B, C and D. I’m not going to tell you what’s inside them, you’ll just have to find out for yourself.

How Does It Play?

Aeon’s End Legacy is designed for 1-4 players. Based on how many people are playing (and it’s highly recommended those same players play every chapter together from start to finish), a turn order deck is constructed and shuffled. Nine piles of supply cards are laid out in a 3×3 grid, the current nemesis and their deck are added to the table and any specific setup instructions followed. Finally, each player draws a hand of five cards from their starting deck, and we’re ready to play.

For each turn, the top card of the turn order deck is revealed. If it’s one of your players, it shows you who gets to play. That person plays the cards in their hand in any order. They can be spells, which are played to prepare them in one of your breaches, and used next turn, relics, which can do things like let you draw additional cards, or gems, which give you aether to spend. Aether is the currency of the game, and can be used for a few different things, the main one being buying new cards from the supply.

After that player’s turn, all the played and bought cards are added to their discard pile, and the order they choose to discard them is important. In most deckbuilders players shuffle their discard pile when their draw pile is empty, in order to create a new draw pile. The Aeon’s End games are a little different in that the discard is never shuffled, just flipped to create a new deck. So if you use a bit of strategy, you can influence the way cards will turn up.

If the turn order card is a Nemesis one, it’s the bad guy’s turn. There might be some persistent effects to resolve from cards already in play, and then a card from the nemesis deck is turned, and its instructions followed. I won’t elaborate much more than that, other than to say it may involve bringing a minion onto the battlefield to fight, or triggering some other kind of event.

What Happens Then?

Play continues until either the heroes or the nemesis wins. Then the players read the next card in the Legacy deck, which drives the story forwards. It might tell them to open an Insight pack and apply some stickers somewhere, or maybe give them an opportunity to change up the cards they’re using each chapter.

Play through the chapters continues like this from the start to the end of the Legacy deck, and the story that goes along with it. There’s quite a bit of tear-down involved at the end of each chapter, so build a little time into your session to see what the outcome is, and to make any changes or choices that might reveal themselves.

In essence, that’s all there is to Aeon’s End Legacy. Build a deck, fight a bad guy, advance the story. But summing up like that does it a real disservice, so let’s take a proper look at what it feels like to play.

Final Thoughts (Spoiler-Free)

I’ve completed the full campaign now, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. The story, considering the fact it’s told through a small amount of text on cards, is really engaging. I was able to invest in the universe more easily, and care about the characters more than in a lot of fantasy novels I’ve read.

I love deckbuilding games, I was hooked from the first time I played Dominion, ten years ago. The feeling of carefully crafting a deck which works to its strengths and makes you feel powerful is a great one. Aeon’s End does it really well, and the theme using spells and powers is great. It feels more dynamic and interactive than something like Dominion, where the deckbuilding is largely passive, without much interaction between players.

I played solo for the campaign, which works in almost exactly the same way as it would for anything up to four players. I really recommend Aeon’s End Legacy for solo players. The way the story changes how you play the way the game changes with every chapter is really good. I can safely say without ruining too much that the way my box, cards and character now will almost certainly be different to anyone else who ventures through the campaign.

I want to mention the fact that I personally found the game pretty easy. However, from reading various forums, it seems like that’s not always the case, in fact a lot of people find it very hard. This isn’t me trying to flex like “I’m so good at this game”, it’s just a case of your mileage may vary. I think it was a combination of having played a lot of deckbuilding games, and also having played the video game Slay The Spire a lot too, which is a digital deckbuilder. I might have gotten very lucky with the choices I made in the game too.

If you enjoy deckbuilding games, Aeon’s End Legacy is a great introduction into the franchise and a solid co-operative game, and if you’ve never played one before but are thinking of trying one, I’d recommend this without hesitation. It teaches the game well, has a great rule book, and has plenty of second chances if you don’t do so well.

If you’ve got a regular small group who like a good story and co-op games, this is a brilliant option. I played through solo, and I’d definitely recommend it to fellow solo players.

Warning: The section below contains spoilers that may spoil your enjoyment of the game.

Spoiler Central

What’s In The Box?

So as well as the things mentioned above, there’s plenty to open. The boxes A-D contain new tokens that come into play in certain chapters, and it’s really exciting to be instructed to open one ahead of a new chapter. It’s like a mini Christmas.

The envelopes all contain at least a new Nemesis playmat, a divider for the cards in the box, and sometimes new tokens. The Insight packs have stickers where are for the rule book (usually to show how to use new tokens revealed for the next chapter, stickers for the player board to give you new equipment and abilities, and stickers to alter some of your cards. There are also some stickers which evolve enemy cards into more powerful ones.

My favourite surprise in the box is for the final chapter. When you start the game you can see seven chapter envelopes, but at the end of the seventh it tells you to remove the box insert, and lo and behold, there’s a big final encounter and new cards and playmats. I’ve played the Exit games before which like to tricks like this, but I was genuinely surprised and happy when I found it.

Final Thoughts – Spoiler Edition

I really enjoyed Aeon’s End Legacy. I love how the game reveals new mechanics with each chapter, rather than swamp the player with everything at once. In a game where you can replay each fight ad infinitum it’s fine, but in a legacy game where losses can affect the game negatively, it’s a really good way to break new players in gently. The story also progresses with these changes, so thematically it’s very strong too.

Speaking of story, the story in here is really good. You could quite easily see a blockbuster film being built off the back of it. I felt sad even in the end of the first chapter when one of my comrades died.

I love that each nemesis has its own player board, rules, cards and tokens, even rules of play. It means that subsequent fights aren’t just rinse and repeats of the previous ones, there’s real variety in what’s happening.

The biggest problem, if you can call it one, was for me the game was very easy. I never lost a fight, and only once, very early on did it even feel like I might. I don’t know if that’s a result of me being good at the game (doubtful!), lucky buys in the supply cards which change every chapter, or just the game not being too difficult. Maybe it’s a combination of all three.

Because I found it very easy, I feel like I lost out on a lot of potential game. I never used the cool power that helps you in a re-fight, and I never saw probably half of the enemy cards. That’s not an exaggeration either. In a game that’s one shot and done, it’s a shame, even from the point of view of missing out on a lot of the artwork.

But now that I’ve completed the game, there’s still a lot I can do, despite it being a legacy game. There are instructions for after the end that show how to battle the nemeses again, use randomiser cards to get different supply piles, and how to transport your character and all their unique equipment and abilities to other games in the Aeon’s End franchise.

As I said in the original summing-up above, if you’ve got a regular small group, or love a good solo, don’t hesitate, it’s a fantastic game and great example of the deckbuilder genre.

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