I love the look of this game! This game has a historical setting that it's look is constant with. Every new game does not have to be neon. Love the beige! The artwork is amazing.
Great review! My family loves this game. Yes it is heavy but the banner systems make it actually more organized and easier to learn/teach than other heavy games. Plus I love that once you learn the iconography it makes it a lot simpler to follow along. This is something I have come to expect from Garphyl Games.
You can get the box without lid lift while putting the player cards and wooden pieces in the same bag. Just need to play a little bit of Tetris! This game is so good! The game has a really nice flow and interesting decisions to it that all come together super well. It's going to be one of my top games of all time! Hope to see more people try it out!
Ah, I recently picked this one up after seeing it on my friendly local game store's shelf. I spent the last 2-3 days learning and playing it solo in-between my daily tasks, and boy am I glad I did! I wasn't a huge fan of Hadrian's Wall, and I avoided the Scholars/Architects/Paladins/Raiders series due to the flood of content that I saw come out for them. At any rate, I'm glad I took the plunge for this one b/c boy did I really enjoy the experience! The decision space and "tight euro mechanics" in this game are quite awesome. That combined with the great bit of variance in setup of the board and player areas means that this game can stay fresh through multiple playthroughs. I'm excited to get this one on the table with my group and watch all of the fun play out!
At this point I would love to see Mike and a couple others of the crew to do a Top Ten Garphill games, discussing their relative merits. At this point I have two Garphill games that I love, but a lot of others have just been okay for me, even though I can fully appreciate the design decisions they are making.
Thank you for the video! It is a complex-looking board so before I show it I explain there are 3 main actions, with 3 areas on the board, with 3 colors. Overall, it is very good once you play through as you start to see the value of the additional choices and it keeps getting better. I like the banner card actions. Love the theme, and encourage more designers to make enjoyable Biblical & historical games. I give it a 9 and it may go higher as I play more.
@@thedicetowerI believe comment was referring to Wendy’s discussion of wanting to tuck a card but can’t because it was one of first three cards she played.
I (Chris) didn't interject because I didn't want to break train of thought. I've done that before and it didn't help the flow of the review. You are correct, any of the six cards can be tucked and we have always played that way.
Correct me if i'm wrong but I don't think you HAVE to choose a color of one of the banners in the card you choose, it just, for obvious reasons, has to be present in your tableau
I really enjoy this game as well. I have been playing it 3 players only but having a blast. I was not expecting to play this game so often already. How was the downtime with 4, and how long does it take? What's your preferred player count for this game?
I have a video on my channel (my only video so far) showing how to get all the pieces in without box lift, while still putting all individual player's components into their own baggies, if anyone is interested!
Well deserved. I already played it 4 times since I got it. I don't know any new game that I got that I was able to play some many times in such a short time. Any other than campaign games maybe. It's a great game.
Thank you for the review. I’ll be getting this and this review played a big role. I couldn’t get a feel for the game during the Kickstarter so I didn’t back it like I did the South Tigris games (the 1st two are excellent and I can’t wait for Inventors).
I am surprised the rule book was not mentioned in the review. I thought it was the absolute worst and most confusing rule book from Garphill (I am a fan, play and own most, etc.). It was disappointing from the production standpoint, because of the Garphill standard (though, there were some confusing things, to me, in Wayfarers; but nothing like E&N). That said, great game! I agree with talking points of the review, and so on.
I didn't personally have a hard time with the rulebook. I was asked to learn it at a game day event, which I almost never do for a game of this weight, but I read through it and taught it with a bit of effort, but not worse than I was expecting. That was just my experience. -Chris
I just want to add that this game has a fantastic solo mode (par for the course with Garphill honestly). Mike's quick review is in a solo roundup he uploaded a couple of weeks ago (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CZ-owVeaFQI.html).
I am so tired of the small boxes that make it a puzzle just trying to get everything back into the box. HATE IT. Hated it since Paladins of the West Kingdom, and these later games are even worse for this. Please Garphill, switch ALL your games to boxes that have enough space without having to get creative to store it. A few more centimeters won't stop anyone from buying the game.
80% of the reason I backed this Kickstarter (no joke) is that the box size is small. I play Garphill games strictly solo and I only have so much room in my gaming collection because I don't much play with others. The box size is a MASSIVE selling point for me and I hope they never change it, expansions or not.
Want to echo another comment that they reaaaally could have used more colour in this game. It is waaaay too beige. That said, I still am very much wanting to try it; I just can't add a game this ugly to my collection.
Before playing it/seeing it in person, I found the pictures of the board to be too beige with too many spreadsheet vibes, so I skipped the Kickstarter, despite being somewhat of a Garphill fanboy. After seeing the game in person and playing it, however, it is a quite attractive game, and the spreadsheet-y-ness does not exist.
