EiT is my fave of the TS/1989/EiT series. The overall historical setting, and lack of familiarity with all the events, appeal more to me. Even so, in all the times I have played so far (5-6 times) we have never got to the Georgian deck as the Great War always gets triggered. One side is pushing for the war to start. The Stability card mechanic add enough variability and uncertainty to region scoring without slowing the game up.
Thanks, guys, good review. EiT is my favorite "TS-family" game - I like it more than Twilight Struggle and 1989. In fact it's one of my favorite games of recent years and quickly earned a place on my "keeper" shelf. I think you missed bringing up Independent spaces. Independent spaces and stability cards are two of Kris Van Beurden's best innovations in EiT. They both meaningfully ramp up the decision space. I also want to qualify the impact of Great War aftermath rolls. They can truly be impactful, but often there is influence that can be burned in spaces no longer vital to control. Consequently I think the aftermath is not usually quite as decisive as you've expressed. Finally, I find the design of EiT's event deck superior to both TS & 1989. When I play games where opponent events are triggered, I often play my own starred events (i.e., cards removed when played as events) for ops. The idea is the event deck will have more of my events when reshuffled, and more events my opponent will be forced to play. In EiT this approach is less advantageous. As noted, one will be motivated to play one's own starred events that yield Great War modifiers, but that is not all. Starred events such as Tirpitz, which is very valuable to the Authoritarians in the Naval Race, also should be seriously considered for play in spite of being culled. Overall though a fine review of a great game.
A lot of good points - I've never noticed this before but you're absolutely right, I find myself playing a lot more of my "starred" events then in TS as they are quite powerful and way less situational then TS's events usually are..
I've played this game about seven or eight times and I enjoyed it. It;'s different from TS because in TS, war is to be avoided. Here, you can manipulate it so it breaks out in your favor. I've also played a game where the Great War never broke out. The crisis levels never got so high because Franz Ferdinand was played as an event and the tension never rose above 3 as long as Vienna and Budapest remained under authoritarian control.
I've played the game a few times - despite me not really being thrilled by the theme (I'm way more interested in upcoming Europe in Turmoil 2: Interbellum), this game is an excellent "upgrade" to the TS system. Big thank you for frequent references to 1989 - I might need to finally give it a try to see how it compares to EiT...
A great review for a great game! I found it had some pretty good tension for the solitaire playthroughs. The photos and political cartoons on the cards made the theme pop.
I’m slightly confused by your comment that the use of the mobilisation cards shortens the game. Are you aware the great war ends the game whether you are using the mobilisation cards or not? As someone else commented the game rarely goes later than turn six or seven unless one player (Franz Ferdinand card?) is really trying to stop the great war happening. Also especially when using the mobilisation cards triggering the great war can have a relatively small effect on the state of the map. In fact you can “lose” the Great War and quite easily win the game. In fact it is not always obvious when you use the mobilisation cards who won the great war! You have to get in the mindset that this is a battle of ideas between authoritarian and liberal world views and the Great War is just a modifier of that eternal struggle. Of course in that sense it makes the game even less of a “Wargame”. Not that I care as I love it anyway. In terms of the comments with regards to colours I wonder what you think about the part of Glory Deluxe Edition map? It is much darker than the original even though it does try and show the country outlines better. Do you have the same issues with that as you do with EIT. P.S. I was involved with playtesting EIT2 and Kris the designer really listened to us (even my Color blindness) in trying to make that more easily readable. So I guess we are all comically responsible if people end up hating that map as well. Keep up the good work! I’m impressed how you can capture and get across the flavour of a game after one play.
Unwatchable...I am/remain clueless about the game insofar as this presentation goes as these two make no attempt to explain the rules while they all the time talk over each other about a play-through with EiT that they just completed having. To the extent the game is explained in the middle part of the video was done poorly and proved meaningless and confusing. Not helpful.
I am not saying you're wrong, but consider this. As they said, the mechanics of the game are nearly identical to Twilight Struggle (with some additions). I'm willing to concede they made a valid assumption that listeners who follow the channel are aware of the game that held the number one rating on Boardgamegeek for a little over five years. YMMV
