Hyperborea

Michael Barnes wrote: Yeah, I got it in yesterday too...it looks really good, but I predict that the dudebro Ameritrasher crybabies will give it the same reception that Eclipse got, but replace all instances of "TI3" with "Runewars".

There are some really fun-looking concepts...I like the look of how development works, filling up "meters" to buy cubes and having a decision to hold for a couple of advancements to double up. Killing ghosts (do what now) looks like really just a way to do neutrals, but the light tomb-raiding adds just enough of an adventure angle. Components look great, tons of Euroglyphics but it's clean-looking and modern.

My main concern is if it can deliver on the 25 minutes per player claim...if that's the case, this could be a really good one. If it turns into 3, 4 hours...I dunno.

Also, armored mastodons.

So hypothetically...if this game plays in about the same time as Runewars, is it a failure? It seems that this is meant to be a streamlined 4x conquest style game set in a fantasy world.

Well, not necessarily. It depends if the gameplay sustains a longer playtime like that but from what I'm reading it may not be something that you want to extend out to that long. It's really pretty simple and there's not a lot of fine detail (well, not any really).

But with that said, I think this is the only new game this year (that I've played at least) that supports six players. So with six, I think you have to be a little more lenient in terms of time limit.

Runewars doesn't take that long...

OK, just going to scoop Charlie here...

Got in a three player game last night...lured some friends over with promises of pizza and beer, sent the kids off to the grandparents, wife was on a job.

I _think_ this game is really good, but I don't think the AT dudebros are going tolike it AT ALL and will likely spin off all kinds of "thematic" reasons to dislike it. But for my money, it is as others have suggested in the vein of Cyclades/Kemet. Light/medium weight DoaM with Euro elements.

The main thing that impressed me is that this game, more than any other I've played so far, really rolls the full deckbuilding/"bag building" concept into the entire process. Commiting guys to use cities or search ruins means that they're locked down until the reset, when your "deck" runs out and you "reshuffle". Which in this game really means putting cubes back into the bag. It also carries on one of Dominion's secret weapons, the significance of combos. This game is all about working out combinations to source movement, attack, advancement and so forth. This means that even though you are limited by the three cubes you draw, the turns are fairly loose in terms of what you can do. So you can choose to put cubes on a couple of techs but not complete them for activation and hold off on using your cities or searching ruins in hopes of pulling of BIG, sweeping turn down the road. Or you can use your resources a little at a time over the bag cycle.

Map is small, exploration is over quickly, and there's lots of fighting in the middle. Battle is done by generating sword points, each kills an enemy dude. There is no defense unless you've used a tech to build forts that only last for the round. Big incentive to attack EVERYBODY, which is kind of brilliant. You have to get a set of enemies to cash in, once you have a set you get VPs for every kill beyond that. The only thing is that I don't think that works nearly as well in a three or four player game as it does in a five or six player game- there should have been a tweak there to require TWO sets or something.

Components, great, art great. Price, too expensive. Gameplay- went long, but we were chit-chatting and drinking so that's OK.

I'm thinking it's a yes on this one...hope to do a six player at this week's Hellfire Club.

Think we're going to see eye to eye on this one Barnes. I like it, possibly a lot (one player after the game said - "You better be keeping this one.").

As I posited before, it's very much a game firmly planted in the Euro/AT hybrid that will appeal to people who enjoy Mage Knight/Eclipse/Cyclades/Kemet.

We got in a 4 player game which lasted about 1.5 hours, not including teaching and setup/breakdown. The racial powers are very interesting and with just a couple of unique starting conditions the game seems very different. There's also a clever thing where the starting hexes are geared towards the Race you are playing. I randomly drew the Purple Mages which focused on cloning, and my starting hexes had cities focused on Movement, allowing me to spread across the board.

The movement is enjoyable and relatively easy in this game, the combat is also an enjoyable experience although not tense (it's deterministic and easy to kill things).

The main thing that sort of resonated with me was the sort of two-step process of getting your engine going. It's not exactly like Dominion/Mage Knight where you can just add cards (cubes) to your deck (bag) and then proceed. You need to plan quite a bit more as you are adding cubes, but the cubes are useless on their own. They need Advanced Technologies and action spaces to be placed on. So you can't just add more Red cubes to fight more, you need to first acquire fighting Techs so you have action spaces to place those cubes. The game does offer great flexibility by many spaces allowing you to place any color cube, so if you go heavy Red you can still use those Red cubes as parts of a Move or Develop action.

It definitely doesn't feel like a thematic game, but there's enough theme that I wouldn't at all call it dry. The effects on the Advanced tech cards coincide with their flavor nicely. However, I never felt like my army was highly mobile when I gained the Flying Mounts tech, as it allows you a single Fly movement per refresh. It didn't feel the same as Eclipse where you upgrade and your entire fleet is now beefed out. That's fine and didn't take away from the game, but it's something to be aware of.

If you didn't play with Racial powers the first game, beware of Blue, Barnes. If they take their draw 3 cubes ability, they can dominate if left unchecked. I don't feel the powers are unbalanced, but certainly some are easier to use and take advantage of.

After 4 plays I think this is an excellent game that deserves recognition in a year congested wtih new releases.

Review just went up:
www.2d6.org/2014/10/hyperborea-a-written-review/

Yep, totally agree. One of the best games this year. So well designed, so rich and yet easy and FUN to play. The mechanics are really enjoyable, which is kind of an odd thing to say but I really like how it feels. One of the main things I like is that your turn is really quite open-ended...and you have these neat little decision points- commit a cube now, or take a chance on exploring a ruin and seeing if you get something that changes what you can do. But then you're looking at locking up a man until your reset, so you may want to consider holding off on that for another turn.

Very unique, and I think it's probably the most evolved instance of "deckbuilding" in the Dominion mode yet.

Purple is who I'm seeing rule...their ability to put people out instead of taking the ghosts is a good one, especially if you get something like Peace Treaties. I've seen a purple player have all of their pieces out by the end of the first 1/3 of the game.

I actually like the cloning ability more than the replace Ghost ability for Purple. Cloning lets you recruit all the way across the map possibility, and you also don't lose that Ghost you kill and still achieve the points. The Ghost replace ability though does save you quite a few cubes/actions for recruiting. Tough one.

Our games have been pretty balanced. Blue dominated one game because the player did very well and we left him unchecked. Red can be very fun to play if you want to get aggressive. Hell, nearly every race has an interesting ability choice.

Does this play with just 2?

I was not able to play with 2 but I imagine not especially well. It wouldn't be horrible, but you would have no contention for advanced technologies and one person could ignore the map and just focus on their board leading to less interaction.

Have you guys been playing this still? Alternatively, what do others think of the game who have been playing it but not posted about it. I see it once and awhile in games been playing... how has it fared over multiple plays?

So... I know this is fucking weird, but what is this game about, really? Am I going to sit down and fight with the other players at the table? Build different types of units? Is this hybrid Runewars? I read this thread again and I'm still having a little trouble making heads or tails of it. What should I expect to be doing turn to turn?

I have a big CSI gift certificate so maybe I'll throw this in, I keep thinking of putting different things in the order and this is an intriguing option.

Also, does it play in 90 minutes as advertised?

Oh, also, to what extent is the direction you go in this game a long term strategic choice of yours? If this is a sort of game that tracks you into a certain direction via cards on offer or cubes drawn vs. you can decide what type of game you're going to play from the outset?

omg, also, Charles, I would have been way more annoyed with this obviously passive aggressive snarky comment reply to your review.

www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1263558/rebel-without-cause

Nowhere in the fucking review did you address "value" or some sort of concept like that. If you had, the review copy thing would have been relevant. And it's clear from your affiliation with a review site that you probably get review copies.

Yeah that person slightly annoyed me, although I get where they're coming from. If you don't know me and heard I got a review copy then I could see someone being skeptical of a positive review. I would personally never do that but it's not a big deal. The kind of implied notion that the review was worthless because it was a review copy is a bit aggravating but whatever. The comment on my first FAT article about lazy writing got to me more.

I am not still playing this although that's not due to desire. I've had too many other games coming in and finding time has been hard. My group loved it as much as I did though and they have requested it a few times but other stuff got in the way. It's staying on my shelf long term and I will be playing it again when new games slow down though - which says a lot. I sell games as often as Barnes so if I didn't really love it I'd already have gotten rid of it.

Turn to turn you're trying to earn VP based on a tactical decision set utilizing the cubes you have drawn. You do have to do this with strategic considerations in mind.

So you get some colored cubes and you're either going to use those cubes to put dudes on the board, move/fight with dudes, acquire new technologies (which offer VP and new enhanced actions), or increase your developments (gain new cubes). The genius in how all of these things are inter-related and how you struggle with optimizing the spending of cubes (this is what reminds me of Eclipse really).

It's a good game but it won't appeal to certain people.

Gary Sax wrote: Also, does it play in 90 minutes as advertised?

I thought the box said 30 minutes/player, same as Eclipse.