Anachrony: Essential Edition

Board Game Geek Reviews

1. 8 out of 10

   ajewo

   A complex worker placement Euro game with beautiful futuristic/apocalyptic theme and nicely integrated time travel. [b]Pros:[/b] + Theme and artwork (also great minis with expansion!). Impressive table presence. + Players have and can recruit different types of worker. Each worker can be used but using the right type grants you a bonus. The players have to weigh the trade-offs. + Optimizing tired workers: finding the right balance when to refresh your workers. Rewards careful planning. + The rule book, reference, and iconography is very good + Building super projects is hard but fun + Each player builds buildings on his own board which act as new worker placement spots (engine building) + Public and private worker placement: players can place workers either in the city (with an exosuit) or on their own board + The dice mechanic for research tiles: Two dice are rolled to determine a tile. A player may spend resources to fix one die on a specific side before rolling the other die. Two research tiles can be used as a wild. + Astroid impact changes the end-game (into a race game) + Thematic time travel mechanic (aka loan) + Many opportunities to score points + Many game modes available (especially with expansions) + Two stacks for buildings is neat: a round a new building tile is drawn. The old tiles are placed on the discard pile and can still be drawn but only the one that is on top. + Plays well with all player counts [b]Neutrals:[/b] # Language independent. # Solo integration (automata) # Lots of planning is required at each start of a round: calculating resources requirements, calculating requirements for time travel, powering-up mech suits # Base game comes only with a limited number of leaders who grant special powers. # Not much interaction between players (block spots in city, take building tiles) # Little luck of the draw for new building tiles, resources, and workers. Without it, the game would become a chess game. # Some luck of the roll for research tiles. # Usefulness of the red buildings strongly depends on what the particular player needs # More strategical than tactical gameplay ~> strategical: acquiring goods from the future, powering up a certain number of exosuits ~> tactical: players have to change their plans if a spot has been blocked in the city # Players have to do at least some time travel because it scores many points # The expansion adds even more mechanics which change the flavor of the game but do not necessarily make it better # Table hog # Big game box occupies a lot of room on the shelf (especially if you have all expansions). I managed to store (squeeze) everything in the base game box with a little lid lift. [b]I do not like[/b]: - Buildings are super abstract (no pictures, no names, just ids) - The decision what goods to retrieve via time-travel must be made at the start of a round and cannot be changed during a round: requires more planning ahead (personally, I wish you could get goods from the future just on the fly) - Time to teach, set-up, and play - Overwhelming on first play: a lot of components, icons, mechanics, and modules: feels a bit overloaded - The unique player boards (B-sides) feel as if you must play in a certain way - The B-side of the red player board feels pretty weak (because red buildings are not always useful) - The dice roll for research tiles sometimes feels a bit lucky if a player rolls exactly what he or she needs. - No compensation when powering up too many exosuits - Colors of the worker tiles are very pale (stands out because everything else looks great) - Components could be better: tiny water drops, hard to differentiate cubes (has been fixed with later prints) [b]Thoughts:[/b] Anachrony is big and a very good worker placement game but it also requires time to teach, set-up, and play. Planning ahead is a very important element of the game and I enjoy it. Still, I wish the game would be a bit more flexible in regard to time travel and would support some decision-making on the fly. Anachrony is mostly a thinky game. Still, it is a satisfying game; you feel like having accomplished something at the end. The impact also is very cool and spices the game up near the end of a game. [b]Similar games:[/b] * Trickerion (even complexer base game about magicians from the same designers)

2. 6 out of 10

   AlexFS

   [i]2019/09/07 - 1 play at 3p [/i] This is a huge beast of a worker placement game, that offers some interesting twists : differentiated workers (scientists, engineers, etc), a loan system themed as time travel, and loads of tension for the communal places with a push your luck element, as you need to commit workers without knowing if they will get the places you covet. I only played once, and my biggest caveat is that I had the feeling the game dragged a bit too much, and the various systems did not seem to create the same intricately interconnected mechanisms as can be found in Lacerda games. But perhaps more plays will allow me to better appreciate this game. The production values were off the charts with this game, and for once did not degrade the game's usability

3. 8.5 out of 10

   alialkabah

   fantastic games, I bought trickerion because it is from the same designer thats how much I liked this one brilliant worker placement, you build spaces only you can use