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Theme:
The bonfires are sources of light, energy and warmth created by the guardians of light in order to brighten the cities on the otherwise dark planet. The residents of the cities however, took the bonfires for granted and exploited them for their personal gain. Disappointed the guardians of light retreated and let the bonfires extinguish. The citizens could no longer live in the now dark cities and were forced to leave.
You are a group of gnomes living close to the cities and you also need and the light of the bonfires. Missing it now, you try yourself to visit the cities and learn how to ignite the bonfires once again: You must visit the guardians of light on their holy islands and ask for tasks to prove your good will. For each completed task, they will re-ignite one extinguished bonfire. Whoever manages to earn the greatest trust from the guardians and manages to brighten their city the most will win the game.
Game-play:
The engine for the game are the three-coloured tiles you will be puzzling onto your player board. When you manage to place the same colours adjacent to one another, you will receive more action tiles of that specific kind. This will allow you to specialize in certain types of actions and pursue different strategies.
You can use the tiles to perform the following actions:
– Move your ship to an island
– Receive a task from an island by spending two resources
– Invite a guardian of light into your city
– Trigger a procession of guardians through your city and gain resources.
– Add a landscape tile to your city (this is where the processions take place)
– Recruit a gnome gaining a special ability or victory points
– Find support by the last bonfire, gaining portals, resources or action tiles
You will play in turn order until a fixed number of tasks has been solved, after which each player has 5 more turns. During final scoring, you will receive points for your completed tasks (the bonfires) and any improvements made there (portals, landscapes or guardians).
-description from publisher
Ages | 12+ |
---|---|
Players | Solo, 2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players |
Play Time | 70m – 100m |
Designer | Stefan Feld |
Theme | Puzzle, Fantasy |
Publisher | Hall Games, Tesla Games, Pegasus Spiele |
ALoneRakunk
This game feels slightly ridiculous. There are some lovely mechanics and the design is quite nice. Yet for some reason it feels unfinished, with remnants of other games spliced into a weird new game.
beachgirlpcola
Theme can be off putting, making it a harder teach than it needs to be- if you try to incorporate it. Don’t bother. Bought because it’s supposed to be Feld’s return to expert games as in days of yore. Well, he hasn’t topped Castles of Burgundy here. Still, a very good game! And needs a few more plays before we know if a keeper.
ajewo
Euro game by Stefan Feld (Castles of Burgundy, Amerigo, Trajan). The game is very puzzly: in order to light a bonfire, a player has to achieve many smaller tasks (collect different resources) in advance. For each action, a player must spend one or more action tokens. The more tokens spent, the more powerful the action. Action tokens are aquired by matching symbols in a tile laying mini game. [b]What makes it special?[/b] * Action selection system based on action tokens that are aquired via tile laying puzzle. * Intertwined game mechanics which require a lot of small steps to achieve a bigger task. [b]I like:[/b] + Artwork and components. + Setting: grim, dark, mystic, unusual. + Interlocked mechanics / puzzle. + Fun tile laying mechanic which basically provide a player with action tokens that can be used in future turns (requires forward planning). + Action tokens: your available action tokens determine what you can do. You can spend more than one action token to make the action more powerful / flexible. + You can spend two different action or resource tokens to create a wild token which makes the game much less restrictive than it would be else. + You can match colors for bonus points (but you do not have to). + Gnome cards grant special abilities which often lift some general restrictions and makes planing easier. + Elder cards can be bought for special end game scoring. Each player must find a balance between gnome and elder cards (hand limit is only 6 cards). + Short rules that create a complex game. You basically have 3 choices and 7 actions (reminds me of Brass: Birmingham). + Small game box. [b]Neutrals:[/b] # The setting is nice, but overall the game feels rather abstract and mechanical. # Puzzly, a lot of small steps, forward planning. # One of few Stefan Feld games for which an expansion is available. # Some indirect player interaction (mainly the rotating pointer, but also the quests on the islands). # Learning the game is a bit challenging because the different actions sometimes overlap and are intertwined. # Game end is triggered by the players. The game may drag if no one is playing to finish the game. # High potential for analysis paralysis. Especially with higher player counts, which makes it also harder to plan during the turn of other players (board state may change too much until its your turn again). [b]I do not like:[/b] - Very similar artwork for the gnome cards. - Can be a frustrating if you lack, e.g., a resource, and have to spend other stuff to get it, but then you lack other resources in order to complete a quest on an island. [b]Similar games:[/b] * Luna: similar look and feel.