Review: Exodus: Paris Nouveau

Exodus: Nouveau Paris

Players: 4 – 6

Publisher: Indie Boards & Cards

Year: 2018

A copy of this game was distributed by the publisher in exchange for this review.

In a devastated warzone, refugees need to be rescued. As other teams have been compromised, it’s now up to you and your team to help these people. However, the other teams never returned and there’s a strong suspicion that not all of your teammates are rooting for the same team.

Set in the Dystopian Universe, the goal of the game is to rescue as much people as possible, while still evading your pursuers. Every turn a leader is voted for, by blind bidding with a limited number of voting tokens, and that chosen leader picks a Tail-end Charlie. They resolve their actions and a new round starts with voting for a leader.

The loyalty cards

A single round progresses as follows: First of all, a leader is elected. People are free to discuss who they think the leader should be, but the final voting is down to how many voting tokens people are willing to spend. The leader picks a Tail-end Charlie that has to make up the rear of the group. The leader can then be given distance cards, but as this process is slightly randomized, your card might not end up with them at all. Players can submit a card, but only three can be chosen. If there are less than three, cards from the deck are added. To the three chosen cards, another card from the deck is added, shuffled and one discarded. Your card might end up with the leader, but it could have been discarded. From these cards, the leader plays one and resolves their actions. Afterwards, the TEC draws two cards and plays one.

There are several ways the game can end. As soon as a player has no more life tokens left, their side loses. If there are no more cover tokens left, the hunters win automatically. If the hunters overtake the rescuers, because they have more distance tokens, the hunters win again. None of these conditions arise, the game ends after the seventh round and the victory points are calculated. The side with more victory points wins.

The two most exciting positions in this game are the leader and the TEC. The cards determine the victory points, but also the distance between the rescuers and the hunters. Cover can get blown or people can get hurt as a result of the cards played. Every decision you make in these positions affects the other players and the game.

A nice addition is that in this game, everyone can be the enemy. You know that there’s half of the other players are the enemy. The question remains who can you trust? It might be fun to treat all other players as potential enemies, but if a player on your side dies, then your side still loses. On the other hand, if you discover someone’s true loyalty and you manage to eliminate them, you win! It’s tight gamble, but are you willing to risk it? Will you risk alienating other players to achieve victory? It’s an example, but there’s a lot of tension in this game. The player roles are nice, as they can impact on how you play the game. As a broker you have more voting tokens and thus have more influence on the outcome of a round. The negotiator can remove distance tokens, but turn a hunter card facedown. This means it has no distance and is worth no points at the end. Overall, it can sometimes feel like a management game, where you need to control different stats, but only have a limited space of action.

Some of the roles in the game

In this game you have the most influence when you are the leader or the Tail-end Charlie. As such, when you’re neither, you can still hand in a card, or not, but it’s not the same. As the leader doesn’t pass, but gets voted for, it can take a bit of finesse to get used to this sort of gameplay. It’s also less easy to teach than the Resistance and can only be played with four to six players. Overall, most of the things discussed above, are subject to the idea of moving away from the lightness of The Resistance and more towards a complex game.

Most outstanding feature?

The best part of this game is that you simply can’t trust anyone, but don’t want them to die either. The game walks a fine line between being suspicious and being paranoid. It’s only after the game that you’re certain of anyone’s loyalty!

Overall, this game is another hit from Indie Boards and Cards. While it might not be as simple as the Resistance or Coup G:54, it’s certainly worth a try if you’re looking to spice up your social deduction games. I can certainly recommend it! 

Review: Senators

Senators

Players: 3-5
Publisher: Indie Boards & Cards
Year: 2017

A copy of this game was distributed by the publisher in exchange for this review.

Rikki Tahta, known of Coup and Coup G:54, is a well-known designer of boardgames. While his other games feature attempting to seize powers in a futuristic setting, the theme this time is the civil-war ridden Roman republic. Instead of attempting to eliminate their opponents, the players attempt to fight over the favor of the senators and try to sway them to their side. As in the Coup and Coup G:54, money is used in order to do this, because the senators can be bought.

The different resources and the coins used in the game.

The goal of the game is to acquire the support of as much senators as possible. This is done by buying their support directly or by using other means. The player can trade resources for their support, try to extort resources from other players or auction common resources. As the game is of an uncertain length, it becomes race to get ahead of the other players and stay there. At the same time, players will try everything to reduce the power of others. Expect little mercy in this game.

On a player’s turn, there are a few options available. They can start an auction, where a three resource cards, and an office card are turned over. People can then bid on these individual cards and the starting player has the option of accepting their offers or buy them from them at the mentioned price. Any cards not bid on are acquired for free. A player can also extort a card from another player, where a player mentions a price and the extorted person can either pay up or accept the mentioned price. Lastly, a player can also cash-in. This means they turn in their resources in order to acquire senators. Another player can also join in on this by paying a set amount of points. The benefit of this is that you wouldn’t lose your turn and can still take another action.

Because the auctions can work two ways, it’s a bit tricky to use. You can drive up the price for the other player if they desperately want to have a certain card, but if you’re not careful, you drive up the price too much and need to pay for it yourself. It’s not just plunging into an auction and burning as much bridges as possible for everyone, but calculating carefully about every option available, which can change rapidly due to the changing circumstances. 

The different governors.

The auction and bidding system is really good. It provides a fresh and interesting twist to a familiar game. The artwork, as often with Indie Boards & Cards, is well done! There is player elimination, but it’s highly unlikely that this will happen. I see this as a major benefit, because player elimination in long games is a drawback for me.

This game might not be suited for all crowds. While you can plan, prioritize and act accordingly, luck is a major factor in the game. We had one game where it was all over within 7 turns. Luckily others last much longer. However, this randomness will not appeal to everyone. There’s blind bidding, people their money is hidden behind player screens. Also the player screens mean it’s less travel-friendly than some other games.

Most outstanding feature?

I’d say the mechanic of the event deck. This elevates the game to a higher level, as the game can end possible with the next player or maybe a couple of turns after it. As such the player doesn’t just need to be ahead at the end of the game, but because you don’t know when this happens, you need to try to be ahead all the time.

Overall, I’m stunned by how well all the mechanics incorporate in this game. Rikki Tahta, of the games mentioned earlier, delivers another great game. Compared to those games, the portability of Coup and Coup G:54, its mechanics feel familiar, but its different enough that both can be owned separately. If the mechanics appeal to you, or social games interest you, then I would certainly recommend this game!