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!