Last year, we have seen some amazing projects developed by first time board game creators. We have noticed that often those first time creators, with the right help, attention and a little luck, can make amazing board games. Also for often being board gamers themselves, they seem to have amazing eye for detail in how to practically make a board game. This is also how Euthia came to our attention. Huge game with a huge box from first board game creators. With pictures that looked very promising from their prototype and gameplay explanation on their kickstarter page that peaked our interest, we were ready to try this out. But will they succeed making such a huge game as their first game?
How to play.
So while I would like to explain every rule in detail. This game is so big that I simply can’t explain the full game without this review turning into a rulebook itself. The game comes with a rulebook, a separate appendix, scenario book, achievement sheets and reference cards. While this may seem like a lot, or even to much, all of this is necessary and makes the overview of the game easier. The basic set up is found in the rulebook, but for every scenario setup you will have to open the scenario book. This book will give you a quick overview from what’s going on and what you need to start. Before you choose your hero, take a good look at each hero sheet. This will tell you not only more about your hero now, but also about what your hero can evolve in.
You will start each turn with at least three tokens on your hero board. This will be a mining, trade and combat action token. Each of those tokens show movement on the top and an action like mining, trading or combat on the bottom. On your turn, you may take actions until you no longer have the tokens or resources to do so. If you want to move, chose how many spaces you would like to move and take the token with that many movement points (or more) from your hero board. Choose carefully, because if you choose to spend a token on movement, you can’t use the bottom section of this token anymore. This means if you wish to trade in your turn and you have to move to get to the trading point, you might want to spend your mining or combat token for movement to get to the store to trade. If you use two tokens instead of all three, place the leftover token on the fourth token space on your hero board. You will now have four tokens to spend on your next turn. This could be convenient if you will want to fight twice for example.
If you move towards the edge of the map, you place new map tiles around your hero until he/she is surrounded by map tiles. You cannot do this if there are no more map tiles available. During your exploration, you can find treasures to take, lakes, caves and mountains for mining , encounters for quests, elementals, portals and places where you can trade. Some scenarios have even more surprises to find.
A lot of tiles will also show monster icons. You can’t use a trading place for example, if it has an undefeated monster roaming around on it. You will have to defeat the monster before you can trade. If you ‘ liberate the hex’ from the monster, not only can you take the loot from the monster, but also from the hex itself that is printed on the tile. If you still have a trading token available, you can now also trade and sell or buy items for your character.
When you go into combat, one of your opponents will play the monster you are fighting. A combat round is divided into four phases. If the monster and character both don’t have first strike, you go to the first phase which is the hero healing phase. If you have any potions or other ways to heal and you wish to do so, you can heal now before fighting. Then is the monster attack phase. The monster player rolls two dice and the monster card will tell you the outcome. If the dice roll was bad enough, the monster might not do any damage. If the monster player was lucky however, a lot of damage can be involved depending on the monster level. Thankfully you could prevent at least some damage with shields, gaar tokens , or other cards and items. After the monster attack, comes another hero healing phase. Lastly, the hero can attack. If the monster player has any silver curse cards (which can be gained during combat in the game), they may play them now. Silver curse cards can negatively affect the dice rolls from the hero. The hero may counteract with abilities or items and after that the dice roll can be made. You can collect many different weapons during the game from treasures, defeating monsters or buying items. Choose what weapon you will use and roll two dices. The weapon will tell you how much damage you have dealt towards the monster. These four phases repeat itself until either the monster or hero is defeated. If the hero is defeated, he/she will be resurrected at the church, but this will cost you points at the end of the game.
Other then all of the above, you can still discover elementals, fulfill quests, train abilities, unveil hero tiles and much more. All of these rules can be found in the rulebook of Euthia.
Playthrough of the game.
After reading the rulebook, we were ready to play. The rulebook is pretty big, but explains the game quite well. Only the basic turn movement could use some shaping in our opinion, but after a round or two, we knew exactly how it worked. There is a lot to this game and in the beginning we were even a little overwhelmed with where to start. We both knew the most important aspect was to start exploring. As we discovered more tiles, we could also take more actions like mining, selling or buying gear, finding treasures. But we also discovered monsters, elementals and the challenges they brought with them. In our first scenario we quickly discovered we needed to get better weapons and gear fast. With a lot of luck, I had managed to defeat two enemies. But once I was facing my first level two enemy, I died and resurrected at the church. With the wealth I had earned from the first two enemies, I decided to buy some better gear that gave me more health and strength. With this new equipment and some treasures I managed to pick up along the way, I was ready to once again face my enemy. Since it was almost the end of the game (the first scenario is quite short), it was all or nothing. With barely defeating my enemy after a long fight, I claimed my rewards and the extra points just before the end. When counting the points, we discovered that you don’t always have to fight in order to win. Tomasz had mainly focused on mining, finding treasures etc. And since this was such a short scenario, this was a great way to earn some fast points to.
Now that we have played some more scenario’s, we can definitely say with two players we prefer the longer competitive scenario’s because it gives you more time to build your character and explore. But when we play this with more people, we prefer the shorter scenario’s since the game just takes longer with more people. Overall this game has so many options. You can play every scenario competitive or cooperative, there are many characters to choose from who each have their own special abilities to unlock during the game. And since there are a lot of tiles from each level, every scenario will be different even when played before. The art on the cards and characters is amazing, but one of the details we liked the most, is the size of the characters miniatures. A lot of board games had huge epic monster miniatures, but very tiny characters. Although this is fitting since it makes your character seem small and the monster big, I’m always a little disappointed since I play with my character so much and I just wish my character would be bigger. In Euthia the character is not only bigger, but also has an already nice base color and the quality of the miniatures are amazing. Then moving on to the gameplay. Once your get through that rulebook and the first couple of rounds, you realize just how easy the game is. The hardest part is figuring out how you want to earn your points this game and what you will focus on. Since we have the all-in version, we have the inserts that not only make the setup much easier and faster, but it also shows you every tile you might need during game play. This has helped a lot and if you have the chance to get the add-on for the insert, we definitely recommend to choose this option.
Final thoughts.
Euthia: Torment of Resurrections is a strategic fantasy themed exploration game where you explore the world in your chosen scenario and try to win by earning the most points. Let’s be honest. The creators of this game have managed to pull off an amazing game for their first ever creation. Not only is the gameplay very smooth, the quality of all components are great and the art of all cards, miniatures, etc. are amazing. But also the amount of things you can do in the game and with your character, blew our mind. There are so many ways to win and so many ways to develop different characters. Euthia gives you the feeling like you are playing a full RPG game. Then all the scenario’s that are provided with the game, add to the fun. Do you want a short game, long game, semi-cooperative, competitive? You can choose it all. And even if you would play a scenario multiple times, it will always be different since the tiles are placed randomly. Then I haven’t even started with all clear player aids that are provided for each separate character which makes the game so much easier to overview. Other then the rulebook who could use some better explanation at times, we only see one downside to this game. Especially for the bigger scenarios with more tiles, you need a HUGE table. But if you have a big table, this game is definitely worth it.
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