Has anyone ever played this game?

[SparklyUnicorn]

http://www.amazon.com/Euphoria-Build-a-Better-Dystopia/dp/B00EDTK266/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1440852759&sr=8-1&keywords=euphoria+build+a+better+dystopia

 

Any good?

 

 

[scholastica]

Not yet. But my dh is going to play it after work next Thursday. One of his coworkers is friends with the developers and he is bringing the game in for a group to play.

[SparklyUnicorn]

Looks really interesting.

 

 

[scholastica]

Here is my dh's review of this game. Hope it helps.

 

Euphoria is a worker-placement game, where you place workers in strategic locations on the board and use them, along with resources to achieve the game's goal. If you've played Settlers of Catan, your familiar with this - although in Settlers, the "workers" are settlements.

 

In Euphoria, your actions modify your workers' morale and knowledge. Ideally, your workers have high morale and low knowledge (so they don't realize how bad things are and escape). If this sounds funny to you, wait until you read the various titles for different people and areas in the game. I was laughing the whole time.

 

Your turn is very simple, you place a worker on the board, or retrieve one or more workers from the board. When you place a worker, there is a result, like gaining a resource. When you retrieve a worker, you roll the dice (your workers) to check their knowledge and see if any escaped.

 

Thus the game moves fast - once we got going, a turn took about 20 seconds. Rarely would someone else's move block what I could do and make me rethink. You might need to take a look at other player's resources and workers to see if the time is good to build a market and lock out another player, for example.

 

The game is complex compared to most - took a while to go over the rules and I "got it" about halfway through. The complexity is good - there is no obvious way to "game" the game and have an advantage.

 

What I liked

* A turn moves fast - once you get the hang of it

* Complex game - not easy to see how to get an advantage, or who has the adavantage

* Funny - Dilbert-esque humor

* Hidden elements - your move may be helping your opponent - you'll find out when he turns that card over

* Never the same - there are lots of parts which will vary from game to game - what the penalty is for not participating in the building of a market, or your recruit's special abilities.

* Dynamic - things change during the game - its not all based on the original layout and placement (like Settlers is).

 

While playing the game, I kept realizing how much thought went into this. Well done, I want to own this, and the publisher's first game, Viticulture.