It kinda depends on which boss, but, 60-90 probably works, though, since I could set up the decks in advance, so most of the setup time won’t be an issue. And, really, the teach isn’t that bad, especially if you’ve played deck builders, because half the teach is just teaching the concept of a deck builder.
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I’ve always been interested in anything when people get enthused about a subject.
Please tell me more about Aeon’s End. What type of game is it?
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TL;DR
It’s a rock-solid deck building game crossed with a rock-solid co-op monster bashing game in a way that just feels, really nice, if you like either of those genres and don’t mind a frequently difficult game.
Longer Explanation
It’s a co-op deck building game where a group of mages are protecting the last bastion of society from giant monsters. Up to four players pick a mage to play and a boss to fight. Each boss has a unique mechanic, and each mage has a unique ability they can perform.
The gameplay is pretty standard deck builder, with some twists. The biggest being, unlike most deck builders, you don’t shuffle your deck. When you buy and play cards they go into your discard in a specific order (or sometimes in an order of your choosing) and at the end of the turn, when it’s time to draw back up to your hand limit (generally, 5), and the draw pile runs out, you just flip the discard pile over and start drawing.
So, if you’re good at counting cards, it actually removes a decent chunk of the randomness of card games, since you’ll have a good idea of what you’ll be drawing next turn.
You also have the option of holding onto any cards you don’t play and drawing less next turn, which is a slight variation from classic deck building games too, where you usually discard your hand at the end of the turn.
There are three types of cards, Gems (aka money), Relics (one-time actions) and Spells (Generally damage, but also other effects). Gems and relics are pretty self explanatory, but the way spells work are interesting too.
Each mage has up to 4 Breaches (Some have less, and wouldn’t be surprised if in later sets, some have more). At the start of the game, most of these are closed, and you can spend money to open them, but to play a spell, you have to first prep it to a Breach. Then at the start of your next turn (technically, every turn), you have the option of casting any number of spells in your breaches (Meaning, you can cast one, none, all, or any combo, as long as they’re in a breach when you start your turn).
You do this before playing any cards from your hand. Gems are used to buy cards and to focus/open breaches. Money is also used to charge up your special ability. So, the game is basically balancing buying cards, opening breaches so you can prep/cast more spells and charging your ability so you can use it.
The boss also has it’s own deck, that it draws from on it’s turn, they can spawn minions (that have their own health, and things they can do), along with instant actions, and other actions that have a timer.
The way turns work are also a bit different, turn order is random. There’s a turn order deck that consists of a card for each mage, and two (or more, id you want to make it harder) for the boss. It gets shuffled every round (aka, every time it’s empty). This randomness means you don’t have perfect information, and adds some much needed spice to the planning.
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This is quite important. Removing the player deck shuffling aspect would, on its own, reduce the game to a puzzle with a single correct solution. So the randomness is all on the common-enemy side.
The demo games I’ve played ran about 60-90 minutes, including rules explanation.
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@RogerBW @MikeimusPrime thanks both. So, in the standard game, you play, box away and reset a new game next time? And that takes 60-90 minutes?
Are there any communication restrictions between players or other ways to stop an alpha player?
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Yes, I’d say that’s about right. (And that’s demo games; I got a couple of experienced players at Essen 2019 and we pushed through a lot faster. But allow for TTS overhead.)
No communication restrictions. Nothing to stop an alpha player (my tendency is to regard that as a group social problem more than a game rules problem but I realise that not everyone feels the same way), but there’s a fair old informational load; solo players tend to say that playing two-handed is about the maximum comfortable complexity.
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So how does the base game of AE play game to game? Do you always fight the same monsters and boss, like a video game? It sounds like a great legacy system a la Gloomhaven, but I believe the legacy element is new.
AE is the definition of combinatorial explosion.
Your game setup is:
1-4 mages (one per player; in the AE1 core box there are 8)
1 nemesis (in the AE1 core box there are 4)
9 market cards (there are various constraints, but AE1 core has 7 gems, 6 relics and 14 spells; most setups are 3ish gems, 2ish relics, 4ish spells)
You can randomise everything, or e.g. work your way through the Nemeses, or through the mages.
Each Nemesis has some of its own specific cards and some generic cards - which vary per set, and you can mix and match them between sets. The exact number varies with player count.
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W/o an organizer (either bought, or something you make yourself), setup can actually take some time. Not a terrible amount, but there’s still time setting up the market and stuff like that. To speed it up there, there’s some nice randomizes online, or as apps, that can help speed stuff up.
And @RogerBW’s right, there’s nothing to really limit an alpha player, other than just keeping your hand secret, I guess. My group tends to approach each round as a bit of a puzzle.
We look at what’s on the board that might hit us if the Nemesis card is drawn, and ask around if anyone can stop it this turn. And if they can, we ask what else they could do and basically decide if we want to take the risk, and let them do the cool thing, or just take care of the danger.
That works well for us, but we’re also a group of reasonably long-term friends (aka, I think 10+ years. Definitely 14+ for me and my bestie, but don’t remember when the others stopped just being his coworkers/friends and also became my friends) at this point, so we tend to not alpha each other.
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@Captbnut I really like the Legacy version of the game. It does a really good job of introducing new mechanics and cards that’s enjoyable and doesn’t feel like they’ve locked away most of the game behind unlocks.
The core set and the first stand-alone expansion (War Eternal) have no legacy elements, but like @RogerBW said given the multiple mages and bosses, and different cards, there’s a lot of replay value in even owning just one box.
And on of the newer stand-alone boxes (New Age) actually introduced “mini legacy” stuff with a short campaign mode and IIRC, basic nemesis cards that can actually “level” up as you play the game and evolve into more dangerous cards.
The legacy version has the nemesis card leveling up thing in it, but I think so does New Age. Which is pretty neat.
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Yes, in NA there are “replacement Nemesis basic” cards which you can use to upgrade difficulty (normally during the course of the “expedition”, i.e. mini-campaign).
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I’m liking the sound of this. It’s my wife’s birthday soon and this sounds like her cup of tea as well. We like Dominion with the randomisation of kingdom cards and have the base set of Star Realms.
Thanks
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I love both those games, and absolutely adore Aeon’s End. I left a suggestion above on what I’d recommend, but I’d say start with Legacy if you want an actual legacy game, and if you like it, grab one of the stand-alone expansions when you’re done, since, I think it’s about 80% of the legacy cards are compatible with the game.
Or, just grab New Age and if you like it … grab one of the other stand-alone boxes. My recommendation would be War Eternal.
Also, if you’re the type who buys organizers, The Broken Token has official ones, I have this one, and it’s great.
They also have one for Legacy, that when combined with the other organizer lets you store all of all of the AE content up-to-and-including Legacy in the Legacy box. My guess, though, is that it would could store New Age and it’s expansions if you got them instead of say, the original game and it’s expansions.
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Opinions differ. I’ve heard anything between 20 to 80 depending on how picky you are.
I’d also recommend https://aeons-end-randomizer.de/ if you want to randomise things. There’s an official app but this one’s much less of a pain.
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FWIW I like Dominion, but failed to enjoy Aeon’s End. A cooperative game with no functional alpha player limitation and the potential to optimise play through tedious procedures like card-counting/open decks is just not something that can work for me. I know this isn’t a thread for criticism, so I do want to emphasise that these are entirely personal quirks and may be totally irrelevant to many - but they are absolutely deal-breakers for me.
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I think the addition of the “no shuffling, discard in the order you want” to the classic deck builder is what made me cautious. I am genuinely curious how I will handle that type of thing.
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I’m surprised it’s so low, but I can understand the picky part. So far, all the market cards seem great. But, I could see not wanting to use the nemesis cards that level up, and either just using their base form, or just the maxed or form.
Personally, I wouldn’t use any of the mages we’re building in the Legacy game in a normal game, because they are way too good.
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That’s understandable, and every thread should have criticism, it’s necessary to paint the whole picture.
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Seems entirely fair to me. There is no game that’ll work for everyone, and (see other threads) anyone who can say “I like/don’t like it because X” is useful for someone considering the game.
(That said, should we move this to a separate Aeon’s End thread?)
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I was thinking the same thing.
Also, to anyone else reading this, if you’re curious about Aeon’s End I’d be happy to run a game on TTS for people.
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