Our Review
Demigods try for a position on Olympus
Elysium
Heroes and artifacts
To be a Demigod and try to get yourself a seat on Mount Olympus! If this is your desire you should absolutely try the board game with this topic, Elysium by Brett J. Gilbert and Matthew Dunstan, published by Space Cowboys.
How do you achieve your goal to be accepted into Olympus? By surrounding yourself with heroes and by forming strong card combinations with the help artifacts. However, those card combinations are only useable for a short time, therefore it makes sense to get them into Elysium when conditions are at their optimum.
When we open the box we find quite a lot of components: 168 cards, they represent eight families of 21 cards each; 1 Temple in two parts, one Steps board showing positions to mark the rounds; 1 Oracle board, 16 columns, four each in yellow, blue, green and red, 4 Player boards, 6 Quest tiles, 4 Order of play discs, 1 Epoch marker, 12 Trigger rings, 4 Player aids, 19 Bonus tiles, 45 Victory point tokens (25x 1 victory point and 30x 5 victory points), 25 Prestige point tokens (15x 1 prestige point, 10x 5 prestige points), 1 Guide to the cards booklet and 1 rules booklet.
For a game of Elysium you only select five families out of the eight families provided, which results in a great variety and spectrum, as the different mixtures of families provide many different situations.
You now shuffle the 105 cards for the selected five families. To determine the number of cards that are laid out you multiply the number of players by 3 and add 1 to this number. For four players you therefore reveal 13 cards.
This display of cards is called Agora.
Each of the families is dedicated to a god or a goddess. Those deities introduce their own abilities to the game. The various cards of a family allow a player to use the most varied combinations of actions.
The Temple is placed in the middle of the table, and directly below the temple you display the various Quest tiles, their number depends on the number of players.
Underneath those q quest tiles you place the Steps board.
The area beneath the Steps board is reserved for the Agora, where you now place the number of cards determined as already described.
The chosen starting player now takes the Order of play disc #1, the other players in clock-wise direction take the other discs in ascending order. Then each player takes as many victory point tokens as are equal to the number on his order of play disc.
Each player takes four columns of his chosen color, a Player board and four gold coins.
The remaining cold coins, victory point tokens, bonus tiles, prestige point tokens and trigger rings are laid out as general stock.
During the game you put all your gold coins, the victory point tokens you receive, also the bonus tokens and prestige point tokens on your Player board. The columns you did not yet place also sit on your Player board.
The game lasts five epochs (game rounds) and each epoch has four phases.
Phase 1 is the displaying of cards in the Agora. Beginning with the second round, cards still in the Agora at that point are removed and new cards are displayed. In Round 1 you only display cards.
Phase 2 is the Action phase. Each player holds four columns which enable him to take three cards and one quest tile.
The are above a Player’s board is called his Domain. When a player takes a card, he puts this card into his Domain. For the cards to yield victory points at the end of the game, as many of the cards in the Domain as possible must be transferred into the area below his board. The area his called Elysium.
Each card shows one or two color symbols in the top right-hand corner. To acquire a card you must have the columns of those colors still standing on your player board, unused.
To acquire the card you must then relinquish a column which need not be the column that you had to have to be entitled to acquire the card, you can discard any of your columns.
Some of the cards have abilities that you must resolve instantly; you might, for instance, receive gold coins, victory points or additional actions. Other effects of cards are permanent effects and provide you with permanent income, victory points or other effects. Some effects can only be used once during an epoch and you need to rotate the card by 90 degrees to indicate that the card has been already used in the current epoch.
With nearly all of the cards those effects are active only while the cards are situated in the Domain; as soon as they are in the Elysium, they lose their abilities.
In case of three and four players four quest tiles are on display, in a game for two players there are only two Quest tiles.
To acquire a Quest tile in a game with three and four players you must still have an unused column available, in the color that is visible above the Quest tile in the symbol in the temple.
In a game of two players the acquisition of a Quest tile is easier, as a player only needs to have von column in one of two possible symbols.
With the acquisition of a Quest tile you receive additional actions and also income. In relation to the Quest tile you now have the possibility to transfer cards to Elysium and receives income and maybe victory points.
The Quest tile also determines which order of play disc you receive and thus determines when it is your turn in Phase 3, the Writing of Legends, and at the start of the next round.
When you have miscalculated in your plans and no suitable quest card is available, that is, you have only a column left that does not allow you to take a Quest tile you must pass and wait until all other players have finished their turn. Then you take the last remaining Quest tile and must turn this over to show an Unfinished Quest, you are now last in order of play and discard your last remaining column.
When all players have used all their columns, Phase 2 ends. A player who has acquired an Unfinished Quest is automatically given the turn of play disc with the highest number.
In Phase 3 the turn of play discs are re-distributed according to the numbers on the Quest tiles and players now, in this new turn order, implement the options provided by their acquired Quest tiles, if possible.
Two examples for Quest tiles: Quest tile #1 gives you two gold, two victory points and the option to transfer two cards into Elysium, and you will be the starting player in Phase 3. Quest tile #3 gives you five gold and you can transfer two cards into Elysium. The disadvantage of this card in a standard game is that you in Phase 3 and especially in the next round, only the third player in turn of play order.
If a player had to content himself with an Unfinished Quest, he has now the chance to transfer one card to Elysium and receives income of one Gold and is, as mentioned, the last one in turn order.
The family cards show their Level in the top left-hand corner, the Level indicates the amount of gold that must be paid if you want to transfer this family card from your Domain to your Elysium.
When placed in the Elysium, individual cards there do not score victory points, they only score in the guise of Legends, that are several cards that form a group.
There are two kinds of legends: Level Legends or Family Legends.
A Family Legend comprises cards that are dedicated to the same deity. Such a Family Legend is made up of minimum two cards and maximum three cards, in a complete Family Legend there must be one card of Level 1, one card of Level 2 and one card of Level 3.
A Level Legend comprises cards from different families. All cards in the Legend must be of the same level, for instance, all need to have a cost of 3 gold. A Level Legend must comprise a minimum of two cards, whereas a complete Level Legend comprises five cards. But take care! Each family can only be represented once in a Level Legend.
For a complete Family Legend comprising three cards you score six victory points, for an incomplete Family Legend of two cards you score three victory points.
For two cards in a Level Legend you score two victory points, and a complete Level Legend comprises five cards will earn you twelve victory points; the score for a Level Legend of three cards is four victory points and 8 victory points for four cards.
You can start several Level Legends and Family Legends, but cards that have been assigned to a specific legend cannot be assigned to another Legend.
In Phase 4 all players take back all their columns. Family cards in your Domain that you might have used and rotated are rotated back and the next round begins.
ELYSIUM is a very good, but rather complex game. The flow of the game itself is rather simple, but for good, logical moves you sometimes have to consider very carefully what to do.
The general mechanics of phases and player turns is mastered quickly, but an effective combination for optimum use of acquired card is not achieved by all players in their first game.
Some players also have had problems with the mechanisms that for the acquisition of a family card or Quest tile you only have to have a column of the corresponding color available. Many players in our test games again and again wanted to discard the column of the respective color.
However, this mechanism of choosing cards by using those color columns is ingenious and absolutely new. The compulsion to acquire a Quest tile with those color columns at all costs to avoid massive disadvantages is absolutely ingenious, too.
The challenge to estimate when you have to acquire a Quest tile, even if that means that you relinquish the chance to acquire an important family cards, is what, due to strategic and tactical considerations, makes Elysium a game that can be absolutely recommended to all experienced players. In theory, beginners also can master the game, but it will them take quite a lot of plays to be able to effectively use the combination options of the cards.
It is important to create as complete Legends as possible and to be first to complete Legends of a certain Level or a Legend of a Family as this will give you victory points bonuses.
ELYSIUM is actually a development game with cards, which, however, does not only feature the developing of action options, but in which you must carefully consider when you need to renounce certain possibilities in favor of victory points.
Where there is light, there has also to bee shadow, and this is of course the case in this game, too, as sometimes there are long waiting periods while players consider their moves. But in my opinion the enjoyment of this game counterbalances possible downtimes.
Despite the rules being not really complicated, I have to choose „For Experts“ as the target group for the game, as surely only experienced frequent players will be able to use the complex interactive mechanisms for effective moves and strategies. Less experienced players will surely be able to master the rules and play the game according to those rules, but they will barely be able to use the combinatory options of the cards. Therefore they will only rarely be able to win the game against experienced players.
This confirms my opinion that the game is best suited to experienced players.
With its mechanism of making cards only available for acquisition if you have color columns of certain colors still available without having to use them to acquire the card, provides very unusual game flows in Elysium. This mechanism of color columns use is absolutely ingenious and new and provides huge fun in playing.
My conclusion: This game is absolutely ingenious and will provide new situations in the game again and again and thus renewed and huge fun.
Maria Schranz
Players: 2-4
Age: 14+
Time: 60+
Designer: Brett J. Gilbert, Matthew Dunston
Artist: Team
Price: ca. 40 Euro
Publisher: Space Cowboys 2015
Web: www.spacecowboys.fr
Genre: Set collecting, cards, development
Users: For experts
Version: de
Rules: de en fr it pl
In-game text: yes
Comments:
Simple basic rules
Complex game flow due to combinations
Ingenious new mechanism for card acquisition
Compares to:
7 Wonders
Other editions:
English, French, Italian and Polish editions at Space Cowboys, Asterion and Rebel.pl
My rating: 7
Maria Schranz:
The game is ingenious and immediately got a place in my games collection and will be on the table again and again!
Chance (pink): 1
Tactic (turquoise): 2
Strategy (blue): 3
Creativity (dark blue): 0
Knowledge (yellow): 0
Memory (orange): 2
Communication (red): 0
Interaction (brown): 3
Dexterity (green): 0
Action (dark green): 0