by Corey
It started with the arrival of an impulse Kickstarter backing of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past Board Game by IDW in 2016. Being that this game tickled my nostalgic TMNT fandom, of course I backed it at the "Works" level to get everything. It arrived a year later and in order to justify the massive investment, I quickly assembled a group of close friends to get together and play it regularly at a monthly interval. We had a shell of a time stomping the foot but were ready to move on to a new game.
For 2019 we started the legacy game Charterstone by Stonemaier Games and designed by Jamey Stegmaier. We played a scenario every month and completed the campaign in December. I'm not going to reveal any spoilers but we enjoyed the surprises and twists along the way. I won the campaign, but I digress. We all agreed that it was time to play more than just one game for an entire year in our group. For 2020, we were going to pick a new game each month to play.
That brings us to our first session in January 2020. We chose Euphoria as sort of a "gateway" game from Charterstone. Like Charterstone, it is also designed by Jamey Stegmaier and published by Stonemaier Games. Donnie won Euphoria from a play-to-win at CuseCon 2019. While we did technically play it there, we didn't get a chance to finish so both of us were eager to get it back to the table.
If you aren't familiar with Euphoria, it is a worker placement game set in a dystopian future where your workers are dice. You must roll your workers whenever you retrieve them. This represents your work force's "knowledge" and if it ever ends up being 16 or higher, you must lose a worker. Can't have your workers getting too smart after all. You also start the game with 2 characters that are part of 1 of 4 factions. You place your worker on locations that earn you various commodities and resources representing food, bliss, energy, stone, brick, and gold. Some locations earn you artifacts, others give you an additional worker, and others promote factions.
You win by placing 10 of your own stars on the board. This is done through various means. Some worker locations earn you stars by trading in resources or artifacts. Another way is to contribute workers to markets, of which you can't remove until 4 total workers are involved. Another way is fully promoting the faction for your character. This is the important one to note, at least it was for me...
There were 5 of us playing and the game was pretty close as we entered the final moments. I really thought Donnie was going to win. He had a decent engine going for earning artifacts and changing them back in for stars. My strategy early on was to be involved with all of the markets. However, I had been steadily earning bliss as a byproduct of one of the abilities Donnie was using from his character. There was a moment that I discovered I could easily change that bliss along with the heap of energy I collected into resources which, in turn, I could convert into stars.
I had it all figured out, except I almost ran just short. My cycle of bliss and energy into stars only got me to 9. It was at that moment I noticed an entirely different option from a market that would have been much easier for me to get the stars. I pointed it out to the other players and lamented that it would have been a better play for me. That is when Donnie of course took advantage. I pointed it right out to him! Here is what I didn't realize: it also advanced one of the factions. The very faction I still had not yet earned a star from.
That's right, Donnie's usage of the revealed market benefit moved my faction far enough to earn me my 10th star and I won. Oops?
Have you played Euphoria? Did it end in spectacular fashion? Tell us about it! And be sure to check back next month for the next Board Game Fam blog entry.
It started with the arrival of an impulse Kickstarter backing of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past Board Game by IDW in 2016. Being that this game tickled my nostalgic TMNT fandom, of course I backed it at the "Works" level to get everything. It arrived a year later and in order to justify the massive investment, I quickly assembled a group of close friends to get together and play it regularly at a monthly interval. We had a shell of a time stomping the foot but were ready to move on to a new game.
For 2019 we started the legacy game Charterstone by Stonemaier Games and designed by Jamey Stegmaier. We played a scenario every month and completed the campaign in December. I'm not going to reveal any spoilers but we enjoyed the surprises and twists along the way. I won the campaign, but I digress. We all agreed that it was time to play more than just one game for an entire year in our group. For 2020, we were going to pick a new game each month to play.
That brings us to our first session in January 2020. We chose Euphoria as sort of a "gateway" game from Charterstone. Like Charterstone, it is also designed by Jamey Stegmaier and published by Stonemaier Games. Donnie won Euphoria from a play-to-win at CuseCon 2019. While we did technically play it there, we didn't get a chance to finish so both of us were eager to get it back to the table.
If you aren't familiar with Euphoria, it is a worker placement game set in a dystopian future where your workers are dice. You must roll your workers whenever you retrieve them. This represents your work force's "knowledge" and if it ever ends up being 16 or higher, you must lose a worker. Can't have your workers getting too smart after all. You also start the game with 2 characters that are part of 1 of 4 factions. You place your worker on locations that earn you various commodities and resources representing food, bliss, energy, stone, brick, and gold. Some locations earn you artifacts, others give you an additional worker, and others promote factions.
You win by placing 10 of your own stars on the board. This is done through various means. Some worker locations earn you stars by trading in resources or artifacts. Another way is to contribute workers to markets, of which you can't remove until 4 total workers are involved. Another way is fully promoting the faction for your character. This is the important one to note, at least it was for me...
There were 5 of us playing and the game was pretty close as we entered the final moments. I really thought Donnie was going to win. He had a decent engine going for earning artifacts and changing them back in for stars. My strategy early on was to be involved with all of the markets. However, I had been steadily earning bliss as a byproduct of one of the abilities Donnie was using from his character. There was a moment that I discovered I could easily change that bliss along with the heap of energy I collected into resources which, in turn, I could convert into stars.
I had it all figured out, except I almost ran just short. My cycle of bliss and energy into stars only got me to 9. It was at that moment I noticed an entirely different option from a market that would have been much easier for me to get the stars. I pointed it out to the other players and lamented that it would have been a better play for me. That is when Donnie of course took advantage. I pointed it right out to him! Here is what I didn't realize: it also advanced one of the factions. The very faction I still had not yet earned a star from.
That's right, Donnie's usage of the revealed market benefit moved my faction far enough to earn me my 10th star and I won. Oops?
Have you played Euphoria? Did it end in spectacular fashion? Tell us about it! And be sure to check back next month for the next Board Game Fam blog entry.
