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Bobby Warren
United States
Glendale
Arizona
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I played Eine Frage der Ähre (Heartland) for the first time this past weekend and have been playing Nightfall since it came out and have some thoughts on both games. (Presented in a slightly disjointed and free-flowing train of thought manner...)
First up is EfdÄ. It's a tile-laying game which the players are trying to score points by creating areas of crops which match the ones on the two-area tiles which they place on the board. Each side of the tile can score points or move a piece in the barn area which, once the conditions have been met, will allow you to place farm markers on the board which score extra points each round.
Deciding on whether or not to score points for an area or use it to advance the markers in the barn is quite a clever idea.
The game is nicely produced with a very large board and the tiles are large and quite thick and should hold up to many plays. The different crops on the tiles are easy to tell apart, both because of the illustrations and the colors used.
We played a four-player game and I enjoyed it, but finished last. I blame luck for part of this because I didn't draw a single double tile (the same crop on both sides) the entire game. This can be important because it allows a player to score the same field twice, so if a 12-space potato field is created the player could score 24 points. I also went a long time without drawing one of the crop types. I wouldn't expect this dearth of a crop type and double tiles to happen every game as the others seemed to have a good mix of tiles most of the game.
Where my strategy failed is I was unable to balance the different types of scoring and blocking other players by reducing the size of large areas of crop types they were using to score a lot of points. Striking this balance looks to be where EfdÄ wants to excel. I'd like to play it again soon to see if I can figure it all out.
Nightfall also feels like there is a depth which I haven't quite discovered.
It's a deck-building game which requires you to attack the other player(s) on your turn if you can. On their turn, a player attacks with any characters which they have in play, then plays cards from their hands, then buys new cards.
The clever part of the game is the play of cards. Each card has a color associated with it as well as two secondary colors. When a player plays a card, they may continue playing cards as long as the color of a card matches one of the two secondary colors of the card played before it. Once a player is done playing cards, then the next player may play cards on the chain of cards. Once they are done, the next player may play cards on the chain, and this continues until every player has had a chance to play cards. Then the cards are resolved from the last card played to the first.
This means that every player may play cards on any player's turn. There is also a special action, or "kicker" on each card which will resolve only if it's color matches the primary color of the card played before it, so buying the right cards and playing them in the correct order can be very important.
Most of my games have been with two players which is a really different experience than playing with more players. With two, my experience has been that most of the games are very one-sided and one error can spell doom as the game comes to a fairly quick end.
With more players, everyone has to try to judge who is winning and in a better position to be the winner when deciding to attack. It adds a level of tension which I really enjoy. I want to get some more games with three and four players to see if one bad turn can be rebounded from into a victory.
The part of the game I am having problems with is maintaining a regular supply of characters in play to both be able to attack the other players and block the characters the other players send at me. I'm either playing too many cards when it is not my turn and not having any on my turn to play, or not playing enough.
The cards are a nice quality. Up there with any CCG. Some people have complained because they are not a textured linen finish, but that doesn't bother me. The one problem is all the colors are represented by colored full moons. The first time I played was with someone who is profoundly colorblind and he didn't have a problem telling the shades apart, but some of the comments here on the Geek indicate this isn't always the case with colorblind individuals. My problem comes from telling the white/gray moons apart from the yellow moons on the secondary colors.
The game also feels a little incomplete. Like there is some part of the game which was left out for this introductory set which will be revealed as the expansions are released. Luckily, the second set, Nightfall: Martial Law, is due in the next couple of months and promises at least one new mechanic.
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