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sean johnson
United States
avon
Indiana
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We were fortunate enough to be given a gift card to Myriad Games in November. My wife tempered my desire to get new games, and had me wait until after Christmas before we used the gift card so that we did not buy what someone else may have bought us. A few days after Christmas, we redeemed the gift certificate and we each picked out a game. Core Worlds was my pick. So was it a good one?
Game Overview
Core Worlds is a game of interstellar conflict. It also happens to be a deck building game. In Core Worlds players will have the opportunity to draft cards out of a common pool of cards in the center, play units from their hand, and then use these units to conquer new worlds.
The drafting mechanic may feel similar to a game like Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer, but there is a critical difference. In Core Worlds cards are not replenished to the center immediately after one is bought. For each round there are only a set number of cards in the center. This leads to tough decisions, where a player has to really prioritize what they want to do because the options will dwindle after other players have a turn. Like some of the best Euro games, Core Worlds presents the players with too many good decisions and not enough means to do half of them. This means players have to really balance their play.
In the game players have a limited amount of actions each turn. They also have a limited amount of energy. Energy is generated by worlds. To get more worlds players have to use units. However, units cost energy to get into play. As the game progresses the planets get bigger, and require more military strength. This means that players will need to draft stronger units, but this also requires energy. As I said, there is enough resources (energy and actions) to do everything.
The Game We Played
I had the opportunity to play the game once before, but this play was my wife's first. Other than having a common group of cards to choose from, Core Worlds does have a strong "multiplayer solitaire" vibe to it. For the most part we did our own thing. However, in the eighth round I played out units with a lot of ground strength in preparation to invade a planet that was available. However, my wife sniped it from me using a tactic that allowed her to use discard cards to gain more ground strength. With nothing else to do, I used the remainder of my energy and strength to play some more space units just in case.
Because I did not invade that planet on turn eight, I was able to muster enough strength on turn nine to invade a Core World that took 14 ground strength. On the 10th turn, my wife wanted to invade a planet that required 8 space strength and 8 ground strength to beat. She had some tactics and special abilities, but no matter how she tried to do it she could only get to 7 space strength and 8 ground strength. She bought prestige cards for the extra points instead. I was able to use two tactics to get my space strength up to invade another Core World. We tallied up the points and I won 29 to 23.
Our Thoughts
My Rating: 4.5 (Really Like it!)
My Thoughts: The only reason I do not give this game a five is because I have not played it enough yet to truly consider it one of my absolute favorite games. That being said, I really like this game. It feels like this a deep deck building game that also capture the theme really well. To me Core Worlds feels like the perfect mixture of Race for the Galaxy and Dominion. This mixture works great and with a few more plays, I could see Core Worlds being among my favorite games of all time.
Her Rating: 4 (Like it)
Her Thoughts: I think it is going to be a game that I will really like eventually, but it will take several plays for me to learn how to balance everything.
Verdict
Combined Rating: 8.5
I suppose this rating is somewhat provisional, as this is our newest game. However, we both liked the game and after it was over were left wanting to play it more. I think with more plays this game will truly cement itself as one of our favorites.
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