Game: Early American Chrononauts

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Firepigeon — 2008-06-09T22:33:28+00:00

Box Art

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Firepigeon — 2008-06-09T22:32:04+00:00

Box Back

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Firepigeon — 2008-06-09T22:31:42+00:00

Box Side

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Firepigeon — 2008-06-09T22:31:21+00:00

Box Side

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Firepigeon — 2008-06-09T22:31:02+00:00

Box Side

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Firepigeon — 2008-06-09T22:30:27+00:00

Box Front

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DrFaust — 2008-01-27T19:30:59+00:00

Custom decorated box for Early American Chrononauts.

Thread: I should have kept the Midas Touch

Kiboko Hippo — 2008-01-11T03:30:03+00:00

I played two back-to-back two-player games. In the first, my opponent fulfilled the ID requirements with Quick Trip into the Future. I was powerless to stop it. I wasn't even close on my ID or my Mission which was the Midas Mission. I had not collected any gold items.

In Game Two, I draw the Midas Mission again and decide to take the mulligan and draw another mission (Just Desserts). I start my hand with Moctezuma's Chocolatl and the Sell an Artifact with Midas Bonus card. I play Chocolatl thinking I might sell it even though it is part of Just Desserts and maybe try and recover it later. In my second turn I pick up Captain Kidd's Treasure Chest! Hmmm... two gold items. Maybe I should have kept the Midas Mission. But it still works out because the next turn I play Sell an Artifact and get the Midas Bonus from the Treasure Chest. I draw two cards and they turn out to be The Golden Calf and The Golden Spike. ARRGHHH! I should have totally kept the Midas Mission.

Two turns later my opponent STEALS Chocolatl from me with Get There First. (My opponent's mission was Infinite Eats.) Things are not looking good. But then I acquire a Very Clean Time Machine allowing me to get Reverse Fate cards and Patches. I proceed to start patching my way to ten cards. On the patch that earns me the ninth card I finally pick up a Rewind. I was going to use this the next turn to recover my Sell an Artifact with the Midas Bonus from the discard pile and sell my Golden Calf. Victory would be mine! (I also had the Temporal Shield as protection.)

Unfortunately in that last patch (and one two turns before) I completed the ID for my opponent. ARRGHHH again! And defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory.

Fun game though!

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arielle — 2007-08-03T16:28:34+00:00

Paradox

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arielle — 2007-08-03T16:27:59+00:00

Mission Card (front and back)

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arielle — 2007-08-03T16:27:20+00:00

Mission Card

Thread: Re: Disparity

HerrCannon — 2007-03-05T17:49:07+00:00

I never thought about that. You may be right

Thread: Re: Disparity

abrannan — 2007-03-02T21:00:11+00:00

I think it's the same ratings disparity that hits expansions. That is, only people who liked the original will buy the expansion, so expansions almost all have higher ratings than the base game.

Yes, this isn't an expansion, it's a stand alone game, but when faced with both versions at the store, probably 99% of them will buy the original first.

Thread: Disparity

HerrCannon — 2007-03-02T20:42:26+00:00

Huh. I noticed that EAC has a higher average rating that the Original Game. Is there any particular reason fro this? Or are you guys just being weird? I personally think the two games are equally good seperately, but better together.

Thread: Re:Are the card backs the same?

wralen — 2004-10-25T03:21:45+00:00

Although it is likely you found this out in two months, the EAC cards have the same backing as the original. This is so you can join both decks and play Uber-Chrononauts.

They do, however, have a star in the corner of each card (on the face side) to distinguish them from the first game.

Thread: Are the card backs the same?

Bill Martinson — 2004-08-24T15:19:36+00:00

I'm hoping to use my promo cards from GenCon with Early American Chrononauts (which I plan to acquire soon), but they have the original Chrononauts card back and somehow I thought EAC had a different back (the EAC logo). Hoping I was mistaken about that ....

Thread: Session Report

baldrick — 2004-08-09T04:25:03+00:00

A session of Uber Chrononauts (both sets put together) - myself, Fen, Adam, Chris-1 and Chris-2 were present.

This was my first time playing with the new expansion, the same for Adam and Chris-2 - Chris-1 and Fen had both played Uber before. After the initial shock of the huge Uber timeline its pretty much the same game - the new gadgets seem quite strong, particularly the time machines.

Things got off to a slow start because of us new players getting used to the timeline (that and Fen had laid it out backwards as well!).

Chris-1 got off to a flying start by completing his mission fairly early. There was a lot of timeline activity in the early stages with most of the EA period being flipped and patched. We came close to total collapse with 11 paradoxes on 4 lines at one point but that was as close as it got.

Adam was next to complete his mission - although he didn't realise that he had and had to be told by Fen that he had. Chris-1 was having a tricky time with no yellow cards to flip the timeline he was reduced to playing artifacts. I had the 'Most Toys' mission as one of mine but with only 1 artifact down and Chris-1 playing lots of artifacts - I traded it for a new one at the first opportunity - a mistake as I then promptly drew the Time Machine that lets you play artifacts for free followed by lots of artifacts - I had 7 on the table at one point!

Fen made his ID first - he had the one that can only be used during Uber as it requires elements from both timelines. I made mine shortly after, followed quickly by Chris-1.

I got to 10 cards - all I needed now was to complete my mission - Mona and the Dragon. I had all three Mona Lisas and Shakespeare's last play - Chris-1 (on my left) had discarded a dragon and I had a rewind in hand - it was looking pretty good. Trouble was I had to wait for everyone else to go before me and the draw pile was almost empty.

Adam got to 10 cards, Fen was on 9 (1 away from winning!). Chris-2 was next and tried to complete his ID but Fen Memoed him, Chris-2 Memoed the Memo but Fen re-Memoed - taking Fen down to 7 cards. Unfortunately for me the draw pile was emptied and the discard pile shuffled and turn over - no way to get at that dinosaur

Chris-1 then stole my Mona Lisa in his next turn - things looking pretty bad but at least Fen was down to 7 cards and couldn't win straight away (or so I thought). Adam playing next got to 10 cards. Fen played next and played Discontinuity, rotating Adam's 10 cards to his hand to win.

Thread: Re:User Review

baldrick — 2004-07-26T11:56:24+00:00

Another thought on the UC win conditions - the requirement to reach the 10 card condition actually helps the game. This is the most infrequent way of wining non-uber C that its usually not attempted in our group. But with a need to get to 10 cards much more timeline manipulation and patching occurs - a good thing in my book

Thread: Re:User Review

baldrick — 2004-07-26T11:54:01+00:00

I share most of your feelings on this - EAC isn't that much different to the original on its own, if anything it is slightly easier with no uber paradox or time nexus (1945) in its timeline.

However I have to disagree with you about the gadgets - these are really strong, particularly the time machines. These can give the player with them such a large card advantage that winning is much more likely if you have one in play. These are the most common items to be stolen is 'Get There First' cards.

If you have the original I can't see playing this one on its own - UC is soooo much more compelling. Game time is increased but with players familiar with the timeline I think you could halve your quoted 2hrs, I recently played a 5 player game of which 3 of use were new players to UC (all played non-uber though) and we finished in roughly an hour.

Thread: User Review

IngredientX — 2004-07-19T23:01:37+00:00

Early American Chrononauts is a standalone expansion to Looney Labs' game of time travel, Chrononauts. I'm a big fan of the original game, so I had high hopes for the follow-up. Sadly, I found this release a bit of a letdown, playing it both alone and in conjuction with the original game.

Both games share the same central mechanics and goals, so I'll assume you're familiar with the original game.

EAC comes in a patriotically-designed cardboard tuck box that can barely hold the 100+ cards in the deck. It's packaged just like the original game, and my original game's box disintegrated after about a year of traveling to gaming groups and cons. So I doubt this one will last much longer. The cards are of typically nice quality, though.

A parable about the game's quality: I just went over to my bookshelf to grab the game for reference. I picked it up by the "wrong" long end of the box, and the cards burst out of the weak box lid, scattering themselves all over the floor. One TimeLine card landed in our cat's water bowl. I was able to fish it out and dry it, and now I can't tell which card took the dunk. I suppose it's better than lousy cards in a great box.

The TimeLine of EAC covers the first 150 years or so of United States history, starting with the beginning of the American Revolution, and ending with the institution of "The Star Spangled Banner" as the national anthem. TimeLine cards are still flipped with Inverter cards, though the flavor text is slightly different ("Start a Fight," "Sway Voting," and "Halt Attack" are three of the newcomers). There's a new dose of Artifacts (many of which are strangely related to history and food, like "Napoleon's Napoleon," "Marie Antoinette's Cake," and "General Tso's Chicken").

Finally, there's a new kind of Artifact called "Gadgets," which are sophisticated machines that can give players special powers. For example, the "Extra Large Time Machine" lets a player put down all the Artifacts in his hand. The "Temporal Shield" allows a player to disregard those annoying "Time Vortex" and "Discontinuity" cards, among others.

The Gadgets are the only actual addition to the game; otherwise, EAC plays exactly the same way as its predecessor. I'd suggest it to someone interested in American history who had never played Chrononauts, as the Gadgets offer a tiny bit (a REAAAALLY tiny bit) of strategy into an otherwise chaotic card game. I'd also suggest it to the completionist fan. But if you weren't interested in the original, this will not convert you. If you thought the original game was mediocre, this will not change your mind.

But wait! That's not the only reason I bought this game. If you own both games, you can combine them into a game of UberChrononauts (their name, not mine). I was especially looking forward to this. Being a fan of the original game, I wanted to see how a super-sized Chrononauts would work.

Well, here's how it goes. You lay out both TimeLines onto a big table. Some of the cards will wind up intermingling, but that's okay, and kinda cool. The EAC cards are marked with a patriotic red star in the upper-right-hand corner, so they're easily distinguished. All inverters from EAC display the dates from the original game that they affect, and there's an "Inverter Convertor" card that explains how original Inverters mess with EAC's TimeLine.

All players get two IDs and two missions, which is a nice way to not have to worry about a third set of cards just for UC (though there is one ID, Spa Fon, who does require both TimeLines. For those of you scoring at home, he is Squa Tront's brother, and he also needs WWIII to happen... a nice touch!). In order to win UC, players must accomplish all three victory conditions. Not simultaneously, of course... when you accomplish your ID, you show your IDs face-up, and you're a third of the way there. When you accomplish your mission, you show your missions face-up, and you're another third of the way there. Finally, when your hand size reaches ten cards, you scrounge up a token of some sort. Obviously, once you achieve one of your goals, it can't be taken away. The first player to have a face-up ID, a face-up mission, and a token wins.

Also, players now draw two cards into their hands, and discard one card from their hands. This actually helps the game's strategy quite a bit, as players are able to cycle through useless cards much faster. I felt that I could look a turn or two ahead (Time Vortices and Disorientations notwithstanding)

UberChrononauts has the epic feel I expected, with a sprawling TimeLine that covers over 200 years of history. Sadly, the epic feel translates into an unacceptable amount of downtime, as players struggle with a decision matrix that's much larger than a card game of this depth has any right to be. In a four player game, ten minutes could pass until it's your turn again. With the ramped-up victory conditions, the game can easily eclipse two hours.

Despite the new card management rules and the Gadgets, UberChrononauts is still a light, chaotic card game. Many people will not enjoy playing one game of this for two hours, especially if your gaming host has a stack of Alea games that offer deeper gameplay in a shorter timeframe.

Still, all is not lost. The UC hand management rules can probably be integrated into the original game, and players can play to two victory conditions instead of three. As long as you play with a single TimeLine, the game's depth should increase nicely, without the game length running too long.

I'm still a Chrononauts fan. I'm a sucker for the theme, and I think the TimeLine mechanic is ingenius. I wish I could rave about how much EAC adds to the gameplay, but it's just not there for me.

Thread: UberChrononauts

IngredientX — 2004-07-02T13:00:00+00:00

With any luck, I'll be able to try this tonight with my gaming group! I'll try to post a report...

The EAC rulebook does not have a section that explains UC; it refers the reader to a card in the deck. This card is tricky to find. It's on the back of a yellow card that looks like an Inverter, but is actually the "Inverter Converter."

FYI, here are the rule tweaks to UberChrononauts (more than I expected)...

The two timelines from both games are laid out, so we'll have an EIGHT-row timeline. The two timelines get mixed a bit in the middle, but the overlap is okay.

Each player gets 2 IDs and 2 Missions.

On your turn, you draw TWO cards. You discard one, and take the other into your hand.

To win, you must complete all THREE victory conditions... though not necessarily at the same time! So when your ID gets you home, you flip your ID card over, and you're a third of the way through. When you complete one of your missions, you flip your mission card over, discard one of your artifactrs, and you're another third of the way through. And when you reach ten cards, you get a token (not provided in the game). The first player with a token, a face-up mission, and a face-up ID wins.

The space-time continuum only collapses when 13 paradoxes are within 4 consecutive timeline rows. Drat. I was looking forward to blowing up the universe. (For the record, there's a character in the Lost Identities expansion whose ID required him to cause 13 paradoxes. I'm not sure how this would be handled in UC.)

Artifacts from "The Future" are still unplayable in an UberParadox.

The above-mentioned Inverter Converter causes some of the Inverters from the Original Chrononauts to have an effect in the EAC timeline.

One character, Spa Fon (Squa Tront's cousin!) is only playable in UberCrononauts, because he requires two EAC timeline events, plus World War 3.

I'm looking forward to trying this!

~Gil