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The industrial age has come at last to the World of Indines! Use your ingenuity and the skill of your team of technomancers to cross the continent of Indines while connecting towns and building a vibrant trade network. Research new spells as you carve a path through the many treacherous terrains of the continent, using your company's unique advantages to outbuild the competition and secure supply lines for rare resources.
In Empyreal: Spells & Steam, technomancers use mana to build rails, and the amount of mana crystals required to cast a spell varies by terrain and by the potency of the spell. Mana crystals must recharge after being used, so your choice of when and where to use each spell will be critical to determining the efficiency of your construction engine.
The towns you choose to connect to your network will provide critical resources, and the value of these resources changes over time. Some become more valuable as they become more connected, while others become less valuable as their abundance increases. Thus, you need to be wary of what your competitors are building into their trade networks and adapt your strategies accordingly to maximize the value of your stock portfolio.
Reaching new cities first gives you additional benefits, and being the first to bridge the continent provides you with a sizable commission from your backers. However, those who build first are more at the mercy of changing markets. Time your construction projects to maximize your profits and the flow of mana.
—description from the publisher
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I have a really big problem with the status quo.
- I'm desperately looking for more colonialism themed games at least from the Western colonial eyes.
- Don't ruin the magic if you prefer not to but do you preset the first few turns of a playthrough so that you could better show the rules or is it all standard setup and you show the rules as they come?
- I pre stack cards like in terraforming Mars I made sure that there were cards in people's hands so that a greenery tile would go down a Sydney tile would go down an ocean would go down that every single little button could be pressed in that first generation.
References (from this video)
- Beautiful production
- Surprisingly quick for a light game
- Occasionally feels light for experienced players
- magic meets industry
- Victorian fantasy with arcane steam power
- lightweight but flavorful
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card-driven actions — players optimize a sequence of actions with a compact engine
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this one was somewhere between 30 and 40% larger than the first iteration
- the food they had at the convention was actually pretty tasty
- the vendor hall is small
- the game is magic and that story is locked in
- probably the greatest con game of all time, Lightseed Arena
- we almost pulled off the win against the gnomes on easy mode
References (from this video)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Harriette's tell I firmly believe FST
- This is one game that gives you satisfied feeling when doing your actions but gain may and when you want to do a lot more
- We have the deluxe version and the expansion of the game and components are absolutely gorgeous.
References (from this video)
- It's an engine building game with a huge decision space.
- Tailor-made for people who love to keep a lot of variables in the head and for those who love to experiment with different powers and abilities.
- The deluxe version is just damn good-looking.
- It's a wonderfully fresh take on a very tired genre.
- The board can get very busy as the game progresses.
- There is a lot to keep track of.
- There's a lot of icons to remember, and we found ourselves hitting the reference book to look up what each spell car and specialist did.
- Combine Steamworks and spell crafting to create a magical train company.
- Indines
- Auztralia
- Argent the consortium
- Ticket to Ride
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Engine Building — This game is all about interconnecting powers.
- Hand Management — Reclaim any spent mana and gain one spell car from the available tray and place it on your board.
- network building — It's a train game so you build train networks.
- Pick-Up and Deliver — Choose a city thats network adjacent to you. Select any number of resources matching that cities demand from your network even in spaces you share and if one is available take a demand tile from the city.
- Set Collection — You want to deliver sets of goods to cities who need them.
- Worker Placement — Decide which main action to take: administer or move + activate.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Empyreal: spells and steam in about three minutes
- Empyreal: spells and steam isn't a regular train game
- Gold medal game
- Empyreal: ticket to ride over 9000
References (from this video)
- Ticket to Ride
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Route/track building with resource management
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- you guys know Seven Wonders and then I recommend you try out it's a wonderful world
- Baron Park I play it all the time
- Stardew Valley the board game which I love this game so much