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Welcome to Encyclopedia! The year is 1739, and as aspiring naturalists and adventurers, you’ve been hired by the Comte de Buffon - Darwin's predecessor - to help him create the first encyclopedia of natural history. To do so, you’ll be conducting research, organizing ambitious expeditions and publishing studies of the world’s most fascinating creatures!
Encyclopedia is a dice-based worker placement game. At the beginning of each round, you’ll be drawing and rolling dice, then placing them on your player board. These dice can then be used to perform an action each turn, depending on their color and value. Your action can be preparing your expeditions by going to the Embassy, visiting the Bank to raise funds, or hiring your research team at the University. Once you’re ready to go, you’ll choose the Animal cards you wish to study, then organize expeditions to observe them in their natural habitats. When your research is complete, you’ll then be able to publish your findings in an attempt to become the biggest contributor to Buffon’s Encyclopedia. Every publication you make will earn you Victory points, and at the end of the game, you’ll score points based on collections of Animals and research amassed during play. The naturalist with the most points wins!
Encyclopedia was designed by Olivier Melison and Eric Dubus, the authors of Dominations: Road to Civilization and Museum. This expert worker placement game brings some fascinating new twists to the genre, offering multiple paths to victory. The game also offers a multitude of ways to counter the random element of your dice rolls. As well as being able to spend different tokens to change the value or color of a die, players have more than just their own dice to choose from, as other players dice can also be used! Taking a die from another player’s board does not cost anything, but the targeted player gains a bonus.
The game’s beautiful theme - with gorgeously illustrated animal cards - ties in strongly with its mechanics, making the rules easy to grasp so that you can jump straight in to devising the perfect strategy.
—description from the publisher
- Gorgeous sketched artwork
- Diverse subject matter with educational appeal
- Mobile/dice worker placement and sketch-style art.
- Knowledge and discovery with a long list of illustrated animals and topics.
- Educational yet whimsical, presented in a sketched art style.
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- dice placement — Dice determine actions and availability, guiding resource use.
- dice worker placement — Dice determine actions and availability, guiding resource use.
- Sketched/character art focus — Artwork on cards shapes flavor and choices.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the art on the cards are absolutely stunning
- the cards are gorgeous
- I absolutely love the art in Similar
- the art in this game is so freaking cute
- Meadow is one that everyone talks about how beautiful the cards are
- the art is absolutely stunning
- the artwork is absolutely fabulous
References (from this video)
- Solid rules and approachable complexity
- Engaging dice mechanic with meaningful choices
- Deep strategic planning with many viable combos
- Strong theme, great art, and educational flavor
- Good player interaction via possibility of taking dice from others
- High replayability through many card interactions and combos
- Board is large; may feel overwhelming to new players
- Learning curve can be steep before mastery
- Requires time to truly master the scoring and publication strategies
- Scientific discovery and publishing research
- Global exploration during the 19th-century natural history period
- Educational, research-driven
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- color matching / continent mechanics — Actions often require matching colors and continents, linking animal cards, continents, and research paths for scoring.
- Compound Scoring — Publish research cubes from animal cards across a publication chart to score points, with higher types offering larger rewards.
- dice placement — Roll a pool of dice and place them on various board spaces to trigger actions and gain resources or effects.
- Dice placement / worker placement — Roll a pool of dice and place them on various board spaces to trigger actions and gain resources or effects.
- end game bonuses — Royal seals and other tokens grant temporary and end-of-round bonuses, plus strategic flexibility.
- endorsement of multiple egypts (contingent endgame) — End-of-round and end-of-game scoring depend on collecting sets by continent and type, encouraging thematic grouping.
- expedition token economy — Expedition tokens can modify die color or increase die value, and are spent to boost actions and end-game scoring potential.
- Matching — Actions often require matching colors and continents, linking animal cards, continents, and research paths for scoring.
- publication-based scoring — Publish research cubes from animal cards across a publication chart to score points, with higher types offering larger rewards.
- set collection / card drafting — Acquire animal cards, expert cards, and academy cards to unlock abilities and scoring opportunities.
- token-based bonuses — Royal seals and other tokens grant temporary and end-of-round bonuses, plus strategic flexibility.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- This game is pretty solid.
- Expedition and the publication actions have a little more to them than other actions, but that's the meat of the game.
- the dice which just works out so smoothly but also deceptively strategic
- The theme is awesome, the art is great, the board might be a tad too big but we really really enjoyed and will enjoy this game.
- you might see it soon on my top 10 games of 2022.
- pick up your quill with your family and friends in Encyclopedia by Holy Grail games again
References (from this video)
- Accessible weight for a mid-weight euro
- Easy to remember rules after playing
- Fun art and components
- Compiling animal facts in an encyclopedia
- Biology / zoological knowledge theme
- Educational yet approachable
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- dice worker placement — Dice workers perform actions to gather animal cards and research information.
- dice-driven optimization — Yields and endgame can be optimized by planning dice use.
- research/encyclopedia filling — Place cubes to represent species characteristics and complete research tasks.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the rules are quick and easy to get through
- my daughter really likes birds
- the game uses the game trays making it a lot better easier to set up and take down
- one of the best components that I've ever seen
References (from this video)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- The two by the way was Kingdoms for Lauren which is actually I think liked by others but I felt that you had to break your teeth on the rules to get to a game that was a whole lot of messiness.
- I really did not love Kingdoms for Lauren but I respect that it's a game that will work for others.
- The highest the highest individual score given out in 2022. So that's the 3.5 is the most common rating given.
References (from this video)
- Safe to keep
- Speaker loves it
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- set collection — Players collect thematic elements to score points; modular drafting implied by the cataloged encyclopedia.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I will not be going through campaign games in this.
- I want to be more cutthroat than I ever have before.
- Quad Heroes is going. I hate it. I hate it so much.
- Monumental. If Monumental is still here in a year and hasn't been played, if next year's Purge, if I haven't played Monumental, it's going to go.
- Last Light can go. I'm not thinking off the shelf.