The sun has retreated from the earth. It has been a little over a week since the last hint of light shone over the horizon, and the chaos has begun. People fear for their existence, while scientists struggle to explain the phenomenon.
Until they came.
The creatures of nightmare — vampires, werewolves, and ghouls — have begun to appear throughout the world, and they show no sign of hesitation in claiming the dark world as their own!
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Publisher Blurb
Nightfall - a new fast, furious and fun deck-building game from Alderac Entertainment Group. Featuring direct head-to-head combat, amazing art, a new AEG world, and unique mechanics by designer David Gregg, Nightfall will be the deck-building game to own.
Before the game begins, there is a draft to determine which cards are available for purchase, and by whom. During this draft players select two cards from the set for their personal archives, and they also select cards to put into the common area. The cards drafted into personal archives may only be purchased by the player who drafted them.
After the table has been set with the private and common cards, players begin play.
The meat of Nightfall is in the chaining mechanic, which was partially developed with the help of people right here on BoardGameGeek.
Each card has a main color and two linking colors. If you can match the main color of a card to one of the linking colors of the previous card, you can chain those cards together. Once a chain is started, players all get an opportunity to link additional cards onto the chain during that turn.
Cards in the chain resolve in reverse order: first in, last out. Instant effects fire off as cards come off the chain, doing damage to your opponents or bringing characters into play to defend you and attack your opponents.
The object of Nightfall is to put wounds into your opponents’ decks and end the game with the least amount of wounds in your deck. But beware: the more wounds a person has, the more enraged they become and the faster their deck works, meaning more cards and bigger chains will come your way!
Nightfall's base set releases with starting decks of 12 cards for up to 5 players, and 24 distinct cards (7 copies of each) for drafting during play.
The box contains card dividers, and is in the same format as the much heralded Wrath of the Elements box for Thunderstone.
Integrates with:
Nightfall: Martial Law
Nightfall: Blood Country
Nightfall: The Coldest War
Nightfall: Dark Rages
Nightfall: Eastern Skies
- thematic concept is interesting
- guilds with special abilities provide some flavor
- poor graphic design/readability
- cloth mat is unnecessary and hard to read
- end-of-round turns can leave you with no workers
- draggy, not engaging
- poop/sanitation/urban infrastructure
- sanitation in Tutor, England
- grimly thematic, somewhat bleak
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — expel waste cubes from the city while avoiding waste in your own areas
- Card Play — play cards to gain benefits
- worker placement — place workers to perform actions
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Night Soil is a game about poop. That's all it is about.
- This game kind of beats you down.
- The cloth mat with the printing on is pretty hard to read what all the symbols do.
- This is a five out of 10 for me.
- The rules... is a very convoluted process.
- I really dislike what Portal did with this.
- There is a player aid per character. Yay.
- Symbols in this game do not match what you think they might mean.
- Redonkulously huge.
References (from this video)
- gorgeous art
- clear team-based goals
- offers varied play modes
- can be heavyweight for casual players
- rules and setup can be intricate
- team vs team dungeon-like battle
- dark fantasy world
- dueling factions with modular arms and campaign options
- Valor & Villainy
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- multiple play modes — includes solo and campaign/extended play variants
- team-based competition — knights vs demons engage in a structured conflict
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's like the super bowl
- christmas in august for a lot of gamers
- the rolling right experience they've distilled from Twilight Imperium
- the generator is amazing
- you can print at home and play as much as you want