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In the Irish myth cycles, the land of Tír na nÓg is the realm of the Otherworld, the place where the Fairies lived and heroes visited on quests. It was a place just outside the realm of man, off to the west, where there was no illness or death or time, but only happiness and beauty.
The golden path to Tír na nÓg is open once more, and the greatest Celtic storytellers have gathered for a once-in-a-lifetime journey. When they return, they'll bring with them tales of the creatures they met and the adventures they lived. Over time those stories will become a saga — and the most epic saga will live on forever.
Journey to the Otherworld in Tír na nÓg by placing storytellers between story cards in the shared grid. When all storytellers have been placed, in reverse player order draft cards and add them to your hand. From your hand, you'll then add cards to your personal tableau: one card to hand, one card played. At the end of five rounds, score each row according to the rules on its corresponding goal card, and earn points for having the most connected story cards of each color. The highest score wins.
—description from the publisher
- Gorgeous art and thematic presentation.
- Brutally challenging and deeply puzzling abstract gameplay.
- High replayability due to variable objectives.
- Tightening gameplay as rounds progress and hands shrink.
- Excellent scaling for two players.
- Interesting card drafting mechanism.
- The expansion significantly elevates the core game by adding impactful choices to card discards and new powers.
- The 'bridge' power in the expansion adds flexibility and problem-solving opportunities.
- Theme feels somewhat sprinkled on top of a pure abstract game.
- Can be too crunchy and mentally taxing for some players.
- Expansion lacks pronunciation guide for new terms.
- The complexity and depth might make players feel inadequate.
- Wish the stories of the sagas were more integrated with the abstract objectives.
- Storytellers traveling to the Otherworld (Tír na nÓg) to encounter epic things and return to transcribe sagas of Irish myth.
- 3rd century CE Ireland
- Azul
- Calico
- Wingspan
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card drafting — Players draft cards, with a specific mechanism where placing a worker between two cards determines what can be chosen. The host mentions the possibility of 'orphans' being left in the draft.
- Grid building — Cards are played into a grid (5x3) to fulfill objectives and score points based on adjacency, color, and value.
- hand management — Players must manage their hand of cards, deciding which to play and which to discard, with the discarded card impacting end-game scoring.
- Objective Fulfillment — Players race to complete public objectives that grant special powers or bonuses.
- set collection — Players aim to collect contiguous groups of colors to score points and potentially unlock special abilities or objectives.
- Variable player powers — The expansion introduces special powers through 'archways' or 'goal cards' that can modify cards, move them, or enable unique actions.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Please turn your subtitles on to the Klingon channel so that when I make rules goofs, you'll know what they are.
- This is my biggest complaint about the expansion. They didn't put new pronunciation guide for all the new words.
- This game is the purest of pure abstracts.
- The expansion... it's for getting these new special powers.
- The expansion is a must-have expansion.
- It is rare. I have had meltdowns and brain burning explosions as often and as deep as they run in this game.