Mythologies ►►► Could be a top10 of the year contender, if...
Transcript
Hey everybody. Today on Roto Runsue, we're taking a look at mythologies. But before I get going, please turn your subtitles on to the Klingon channel so that when I make rules goose, you'll know what they are. And if you've done that, well then welcome to the ancient past where each player is trying to develop a society that is influenced by mythologies from all around the world. And today it's going to be Chinese mythology, Zulu mythology, Celtic, and Greek mythology. But every time you play, you're supposed to randomly mix up the different mythologies. It could have been um Incan mythology, Egyptian mythology, Hindu, or Norse mythology, or any combination of these eight different mythologies. And the position you put them on the central board matters as well because after you've got your four mythologies and the boards that match them, you take the four boards, uh, put them in one of the four corners, slot them together, and you've got your sanctuary where you can draft cards from, but you have also created two trials that you will be judged on. And so in this game with the Chinese mythology up here and the Zulu mythology up there, the trial that we will face at the end of the third of four rounds that we're going to play through, you have to
have at least three empty spaces in our society while having completed our right column. So we've got to get all these spaces filled up and then of the remaining six, three of them have to be empty. If we do that at the end of the third of four rounds, we will get one, two, three, four favors of the gods, also known as victory points. And so we're going to be building with that in mind throughout the game. At the end of the fourth and final round, because Celtic is over here and Greek is over here, our fourth trial or our second trial, our final trial will be have at least three summoning crystals in your celestial plane. Uh the celestial plane is up here. So, we have to have at least three, you know, it has to be at least three summon crystals up on this level, which will make sense as we start playing. So, we are throughout this game, every round, over four rounds, we are each going to end up grabbing two cards that are available out here in the sanctuary and slot them in wherever we feel is appropriate in our society board or our city board, I believe it's called. And um this game could have been a very different set of trials if say we had gotten the Egyptian uh you know pantheon and we'd put it up here. It would be have at least two crushed monsters or deities in your right column instead of three empty spaces. Or if the Egyptian had been down here, it would have been have three summoning crystals in your central column rather than your celestial plane. So, every time you play, you're going to get a different
combination of objectives depending on how these boards uh were placed, which is also dependent on which four of the eight um uh mythologies you end up going with. And the game comes with some randomizer cards. It also comes with this handy dandy little chart to let you know at a glance that some uh mythologies especially Nordic and Chinese are a bit more interactive both positively and negatively um than others and some mythologies are simpler and some are quite a bit more complex. So what do we have? We have Greek today very complex medium interaction. We've got Zulu, uh, medium complexity, no interaction. Celtic, medium complexity, a little bit of interaction. And Chinese, oh, the big dog, very complex, very interactive. So, let's see how this goes. I've got the first player marker. We've each got our city set up. And here is a nice breakdown of how each of the four rounds work. And good job, publishers. More publishers. Summarize your whole game on the last page of your rule book. It drives me baddy every time I see a publisher just leave the blast, you know, the back cover just blank so you can have some art. Look how useful all this is to have at a glance. Anyway, each round consists of three phases.
First, selection, then placement, and then finally upkeep. Um, and during the upkeep, in rounds three and four, we'll face our trials I've talked about. Then at the end of the game, we'll score more points based on what we've got left over and all of that. So, we are going to go through the selection phase now, which means we reveal a destiny card. Our destiny is boom. Okay, I am the green player, not the Celtic player. It just happens Celtic is green. I'm the green player. And that means this Destiny card says I have access to the Chinese mythology. um you know, on this first bit of drafting, I could bring some Chinese um myths over to my um society. And Jen, the blue player, she's down here in the Greek uh mythology. So, um each of us has the opportunity to grab one of these three cards. And I should say in the first round of the uh four rounds of drafting, there are only 12 cards to choose from. But once we start in the second and then the third and the fourth, there will also be a fourth card in every zone. It will be a deity card.
And these are very cool and very powerful. But in the first round, there's only monsters, no deities yet. So, we'll see what that does in the second round. But right now, Jen has access to these three if she wants them. Now, she might look around at all the other cards and say, "Oh, I don't want any of these." Because each round, each of us is only going to get two cards to add to our city. So Jen's got to decide if she wants a minotaur, a chimera, or a cyclops. Me, I've got to decide if I want a um I don't know, a Shoulin, a Jiang Xi, or a Muay. Oh, it's Gizmo. Although it is a very scary Gizmo. Um that is quite the gremlin we've got over there. Let's see. Does the special power have to do with water? No, it doesn't. But anyway, so we each have to pick and we pick in secret because we all players have the same three tokens. You're supposed to keep them face down so nobody knows what you're getting. And then I decide whether I want one of these three. And I got to say, even without reading what they do, I'm probably going to want to get that um that Gizmo, that Muay over there. So that means I would choose this. But if I don't like these, if I look around and say, "Oh my gosh, I would rather have a Chimera or a Kelpie or a uh Tokalosshi."
If I really want one of those, what I can do instead is I can wait until everybody reveals at the same time and reveal. Oops, where is it? Reveal that I'm passing, that I'm not taking any of the ones that are available to me. But I don't reveal that until everybody has decided what they're doing. Now, because we're playing a two-player game today, there is a third and a fourth player, the white and the red player. And what they do is they're taking cards just like us in this first round of drafting. This is our first draft. Um, they're going to take the leftmost one. So, white takes tooki. Tokoshi, we hardly knew you. Um, right. At the end of your turn, lose. Okay, Tokoshi is gone. And over here, the Kelpy is gone. They were taken by the white and the red player and they're just out of the game. It's as if some other player took them. And meanwhile, Jen and I are deciding, do we want one of these or do we think, oh, we want to wait for the other ones? Now, in a in a higher player count game, we wouldn't know yet while making this decision if Tokoshi was going to go. We look at our opponent. We really want Tokoshi. Who um you know, whoever the white player is, we'd have to hope. Oh my gosh, I hope Tokoshi is still there because there's three more of these cards and one of them is going to give me access to this mythology. But I don't know if it's going to be the second mythology, the third, or the fourth and final mythology I have access to because this deck was shuffled up. So anyway, that's what's going on. And so we can let the drafting begin. So let's look at
these a little bit more. Um, the Muay when another player completes the plane or column. The plane is a row. These are planes. This is the celestial plane, the abyssal plane, and I think the mortal plane. What's the middle one called? The middle one is called the terrestrial plane, not the mortal plane. So, um, if I get Malaguay and I put it over here, let's say, um, when another player completes this row or this column, that other player is going to get a crystal. Um, so I'm making something good for them. When I do it, when I complete the row or the column, I get a point. And this is not a high-scoring game. every point counts or you know a favor is what these uh these discs are called. So that is actually pretty cool. That's a nice straightforward one. I could do well with that. Let's see. Jang Xi sacrifice a stack from this plane from the row.
Wherever I put Jang Xi when I put it down I have to sacrifice a stack of other cards from the same row. And uh if I do that I get two crystals. Now crystals are important. They are worth what is it? I think three to one at the end of the game. Um, final scoring. Yeah, three gems are turning into crystals. So, they're worth a third of a point. But more importantly, from the second era on when the deities start coming out to draft them, we need to have four crystals or four gems. So, if we could start collecting some gems in this first round, we would be set so that when the deities come out, we can get them in the second round. Um, it would be that's why they're not out in the first round because nobody has any crystals at the beginning of the game. So, it'd be impossible to climb. So, uh, getting Xang Xi would have me destroy the other card I'm going to play because I'd get another card. I'd play it first, get whatever it is, then I'd get Xang Xi. Xang Xi would sacrifice the other one, but I'd get two crystals. So, that other card would have even more. And it's not that big a deal to sacrifice cards because most of these cards, cards that have this symbol, they are only going to activate once and then that's it. They're just sitting there taking up space. Although, um, you will want them in position for the trials at the end of the third and the fourth age, let's call it. So, anyway, so this is this is way I could sacrifice one of my other stacks of cards because cards can be placed on top of other cards. Um, you know, so you end up with a stack of them. this one.
Um, uh, I don't know, she copy the placement effect of a monster from the same column of an opposing player. Oh, that is terrible for me. Cuz here's the deal, folks. Uh, in this two-player game, I am the first player, which means after everybody's gotten their two cards, I'm going to be the first player to place my stuff. And if I were to place that, uh, Jen wouldn't have placed anything yet. So, I definitely don't want that. That's useless. If I were the second player, that could be pretty good. If there was something out there that I really wanted to get, but I was afraid my opponent would get up would end up taking it. Well, then I could take this and copy their card as an example. Um, yeah, I think I think I'm going to go for it. I think I'm going to go for the Muay. All right. Which means, again, I'm either secretly declaring that I'm going to grab something or that I'm going to pass because I don't want any of these, but I want that Maui. So, I'm just going to put it over here. I'm just holding it in my hand waiting. But I'll go on ahead and put it right here to indicate so everybody knows I've chosen. I'm ready to go, but I'm waiting for everybody else to choose, too.
Because after all these cards come out, everybody's looking at them. There's a lot of text to read. It'll be even more once the deities start coming out because you can't just focus only on what's in front of you. You got to focus on what else you might be able to get. And if you see something out there, will you be able to get it or will another player grab it before you? Anyway, so Jen's down here in um Greek Town. Cyclops. Now, this is an ongoing ability that can be used once per age. Um spend a gem and when which says, you know, basically whenever you gain the reward of a row, plane or column, take the same reward from steal a reward from your opponent. So Jen could go for this because what this says is all right. So it's out here, right? Didn't do anything when it was placed. But at the moment when Jen finishes this column or this row because when you finish a row or a column, when you finish uh you get the benefit on the side, you can get a gem by finishing a row. You can get a point by finishing a column. And this says, "So if Jen quickly fills this column, then she'd get her point and she'd steal my victory point as well, and therefore I would never want to complete that column. So this is a bit of that interaction that they were talking about. Okay. Um, not as as bad as the Norse. Oh my gosh, some of the Norse cards are really slam, slam, slam." But anyway, the Chimera, if it crushes, crush it by summoning the monster from
the top of the deck. Oh, no. If what? Oh, I see. Oh, because it's a chimera. It's constantly changing. So, crushing is the idea. Say on some previous round of drafting, Jen had gotten the uh impendulu and then she says, "Oh, you know what?" And she got whatever that effect was at some point in the past. Even if if she got two cards, she played this one first. Um, a card can be placed on top of another. That is called crushing the previous card. So, if we do that, this thing says, "Hey, I've crushed something. Now, immediately crush me." Uh, by summoning the monster from the top of a deck. So, like this would be a way I could get a green card. If I wanted a Celtic card, I'd say, "Oh, crush. I'm just going to draw from the top of the deck and crush you with whatever this is." Because maybe I've got a goal for getting a lot of Celtic green cards, let's say, and this would be a way I could get another one because that chimera would transform into something else. I I mean, obviously, I don't know a lot about a lot of these um pantheons, these mythologies, but I do know Greek stuff. And so, it's uh it's pretty cool. I imagine there's thematic um relevance amongst all the different pantheons. Minotaur. Each Oh, this is another interactive one. When the minur goes down, every player moves one um monster horizontally from this column.
So if Jen puts this over here, um everybody, her and everybody else has to pick a monster from here and move it um to the right or to the left, maybe crushing stuff to the right or the left. So that could be if you time it right and see how your opponent has laid out their world. If you see they've got a good card, you could force them to crush it by putting that thing in a place where they'd suddenly have to crush a card maybe or something like that. So Jen's got three to choose from. I've got three to choose from. I've already chosen I want the Muay. Um and Jen So again, she's got the same choice. She could pass because she wants to get these other ones. But you know what? I think she's going to pick one. All right, we reveal at the same time we're both picking one. Okay. So, um, we reveal this because the thing is I might, you know, say Jen, say I really want that Minotaur. I think that's a really important card for me. What I could, um, what I can't do is see that, oh, Jen's already decided to pass so that I know, oh, she's skipping on it.
There's a good chance I'll be able to get it. Um, you know, because I I I we reveal at the same time. And so, we reveal what we're doing and then we take uh, you know, and it doesn't matter. We all pretty much uh choose and boom, Jen is grabbing the Cyclops. I am grabbing the Mauaguay. And it's at this point that um the white and the red player say, "Oh, we're in the first bit of drafting." So, we're going to take the first, i.e. the leftmost card. Those two went away. Okay. Now, we continue on. We go to our second bit of Destiny. And boom. I now have access. All right. Oh, no. Hold on a second. What am I talking about? We don't do this yet. Hold on. There's like a whole other part. Yes, we do. Yes, we do. What are we talking about? Yes, we do. This is right. This is right. I was right. Okay, we reveal. Boom. Okay, I've got access to these two remaining um Greek cards and Jen's got access to these two remaining Zulu cards. So, and again, if I don't want them, I could pass to try to get access to something else. So, uh, Dulahan, move your monster or deity from the top row one space down. Um, gain one, uh, gem for each that is crushed in this way. So, um, and actually this is, it never actually says this in the rule book, but Jen and I have intuited whenever it says move your thing and thing, it's talking about all of them. So, all the cards I would have,
I'm sorry, in the middle row, I have to move them all down one space. And if I end up crushing stuff on the bottom row, I will get gems for having crushed stuff. Um, all righty. So, that's what that one does. And then I've also got a banshee. All righty. Gain one favor, one victory point if all other spaces in this plane row are empty. gain one uh gem if all the spaces in this column are empty. That's pretty nice, you know, and that would be harder to do later in the game when I've got a bunch of stuff out here, but at the beginning of the game, that's going to be pretty easy to pull off. Yeah, I think I want that. I think I am going to in secret and nobody knows yet. Jen doesn't know whether I am passing because I want something else or whether I'm going to take something.
I've just made my choice. And meanwhile, where was Jen? Jen was looking up here at these two remaining Zulu cards. So, um, in Pundu, right? Uh, right. So, place this if it crushes. So, if you put this on top of something, summon a monster from the uh the, you know, the sanctuary of the same mythology as the one that got crushed. So, that's interesting. So, if Jen's got this Cyclops, which does its dirty work, and then Jen crushes it, she would be able to grab one of the remaining ones um that's still out there. And if there are none out, she would just draw one blind. So, okay, that's interesting. This is a way you could get three cards played in a given turn. Although, functionally, you'd still only have two on display because this had to crush something to trigger its power. And then this one, uh, sacrifice a monster, um, or call a monster, right? Sacrifice a monster or call a monster or deity from an opponent's discard pile. So, this is a tough one. If your opponent has previously discarded stuff, then playing this lets you go grab stuff out of their discard pile. If they haven't, then you don't want this because it means you have to sacrifice something of your own.
sacrificing things is how you end up getting a discard pile. Um you you could say from your opponent's sacrifice pile basically. So anyway, so Jen's got those two. And now here at this point in the game, I don't have anything sacrificed. She knows I've got this, but it doesn't trigger me sacrificing anything. So she doesn't know if that's going to do her any good. So I don't think she wants that. And I mean she could go for that, but I mean she's not dying to get any of these other Greek cards. So, I think Jen looking around, this is her choice. Okay, everybody's made their choice and now everybody reveals and boom, Jen is passing. Jen does not want either of those. But I am going ahead and I'm declaring the Banshee is mine. And now, meanwhile, we were in the second round of drafting. So, the second card goes away. Red takes the Chimera. Boom. And this is only in a two-player game, by the way, that we have, you know, these virtual players grabbing stuff. So there goes Shang Xi, the second card. Now we see what our destiny is uh for the third round. Although if Jen had chosen to take something, once every player has claimed two cards. I've claimed two cards, but Jen hasn't. Once that happens, we're done with the destiny.
We're done with taking stuff. Since Jen still gets another card, we have to go through a third bit of destiny. And Jen is down here. She can't have the banshee. uh another player already took that card away and so does she want Doulahan or does she wait because if she passes again she knows on the fourth round she will what does she not had access to? She will have access to um the great. So right now Jen could get this or this card. She knows it's going to be one of these two. And meanwhile we're in the third round. So, red says, "Hey, I'm taking this third card." And white says, "Oh, I want to take this third card," but they can't because I already claimed it. So, for this round, it's like white passed. You know how Jen passed and I didn't take it? This round, white is just saying, "Oh, I'm not taking anything because they couldn't take the card I already got." So, um it's down to these two final cards. Jen could get this one, this, or she could pass to get that one.
And she knows and no one can take it from her. So, which of these two does she want? And I think it's a no-brainer because this power, this is a good power to have later in the game when you move stuff, crush existing stuff, and get extra gems for it. Now, you know, at this first round of the game, we don't have a lot of that stuff. So, I think Jen says you're waiting. Boom. I pass. Okay. So, we are going to go um because um we keep going until all players have gotten access to two. Here we go. Jen's up there and Jen says, "Oh, I know what I'm taking." Meanwhile, not that it really matters. Or you in the fourth round of drafting, the virtual players don't take anything. Um because they they had their first or second or third, they don't take anything else. So Jen says, "Oh, I'm coming over here." And boom. So that is it folks. We have finished the first era's selection phase, which you know, pretty much everything happens simultaneously as you saw. Now we move on to the placement phase. And this does happen in order. Remember I talked about this. It would have affected me. Um I didn't I like that power, but I didn't want to take it because I'm the first.
We we grab our cards. Here's my two cards. Here's Jen's two cards. And um you know, here's the three cards that nobody ended up taking. Uh which means these cards are going to stick around. It's not like we clear them all out and bring a bunch of new ones out next round. Um, you know, the if there's something out there that nobody wants because hey, it's not a very good time to take it, maybe early, it would be better in later, they stay out there, so they might get grabbed in future rounds. But anyway, I'm the first player, so I've got to place both of my cards before Jen. And here's the deal. I know Jen is going to get to copy one of my cards because she's got that one. So, I'll worry about that in a bit. There's not much I can do to stop her. Let's see. Banshee and Maui. Now, there's a there's something else to consider when I am placing these. There are summoning benefits. If I put this Banshee in my celestial plane, my top row, I'll get a gem. If I put it in my abyssal plane, the bottom row, I'll get a point. If I put it in the um terrestrial row, I get nothing. So, I do not want to put a Banshee on Earth. I want to put them up in the sky or down below the ground. And meanwhile, I want this Malaguay to be um you know in the terrestrial or the terrestrial or the abyssal because if I put them up in the sky, they give me nothing. So, let's go on ahead and put this Maui out first. Let's put it in the middle row. And I could put it in any column. But one thing I'm considering is
the fact that remember by the end of the third age of drafting, I have to have um my entire right column completely filled and I have to have empty spaces, three empty spaces everywhere else. So I might as well put it in the right column and start trying to fill it. Right? So I'm starting to work on filling my right column. Um and because I put it in the center, I get a favor. I got one point. And um this doesn't do anything immediately, but whenever another player completes the right column, cuz here's the deal. I know Jen's going to want to complete the right column. If I were playing four players, I know everybody wants to complete the right column. And I'm going to or they're going to get benefits when they do it. Um when I do it, I get points as well. But anyway, so when another player completes this, I have to remind them, hey, you get a gem, but when I complete this column, I get a point. And we all want to complete our right column because we've got a trial for it. So I'm putting that there. It doesn't do anything for me immediately.
It's just saving up for later. And now my banshee has to go somewhere. And I And really, first thing I got to think, do I want another point? Actually, do I even want a point off the M? No, I think I'm putting the Muay down below because I don't need points right now. I need to start collecting gems because in the second round, the deities are going to come out and I need to have four gems to be able to recruit a deity. Which makes me kind of want to put the Banshee up in the top because that's going to get me another gem, right? So, one thing I could do is I could put her right here. And now in the next round, as soon as I put a card here, I will have completed this column, which I need to get done by the third round, and I'll score a point for it. And this thing says upon placing it, well, first of all, I get a gem for putting it in the top row. And um get a point if all other spaces in this plane are empty. They are. You can see why getting doing the banshee early was good. Oh, but here's the problem. I get a gem if all their other spaces in the column are empty. And they're not. So, okay, I'm not going to put it there.
Let's go on ahead and put it right there. All right. So, I got a gem for placing in the top row. All other spaces are empty. So, that gets me a point. And all other spaces in this column are empty. So, that gets me a gem. And so, folks, I've now got three gems. I've got a shot at getting a deity in the second age of drafting because all I need is one more when they come out. So, I'm pretty happy with that. Okay, so that was it. I am done with my placement. And now it's Jen's turn. And Jen needs to think about where she wants to put her. I don't know how how would you pronounce that? I'm going to say she because she will get to copy the effect of one of my monsters from the same column of an opposing city. So if Jen puts it over here, she can copy my Mali. If she puts it over here, she can copy my Banshee.
And those are both good cards. I had. And Jen's got one just as good. And Jen wants to put this in the middle or the bottom row to get herself a gem or a point. I think Jen wants to get points or she needs to get gems, too, just like me. So, what does she want to copy? Uh, no. Okay, she does not want to copy the maga because the maga is not an instant power. Uh, she needs to copy the placement. So, she's going to put it right here, smack dab in the center. That gives her a gem for putting it on that row. and she gets to copy something um from one of her opponents. She's only got me. So, she's going to copy my banshee. And so, it's as if she said, "Hey, gain one if there are if all other spaces in this plane are empty." She got a point and she got a gem just like me.
I was so feeling so good that I got that card. Jen got it, too. Okay. So, and now where's she gonna put this Cyclops? And here's where things get a little mean because this one is going to affect me. Um, right. And and it can it can activate. It's not going to activate immediately. Um, but whenever Jen wants to, she can spend a gem. When you complete when you get the reward, that's what this symbol is from the row or column. The row or column reward for filling the row or column. Take the same reward from your neighbor. So, here's the deal. If Jensen say puts this up here, and that gets her a point for putting it on the top row, next round, Jen is going to be the first player. It's going to come over to her. And if she puts this here, she'll complete this, get this, and then if she spends a gem, she can steal mine, too. So, I think that's what she's doing. She's not right now working on her long-term plan of filling up the rightmost column, but she's getting some other stuff done in the meantime. So, that gave her a point for putting it there.
And um she'll have to remember to use that on a future turn um when she when she wins this and she wins this. Right. Okay. So that was it folks. We have finished the uh first round. Now if we're playing with a third and fourth player, they would also then play their two cards and their other two cards. Um right. The full effect is pay the cost if there's anything which means if you pay a deity, you have to pay gems. Summon it to your pantheon. Oh, these are called pantheons. They are called cities. pantheons, right? Um, and uh, check the completion rule, which is if you complete a row or column, get the benefits. Nobody's done that yet. Get the reward if if um, Right. No. Um, right. Right. Oh, no. Step four is get the reward. All right. Step three, let bring this in so you can see it a bit more closely. All right. Yeah. Yeah. No, this is if you've completed the row or column, get that. Then get the benefit if you put it in the matching row. uh and then resolve the cards effect. So, we've done that. That that's the process we went through. Uh sometimes it really matters the order you do these things in. And now we uh upkeep. We move on to the second era. And this little reminder here says, "Hey, this era we're going to have deities as well." So, our first deity um Sun Wukong, the looks like the monkey god. Um, Inkco Sisanna, Poseidon, and um, uh, Cernos show up along with
more monsters. Oh, so we got two of those Doah hands. There are multiples of all the different types of monsters. We have two minotaurs. All right. And a Gorgon. And we've got another Oh, we got two Impulse. I think if I recall correctly, there's three of almost all the monsters. and Fang uh Fanguan, another Fangguan and Jen Shei. Okay, so Jyn becomes the first player and we refill the empty spots and we reshuffle the destiny cards. So, we went through all four of them. That won't necessarily if players like the first two sets of cards, uh there might be only two rounds of drafting. But anyway, here we go. We shuffle and we start and we find out what our destiny is going into round two. Okay, I've got access to Zulu.
Jen's got access to Chinese and the Gorgon and one of the Dolons. They're going away because you know our opponents took it. And if we were playing a three or four player game, we wouldn't know that they were taking. But in the two-player game, you can be you have a little bit more overall strategy. And so what am I looking for? Now remember, by the end of the third era of drafting, I've got to have this space filled and at least three of this spaces empty to get the 1, two, three, four points. And at the end of the game, I have to have three summoning crystals in the top plane. Now, me, I've got one. The Banshee generates crystals in the top plane. Jen does not. The Cyclops does not. Jen put him up here to get this coin, but now that means Jen's got to get crystals in these other two spots or she has to crush the Cyclops, but then she gives up her power. But, you know, eventually she will have used her power to steal my points and my gems at which point the Cyclops serves no purpose. So, she'll end up crushing it because she needs to have three summoning gem spots up here by the end of the game to get the one, two, three, four points for that. So anyway, um, and meanwhile, oh, and remember, we've got deities. Now, let's look at what my first potential deity recruitment could be. Inko Sazana, right? So, as soon as I first of all, you'll notice, hey, it generates a point and a a gem if I put in the middle. And here's the reminder that it's going to cost me four gems to um, play this. Oh, and by the way, after
you've gotten your cards and you're thinking about where you're going to put them, if you ended up getting cards you do not like, you could say, "Uh, Bubus, no thanks." And you could, um, get rid of them to get crystals. That's another way you can get crystals, right? So, like Jen has two crystals. If she gets two cards, her first card, she could just get rid of it to get two more crystals. And then her second card, she'd have four. So, she could summon a deity if she drafted one. So, anyway, what does this do? summon up to two other monsters or deities from my discard pile. And now you're looking at a nice combo card here because here's the deal. Remember, I'm going to get two cards. If I end up getting this and I get another card, well, whatever that other card is, I could when it comes to me having to play, I could discard it.
You know, I just was talking about that I could discard it to get a couple of gems. Then I could play this, which would cost four gems, and it would let me summon back the card I just got rid of. If I had not play, if I had discarded one of these two cards in the first round instead of playing it, I could play uh Inko Kazana and I could get them back. If I if the other card I end up getting in and playing from all of here would end up sacrificing one of my existing cards, I could say, "Yeah, go ahead and sacrifice that card because this could bring it back and I could get its power again. I would very much like to get this Banshee power again." Right? So that means I need to start looking around like at Jang Xi. If I could get Jang Xi plus Enko Kazana, I play her first. She comes out, she gets me a crystal or a gem depending on if I put her in the top row or the bottom row. That's all great. She makes and I have to sacrifice a stack from that row plane. Um, so I'd get rid of a card from the row that I just placed her. Like if I put her on the bottom row, then boom, I would lose Malgi, but I'd get two more gems, right? And then I play um Inco Kazana and Inco Kazana brings Malui back so I can use Mali's power again.
Although no be no good for Mali because he's just got a passive power. It's really more about the banshee. That's what I need. Right, right, right. Okay, that's very interesting. That is very interesting indeed. Here's another thing I, you know, looking around at other powers. See, this is when the game starts getting crunchy. When a new round starts and there are a bunch of cards. Well, again, in a two-player game, you know, a couple of cards are going to go away, but you're looking at all the other cards that are available to you, you start thinking about how are you going to combo them? Like, I've got a problem over here. Jen could finish this row before me, and when she does, she's going to steal. No, there's nothing I can do about that. I if if if I were a first player, or at least if I were going before Jen, I could use one of these minotaurs to pick um a monster and move it. So, I could move this over here or I could um you know you know Jen might end up having to move so that I could finish this column before here so she couldn't steal from me as an example. Uh there are also cards that like let you be protected from anybody stealing your stuff or whatever. But right oh I do like that Incosana. That's really really cool. The only problem I have with it is to get full use out of it. have to have two cards in my discard pile and it's too late for that if I if I you know I mean unless there's unless one of these things let me discard two cards from the board but I don't think yeah this would let me sacrifice i.e. discard one card like if I had a stack of cards here and then I used her and I got and I sacrificed all of those there'd be two of them to discard that Inca could bring back. So
that's the only problem with Inkazana is that it's not as powerful. So here's the deal. I could gamble. I could say I don't want any of these. Thank you very much. Because remember, if nobody takes Inca, Inca is going to stick around to the third age of drafting. And by that point, I would have enough cards in my discard pile that I could use uh them to full effect, but I'm gambling that nobody else takes Incasana. So, I'd have to worry about that. I know in the two player I mean, and because here's the deal. Even though if I know I'm going to be first player when we get to the third round of drafting, the Destiny says I might be the last player to get access because you never know what um cards you're going to get. Now, there are two other cards I could get as well. The Impidulu, we saw that before. If it crushes, summon a monster from Wow. So, if I put this Oh, by the way, this did not happen. Silly me. If I put this down and I crush something else, then I get to summon a monster from um the uh sanctuary of the uh same. So, I'd be able So, I could get this out, get a point for placing it, and then um when I do it, I get to grab any of these. And if everything was gone from the Celtic because I crushed a Celtic, I would draw blind and get a Celtic. So, this card is a way I could play three cards in a turn. I'd get something from it. I'd get more stuff. And normally, I mean, it's a
little inefficient because, you know, I'm trying to fill up rows and columns as fast as I can to get all these bonuses. But in this game, remember, I need to keep at least three of these six spaces empty so that I can get these four points. So, being a little bit more space sparing makes sense in this game. What's the other one I have access to? It is this one. Um, Inka Yamba get one gem each time it is moved by an effect. So, this is an ongoing power. This uh horsey snake monster. So, that's really cool because hey, that combos with the minur. I put it down. I get whatever the bonus for putting it in the middle or the bottom row. And then I focus like a laser on powers. Like there's two minotaurs out here. Every time a minotaur happens, somebody has to move. I could keep moving this around and get more gems so I could afford more um deities because hey, in a perfect world, I'd like to have nothing but deities on my board because they're all more powerful than the regular stuff.
The problem is the one big problem with a deity is once a deity is down. It cannot be crushed. This becomes a spot that you cannot put things on in case you need to because as you might imagine, deities don't care for the crushing like monsters do. So anyway, I'm eyeballing that. I've got I've got three good options here. This card will let me play three cards this turn. Although I would have to pay for three card again. The monsters are free. So I get three cards worth of benefits out of this. That's pretty cool. This one is a long-term thing that could make me some passive income. And I can see there's cards out here that might make that possible. But this is a really cool special power. I mean again, all the deities are great. I know I'm going to be able to afford it. Yeah, I think I've chosen.
I want Incosana. Incohazana. Meanwhile, while I'm thinking about that, Jen is up here in China. She looks at the Monkey King. I think you tell me, folks. Son of Wukong, right? Again, needs four gems. Get one point when a neighbor moves um at least one monster. So, Sun Woo Kong combos nicely with these minotaurs because if Jen gets this minur, it says every player has to move. So, if these when these minotaurs get activated, Sun Wukong is going to be generating points. And by the way, Sun Wukong, if you put them on the terrestrial plane, generates two points immediately. Two points immediately. And potentially, um, you know, one, two more. Now, the Sun Kong you could argue is more powerful in a four-player game cuz chances are these minotaurs are going to get taken and used, but in the in the um in the two-player game, the uh the minotaurs might not get used because they might get gobbled up by the virtual players. So, Sun Wukong is a little bit weaker in this game, but still very very cool. Two points plus more points. So, Jen would try to grab these um minotaurs, although she would have a problem. Jen would get right because remember if for Jen to play Sun Wukong she needs four gems she's got two.
So if she plays this minotaur no actually if Jen plays this minur well first of all um the she'd have to pay a gem to she'd get her point but she'd pay a gem to steal mine. So Jen's a little gem poor. Jen does not have those gems. whatever other card Jen gets, she, you know, she gets this banshee or whatever, she could discard it, i.e. sacrifice it to get the gem she needs to play Sun Wukong. But so Jen's not sure if she wants that because she's so poor. Plus, in this game, she's really reliant on other players trying to move stuff around as well because she might not get all the chances to force things move. Oh, here's another one. So, um, right, but it has to be your neighbor. If Jen's moving her stuff, it doesn't matter. She has to hope that I move stuff around.
And as soon as Jen has that, she knows I'm not going to be trying to move my characters around anymore because I don't want to give her points. So, you could look at it that by Jen taking this, she's getting two points for having gotten it. And she is therefore limiting me because she knows on future turns, I would not be inclined to take minotaurs because I don't want to use their power to move stuff around because it would give gen points. And then a big part of this game is being able to anticipate will the thing I really want still be there because if Jen wants one of these minotaurs, she didn't get it. She might get it in the second round or the third round or the fourth round and other players might get them before her. So if you can anticipate what other players want and if they'll leave what you want alone, you can gamble and wait. So let's talk about that. There's a couple of others. Um, because another thing in the two-player game, the virtual players will never take the deities. So, Jen, she can see that. She figures I'm probably taking that because that's really good. What other two deities came out? Because maybe Jen would like to get one of these instead.
Poseidon. When you summon a deity, so Poseidon, and by the way, this counts. Infinity powers, they count the instant they play. So, Poseidon's power will count towards Poseidon himself. That's a bit unusual as most games don't do it, but if I recall correctly, the rules are very clear that the effect is, you know, these ongoing effects affect the card in question. So, every time you summon a deed, you get a point for each adjacent monster next to it. So, if Jen H, unfortunately, she's filled this up. She would like to have a monster here and here and then put Poseidon here and then boom, get two points for that and then have these other spaces filled up and put more gods between them so she can get more points. But in this game, I mean, Jen's already risking because she should not be filling up this central column. She needs to be filling up the right column and leaving this space empty for the celest for this final trial. What's the other one? Um, uh, Sir Nunos or Kirkos, get one point per opponent with fewer gems than you, um, you know. Okay. Oh. Oh, so this is at the end of the game. If Jen is holding more gems than me at the end of the game, which she could certainly do if she sacrifices a few cards here or there and gets gems, and by the way, this one could generate two gems. uh gain um at the end of the game one point per opponent that has fewer gems than you then get two points if you have more uh if if you have more gems than each opponent. So, you know, and
and in in a two-player game, she's only got one. So, this is three extra points. This is a three-point card plus a four point. Although, she'll probably put it in the bottom row to get those extra gems. And she'll try to hold on to gems desperately. See, this one I think is a better fit for Jen. But here's the deal. If Jen wants to get this, she needs four gems. So, she needs to take something else that she doesn't care about that she's only going to trash so she can get the four gems so she can get this into play. But here's the other problem, too. So, Jen gets some other card. She trashes it. She's got four gems. She plays this. She's got the four gems. Here's the deal. You think, "Oh, I want to put it here so I can finish this row and get the point." But she'd be out of gems at that point because she would have spent all four of her gems. So, she can't activate the Cyclops. So, the timing is bad on that, too. Kashin does not have enough gems.
But yes, no, she will. She will. Yeah. Jen says, "I'm a pass." So, we both choose. And I say, "Yep, I'm grabbing this." And Jen says, "Oh, I don't want any of them, thanks." Cuz Jen's got her eyes on Kirkinos. All right. So, everybody's done. We move on to the next round. And Jen did not get access to green like she was hoping. Now she's down here in Greekville. Um and meanwhile I'm up here in China and uh we're in second. So we say goodbye to Zudu and this Dulon. If anybody wanted them, too bad they're gone. Our automated opponents have already taken those. So um right, Jen knows she does not want Poseidon. We already talked about that. Jen is saving for that. But Jen knows about that sun warrior. Jen is thinking, you know what? I am gonna take something. I don't know what I I do know. She's gonna take one of these minotaurs just in case. So, I end up getting this Sun Wuk Kong. She doesn't want these minotaurs lying around that would provide movement. So, Jen's grabbing these minotaurs solely to trash them to get the gems for the deity she really wants. So, that's Jen's choice.
Meanwhile, I'm up here and now I've got this thing of sacrificing to um I do like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. This is exactly what I wanted. I I was hoping I'd be able to get Jang Xi because it was going to combo so well with Inca. So, I've chosen Jen has chosen Okay, Jen's taking a Minotaur and I'm taking Jang Xi. All righty. And once again, Jen passed. So, we're going to keep going. If both of us had claimed a card by now, we'd be done with this phase. But Jen now says, "Hey, we're moving over here." Red takes the impadu. And white takes Oh, can't take Jangi. And Jen has made it over here. And Jen says, "I know what I want." So this round, we did not go through four rounds of drafting. We have finished. And so now everybody gets their cards.
All right. Jen's got her two. I've got my two. And Jen is the first player. And here we go. So, first of all, Jen is going to sacrifice the minotaur to get two gems. Now, she is going to spend four gems to play Circos. She's going to put it right here. And um because she's put it in the right spot, she gets two gems. One, two. Because she has finished this column, she gets her point. And then she's going to spend one gem on the Cyclops to steal my point as well. And just like that, Jen is winning. Four points to one. Boom. Um and now and I can see Jen's got this goal. I have to make sure I've got more gems than her because this is one, two, three, then gain two if you have more um gems than every opponent. Wait, gain one per opponent you have. Oh, wait. No, no, no.
Okay, so I misread this before. I'm sure Paula was pointing that out. I'm sure you could read it. She gets two. If she has more, she gets one. So, this is guaranteed one or two points. But this means I, you know, one or two points can swing the game. Uh, this is a very I've rarely played games where it's as likely that you might tie other players because it's such a lowscoring game. So, me making sure I have more gems than her at more gems than her at the end of the game after everything is done. Uh, basically takes a point away from her because she'll only get one out of this instead of two. All right. So, um, that's that. But Jen and and Jen is definitely going to try and pull that off. Although, she's got fewer gems. So, that's it. Jen has played her two. Now, I'm going to play my two. And, um, first of all, I got to play Yang Xi. And I'd like to play it in the top or the bottom. Not the middle because I don't get anything. Let's go on ahead and play it on the top. So, we're getting closer to finishing that and that to get the point and that. And now sacrifice a stack from this plane. Bye-bye, Banshee.
I have sacrificed a card to get two gems. And because I put it up there, I also got another gem. So, I basically got three gems out of that card, out of one card. Very, very nice. And now I'm going to play Inca Hazana. I will pay four just like Jen did. And so at the end of it, Jen's got more points than me, but I've got more money than her. And I'm gonna put this someplace. And you better believe I'm going to put it e in the middle row because I get a gem and a point. So how about I put it right here. I get a favor and a crystal. And I have finished this. So I get my other point for Jen could steal it from me. Um, and I summon up to two other monsters. So this again, it wasn't peak efficiency, but I get my banshee back.
And so my banshee comes back and I can place this, gain one point for if all other spaces in this plane are empty. Now, here's the problem. There's no plane I can put this. Well, yes, I can. Yes, I can. Yes, I can. And I'm going to. All right. So, I am summoning the banshee. I will put the banshee. I could put it any place here, but I'm going to crush something. I am going to crush the Xang Xi. The Demio Jang the Jang Xi brought the B banshee back. Shouldn't have done it, Jang Xi, because you just got crushed. All righty. And so I get a point if all the other spaces in that row. Um, but I do not get a crystal because of that. But I just got an extra point out of that. And by the way, I'm set. If we're at the end of the third round now, I've finished my rightmost column and I've got three empty spaces. Jen hasn't even started yet. And that's scary because there are four points on offer here. And Jen and And the next round, by the end of next round, Jen's only going to get two cards, right? But remember, cards let her move. If Jen can get this other minur, she could move something over here and then get the other two new cards and get this finished in time. So, Jen getting that last minotaur is a big deal as we move on to the next round.
Uh, so it's at the end of this round that we are going to be right. And only two new deities showed up because two DDs weren't taken. And what have we got? We've got a fairy and a leprechaun and a tiang and a uh tokish tokoshi and an unwoo and a a Zeus. Hello. No, Zeus is a god, not a monster. Uh a centaur and I become the first player. And if by the end of this round, we've got this filled and at least three empty here, there's four points on offer. So, Jen is desperate to trigger a move action. And so, she very quickly scans the board.
Are there any cards that allow moving? Um, there are two. There is that min. There are three that Minotaur. Both of these centaurs, right? So, all three of these allow movement. Plus, Tian Long allows movement. Although this one costs and Jem does not want us. So she wants to get one of these three to move one of these three over and play her other two cards over here. So she will have gotten the trial done as well. Will she be able to do it? She thinks she can because there's there's no way she's not going to get one of these. It's possible, but it's unlikely. If you know um you know if you are the last player because remember there could be up to four rounds of drafting. So, if Jen wanted, let's see, if this was the last card that says, "Oh, only in the fourth round of drafting could Jen get one of these."
And in the previous three rounds, all the other players had taken all three of these, then when Jen gets down here, she could draw a blind and hopefully, but Jen's feeling pretty lucky. She's going to get one of these movers. It's going to move one over. She's going to play the other two over there, and um she's in a good position. So, we start out facing our trials. Um, white says, "I'm getting rid of that centaur. Red says, "I'm getting rid of that uh uh Fanggu one and Jen could get one of these and I can get one of these." And we got a lot of playing because remember, not only are we trying to make sure we got this, but that at the end um you have at least three summons, three summon gems in your celestial plane. I've still got one, Jen's got none. So, we need to start setting up. Oh, by the way, I I should have mentioned there's one more thing. If by the end of this third round, Jen does not have this trial completed, she will not get the four points. But if at the end of the fourth and final age of drafting, she's going to be judged on this. If she completes this, she gets the four points. And if the end of the game, she has completed this a little late. She will still get it, but she'll get one less point. So, she'll only get three points out of it. So, she's still got time to get that done. But Jen's got a plan. She's going to move one of these over, play two more, and Jen really needs to start thinking about getting gem um receivers in this top row.
So, that is a concern. And I and I don't think she I mean, she got what she wanted out of the Cyclops. She spent a gem to steal my point. Although, as it turns out, I'm winning. I've got four points. Jen's got four points. I've got more gems than her. So, it's anybody's game at this point, folks. Well, we're just getting started, but I think that should give you a pretty good idea of the overall flow of mythologies. And now, if you'd like to hear some final thoughts about the game, wow. Uh, publisher Super People, you've got a hit on your hands. This is such a sharp, fast little um card combo building game. I really enjoyed it quite a bit. First of all, it's absolutely just stunningly gorgeous. My hats off to artist Arthur Bard. Sorry, I don't know how to pronounce French names. Arthur, stunning work. But more importantly to me as a former designer myself, the design of this game from Maxim Badad and Michael Garson.
Wow. Um, Michael, this is his first design. Maxim has one other design uh uh Deck Builder based on some anime show that came out a few years ago. Unfortunately, it's only available in French and Italian. So, I won't be playing that sadly. But after playing this, I definitely want to play his previous games because this is so good. Uh it's, you know, you're only going to play um what is it? Eight cards over the course of the game. You know, we're doing four rounds of drafting, getting two cards and playing them. You know, special powers of course will ensue that will let you do other stuff and move things around and grab stuff or sacrifice stuff. But yeah, it's just playing drafting and playing eight cards. And yet the depth here is so huge. Hopefully you watch the run through to get an idea of how it works.
But um I am just I have just been I've you know I've played I haven't played every single possible combination because uh that's 8 * 7* 6 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 different ways that this game could feel with the because it's not only just that hey which four of the eight pantheons do I do but what position do I put the board for each of the four pantheons I do create these cool um you know objectives. So, I I don't even know what, you know, 8 factorial is, that's the right term, but I mean, it's just insane to me how much replay-ability there is in this game. So many really cool powers. Um, you know, so much puzzliness and so fast. Although, I should say, uh, there there's a lot I like here. I the the core bones of this game are phenomenal. Uh, you know, if it weren't for a couple of provisos, this could pro this could be a potential top 10 of the year for me. The core design is that sharp, especially because not only are the cards themselves interesting, right? And the fact that you get so much done playing only eight cards over the course of the game, having to make the tough choices about crushing other cards by stomping them out, sacrificing cards to be able to play other cards. Maybe you can get those out of your sacrifice pile. All kinds of stuff. But not only is there just so deep and rich from only playing eight cards, but it's really the draft that makes this special that there are four different um mythologies out here.
And you know, I'm going to be able to get two cards out of all this, but I want that card and that card cuz those two just arbitrarily will combo so well together. But can I get both of those? Because on any given round of drafting, I only have access to one of the groups. And so I'm over here in the Celtic and I don't want any of those. Well, okay, while we're all deciding what we're going to do, I'm going to wait and reveal surprise. I'm passing. I don't want any of these Celtics. And then maybe some other player who desperately wanted one of those cards breathes a sigh of relief because every round it's random chance. It's our destiny card that tells us where we can draft from. And if I didn't get um you know the the China pantheon or the mythology on my first one, maybe I'll get it on the second. And then you know I get the second. Oh no, I'm getting the Greek.
Okay. Well, okay. I'll get this card, which is one of the two that combos with what I want. But what if I don't get that other one? Then this card I'm not is not as useful to me. If I can't get it with that, is there anything else it could combo with? Because I still know if I take one of these as my second, I'm going to get one of these cards or one of these cards. But it's not just me taking these cards every round. These cards are disappearing. I could say, "Okay, that's the one I want." If it's not going to be there, then you know what? Either of those two will work as well. So, okay, I'm going to go for it. And so, for my in my second round, I say, "Yes, I want it." And I claim it. And everybody can see that's what I've got, but I don't have it yet. Because then we go on to the third one. And, "Oh, I didn't get this. I'm over here." And by this point, there are only two cards left over there.
Um, and somebody's over there right now. You know, the the the red player is over there. I can see they might take one of those two. So, I've got to decide. I know that if I pass when I'm over here on the fourth round, I can get that, which will combo with the one I want. But, is my opponent is the red player going to take uh uh Fang Huan or they're going to take Ton Long? I look over at what they're doing. I look over at what their situation is. Are they ready to complete? I know they need to put something in their top row because at the end of this round, we're going to be judged on having failed out our top row. And I look and see, oh, well, Tian Long would give them two gems. Uh, Fang Huan would give them one point. Which are they going to take? I Well, they're broke. I bet you they want those gems because they probably want to get one more deity play before the game is over.
And if they take that, they'll get those gems. They'll finish it. So, I'm going to risk everything. I'm gonna pass again because remember in this hypothetical situation I'm in. But you will be in these situations all the time in this game. Uh in this hypothetical situation, yeah, I could take one of these two and they'll combo okay with this, but that's the card I eyeballed that I wanted right from the get-go. So, I'll pass and I'll just hold my breath and say, "Please." And my opponent said, "Yes, they took it." And so, for the final round, I get the card. And now I get I play those two cards. I play this one and activate his power. And then I crush it with this other one. And that lets me get this other one out of my discard pile. And it lets me move this thing out of play. And I create this cool combo chain because of the way these two things work together. And oh, it's chef's kiss.
Beautiful. And the game is like that nonstop. Um because of this brilliant delayed draft. Um you know, in most drafting games, you know, everybody has access to everything. And oh yeah, there's six cards out there. And I hope by the time my by the time my turn comes around, I hope it's there. That's not the way it works here. Um because of the unpredictability of when will I get access to the card I want and will it. So, you know, you've seen this in law games. By the time my turn comes around, will I still have access to it? But, you know, okay, in two turns here, it might be my next turn. It might be three turns from now before I get over to that area. And they just disappear. They get gobbled up really quick. And this is such a cool, easy, simple, fast, elegant system. I like it a lot. It is super sharp. Um, you know, and uh and then again on top of that, the card combo stuff is chef's kiss nextgen. Awesome, lovely stuff. So, there is a lot to like here. I do have a couple of issues with the game. One is to be honest, you know, I mean, there's a lot of text on these cards and some of the descriptions have left us kind of scratching our head. How does that work? Go back in the rule book where Okay, here's the definition of what this term means. So, what does it mean here? I'm not quite sure. Uh, so far, Jen and I have not been able to figure out. I mean, there's enough information, but some of them are head scratchers, and I probably would have worded the descriptions of some of these cards a little bit different. Although
to be fair, Maxim and Mikall Michael have both been incredibly active on Board Game Geek. So if you get this game and you've got a headcratcher, just ask and they'll explain it to you on Board Game Geek because I've been really impressed. They're really on top of, you know, making sure everything's clear. So that's a minor thing. And like I said, I have not run into a card that we couldn't ultimately figure out. We just had to um you know, Okay. Okay. So that's the definition of of summon. So, or you know, a summoning bonus. So, that means it couldn't be this. Okay, it's got to be that. So, I mean, actually, I'm looking at one of them right now. This card uh gave us pause. Um, as it turns out, I didn't realize it when we were playing. There is a thread on this card, and the designers have explained it, but um, you know, so that's a minor thing, but not too tough. And it's, you know, it's it's to be expected with a game with this much complexity in its card effects. You're going to run into that a little bit. If you've played other games like this, you you've seen this happening in the past. But it's uh the bigger issue I think is the fact that you know at the beginning of every round there are 16 cards to look at all of them with text and um it can be it can be a lot to look for those like you say, oh that that those two combo well together. Um and you know I know on the first round I'm over here so I can get this. Am I going to take this so I can combo with that? um you know the first round of drafting when everybody or I should say when I play with my wife when all two of us are figuring out every single card and trying to think out how does that work with that how does that
work with the stuff I already have because you might have powers that are ongoing effects instead of one-time effects it can be a bit daunting but um you know I I say that to warn some people that might warn some people off but it might make other people say yes I want a game that is that deep and that rich that I have to as most drafting games. Oh, there's only six cards I'm looking at at any given time. And you know, I'm hoping maybe another one will come out. Here at the beginning round, you're looking at 16. Although, it's not as bad as that because in the first round, there's only 12 out, right? Because deities haven't come out in the first um age of drafting. And then the other thing that's really interesting about this game, too, that's very surprising, unlike pretty much any other game like this, at the end of an era, after everything's done, there's always going to be three or four cards still out there, um, you know, that didn't get grabbed. Those don't get swept away, they stay. And that's a really cool thing, too, because a card might come out early, you might say, "That's going to be perfect at the end of the game."
And everybody knows it. And everybody says, "Oh, I'm going to leave that." And everybody just leaves it and it stays there round after round. And by the time you get to the third round, everybody's wondering, "Oh, is somebody finally going to be able to get that um that uh fairy uh or whatever it might be?" Um you know, who's going to be able to get it? Well, it depends on the destiny draw, whoever gets that first. Um, and while you know this does introduce a bit of luck, I would not I mean you know we have been in situations where you know um I've gotten or I should say Jen's gotten very lucky to get a card that we both wanted desperately and she got it right out of the gate and she was able to leverage it but it didn't cause her the win. This game is won or lost based on how you use the cards you've got because these are multi-use cards. You can play them for their effect. uh depending on where you play them, you get bonuses like row and column completions, but also bonuses off of the cards themselves. There's the effect the card they do. And then on top of that, there's always, oh, I don't like this card. I'm going to sacrifice it u to be able to get two gems so I can afford an expensive deity. That's where the real power is. And hey, it's good to occasionally sacrifice some cards because there's a lot of powers in here that let you get cards that have been previously sacrificed back into play.
So, it's never a bad thing to have a few cards that have been sacrificed just in case one of those powers comes up, too. So, this game is all about tactics and strategy, knowing what your randomly generated objectives are by combining sentence fragments. Oh, I just think that's so clever. It's so much fun. And the cards right here. Oh, but then there's one other thing I mentioned. There's a few things that don't sit with us quite as well as while I love the core of this game so much. The last thing is, well, you know, I mentioned it right here, folks. Some of these pantheons, I'm looking at you Nords are very interactive. Uh, you know, the the Nordic faction, they've got lots of force your opponent to sacrifice stuff. Force you steal stuff from your opponent. And it's not just the Nords.
There are other ones, too. There are also ones that say, "Oh, I don't steal anything from you, but I force you to move cards around and um and thereby mess up your plans." There are there are enough of those cards in this game that there are actually cards that say, "Hey, once you play this card, people can't screw with you anymore." And if there are enough take that cards in the deck that it warrants making a card that's entirely devoted to nobody screwing with you, that's probably an example of a game that has a little bit more player screwage than Jen and I are comfortable with. A lot of it isn't too bad, you know. I mean, the move you saw in the game I just played where Jen, she, you know, orchestrated a case where she could steal a point for me, which is basically like, it's really, it's just a net transfer of points. She's got one for herself. That's one less I can get.
So, it's kind of like she scored two points off that. Those ones don't bother us quite as much. It's the ones that say, "Oh, your opponent is required to sacrifice one of their cards or give you two gems or things like that." And like, uh, I wish those weren't here. And now to be fair, most of them are kind of uh you know you know kept in certain spots, but you know there are surprising um little gotchas in the lower uh interaction ones too. And it's a bummer too because there's two types of interaction in this game. Interaction where oh I can reach across to your pantheon and mess with things or force you sometimes they're like oh you have to make a choice about how you'll mess with it. There are those. But then there are also the ones I really really like. like look across, see what your opponent has done and if they've done certain things, you get a benefit, you know, kind of a more positive interaction.
Those I love. If this game had been full to the rafters of just that type of interaction, this would very likely be in my top 10 games of the year for 2026 because I cannot stress enough how much fun the drafting uh is and so much more interesting and engaging and thoughtprovoking than pretty much any other drafting game I've played. Drafting cards is something we've had forever and it's pretty by the book in most games. this game throws that book out and makes you look at it in a completely new way. And then on top of that, so many cool card effects. Um, you know, and again, you know, the the combination of mixing and matching the eight different pantheons, all of which have completely different feels. You know, some really focus on movement, some focus on harvesting, some focus on interacting. But uh you know the fact that you're going to get and you know and I really appreciate too that the rule book says hey this is what this faction this is what the Egyptians are really good at. This is what the um is the no the Incans are really good at. So if you got a combo you probably want to figure out right what's this game going to be like based on those and then you put the four boards out right what are our two trials what are our two objectives we have to get done by the end of the game. You're going to have a unique experience and you're going to and it's going to be a fast one too cuz remember this game you're going to draft and play eight cards. That's it. Uh and then you're going to want to mix it up and play again if you don't mind a little bit of the old uh punching and kicking. Mythologies has a lot to offer.
I am very impressed and I'm saying right now Maxine Badad and Michael Garcin they are going on my list of designers to watch because this is something really special. And that is it folks that is mythologies. Thanks very much for watching. Have a very nice day. Talk to you later. So long Bye-bye.