Drillers Board Game Review - Lost Ruins of Arnak, Clank!, and Coal Baron Had a Baby!
Transcript
Hello my friends. Today we found an abandoned mine and we're going through this mine and we're going to be drilling down to different levels. We're going to be doing different things in different carters. We're going to be trying to get different gems like rubies and emeralds and all sorts of different gems. Today we're taking a look at Drillers. This is the latest sort of deck building game by uh CGE Checks Game Edition. Let me show you a little bit at a very high level and overview the types of things you're doing in the game and I'll tell you what I think on the inside.
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You're going to be moving and drilling and possibly gaining fuel, and they have really great art. However, these starting cards are going to give you minus points. So, you're going to want to callull these out of your deck by the end of the game. Now, each player is going to get a cool mech. They're going to be at the surface and they're going to be working their way down the mine. They're going to be drilling. They're trying to get into new levels and they're going to be getting to better and better gems and more and more points as you unlock different cards. Now, here's a view of actually starting at the service and coming your way down the mine. And again, as you go into new levels, there are different cards that you're going to need to drill to get to, but they also then unlock abilities for everyone else. Uh, but the person that does that will also get a bonus, too. Now, when you're at certain levels, you can drill to get gems, which are the cubes. Or you can spend more drill power to get the different corridor openings.
And these corridor openings are going to get you points, but they're also going to add more gems for other people. So, you're helping yourself, but you might be helping other people as well. Unless they don't take them, then you can get them. And as you unlock new levels, different ability cards are going to be coming out that gives you different abilities that you can use at that level. Sometimes most of the time they're ongoing abilities. Now, it's a deck builder. You're going to be buying cards and there's all different types of cards that you're going to be able to buy. And these different types of cards do all different things like a refueling drone that allows you to refuel really easily and use a drone. Uh the yellow ones have different ongoing abilities. The the blue ones help you move a lot. Like that one has three moves and an in an an infinite ability you can use. Or there's some that are really good at drilling. Then there's some that are very powerful, but you need batteries in order to do that. To get those batteries, you're going to have to sort of open up those new columns uh or or corridors in the mine. And there's some that are ongoing, these these permanent cards that give you ongoing abilities.
Now, a lot of this is facilitated on your player board where you're going to be managing your fuel and your drilling power, your moving power, all of the gems that you have, some that you can store, your your gem storage is going to be moving up, your fuel capacity is going to be moving up. But at the top of the board, you're also going to be putting those carders, which will give you points at the end of the game. And you're also going to be the more and more gems you sell, the more and more gems you're going to make money on, but also it'll help you get towards the endame goals as well. Before I get to the moment you've been waiting for, I wanted to let you know that Game Toppers is known for their highquality game mats with over 38 styles and 12 sizes from some of the top artists in the industry like Vincent Duty and Ryan Lockett. They have the perfect storage solutions for all your mats like mat bags and mat racks. In September, they'll be launching the Game Matts Bazaar crowdfunding campaign, which will highlight the greatest mats on Earth, including the new Victorian Steampunk Mat, and many others. Visit gamet topperslc.com for a free limited time. Receive 15% off existing stock using discount code gameboy geek 15 off.
All right, let's talk about my biases coming in here. Um, generally speaking, I try to play everything CGE comes out with. They're one of those companies that puts out like one or two games a year. They spend a lot of time developing in them. You know, you're going to get a well thoughtout, well-developed game. And so, typically, and I generally like a lot of their games, most of their games, I'd say. So, pretty much anything they come out with, I want to try to play. On the deck building side, I'm actually not a big deck building fan. Although, I will say that's mostly with the older deck builders that like deck building was the whole game. In recent years, like, you know, Lost Ruins of Arnac and many other deck builders that use it as a as a piece of the game and use it in certain ways. I've come to not only tolerate, but I actually sort of enjoy a little bit of that. So, I'm like, "Okay, yeah, let's check this out here." So, let's talk about what I liked about it. First of all, the game has great art. Oh my goodness, the art of all these cards with all the different drillers and the mechs and stuff. Absolutely top-notch.
Fantastic. Now, I just talked about deck building. The thing I like about this deck building is it does a couple of things that if it if a deck builder doesn't do these things, I probably am not going to play it. And one of them is the card you buy goes right on the top of your deck. So I always like it when you get it either immediately in your hand or you're going know you're going to get it next turn. There's no reason these days in the modern board games to put cards in a discard pile when you're doing deck building. That is old school snoozalopouloolis. Let's wait forever for that card to come back in so I can use it once or twice more during the game. No, you're getting it right away. I like that because you can plan, hey, I'm going to buy this next turn. I'll be able to do this with that. Like it. Also, you can keep cards for future turns. I don't like it when you have to spend all your cards in your deck building. It ruins the mitigation of the luck. This is like, hey, you could decide which ones to use, right?
So, hey, oh, this is a great card, but you know what? It'd be better next turn when I really I'm going to drill this turn. I'm going to need this one with a lot of moves next turn. I'll just hold it. But the other cool thing is like, hey, if I have something and I'm kind of stuck in the puzzle, I can decide to just the multi-use cards is cool. I can use it to do this ability or I can use it to just turn it in. I can spend the the fuel to use it or I can not use it but gain fuel because I need a few more fuel these other things. So, it's like an efficiency puzzle of the fuel and deciding which cards to play for what or even if to play certain cards or to save them. It's a it's probably the best part about this game in my opinion. Uh I like that it's sort of harder to build deeper, but of course as you build that engine, you start building better and better cards. You get more money. You know, you're getting gems. You're getting money. You're buying better cards. You're able to drill more. You're able to move more. be able to do this and that. You're you're you're able to hold more. You're able to have more fuel capacity. All these things let it let you sort of start at the beginning at the top and then as the game goes on, you'll be able to go deeper and deeper, be able to get things and then have to go resurface. And so the game, you know, it you get deeper, but because the cards get better to help you. And so I kind of like the arc of the game there. Uh I like that you're managing that fuel efficiency, that that sort of currency of the game of, oh, I need this to do this. And I like if you get stuck, you could spend fuel to move. I think it's three. And you could spend fuel to drill, which I think is four. Uh anytime. Now, that is a horrible exchange ratio, but when you're stuck and if you have a little bit of fuel, it might get you out of a bind. And I like that aspect of it. Um so managing that
fuel economy is a big part of the game that I like. And I like that there's not just card there's separate types of cards. There's a couple of cards that, you know, that one column, the red column is going to be the drillers, and then the blue column is the movers, and then you have the yellows that do the special, and you have the batteries, which are cool. But I also like that you have the permanent cards, the ones that go sideways that give you ongoing abilities. Like I had one that like once per turn, every turn I can just send a drone up. That drone is going to obviously allow me to buy a card or sell a sell sell one uh you know gem and I like that. It's just cool that you some of these have these different trade-offs and I like it. So overall I I I enjoyed the game. A lot of people have compared this to and I think I would too. It's got a little bit of arnack in there with the deck building. It's got a little bit of clank where you're sort of like pressing your luck to go down deeper, but then you're going to have to kind of come back up, but it also has the the feeling of the Euro game I love called Cold Baron from Keesling and and Kraar where you're kind of you got to go down, get some things, and kind of come back up and it's all action efficiency and things like that. So, it's it's kind of like a a hodgepodge of those three games. Granted, it's a very different game from all three of those, but those are if you probably the best way to describe this if you're familiar with those games, kind of feels like those three games all in one game, if you will. anything I didn't like a game about the game or that you should know about that that I thought should improve it or things like that. Well, first of all, like most Euro games, this game is better with less players uh for a few reasons. Number one is yes, there's some interaction, but it's very direct indirect interaction, but also it changes the turns. So, there's first of all, there's less downtime with less players, and two is there's less things
changing on the board between players. So, if you're playing a two-player game, you can plan your turn and you can kind of plan your entire turn most of the time before the other player finishes. Or you can plan this turn and go, "Oh, you know, I'll do that next turn." And it'll come to fruition most of the time. You're playing a four-player game. Don't even bother trying to plan your next turn during your turn or even after your turn because the player to your right is likely going to do something like drill for the gems that you wanted. That's going to make you have to rethink your entire turn. So, and then there there tends to be at that point there could be downtime. There tends to be a little bit of AP in this game because of that. And so that's one of the negative things is you're going to possibly have to rethink your entire turn. Now, it will happen in a two-player game sometimes, but in a four-player game, it's going to happen, you know, a lot more because just too many things change. And this game can be too mathy for some like you are you are trying to be as efficient possible. Oh, I've got enough movement to be move here. I got enough drills to get these three things. And from those three things, I could do this and I can send the guy up there and I can sell it here. I've got another one here. I'll send that guy up there the the drone and I'll I'll buy this card and I'll have this for next round. So, you're doing all this math like, "Oh, I have just enough fuel. Oh, you know what? I'm one drill short, but I do have four fuel left. I'll spend that last." You you are mathing out your entire turn and it's a puzzle and it's fun. It is the fun of the game, but the time is when it gets back to your turn and the person right before you just did something that screws up your whole turn, you have to go through all of your C. Oh man, I had my turn ready. Now, what am I going to do? Well, let me re rethink my entire turn. Right? And you kind of have to do that while everybody else there is
sitting there either doing nothing or they're thinking about their turn which might get messed up and they're going to have to do it. So I don't recommend the game for four players. I think two to three is the max especially three if everyone knows the game. Two if you're both learning it. So those are only negatives. It it it can outstay it's welcome with four players. You have to rethink turns. It can be AP prone and there there is indirect interaction. Um and that's that. So overall, I think you should be able to tell from this that this is going to be one that you will like. This has been the game geek, breaking down barriers, growing relationship, bargaining, helping you find yellow.