Aeons End: Beyond the Breach - Discussion
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Transcript
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Hey everyone, welcome back to Board Games Unlocked and today I'm doing a discussion over Aeon's End: Beyond the Breach. Now, this is a new expansion. Well, what I meant to do before recording this was checking to see if this says a standalone expansion, which I believe it is. It actually doesn't say. It just says Oh, it doesn't? Um, no. Oh, yeah, this box is a standalone product. Okay, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. I'm glad I looked that up because so I've played every Aeon's End expansion uh that they have, you know, released. I've been a huge fan of Aeon's End. It's been in my top 100 uh you know, since I've been doing them. Uh it's pretty much single-handedly the game that got me to like deck builders.
And uh so I've been on the Aeon's End release train for a very long time. I've done the Legacy. I've done the Legacy of Gravehold. The whole nine yards. So, believe me whenever I say I hate this expansion. Um I mean, hate is probably a strong word, but I really, really dislike this one. Um not necessarily for any of It's going to sound weird. For any of its content, like the the mages and the the cards that they add. Uh all of that is fine. The Friends and Foes that came, I believe, with the um the Descent, uh which was the previous standalone expansion um that was announced. I really like that system. Uh really what it came down to was I hated, and this is I do actually hate the Nemesis or the Nameless, whatever they're called. I did not like a single one. Some, I guess I liked more than others, but for the most part, playing through the narrative booklet was miserable.
And the reason why I'm coming off this uh this harsh is because uh that's to me, that's the crux of the whole game. It's similar to a boss fight in a Dark Souls game, where if you like if if you're just the whole point is to fight the bosses. It's essentially a boss battler. This was in my boss battler list cuz you that's all you do is fight the boss. So, when all of them come out as aggravating to fight against, I'm trying to find the right word. That's not a good sign, and I don't know what was I mean, you have five designers tied to this. Kevin Riley, Jenny uh Glacius, Nick Little, Derek Lowe, and David Turczi.
When you have five names assigned to it, I don't know what you're doing with all that. Um but oh my god, too many cooks in the kitchen or something because they must have just had a terrible day. Half of them got divorced, someone got broken up with, uh whatever it was because they came in just making terrible bosses. Um they have they all have a theme, too. Well, they they were until the last two. The last two didn't have a theme. The first three you fight in [clears throat] this all have this dumb-ass healing mechanism uh that I think is an actual bad design in any I hate it in any board game. Any boss-type fight where the boss heals is incredibly uh you know just causes me to disconnect and not care anymore. And you might be thinking, well, you get to you you get to heal. Well, so why can't the boss?
And I've heard that argument in like in Dark Souls or Elden Ring when the enemies heal. And the counter to that is one in Anor Londo, no, you don't. You have to have a specific ability or a specific card in the market that allows you to heal. Um and even if we could consistently heal, the the issue is that we have 10 health and that's it. And the boss has 70 to 99. So, it's it doesn't it stands to reason we should be able to heal because even if we healed every single turn, we would never equate to even half of their health. Um and the fact that they can just sandbag and deal a [ __ ] ton of damage to us, so healing two health every now and then is basically the only way you could even try and survive.
So, the first boss in this set just kind of had me think, oh no, this is going to be a terrible expansion. But maybe it's the but because when you do the narrative thing, sometimes whenever an enemy comes out with 99 health, that's more of a placeholder because you have another way to go out and do damage to it. Um except that thing was literally 99 health. And it had this track that you had to spend eitheron to put uh Nemesis tokens which on each one of these, yeah, you got something for it. But once all this was full, then could you finally do damage to it.
And over the time this thing is coming up and oh, would you look at that? Whenever it hits the the second spot, right? It's technically the third, but the the token starts here. Oh, look, it it heals 10 life if it has 89 or less life. It has 99 health. So, if you've done 10 damage to it, it just fully heals. Um otherwise, you just suffer damage. And then Gravehold suffers two damage, Gravehold suffers three damage, Gravehold suffers five damage, reset. 99 health. And then there are ways for it to remove tokens from that. So, then he up, he's no longer vulnerable. So, I guess you can do damage to him. I I could not believe it. It was it was awful. And I was thinking, oh, this is a fight we're meant to lose. It clearly this is going to come back in the narrative. It's going to be the fifth boss or something where we're a lot stronger. We got treasures and stuff that we could do. Nope, nope, if you lose to it, it just says fight it again.
And I don't know who the [ __ ] is actually doing that. So, that fight was atrocious. The second fight had another similar system where every single one of these fights is just some arbitrary way to extend the game. And if you've watched my channel, you know I have a problem with board games lasting longer than they should. Aeon's End has a really good sweet spot of about 60 minutes, about an hour, maybe an hour and a half if you're really trying to strategize, but um I'd say about an hour is a really good good rounded experience, but these were feels like they were designed to last twice that. I don't know why, but yeah, that was atrocious. The second fight again had some constant way of you having to um it would just constantly be undoing any damage you could do to it. Um I'm trying to even think of what the second fight was. Maybe I'm mixing them up. Um I can grab them.
Where are they? Uh it was Oh, yeah, that's right. Um Yeah. Yep. Okay, so it was his unleash. Yeah, he gains two life and a nemesis token, but he also, if he ever he had this ability where if he ever hit 99, then we lost. Uh so it had constant ways for it to heal. The Teron Gorefiend was the one I'm talking about with that stupid track. The Twice-Dead Prophet was one that would heal. And then, oh, look at that. The third fight, the Oracle of Filth, um also had an unleash where it just gains four life. So, uh but I mean, the Oracle of Filth one kind of had the cool system. Had this gimmick of uh it had this vortex deck where uh it had it basically had this one minion that if you dealt damage to it with a spell, that spell would go into the vortex.
And then, you could only deal damage to the Oracle of Filth by casting a specific spell that came with it. I think it was vortex blast. And that would do one damage plus damage equal to the total cost of cards in the vortex. So, you could really sandbag a bunch of spells that cost four, and then there were other ways for you to put gems and stuff in there. So, that one vortex blast could do 30 damage. And I actually liked that gimmick. Uh that one was kind of neat because uh the way the vortex would eventually go away was if that minion ever got, I think it was 13 life. And then it would you would take the entire vortex, shuffle it, and evenly distribute it out to all players. And then so the vortex would be empty, and then you just got seated with a bunch of mixed bag of stuff.
Um So, but again, that's a delay tactic. Yeah, you have to build and build and build and build build until you can finally do a [ __ ] ton of damage. Um but at least it was kind of a cool element. And then one of the other fights was it had this this track that was basically a breach track 1 2 3 and 4 that would align um that would align the minions and itself. And so you could only do damage to it if you cast the spell from the breach to match the track it was on. So, it would be aligned. You could technically deal damage to it if you cast it from a different breach, but you had to spend two charges. Um so again, it's just this delay. They just extend out these fights for whatever reason. Uh and I just don't like that as a system.
It it just feels because in a war of attrition or battle of attrition in Aeons End, you're typically going to lose. It if the Nemesis gets to go and keeps sandbagging and and especially in the early game when you can't buy cards cuz you're having to oh well, I can't do damage to it. So, I guess I'll spend uh I'll spend my uh either to open up my breaches so that no matter where he's going, I can I can place a spell to do my the spell's damage. It's you're just going to get steamrolled. And I don't know what happened in in this box. So, and then the last one that he was the only one that didn't necessarily have this.
Again, it has a similar system of a delay where it would seed you with corruption cards and just put them on top of your deck. So, it just stalled it like muddied up your deck with corruption cards. And those corruptions could have been really bad, but it was they had a double-edged sword. Okay, Gravehold takes three damage, you heal two. Uh take any spell from a spell pile, and then add three corruption cards to your deck. Stuff like that. That one wasn't too bad. The problem with that one though was based off the narrative, it uh it made you play with increased difficulty. Which is just I don't think I've ever done for Aeon's End. Um so, you have to play on increased difficulty, and you swap out the nemesis with a the a nemesis card with another one that causes him to unleash every single time that card is drawn. So, [ __ ] Like uh I mean, I I really out of all five of the bosses that came in this, I think I liked one.
The Oracle of Filth was was manageable. Um and then So, here's the other issue I found. Uh which is why I was talking about if this was a stand-alone expansion. This the stand-alone expansion, to my understanding, is designed to be its own separate box. And I could probably make this complaint about all the other ones in the past, but I was up to date on them. So, I didn't it didn't really bother me, but this one really for some reason I don't know what happened in the 2 years or whatever that these expansions came out. My brain just got rewired. Uh but So, as a stand-alone expansion, if you you can just buy this, and and you have all the content you would need. You don't need base game Aeon's End, you don't need any The War Eternal, whatever. You don't need any of that.
Except yes, you do. Because yes, technically content-wise, you just you can you can play Aeon's End by just buying this. Unless you care about the narrative. And then, well, you're just [ __ ] out of luck because you're going to have no [ __ ] clue what is going on. I am someone who actually likes the world of Aeon's End. No one talks about it, probably not cuz it's really worth talking about. But, I actually like the world. Whenever This is one of the few narrative elements that when characters get brought in, I can I can look at it and say, "Oh, wait a minute. That's this character from, you know, three expansions ago. That's kind of neat."
This is the first uh expansion for Aeon's End that I played where I quit reading the narrative. I just I had no clue what the [ __ ] was going on. I Clearly, they were referencing a bunch of previous expansions that it you just have to have some deep lore uh knowledge about it. And if you don't, you're just going to have no clue what is happening. And that's from someone who has played every expansion to Aeon's End. So, if you're not that someone, and someone's trying to read it to you, it's basically as if you're in a history class or you have to listen to someone give you the background knowledge of some lore that you have no frame of reference for. Um and it got to another point where I think whoever was writing this just really, really liked to hear themselves talk almost uh of the essence cuz if you were to play this with people, and, you know, they don't have audio narration, so you have to have someone else read it.
And look look at this. Look at Like, this is a full [ __ ] page of text that I remember going to read this. And a a lot of this narrative is it jumps back and forth between the past and the present that if you're reading it to everyone, you have to clarify cuz otherwise it just makes no sense. So, it's clearly designed for someone to sit here and read it to themselves. Um and and I I mean the writing for Aeon's End has never been ex- you know, amazing. It's always been serviceable to sometimes good. Uh the Descent I remember had actually really good moments. But, the Descent one worked because it was the beginning of them finding Gravehold. This one has to deal with time travel, which as soon as you you know, announce time travel or include time travel in any story, it gets all [ __ ] up.
But, I just I could not believe it that as soon as I was reading one of the stories and I saw that yet another full ass page of text, I was like, "You know what? I'm not reading that. Let's just play the game." So, what they need to [ __ ] do is they I I think someone in one of my comments, years ago at this point, told me what the order of these expansions are cuz the the other problem narrative-wise is they didn't follow a sequential order uh based off the expansions, which would make the most sense. Okay, we're going to start with this one because that's the beginning of our story. Next expansion is the next logical, you know, succession of the narrative. Nope, they didn't do that and I think because they didn't plan on making this this much content. So, they then they really started the legacy aspect, they really started going in on the story of Aeon's End. And then they had to kind of backdate [clears throat] and start explaining a bunch of [ __ ] And then they throw in the past and future one that they're now trying to bridge the gap, which again I thought the past and future was them trying to do away with Aeon's End so So can go to Astronights.
Cuz Astronights is the exact same system just sci-fi. So I thought that they were trying to wean us off of Aeon's End and bleed into Astronights so they can start making Astronights content. No, they quit doing Astronights content and they're still doing Aeon's End content. So now they're trying to with this one, it seems like they're trying to now bridge that past and future stuff cuz this from my memory, I could be completely wrong. This feels like they're in that future aspect of Aeon's End or they could just not be. I I honestly I quit reading. So I don't know. Yeah. So someone or not even someone in the as as in the fan base, the [ __ ] designers need to either quit making content, make a [ __ ] storage solution, and then within that storage solution make a comprehensive narrative book. So that when you are So you could I mean kind of like what Cloudspire does with their solo content.
They have three hardback books of that's that's fully all about the narration in the world. If Aeon's End did that where it's a it's a hard cover book where it's all of these little narrative elements, you know, okay, here's the here's battle one that ties into what you're setting up, you know, all these little expeditions. Tie all that into a fully cohesive narrative epic. I think that'd be [ __ ] awesome. So that you would actually know the full story of Aeon's End, but no, they just can't seem that it's their cash cow, so they milk it till it's [ __ ] dry and then milk it some more. Um yeah, I I was completely over the narrative element. I thought it was just not that it was bad writing, it was just insanity to read a full page to someone where there no one has any clue what's going on.
So, that was the narrative part. I'm still pissed about the standalone expansion for a couple reasons because they reference a bunch of stuff from previous expansions that are not talked about in this rulebook. Uh mainly keywords. So, what's in the rulebook is how you play. Obviously, it's a rulebook. The problem with that is they include with whenever you're doing the expeditions, cards that go into the market that that have keywords on them that are not explained in the and I scoured it. I was thinking, okay, maybe it's on the keyword section. Maybe it's for some reason in the little appendix on the side or something. Nope. So, nowhere in this rulebook do they explain the friends and foes system.
They and and what that how you do that. Uh the only reason I know how to do that is because obviously it came in with another expansion. So, that's not explained anywhere. The other thing is there are multiple keywords that are just not in here. Conjure, which I had to Google, which you can Google all this, but you shouldn't have to. Conjure and recall were the two keywords that I couldn't remember what they did. And I was looking, okay, is conjure in here? Oh, no, it goes straight from B to D. Is recall in here? Nope, not on the the keywords. Those are keywords. Why aren't they explained? So, they make this standalone expansion, but yet reference all their other stuff and it almost comes off as a shady business deal where they omit some stuff to force you to go out and buy their other expansions so you know what the hell's going on. I I just cannot believe and and they just copy and paste this rulebook. It's there's nothing that's different about it. They So, I don't know why I've always hated that they've done standalone expansions.
I hate standalone expansions for board games. Um anyway, because I don't know who that's for, because if you're someone who's a fan of the series, well, then it's just an expansion content for you, but then you just have a bunch of extra stuff for the people who don't have it. But then if you're the person who doesn't have it, why would you all of a sudden buy this one and not the eight other expansions that they've released? So, they should have just made it an expansion and then include new rules, but uh Yeah, like all they have is is Yeah, hey, new rules in yellow. Okay, so they add trinkets. And that's it. And well, level four treasures, which I thought level four treasures were in something else. So, I have a huge [ __ ] problem with them making a standalone expansion, but yet not including things for people who have never played this before.
Um So, this seems like they tried to have their cake and eat it, too. This one is just has And it sucks, because I love Aeon's End. This doesn't neces- This doesn't diminish my love for Aeon's End as as a game. Um but I just absolutely hate a lot of stuff that they included in this. Uh Yeah, the trinkets were fine. They're they're They seem They seem to be their big thing was a lot of cards give you access to the trinkets, and they're just one-off cards. You can flood them with your deck, and they Oh, they give you a charge, put it back in the trinket deck. And now I draw this card, put it in the trinket deck. It gives you an Aether and two Aether if you're buying a card.
So, they're not outstanding. Uh they're helpful, sure, but I mean, at the same time, not as helpful as if you were actually building your deck. But, a lot of cards. Lot of cards deal with the trinkets. And then, I mean, some other cards deal with pulse tokens. Those I feel like were in other other stuff. Uh so, that wasn't necessarily new. Uh it feels like a lot of the cards that went into the the market got more wordy, more complex, required more people that you're playing with to also get them to synergize, which I appreciate. One thing that I've heard, um from a few other people, was that the market cards in Aeon's End were always too simplistic, which I never really had a problem with that because you have so much else going on with your character, with their unique cards, with the uh the Nemesis and his unique cards and and all that. So, I I didn't hate that the that the market was more basic than And then, you also have the Friends and Foes.
Which this comes with more Friends and more Foes. Uh again, that's another negative thing. I think that the [ __ ] the the Foes were way more aggressive and the Friends kind of sucked. Uh half the time, every time they went, they were just, "Oh, can I have a charge? And can I put your your player card back in the turn order deck?" I guess, you know. So, it it it just felt like that the the Foes were just just as powerful as the Nameless. So, yeah. Uh this one's an unfortunate hot hot dud um of of Aeon's End content. At this point, I just want them to be done. I have so much Aeon's End content. I have a friend who who had He used to have everything for it. He recently sold all of it just cuz he he was so far behind on the content that he just he just wasn't ever playing it. It has It's It's bulked up way too much that I would just rather have a dedicated storage system and that comprehensive narrative booklet, but I don't think they're doing that. I think I saw something on on Gamefound where they They're And I was looking it up just to see my pledge for this.
And I think I happened to see something else that was Aeon's End related and it wasn't it wasn't what I was what I'm just now wanting. Um What was it? Aeon's End. Yep, System Overload is what it's called. Brings that you a new five-battle expedition, introduces a new mechanic, magical intensity that creates new ways for mages to work together. This box is a stand-alone product, but new mages, nemesis, supply cards, friends, foes, and treasures. Jesus Christ. Oh man, and I'm going to back it cuz I'm a [ __ ] idiot. Anyway, so to summarize four out of the five nemesis or nameless sucked.
I hated their entire gimmick. One of them I thought has a had a pretty cool gimmick. Uh the narrative is just it's just verbal diarrhea that's just just all over the place for for everyone. And then the stand-alone product doesn't even include all the keywords and stuff, so you have to do outside outside uh um information. You have to look up stuff to know what's what keywords mean to be able to play it. So then I go to on scale of 1 to 10, which sucks because again, I think taking all the cards and stuff would be would just throw them into the pile of it's more Aeons End content.
But uh I would never do this expedition again. And I know the expedition changes the way the fights are. For example, fighting the final one, the crooked man, I think is who it was. Uh you don't have to fight on increased difficulty when you just fight him outside of the expedition. You don't have to throw in that nemesis card where he unleashes every time. So it and you're not stuck with some Oh, I guess I could talk about the mages. The mages uh some of them are callbacks to other characters, different versions. You have Dezmodia again. She was from I think Legacy, the first Legacy. You have Nook. He's kind of the primary character, as you can see on the So he's a character from others. Uh there was I think one of the characters you got to play as is a follower now.
Um and I think one of the all Actually, two of them are. Two I I want to say one of the characters from the future aspect was a um was a Maybe not future. Was that future? No, that might have been the past. I don't [ __ ] remember. Who cares? Uh but I think she was a uh a uh friend. And then you have Q. She's a playable character, but then she's also friend here. Uh Overall, there was actually one character that I played that I thought was kind of neat. She had this this rift that when you cast a spell from it, you got to put it into someone's hand. And her ability let her cast the spell from someone's hand twice. I thought that was really neat. Um so again, they they they got creative with the way that the um the mages are. So it's more mages. The mages are good. More spells and and gems and all that all that's good.
Uh I Yeah. So for Aeon's End, it's going to be a nine. For this So, Aeon's End is still a nine. Probably I'd probably drop it to a nine at this point. Um for this expansion, I got to give it I got to give it a four. I I think it's below average. I can't rightfully recommend it whenever it doesn't include all the rules for people to play. And I thought the narrative expedition was was horrible to go through. But again, you could just buy this if you're a fan of Aeon's End. Just buy it, skip the expedition, throw out this play all the content with previous [ __ ] you got, and then you have great Aeon's End content, except for the the bosses. But they came out to be winners.
Um this is the first expansion of Aeon's End that I actively dis- disliked. So, which is a shame. But that's it, everyone. That's my thoughts on Aeon's End: Beyond the Breach. Let me know what you think of it in the comments below. Other than that, like, comment, share, and subscribe, and have a wonderful whatever time of day it is.