Horror on the orient express in about 3 minutes
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Transcript
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Yatagarasu tone, welcome to Horror on the Orient Express in about 3 minutes. Review copy used. It has a solo mode. It's a game for one to four players. Playing time is long, and it's a pretty damn complex game. The players all win this game if the train arrives safely at the end of the line and you can identify all cultists on board accurately. You can lose in many ways, including making a false accusation at the end or running out of coffins. Action selection. Each turn you will take one major action. Dice. Each die represents a passenger's state of mind. Variable player powers. Each player has unique abilities. Player turn. On your turn you will have two minor actions, pick from this list. They cost you stamina. You can move up to two cars and you can use an item. You can open or shut train curtains and you may interact with a suspect model. Each of them has a favor you can use. Flip over their token when you're done. You can also use the ability marked on your current train car. You'll also have a major action, which must be marked with a cube. Some actions that you alter dice. Here we come an angry passenger.
Push lets us move a monster back the train speed in spaces. If it goes off the back of the train, it is removed. Removing essence tokens can make fewer monsters spawn or other bad things happen. And talk lets you find information about suspects. Draw your talk value in tokens, then keep drawing until you choose to stop or bust by drawing three of the same token. Each pair of tokens will reveal the matching information. And there are positive and negative tokens as well. We must find the cultists. We use the two clue to reveal a clue on the second class passenger. It's the blood red fez, which always belongs to a cultist. Someone can also be a cultist if they're going to Constantinople and have a goblet, but not an elder sign. But if they have four green tokens, they are a cultist. Once a cultist is exposed, you may choose to deal with them early. You may choose to take risk as your main action, getting upgrades and new skills, and recovering stamina, and replacing your skill cubes.
End your turn by drawing an event token. If it's green, resolve it and continue. If it's red, resolve it and stop. Otherwise, place it on this display until three spaces are covered. Then, resolve them all in order. This can make passengers panic and do weird things. Portals can activate and spawn monsters who can then move and attack. The vampire can also move and attack. Finally, move the train and spawn new tiles and essence tokens. The train speed is changed here. Why would you like this game? This game is based on a classic Call of Cthulhu adventure, and it's fascinating to see such an iconic scenario turned into a board game. This is a kitchen sink of a co-op game. Everything has been thrown in here, and there's a lot happening. But, that is the game's charm, trying to juggle 100 plates at once while not getting overwhelmed. The token deduction mechanics are the core of this game, and that's solid fun. I do like that you can make deductions based on who is a cultist based on what tiles remain. I also like that the bad guys only have one big action phase every now and then.
It helps move the game along. All up, this is a fascinating and complex co-op that would be a great fit for the people who can invest the time into it. Well, best thing about this game is how over the top it is. It's extra, but in a good way. However, your first play is going to be messy, and this game takes an age to set up and take down. And, the busyness in the game will always be there. Some folk will find this overwhelming and cumbersome as a result. For a more controlled experience, try Mansions of Madness. And, for something light and silly, try Mountains of Madness. Horror on the Orient Express.
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