Planning is everything! - Chronocritters Board Game Review
Transcript
Hello everyone, this is Johannes.
And this is Solennel.
And you are watching Board Gaming Ramblings.
And today we are taking a look at Chrono Critters.
We are, this is an upcoming Spiel release. This was of course sent to us by the publisher and everything you will see today is a prototype / pre-production copy of the game. With that said, let's dive into this time traveling game about critters that travel in time. I'm not going to try to theme because I'm not that theme person and there's critters traveling in time through portals to do things in different seasons.
Get points.
get points.
Yeah.
There is a theme. You can read about the theme if you are interested in theme. If you want to hear about what the game is about or what you do in the game, you can hear about this now. We're going to do a short overview. This is an worker placement game. You're going to use your critters to send them out to do actions, but you will only be able to do actions in the season that you are in. So in the first round of the game, you're going to be in spring, so you can only do the spring actions. There are some actions here that are linked to to the season you're in and and there are some all season actions over here, but you can travel in time.
Dun dun dun.
build portals and use these pretty cool three-sided dice and you can send them out. So now I can also do actions over here and then when this moves at the end of the season, my little portal is going to move uh and it's going to be verse. My little portal, that's a new That's a new portal game. And that means that I have more opportunities to where I place my workers. The big thing here is you don't have three actions each round. It is possible that you get four, but the main thing is this dice mechanism. You are going to use dice for almost all of the actions, but you're also going to use dice for placing here. So when you get a die, you place it on your little 3 by 3 grid and you're trying to solve these quests. They're like uh a fulfillment recipe fulfillment for they can be of the colors. For example, I set this up now so I can complete it whenever I want. There's two green and a orange dye. And over here it has to be the value has to be somewhere between 15 to 20 to be able to see that. As you can see, there's also these weird-looking D6s, which aren't really D6s. There's D7 to D9s formed as a D6.
That's also pretty cool, which basically means you can get higher values than six on your dice. Some of the better actions in the game need that as well. You're going to play seven rounds. What you're trying to do is basically, in the best way possible, solve these different quests. You want to do some mining down here in your little tiny mine, that gives you some bonuses. You can want to upgrade your workers to get some bonus abilities and also some bonuses when you use them on specific actions. And also you want to get these seasonal quests that you can then slot into Let's say I finished this one, and later in the game I get one of these, and I finish that by spending the berries that you then need to go around time to to get berries, and I get the thing, and then I will get some points for having this as a linked quest. And also the amount of these you get at the end is going to be some bonus points as well. That's a brief overview kind of what you're doing. There is an mechanism to be first player. You will be placing out these markers in this dam over here, but there is a thematic thing for that as well. I just don't remember it because theme isn't my thing.
It's a Euro game. You're getting Euro points by doing Euro stuff.
Mhm.
And that is the overview. Talk about the game now.
It's a tight Euro game. You have most of the game you will have three workers to do the actions with. It's possible to get four, but it's just like it it's some worker placement games. You know, you it's all about getting more workers. It's not regular that that will be very easy to come by in this game. All that's also said about uh upgrading your workers. We'll talk more about that, but like it's few actions, so you want to do as much of them as possible. So, you want to do some combo-y stuff. And with that, I don't mean like, "Oh, I do this action, then I get a bunch of new actions. I do this action, I will get a die that slots into this, I will fulfill that, that will give me a bonus, which I would otherwise need an action to do." Kind of thing.
it's very In In many ways, it's stuff you've seen before. Yeah. Like, but we love that. I like I really love things where like there's actions I don't really want to do. Like, for example, you can use an action to take a die. You've been doing that a lot. And you've been winning. No. I think you can. Like, I think like there are times where it will be good to take the dice because it will help you fulfill that one quest that then gives you, for example, a new portal or it upgrades something or gives you the berry you need. So, it's kind of combo-y, as I said, not in the actions, but like "Oh, no, I get that berry, which means I can complete this quest, and that gives me another. I can add three to a die, and I get a golden plate, and then I will put it out, and I will do great stuff." And And this puzzle this puzzle and and the action puzzle is very good.
Yeah, I feel like I've seen this puzzle in a little similar way in Ada's Dream.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah. But I think it's a clever way, and it is Yeah, you really want to to do a little bit of everything. I think there's many paths to to go here. Um I feel like we've both explored this mining action a lot, and and also this fulfilling here a lot. But you also kind of want to do both.
Mhm.
So, so you want to see if you want to lean heavy into something or like do a even mix or But you always Well, I do, at least, but I haven't won this game yet. I at least feel like I want to do 700 million things, and I get to do like one of them if I'm lucky.
That is a good thing I would say. Just to say like in the I think that this is more of a dynamic puzzle. Like the either stream is like you get to die and then you place it for doing the action.
Yes.
And here you want to have them like two spaces at the same time. Which is what I really like because you you want to place them but then very often like oh I'm going to go over there and I'm going to use my orange die to to do the action
Yeah.
to get the thing but then I need the orange die that I just used to to get that action and and that doesn't really work. So the balance of using the dice and getting the dice is very interesting and it makes it a very good.
I like it.
Yeah.
it. I like this is my favorite part of the game.
I like that and I also like the time travel mechanism because you can you can play the game without making a lot of portals and like being able to do actions in other sections that you are in but it's really nice to be like okay, we're in in summer now for two rounds. But at some point during those two rounds, I'd like to do something with that action with mining that's in the winter right now and then it's really nice to set up that portal but you I've had round like games where I've like time traveled by two times and also games where I've time traveled a lot.
Yeah. If you are looking for a very thematic time travel game, for me personally, I don't think this is it.
I agree.
Maybe if you are super into theme, it will feel more like time travel. For me it feels more like a mechanism where I unlock an action spot for like x amount of time. I really do like it. I really like like the resources you use are again the dice that you want to have for other things and also this time mechanism time essence I think it's called. And depending on how much you pay, you can place this like an X amount of a way from where you are right now. And also the power of it which is the number of the die right here. This will know how many rounds you can place it out. So you might be in a position like okay, I really have to do that action this round. But I felt very often I wanted to have at least a two.
I agree.
Because I wanted to be able to Okay, so as I said like right now we're here. If I put this there I will be able to do something in summer this round or in fall I mean this round. And next round I'll be able to do something in winter. So you kind of set that up which means it is a game of planning because you very seldom you will just randomly have the stuff you need. It is a game about planning and planning ahead. But also it's kind of tactical because depending on where you are, depending on which of these comes out, it will be more like a oh I can do that now. But then I will have to do the action with that and I will have to use the die. But then I will have a problem doing the other thing. So it's give and take. Let's talk a bit about upgrading the workers.
Upgrading the workers give you like a one-time ability for that specific worker and also some action spaces on the map has a bonus if you do it with a level two or level three worker. Also depending on which player board you have you will unlock some bonuses when you have upgraded two or three of your workers. It's just like a minor difference between the players and but it isn't that sometimes you're just like oh I really want to upgrade my workers early because I will benefit for it the entire game. In this game it's more of a I feel like tactical decision like oh now I really need that that will fit really well right now and and it isn't so much tied to the actions you will do with that figure later.
With that said, sometimes like for example if you want to get the scoring tiles over here, it's so much easier doing that with a level three worker. So you really and also like to get the discounts or get the points or the extra berries. So it's like it's very it's really nice to upgrade them. It's not a game where I feel like you have to do it early to be able to win the game.
And it's also pretty hard these solar panels that it's costing. They're not very easy to come by, but you can get like a little engine for that as well.
And that's also very interesting because not the engine, that's not the thing, but the thing you said about being hard to get those things. Great sentence there, one of my best. Because you can set up the game in different ways. You have a variable setup where these action spaces can be changed around the seasons. And there is a reason why like this is the basic setup because when we changed it up, the game changed more than I thought it would. And it makes sense because the last time we played for example, we had the mining over here which made it easier to go for mining. But then like you could have a a game where the solar panels are over here. So you have to kind of time travel to There are bonuses to get them as well, but this is like the easiest way to get them. So if you want to go for upgrading, it's very important to do that. Like now we had it over here which made it so the first few times we played with a basic setup, I got all my my my people up to level three. And now the last time we played, nobody got that because different setup it was made a different way. And as we said, the other side of these also have like a little bit of difference and like it's very nuanced. It's not a big thing, but it's like I said, a different bonus here and different bonuses there.
We have only played Chrono Creators with two players.
Two.
I think it works really well with two and I can see it scaling nicely. We haven't done that in in real real life.
No, because sometimes like we tried to play all the answers with a bit more people, but sometimes the people aren't there when we play the game.
Mhm. That's
And we're like, "Hello, where are you people?" We do our best.
But in as in most worker placement games, some of the action spaces are blocked when you're playing with fewer players and also there is fewer dice available when there is fewer players.
I never in our two-player games felt like I was missing a third or fourth player. I think it would be good with more players. Like it was not Sometimes you play a game two players and you're like, "I don't want to play this with more." Sometimes you play a two-player game and I feel like, "Oh, it's missing something. We need more players." This I felt like this is this is where it's this is like doing what it's supposed to do with two players and it will do it with three players as well. The game isn't short, but it's not long. I It's not long. Like we played it in about 90 minutes. The first time was a bit longer, but about 90 minutes, which I think then you will be able to play it in maybe like 2 hours and 15 minutes with three, about 3 hours with four. Of course, you can get that down and of course, we do have some AP
Yes.
in our group. Me sometimes as well. I'm not going to but someone
people.
One of the people that's not being that group sometimes thinks for a few minutes on their turn.
Mhm.
Um usually it makes them win. Not in this game though.
game.
Are you ready for the final thoughts?
Yes.
Begin.
I think this is a clever game. I think this is a cool use of of mechanisms.
Yes.
I love the I like the puzzle like spatial puzzles. I wouldn't say this is like very complicated spatial puzzles, but I like seeing like, "Okay, in this column I'm trying to do this. Is there something that fits what I'm trying to do so I can do like two of these quests at once. I really want to place that color there in so I can do that quest, but gosh darn it, I needed that for something else and I have to postpone this thing. And also, I like the engine building feeling. It's not an engine builder, but everything that you are doing, especially with completing some of these quests, will also so you will like spend something to gain something. So, you're trying to always get something back, so you're not like in a position that I was sometimes where I just like, "Oh, I have no dice left and I have to like build up again." And the game is only like seven rounds.
Yes.
Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to look at the board to see how many rounds there is.
It's up there.
Oh, yeah. That means that you will if you're like me, be like, "I can't do the things that I want to do. [clears throat] I have only three actions a turn." And we talked about like you want to get some combos going. Well, if you don't get them going, it's just like, "I'm going over there. I get these three berries and that's my turn." And so, it sometimes it will go pretty snappy.
Um all in all, I think this is a splendid game. I will I will gladly play it again. I'd love to play it with both three and four players, but I really really enjoyed our plays with two. So, I'm going to land on an 8.5.
Chronicles is one of the best games I played this year. I'm going to say, as I usually say, I always hope there's going to be better games because I like playing great games. I This gives me a good feeling of fun. I enjoy everything I do in this game. Uh um it's it's not like if you are super asset if you're super into thematic stuff, I don't think it's very thematic, but then again, I'm not the best person to tell about to talk about that. The two main mechanisms that I really like in this game is the dice and the buying learn time travel. I'm going to say time travel because it's theme. The time travel aspect where I can get access to other actions that are locked for for that round. Those two things are the most unique and new things that I really like and other than that, the all the systems are very solid like the worker placement system is solid. The tightness is very good. It's hard to get the stuff you need, but then if you manage to set yourself up in situation where getting that stuff then triggers other stuff that you can use for other stuff. Those are the kind of games I really like and it does that in that in a very very good way. I'm going to land on a nine for Chrono Creators, a fantastic game that I highly recommend checking out if you like games that we do enjoy. And that's going to be the end. If you are still here, you can
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